SATURDAY - New York City
I haven't spent nearly as much time in New York City as I'd like... what a place! I admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed there, since I'm used to the relatively wide-open spaces of SoCal. But I still love it. This "Anything Goes" Saturday features two vintage pix.
Here's a great 1950's photo featuring wonderful vintage cars in front ot the New York Public Library (on 42nd Street). Did you know that the NYPL is the third-largest library in the world?? The beautiful Beaux-Arts building was completed in 1911, and has millions of books - most of the volumes are either "Harry Potter" books or "Twilight" books, but what's wrong with that? The library also has a significant collection rare maps and manuscripts, and other brainy treasures.
Here's another neat photo, scanned from a faded slide - but still pretty awesome. Check out those massive Times Square theater marquees! We can date this image to around 1949... Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate" debuted on Broadway at the end of 1948, and Carol Reed's "The 3rd Man" (one of my favorite movies!) opened in 1949. Man, those neon signs are massive. Imagine how much one of those would have cost.
14 comments:
Major-
Another wonderful Saturday for GDB. A terrific shot of the Public Library. Peeking in from the left is a cream-colored (I think) 1952 Mercury, with a 1950 black Cadillac on its right.
And the neon-! Evidently "The Golden Twenties" showing at the Astor Theatre was a compilation of newsreels from the 1920's and at the Victoria, the incomparable Third Man. Beauties, both.
Thanks, Major.
I can hear the zither from The Third Man playing in my head at just the mention of the film. Maybe it's the demons.
The NYC Library also contains a copy of every National Geographic magazine ever published - all neatly stacked in the library basement. Nobody ever looks at them.
Did you know if those magazines were ever discarded, the weight redistribution would cause the Earth to spin off its axis and crash into the Sun?? Better not throw those away just yet...
Bill in Denver
Love these pictures!
The NYPL lions have some kind of hifalutin allegorical names, but I always call them Kitty and Mouser. (Kitty is my favorite.)
@Melissa-
You would'a thought when selecting the names for those iconic lions, that clearly 'Kitty' & 'Mouser' were far better names than the official 'Patience' & 'Fortitude'-! (Not to mention their original names: 'Leo Astor' & 'Leo Lenox'). Evidently in the 1930's Fiorello LaGuardia felt 'P' & 'F' better suited the lions, as those names better described the qualities New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression back then.
Now - just where was Mayor Bloomberg during our most current "depression" and how come he couldn't figure out a better pair of up-to-date monikers for that famous pair of lions-? Evidently he never consulted Melissa-! Shame on the Mayor.
A fall day eating lunch on the steps of the NY Public Library. What a great atmosphere pic. Wish I go back in time and kick around the city for a day. Thanks Major for these beauties!
Beautiful! the Caddy is sooo shiny, looks brand new :-)
the Times Square neon presence is magic here. nuff said!
Nanook, I thought you might know what those cars were. I'm normally not a big Cadillac guy, but that black one is awesome. Can you believe that what was basically a documentary about the 1920's still got a marquee like that?
TokyoMagic!, and yet you still haven't seen "Shane"!
Bill, my grandparents used to have an attic full of old NatGeos going all the way back to the 1930's. I would go visit them, and then turn on the little lamp and read through them for hours.
Melissa, I call them "Mister Fluffles" and "Mister Meow Meow". But to each their own.
Nanook, tell me you had to at least do a little bit of research on those lions.
210Frwy, as is often the case with these old slides, I wish I could visit the place as it was 50 years ago.
Nancy, there is just something about NYC!
@ Major-
Yes, unfortunately my NYC history is a bit lacking and I did do a little sleuthing in order to verifty the exact names of the lions. (And instead of Patience & Fortitude, how about Patience & Prudence-??) Heck, the McIntyre sisters thought it to be a swell name for a singing act...
I enjoyed "The Third Man" but my mom hated it because of that zither music! However, when Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass came out with their "Going Places" album (I think 1965?) she did love their fast-paced zither-less version of "The Third Man Theme". Funny how music and either "make or break" a movie for certain people. I also loved "The List of Adrian Messenger" (1963) cause it was a good mystery, with the added gimmick of big stars disguised in heavy make up. Yet the peculiar clarinet theme used throughout the movie ruined it for my mom.
Unknown, I'm not crazy about the zither music, but it certainly doesn't ruin the movie for me. It's one of my favorites! Beautifully shot in glorious black and white. I'm not sure I've ever seen 'The List of Adrian Messenger", though I have a vague memory of Alec Guinness in disguise (?). Maybe that was a different movie.
Oh, yes -- if it's the one I'm thinking of, it was a real "tour de force" for Alec Guinness, since he played something like 8 different roles! It was a "black" comedy called "Kind Hearts and Coronets". Guinness played all these different members of an aristocratic British family (including an old dowager lady!), who were being murdered one by one. My mom had that one on VHS years ago, I remember. Just about everything Alec Guinness did was good -- "Captain's Paradise" "The Lavender Hill Mob" "The Ladykillers" "The Man in the White Suit" "Our Man in Havana" and many others. His British comedies were favs of both my folks.
-- Mike Douglas
Oh, forgot to mention that "The List of Adrian Messenger" stars George C. Scott as a retired British officer who investigates the suspicious death in a plane crash of a friend. Kirk Douglas co-stars, appearing both normally, and in several different make-up jobs. Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, and Burt Lancaster all make cameo appearances in heavy make-up. It's a dandy British mystery movie, with the added gimmick of seeing if you can spot the stars under their makeup. Very much worth a look!
Oh yeah, "Kind Hearts…" that was the one. I am sure I was aware of it (and "The List of Adrian Messenger") from "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine. I can almost see the halftone black and white stills of Alec Guinness in my mind.
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