GOLDEN TRIANGLE

[Tom]

Am 5.9.2016 um 14:57 schrieb Matt5:

Love the fact this is one block from McDonald's / Flynn Irish bar where ourt heros pull up to in the teaser!

This is a very interesting comment about Flynn´s. Any specific reason why you mentioned this club?

I am asking because I am currently hunting down Noogie´s bar/club in Golden Triangle and Made for each other (same club) and Flynn is one of the main suspects.

The 71/Collins pull up scene of C&T always baffled me as there was no other known location nearby in this episode. Recently I presented here my suspicion that the VICE team meet up with the Fast forward tune was filmed inside the Fu Manchu restaurant which is only 1 block away.  Fu Manchu was also used (exterior) in "Score" but that was filmed one month earlier. So, I found some common denominators between MFEO and GT2. Both eps filmed around 71 Street (MFEO had Switek´s apartment at 76/Harding as well as the driving segments at Abbott/72, GT2´s pull up scene was a convenience location that was only filmed there because there was another bigger location there they had to use). Thus it would make a lot of sense if the unknown club in both episodes also was around that area. Somewhere between 68 and 76 Street. That´s how I got stuck with Flynn´s. Unfortunately, in MFEO and GT2 we see no names or indications for Flynn´s or Irish stuff on the walls, which seems unusual for a bar with that name.

PROs for Flynn (3 pics first):

• look and appearance (dark, bar looks Irish style)
• was open 1983-85 and famous for smaller metal and punk bands
• entrance was directly at 71 and Ocean (hence also the name "Flynn´s 71 on the Ocean"). See episode still below.
• Flynn‘s was under the Chelsea hotel and big. It could have hosted the long hallway and the spacy interior plus bar we see in MFEO.

CONS against Flynn:

• a musician said the stage was small (fit with episode) and "high" (that is no fit, but could have been changed for the episode)
• on the few interior pics I found there is no clear clue. All pics are close-ups of bands playing with hardly any background visible.

Other possibilities? The only other bar in that search grid I found is ON THE ROCKS at 217 71 Street. That´s exactly where C&T pulled up.

ON THE ROCKS (last three pics) looks good interior-wise with brick columns and very dark interior, BUT it was hardly there in 1984/5 and the main problem is that it was located directly at 71 street (we can see the window behind the bar) and that does not match with the long windowless hallway Switek&Zito had to use in MFEO to get from the street to the bar entrance (this sequence and the bar entrance where the hallway ends is fully visible in MFEO, thus no editing tricks possible).

So, my bottom line is: On the rocks 90% NO, Flynn´s 60% YES, but no interior pics to prove anything. I found no other bars in that grid or other parts of town near other locations that fit.

P.S. the dark interior where C&T apprehend Menton was either a set (unlikely as too dark all over for usual sets) or also filmed in that bar somewhere. 7100 Collins was a MacDonalds once as mentioned by matt5, but is now a different food store.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

The smoking gun for proving Flynn´s as location

@airtommy@daytona365@miamijimf@Dadrian

On old Flynn pictures we see only close ups of musicians and the ceiling above the stage and there is a significant white structure visible in many stage shots whose function is not fully clear to me. Anyway, on one scene in GT there is a very similar white structure (see comparison pics below, with original 1984 Flynn´s pics on the left and a GT episode still on the right side).

So, what is the likelihood that there were TWO different bars in Miami in 1984/85 that were all dark&black inside, but had a white similar shaped structure above the stage. I would say zero. Other opinions?

AND: there is a door with the same color and the same diagonal pattern in the same distance to the white ceiling structure visible in the episode AND Flynn´s (see second picture) - that rules out any possible coincidence!

For me that´s a watertight 100% case now. Flynn´s 71 on the Ocean, 6985 Collins Ave. Used in Golden Triangle and Made for each other. 

Click on pic to enlarge!

Edited October 24, 2021 by Tom

[miamijimf]

Sure looks like Flynn's.

[Dadrian]

6 hours ago, Tom said:

Do we have the smoking gun here for Flynn´s?

Maybe except for all those pink neon lights 

[Tom]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb Dadrian:

Maybe except for all those pink neon lights 

I thought about that. These were placed by the production crew. Typical Mr. Neon props.

[Dadrian]

13 minutes ago, Tom said:

I thought about that. These were placed by the production crew. Typical Mr. Neon props.

Forgive me Tom. I thought I was making a joke about your (remarkable) purple lines, but now that I look closer, are there actually some neon lights there, or are you going along with my joke?  

[Tom]

vor 6 Minuten schrieb Dadrian:

Forgive me Tom. I thought I was making a joke about your (remarkable) purple lines, but now that I look closer, are there actually some neon lights there, or are you going along with my joke?  

My bad. I am always taking you serious... 

All joking aside: there are no neons in the real Flynn´s pics as opposed to both MV episodes. Especially in MFEO they built some neon rack for the wedding that was certainly not normally at this location. The neons you refer to above are as on the episode still, nothing added by me to distract you ...

