PORTRAIT of a NEIGHBORHOOD… 1962
My husband, 3 children and I were living on West 94th St. in NY City in 1962. Our apartment was on the 11th floor and, although this was a reputable address, it changed very quickly when you turned the corner. The first building on the right was The Whitehall and our bedroom window looked right into it. To say it was low down and tawdry is being kind. It was a mess! I was also in a Writer's Workshop at the time so when the assignment was to write about a “Portrait of a Neighborhood” this rolled off my pen.
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PORTRAIT OF A 1962 NEIGHBORHOOD
To
me, “off-Broadway” is not a theater production but a massive, out
dated hotel for transients on New York City’s upper West side.
Hanging from the marquee is a grimy cloth banner that proclaims this
to be “THE WHITEHALL”.
All shades of humanity pass
through the filth-infested hallways of this building just four doors
from the respectability of West End Avenue. Daily a handful of
World War II vets wheel their chairs to the pavement. They sit
deceptively still in the sunlight. Then a pedestrian walks by and
they spiel off obscenities from mouths twisted with hatred.
A
maroon convertible purrs to a stop in front of the hotel. Five
scantily dressed girls and the driver, a strutting and jewelry
encrusted black man, pile out of the car. “Big Boy, you sure
can peddle them white gals”, says one of the vets and they stand
around cracking jokes until a police siren pierces the air. As
if by osmosis, the group fades silently into the building and the
street is deserted.
Only the men remain, their faces closed as they watch the squad car approach. The police rush into the building and the men place bets on who they will pick up this time. They all lose.
It’s just a family quarrel and the police are still breaking it up as they drag the couple to the squad car. The man holds his arm, blood seeping through the dirty towel that he’s twisted around it. “She used a bottle on him”, say the men knowingly, and so it goes at THE WHITEHALL, the transient hotel where only vice, corruption and poverty find a permanent home.
posted by Goldendaze-Ginnie at 1:00 PM
4 Comments:
I smiled reading this piece,Ginnie. The WW2 vets are few in number these days. I wonder what that address is like these days? I enjoyed this piece.
Interesting contrast in living environments so close to each other. You certainly pictured the Whitehall perfectly with your words. Too bad that’s what those WWII vets had come to — wonder what h—- they may have gone through in that War?
You brought me into that time and place in 1962.
Hi Ginnie, So happy to see you are still blogging. Love this bit of history on a place that could be the setting for a movie. I came across an old blog of when you came to Floyd and we met. I'm still blogging too! Not many do these days.
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