In Billy Wilder’s classic film The Apartment, the finale takes place on New Year’s Eve —though the release date was June 15, 1960.
The film won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Jack Lemon’s character, CC “Bud” Baxter, states in voiceover at the beginning of the movie that he lives and works in New York City and his “take-home pay is $94.70 a week.”
With the income tax rate that year, his annual salary would have been roughly $6,400. The average annual income that year was $5,016.
Adjusting for inflation, his income today would be approximately $60,000.
Jack Lemon’s character also states, “I live in the west sixties just half a block from Central Park.”
Today, that is multi-million-dollar prime real estate.
“My rent is $85 a month.”
Adjusting for inflation, that would equal $760 in 2021.
Today, nobody renting an apartment within half a block of Central Park pays only $760 per month. Nobody.
The Apartment was a work of fiction, but if those numbers were anywhere close to accurate, times have changed.
Fred MacMurray co-starred in the film. He played the womanizing Mr. Sheldrake.
MacMurray was the opposite of the character he portrayed. In real life he was a family man. The Apartment marked his last role as a bad guy.
Most of his scenes were shot on a soundstage in West Hollywood, not in New York.
But he might’ve appreciated the real estate aspects of C.C Baxter’s Manhattan apartment.
MacMurray made many savvy property investments in California during his career.
As a result, Fred MacMurray was, for many years, one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood.
If he were alive today, he probably could afford to purchase property in C.C. Baxter’s old Upper West Side neighborhood.
ALSO:
The Apartment was adapted into a Broadway musical.
Neil Simon wrote the play.
Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the music.
The show was called Promises, Promises.
The male lead was played by Jerry Orbach.
He appeared on Law and Order as Det. Lenny Briscoe.
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