Souvenir Store on W. 33 St.

Not too long ago, I used to pass a souvenir shop aimed at tourists on the corner of 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue. I took pictures of the windows because it had the most unusual juxtapositions of objects. There would be statues with ancient Egyptian motifs next to typical "I Love New York" merchandise.

This interracial statue was particularly unusual:

As well as this mix of cowboy and Afrocentric themes:

That was in March of 2011. On April 24, 2012, I made another trip and found this signed photo of James Garner, in a still from MARLOWE (1969) of a scene with Bruce Lee:

(Just think how much more valuable that photo would be with Bruce Lee's signature on it also.)

And this dollhouse mock-up of a doctor's office:

Interesting, but an odd item for a tourist souvenir shop.

At some point earlier this year, May 29, 2013, to be exact, I passed by the shop to see if they'd changed windows again and indeed they had. The shop was closed:

The building, the Hotel Pennsylvania, is slated for demolition, although it's still functioning as a hotel as far as I can tell and they still shoot a syndicated TV talk show (The Bill Cunningham Show) in a studio built in a former ballroom on its premises. Here are shots of the whole building taken on May 19, 2011, when the shop was still open, seen in the lower left corner:

And here are more shots from the onetime window displays:

I had considered loading up on some of these as one-of-a-kind Christmas gifts for family members, but I didn't do it quickly enough and I haven't found another souvenir store quite like it.