NY77: Blackout!

[gjc82071]

'77 was also the "Summer of Sam"? The blackout occurred July 13th-14th. David Berkowitz wasn't apprehended until August 10th. I am wondering if.....since people were already uptight & fearful because of the murders.....did the the blackout intensify that fear? Or was there just o much else going on during the blackout, that people had their hands full already & didn't bother to think about it? I doubt that even D.B. was wacky enough to go out during that blackout!

[RoyMayorga1]

@gjc82071 I was 7 years old in Forest hills,Queens at Midway Theatre watching "Island of Doctor Marroe" and never saw the ending because of the blackout... Between SOS and the blackout,it was the scariest walk back to Yellow Stone and Kessel where i lived.

I'll never forget that.

[gjc82071]

@RoyMayorga1 Wow. I turned 6 in August of 77. During the blackout, we were visiting relatives in NJ. I remember my mom/aunt had an argument or something and we left....just me, mom & her female friend...walking though NYC, late @ night during the SOS. I remember we got a cheap hotel & the next morning we took a bus home. I remember mom's b'f picked us up @ the station. He had a real POS car with tons of electrical tape holding the soft top roof together, LOL Funny what stuff you remember.

[BBQFanNo1]

@gjc82071 True Gerry. A lot of events in the earlier part of that Summer during July were overshadowed by the multiple events in August. Much like the Summer of 1969 when I was just turning 15 years old in October of that year which had the first Moon landing in July followed by the Manson Murders and Death of Sharon Tate then Woodstock in August. Very eerie parallels to the Summer of 1969 and the Summer of 1977.

[bjroberts65]

Playing stoopball on 180th and Creston ave Bronx NY.....Then the lights went out!!!....Then it was one hell of a night.

[mrmjb1960]

That summer night was BRUTAL Without our Fans! We (My Mom and I) Sweated Bullets that night,terrified that out Van Tassel Apartment Front Door would be kicked in,our apartment looted,and us being killed that night! The terror we'd felt was tremedous!

[BBQFanNo1]

Thank God I never took the vacation in the area a week earlier on the weekend of July 15th-18th. Instead it was the weekend of July 22nd-25th.

[BBQFanNo1]

Four things I remember clearly in the Summer of 1977.Three were all connected to NYC. My vacation to Montauk Long Island-NYC Tour Yankees Home Game against the KC Royals which they won 3-1 in late July,NYC Black out 10 days earlier,David Berkowitz arrest. And where I was the afternoon I heard Elvis Presley died.

[BBQFanNo1]

A lot of people thought it was the end of the world. Many thought the Biblical Pre Tribulation Rapture had taken place.

[oiyabastard]

geraldo biggest name dropper loser

[StukInBuf]

I recall we went to the Mets game on the Wednesday, and then it all blacked out midway into the game. Just our headlights helped us get back to the apartment, and lights didn't come back til the next afternoon.

[395018]

I REMEMBER LIVING IN QUEENSBRIDGE PROJECT'S ,AND THEY WAS LOOTING OUT THERE

[ladynikkie]

i hope they release  this on DVD.

[Stratobastard3]

Hello. I would like to ask if anyone knows what is the name of one song that is on the ny77 documentary. The song is heard at minute 52:00 - 55:30 of the full-length documentary ( the part with the morning after the blackout and Mayor Beame speaking). Thank you

[thegirl44]

"I thought that it was just us"

KRS-ONE

So did everyone, I think. I was standing out front talking to my neighbor when we saw the street light kinda peter out and then fail. We assumed someone had hit a transformer box or something. I went back inside to unplug the TV etc. and my neighbor's son came up to tell me that his dad, who was a cab driver, had stopped by to tell them that the radio was reporting that the entire city was out.

[Conduit13C]

dag, glad i never grew up in the city in '77.

[70sman4ever]

Man I miss those good old days! Long live the 70s man! Why didn't we pillage in '03? I live the 70s every day of my life, I remember my father stole a record player from some electronics store LOL!!

[jimbobklyn1963]

how charming! first impulse: steal.

way to go humans.

[dzanier]

Yeah. That is sad. You wonder if the people that put together this clip understand that's not something to be proud of.

[70sman4ever]

@jimbobklyn1963 Hey the moral of the story is: If you wanna be The Man you gotta BEAT THE MAN! Dig it?!

[70sman4ever]

@jimbobklyn1963 Hey the moral of the story is: If you wanna be The Man you gotta STICK IT TO THE MAN! Dig it?!

