Times Square Traces

I lived in New York City around the time Giuliani's Disneyfication of Times Square was getting into full swing. At that time, however, there still existed a number of the older peep show venues, labrynthine tunnels of neon and mirrors and strange circus deocroations snaking up and down and through buildings in and around 42nd Street. M. is a connosieur of these, and clued me in to some of his Midtown faves, which we last explored in 2001.

On our recent visit, we were excited to see that the old PlayPen peep show at least still has its marquis. Inside we found a small shop selling porn, with a depressing-looking little peep show downstairs. A few doors down we found the marquis for Show World, the largest and most mysterious of the old Times Square adult entertainment establishments; I'd read that it shut down for good in 2002. The former Romanesque statues and mannequins and carousel horses that used to adorn the place are nowhere to be seen now. It appears to simply be an average sex shop running out of the ground floor--seedy in a normal, depressing way. In 2001, when it still occupied at least 3 or 4 storeys, M. wandered around its various levels, taking video of its already partially-empty corridors and rooms, because we knew even then that it was dying.

Adult entertainment centres are not the only classic-Times-Square casualites. The old arcades, cavernous spaces emanating retro-futuristic sounds and light, have disappared as well. My favorite, a massive 4 story complex in 42nd Street, now appears to be some kind of slick shopping centre or hotel. Another fave (in 46th or 47th?), that still incorporates an old Laser Tag facility (also eerily painted in faded glow-in-the dark-space scene decor) lives on, though most of its vintage games, especially those emitting the weird noises that so mystified me, are gone. When we visited, the remaining couple of floors that were still open were packed out with kids and we could barely get around. Which is a good thing, in that kids are still going to arcades, but it's not going to bring back the strange old machines and atmosphere.

Though I enjoyed drinking gourmet beers and playing vintage arcade games for a quarter at Barcade in Williamsburg, it can never match the surreal and slightly dodgy experience of wandering through the seedy streets of Midtown on a quiet and rainy weeknight and being lured into a dark arcade by the otherworldly synthetic bleeps and vibrations of a strange game. And the people who used to inhabit the shadows of these places--many were just working class teens from the Bronx having a day in the City, but others were some pretty strange characters lurking in the shadow and light of the arcade game screens. Where are those guys now?