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The New York Dolls first album cover was shot in New York. In this case, the back cover is more interesting than the front. It features a photograph of the band in front of Gem Spa, the legendary newsstand that is said to have invented the egg cream.
As for the front of the cover, Sylvain Sylvain explains:
"That first album cover was because of me. Mercury had taken us to an antique shop, and we were supposed to (pose) without our makeup, like we were dolls among the antiques. We looked like we do on the back of the cover. It was okay, but it had nothing compared to what the Dolls really were. I called up all my friends in the rag business and said, "Hey, I got $900 and I need a dynamite shot." These friends suggested (photographer) Toshi, who was doing Vogue covers. He got the crew and this guy named Shin for the hair and another guy for the makeup [credited on the record as Dave O'Grady]. That couch we were sitting on, we found that on the street and brought it up. We put the white fabric on it -- I remember tacking it on. It was really a trashed couch, with a white satin cover."
Gem Spa is located at the southwest corner of St. Marks and 2nd Avenue. In the 60's it served as a sanctuary from the 9th Precinct's hippie squad, in the 70's the New York Dolls took their photo in front of it and today the appearance hasn't changed much at all (though the clientele has). We're guessing lots of fans have recreated the shot, even the New York Doll's themselves recreated this shot!
[At Left: The photo from the New York Dolls back album cover, and Gem Spa today taken by Cindy Schreiber]
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Awesome!
(then again, who isn't a sucker for the New York Dolls?)
The NY Dolls cover's a step in the right direction, but if you're going to highlight NYC covers you've got to do better then Zeppelin/Doors covers. Yikes.
So far it's been all white albums. Let's reflect the city's makeup. How about Grandmaster Flash for the next one?
This series is genius! thanks for putting it together.
gem spa is the best despite being neither a gem shop or a spa.
Said by whom to have invented the egg cream?
They're known for their egg creams but I've never heard anybody say they were invented there, which is verifiably untrue anyway.
I'm not attacking you or anything. I'd really like to know where you heard that, since I was born and raised here and have been privy to many/most of our urban myths and this is one I've somehow missed.
i read they were invented at gem spa: here, here and here . but who really knows?! i'm sure a bunch of places claim to have invented them.
Looks like those sites all got their inf. from the same source. I think it's one of those instances where somebody says something and its perpetuated to the point that it looks like fact.
Egg creams are usually attributed to a guy named Louis Auster, as in this account, from the Wikipedia Egg Cream page:
"An egg cream is a classic New York City beverage consisting of chocolate syrup (Almost always Fox's U-bet chocolate syrup in New York), milk, and seltzer (soda water), probably dating from the late 19th century, and is especially associated with Brooklyn, home of its inventor, Jewish candy shop owner Louis Auster. It contains neither eggs nor cream."
The association with Brooklyn is typically asserted as well.
But even if Auster was not the inventor and it was not created in Brooklyn, it's probably true the egg cream dates to the late 19th century (or thereabouts) and I suspect the Gem Spa was not in operation at that time.
But who knows? I can learn.
I think that generally one has to raise their eyebrow a bit when one of the only surviving NYC soda stands--like the one inside Gem Spa--claims that they are the place that 'invented' a fountain soda drink.
Love the Gem Spa. But think the claim they "invented" the Egg Cream is baseless. And it's probably based in some game of NYC marketing 'Telephone' that probably went along the lines of:
1) Gem Spa is one of the last places one can get an authentic NYC Egg Cream.
2) NYC is the city where the Egg Cream was invented.
3) Gem Spa is in NYC.
4) Gem Spa invented the NYC Egg Cream.
Etc., etc., etc...
Egg Creams were invented in Brooklyn. Any idiot knows that. It's sort of common knowledge in NYC.
The series continues to rock, thanks! The Dolls, just what you need to lift the its-too-gorgeous-to-be-in-this-office-and-not-out-on-the-street blues.
Wikipedia's pretty much got it right. And it was only recently that they started selling Fox's U-Bet in stores, for years you could only get it on the LES. Which means fountains had to send someone down to pick up a case.
Brooklyn and the Bronx have had an egg cream rivalry for decades. Brooklyns clain you go syrup, milk, seltzer, but Bronxites correctly clain that its milk, syrup, seltzer. Either way, their great.
I mean, of course, they're great. Sorry spelling nazis.
Wikipedia's pretty much got it right. And it was only recently that they started selling Fox's U-Bet in stores, for years you could only get it on the LES.
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How recently is recently? It's been sold in supermarkets for a very long time. I think you were going to the wrong stores.
Of course, now you don't even have to go to the supermarket to get it. I've seen it for sale in Restoration Hardware stores, along with Junior's egg cream glasses, which have markings on them showing how much of each ingredient to put in.
A few years ago, a waiter at Junior's showed me how to make an excellent egg cream. I wish I remembered what he did.
I think that generally one has to raise their eyebrow a bit when one of the only surviving NYC soda stands--like the one inside Gem Spa--claims that they are the place that 'invented' a fountain soda drink.
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Is it even a soda stand? They don't really have a full-fledged soda fountain set up (although I believe I've been told they once did).
Also, you imply that Gem Spa claims it invented the egg cream? Is that so?
None of the links that Jen Carlson posted indicate the "Spa" was the source of the creation claim. That would be obnoxious.
Within the last 10-12 years. Comparatively recently, consider the age of the egg cream and, well, me.
Are you saying Jen Carlson is obnoxious or just does moronic interviews?
[15] Posted by: billy | April 21, 2006 02:33 PM
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Probably unnecessary for me to clarify this but I was saying nothing bad about Jen Carlson. I meant it would be obnoxious (at best) for Gem Spa to be falsely claiming to have created the egg cream (which, btw, we've seen no evidence they have done).
You guys are the 40680 best, thanks so much for the help.
You guys are the 40680 best, thanks so much for the help.
You guys are the 40680 best, thanks so much for the help.