Continuous Until 4 AM
December 26, 2015 9:21 AM   Subscribe

 
Beautiful! Thanks for the post!
posted by tickingclock at 9:42 AM on December 26, 2015


I don't want to live in now New York. I want to live in this New York, so I can listen to Jean Shepherd, drive a Goggomobile, and enjoy movies in the wee hours.

Also, I may wear a jaunty hat.
posted by sonascope at 9:45 AM on December 26, 2015 [15 favorites]


And don't forget: drink original Ballantine!
posted by Krazor at 10:04 AM on December 26, 2015 [4 favorites]


Wait, so young men wore derbies in real life? I thought that was an invention of the movies or comic books.
posted by the sobsister at 10:09 AM on December 26, 2015


Newsies!
posted by a lungful of dragon at 10:12 AM on December 26, 2015


He had a really good eye. I liked the shot of the street with the tops of the skyscrapers reflected in the puddle quite a bit. Also: Ballantine!
posted by codacorolla at 10:18 AM on December 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


Terrific find. Thanks The Whelk.
posted by AugustWest at 10:18 AM on December 26, 2015




Golly, these are wonderful. I love the woman and the library lion.
posted by ottereroticist at 10:23 AM on December 26, 2015 [4 favorites]


probably you could even catch a movie after 4:00 AM, so long as you were discrete about it.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:24 AM on December 26, 2015


Frank Larson, self portrait. Great to see the man himself.
posted by AugustWest at 10:32 AM on December 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


These are wonderful, and I just passed them on to my New Yorker mother and grandfather, who are in awe of the cool pictures. You can actually see the building my great grandfather's news clipping bureau was in in the one with the Elevated train tracks.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:49 AM on December 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


I love photos like these. Thanks for posting.
posted by tg72657 at 10:50 AM on December 26, 2015


No plastic anywhere. No fast food debris. No logos on any clothing. Amazing.
posted by klanawa at 11:09 AM on December 26, 2015 [14 favorites]


Another thing I was curious about was the photo booth. The quarter fee, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was about $2.21 in our dollars. Wikipedia's disposable camera article indicates that despite a few early mail in models that retailed for about the 2.21 price point, they didn't really take off until the 80s. It looks like early instant photography became a mass consumer product around 1948, with Land's instant camera. That retailed for $89.95 in 1948 dollars, which translates to close to 900 bucks in modern money. This article about polaroid advertising in the 50s and 60s indicates that they probably retailed for about $70 around when that photo was taken - meaning about $617 dollars (although they also mention a $1.19 per week installment plan option).

Anyway, if you look at one way that instant photography is used today: to present the self, and especially to share an image of yourself with a loved one, then these photo booths make a lot of sense. The people outside of the booth, combing hair, and getting ready to get their 4 portraits are really interesting. It's something you take for granted when you can take as many pictures as you please, with nearly no cost (beyond the sunk cost of the phone) and nearly infinite storage.

Now I'm curious if anyone has ever written about the culture of photobooths...
posted by codacorolla at 11:17 AM on December 26, 2015 [11 favorites]


What wonderful photos, thanks for the post!

> Wait, so young men wore derbies in real life?

All males wore hats once they graduated to long pants. (I want those days to return, but I'm not holding my breath.)
posted by languagehat at 12:00 PM on December 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


All males wore hats once they graduated to long pants. (I want those days to return, but I'm not holding my breath.)

Hats are long gone, and long pants seem to be increasingly in danger as well -- it's below freezing today and I've seen several people in shorts. True or not, I've heard Kennedy blamed for the rapid shift in fashion away from hats. I wish hats would return as an integral part of the wardrobe, but I'm not holding my breath.

The photos are great. There's a lot that wasn't good then (segregation, restrictions on women's clothing and economic participation, etc) that show up in some of the photos, but good or bad it is fascinating to have these momentary windows into another time.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:15 PM on December 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


I, too, loved the reflection shot! Is that the Chrysler buildilng?

The thing that struck me about that photobooth shot was to think that present-day culture is no more obsessed with selfies than any time before us. Technology just makes it easier.

