42nd Street Redevelopment

42nd Street Redevelopment. The center of the American theatre during the 1920s was the block of 42nd Street between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, where several legit houses were located. But during the Depression most were switched over to movie houses, the elaborate interiors covered up, and the boxes torn out. Burlesque houses proliferated until Mayor LaGuardia stepped in; but by outlawing burlesque, some theatres became grind movie houses (the pornography theatres of the 1940s), and 42nd Street began a long period of decline. It reached a low point by the late 1960s with only blue movies in each house, and the street itself was the recognized capital for drugs, hustlers, pickpockets, and prostitutes. The opening of the new Port Authority Bus Terminal at Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street added vagrants and homeless to the thoroughfare. Plans to redevelop the area began in the 1980s. Sponsored by Mayor Koch's administration, a Times Square Redevelopment Plan and a 42nd Street Redevelopment Plan were outlined. But the organizations were thwarted by corrupt officials (several of the top individuals were indicted), and the whole project, which existed only on paper, was highly criticized. It was not until the mid‐1990s that hopes to save 42nd Street were raised by the Disney company's interest in restoring the New Amsterdam Theatre, once the home of Ziegfeld's spectacles of the 1910s and 1920s. With advantageous tax breaks and help from the city, Disney made the old theatre the scene of Broadway's hottest ticket, The Lion King (1997). The Ford company followed suit, and soon after the New Amsterdam opened, the new Ford Center for the Performing Arts (created from the old Apollo and Lyric theatres) joined, followed by the New Victory, the American Airlines Theatre, and others. Other restored houses became cinema centers, and such tourist attractions as restaurants, nightclubs, and a wax museum made the old stretch of 42nd Street a safe and successful entertainment thoroughfare once again. Some have complained about the mall‐like feeling of the street today, others admitting that they miss the seedy aspects of the past. But the redevelopment of 42nd Street has been one of the city's most interesting success stories.