I would love to go back in time. Thank you for putting these pictures together. I have to be honest and say that NYC looked much better back then. I love watching things like this, makes me think of all those old movies where stars were stars.
Considering his screen name, I’d say maybe he was born in 1926? Making him about 18 in 1944, and about 90 when he posted this. Profile reads Navy vet ‘43-‘47. An internet literate onagenerian, who knew?
vmdct As a child I went to New York with my parents to visit my Aunt. As an adult I went to New York to attend the theater. Now that I'm retired and living in the South and although I do not miss the cold weather or the snow, every December I get sad because there is no place like New York at Christmas! Your video is great and the beautiful "Moonlight Serenade".
A wonderful city....and a great place to grow up then and now. Each shot has people! Recently, walking in an elegant Los Angeles suburb I went for 20 minutes without seeing another soul. Houses and cars were beautiful, but not one said a word to me. Who needs that?
Dazzling! My mother was born on the Lower East Side in 1920, and there are a lot of photos here showing that area, which I'm sure was unchanged by 1940. My mother's family followed the upward mobility pattern, and moved to Queens in 1927. I loved this, part of my personal history! And the background of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" is perfection.
My Dad worked at Penn Station so I got to see a lot of NYC in the mid Fifties. Coming from the suburbs, it was always so overwhelming. Glad this brought back some good memories for you!
I have been watching this wonderful video for 3 years now almost on a daily basis and I can not get enough of it. This is my best meditation session. Thanks again for posting.
OMG!!! Someone lead me to a time machine! I have got to get out of this crazy insanity and go back to "good old New York"! LOL Love the video and you could not have picked a better serenade for it. As an avid nostalgia buff, great job & thank you for posting an immaculate masterpiece!
The city was so beautiful. The downtown pictures always give me a sense of amazement, it looked so different before it lost its glory to black slabs. Great video, and great choice of music.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and the trip by subway to Manhattan was always an adventure when you were 5. No better place than Brooklyn/Manhattan/Queens/Bronx and even Staten Island back in the 40's and 50's. I'm 71 and I miss it every day.
Very cool.This is how NYC looked in my father's days.I was born in 1958 and grew up in Rockland County NY. My Grandfather was a conductor on the New York Central railroad,Hudson Line,and worked out of Grand Central.
+WONtothaG No doubt about that, despite a World War going on in Europe and the East, the 1940's was possibly NYC's greatest decade. A real city, no contrived places for tourists, just the real deal of a living working city with some of the most amazing and fabulous buildings on earth (of which too many have been sacrificed for so-called progress)
agirlyou dontknow You're right of course, I didn't live in NYC in that era but I did say "possibly" not definitely. I'm really referring to the many extraordinary places that have since disappeared and the fact that crime was much lower then, mostly involved with the underworld. Of course there are many things that would be better now but I wish I had a time machine just to experience that amazing time!
I agree with you wholeheartedly that NYC had that look and feel well into the 70's. Also, as a girl in the 60/70's, I remember that the folks that came from the era of this video (1940's or earlier) were just wonderfully different. They were just kinder and caring people, with values for which the likes of it will never be seen again. I'm grateful that I was able to experience NY and society as it once was. Thanks for the memories!
There's nothing left of this New York. I got to see plenty of it growing up in the 60' and 70s. It started in the 70s and by the 90s, when I left, it was all but gone to corporations and general development. I was back in 2015 to settle my parent's affairs, and I didn't recognize the place. I sure miss it.
We are from Brazil. Roberto e Dagma. In this moment, june, 22, 2019, my wife and I, are watching this tape. Was wonderful! Great moments! Sorry ! My english isn't good. 👍👍👍👍👍😚😚
The only reason to go to NY now is to visit the bones of OLD NY. It really was better years ago. Ironically, the "rejuvenation" of the city is what killed it's soul. No more neighborhoods. No more local color or culture. Now, it's a giant mall overrun by hipsters who would've been eaten alive by the real NY. Like America itself, it fell into the hands of lesser stewards.
