TIMES SQUARE CLEANS UP FOR PORN REBORN

No sooner than the neighborhood rid itself of filth, pimps and whores came dancing back into the hearts of Broadway. Composer Cy Coleman and writer David Newman discuss their hit musical in 1997.

: Broadway composer, Cy Coleman

: Chuck Cooper and Lillias White in The Life (photo by Carol Rosegg)

: “Gentleman of Leisure,” Silky, and his stable (photo by Bob Adelman)

: David Newman (left) and Robert Benton

A SAFE SPACE FOR SISTERS OF THE NIGHT.

Girls from all over the country gravitated to NY to make more money in street prostitution than anywhere else. Missionary Arlene Carmen ran a mobile van that gave them a respite from the cops, the tricks and their pimps.

: Arlene Carmen, of Judson Memorial Church, founded The Prostitution Project in 1975 with Pastor Howard Moody

: Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village

: Sgt. Bernard Paggioli, of Port Authority Youth Services

#12: The Princess of 42nd Street

Caruso tipped her $5.

Fanny Gold ran her family’s 42^nd Street newsstand as an eight-year-old girl in 1915. Living in poverty one block away, she was enchanted by Times Square’s aristocratic era. And was mugged six times there as an old lady.

: Open-air newsstands were common in New York throughout the 20th century. (photo by Berenice Abbott, 1935)

: Fanny Gold was introduced as The Princess of 42nd Street in 1915, here at the American Music Hall. The location became a ragged parking lot for decades at 8th Ave. and 42nd.

: Fanny Gold’s childhood neighborhood (from Times Square Spectacular, by Darcy Tell)

#11: The Man Who Booked the Movies

FROM CAGNEY TO KUNG FU.

Martin Levine, president of Brandt Theaters, booked most of the movies across 42^nd Street for 50 years. His office reflects the faded glamour of a once mighty theater empire now reduced to kung-fu, grindhouse and porn flicks.

: (photo by Berenice Abbott, 1938)

: (photo by Nick Dewolf, 1970)

: (photo by Jeff Goodman, 1983, for Tales of Times Square)

#10: Uncle Lou’s Scrapbook

INNOCENT VICTIMS OF ADVERSITY.

That’s how Uncle Lou, a geologist turned chauffeur, saw many of the girls in Times Square, who affectionately called him Uncle. His scrapbook documents an era of burlesque queens and porn starlets, whom he remains loyal to decades after their careers ended.

: Uncle Lou with Number One niece, Raven de la Croix

: Carrying off Seka during his Clark Gable period

: With Ginger Lynn

: Uncle Lou and Josh on 42nd Street

#14: The Life