The Downtown Pop Underground

American Place Theatre

111 W 46th, New York, NY 10036

40.757900

-73.982990

0
Biltmore Theatre

261 W 47th St, New York, NY 10036

40.760380

-73.986710

1
Brill Building

1619 Broadway, New York, NY 10019

40.761060

-73.984740

2
Bryant Theatre

138 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036

40.755370

-73.985990

3
Carnegie Recital Hall

881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019

40.764930

-73.979890

4
CBS Building

51 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019

40.761140

-73.978740

5
Forty-First Street Cinema

125 W 41st St, New York, NY 10036

40.754580

-73.985530

6
Hotel Diplomat/Le Jardin

210 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017

40.753540

-73.971640

7
Paraphernalia

794 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10065

40.768760

-73.967820

8
Plaza Sound Studios

45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111

40.759180

-73.977820

9
Scepter Records

254 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019

40.764350

-73.983780

10
The Cheetah

Broadway & West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

40.763380

-73.982880

11
The Factory (original location)

231 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017

40.753410

-73.970730

12
Ziegfeld Theatre

141 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019

40.763170

-73.979810

13

American Place Theatre

111 W 46th, New York, NY 10036

The American Place Theatre, located on West Forty-Sixth Street, was where Sam Shepard and Patti Smith’s Cowboy Mouth opened and closed at the end of April 1971.

Biltmore Theatre

261 W 47th St, New York, NY 10036

The Broadway version of Hair, directed by La MaMa’s Tom O’Horgan, debuted at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968, featuring Walter Michael Harris as the youngest cast member.

Brill Building

1619 Broadway, New York, NY 10019

The music industry was concentrated around the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway, which was packed with songwriters who pitched their musical products to hit-seeking record labels.

Bryant Theatre

138 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036

Midtown, part of Manhattan’s primary entertainment district, had several large movie palaces, such as the Bryant Theatre on Forty-Second Street.

Carnegie Recital Hall

881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019

This classy midtown venue sometimes hosted more experimental fare by the likes of Yoko Ono, Harry Koutoukas, and John Cage.

CBS Building

51 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019

Known as “Black Rock,” the CBS Building was the quintessential example of top-down corporate management, from the programming that broadcast to America down to room temperature of the air conditioning that was centrally-controlled.

Forty-First Street Cinema

125 W 41st St, New York, NY 10036

Early in their tenure at the Factory, the Velvet Underground performed at the Forty-First Street Cinema as part of a mixed-media show named Andy Warhol, Up-Tight.

Hotel Diplomat/Le Jardin

210 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017

Hotel Diplomat was a midtown hotel with deteriorating ballrooms where downtown bands occasionally played, like the New York Dolls; the early disco Le Jardin was located in the hotel.

Paraphernalia

794 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10065

Betsey Johnson began her career in fashion as a designer for Paraphernalia, a hip clothing store located on the corner of Sixty-Seventh Street and Madison, which featured go-go dancers in the window and blaring rock 'n' roll.

Plaza Sound Studios

45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111

Plaza Sound Studios, had previously been used as a radio studio for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, was a midtown studio above Radio City Music Hall where the Ramones and Blondie recorded their debut albums.

Scepter Records

254 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019

Not only was Scepter Records ground zero for the girl-group explosion, the first album by The Velvet Underground was recorded in 1966 at the record company’s studio located in a midtown office building.

The Cheetah

Broadway & West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

The Cheetah was a Midtown discothèque that also hosted a production of Hair before it opened on Broadway in the spring of 1968.

The Factory (original location)

231 E 47th St, New York, NY 10017

Andy Warhol worked with his printing assistant Gerard Malanga in an uptown studio near his brownstone home until the artist needed a larger studio, leading to his acquisition of a space in a midtown industrial building that became the Factory—which Billy Name turned into a glittering, silver installation art piece.

Ziegfeld Theatre

141 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019

This single screen movie palace opened in 1969 and was named in honor of the original Ziegfeld, a Broadway theater also located on Fifty-Fourth Street.