Edited September 19, 2021 by Tom

[Dadrian]

@Tom  

Okay I got it now. 

My attempt at humor was on your dots, arrows, and box. 

This is yet another awesome find. Great work man. Congrats! 

Edited September 19, 2021 by Dadrian

[Tom]

vor 5 Minuten schrieb Dadrian:

My attempt at humor was on your dots, arrows, and box. 

And I was so proud of it ...

You got your music and I got my dots, arrows and boxes 

We are down to 14 unknown locations in the whole series and this was the 100th location found since May 2020! This roughly makes 1.5 locations per week within this period. Not bad!

Edited September 19, 2021 by Tom

[Dadrian]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

We are down to 14 unknown locations in the whole series and this was the 100th location found since May 2020! This roughly makes 1.5 locations per week within this period. Not bad!

“Keep on going” 

[Matt5]

On watching this episode last night I was pleasantly suprised that this 3 tiered wall we see behind 8001 Biscayne Bvld (Howie Wong’s) is still standing 37 years later!

Here it is at the rear of 8001 Biscayne \ NE 80th street in the upper east side. We see this building several times in Part 2. The wall and rear is seen during the bust scenes almost exactly from this angle at one point.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Matt5

[airtommy]

I had the same reaction when I saw that wall.  I was so excited I took a picture of it. 

[Dadrian]

A great alley to park your white Lamborghini   

[Tom]

LAST LOCATION UNKNOWN: THE AIRFIELD AT THE END

@airtommy@miamijimf@Dadrian

After weeks of investigation, comparisons of all possible airports (MIA, Ft. Lauderdale Int´l &Executive, Miami Executive and Opa Locka) and hours of dissecting the scene, I have come to a simple solution: nothing mysterious, this was filmed at Opa Locka airport, same hangar behind Castillo as the one used at the end of Fruit of the poison tree (just hangar door closed in GT, but open in FOTPT). 90% likelihood, more is hard to get with that dark material at hand and the way it was filmed.

I had to assemble extreme 4 pics panorama shots (only 3 fit on screen now, thus I show the right three and the left three to you below)  and use the new 1984 historic satellite and the usual 1986 satellite to get it. There are too many coincidental matches at this 180 degree circle we get to see:

• the Asian letter tower in the background at 2 o´clock (0200 for military use) was there in 1984, but removed in 1986, as are the house behind that structure at the northeastern end of the airfield.
• the big tarmac wee see, with a diagonal taxiway at 11 am and another taxiway with perimeter lights at 9 am
• Behind the tarmac on the west there are some grassy areas where planes are parked (well seen in Fruit of the poison tree)
• the access road to the tarmac that C&T&Castillo use goes east west. In the west behind them we see some core buildings of Opa Locka airport.
• behind Castillo we see - at the same assumed position! - the same 90 degree corner between hangar and side building with door as behind Tubbs in FOTPT and the window pattern as compared to a restauration picture of a similar hangar at Opa Locka airport
• behind the Caddy we see a small lighted modern building. Its existence and position matches with a square shaped building (1 out of three) on the 1986 aerial that was not there on the 1984 aerial (but the episode was filmed in December 1984 and the aerial was most likely done much earlier in 84)

Even the same planes seem to be parked there in the background in Fruit of the poison tree (1988) as in 1984, although it is too dark&blurry to compare the licence numbers to make it a 100% case. 

See below. Click to enlarge the wide angle panorama shots. ENJOY!

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

Am 13.12.2021 um 19:47 schrieb Tom:

LAST LOCATION UNKNOWN: THE AIRFIELD AT THE END

@airtommy@miamijimf@Dadrian

After weeks of investigation, comparisons of all possible airports (MIA, Ft. Lauderdale Int´l &Executive, Miami Executive and Opa Locka) and hours of dissecting the scene, I have come to a simple solution: nothing mysterious, this was filmed at Opa Locka airport, same hangar behind Castillo as the one used at the end of Fruit of the poison tree (just hangar door closed in GT, but open in FOTPT). 90% likelihood, more is hard to get with that dark material at hand and the way it was filmed.

I had to assemble extreme 4 pics panorama shots (only 3 fit on screen now, thus I show the right three and the left three to you below)  and use the new 1984 historic satellite and the usual 1986 satellite to get it. There are too many coincidental matches at this 180 degree circle we get to see:

• the Asian letter tower in the background at 2 o´clock (0200 for military use) was there in 1984, but removed in 1986, as are the house behind that structure at the northeastern end of the airfield.
• the big tarmac wee see, with a diagonal taxiway at 11 am and another taxiway with perimeter lights at 9 am
• Behind the tarmac on the west there are some grassy areas where planes are parked (well seen in Fruit of the poison tree)
• the access road to the tarmac that C&T&Castillo use goes east west. In the west behind them we see some core buildings of Opa Locka airport.
• behind Castillo we see - at the same assumed position! - the same 90 degree corner between hangar and side building with door as behind Tubbs in FOTPT and the window pattern as compared to a restauration picture of a similar hangar at Opa Locka airport
• behind the Caddy we see a small lighted modern building. Its existence and position matches with a square shaped building (1 out of three) on the 1986 aerial that was not there on the 1984 aerial (but the episode was filmed in December 1984 and the aerial was most likely done much earlier in 84)

Even the same planes seem to be parked there in the background in Fruit of the poison tree (1988) as in 1984, although it is too dark&blurry to compare the licence numbers to make it a 100% case. 

