When The Deuce Was Still Dirty: "Death Of A Hooker" by Frank Norman (Club Magazine - April 1975)

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty: 1980 Peep Show Serenade At Show World Center (NSFW!)

(Image via)

It's been a while since we last visited the OLD Times Square. You know, "The Deuce," the adult entertainment capitol of the world? A place that exists now only in old photographs, videos, and the memories of those who sought out their illicit thrills there. Well, yesterday, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York ran a great piece about the following video that was filmed at the infamous Show World Center, the adult entertainment complex that used to occupy considerable space on 8th Avenue at 42nd Street.

The video is titled "Peep Show Serenade" and was written by "Tales Of Times Square" author Josh Alan Friedman. The video was originaly aired around 1980 as a segment on Al Goldstein's "Midnight Blue" show on NYC public access TV.

Ever wonder what kind of kinky thrills a few Show World tokens (shown above) could buy you? Watch the video and find out. Just remember, this video contains adult subject material and nudity and is strictly NSFW.

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty: The Elk Hotel on 42nd Street at Ninth Avenue

One of the last remnants of seedy old Times Square, the Elk Hotel.
(Image via: Forgotten New York)

We're always on the lookout for stories and photos from the days when Times Square in New York City was not so touristy. Stories from a time when it was dangerous for out-of-towners, or anyone really, to walk there late at night...or even during the middle of the day for that matter! Not much is physically left from that era, but there is one holdout...The Elk Hotel, located at 360 West 42nd Street. You might want to read up on the place a bit before choosing to spend the night, should you find yourself in NYC.

A brief description from a 1999 issue of The Observer: (and you need to read the whole article to really get the full picture.)

The Elk, the last "no-tell hotel" in the area, represents one of the few surviving remnants of 42nd Street's seamy and seedy side, a barely living connection to the gray days when Times Square was the reigning kingdom of sex and sin.

A twin-size bed dominates Room 109-precisely what one would expect from a place charging $25 for a two-hour stay. The ratty, bumpy, mattress features a concave crater directly beneath the semen stains on the once white sheets. With only a little imagination, one can discern the subtle outline of the human form on its surface, where countless numbers of women must have lain, usually paid for the inconvenience of staring at the mold-covered ceiling. Pressed in one corner stands a chipped faux-wood table and underneath it a plastic container with one crumpled napkin, one crusty tissue and one used condom inside.

Sounds positively lovely.

Click on over to Scouting New York (where I recently discovered the story of the Elk Hotel in the first place) and read "A Forgotten Sign In Times Square," for more history and stomach-churning descriptions and photos of the place. Make sure you read the comments there too.

Then go rinse your eyes out with some Vizene when you're done reading...

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Mykola Dementiuk's "Murder In Times Square" Returns Readers To A Sleazier Times Square

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When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - The Terminal Bar

"I waste my time in the Terminal Bar - it's a little shit hole down on Eighth Avenue."
-The Dictators - "The Minnesota Strip" (1978)

Ran across a great article today on a developing movie/photo project detailing the notorious Times Square hangout, the Terminal Bar, being produced by Stefan Nadelman:


"Stefan Nadelman’s Terminal Bar is a document of the infamous New York City dive located across the street from the Port Authority bus terminal near Times Square. Stefan’s father, Sheldon, was a bartender at the Terminal from 1972 to 1982 and took thousands of photographs of the drunks, drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes that hung out at what was considered to be the roughest bar in NYC."


Read the entire article here.
"The Terminal Bar: The Roughest Bar In New York City"
by Marc Campbell for Dangerous Minds.net

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Women Against Pornography Demonstration in Times Square - 1979

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Tales Of Times Square: A Short Film by Paul Stone (NSFW)

Kitty Kat Theatre - Times Square, NYC, NY - 1986
(Photo by: Jeff Goodman)


For those of you who miss the old "Dirty Deuce"...


Tales of Times Square - A short film by Paul Stone
(Feature film in development)

Sex. Drugs. Crime. Corruption. 
Just another day in 
Times Square.

Tales of Times Square combines 16 mm footage and grainy Super 8, as well as original 35mm photography by Paul Stone and Porn Star Annie Sprinkle, to paint a vivid picture of Times Square’s seedy past, the sex industries that thrived there, and those threatened with extinction by a movement to ‘sanitize the square.’ The film investigates the past, present and future of the infamous neighborhood, at the height of its raunchy reputation. The film is a complete recreation of 1980's Times Square, mostly from Paul Stone's own memories. The film features actual people from the book and real people cast as actors. Not one frame of the film is stock footage. Quite a feat given the massive gentrification transformation that has taken place in the last decade.

Running time: 26:31

Learn more about the film at Tales Of Times Square.com.

Watch the entire (NSFW) film HERE.
(Contains nudity, strong sexual content, adult language)

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Part 4: Eros '75

Anyone who caught my history piece on the Hotel Diplomat in NYC back in February 2009 knows I'm always interested in anything that went on there. Sometimes things got REALLY interesting at he old hotel. Check out this ad from a May 1975 issue of the New York Times for the "First American Sex Festival" which was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Diplomat on June 6th, 1975...


