Empire State Building – Summer 1969

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Published in LIFE magazine during that magical time, in an equally magical New York City. The old world blended and clashed with the new that Summer, with colors and styles which spoke more about individuality than they did about being part of the big picture.

Or the Big Apple.

The photo above was taken by Vernon Merritt III, a veteran photographer by the time he captured New York that summer. Merritt was fearless in his job; he covered the Civil Rights Movement in the early 60s, and also got wounded – and temporarily paralyzed – while on assignment during the Vietnam War.  He stayed with LIFE magazine as a photographer until it closed up shop in 1972 (it launched again later in the decade).  Merritt died in 2000.

In this picture I love his juxtaposition of old and new: Empire State Building – by that time several decades old – and a construction crane representing the dawn of a new high rise. It’s a beautiful and simple image.

Click HERE for more photos from Vernon Merritt.

Found Photos from New York [1963-64]

Susan Healey got bitten by the old camera bug.

It’s an addictive habit; old cameras come in so many shapes and sizes, plus many of them still work.  In my world, people give me film cameras because they have moved completely to digital.  If anything, they are cool to look at even if they don’t work (case in point is this Canon AL-1, which doesn’t power up).  Sometimes it’s nice to have a collection for comparison purposes, and there are plenty of clubs around the US that still provide a camera nut with plenty to see.

To feed her addiction to cameras, Susan spends a lot of time at camera swap meets and events. “I discovered the Photographic Historical Society of New England a few years ago,” she said in an email, “and a couple of times a year they have a big event called Photographica.”

Like other types of swap meets, people come from all over the place to buy and sell cameras, film and other photographic equipment. On one occasion, she found more than cameras at a table.  “One of the vendors had a few piles of old photos,” Susan explained. “When I saw them I couldn’t believe they hadn’t been snatched up yet.

For about $5.00, they were mine.”

I agree with Susan’s description of these photos as “an amazing glimpse of well-known areas and time.” The signage, the cars, and the buildings are all so perfectly preserved in photographic form that it’s almost as if we are pulled right into the scenes. And the people in the photos also are very stylish; the cut of the clothing they’re wearing is clearly money, and the care each has taken to be presentable – save one photo – is very obvious. I know it would be corny to mention Mad Men at this point, but I am truly reminded of that hit series when looking at these photos.

Susan’s take on the collection is heart-felt.

“Every time I go (to the swap meets), I look through the old photos but have never found anything that moved me as much as these ones did.”

I totally agree. The photos are truly a hashmark on the map of time.  The colors, while a bit faded, are very accurate for the era.  It helps that the pictures are clear, and that the photographer seems to be good at what she/he did.  Check out each photo below; they range from big city scenes to snowy rural backgrounds – with stylish 60s beach photos sure to peak some interest in the the folks over at We Heart Vintage.  Click on any of the pictures to go see more info about them on Flickr.

Enjoy!

1960s halter tops left nothing to imagine.  Gotta admit she’s pretty ripped for being in the 1960s. That’s a 1960 Ford Galaxie behind her.

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One has to wonder if they ever got all of that into the little red Corvair!

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Love the old Texaco sign.  Same Corvair from above appears to be making an encore appearance in the background.

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Umm…is he peeing in the snow?  Next to the Corvair?

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New York City, 42nd Street – Dodge Lancer speeds past an old Buick on the left and a yellow 1963 Chev Bel-Air taxi on the right.

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1962 Chev Bel-Air taxi speeds through intersection, followed by an Oldsmobile and Thunderbird.

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Empire State Building

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Bridge to the Catskills.

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They look like a Chet and a Burl.  I’m kinda impressed that that they don’t have floppy double-martini 60s bodies.

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Chet and Burl’s chicks.

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What a trio; they are so stylish!  This shot alone made the five-dollars Susan paid for the whole album worth the purchase.

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The Whitehouse

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Suffern NY – 1963.  That’s a righteous Dodge or Plymouth.

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Studebaker at the pump!  Bonus points for the `55 Ford on the right.

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Going Through the Slides on Staten Island [1966]

Family friends are seen here going through photographic slides in 1966, on a card table my in-laws’ living room on Staten Island NY.  I love her pearls, her smile, and the look on his face.  Classic black & white Sixties.

We still own/use that Samsonite folding table, 46 years later.  I probably have the slides they are looking through.  The photo was taken with this Yashica 44 camera, probably by my father-in-law. Some Wall Of Retro visitors will recognize this to be the same home as this post!

Snazzy Threads from The Forties!

Frank Sinatra, Liederkrantz Hall, NYC - Circa 1947

Style: Some have it, and others are like me – complete void of any trace.  It’s a blend of taste and smarts that brings it out.  For the lucky few, style is effortless – natural like breathing air.  But for many, it’s a sure bet that the clothes combo picked out in the morning would made a stylist laugh.

But in the 1940s it seemed as if everyone had style, especially musicians.

The United States’ Library Of Congress has an entire collection of photographs taken by William Gottlieb in the 1940s, highlighting the stars of Jazz.  By looking through the 1600 photos in the collection, it’s pretty clear that part of being a jazz musician in that era meant dressing sharp.  The suits were cut with flair, and the dresses also hugged a curve or two.  Ties had character.  Everything was shiny, pin striped, or accessorized to the stratosphere.   It was definitely a time when people cared about how they looked, instead of an era for some that my mother-in-law describes as “Looking like you’re doing yard work.”

In the 21st Century many of us – well mostly me anyway – could learn a lot about what to wear, simply by going through these photos.

Enjoy!

Doris Day and Kitty Kallen, Central Park, NYC, ca. Apr. 1947

Chico Alvarez and June Christy, ca. 1947

Irving Kolodin, NYC, between 1946 and 1948

Dottie Reid, NYC, between 1946 and 1948

George Wettling, NYC, between 1946 and 1948

Imogene Coca, Mary Lou Williams, and Ann Hathaway

Fran Warren and Gene Williams, NYC, ca. Oct. 1947

Eddie Condon, NYC, ca. Oct. 1946

Joan Brooks and Duke Niles, ca. Apr. 1947

Thelonious Monk, Minton's Playhouse, NYC, ca. Sept. 1947

 

Sarah Vaughan, Café Society, NYC, ca. Aug. 1946

Stan Kenton and Eddie Safranski, 1947 or 1948

June Christy and Red Rodney, Club Troubadour, NYC, ca. Sept. 1947

Earl Hines, NYC, ca. Mar. 1947

Ann Hathaway, Washington Square, NYC, ca. May 1947

Joe Marsala, ca. June 1947

Louis Prima, NYC, ca. June 1947

Sylvia Syms, ca. June 1947