A visit to Manhattan in 1941

It's 1941, and we're in Manhattan, New York, New York. Specifically at the corner of 7th Avenue and 45th Street. I found this photo on the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions), which specializes in the study of historic advertising. I specialize in time-traveling, just for fun. Come on!

The buildings on the left are along Broadway, and in this imaginary story, we're standing there on the corner near the Theater that's showing "Lydia". That's me, in the topcoat, bowtie, and Homberg. You can either be the young woman getting ready to cross 7th Avenue, or the man next to me, who seems to be a lot more confident than me.


Darn! I seem to have left my iPhone back in the 21st Century! I usually carry it in this pocket. Well, I guess it wouldn't work in 1941, anyway - I don't see any cell phone towers, and besides I forgot to bring my charger.



Let's take a look at Broadway. Looks like the Gaiety is showing  "Charmaine". I wonder if I need a cab? Will you call me a cab? Very funny.

Since it's November 18th of 1941, I know that Pearl Harbor will be attacked in a few weeks, and everything will change as America gets ready to go to war. In the meantime, let's enjoy some more looking around.


Everything looks so modern! No more streetcars, or horses anymore, just cars and buses. Well, times change! At least Coca-Cola is still the same. I wonder how much longer they'll be using that logo? All of the way to the 21st Century you think? That would be nice, because as much as I like progress, I like it when some things stay the same. I think I'll find a soda fountain where we can get a Coke. Can you lend me a nickel?



If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. If you like Phoenix history and would like to help support my efforts to preserve and share precious digital historic images, please consider becoming a patron. Thank you!

Become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more