Another video from the archives of Nelson Sullivan arrived on YouTube yesterday.
In this 13-minute video from June 1986, Sullivan crosses Third Avenue and heads east on St. Mark's Place ... turns south on Second Avenue ... and continues on East Seventh Street to Tompkins Square Park, where he spots Lady Bunny (out of drag) and DJ Dmitry... before hanging out on A and Seventh ...
Sullivan's video archive was donated to NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections in 2012.
He died of a heart attack on July 4, 1989.
H/T EVG reader Brian K.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Take a quick trip back to Avenue A and East 7th Street in 1986
The East Village of Nelson Sullivan
The first nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village
'The Fabulous Personalities of 1980s New York'
20 comments:
Notice how people looked at each other then? If you show a video of people nowadays, they're all stumbling along with their heads down, texting or getting their messages.
Man that's great.
Forgot about Bobby Flay's first restaurant (shot of the garden seating on 7th)
I love the sound of all the era automobile engines.
Wow. This is great. Thanks for posting this. I was eleven during this time and living on the west coast. If I were to imagine the EV then, this is how I would see it. My how time has changed.
I'm really struck by how little has changed. The cars are different, some of the stores are different, but so much looks exactly the same today as it did then.
a true gem. a treasure. straight from the museum of my soul.
Sullivan was obviously documenting a nook of the EV (7th&A, TSP) where he'd hung out a lot. Coulda used a peek inside Leshko's, myself, for old time's sake, but the main thing is the ambience, the feel, of that part of town, in that era. I noticed a lack of "campers" in TSP, whereas a couple years later the park would be filled with them - and the EV would be a tenser, more volatile place. (Note the absence of later-ubiquitous Missing Foundation graffiti.)
Oh for the days when there was a grocery on A between 6th and 7th, and a pizza joint too, instead of the horrible monstrosity that's going up there now...
I was happy for the shot of Freebeing Records, a great place to while away an hour.
Loved seeing this. What struck me was how less people on a beautiful June day were out meaning a lot less people lived here then. People seemed to be engaged with each other and were content to check out the scene the complete opposite to today with most people wearing ear plugs, texting with heads down. The bar on the east corner of 7th (forgot the name) was laid back, music at level you could just speak at a chat volume and people were not screaming all over compare to today. Perhaps all those that think the EV was always loud and crazy should take a look.
The bar on 7th was King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, and the Village was never as scary or dramatic as people like to pretend it was. The EV was much more laid back than it is today, notice how much less traffic and noise there was, with more creative types engaging with each other, and many more families lived here. Nice video, this is the EV just as I remember it.
What a cool little neighborhood. So glad someone took the time back then to document the environment. Even if the shaky camera work made me a little queasy.
When the neighborhood was a neighborhood and not a quad of NYU and an alcohol-fuelled amusement and theme park and playground for the rich.
It looks the same on the surface, but look a bit deeper and you can see how much we have lost. The point you make is interesting though as there is still much left to be saved. Last night I attended the CB 3 meeting on the Mayor's rezoning plan that if approved will have serious consequences for our community, in terms of not only how it looks, but who will live here and what businesses will be here. In fact if approved will have disastrous consequences and guess what only 5 of us showed up to speak against it. Very few people attend SLA meetings anymore, very few people attend Precinct Council Meetings anymore, very few block associations exist anymore, membership in community gardens is shrinking etc. There are many ways for us to preserve what is left and try and make our voices heard to shape the future, but only if we attend show-up and let them hear from us. in the South Bronx 200 people showed up at there CB meeting so . . .their CB voted a unanimous no so please find time to have your voices heard.
i didn't want it to end
"Very few people attend SLA meetings anymore, very few people attend Precinct Council Meetings anymore..."
That's because the newbies are here only here for 2-3 years and the students dorming are only here 2-3 semesters. They're not here to build a community. They are here, as the NYC ambassador would say -- to play, play, play and shake things off.
"Very few people attend SLA meetings anymore, very few people attend Precinct Council Meetings anymore..."
Hey, I used to attend more SLA meetings, but I could only go through that overly-long drudgery so many times and be talked down to by Ms. Stetzer and the committee members. And after a few times I got the feeling that the members have rigged the process. It broke my heart a lil' and then I just gave up goin'.
It seemed like the time when anything was possible. The grit and soot are what rendered the EV cutting edge for anyone who was different or artistic. Nostalgia beckons.
to @ScubaDiva: Yes! The thing to look at on the street was other people. That was back when we still had other people. Now it's just 'me and my phone' out in the world and nothing else.
Nice to see gringo
I am surprised at how much louder cars used to be.
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