| The Darkest Days of Times Square |
| Written by Mick Andreano | |
 In the mid 1970s, Times Square was not the dazzling tourist destination you see today. I took these photos in 1974, when I was a student at the High School of the Performing Arts, then located on West 46th Street. As you can see, it was a bad time for the square. In fact, the area was considered to be so dangerous that I was rarely there at night. The photo above shows the view looking south from Duffy Square. On the right, you can see the recently shuttered Astor movie theater -- which, as happened with many large theaters throughout the New York area at the time, had been turned into a makeshift flea market. (Note the sign on the marquee.) Above it, the block-long billboard that dominated the site for decades was still in place, advertising the film version of The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. To the south, you can see the lobby of the Minskoff Theatre at the base of the newly constructed tower at 1515 Broadway. This was the former site of the fabled Astor Hotel -- which, ironically, was considered an old-fashioned hulk and had been razed as part of an effort to revitalize Broadway. In the center of the photo, 1 Times Square -- site of the famous New Year's Eve ball drop -- is completely free of advertisements and adornments, save for the ever-present news ticker. The East Side of the square shows more signs of life, with Childs restaurant, Bond's clothing store, and several movie houses: the Criterion, Loew's State 1 & 2, and the newly built National. All of these would be gone by the '90s. The photo below presents the view looking north from the same spot. Note the many blank billboards at left -- and, below them, a sign for one of the last remaining automats in the city. The center of the photo is dominated by ads for Canadian Club and Sony, along with one of the countless incarnations of the Coca Cola sign that has appeared in this spot through the decades. In a scene that eerily recalls the recent film I Am Legend, weeds that were actually growing in the middle of the traffic island are visible in the foreground. At right, you can see the marquee for the Palace Theatre, where Lorelei was playing. Also visible in this photo are the marquees of the Embassy, the De Mille, and other movie theaters that still lined Broadway and Seventh Avenue in those days. None of these would survive much longer. (The former Embassy is now the site of the Times Square Visitors Center.)  ******************** [Mick Andreano is a photographer and graphic designer who has lived in New York all his life. For more information, visit mickadesign.com] {mos_ri}
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