McCain & Son Detective Agency, Fifth & East 38th St.

The location of Rosie's day job, McCain & Son detective agency.

"On the bright side, I had a day job. I worked at McCain & Son, a small detective agency located at Fifth and East 38th, a spit from Broadway. I’d found the job courtesy of the Ladies Employment Guild (motto: Girls, get a LEG up on the workforce). When I started, there were only two employees, Jim McCain, owner and operator (and, I assumed, the “& Son” of the title) and his secretary, a well-endowed, well-preserved middle-aged doll I eventually learned was named Agnes, but was usually referred to as honey, baby, or cupcake."

Christopher Street Subway Station

The Christopher Street PATH station, opened on February 25, 1908, is located on Christopher Street (just west of Hudson Street), on the west side of Greenwich Village. The station entrance is in its own free-standing building, with a restored marquis displaying the original "Hudson Tubes" name adorning the entranceway. Passengers travel down a narrow stairway with a number of curves before arriving at the platform level. The platform itself is a narrow center island. (source: Wikipedia)

George Bernard Shaw Theatrical Rooming House

West 10th and Hudson

Home to Jayne, Rosie, & Ruby.

"By 7:00 I was safely at the George Bernard Shaw, or, as I called it, the Home for Wayward Actresses. It was a rooming house at West 10th Street and Hudson in the Village that had once been a popular hotel for seamen and remained a fine example of Civil War architecture, since the current owner was too cheap to bring it up to 20th-century standards. Some starlet who married well financially endowed the joint at the turn of the century and made it possible for mugs like me to enjoy a cheap roof over our heads provided we followed her career path."

Times Square

Where Rosie and Jayne Ring in 1943.

"We ended up at Times Square with 400,000 of our closest friends.  New York’s biggest party may have been packed full of people, but the war had muted it as though we’d all come to the silent conclusion that any joy was disrespectful. Instead of the ball dropping at midnight, plane spotter stations filled the night’s sky with beams of light. The crowd watched in silent awe until the singer Lucy Monroe pierced the quiet with the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Everywhere we looked were soldiers with their girls, fiercely embracing, kissing, and dancing as though they had a lifetime of those activities to cram into one evening. As 1942 became 1943 my grief at not being able to kiss Jack at midnight was replaced by the awful fear that I may never kiss him – or anyone else – again."

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Terminal (GCT, often unofficially called Grand Central Station) is a terminal rail station at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue (42nd Street and Park Avenue) in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built by the New York Central Railroad (for which it was named) in the heyday of American long-distance passenger trains, it is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms: 44, with 67 tracks along them. They are on two underground levels, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. It serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.Although it has been properly called "Grand Central Terminal" since 1913, many people continue to refer to it as "Grand Central Station". Technically, that is the name of the nearby post office, as well as the name of a previous rail station on the site. (Wikipedia)

Ziegfeld Theater

6th Avenue at W. 54th St.

Office of War Information

Chanin Building, East Forty-Second Street

The office of Henry Nussbaum and the Office of War Information.

"By ten o’clock I was at the ornate Chanin Building on East Forty-Second Street, staring at a bronze bas relief of the New York skyline while waiting for the elevator."

Louie's Hash House

The local chow stop Rosie & Edgar go to.

"I left word with Belle that I’d gone up to Charles Street to grab some java at Louie’s, a hash house known for its cheap food and dim lighting."

Ali Baba's, 52nd Street

The Mob controlled dance hall and clip joint that Tony takes Rosie and Jayne to.

"Ali Baba’s was part clip joint, part dance hall. In the twenties it had been a heavily populated speakeasy, but when it was no longer necessary to hide its activities from prying eyes, those who’d made money off bad booze, pumped the dough back into the club until it became one of the places to see and be seen. Tables ringed a gigantic, dimly lit room decked out to look like Hollywood’s concept of a Sheik’s palace. Spaced a stumble apart were bars attended by men in white sheets and women in belly dancer gear. If that was too far for you to wobble, in the space between booze venders were crystal fountains flowing with cheap champagne, which you could collect in a shoe or a hat or, for the more conservative, one of a hundred spit-cleaned glasses stacked in a pyramid. At the edge of the tables was a brass banister designed to keep the eaters from the hoofers. In the center of the room was an immense marble dance floor and in its center was a stage outfitted by a big band playing a somber rendition of 'I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen.'"

People's Theatre, West 14th St.

The Theatre company where Rosie gets a job

"People’s Theatre specialized in realistic, contemporary productions, many of which had a political bent. During the Depression, they’d become world renowned for a musical about the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire, starring real-life survivors of the accident instead of actors. Many of their productions had been endorsed by labor unions while being defamed as subversive and reckless by local politicians. The photos from the shows told of gritty, realistic sets and actors made human by uncombed hair, smudges of dirt, torn costumes, and stark lighting. Had they not been identified as pictures from plays, I would’ve thought all the images were Life magazine portraits of people pushed to their limits so those of us safe in our living rooms could humanize the tales we read in our papers."

Schrafft's

From 1898 until the 1970s, Schrafft's restaurants and candy stores were ubiquitous in New York City and the Northeast as outposts of middle- class civility. They were a favorite haunt of actors; Kirk Douglas and John Forsythe waited tables before they were stars.

John Kelly's Bar, West 14th St.

The Bar Peter and Rosie frequent near People's Theatre

"The gin mill was dark to afford privacy to everyone in its confines. Unlike most such establishments, this one didn’t try to dress up what it was by displaying ethnic memorabilia and pithy sayings. Instead its décor disappeared into dark wood and dim lighting as a reminder to us that some day we too would vanish. Its sole concessions to the war were a vase of miniature American flags set in the storefront window and a photograph of FDR hanging above the bar. The air was heavy with smoke and body odor and the putrid combination of oil and gasoline that usually lined the nails of military mechanics. A phonograph whose speed needed to be adjusted played “In the Mood” much too slowly, stripping it of its merriment and turning it into a funeral dirge."

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

Park Avenue & 50th street

Home to Eloise McCain.

"The limestone and brick building towered 47 stories above the street, a monolith to money and the things it could buy. Outside doormen adorned with gold colored epaulets opened car doors and assisted guests in and out of the building. Flags from a foreign land flew above the entrance while shoeshine boys and newsies kept a respectable distance, hawking their wares with a knowing nod rather than the irritating chatter they used in our part of the city. We walked into the building as if we belonged and tried our best not to gawk at the marble floors and ornate bronze and wood decor. Scattered throughout the lobby were delicate antique chairs easily flummoxed by human weight and brightly colored oriental rugs that bore no evidence of the foot traffic they endured on a daily basis."