[EricandDish]

I hope VH1 will air this again. And I got to tape this because this was incredible. On top of that, since that they re-airing their "Behind the Music" (as "Behind the Music Remastered") shows, they need to show "1977" again because I want to tape that too as part of a project that I want to do about that music year. Why? Because VH1 in that "Behind the Music" episode they did ten years ago laid out everything that went right and wrong that year. Anyone got a copy of that on tape?

[level242]

I was watching Barretta on abc in Philadelphia when it happened!

[ladynikkie]

Damn that was an intense year.

[nick92691]

HIT THE STORES!!!!!!!!!!!

[peggypenny1]

I was 12, watching bewitched with KRS-one, in Redding CA. and boom, in NY the lights go out, I thought it was just tabitha on bewitched in Redding, cause thats a commom occurence, I looked out in NY, and darkness, Con ed said the blackout came from lightning knocking out Oxnard CA, connecting to Redding and NY, NY had been disconnected from the US electric, system, the gate when down, hit the stores!!!!-love Gar

[ploughat]

peggypenny1 why do you just repeat what has been said on the video? whats the point? we've just watched the bloody thing, we know what is says!

[STBNY]

Eltuerka77 i totally appreciate you uploading this video.. im a oldschool fan and im seriously learning this stuff

[Pinkranger87]

man i have loved been about 15 16 u know really being teenager and having NYC as ur playground and going to CBGB studio 54 all those places and the people omg it would be magic

[305p4po]

fa reel i wud of love 2 live back then, b bout 13 yrs old doin ol stupid shit n i also wudnt give a fuk bout my neighbahood n how im destroyin shit. i wud get wat da fuk i needed tv,food,money,evything nuthin wud stop me except da police. i wud b lootin doin graffiti n as i sed b4, stealin shit da whole 9 and i wud of love to eitha live n the bronx or manhattan harlem dat is i wud b goin fukin crazy but dat just me kid

[Eltuerka77]

Weaky Stick  fuck off

[VONAFIDE]

i wish this blackout happened now i would steal laptops tvs another 360 ps3 all tht shit too bad i wasnt in NYC during the blackout of 2003

[ThaDon419]

@VONAFIDE that blackout started in the day time buddy sorry

[VONAFIDE]

@ThaDon419 yeah true lol i was in the south during the 03 one so i didnt know at the time

[toofskis]

@ThaDon419 Con Ed could not generate enough power within the city, and the three power lines that supplemented the city's power were overtaxed. Just after 9:27 PM EDT, the biggest generator in New York City, Ravenswood 3 (also known as Big Allis), shut down. With it went all of New York City.

[Pinkranger87]

I swear I would have love to been like teenage or like 21 during this year living in Nyc it would been Great

[VONAFIDE]

hell yea man i wud be doin grafitti goin 2 clubs back then seemed so fun

[blacksultan85]

it sounds kinda scary the way they saying the story.

[Eltuerka77]

men youre right, but this is only a piece of the entire film, if you have the opportunity to view it full really say that they always thank God that could survive in the Bronx, as well as show good show too bad, but this is the only piece I could find online

[jpwjr1199]

The other part of this story that is NEVER told is that many of the fires, if not the vast majority, were started by the usual culprits: THE SLUMLORDS!!! Now, I'm not trying to say that the rioters didn't commit arson, but I'm willing to take an educated guess that landlords were more than willing to start the fires, too.

[jpwjr1199]

I'm not sure the glorification of a people so poor and destitute that they're willing to destroy and loot their own neighborhood is such a giid thing. I understand that this event may have had a marginal positive effect on local DJ's, but c'mon! Let's get real. I remember the 77' blackout and there was nothing glorious or "cool" about it. It is what happens when a marginalized, oppressed people with nothing are desperate to get what they don't have. I believe 12 blocks on Broadway were charred

[jpwjr1199]

....Burned to the fucking ground....People who lived in Bushwick, Flatbush, Upper Manhattan and the Bronx that I know will all say, to a man, that they hope things never get like that again, and they all hope that an event like that NEVER happens again. The fact that the smokers of satan's cock at MTV/VH1 promote this as hip or cool really shouldn't surprise me.

[Izakokomarixyz]

Well too bad because it WILL happen again so get ready for the destruction.

[dzanier]

You have a way with words (The people at MTV/VH1 are the smoker's of Satan's cock!!!!!!). No it's not surprising but it is distressing. What a fucking sad world we live in.

[Chuloloc]

Interesting.