UPDATED! Photo Flash! MORE photos of Broadway circa September 1980!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 10:30pm

Was going thru some boxes and located some photos I took around Broadway sometime in September 1980. I love the grainy late 70's feel to the photos.

This is what the Broadway Theatre looked like when EVITA played there. Patti, Mandy and Bob were still in the show. There was a huge parking lot just south of the theatre.


The Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre) during the original run of ANNIE. Sarah Jessica Parker had recently ended her run as Annie and now Allison Smith was playing the role (opposite Alice Ghostley and John Schuck). The station wagon on the far left of the photo belonged to Bill Berloni, the dog wrangler of ANNIE:


The southside of the Shubert Theatre during the original run of the Broadway production of A CHORUS LINE:


The enormous ANNIE billboard over the Palace Theatre on Times Square. You can see this sign in the 1979 Alan Parker film FAME:


This is what the Broadway billboards looked like on the eastside of Times Square. OH, CALCUTTA! was still going strong. Note the porno movie theatre on the lower right of the photo. Yesirree... right ON Times Square!


A block south of the ANNIE billboard was this billboard for the brand new film THE BLUES BROTHERS:


Times Square -- south view from Duffy Square. So sparse. So gritty. So different:


Broadway's newest hit:


And a blast from the past: the Pussycat Porno Theatre which was located at 153 W. 49th Street. It was demolished in the late 1980's to make way for the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza. You are still missed:


Updated On: 10/23/08 at 10:30 PM

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 10:34pm

Thank you so much for these Brody! They're fantastic!

I want more! I can't get enough of old pictures of Times Square and the theater district.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 10:35pm

Wow. Thanks. The Broadway, Shubert and Palace Theatres all look unrecognizable to me.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 10:56pm

Thank you SO much for posting these!

[lakezurich]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 10:58pm

Great pics!

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:42pm

Amazing pics, thanks for sharing. Even as a native New Yorker, it's hard to remember the theatre district looking so different to today.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:48pm

Those are absolutely beautiful. It makes me sad I was never able to experience seeing those things, so seeing those makes me so happy. Thanks for sharing that beautiful and moving piece of history!

[ashley0139]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:49pm

These are so unbelievably fascinating. Thanks SO MUCH for posting them.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:50pm

Wow! That takes back!

If you look closely you can almost see the 8th Ave hookers validating parking.

[NGD2225]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:53pm

Now I know what Patti was talking about. See my signature.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/22/08 at 11:56pm

Ooh, I have two questions... I know the broadway theater is between, 52nd and 53rd and the current stage door for Studio 54 is on 53rd. Do you have any idea if they used that entrance in the 80's while 54 was still a night club?

Also was the Roseland Ballroom accross from the Alvin theater at that time also used as a night club? I'm just curious. I ADORE the picture of the Alvin theater. That house is where I saw my first musical on Broadway! Though it was already renamed the Neil Simon.

[NGD2225]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 12:00am

[EugLoven]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 12:15am

WWOOOOWWWW!
THANKS SO MUCH

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 12:27am

Wait, there was a time when the theatre district didn't look like Vegas? Wow!

Thank you so much for the pics. They are beautiful... but at the same time I'm kind of sad I will never actually get to go to a NY as raw as that.

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 12:41am

Those pictures bring back some fond memories. All the way down to the Blackstone poster. I think that is the show he took on the road and I worked it and met him when it came to the Uptown in Philadelphia. I always walked down Shubert Alley just to walk past the Shubert Theater When A Chorus Line was playing.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 9:50am

Thanks for the pictures and the memories. I love glimpses of the past -- pictures, Playbills, old articles -- so anyone who ever wants to share them, know you'll have at least one fascinated person on the other side of the computer screen.

[fnyboi88]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 10:09am

Amazing. Thanks for posting.

[cubanpab]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 1:45pm

brody - these are so great. i love looking at peoples old photos. if you have more, post them.

[thesondhead]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 2:22pm

These are fantastic, Brody. Thank you so much for sharing.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 8:32pm

My goodness- wonderful pictures of the very down and dirty theatre district of dats gone by!
Now then, does any kind soul have a snapshot of the Winter Garden Marquee when Follies was there? I've been looking for one for AGES! Thanks! :)

[WestVillage]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 9:06pm

Those were the days, my friend.
We thought they'd never end.

Great pics, great memories.

JV92 ... somewhere in my attic I have polaroids (does anyone even know what they are anymore?) of the Follies marquee and huge billboard over the Winter Garden, as well as pics of the original Jesus Christ Superstar at the Mark Hellinger, and a slew of other shows playing during that time. I used to run around the theatre district taking pics of all the marquees. When I have some extra time, I'll try to dig them out, scan them in and post them.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 9:37pm

That would be greatly appreciated! Please do post them when you get a chance.

[ZiggyCringe]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 9:40pm

Brody, those are great pix.

I moved to NYC in 1985, but when I was in High School, the movie "Fame" formulated most of my life. And it all looked just like those photos.

I miss that New York, it's the New York of my dreams. Thanks for posting the pix.

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 9:41pm

Beautiful!

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 10:19pm

Wow! These are awesome! The Broadway Theatre is funny to look at, after that they threw on it now. It actually looks like it blends in with the rest of the theatres.