#vintage new york

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Edward Hopper, Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928. Oil on canvas.

Describing his aims in Manhattan Bridge Loop, Hopper explained that the painting’s horizontal composition was an attempt to give “a sensation of great lateral extent” and bring attention to the cityscape beyond the frame; “I just never cared for the vertical,” he later quipped. His depictions of the wide spans of the city’s bridges, its industrial landscapes, and its low-slung buildings elevate the quotidian and prosaic over the iconic, offering a powerful counterpoint to the awe-inspiring views of the New York skyline celebrated in the news and in works by many of his contemporaries. Alfred H. Barr observed of Hopper’s work in 1933: “His indifference to skyscrapers is remarkable in a painter of New York architecture.”

Photo & text: Whitney Museum of American Art

[mrskennedy]

Jackie Kennedy Onassis, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Aristotle Onassis out in New York City. February 1969.

[oldnewyork]

“ 1967, Manhattan, Girl jumping over a wall” by Mary Ellen Mark

[citizenscreen]

Coney Island’s world famous Cyclone roller coaster opened #OnThisDay in 1927.

[semioticapocalypse]

Diane Arbus. Woman at a counter smoking, NYC. 1962

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[earthangeal]

A mural of a forest in the South Bronx, New York. Captured by Thomas Hoepker, 1983

Mural Art by Alan Sonfist, 1978. The building still exists, however the mural is no longer there

[theyroaredvintage]

New York City, 1967. Photo by Garry Winogrand

[luzzarm]

Jerry LEWIS and the radio personality Barry Gray swapping their ice cream cones at a Carvel stand

New York, 1961

[fayegonnaslay]

Marilyn Monroe by Cecil Beaton, 1956.

[3-tearz]

Miguel & Friends

JEAN-PAUL GOODE

[carolynbkennedy]

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy

[newyorkthegoldenage]

A crowded luncheonette, ca. 1950.

Photo: Atlantic Press Agency via 1st Dibs

[voylitscope]

Old newspapers are a great source for details like costs and very localized stories and controversies. And, because I am always thinking about them, I thought it would be fun to browse some old papers for a little historically accurate, pre-war, Stucky research. I feel like this sort of information is great for fic writing. I also just feel like it's super interesting.

I used the Brooklyn Eagle:

All ads/articles were pulled from March 10th, July 5th, (I wanted the 4th but that wasn't available) and today, October 16th of 1939.

Please enjoy: prices for clothes, appliances, apartments, movies, dancing, dinner, travel, and more. Also, a World's Fair Schedule, a suspect old recipe, a report on the controversy over the naming of Bed-Stuy, the knowledge that Coney Island had a record number of visitors on July 4th, 1939, and more amazing 1939 Brooklyn content.

Store prices:

Night out prices:

(Dancing on Coney Island for $1.25! )

(Actual Katherine Hepburn in the stage play of The Philadelphia Story! Whispering Enemies: a smash action show!)

Travel costs:

Costs for other activities:

Apartment listings:

For reference, $45 in 1939 is about $1,020 in 2024.

At the World's Fair:

(The cost of Fair tickets seems to have been a running controversy. The Letter to the Editor is from March 10th. The Schedule is from July 5th. Do you ever think about Steve and Bucky going to the World's Fair? Because I think about it all the time.)

Around Brooklyn:

(I honestly do not even fully know what is happening in this Ebbets Field one, but I think it's sort of incredible.)

(Listen. Please never feel like any fic premise you have ever, or will ever, come up with, is contrived or unrealistic. Because, today I learned that once, in 1939, this "popularity contest" happened. So, truly. Go wild.)

(What amazing headline work, the Brooklyn Eagle. Absolutely no notes. Just stellar. 10/10. I realize this one didn't actually happen in Brooklyn, but I had to include it.)

Just a bit more very 1939 content:

[oldnewyork]

Rialto Theater, opening of Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942)

[citizenscreen]

Dorothy Dandridge headlining at the Empire Room at New York’s Waldorf Astoria in 1955. She was the first Black performer to do so. Despite the backlash, Dandridge performed to sell-out crowds, which opened the door for other legends like Count Basie at the famed nightclub.

[semioticapocalypse]

Danny Lyon. Beekman Street and the Brooklyn Bridge Southwest Project Demolition Site. 1967

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