History of the Times Square Ball

Blogger: Amber Lemus

7th Times Square Ball
Photo Credit: Jtalvy, CC0, CC

 The dropping of the ball in Times Square has become a New Years icon. This year will make new history for the Times Square Ball, because it will drop twice. The second time in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. 

Since we have new history being made with the ball drop, I thought it would be fun to explore the origins of the celebration that has become so well-known across the globe as a symbol of New York City and the USA.

The New Years celebration in Times Square had begun in 1904 as a way to celebrate and promote the newly finished headquarters of the New York Times newspaper building. The festivities were a hit, but after a few years of fireworks celebrations, the owner of the New York Times, Adolph Ochs, decided he wanted something bigger. It was the idea of the company's chief electrician to build a "time ball" after seeing one used elsewhere. In 1907, Ochs commissioned the Artkraft Strauss company to construct the ball. A young Russian immigrant by the name of Jacob Starr, built the ball out of iron and wood, then adorned it with one hundred 25-watt bulbs. The finished ball was five feet in diameter and weighed a whopping seven hundred pounds. It thrilled the spectators at the 1907-1908 New Years festivities in Times Square. 

Since then, the ball has been lowered every year, except for 1942 and 1943 due to WWII blackouts.

The Millennial Ball (2000)
Photo by: Hunter Kahn (Public Domain) 

In total, there have been nine versions of the ball:

• The original, built in 1907. 
  
  
• A version made entirely of wrought iron with replaced the original in 1920. 
  
  
• A lighter version made of aluminum replaced the four-hundred pound wrought iron ball in 1950. This version weighed only one-hundred-fifty pounds and remained until the 1980's.
   
• In the 80's, the "I Love New York" advertising campaign had launched, so a new ball with red lights and a green stem to look like an apple was installed and remained from 1981-1988.   
  
  
• After 1988, a more traditional ball with the white lights returned. 
  
  
• In 1995, technological updates were made to the ball to include an aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes and computer controls. 
  
  
• The birth of a new century in 1999-2000 demanded a new ball. It was completely redesigned, this time a crystal ball with the very latest lighting technology combined with traditional materials. 
  
  
• 2007 brought the 100 year anniversary of the New York Times ball drop, so again, updates were made to the ball. The incandescent bulbs were replaced with LED, which gave the ball color capabilities and increased brightness. This one is known as the Centennial Ball. 
  
  
• The owners of One Times Square were inspired by the beauty of the Centennial Ball to create a permanent one that was visible year-round. This new, permanent version is known as the Big Ball and is made of crystal triangles and over thirty-two-thousand LEDs. It weighs nearly six tons.

The most recent Times Square Ball
Photo By Alex Lozupone - Own work, CC

However, on New Year's Eve, a NEW version of the ball will be revealed, celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States. If the celebration's reputation continues, it will be a spectacle to be seen. 

The notoriety of the ball drop has inspired many kinds of "drops" around the world. Sometimes balls, like in Times Square, and other times cultural objects such as the Bermuda onion. To read more about this, you can check out the Wikipedia page here. 

Have you ever been to the Ball Drop in NYC? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

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Two-time winner of the Christian Indie Award, Amber Lemus writes enthralling non-fiction for children and adults alike. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior, so her writing is centered around faith, family and history.

She lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains with her prince charming and two boys. Between enjoying life as a boy mom, and spinning stories out of soap bubbles, Amber loves to connect with readers and hang out on Goodreads with other bookish peoples.

Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at www.AmberLemus.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!

Origins of the Great White Way

An aerial photograph of New York City at night shows a glowing strip between dark outlines of light-speckled skyscrapers. Even from outer space, the lights of Broadway are identifiable among the brilliance of the metropolitan area.

Yet the area became known as the “Great White Way” the year before the Wright Brothers’ first succeeded at flight.

Today, to be considered part of “Broadway,” a theater must contain 500 or more seats. There are currently 41 such houses in the Theater District, all clustered around Times Square on or near Broadway between 41st and 53rd Streets.

