Romy walks into Fedora--"a little breath of honest-to-goodness old New York caught in amber"--and her piece will make you cry. [WIC]
$69 hot dogs for sell on the Upper East Side. [Eater]
"Suffer yourself" with Empire, the 8-hour film by Warhol and Mekas, at Anthology Film Archives this Saturday. And those who "heroically endure" the whole thing will win a prize! [WSJ]
Congratulate Rag & Bone for saving the bones of Cafe Colonial from becoming a bank. [EVG]
33 comments:
Definitely West 8th, walking towards Sixth Ave., and on a nasty-hot summer day, from the looks of it.
Nothing, and I mean nothing feels worse than sweating in vintage polyester.
oh, god, sweaty thighs in polyester. no good.
Yes, it seems that it is West 8th. I caught the business called "Darvish" and googled it. Here's a link to a New York Mag article I found from 1972
http://bit.ly/ddv6PS
-Robin
Yep, it is 8th. Walking on the north side of the street from Fifth to Sixth. Very recognizable string of low stores on the south side. I want to go back in time to that waffle place! PS: Bodger was my teacher in art school.
Def 8th St. Bleecker was never that wide. also found a reference to The Stag Shop - which can be seen in the film. "In 1958 Alfred opened “The Stag Shop” on Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue"
Hmm. Wonder if Electric Lady Studios were already operating?
"The Village Squire": gotta love it
thanks, detectives. it's positively 8th street.
I am not there!!!!Hung out there too!! Little hippie chick me.
@ Ken Mac--Electric Lady Land Studios were there in the early 70's for sure--was there--was great!!
I think the video is more 1972-ish or 1973-ish than 1960s from the clothing. In the 1960s, you would still have a lot of guys in hats, and most of the women would still have skirts or dresses on.
www.forgotten-ny.com
So clearly 8th St. Nedick's, the 69 Cent Store, the 8th St. Playhouse, for Pete's sake.
About 30 years ago, my dad bought a folded and packaged polo shirt at Stag that had a little pineapple on the breast. He brought it home and tried it on, then asked me what I thought. Before I could answer, he turned around, revealing a giant pineapple on the back. I screamed with laughter. He returned the shirt.
Pet peeve = Bleecker spelled without the 'c.'
Brooks NYC, where is the Half Moon bar and restaurant? Cool
I think at :37 is a shoe store that was still there a year ago. Must be one of the last left.
Ken Mac, that's some gorgeous neon, isn't it? The Half Moon Bar is in my hometown of New Orleans. From the '30s through the '50s it saw a colorful mix of newspapermen, sleazy lawyers, corrupt politicians, and working class Irishmen from the surrounding neighborhood.
Now it's just another neighborhood joint, but the neon is still there, and still beautiful. I love this moody, monochromatic photo on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ednewman/87021583/
Definitely 70's. You can tell from the cars.
W. 8th St. in the early 70's. Mr. Waffles didn't survive for very long but had a great jukebox and was open late. Also, no sign of Crazy Eddie yet on the other side of 6th Ave.
Yup, it's positively 8th St! In the 70s. I remember the bellbottoms at the Stag Shop. Ew.
someone from Anthology wrote in to say thanks to everyone for all the sleuthing--they confirm that it's W.
8th, the title may have been what was simply written on the reel.
nobody has mentioned it, but did you notice how thin everyone was? aside from some middle-aged spread, people were much thinner than today. no obese people at all...see if that happens when you walk W 8th today. nobody under 40 even looked 'chubby'.
another thing that caught my eye--how white the crowd is. kind of surprised me when I realized it.
this video begins around broadway/8th street. it continues untill 6th ave. which now is called "avenue of the americans" this is NOT the 60s. it is the 70s, either early or middle. the "darvish" club was an arabic night stop. i worked there as a waitress in 1977. (some of the store fronts, renovations are not 60s). 8th street started to change in the mid sixities. untill 1964 sam kramer (the jeweler) was still there, & fred braun. (the leather artisan). then these village craft shops closed. they were very popular in the 50s/early 60s. for the cool people. tourists would come down on the weekends to see the "beatniks." whelans chain drug store opened on the corner of 6th ave/8th around that time, i think. west 8st. lost its charm like 50 years ago.
response to john m: there WERE blacks (men) hanging out in the village in the 70s. it was concentrated on 6th ave. they were not there to shop. just hangout & do what ever. i cant say it on the blog. also they were in washington square. a few blacks were poets or radicals, (those were not in front of whelans).
I just googled to find out (sadly) that Lowell Bodger died earlier this year. RIP. He was one of my best (and most eccentric) teachers.
