(Postcard picture courtesy the marvelous Vintage Chromes blog)
Sixty-five years after the birth of Times Square, it was apparent that things were taking a rather bizarre left turn. The old Times Building, a building so critical to the neighborhood that its address was now One Times Square, had been stripped of its architectural finery and encased in a banal concrete uniform, the property of Allied Chemical.
The outdated Hotel Astor was completely gone. In its place within a year or so would rise One Astor Plaza. From the angle of this postcard, there is simply nothing there.
The building that once housed the Packard Motor Cars showroom had also disappeared. In 1969, that address 1540 Broadway belonged to the Loew’s State Theatre. For a time, it was one of Times Square’s great destination theaters, a 3,327-seat behemoth that opened in 1921 and hosted the premieres of ‘Ben-Hur’, ‘Some Like It Hot’, ‘The Godfather’ and many others. It was essentially demolished (along with those structures below the Kent Cigarette sign) with the construction of the Bertelsmann Building in 1989; but for many years afterwards, the business on the ground floor, Virgin Megastore, hosted smaller movie theaters in its basement.
The flamboyant movie theater to the right has a more glamorous background. It was once the Gaiety Theater, a grand original from the early days of old Broadway, opened in 1906 by theater impresarios Klaw and Erlinger. The Gaiety was truly a variety house, presenting legit theater, burlesque and vaudeville (Gypsy Rose Lee and Abbott and Costello performed here), and then straight into legitimate films under its new name, the Victoria. Today the Marriott Marquis rises here, after the controversial demolition of it and several other theaters on the block in 1982.
Just out of frame to the right, movie patrons could leave their film and discuss it at the Howard Johnson’s across the street.
Back under that Kent Cigarette ad is one for Beefeater gin — booze and smokes, good times. And underneath that is the refreshment stand Elpine Drinks, best known for its fruit juices. (Lost City has a nice write up about this forgotten establishment.)
The Paramount Building, its clock tower rising in the background, is one of the few structures virtually intact and looking close to how it did when it was built in 1926. In recent years, this building has been invaded by the Hard Rock Cafe.
Another survivor from this era — that tried, dependable statue of George M Cohan, standing in silhouette in the foreground. The statue was placed here at the tip of Duffy Square ten years before this postcard was made. Even then, in 1959, very little of Cohan’s Broadway remained to greet him.
2 replies on “A trip to Times Square 1969: A world of colorful decline”
In August, 1976, I was a sexually suppressed 18 year old
young man raised in IBM suburbia whose only claim to fame was winning Prom King
for my choreographed dance moves I acquired by studying ‘American Bandstand’
and ‘Soul Train’. I always wanted to be
a go-go dancer, on display for the world to admire. On the day I escaped my parents’ scrutiny and
claustrophobic home after they hastily discharged me at Stony Brook University,
I chose to troll X-rated Times Square to satisfy my homosexual lust instead of
settling into dorm life. I was quickly
approached by a humpy Italian not much older than me, who gently introduced me
to my first man-on-man sexual encounter with his experienced hands as professional
male hustler. My one hour romantic affair
changed gears as my new lover challenged me to follow his lead as a stripper on
the stages of the Gaiety Male Burlesque, where I would satisfy the audience and
Denise, the conservative Greek business owner, to become a regular dancer on
weekends from school. I wrote about my
experiences being mentored by street savvy coworkers at the Gaiety who guided
me into fast paced lifestyle I apparently welcomed and succeeded at for two
years, making more money than an 18 year old still in college knew what to do
with, where and how to dress for success, where and how to take drugs, and
became entitled to VIP treatment at the best high-end discos and entre to the
most exclusive underground clubs, dancing to the best DJ’s and music, making me
feel like my Prom King Trophy come to life.
