Remembering when it snowed (part 2)

Longtime East Village resident Felton Davis shared these photos... from the observation deck at the World Trade Center after the "great blizzard" of February 1978 (The storm early that month brought 17.7 inches of snow).

Speaking of snow, we could actually get an accumulation here tomorrow of an inch or so...

LES History Month exhibit offers a snapshot of 'Photographing Downtown 1977-1987'

As part of Lower East Side History Month, the Living Gallery Outpost at 246 E. Fourth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C is hosting a series of events and a pop-up exhibition that delves into the downtown scene of 1977-1987.

Here are details via the EVG inbox...

"ENTHRALL & SQUALOR: Photographing Downtown 1977-1987" brings together the photographic work of four New York originals who captured the essence of a time indelibly etched in the City’s consciousness.

• Alexis Adler will show photos of a young Jean-Michel Basquiat and the East Village apartment they squatted together in 1979 after he dropped out of high school while transitioning from graffiti artist to icon.

• Arlene Gottfried (1951-2017) "...chronicled life the way she saw it, thriving on the energy ofthe streets, roaming and recording everything she felt through a deeply empathetic and loving lens." — Paul Moakley, TIME magazine.

• Meryl Meisler will exhibit classic images of CBGB and Infinity Disco from her books "A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick" and "Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ‘70s Suburbia & The City."

• Ken Schles will deconstruct and install 168 prints from his downtown books, "Invisible City" and "Night Walk," creating an immersive chronicle of his life downtown ...

The opening reception is tonight from 6-8.

And here are more details on a few event associated with the exhibit, including...

• Special event: Night Walk Tour
Join us Monday from 7 to 9 for a special Night Walk. Alexis Adler, Meryl Meisler and Ken Schles will take you on tour of downtown sites documented in their books. The tour will culminate with refreshments at The Storefront Project, 70 Orchard St. where Meisler’s Lower East Side photos of the 1970s and 1980s are on exhibit. Tickets are available through Eventbright for $10.

• Wednesday, May 23: Artist talks and book signings. Hear the artists in their own words. Karen Gottfried will tell Arlene's story. 7-9 p.m. Gallery opens at 6 p.m.

• Thursday, May 24: Share your downtown stories (and closing party), 6-9 p.m.

Boogie nights

Crews for "The Deuce," HBO's upcoming drama series starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, continued to film in parts of the neighborhood today (they were shooting a scene at Josie's on Sixth Street earlier)... the above photo via @slicksean shows the altered exterior of the City Cinemas Village East on Second Avenue at 12th Street ... transformed into an adult theater...

Here's more on the series via Deadline:

Written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and longtime collaborator George Pelecanos and directed by Michelle MacLaren, The Deuce follows the HBO blue logostory of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic, and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

Spotting some 'Deuce' coupes on 2nd Avenue

EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted some of the vintage cars used for filming "The Deuce," HBO's upcoming drama series starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, in parts of the neighborhood today (like on Seventh Street)...







Here's more on the series via Deadline:

Written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and longtime collaborator George Pelecanos and directed by Michelle MacLaren, The Deuce follows the HBO blue logostory of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic, and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

And are some props from Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...

The 1970s NYC photography of Camilo José Vergara

[Photo on Avenue C by Camilo José Vergara]

Mashable has a photo essay on Camilo José Vergara, who started taking photos in the the South Bronx and Lower East Side in 1970 while a grad student at Columbia.

Read the essay and browse the photo gallery here.

Thoughts on NYC nostalgia of the late 1970s

[Photo by Michael Sean Edwards]

The Times has posted content from the fall issue of T Magazine, which includes an essay by novelist Edmund White titled Why Can’t We Stop Talking About New York in the Late 1970s?

Specifically he's talking about 1977-1982… an excerpt:

Those were years when rents were low, when would-be writers, singers, dancers could afford to live in Manhattan’s (East, if not, West) Village, before everyone marginal was further marginalized by being squeezed out to Bushwick or Hoboken. Face-to-face encounters are essential to a city’s vitality, even among people who aren’t sure of each other’s names, for the exchange of ideas and to generate a sense of electricity. In the ’70s, creative people of all sorts could meet without plans, could give each other tips or discuss burgeoning theories or markets or movements.

