Like a diversion: Former local resident celebrates a birthday

Madonna was born on this day in 1958. And on this occasion, the Village Preservation repurposed a piece on the pop singer's time in the East Village in the early 1980s. You can read that post here.

Their post mentions that she lived at 230-232 E. Fourth St. We always thought it was 234 E. Fourth St., which is between Avenue A and Avenue B (and next to the entrance for Van Da).

In any event, here she is talking about her old EV place here in the "Madonna Rising" special from 1998 with Rupert Everett...

   

In the next segment, Madonna and Rupert go to (RIP!) Kate's Joint on 4th and B.

Madonna wheatpaste by The Postman as seen on First Avenue.

'Desperately Seeking Susan' at the Tompkins Square Library branch (and happy bday Madonna)

Here's a combo #TBT, birthday wish and free-film announcement — all in one Instagram post...

Hey, it’s Madonna’s birthday today! We’ll be playing Desperately Seeking Susan (1985; 104 mins.) this Monday 8/20 at 1pm. #eastvillage #lowereastside #tompkinssquare #free #film #madonna #desperatelyseekingsusan

A post shared by Tompkins Square Library (@tompkins_square_library) on Aug 16, 2018 at 12:58pm PDT

The Tompkins Square Library branch is at 331 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. Find the full list of free activities — such as a walking tour of Tompkins Square Park on Saturday — that the library offers at this link.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Q-&-A with Susan Seidelman, director of 'Smithereens' and 'Desperately Seeking Susan'

Madonna in the East Village circa 1982

Madonna returns to the East Village as a 'Flavor of the Month'

Finally saw the gate down this January/month at Mikey Likes It Ice Cream at 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street ... we always like the murals for their 1980s-inspired flavors... this month: The Material Girl, dedicated to the former East Fourth Street resident...



And has Madonna ever been just a Flavor of the Month?

Former East Village resident headlines cable concert event tonight

Previously on EV Grieve:
Madonna in the East Village circa 1982

Former East Village resident's new record out today

See Madonna in the East Village again for the very first time

Fashionista has a post on "MADONNA: A Transformational Exhibition," a traveling collection of "unseen" photos of her Madgeness from her days in the East Village circa early 1980s... Photographer Richard Corman talks about meeting Madonna for the very first time... at her place in 234 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B...

I went into the building and the seas parted – there must have been 20 kids sitting on the stoop and in the hallway and then I went up to meet her. I really didn’t know what I was getting into, but as soon as I met her, as soon as she served me espresso on a silver plated tray with Bazooka bubblegum, I knew I was in for a ride.

The exhibit opens Thursday with a private event. Read the Q-and-A (and find more photos) here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Madonna in the East Village circa 1982

Summer Fridays rehash: Desperately Seeking 1985 New York City

Hey, we're digging into the EVG archives for these next few summer Fridays... first posted on July 22, 2008, before I learned when a post was getting too fucking long... (and keep in mind that there is not a free screening of the movie tonight — this was four years ago...)

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There's a free screening tonight of 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan at McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint. It's a silly movie (stolen ancient Egyptian earrings! amnesia! mistaken identities!) that I enjoy watching every summer. (In fact, I just watched it Sunday night.) As Brian J. Dillard writes in his review at allmovie.com, "A classic Hollywood screwball comedy transposed to modern-day Manhattan, Desperately Seeking Susan offered mid-'80s moviegoers a mall-friendly version of hip New York style, much like Madonna did throughout her early musical career."

I like it for a lot of reasons, such as seeing youngish John Turturro, Steven Wright and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, in small roles. And director Susan Seidelman rounded out the film with several downtown musicians/performers — Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, Richard Hell, John Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Ann Magnuson. And, of course, you get to see some mid-1980s New York, including several scenes in the East Village. (Nice, too, that many of these places are still around some 23 years later, including Gem Spa, Trash & Vaudeville, B & H Dairy and Love Saves the Day.)

Wacky Neighbor had a post on Susan's production design in September 2004. As he notes, the players behind the look of the film were Woody Allen regulars at the time.

Meanwhile, here are a few screenshots from Desperately Seeking Susan.

On St. Mark's.

On Second Avenue.

In front of Love Saves the Day.

Ohhh! Don't mess with the guy with the bucket of the Colonel hanging around Second Avenue and 7th Street!

Scary clubgoers! Do all New Yorkers look like this?!

Outside the Magic Club. (In the film, the club is said to be on Broadway. According to Wikipedia, some of the interiors and exteriors were filmed in Harlem.)

Now, some Desperately Seeking Susan trivia from Wikipedia, which means it may or may not be right:
* The filmakers had initially wanted Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn to play the roles of Roberta and Susan. But the director decided to cast newcomers Rosanna Arquette and Madonna instead. 