Can imagine the plays and plush hotels back then and not to mention the music is amazing! I'm thinking this was around world war II? This also was when baseball was big in NY. You had three of the greatest teams, the Dodgers, the Yankees and the Giants. The 1940"s, wow!
A lot more than that, automobiles, exquisite fashion they are barely showing, architecture, 100,000-2 mill dollar apartments worth the cost in every bit of its essence. And the color composition of the city was perfect.
Jim Cushman I thought the same but it made America stronger Today we must continue growing stronger and better and maybe one day we could end poverty and suffering in America and the world.
john creator it grown worst not better. Hipsters, complainers and laziness only exists nowadays. Government became terrible and corrupted. No love for our neighbors or respect for our elders. List goes on.
Sharooken Sad but true. The men from this era were real men. My grandfather went to WW2 was wounded by the Germans. Lost many friends. He came back Manned up and went to work and never said a word to anyone about the war again. PTSD wasn’t a known diagnosis but it existed I’m sure
@@johncreator346 Yeah the liberal fantasy is destroying America. We will be attacked, because the evil dictators of earth are not on the same page. The sad thing is American men have no will to fight, for what ? A everything is racist, pink haired liberal freak society ,We're done.
Great pictures. I live & work in NYC in a job that keeps me traveling around the streets, especially lower Manhattan. Some of these areas look almost the same today, some have changed greatly. One picture, tho, is definitely not from the 40s. @ 3:24-3:28, shot of skyline of the Wall St. area, you can see the Chase Manhattan Bldg. in the upper left. This was built in the early 60s. My mother used to work in that bldg. as an IBM punch card machine operator.
It was very expensive to shoot movies in color, since color movie cameras, film, lighting, and processing were all quite costly. Only those movies with the biggest budgets, ones that were expected to be blockbuster hits like Gone With The Wind, were shot in color.
Great post. Not a sign of graffiti in any of the images ! Speaks volumes of the respect people had for other peoples property in those days. Love the BBC Orchestra's great version of "Moonlight Serenade". Thank you for sharing.
@SatchmoSings This clip consists of Kodachrome slide images, something eniterly different from motion picture formats. 1861 First color photo taken by James Clerk Maxwell 1935 Eastman Kodak Company starts marketing of Kodachrome 16mm motion picture film 1936 Introduction of Kodachrome 35mm and 828 still film and 8mm motion picture film 1942 Introduction of Kodacolor color negative film Hollywood was reluctant to use color film simply because it was an expensive and complex process.
At 2:00, McSorely's Ale House is still open on East 7th St and Bowery. It has been open since 1850's. They have a photo of Press. Lincoln on the wall. I wonder what they did during Prohibition (Volstead Act)?
Being that many Tammany politicians and police officials were among the regular crowd of patrons at McSorley’s, immunity from raids did not need to be bought. An inconvenience was all it was to Bill McSorley. In the interest of staying open, and without a brewery to procure their ale from, “McSorley’s" ale was produced mysteriously in rows of barrels and washtubs in the cellar by a retired brewer named Barney Kelley.” It is said that Kelley’s ale was particularly strong leading Bill to take it upon himself to weaken the brew creating what he referred to as “near beer.” from: Researching Greenwich Village History
Beautiful. Wow!! You have really captured the essesence of NYC during the early 40's. I love and study vintage productions... and this one is super. Really great variety of culture, advertising and clothing of the era. Thanks so much. Regards, J.
15 years before my parents married in Havana,Cuba and NYC was affordable and livable. Still had El train linesto the Hub in the Bronx and El lines to Downtown Brooklyn and to Park Row in Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.
NYC at this time didn't have serious air pollution but soon would. The factories were soon released from the then-stringent pollution laws, all in the name of the war and post-war prosperity. It didn't even begin to clean up until the late '80s when the last smoke belchers finally closed down.
The opening scenes from The Wizard of Oz were intentionally shot in black and white to make the Land of Oz look even more distinctive. While the movie has since been digitized, except for the opening scenes, the original was shot in color.
