NEW YORK CITY MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS, #1 OF 5: Paul Stanley

Paul Stanley (Vocal/Guitar)
Birth name: Stanley Bert Eisen
Birthday: January 20, 1952
Heritage: Jewish

Many people say this about Paul Stanely: he was born to be a star. His strong vocal perfect match with hard rock, his songwriting skill, his stage performance, and his face with sex appeal…each is star material. And being a rock star was a shy kid’s big dream. As we can’t imagine KISS without Paul Stanley, we can’t imagine the world without him.
The shining star was fallen in northern Manhattan in 1952.

INWOOD, MANHATTAN

W. 211st Street and Broadway, Inwood neighborhood, located at the northern end of Manhattan. This is where the history of KISS frontman all started. Paul Stanley lived in this neighborhood until 8 years old. The photo above faces to the north.
This corner is one of the two centers in Inwood neighborhood with a convenient transit hub with 207th Street Station, the terminal of A subway line, and several bus lines including Bx 12-Select bus, a frequent bus rapid transit service crossing Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx. The famous Times Square is about 30 minutes away by A train.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d24137.894033502227!2d-73.9390905261408!3d40.8666782305165!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x89c2f3f71ea2a777%3A0x473fc122f5dd021c!2sInwood%2C+New+York%2C+NY!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1466399109883&w=800&h=600]

This area is also served by #1 subway line with 207th Street Station on 10th Avenue, 4 blocks away from Broadway. Inwood has a convenient access to Midtown Manhattan by subways. Also, University Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, another borough of New York City, is right across a bridge in front of 207th Street Station of 1 train. This area is a busy crossing point of 2 boroughs, that has different characteristics.

On the photo above, the bridge on the left is University Heights Bridge (207th St Bridge) and beyond the bridge with the multiple apartment complexes is University Heights area, the Bronx. The street before the bridge is 207th Street and after the bridge is Fordham Road, one of the major streets in the Bronx. That narrow bridge is always crowded even on the daytime (the photo was taken at a weekday rush hour). Ace Frehley grew up in the Bronx not far from Inwood, about 15 minutes by bus. The crowd on the bus stop on the right is for Bx 12-Select bus to the Bronx.

Broadway and 207th Street are now a big shopping district for local Latinos with many stores, restaurants, and small night clubs backed by convenient transportation access and increasing the population.

Paul wrote in his autobiography, Face the Music: A Life Exposed, “A few Jewish immigrant families, like ours, lived in the part of upper Manhattan I lived, but it was predominantly Irish” (Stanley, 2014, p. 22) when he was young. Right now, the majority of Inwood area is Latinos, especially Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. The area’s ethnic demographic is divided by Broadway. The west of Broadway, Inwood Hill Park side, is more white. The east of Broadway, around Paul’s old apartment, is more Latino and has the blue-collar atmosphere. Though the area has been getting safer. On Kiss: Behind the Mask, Paul recalled Inwood was “a tough Manhattan neighborhood (Leaf & Sharp, 2014, p. 28). According to Wikipedia, “Inwood had one of the highest crime rates. From 1993 and 2010, crime decreased by 83%”, so it was probably that Inwood was rough in his childhood.

211st Street is a short and quiet street despite other crowded and noisy streets. Because all apartments along the street are old, the areal view should have been nothing much changed since his childhood. Old brick apartments occupy Inwood section and there is no visible residential development going on in the area unlike Midtown and below.

Paul wrote in his book that his one-bed room apartment was next to his elementary school on 211st Street, PS 98 (PS=public school). PS 98 still exists, and there is a mid-size old apartment next to the school. Because there are only 2 apartments on the school side of 211st Street between Broadway and PS 98, probably Paul grew up in one of those two buildings. On that book, Paul explained he was an isolated kid with not many friends and worried about right ear’s deformity.

The above photo is Fordham Road in University Heights, Bronx, overlooking Inwood beyond the University Heights Bridge (207th St. Bridge). Paul wrote on Face the Music, “One afternoon I went for a walk with my grandmother. We crossed the 207th Street bridge into the Bronx, heading toward Fordham Road. On the far side of the bridge was a record shop. We went inside and my grandmother let me pick out my first-ever record: a 78 RPM shellac single of “All I Have to Do Is Dream”, by the Everly Brothers” (Stanley, 2014, p. 22). There is no record store around the bridge on the Bronx side anymore, but maybe the view young Stanley saw after buying his first record was similar to this photo. University Heights is also a Latino neighborhood in a hilly landscape, but the atmosphere is more laid back than the busy and noisy environment of Inwood. The Bronx is the only New York City borough in the continent, while other boroughs are in the islands.

