Manhattan in the 1970s

October 1975, Gerald Ford says the federal government won’t bail out New York on its debts. He didn’t say “drop dead,” but that was the headlines the next day.

Manhattan in the 1970s was not a good place. There was still art and music. There was still Broadway. Skyscrapers went up. There was an undercurrent of danger.

The legendary 42nd Street of musical theater fame became the worst. The street had peep shows, gun shops, pickpockets and drugs. Former film palaces became home to exploitation movies or porn.

There is a book called “Sleazoid Express” by Bill Landis that details the type of movies shown. The intro to the book explains how even the bathrooms were disgusting and smelly.

It didn’t happen overnight. There was a decline in Broadway since the 1950s. The buildings didn’t get updated. There was a garbage strike. The pictures of filth were everywhere. Graffiti covered the subways. Graffiti covered everything. Roads had potholes. There was no budget to help the homeless so people slept on the streets. When big businesses leave, alcohol and drugs take the place.

Once profitable people had fallen on hard times.

Early television shows taped in Manhattan. The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, The Phil Silvers Show, The Goldbergs were big shows in the 1950s. They ended their runs with no replacements. Johnny Carson took his talk show to Hollywood.

The final event to seal the idea that Manhattan was a dystopian burned out city was the 1978 World Series. The news loves to portray sports as a sign of a place’s health. The two aren’t even close to related, but that’s the news.

The Yankees had not been in a World Series between 1964 to 1977. The Yankees faced the former New York team the Dodgers. The Yankees won the series. Reggie Jackson became a star. Billy Martin managed the team into history. During the second game, the announcers showed a major fire in the city. It went from images of the game to the town behind them on fire.

That is how the country saw New York City in the 1970.

In Kim Gordon’s book, Girl in a Band,” there are drug users on the first floor of the building she lived in. She said they didn’t bother her, but they were there. In Moby’s book, “Porcelin,” he encountered drug users and homeless everywhere.

In 1977, the murder rate was 34 for every 100,000 people.

It was bleak and dirty.

It was Manhattan in 1977.