* Bruce Willis was up for the role of Dez. Melanie Griffith was up for the part of Susan as well.
* Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin to the part of Susan. Barkin was the producers first choice for the part, but the director claimed Barkin had a lack of substance.
* The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the film when it is still covered in scaffolding during its two year renovation.
* The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
* The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
* The movie was originally filmed in the summer of 1984, early in Madonna's rise to popularity, and was intended to be an R-rated feature. However, following the success of the singer's 1984-85 hits "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl," the film was trimmed in content by Orion Pictures in order to receive a PG-13 rating in order for Madonna's teenage fanbase to be able to see it
* The interior / exterior shots of The Magic Club were filmed in Harlem.
* Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her a start in the music business.

Former East Village resident's new record out today

Just doing what we can to help out up-and-coming recording artists!

Heh... oh, just an excuse to get some cheap SEO by mentioning Madonna. (Madonna, Madonna, Madonna. Of course, it would have been helpful had we put her name in the headline.)

Anyway... a repost from last March 15... a Richard Corman photo of Madonna in the summer of 1982 around her apartment at 234 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B...

[Richard Corman]

This is what concert posters on East 10th Street looked like on Feb. 12, 1989 2012

Eh.

Madonna, Kate Middleton J. Lo and Lady Gaga in Art Around the Park

If anything, Chico knows SEO!

Later

Madonna in the East Village circa 1982

Out magazine’s Ladies We Love issue assembled an apparently never-before-seen photo portfolio from one of Madonna’s earliest photo shoots ... Richard Corman took photos of Madonna in the summer of 1982 in the streets and rooftops around her apartment at 234 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... like this one...

[Richard Corman]

You can find all the photos right here at Out.com.

[Via EW.com]

Mars Bar and Lit Lounge serve as backdrop for Madonna's clothing line

WWD notes that Kelly Osbourne, the new face for Madonna's tween line Material Girl, shot the campaign last month at Mars Bar and Lit Lounge. Osbourne hung out there with Lourdes Leon, who runs Material Girl with her mom. Need a subscription apparently to access the WWD piece... was told it is well worth the time reading...

Via Jezebel. Image via WWD.

Madonna and Sean Penn got married on this date in 1985

Just felt like mentioning that...



And you may already know this story... Andy Warhol and Keith Haring collaborated on this painting as a wedding gift...


[©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts]

By the way, three years later, someone stole the painting from one of Madonna's homes... The FBI was on the case... The Smoking Gun posted all the details on the case back in 1999.

Anyway, happy 25th anniversary!

A naked Madonna spotted

Noted

Over at the Examiner, Sabrina Brody, the LA Celebrity Headlines Examiner, writes about Madonna's sue-happy neighbors upset about the noise coming from the star's NYC apartment. And then! the story goes here:

[I]t could be the general irritating whiny new fad that's started since New York City's gentrification rate skyrocketed. All these people moving to Alphabet City and the Lower East Side who proceed to complain that the notoriously grungy, loud neighborhood is grungy and loud. Hey, it's a city! A pretty tight city. The noise is part of the rush. YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY.

Important questions of the day (and our time): Is Madonna hanging out in East Village "dive bars"

A reader sent me this item about Madonna and her current boyfriend Jesus Luz from Radar:

Luz has followed Madonna from London to New York, appeared on her arm at the Met Gala and dive bars in the East Village of Manhattan.

Per the reader:

"Um, is Madonna really hanging out in East Village 'dive bars?'"

Oh, I forgot to mention this ... I was sitting in the Grassroots the other day. And Madonna and Jesus walk on... they only have credit cards, and the Grassroots doesn't take credit cards. So I buy them a $7 happy hour pitcher of Michelob Amber Bock and a $1 basket of popcorn... To thank me, Madonna gives me a Kabbalah bracelet made out of braided red string ...

Yeah, that's not true. If Madonna is hanging out in the East Village, it will likely make the cover of the Post.

Frivolous Friday week in review: "Be a dear and bring Nana her epsom salts"

What the hell. Former East Village resident Madonna appears in a 1,298-page spread in the March W with her boyfriend Jesus, who has his name tattooed on his back. The "Be a dear" line comes from a Goldenfiddle commenter upon seeing the photo spread of the 50-year-old Madonna and 22-year-old Jesus.

Taking another look at Pearl Street (and did Madonna and Britney ever get that wood?)

We've been watching the drama unfold on Pearl Street in the Financial District for years now...back to the days in 2003 when preservationists worked to rescue 211 Pearl St. from demolition by Rockrose Development Corp. Well. You know how this story ends. At least they were able to save the façade...

In case you don't know all the back story, here's a quickie from Downtown Express in 2003:

One of only a handful of existing Greek revival buildings that survived the great fire of 1835, 211 Pearl St. was constructed in the early 1830s by William Colgate, the founder of Colgate-Palmolive. Colgate used the building as a warehouse at a time when Pearl St. bustled as a hub for trading in dry goods.

