Times Square of the 1980's: A Short Documentary

[Booze129]

scary shit 

[jester1cp]

I got the knee sliced open with a straight razor in ' 87.What a sh*t hole.G-d i missed the place.What do you have now days.The Disney store and other family friendly crap.

[Rach84]

I wonder what year this was.

[Rach84]

I lived in NYC as a kid in the late 80s. I was pretty small, but I remember it being like this.

[grindhousejunky79]

Kinda fitting for a video on 42nd street how the views meter in the corner currently hovers around 42,000 lol.

[rumberoprimero]

That's when NYC had true character...I remember going to the movies in times square and you can smell people smoking weed in the balconies...going to an actual live peep show, the arcade and getting the fake ID's..Colony records, Nathans on 43st... true new yorkers don't set foot on Times Square anymore...its become an over priced, tourist trap benefiting corporate america..Sure many will argue, how about the crime...crime still exist in the form of price gouging, high rent, and bank fees.

[pyrogyra72]

Wow, what a difference. You see Times Square on TV now, it's hard to believe this is the same place.

[THYRDEYE]

Great video, who doesn't love seedy! Also check out THE URBAN EYE on The Thyrdeye Channel.

"Join your host Jerry Rio as he takes you on a nostalgic tour exploring and documenting the disappearing icons of this metropolis. Find out what New Yorkers think about unchecked development and the corporate homogenization that has altered and destroyed much of the uniqueness of the New York City landscape"

[rich107s]

It was filthy.......It was slutty.......It was Dangerous.......It was Paradise..

[RiiMashuu]

Hey, could anyone tell me who occupied the Viacom/MTV building back in the mid 80s? I've been trying to find some information on it but I cant find anything. Anyone got any pictures of what it looked like back then?

[username7046]

1 DOLLA! 1 DOLLA!

[dellculookin]

I can proudly say that THIS is the NEW YORK that I remember and it was FUN! The graffiti, the excitement of it all it's what New York City was all about! I have met MANY people from both sides of the tracks and had the BEST times and don't get me started on the MANY places to go and party!!!!!!! *sigh* thank goodness for memories and kudos to you @stevensiegel260 for posting this clip!

[duralate]

Sadly I wasn't alive to experience the greatest decade.

[ohstwos]

super great video. i miss pre-guilanni nyc.. i dont miss the pimps and hookers though.

[tsurge026]

@ohstwos Or, heck, even early to mid-90s NYC. I can't watch an episode of Seinfeld, these days, without being nostalgic.

[ExurbanDist]

Porno movies would've been gone anyway with or without gentrification. Now we have the internet. Also like arcades being replaced when console gaming took control unless you're in Japan who are creative with arcade games.

Many want to enjoy without becoming victimized and the city need to meet global industrialized standards (what I think).

[acestarone]

i remember being wary of all of those video arcades during the 80s. i was very young but i remember going with older male cousins. just because i saw a movie on runaways in times square i was scared i would be approached by a pimp...lol omg.

[zbs511551]

Ah, nostalgia for that which killed that which I had nostalgia for.

[ZooYorkMs]

Time Square is replusive today

[RejectsCloseUP]

Wow New York has cleaned up now most of the people you see running around the streets are tourists or business men and I just got back home from NYC yesterday and I stayed at the Hilton Times Square on 42nd street and did not see one prostitute the whole time it was quite nice

[ZooYorkMs]

@RejectsCloseUP Its rich. that is all.

[ksolomon16]

wow...this time ssquare seem way more interesting to be in than our times square today

[GigglinMarley]

Watching this makes me think of old times in my own country... The old days.. The streets.. the people... The times... The vibe... World is smaller today.

[InicioGames]

can someone please tell me what's the music playing from 2:43 to 4:35 ?

[bodsnvimto]

Scorcese truly got just this look & feel for 'Taxi Driver' didn't he?

[bkev93]

I don't live in New York and I don't think I ever will. I've visited Times Square a number of times, and I've heard stories of just how sleazy it was at one point. The look of Times Square today doesn't impress me; this does. The scenery and signs just feel more unique. If only it had a similar feel to it now but remained as safe as it's been made.

[retread01]

Something 'Beat' about it, like it was a hang over from the 50s, can imagine Kerouac walking around. It reached it's perhaps inevitable, most absurd conclusion, getting so out of hand the authorities had to literally step in and sort it out.

