The Story Of A Child Prostitute…
Times Square in New York City during the 1970’s was a much different place than it is today. Then it was the home of New York’s sex shops and peep shows, and where prostitutes openly worked the streets, along with the drug dealers. The area was full of crime and was not the best place to be in New York City, especially at night.
Along with the ladies of the evening, there was also a flourishing underage prostitution business in Times Square, where boy prostitutes, called “chickens” or “puppies,” would work the streets, seeking out men who would pay them for their services, otherwise known as “chicken hawks.” While such a topic is taboo in today’s society, it was generally overlooked and ignored by the Police during the late 1970’s, unless there was a larger disturbance to contend with. Many of the boys who were hustling, were helping their families make ends meet.
One such boy was “John Smith. “John” was first introduced to the prostitution business at a very young age of 10 years old. While other boys his age were comfortably at home with their families, “John” was being rented out to the chicken hawks and hustling the streets of Times Square. He continued in this “profession” through his teenage years.
The April issue’s feature interview is with “John Smith,” whose real name was changed to protect his privacy and identity, now that he is an adult, far removed from the world in which he grew up. While this interview will certainly make some readers uncomfortable, it is, nonetheless, part of the historical evolution of New York City’s Times Square, and “John Smith’s” part in that history, before its transformation into a place that does not currently resemble at all what it once was in the late 1970’s and 1980’s.
For a pictorial perspective of the life and time of underage prostitutes in the 1970’s, click this Daily Mail article.
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