Movies did not use Kodachrome, they used the Technicolor process. There were only a limited number of cameras available in the late thirties. Many more movies might have been shot in color had the equipment been available. If you check my site, there are some movies shot at the 1939 NY World's Fair that WAS shot with Kodak color film.
These videos bring back nostalgia even if you didn’t live through those times. NYC still looks like the gathering place of all the immigrants that ever passed its gates. I remember as a young girl, standing in line, in the dead of winter, to see the Rockets on their Christmas show. We would stand there for hours and drink Chock-full-o-Nuts coffee and chocolate milk shakes. Then we would go in and I would look at all the fancy carpets and architecture and bathrooms with attendants and the shuffling of people, young and old, trying to get to their seats. Everything was crimson red with gold ornamentation everywhere. There were locals that would dress up with fur coats and the latest fashion for the occasion, even though it was only a matinee. As a child, I knew this was city living, I could feel these were special moments.
@Frank Silvers My nostalgia is in reference to the time that I, as a young woman, did live in NY. It might not be 1940 NY, but it’s still my nostalgia, my memories and my connection to this place, in the 1960s.
Beautiful photos, but please let's be more accurate on the dates! These photos are not all from the 1940's! At 3:26 the Chase Manhattan Plaza Building is clearly visible at the left edge! This building was completed in 1961!
robertwmartens: What's missing from these color photos are the garish polyester and fluorescent hues that seem to infiltrate everything today. That soft drink cart (at 2:08) was probably as colorful as things got back in those days. If you wanted to enjoy unrestrained, saturated color you'd have to visit a modern art gallery or watch a Technicolor movie. Today . . . black and white is a relief!
In 1999 a building across from Lincoln Center was demolished. The demo revealed the side of the building next door, and the newly painted ad for Hunter's Rye Whiskey saw sunlight hit its bright BRIGHT yellow paint for the first time since WW1. My picture of Columbus Circle just a few blocks away has that same ad for Hunter's in black and white, from around 1919. We forget how colorful the past was. That billboard looked brand new and probably was when it was covered up.
Glad you liked it. These photos were from the Library of Congress. It looks like they've been digitally enhanced, but the original slides must have been in pretty good condition.
@wordsmith52 It IS Glenn Miller's music, but BBC's interpretation. Yes, McSorley's Ale House looks exactly the same way it does in the photo.. The only change is that women are now allowed (There is still only one bathroom, though).
Very nice video but makes me sad and thoughtful when I think about the troops fighting and losing their lives in Europe and the Pacific at the time the pictures were taken. Those years were tough times for young Americans as military service was obligatory and there were some fierce enemies they had to fight...
Seeing the guy with the Frankfurter cart was great. I run one in Bath, Maine. There are a few images after 1940 though. For instance that Budweiser truck is a 1948-1950 Chevrolet. Thanks for sharing these, I enjoyed them.
At 4:04 on the video you can see the top corner of 28 Liberty (built as One Chase Plaza). Note that construction of that building was not stated till the late 1950's. Otherwise a really great video.
If you took all the girls I knew, when I was single And brought 'em all together for one night I know they'd never match, my sweet imagination Everything looks worse in black and white
Nostalgia is a time machine. Viewing these images in black & white is different than when it's colorized. When it is colorized, it's as though I'm being transported back to that era.
Yes! You are right! The first time I saw these pics in colors. I was amazed! To me it looked as if it was other country, lost in Europe or even Middle East!.
Just love the way you portray New York back then growing up in the 60's it was still nice although sketchy in places, still love it although I miss those days gone by.
These are slides taken from the Library of Congress. The only information was that they were taken in 1940-1942. Except for one photo, I believe the date to accurate. As for the photos stopping short of street level, it is because that is where the slide ended.
