Mystery Achievement: Did Bob Egan find Cell 54?

You may have already seen this, if you’re patient and tolerant enough to follow me on Facebook, but for the sake of bringing things up to speed here, here’s an update since the last chapter.

Remember how I said I frequently have help when it comes to solving these things? Well, more than a few times, that help comes via the scrupulous eye for minute detail that is Bob Egan of Popspots (who I’ve mentioned here hundreds of times). After I posted the development the other day wherein Richard Moody disclosed the location of photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s former studio, Bob went to work in his inimitable fashion. Here’s what he had to say… and show….

HI ALex, I was at the Strand so I looked thru Lynn Goldsmith's photo book "Rock and Roll Stories." In it there's a picture of Ian Hunter in front of the Cell 54 awning. She mentions it was right after a shoot so I figure it's on her studio block. Her studio according to Google was at 241 West 36th. Adds no clues except the light pole that's to the left in this picture of 223 West 36th which I am 95% sure if the Pretenders location. I can't add more than one photo on Facebook, so I will add them separately., following...

This is a picture of Ian Hunter from the session that also has him outside Cell 54 awning. I think in this he's across the street because the traffic goes the other way.

This shows #241 West 36th where Lynn Goldsmith's studio was, and to the right, #223 West 36th Street where I think the Pretenders were.

This is one of the only old fashioned brick buildings on the block. It's a three story building. Notice that it has the same stoops as in the Pretenders pic and also the same brickwork as to the right of the Pretenders pic. As I said I'm 95% Sure this is it, since some of the other people who wrote you thought it was along this block.. For the other 5% I'd have to look at 223 West 36th Street up in the 1980 reverse phone book, whichI I will next time I'm at the library, and see if there was a luncheonette there, maybe one with an owner whose last name begins with CELL..

What say you? Did Bob solve the mystery?

Comments

[Robert Egan]

I looked at the reverse phone directory for 1980 at the NYPL and the following business were located at 223 West 36th Street:
1) Vintrell Tavern
2) Hyklass Foods
3) Nakahasi Kenji
-No mention of Cell54. No one with a name like Cellonite that mmight have been shortened.
-Maybe the coffeeshop's was registered as Vintrell Tavern but it went by Cell54?
-It's a mystery inside a conundrum wrapped in an enigma, as Woody Allen I think once said.

[David George]

I'm not totally convinced that it's solved. One of the difficulties is that it's really hard to determine how wide the door is where Chrissy H is standing, but it appears to be narrower in the head-on shot. And I don't think the brick pattern is too significant because that would be standard stuff on that type of construction.

Also, in the marked (new) photo, the edge of the stoop (obscured by the chair) seems to run all the way to where the vertical line that is the edge of the bricks is, whereas in the Pretenders shot it appears to end even with the edge of trim around the door.

I guess a visit to 223 West 36th Street is in order.

These things are maddening, you know. :)

[URLBrenner]

Call me crazy but it seems like most of the time when there's a reference to a number in the name of a business the number usually specifies the street it's on. Could it be that Cell 54 was on 54th St.? Just a thought.

Wherever this Cell 54 place was this image captures a time and place that will probably never be matched EVER again. It just underscores that music and the city at that time were a SHITLOAD more interesting than they are today. Yeah, I'll say it it again...in terms of popular culture things were waaay more original and progressive back when. That's not nostalgia, that's a fact. 'The Future Sucked!!"

[David George]

URLBrenner said:

"this image captures a time and place that will probably never be matched EVER again."

I couldn't agree more. I work early hours and walk throughout the city almost every afternoon, with no particular destination in mind (usually taking pictures here and there). Today I wandered past Wollman Rink, and it got me a bit teary in terms of what was and never will be again. Saw so many great shows there: Rockpile w/ Blondie, Devo, Joe Jackson, Talking Heads w/the B52s, the Ramones, the Pretenders....

And that was when people actually watched and listened and danced instead of staying glued to their fucking evil phone shooting a crappy video they will never watch...