Homo GoGo Man: a fairytale about a boy who grew up in
discoland, by Christopher Duquette was published by DonnaInk DP in
Dec.2014, has sold well on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and now at BGSQD. Internet
attention to my book has brought me in contact with professionals to consult on
disco articles, exhibitions and projects revisiting the hedonistic disco era. I will be reading the chapter “the Gaiety
Burlesque†with a DJ accompaniment of the music relevant to that era, a technique
I used in my book threading lyrics with my first hand experiences in iconic
clubs from 1976 – 2004 driven by an insatiable appetite to dance in clubs for
30 years, and rely on drugs, until my arrested development caught up with me. Silver
mylar curtains, a disco ball, the circular pattern of dance floor lights
reminiscent of the Gaiety (or any iconic club you want to read about in my
book) to make this book reading a full sensation experience will be held at the
BGSQD bookstore on level 2 of the LGBTQ center on W13th Street, NYC,
Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, 7pm- 9pm. Reading
starts at 7:30pm, lasts approximately 45 minutes, after which I will be happy
to talk publicly and privately, until the LGBTQ center prepares to close at
9:00pm. Connect to BGSQD.com for
details, view my YouTube ‘Homo GoGo Man’ by Christopher Duquette, visit my
Facebook page on Homo GoGo Man, tell a veteran of the iconic Gaiety
Burlesque Theater of the event, or come to learn about a period in time that no
longer exists. Homo GoGo Man is a
play on words of the species ‘homo sapien’; the story is about a gay man
avoiding his own extinction.
845 337 7048, xristo_pherre@hotmail.com
August, 1976, I was a sexually suppressed 18 year-old raised
in suburbia whose only claim to fame was winning Prom King for the
choreographed dance moves I had scrutinized watching ‘American Bandstand’ and
‘Soul Train’. I fantasized about being a
go-go dancer, on a pedestal, craving sexual approval. On the day my parents discharged me at Stony
Brook University, finally escaping their scrutiny and claustrophobic home, I
chose to troll X-rated Times Square to satisfy my homosexual lust instead of
settling into dorm life. I was quickly
approached by a humpy Italian young man, who gently introduced me to my first man-on-man
sexual encounter utilizing his expertise as a professional male hustler. My one hour romantic affair suddenly changed
gears as my new male lover challenged me to follow his destiny to become a stripper
at the premiere Adult Male Entertainment venue, the Gaiety Burlesque Theater. I
became a regular dancer on weekends from 1976 – 1978, and still romanticize about
those teenage years where I validated my homosexual suppression by exploiting
my youth and beauty for money. I was
mentored by my street savvy coworkers at the Gaiety who guided me into the fast
paced lifestyle I apparently welcomed and succeeded at: hustling, how to dress,
access to a variety of drugs, and the entitlement to VIP treatment at the best
high-end discos and elusive underground clubs, dancing to the best DJ’s and
music, making me feel like a Prom King Trophy come to life.
Homo GoGo Man: a fairytale about a boy who grew up in
discoland, by Christopher Duquette was published by DonnaInk DP, for sale on
DonnaInk.com, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and is now available at the BGSQD
bookstore. Internet attention to my book has brought me in contact with
professionals to consult on disco articles, exhibitions and projects revisiting
the hedonistic disco era. I will be
reading the chapter “the Gaiety Burlesque†accompanied by a DJ playing music
relevant to that era, a technique I used while writing my book, threading
lyrics with my personal experiences in iconic clubs from 1976 – 2004, driven by
an insatiable appetite to literally dance my life away. Silver Mylar curtains,
a disco ball, and psychedelic lights will make this book reading a
multi-sensory experience at the BGSQD bookstore on level 2 of the LGBTQ center
on W13th Street, NYC, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, 7pm- 9pm. Reading starts at 7:30pm, lasts approximately
45 minutes, after which I will be happy to talk publicly and privately, until
the LGBTQ center prepares to close at 9:00pm.
Connect to BGSQD.com for details, view my YouTube ‘Homo GoGo Man’ by
Christopher Duquette, visit my Facebook page on Homo GoGo Man, tell a
veteran of the iconic Gaiety Burlesque Theater of the event, or come to learn
about a period in time that no longer exists.
Homo GoGo Man is a play on words of the species ‘homo sapien’;
the story about a gay man avoiding his own extinction.
845 337 7048, xristo_pherre@hotmail.com