History of Gay Bars in New York City

S.L.A. Tells Role Of Theft Suspect

An April 9, 1963 article (“S.L.A. Tells Role Of Theft Suspect”) by Charles Grutzner from the New York Times states:

Guenther Reinhardt, charged with theft of records of the State Liquor Authority, was described yesterday by Donald S. Hostetter, the authority chairman, as “a volunteer informer who gave us a lot of accurate information and some that was pure fantasy.”  Mr. Hostetter said that Reinhardt had never been on the authority’s staff and had not been issued credentials.  * * *  The one confidential document contained information about gangster activities in the liquor and entertainment fields.  According to police, this contained information about activities of John (Sonny) Franzese, described as former associate of the late Joseph Profaci, Brooklyn underworld figure.  Reinhardt was arrested after allegedly peddling S. L. A. files to Detectives Joseph Ryan and Louis Tosi, who had posed as gangster friends of Franzese.  The detectives found the other authority documents and a blackjack in his apartment at 95 Christopher Street.  Mr. Hostetter, a former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was appointed S. L. A. chairman in December after the ouster of Martin C. Epstein.  He said he found that Reinhardt had “been around [the Authority] for a long time” and had supplied information “right along” about “joints where homosexuals hang out.”

Michael Umbers & The Gambino Crime Family

The above and below photos was taken by Diana Davies at a 1971 rally by the Gay Activists Alliance protesting the Mafia control of Christopher's End at 180 Christopher Street by Gambino crime family associate Mike Umbers who, in addition to fronting gay bars, was a drug dealer, ran several prostitution rings, and produced and distributed pornography.

A January 9, 1971 article (“Lefkowitz Accuses Club”) from the New York Times states:

State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz is seeking to close down a Greenwich Village restaurant and club where he charges deviate sexual acts were exhibited on stage for a fee.  Mr. Lefkowitz complained that Christopher’s End, a club at 180 Christopher Street, constituted a public nuisance that imperiled the physical and emotional well-being of thousands of Greenwich Villagers.

A July 26, 1971 article from the New York Times covers a protest by gay activists against the mafia control of gay bars; specifically, Christopher’s End at 180 Christopher Street:

Saturday night more than 1,000 chanting “gay activists” marched down Christopher Street to protest what they consider their “exploitation by the syndicate,” which they say controls the after-hours clubs frequented by homosexuals.  Their chief targets were Christopher’s End, an after-hours club at the river end of the street that Federal agents closed the previous weekend for liquor violations, and the club’s proprietor, Michael Umbers, whom the Gay Activists Alliance calls “a front man for the syndicate.”  * * *  The bar is on the street floor of the Christopher Hotel, the last known address of Jerome A. Johnson who was shot to death after allegedly firing the shots that felled Joseph A. Colombo Sr.  * * *  [Michael Umbers] bought the building next door [at 178 Christopher Street].  * * *  Umbers, who admits to five years in prison, says he doesn’t allow drugs, “hard or soft,” because they don’t mix with liquor.  James Owles, president of the gay alliance, said:  “I know Mike Umber’s bar has been used as a drug drop.  And he’s perfectly willing to see gay people get their head split while he takes their money.  He comes on like a father figure to these young kids and turns them into flunkies for himself.”

An August 2, 1971 article (“Last Hours of Suspect Offer Little Hint of Colombo Shooting”) by Barbara Campbell from the New York Times states:

[L]ast Friday Deputy Commissioner Daley said that [Jerome A.] Johnson’s [the shooter of crime boss Joseph A. Colombo Sr.] last known address was the Christopher Hotel at 180 Christopher Street.  It is run by Michael Umbers, who, the police said, has ties with organized crime and was an “associate” of Johnson’s.

A September 28, 1971 article (“Kerkorian Is Named at Crime Hearing”) by Nicholas Gage from the New York Times states:

Michael Umbers, who is of English extraction, did not appear at the hearing [before the State Joint Legislative Committee on Crime concerning “the involvement of non-Italians in organized crime”] Mr. McKenna said that if he did not offer a good excuse for his absence he would be cited for contempt.  Umbers, who was questioned by the police after the shooting of Joseph Colombo Sr., was said by Mr. McKenna to be involved in pornography with organized crime figures.

An August 22, 1972 article (“Hogan Aide Says Officials Fight Crime Wrong Way”) by Nicholas Gage from the New York Times states:

[T]he police yesterday listed the first arrest of a reputed organized-crime figure since Mayor Lindsay and Commissioner Murphy announced their drive against gangsters when Michael Umbers, who had been sought on pornography charges, gave himself up at the East 67^th Street Station.  Umbers, 40 years old, who the police said was associated with members of the Gambino family, was charged with promoting obscenity, a felony.

