Tony's booth from 'Sopranos' finale sells for $82,600
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 22, 2024


Tony's booth from 'Sopranos' finale sells for $82,600
The booth where the final scene of the HBO series "The Sopranos" was filmed at Holsten's Ice Cream, Chocolate & Restaurant in Bloomfield, N.J., on Dec. 13, 2023. The New Jersey ice cream parlor where “The Sopranos” abruptly cut to black in 2007 put the booth on eBay, hoping to fetch $10,000. Within days, bidders had pushed the price above $82,000. (Bryan Anselm/The New York Times)

by Remy Tumin



NEW YORK, NY.- Tony Soprano puts a quarter into the jukebox to play “Don’t Stop Believin’” and orders onion rings for the table. His wife and son join him as his daughter struggles to parallel park outside. A bell chimes every time a customer arrives, deepening Tony’s anxiety: Will the next person to walk through the door kill him?

What happens next has kept fans guessing since the final scene of “The Sopranos” abruptly cut to black in 2007. It has also kept a few of them energized enough to bid tens of thousands of dollars to own the diner booth where the much-dissected sequence was shot.

Holsten’s in Bloomfield, New Jersey, which is preparing for a renovation, put the burgundy booth and yellow Formica tabletop up for auction on eBay on Feb. 28. Chris Carley, a co-owner of the ice cream parlor, set the opening bid at $3,000, hoping he might get $10,000 for it to help cover part of the estimated $60,000 cost for a new floor and new booths.

Within 24 hours, the price had jumped to $52,000. By Monday afternoon, there had been more than 230 bids, pushing the price above $82,000. When the auction ended just after 7 p.m., the booth sold for $82,600.

The winning bidder will get the booth, the table, the divider and the family plaque that reserves the seats for the Soprano family. (Not included: the jukebox, which was added by the film crew.) The buyer is responsible for pickup.

Holsten’s opened in 1939 as Strubbe’s Ice Cream Parlor and eventually expanded to include diner fare. The booth has been in the Holsten’s dining room for more than 50 years, Carley said, and after decades of wear and tear — in more recent years from hordes of “Sopranos” fans — it was time for a reboot.

“It’s just time to do it,” Carley said in an interview before the auction ended. “It’s not something we took lightly.”

While Holsten’s is known for its homemade ice cream, it has also embraced its celebrity status over the years, promoting its Soprano-famous onion rings and matching merchandise. David Chase, the creator and executive producer of “The Sopranos,” ordered the onion rings when he had lunch there a month before filming, or so the story goes.

But at its core, Holsten’s is a “good, old fashioned” restaurant where “we know people by their first names,” said Carley, who has been working there off and on since he was 14. He was always drawn back to the store, he said, and became a co-owner in 1980.

“This place has been in my life for 40-some-odd years,” Carley said. “I’m proud that it has continued to flourish.”

“The Sopranos” filmed at Holsten’s over three days in March 2007 with James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and Robert Iler in the booth, and then two more days for reshoots with extras, Carley said. He still remembers watching Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who played Tony’s daughter, Meadow, try to park for eight hours.

“I’m thinking, How many times can you do this?” Carley said with a laugh. “It was a great experience for us.”

The attention that the booth — and Holsten’s — has received in the past week is close to what it was like when the final episode aired, Carley said. Fans would regularly come in to dine in the booth or pose for pictures. They’d also take the restaurant’s laminated menus, one of which fetched $4,150 on eBay, Ron Stark, a co-owner, told The New York Times in 2007.

After Gandolfini died suddenly in 2013 from an apparent heart attack, the booth became a memorial. The restaurant immediately closed the booth and put up a “reserved” sign “out of respect,” Carley said. For two weeks, fans left cards and flowers on the booth, which Carley later gave to Gandolfini’s son.

Gandolfini “was such a nice guy when he wasn’t in character,” Carley said, recalling how the actor would come up behind the restaurant’s grill and ask, “What do you got to eat?”

Like many fans of the show, Carley thought his television was broken when the finale abruptly cut to a black screen. Even though the scene was filmed in his shop, he had no idea what to expect. Still, Carley has his money on Tony’s living to see another day.

Holsten’s put in a new floor about three months ago, taking all of the old booths out and then putting them back. This week the booths were replaced; the Formica tops were cracking and the cushions, like the one Tony and his family sat on, were sinking. The new ones are from J&H Dinettes and Upholstery in Freehold, New Jersey.

Holsten’s and “Sopranos” fans need not panic. The color scheme will be the same, “just a little brighter,” Carley said.

“We want to put back exactly what we took out,” he said. “When people come into the store, they’ll have a hard time noticing the difference.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

March 6, 2024

San Francisco Art Institute headquarters sold to group led by Laurene Powell Jobs

This ancient factory helped purple reign

On the trail of the denisovans

London bids farewell, for now, to a beloved, overstuffed walrus

Saatchi Yates opening new gallery in St James with new solo show by Lebanese painter Omar El Lahib

Landmark exhibition that examines overlooked impact of day jobs in visual arts comes to the Cantor

Poignant exhibitions celebrate legacies of women émigrés seeking refuge during the tumultuous 1930s

Pinecone motif inspiration for new series of paintings by Benjamin Butler

Estúdio Campana presents 'On the Road' at Friedman Benda

Ruth Laskey's debut exhibition with Altman Siegel to open tomorrow

The verdict on the new Alexander McQueen

To find great values in Italian wine, look to Abruzzo

Dressing the forgotten woman

An ocean moon thought to be habitable may be oxygen-starved

The Vienna Philharmonic tours with a favorite conductor

RuPaul is sending a rainbow bus to give away books targeted by bans

Tony's booth from 'Sopranos' finale sells for $82,600

A collaborative project: Shtager&Shch, London, hosts Gallery IRAGUI, Paris

Paintings and drawings of suburban house-scapes by Celia Reisman on view at Paul Thiebaud Gallery

Photographer Sean Kernan's 'The Missing Pictures' solo exhibition opens at Viewpoint Photographic Art Center today

Exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Tomas Watson now on view at Anita Rogers Gallery

A writer's to-do list: Learn history. Learn Chinese. Learn to draw comics.

Bringing 'Teeth,' a feminist awakening with a lethal bite, to the stage

Discover Legitimate Paths to Saving Money and Earning Rewards Online

Capturing the Essence of Humanity: Ellen Graham's Photography Exhibition Debuts at Norton Museum

Selecting the Finest Flower Delivery Service in Malaysia

Garage Door Accidents: Prevention and Safety Measures

Unlocking the Need for Quick Locksmith Services in Bellevue, WA

Building a Cross-Cultural Creative Hub




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful