I love Nelson, he documented the better part of us as humans. He died too soon, I cant help wonder where he would be now. Kind souls are hard to come by.
Dudi Olly The World was much friendlier back in 1986! I grew up in the 1980's. (Born in 1975). Life was simple and we were not in so much of a hurry to get everything done like today.
Agree. Now everyone has to be heard through social media. There is no social lines drawn anymore. Its like living in a virtual Jerry Springer show now. :(
The chill lifestyle they're living here, really reminds me of Spain in the summer; eating, sitting together, talking, smoking, chilling, everything is a (social) event
Nelson caught a shot of the Twin Towers without ever knowing what was going to happen someday. WOW. That dude has such a knack for knowing what to capture. I'm so impressed by him.
The twin towers were such a prominent part of NYC that everyone took pics of them. You really can’t be surprised that someone took video/pics of the tallest buildings in Gothic city.
Friggin time travel! Absolutely insane and crazy he had the ability to film this stuff so many years ago. Like stepping onto a different planet! Makes me miss the 80s and I was born in 2006!
So much to enjoy in this. The gorgeous shots of the WTC and Empire State Building (I especially love the shot with the streamers blowing), the conversation in the apartment, with everyone lighting up to avoid some of the awkwardness (there's a reason they call it social smoking), Randy getting into the Mamas and Papas, and the adorable ending with Nelson going back just to make sure his goodbye was oncamera (another reminder of how prescient he was for today's social media). Who were the people in the apartment with Randy and Fenton? Have they been on here before? I wonder about the other British guy in particular. I also wonder if they even got to have that rooftop party since it was coming up a storm. Who was it for anyway?
Ken George Jones Yes. Saw those clouds and thought wow I hope they checked the weather! I’ve never lived in NY but would have loved to live there at that time. I was 16 and living in the burbs.
These videos r AMAZING....what it must have been like to live in the EAST VILLAGE in the 80's!!! No wonder everyone is so thin....they did tons of cardio and steps!!!!
ecccck lolol not exactly the city's highest rent right there... I have noticed so many of the apartments in these videos are absolute sh(#*holes. Run down, and not even just the old and run down but cluttered and messy and dirty. I wouldn't feel comfortable hanging out in any of their places I would feel like I need a shower when I get home. You can live in an old place and still keep it neat and clean. None of my sister's "artsy" friends DIDN'T live in squalor and I don't just mean can't afford a nicer place... just I can't imagine anyone pulling out a vacuum and scrubbing the toilet with cleanser.
@@ericlopez9107 Yup. 5 story pre-war walk-ups baby! With no AC no less. Then you walk to the subway and up and down stairwells to different levels and multiple blocks from there on the street. NYC is a great place to live and stay thin.
I mean, I use TH-cam on my laptop I can't stand being on my phone for too long lol. If I were lucky enough to have a social life like this I'd be chatting away 😅
Why do people complain about mobile phones? People read books and magazines what’s the difference? It has never bothered me it just seems like people like to complain.
The area across the street from Fenton's apartment, La Plaza Cultural community garden, is awesome. If you're ever in the city, you should check it out. Really nice, relaxing place.
Nelson was a man way before his time by about 30 years. If only he could see the way society video's everything now... He was onto something and he didn't even know how it was going to change society.
Anyone may be familiar with a possible address? I’m thinking that the apartment that they went to is located east from Tompkins Square Park somewhere between 6th and 11th Street. Thank you in advance! -Devin
In case you're still looking or anyone else is curious, the apartment is at 635 E 9th St, you can see the number over the door at 1:47 and a few seconds before that they walk past the old community center that's on that street. Looks like a few years ago an apartment building was built in the alley they overlook in the video.
@@zanzibarshootingstar Zanzi, thank you so much for your responds and yes, you are right! They indeed walk past the community center a few seconds before entering 635. The colored front of 631 was replaced(converted) to the Tomkins East Condominium apartments around the year of 2007. And also yes, the alley right next to 635 has an appartement building now (since 2019/20). Again, thank you very much for your time to help. -Devin
@@EphemeralProductions I noticed that too. Probably has to do with the fact testosterone has dropped since then. Even straight guys are more feminine these days.
