“Minnesota Strip” could describe Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 50th Streets today, with so many midwestern-looking tourists ambling between hotels like the Milford Plaza and nearby Broadway theaters.
But the nickname has a seedier origin. It was coined by cops in the 1970s because a huge proportion of the prostitutes who worked that stretch of Eighth Avenue were teenage runaways from Minnesota.
A November 28, 1977 Time article reported this:
“The most sensational special link the committee found was the ‘Minneapolis Connection,’ in which young girls from that city, itself a magnet for runaways from much of the upper Midwest, move into New York in such large numbers that a section of Manhattan’s Eighth Avenue has long been known as the ‘Minnesota Strip.’
“Minneapolis police claim that up to 400 juveniles a year from the area are lost to other cities, with most of the youths winding up in prostitution in New York.”
Tags: New York in the 1970s, Minnesota Strip, Minneapolis Connection, teenage prostitution in New York City, 1970s Times Square, Times Square teenage runaways, prostitution in Times Square
September 21, 2009 at 9:19 am |
At the time a few girls took me to a hotel on 40th Street off 8th Avenue, not exactly on the Minnesota Strip but the sex with a teenager, which I was at the time too, was spectacular!
September 21, 2009 at 5:33 pm |
[...] history of “Minnesota Strip,” the stretch of Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 50th Streets. Back in the 1970s the area was [...]
September 21, 2009 at 8:10 pm |
I actually was from Minnesota and I worked at Show World. And truth be told, 99.9% of the women on 8th were not from Minnesota. Minneapolis Police Department sent a task force at one point to seek out runaways from the state. Low and behold they found not one woman/girl from Minnesota. Prostitutes from the area had just taken to using Minnesota as their faux home state as part of their persona. When someone asked a girl where she was from they automatically shot back, “Minnesota.” Just one more way a prostitute could create a barrier between her actual self/name/history and the streets.
March 6, 2012 at 12:24 pm |
You worked at Show World? Write a book.
September 21, 2009 at 8:38 pm |
They sure fooled the police! And the media too.
September 21, 2009 at 8:44 pm |
It still was a great place to get a girl for ten bucks, hotel was about four fifty, not bad.
September 24, 2009 at 3:30 pm |
Check out the song “Minnesota Strip” by the Dictators. This version is by the Nomads with Handsome Dick Manitoba on vocals…good stuff.
October 18, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
Nowadays all the newbie youth are claimed to be from Ohio.
Wha’ happened?
June 9, 2011 at 4:24 am |
I actually worked that area back in the 70′s and am alive to tell about it…I havent been back to New York since the early 80′s. People tell me I should write about it and I have started to.
March 6, 2012 at 12:28 pm |
Please do so!
April 10, 2012 at 9:11 pm
I have a book in process and I recently spoke on Fox News, I have just started a website, barbaraamaya.com please check it out for updates on my book and speaking engagements
January 16, 2013 at 2:11 pm |
I was a cop that worked vice at that time and I knew most of girls. we used to round them up every night. I have kept fighting to help the the ladies of the street to this day. I commend you for the courage to tell your story.
January 16, 2013 at 6:56 pm
My book is out, Minnesota Strip
http://sizzler-editions.blogspot.com/2013/01/out-now-minnesota-strip-tale-of-times.html
Follow her from Chicago to New York and Take A walk On The Wild Side, if you know what’s good for you
October 26, 2011 at 5:17 pm |
I was a hard line street person, the teenagers then was plentiful. What is desired now was readily availble the honey and wheat look.
One would wonder how many bodies is hidden there over the 2 decades of wild times.
March 6, 2012 at 12:29 pm |
What do you mean “hidden there” Miguel?
September 6, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Krensley,
I think that Miguel is referring to those girls who came to the city full of dreams or just running away for a bad situation, got involved in prostitution, then one day went missing; never to be seen again. Midtown Jane Doe is probably one such girl.
You can read my take on her story at my link:
Midtown Jane Doe.. A Manhattan Mystery
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2069964028011.127641.1212153052&type=3&l=de2116577b
September 6, 2012 at 2:29 pm
I have a book coming out at the end of this year “Minnesota Strip, The Specter of Times Square.” Will be out on JMS Books, I knew a few just like they were in those days. Fast but really too slow…