I also liked seeing the group of women, particularly miss no shoes and the other one on the railing. So unladylike! So fabulous!
posted by frecklefaerie at 12:18 PM on December 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


I, too, loved the reflection shot! Is that the Chrysler buildilng?

Yep. It's mentioned in the caption on the full gallery site someone posted up-thread. I recommend clicking through to that one. More images, information via the captions, and less junky web design.
posted by codacorolla at 12:20 PM on December 26, 2015


Ha-ha! That's the Domino Sugar Factory, recently host to Kara Walker's Marvelous Sugar Baby, previously.

Fun collection. Thanks for sharing!
posted by notyou at 12:28 PM on December 26, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh, this is wonderful on so many levels, not the least of which is the adult getting to know his long-gone grandpa through his art, and honoring him by making it more well-known.
And you can know so much about Frank Larson just by the subjects he chose, can't you.
If you happen to be a photog buff, an old US cities buff, etc., this is also really a treat.

I don't want to live in now New York. I want to live in this New York,

That was my problem. As a young adult in the 70s/early 80s, I was in love with the thought of living in NY, but it was an older NYC, the one I saw in my parents pics of their brief time there. Whereas you know the grimy, crime-ridden reality of 70s-80s NY.
posted by NorthernLite at 12:56 PM on December 26, 2015


long pants seem to be increasingly in danger as well -- it's below freezing today and I've seen several people in shorts.

That's the one thing Idiocracy got wrong—it showed the people of the future wearing track pants instead of baggy shorts down to mid-calf.
posted by entropicamericana at 1:10 PM on December 26, 2015


Wow, these are great! If you like what you see at the FPP link, you definitely should click through to the main site for Frank Larson that AugustWest linked above. Lots more good stuff there.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:12 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


As a school-avoiding young teen during that period, I found refuge in the museums, mostly Natural History and the Met. At that time, during the week, they were almost totally deserted, with far more guards than patrons. Also, they were shamelessly free (they are still technically free but you are heavily guilted to drop movie-admission-sized bucks for the privilege of entering).

As a student, I had a pass that let me travel on most busses & subways.

The main library was much less kid-friendly, but the Brooklyn main branch and the Donell Library on 53rd street were ok.

And if I had an extra quarter, I might go to the Museum of Modern Art (Admission 25c, or $2 corrected-for-inflation. Actual current admission is $25, so they kind of beat inflation. Those ditzy Rockefellers!)

There were police patrolling the parks for kids who should be in school, I was never nabbed, but I stayed out of parks.
posted by hexatron at 1:17 PM on December 26, 2015 [25 favorites]


Re: photobooth history, Photobooth: A biography is a newer one; and photobooth.net had a list of more.

I've been shooting film lately and although I really don't love street photography for my personal work, I see photos like this and they're some of my favorite historical photos to look at so I've been making an effort to shoot some anyway, in my mind anyway for posterity and just to remember what the city looks like. I do have a photobooth-based business and our inspiration was more of a documentary portrait series, so I guess I'm contributing to that genre in some way anyway. But my business partner has a beloved photo by Charles W. Cushman of a street scene featuring his grandfather's old convenience store in a building (and on a street) that doesn't exist anymore.

I guess it's just a grass-is-greener artistic impulse, or something, I'll stop navel-gazing and just enjoy these photos.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 1:19 PM on December 26, 2015


This is my father's New York. Beautiful. I can only imagine what his life must have been like, fresh out of college, moving to the big city, meeting my mother, moving into an apartment above the Carnegie Deli next door to Stella Adler and her husband. What a time.

