Tell me about Times Square 20 years ago. I am very intrigued. (New York: home, school)

[skinnayyy]

would amsterdam be anything like it was?

although, i was just in china studying abroad with some other students in 2009 and an area where a club i went to was about 75% of the girls were prostitutes with they're pimps trying to steal your wallet, and then also if you walked outside there were "shops" that you could go into that were just ***** houses. we thought it was a strip club. i found out after being taken to a room where there was nothing but a mattress on the floor that it wasn't lol

[scatman]

I went to the High School of Graphic Communication Arts, on 49th Street between 9th and 10th, from 1983 to 1986. Deceptacons ran the school. A couple of blocks away is Time Square, which was starting new construction on some buildings, like the Marriott.

I worked at the old Hermans World of Sporting Goods, at its 34th and 42nd Street stores during a couple of summers and winters home from college in '87 and '88. Both 34th and the Deuce were the pickpocket capitals of the world back then!

[Ebrehm]

Originally Posted by scatman

I went to the High School of Graphic Communication Arts, on 49th Street between 9th and 10th, from 1983 to 1986. Deceptacons ran the school. A couple of blocks away is Time Square, which was starting new construction on some buildings, like the Marriott.

Wasn't that area part of Hell's Kitchen?

Originally Posted by scatman

I worked at the old Hermans World of Sporting Goods, at its 34th and 42nd Street stores during a couple of summers and winters home from college in '87 and '88. Both 34th and the Deuce were the pickpocket capitals of the world back then!

There's still quite a bit of pickpockets around the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

[skilldeadly]

Two questions: Was it dangerous? Such as being beaten up or murdered or anything? Or was it more just pickpockets and sex?

Also, how did it become so sleazy? Obviously it was iconic back in WW2. Why the big change?

[Ebrehm]

Originally Posted by skilldeadly

Two questions: Was it dangerous? Such as being beaten up or murdered or anything? Or was it more just pickpockets and sex?

Also, how did it become so sleazy? Obviously it was iconic back in WW2. Why the big change?

The 42nd Street area had hustlers, pickpockets, and conmen as far back as the 1930s, when it was dominated by Burlesque shows. In the 1940s, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia banned Burlesque and many of the theaters were converted into movie theaters. Despite the presence of the underworld, It thrived in the forties and early fifties until an exodus to the suburbs began. In the late 1950s, the theaters began showing exploitation films and dope dealers began setting up their turf. In the mid 1960s, the peep shows moved in, and the theaters began showing porn, slashers, and kung fu in the late 1960s. By 1970, the Times Square area was a complete cesspool of increasingly violent crime. During the 1970s and 1980s, 42nd Street was called "The Deuce" and was considered the worst block in the whole city. At it's nadir from 1977-83, it was not uncommon to be mugged in broad daylight.

To answer your question, yes it was dangerous. In 1981, Rolling Stone magazine referred to 42nd Street as the sleaziest block in America.

[11KAP]

ill..

[skilldeadly]

Thank you for the rundown Ebrehm. I was curious because it seems like there were plenty of teens that went there. Given the bad rep, I would have been scared to head there but I guess I get the idea, to take in all the sights that teen boys would love.

[Ebrehm]

Originally Posted by skilldeadly

Thank you for the rundown Ebrehm. I was curious because it seems like there were plenty of teens that went there. Given the bad rep, I would have been scared to head there but I guess I get the idea, to take in all the sights that teen boys would love.

It's strange that a whole generation grew up in that kind of environment. Yet many from that generation are now parents of teenagers who are trying to get sex-ed removed from public schools.

