Minton's Playhouse at 118th Street had its iconic neon sign taken down this past August and we incorrectly made the assumption that the project would be a restoration. We walked by the jazz landmark's location by St. Nicholas Avenue today just as the new awning was being installed and was a little surprised to see the change in direction. A minimalist modern awning had arrived and the neon reminiscent to the dismantled Lenox Lounge apparently will no longer be part of this street corner. Minton's was established back in 1938 and some of the high profile downtown restauranteurs would probably have restored it to its original look along with some slight modern updates. The aforementioned formula has worked uptown also in recent years but for some reason the revival of Minton's will miss this particular mark.
I don't like it!
ReplyDeleteMe, either!
ReplyDeleteMe me, either either !!
DeleteMy guess is the place was rechristened "Minton's," dropping the "Playhouse" to avoid a copyright battle. A quick search on wikipedia finds: "is a registered trademark of Housing and Services, Inc. a New York City nonprofit provider of supportive housing." Does anyone know when that old neon sign was put up? It's not there in the class picture of Monk & crew in front of Minton's - rather there's a smaller neon sign. As Lenox Lounge proved, fights over copyright/ownership of these iconic Jazz shrines are vicious for better or worse.
ReplyDelete-jake
The classic Minton's photo:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Thelonious_Monk,_Howard_McGhee,_Roy_Eldridge,_and_Teddy_Hill,_Minton's_Playhouse,_New_York,_N.Y.,_ca._Sept._1947_(William_P._Gottlieb_06281).jpg
You are correct "harlem jake." HSI owns the name. They are very supportive of the new vision for the space.
DeleteAccording to reports on our Facebook site, It appears that the partners gave the original sign to the DC African American Museum seeing that it would be a better home there than in Harlem.
ReplyDeleteCorrect Ulysses. The sign was recently donated to the Smithsonian.
Deletei have been so used to the former sign that anything else looks silly.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred the old sign or a vintage sign but I'm willing to give them a pass once everything is complete maybe it will all come together. I can't imagine Dick Parsons doesn't have an amazing designer orchestrating this project.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct Michael. He's going to do it serious justice. He's got a real good team of architects on the project.
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