Funny thing is that just about 3 months ago they came through and steam cleaned the brick all the way back to original and this is how fast it builds back up. The thing that’s wild about it is that is started because of the theater next door where folks would put their gum on the wall before entering to watch live comedy. Someone started calling it “the gum wall” in the late 1980s or early ‘90s and as soon as that happened tourists wanted to see it. Soon enough it became known as that and though it’s gone through several complete cleanings the gum just comes back.
One time while I was there well over a decade ago, I watched a group of teens open up an entire roll of bubble tape (remember bubble tape??), and one person broke it into hunks and chewed on each of them for a solid minute before combining them back into one epic sticky mess. It was shaped into softball-like sphere much as you would shape cookie dough. The chewer in question took this gum softball and threw it as hard as he could at the wall. It stuck, to almighty cheers from dozens of onlookers.
This was pre-tiktok and there were no phones present to capture the moment. They did this just because they could. What a beautiful and yet disgusting thing to witness first-hand.
_Piratical_ on June 18th, 2025 at 21:41 UTC »
Funny thing is that just about 3 months ago they came through and steam cleaned the brick all the way back to original and this is how fast it builds back up. The thing that’s wild about it is that is started because of the theater next door where folks would put their gum on the wall before entering to watch live comedy. Someone started calling it “the gum wall” in the late 1980s or early ‘90s and as soon as that happened tourists wanted to see it. Soon enough it became known as that and though it’s gone through several complete cleanings the gum just comes back.
rylasorta on June 18th, 2025 at 23:05 UTC »
It looks gross in pictures but in person it is actually really gross
rikushix on June 18th, 2025 at 23:38 UTC »
One time while I was there well over a decade ago, I watched a group of teens open up an entire roll of bubble tape (remember bubble tape??), and one person broke it into hunks and chewed on each of them for a solid minute before combining them back into one epic sticky mess. It was shaped into softball-like sphere much as you would shape cookie dough. The chewer in question took this gum softball and threw it as hard as he could at the wall. It stuck, to almighty cheers from dozens of onlookers.
This was pre-tiktok and there were no phones present to capture the moment. They did this just because they could. What a beautiful and yet disgusting thing to witness first-hand.