NYC was in great decline in the 1970s, and the city was nearly bankrupt at one point. Crime was out of control. Many works of art attempted to capture the decline. A famous movie of that era is Taxi Driver. Central Park was unsafe, Times Square was a cesspool, and crime was common on the subways. NYC's population actually decreased during this period, due to all the problems with living there.
![Brooklyn, New York 1940s in color [60fps,Remastered] w/sound design added](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/N_KRd74kLDA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Brooklyn, New York 1940s in color [60fps,Remastered] w/sound design added](/img/tr.png)
I would love to go back in time. Thank you for putting these pictures together.
I have to be honest and say that NYC looked much better back then. I love watching things like this, makes me think of all those old movies where stars were stars.
I don't think it's a good idea
I would like to go back to the time you commented on this. the past always looks perfect
In 1940 the Depression was still a thing.
@@desenhosincriveisoficialIt wasn't. Come on... you know it wasn't perfect.
@@yvonneplant9434higher class of people in those days
Great choice of music. Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade.
Apropos as it was released in May 1939.
BBC BIG BAND
I remember. I met my wife on leave in Manhattan in December 1944
Ken1926 howbold are u now?
Ken1926 I mean how old
you fought in ww2?
Considering his screen name, I’d say maybe he was born in 1926? Making him about 18 in 1944, and about 90 when he posted this. Profile reads Navy vet ‘43-‘47. An internet literate onagenerian, who knew?
Sure, and I met mine on the Titanic.
vmdct
As a child I went to New York with my parents to visit my Aunt. As an adult I went to New York to attend the theater. Now that I'm retired and living in the South and although I do not miss the cold weather or the snow, every December I get sad because there is no place like New York at Christmas! Your video is great and the beautiful "Moonlight Serenade".
A wonderful city....and a great place to grow up then and now. Each shot has people! Recently, walking in an elegant Los Angeles suburb I went for 20 minutes without seeing another soul. Houses and cars were beautiful, but not one said a word to me. Who needs that?
Dazzling! My mother was born on the Lower East Side in 1920, and there are a lot of photos here showing that area, which I'm sure was unchanged by 1940. My mother's family followed the upward mobility pattern, and moved to Queens in 1927. I loved this, part of my personal history! And the background of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" is perfection.
I worked in NYC at Central Hanover bank 70 Broadway back in the 1940's. The video brought back so many long ago memories.
so are you 80 or 90?
Either that or she started on 12/31/49 lol.
Hakim Picture Habbo how's that?
Bless your heart. My dad was a kid in the 1940's and he's in his 80's now. I admire and respect our elders.
was the world a better place then?
My Dad worked at Penn Station so I got to see a lot of NYC in the mid Fifties. Coming from the suburbs, it was always so overwhelming. Glad this brought back some good memories for you!
They tore down the old beautiful Penn station in 1962 I believe. What a catastrophe, it was a masterpiece
The first photo used was my grandfather's restaurant, Moskowitz and Lupowitz
That's cool!
I have been watching this wonderful video for 3 years now almost on a daily basis and I can not get enough of it. This is my best meditation session. Thanks again for posting.
I'd do anything to spend just a week there.
OMG!!! Someone lead me to a time machine! I have got to get out of this crazy insanity and go back to "good old New York"! LOL Love the video and you could not have picked a better serenade for it. As an avid nostalgia buff, great job & thank you for posting an immaculate masterpiece!
I'm reading your message 13 years later. It's even crazier now lol
One Centre Street, Municipal Building behind the rowhouses at 1:30. Worked there during seventies.
The city was so beautiful. The downtown pictures always give me a sense of amazement, it looked so different before it lost its glory to black slabs. Great video, and great choice of music.
Are you still with us?
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and the trip by subway to Manhattan was always an adventure when you were 5. No better place than Brooklyn/Manhattan/Queens/Bronx and even Staten Island back in the 40's and 50's. I'm 71 and I miss it every day.
having pictures in color makes it so much more realistic and seem not so long ago compared to the same images in B&W, even though it was 80 years ago
Very cool.This is how NYC looked in my father's days.I was born in 1958 and grew up in Rockland County NY. My Grandfather was a conductor on the New York Central railroad,Hudson Line,and worked out of Grand Central.