[XxPzPxX1]

awesome arcade



[NeverDoubt1]

People complain about how sanitized New York City is now, but seriously the city couldn't continue the way it was headed back then.

[sciprio1]

@solidsnakeBYTE88 Thanks.

[Biji57]

how old is this

[sciprio1]

In what year exactly was this filmed?

[pennjersey83]

Thank god they cleaned this place up and got rid of the crackheads and brought in Disney...much safer and more family fun...life is about family

[ndogg20]

Old Times Square would folded up eventualy with or without the damn yuppies intervention.Its main attraction being hard to find porn can now be found on the internet in the saftey of your home.Same with arcades replaced by Play Stations.The cheap thrill of titty bars there replaced by lap dance salons found on freeway off ramps in the suburbs ,no need to travel to NYC.The sleazy carnival is over.

[ufuckfacesonofabitch]

Thanks for posting this. I just back from New York and Times Square is all Mary Poppins this and Spiderman that. We were walking past at about 9pm and there were still families with their toddlers walking about. In the 70's & 80's I doubt anyone would have bought their kids to Times Square at that time of night.

[teknashend]

hey,.... can u tell me what exact year this is?

[ufuckfacesonofabitch]

@teknashend Well, one of those guys is playing "Dragons Lair" on arcade machine. That was released in 1983. So it's probably mid 80's.

[beans909]

this is awesome. its like looking at a new world, a parallel universe. i wasn't even born yet but i'm feeling nostalgic...past life perhaps?

[Actionjackson10550]

Yeah all u asshole yuppie who come to NYC from Nebraska with a dream is what ruined of city, a city is suppose to be gritty and dangerous if u don't like it move to Scarsdale or the island. u can't have it both ways, cus of migrants, and gentifcation apartments that went for 700 when i was a kid is now 1300 a month and thats progress? Who can afford that only rich aholes who want to use NYC as a playground NY is not LA and never will be , much love to my native new yorkers, my brethern

[djcountry1985]

new york=hollywood of the east coast

[RETROGEMS]

....I guess I understand both point of views. I see both sides of the coin, kind of. I like that I can go to Times Square and it be clean, safe, and family-friendly, but on the other hand, I quietly notice that a lot of the old-school atmosphere and grit have been washed away for a somewhat 'cookie-cutter' environment. As bad as the sleaze and grit may have been, you NOTICED it was New York.

[RETROGEMS]

I was born in '87, yet I remember the old gritty Times Square...my mother is from Queens, my father was from Brooklyn. Even though I was born and raised in Virginia, I would frequently be taken for family trips to the city. I remember being a kid and walking down Times Square and seeing the signs for the sleazy theaters and the hookers on the corner. I remember the old 'Fascination' arcade outside the Port Authority.On my most recent trip in 2007, Times Square was family entertainment district!

[fangsteen]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

[DannyJustiniano]

Adults actually played arcade games back then?

[djcountry1985]

@DannyJustiniano all the kids were busy breakdancing

[OldSchoolNYCGamer]

If you lived through this and still walked off that block in one piece you were invincible, the one thing I truly missed was when Playland closed in the early 90's. Between that and Guiliani cleaning up that area... a true part of New York City died.

You had to live, breathe and survive that era to truly understand it. Granted it wasn't safe but most of these adrenaline junkies would love it then cause you didn't know if you were going to be robbed, stabbed, hustled, murdered, etc.

[elmuneco12]

@OldSchoolNYCGamer nyc 4ever! miss the bowery, and the east village good ole days

[elmuneco12]

@OldSchoolNYCGamer true

[victordls]

PLAYLAND went to ATLANTIC CITY by 2002...i think...

[blacksultan85]

New York's notorious purse snatching,pit pocketing were a common crime in the city in those days!!!!!!

[PurpleMintSam]

I thought this was beautiful....what a random little find!

[deltaray3]

This turned into "2001: A Subway Odyssey" towards the end. Nice.

[GreenBeardsRevenge]

WTF??? The little guy at 3:00...Freaky!!!!

[luislehder]

THIS SHIT LOOKS POSTNUCLEAR, I DON'T KNOW WHATS WORST NEW UPTIGHT NEW YORK OR OLD DIRTY NEW YORK

[anarchtype]

Iactually lived at the Hotel Carter for a little while in 1996. it probably wasn't as bad as it was in 1980 but it was still pretty bad!!

