Back to Bonaparte

Here's a quick one I've been meaning to put up.

When Bleecker Bob's at 118 West Third Street closed back in 2013, there was much hue and cry over its untimely and unfortunate demise. Many of us in the NYC bloggy community suggested the place should be given landmark status. I penned many a weepy post that looked back fondly at my own experiences of shopping at that fabled spot. But, in due course, it was shuttered .... then said to shortly become yet another frozen yogurt emporium.

That, however, never happened (although there are still too many goddamn fro-yo places).

The enterprise that forced the closure of Bleecker Bob's divested, and it became nothing but a sad, empty space for a great while. I believe 118 West Third Street  is currently slated to soon become a sushi bar.

In any case, my good friend Howard "How Weird" Forbes posted an image on Facebook that caught my eye: A still from a shlocky movie from 1982 called "The Last Horror Film" (brought to you by Troma, the same folks responsible for "The Toxic Avenger"). Here is the still in question:

Howard caption it with:

Watching THE LAST HORROR FILM from 1982. Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Materials store is still where I first discovered it, but Bleecker Bob's has not yet moved in to their space.

This pretty much blew a new part in my hair.

Pictured in the space where Bleecker Bob's would soon occupy is an establishment called Bonaparte. I was intrigued. We've all heard that 118 West Third had originally been a beatnik nightclub called The Night Owl back in the day, but I was ignorant as to its incarnations other than as Bleecker Bob's.

Wrongly assuming Bonaparte was a French restaurant, I discovered that Bonaparte had also been a record store (as fleetingly detailed in this blog post about a U2 fan who spilled chocolate milk on a copy of the Circle Jerks debut LP). Go figure.

If you have any recollections of Bonaparte, please share them!

"The Last Horror Film," meanwhile, looks fairly worth avoiding (with all due respect to the predilections of my friend Howard). The only notable factor I can assess from the trailer below is that the film stars an absurdly sexy actress named Caroline Munro. You might remember her as the reporter lady/love interest in Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" video.

Meanwhile, here's what the strip pictured in Howard's still of 118 West Third Street looks like today. Jerry Ohlinger's moved to West 14th Street after this, then to West 35th streeet and then eventually closed.

And, should you care, here's a taste of "The Last Horror Film."

Comments

[Randee Dawn]

"This pretty much blew a new part in my hair."

That's my new favorite line.

[G]

My recollections of that address (and they might or might not be a little off):

When I first went on that block in maybe '80-'81, I was looking for comics/comix. 118 W. 3rd was still the Night Owl, but it was a head shop. They had the underground comix I was looking for, plus they were still selling a lot of old 60s posters (I remember getting Y. Rascals & Buffalo Springfield). Then there was the Batcave for the regular comics down those stairs in the still there--the movie material store was in the basement on the other side of that stoop. Bleeker Bobs was still on MacDougal on the other side of the park. I don't remember Bonaparte.

This is the hazy part: I remember later the Night Owl moving down W.3rd towards 6th Ave., but then the building it was in got torn down and then that McDonalds (that's still there) went up in the same spot. Can anyone else confirm that?

[JAM]

i definitely remember bonaparte, open for just a short time but used to shop there often, along with 99 records around the corner, second coming on sullivan st and the original bleecker bob's. it was run by some british guys, and they specialized in the more "classy" new wave stuff at the time like haircut 100, flock of seagulls, modern romance, lots of new romantic stuff. i've often thought about that place but had forgotten the name, glad i stumbled across your post. good memories.

[JAM]

did some online digging, details here in a 1981 issue of billboard on when they opened: http://books.google.com/books?id=rCQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=PT62&dq=bonaparte+records+new+york&source=bl&ots=d2hXuYEo4x&sig=ueJOJMEfoFej9KqI2nyMrOMoB5M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QcwtVMy7KMzisASKt4D4Bw&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bonaparte%20records%20new%20york&f=false

if you have trouble with the link, try googling "bonaparte records new york" and it's one of the first results.