The origins of New York City’s reputation for theater stem to the mid-18th century with the opening of the city’s first known drama venue. Located in lower Manhattan and given the unimaginative name of “The Theatre,” it seated only 280.

Other theaters followed, such as the Park Theatre in 1798, the Bowery Theatre in 1826, and the Astor Place Theatre in 1847.

The only known photo of Niblo's Garden
(Photo: New York Public Library Digital Collections) 

During the 1820s, entertainment centers known as “pleasure gardens” developed. One of the most popular among all social classes was Niblo’s Garden. Beginning as a fenced, open-air beer garden, the venue expanded until it contained a hotel, a saloon, gaslit gravel paths through lush foliage, and an elaborate 3,000-seat theater. “The Black Crook,” considered by many to be the first true Broadway musical, opened there in 1866. The nightly production lasted five and a half hours, and the show became a runaway hit.

The interiors of these early theaters were lit with candles, and later with smelly, smoky, and dangerous gas lamps, resulting in some theaters burning and being rebuilt more than once.

The Olympia Theatre, owned by the grandfather
of famed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, was the first
Broadway theater to use electric lighting inside and out.
The theater was part of the Olympia entertainment
complex that occupied a full city block.
(Photo: Museum of the City of New York)

In 1895, Oscar Hammerstein (grandfather of the well-known lyricist) opened the Olympia Theatre on Times Square, which was then called Longacre Square. It was part of a large complex that also included a roof garden, billiard room, concert hall, and music hall.

Although initial streetlights on Broadway, installed between Union Square and Madison Square by 1880, produced light via an electric arc, Hammerstein made history by using electric lighting both inside and outside the Olympia.

Electric lights along Broadway earned the Theater District
the nickname, the "Great White Way" in 1902
(Photo: Keystone View Company/Library of Congress)

As technology advanced, modern street lamps lit the area. Following the lead of the Olympia, other theaters installed brilliant electrical signs to promote their shows. “Spectaculars”—large, complex light displays with flashing or even animated designs—proliferated.

In 1902, the New York Morning Telegraph published an article about the theater district by columnist Shep Friedman with the headline, “Found on the Great White Way.” Two theories exist on where Friedman came up with the term: perhaps he borrowed from a London theater district, called the “White Way” for its well-lit streets, while another theory suggests that it was a biblical reference to the “way of the righteous,” symbolizing the virtuous path of entertainment and culture that Broadway represented at the time.

Regardless, the nickname stuck. Since then, the strip of light known as Broadway has been dark only during the two World Wars, when all the signs were blacked out.

Sources:

Why Broadway is Called the Great White Way | Backstage

History of New York Streets: Untapped New York

Broadway: A history of the Great White Way - Dance Informa Magazine

Why Is Broadway Called the Great White Way – Repeat Replay

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

See also: “Miss Minnette Goes to Broadway and Back” (Heroes, Heroines, and History, January 13, 2025)

 Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glistens,” is loosely based on a woman from Star Lime Works, Kentucky, who went to Broadway. It was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing life, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.

The Story Behind Times Square

 __By Tiffany Amber Stockton__

In December, A Charlie Brown Christmas received the spotlight focus. To kick off the new year, let's look a little deeper into a location in the "city that never sleeps."

THE TIMES SQUARE STORY

So, did you tune in at all to the Rockin' Eve show on New Year's Eve, broadcast from the world famous Times Square? That infamous ball drop is heralded not only here in the United States, but in many other countries around the world, and even though more than half the globe rings in the new year before New York City, there's an unofficial mark when it happens in the Eastern time zone.

For the most-visited tourist site in the U.S., New York City's Times Square actually had rather humble beginnings. Did you know countryside once surrounded the entire area? Or that American Revolution-era statesman John Morin Scott used most of it for farming?

The area now known as Times Square fell into the hands of real estate mogul John Jacob Astor in the 1800s. By the second half of the 19th century, that area had become the center of the city’s horse carriage manufacturing industry and home to William H. Vanderbilt’s American Horse Exchange. City authorities named it Long Acre Square, a reference to London’s historic carriage and coach-making district.

