Side Gig 12—Riot on Mad Ave.

Manhattan-o-philes of a certain age know that the area of Madison Ave from 55^th to 57^th Streets was a giant mess in the late 1970s and early 80s. Two gigantic buildings were rising at the same time. The AT&T Building and the new IBM Building.

As it turned out, the Marvel Comics 6^th Floor Editorial offices had a perfect view of both sites!

Faithful readers of this comical blog may know I do like to take pictures. When the whole office heard the ruckus outside, they ran for the windows—I ran for my camera!

This fell on a Monday, July 20, 1981. At that point in time I had just gotten a pretty well used zoom telephoto lens. I had used it for coverage of a baseball game but this… Oh my! I only had one roll of film. As I popped off pictures I did not think to take pictures of my window-jammed office mates.

During the events, I had a crazy idea. I would zip over to the Daily News offices (any fan of the first Superman movie will know that’s really his paper…) and offer up my film for their tender mercies. I really had no expectations and I could see pro photographers on the streets below. But one never knows!

As if this sort of thing happened all the time, I was pointed up to a mid-building floor—with a movie set of a main newsroom! The entire floor was open, save for a few columns with desks stretching away in rows, wall to wall! A very nice fellow was standing, heard my story, took my film and said, “We’ll see!”

Here’s a better version of the cover and without my fellow photojournalist’s intrusion.

Much—very much to my surprise, they ran one of my pix on the front page. (Embittered old New Yorkers may note this is the “Tonight” edition! Yes, two papers on one day.)

The news of this story is as familiar as today’s headlines. At the same time as these two major buildings were going up on Madison Avenue, the brand spanking new Trump Tower was going up on Fifth Avenue! At roughly the same intersection too—between 56^th and 57^th Streets!

Apparently there was a large group of Black construction workers who were protesting there about unfair hiring practices and very few Black workers. For whatever reason, they decided to move over to Madison and get the attention of two buildings (I guess). They were asking for 25% Black hires.

The police were all over the place. They had blocked off 56 Street and set up command posts. There were mounted police. All very exciting. Here is a bit more of 56 Street

And a couple of much wider shots looking up 56th Street to Fifth Ave.

So things were getting tense, in went who I guess were the union reps. At least they were the guys in suits who you could focus your anger on. Or, in my case, my camera! I don’t recall ever figuring out who these guys were. But here are some mounted cops!

I do not recall anything being thrown or anything more than loud yelling being exchanged. But suddenly things exploded!

And take a look below, a charging horse right on the sidewalk corner of 56^th Street!

That horse was moving! I never quite caught it again. But I knew I was “short timin’” my film and had to see something more concrete. Below, you can just see a jut out of 575 Madison’s entry way detail. In the image are buses entering the intersection of Mad and 57^th Street.

There it was, next-to-last frame, arrested in front of Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust—this is Madison but north of 57^th Street. Not bad for a $75 used lens.

And that my friends, is that! I returned to the News the next day and was delighted to get my processed film and a check for $125! (I think, maybe it was a cool hundred… time… I know… you’d think I’d remember that…) The paper was prominently displayed in my mom’s apartment for quite some time.

The resolution to the story? Time has muddied that and muddled it too.

One detail that still raises alarm to this day—why the period after “Ave.”? I hear headline writing is an art.