A prize fight at Madison Square Garden (Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Street) is the backdrop for Chapter One of Herald Square. The photo is from 1940; the building was built in 1925 and closed in 1968.
This was the third Madison Square Garden. The first (1879-1890) and the second (1890-1925) were built at East 26th Street and Madison Avenue. Madison Square II was designed by the architect Stanford White and was a handsome, Beaux Arts building. In an ironic twist, White was murdered by a cuckolded husband in the rooftop restaurant of the Garden in 1906.
Madison Square Garden IV was opened in 1925 on the West Side and the current Madison Square Garden, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station, opened in 1968.