"Save The Theatres" Effort
Papp also took a keen interest in preservation of the historic Broadway/Times Square Theatre District. In the early 1980s, he organized and led a "Save the Theatres" movement along with a number of actors, directors, producers and other theatre folk, and film and television personalities, to preserve various vintage playhouses that were being threatened with demolition by monied Manhattan development interests. Papp's initiative was sparked by the impending demolition in 1982 of the historic Morosco and Music Box theatres, as well as the old Piccadilly Hotel, on West 45th Street.
Although Papp was unsuccessful in saving the Morosco or Music Box, at his encouragement Congressman Donald J. Mitchell of New York introduced legislation (97th Congress - H.R.6885) with 13 co-sponsors, in the United States Congress to designate a "Broadway/Times Square Theatre District National Historic Site" in Manhattan.
Faced with fierce opposition and extensive lobbying against its passage by Mayor Ed Koch's administration and big-money Manhattan development interests, Mitchell's bill was not enacted into law. The overall effect, however, of that legislative initiative and Papp's other "Save the Theatres" efforts was to slow destruction of the old Theatre District enough to eventually ensure preservation of a number of other historic playhouses and to retain a measure of the District's original flavor, atmosphere, charm and historic character for future generations.
As a result in large part to the preservation effort led by Papp in the 1980s, the Theatre District remains one of New York City's primary and most popular tourist attractions and destinations today.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Papp
Famous quotes containing the words save the, save, theatres and/or effort:
“Probably I should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“I wish to speak with all respect of persons, but sometimes I must pinch myself to keep awake, and preserve the due decorum. They melt so fast into each other, that they are like grass and trees, and it needs an effort to treat them as individuals.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)