you know something just hit me....Nelson would have been considered bordering on chicken hawk in this group.....does anyone else catch a vibe that they aren't that glad to see him, especially the drag queens, except for his money or his parties? "Youths a blast but it don't last....live it hard and live it fast" As "George" said to Rod Stewart ...in gay life you had 5 years, lyrics in a David Bowie song.....26 got your card stamped
God, I was in Atlanta and it was the 70's instead of the 80's but I am so glad I was young and gay in the time I lived......it was just more fun......today seems to sterile and just plain boring......glad I am an old queen who can sit back and say "back in my day" but to me it seems so true
I I was born in '87. so I don't know what the '80s were. but I feel huge nostalgia watching the videos. Everything was forbidden, behind the scenes, there was a real underworld. Today the undeground has become mainstream. Lost grace. No longer shines. the gay world has split into a thousand ghettos. All are muscular, beautiful, perfect, healthy.
Uaooo nelson is such a nice person and was treated so cold by randy's friends, especially this guy named fenton, such an asshole, was he jelous of him or what.. he had no maners to treat nelson
Randy Barbados was so cute.....I wish I had met him and fallen in love...just think, today I would be Mrs World of Wonder and have all that DragRace money....
You know that Nelson taped this party and we haven’t been able to see because Dick Richards died and the person he left responsible for vids is too lazy to upload for 2 years now. 👎🏼
Randy’s housemates seem extremely cold to Nelson. That ‘disgust’ is showing on pple that Nelson talked abt in his last video with him using his camera all the time.
You are chilling with your friends in your apartment and your roommate comes home with a friend that is filming with a huge camera, how would you feel? I would feel uncomfortable especially if it was unexpected for some of the people as it looks like it was in this video ( a couple of the guys ask about the camera running) I would be wondering who is going to be watching me sitting there it would feel invasive, it is obvious why people complain in the other videos, what if they feel self conscious and one of your friends in the group won’t come to events without filming.
@@fluffyhead6377 that’s so true. It’s hard to realise it sometimes that the dynamics were different. It’s not that Randy could pick up his phone and send a sms telling his housemates he would be home in 5 mins with Nelson and his camera so obviously they would be caught off guard. Wht we see is raw emotions and reactions. That time they didn’t have the social media pressure and never could have imagined that video would end up on the internet. There wasn’t such thing as internet.
Well i can kind of understand. Using a camera once in awhile for a certain purpose or special occasion would probably not even be thought about, might be welcome even. But constantly having it there in your face and having to be “on” for it? Yeah i can see where that would get old
if you notice, almost everyone treats Nelson that way. looks like he was a stranger. A lonely person, looking for a group to belong to. Sometimes I feel a lot of sadness in him.
Well they are also English... very different level of social interaction. And yes- the whole camera thing. I bet they felt like he was a hanger-on but he was also a staple in the community, everyone knows him. You also have a lot of people who are narcissistic who are drawn toward feeling like the center of attention and Nelson provides that, vis a vis Dainty and Christina. At the same time these are not the most socially polished people in fact I am sure drugs has a part to do with their somewhat (what I see as) flaky behavior, if not all of it. If you take these videos and take away the elaborate costumes and clothes and alter egos and personas... they all seem a bit lost like they want something and don't know what it is.
we love these so cause it makes us feel like we are there !!! and not here in trumps shit hole..... its my understand the p tarts, randy and fenton, became ru's producers of her show and of world of wonder productions, very ! successful. why cant they produce a film on nelson? awfully talented those 3....
They must of never made it big cause I’ve never heard of The Pop Tarts.. The name didn’t help I’m sure.. Who calls their band that anyways?🤢 First apt/house Nelson been too that you can see the floor and get around fairly easily.. The other places look like nasty thrift stores! I thought people that were suppose to have such good taste and be artist yet live like hoarders!
I love Nelson, he documented the better part of us as humans. He died too soon, I cant help wonder where he would be now. Kind souls are hard to come by.
William McColl where are the kind souls anymore?
@@tawnteens there like pearls now I'm afraid 😅
Is it just me, it seems people were much more kinder and friendlier back then, so peaceful.. the world back then looks more human friendlier
Dudi Olly
The World was much friendlier back in 1986! I grew up in the 1980's. (Born in 1975). Life was simple and we were not in so much of a hurry to get everything done like today.
people were just as much assholes then as they are now. This is just a calm day with friends.
