AIDS, Off Broadway plays, awards and ‘going daily’ ARMSTRONG, continued from p. 24
TheVillager.com
Even after Westway’s defeat, Villagers still had plenty to protest about on the waterfront. In 1989, above, they rallied against a plan for PATH train ventilation towers on the waterfront south of Christopher St. From left, Bill Hine (back row, fourth from left), Larry Selman, Ben Green, representing Assemblymember Bill Passannante, Miriam Lee of the Village Homeowners’ Association, Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin, then a mayoral candidate, Bob Oliver (partially obscured by raised hand) of the Federation to Preserve the Greenwich Village Waterfront & Great Port, Judy Seigel of the Morton Street Block Association, Vern Fry and Artie Strickler.
week. We did that year after year thanks to creative and energetic writers, many of whom were learning the craft of journalism and experiencing their first published work. Dozens of professional awards over
Armstrong and his community newspaper publishing company acquired The Villager in 1977 and sold it in 1992 to three of the company’s shareholders, Thomas and Elizabeth Butson and Nancy Flowers.
BROOKLYN COLLEGE LIBRARY ARCHIVES
AIDS could be compared to the difference in city life before and after 9/11. Not only did the Village become a center of commerce for the gay and lesbian community as its members emerged from the shadows of city life after Stonewall, it also became ground zero for advocacy for gay (and then lesbian) rights and the source of support for those afflicted by the disease and public education about it. The Villager had several homes over the years of our tenure. Finding ourselves in an office building on Fifth Ave. at the start, we quickly relocated to a more appropriate, accessible second-floor space over Sweet Basil’s on Seventh Ave. South. In the mid’80s, rising rents and an expanding coverage to the east brought us to a storefront on E. Fourth St., a location that was particularly compatible with our expanded coverage of Off and Off Off Broadway and experimental theater. Speaking of that coverage, we took great pride in our annual Villager Theater Awards, the inspiration of our prescient theater editor, John Patterson. The ’80s was a time of great ferment in the artistic community with dozens of productions taking place every year in some of the most raw spaces. “Experimental” was definitely the word for many of the short-run presentations, but much worthy work went unheralded in the media, so we began to cover the scene. And we created the Village Theater Awards to honor the best of it, an awards program that was as much a celebration of the scene. Thank you, Art D’Lugoff and the Village Gate, for providing us a home for these celebrations for four straight years. As for some of our special Villager moments, we fondly remember the first years of the Village Halloween Parade, when celebrants wound their way through neighborhood streets west of Fifth Ave., and The Villager staff contingent was one of the most exuberant. Then there was the 50th anniversary of the founding of The Villager, celebrated at the Salmagundi Club with Mayor Ed Koch there to participate in the fete. Years later, people still talked about our Year-End Open House where Councilman at Large Henry Stern worked the crowd to sell his N.Y.C.-branded neckties. (I think I still have mine somewhere). Elections are about making choices and choosing sides. We endorsed someone in virtually every race, but the choice that stands in my memory is that of Reverend Jesse Jackson in the New York presidential primary. My favorite photo of all time shows Jackson carrying a framed copy of the editorial in a pre-Election Day parade, And yes, he won the primary. Early in our tenure, The Villager staff rose to an unusual challenge as we went “daily” when a bitter strike shut down the citywide
the years testify to their outstanding skills. Photographers Jeannie Black and Bill Biggart (who tragically lost his life while reporting at the World Trade Center site) were among those who consistently provided us with first-class photography to document the news. Other great photography came from Brian O’Donoghue and Stacy Rosenstock. Connecting the past to the present was the faithful volunteer work of Evelyn Patterson, whose “Way Back When” tidbits from earlier Villagers were part of every week’s edition. And, of course, there was Frank Cass, who regularly serviced our 80 newsstand outlets with the latest weekly edition. It would be appropriate to list the names of all my editorial colleagues here, but there’s not enough space. Some of them were: Chris Archer, Rob DeRocker, Mike Tomasky, Marianne Baker, John Patterson, Jeff Trachtman, Jon Ciner, Eileen Blair, Eric Goldstein, Andrew Jacobs, Betsy Herzog, Ken Godwin, Lillie Wright, Jim Sheehan, Steve Hart and… .
newspapers in August 1978. We published four days a week for several weeks until other strike newspapers came in to fill the void. It was wonderful to see us virtually alone on Village-area newsstands, selling out most days. Interestingly, that experience was a precursor to today’s intense Internet publishing schedule, as reporters and photographers came back to the office after covering a meeting, wrote their stories, and saw them in print on the stands 12 hours later. There were some special Village people we covered. Vesuvio Bakery’s Tony Dapolito, as chairperson of Community Board 2, was perennially our number one news source and pro bono journalism instructor, patiently explaining the civic lay of the land to successive generations of Villager reporters. There was Ruth Wittenberg, the venerable West Village landmark activist, who, in the midst of contentious approval process for the replacement building for the infamous Weather Underground site, converted tension to humor by describing it a building with “a little indiscretion.” Ellen Stewart, the trailblazing LaMaMa theatrical entrepreneur, made us so welcome when we moved The Villager editorial offices to E. Fourth St. Newspapers are a business, too, and advertisers are the lifeblood of publishers. We are grateful for the consistent support of some of the most community-minded businesses from our times, including Crossroads Wine & Liquor, Mad Monk, Jefferson Market, Balducci’s, Sazarac House, Art Kaiser, Sweet Basil, Minetta Tavern, Garvin’s, Garber’s Hardware, Caring Community, Greenwich House and, of course, many others. Thank you, Sally Markman and George Fiala, for working this side of the street for many years. An editor’s job is to take the available words and photos and turn them into a package that readers want to receive week after
SINCE 1933
THE VILLAGER HAS COVERED PEOPLE AND EVENTS THAT MAKE OUR COMMUNITY SO UNIQUE. ON ITS 80TH BIRTHDAY THE VILLAGER CONTINUES TO BE A STRONG INDEPENDENT VOICE IN THE VILLAGE AND ITS SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS. OUR BEST WISHES TO THE NEW PUBLISHER JENN GOODSTEIN AND THE VILLAGER STAFF
ELIZABETH BUTSON PUBLISHER 1991 -99
JOHN SUTTER PUBLISHER 1999-2012
October 17, 2013
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