Chico started work at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A, yesterday... not sure of the status given the late afternoon/early evening rain...
Back in October 2011, Chico created a tribute awning here in memory of the late Bob Arihood.
The previous hand-painted sign was quite weathered ...
[Photo via Forgotten NY]
Ray Candy's Store ?
ReplyDeleteRAY CANDY'S TORE
ReplyDeleteI liked it before better
ReplyDeleteChico:
ReplyDelete2 things:
1) Please change back to "Ray's".
2) Needs a new Bob re-do as well.
Thanks
Is the little falafel stand on Avenue A and I think at 5th still around? Or is it long gone?
ReplyDeleteThis is what happened to Gem Spa after they got rid of their old sign. Years ago before they replaced the sign it was Gem's Spa, but some dummy left off the apostrophe and the "S" and now we call it Gem Spa. History repeats itself.
ReplyDeleteGiovanni, It was Gems, without an apostrophe. Gems Spa (or Gem's Spa) would be hard to say; I like Gem Spa Better. Ray's Candy Store, on the other hand, is easy to say. But then, so is Ray Candy Store. It's a dilemma.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they finally got rid of that decrepit old sign. It was such an eyesore, with all the bird shit on it.
ReplyDeleteActually it was originally named Gem's Spa, using an acronym for the letters of the owners wives, plus one ex-wife. The original owners were educated and the name was at the time grammatically correct. At some point the apostrophe fell off the sign and they just left it as Gems Spa, and later when the sign was replacesd it became Gem Spa. Either way the Egg Creams were great. via Wikipeida:
ReplyDelete"From 1957 until at least 1969 the store was owned by Ruby Silverstein and Harold Shepard, who employed 11 staff to keep it open 24 hours a day - Silverstein estimated that every 30 seconds someone walked in the store. The clientele initially mainly bought Jewish and foreign-language papers, which began to change around 1963 as they sold more copies of the Village Voice and underground magazines. Silverstein and Shepard gave the store its current name, initially Gem's Spa - the name comes from Gladys, Etta, and Miriam, the names of the wives of Silverstein and Shepard and Shepard's ex-wife."
@ 10:02 PM: That explains the "Gem's," but why a "Spa"? What happened in 1969? The records disappeared after that?
ReplyDeleteEgg Cream Con. -- I read the article that footnote 3 in the wikipedia article linked to (the footnote after the claim that the name was once "GEM's". The article says "The name 'Gems' comes from..." There is no apostrophe in the name as written in the article.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense that there was no apostrophe. When you look at the sign, you can see there was no space between the letters to accommodate an apostrophe, on either the marquee or the awning.
Here's one:
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/gc/510423987-view-of-pedestrians-outside-of-gems-spa-new-gettyimages.jpg
Another:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UyMHUlHFAlM/Tyio2W9H60I/AAAAAAAAPZI/pNn1j0ezCXs/s1600/screen-capture-3.jpg
So let's go to an East Village authority on whether or not there was originally an apostrophe in Gem Spa: The Village Voice, August 26, 1971:
ReplyDelete"Then the dirtiest of the group, John, who was attired in what must have been a uniform of sorts -- dirty levis and a vest festooned with bits of leather, seashells, and long curls of human hair -- plugged the blade in his pocket an sauntered on down the street to Gem's Spa."
And:
"Even Gem's Spa, the classic egg cream and newspaper emporium on the corner, is feeling the crush. A permanent cluster of junkies using its doorways and newspaper benches as home base hasn't helped business any. "
It's official: Gem's Spa originally had an apostrophe, and so does the Fox's u-bet chocolate syrup they used in their egg creams, the best egg creams in the city.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/its-1971-and-the-voice-is-already-nostalgic-for-the-1960s-6666156
I like this update and I'm not usually a fan of most renovations of my old favorites. Sure, it could say Ray's, but I think he did a good job brightening it up while still keeping its original character.
ReplyDeleteEgg Cream Con., I'm sorry, but that doesn't do it for me. You're referring to an article from the 1971 where, in the article, it's spelled "Gem's". Neither of the articles is about the spelling of the name.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures I linked to are from before 1971. I really think the lack of space between letters where an apostrophe would be is more empirical
For me, it's Gems.
@3:49PM Of course the article wasn't about the spelling of the name, that was just how the name was spelled back then. How can you doubt the Village Voice? Well If you think the spelling in 1971 article was just a mistake, let's go back to 1968, to another piece written by a completely different writer from the 1971 article:
ReplyDeleteNovember 28, 1968 -- The Radicalization Of Hip Is Now Complete
"The area between the Fillmore and the Gem's Spa on Second Avenue near St. Mark's is now established as the primary battleground."
There it is again, Gem's Spa, in an article published three years earlier, spelled exactly the same way. And remember that the Village Voice had offices just a few blocks away from Gem's Spa. Their writers went there all the time. To read all those magazines and newspapers. They were journalists, Words matter to journalists. I think we can trust that the Village Voice got it right. It was Gem's Spa all along.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-radicalization-of-hip-is-now-complete-6674948
Egg Cream Con., Your arguments are sound; no question about that. And it makes sense that it would be possessive and not plural.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we both rely on inference: me on the lack of space in the signs for an apostrophe; you on the way the name is spelled in articles not having to do with the spelling of the name.
If I ever find a picture or other evidence, I'll send it to E.V.Grieve.--maybe he'll post it.
@8:46 PM Ummm I think that those articles are the evidence. I agree it was Gem's Spa. Now it's Gem Spa. And global warming exists too even though you can't always see it.
ReplyDeleteI am sooooo glad this critical issue has been settled. Now back to the prezzy-dential campaign!
ReplyDelete