Time for a favorite CC pastime, armchair traveling with vintage traffic in known locales. This time, it’s New York City, sometime in 1964.
Other than the approximate date, no information regarding street names came with these. But I’m sure New Yorkers and those acquainted with the city will add some of that information.
Plenty of “liquors” and bars! One is of Times Square (the Allied Chemical building). A new “New Look” or fishbowl GM transit coach is in the foreground of photo #1. They were in use for at least 20 years. A 1963 Chevrolet takes the spot in the last photo next to Radio City Music Hall.
Sharp eye! That building also appears in the Forrest Gump movie – the night of the New Year’s Eve party.
I worked for Allied after they took over the Garrett Corp (itself under Signal Oil and Gas at the time) in the 80s.
Yup! I remember those GM buses in 1960s Vancouver, but us kids usually rode a trolley bus DT/Stanley Park which went by very close to our house.
I think that is a 1962 Chevrolet, not 1963.
Great pic of the Chrysler Building on a sunny day! Love this building that at this time was 34 years old.
It didn’t eliminate the smog, but the later rerouting of the exhaust to the rooftop of the GMC New Look buses was a big improvement, I appreciated as a kid. I remember often walking with my dad downtown, and getting a blast of the exhaust fumes, when they used to be at ground level.
Love the casualness of the guy’s elbow poking out of the rear of the cab.
New Looks with roof exhaust often had what was known as an ‘Environmental Improvement Package’. The E.I.P. consisted of a roof outlet exhaust stack, special fuel injectors, a catalytic converter built into the muffler, and a roof mount engine air intake on the opposite side of the exhaust. The package was designed to reduce emissions, visible soot, and noise. The option was introduced around 1970.
Great to know! Thanks for that information Bob.
I too noticed and liked that elbow, folks don’t ride like that anymore even when in non AC equipped oldies .
Pic. # 2 has a two toned Oldsmobile taxi, I think it looks sharp .
My WAG is it’s a ’64 .
I was there at that time and the choking clouds of black Diesel exhaust were no joke ~ I’d often get head splitting headaches from it .
I didn’t much like the constant ground level shadows either .
I _do_ somewhat miss the traffic sounds echoing off the tall buildings .
-Nate
I’m not seeing any Olds taxi in #2; I see a ’64 Ford and a ’65 Coronet. An Olds would have been a very unlikely car to be used as a NYC taxi.
I would visit the big apple in the summer of 1975 during a major road trip with a buddy.
It was a fast paced place with a character unlike other major cities we visited that summer. We saw some of the major tourist attractions and took my cousins from NJ one day to check out the sites. Two of my adult children have travelled there and have their own positive memories. Would love to go back for another look around.
Depending on the time of the year, Manhattan has a lot of smells – few of them good. In summer, you smell urine blowing up from the subway vents, the cars of that era burned rich and mufflers were often holey. A lot of cars burned oil back then. Trucks had their own smells. Half the population smoked cigarettes.
That’s what I remember when I see photos like these. Whew!
NYC, dirty dirty dirty!
Ironically, much cleaner in 1964 than it would be in 10 years…although perhaps no where near as clean and sanitized as it is nowadays. To me, the way the City is now, its lost much of the charm (and grit, although think grit is a good thing) it had back in the 1960s and 1970s.
If all goes according to current plan, current levels of traffic will be cut back to what these 1964 photos show…after congestion tolling goes into effect in April 2024.
Imagine what it was like with hundreds of horses on the streets and weekly bathing.
Photo #4:
Thats the PAN AM building directly in the middle of the photo.
Note the small circular ball near the top to the building.
Probably shot at E 44th St & 3rd Ave, looking due west.
This is the best I can get with Google Maps:
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/9307623920_0674f19977_3k.jpg?ssl=1
Note!!!
Don’t let your cat jump on the desk as you attempt to copy and past:
Here’e the corrected link:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7521059,-73.973528,3a,90y,288.06h,95.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxb-bAuykAYREknmR_rww6A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
This is W44 St between Broadway and 6th ave facing east. Note the a.k.a. building. It’s the “Hotel -2-3 building in the original shot.
Photo #5:
The photo is looking north on 5th Ave where Broadway and W 24th intersect.
The trees to the right are in Madison Square Park.
The Empire State Building is in the background to the upper left.
This is the bestI can get with Google Maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9947047,-90.1808128,14z?entry=ttu
Corrected link:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.742103,-73.9889575,3a,75y,32.89h,93.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-D_fAb_frcDEEFXqdILRWA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
Nope. #5 is looking east along 42nd Street, from 6th Ave., corner of Bryant Park on the right and the WR Grace building would be on the left.
Photo #1:
If you blow up the photo, you will see:
– a movie marquee in back center for the movie “The Train” starring Bert Lancaster which was released in the USA March, 1965
– a Howard Johnson restaurant sign to the far left
– a Ripley’s Believe It or Not sign next to “The Train” sign
– a street sign just to the upper left stating “Broadway Keep Left”
From what I can gather from Google, there was a HOJO and a Ripley’s near or in Times Square in the 60’s and 70’s. However, I am not able to figure out the angle of the shot or the exact location.
