1940's Vintage Film of New York City Time Square

[ASaundersAccount]

Evocative look at a different time.

[beyonbeach]

wow they should live it the same

[Hotrodx199]

i just love the camel billboard

[TheTyler0953]

Hello, I was wondering do you happen to have any footage from coney island?

[cubantoro]

Yes... NYC was at its zenith around this time. It wasn't till the mid 60's did it start to decline. I guess it started when they tore down the old Metropolitan Opera House, and then tearing down the irreplaceable Penn Station.. and the flight to the suburbs. But love it now with Times Square cleaned up! NYC... you're the Top!

[cubantoro]

The skyline footage with the two officers are from the roof top of the R.C.A. Building. Love those old theatre marquees!

[giavannira]

It was sooo classy n noone was ghetto! i love living here in nyc but what i would give to just go baack for like 1 yr id love it no ghetto pple! music was great movie were great everything was just great lololahah

[JORDANWASAGEM]

1947 DeSoto I am with you 100%.

[tickntimebombfun]

Its depressing seeing NY now

[masterlee123]

hehe, New York City still looks the same.

[Karpour]

Thanks for sharing this!

[dmc081]

how does black and white movies turns into color i don't get it?

[acfinney]

@dmc081 These home movies were shot in color. Color has been around for a long time.

[collins2067]

people write some strange things in these comments but I dont; listen thank you for posting this, its really cool! film like this is a such glimpse back in time. I enjoy the present with both arms, but it doesnt mean you cant appreciate the past too! like some of the other people wrote I would love to go back here for a day and hang out!

[BrooklynFilmLover]

Sir how old are you now?

[UltimateChase]

I am 31 years old. This film was recorded from my Grandfather whom has since passed away. He was a great photographer and passed on many films and memories...

[edwardoalvarez22]

Back in those days Black people ware kept in there place,,Harlem. They didn't trouble makers like Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton. America was beauifful.

[itsoverforuman]

stop broadbrushing man. wide is the path to destruction. narrow is the path to eternal life.

[cylinder4ify]

user edwardoalvarez22 - for a user like yourself with a featurless page, only 3 subscrbrs & only 1 friend, i guess u have to vent your fustration somehow. Channels like yours only indicate one thing only - LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nakamichiguy]

The NYC skyline was most beautiful before WWII and about into the late 50s. After that it's just gotten more cluttered and less interesting...just 'bigger'. Oh man I'd give anything to visit NYC back then.

[1947Desoto]

I don't care what anyone else says, New York during the golden era was the best time period to be there. Noone can design buildings well anymore. I wish I could spend at least a day in Manhattan during the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s. The other reason for my wanting to go back to that time is mainly for the cars, music, cartoons, movies and formal attire.

[kyolym]

@1947Desoto I'd like to ask people out there viewing this. if you can go back to these times for 2 days what would you buy? first thing i'd do is get in the store's and grab every toy I can get me hands on..

[DplatinumG]

@1947Desoto you are obviously a white male. carry on.

[67tr876]

new york city was soo cool back in the 1970s and 80s o ya class of 1973

[JDProductions2]

I remember the Camel smoking billboard as a kid in the mid fifties. My father worked at Penn Station and I got to see a lot of the city then. Thanks for the memories!

[pannoni1]

Andrews Sisters! The first BIG all girl singing group, well before the Supremes hit it big.

[davemock]

What a period piece. How nice to see the Times Tower with so little clutter. Now, it's just a huge billboard and you hardly realize there's a building holding up all the ads and the zipper.

[33Mark221]

In a way, I'm much like the stupid twentysomethings of today who glorify the 1970s, only my problem is that I considered the 1940s and 1950s great eras. I realize now that they were just any time.

I once read of an author--I can't recall her name--who used to sit around with her friends in college in the 1950s and dream about how great it must have been in the 1920s! How foolish I've been.

[bearcreme]

The '70's was the nadar of the city...it couldn't get any worse.

[Vladey14]

so true. I watched a documentary of Grand central Station and the station was so dirty in the 70's that the blue ceiling with the constellations was pitch black from dirt and crap. But its beautiful now. You could still find a small patch of black that they left behind in one of the conners to show how bad it was.

[WallyPyneoil]

The glorification of the 1970s depends so much on importing trends from the 1960s and 1980s into that decade. It is totally fake. And very sad.

[RRaquello]

I agree. Anyone who thinks the 70s were great either wasn't alive then or has forgotten. Times were terrible. I was a teenager, living in NYC and it was a 3rd world country, filthy, crime ridden, miserable and dead broke. The 70s sucked in everything--music, movies, TV, economics, politics, styles, everything. I was growing up then and there are no good memories of that miserable time in American history.

[brickman409]

@RRaquello

70's music isnt THAT bad

[poopmcscoopface]

@RRaquello 70s music was good

[soccergirlie9]

wow thats so cool i would have loved to live during those times

[bearcreme]

Wow, so few cars, and those old fashioned trolleys.

[raneydayart]

The Greatest Generation also got sold the smoking myth big time--my mothr sawed 20 years off of her life. But..she was smug about it and I recall 2.00 per carton cigrettes when I was a kid. May she rest in peace.

[DanTheMan702]

im sorry to hear that

[raneydayart]

Thanks-She has had alot of company, unfortunately. Alot of people must have known the risks even way back then but it became such a part of the culture, didn't it? Thanks for emailing me. Melanie

[steadybeau]

Wow - before Elvis, before 9-11, before ME...

[Green0693]

haha i love the smoke!

[dawnnaYT]

Interesting clip but the spam banner is really annoying.