My Dad worked at Penn Station . My grandfather was a postman out of Grand Central.
old new york seemed so much more interesting than it is now
+WONtothaG No doubt about that, despite a World War going on in Europe and the East, the 1940's was possibly NYC's greatest decade. A real city, no contrived places for tourists, just the real deal of a living working city with some of the most amazing and fabulous buildings on earth (of which too many have been sacrificed for so-called progress)
interesting cause u didnt live in that era
agirlyou dontknow
You're right of course, I didn't live in NYC in that era but I did say "possibly" not definitely. I'm really referring to the many extraordinary places that have since disappeared and the fact that crime was much lower then, mostly involved with the underworld. Of course there are many things that would be better now but I wish I had a time machine just to experience that amazing time!
i understand completely. yes i would love to go back in time as well.
Keep the faith, Paul. We will all have a time machine, soon enough.
THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO ---
As an eighty plus year old New Yorker the photos (Kodachrome or whatever) bring back old memories.
Bob Smith
Thank you for this comment, Mr. Smith.
*_HEY BOB. HOW ARE YOU?_*
I agree with you wholeheartedly that NYC had that look and feel well into the 70's. Also, as a girl in the 60/70's, I remember that the folks that came from the era of this video (1940's or earlier) were just wonderfully different. They were just kinder and caring people, with values for which the likes of it will never be seen again. I'm grateful that I was able to experience NY and society as it once was. Thanks for the memories!
Love your comments and greetings from Ireland!
There's nothing left of this New York. I got to see plenty of it growing up in the 60' and 70s. It started in the 70s and by the 90s, when I left, it was all but gone to corporations and general development. I was back in 2015 to settle my parent's affairs, and I didn't recognize the place. I sure miss it.
Nice I enjoy the music back in the days was just real and romantic.
We are from Brazil. Roberto e Dagma.
In this moment, june, 22, 2019, my wife and I, are watching this tape.
Was wonderful!
Great moments!
Sorry ! My english isn't good.
👍👍👍👍👍😚😚
This was my Grandparents NYC! I'm so thrilled to be able to see when and where they lived!
de belles photos merci à vous
de rien
The only reason to go to NY now is to visit the bones of OLD NY. It really was better years ago. Ironically, the "rejuvenation" of the city is what killed it's soul. No more neighborhoods. No more local color or culture. Now, it's a giant mall overrun by hipsters who would've been eaten alive by the real NY. Like America itself, it fell into the hands of lesser stewards.
"hipsters who would've been eaten alive by the real NY".....well said.
You're 100% correct, Its a shame You expressed my sentiments
Your statement are ignorant your stupid
AGREED!!
Ryan Mordecai
8
Manhattan means so much to me. Ive seen Her in the 70,80 and 90's. My how She changed.
nyc was so charming and and enchanting back than
I loved this. I was born in Brooklyn years after 1940 but the photos still brought back memories of my childhood in NYC. And the music was perfect.
People dressed so nice back then and had a lot of class unlike today
Higher class of people back then
JD, you match music with film like no one else. Please continue to bless us with your productions.
Can imagine the plays and plush hotels back then and not to mention the music is amazing! I'm thinking this was around world war II? This also was when baseball was big in NY. You had three of the greatest teams, the Dodgers, the Yankees and the Giants. The 1940"s, wow!
A lot more than that, automobiles, exquisite fashion they are barely showing, architecture, 100,000-2 mill dollar apartments worth the cost in every bit of its essence. And the color composition of the city was perfect.
1940. Before America's involvement in WWII.
Just before the war started for us in December 1941....after this...the world would never be the same again...
Jim Cushman I thought the same but it made America stronger
Today we must continue growing stronger and better and maybe one day we could end poverty and suffering in America and the world.
john creator it grown worst not better. Hipsters, complainers and laziness only exists nowadays. Government became terrible and corrupted. No love for our neighbors or respect for our elders. List goes on.