Agree. Now everyone has to be heard through social media. There is no social lines drawn anymore. Its like living in a virtual Jerry Springer show now. :(
Dudi Olly not just u
stfu
I love the sound of there shoes on the pavement, the sound of them shuffling up the stairs.. so soothing
Tape saturation
I love the simple sound of Nelson’s shoes on the pavement,going up and downstairs. I find it so relaxing. I’m hooked on this channel.
it’s like walking through the bank with your mom when you’re real little
“there’s some heavy talk about christ going on here” i love it
California Dreamin'' was only 20yrs old at the time. Its like listening to something from 2001 now.
And to think the Pop Tarts would go on to produce Drag Race.. love this little moment in time
I love how one of the women Nelson was filming, said ‘oh boy’ when she saw him, before they moved away lol.
The chill lifestyle they're living here, really reminds me of Spain in the summer; eating, sitting together, talking, smoking, chilling, everything is a (social) event
California Dreamin' while living in NYC in the summer of 1986!!! Wow
Lol, It must’ve taken like 6 people to get that BIG-ASS AIR CONDITIONER, up all those damn stairs.
Nelson caught a shot of the Twin Towers without ever knowing what was going to happen someday. WOW. That dude has such a knack for knowing what to capture. I'm so impressed by him.
I'm sure thousands caught it on camera without ever knowing
yea that tripped me out
The twin towers were such a prominent part of NYC that everyone took pics of them. You really can’t be surprised that someone took video/pics of the tallest buildings in Gothic city.
I can't get enough of all these videos. They make me miss the 80s. The xmas one made me miss 80s Xmas tress with the big bulbs and lots of tensile.
Friggin time travel! Absolutely insane and crazy he had the ability to film this stuff so many years ago. Like stepping onto a different planet! Makes me miss the 80s and I was born in 2006!
D5quared91 same
Wouldn’t it be crazy if some of those staples were still in that wall on the roof
So much to enjoy in this. The gorgeous shots of the WTC and Empire State Building (I especially love the shot with the streamers blowing), the conversation in the apartment, with everyone lighting up to avoid some of the awkwardness (there's a reason they call it social smoking), Randy getting into the Mamas and Papas, and the adorable ending with Nelson going back just to make sure his goodbye was oncamera (another reminder of how prescient he was for today's social media). Who were the people in the apartment with Randy and Fenton? Have they been on here before? I wonder about the other British guy in particular. I also wonder if they even got to have that rooftop party since it was coming up a storm. Who was it for anyway?
I'd like to know the answers to all these too! I hope somebody from this video replies 😢
Ken George Jones Yes. Saw those clouds and thought wow I hope they checked the weather! I’ve never lived in NY but would have loved to live there at that time. I was 16 and living in the burbs.
i wish people where this chill now
OMG I BEEN JUST GETTING INTO THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS. My favorite song by them just somehow plays at the end of this video. Loves ittty
Yay!!!! New Video!! I love that apartment!!
Me too, especially the kitchen and the view. I wonder if we've seen it before. I sure wouldn't be going up those stairs though...
Ken George Jones
I know right!!! I'm wondering how much that apartment is now in 2018?!?!?
These videos r AMAZING....what it must have been like to live in the EAST VILLAGE in the 80's!!! No wonder everyone is so thin....they did tons of cardio and steps!!!!
ecccck lolol not exactly the city's highest rent right there... I have noticed so many of the apartments in these videos are absolute sh(#*holes. Run down, and not even just the old and run down but cluttered and messy and dirty. I wouldn't feel comfortable hanging out in any of their places I would feel like I need a shower when I get home. You can live in an old place and still keep it neat and clean. None of my sister's "artsy" friends DIDN'T live in squalor and I don't just mean can't afford a nicer place... just I can't imagine anyone pulling out a vacuum and scrubbing the toilet with cleanser.
@@ericlopez9107 Yup. 5 story pre-war walk-ups baby! With no AC no less. Then you walk to the subway and up and down stairwells to different levels and multiple blocks from there on the street. NYC is a great place to live and stay thin.
I remember 86 I LOVED IT I MISS the 80s
What's really nice to see is no one is staring down at a phone
Shaggy Allen haha like you and i are doing now watching this lol
Coffeerror haha so true
I mean, I use TH-cam on my laptop I can't stand being on my phone for too long lol. If I were lucky enough to have a social life like this I'd be chatting away 😅
Yea they were too busy snorting coke lol
Why do people complain about mobile phones? People read books and magazines what’s the difference? It has never bothered me it just seems like people like to complain.
