Manny's Music, W 48th St. closing!

[dhermann1]

Manny's Music store on West 48th St in Manhattan is closing. If you've ever been there, you've seen the walls covered, I mean covered, with signed headshots of almost every musician of the 20th century. Bunches of signed Sinatra shots. The famous, the near famous, total unknowns and legends.
And always some GOOOD musicians checking out and riffing on all sorts of instruments. One of those places that's the background of the music industry of the entire world. A really cool place, near Times Square. Well, I guess it won't be there much longer.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/05/18/090518ta_talk_seabrook

 

[Feraud]

Sheesh!!

 

[Matt Crunk]

A real pity. Having never visited New York, I never had a chance to go there in person, but their reputation was world-wide. I remember calling them up once back in the late 80's to help me date and appraise a vintage Fender Stratocaster I'd just purchased. Very nice and helpful people.

 

[JohnnyGringo]

I am shocked to hear this-have the big box stores put the squeeze on all of the independent retailers?

 

[Fletch]

I'll have to hang around and see what happens to the no-longer-famous shots on the Wall of Fame.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

I am shocked to hear this-have the big box stores put the squeeze on all of the independent retailers?

No Johnny nice real estate and besides: "Now, Manny's — which was bought out by Sam Ash in 1999, but still operates under the same name — is in the middle of the block on what could be part of a mega-lot for a developer looking to assemble adjacent properties.

Manny's still sits on property owned by its founding family, despite the fact that it operates under the administrative aegis of the Sam Ash empire, which consists of 45 stores in 12 states."

Not exactly independent. [huh] Not exactly a cause to sob either. Nice place, but, business is business. :essen: In the New York real estate market everything gets eaten up one or the other . :essen:

 

[Fletch]

Ah, New York, where everybody works for the landlord.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Ah, New York, where everybody works for the landlord.

But Fletch Manny's WAS the landlord.

"According to Ash, the Rockefeller Group owns most of the block. In the 1970s, the company began amassing large footprints on the block's eastern end for what is now the News Corporation headquarters and the McGraw-Hill Building.

'They started to buy up property, all anonymously,' said Ash.

Those two skyscrapers displaced a number of music outlets. Manny Goldrich, the founder of Manny's Music who opened the store in 1935, held out, and the Rockefellers rewarded him with a 34-foot-wide building down the block, twice the normal lot size at the time"

Manny was shrewd back then and his heirs are shrewd today.

 

[Fletch]

Oof! Pardon me.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Oof! Pardon me.

lol lol lol lol lol

 

[MrBern]

Back in the late `80s, early 90s, it was the only place to procure old black strings for my hofner beatle bass. The block used to be strewn with various shops including 'WE BUY GUITARS' , now its all SamAsh. I imagine a lot of kids must just go to Guitar Center.

 

[dhermann1]

I think there's still a very cool guitar shop down in the Village, like Bleecker St or West 4th. Or maybe Christopher St.

 

[MrBern]

And theres still http://www.mandolinbrothers.com/ on Staten Island.

 

[dhermann1]

Matt Umanov's

Just read this on another blogsite: It's Matt Umanov's. Duh. On Bleecker St.