New York. Skyscraper Junction. Taxi Cab Town. The City That Doesn't Nap Very Much Except When It Gets Really Hot and Muggy. The Land of a Thousand Smells. This is the place!
Here's a fun photo, dated "June 1967", but that can't be right, because all of those charming young ladies are wearing their most stylish overcoats. They are posed in front of Radio City Music Hall on 6th Avenue, and the city is chockablock with people. Radio City is showing the 1967 film adaptation of the Broadway hit, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", which opened in March, so that is probably a more accurate date for this image.
Here's a Google screen grab showing how the place looks today. There are some details that have changed, but it looks largely the same.
Here's one of my favorite places ever, the amazing Metropolitan Museum of Art, on 5th Avenue (as seen from 82nd Street). There are over 25 paintings in this museum! I didn't even know there were that many paintings in the world. I think there were some sculptures too, but I was playing "Angry Birds" a lot, so I kind of forget. But the place is great!
Actually there are over 2,000,000 pieces of art in the permanent collection. I spent a full day there two years ago, and felt like I'd barely scratched the surface - but my brain was melting from overstimulation.
Mr. Google provided this modern street-view. Somebody has used a whole lotta Bon Ami and cleaned a century of grime off of the exterior of the Met. Looks pretty good!
"The Land of a Thousand Smells"....I've never heard NYC described so accurately.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I spent an entire day there too and I could've still seen more if I had the time. Luckily I could afford the trip to New York City because I stayed with a friend in Queens back in summer 2001 and had a great time.
ReplyDeleteThese two photos are awesome! Thanks, Major.
Major-
ReplyDeleteYou can refine the resolution of the play dates for How to Succeed... even further, as it played at the Music Hall from March 9th thru April 26th, 1967. And for your dining & dancing pleasure.. "In addition to the introductory "Glory of Easter" pageant, the stage show at the Music Hall offers a revue, "Springtidings," with the Choraleers, the Dior Dancers, Pinky and Perky, the Browski Twins, the Ballet Company and the Rockettes".
I know that 'Pinky and Perky' was a television show in Great Britain - the title characters being a pair of anthropomorphic puppet pigs. According to our good friends at Wikipedia... "Pinky and Perky spoke and sang in high-pitched voices, created by re-playing original voice recordings at twice the original recorded speed; the vocals were sung by Mike Sammes while the backing track was played at half normal speed (Sammes did the same job for Ken Dodd's Diddymen, as Ross Bagdasarian did for the original Chipmunks in the early 1960s)—hence the expression "Pinky and Perky speed", when an LP record is played at 45 rpm or 78 rpm instead of the correct 33⅓ rpm. Pinky and Perky would often sing cover versions of popular songs, but also had their own theme song, "We Belong Together" ". Sounds scary to me. You might recognize Mike Sammes, of The Mike Sammes Singers fame from Disney records, not to mention providing backing vocals for the Beatles songs I Am the Walrus, and Good Night, and on the Let It Be album.
One presumes this is the same pair "performing" at the Music Hall, as giant puppets-? One way or another, P & P had many appearances on the Music Hall stage back then.
In general, NYC landmark buildings are less grimy than in the past. I think following the destruction of Penn Station, people began caring about them, and owners began getting them power washed. Also, there's less soot coming out the tailpipes of trucks and buses.
ReplyDeleteWhen was in college, I had a membership to the Metropolitan Museum. I went there almost weekly for several years, and still felt like I saw only a fraction of the collection.
In that first pic, there appears to be an "NBC" above the Don't Walk sign. Does anyone know if the network was located across the street from Radio City Music Hall back then?
ReplyDeleteScott Lane, the last time I was in NYC, my girl and I walked to a famous bakery (home of the cronut), and on the way the sour smell of garbage just about knocked us off our feet!
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, I sure wish I could visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art often! I could spend days there. Same with the American Museum of Natural History. And I think of all the amazing museums in the city that I have still never seen (like the Guggenheim) - I need to go back!
Nanook, “Pinky and Perky”…. “The Browski Twins”… awesome! You had all kinds of great info, thanks! Never heard of the Mike Sammes Singers, but jeez, they sang on Beatles songs? Pretty impressive. The Beatles hardly ever asked ME to sing on their albums. Somehow the sped-up vocals of Pinky and Perky seem like they’d get old in a hurry. "Ken Dodd's Diddymen", another act unknown to me. Please read this comment in “Pinky and Perky speed”!
Dean Finder, I think you are right about the Penn Station destruction being a landmark example of careless destruction. I am jealous of your nearly-weekly visits to the Met!
TokyoMagic!, I did a quick Google search, and NBC was indeed located at Rockefeller Center (and still is). The “Howdy Doody Show” was broadcast from there! So was “Match Game”, “Tic Tac Dough”, and tons more.
@ TM!-
ReplyDeleteRockefeller Center is the building on the right of The Music Hall, and the red, NBC sign is the entrance to the Observation Deck, the Rainbow Room and parts of NBC Studios.
"There are some details that have changed..."
ReplyDeleteI'll say. How about the fact that the second pic of Radio City Music Hall is practically a ghost town compared to the first!
Major and Nanook, thanks for that information! I guess I was just too lazy to look it up myself. So right across the street from Radio City Music Hall, was the original home of "The Peanut Gallery"! I believe the Buzzr channel is going to start showing the 1960's black and white episodes of "Match Game" that were filmed in New York, beginning on September 11th. They've been running commercials for it.
ReplyDeleteOver 25 paintings?? Maybe 25,000? :D
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