The area across the street from Fenton's apartment, La Plaza Cultural community garden, is awesome. If you're ever in the city, you should check it out. Really nice, relaxing place.
Fascinating
I wonder what became of the Pop-Tarts? They seem like a a cool group.
They're the OG club kids! 😍 I love them all!
13:45. John Wayne rap.. duh ha ha😄
Best. Decade. Ever.
70s were better because people weren't dying of AIDS yet honestly. Same comradery and chill vibes but less of a dark shadow over the community.
I want one of those bad boy tshirts!
Thx for the vid
BAD BOY! I love him!!
Crazy to think Randy now has Emmys and owns World of Wonder!
I am in love with these
0:40 Did he say "that philly snubbed me"??
If so, that was awesome!!
They walk past the very bandshell, where Wigstock was born. ❤️
Hold up!
A boombox that played vinyl?! I don’t remember that! Also I wonder what Sire record it was that he was holding.
Wow, a glimpse of the world trade center at 3:00 !
R.i.p. Nelson Sullivan 😢😢😢
Nelson was a man way before his time by about 30 years. If only he could see the way society video's everything now... He was onto something and he didn't even know how it was going to change society.
03:04 so much love
This is the exact life i want to be living.
Side note: twin towers!
Joannie's Music I lived it - was my scene in nyc at the time, so now you must know how I feel today in2020....
How can I love these vids so much
And not be gay. Because it doesn't matter .Good old days. shonuff
I like chicks with sticks 🥳🦴💋🥳🥶
Anyone may be familiar with a possible address? I’m thinking that the apartment that they went to is located east from Tompkins Square Park somewhere between 6th and 11th Street.
Thank you in advance! -Devin
In case you're still looking or anyone else is curious, the apartment is at 635 E 9th St, you can see the number over the door at 1:47 and a few seconds before that they walk past the old community center that's on that street. Looks like a few years ago an apartment building was built in the alley they overlook in the video.
@@zanzibarshootingstar Zanzi, thank you so much for your responds and yes, you are right! They indeed walk past the community center a few seconds before entering 635. The colored front of 631 was replaced(converted) to the Tomkins East Condominium apartments around the year of 2007. And also yes, the alley right next to 635 has an appartement building now (since 2019/20). Again, thank you very much for your time to help. -Devin
3:04 miss them so much
Gays were more gay than gays now bro ha. But this dudes great 👌🏻 R.I.P. poor dude, wish he was still recording
He's dead? 😭 I just found this channel and now I might be depressed after watching every vid.
NYC was so free spirited, bohemian, and liberated back then. The gays weren't starchy and stuffy like today, trying too hard to be like heterosexuals.
Is you bye or naw
@@Ric419 There are masculine men that happen to be gay. There were back then and there are now. Nothing changed.
Less cursing, fewer attitudes, empty sidewalks, more greenery - what a special time in NYC
...shared landline and a Rolodex! @MeetMe inVa
Gays guys from the 80s and 90s had a different vibe and way of talking than gay guys do today.
For one thing they were more masculine in talk and dress, and mannerisms, in general.
@@EphemeralProductions I noticed that too. Probably has to do with the fact testosterone has dropped since then. Even straight guys are more feminine these days.
Imagine carrying 2 bags a ice in new York walking home? It's probably melted
Things seemed a lot less organized and controlled back then.
you know something just hit me....Nelson would have been considered bordering on chicken hawk in this group.....does anyone else catch a vibe that they aren't that glad to see him, especially the drag queens, except for his money or his parties? "Youths a blast but it don't last....live it hard and live it fast" As "George" said to Rod Stewart ...in gay life you had 5 years, lyrics in a David Bowie song.....26 got your card stamped
Georgie was a friend of mine
Possibly but asp I am sure it was a bit uncomfortable and people may have found it difficult to relax and act naturally when he was there filming.
who's the girl at 5:02? i'm fascinated with her aesthetic tbh
God, I was in Atlanta and it was the 70's instead of the 80's but I am so glad I was young and gay in the time I lived......it was just more fun......today seems to sterile and just plain boring......glad I am an old queen who can sit back and say "back in my day" but to me it seems so true
I I was born in '87. so I don't know what the '80s were. but I feel huge nostalgia watching the videos. Everything was forbidden, behind the scenes, there was a real underworld. Today the undeground has become mainstream. Lost grace. No longer shines. the gay world has split into a thousand ghettos. All are muscular, beautiful, perfect, healthy.