• The video of the current environment in Inwood, Manhattan where Stanley spent his childhood.

{EAT N’ ROLL!: DYCKMAN STREET, INWOOD}
There are some restaurants around the 207th St-Broadway-10th Avenue, but more popular and contemporary restaurants are on Dyckman Street between Broadway and Inwood Hill Park, 3 blocks south of 207th Street.

(PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ACCESS FROM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN)
A subway to 207th Street (on Broadway) or 1 subway to 207th Street (on 10th Avenue)

QUEENS ERA
Paul Stanly moved to Queens when he was 8 years old. He lived on 75th Road around Main Street. This area is called Kew Garden Hills, located eastern Queens, a little distant from Kew Gardens where subway stops at Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens station.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1ExvFF0OOWYsm4g9w9BoRd-QQSR8&w=640&h=480]

Queens can be categorized into two; prosperous area along subway lines or simple and quite boring residential areas without subway lines. Those chategories can be same with any other NYC boroughs, too, but Queens is more significant than other boroughs. It’s probably because Queens mainly has subway lines only along Queens Boulevard (E, F, M and R trains), along Roosevelt Avenue (7 trains), Astoria area (N and Q trains), and a little bit on the south (A train) in the biggest land of the city, while other boroughs have subways spread within the areas. The neighborhoods without subways are served by buses but buses are more inconvenient than trains. There are many stores in the areas with the subway lines, but less in the area without.
Kew Garden Hills neighborhood doesn’t have any subway line. Paul described Face the Music: A Life Exposed, that his new neighborhood was dominantly Jewish and “functioned like a small town in the middle of nowhere. Within a few tree-lined blocks were a library, a post office, a buthcher,  a baker, a shoe store, an A&P grocery, a toy store, a hardware store, a pizza parlor, and ice cream shop” (Stanley, 2014, p. 24). The characteristic of Kew Garden Hills and Main Street are still pretty much same today. The street he wrote was Main Street, runs North-South connecting Flushing and Briarwood neighborhoods. Kew Garden Hills is still middle-class Jewish neighborhood with Jewish stores, synagogues, and schools. Wikipedia wrote the population of other races such as Latinos, Asians, and Afghanis has been increasing…but I saw mostly orthodox Jewish people when I visited the area. Main Street around Stanley’s home still has lined trees a small shopping area with a post office, library (under renovation), butchers, a movie theater (Main Street Cinema), and an old fashioned ice cream shop (Max and Mina’s Ice Cream…though I think the store is different with his childhood. See below). A&P, a shoe store, a toy store, a hardware store, and Middle Earth, a head shop that sold, according to Stanley, “all sorts of drug paraphernalia” (Stanley, 2014, p. 37) were gone now. The area’s businesses are smaller than Queens Boulevard area because of no subway access and it makes Kew Garden Hill like a little remote area.

Most notably, Paul Stanley isn’t only popular musician grew up in Kew Garden Hills. Both Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, also Jewish, grew up in the neighborhood, not far from Stanley’s apartment. Although Simon and Garfunkel are 9 years senior of Paul, it’s highly possible that they lived in Kew Garden Hills during the same period. The small area was a home of 3 feature legendary musicians who created history!

Paul wrote he lived on 75th Road on his autobiography. He didn’t mention the exact address he grew up but Face the Music: A Life Exposed has a photo of him and his sister in front of his apartment. 75th Road isn’t a long street. Soon after entering to 75th Road, I found two apartment buildings similar to the photo on the right side of the street. Those apartments don’t have short white border fences surrounding a small front yard like the old photo, but the same colored brick apartments still have 4 tall white pillars on the entrance. The apartment across the road still has the same white garage door with the black diamond in the center shown on one of the books’s photo collections. Paul also described his apartment on Face the Music: A Life Exposed “divided into four apartments, two upstairs and two downstairs, with a yard in the front” (Stanley, 2014, p. 24). Probably this apartment.

