The booth was replaced a few days ago and was charred again this morning when I walked past it to go to work!! Unbelievable!!! I have never heard of this before.

I did some investigating myself, and spoke with a Bryant Park groundsman.

There was a camera on the HMV store that caught the entire act. But all it shows is a very tall man with a hood on, dousing it with fluid, setting it ablaze and then running into the subway station, at 2 in the morning. The newstand guy came to work, and alerted Bryant Park security, who saw the fire reflection in the storefronts across the street.

It was home to 4 original guys: Bob and Sam, who were brothers, Willie and Kevin.

Bob died about 4-5 years ago, and if you ever passed the stand, you would have seen a plaque that his buddies had made in memorium to him. Kevin, was actually and independent shoe shiner, that worked down the block with a little travel stand. Bob and Sam didn't like that he was doing this, so they went over and asked him to join up, which he did. He eventually, left, reasons unknown. Willie and Sam ran it for the last several years on their own. Sam, Bob's brother, was famous for his immaculately shined work boots he always wore and his crazy bike he rode to work. He died 4 months ago, so Willie was only left. He found 2 new guys to work it with him, but that is where the suspicions lie.

The booth is free to use, and belongs to Bryant Park, it's up to the shoe shiners to work it, lock it up, and whatever money they make is theirs, but there is a limit on what they are allowed to charge, which is $4. Several years ago, they were charging $7, a man complained to the management, who relayed the message not to do that, so they quit. The two theories thought, are that 1. either the two new guys, were charging too much, and Willie told them not to, so the two new guys had somebody torch it. or 2. they charged somebody too much, that got mad and torched it. The police also questioned Bryant Park management, as to any disgruntled employees that they might have had, but the final outcome was nobody that was ' 6'7" ', according to my source.

They were able to save the foot perch from the stand, and have scoured off the cinders and painted it a new, awaiting for a new booth. But my source says, that management has reservations of putting it back.

Whatever the case maybe, it is a sad moment in NY street history, as the thousands of us that walk by daily, whom even on a bad day, would smile when we watching these guys in their true element.

One more down, how many more to go? Very sad.

thanks for posting this!

Where's WonderDog when you need him most?

Open and shut case - the shoeshine dude torched it to cash in on the multi-million dollar insurance policy. TAKE HIM TO JAIL!

saw them carting away what was left of it and noticed the charred marks :( it's quite upsetting, i walk past almost every morning and love seeing the men sitting there waiting and/or shining shoes!

"but all signs point to an arson job executed by the sinister electric shoe shine machine industry."

GROAN....

No go home and getcha shine box.

Looks like there might be a resurgence of the shoe shine wars of the early 90's. This location was hit 4 or 5 times in 92.

Looks like Felix is looking for work today.

"I do a lot of fu*king favors for you, ya know!"

you believe that? a jew broad prejudiced against i-talians!

i never understood that whole part of the movie. the owner brought paulie in for protection against the joe pesci character (forget his name right now) in exchange for a piece of the pie. the restaurant kept going and goods (furs, etc.) were flying in and out. so why was the guy having trouble paying his bills? why did they need the money from the bank? why would the inclusion of the mob make the business go south???

That's the best part of the movie. Henry suckers the owner into asking Paulie into the business. The owner gets protection from Tommy but at the same time all Paulie wants is to take every last penny out of the place. So he runs up bills on the restaurant's credit and sells the merchandise he gets for that credit to whomever, out the back door. And as Henry says it's all profit. Nobody's going to pay the bank back because when they can't borrow any more money they burn the place down. The best line in the movie is when Paulie says "It's not even fair" during the meeting with the owner.

so, when paulie was hemming and hawing about getting involved, it was all bullshit? he wanted to get involved all the time and was glad that henry was bringing the restaurant owner to him?

That's a good question. I don't know why he would have hesitated. But if the plan was really to pretend like he didn't want to then I don't think he would have said "It's not even fair."

i dont recall the 'its not even fair' part - i'll have to watch it again. off to isohunt.com!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmydTyspVhA&feature=PlayList&p=265412BE02F3815C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

Skip to the 4:02 mark.

i dont know - he seems pretty sincere about being resistant and surprised about being asked. not sure if paulie is that good an actor.

"When you can't borrow another buck from the bank, you light a match"