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| While "The Deuce" (as its friends and foes knew West 42nd Street between 6th and 8th Avenues) has become the New 42 (more or less, a stretch of New York City that has become the place that tourists flock, or are herded to, there's still a remnant, or two, of its former highs and lows to be found there and in the streets surrounding it in Times Square.
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Many New Yorkers have decried the changes that have come to New 42, but to me it's fantastic, which might sound like apostasy to people used to my overdevelopment rantings on other Forgotten NY pages. Let's say I'd rather have B.B. King's, where I've seen the Smithereens, the Zombies and the late John Entwistle, than Peep Land, OK? (It's likely that even if the "New 42" development surge that began with a trickle during the Koch Administration and reached culmination under Rudy Giuliani had never happened, home video and online porn would have doomed the grindhouses anyway.)
The Crossroads of the World has been the place where all 'true' NYC celebrations happen (New Year's and the NFL's opening week are celebrated here) but nowhere else in NY has seen such a roller coaster ride from respectability to hell's ninth circle and back again. In my own memory (the 1960s on) the Deuce has gone from a string of grindhouses playing monster and kung fu movies (stuff that Michael Weldon has gleefully chronicled in his long-running Psychotronic magazine and website) which became Triple XXX palaces with live sex shows from straight to gay and everything in between. Came an eerie lull in the early to mid-1990s after the pornmeisters had been moved out, and then came the mad, crazy, phantasmagoric mix we have now.
Let the tourists come. I believe in NYC tourism. Nothing like the New 42 exists in Des Moines, Juneau or Truth or Consequences. But let's take a moment to remember where the buses never rolled, and where the jovial Grey Lines barkers won't bark today.
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| Begin with Peep-O-Rama (seen above on the title card). On the north side of 42nd just west of 6th Avenue, it was the Deuce's last peep show and even after the raincoat brigade had shuffled out one last time, the building remained open as an art gallery for a while.
A couple of doors down was the Palace of Variety, home of Stephanie Monseu and Keith Nelson's Bindlestiff Family Cirkus (which added elements of burlesque to a traditional circus atmosphere). In early 2004 it was a nightly sellout and your webmaster and friends cound not roust a seat. All buildings on this side of the street were razed in 2004 to make way for the massive $1 billion 50-story Bank of America Building, which will sort of look like a dry run for the Freedom Tower. RIGHT: same scene, circa 1990. Tad's Gristle has survived lo the years. |
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| Hell's Seraphim, 42nd and 8th, 1988. photo: Matt Weber
According to New York Songlines' Jim Naureckas, 8th and 42nd was long notorious for male solicitation; Montgomery Clift was arrested here even after his Oscar nomination in 1948. The Church's Fried Chicken site is now occupied by the multicolored high-rise Westin New York Hotel, opened in 2002. |
The Deuce, 1988. photo: Matt Weber | |||
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| LEFT: The New 42 in transition ca. 1990. The Harem Theatre was a porno grindhouse located where the Loews E-walk is at present; in its final days in operation it was a crack den. How would your webmaster know? Cinematreasures, of course. photo: Matt Weber
RIGHT: a view of the Harem with the old Modells sneaker store sign in the background and the old Knickerbocker Hotel (Broadway and 42nd) and Bush Tower (42nd west of 6th) in the background. The latter was built in 1918 for the entrepreneurs of Brooklyn's Bush Terminal in Sunset Park. Circa 1994. photo: greatgridlock.net That strange sound you hear is your webmaster kicking himself because he didn't begin photography for FNY till after most of the New 42 conversion was complete. But urbanphotos did... |
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| Grand Luncheonette, 229 West 42nd Street between 7th and 8th. photo: Matt Weber | ||
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| Matt Weber's "The Unknown Soldier"; 1988 | ||
Forgotten Fan and Queen of Staten Island Jean Siegel presented me with a batch of photos of the Deuce in transition in the 1988-2002 period.
Salon.com: The New 42 in 2002. Some of the sleeze still hangs around the edges.
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| Herman's, Father and Son Shoes, and Thom McAn are long gone (Thom McAn is now a brand sold by K-Mart). Scene was on the north side of West 42nd between 6th and Broadway, to the left of what became the Palace of Variety.
"Cooped Up? Enjoy a Movie Today" was one of the notable ads uncovered during the New 42 demolitions. And, glance at lower right for a look at Bickford's, the long-dead restaurant chain. |
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| Shuttered grindhouses on the New 42, 1990. A close look at the right side will reveal a look at a Knox Hats storeferont. The company was started by Irish immigrant Charles Knox...in 1848! Knox is now a part of Arnold Hatters on 8th Avenue near the new 42. | New 42 survivors. Eltinge (the "Empire" since 1954) Theater. Internet Broadway Database: Thomas W. Lamb, architect. Built by Al Woods (in 1912) and named for the female impersonator whose career made Woods' fortune. Woods introduced a new seating system: "slender," "medium," and "stout" seats for patrons of all sizes. Woods lost the theatre in the depression and it became a burlesque house. By 1941, it was a movie house. In 1998, redevelopment of 42nd St. in full swing, the whole building was lifted, moved down the block, and transformed into the facade and entrance of the AMC multiplex cinema. | |||
To the left of the Empire, we see the Liberty Theatre, which is even older dating to 1905, now absorbed as a part of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.
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