‘I Was 24 and Working Illegally’

Photo: Courtesy of Keith McNally

It was October 1975. I was 24 and had arrived in New York with a vague plan to make films. Running out of money in the second week, I ditched the film idea and found a job as a busboy at Serendipity, the ice-cream parlor on East 60th Street.

Like many immigrants, my desire to live in New York came from watching films. One film in particular: Klute. There’s a terrific scene early on in which the two leads, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, are out...