Gary Lee Boas, who chronicled the Times Square gay strip clubs in photography from 1979 to 1985, writes the following:
The porn thing sort of just accidentally happened. When I was going from one theater to another, I would pass these two gay strip clubs, Show Palace and The Follies. Show Palace was on Eighth Avenue at 42nd Street, and the Follies was on 47th Street for the longest time, and then it was on Seventh Avenue at 48th, right next to Popeye’s Chicken. * * * The outside of The Follies was just sort of bland. If you didn’t know it was there, you might even just pass it. But Show Palace had a little marquee saying who was appearing, and they would always have a major porn star as their featured draw to get people in. Each star had a one-week run, so there would be a new name dancing each week. Because I was working at a porn store/head shop in Lancaster at the time, I of course knew who these people were, so it became like waiting at another stage door. Right across the street from Show Palace was Show World, which was the bigger, straight version of Show Palace. Show World had movie booths downstairs, and girls in cages upstairs. They also had a stage where female porn stars would perform, like Annie Sprinkle, Edie Williams and Vanessa Del Rio. So soon I was outside their stage door as well, and I got to know everyone there. While I would stand underneath the marquee at Show Palace, I would get to know the other strippers, and the other people working the gig, and we would start talking, and before I knew it, they were like, “Oh just come on in.” So this became my hang out spot. I would stop there at least once a day, whenever I was in New York, for maybe five or six years, until it was no longer there. * * * Back then, it was a little bit different, because the porn business was still very intriguing to people. It was established, but not enough that people knew how to make a name for themselves. Most of the names were made in California and not really in New York, so anybody who was a porn star usually came from LA, and danced in New York. The other strippers there were like beefy, hunky guys out of work, or hustlers just doing the stripping scene to make something look a little legit. I’d say about half of them prostituted themselves. Pretty soon, I made friends with both the managers of the Show Palace. * * * The Show Palace wasn’t dirty, but it was basically a tile floor—almost like a cold atmosphere, really. The stage was really tacky with horrible carpeting and track lighting. And half the time, they didn’t know if there was going to be someone there to work the spotlight, so one of the other strippers had to work it—Christ, sometimes I worked it. It was so haphazardly run, because they were dealing with this street mentality, where, you know, someone showed up for work or they didn’t. And with the star, they certainly got that act down—they would know not to pay them until the day their engagement was up, because if they paid them before that, half the time they wouldn’t show up, or there was always some kind of fuck up. * * * Although the performers were supposed to be there as dancers, a lot of them couldn’t dance. So if you couldn’t dance then you would just make sure you got your dick hard, and bounced it around more, and used the time by simulating masturbation or fucking the mirror. I made it a point to sit way, way in the back because sometimes, since they worked tips, some performers were more aggressive about going out in the audience and teabagging people’s heads and shit like that. And every once in a while, somebody I knew who was dancing would come out and work the fuck out of me—just because they knew I was nervous—they knew how I felt about that. Or, they would just totally avoid me because they were busy working people they knew they were going to get tipped by. It was one or the other.
A September 25, 1994 article (“Back in Business: Once (And Future?) King of Times Sq. Porn”) by Bruce Lambert from The New York Times states:
The King of Peeps, the man who popularized peep shows in the 1960's and then quit the business, has suddenly returned to Times Square. Law enforcement officials say he is trying to regain supremacy in local sex entertainment even as the industry is under siege and the neighborhood is in the throes of change. Martin J. Hodas, who transformed Times Square in the 60's with his simple innovation -- private viewing booths -- abandoned his multimillion-dollar empire in the mid-80's, after short prison terms for tax evasion and obscenity. Richard Basciano took over some of his operations. Now, they're competitors. "Marty Hodas is back in action, once again a major player," said William H. Daly, the director of the Mayor's Midtown Enforcement Office, which works with the police to root out illicit sex activity. Mr. Daly said that Mr. Hodas's growing new empire included the Playpen, on 43d Street near Eighth Avenue; Playworld, on Eighth Avenue opposite the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and Peeporama, on 42d Street east of Seventh Avenue. And he said there were indications that Mr. Hodas might soon take over the Adonis Theater, on Eighth Avenue north of 43d Street. Prosecutors of yore called Mr. Hodas a mob associate, and at his tax-evasion trial he admitted diverting huge sums for "protection money." But the mob, damaged by prosecutions and torn by bloody feuds, lost its grip on Times Square by the late 1980's. Many porn shops were taken over by employees, Mr. Daly said, and new places opened. Through it all, Mr. Basciano has remained on top, with his many-tiered carnival-like emporiums: Show World and Show Palace, on opposite sides of Eighth Avenue north of 42d, and Show Follies, on Seventh Avenue south of 49th Street.
