Over the Years, the TKTS Ticket Booth has been located in many places in New York City
Joe LeBlang Ticket Booth History 1894 - 1938
The Theatre Development Fund (TDF) wasn't the first entity to put a discount Broadway ticket booth in Times Square. It all started with Joe LeBlang's Central and Public Service Ticket outlet that provided discounted Broadway tickets to the masses from 1894-1938. At first, LeBlang's discount Broadway ticket offices were located downtown, but as larger Broadway theatres were built in midtown, his business moved to Times Square in 1905. The street level ticket office was located at 43rd and Broadway, at Gray's drug store and would go on to make $2 million dollars a year in revenue, which was a huge sum at the time. The business survived LeBlang's sudden death in 1931 and continued it's discount ticket model until 1938, when it was ultimately sold to form the Golden LeBlang ticket brokerage. The ticket office on Times Square was then closed and the Fitzgerald Building (Along with George M Cohan's Theatre) was demolished . The site was replaced with the tawdry Condé Nast Building, now named 4 Times Square featuring the Nasdaq Marketsite LED screens, so this remains the site of the first TKTS booth and it wasn't run by the TDF, wchi would not exist for another thirty years.
TDF TKTS Booth History 1972 - 2002
Some thirty four years after LeBlangs CVPS ticket outlet closed, the first incarnation of the KTS booth location was a temporary structure built in Times Square in 1972 and used the model of LeBlang's ticket operation. The new location of this booth was at junction of 47th and Broadway, on the empty space between the roads, four blocks North of LeBlang's original location that had been torn down in 1938. The Theatre Development Fund's (TDF) TKTS model copied LeBlang's exactly, but found new vigor with an audience who had never seen this phenomenon before. This renewed interest ignited Broadway attendance and provided revenue to the struggling New York theatre community.
TDF TKTS Booth History 2002 - 2008
The 1972 structure, that was supposed to be the temporary TKTS location in Times Square was finally closed down in 2002 and temporarily moved to the raw space underneath the Minskoff Theatre. Construction began on the new booth in Times Square in the same location as the 1972 had been.
TDF TKTS Booth History 2008 - Current
After many false construction starts, project problems and city variance issues, the new TKTS ticket booth opened in 2008 to great fanfare. The new Times Square location for the TKTS booth now serves over 500,000 visitors a year and the red steps are a favorite among visitors and locals alike. Discounts on tickets range from 50% to 30% and this location sees a brisk trade, rain or shine. Other TKTS booths have been opened (and some closed) around the city, but the Times Square location sees the highest amount of ticket sales and traffic.