14:08 I wish I knew why Nelson decided to leave. 😩
Young Fenton and Randy
The towers 🙀
Uaooo nelson is such a nice person and was treated so cold by randy's friends, especially this guy named fenton, such an asshole, was he jelous of him or what.. he had no maners to treat nelson
REMEMBER this the next time you support ANYTHING World of Wonder including and ESPECIALLY Ru Paul's Drag Race franchise
@@mrmikeyd2 whats world of wonder?
I think they shot an episode of sex and the city on that roof!
Randy Barbados was so cute.....I wish I had met him and fallen in love...just think, today I would be Mrs World of Wonder and have all that DragRace money....
400 likes. 9/8/2022, 15K Views!
Omg JUST WHEN I THOUGHT this video could not get any better... They play CALIFORNIA DREAMIN OMG
Shut up
I KNOW NELSON SULLIVAN IS A TIME TRAVELER WHEN HE TALKS TO STRANGERS WHY DOES HE SAY WHAT "TIME" is it my theorry??!!
At #14:45 I miss the towers. 911
I fear a lot of history has been lost due to re-generation 😩🇬🇧👸🏼
7:00-7:07 is all looks like a bombed out war zone - so derelict and desperate. i wish time travel were a thing - just for a day
You know that Nelson taped this party and we haven’t been able to see because Dick Richards died and the person he left responsible for vids is too lazy to upload for 2 years now. 👎🏼
They didn't dress my different from today
The Twin towers!!!!
Wow those buildings had to be rat infested, so dirty, and all of that garbage outside smh 2:10
Nice view, twin towers,Empire state building,Fort Apache,Even Queens,wow.
I would have loved to have had a rooftop view of the twin towers from my house.
Randy’s housemates seem extremely cold to Nelson. That ‘disgust’ is showing on pple that Nelson talked abt in his last video with him using his camera all the time.
You are chilling with your friends in your apartment and your roommate comes home with a friend that is filming with a huge camera, how would you feel? I would feel uncomfortable especially if it was unexpected for some of the people as it looks like it was in this video ( a couple of the guys ask about the camera running) I would be wondering who is going to be watching me sitting there it would feel invasive, it is obvious why people complain in the other videos, what if they feel self conscious and one of your friends in the group won’t come to events without filming.
@@fluffyhead6377 that’s so true. It’s hard to realise it sometimes that the dynamics were different. It’s not that Randy could pick up his phone and send a sms telling his housemates he would be home in 5 mins with Nelson and his camera so obviously they would be caught off guard. Wht we see is raw emotions and reactions. That time they didn’t have the social media pressure and never could have imagined that video would end up on the internet. There wasn’t such thing as internet.
Well i can kind of understand. Using a camera once in awhile for a certain purpose or special occasion would probably not even be thought about, might be welcome even. But constantly having it there in your face and having to be “on” for it? Yeah i can see where that would get old
if you notice, almost everyone treats Nelson that way. looks like he was a stranger. A lonely person, looking for a group to belong to. Sometimes I feel a lot of sadness in him.
Well they are also English... very different level of social interaction. And yes- the whole camera thing. I bet they felt like he was a hanger-on but he was also a staple in the community, everyone knows him. You also have a lot of people who are narcissistic who are drawn toward feeling like the center of attention and Nelson provides that, vis a vis Dainty and Christina. At the same time these are not the most socially polished people in fact I am sure drugs has a part to do with their somewhat (what I see as) flaky behavior, if not all of it. If you take these videos and take away the elaborate costumes and clothes and alter egos and personas... they all seem a bit lost like they want something and don't know what it is.
So like worst part decorator ever right?
Joe Hostile thought that counts
we love these so cause it makes us feel like we are there !!!
and not here in trumps shit hole.....
its my understand the p tarts, randy and fenton, became ru's producers of her show and of world of wonder productions, very ! successful. why cant they produce a film on nelson? awfully talented those 3....
Those decorations were kinda ugly 😂
They must of never made it big cause I’ve never heard of The Pop Tarts.. The name didn’t help I’m sure.. Who calls their band that anyways?🤢 First apt/house Nelson been too that you can see the floor and get around fairly easily.. The other places look like nasty thrift stores! I thought people that were suppose to have such good taste and be artist yet live like hoarders!
those 2 tarts became ru's producers and are now millionaires.
@@teeniebeenie8774 yea that be true but they sure didn't make it off their band did they?