A question about Times Square's history

It started with Rudy Guiliani as mayor. He convinced Disney to have a presence on 42st Street and once they committed, everyone else jumped on the bandwagon.

He then put in place laws to drive the porn shops out of the area with laws about what porn shops could sell (front section had to be non-porn videos) and how many feet apart they had to be from one another.

Once Disney came in and the porn shops went out of business, all the other chain stores started in: Applebees, M&M, Hershey, Bubba Gump, etc

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Things started changing about 1990 or so. I have lived and worked in HK for many yrs, Even though I loathe Giuliani for many things, he DID put the Westies and the other crime families effectively out of business, as well as the brothels, etc.,(For real insight into the "old" Times Sq/Hell's Kitchen, TJ English's book on the Westies is a must read.)

A link (from 199, which depicts some of the community's concerns of the time.). Personally, I liked the old, dirty, dangerous, HK.

https://tenant.net/pipermail/hkonline/1998-January/000034.html

This article from the NY TIMES has a brief history of the redevelopment.


TIMES SQUARE

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Updated On: 4/4/12 at 10:56 PM

I read an interesting book about the history of Times Square that has several chapters devoted to this very topic:

The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square
by James Traub

I found it particularly interesting to read about all of the ideas for development that didn't work out, including one in which 42nd St was essentially going to be encased in glass, with walkways to get from building to building - the idea being at the time that there was no way to eradicate the "unsavory" elements on the street, so the best move was to isolate the theaters and tourist destinations from them. Fortunately, that didn't wind up being necessary!
The Devil's Playground at Amazon

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Scene: My friend and I walk onto 42nd from Times Square
Me: (Sees 42nd Street sign, and New 42nd Street sign) Why did they call it “New 42nd Street?”
Friend: They changed the name because they got rid of all of the porn shops and cleaned it up.
Me: Why would they ever get rid of porn shops?!

Curtain.

I think it was three.. the Helen Hayes (original), Bijou and something else...

Suburban children who play soccer are the lowest form of humanity?

Only in NYC could you see a sign for a gay strip club next to a sign that says "It's cock-tail" time.

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"Suburban children who play soccer are the lowest form of humanity?"

Depends on their mother...

The third theatre to be demolished to make way for the dreaded Marriot was the Morosco Theatre. Legions of actors picketed the construction site to voice their displeasure. I have an actor friend who refuses to attend any production that plays the Marriot Marquis Theatre in deference to the demolished theatres. Also, I don't think the presence of that hotel had an impact on the turnaround of 42nd Street. Even after it was built, the "naughty, bawdy, gaudy" 42nd Street was still its old self. While I commend the restoration of most of the theatres along 42nd Street, I decry the theme park hullabaloo that is the current 42nd Street. Imagine the Liberty Theatre, where distinguished productions took place in the 1920's, housing a BBQ restaurant! Why wasn't it turned into a usable Broadway Theatre, since they took the time to more or less restore the Liberty?

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There were actually five theatres torn down to make way for the Marriott. In addition to the aforementioned Morosco, Helen Hayes and Bijou Theatres, there were also the Astor and Gaiety Theatres (no, not the strip club, another one), though both had ceased being legit houses long before their demolition.

The Astor was on Broadway, near 45th Street. It was a legit house and then a movie theatre for many years. At the time of its demolition, it was serving as a used book store.



The Gaiety was on 46th Street, but also had a Broadway entrance as you can see in the above photo on the far right. It ended its career as a movie theatre called the Victoria.

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Updated On: 4/5/12 at 01:09 PM

Thanks Gypsy! - but the photos are readily available on IBDB.com. If you use the search function on that site, you can find photos both past and present for almost every major Broadway house.

And yes, the Marriott still makes my blood boil. A dehumanizing, light-blocking, oversized catastrophe. If it had to be built, did it have to be so ugly?

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