Union Square in its Funky Days

Remember Union Square before the brew pubs, the Green Market, the NY Film Academy? During the 70s the area was a place you tended to avoid. The park itself was loaded with drug dealers and addicts, especially at night, and the pushers did a good business on nights when there were concerns at the nearby Academy of Music on 14th Street.

The whole US area was also a hotbed of radicalism, with Marxist bookstores and similar institutions. Many people think that the very name "Union Square" came from the fact that there were so many labor unions headquartered in the area. But the real origin for the name was the fact that the square represented the "union" of two major thoroughfares: Broadway and 4th (Park) Avenue.

Probably the most famous institution in the US area during the 70s was at the Northeast corner, right across from where the NY Film Academy is located. This non-descript building housed Max's Kansas City, the ultimate hype club, where Andy Warhol and his "superstars" held court. Max's was the ultimate proof that people will spend lots of money on bad food in a dumpy environment if they think it's a hip joint that's selective in terms of whom it admits. As an illustration of what a crock the whole place was, consider the fact that there was nobody named Max, and the place had nothing to do whatsoever with Kansas City.

Upstairs from the bar/restaurant was a small rock club where many famous acts performed. The whole place was essentially illegal, in that it lacked the necessary permits, but that didn't stop Mayor Lindsay from going there.