@@sharooken2523 SO VERY TRUE AND SAD HOW AMERICA IS TODAY! 😥
Sharooken
Sad but true.
The men from this era were real men.
My grandfather went to WW2 was wounded by the Germans. Lost many friends.
He came back Manned up and went to work and never said a word to anyone about the war again.
PTSD wasn’t a known diagnosis but it existed I’m sure
@@johncreator346 Yeah the liberal fantasy is destroying America. We will be attacked, because the evil dictators of earth are not on the same page. The sad thing is American men have no will to fight, for what ? A everything is racist, pink haired liberal freak society ,We're done.
Everytime I see the singer building or old penn station I weep a little
Fantastic footage! And 'In the Mood' was THE song of 1940. Well done.
There is no better melody for this video! Thanks a lot.
2:02 McSorley's Old Ale House. It's still very much in business ;)
Great pictures. I live & work in NYC in a job that keeps me traveling around the streets, especially lower Manhattan. Some of these areas look almost the same today, some have changed greatly. One picture, tho, is definitely not from the 40s. @ 3:24-3:28, shot of skyline of the Wall St. area, you can see the Chase Manhattan Bldg. in the upper left. This was built in the early 60s. My mother used to work in that bldg. as an IBM punch card machine operator.
My New York and the best time of 1940, 1950. Thank you for this video. Unforgettable.
It was very expensive to shoot movies in color, since color movie cameras, film, lighting, and processing were all quite costly. Only those movies with the biggest budgets, ones that were expected to be blockbuster hits like Gone With The Wind, were shot in color.
I miss my grandma and grandpa. At 5 years old they introduced me to benny goodman, glen miller, louis armstrong.
Great post. Not a sign of graffiti in any of the images ! Speaks volumes of the respect people had for other peoples property in those days.
Love the BBC Orchestra's great version of "Moonlight Serenade".
Thank you for sharing.
Nice images.Thank you very much.
@SatchmoSings This clip consists of Kodachrome slide images, something eniterly different from motion picture formats.
1861 First color photo taken by James Clerk Maxwell
1935 Eastman Kodak Company starts marketing of Kodachrome 16mm motion picture film
1936 Introduction of Kodachrome 35mm and 828 still film and 8mm motion picture film
1942 Introduction of Kodacolor color negative film
Hollywood was reluctant to use color film simply because it was an expensive and complex process.
Civilized society. Thank you for sharing your videos. God bless you and Merry Christmas 🎄🙏
Thank you and Merry Christmas to you as well.
"Moonlight Serenade" was written in 1939 and was released as the flip side of "Sunrise Serenade'
At 2:00, McSorely's Ale House is still open on East 7th St and Bowery. It has been open since 1850's. They have a photo of Press. Lincoln on the wall. I wonder what they did during Prohibition (Volstead Act)?
Being that many Tammany politicians and police officials were among the
regular crowd of patrons at McSorley’s, immunity from raids did not need
to be bought. An inconvenience was all it was to Bill McSorley. In the
interest of staying open, and without a brewery to procure their ale from,
“McSorley’s" ale was produced mysteriously in rows of barrels and
washtubs in the cellar by a retired brewer named Barney Kelley.”
It is said that Kelley’s ale was particularly strong leading Bill to take it
upon himself to weaken the brew creating what he referred to as “near beer.”
from:
Researching Greenwich Village History
More garbage in the streets than nowadays, but NYC back then had heart and soul. Now, it's a high-priced playground for the rich.
and the poor
UNFORTUNATELY, I wasn’t around then BUT LOVE THE MUSIC & THE CITY LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!💙👏👏
Beautiful. Wow!! You have really captured the essesence of NYC during the early 40's. I love and study vintage productions... and this one is super. Really great variety of culture, advertising and clothing of the era. Thanks so much. Regards, J.
The music is a composition called "Moonlight Serenade", made famous by Glen Miller and his Orchestra.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful photos of war-time NYC. Old New York...nothing compares. Brilliant!
