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Fred McDarrah's Village
Fred McDarrah was one of New York City's most renowned photojournalists. At his peak, McDarrah's photos appeared in scores of articles. His time spent at the alternative newspaper The Village Voice is chronicled in two new exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York. "The Voice of the Village: Fred W. McDarrah Photographs" and "PRIDE: Photographs of Stonewall and Beyond by Fred W. McDarrah" tell the stories of the Village during the 1960s and beyond.
In conjunction with the exhibitions, MCNY is proud to release the walking tour "Fred McDarrah's Village." On this tour, you will come across the sites where McDarrah worked, took portraits of famous celebrities, and broke ground on news stories throughout the Village. Many of these locations perfectly embody the spirit of Greenwich Village during the 1960s and 70s. Though the institutions may not all still remain, the spirit from this time can still be recognized.
Make sure to share your tour experiences with #MCNY, #VoiceoftheVillage, and #PridePower!
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Christopher Park
Christopher Park was where Fred McDarrah took his famous photo of Bob Dylan in 1965. In an issue of The Village Voice later that year, Jack Newfield reviewed Dylan’s performance at Forest Hills, calling the singer “America’s most influential poet since Allen Ginsberg.”
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82 University Place
Cedar Tavern was a neighborhood haunt favored by the village locals. Artists who were a part of the New York School and others such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko could often be found there. Jackson Pollock was eventually banned from the establishment for pulling the bathroom door off its hinges and hurling it across the room at Franz Kline. The photograph McDarrah took of the tavern was of a small group of friends enjoying the night air. The photo shows the intimacy of the place and how beloved the now closed hangout was.
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80 University Place
The Village Voice was founded in 1955 as an alternative newsweekly and soon became an established presence in the reporting world. The Village Voice was the first publication to report on the Stonewall Riots and "today carries on the same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it embraced when it began publishing 60 years ago." Since its inception, The Village Voice has received three Pulitzer Prizes and many other journalism awards.
The Village Voice has had many different headquarters over the years. The newspaper was homed here from the 1970s to the 1980s when it was moved to Broadway. Fred McDarrah began working at the newspaper in ad sales and eventually became the Voice’s first picture editor and chief photographer.
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Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park was bought by the city of New York in 1826. After its renovation in the 20th century, it became a popular attraction for New Yorkers and tourists alike. McDarrah spent a lot of time in Washington Square Park, since the buildings surrounding it were once artists studios and cheap housing. The park became a center for artists and the community; often its space was used for political and social protests. Some of those protests, including anti-war demonstrations, were captured by McDarrah.
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Judson Memorial Church
Judson Memorial Church has been a pillar in the village community for many decades. The church aided artists by offering them a place to perform. Often, the artists involved in these performances were avant-garde experimentalists who rejected the confines of Modern dance practice and theory, inventing as they did the precepts of Postmodern dance.
At the Judson Memorial Church, McDarrah photographed Carolee Schneeman's performance of "Meat Joy." From Schneeman's description of the art piece: "I thought of Meat Joy as an erotic ritual for my starved culture, with the body extended into raw fish and chickens and sausages and layers of paper and plastic and paint." According to her, the smell never truly left the site, but that did not deter the current minister.
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160 Bleeker Street
Mill's Hotel was established as a hotel for poor men. Funded by banker Darius Ogden Mills and designed by Ernest Flagg, it opened in 1897. At the time of its opening, Mill's Hotel had over 1,000 tiny rooms which cost 20 cents a night. In the 1960s, the building was renamed Renaissance House, and was converted into housing for artists and students with theatre facilities. It was in the Atrium of Renaissance House that Fred McDarrah took photos of author and activist Susan Sontag during a Symposium on Sex.
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105 Second Avenue
105 Second Avenue is the former location of Fillmore East, a concert venue that existed from March 8, 1968 to June 27, 1971. During its brief existence, Fillmore East hosted some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time, including The Doors and Janis Joplin.
Prior to its opening as a concert venue, McDarrah photographed Timothy Leary's presentation "Illumination of the Buddha" at this location in December of 1966. Leary was an American psychologist who advocated for the use of psychedelics in controlled conditions. "Illumination of the Buddha" was one of the many lectures Timothy Leary gave sharing his experiences with psychedelic drugs and the possible uses of them. The radical counter culture of the 1960s created a space where psychedelics and their association with Buddhism were in vogue. Timothy Leary and his associate's teachings on this subject were so influential that Leary was targeted by the United States government during the criminalization of psychedelic drugs.
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