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HERE

Rumors of the Phone Booth’s Demise Are Wrong by Four, All on the UWS

May 24, 2022 | 7:02 PM
in NEWS, OUTDOORS
25
Photograph by Alison Guigan.

By Carol Tannenhauser

The headline of Secret NYC was unambiguous, as were those of several other sources, including the New York Post:

“NYC’s Last Free-Standing Payphone Has Officially Been Removed”

“But has it been???” reader Alison McGuigan asked in an email to WSR. “I live on West End Ave/93rd and there is a phone booth on WEA/90th (photo above)! Is this some kind of ironic art installation or the last phone booth in NYC/Manhattan?”

Yes, Allison. There is a phone booth.

In fact, there are four still standing, all on the Upper West Side, all on West End Avenue, on 66th 90th, 100th, and 101st Streets. We took a little jaunt and checked them out. None of the booths had doors. Three of the phones had dial tones, one was dead. We only had one quarter, which the phone ingested, then asked for 50 cents more, then went silent.

In case you still think it might be an illusion, Alison, below are pictures to prove their existence. But why were they spared? We researched high and low, and then found the answer in our own archives!

HISTORY RIPPED ASUNDER: THE LAST 4 REMAINING PHONE BOOTHS IN NYC ARE BEING REPLACED

And The New York Times had a story, too.

 

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25 Comments
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Robert
Robert
1 year ago

Shhh don’t tell ’em or they will come and take them away. The one on 100th has for a long time been disconnected, I go by it daily and you can see there are no wires going into it.

If they take them what will george reeves use to change in?

1
Reply
Michael
Michael
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert

George Reeves no, 1940s comic strip yes

https://www.supermanhomepage.com/other/other.php?topic=phonebooth

0
Reply
Bridget G
Bridget G
1 year ago
Reply to  Michael

Who is George Reeves? Do you mean Christopher Reeve? Or is George a Superman alter ego I’m unfamiliar with? 🙂

0
Reply
Andy Frobig
Andy Frobig
1 year ago
Reply to  Bridget G

George Reeves was Superman on TV in the ’50s. Before that he was one of Scarlett O’Hara’s suitors before the war.

0
Reply
EdNY
EdNY
1 year ago
Reply to  Robert

George Reeves’s Superman never changed in a phone booth!!!!! Usually a supply closet in the Daily Planet Building.

0
Reply
JC
JC
1 year ago

The ones that were removed were public phones. These are private phone booths on the UWS.

0
Reply
LAWRENCE BRAVERMAN
LAWRENCE BRAVERMAN
1 year ago

I don’t have a cellphone so I’d gladly pay to use a pay phone… if they ever worked.

But no: they never did; the last time I got ripped off I realized they were actually not phone booths but rather sidewalk toll booths whose sole purpose is to dun NYC street life.

1
Reply
Brenda
Brenda
1 year ago

I was surprised to hear WNYC repeat this story as if it was true.

There’s a phone booth just a few blocks from me

0
Reply
Mystery History
Mystery History
1 year ago

O.M.G.!! Finally a place for E.T. to “phone home!”
ALSO a place for weirdos to once again write “Dial PEACHES for a good time”

0
Reply
Christine E
Christine E
1 year ago

Thank goodness we can still visit the Lonely Phone Booth at 100th and West End Avenue.

https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Phonebooth-Peter-Ackerman/dp/156792414X

0
Reply
Ben
Ben
1 year ago

There is a great and funny children’s book about the one on WEA and 100th – The Lonely Phone Booth!

0
Reply
Marc Margolius
Marc Margolius
1 year ago
Reply to  Ben

Save the Lonely Phone Booth!

0
Reply
Steven Stark
Steven Stark
1 year ago

Back in the day, it was commonplace for production companies for TV shows or movies to place the old phone booths where they never actually existed. In the movie “The Goodbye Girl,” there’s a scene where Richard Dreyfuss calls Marsha Mason’s 78th Street apartment from a phone booth on corner of Amsterdam and 78th while it’s raining. There was never a phone booth on that corner other than for that movie shoot. And in “Superman,” Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent goes to a phone booth to change into Superman but it’s one of those newer open booths without a door.

1
Reply
Ira k
Ira k
1 year ago

We call the one at 66th the phone booth museum.

0
Reply
Chris L.
Chris L.
1 year ago

Calls are free from some of these remaining booths. Or at least they were a few years ago because a neighborhood association was paying to keep them up and running. No quarters required.

1
Reply
John Jay
John Jay
1 year ago

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doitt/downloads/pdf/Attachment-SRV-Services-(REVISED-FINAL-12-10-2014).pdf

Para. 1.2.8

0
Reply
Robert W
Robert W
1 year ago

“which the phone [sic] ingested, then asked for 50 cents more, then went silent.” one of the 3 with dial tone? I like the both outside the tsunami zone in Japan where one can call the dead.

0
Reply
robert w
robert w
1 year ago

booth near the tsunami zone

0
Reply
Mutual Interest
Mutual Interest
1 year ago

The phone booth is perfect to be recycled MTA transit shelters with community boards just add a seat and you are saved from mother nature’s force! or

The community boards should adopt all four of the phone booths for messaging analog purposes. or

art installations with a calendar for artist reservations.

0
Reply
tego
tego
1 year ago

Clark Kent could never change in these booths. He would be seen and exposed. Horrors!

0
Reply
The Flacks Report fan
The Flacks Report fan
1 year ago

It was Alan Flacks who pushed Gale Brewer to make sure that these phone booths are kept around. Whatever happened to him.

0
Reply
David
David
1 year ago

Umm. STILL wrong. Two more on 83rd and Broadway you forgot about

1
Reply
Rose
Rose
1 year ago

There’s also one on 104th and Broadway.

1
Reply
Mark Hill
Mark Hill
1 year ago

There were four phone booths in the entryway to the underground parking garage at 79th St. right on the Hudson River – the garage is used only by Parks workers (they have an office inside) and people who have boats on the pier there. I was working there ten years ago and I think they still worked.

0
Reply
Andy Frobig
Andy Frobig
1 year ago

I think the high attrition rate for phone booths is because of Underdog. Every time Shoeshine Boy went into a booth to change into Underdog, the booth explodes. That adds up.

0
Reply

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