REEWIND: The 43rd Chamber
May 25th, 2012 by Mr. C
Just came about some old flyers from one of our favorite kung fu video stores (VHS format) from the late 1980’s and 1990’s on 43rd street not too far from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC – The one and only – THE 43rd CHAMBER. They had an awesome stock of classic kung fu movies – Shaw Brothers and modern HK action as well. The 43rd Chamber also stocked instructional martial art videos. I remembered buying the Benny “The Jet” Urquidez kickboxing set which I still have in the planet chocko vaults. The 43rd’s poster collection was very extensive to boot. The awesome thing that I remembered about this shop was that they allowed you to preview the film on VHS before buying. The guys behind the counter had a quick nack for fast forwarding right to the extraordinary fight scenes while all the customers started to chat and revel about the movie! “Damn – Lo Lieh’s footwork was amazing!” It definitely was the place to be for the kung fu movie fanboy!
I don’t remember exactly when they closed their doors but I think it was shortly after the triple XXX cleanup and the Disney invasion of Times Square. Of course, the prominence of DVD’s and the internet also led to their demise. There were plenty of other Hell’s Kitchen video stores that stocked kung fu movie gems A LA – ahem – cough, cough – the XXX video-peep show joints but the people frequenting those mutha’s weren’t quite the same as the raggamuffins at the 43rd! Hey – Pee Wee Herman – how the hell are you?
Tags: 43rd chamber, nyc, vhs, video stores
Posted in chocko, community, movies, mr. c, Zine Archives | Comments (0)