Paul was still the kid tried to keep a distance from his classmates in his new neighborhood. He also had an issue with his sister who started having the psychiatric trouble after moving to the area. But Queens era was the time he was more passionate about music and being a rock star. He watched the famous Beatle’s show at Ed Sullivan Show when he was 12 years old in 1964, and that gave him a big music influence.

Above is the southbound Q44-Select bus to Jamaica at a bus stop on the corner of Main Street and 73rd Avenue, near his apartment. Paul took Q44 bus to Jamaica for visiting a record store nearby its last stop.
Q44-Select runs between Bronx Zoo and Jamaica through popular Flushing, a large Asian neighborhood in Queens, and is one of the only two bus lines connect the Bronx and Queens. Because of this, the bus line is always crowded even with large 2-car buses and frequent service. All Q44 shifted to Select bus, bus rapid transit system, in 2015 and became more convenient and faster.

• The video of the current environment in Kew Garden Hills where Stanley spent his childhood after 8 years old.

(PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION TO KEW GARDEN HILL FROM MANHATTAN)
F subway to Briarwood/Van Wyck Blvd. (also E on weekend) then Q44-Select (rapid service) to Bronx Zoo or Q20 A/B (local) to College Point.
Or 7 subway to Main Street Flushing, then Q44-Select or Q20 A/B to Jamaica. Get off at Main Street and 73rd Street.

To ride on the Q44-Select bus, make sure to obtain a ticket at a vending machine on bus stops before riding on the bus. No ticket is subject to fine upon inspection.

Triboro Records located around Jamaica Colosseum Mall above, formerly Macy’s, on 165th Street Pedestrian Mall and 89th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. Macy’s was in conjunction with 165th Street Bus Terminal, the previous terminal of Q44 bus around Paul’s childhood (now the last stop of Q44 is on Archer Avenue, 10 minutes walk). That large record store gave an opportunity of experiment music to young Paul, such as “James Brown, Joe Tex, and Otis Redding, as well as black comedians like Redd Foxx, Pigmeat Markham, and Moms Mabley” (Stanley, 2014, p. 35).
Triboro Records doesn’t exist anymore. Macy’s was gone and changed to Jamaica Colosseum Mall, and the mall is even on sale now. 165th Street Pedestrian Mall is a loud area and not good, honestly.

New York State Pavilion at Flashing Meadows Corona Park in Corona neighborhood. 17 years old Paul Stanley saw Led Zeppelin’s concert here. Their music and performance, especially Jimmy Page’s guitar play and Robert Plant’s singing style and appearance, gave a lot of influence to young Stanley. The Pavilion was one of Stanley’s origin to a universal rock star, the dream he had in his youth.
New York State Pavilion was built for 1964 World’s Fair. The Pavilion still exists but left abandoned for a long time. People can take a sneak view of the inside from the fence. You’ll be surprised that is the place the legendary Led Zeppelin played: it’s small. Stanley wrote the number of audience was less than 2,000 that time.

{ROCK N’ VISIT!: FLUSHING MEADOWS CORONA PARK}
Flushing Meadow Corona Park is a large park including many attractions such as Arthur Ashe Stadium (the home of U.S. Open Tennis), Queens Museum, Queens Zoo, New York Hall of Science and Meadow Lake. There is also Citifield, a baseball stadium for New York Mets, across 7 subway line. Located in central Queens, the park is surrounded by heavily populated residential areas such as Elmhurst, Corona, Forest Hills and Flushing. The Park was created for twice World’s Fair in 1939 and 1964.

(PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FROM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN)
7 subway line from Times Square or Grand Central to Mets-Willets Point Station.

• The video of a summer in Flushing Meadow Corona Park and the trace of New York State Pavilion.

{EAT N’ ROLL!:  MAX AND MINA’S ICE CREAM, KEW GARDEN HILLS}
Paul Stanley wrote in his autobiography, Face the Music: A Life Exposed, that there was a ice cream store on Main Street when he lived in Kew Garden Hills. Paul’s old neighborhood indeed has an authentic look ice cream store on Main Street, named Max and Mina’s Ice Cream. When I visited there on a hot summer day, I wasn’t sure the store was open or not because the window was a little dark and there was no “open” sign. When I pushed the door, oh my god, the inside of the store was full of good ol’ nostalgie, which I love! It was like a quick time machine trip to a good time oldschool. One side of the store walls were filled with a variety of cereal box covers all over. The wall behind the ice cream counter had a lot of 70s-80s classic pop art and stickers. The ceiling was full of vintage photos. The blue walls gave me the feel of natural comfortable breeze. The store interior was a form of art.
The background music from radio was classic 60-70’s rock. When I entered, the song was Red Zeppelin. How appropriate with that! I came to the area for researching their neighborhood’s rock icon, Paul Stanley, and his idol was Led Zeppelin.
I wanted to have a comfortable nostalgic moment with their ice cream at the store so I did. The taste of chocolate ice cream in the good vintage vibe was delicious. I felt like I was in a beach house in 70’s.

