✔Once Upon a Time in New York City - Part 1
🌈 The 70s were a unique time in the history of New York City, which was the most creative, inspiring, dangerous and filthy of times. We got to live there.
We all go through chapters in our lives, where we seem to be stuck in time, place and situation until it suddenly breaks down and a whole new paradigm begins. One of the most interesting chapters of my life was the mid-seventies. I was in my thirties, married to Christine and living in New York City. I wrote about the atmosphere a bit in my “Travels with The Driller Killer” post.
I spent my first year alone going for my Masters Degree at NYU School of the Arts, now NYU Tisch School of the Arts, renting a shared space with some other students. Second year, I got married and Christine, and I moved into an apartment in the upscale 86th area brownstone area. She had previously lived there with some room- mates and felt safe there. It was a one bedroom apartment. We didn’t last there long.
I think it was because NYU was so far downtown. We found cheap digs on St. Marks Place right off Second Ave. in the heart of the East Village about three blocks from the School of the Arts, which was housed in a shithole building far away from the main tony, NYU campus at Washinton Square. It was a shithole but filled with talent.
I got to study acting with Olympia Dukakis, (rest in peace). Studied directing with Mel Shapiro Director of plays for New York Shakespeare Festival, including Richard III, Rich and Famous, and Older People, directed John Guaree’s House of Blue Leaves on Broadway, plus directed a score of TV shows.
I studied set design with working Broadway designers, in fact every course was given by a working Broadway professional. The student body had a goodly amount of future successes.
Oz Scott was a classmate and buddy of mine. We shot student films together on the streets of the city. He started out directing the hit ‘For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide,” on Broadway then moved on to directing Hollywood movies. Bustin' Loose was his first in 1981, an American road comedy-drama film starring Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson. He also directed episodes of Archie Bunker's Place, The Jefferson's, Dirty Dancing. The Cosby Show. Law & Order and many, many more.
I photographed Jamie Widdoes first head shot. I also directed him in a student production. Widdoes starred as senior student and fraternity president, Robert Hoover, alongside John Belushi in the 1978 film National Lampoon's Animal House as well as the 1979 TV series spin-off Delta House. He has guest starred in many TV series episodes since then, including Remington Steele, Night Court, Dave's World, and My Wife and Kids He has a long career producing Hollywood films & TV shows. Still does
Another friend and classmate, Joe Regalbuto was in my production of “Mad Dog Blues,” another student project. He’s done quite a bit of work, he starred in Knots Landing, and he acting and directed more than 20 episodes of Murphy Brown. He also has directed episodes of “ Friends “,Titus, George Lopez, Wizards of Waverly Place and other television programs.
Reggie VelJohnson was a classmate. You’ll probably remember him, He is best known for playing police officer characters, such as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters, which ran from 1989 to 1998, and LAPD Sergeant Al Powell in the films Die Hard and Die Hard 2.
Frankie Faison has done a lot of work in TV & Film. He is best known for his role as Deputy Commissioner, and, later, Commissioner, Ervin Burrell in the HBO series The Wire, as Barney Matthews. He was Sugar Bates in the Cinemax series Banshee. He appeared in all three Hannibal Lecter movies starring Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon.He was in Spike and Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. You actually have to Google him to get a picture of the enormous number of shows he’s been in.
Wandering the halls was Andre Gregory with his close friend Wallace Shawn. Andre is best known for co-writing and starring in My Dinner with Andre, a 1981 comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle. and his sidekick Wallace Shawn. Wallace is a character actor you’ve seen in many TV and movie roles.
A very good friend, Steve Singer also appeared in my student productions and in Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer with me, is known for Don Juan DeMarco, The Prince and Me and The Happening.
The school was about a block from the now defunct, Filmore East (I saw Miles Davis in concert there) and around the corner from the famous Ratner’s Deli with their 80 year-old waiters serving a arms-list of Jewish selections. Loved the corn-beef specials.
Although, the hippie era was over there were still a few head shops nearby. You could always smell the aroma of Patchouli incense and pot in the air. One block further East on Avenue B and we would have been in some seriously dangerous junkie playground. In fact, one of my classmates got mugged and stabbed in the face there.
Our apartment was very small, one-bedroom, walk-up the second floor with a tilted floor, and a bedroom just big enough to fit a bed with a window on either side you could open. The fire escape was off one and three feet outside the other was view of a wall. Very interesting because there was a very affectionate couple a few stories up that had some pretty wicked love- making sessions whose sounds echoed down the walls between the buildings. Had some good laughs with that.
One night we were watching TV when there was a banging on the door. I opened it and two, plainclothes cops who were in there late twenties, Starsky and Hutch look-a-likes, came rushing through the apartment and ran to the back bedroom. Opened the window and jumped out on the fire escape chasing a perp. They didn’t even bother to say hello or come back to explain.
Then of course, there was the evening we were asleep when I awoke to the smell of smoke. Outside you could see flames shooting up. The building was on fire. We were able to get dressed and get out and went to a friend’s apartment to sleep.
When we got back the next morning to the building attached to ours was a black shell. Our side was still standing but our door had been smashed down for the firemen to get in and two cops were in our bed reading my Playboy mags. They were kind enough to secure the place.
I’m not even going to get into how I got my car towed and had to pay a thousand dollars in fines for parking on the wrong side of the street, or the time I came to get my car that was parked on the next street, and finding it totaled. A car being chased by police sideswiped about nine cars. Mine was the last, and he crashed into it wrecking it completely.
Of course, those are just the bad events. Our life was filled with wonderful experiences, walking down the Village to get to Little Italy or China Town for a great meal and cannolis, strolling through Central Park and experiencing all it’s character and characters; the Museum of Modern Art; The Met, The New York Public Library and so many more, great restaurants and pubs, plus the World Trade Center was still there, which was always a great elevator ride for friends. The city was filled with talented and unique people. I could go on and on. I just wanted to emphasize some good points, too. Plus, I was in showbiz. What better place to be professionally.
You might ask, “What happened to you?” As I mentioned in my James Earl Jones post, we left New York for Los Angeles after Paul Robeson closed to start rehearsing another Broadway show, which the producer then canceled and left us hobbling back to New Jersey broke and pregnant. Bye, bye showbiz!
See Part 2, Coming in the Next Post