You can read the whole piece here … there's also an accompanying slideshow that provides a sneak preview of "The Downtown Decade: NYC 1975 – 1985," on display now through Oct. 10 at Rare/Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 17 W. 54th St.

That late 1970s show

[St.Mark's Place 1979]

Alex at Flaming Pablum uncovered a cache of photos from Patrick Cummins, a Canadian archivist. Of particular interest is his set of 250-plus photos on Flickr dubbed "NYC 78-83."

Let's quote Alex's post on the photos:

Everyone talks about how “gritty” New York City used to be, and it’s almost become this quaint little descriptor that people blithely toss around, but Cummins’ photographs hit you like a sooty, graffiti-slathered stone. His remarkably composed black and white shots of various city spaces can be chilling and stark, revealing a great city in decline. Suddenly, your eye fixes on some random architectural flourish or landmark, and you recognize the location. More than a few of these pictures had me positively gasping.

Here's a sampling of the photos from around these parts (his photos span from Harlem to Coney Island) …


[Looking east on Union Square from 1979]


[Bleecker at the Bowery, undated]


[Crosby and Bleecker 1978]

Jeremiah posted a selection of Cummins' photos on Thursday at Vanishing New York.

Find this set and a lot more at Cummins' Flickr account.

9 photos showing the East Village of the 1970s

Earlier this month, our blogging friend Alex at Flaming Pablum alerted us to the Museum of the City of New York's website ... where they just unveiled more than 1,000 digitized photos by Edmund V. Gillon, who chronicled NYC in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some two weeks later, we finally looked at every single photo. We pulled a few from this neighborhood with their accompanying captions for you... (But you should really go here and see them all for yourself.)


[East 8th Street and Avenue B, 1975]


[Christodora House, 1978]


[Second Avenue looking at East 12th Street, 1975]


[Cylindrical fire escape on the façade of 62 East 4th Street, 1977]


[Phebe's on the Bowery 1975]


[107-113 East 14th Street, 1976]


[Fresh Jersey Eggs, Open Thursday Only at 72 East 7th Street, 1978]


[Varieties Theatre, 110-112 Third Avenue, 1979. Demolished in 2005.]


[Broadway and 14th 1977]

-----

A word about the new collection from the Museum's website:

These photographs by Edmund V. Gillon (1929-2008) are a recent addition to the Museum's Photography collection. Gillon is best known for more than a dozen books on New York City for the Dover Publishing Company. The bulk of the collection is architectural in nature, portraying the city’s historic districts, landmarks, architectural ornamentation, and civic sculpture. His photographs bring to life not only the countless readily apparent changes that have taken place in the city’s urban landscape over the past several decades, but also the many subtle changes that transformed neighborhoods such as SoHo, Tribeca, and Dumbo as they transitioned, building by building, from gritty wastelands into the vibrant urban oases they have become.

Afternoon New York-in-the-1970s photo break

Thanks to VH McKenzie for this link to Retronaut, where there are a handful of NYC in the 1970s photos...

A random now and then: 11th Street and Avenue B

1975!

Today!

[Top photo via Getty]

I had to blow up the 1975 photo a bit... it looks grainy... here's the original...

[Updated] A scene from East Sixth Street circa 1979

Shawn Chittle sent along this photo:

Kenny Scharf, John Sex and Keith Haring
East Sixth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue
June 1979

(The photo came to Shawn via Kenny Scharf)

And thanks to EV Grieve reader Larry Slade for bringing the photo to life ...

And here's one more color-corrected version via Worm Carnevale ...

Going southbound

Looking south on Second Avenue toward Seventh Street... with the Fillmore East in the background. April 1972.

[Sal Traina/Corbis]

Going Your Way

[John F. Conn]

2 4 Flinching recently compiled a slew of NYC subway photos from the late 1970s and early 1980s.... including....


[Bruce Davidson]


[John F. Conn]

[Via BoingBoing ... thanks to Mick for the link!]

The New York of "News From Home"

I recently watched "Chantal Akerman in the Seventies," a five-film set from the Belgian director... I'd recommend all five films... but, of special interest, is "News From Home," a 1977 feature that stars the desolate streets of Manhattan...

