"Slim" would cough in a way that only smokers cough. I thought that possibly he was ill, beyond the smoking, so I'd ask him why he didn't see a doctor, and maybe get a penicillin shot. He held up the cigarette and said, "....penicillin can't cure this......”

“One day at Times I had terrible stomach pains. I could hardly walk. "Slim" had Harold walk with me to The Port Authority Bus Terminal, and I was off to New Jersey, earlier than I should have been. When I got home, 'Slim" had already called my Mother twice, to see if I was ok. Times was like a strange "family", and I honestly think that fact, is a very large part of why people are so emotional when they speak about the store.

Times Records which would later be known as Times Square Records, got into your heart and your mind”.
Wayne Stierle
2006



My best friend back in the day was Bob Campbell. He is the one that took me to Times Square Records my very first time. I believe it was September, 1962. I remember walking into this small dingy shop seeing records hanging on a wall for $5.00 or $10.00 each….records that I had never heard of…..to me a record was only suppose to cost a dollar… At the time I thought people were nuts to be spending this kind of money for a 45….It would not be long that I realized how important owing a 45 on an original label would become…..I was hooked!!

Here I am 18 years old and to me Times Square Records was like being “a kid in a candy store”. Music was always playing….you had to stand in line sometimes waiting to get into the place….teenage kids, younger kids, even adults would be there looking through bins of records…rows of records….it was amazing!! It was “magic”….”It was the place to be”…..


“Slim” was like a father figure to all of us….He was always “puffing” away on a cigarette….was grumpy allot…but had a big heart….I was always playing tricks on him….going behind the counter which was a “big NO ” with “Slim”…..You knew it was “Slim” speaking without looking directly at him…He’d say to me “What do ya want kid” in that scratchy gruff voice that stems from “chain smoking” over the course of time…even though he was cantankerous and nasty at times you couldn’t help but like him…..I can say this about him….”he was one of a kind”…..

One time I was at the store with my friend Jack Strong….Jack bought a new pair of shoes….he put his old ones back in the box…put the box in a bag…and then hung them up on the wall asking “Slim” how much did he think he could get for the shoes….I took a picture of Jack’s shoes hanging on the wall and to this day still have the picture….

Another time while I was on my Saturday visit to New York I stopped by a place that made newspaper headlines…you could have anything printed….I had the headline printed “EXTRA Times Square Records Folds…”Slim” Selling Pretzels”…I took the newspaper into the store to ask “Slim” what was going on….he laughed…took the newspaper and hung it up on the wall where it hung for a long time. I had my camera with me that day and took a picture.

“Slim” was my inspiration that got me started in the music business.  “If it weren’t for “Slim” doing what he did with Times Square Records; I would never have gotten my start”.
Val Shive;y
R&B Records
Upper Darby, PA

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