At the foot of the Flatiron Building 1903

This street level view is of the Broadway side of the Flatiron, or Fuller Building, near the narrow north corner. Filmed on a very windy day, pedestrians of various descriptions are seen passing by the camera, clutching hats and skirts against the wind. According to some New York City historians, this corner was known as the windiest corner of the city, and in the era of the long skirt, standing on it was considered a good vantage point for a glimpse of a lady's ankle. Policemen would chase away such loungers from the 23rd Street corner, giving rise to the expression "twenty-three skidoo."

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Edison
• Flatiron
• 1903

[rudeboyjohn]

At :28 the black guy looses his hat...LMFAO!!!

[mgenigma5]

I'm so fascinated by people from this era. The dress is so cool, the pace is slower... the thoughts are different. The human is the same being though.

Interesting that men wanted to see a clothed, booted ankle and that was a huge turn on.

[goback3spaces]

Voh-doh-di-oh-doh. 23 Skidoo. I'll kiss la later, I'm eatin' a potato.

[marty1901]

This was filmed during the great Hat-Holding Windstorm of 1903...many ppor souls lost their derbys that day.

[rclark231]

I just luv the ladies long skirts, imagine what they had to go thru every day to get dressed up and go out... No throwing on shorts and a tube top LOL...

notice how everyone( men and women) are wearing hats. I remember my grandfather used to always wear a hat when he went out... How times have changed in such a relatively short time..

[mrthebillman]

'Black' was the color of the day !

[LandondeeL]

@JALflight1628 That was supposed to be tougne-in-cheek. It's probably just a hoop for a hoop skirt. And remember at 0:28, the wind does not discriminate!

[JALflight1628]

@LandondeeL ha. actually, hula hoops have been around since ancient times...

[LandondeeL]

Forget about that lady with the cell phone in that Chaplin movie. At 0:22, there's a woman with a child, holding a HULA-HOOP, more than 50 years before the fact!

[ZZAZZAAZZA]

'What a terribly windy Monday!', they all must have thought...

[RippleAffectMedia]

Wow, so interesting to me. People in their everyday life like us. I always imagine them as stiff and stern, but this shows we are all human at any point in time and they are just like us, maybe one day they will watch our daily lives in amazment. Nice to see some emotion from the time at 1:22 laughter!. I wonder what they were doing and thinking...

[webmail111]

1:40 key stone cop