• The Video of Max and Mina’s Ice Cream’s interior.

Most likely, this is not the same ice cream store Paul Stanley mentioned in his book. A store staff told me the store has been in business for only 16 years. But the store interior made me feel like I was enjoying their ice cream in 1960’s, Paul’s youth era (though I was born in early 70’s). I had a good time at that store.

MAX AND MINA’S ICE CREAM: http://maxandminasicecream.com
ADDRESS: 71-26 Main Street, Flushing, NY  11367 (MAP)
TEL: 718-793-8629

ESCAPING TO MANHATTAN FOR THE MUSIC HE WANTED
As a former Queens residence for 17 years, I know one thing clear. Queens is not for music. Although Queens produced many other famous musicians besides Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Simon and Garfunkel, including Ramones, Tony Bennett, Cyndi Lauper, LL Cool J, NAS, etc, they had to cross East River to pursue music. Queens has been just a residential area without notable music venues overall. Brooklyn has more music venues than Queens.

Paul Stanley was no different. He sometimes skipped school and went to Manhattan to discover more music by subway. 48th Street in Midtown was his favorites, especially a large instrumental store named Manny’s .

48th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues used to be known as Music Row. There were many guitar/instrumental stores, most notably Manny’s and Sam Ash, in this one block until 4-5 years ago. They handled many high ends instrumentals. Now is this.

Nothing! All instrumental stores were completely gone. The famous Sam Ash moved to 34th Street. Paul’s favorite Manny is totally empty with still having the store sign. A gift store guy told me “Gone, gone, everything was gone”, and he was true. Those closures were the result of an extreme rent increase. I think another new skyscraper developments will start in this street, but looks like nothing will start soon. Almost all old buildings were left completely empty.  This is a sad part of today’s New York City, urban development erases many good, long standing culture and businesses.

Record Hunter was another Paul’s favorite record store that he could discover more music with its listening stations. Record Hunter was located at 507 5th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street. The record store was also closed in 1992 by another steep rent hike. Now the site is occupied by fancy cloth stores (H&M occupied there until last year).

This is a area people can enjoy to view two beautiful NYC’s landark buildings; Chryslar Building and Empire State Building.

The area’s major change since 1960’s when Stanley visited Record Hunter and Music Row was probably Bryant Park. Anti-Vietnam War rally was held in the park in 1960’s. Then the park was called “Needle Park”, meaning drug’s needles. The park was dangerous with drug dealers and prostitutions.
Today’s Bryant Park is people’s refleshing park even at night. The park held free outside movies at night.

Paul Stanley chose High School of Music & Arts in Harlem after junior high school. He had talent on drawing other than music, and the drawing was his second option in the case he couldn’t make his dream come true with music, although the music was his ultimate top priority. Alas, Stanley admitted he didn’t do a good job at the school.
The old building of High School of Music & Art still exists on the top of a hill overlooking St. Nicolas Park and Harlem, 135th Street and Convent Avenue, but the building is now used as A Philip Randolph Campus High School. High Schoo of Music & Art merged with Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in W. 64th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
I think going school to/from his home in Kew Garden Hills was tough for Paul, it can easily take 2 hours one-way even today.

When Paul Stanley was 15, he debuted on his first performance as a rhythm guitarist of “The Post War Baby Boom” at Tompkins Square Park, located on Avenue A between E. 7th and E. 10th Streets. There is no permanent stage in the park, but sometimes the park has a temporary stage in the circle plaza of the park on summer.

The photo above is Apple Bank on 105 Second Avenue at E. 6th Street. The bank building used to be a concert venue named Village Theater until 1968 then Filmore East until 1971. Paul Stanley frequently saw live performance here during his high school year, sometimes with his female classmate. After the closure, the building changed to several different venues and night clubs, then became a branch of Emigrant Saving Bank for a while before taken over by Apple Bank.
Also, all KISS members enjoyed music at Fillmore East before KISS. Ace Frehley and Peter Criss even played at the club before joining KISS.

