I don't remember Orchard Street ever being this busy. By the time my father took me there as a boy of six or seven to buy my first suit -- from "Red", the same man who had sold him his first suit when he was about the same age -- it was a block of clothiers and cloth merchants, right around the corner from Katz' Delicatessen. People may have lived on the upper floors of the tenement buildings, but they worked and shopped elsewhere.
The 1980s, with their high rents and yuppies put paid to the Orchard Street of this documentary. Even the pickle-makers moved away. Nowadays it is part of Soho, with cute little boutiques and trendy restaurants. Katz' is still around the corner on Houston, and Yonah Schimmel's knishes. The rest is gone. It's a good thing that Ken Jacobs made this film.
The 1980s, with their high rents and yuppies put paid to the Orchard Street of this documentary. Even the pickle-makers moved away. Nowadays it is part of Soho, with cute little boutiques and trendy restaurants. Katz' is still around the corner on Houston, and Yonah Schimmel's knishes. The rest is gone. It's a good thing that Ken Jacobs made this film.