The building's current owner, Rockrose Development Corporation, received demolition permits for 211 Pearl from the city's Buildings Department on Dec. 13, 2002, a Buildings spokesperson said. Rockrose is considering plans to demolish the building to make way for a rear entrance for a new, 650-unit residential development the company is constructing west of Pearl St., near Maiden Lane, Platt and Gold Sts.

"It's kind of ironic that, after having endured the tragedy of 9/11, we're talking about destroying a building that symbolizes the strength and endurance of New York," said Councilmember Alan Gerson.

Curbed ran an update on 211 Pearl yesterday...I don't have much to add to their recap from what I had ready to go...except...the What's Going on Here? sign for the project gives a finish date of Dec. 31, 2008. Definitely by Dec. 31, 2009!



And it's probably a good thing the northern side of the building is windowless...Someday they'll likely be a hotel next door...



Meanwhile, there's just that empty lot...




Complete with a handy place to sneak in...looks like a nice spot for some tags.



By the way! Before 211 Pearl St. was demolished, M. Fine Lumber Co., Inc. in Greenpoint bought all of the building’s pine ceiling beams -- roughly 350 in total. According to an article from the Oct. 7, 2003, Downtown Express:

At 211 Pearl St., only a silver remains of the historic Greek revival building that had stood there since the early 1830s. But elsewhere in the city, parts of the demolished interior have found new life, in a restaurant on the Upper West Side, in a tree guard on E. Fourth St., and possibly even on a music video set for Madonna and Britney Spears.

See if you can spot any pine ceiling beams:



Here's a post I did on the space for Curbed:
Development Plans on Pearl Street Now Short Term

New promo shots for Madonna

According to The Superficial: "It's like she walked on set and asked to look like Marilyn Manson, but less appealing to the eye. That said, this can't be selling CDs. Unless they come with razor blades, in which case, I'll take two."

Speaking of the former East Village resident...in case you missed this over the weekend... back in 1979, when Madonna was a struggling artist or dancer or something in NYC, she posed nude for $25. Now that photographer, Lee Friedlander, has the shot up for grabs at Christie's. It's expected to fetch $10,000 to $15,000, unless A-rod gets in on the bidding. (Christie's; maybe NSFW depending on where you work)

Desperately Seeking 1985 New York City

There's a free screening tonight of 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan at McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint. It's a silly movie (stolen ancient Egyptian earrings! amnesia! mistaken identities!) that I enjoy watching every summer. (In fact, I just watched it Sunday night.) As Brian J. Dillard writes in his review at allmovie.com, "A classic Hollywood screwball comedy transposed to modern-day Manhattan, Desperately Seeking Susan offered mid-'80s moviegoers a mall-friendly version of hip New York style, much like Madonna did throughout her early musical career." Hmm, that's about right. I like it for a lot of reasons, such as seeing youngish John Turturro, Steven Wright and Giancarlo Esposito, among others, in small roles. And director Susan Seidelman rounded out the film with several downtown musicians/performers -- Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, Richard Hell, John Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Ann Magnuson. And, of course, you get to see some mid-1980s New York, including several scenes in the East Village. (Nice, too, that many of these places are still around some 23 years later, including Gem Spa, Trash & Vaudeville, B & H Dairy and Love Saves the Day.)

Wacky Neighbor had a post on Susan's production design in September 2004. As he notes, the players behind the look of the film were Woody Allen regulars at the time.

Meanwhile, here are a few screenshots from Desperately Seeking Susan.

On St. Mark's.

On Second Avenue.

In front of Love Saves the Day.

Ohhh! Don't mess with the guy with the bucket of the Colonel hanging around Second Avenue and 7th Street!

Scary clubgoers! Do all New Yorkers look like this?!

Outside the Magic Club. (In the film, the club is said to be on Broadway. According to Wikipedia, some of the interiors and exteriors were filmed in Harlem.)

Now, some Desperately Seeking Susan trivia from Wikipedia, which means it may or may not be right:
* The filmakers had initially wanted Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn to play the roles of Roberta and Susan. But the director decided to cast newcomers Rosanna Arquette and Madonna instead. 

* Bruce Willis was up for the role of Dez. Melanie Griffith was up for the part of Susan as well.
* Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin to the part of Susan. Barkin was the producers first choice for the part, but the director claimed Barkin had a lack of substance.
* The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the film when it is still covered in scaffolding during its two year renovation.
* The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
* The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
* The movie was originally filmed in the summer of 1984, early in Madonna's rise to popularity, and was intended to be an R-rated feature. However, following the success of the singer's 1984-85 hits "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl," the film was trimmed in content by Orion Pictures in order to receive a PG-13 rating in order for Madonna's teenage fanbase to be able to see it
* The interior / exterior shots of The Magic Club were filmed in Harlem.
* Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her a start in the music business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
In case why you were wondering why some SATC fans are now into Richard Hell