An October 28, 1995 article (“The Fading Neon of Times Square's Sex Shops; Elusive, Undisputed King of Midtown Pornography May Be Forced Out of Business”) by Dan Barry from The New York Times states:
For two decades, Show World has been the brightest of the gaudy lights in the pornographic firmament of Times Square, so much so that one city official calls it the "flagship of the sex industry in New York." But Show World is in trouble. Its light now flickers and may be extinguished. On Wednesday, the same day that the X-rated theater played host to the international contingent, the City Council passed a zoning ordinance designed to smash the clusters of peep shows and pornographic theaters that have cropped up throughout the five boroughs. It could mean that men from as far as Africa and as near as the Port Authority Bus Terminal may no longer drop an octagonal token into a slot in a private booth to select from a list of dozens of adult movies. It could mean the removal of other booths nicknamed "confessionals," in which women undress and perform behind glass partitions. And it could mean that Richard Basciano, the elusive owner of Show World and the undisputed king of Times Square porn, would no longer hold claim to what is billed as "the greatest adult center on earth." "He's the biggest sex-related entrepreneur in the city," said William H. Daly, director of the Mayor's Office of Midtown Enforcement, which focuses on vice control. "And he controls the biggest enterprise in midtown and the entire city. It's the oldest of these sex emporiums and the largest." Endangering Mr. Basciano's title is a provision of the zoning ordinance that, if it withstands an expected court challenge, would bar sex businesses from operating within 500 feet of a school, day-care center or house of worship. * * * But Mr. Basciano, who owns several other peep shows and theaters in addition to Show World -- the exact number is not easily determined -- is fighting back. He is a primary benefactor of the Coalition for Free Expression, a band of adult sex shop owners who plan to sue the city to block the zoning change on First Amendment grounds. Even if Mr. Basciano loses the fight, he wins financially. His enterprises operate on choice real estate throughout Times Square, and his assets become more lucrative as the district becomes more desirable. In the last two years, he has sold four peep-show sites to the quasi-public 42d Street Development Project for a total of $12.3 million. For all his support of free speech, Mr. Basciano prefers to remain silent. His last interview was in 1982, when he said his sex shops were "a deterrent to rape." Now he speaks through lawyers and lives in an apartment, outfitted with exercise equipment, somewhere above and behind the circus motif of Show World. There, Mr. Basciano, a former boxer, keeps his 70-year-old body in shape and his eyes on his multimillion-dollar empire. * * * The honky-tonk aspect of Times Square, often framed in neon and proclaimed by barkers standing at forbidding portals, has been a part of the district for so long that it would seem to qualify for historic preservation. Once a center of the theater industry, it settled into seediness as television displaced live entertainment. In the 1960's, a man named Martin J. Hodas equipped nickelodeon machines with pornographic movies. The innovation earned him a fortune, as well as the sobriquet King of the Peeps. Mr. Basciano, a native of Baltimore whose only criminal conviction has been for mail fraud, incorporated Show World with three partners in the mid-1970's. One was Robert DiBernardo, a reputed captain in the Gambino crime family. Mr. Daly said Mr. Basciano was the first to replace the peep show's 8-millimeter projectors with videotapes. But his Show World also staged live sex acts, simulated and real, Mr. Daly said. By the mid-1980's, Mr. Basciano had interests in more than two dozen businesses in pornography and real estate, city officials said. He had also emerged as the dominant figure in New York's sex industry, after the imprisonment of Mr. Hodas in 1984 on a Federal obscenity conviction. To the victor