[78-L] Manny's is done

[soundthink at aol.com]

June 1, 2009

Losing a Celebrated Shop and Its Wall of Nostalgia

By NATE SCHWEBER
On the walls of the famed Manny’s Music store near Times Square, photographs of the world’s most renowned musicians hang in varying degrees of condition and age, many featuring personal notes that reflect the quirky personalities of their subjects.

“To Manny, Keep one eye closed at all costs. Love, Bob Dylan,” reads one.

“Manny’s is the best. Bob Marley,” reads another.

If those walls could talk now, the sounds of lament would be crystal clear. After 74 years, Manny’s — at the heart and soul of Music Row on West 48th Street — closed its doors for good on Sunday. The store will be converted by its owner, Sam Ash Music, into a giant Sam Ash guitar shop, and all of the photos will be taken off the walls and put in storage.

“In these economic times we felt it wasn’t carrying its own weight,” said Paul Ash, 80, the president of Sam Ash Music, which has 45 stores nationwide, including three others on West 48th Street.

In a city where independent drugstores and coffee shops have all seemingly been replaced by Duane Reades and Starbucks, the loss of a place like Manny’s is seen by some as further erosion of the variety that made New York special.

On Saturday, Ray Maxwell, 48, of Ridgewood, N.J., brought his son Jackson, 13, to experience Manny’s before it was gone.

“This really is the heart and soul20of the New York City music community,” said Mr. Maxwell, as his son moved slowly from picture to picture, taking in all those who came before him.

Jackson, who plays bass in a band called Babylon Rugs, muttered in wide-eyed amazement, “The vibe is just crazy.”

Manny Goldrich, who sold brass instruments in the early 1930s, opened the shop on West 48th Street, known as Music Row because of its proximity to Broadway, recording studios and the Brill Building, where many music publishers had offices.

The store hit its heyday in the 1960s, when British Invasion bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who made Manny’s a must-stop destination upon landing in America.

“It’s amazing how many people have shopped here; the Beatles bought their guitars here,” Irina Nazarenko, 44, a visitor from London, marveled on Sunday as her partner, Hauser Wolfgang, 59, bought a $3,500 electric guitar.

Before his death in 1968, Mr. Goldrich passed the store on to his son, Henry Goldrich, now 77. Ian Goldrich, Henry’s son, took over in the early 1990s, around the time that business slowed because of record labels investing less in new artists, several nearby recording studios closing, and more shoppers turning to catalogs and the Internet, he said.

“People always tell me, ‘I bought my first guitar here,’ ” Ian Goldrich said. “I tell them, ‘Well, you haven’t bought anything from me in 10 years.’ ”

Mr. Gold
rich, 49, sold Manny’s to Sam Ash Music about 10 years ago, and said he “made peace with my grandfather nine and a half years ago.”

After Mr. Goldrich sold Manny’s, the store began selling many of the same instruments sold at Sam Ash, although it retained the Manny’s name, décor and icons, including the photographs and Mr. Goldrich himself.

Sandra Manley, a spokeswoman for the Rockefeller Group, which owns the buildings on West 48th Street that the three Sam Ash stores and Manny’s occupy, said that soon the area would essentially change “from Music Row to Sam Ash Row.”

To preserve some of the store’s character, Holly Goldrich, Manny Goldrich’s granddaughter, built a Web site, www.mannysvirtualwall.com, where fans can view some of the more than 3,000 autographed pictures from the “Wall of Fame.”

“It’s a virtual hang,” Ms. Goldrich, 44, said. “It’s a recreation of Manny’s Music store, even with the changing of 48th Street.”

Recently, artists like Neil Diamond, Eddie Vedder and Keith Urban have come to Manny’s for a final visit, Mr. Goldrich said.

“The fact is it’s still the most famous music store in the world from a historical perspective,” he said. “But not from a business perspective.”