It took a while for rest of the world to catch up with Marvel’s Bullpen but now we all know what a “dumpster fire” means for any circumstance.
For Bullpenners back in the day… we had a sterling example, one that would lead to The Clone Saga, The Ultimate Ultimate stuff, the negation of Peter Parker’s marriage and Heroes Reborn.
Someone saw smoke! Cub reporter “Ace” Brown was hot on the lead! Someone got FDNY on the horn and whammo, firetrucks right downstairs!
Y’see, living in New York City meant one had all manner of challenges. High rents, dirty water hot dogs, crowded subways and lots and lots of garbage (no jokes about the KISS Super Special, huh?). These pics were snapped in mid-December of 1978. Ace had been on the job putting out stat after stat for just 6-7 weeks. Meanwhile, NYC was in the throes of a Sanitation Strike!
The Department of Sanitation—every bit as essential as those dirty water dogs – hadn’t had a salary increase in – well, pick a big number! That was the number of years. So they were as mad as Mike Higgins running out of ink and put pressure on the chair-warmers in the big office. Being union men, when things reach an impasse, they have the option to go on strike! And thus, they weren’t going to collect the trash.
Now let me tell you people in nice, clean rest-of-the-world, even if everyone picked up after themselves, hit the garbage cans every time and policed up around them, there would still be 88 tons of trash per day. (I made that up—but there’s 300,000 to 400,000 people running around in midtown Manhattan all day long, that’s a lot of small bits of trash never mind any big bits!) Office building are full of people who generate a LOT of garbage. Marvel was no exception (hey! No jokes about Man From Atlantis TV-show adaptations, okay?).
Garbage people are essential. New Yorkers could choke in their own trash in only a few days. Never mind the couple of weeks my memory serves up to me concerning these pictures!
Dumpsters are pretty cool things in and of themselves. Actually called “roll off containers” they come in a bunch of sizes, the most popular is the 36-cubic-yard one. You’ve most likely seen them around construction sites or where some place is undergoing demolition. Times have changed, but not these things. I’ve seen some new ones, fresh paint and all, but they’re mostly really tough 3/8” steel sheet with box-reinforced sides and hand grips and rails all over. One end is all door—and where a lot of the bent steel is. You see, if the door doesn’t want to shut you have to ram it closed with the truck that comes to collect it. Now that’s fun!
The dumpsters are usually placed so that a truck– just a little longer than it– can move up in front of it. Since this can take place on city streets, that maneuver is early in the morning when the cars are gone. The operator than attaches a heavy cable to the dumpster, raises up a large set of rails that line up with an opening in the bottom of the dumpster where the rails fit. Then it pulls it up those rails. There’s leetle, tiny hardened steel wheels at the other end that you would never think could hold 50 tons up. It’s a see-saw of balancing, so the rails start to lower when the dumpster is about half-way and finally, everything is nice and flat by the end of the process.
It’s really neat to watch.
Not so neat is when the damn things are empty. They’re not attached except by the winch cable. Otherwise their own great weight and gravity is all there is. Which means when those trucks hit city streets at 3AM and run over potholes and road plates at 40mph, those empty bastards bounce. Sounding just like an explosion. Or a series of explosions. At 3AM!
During that Garbage Strike, the building management of 575 Madison Ave sought to relieve some of the trash pressure by having one of those dumpsters parked outside. All the day’s trash could be dropped in there. Truth be told, Marvel was doing its bit to fill that thing by lining it with unsold copies of Machine Man, Jaws 2 movie adaptations and Jim Shooter’s balled-up plot notes. Hopefully the strike would be over and the trash hauled away just before the trash would overflow the dumpster.
Here is a perfect example of that old expression, “If you want God to laugh, make a plan!”
Just noticed! I got my camera which already had some film in it and stuck it out the window. When things were starting to get lively, I then zoomed down the back elevator which lets out right next to the dumpster. (You can see in a later shot where the “Parking” sign is—that’s where the building’s parking ramp, a messenger service office and Marvel’s back entry are!)
FDNY in the face of it! Things are heating up. Who knows what started it—a careless cigarette butt is all that’s needed.
Just another day at the office. Of interest to fire department observers, are the relative old style of those fire engines. They look like something out of a small town. They could be 15-20 years old at that time (December, 1978).
A rare side-street shot of 575 Madison—around the corner heading east on 56th Street. The building after the “Parking” sign is The Drake Hotel and the site of The Ultimate Lotus bar and restaurant. Rather convenient but not a good buy for lunch. The concept of super-low-cost Chinese food as lunch take-out took about another decade to appear. Let’s put it this way—The Lotus hadn’t figured it out. (When I worked at Penthouse Comix in the mid-90s, not far at all from these offices, a huge tin of lunch and a can of soda could be had for $3.75—still amazing.)
The thoroughly disgusting aftermath! Eeeewwww. The firemen had to spear the garbage bags open, spread things around and hose that down a little bit. Just to be sure no burning ember could start things going again.
As entertaining as all this might be—you may well ask yourself, what has this to do with Marvel? Well—the last picture says it all!
Left to right: hard to spot in baby blue, stat-camera operator Mark Rogan, (there’s evidence of one more person between Mark and Mike—this is when my over-confidence in only “one shot” is irksome) Production Workers Mike Higgins (flannel) and Joe Albelo, the blonde is probably Dickie McKenzie (hard to say, Mary McPherran is rail-thin and never wore a skirt). Next in the middle is Fern, then The Ancient One, Morrie Kuramoto, Production Cover Artist Ron Zalme (in a vest), the man in charge of proof-roll and repro film storage, Al Smith. Finally Irene Vartanoff who, I think was an Assistant Editor in charge of letter columns (the entire Bullpen structure was just about to change dramatically. Irene’s function was to change as well, exactly when is vague to me).
Through all of that 1978 New York History Lesson I was thinking only ONE THING!!! The stench mut’ve been HORRIFIC! I mean not just trash (old food, feminine hygiene products, the occasional dead body) but BURNED trash as well. Those grey black clouds of what had to have been cancer causing fumes make me shudder at the mere thought of them! And after the strike just how long did it take to haul the whole reeking New York sized mass away. I can’t imagine it was over night. I do remember seeing news footage of the “event” from the safety of my somewhat clean couch in Ohio. I bet a deal was struck quickly! Good times. Gooooood times.