went the spoils, as Mr. Hodas sold several of his 42d Street peep shows to Mr. Basciano. Mr. Basciano's rise was not without turbulence. In 1986, his partner, Mr. DiBernardo, phoned his family on Long Island to discuss dinner plans, left work in his Mercedes-Benz, and was never seen again. It was not until 1992, at John Gotti's criminal trial, that Mr. DiBernardo's fate was revealed; he had been killed for crossing Mr. Gotti. But Mr. Basciano's lawyer, Mr. Fahringer, emphasized that his client has never had anything to do with the Mafia, then or now. * * * City officials acknowledge that Mr. Basciano was also helpful in the recent push to revitalize 42d Street. Bowing gracefully to the needs of a city-backed redevelopment project, he sold his Show Palace Theater, his Show Center Peep Show and two other buildings, including one adjacent to the New Amsterdam Theater that Disney officials plan to renovate for family-oriented productions. As another example of good faith, Mr. Fahringer cited Mr. Basciano's response after the City Health Department shut down his Hollywood Theater at 777 Eighth Avenue, between 47th and 48th Streets, in August. Undercover inspectors said they saw more than 70 incidents of patrons engaging in high-risk sex. City and state laws prohibit unsafe sex in public places. * * * But Mr. Basciano's overtures have not left him immune to city regulation. The new ordinance is clearly aimed at Times Square, whose sometimes tense marriage between nice and naughty attracts 20 million people a year. And it is clearly aimed at him. A few supporters agree with his stand against the zoning ordinance. They include gay-rights advocates, civil libertarians and the chairman of Community Board 5, whose district includes Times Square.
A May 28, 1999 article (“After Eluding Past Attempts, Show World Is Closed Down”) by Anthony Ramirez from The New York Times states:
Show World, a landmark strip club off Times Square that for years had eluded the twin buzz saws of Times Square redevelopment and the city's campaign against sex-oriented businesses, was closed yesterday by the Giuliani administration. Police officers shuttered the club on Eighth Avenue near 42d Street shortly after 2 P.M., after city lawyers successfully argued before Judge Stephen G. Crane of State Supreme Court in Manhattan that it was the site of a criminal fencing operation that dealt in hundreds of thousands of dollars in expensive electronic goods like camcorders and videocassette recorders. Using undercover informers, the police arrested eight people on March 9, which led to yesterday's request for a court order to close the club based on the city's nuisance abatement statute, said Daniel S. Connolly, special counsel to the Corporation Counsel. ''The city acted to close a stolen property ring,'' he said. A hearing to determine whether the closing will continue was set for June 2. Herald Price Fahringer, the lawyer for Show World, said that it was true that eight people were arrested, but added that charges against seven were dismissed. He said a single person, Danny Kahn, who was a tenant who sold electronic goods under the business name of Apple Photo I.D., may have been engaged in criminal activity. If so, Show World was not aware of any criminal acts, Mr. Fahringer said. Mr. Kahn was promptly evicted from the 347 square feet he leased, Mr. Fahringer said. ''We did not participate,'' Mr. Fahringer said. * * * At 22,000 square feet, Show World was the largest sex emporium in Times Square. The city has long argued that because it is within 500 feet of both a school and a church, it violated a recent zoning law that prohibits sex shops from operating near such places. But Show World successfully avoided closure last year by restricting its sex-oriented content to less than 40 percent of its floor space, as required under the zoning statute. Mr. Fahringer said only 18 percent of floor space was sex-oriented, mainly for filmed peep shows and the sale of sexually explicit videotapes. He said there was no live entertainment, like the scores of nude and topless dancers who once gained Show World its share of notoriety.
