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 While Times Square was long known for its fast-paced entertainment and hectic atmosphere, from the beginning it had a reputation for sex and vice that endures in popular conceptions of the area—even after its seedier aspects were erased in the 1990s.
As New York's downtown became denser and more and more given over to commerce, people and their leisure shifted further and further uptown. But when the families left vice often moved in. What once was respectable became lowdown and squalid. The legion of family brownstones erected by optimistic developers in the former Longacre Square turned into saloons and brothels. Times Square, with its burlesque halls, vaudeville stages and dime houses, began to acquire a reputation for licentiousness. Two infamous madams, May Livingston and Ann Grey, ran half a dozen houses of ill repute between them. While brothels opened and closed with regularity, their women often worked simultaneously as chorus girls and prostitutes to pay the rent.
In 1880 it was estimated that a dozen brothels each lined West 39th and 40th streets alone. West 39th was such a well-known place for French brothels it was dubbed "Soubrette Row" by patrons. French prostitutes were notorious for having no limits: they would do anything and everything for the right price. On weekend nights young men lined up outside brownstones in the district while streetwalkers made use of Broadway and 42nd street. Ministers of nearby churches complained that after Sunday evening services 'harlots' solicited men leaving the services. The women who became prostitutes were from all walks of life as well as ethnicities. However, women of different ethnicities and cultures rarely mixed. African-American women and white women were seldom seen in the same brothel or working the same block. Men who made use of prostitutes were titled 'sporting men' and their behavior usually tolerated. Police rarely harassed them, while routinely rousting the prostitutes.
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Perversely, a new liberal air prevailing in the 1920's saw sex move to the stage. A proliferation of risqué productions became common, and many shows included topless dancers and extremely suggestive (by the standards of the era) language. Theatres became resigned to raids on charges of obscenity often leveled by the government at the behest of religious groups. Under the Wales Law, the entire cast of Mae West's play were arrested after the second performance.
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In 1971 Mayor Lindsay created the Times Square Development Council in a bid to clean up the area. The result was the creation of two police precincts. Although periodic raids continued it had very little impact on the business. Combined with a larger police force installed in 1976 and the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's, owners started eliminating live sex shows. Although these changes and attempts by officials to revolutionize Times Square started long before he came into office, Mayor Giuliani is popularly credited with the renewal of Times Square and its 'Disneyfication'. In the 1990's, Giuliani spearheaded a crack down on crime and new restrictions on X-rated stores, theatres and shows. Under new laws and the impact of businesses banding together to attract the family tourist dollar, sex-related stores and shows were slowly driven out of business. Wandering around Times Square today you're unlikely to see anything more risque than half-naked celebrity billboards. But venturing to the outer reaches of Times Square, particularly 8th Avenue, you can still find a handful of X-rated businesses, the last remnants of the area's epoch of sex..
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