Dave Kehr wrote a feature on this collection for the Times back in January ... and Kehr summarizes the film nicely:

"News From Home: has a crowded soundtrack consisting of city sounds blended with Ms. Akerman's own voice, reading increasingly imploring letters from her mother back home in Belgium... we gradually become able to infer a story — this time, of a young woman’s growing autonomy and escape from the past.

Like William Friedkin's "French Connection," "News From Home" has, with time, become a documentary on New York in the 1970s. Lingering shots of pre-gentrified downtown neighborhoods, graffiti-slathered subway cars and the little village of shops and stands that once filled the Times Square station now carry a sense of impermanence and inaccessibility, of a world receding into the past, just as notions of "home" have receded for the unseen protagonist.

There's a scene shot in front of Veselka on Second Avenue and Ninth Street... and here are a few screenshots... You can see the St. Marks Cinema marquee in the background...





And here's a clip of this scene...

"Blank Generation" now on DVD: "A time capsule from pre-Disneynification New York City"

From the inbox...MVD Visual released "Blank Generation" on DVD last week...

Finally on DVD is the classic punk rock movie from 1980 starring Richard Hell, illustrating the end of the first wave of New York City punk rock better than any documentary. Nada (Carole Bouquet), a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy (Richard Hell). Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol (playing himself). Featuring members of the Voidoids and the Ramones.

This long lost film is like a time capsule from pre-Disneynification New York City: sleazy, dirty and most importantly, real. The DVD package includes a lengthy new interview with Hell about the film and more.

Richard Hell states: "This is a priceless package. The real burnt-out New York in January and February 1978, the Voidoids live at CBGB, Ed Lachman's cinematography, Elliot Goldenthal's sound track, Carole Bouquet's face, my lithe figure, Andy Warhol to break your heart, Luc Sante demonically extracting the ugly truths from me re: the horror of it all (bonus feature which is better than the movie itself)...unique."

And here's the trailer...



Updated: A reader pointed out an interview that Hell did with The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog last week... in which Hell trashes the film. Here's an excerpt:

As with many cultural artifacts dating from a fetishized period (in this case the late ’70s New York punk scene), the film is hailed on the cover as "a classic punk rock movie" and "better than any documentary." That's not how its star sees things. "It's just completely incoherent," Richard Hell said of the movie... He talked with Speakeasy about the bewildering experience of making – and re-watching — "Blank Generation."

Why did you participate with the DVD release if you hate the film?

It was going to come out anyway. It was good to have the opportunity to explain the conditions under which it was made. It does have a certain value as this eccentric artifact of this time and place. And it’s the best existing film footage of my band at a time when it was in top condition.

You’ve been in several films since then. What did “Blank Generation” teach you about acting?

Nothing.

Classic! This makes me want to see it even more! I guess this is why the publicist for the DVD said "no one was available" for interviews about the re-release.

P.S.
Not to be confused with Amos Poe's documentary "Blank Generation."

Now and then: Bowery and First Street

Bowery at East First Street looking south toward Houston

Late 1970s...



Today...



Top photo reprinted with permission from Randall's Lost New York City Collection

Easy as One Two Three

I've been kicking around the idea of seeing the "The Taking of Pelham" remake. So-so reviews. I know people who really liked it, though. Perhaps it's one to sneak a few beers into. Help pass the time.

Anyway, over at Runnin' Scared, Roy Edroso compared what "New York on film means now, and what it meant when the 1974 Joseph Sargent version ... was new." He seems to sum up exactly why I'm not hurrying to throw $12.50 at the theater.

A few of his points:

"In the 1974 film, the low-ceilinged control center, the glimpses of grim city streets, and Mr. Green's crummy walk-up at the finale suggest enough of the battered old New York to make an impression. There aren't too many physical details that stand out in the new 123..."

And!

"The old film has a comic undertone that the new one can't afford. 2009's jacked-up pace is part of it, but it's also a philosophical difference. In the new film everyone's playing for high stakes all the time, clenched like fists. In the old film, most characters show some weary resignation, which is something city folk have to learn if they're to keep going."

Not to mention John Travolta's hammy theatrics.

And here's a little filmstripesque sequence from the first film... when the transport of the ransom money gets sidetracked at Astor Place.










Related!:
5 New York 70s Movies We Are Terrified to See Remade

Previously on EV Grieve:
New York City subway films of the 1970s

The ransacking of Pelham One Two Three