20/03/2024
My mother warned me not to go into the video arcades around Times Square in NYC, but Playland always seemed to call to me. There were three different Playland locations in the area, and I think my mom was thinking of the one on 42nd Street pictured at the top in 1972 and seen in Midnight Cowboy (1969).
While it didn’t have video games yet, it had a carnival midway called Hubert’s Museum (in the basement) featuring a Flea Circus!
That location closed, but the one on 47th St. In 1990 (pictured), it had a pretty extensive selection of games, was very close to where you could still get a passable fake ID, and very few people in cowboy hats hustling outside.
The bottom picture, from a recreation of the 42nd St location for the HBO series The Deuce, looks a bit sleazier and distinctly lacks a flea circus.
