BLOOMFIELD.- The cabinet of restaurant where Tony Soprano was murdered, or not, sold for more than $82,000. An anonymous buyer offered $82,600 on Monday night in a auction online for the centerpiece of the award-winning series of HBO.
The piece was where the boss of the New Jersey mafia was sitting when the final shot arrived and the cut to blacks that outraged many viewers and was inscribed in television history.
Ron Stark, co-owner of Holsten’s, the ice cream shop, candy store and restaurant in northern New Jersey where the scene was filmed, did not reveal any details about who bought it, not even whether it was a man or a woman. The ice cream shop opened in 1939. And over the years the facilities had worn out.
“Our dining room was in disrepair,” Stark said. “We were getting to the point where we didn’t think it was safe anymore because some legs were broken, and we didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Stark and his co-owner Chris Carley decided to auction off the cabinet and use the proceeds to pay for a renovation of the dining room.
The auction
Interest in the cabinet has remained high among fans of the show since the final scene aired in 2007. Tony Soprano, played by the late actor James Gandolfini, orders a plate of onion rings and puts a coin in the jukebox to tap Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey, as his wife Carmella and son AJ join him at the table and his daughter Meadow struggles to park outside.
A guy walks past the table and into the men’s bathroom (which, in the restaurant, is actually the women’s bathroom, but they changed the signs to make it appear in the shot). A bell rings indicating that someone has entered the restaurant, and the image fades to black, in the infamous ending that left countless viewers feeling that their televisions had broken down.
It was the masterstroke of the creator of The Sopranos“David Chase,” Stark said, although Stark had no idea during filming that the scene would be the series finale.
“You’re stunned and say, ‘Okay, they finished it, but how did it really end?'” Stark said. “David Chase is a genius for creating that ending. Let’s say hypothetically that they gave him Tony, it’s all over. He wouldn’t have had the recognition that he had. People are still talking about it. Nobody knows with 100% certainty what really happened.”
During filming, Gandolfini looked forward to the onion rings on the table in front of him, but was not allowed to eat them until several takes were completed.
“They told him ‘Cut!’ and she would wander around behind the grill and say, ‘Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving!'” Recorded Stark, who cooked Gandolfini a hot dog with cheese and fried onions.
Impact of the series
The cabinet where the scene was filmed was dismantled on Monday and replaced with a recreation the same day. On Tuesday, so many media outlets wanted to photograph Stark at the table that customers had to sit elsewhere during the lunch rush. Stark did not say when he plans to pick up the buyer.
As word of the sale spread, fans joined the regulars, including a guy wearing the same shirt as Tony in the final scene, smoking a cigarette as he walked in and out of the place.
When Gandolfini died in 2013, mourners left flowers on the table. People keep coming to the restaurant and heading straight to the men’s room, looking for the gun that may or may not have killed Tony.
“People go to the bathroom and take pictures in the bathroom,” Stark said. “They come looking for answers, they want to know what happened.”
Shari Magill, from nearby Nutley, a frequent customer, stopped by Tuesday for some food.
“Everyone comes here for the cabinet,” he said. “I hope people keep coming.”
FUENTE: AP