A September 1, 1973 article (“Bail of $50,000 Set in Drug Case For ‘Village’ Man”) from the New York Times states:

Bail of $50,000 was set in Federal court here yesterday for a Greenwich Village magazine distributor who had been arrested on a charge of conspiracy to sell phendimetrazine pills, which narcotics agents described as illegal stimulants and that the suspect called “vice spice aphrodisiacs.”  The suspect is Michael Umbers, 42-year-old owner of a bookshop at 180 Christopher Street, who said at his bail hearing that he was in “the sex business” and that he distributed a weekly magazine “that’s not pornography.”  Umbers was arrested Thursday night, outside the Riviera Café, at Sheridan Square, when he allegedly delivered a carton containing 75,000 pills to undercover agents for $9,500.  He reportedly told the agents he wanted to get rid of the pills before the state’s new narcotics law went into effect today.  Police officials described Umbers, who served five years in prison for larceny, as a major pornography dealer with suspected links to organized crime.  Bail of $10,000 was set for an Umbers employee, Doris Weinstable, 25, of Teaneck, N.J., who was arrested with him.

In Mafia Dynasty:  The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family, John H. Davis states:

The deeper the detectives delved into the shooting, the more it became apparent that the only white mobsters Jerome Johnson was known to deal with were members of the Gambino crime family.  The detectives found out that Johnson used to frequent a gay establishment on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village owned by Gambino soldier Paul DiBella and managed by a Gambino associate Michael Umbers, a known dealer in pornography.  Johnson and Umbers had been seen together at the after-hours places during the weeks prior to the attack on Colombo.  But for all their expert sleuthing, the New York police were unable to link Jerome Johnson to the man police were convinced ordered the hit, Carlo Gambino.

In The Gay Insider (The Olympia Press:  New York 1971), John Francis Hunter writes:

It gets raided now and then, but with the sangfroid of an oft-ravaged country on the Great Plain of Europe it re-opens and gradually eases back into the modus operandi that got it busted in the first place.  Sometimes even the same personnel.  * * * The End is an afterhours joint.  Don’t expect much of anything before morning.  It’s forever changing gears, going with a fad but still remaining essentially the same joint.  In one of its recent phases there was a charge of five bucks at the door, for which you got to drink as much as you wanted without any money passing hands over the bar. Most recently there has been a three-buck minimum, for which you get two drink chits.  * * * In earlier days in the back room, after the movies showing everything about the sex act including the coming, a go-go boy would make himself available for sucking, which would urge the panting audience over the cliff into really tempestuous orgiastic breakers.  Then the NYPD infiltrated with two humpy vice officers posing as lovers, and after they had gotten their rocks off a few mornings they pulled a raid.  The raid (which bagged a roomful of mixed couples down slumming as well as regular homosexual patrons) served two purposes:  to discourage the straights and stop the movies.  The back room is still there, but just now the partition has been knocked down, and it’s exposed to the dance floor.  There are, however, inviting bleachers in the shadows.

A July 20, 1971 article (“Suspect in Shooting of Colombo Linked to Gambino Family”) by Fred Ferretti from the New York Times ties the shooter to the West Village gay bars operated by the Gambinos and Mike Umbers, and states:

Jerome A. Johnson, the man who the police say shot Joseph A. Colombo on June 28, was “associated with people known to be connected to” the alleged Mafia family of Carlo Gambino, Chief of Detectives Albert Seedman reported yesterday.  * * *  Yesterday, Chief Seedman disclosed what he called Johnson’s link to organized crime.  “Johnson hung out in a club raided over the weekend that was controlled by Paul Di Bella, who is reputed to be a ‘soldier’ in the Gambino crime family,” he said.  The club referred to is Christopher’s End, at 180 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.  It was one of nine after-hours clubs raided by a joint Federal-city strike force on Sunday.  The 180 Christopher Street address was the first given by the police for Johnson after the shooting.  Mr. Seedman said that “Johnson frequented the Christopher’s End in the weeks immediately preceding the shooting.”  He also said Johnson was “associated” with Michael Umbers, whom he called the “front man and operator” of the after-hours bar, “which was in reality controlled by Paul Di Bella, supposedly a soldier in the Gambino family.  He asserted that “Johnson associated with people known to be connected to that family.”  Asked if he meant Carlo Gambino, Chief Seedman said, “Yes.”  * * * He [Chief Seedman] was asked if the police had questioned Mike Umbers, who the chief said was Johnson’s link to the Gambino family, and he answered:  “Yes, but we’re interested in speaking to him again.  He’s easy to find.  We reached out and found him last week.  Found him physically but it was hard to reach him mentally.”  A reporter at the news conference at Police Headquarters suggested that Johnson’s link to Umbers had been in the area of “weirdo sex,” and Mr. Seedman agreed.  * * *  Earlier, Commissioner Daley had said of Umbers:  “He didn’t look too good at first.  He looks better now,” and “Johnson was known to have been an intimate of Umbers.”  Umbers served a sentence in Sing Sing Prison and in Greenhaven prison in 1961 for grand larceny.  He was paroled in 1962.  The following year he was arrested for parole violations and returned to Sing Sing, then transferred to prison at Clinton and at Auburn.  He was released in 1965.  In 1969, he was arrested after a quantity of pornographic materials were found in a car in which he was sitting.  A conviction on obscenity charges was reversed by a higher court.  He was accused by District Attorney Frank S. Hogan’s office of conspiring to commit obscenity, but pleaded to a lesser charge of obscenity as a misdemeanor.  His case is due in September.

