A subway ride from Union Square to Coney Island on this day in 1987

 

In case you haven't seen this clip from 1980s NYC nightlife videographer Nelson Sullivan ... it has made the rounds through the years ... and it seems appropriate on its 36-year anniversary...

Here's the description:

Enjoy the sights and the graffiti as Nelson, photographer Liz Lizard and her family, Michael Musto and Albert Crudo, take the subway from Union Square to Coney Island on June 20, 1987...

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.

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'

Take a walk around the East Village on this June afternoon in 1986

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'

Revisiting the 1980s videos of Nelson Sullivan

Though the years we've posted some of Nelson Sullivan's 1980s videos, including "The first nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village" ...



... and "Walk with Tish Gervais in the East Village of the mid-1980s"...



A post showing a lot more of Sullivan's work yesterday at Gothamist reminded us of these. In total, Sullivan shot more than 1,900 hours of tape over a period of seven years. Head over to Gothamist for a lot more of his time capsules of downtown life.

His video archive was donated to NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections in 2012.

Sullivan died of a heart attack on July 4, 1989.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The East Village of Nelson Sullivan

The first nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village

'The Fabulous Personalities of 1980s New York'

Walk with Tish Gervais in the East Village of the mid-1980s

Here's another slice-of-East-Village life from the 1980s courtesy of downtown filmmaker Nelson Sullivan … (this video isn't newly uploaded, just new to us).

From the YouTube description:

At this time in the mid-1980s, Tish Gervais was the transgendered star of the moment in New York — not only because she was transgendered but also because she was sexy and talented too. Along the way, Tish and Nelson encountered Lady Bunny with DJ Dmitry and Tish found serveral magazines featuring her photograph. Video by Nelson Sullivan.

There's not a whole of lot action… just sit back and take in the scenery and see what you can still recognize… (EVG Facebook friend Michael Paul put the date at June 1986.)

Sullivan's archive is now at the Fales Library at NYU. He died of an apparent heart attack on July 4, 1989.

H/T esquared™

Previously on EV Grieve:
The East Village of Nelson Sullivan

The first nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village

'The Fabulous Personalities of 1980s New York'

The first nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village

Spotted this over at the always-interesting Flaming Pablum and wanted to share it here… It's a video from Nelson Sullivan titled "The first nice Sunday of 1987 in the East Village."

We've posted some of Nelson's videos from this era before, like here … and here.

A commenter at Flaming Pablum noted that Sullivan's archive is now at the Fales Library at NYU.

Sullivan died of a heart attack on July 4, 1989.

'The Fabulous Personalities of 1980s New York'

Earlier in the month we posted some short videos by downtown filmmaker Nelson Sullivan... Here's another one titled "The Fabulous Personalities of 1980s New York."

The East Village of Nelson Sullivan

The following post was written by EV Grieve contributor Shawn Chittle:

Long before Twitter, Facebook, cell phones and cell phone cameras — in 1980s New York — there was Nelson Sullivan. He pointed a bulky 8mm video camera with a wide fisheye lens at himself and filmed everything. As the first video "lifecaster" he was years ahead of his time. Not a narcissist by my definition, but someone who wanted to document the culture that he clearly realized was something special. I have a bunch of his stuff. Sadly, he died in 1989 of a heart attack.

This clip below was just released yesterday — destined to become a classic as Avenue A, East 6th and Avenue B are captured in all their grimy glory. In this video, he tries to get a table at (a yellow painted) Sidewalk Cafe, but "all the freaks" have the tables. Instead he improvises and drops in on his friend who lives on East 6th Street and Avenue B. They all head back to find friends and an empty table at Sidewalk where the video fades out.

Waiting for a Table at an East Village Sidewalk cafe



Previously on YouTube. (Find more of Nelson's work on YouTube here.)

A Trip to Avenue A in NYC



You can read more about Nelson and his role documenting his surroundings during the 1980s here. He died of a heart attack on July 4, 1989.