See below. Click to enlarge the wide angle panorama shots. ENJOY!

 

Now I found 100% proof that the Golden Triangle airfield was Opa Locka.

Detailed analysis of the Fruit of the poison tree scenes that were filmed at Opa Locka as we have proven years ago revealed that the same building is in the background of both episodes. See below. That means that Tubbs´Caddy in Golden Triangle was in the left background of the FOTPT scene where Tubbs and Crockett sped off in the Ferrari. I will firther investigate as to where exactly on the old aerials this background building is, as this is not 100% sure yet when looking at the satellites.

As always, click to enlarge!

Edited December 25, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

In my attempt to find the modern background building at Opa Locka (not found yet on historic aerials) visible in GT2 and FOTPT, I tried to exclude any risk that any part of the FOTPT scenes was NOT filmed at Opa Locka. Thus I dissected all the Flyboy scenes at the hangar with C&T, with Boyle and inside the hangar and I am able to prove that all these scenes were actually filmed at Opa Locka at and within the old Sun Line hangar (already suspected by @C Glide). All details match, the hangar structures, corners and roofs, as well as the buildings in the background, still there at around 530 Officer Simmons Arrington Ave running parallel to the airport limits. See below.

This means the chance that only the short Testarossa drive off scene with C&T and the background house seen in FOTPT and GT2 was NOT filmed at Opa Locka is close to zero. No way they would have travelled somewhere else just for this small snippet. I will have to investigate further on this detail of this background building though to nail the exact spot.

P.S. the bushes in the background (green arrows) are much higher as the aerial is from mid 1986 and the episode was shot in Dec 1988, this gives 2.5 years for growth in tropical climate.

[Tom]

AIRFIELD LOCATION EXACT SPOT FOUND. @miamijimf@Dadrian@C Glide@airtommy@daytona365

I am happy to report that I finally cracked the case of the mysterious background building in GT and Fruit of the poison tree. 

Reason for the mystery so far: it is strangely not on the 1986 (maybe misdated?) aerial although it was there in late 1984, but it is on the 1994 aerial and still there now. And it looks exactly like in 1984/1988, all details match. See photo proof below. This building is the William Lehman Aviation Center and part of the Florida Memorial University Campus at 15800 NW 42nd Ave, Miami Gardens. 

One aerial (1994) shows, as a summary, where the Golden Triangle scenes where filmed with the University building in the background (orange building). The scenes in Fruit of the poison tree were filmed a bit to the east, north of the Sunline Hangar as always suspected. Thus we see both buildings (University building and the twin-roofed building behind Tubbs) next to each other, with the diagonal taxiway and the small taxiway to the big runway running west-east in between.

The last pic is a street view from the airport grounds from a similar position as the GT view, just a bit more to the east than on screen where the camera was positioned close to the hangar on the left (new hangar, the old one was replaced), directly in front of the Lehman Aviation center in the far background, its right section now partly covered by another building that has been built in front of the Lehman Aviation Center since.

Case finally closed in both episodes. ENJOY! Click to enlarge!

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Tom

[Dadrian]

Nice work @Tom

Take yourself to a bar!  

[Tom]

vor 6 Stunden schrieb Dadrian:

Nice work @Tom

Take yourself to a bar!  

Thanks! I did. I drove myself to a bar, ordered drinks for three and drank the whole night for Crockett, Tubbs and Castillo. At three a.m. I convinced myself that I was having a blast and asked Crockett to drive me home but he, Tubbs and Castillo were too drunk to drive. So I had to drive home myself. Ungrateful bunch!

I will do that again, as soon as I get my drivers license back.
 

[daytona365]

Excellent work as always, Tom. Your member title should be changed to 'Über-Sleuth'

[Tom]

vor 6 Minuten schrieb daytona365:

Excellent work as always, Tom. Your member title should be changed to 'Über-Sleuth'

Even if I don’t drive Uber? 

[Tom]

rare interior pic of Lao Lis villa. This was a very busy location and the first episode where they used it.

I still see Castillo in the elevator

[Dadrian]

59 minutes ago, Tom said:

I still see Castillo in the elevator

I see Elvie 

[Tom]

vor 15 Stunden schrieb Dadrian:

I see Elvie 

Is Elvie the secret sister of Elvis? 

[Dadrian]

5 hours ago, Tom said:

Is Elvie the secret sister of Elvis? 

They were both home wreckers