BYU NewsNet - New York City changes with the ‘Times’

Anyone who has visited Times Square in Manhattan has experienced the thrill of the noisy crowds and flashing billboards called “spectaculars” that make Times Square so dazzling.

What most of Times Square’s tourists don’t know is it was named after the New York Times as an icon of the importance of news.

Dale Cressman, a BYU communications professor, recently had an article published in the Winter 2009 edition of Journalism History discussing the rich journalistic history of Times Square and the difference in its focus over the years.

“Times Tower used to be identified with newspapers — a location for New Yorkers to read the latest on the elections,” Cressman said. “Today it is mostly a vacant building paid for by large advertisers.”

Originally called Longacre Square, the people of New York renamed it Times Square in honor of the New York Times.

In the first half of the 20th century, people gathered around the tower on election night to learn of the results. Lights flashing in a particular direction indicated the outcome. Times Square was centered on news.

Today, however, Times Square is a different place.

Hwanhi Chung, a BYU English language major from Queens, N.Y., said she enjoys hanging out on Times Square with her friends.

“Times Square is known for it’s huge lights and its excitement,” Chung said. “You just don’t know what to expect. Sometimes there will be a random guy on the sidewalk, playing the guitar in his underwear.”

Jenny Sweeny, a senior from Bloomington, Ind. studying international corporate finance, recently went on a vacation to New York City. She said she enjoyed Times Square because there were so many exciting things going on everywhere.

“It’s such an awesome place,” Sweeny said. “You expect some famous person to walk past at any moment. The streets are lined with neon lights and fun restaurants and stores.”

Like Sweeny, most people view Times Square in this light.

“Times Square today represents the importance of advertising and entertainment,” Cressman said. “These are symbols of what is important in today’s culture.”

Cressman’s studies of Times Square began in the spring of 2006. He taught a class at Columbia University as part of the BYU New York internship. One of the students who took his class was Alicia Barney, a BYU journalism graduate from Seattle.

Barney and other students helped research old buildings, including the Times Tower.

Because of this research, Cressman decided to make more trips to New York in 2007, to study the history of Times Square in more detail.

Eager to get his hands on more material, Cressman called the vice president of public relations for the New York Times. Because there was no room for an archive in the New York Times’ new building, he found he only had access to the archives for six months before the New York Times donated everything to the New York public library.

“Once I was able to get in, I felt like I had to keep going back,” Cressman said. “I knew the window was closing.”

Cressman viewed letters, contracts and papers that told him the story about the history of the New York Times.

Cressman will present a lecture on March 26 at 11 a.m. in 1104 JKB, addressing his research and showing pictures of Times Square through the years.

“I see Times Tower in a movie and I tell my wife, ‘That’s my building’,” Cressman said. “I go visit [the buildings in New York] like old friends; I love them.”