[yuukeiful]

It looked so damn repulsive back then. I can't believe anyone even misses this trash. I'd take the current "gentrified", "overrun by tourists" Times Square of 2010 over this smut any day. In fact, I'd say Manhattan still needs work, since it's still not as CLEAN and SAFE as it should have been by now, and by the comments of "old school" New Yorkers who actually miss this shit, you're all probably the same people hindering the progress.

[micknamer]

@yuukeiful actualy fuck you its beutiful art bet your i bet u are i am not a trash i know iu caused at least 30 percent of graffiti in manhattan im ace short for acer i saw my self 3 times in one vid of the 80's amd i got my dr's batchlers 'masters as wellll! the trains looked beutiful and as far as crime yeah thats bad but graffiti is not and fuck spelling if you wanna be a smart asssss dgjhdfgjh

[rfswolf]

@yuukeiful You need to go back to LI or NJ or whichever bridge, bus, train, plane or car you came in on. The nostalgia we reminisced about is the "realness" that came with all the BS in the city. The gentrified, tourist overrun Times Square has little to do with NY for REAL NY'ers. We miss the days when people like you stayed home and watched us LIVE from the safety and convenience of your home.

[bpeck77]

@yuukeiful If what you mean by "progress" in Manhattan is studio apartments that cost $3000 a month and more banks than grocery stores, then I'd have to say yes, I am hindering it. New York might have been "disgusting" in the suburban eye in the 1980s, but at least it was affordable. It also used to have real spirit. Now it's just a bunch of chain stores and boutiques for people lucky enough to find employment here.

[mooneepondskid]

@bpeck77 But that was always going to be the case. When New York had 2000 murders a year and plenty of obvious street crime then it's reputation was going to keep away many comfortable upper middle class people.

Now that the murder rate and street crime has been greatly reduced those upper middle class people feel relatively safe in New York and are now more likely to go there. The other factor is that many blue collar jobs from the 1940's to 60's in New York have left for good .

[dgware]

@bpeck77 ... I don't care how affordable NYC used to be. If you could live in a truck stop restroom for $100 per month, would you? That's the exact same thing you're saying.

[bpeck77]

@dgware There's a difference between $100/month truck stop bathrooms and livable apartments that don't cost an arm and a leg. Have you ever lived in New York? Tiny apartments cost way more than they should. In the 1980s, apartments cost much less; and they were better than truck stop bathrooms. In those days, a person earning an average wage would only spend 10% on the rent. Now, you need a six-figure income to even get on the waiting list... and then pay 50% to the rent. Yuppies win.

[retread01]

@bpeck77 If you dare to oppose this, those who have money as their God and only concern in life will quickly denounce you as Communist. There's no room for poor people in the glittering, consumerist hell future.

[acestarone]

@bpeck77 lucky is right.

[TheMarkc]

@bpeck77 do u live in manhatten nice city been twice last time was in 2008,may i ask what your monthly rent is ?

[bpeck77]

@TheMarkc Sure, it's $3800 for a large one-bedroom (750 sq ft) , and that's split three ways. In 1989, I learned the same apartment cost $700. That's the difference between "old New York" and "new New York AKA New York City, Inc. (M. Bloomberg, CEO)."

[TheMarkc]

@bpeck77 wowo for that sort of money you could get a 5 -6 bed mansion in the uk how far are you from times square ,i love new york and the culture .

[67tr876]

@bpeck77 Thats not true do you live in the city ? I still know tons of places you can get for $1000 and up. Most one beds go from $1500-$2500 but still that is a lot.

[bpeck77]

@67tr876 Yes, it is true. I can send you a copy of the lease if you want ;) And yes, you can find places for $1000 a month, but usually they are in places that don't have locking front doors. Take it from me. I rented a place in 2000 for $600 a month: No locking front door; a brothel in the back; nightly salsa parties outside my window until 3 AM; condoms falling from the upper floors onto the top of my air conditioner... that place goes for around $1000 now (267 W. 146th St.)

[bpeck77]

@TheBrainMachine78 No, actually I mean that there was a more widely accessible culture in Manhattan in those days. Artists, outcasts, rebels and all the people who "didn't fit in" anywhere else in the country could flee to New York to belong. They gave the city its character, ugly as it might seem to you in 2011. Now, it seems the whole city is inhabited by people who would "fit in" anywhere else in the country. I consider that a loss to the city's uniqueness. It's all a question of values.

