NYC 1983 and 1986 original footage

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ViNyLBLADERUNNER, Feb 25, 2015.

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  1. ViNyLBLADERUNNER

    ViNyLBLADERUNNER Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    Don't know if it's just me, but i find this stuff mesmerising.. I also look at the people and think of what their lives were like then and how they are now.. The Cars and their drivers, where were they going to..


     
  2. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    Thanks that was great.

    It is especially interesting to see pre-Disney Times Square. Not at all as scary and horrible as revisionist historians tell us. During that era I went to work in Times Square every day and was never assaulted. :)

    Also great to see New York before the tourist driven economy was so heavily promoted by two consecutive mayors. Historically tourism was only about 5% of the NYC economy. As you can see it was a lot less crowded.
     
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  3. ViNyLBLADERUNNER

    ViNyLBLADERUNNER Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    I guess for someone living and working in NYC like yourself in this period it's like a dream to look back... I assume you are talking about Giuliani and Bloomberg? Yeah it's definitely lost it's charm, as someone from the UK as a kid only seeing New York City in films from the 70's and 80's it looked magical. When i went to visit in 2003 I have to say i wasn't impressed, i thought Time Square was a joke, Central Park was lush and gorgeous though.. I am not sure sure if this was because it was post 911 and only a couple of years after. It seems to of become a caricature of itself which is a shame.
     
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  4. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Wow, a Ho-Jo's that was a restaurant, not a hotel! The only time I ever went to NYC was around this time. 1982, I believe, so that's how I remember it, except we didn't venture out much after dark. My parents had tickets to an early round of the US Open.

    Miss the Checker Cabs. Too bad someone didn't pick up productions, like manufacturers in the UK have done with their traditional Austin cab design.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2015
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  5. Todd Fredericks

    Todd Fredericks Senior Member

    Location:
    A New Yorker
    Brings back memories. That was my world as a teenager.
     
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  6. EdgardV

    EdgardV ®

    Location:
    USA
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2015
  7. ViNyLBLADERUNNER

    ViNyLBLADERUNNER Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    That top picture here is sublime.. wonderful.. I will look at the others later.
     
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  8. woody

    woody Forum Resident

    Location:
    charleston, sc
    My first trip to NYC was in '86 and we were chased by some crack selling dudes in Times Square after leaving a very seedy strip joint. Yeh, it was as scary and horrible as it sounds, but maybe just after midnight.

    Why were we chased? Turns out my buddy sampled their offerings without paying. I ended up going to the pavement and screaming like a maniac to scare them off.
     
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  9. ViNyLBLADERUNNER

    ViNyLBLADERUNNER Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    :laugh::laugh::laugh: shouldn't laugh, i bet it was scary at the time.. funny reading it though..
     
  10. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    Oh yes, that's what friend's are for, nearly getting us killed. But you have a great story to tell. Just for the record you can still get mugged in NYC today if you try to rip off crack dealers. Even Disney can't change that. It could be worse, at least you are still alive. :)
     
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  11. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer

    Oh wow, the apartment building that I lived in until about a year ago is in the background. It is the brown building just to the left of the MONY building. Cool views from the 30th floor.
     
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  12. driverdrummer

    driverdrummer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Irmo, SC
    I was obsessed with 70s-80s Times Square after reading the Bill Landis book Sleazoid Express. Started collecting "grindhouse" movies and having my own double features.
     
  13. John Moschella

    John Moschella Senior Member

    Location:
    Christiansburg, VA
    What I want to see is a video of a broken down car on the side of the Cross Bronx. You'd pass them in the morning, and by the afternoon the sucker is fully stripped. Oh... those were the days.
     
  14. ky658

    ky658 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ft Myers, Florida
    That first video brings back memories. I living in Forest Hills, Queens from 1980-82 and used to take the "E" train (subway) in. To me, those were the best times to live there. I also remember Times Square in the 70's before Disney cleaned it up, 42nd street was nothing but wall-to-wall porn theaters with dudes handing out flyers yelling "Get Your Pipes Cleaned!"...
     
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  15. TheHumungous

    TheHumungous Active Member


    that is exactly my experience. I made the Something Weird folks rich buying anything I could find with seedy NY Times Square themes or shot in NY. I am pissed I never got to see Times Square before it became Disneyfied, at its seediest and dirtiest and grimiest. I love watching 70s era movies with a lot of street footage. Stuff like Taxi Driver of course, French Connection, Midnight Cowboy etc. It must have been porn heaven in the late 70s early 80s around 42nd Street.
     
  16. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    It was "interesting", that's for sure ....;)
     
  17. EdgardV

    EdgardV ®

    Location:
    USA
    Didn't know if you'd want a bunch of photos posted in your thread, so as I was surfing through them I posted a bunch in the Random thread here: #693. There are sort of two groups of photos, and while there are some of many different areas, most of them are capturing the same area of Times Square at West 46th and Broadway, similar to the top photo above post #6. It's pretty amazing looking at photos from almost 1900 spanning through the present day, yet at first glance you wouldn't recognize them as the same area. But if you look closely there are some buildings and signs that don't change. Different vantage points and long lenses versus wide angle make it challenging. Some constants at least for a span of many years but not 100% throughout: Howard Johnson's (corner of W. 46th and Broadway), Small Newsstand (near Howard Johnson's), A gray or white building (quite a ways up the street from Howard Johnson's), with a distinctive stepped block roof-line, usually in the background. "Mamma Leones" billboard. The Strand Theater.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2015
  18. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    I personally loved Show World and places like it, but it wasn't only porn and sleaze that got wiped out with Disneyfication.

    It was also places like the Grand Luncheonette. And when places like this go it's not like a new classic lunch counter or whatever it might be pops up to replace them.

    When they go they are gone for good and it's a real loss.





    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  19. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
    Speaking as a NYC Boy...

    Manhattan had and has everything - no need to go anywhere else for anything
     
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  20. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

    I've lived in New York all my life and the City in the 70's and 80's WAS that scary. You couldn't walk down 42nd Street between 7th and 8th avenues without fearing for your life. As much as some want to romanticize the era, Times Square at the time was a mirror of the general degradation of New York City. Those who bemoan the 'Disenyfication' of Times Square must admit that the area has become much more safer, the beautiful restoration of the historic New Amsterdam Theatre is a testament to a safer environment in Times Square.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2015
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  21. jupiter8

    jupiter8 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ, USA
    I love these videos but they break my heart. It's the NYC I moved to, not the NYC I now work in.
     
  22. TheHumungous

    TheHumungous Active Member

    I love places to eat like that. They have character. And you're right, you can't reinvent or recapture that kind of character and atmosphere.
     
  23. TheHumungous

    TheHumungous Active Member

    Sounds like you have some stories to tell. Propositioned by dudes in cowboy hats?
     
  24. Bryan

    Bryan Starman Jr.

    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    Full disclosure: I've never been to NYC, but here's my two cents anyways.

    Disneyfication is bad, yes, but I do agree that people tend to look back on the old "grittier" New York with very rose-tinted glasses.
     
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  25. TheHumungous

    TheHumungous Active Member


    Hmm. 2 cents is right. Hard to have a valid opinion that is worth anything when you've never been there.
     
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