Move On - Bowery, New York City 1903

Photographed October 22, 1903.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Camera: Alfred C. Abadie

See the vendors flee the wrath of a cop hamming it up for the camera. The film's original catalog description of large numbers of Jewish and Italian push-cart vendors would indicate the Lower East Side including many Greeks and Eastern Europeans. The greatest concentration of push-carts in the city were there. The "El" visible in the background is probably the 3rd Ave. I.R.T. which ran along the Bowery. Push-cart vendors were among the most complained about nuisances in the city. Here's a contemporary news item from the New York Times, Aug. 28, 1904 "The Pushcart Evil": http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E04E2D71E3BE631A2575BC2A96...

Edison film catalog:
MOVE ON. In certain sections of New York City large numbers of Jewish and Italian push-cart vendors congregate so closely along the sidewalks that they interfere with traffic. Policemen keep them moving. The picture shows how the frightened peddlers hurry away when a bluecoat appears. Some of the carts are piled high with fruits of all kinds, and it is interesting and amusing to see the expressions of combined fear and anxiety on the faces of the men as they hurry away; the fear of being arrested if they stand, and of losing some of their wares if the carts strike an obstruction in the street.

The United States in 1903:
January 2nd President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss., for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black / Jan. 9th Two New Yorkers buy the Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000 and moved it to NY / Aug. 1st, first coast-to-coast automobile trip (SF-NY) completed / Aug. 17th, Joseph Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University and begins Pulitzer Prizes / Dec. 1st, Edwin S. Porter's film "The Great Train Robbery," is released (available online) / Dec. 13th, New Jersey resident Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone

Recommended reading:
New York City Cartmen, 1667-1850
- Graham Russell Hodges
(The history of urban livery, transportation, and trucking begin with cartmen / street vendors of the seventeenth century)

Recollections of An Old Cartman
- Isaac S. Lyon (1872)

Category:

Film & Animation

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• Isaac S. Lyon
• thomas alva edison
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• alfred c. abadie

[DarkHachuu]

Wonderful little snippet of early new york life! Just wish it was available with less pixelation