This name remained until 1904, when The New York Times moved its headquarters to a lavish new skyscraper called Times Tower. That same year, Mayor George B. McClellan signed a resolution that renamed the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue (and 42nd and 43rd streets) from Long Acre Square to Times Square. The newspaper's new home set its address as One Times Square. In no time at all, the square established prominence as one of the most important places in New York City at the beginning of the 20th century. Construction of theaters, restaurants, and luxury and first-class hotels added to that distinction.

The Times Square ball first dropped in 1904, thanks to Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant and metalworker, and the former New York Times publisher, Adolph Ochs. This year of 2024 marks 120 years. For more on that history, read the post I wrote 10 years ago.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Does your New Year's Eve tradition involve watching the famous ball drop? If not, what do you do to ring in the new year?

* Have you ever been to Times Square? What was the purpose of your visit?

* If you've never been to New York City, would you want to visit? And if so, what would you want to do there? If not, why?

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Come back on the 9th of each month for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

For those interested in my life as an author and everyday gal, what I'm currently reading, historical tidbits, recommended reads, and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my monthly newsletter. The January edition was just sent out. Receive a FREE e-book of Magic of the Swan just for subscribing.

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, one dog, and three cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

Who Dropped the Ball?

By Kathy Kovach

We’ve all done it (stayed up until midnight eagerly awaiting for the ball to drop in Times Square)—unless you are one of those early birds who can’t last past ten o’clock. In that case, I pray for you nightly. We’ve watched the ball drop at Times Square in New York precisely at midnight to usher in the new year. Kissed that special someone. Toasted with Welch’s Sparkling non-alcoholic white grape juice. Or is that just me? Afterward I’d finish watching the third movie of the night and go to bed happy to have survived...er...been blessed to see another year.

This year, once my brain cleared up after two flutes of Welch’s, I started thinking about this strange tradition. Why a ball? Why a drop? Why New York?

The usage of the time ball dates way back before it became the centerpiece of the world’s largest party. In the 19th Century, a large, wooden ball would drop from poles mounted at observatories and harbors at the same time every day to help ship navigators synchronize their chronometers to the correct time. Using this inspiration, the Western Union building in downtown New York also dropped a ball everyday at noon. In my day, we simply called a phone number that gave the time so we could adjust our errant kitchen clock.

In 1904, the New York Times moved into a new building—the second largest skyscraper in the city. It perched on a triangle of land in Longacre Square, soon to be renamed Times Square, and the address of the tall tower became One Times Square. This same year, the subway line opened, and the newspaper’s publisher, Adolph Ochs, felt a hefty celebration was in order to commemorate the exciting changes and growth. He commissioned Ukrainian immigrant and metal worker, Jacob Starr, to set up a tall sign boasting the numbers of the new year. At precisely midnight, the electric numbers were to be turned on and fireworks would be set off from the base of the building.

However, the firework celebration ended after only a few years due to hot embers falling on the revelers below. In 1907, Ochs again consulted Starr, who was working at a sign-making firm called Strauss Signs to come up with a better display. Remembering the use of time balls, they, along with New York Times chief electrician, Walter Palmer, devised the now infamous ball drop.

Even though electricity wasn’t a new concept at the turn of the century, many houses were still lit with candles and gas lights. That first ball had to be spectacular and something no one had ever seen before. The 700-pound iron ball was five feet in diameter, and fitted with 25-watt lightbulbs. It descended down the pole, and the moment it landed on the rooftop, the lights were turned off and the tall sign displaying 1908 turned on, making it seem as thought the ball had magically become the numbers denoting the new year.

The ball drops behind the numbers, goes dark and the new year numbers spectacularly light up

The ball has gone through seven transformations over the years. It went from five

feet in diameter to the twelve-foot one we see today. It’s been made of wood, wrought iron, and aluminum. Light bulbs to strobe lights to LED lights made it extraordinary. In the 1981-82 event, it was transformed into an apple thanks to then Mayor Ed Koch and his “I love New York” Big Apple campaign. Hand-drawn pulleys made way for automated machinery. Unfortunately, it went dark for two years during World War II as a blackout had been ordered for the city skyline in case German submarines lurked in the harbor. As of the turn of this century, the six-ton structure has become permanent as a visual extravaganza to be seen nightly throughout the year, featuring Waterford Crystal and Phillips LED lights that can create every design possible on the orb.