[FukGlobalWarming]

@bpeck77 OH YEAH! OH YEAH! AMEN BROTHER! LEDDEM KNOW!

[NYOLSKOOL]

@yuukeiful u are a jackass. us old schoolers miss the character the deuce had. and w/ any character ya got good and bad. w/ all this corprate/gentrrification it stole the character from us old schoolers. now go get ya camera and hopefully someone will vick ya and show ya some character. in the middle of disneyland.

[RLhockey203]

@yuukeiful what do you mean new york isnt clean and safe? are you serious? i think you are a very sheltered individual

[RLhockey203]

@yuukeiful not too mention new york, like the rest of the country, turned into a giant shopping mall

[mongchacha]

i really enjoyed this!

[4llday]

much respect to you! this is an amazing piece of work. Thank you..

[toesboy13]

This is when the 40 duece was fun. live sex shows?? what could be better than that??

[BeigeFunk]

Good times!

[publica74]

5:11-Oh, the NY subway!! Satan's choo-choo train!

[bwork66]

@stevensiegel260-I'm also a NYCT Train Operator as seen in your slightly artsy but still entertaining video.I recently visited that so called positive development in Times Square-The Pedestrian Mall of Broadway,complete with tables,chairs and benches and I sat down and looked around and realized I no longer have a connection with that part of town as I did back in the mid 80's thru the mid 90's.It's way too touristy(is that even a word?)now.How I miss the late 20th century N.Y.C.

[Liucilla]

Wow! This is great. I see that some totally missed your point saying that you were talking down to NYC. You have captured a point in time that is absolutely priceless. Well done!

[TRKoneAD2]

Playland!!! - the arcades should have been spared along with the fountain sodas

[Backin2time]

anyone know where i can find footage of the old Arcade room on 8th ave, inside the 42nd st subway station with all the old Midway video games, the ones with siloettes and the bulbs bhind them,... analog bfore digital??? pre 80's?

[neobumner]

Funny how NYC used to be so trashy but so innovative. think about how many ghettos NYC had (still does but not to the same extent), South Bronx, Bed-sty, brownville, parts of queens, harlem, washington heights, the lower eastside, list goes on and on. thats what NYC represents, struggle and then to have those neighborhoods so close to the home of the richest instistitions on the face of the earth. NYC is one of a kind.

[smdad]

Thanks for the posting. The Video showed a Times Square Full of Diversified Life. Not the Juliane & Blomberg Sanitized City. NYC always had the best of everything including Sleaze & sex. Lenny Waller NYC Formally The Hell Fire Club NYC

[djhivesdotcom]

It is a shame New Yorkers let their city be overrun by transplant yuppies. Next time put the racial garbage aside ans realize that yuppie is the most heinous race their is. Die yuppie die! 666! 322! You ruined a once mighty city - reducing it to the likes of the type of pop-sickle stick type cheese you would find in Atlantic City. Shame on you New Yorkers. Why didn't you fight? Why did you let these yuppies take over YOUR home? Yuppies ruin everything! I want black people to run them out

[Spyronortex89]

I agree!

I'd change it back in no time..

Seems like the whole world is run by them fucks.

[ReadeMoore]

Whatever, dj hives... even it it's weakened state, NYC is above you talking down to it like you actually know better than NYC.

There's still grimy *isht* going on, it just isn't in the same places

This place is STILL moving too fast and too tough for you

[ianupton]

ou could always catch a show featuring nude co-eds in new york. or all coloureds. for 50c you could get a candy apple. funny how the most dire times and areas which seem so scary now are always the most nostalgic.

[nybornFunk]

This is it !!! Me in forty duece Vickin cats..on the Street 83-87 before I got lock -ed up.

[southbay13thst]

missle command @ 1:50 loved that game...

[pookerville]

When I first set eyes on Times Square in 1983, I was shocked to see all the Japanese product signs-Sony, Toyota, Minolta, Suntory, Toshiba, etc. The Cathedral of American commerce had become a mini-Ginza strip! All the American companies had been chased from the signposts of Times Square! Wow! What a memory that was!

[Zorichai]

what happend to the good ol days when times square was for us New Yorkers and now its full of tourist

[VyleKyle]

Pretty damn cool. I probably woulda slid right in there, as opposed to anywhere now, even if it was dangerous.

