This last, most recent visit has confirmed to me that Times Square is no more. Anything that remains of the old New York is the odd man out (or odd building out). The neighborhood has been transformed. The heart and soul of this part of New York is gone, and, sadly, other neighborhoods in Manhattan are suffering the same fate or headed in the same direction.
Pictured above: Heading up 8th Avenue, between 40 and 41 St., one finds this pristine, just finished NY Times building that rises 52 stories. There used to be a row of small buildings here that contained local, and cheap, food and clothing stores--and, yes, a few sex emporiums. Another high rise building is scheduled to be built between 41 and 42 St.
Above: This is a view of 42 St, from 8th Avenue looking east. Note the shadows.
For a few decades, the Times Square area was known and visited for its many double-bill theatres, which showed a wide range of B-films, foreign and domestic, and its porn "palaces" and smaller sex stores. 8th Avenue had some of the seediest porn emporiums, rich with X-rated films and magazines, peep shows, live actions shows and live action girls, and ejaculations from passionate and sometimes frenzied, but otherwise well-behaved, men. A particular favorite among the male clientèle, but almost never written about, were the booths a customer entered that contained a metal paneled window that would rise when the customer deposited his token (bought inside the store) to reveal naked girls on a confined stage, one of whom would approach the customer for a $1 tip that allowed the customer to touch the girl for a brief period of time until the window went down. The $1 tip rose to $2 before this live girl action disappeared courtesy the Giuliani Administration's crack-down on porn palaces. Only a couple of live girl places are open nowadays in the Times Square region, and the entertainment has gotten more expensive and devoid of genuine human contact. Whoever may wish to indulge in this new entertainment gets a nude masturbation show from a girl who is separated from the customer by a glass window. Cost $30.
In the photo below you will see one of these dinosaur 8 Avenue establishments (the white building) and to its right a nude entertainment bar that may or may not have full nudity. (I'm not up on the current zoning laws, which may prohibit full nudity in a place that serves alcohol.) What you should pay attention to in the photo are not these buildings, however, but rather the empty space to the right that is surrounded by a low wooden wall painted blue. That empty space takes up a quarter of an entire block (the block, not just the street). Without doubt, we will see a massive high-rise there by the end of the year. A long life expectancy of the buildings you do see is surely in doubt.
[All photos above: Mirek]
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Addendum 3/13/08: Doing some Googling, I came across photos of what was demolished--several buildings, including "The Playpen," which at one time was a movie theater, but in its last years was a porn emporium. With these photos, the memories of what was there flooded back to me: a SRO hotel on the corner, a novelty "Funny Store," a nice red brick walk-up, one more porn place, smaller than The Playpen.
Here's The Playpen years ago, with its distinctive neon live-girl. That's the way I remember it when I lived in the area.
Here's the facade before demolition. By then the neon girl had been replaced with a New York City skyline, showing the Twin Towers.
Here's a nice lens-eye photo of all the buildings that went down:
Gone!
[None of these addendum photos had photographer credits, but if anyone can ID the photographers, I'll gladly put up that information.]
An attempt was made to save The Playpen. A committee was formed with an online petition:
We, the undersigned, recognize the history of the Playpen Theater, which has stood at 693 8th Avenue at 44th Street, New York City, for over 91 years. Operating under the names of the Ideal, Esquire, Squire, Cinecitta, New Cameo, Cameo, Adonis, and the Playpen, this theater has survived over 9 decades of the City's development.
Built in the Beaux-Arts style in 1916 by S. Eisendrath & B. Horowitz, the same architects of Brooklyn's landmarked Congregation Beth Elohim synagogue, the architecture of this structure should be preserved for future generations.
We recognize that the theater was a neighborhood theater from 1916 until the 1930s, when it became a leading "arthouse" and foreign film cinema for over 40 years. Thus this building is a vibrant thread in the fabric of our City's cultural history.
Thus, to lose the Playpen Theater would be a tragic misfortune for the citizens of the City of New York.
We call upon you, Mr. Tishman, to save the theater from demolition.
We call upon you, New York City officials and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, to save the theater, to "list" it under the Special Theater Subdistrict zoning laws, and to protect the Playpen Theater as a New York City landmark as soon as possible.
One interesting fact: During its long history, the theater showed Russian films and the FBI was staked out opposite trying to uncover communists!
