The Sopranos: Asbury Park

By Joe Berk

Asbury Park, New Jersey, is another Sopranos location.   In the series, several episodes depict Tony Soprano’s dreams.  It’s a well-worn cinematic technique, but David Chase (The Sopranos writer) did it well.  In the Asbury Park scene, Tony has been diagnosed with cancer and he pours gasoline over himself and self immolates in front of his minions.  Tony’s a good guy, you see, and he wants to short circuit his suffering and spare his friends the hospital visits associated with his impending lengthy illness.

In the video above, the building that spans the boardwalk is the Asbury Park Convention Center.   You can see it and the boardwalk, along with the beach (what we in New Jersey call “the shaw,” as in “Let’s go down the shaw…”) in the photo above this blog.

In a later scene during Tony’s dream, Tony shoots Pauly Walnuts inside the Convention Center during a card game.  Throughout the series, Tony’s relationship with Pauly is complicated.  Pauly is probably Tony’s most loyal minion (along with Silvio Dante), but Pauly is constantly getting on Tony’s nerves.  The character development The Sopranos is very well done; it is one of many areas in which the show shines.   You probably can tell I am a Sopranos fanboy.  I am what I am.

The coin-operated binoculars you see in the video are no longer on the boardwalk, but they were there when I was a kid and I remember wishing I had the coins and the height to be able to see through them.  The benches you see in the video (on the boardwalk, facing the Atlantic) are still there.

On the day I visited Asbury Park, contractors were erecting a stage right on the beach for a Bruce Springsteen concert the next day.    General admission tickets were $350; select seating tickets went as high as $4,000.  These were not scalper prices; these are the prices that were published for the event.  I learned this talking to a young lady inside the Convention Center.  I still have my New Jersey accent, and just for grins, I told her I went to high school with Bruce.  I didn’t, but I was having fun.

“Really?” she said.  I am Bruce Springsteen’s age, and young people are easily fooled.  I think she believed me.

“What was he like?” she asked, wide eyed.

“Truth be told, he was a first-class pain in the ass,” I answered. “Even in those days, he wanted everyone to call him ‘The Boss.’  It was weird, but we humored the guy.”  Her mouth opened in amazement. She was buying my line, but it wasn’t true.  There’s only one boss, and his name is Tony Soprano.

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