Now that fuckin' rocks! Some great visuals, and love the marquees! Except that last one, come to think of it - much too familiar, tho I can't quite say why. ;-)
Thanks and much love, friends and neighbors (and coming from you, shahn, I consider it a true compliment).
The images are from a variety of sources, dating from about 1950 to 1972 (them what's got sharp eyes can spot a specific year that predominates). I had 40 of them to start with, many of them daytime shots and quite good, but I went with the lightless hours instead.
I'd intended to accompany this with a smattering of text about why 42nd St. and Times Square has always fascinated me (a question whose answer is not entirely known to me), but in the end I figured it wouldn't have been worth the fallout so I decided to just go wit' the images instead.
I'm going to be doing a lot of these miniseries in the near future (in fact, I've got two more already uploaded). I don't know why I didn't think of them until recently. Ever since the format of this blog materialized I constantly came up with ideas for various series', but always despaired because I didn't have the material to keep them going ad infinitum. This seems to have been a too-obvious solution to that problem.
And when you gots the material . . . they're worth doing.
Could not agree more. At the time it probably seemed garish and vulgar to some eyes, but when you look at Times Square today, with its fake-Tokyo sensory overload signage, the neon glares of yesterday have almost a delicate beauty by comparison.
I'm not, I think, a champion of nostalgia-for-its-own-sake, but so much of that which replaces what is now lost just . . . isn't as compelling.
I see I didn't answer Larry's specific question and I apologize for that.
I don;t know who shot all of them, and I'm a bit reticent to say what I know publicly as it might tend to reveal where I stol . . . where I obtained them.
If you really want to know, I'll email you off-blog if you'd like.
13 comments:
Now that fuckin' rocks! Some great visuals, and love the marquees! Except that last one, come to think of it - much too familiar, tho I can't quite say why. ;-)
beautiful. i like the long, slow zoom-in effect.
Great stuff. Thanks for this.
Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light
Or just another lost angel...City of Night
City of Night, City of Night, City of Night, woah, c'mon
I don't remember "Trader Hornee"
Who was in it?
Love the city at night
L.A. Woman?
Having just been there in August, I like this version MUCH better.
Excellent use of images, Tom. Bravo!
Great photos. Tom, do you know who shot them?
Thanks and much love, friends and neighbors (and coming from you, shahn, I consider it a true compliment).
The images are from a variety of sources, dating from about 1950 to 1972 (them what's got sharp eyes can spot a specific year that predominates). I had 40 of them to start with, many of them daytime shots and quite good, but I went with the lightless hours instead.
I'd intended to accompany this with a smattering of text about why 42nd St. and Times Square has always fascinated me (a question whose answer is not entirely known to me), but in the end I figured it wouldn't have been worth the fallout so I decided to just go wit' the images instead.
I'm going to be doing a lot of these miniseries in the near future (in fact, I've got two more already uploaded). I don't know why I didn't think of them until recently. Ever since the format of this blog materialized I constantly came up with ideas for various series', but always despaired because I didn't have the material to keep them going ad infinitum. This seems to have been a too-obvious solution to that problem.
And when you gots the material . . . they're worth doing.
Bonds (under the Haig & Haig sign) saw the Clash play there & Allen Ginsberg came out & sang.....
Egads. Ginsberg was a great poet . . . but he sang like a flippin' hinge!
Still, I would have loved to see that show. Damn.
As a general observation, there is a beauty to large scale neon signage that is truly only apparent now that the form has almost entirely disappeared.
Could not agree more. At the time it probably seemed garish and vulgar to some eyes, but when you look at Times Square today, with its fake-Tokyo sensory overload signage, the neon glares of yesterday have almost a delicate beauty by comparison.
I'm not, I think, a champion of nostalgia-for-its-own-sake, but so much of that which replaces what is now lost just . . . isn't as compelling.
I see I didn't answer Larry's specific question and I apologize for that.
I don;t know who shot all of them, and I'm a bit reticent to say what I know publicly as it might tend to reveal where I stol . . . where I obtained them.
If you really want to know, I'll email you off-blog if you'd like.
beautiful series of shots - nice work
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