Quote:
Originally posted by Elvis_Christ
What was the deal with 42nd Street? Where/what was it ect?
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42nd Street/The Deuce is the strip/area of New York that was at first the home of Burlesque theatre and razzle dazzle cinemas and then in the late 60's the area became more run down and became the home of the Indy Cinema.
Dozens of cinema's would line the street ,with those big white marque frontages that over-hung the street (See "Taxi Driver") and gaurdy lobby advertising.
The cinema's would show the more risque stuff like cheesy horror, the upcoming Euro imports and Sexsploitation films.
As the great ear of the 70's arrived the are became even rougher and was filled with pawn Shops, Pawn Shops, fast food joints, gun shops etc etc crammed in between the cinema's.
Prostitution, petty crime were starting to florish, but the cinemas were now packed with the classic Grindhouse (as the cinemas were called) fare that would not get a mainstream release outside of the dying Drive-Ins.
This was rough cinema going with a capital R, but supposedly it was an experience never forgotten.
The audiences were ghetto and nornally rabid appreciative and sometimes just damn scary.
As the 80's came in many of the cinema's had become simple porn houses, hard drugs and crime had spiralled and sadly 42nd Street was starting to drown. tghough some great treats could still be found on the screens.
Eventually, as things got even worse, the area was the victim of the bulldozers and it was gutted of everything and became what it is today...a haven for Disney, overly expensive restaurants, tourist traps and very mainstream cinemas showing all the same films.
Something DID have to be done, but it was a cklean-up that was needed not simply a catch-all wrecking ball that wiped away decades of history and wiped away the heart.