That’s No Prop. I Remember That Payphone From “Party Monster” (2003)

A payphone made a very brief but, to me at least, quite interesting appearance in the 2003 film “Party Monster”, starring Macauley Culkin. It’s interesting to me because I know that phone, or rather knew it. I used to use it once in a while. The moment I saw this I thought “Wait a minute. I remember that phone.”

I’ve never watched a Macauley Culkin film, and only skimmed through this one in search of what turned out to be a very brief scene. I was led to this by a snapshot from “Party Monster” on Instagram.

The scene was filmed on Broadway near Crescent Street in Astoria, using a real phone (not a prop) that, if I remember right, had been owned by Telebeam. The phone went away long ago but vestiges of its former presence still linger on the brick wall, as seen in these photos from today, 17 years after the scene was filmed. UPDATE: I added a photo I happened to find from August, 2012, of the empty clamshell enclosure. I most likely have photos from when the phone was still present, and will add those if they ever turn up.

I also remember this phone because my then-girlfriend and I were filmed at it for a scene in “Hang Up“, the payphone documentary by French director Ugo Massa. That scene did not make it into the final cut.

Seen in the background of the “Party Monster” scene is the green awning for a long-gone bar called the Spinning Wheel. That’s the only bar I ever got kicked out of, but it wasn’t on account me doing anything stupid. Someone was snorting coke off the counter and the bartender kicked everybody out. I was allowed back in.

Some people found it unsavory how the Spinning Wheel opened at eight in the morning, and that people lined up outside waiting to get in. Some interpreted this as the bar catering to unquenchable alcoholics who just couldn’t wait for other bars to open.

Not so much. Those folks lined up at 8am worked the overnight shift, and except for illegal after hours places the Spinning Wheel was the only place around open for business when their workdays ended.

It was a hell of a place. One bartender could recite lengthy Bukowski poems from memory and a decadent but comfortable crowd of neighborhood locals made it their regular. It later became Cassidy’s, which didn’t last long. Today a martial arts school occupies the space.

I don’t know what is up with Telebeam these days but they seem to have gotten rid of their website, formerly at telebeam.com. They still own the domain name, so maybe a new website is in the works.

Telebeam was among a dozen or so independent payphone companies in New York that got kicked out of the payphone business in the five boroughs when the City awarded CityBridge its monopoly franchise on outdoor payphones.

Telebeam, one of the original independent payphone companies in New York, might still have payphone assets on Long Island or elsewhere in the region, but they were sufficiently diversified into delivering other phone services that losing their stake in payphones was not a death knell for the company as it was for other smaller concerns.