HBO’s Vinyl began in the rubble of one of New York City’s great underground performance spaces.
The Mercer Arts Center had quite a history.
This article originally appeared on Feb. 2, 2016.
HBOsVinylhas not been renewed and will not get to the second verse.
Does a roof have to fall on your head to appreciate good music?
The Grand Central Hotel was 123 years old.
It was also called the University Hotel and the Old Broadway Central Hotel.
It was the largest hotel in North America.
Located at 673 Broadway, the hotel was built in 1870.
It was one of the largest and most magnificent hotels on the Western Continent rivalling even Paris Grand Hotel.
The Grand Central Hotel stood on the site of the old Lafarge Hotel.
That building was destroyed in a fire on March 23, 1867.
The Lafarge also housed an arts center, the Winter Garden Theatre.
Diamond Jim Brady frequented the hotels restaurants.
Russian immigrant Lev Bronshtein changed his name to Leon Trotsky after dining Totskys Kosher Restaurant, the hotels eatery.
By August of 1973, it was a welfare hotel.
The Mercer Arts Center was 35,000 square feet of air conditioned performance space.
It was transformed from run-down, rat-ridden pestilence into an oasis in 1970.
The Mercer Arts Centers grand opening was held on December 20, 1971.
The main floor housed the Mercer Hansberry Theater and the Mercer Brecht.
The second floor had four cabaret theaters and a rehearsal space.
You gotta love Rip Torn.
The man was at the forefront of so many things.
The center housed five Off-Broadway theaters.
The Mercer Arts Center was named after the street it faced.
The front door was at 240 Mercer Street, north of Bleecker Street and east of Washington Square.
Bands loved New York City theaters in the early seventies.
The Fugs played seven nights a week at the Players Theater on MacDougal Street.
The Velvet Underground played around the block twice a night, five days a week at Maxs Kansas City.
The center came crawling back after they saw the diminished bar tabs.
The Centers Blue Room theater also hosted the Modern Lovers and Suicide.
The building was experimenting with a theater-supermarket besides hosting successful Off-Broadway performances.
But the walls on the Broadway side of the building were beginning to sag.
People in the hotel later said they saw debris piling in from the pipes.
According to a New York Times report, at 5:10 p.m., the building felt like it was exploding.
Fire chief John T. OHagan toldThe New York Postthe building fell like a pancake.
Herbert Whitehead, Kay Parker, and Arthur and Peggy Sherwin were killed.
This, combined with the BMT subways, is believed to be the cause of the collapse.
After the remains were demolished, New York University built a 22-story 625-unit graduate law student dorm.
HBOsVinylended after one season.
