Roving Rube Picture of the Day
11/13/01
"The Subject has to be dead"
For someone to get an honorary street sign in NY, they have to be dead. And they have to have a connection with the block the sign is on.*
George Abbott, until his untimely death at the age of 107, was known variously as "Mr. Broadway", "The Old Master" and "Mr. Abbott" for a incredible theatrical career as an actor, writer, director and producer that spanned 80 years and thousands of shows.
This sign is in the middle of Times Square on the point of the island between 7th and Broadway; the Conde Nast building is on the left, and the Paramount and Reuters buildings on the right.
*According to Sanna Feirstein in "Naming New York: Manhattan Places & How They Got Their Names", an invaluable source for enriching one's walks around town. Regarding street signs, she explains, "In theory, honorary signs are to be in place for a period of 30 days. Practice is a different story ... Street corners bristle with 'add-on' names, some installed so long ago, or at moments whose significance was compelling but so short-lived, that the honoree's identity is lost in the rush of more current events. In some cases this works out for the best as when the honoree of the moment turns out later to have been less than honorable."