9 Indicted In Nassau Rackets Inquiry Into Nightclubs

A July 6, 1972 article (“9 Indicted in Nassau Rackets Inquiry Into Nightclubs”) by David A. Andelman from the New York Times states:

A Nassau County rackets grand jury indicted nine persons today, including a reputed captain in the crime family of Joseph Colombo, in connection with the alleged take-over of a Lake Success, L.I., restaurant and nightclub.  District Attorney William Cahn said the indictments all involved perjury or criminal contempt after the nine were called before a grand jury to testify on evidence obtained by court-ordered wiretaps that indicated John Lusterino, the reputed Colombo captain, and others had moved in on the Lakeville Manor restaurant more than a year ago.  * * *  The Nassau investigation began after Mr. Cahn received a tip from the New York City Police Department’s organized crime intelligence unit that Lusterino was moving into organized crime activities on Long Island.  That unit reportedly is still investigating Lusterino’s activities in bars and grills in New York City, particularly in Queens. * * *  Among the eight others indicted was a singer, Dominick Bisogni, 25 years old, of 125-10 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, Queens, who at one time was a major pop singer under the name Donnie Dean with the group Jan and Dean.  According to Mr. Cahn, Lusterino ran the restaurant or bar that was leased for $3,000 a month by Frank DeLucia of North Massapequa who was also indicted.  The actual owner of the Lakeville Manor, situated at 69 I.U. Willetts Road, one of Long Island’s best-known nightspots, is Fred Mann.  He was not indicted.   * * *  Mr. Cahn said that the investigation of organized crime infiltration into restaurants and nightclubs was continuing in Nassau County and New York City.  Also indicted today were DeLucia’s brother, Americo, of Bellrose, Queens, described as the owner of the Glen Belle Taxi Company on Union Turnpike in Glen Oaks; Helen Bayetis, a reputed business associate of Frank DeLucia; Charles Galatioto of Howard Beach, Queens; and Anthony Rowsiello, of West Hempstead, L.I., who Mr. Cahn said operates a Brooklyn butcher shop and is also associated with the Colombo family.

Live at the Continental: The Inside Story of the World-Famous Continental Baths

In Live at the Continental:  The Inside Story of the World-Famous Continental Baths (Xlibris:  2007), founder Steve Ostrow writes about his shakedown by the Mafia that only was resolved by the intervention of famed criminal defense lawyer Barry Slotnick – Joe Colombo's personal lawyer – whereby Mr. Ostrow agreed to allow the Colombo family to supply the Continental Baths with its vending machines:

"Hi," said my new lawyer.  "I'm Barry Slotnick.  Joe [not Colombo] told me about your operation.  Sounds fascinating.  How about we go there, have some lunch, and talk?"  * * *  The cab conversation was genial and casual.  No reference was made to the problem.  Barry said he lived only two blocks from the Baths on Seventy-sixth Street and had a new wife and a child in the making.  * * *  "Okay, Steve, let's get down to business.  I'm your lawyer now.  I'm a specialist in criminal law, but my office will handle all your legal work from here on.  How's that with you?" he said, handing me his business card.  "Sure, Barry, but did Joe tell you about the problem, and the two [mobsters shaking down Ostrow]—" "Oh yeah, well, if and when those guys come back, just show them my card, and I don't think you'll have any more problems . . . you see, I represent a lot of important people, trust me."  * * *  "Oh, by the way," Barry said, "my friends who I represent would like to do a little business with you.  * * *  Well, now that we've kind of established the territory, they would like to take over the garbage removal, the cigarette machines, the jukebox, and any other vending machines in the place."  "What do you mean take over, Barry?"  "Well, whatever deal you got now they'll give you 5 percent more, plus you'll get better service and newer machines."  "So what’s the catch?" I said incredulously.  "No catch, they're just good people to do business with; and not only that, we'll also have a friend as a bonus.  See, they like nice clean cash operations like vending machines and things."  Apparently they do their own laundry, I thought.  "Okay, I don't see why not."  "You won’t be sorry," said Barry.  And you know what?  I never was.

 

Show Palace Theater at 672 Eighth Avenue: "hustlers just doing the stripping scene to make something look a little legit"

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.