Greenwich Village: A Primo Guide to Shopping, Eating, and Making Merry in True Bohemia

In Greenwich Village find out how in 1895 the Washington Square Arch, symbolic portal to Greenwich Village and the East Village, was officially christened in gala pageantry attended by Grover Cleveland. Read about Village Bohemians like Marcel Duchamp (Nude Descending a Staircase) and John Reed (The Day in Bohemia and Ten Days that Shook the World), who demanded independence for Village residents and visitors from the top of the arch in 1916, declaring it "Little Bohemia." Marvel at the exploits of Maxwell Bodenheim, Joe "Professor Seagull" Gould, Ruth (My Sister Eileen) McKenney (who lived at 14 Gay Street), Edna (named after St. Vincent's Hospital) Millay, Elanor Roosevelt, Barbara Streisand, Tiny Tim, Sam Shepard, Edward Albee, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol, and other Village "Bohemians."

Locate Keith Haring's Village murals and shop and Haring's Pop Shop, Religious Sex on St. Marks Place, Alphabets, Little Rickie, Grover van Dexter's Second Childhood, and Bleeker Bob's eclectic record emporium.

Take a bar run to old McSorley's, the Eerie Pubs, the Lion's Head, and the White Horse, where Dylan Thomas drank all night. Meet celebrities at Angelina Boone's Pennyfeathers on Sheridan Square or have an egg cream at Stingy Lulu's or the Gem Spa.

Eat the best croissant this side of Paris at Chez Claude. Sip espresso and cappuccino at the Reggio, Caffe Dante, the Bleeker Street Pastry Shop, or De Robertis Pasticceria.

Listen to poetry at the Cornelia Street Cafe of see anew play at Theater for the New City, La Mama, the Nuyorican, of the Ridiculous. Visit the site of the first off-off Broadway theater, the Caffe Cino. Check out the jazz and cabaret scene at Five Oaks, Marie's Crisis, the Vanguard, or the Blue Note.

Enjoy the gastronomical-pizza at John's Southern cooking at the Pink Tea Cup, Polish fare at the Kiev or the Veselka, falafel at Mamoun's, pastrami, kielbasa, chopped liver, sauerkraut, yellow mustard, and Cel-Ray tonic at Katz's. Buy some fancy foodstuffs at Dean & Deluca's and Balducci's. Have your coffee ground at the Porto Rico.
rTake a unique, self-guided tour down wild Christopher Street to the Stonewall, Boots and Saddles, and the Caffe Passione. Follow in the footsteps of freewheelin' Bob Dylan down the twisting alleys of Minetta on a "Positively Fourth Street" walk. Follow the zigzag/East-West walk and see East Village skinheads and their green-haired girlfriends wearing nose rings walking their pitbulls in Tompkins Square Park. Take all the walks, including the Broadway Shopaholic Walk to buy Avirex leather jackets, complete stereo sets, and futon mattresses, an walks through the historic West Village and SoHo.

Added Attractions: Robert Heide's Village play American Hamburger, Tom Lohre's artwork, Phil Cohen's photographs, detailed maps, Greenwich Village history, original poetry, ghost stories, architecture, and much more.

Robert Heide, born in Irvington, New Jersey, received his formal education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with the great theater teacher Alvina Krause. Following this exercise in academia, he moved to Greenwich Village, studying the theater (acting, directing, playwrighting) with Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, and Harold Clurman. A seminal playwright of the off-off Broadway movement of the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Heide had his many plays produced at the Cherry Lane, New Playwrights, Caffe Cino, Cafe La Mama, Theater for the New City, Westbeth Theater, New York Theater Strategy-all in the Village. His works were produced in cities across America as well. The scenerios for his play The Bed and the original filmscript The Death of Lupe Velez were filmed by Andy Warhol. He was a member of Edward Albee's Playwrights Group at the Van Dam Theater. His plays were published in the collections The Best of Off-Off Broadway (E.P. Dutton; Michael Smith, editor), The Off-Off Broadway Book (Bobbs-Merril; Albert Poland, Bruce Mailman, editors), New American Plays, Volume 4 (Hill & Wang; William M. Hoffman, editor), as well as in acting editions (Breakthrough Press), and he is, with John Gilman, the author of a number of books on American popular culture-ranging in subject matter from cowboys to the Great Depression and Mickey Mouse. Moon, with the original Cino cast, along with The Bed, with John Patterson, was presented in 1993 at Theater for the New City. A play about Andy Warhol is in the works.

John Gilman is a photographer and writer and the author, with Robert Heide of ten books on popular culture in twentieth-century America. He spent his childhood years in Honolulu and San Francisco'; as a young man, he came to Greenwich Village and stayed. As an actor, he appeared in Village productions at the Caffe Cino, Judson Church, Cafe La Mama, and Theater for the New City. He worked at several publications in New York, including the Village Voice, and was also Executive Director of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. He is a contributor to several publications, including the New York Daily News, Collector's Showcase, and the Village Voice.


pardBooks co-authored by Robert Heide and John Gilman include Home Front America, Disneyana, O-New Jersey, Popular Art Dco, Box-Office Buckaroos, Starstruck, Cartoon Collectibles, and Dime-Store Dream Parade.