15 years before my parents married in Havana,Cuba and NYC was affordable and livable. Still had El train linesto the Hub in the Bronx and El lines to Downtown Brooklyn and to Park Row in Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.
fantastic. music really sets the mood of the wonderful photo montage. Where oh where is my time machine?
Kodachrome was amazing stuff! Beautiful pictures!
isnt it?
oh , this is one of my most favorite you tubes i don't even know how many times i have watched it and sung with it. sooooooo lovely. thank you
Wonderful music- I have a thing for the thirties and forties!
NYC at this time didn't have serious air pollution but soon would. The factories were soon released from the then-stringent pollution laws, all in the name of the war and post-war prosperity. It didn't even begin to clean up until the late '80s when the last smoke belchers finally closed down.
The opening scenes from The Wizard of Oz were intentionally shot in black and white to make the Land of Oz look even more distinctive. While the movie has since been digitized, except for the opening scenes, the original was shot in color.
Movies did not use Kodachrome, they used the Technicolor process. There were only a limited number of cameras available in the late thirties. Many more movies might have been shot in color had the equipment been available. If you check my site, there are some movies shot at the 1939 NY World's Fair that WAS shot with Kodak color film.
These videos bring back nostalgia even if you didn’t live through those times. NYC still looks like the gathering place of all the immigrants that ever passed its gates. I remember as a young girl, standing in line, in the dead of winter, to see the Rockets on their Christmas show. We would stand there for hours and drink Chock-full-o-Nuts coffee and chocolate milk shakes. Then we would go in and I would look at all the fancy carpets and architecture and bathrooms with attendants and the shuffling of people, young and old, trying to get to their seats. Everything was crimson red with gold ornamentation everywhere. There were locals that would dress up with fur coats and the latest fashion for the occasion, even though it was only a matinee. As a child, I knew this was city living, I could feel these were special moments.
Beautiful
@Frank Silvers My nostalgia is in reference to the time that I, as a young woman, did live in NY. It might not be 1940 NY, but it’s still my nostalgia, my memories and my connection to this place, in the 1960s.
How cool! Love seeing color pics of NYC in the 40's. Thanks for posting.
Beautiful photos, but please let's be more accurate on the dates! These photos are not all from the 1940's! At 3:26 the Chase Manhattan Plaza Building is clearly visible at the left edge! This building was completed in 1961!
The good old days may be gone but not forgotten just love 💕 to it on video 😊💯🇺🇸
Wish I lived then things were more pure and a lot of new things were coming out that fit the times hate the times we’re living in now
I was trying to get a visual idea of NY in the 40's and this is perfect, thank you!
robertwmartens:
What's missing from these color photos are the garish polyester and fluorescent hues that seem to infiltrate everything today. That soft drink cart (at 2:08) was probably as colorful as things got back in those days. If you wanted to enjoy unrestrained, saturated color you'd have to visit a modern art gallery or watch a Technicolor movie. Today . . . black and white is a relief!
In 1999 a building across from Lincoln Center was demolished. The demo revealed the side of the building next door, and the newly painted ad for Hunter's Rye Whiskey saw sunlight hit its bright BRIGHT yellow paint for the first time since WW1.
My picture of Columbus Circle just a few blocks away has that same ad for Hunter's in black and white, from around 1919.
We forget how colorful the past was. That billboard looked brand new and probably was when it was covered up.
Lovely scenery of New York City back in the days
Ah, the NYC I remember and loved. Thank you.
Glad you liked it. These photos were from the Library of Congress. It looks like they've been digitally enhanced, but the original slides must have been in pretty good condition.
Somebody get me a damn time machine!
Before the world changed. Many of those buildings were built between 1870 and 1880, were about 60-70 years old in 1940, all gone now.
The color photos of New York are fantastic! 1940 was the best year of all! I love New York!