An August 2, 2008 article (“Funnyman Hopes for Last Laugh In Suit”) by Brian Kates from the New York Daily News states:
A battle royal has erupted between Los Angeles’ king of comedy and New York’s prince of porn over a Times Square comedy club - and it's no laughing matter. Comedy genius Jamie Masada thought he was joining the cleanup of Times Square when he opened a branch of his world-famous Laugh Factory in the same building as the notorious Show World sex emporium at 42nd St. and Eighth Ave. Instead, he says he found himself "submerged into an atmosphere of intimidation" by his new partner, Show World owner Richard Basciano. In a blistering suit filed recently in Manhattan Federal Court, Masada paints a tawdry picture that belies Times Square's glitzy new image. The reign of fear alleged in Masada's suit includes a pulled gun, warnings that "somebody could be hurt or killed" if a certain comedian was booked, and coerced contract signings that siphoned off much of Masada's profit share. * * * In the mid-1980s, Basciano's partners included Gambino crime family associate Robert DiBernardo and Theodore Rothstein, who were caught by the FBI and convicted in 1981 of transporting obscene materials across state lines. DiBernardo wound up dead, whacked for offending the late mob boss John Gotti. Basciano's brother Vincent is the Bonanno crime family y boss known as “Vinny Gorgeous,” law enforcement sources say. In April, he was sentenced to life for a 2001 shotgun murder. In 1968, Richard Basciano pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges unrelated to pornography in Balitmore. He was fined $750 and placed on three years' probation. * * * In the mid-1970s, Basciano opened Show World, calling it "The Greatest Adult Center on Earth." By 1982, The News had dubbed Basciano "The Pornbroker," and estimated he made $10 million a year from Show World and other fleshpots, including Les Gals, Adultarama and the Pussy Cat Showcase. At Show World's height, a reported 4,000 people passed through its turnstiles each day to view Triple-X skin flicks or watch strippers gyrate behind glass screens. * * * Masada said he was introduced to Basciano by entrepreneur Michael Goldberg and Ben Kolbert, whom Masada says claimed to be a hotshot in the Times Square Business Improvement District with ties to the mayor. Lured by Kolbert's purported connections and hoping to reap tax breaks associated with the Times Square cleanup, Masada agreed in November 2003 to open a Laugh Factory branch with Basciano as 50/50 partner. Kolbert, 80, retired chief of an Off-Off Broadway theater group, confirmed he and Goldberg introduced Masada to "my friend Richard." He denied that he portrayed himself as involved with the BID. Goldberg could not be reached for comment. From the start, Masada feared he'd made a mistake. On opening night, a Basciano employee, Thomas Simmonds, told Masada that if he rebooked a certain comedian, "somebody could be hurt or killed," the suit charges. Simmonds would not respond to questions about the case. In August 2004, Basciano allegedly told Masada the club was losing money and demanded $100,000 on top of Masada's initial $400,000 investment. Masada says Basciano refused to show him the books. Cowed by Basciano's threats, Masada wrote the check. In 2005, a Basciano bodyguard "pulled a gun on Masada...purportedly by mistake," according to the suit. In October 2007, another Basciano associate allegedly told Masada that Basciano owed him $3,500 and that Basciano told him to get it from Masada. The associate told him "if he did not, someone would get hurt," the suit says. Masada forked over the money. As Basciano milked the club for millions, Masada alleges he was paid only about $66,000 between 2004 and 2007.
In a twist straight out of NYPD Blue, a murder suspect who faked his own death 30 years ago has been found alive and well. Joseph Scudiero, 65, was arrested last week by US Marshals and the NYPD. The murder in question happened in January 1971, at a bar called Club Z. The now long-gone bar was at 400 West 14th Street. It was there that a dispute turned deadly, and Scudiero shot and killed George Kelly, the son of a retired NY police officer. Scudiero reportedly stuffed the body, which was never recovered, into the trunk of a car. 
Recent Comments