Whatever your tradition of ringing in the new year, whether toasting with sparkling Welch’s white grape juice or snoozing in a warm bed, the Times Square Ball Drop symbolizes leaving the old behind and embracing the new. A new time, a new day, a new future.

MissAdventure Brides Collection
Seven daring damsels don’t let the norms of their eras hold them back. Along the way these women attract the attention of men who admire their bravery and determination, but will they let love grow out of the adventures? Includes:
"Riders of the Painted Star" by Kathleen E. Kovach

1936 Arizona
New York City artist, Zadie Fitzpatrick, who no doubt witnessed many New Year ball drops in her time, is commissioned to go on location in Arizona to paint illustrations for an author of western novels and falls for the male model.

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother, though much too young for that. Kathleen is a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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History of Times Square Ball Dropping

By Tiffany Amber Stockton


BOOK GIVEAWAY POST!

So, is anyone else still reeling with the realization that 2013 is completely gone now? Time seems to pass more quickly these days, but so many still speak of not having enough time to accomplish what they want to get done. Modern conveniences have "supposedly" made our lives easier, but if you ask me, they've only complicated our worlds more and distracted us from our goals.

But not all modern inventions are bad. Sometimes, they can enhance existing items and make for more enjoyable experiences. Like the celebrations every New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York. As the years have passed from the first celebration held at that spot, modern inventions have only added to the rousing festivities.

NEW YEAR'S EVE in TIMES SQUARE

The first Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration was in 1904, in honor of the new headquarters for The New York Times. The newspaper wanted a way to announce their arrival into what was formerly known as Longacre Square, and The New York Times owner Adolph Ochs thought New Year’s Eve was the perfect time for a party.

Roughly 200,000 attendees showed up to One Times Square for the all-day street festival, which ended with fireworks set off from the base of the tower. 1904 also brought the city’s first subway line, but that's a topic for another post. :)

The Times Square Ball dropped for the first time in 1907, when fireworks alone just weren’t cutting it anymore. Adolph Ochs wanted a bigger spectacle, so he put the newspaper’s chief electrician Walter Painer and designer Artkraft Strauss on the job. Drawing inspiration from the time-balls traditionally used in the maritime world, they designed a 700-pound ball, measuring five feet in diameter, fashioned out of iron and wood, and covered in 100 25-watt light bulbs.

On New Year’s Eve, the ball was hoisted up the rooftop flagpole by six men, and when it fell to the roof, it triggered the lighting of a neon sign indicating the new year had begun and the start of a fireworks show. The tradition continued like this for another thirteen years until 1920.

Counting the first ball in 1907 and our present one, there have been six different iterations of the Times Square Ball. In 1920, the original ball retired and made way for the new, lighter design: 400 pounds, made entirely of iron, and maintaining that 5-foot diameter.

In 1955, it got even slimmer: 150 pounds of aluminum, controlled by just one push of a button.

In 1996, this ball was updated with the addition of a computerized lighting system consisting of 180 halogen bulbs and 144 strobe lights, plus over 12,000 rhinestones.

For the millennium celebration, the Times Square team brought in Waterford Crystal to help design the fourth ball — then technically a “geodesic sphere.” It measured six feet in diameter, weighed 1,070 pounds, and incorporated over 600 halogen bulbs, 504 crystal triangles, 96 strobe lights, and spinning mirrors.

The ball went "green" in 2008, marking the Times Square Ball Centennial with a fifth design: 6-foot diameter; 1,212 pounds; lit by 9,567 energy-efficient LED lamps with computerized color patterns; and made up of the same Waterford crystal panels. The lights were said to use the same amount of energy as about ten toasters.

