Music Palace 91-93 Bowery Photo:Haris Graber Photo undated Located on the corner of Bowery and Hester…this was one of my favorite places to see original Hong Kong Gung Fu, and other Martial arts / fantasy films, during the late 60‘s. Another landmark (for me, and I’m sure some others) closed (1998)..and gone forever. I stopped going there sometime around 1969...I’d moved on to other things…but during that last year, it became more “interesting” going there to see a film, because the Palace had become kind of a gathering place for many of the local asian “youth groups”.with names like..the “Flying Dragons”…“Liang Shan“…“Chung Yee”…and the “White Eagles” (Ghost Shadows and their ilk came later)…many of whom I knew…because they went to my Junior High (JHS 65)…and High School (Seward Park). It wasn’t unusual for fistfights…knife fights..or..gunfights..to erupt when 2 or more of of these “groups” would decide to see the same film…on the same day. I never had any issues with them because I knew a lot of them…and because of the friends I had at that time…who all happened to live in Little Italy. Suffice to say there were NEVER any issues between these two groups… In 1978, a mural titled “Wall of Respect for the Working People of Chinatown, was painted on the wall on the Hester Street side of the building…by kids from my alma mater, JHS 65 for the City Arts Workshop, and project leader Tomie Arai. The mural, along with the building, were demolished in 2006.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 22:36:52 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015