In the movie, Robin Williams' character lives in a tenement apartment on 7th Street between 1st and 2nd--above an egg shop. Did you know there was an egg shop on 7th (still open in 1991)? Gothamist discovered a movie of the shop, where now you'll find Howdy Do. And, in the background, that's David's shoe repair with the yellow sign complete with Cyrillic lettering (none of that today).
At the end of the movie, there's a scene in long lost Moisha's Luncheonette (239 Grand St.), where one legend claims the egg cream was brought to Manhattan from Brooklyn in 1920 by Moisha Zambrowsky. (See another shot here.)
Moisha's is gone. The egg shop is gone. St. Marks Cinema is gone. (David the cobbler is still there.) Thank goodness for the movies.
And the egg shop was open one day a week--either Tuesday or Thursday, I don't quite remember. Was replaced by a store called No Eggs, which itself was eventually priced out of the space, and moved a little further east. The owner, who was delightfully eccentric, eventually closed up show and moved to California or Florida. I'm just sharp as a tack this morning.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Style Wars?
ReplyDeleteNice 80's scenes in that one as well. Including the Hector Macho Camacho, Alex Ramos and Irene Cara (I think) "Graffitti is for chumps" commercial urging city youth to stop destroying MTA trains.
My favorite St. Marks Theater memory was watching the movie "Hair" there, then exiting out the side door directly onto St. Marks Pl. across from the hair salon, in front of which a scene from the movie had been shot. Oh, that and they served freshly popped popcorn at a time when no one did any longer.
ReplyDeleteThe egg store was open on Thursdays.
It was the Thursday Only Egg Shop, I'm almost sure. I seem to recall that the people who owned the building also owned a poultry farm in Jersey, and they would come in and sell eggs on Thursday for some extra money. (I guess that was mor profitable at one time than renting out the space.)
ReplyDeleteI just caught the end of " Garbo Talks"(1984) and lo and behold- the 26th street flea market! Don't know what else is in the movie- I think it has a lot of upper west & east side. I worked at the saint marks cinema in 1978 and I think I might have a photo or 2 floating around. last I heard of the st. marks guys they ran the theater on flatbush and 7th ave in brooklyn. That was years ago, though.
ReplyDeleteI remember the egg shop--only Thursdays--they were nice people--
ReplyDeleteI remember Moisha's--my father would have breakfast there before going to Army meetings--
St. Mark's Theatre was great too--double features and ice cream bon bons--yum
Reading your blog this morning inspired me to rifle through two giant boxes of old VHS tapes for my copy of "Moscow." I spent the late morning and early afternoon watching it, very slowly, pausing it at certain scenes so that I could see the theatre, Moisha's, where Vladimir lived, etc. He mentioned that he lived on Seventh Street, and we know that he lived above the egg shop. In your picture of the Egg Shop, it's clear that it's located at 72 Seventh St. I then found a current picture of that address here:
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=72+Seventh+Street,+New+York,+NY&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title
Thanks so much for all your research!
The theater on Flatbush is now an American Apparel.
ReplyDeletethanks everyone for info on the egg shop, the cinema, etc. it's great having people share their memories of places, all piecing together the scraps of the lost city.
ReplyDeletepetey, glad you're enjoying moscow. you know, the city changes so fast, google maps is out of date. which is great for viewing recently vanished places. that polish-ukrainian shipping shop is now a tattoo parlor.
ReplyDeletehttp://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/02/7th-street-clearance.html
In the scene outside the Saint Mark's Theatre, they escape the rain in front of the New York Public Library (Tompkins Square Branch), once the old German library. That library is of course still there and recently renovated.
ReplyDeleteAlso you can clearly see Gem Spa on St Mark's Place in the background, a magazine shop which claims to serve the city's best egg cream.
Do you know where the circus stayed in NYC? I might be a HoJo's, but maybe closed down, switched to another hotel, or tore down?
ReplyDelete