Hi Carol,
Anthology Film Archives is hosting a memorial screening for Lowell Bodger on Sept. 16- the full info is here:
http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=09&year=2010#showing-35998
The Pizza sign on the south side of the Avenue is still there. The Duster and Cadillac cars are 1970 models.
Great video.
awesome video. i love stuff like this. thanks for posting.
in response to John M, you never see many obese people in new york. everybody here is generally average and thin because we all walk all time. it's places out in other parts of america where there are an insane amount of obese people, west virginia, st. louis, etc.
i just walked down that block on 8th street earlier today after watching this video while it was still fresh in my head and i didn't see 1 obese person.
8TH STREET!!!
On the subject of thinness...Keep in mind that so many people, before Nixon invented drug scheduling, were prescribed "diet" pills (good ol' amphetamines) like they were Pez. Plus the US food system wasn't pouring surplus corn into every goddam thing. What the hell happened to us?
Yes, it's 8th Street. Electric Ladyland was across the street. It was originally a club, The Village Barn, Jimi bought it in 1968 and turned it into his recording studio.
Just after he purchased The Barn, I was walking along 8th and bumped into a guy I knew slightly. As if we were in a spy movie, he whispered 'Jimi's giving a concert here tonight.' I showed up at 9 with a girlfriend, there was a line of people who all looked like... 'is this really true??' We went in, show started, it was amazing. Jimi, BB King, Paul Butterfield Blues Band... and more. Amazing! Then, as we were leaving, I saw that same guy. I thanked him for telling me and he grabbed my arm and whispered, "Sit down, they're gonna jam." Most people filed out, but there were people staying, so I stayed. And jam they did. It was like being in someones living room. There were about ... I don't know, 50 people. BB King let Elvin Bishop play his 'Lucille', Jimi played the blues.
Thanks for the film, it brought back memories.
great story, rubyritz. thank you for sharing it with us.
@ Susan May Tell--I remember the Stag Shop--it was the place I would buy my corduroy jeans. I would come into the West Village from Brooklyn as a "tiny bopper" and buy them there. Cool store with some more outrageous stuff...thongs-flamboyent shirts. I was sad when they closed.
It's funny, I found this film because I was trying to remember the name of the leather store on 8th Street that I worshiped as a teenager. It was Fred Braun, and it was on the side of the street that the filmmaker is walking down, but I didn't see it. Maybe it was gone by then (I think they had two locations). I had a suede jacket and one pair of lace up leather shoes from Fred Braun, and wore them both until they completely wore out.
For susan may Tell on the Stag Shop I was a window trimmer for that store in 1964-65. Owner also had the Village Male Shop just up the street. The Stag Shop hired some of the first blacks to serve as sales people. one of them was named Troy. The Village male had a slightly different mix of clothing which was not a fashion forward. Loved working the shops nice mix of clients.
Thanks for this blog and the walk down memory lane. In 1966, I was a freshman in h.s.in B'klyn where I lived. I was always a lonely, not too pretty, nobody, misunderstood bookworm who wanted to be Jacqueline Kennedy and live on 5th Avenue. Everybody who was anybody in my school had to buy their shoes from Joseph's and Fred Braun on 8th St. in the Village. I got my first pair of F.B.'s in 1969, my senior year. I had to beg, and I mean BEG my hateful mother for them after I had worked all summer long. But finally, I, too, had Fred Braun shoes! They were one of the more expensive at a price of $16.99 +tax! It may sound silly and superficial, but children need constant validation and acceptance, and unfortunately, I found them in my Fred Braun shoes. I was so happy. We used to carry our gym suits in that fancy stripped box like an Hermes Birkin bag status symbol. I had finally arrived! There was another shop on West 4th called The Seasoned Traveler, run by two Asian ladies, and they sold a $5.00, two-handle leather bag that was also the bomb! I thought I was somebody! I used to cut classes just to take the A train into the Village and walk around trying to look cool! Funny how life is, eventually I became a Manhattanite and moved to 5th Ave. right around the corner from 8th St. where I used to play hooky! I never did become Jackie O, but I finally learned to love the person I am. I also loved those old metal skates with the skate key! Remember those? Well, I grew up to marry the man who owned the company, and he showered me with all the love I missed as a kid. I always believed that God has a sense of humor! Thanks for allowing me to share.
I had Fred Braun's too, the little flats with the metal eyelets that the leather laces went through. Also a hard leather shoulder handbag and a few suede clothes from that place. The shoes would darken with time in spots as the brown leather was worn. Also, there was Alan Block on (4th Street? or Bleecker?) for hand crafted bespoke sandals.
Post a Comment