#vintage new york

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Grand Central dressed for Christmas, 1930.

Photo: George Rinhart via Corbis/Getty Images/Huffpost

[citizenscreen]

The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City photographed on December 21, 1949.

[oldnewyork]

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

[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]

Post Office workers tried to brighten their workplace with tinsel but the mail overwhelmed everything, 1954.

Photo: Volkmar K. Wentzel & Donald Mcba via Getty Images/ BuzzFeed News

[citizenscreen]

Eartha Kitt photographed by Ernst Haas while she performs in a New York night club in 1952.

[oldnewyork]

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

[semioticapocalypse]

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

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[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:

[mrskennedy]

Jacqueline Onassis attends a meeting at Grand Central Station aimed at fighting against its demolition. She became one of the most prominent New Yorkers who organized to save Grand Central. January 31st, 1975.