Any native New Yorkers and commuters who can figure it out??
Best I can tell, and I could be wrong, this photo was taken looking east on 46th street at Broadway. The sign (which you can just make out) for “Elpine Drinks” was a famous NYC juicebar ( http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/10/elpine-revisited.html ) at 46th and 7th. It appears that today an Express store occupies that corner.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nEgSzoLBqCqshY6f6
Correction. It’s actually looking NORTH on 7th Avenue. So one of the opposite corners the link I posted above. The George M. Cohan statue (which you can see on the right in the original as well as this Google image) is a much better landmark. The Elpine Drinks location is actually across the street from the Express.
Yashica cameras! I had a Yashica 44 twin-lens reflex cam when I was a kid that my uncle gave me, which used 127-size roll film that produced those huge slides like the ones that were popularly sold in gift shops to tourists. The viewfinder was a screen on the top of the camera, which resulted in all my photos being taken from an oddly low vantage point, looking up a bit even at other kids’ faces. I had to check Wikipedia to learn if Yashica is still around – they aren’t, although the company that bought them a few decades ago, Kyocera, still is.
Behind the Yashica building is a big ad for True Story magazine. I remember those on the magazine stands when I was a kid too – for those that seeked the truth there was a whole genre of “true” magazines – True Confessions, True Romance, True This, True That. I wonder if any of those are still in print.
Pic #2 has “Don Hollinger’s” office building . (“That Girl” show)
Photo #2:
6th Avenue at 46 & 47 Streets, looking north (Uptown). Note the Americana Hotel in the background (which is at 53rd Street and 7th Avenue) – now the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, though it is several blocks away from TS – and is closer to Rockefeller Center. The Avon theater was used as a venue to preview pilot TV programs. That and the Rex Hotel are long gone now.
Photo #2 shows a whole crew of Don Draper’s contemporaries crossing 6th Avenue 🙂
One other thing refreshing about these 60 year old pictures is the lack of the “sidewalk sheds” that seem to cover nearly every block in some parts of Manhattan. Sure, back in the day things sometimes fell off of building facades and clocked pedestrians (but that’s the way we LIKED it! 😉 ), but at least one could sometimes look up and see the sky while walking down the street. Everything looks so much more open in these pictures.
Nice pics! And what a difference 10 years made in car design back then.
That remind me a bit of the French movie “Le Gendarme à New York” (1965) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarme_in_New_York starring Louis De Funès and Michel Galabru when French gendarmes was in New York City.
The show, “That Girl.”
One of the pictures shows the back end of a 65 Buick lesabre and another shows a white 1965 Chevy Nova.
So these pics were taken late in 1964 or possibly early 1965.
Not a Checker to be seen. More evidence that Dodges were really the ubiquitous NYC taxis of the era.
I visited NYC on a high school exchange program in 1969 and clearly recall almost every taxi seemed to be some vintage of intermediate Dodge.
Most were painted yellow even if they were from a cab company other than Yellow. They had a chromed badge on the side of the front fender saying “Dodge Taxi” in place of the more usual Coronet badging.
The preponderance of taxis in Manhattan led me to belief it might have been the city’s most common single car model. If Dodges had sold that well in other parts of the country, I have no doubt they’d outsell Chevrolet and Ford.
You were correct the first time. This is 7ave facing south. George Cohan’s statue ties the photos together. Odd number aves run south, even run north (except on the east side).
I just got a gander at these photos. Thank!
#1 is Sixth Avenue at 33rd Street looking north.
#2 – Silverkris nailed it.
#3 -Times Square looking south – Broadway veers left and Seventh Avenue is to the right.
#4 – 3SpeedAutomatic nailed it.
#5 – Fahrvergnugen nailed it.
#6 – 51st Street looking East from Sixth Avenue
Great memories. I was raised in The Bronx, but when I was fifteen, we moved to midtown Manhattan.
I was ten and living in NYC . I clearly remember the variety of taxis though I usually walked or rode the bus. 🙂 I think that’s a 2 tone Checker in the background behind the Dodge Coronet. Compared to today the auto scene in the mid sixties was a never ending game of “ what car is that” for little kids. I particularly remember the tiny lanterns that sat on limousines , usually Cadillacs,, so that doormen could find the owners limo as it idled at the curb down the street 🙂
For Woodie Man… Did you ever walk along Park Avenue above 59th Street? One would have thought that Rolls Royce is a common automobile! When you mentioned the opera lamps, it reminded me because often I would see a Rolls with opera lamps. Oddly enough, at 505 Park Avenue at the northeast corner of Park and 59th Street, the corner store front was a Hillman dealership. I always found that an odd place to sell that little car. ARAMCO’s headquarters were in that building.
In #5 is where Madison Park is on the right in the pix. In the 70s and 80s I lived on w. Houston. and worked across the street. from Radio City Music Hall in the new Time Life bldg. All those bldg in that pix were torn down by that time.
I walked uptown from Houston St. past Madison Park or up 6th ave. all the time. That area by Madison Park going west was where the major toy companies had their offices.