Thursday, July 06, 2006

WHERE WAS I? What's in the box? That's the question of the week.

Discerning the location of the box could be extremely helpful. As usual, leave your guesses in the comments section.
























Photo: David Marc Fischer

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, you appear to be in or near the Great White Way or at in Time's square. Are you in the box?

Anonymous said...

Are you in front of the Broadway Theater at 1681 Broadway? And is that Oprah Winfrey in the box?

David Marc Fischer said...

I'm not in the box. Oprah's not in the box. And I'm not in front of the Broadway Theater.

David Marc Fischer said...

Sheesh. Now I'm writing in the present tense....

Anonymous said...

Okay, it looks like you WERE near 47th St., yes? Is/was there a new tkts booth in there?

David Marc Fischer said...

Yes, I was near 47th Street. But no, there's no new tkts booth in there.

Anonymous said...

Is there a Jack in the box?

David Marc Fischer said...

No...but very funny!

You're both very warm, incidentally. I just want you to know that (in case you didn't realize it already).

David said...

Corner of 7th ave and 42nd street?
If I go here and select camera 3, I think I see the box.

David Marc Fischer said...

Very resourceful, Dave. All I can say: Don't trust everything you read at that website. (I was even closer to 47th Street than the corner the website claims to be depicting.) Keep on guessing.

David said...

I take it that that it is indeed a live feed of the box. The street sign reads "Times Sq". I'll guess that there is a cricket in the box.

David Marc Fischer said...

For all I know, there's a cricket in the box too. But that's not the answer I have in mind.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to leap tall buildings with a wild guess and suggest that inside the box is a phone booth for Superman in a of promotion for the film. Thus were you outside the AMC Empire in Times Square?

David Marc Fischer said...

Well, you're right in the sense that your guess was very, very wild!

Anonymous said...

Curses, Foiled Again!

Scott said...

the new george m cohan statue?

David Marc Fischer said...

Scott, it was awfully dark in that box. Is there a new George M. Cohan statue?

Anonymous said...

could it be one of those self-cleaning public loos?

David Marc Fischer said...

No, Gary, sorry--still waiting to hear back from Scott....

Anonymous said...

OK, was David correct that the apparent wooden box you can see in Times Sq. cam #3 is the same box you have us guessing on?

David Marc Fischer said...

Yes, it's the right box...but the intersection was wrong.

Anonymous said...

Don't know where scott went. Is the box covering the same old George Cohan statue between 46th and 47th Street at the confluence of Broadway and 7th Ave.?

Anonymous said...

I should have said "near the confluence of Broadway and 7th Ave." oops

David Marc Fischer said...

Congratulations, Dolph! You gave the answer I had in mind. If, however, it turns out that Scott was right--and that's a new George M. Cohan statue and not a grand old Cohan inside the box, I will be all-too-glad to take corrective measures.

The statue of George M. Cohan at at the southern point of Father Duffy Square (more of a triangle, really, on the northern side of 46th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue) was dedicated on September 11, 1959. Now that Father Duffy Square is being rebuilt to accommodate a new TKTS booth design (that still doesn't provide shelter from storms or, as far as I can tell, address traffic congestion problems), the nearby statue of Father Duffy (unveiled in 1937) has been temporarily relocated, but the statue of Cohan seems to have remained in place, boxed inside plywood.

The Wikipedia entry for Cohan says, "In 1959, at the behest of composer Oscar Hammerstein II, a $100,000 bronze statue of Cohan was dedicated in Times Square, at Broadway and 46th Street in Manhattan. The 8-foot bronze remains the only statue of an actor in New York City." However, I can easily think of one other statue of an actor in New York City. Can you name any?

Years before the rise of pop musician George Michael, George Michael Cohan (1878-1942) was one of the most successful entertainers in the United States. Said to have been born on July 4, Cohan started performing in vaudeville at an early age and eventually became an early star of Broadway and film, identified with popular songs such as "Over There," "The Yankee Doodle Boy," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Mary's a Grand Old Name," "Give My Regards to Broadway," and "Life's a Funny Proposition After All." He also played a starring role in the original production of Eugene O'Neill's wonderful Ah, Wilderness! Jimmy Cagney won an Oscar for his energetic portrayal of Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. (Tomorrow you can see another sparkplug performance from Cagney in One, Two, Three at the Film Forum.)

Being inside a plywood box should not only protect the Cohan statue from the hazards of construction; it will also shelter it from the pigeon droppings that have long spattered its head. There's some irony to the relationship between the statue and the pigeons in the sense that Pigeons and People is the title of one of Cohan's shows.

For another George in a Box, see here.