The 42nd street area will never be the same…Some of its amazing theaters (think Selwyn, Lyric or Empire, Ziegfeld follies, Houdini shows, etc.) were brutaly destroyed to make room for a “family friendly” environment. Giuliani’s clean up time had come and all of this old NY had to go.

Only the Amsterdam Theater still stands widely transformed by Disney (as well as a a very few theathers and theater fronts that were miraculously saved and rebuilt (or partialy moved). Some of the photos featured here were taken a few months before most theaters were torn down or transformed…and as the city had commisioned artist Jenny Holzer to display messages on the old time canopes of 42nd street.

You will also find here various images the “Deuce”, 8th avenue and Times square, all were taken between 1993 and 1998. The strip shows and peep shows, the porn theaters (Show World, Peep Land, The Playpen, etc.) before they were gone and as destruction had just started. As well as some of the obvious signs of the total transformation of this great New York area that was coming up. And finally, shots of the surrounding Broadway theaters with the plays of that time: Rent, Grease, Chicago, Titanic…Please en joy and share !

 – © G.Alessandrini – All rights reserved worlwide for all images on this site –

Peepland original token