Tales of Times Square: Expanded Edition

by Josh Alan Friedman

“Friedman has drawn a vivid picture of the Times Square area and its denizens. He writes about the porn palaces with live sex shows, and the men and women who perform in them, prostitutes and their pimps, the runaways who will likely be the next decade's prostitutes, the clergymen who fight the smut merchants and the cops who feel impotent in the face of the judiciary.”— Publishers Weekly This classic account of the ultra-sleazy, pre-Disneyfied era of Times Square is now the subject of a documentary film of the same name to be theatrically released this year. With this edition, Tales of Times Square returns to print with seven new chapters.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Sex Work

320 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 23, 2012

About the author

Josh Alan Friedman’s 2026 novel, All Roads Lead To Great Neck, is a bildungsroman set in 1970 Great Neck, following a teenager whose drug experiments summon visions of a 19th century Jewish pimp. Mystical Judaism meets drug culture in ’70’s suburbia.

For those prone to disbelief, Josh Alan Friedman’s landmark book, Tales of Times Square , serves as last will and testament of what once was. Still in print since its 1986 hardcover release by Delacorte Press, Tales became its own podcast in 2017. The demimonde of old Broadway bend your ear from the burlesque theaters, boxing rings and gutters of a fading 42nd Street. All 17 episodes—as well as 17 episodes of Tales of. . . My Dead Heroes appear at Josh’s legacy site, BlackCracker.fm

Previous to that, the civil rights movement was turned upside down in Josh’s “autobiographical novel,” Black Cracker . A new hardcover is available from Wyatt Doyle Books, as well as Josh’s collection of music journalism, Tell the Truth Until They Bleed . Before that: When Sex Was Dirty ; I Goldstein My Screwed Life (with Al Goldstein); and Now Dig This The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern (co-editor with Nile Southern).

Before the age of graphic novels, Josh set off satirical fires and lawsuits as writer-half of the Friedman Bros cartooning duo. Two anthologies feature the art of Drew Friedman: Warts and All and Any Similarity to Persons Living Or Dead Is Purely Coincidental .

On the music front, as “Josh Alan,” he barnstormed the state of Texas for 30 years, rocking whole arenas with his Guild D-40. Copping three Dallas Observer Music Awards for Best Acoustic Act, he released six albums: Famous & Poor, The Worst!, Blacks ’n’ Jews, Josh Alan Band, Sixty Goddammit and his 2025 tour de force, Acoustic Instrumentals.

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord what to say?!...Well if you’re looking for an honest account of what Times Square was like in its most depraved state, this...is that. I have to give Friedman credit where credit is due, he held nothing back. But be prepared it isn’t pretty. I’ll echo the Washington Post’s quote - I wanted to shower, and maybe even scrub my brain with bleach after reading some chapters. You’ll probably need Jesus after this. For me I treated this more as a historical document than an “entertaining” read. And of course to satisfy my own curiosity/fascination with anything surrounding NYC during this time period.

Uncomfortable language but you probably know what you’re getting yourself into if you pick this up. At times I wasn’t really sure where Friedman stood with all this, he posits himself more as an observer (which makes sense given his position). At times I appreciated his narration and at others I definitely did not. The golden nuggets for me were the characters on the margins of this underworld - the boxer Izzy Grove, Pee Wee from Hawaii Kai, the candy store owner, Raven De La Croix etc. He does a great job with them and I wish the book had been more about these individuals than Larry Levenson or “The Stud” (ugh) because they were 10x more interesting to me. BUT, if you want the real full picture told from the perspective of someone who was really there & knows what they’re talking about you have to take the good with the totally disgusting I guess. I’m half glad I read it for those good parts, and the other half of me wants to shove this in a drawer and forget it ever existed. Then Lysol my eyes.

One thing I’ll say is that I was glad to get an insider’s perspective on the way Times Square has changed. It was interesting to see how the people from its heyday in the early 1900s viewed Friedman’s Times Square, and then how he views it today. What has become so corporate & sanitized today will continue to evolve with the times no matter what.

[Tish Grier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A total joy to read! I remember Screw magazine, Times Square, and The Deuce that Friedman describes in detail. Yes, it was lively to say the least. But it's also quite sad that nothing of that world has survived. The people and places are gone. The scary seediness replaced by a "family friendly" blandness. Friedman is not just an engaging storyteller,but also an historian the place. Je gives us a sense of the the world of theaters and of movie houses that staged live shows before films. The booking agents whose livelihoods fell apart as the entertainment landscape changed and changed again. How it hit a greasy bottom and the people who made a living among the grindhouses,the peeps,the live sex shows and burlesque theaters. If you remember something of the NYC of that time, this will be great nostalgia. If you missed it all, the tales are a lively education.

[Paul Lawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging read, very well written. The grimy language and terms used were like getting hit with a plank (repetitively) The real life characters were interesting and the descriptive way Times Square was put forward to the reader was perfect. Clearly not the Times Square I’ve visited on several occasions….certainly learnt some new words by the end of the book.

[Steve Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read for sure.