Times Square
On my last visit to NYC I stayed with a friend who lives in midtown Manhattan. As a result, I had to walk through Times Square fairly often when coming from the East Village. On one particular night, after a considerable binge at Vazac’s bar in Alphabet City, I walked through Time Square at about 4am. It was by far the most bizarre experience I’ve had in NYC. The billboards where still flashing, but there was silence - no one around except a few street vendors packing up and the odd cab doing a circuit through the city.
I was accompanied by another friend on his first visit to NYC and his first trek through Times Square. As we stood there in the middle of 7th Avenue, there was a weird calm that seemed out of place with the electronic stimulus flashing around us. I asked him what he thought, and he replied that he felt like he was walking through the ruins of western civilization, just after the apocalypse. That pretty much summed up the way I felt too.
Times Square is one of the most recognizable areas of New York City. It is a major intersection at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. It is a commercial and mainly tourist area, well known for it’s iconic digital advertising plastered everywhere.
Originally named Long Acre Square, it became known as a cheap entertainment area and was nicknamed “Thieves Lair” as its low-life reputation increased, -a reputation that stuck with it through most of the last century. It was renamed Times Square in 1904 at the urging of the owner of the New York Times, Adolph Ochs.
Despite the significance of Times Square, it’s my least favourite place in NYC and I avoid it whenever possible. Nonetheless, I cannot deny that it is experience.
What does interest me about Times Square is the history. The architectural history alone is intriguing, with the Times building at the South end of the square being particularly remarkable. It once contained the offices of the New York Times and was an impressive structure long before it was stripped of any aesthetic value and plastered with electronic billboards. I recommend doing an internet search of the the Times Building for a glimpse at its former aesthetic glory. You can click here for webcam views of Times Square today.
Hector’s Cafeteria, once located in Times Square, was an important way-point in Neal Cassady’s connection to NYC, and therefore to the Beat Generation. Times Square was one of Neal Cassady’s first introductions to NYC, when he and his new wife Luanne Henderson arrived at the bus terminal nearby. Cassady was immediately struck with the enormity of Times Square and the city. One of his first stops was Hector’s cafeteria. Kerouac fictionalized Cassady’s introduction to the city and the all-night eatery of Hector’s in Visions of Cody, noting that Hector’s would always be an important symbol for Cassady.
Times Square was an interesting place in the 40’s and 50’s. Frequented by hustlers and dotted with all-night eateries, it became a focal point for a number of different elements of society. Many of the early Beats spent a lot of time in Times Square at all-night eateries, or looking for drug connections, or just looking for something to fill the appetite of their minds.
One character in particular, named Hurbert Huncke, is forever associated with Times Square. A junky, a hustler, and later a minor writer in his own right, he became an integral part of the Beat Generation. Kerouac credited Huncke with coining the term “Beat”, from which the moniker “Beat Generation” was derived.
I recommend a collection Huncke’s writing entitled: The Huncke Reader, within which he documents many of his experiences, including those regarding Times Square. Huncke was also the first person to introduce William Burroughs to class-A drugs, such as Heroin. Originally, Huncke believed that Burroughs was an undercover narcotics agent. If you look at pictures of Burroughs from the time, it’s not so hard to believe, but it was far from the truth.
Incriminating Evidence:
Beat Facts:
