“They didn’t stay there at all to socialize, but to take in the nightlife.”.
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms. Jones, who was a Y member at the time, insists to Gothamist that the band's artistic intent wasn’t to produce a gay anthem. When broadcasting professionals hear the name "Les Marshak", the first image they have is of one of the top voice-over artists in ... Big Jack Armstrong, born John Charles Larsh on December 4, 1945, in Durham County, North Carolina, aka Jack Armstrong, Jackson W. Armstrong,... Duff Roman is the former on-air name of David Mostoway who was born 1938 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. “That’s essentially how queer popular culture has existed — as something that could be read in multiple ways. The Good Guys … Paul Groth, the author of Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States, notes that some of those occupying single room residences in the ‘70s would have somewhat resembled the men pictured in the video — in their 20s or 30s, a mix of white-collar and blue-collar residents, along with retired seniors and veterans.
So, the kids set the radios to 570 at night. Popularized at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution amid rapid city population growth, single-room occupancy residences featured one-room units often containing just a bed, with shared use of a kitchen and bathroom facilities.
“[The YMCA] did have some overlapping of gay cruising. In early August 1968, Terrell Methrney Jr. was named program director, replacing Ruth Ann Meyer who had programmed WMCA since 1961)when after 3 & ½ years, Gary Stevens left WMCA … B. Mitchel Reed and Gary Stevens were at the top of most disk jockey lists in those days. THIS SLEEVE IS AMONG THE RARESTAND MOST VALUABLE (AND POPULAR) AMERICAN BEATLES PICTURE SLEEVES EVER AND QUITE POSSIBLY THE WORLD!
He first came to fame in 1957 when a Life magazine arti... Larry arrived in Tampa Bay from Toledo’s WTOD in 1964 and did mid-days at WALT. THE DOWNFALL OF " THE WMCA GOOD GUYS" The unofficial demise of the WMCA "Good Guys" started on Wednesday,9/18/68, (though underlining rumblings were already there with the change in management. You can follow her on Instagram @white.abbey. Often gay and in their 20s or 30s, the weekend guests used the YMCA “as a dressing room,” and as a place to discreetly hook up, Garrett says. THE SONG “I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND” IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SONGIN ROCK HISTORY! It was played frequently over the air as any WMCA fan will tell you. this sleeve along with a stock copy of the single was given away to contest winners in january and february 1964 by radio station wmca ... the song “i want to hold your hand” is the most important song in rock history! The station's studios are in lower Manhattan and are shared with co-owned WNYM (970 AM). Great pipes and energy, ... Gary Gears may have had one of the best voices of all. Share your email address to get our top stories each day. WMCA's transmitter is located along Belleville Turnpike in Kearny, … David Hodo (“the construction worker”) insisted to Spin that Jacques Morali, the French producer who helped create the group and co-wrote the song with lead singer Victor Willis (“the cop”), certainly had the gay community in mind when he came up with the song.
Yet former residents of the McBurney Y in Chelsea — the building that inspired the song, and which was featured in the video released in late 1978 — say the reality of stays at the YMCA in those days was more complicated than the lyrics portray, with gay culture and working-class workouts coexisting in a single communal space.
There is a sense of having to be able to communicate with each other in plain sight, but without other people figuring it out.”. Comment below or Send us a Tip. arrow The bathrooms were clean, but like a “gym locker room facility,” according to Garrett. The types of characters depicted in the “YMCA” video were, in fact, more likely to reflect temporary occupants than long-term renters, who mostly lodged there to relax and sleep between shifts. “It turned out that I actually liked room living,” Garrett said.
The YMCA was, after all, a welcoming, inclusive space where any man could (mostly) get what he needed. Harry Harrison did the midday show at WMCA from 10-1 PM. All rights reserved. Part of the song’s charm, of course, is its competing interpretations: It can be read equally well as a celebration of gay culture or of the working man. Randy Jones (“the cowboy”) retorted, “Do you have the lyrics in front of you?
It was around May 1978 when part of the ceiling of Garrett’s Hell’s Kitchen one-bedroom apartment fell in, and the then 26-year-old actor and taxi driver put down $40 for what was supposed to be a week stay at the McBurney Y. But it was a serious gym for people who really wanted to go and work out every day, and a nice place to live for working-class people.”. There were no cameras, but there was security, and it was very quiet. There’s nothing gay about them.”. AGAIN, MY COPY IS THE FINEST CONDITION COPY THAT IS KNOWN TO EXIST. In this once-booming ecosystem, the YMCA’s stricter policies made it distinctive from the divided brownstones, converted lofts, or hotel housing that rented single rooms elsewhere in the city. Several months after Garrett moved in, the Village People filmed exterior shots of the McBurney branch for the “YMCA” video. [. “But if you happen to be a gay man and have the experience and perspective of hooking up with each other, it’s another way it can be perceived.”. Each of them was different and brought different things to the table, but they were all clearly a part of the team. One reason that WMCA was so popular was explained by Good Guy Ed Baer. (SERIOUS INQUIRES ONLY!). “I think you can go into the lyrics of ‘YMCA,’ and if you are a straight jock who worked out at the Y, you are going to perceive it one way,” Jones says. The available social amenities were in fact much less substantial than that depicted in the lyrics of “you can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal, you can do whatever you feel.” The 50 to 100 or so men who lived at any given time in the 23rd Street building’s nine floors of nearly 200 rooms had a 10 p.m. curfew and no access to a cafeteria or shared social spaces beyond the gym.
Karen Tongson, a queer studies scholar and associate professor of English and gender studies at the University of Southern California, says both the history of the McBurney branch and the “YMCA” video’s dual legacy are right in line with the way queerness has long existed in real life and pop culture. “It was in that room where I was able to finish my college education, where I was able to do acting auditions and work in the theater and know that I had a place to come back to that wasn’t going to cost an arm and a leg to pay for.”. The song has also immortalized the Young Men's Christian Association in pop culture. Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts and events, and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio. “At first I came to a 32nd Street residency, but a guy who lived there told me it was cheaper at McBurney,” says Joseph Kangappadan, a former MTA and Post Office employee who began staying at the McBurney YMCA in 1969 after immigrating from England. WMCA's theme song "We're the Good Guys" was written by Ruth and sung by the group. “[The YMCA] did have some overlapping of gay cruising. The Westport blog 06880 wrote, “The long-time Westporter was one of WMCA’s Good Guys, the name the station gave to its 1960s-era disc jockeys. Meanwhile, housekeepers came not just to offer towels and change your sheets, but to keep an eye on you, Kangappadan recalls. "Built on showmanship", the station played top 40 music during the glory days of mass appeal Top 40 radio.
Sign up for our newsletter! "Dandy Dan" moved to afternoon drive in 1963 as part of a stellar lineup that included Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Jack Spector and B. Mitchel Reed. The concept worked amazingly well at WMCA. Dan Daniel is among the featured deejays, along with Joe O'Brien, B. Mitchel Reed, Ed Baer, Jack Spector, Gary Stevens, Dean Anthony, Lee Gray, Harry Harrison, Murray "The K" Kaufman, Frankie Crocker, Alex Bennett, and Johnny Michaels. It reached the baby boomers at their teenage peak and along the way distributed thousands of sweatshirts imprinted with a smiley faced logo to an enthusiastic audience that drove the station to ratings records. In the 40 years since the Village People released “YMCA,” the song has become a cultural touchstone: a gay anthem famous for its innuendos and double entendres about young, fit men “having a good time,” as well as a staple at Yankees games and bar mitzvahs. But it was a serious gym for people who really wanted to go and work out every day, and a …
Garrett adds undergraduate students and disabled men to the mix of ethnically and racially diverse renters, about half of whom he estimates were gay. “[McBurney] was safe. “There was more supervision of your social life — a kind of management as to how you behaved — in the Y than there would be in a commercial rooming house, which mostly wanted to make sure the rooms were rented,” Groth says. wmca good guys promotional picture sleeve! On air talent schedule from 1958 to 1970. If a Top 40 radio station had an evening "teen" disk jockey who was successful it could capitalize on that by having a morning personality who could reach the adults. Gary started at ... Bobby Dale was born Robert Dale Bastiansen in Minneapolis. And I was crazy about working out, so the gym was my second home.”. Listen for the sound effects, the jingles mixed with station promos and the constant promotions. He is best known as a Canadian radi... Dave Hull, aka "The Hullabalooer", is a Los Angeles radio personality and has been voted one of the top ten Los Angeles radio pers... Stevens was born Terry Keith Ingstad on November 3, 1947 in Jamestown, North Dakota.
“There was certainly a party aspect to their video and that time was the height of all the gay clubs in Chelsea,” recalls Davidson Garrett, who lived at the McBurney Y from 1978 through 2000. WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, best known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 format during the 1960s - launching Beatlemania in New York by playing the Beatles' first Capitol Records single in December 1963 - and being New York's #1 rated (most listened to) radio station in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966. However, he admits that it’s okay to read it as one.
Do you know the scoop? Even the station jingles (produced by Johnny Mann) were spiced up with the guys singing various dropins such as "yea yea". A WMCA montage with on air personalities heard from 1963 until 1970. WMCA’s Good Guys were the definition of personality radio. At a time when AM radio ruled the world — or at least dictated teenagers’ musical tastes, which was basically the same thing — the New York station and its rival, WABC, wielded tremendous power. I was very glad to get to meet and work with so many of them, and get to see what that kind of radio was like. Ron was an incredible jock who never failed to deliver. WMCA's Good Guys were also featured at both of the Beatles' concerts at Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965 and on August 23, 1966. They largely disappeared starting in the late 1970s, after decades of concern over poor living conditions, social demonization of the poor, and an aggressive real estate development push under New York City Mayor Ed Koch. © 2020 New York Public Radio.
“A lot of queer expression has happened through innuendo,” Tongson said. ONLY TEN COPIES STILL EXISTS! Support for Gothamist is provided by Craig Newmark Philanthropies. WMCA GOOD GUYS PROMOTIONAL PICTURE SLEEVE!
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