Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A Visit to the Studio

As we recently reported, the old Dark Shadows studio on Manhattan's West 53rd Street has become the home of The Wendy Williams Show. Gene and David, readers of this site, paid a visit, and shared these photos.

"We walked by on a Friday when Wendy was not taping, but we were invited inside," says Gene. "We were asked not to photograph beyond the lobby; we did not have a full studio tour. I travel into Manhattan and walk the streets around this address frequently. I never got around to taking photos until last week. I just felt the urge. Many of the surrounding buildings are being torn down and replaced by high rise condos. I hope the studio remains forever!"


8 comments:

David Elijah Nahmod said...

Growing up in 1960s NYC, I know that building well. Summer vacations were made for hanging out in front of 433 West 53rd.
Ah, the memories......
(-:

Anonymous said...

I remember as a kid, my friends and I would hang out in front of the studio taking Polaroid pics of the Dark Shadows cast and autographs. Like old times...

DS Rubber Bat said...

It's great to see a full shot of the outside of the studio. Ofcourse kids thought that the building looked much bigger than it did. It's fun to remember that the kids used to wait hours for the actors to come out and stop and pose for pictures by that studio window and doorway and that awful looking loading bay door. ALSO those brick walls were always covered in fun DS grafetti of the time, like "Barnabas sucks so and so" and "so and so loves Selby or Henesy"

Rubyred-Sharon said...

How awesome is that: great news and update on the Classic DARK SHADOWS Studio's/West 53rd in Manhatten, NY. Thanks for sharing David & Gene I bet it brought a flood of precious memories: thrilled to know that the "fame" frisky-beauty Talk Show Hostess Ms. Wendy WILLIAMS is taking good care of the legacy DS landmark that brought our Iconic DS's Cast & Crew together in the mid 60's. It looks great "may" it be there forever! Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

Thankfully it no longer looks like this. Wendy Williams is out of there now. All of the awnings, signs, and banners are gone. So its back to just the plain, old studio.

Soapluvva said...

One of my friends from JHS 217 Q. and Jamaica HS, Richard Mervis (a.k.a. Ricky Mervis), had a father, Irwin Mervis, who worked at the Hudson-Shatz Painting Company at 429 West 53 Street in Manhattan.

That building was right next door to the DS studio at 433 West 53 Street.

Ricky's dad would tell him interesting things that he saw, pertaining to DS, which would then get relayed to me.

For example, "Today, I saw a werewolf leaning out the window, waving to people in the street."

I was first inside 433 West 53 Street in the late 1980s or early 1990s (I think) when it had become a disco called The Red Zone.

I was attending a party that was being hosted by the Dark Shadows Festival.

One of the people whom I chatted with at the party was Nick Besink. He was a cameraman and video engineer who had worked on DS.

Nick told me that the "flames" opening billboard of "One Life to Live" had been filmed in the DS studio.

Nowadays, Ricky is a prominent interior designer in Manhattan.

http://mynottinghill.blogspot.com/2012/05/designer-richard-mervis-home.html

Greetings from beautiful, downtown Briarwood!

www.youtube.com/soapluvva

Unknown said...

It's hard to believe that the Dark Shadows show was filmed in that small brick building. It must have been the place back in 19966-1971.

briansmac said...

Wendy Williams? There goes the neighborhood! LOL