East Village used to have the most progressive underground music scene of the world. The world of East Village was sleazy, avant-garde, dark, dirty, and aggressive 25 years ago, but most importantly, addictive, if you liked (I do). The neighborhood had a very good environment for the artists who wanted to be creative on “unusual” music majority of people never heard of. Although I still like East Village more than West Village, East Village is more polished and modern by redevelopment like other parts of the city today. Especially in this one year, many old buildings were demolished and new contemporary condos have been built. That trend swept good ol’ dirty atmosphere, although it’s good to be safer. It’s a sad part of New York City.

• The video of East Village and Tompkins Sqaure Park on Sunday evening.

• Visit TRIPMUZE’s photo page, “East Village and Lower East Side”, taken on last winter.

Paul Stanley attended Jimi Hendrix’s show at Hunter College auditorium when he was 17 years old. He also “saw the Who the Yardbirds, and Traffic. I saw Otis Redding and Solomon Burke” (Stanley, 2014, p. 50) at the venue. The series of his concert experiences gave him a strong influence on his music career, especially forming his future band, KISS.

*The videos are recorded by TRIPMUZE.COM.

READ MORE EPISODES OF “NEW YORK MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS” SERIES!

1. NEW YORK CITY MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS: Prelude
2. NEW YORK CITY MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS, PART 2: Ace Frehley
3. NEW YORK CITY MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS, PART 3: Gene Simmons
4. NEW YORK CITY MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS, PART 4: Peter Criss
5. NEW YORK CITY MUSIC TRIP/FROM THE LIFE OF ORIGINAL KISS MEMBERS, PART 5: From The Birth of KISS to Their Golden Era in NYC

THE LATEST “MUSIC TRIP” SERIES!! DONNA SUMMER IN BOSTON, KISS’ FORMER LABELMATE AT CASABLANCA!

1. BOSTON MUSIC TRIP/DONNA SUMMER, INTRODUCTION: Fairly Tale High Boston
2. BOSTON MUSIC TRIP/DONNA SUMMER, #1 OF 2: Birth-Childhood
3. BOSTON MUSIC TRIP/DONNA SUMMER, #2 OF 2: High School Era
4. BOSTON MUSIC TRIP/DONNA SUMMER, OUTTAKE: Dining and Getting Around

REFERENCE
Stanley, P. (2014). Face the Music: A Life Exposed. New York, NY: HarperCollins

Leaf, D. & Sharp, K. (2003). Kiss: Behind the Mask. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group

KISS (band). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_(band)

Paul Stanley. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Stanley

Inwood, Manhattan. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inwood,_Manhattan

Kew Garden Hills, Queens. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew_Gardens_Hills,_Queens

165th Street Bus Terminal. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/165th_Street_Bus_Terminal

Jamaica Colosseum Mall is For Sale, Asking $45 million: 89-02 165th Street (n.d.). In New York YIMBY. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from http://newyorkyimby.com/2015/01/jamaica-colosseum-mall-for-sale-asking-45-million-89-02-165th-street.html

Q20 and Q44 buses. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q20_and_Q44_buses

Flushing Meadow Corona Park. (n.d.). In New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/flushing-meadows-corona-park/highlights/12632

New York State Pavillion. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 7, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Pavilion

Martin, D (1993, January 4). Strictly Business; How the Music Stopped For Record Hunter. In New York Times. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/04/nyregion/strictly-business-how-the-music-stopped-for-the-record-hunter.html

The Village Voice. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1299&dat=19581231&id=ttpHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NYwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4715,4222908&hl=en

The High School of Music & Art. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_School_of_Music_%26_Art

Fillmore East. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillmore_East

Bryant Park. (n.d.). In Bryant Park Corporation. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from
http://www.bryantpark.org/

Bryant Park. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryant_Park

Fitch, Vernon. The Soft Machine-A Chronology 1966 to 1984. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from http://pinkfloydarchives.com/SM/SMdates.htm

1968-03-02 Hunter College, New York City, New York, USA. Crosstown Torrents. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from http://crosstowntorrents.org/archive/index.php/t-4438.html