Tag Archives: Central Park

Guess Which Canadian Tourist Trap Has Featured In 143 Films

Forget about the recent media bashing. Niagara Falls is only a tourist trap in the sense of its awesomeness. How can anyone resist visiting? With that truth in mind, new research has revealed that Niagara Falls is the 4th most popular filming location in the world, having played a starring role in 143 films, including appearances in Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman 2 (1980).  

Giggster- a film location service, has revealed the most-used filming locations around the world, the locations that have the highest-grossing films, and the countries that have featured in the most movies. So, how does Canada fare?

Thor. Old Royal Naval College location London, England.

💰Niagara Falls is the sole location used in Canada from the study – featuring in 143 movies, with an average box office gross of $212,260,000 usd / $274,667,624 cad from its top-three films but so has Toronto (David Cronenberg’s 80s horror masterpiece The Fly) , Vancouver and Montreal as well as the Eastern and Western Provinces have also been featured in Hollywood films.

The research has also revealed:

🗽Central Park in New York is the most-used film location in the world – featuring in over 352 movies.

💵 The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles is the highest-grossing filming location on average ($253,366,667 usd / $327,860,268 cad ).

The Griffith Observatory was also seen in the Disney cult favorite The Rocketeer.

🎥 The top 3 countries featured in the most movies are, The United States, The United Kingdom and Canada.

US locations featured in over 900 more movies than any other country; The states featured most are New York, Arizona and Massachusetts.

Celebrity Homes: Donald Trump’s First Mansion Is For Sale $54 Million USD

Donald Trump’s former Connecticut mansion that he bought at age 35 is for sale and featured this week at TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.
Donald Trump’s former Connecticut mansion that he bought at age 35 is for sale and featured this week at TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.

Donald Trump was born into the real estate business in 1946 in New York City where his father, Fred Trump, was a developer. Donald got a jump-start in the business while he was still in college in the 1960s working menial jobs at his father’s lower middle-class apartment complex in Cincinnati.  In 1971, he moved back to New York City where he took over his father’s company changing the name to The Trump Organization and earned a reputation as a fast-rising real estate tycoon on hotel, condominium and casino projects. In 1986, he made a deal with New York City Mayor Ed Koch to renovate Central Park’s Wollman Rink. The ice skating rink was going on its seventh year of renovations when Trump volunteered to finish and finance the restoration with his own money. He completed the job in just three months.

With his business success and wealth, Trump owns a roster of mansions. His main home is a posh three-level penthouse at Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue where he also runs his vast business operations. Also in the Gotham area, in 1996 Trump purchased a 60-room mansion in Bedford, New York with three pools and a bowling alley. He later bought Albemarle, a 23,000-square-foot mansion, vineyard and winery on 2,000 acres in Virginia for $12.7 million, a fraction of the original asking price of $100 million. Trump also keeps a large home on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

One of the interior sitting rooms in Trump's first mansion.
One of the interior sitting rooms in Trump’s first mansion.

When he isn’t running for president, firing someone or saying something controversial, Trump relaxes at his Mar-A-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida that he purchased in 1985 for $10 million. The 1920’s mansion with 62,000 square feet and over 100 rooms was originally built for Post Cereal heiress, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Trump upgraded it to a private resort with initiation fees of $100,000, annual dues of $12,000 and nightly rates up to $3,000. Mar-A-Lago guests have included Bill Clinton, Regis Philbin, Tony Bennett and Barbara Walters.

Trump was only 35 in 1982 when he and wife, Ivana, purchased their first mansion, a 5.8 acre home on a peninsula in Greenwich, Connecticut for $4 million. Always a family-oriented business, Ivana was also remodeling the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in the early 1980s and was able to incorporate many of the same materials in the decoration of their new home creating a residence dripping in gold leaf, elegant chandeliers and crown moldings. When they divorced in 1991 after 15 years of marriage, Ivana won the mansion in the property settlement. She sold the Greenwich home for $15 million in 1998, and the mansion’s new owners immediately began a renovation to tone it down to more livable neutrals and added tennis courts as well as a 4,000-square-foot addition which includes guest suites, a lap pool and a sauna. It is currently for sale at $54 million.

Click to view on I-tunes
Click to view on I-tunes

Originally built in 1939, the 19,773-square-foot Georgian Colonial-style main house and a guest house have eight bedrooms, thirteen baths, a three-story rotunda foyer with double grand staircase, formal rooms overlooking views of the pool, grounds and Long Island Sound, home theater, a putting green, multiple terraces and patios, tennis courts and three fully-equipped staff apartments.

Awaiting a new Greenwich billionaire resident, Donald Trump’s former Connecticut mansion with major additions, six waterfront acres and private boat dock. The listing agent is Tamar Lurie of Coldwell Banker in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Real estate is never boring at TopTenRealEstateDeals. Check out today’s most entertaining, important and unusual real estate news stories of the week. News such as “Obama Vacation Home For Sale,” “Bacall’s Dakota Apartment Sells At Big Profit” and “New York’s First Penthouse.”

Visit TopTenRealEstateDeals.com for more historic, spectacular and celebrity homes.