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Colony Music Closing Doors After 64 Years In Times Square
By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 23, 2012
Modified Aug 23, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 23, 2012
Modified Aug 23, 2012
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Photo via bettyblade's flickr
After 64 years of holding it down in Times Square, Colony Music will close its doors next month. The store confirmed to VanishingNY that they'll be shutting down, but didn't give an exact date. While not everyone's a fan of the shop, Charles Hutchinson of Academy Music reacted with sadness, saying, "I'm heartsick when any unique business that promotes music, books, and culture in general gets forced out of this city... Record Stores, despite all the vinyl-is-back hubbub, are proving to be as vulnerable as the next mom-&-pop in the Bloombergian Era."
Colony—originally opened by Harold S. "Nappy" Grossbardt and Sidney Turk in 1948—is home to one of the largest collections of sheet music in the country, and used to see many famous musicians coming through its doors. In 2009, the NY Times took a stroll down memory lane, publishing some great anecdotes and memories of the store—when James Brown first visited, he looked around and said, "This smells like a music store." Michael Jackson was a customer since his days in the Jackson 5, and when he got older he had a secret entrance and knock when he wanted to visit.
The original storefront was actually at Broadway and 52nd Street, but in 1970 they moved to 1619 Broadway, inside of the Brill Building. Currently the owner (Mike, Harold's son) is not commenting on why they are closing. Here he is flipping through some finds:
In 2010 a group raised money through Kickstarter for a documentary on the store, called Manhattan Lullaby... hopefully now they'll finish it.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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