@wordsmith52 It IS Glenn Miller's music, but BBC's interpretation. Yes, McSorley's Ale House looks exactly the same way it does in the photo.. The only change is that women are now allowed (There is still only one bathroom, though).
vid just perfect,moonlight serenade along side with 1940s scene is marvelous
Wonderfully put together. A must share with your parents or grandparents!
Very nice video but makes me sad and thoughtful when I think about the troops fighting and losing their lives in Europe and the Pacific at the time the pictures were taken. Those years were tough times for young Americans as military service was obligatory and there were some fierce enemies they had to fight...
Pop and sweets shop.
All those soldiers that wanted to see this again but didn't after 45...thats sad..thank you America,..
Very good. Artfully done.
Quite fascinating and enjoyable. Thanks for the enlightening experience.
`Thank you reminds me in 1960 going into McSorleys to see my dad and uncles having a bite and a beer
take me back...pleeeze!!
Seeing the guy with the Frankfurter cart was great. I run one in Bath, Maine. There are a few images after 1940 though. For instance that Budweiser truck is a 1948-1950 Chevrolet. Thanks for sharing these, I enjoyed them.
Amo história Maravilha obrigada
The comments tell the stories. Love it when people reply with a few:) So nice and peaceful.
At 4:04 on the video you can see the top corner of 28 Liberty (built as One Chase Plaza). Note that construction of that building was not stated till the late 1950's. Otherwise a really great video.
Love these old. Pictures of days gone by so different than today thanks
I love the tune, Mooonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller, and those photos look awesome :)
That’s where I need to be.
Forget 2019
Forget 2020 as well.
Fuck the 21st century..the beginning of the end
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar Exactly.
Forget COVID-19
When Mom & Pops ruled the town, before the cancer of faceless chain conglomerates... not to mention the Godless horror of modernism
This is the era when the citizens ruled and made the city special, not the mental hospital it has become.
AND THE DISGUSTING PIGS WHO CAME UP FROM SOUTH OF THE BOARDER TO DESTROY MY BEAUTIFUL NYC
So true,what you knew is what mattered. And you had to prove yourself
“Modernism” had been around before the 1940s. In literature and the arts, it began in the wake of the First World War.
Hippies and too much immigration ruined America 🇺🇸
Glad you liked it! The song is "Moonlight Serenade" (Glenn Miller)
Thank you for your great advice, SuperNumber19! I know you're an example of why the world loves New York! Have a wonderful Christmas, SuperNumber19!
photos look like they were taken yesterday...make me want to go back even more :(
These aren't colorized... they were shot in Kodachrome that was first introduced in the mid thirties.
If you took all the girls I knew, when I was single
And brought 'em all together for one night
I know they'd never match, my sweet imagination
Everything looks worse in black and white
Thank you SO MUCH for creating this. It's perfect. I miss it.
Nostalgia is a time machine. Viewing these images in black & white is different than when it's colorized. When it is colorized, it's as though I'm being transported back to that era.
Yes! You are right! The first time I saw these pics in colors. I was amazed! To me it looked as if it was other country, lost in Europe or even Middle East!.
These photos were shot in Kodachrome, introduced in the mid 1930's.
JDProductions2
Thanks for your comment. So they were shot in Kodachrome. Thanks.
+Aneudi Diaz over 50 and time speeds up ......1970's seem like yesterday
so true
Just love the way you portray New York back then growing up in the 60's it was still nice although sketchy in places, still love it although I miss those days gone by.
Wonderfully appropriate music. Great pictures and great music!!
Gotta love you some Glenn Miller
These are slides taken from the Library of Congress. The only information was that they were taken in 1940-1942. Except for one photo, I believe the date to accurate. As for the photos stopping short of street level, it is because that is where the slide ended.
NYC was in great decline in the 1970s, and the city was nearly bankrupt at one point. Crime was out of control. Many works of art attempted to capture the decline. A famous movie of that era is Taxi Driver. Central Park was unsafe, Times Square was a cesspool, and crime was common on the subways. NYC's population actually decreased during this period, due to all the problems with living there.