Ringing in the New Year in Diapers in Times Square

To understand why people are still ringing in the New Year in Times Square despite the lack of public restrooms, we must go back to the beginning. New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square date back to 1904 and they weren’t just celebrating the new year. The first-ever celebration celebrated the official opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times in…you guessed…Times Square. 

This area was originally titled Longacre Square, but the newspaper’s owner, Adolph Ochs, convinced the city to rename the area surrounding the paper’s headquarters in honor of the paper. 

Times Tower was on a tiny triangle of land at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway, and 42nd Street. At the time it was Manhattan's second-tallest building. The paper’s owner threw a Gatsby-style party to ring in the new year and celebrate his big building. 

This was an all-day street festival that ended in a fireworks display. There were over 200,000 attendees and they could be heard from 30 miles north of the Hudson River. 

The fireworks were banned a couple of years after the first celebrations, but the owner of the New York Times wanted a big show so he arranged to have a seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball illuminated with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs lowered from the the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908.

The ball was built by a young metal worker named Jacob Starr and Times Square sign maker Artkraft Strauss was responsible for lowering the ball. 

And balls have been dropping ever since, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the war. 

The balls have changed throughout the years. In 1920, a 400-pound ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original. In 1955, the iron ball was replaced with an aluminum ball weighing a petite 150 pounds.

This aluminum ball remained unchanged until the 1980s when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the ball into an apple for the "I Love New York" marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988.

The ball then returned to its traditional glowing white light bulbs. In 1995, the ball was upgraded to include aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but this ball only lasted until 1998. 

The ball went under a complete makeover to ring in the millennium. It became a crystal ball that combined the latest in lighting technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.
That’s from the official Times Square NYC.org website. 

In honor of the 100th anniversary of balls dropping in Times Square, a new LED crystal ball was created in 2007. 

Balls didn’t just drop in Times Square. The actual notion of a ball "dropping" to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year's Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. 

The first "time-ball" was installed on top of England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o'clock every afternoon, so captains of nearby ships could set their chronometers, a tool used to navigate. 

Around 150 public time balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich. The tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day. 

Televised Events 

While Dick Clark may have the most famous and rockin' eve, there is someone who rang in the new year with audiences first. 

Guy Lombardo was famous for remote broadcasts that were carried on several national radio and television networks for nearly fifty years. His band Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians broadcasted live from the Roosevelt Grill in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City starting in 1929. 

This broadcast was held at the Roosevelt Grill in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City until 1959 when it moved to the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where it remained until 1976. 

Its debut in 1929 made it the radio’s first nationwide New Year’s Eve broadcast. Within a few years, CBS Radio Network would broadcast the event before midnight, then it would be broadcast by the NBC Radio Network after midnight. 

Lombardo’s first New Year’s TV special aired on the CBS network on December 31, 1956. The program showcased live segments from Times Square for two decades. 

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played a key role in New Year’s celebrations for decades so much so that Time magazine reported that the American public wouldn’t believe it was New Year’s Day until Guy Lombardo announced it from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Because of this, he was nicknamed “Mr. New Year’s Eve” and received official recognition from the US Congress for his influence. 

Despite his nickname, there was a new dick in town trying to ring in the New Year with a live audience. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve was created by Dick Clark in 1972 as a way to compete with Guy Lombardo’s New Year’s Eve broadcast by appealing to a younger audience. Dick Clark was famous among the youth for being the host of American Bandstand. 

Despite the show being named after him, Clark wasn’t the first host of his show. The first two years were hosted by Three Dog Night and George Carlin. Dick Clark took over when the special moved over to ABC in 1974. 

Believe it or not, Dick Clark’s not so rockin’. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve only got the top spot in ratings after Lombardo’s death. He had to wait for him to die to beat him, but it has remained high in ratings ever since. 

This is because of Dick Clark’s ability to get famous people to entertain everyone. Because of his Bandstand connections, Dick Clark knew how to find performers and often had popular celebrities help host the show. A tradition that is carried on by every single New Year’s Eve broadcast to this very day. 