(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Part 3: Celebrities Amid the Sleaze

Actors and musicians photographed amid the sleaze of 1970's era Times Square. All Images via: NYCDreamin Archives


Robert Deniro in a still from the 1976 smash movie "Taxi Driver."


The Police, on tour in America in 1979, visiting Times Square.
Image from Grooves Magazine, December 1979.


Bill Murray in 1980 as photographed by Shepard Sherbell.


Musician Steve Winwood.
Photo appeared in the August 1983 issue of Playboy Magazine.

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Part 2: Movie and Live Show Ads

Continuing our look back at the "dirty" days of old Times Square, here are a few newspaper ads (from the New York Times!!) for some of the movies and live shows that were running in and near Times Square in the spring and summer of 1974. All images via: NYCDreamin Archives.


"The Playmates" in 3D! - Showing at the Bryant Theater on 42nd Street.


A Marilyn Chambers double feature - "Behind the Green Door" and "The Resurrection of Eve". Showing at Cine Lido at 48th Street and Broadway and at the Avon 42 at 133 West 42nd Street.


"Sex Clinic Girls" - Showing at the Cameo at 8th Avenue and 44th Street.


"Memories within Miss Aggie" - Now in it's 15th Sensational Week! Showing at The World Theatre at 49th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.


"Flesh Gordon" - Not to be confused with the original Flash Gordon! - showing at the Plaza Theatre at 58th Street, East of Madison Avenue.


"Everything Goes" - showing at the 55th Street Playhouse - 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.


"Station to Station" and "The Jack" - showing at The Mini at 7th Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets.


"Live Nude continuous show featuring Rene London plus 6 Young Exotics" - shows at Broadway Burlesque at 1604 Broadway.


"All Live Nude Show featuring The Exciting Lisa St. Cyr plus 6 New Exotics" - shows at Follies Burlesk at 1533 Broadway.

When The Deuce Was Still Dirty - Part 1: "The Minnesota Strip"

(Ad from 1977 issue of Playboy Magazine)(See Large)
(Via NYCDreamin Archives)

"In the 1960s and 1970s, the area of Eighth Avenue between the Port Authority Bus Terminal (at 42nd Street) and 59th Street became overrun with teenage prostitutes from the Midwest and was dubbed the “Minnesota Strip” (first cited in 1975). Minnesota had passed tough anti-prostitution laws, and girls from the Twin Cities came to New York." (via BarryPopik.com)

"In the muster room, they noticed a group of young women who had been picked up by a Prostitution Control Unit sweep on a section of Eighth Avenue that has become known to police as “the Minnesota Strip.” Ever since Minnesota passed a law making a second offense punishable by a mandatory 90-day sentence, substantial numbers of that state’s prostitutes have migrated to New York’s more hospitable climate." (New York Times - 11/16/75)

"Legislators also uncovered evidence of loose networks of pimps who recruit girls and boys in various cities and move them from area to area in a nationwide circuit to keep a step ahead of police. The youngsters often end up in New York. The most sensational special link the committee found was the “Minneapolis connection,” in which young girls from that city, itself a magnet for runaways from much of the upper Midwest, move into New York in such large numbers that a section of Manhattan’s Eighth Avenue has long been known as “the Minnesota Strip.” Minneapolis police claim that up to 400 juveniles a year from the area are lost to other cities, with most of the youths winding up in prostitution in New York." (Time Magazine - 11/28/77)

In 1980, there was a made-for-TV movie titled "Off the Minnesota Strip".

In 1987, author Dennis Lynds (aka Michael Collins) penned a novel titled "The Minnesota Strip."

Back in September 2009, Ephemeral New York did a piece on The Minnesota Strip.

And then of course, there is the Dictators homage to the seedier days of Times Square, "The Minnesota Strip" from their 1978 LP "Bloodbrothers". At this time, I cannot come up with a free MP3 or video of this song - there used to be a great live version posted on YouTube, performed by Handsome Dick's side project, Manitoba's Wild Kingdom, but it seems that it has been removed from Youtube. So you'll have to make do with just the lyrics...unless you want to check out a free 30 second sample at LastFM.com.

The strip is hopping on Friday night
They come from so far away
There's Dapper Dan in an Oldsmobile
He's got the urge and he'll pay
Hey hey, who's your daddy little girl?
Hey hey, you'll be a woman of the world
It's ten bucks, you gotta do it quick
We like young girls on the Minnesota Strip
I waste my time in the Terminal BarDown on 8th Avenue
I get my kicks from the social world
Outside the Burger and Brew
Hey hey, who's your daddy little girl?
Hey hey, you'll be a woman of the world
It's ten bucks, you gotta do it quick
We like young girls on the Minnesota StripThe Minnesota Strip
They got a pipeline, They got a pipeline to the city
To the city, yeah yeah yeah!

More Postcards from New York City #81: The Times Building

(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

The Times Building - situated on Broadway and 42nd Street, in the heart of the theatre and hotel district. It is a 25-story structure owned by the "New York Times," the famous morning paper.