Corey made another film on the Lower East Side in 1995, this one inside the Amato Opera House, a beloved old favorite of mine. The Amato sadly announced its closure in 2009, after 60 years of making music. The building was sold. It remains empty and abandoned today.
Corey's film is a beautiful look at a lost piece of the old Bowery--and the sort of people who used to make it such a vibrant and unique place.
AMAT\'/; Opera on the Bowery from Corey Shaff on Vimeo.
He also made a short documentary for PBS called "Planet Ludlow," about the Ludlow Street scene in 1995, just as the neighborhood was gentrifying with artists, and before it was hyper-gentrified by drunk students and the super-rich.
Planet Ludlow from Corey Shaff on Vimeo.
Remarkably, in this film, Corey captured extremely rare footage of Litzkowitz the pillow man, located one door south of Max Fish.
Digression: On the other side of the Max Fish was Joseph Yavarkovsky's paper supply, in business since 1898. That storefront does not appear in the film, but here's what it looked like:
Her's a shot of the Litzkowitz store front in the 90's...
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this was my old pillow man, late 1970-early 80s. his name starts w/an "I". we called him izzy. the "L" is the first name. he made pillows for gucci bloomies & me. i still have them. i had huge floor pillows made from goose down & kapock. also bed pillows. he made quiltsas well. what ever happend to his space?
ReplyDeleteJoseph Y's brother was Julie aka "Julie Y." Julie was very well know in Boy Scouts during the 1050's till his passing away in the late 1970's/early 1980's. (Can't remember the exact year -- sorry.) Ask anyone who was involved in Scouting during that time, esp. in Manhattan, and they either knew him or knew of him.
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I am the Pillow Man in this video. It was a very good time on Ludlow st.
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