For the entire run of the addicting and award-winning TV show “Mad Men,’’ the Manhattan depicted in those stylized shots was all a Hollywood illusion. The show was filmed in Los Angeles, in sets built on studio lots and inside some of the West Coast burb’s own famous landmarks.
Enough to make you want to flee the City of Angels for a taste of the real deal.
Well, chalk up that West-to-East flight to one of the show’s brightest stars. Christina Hendricks has herself a little piece of Manhattan. She closed last month on a 810-square-foot, one bedroom apartment at a grand old NYC building at 353 West 56th Street for $1,155,000 — $40,000 less than the asking price of $1,195,000.
And in a case of life imitating TV, Hendricks picked a West Side location, just as Joan Harris did when she moved to an unspecified UWS apartment.
As the Mad Men finale is set to air on AMC on Sunday, May 17 (10/9c), it’s hard to argue that perhaps Hendricks really was charmed by the “Mad Men” sets, since the unit and building she opted for — the Parc Vendome just southwest of Central Park — is definitely of a different era and decidedly NOT one of those slick new downtown condos decked out in all the green, modern amenities.
Built in 1931, the 576-unit building is a massive fortress that boasts a billiard room and decor that predates “Mad Men’s” 60s New York by a decade or two. Perhaps Hendricks and her hubby, who also own a home in L.A., are planning a little renovation project for their new unit, which includes a wood-burning fireplace, three large closets and a private office/den.
Now Hendricks can stroll past some of the NYC addresses — compiled by the New York Daily News — that were so gamely imitated on those studio lots, including:
- The Pierre Hotel. When McCann Erickson buys the company, Don and some colleagues form their own ad agency, temporarily housed in this hotel.
- Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce offices (1271 Sixth Ave.) Don’s new agency sets up in the Time-Life Building. Pryce hangs himself. The agency merges with Cutler Gleason and Chaough.
- The Roosevelt Hotel (45 E. 45th St.) We learn Sal is gay after a Belle Jolie rep hits on him here, and this is where Don stays after Betty divorces him.
- The Waldorf Astoria (301 Park Ave.) Don has several meetings here with Conrad Hilton, and this is also where the advertising Clio Awards are held.
- Don’s apartment (136 Waverly Place) Don’s seedy single-guy pad in season four. He dates Faye before dumping her for Megan.
- Don & Megan’s apartment (783 Park Ave.) Where Megan performs her sexy “Zou Bisou Bisou” dance, and the building where Sally catches Don cheating with neighbor Sylvia.
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