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52nd Street (Manhattan)

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox street 52nd Street is a Template:Convert one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Jazz centerEdit

File:52nd Street, New York, by Gottlieb, 1948.jpg
Looking east from 6th Avenue, 52nd Street at night (May 1948); photo by William P. Gottlieb

Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, 52nd Street replaced 133rd Street as "Swing Street" of the city. The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues became renowned for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life. The street was convenient to musicians playing on Broadway and the 'legitimate' nightclubs and was also the site of a CBS studio. Musicians who played for others in the early evening played for themselves on 52nd Street.

In the period from 1930 through the early 1950s, 52nd Street clubs hosted such jazz musicians as Louis Prima, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Trummy Young, Harry Gibson, Nat Jaffe, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Marian McPartland, and many more. Although musicians from all schools performed there, after Minton's Playhouse in uptown Harlem, 52nd Street was the second most important place for the dissemination of bebop.<ref>Miles Davis (1989). Autobiography.</ref> In fact, a tune called "52nd Street Theme" by Thelonious Monk became a bebop anthem and jazz standard.

File:52nd Street, New York City, NY 0001 original.jpg
The south side of 52nd Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues – looking east from 6th Avenue (Template:Circa); photo by William P. Gottlieb

Virtually every great jazz player and singer of the era performed at clubs:

52nd Street, between 6th & 7th Avenues<ref>Ken Vail, Jazz milestones: a pictorial chronicle of jazz 1900-1990, Volume, Part 2, Castle Communications (1993) Template:OCLC Template:ISBN Template:ISBN Template:ISBN Template:ISBN</ref>

52nd Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues

35 W 52 (Mar 1935–May 1936)
66 W 52 (Dec 1937–Nov 1943)
201 W 52 (Nov 1943–1944)
56 W 52 (1947–1950)
Note: The Cotton Club (unconnected to the defunct club with the same name) opened in 1943 on the site formerly occupied by the Famous Door; the club was initially managed by Russell Carter
154 W 54th (1962–1983)
  • Spotlite Club, 56 W 52
  • Club Samoa
62 W 52 (1940–1943)
became a strip club in 1943
35 W 52 (1927–1933) (owned by Joe Helbock)
72 W 52 (1933–1937) (owned by Joe Helbock)
62 W 52 (1937–1939) (owned by Joe Helbock, et al.)
57 W 52 (1942–1949) (unrelated to the original Onyx)
became a strip club in 1949
  • Yacht Club, 66 W 52
  • Club Downbeat, 66 W 52
  • Club Carousel, 66 W 52
  • 3 Deuces, 72 W 52

Disc jockey Symphony Sid frequently did live broadcasts from the street which were transmitted across the country.

By the late 1940s, the jazz scene began moving elsewhere around the city and urban renewal began to take hold of the street. By the 1960s, most of the legendary clubs were razed or fell into disrepair. The last jazz club there closed in 1968, though one remains as a restaurant. Today, the street is full of banks, shops, and department stores and shows little trace of its jazz history. The block from 5th to 6th Avenues is formally co-named "Swing Street" and one block west is called "W. C. Handys Place".

The 21 Club was the sole surviving club on 52nd Street that also existed during the 1940s. It closed in 2020. The venue for the original Birdland at 1674 Broadway (between 52nd & 53rd), which came into existence in 1949, is now a strip club. The current Birdland is on 44th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues.

File:Swing Street West 52nd Street sign.jpg
"Swing Street" street sign

Notable places on 52nd StreetEdit

This is a list of notable places within one block of 52nd Street.

West Side HighwayEdit

Eleventh AvenueEdit

The section between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues is signed "Joe Hovarth Way" in tribute to Joseph Hovarth (1945–1995) who located the Police Athletic League William J. Duncan Center on the block after moving from its original location.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> The Duncan Center is named for a patrolman who was shot while chasing a stolen car in the neighborhood on May 17, 1930.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tenth AvenueEdit

Ninth AvenueEdit

  • The Manhattan School – Public School 35, special ed. (317 West 52nd) (north)
  • Radio City Station Post Office (zip code 10019) (south)
  • The Link (south), 43-story, 215–unit, glass tower condominium (height = 471 feet), opened in 2007<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> on site of the S.I.R. (Studio Instrument Rentals, Inc.) building at 310 W 52nd, known as the Palm Gardens Building.<ref>Christopher Walsh, S.I.R. on the Move, Billboard Magazine, July 10, 2004, pg. 56</ref> S.I.R. occupied the building from 1974 until 2004. Cheetah, the well-known club that had once been at 53rd and Broadway, occupied the Palm Gardens building from 1968 to 1974. Cheetah became a popular Latin-American dance club that helped popularize Salsa to mainstream America.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Eighth AvenueEdit

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File:WC Handys Pl 52 St from 7 Av jeh.jpg
52nd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues is "W. C. Handy's Place"
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The "21 Club"
File:660 5th Avenue New York City.jpg
The William Kissam Vanderbilt mansion "Petit Chateau", designed by Richard Morris Hunt, stood on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street until 1926
File:Seagrambuilding.jpg
The Seagram Building was completed in 1957 and was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson

BroadwayEdit

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Seventh AvenueEdit

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Sixth and a Half AvenueEdit

Sixth AvenueEdit

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Fifth AvenueEdit

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Madison AvenueEdit

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Park AvenueEdit

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Lexington AvenueEdit

  • 52nd between Lexington and Third Avenue is signed Israel Bonds Way (the Development Corporation for Israel which issues the bonds is headquartered at the intersection in the Grolier Building).
  • Grolier Building 33-story, Template:Cvt building completed in 1958<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Third AvenueEdit

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Second AvenueEdit

  • Thailand Consulate and Mission to the United Nations

First AvenueEdit

The block between First Avenue and FDR has been subject of an attempt to designate it as its own neighborhood.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In literature and popular cultureEdit

In W. H. Auden's poem "September 1, 1939", about the Second World War, Auden narrates himself as being on 52nd Street.

A 1948 amateur recording of Charlie Parker at the Onyx Club, Bird on 52nd St., was released by Jazz Workshop in 1957.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Billy Joel has a studio album titled 52nd Street. The songs, including the hit single "Honesty", have a jazz flavoring not found on his other albums.<ref>RIAA lists October 11 as the release date. Billy Joel tweeted that it was October 12.

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Toshiki Kadomatsu wrote a song titled "52nd Street 'AkikoTemplate:'", which is on his album Sea Is a Lady.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Twilight Zone, episode 32, "A Passage for Trumpet", refers to the jazz clubs of 52nd Street.

Van Morrison's 1972 song "Saint Dominic's Preview" includes the lyrics "And meanwhile we're over on a 52nd Street apartment/Socializing with the wino few".

Daniel Okrent invented Rotisserie League Baseball, a form of fantasy baseball, in 1979. The name comes from the name of the restaurant, La Rôtisserie Française restaurant on New York City's East 52nd Street, where he first suggested the idea to his friends.

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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