[rlrl]

can't speak of other places but 1992 wasn't a good representation of the old Times Square because it was already changing for the better.

if I had to guess i would say that the area was at it's worst between say 1970 and 1985, with the period between 1977 and 1981 being at it's absolute worst as crime had increased by 60% at that time

I remember reading an article in the Times when i was in high school about some kind of "carnival type mall" planned for TImes Square. the article was at the end of 1978. Looks like they followed through because we have it now between 43rd and 47th streets at the "X" formed at 7th Avenue and Broadway

the first sign of change came in '80 with the opening of the Milford Plaza Hotel at 700 8th Avenue. several theaters were destroyed to make room for skyscrapers. In 1985 the huge Marriott Marquis Hotel opened and improved the surrounding area a bit. In 1989 Worldwide Plaza at 825 8th Avenue opened, filling what was a huge unsightly parking lot. In 1992-96 42nd street was purged of the XXX stores and theaters. I do recall that the closing of these places on 42 street had pushed all those places onto 8th Avenue all the way up to 48th street, so 8th Avenue for a few years was again a big place for prostitution. but by '97 the area was totally different and in the Y2K decade 8th Avenue started becoming "co-op and condo row" as opposed to the "Minnesota Strip"

[0'Farrell]

Originally Posted by scatman

I went to the High School of Graphic Communication Arts, on 49th Street between 9th and 10th, from 1983 to 1986. Deceptacons ran the school. A couple of blocks away is Time Square, which was starting new construction on some buildings, like the Marriott.

I worked at the old Hermans World of Sporting Goods, at its 34th and 42nd Street stores during a couple of summers and winters home from college in '87 and '88. Both 34th and the Deuce were the pickpocket capitals of the world back then!

Originally Posted by usedtobeanyer

20 years ago it was pretty much dying out and not what it used to be. You have to go back to the 70's & 80's for the prime sleaze eras.

What was amazing about the early 90's was just before they started the "transformation". They shuttered just about all of the sex shops on 42nd between 7th & 8th (there were still plenty on 8th Ave), and that block was basically deserted with virtually no stores on it. You'd walk down the block and it would be dark and pretty vacant. Amazing how different it is now where you can barely walk there are so many people and it is bright as day at all times.

Originally Posted by Kefir King

TIMES SQUARE 20 years ago wasn't vastly different from today.
TIMES SQUARE 40 year ago WAS.

Lot's of movie houses and legitimate theaters converted to all night soft core porn theaters. The late night streets were filled with seedy prostitutes and ggood looking multi racial hustlers.

Lots of corners with whispers of "good weed" and up the ladder of choices.

Area was filled with good bars where you could get a great pastrami sandwich for $4.

1972 was a LOT more interesting than 1992.



Now it's Japanese and German tourists taking pictures of the glitzy McDonald's and Madame Toussaud's (can you IMAGINE!) And a stock market ticker in 4 million LED's...yecch!

Originally Posted by Kefir King

All the guys were there for only one purpose...to connect with a hustler or to connect with drugs,

There were a couple bars on Eighth Ave whose ONLY function was hustler sex, they were the higher class, read BREATHTAKING types (perhaps new from Minnesota??)
Owned by the Mafia, natch, and thereby safe from police and political harassment (heavy bribery, natch.)

It was never my ouvre, being quite good enough looking to get my own all for free and then several more, so I preferred the West Village.

My biggest relief: I am HIV negative.

Originally Posted by Baby Punisher

20 years ago Times Sq was a barren waste land of human depravity. Shuttered stores & sex shops lined the entire area. I bought my fake ID in a store over there when I was 18. Say what you will about Guliani the begining of the NYC revival was when he re-wrote the occupany laws & forced the sex stores to close & relocate & got Disney to take a chance on opening a store in the area.

I remember when Disney did open. The store was the only one in the area. It was like a shining beacon of hope for commerece. I refer to those days as the good ol' days.

Originally Posted by nyctc7

To go back a little further I have fond memories of the mid 1970s, being about 14 and bicycling down there with a pal so we could check out the hookers. They mostly ignored us (a 14-year-old isn't going to have any money, for one thing) but once in a while we'd get a teasing comment.

I think DVDs and the internet probably have done more to eliminate xxx theaters and sex shops and streetwalkers than anything else. The city's initiatives (starting under Koch and really took off under Giuliani) to clean the place up started it, but to keep it away, that's what I mean.

Now did you guys like it better back then or now?