My father always recommended Here is New York by EB White for people who want to understand the city at that time. These photos are a great visual accompaniment.
posted by alms at 1:22 PM on December 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


The chimp in this pic, is none other than the inimitable J. Fred Muggs.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:24 PM on December 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


That brawny man putting away the kegs of beer called more people "mack" before nine AM than most people do all day.
posted by dr_dank at 1:24 PM on December 26, 2015 [17 favorites]


Fantastic stuff, beautiful pictures from a lost time.
posted by marienbad at 2:08 PM on December 26, 2015


Beautiful. I wish I could visit.
posted by defenestration at 2:49 PM on December 26, 2015


Larson found the sweet side of the city. This is no alienated, film noir hellhole. He's covering the same waterfront as Robert Frank and WeeGee, but somehow making us feel good about the place.
posted by Modest House at 3:00 PM on December 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


I asked google image for the last politburo hats at the may day parade and I don't know how close to accurate this is but it returned an '85 Gorbachev.
posted by bukvich at 4:05 PM on December 26, 2015


I add two more references from my college (Columbia U NYC 1962 or so) experience I have not researched deeply, but believe these are worthwhile:

Paul Byers NYTimes obit gave cameras to kids in Harlem and they took pictures. It was amazing but I don't quickly find any results. Imagine, unnoticable kid photographers.

Ralph Hattersley RIT quickly convinced me I should stick to mathematics and not persue art as a career. Nevertheless: the most influential teacher I ever had. He ended up authoring simple-minded photo columns and books that are still smarter than anything else around.

(BTW I dropped mathematics too and became a computer nerd with adequate success. And here I am.)
posted by hexatron at 4:49 PM on December 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


I looked at the pic of the guitar-playing cowboy and thought, "And today, he'd be naked."
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:58 PM on December 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


I could be wrong, but I think a lot of these have the signature Rolleiflex twin-lens-reflex perspective that made National Geographic human photography so magical. Using a camera that rides low on a strap and that is operated from above, with your head down, looking into something that is visually indistinguishable from minding one's own business instead of holding up a giant incarnate symbol for I AM TAKING YOUR PICTURE, makes for some gorgeously candid shots. Plus, the shutters were far, far quieter than later SLRs with their flapping mirrors.
posted by sonascope at 6:07 PM on December 26, 2015 [12 favorites]


That "Today Show Window" photo also has a large calendar in the background labeled: Jack Lescoulie, Unauthorized Absences and Malfeasances, with a lot of uh, entries.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:16 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


(I want those days to return, but I'm not holding my breath.)

Regrettably, not everyone looks good in hats. Speaking for self, I'm glad I've dodged that bullet.

I looked at the pic of the guitar-playing cowboy and thought, "And today, he'd be naked."

(for non-New Yorkers, he's referring to this guy. Who looks okay in a hat.)
posted by BWA at 6:53 AM on December 27, 2015


That was my problem. As a young adult in the 70s/early 80s, I was in love with the thought of living in NY, but it was an older NYC, the one I saw in my parents pics of their brief time there. Whereas you know the grimy, crime-ridden reality of 70s-80s NY.

How ironic that people today romanticize the grimy, crime-ridden 70s-80s NY and whine about the squeaky clean NYC of today with the banks and chain stores popping up on every corner. Some things never change.

Amazing photos. Personally though, I'm quite happy with the NY of today.
posted by pravit at 9:51 AM on December 27, 2015


He was a phenomenal photographer.

not everyone looks good in hats

The museum where I work had a huge exhibition on hats a few years ago, and I learned there that there's a hat for everyone, every face and head type. Everyone looks good in the right hat, but the art of hat selecting and fitting has all but disappeared. If you speak to a good hat stylist it really is possible to find a hat that looks amazing.

But we just don't need hats as much as people did in the past - primarily because the air is quite a bit cleaner, and also because most people wash and style their hair a lot more often and it's not a disaster if your hairdo gets blown apart on Tuesday and your day at the salon isn't until Saturday.
posted by Miko at 9:51 AM on December 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


I never before realized that the naked cowboy is not actually naked. Kinda false advertising, no?
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 1:56 PM on December 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Man I wish someone would tell me what hat I look in cause every time I have had a hat attempt it was failed horribly.

It's that huge Celtic head thing, hats rest uneasy and I won't wear a pageboy hat cause I'm allready dangerous close to looking like a retired farmer.
posted by The Whelk at 9:00 PM on December 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


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