The ball we see today is the sixth, made in 2009, and absolutely massive. With a 12-foot diameter; a weight of 11,875 pounds; 32,256 LED lamps; and 2,688 crystal panels, the kaleidoscopic sphere is twice as large as its predecessor. Beginning this year, the panels will be designed based on different themes of gifts — 2014 being “Gift of Imagination” — with new additions made every year.

From 1981 to 1988, the ball was decorated to look like an apple. The “big apple” was outfitted with red bulbs and a green stem as part of the “I Love New York” campaign.

There have only been two years in which the ball didn’t drop: 1942 and 1943, during the wartime “dimout” of New York City. Crowds still gathered at Times Square and shared a moment of silence followed by chimes.

The New York Times moved out of the building right at the end of the first world war, not even ten years after constructing it, leaving it vacant and falling into disrepair. A New Yorker Talk of the Town story in 1961 claimed that it had housed a speakeasy and, during World War II, space for the F.B.I. to practice shooting and trap German spies.

It was briefly marketed as a tourist destination by onetime owner Allied Chemical.The building was wallpapered in advertisements when the Lehman Brothers bought it in 1995, and — empty but for the first three floors, which are occupied by Walgreens, and the upper floors used by One Times Square Production Management Team — it has functioned as a 25-story billboard ever since. It seems to be doing just fine, too. Filings from 2012 show that the billboards brought in over $23 million annually, which is 85% of the building’s total revenue.

The coldest ball drop was in 1917, with a midnight temperature reaching down to 1 °F and wind chill of -18 °F. According to the National Weather Service, the average midnight temperature in New York City between 1907 and 2011 was 33.7 °F. The lucky attendees of 1965 and 1972 experienced the record high: 58 °F.

About one million people stand outside and celebrate. Over a billion watch the broadcast from around the world. One ton (2,200 pounds) of confetti is dropped on the crowd at midnight.One ton (2,200 pounds) of confetti is dropped on the crowd at midnight. Throughout the year, people are invited to write their New Year’s wishes on pieces of confetti, which are then mixed in with the bunch.

You can celebrate at Times Square without being all cold and claustrophobic outside, but it’ll cost you. A lot. Though you can get into most of the New Year’s Eve parties in and around Times Square for anywhere from $75 to $225, a few of the all-inclusive events can run much, much higher. A seat in the Direct Ball Drop View section of the Marriott Marquis Broadway Lounge will cost you $3,500; while a table for two in The R Lounge goes for $8,500. And, of course, there’s always Applebee’s, which is offering a buffet, open bar, and live DJ for a whopping $375 a person.

The Times Square Ball has inspired many varied drops around the country, from the peach drop in Atlanta, to the Hershey Kiss drop in Hershey, to the Snooki drop in Seaside Heights. In 2011, the Jersey Shore star was dropped inside a clear ball in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. MTV’s original plan was to drop the Snooki Ball in Times Square, but the request — “too late and too impractical,” according to Times Square NYE producers — was denied.

When it’s all over, the city is left with almost 50 tons of trash, which takes about two days to clean. In 2013, sanitation workers swept up party hats, confetti, balloons, and debris for 48 hours, beginning just moments after the ball dropped. The project took 151 workers, 24 supervisors, two superintendents, and two deputy chiefs.

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QUESTION for BOOK GIVEAWAY

Instead of asking a question with a single or multiple choice answer, I'm going to ask you to make a personal choice.

Go back to the article and select one fact you find unique or fascinating. What about that fact makes you want to know more or makes it stand out to you? Leave your answer with your email address (name [at] domainname [dot] com) to be entered in the drawing this month for an autographed copy of your choice of 1 of 3 books from my available titles:

Good luck! I'll draw a winner on January 15th, my father's birthday. :)

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BIO
Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood. Today, she is an award-winning author, speaker, and brand partner with Nerium International, who lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, in Colorado. They have one girl and one boy, and an Aussie/retriever mix named Roxie. She has sold fourteen books so far and is represented by Sandra Bishop of MacGregor Literary Agency. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.