[Maximus2Dali]

Wow! Playland!!! That was my favorite spot back in 87

[TommyT788]

NYC is Yuppie York City

Its done, move on

We lost , remmebr the times antoehr world

[oceanbelow]

Any more? That was great. You Baby Boomers were fucking wild when you were young.

[Hagashager]

@oceanbelow actually these "yuppies" you guys keep going off about WERE the baby-boomers. the 1980s was the birth of the yuppies. in the 80s most baby boomers were in their 40s or late 30s. the point when the baby-boomers really were young and wild was in the 1960s.

At any rate this video does a tremendous job of showing off the culture of the era. I'm fascinated by just how distinct and different the 80s were to previous decades

[funkscarface]

A really great short. Had me locked in completely. Hypnotic, ugly and beautiful at once. I wish I could go back.

[ceecoursian]

Anyone know the song playing when they are in the arcade ?

[hinduleech]

Incredible. You captured something amazing here.

[stevensiegel260]

Thanks for all your comments.. I share some of the nostalgia for the grittiness of the old Times Square. However, I have no nostagia for siome of the more virulent sleaze of the old Times Square.

I wish there was a way to preserve some of the grittiness without the worst aspects of sleaze... but I guess that's just not possible.

A recent positive development in Times Square: The lounge chairs in the middle of Broadway. What a great subject for a video of contemporary Times Square!

[rfswolf]

@stevensiegel260 Steve... :o) It was fun- If nothing else.

We lived to talk about a world that does not exist anymore. Like seeing the fall of the Roman Empire.

[stevensiegel260]

@rfswolf

I agree... looking at this makes me feel old... A young person today looking at this video would be amazed... and likely would have no idea that this world ever existed.

This video is like something found in an archeological dig!

[jenzeppelin]

great footage...but yes sad to see it in such a state in some ways

[nakamichiguy]

This makes me sort of depressed. This is the New York that I dreamed about as a kid. Watching the old Letterman show or SNL or listening to Simon and Garfunkel, I'd fantasize about moving to this amazing, wonderful freak show! I was finally able to visit NYC, great city that did not let me down. However, Times Square is dead to me. It was shiny, corporate and boring. Such a shame. It might have needed a little cleaning up, but it didn't have to be murdered!

[mikeeG77]

Wow- film makers today should take a cue from this. Just collect the images and the sound - present it truthfully and avoid all the extra fluff you can do with edit software. Awesome

[highburyhills]

NYC in those days holds total fascination. The Deuce was one of the great urban strips of all time, a sort of rebel culture that anyone could participate in. As someone too young to have experienced it, I only wish there was more footage available.

[azaccone]

God I miss those days cutting out of high school with $10 in my pocket. Got my first fake ID at Playland. Cigarettes were $1.25 a pack. Live peep shows were a quarter (another dollar to touch). For 4 bucks you could go to Tad's steaks and get a decent steak, baked potato and a slab of garlic bread. It was a big beautiful freak show. I am repulsed at what this city has become since then.

[NYCITY3]

NY CITY HAD CHARACTER BACK THEN.

[ranus69]

This is the NYC i miss

[ninword]

every day of my life i took that a train from 190th.

20 minutes to 59th. 16 minutes on a good day.

thanks for taking me back...

[datkid72]

this was amazing...thank you

[moegolden]

Steve - get this on PBS ASAP! I'm sure Ch. 13 or WNYC-TV would love it.

[foxxyloxx]

Man, I would kill to spend a day in old New York, all seedy and gritty and scary. It'd feel like a badge of honor to live there back then.

The rap song is pretty funny, and the guy with the mask on dancing is fucking creeeeeeeepy. Uch.

[NYShuffle]

Back in the day we lived on these trains, I was a member of the NYC Guardian Angels, we saved thousands of people from being robbed mugged and even being killed all for free, one thing I remember about these trains was the A/C seldomly worked in the summer time, they were always hot & dirty. Thanks for the memories......

[Chrisinthestudio]

I remember walking through Times square often in the mid 80s. Twas the capital of smut and sleeze. The good old day's.:)

[postshanna]

this is depressing

[TigerRocket]

Very cool! While you were filming the neighborhood I was in Play Land spending hours and quarters playing Atari. Then came Koch's unforgivable sellout to gentrification. This area used to be ''dangerous'' and ''filthy,'' now it's just expensive and ridiculous. I'll take real New York over the Disney invasion any day.