Last week my aunt sent me a link to a great web site called "Forgotten NY Neighborhoods." I was really surprised to see some recent photos from my neighborhood in Brooklyn.My neighborhood has been called all different names. "Flatbush," "Flatlands," and "Sheepshead Bay" are among them. But according to this web site, it was once called "South Greenfield." I've never heard that name mentioned. These days, where I live is now known most popularly as Midwood.
The picture above is of the old NBC studio on Avenue M. I spent a good part of my life there, both inside and outside. For years it was owned by NBC (no longer), and the old soap opera "Another World" was fimed there for years before it went off the air. "The Cosby Show" was filmed there for the first 4 or 5 years of the show's existence, before it moved over to Astoria, Queens. I remember every Friday seeing crowds lined up to get in to the TV taping of the show. These days, another soap films there, but for the life of me, I can't remember which one.
Back in the 1970s, I remember being in there many, many times. They filmed "The Midnight Special", a Friday night music series, there a number of times. The one band I can remember seeing there was Kool and the Gang. I also remember a TV movie being filmed there called "Dames At Sea," and it starred Fred Gwynne, who will forever be remembered as Herman Munster. I can recall him coming out and signing autographs for many of the fans outside the studio. He was a nice guy, and a REALLY tall man as well.
My friends and I played stickball against the side of the building, up the block. We would draw a box in chalk, and play some intense games. One time it got so loud and intense that someone from the studio came out and asked us to be quiet, as he said they could hear us on the set as they were filming some TV show. (And for some reason, he didn't chase us away.)
Ah, such nice memories.
It's definitely worth checking out "Forgotten NY Neighborhoods." Here is the link: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/neighborhoodhomepage/neighborhoods.html
For those of you who grew up in New York, I bet it will bring back many memories indeed.
3 comments:
I remember it as the NBC Studios:
I had no idea that "Midnight Express" was taped there, though I knew about "Cosby";
Tom Werner had a hand in "Cosby."
I also go back before Co-Op City was built, in the Northeast Bronx:
Forgotten NY took me to a site about what was once the largest amusement park in the world, which made Disneyland, look like Playland in The Rockaways;
It was called Freedomland USA;
& George Steinbrenner had NOTHING to do with its' demise;
You're turning me into an Ol' NY Buff.
It is a cool site, isn't?
That wasn't "Midnight Express" but "The Midnight Special" which featured a whole host of rock, pop and soul bands.
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