Thursday, June 11, 2009

Times Square RIP

Now that Times Square is officially dead ("Bloomberg sanitized"), here's looking at you kid. From the fine folks at LIFE.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

√ Howdy ! from the cornfields of Brookville, Ohio

Thunderstorms rolled over my house this morning at 4:00 AM and thunder and lightening woke me up. By the time I was up and drinking my first coffee, the rain was hitting my skylight pretty hard. It sounded like some kind of war going on. The noise is great.

Your photo is really nice in black and white and it makes the scene reminiscent of a cold winter night during the war years when people passed the stores on their way home from work or a show. Well done.

Abe Lincoln
Brookville, Ohio

James said...

I used to go to the library and look at old Life magazines for hours. I love this. Thank God for old movies and pictures.

Anonymous said...

Wow, The Third Man. Come to think of it, the movies were better back then too.

Jean Spitzer said...

This and the earlier black and white of Times Square are beautiful. I too remember being fascinated by the old Life magazine (and Look, too). One of the great things about present-day NYC are all the old books and magazine so available; a place where written materials are still valued.

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Wayne said...

Not a lawn chair in sight. Those were the days!

nobu said...

Very impressive and fantastic, I was moved.

dianasfaria.com said...

I love "The Third Man" sign.

Adam said...

Yep, how cool would it have been to watch The Third Man at Times Square...

Anonymous said...

Well, now I'm all about these signs. "Three Came Home," which did not make the generational cut ala 3rd Man, starred Claudette Colbert and per IMDB was a story about a Japanese labor camp. Bet there were a lot of strings in that soundtrack.

sonia a. mascaro said...

Fantastic photo!

Lowell said...

There were some things in the 'good old days' which were OK. I think this was one of them.

bARE-eYED sUN said...

Ken,
thank you, thank you, thank you.

:-)

we've been seething over the new New York for the last few years and we are SO appreciative whenever we read/hear someone state the obvious.

yes, New York should be as clean, safe and beautiful as possible but does it have have to be at the cost of its soul?

Bloomberg and company are turning it into a theme park, and quite frankly this is a tragedy.

if you have a moment, skip over to Time-OUT NY, there is a quiz entitled DO YOU BELONG IN NEW YORK which will bring you to tears.

we were born and raised in this city, have never lived anywhere else, and apparently we DON'T belong here.

apparently unless we're addicted to Latte, and buy our clothing in SOHO we're not wanted.

dear God!


again, thank you for the photo and the observation.

one more reason to follow you work religiously. thank you.

..
.ero

Shaun said...

Looks relatively civilised... perhaps indicative of society in those days....

marley said...

Yeah, it is sad.

Kevin Raftery said...

That picture of Times Square from Life Magazine is actually very similar to the Times Square of today. There were no prostitutes or drug dealers on the streets, and the area wasn't filled with XXX Rated films in just about every theatre in a one mile radius. No, it was a place to catch a movie and see the lights and play games in the arcade...and to shop for clothes.
The old area was a disgrace, and people stayed away from it. Now, the crowds that gather there are similar to the days of the 30's, 40's and 50's.

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