Including CNN’s New Year’s Eve live special which has been hosted by Anderson Cooper since 2002. Kathy Griffin was his co-host from 2007 to 2017 when she was replaced by Andy Cohen. 

The program was initially only 30 minutes long, beginning at 11:30 p.m. and ending shortly after the ball dropped. The runtime was expanded to 90 minutes beginning in 2003 and they kept adding time throughout the years. Since 2022, the program has started at 8 p.m. and ended just after 1 a.m.  

In 2018, Andy Cohen fought with the Times Square Alliance. It was raining and he was using an umbrella which isn’t allowed in Times Square during New Year’s Eve. So, someone from the Times Square Alliance asked Andy to put his umbrella down during a commercial break and once they went live, Andy went off! 

He said, “I said, I won’t do it. I said, Get the paddy wagon, 'cause that’s what it’s going to take. But now, they are threatening to pull CNN’s spot from the credentials from Times Square for next year!” He explained that his coat was ruined and he didn’t understand why the Alliance was so upset over umbrellas. 

In 2021, Andy said he was “watching de Blasio Blasio do his ‘victory lap’ dance after four years of the crappiest job as the mayor of New York! The only thing that the Democrats and the Republicans can agree on is what a horrible mayor he has been, so sayonara, sucka! 2022! It’s a new year.” 

Because of these comments,  they weren’t allowed to drink in 2022! Audiences hated that obviously, and drinking on air was reinstated in 2023. 

And maybe there’s a reason they don’t drink on air because this year Andy was commenting on Mayor Adams and his indictment. 

Does anybody remember when Snooki was dropped in a ball? 

She was dropped to ring in the 2011 new year. MTV tried to get her to be dropped in Times Square, but they were denied, so she was dropped in Seaside Heights. She was literally in the ball and lowered as it counted down to midnight. This was right before the third season of Jersey Shore aired. I mean right before. The third season aired on January 6, 2011.

People Suffering in Times Square 

Attendees of Times Square New Year’s Eve festivities start to line up in the afternoon and are allowed into the viewing areas at 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Tickets aren’t required because it’s a first-come, first-serve event, so you bet your pampers people are lining up well before 3 p.m. 

The ball can be seen along Broadway, from 43rd Street to 50th Street, and along 7th Avenue as far north as 59th Street. The sound system is set up where Broadway and Seventh Avenue cross and there are video screens set up throughout the event. Times Square is essentially one giant screen so I’m sure you can see everything from everywhere. 

Those who are standing for over 12 hours in Times Square, cannot have backpacks, large bags, umbrellas, lawn chairs or folding chairs, picnic blankets, large coolers, or alcohol.

The worst of all, in my opinion, and probably the opinion of everyone ever, is that there are no bathrooms in Times Square. Absolutely no bathrooms. So people are ringing in the New Year in diapies in Times Square. That’s not a joke. 

I found some interviews from Times Square celebrators that publications released this year, so let’s go through some of those. 

The New York Post interviewed Valentina Gonzalez who traveled from Uruguay to meet her friends in New York for the ball drop. She was prepared with pizzas and slices of cake from Carlo’s Bakery. The cake boss! She rang in the New Year Hoboken style baby! 

Valentina and her friends were lucky because they planned on taking turns going to their hotel to use the bathroom before entering the viewing areas. 

Val Valeri-Castro told the New York Post that it was her first time seeing the ball drop in person even though she had lived in Queens her entire life. Her husband is from Arizona and convinced her to go see it this year. She admitted to feeling like a tourist even though she lived there her whole life. It’s something she never experienced in a place she’s been forever. 

The Post highlighted that many people explained that they couldn’t drink water because they didn’t want to lose their spot to use the bathroom. This is before they even entered the viewing areas! 

Two teenagers from North Carolina told the Post that they brought disposable underwear. 

As crazy as these rules are, they keep people safe. While peeing your pants may be uncomfortable, it would be irrational to think Americans aren’t going to fist fight or romp stomp each other over the use of porta potties.