New York: The Golden Age

From the end of WWI to the end of the 1950s, New York City was the center of the world. Please note: this is a "secondary blog" so it can't follow others, but my username is BonjourMiaou.

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Women in the waiting room at Penn Station, August 1942.

Photo: Marjory Collins via seeodnyc.com

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Customers get their sodas delivered on a toy electric freight train as they sit in a diner in Brooklyn on August 21, 1951. A large standard-gauge Lionel electric train, with a steam-type locomotive, runs on a 2 1/2 inch-gauge track from the service counter to the booths for pickup by patrons.

Photo: Robert Kradin for the AP

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Poster for Porgy, the play by DuBose & Dorothy Heyward on which Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess was later based. The poster gives the theater as the Republic, but the IBDB lists the original production from 1927-28, with a revival in 1929, at two different theaters. It might have moved, of course; productions often do.

Artwork by Lee Simonson.

Photo: Universal Images Group/Alamy

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A swimming contest is in full swing on August 20, 1936 at the Astoria Park Pool, the largest of the 11 WPA pools opened only on July 2 of the same year during the great heatwave. Hell Gate Bridge, a 1,017-foot steel through arch railroad bridge connecting Astoria and Randalls and Wards Islands, can be seen in the background.

Photo: NYC Parks Dep't via Rare Historical Photos

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Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fifth Ave., 1959.

Photo: René Burri via Invaluable Auctions

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Francis Vandeveer Kughler, New York Skyline from Brooklyn Heights, ca. 1940. Oil on board.

Photo: 1st Dibs

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Rabbi passing the time of day with a couple of friends in a Kosher wine shop, August 1942. One of the friends prefers to nap.

Photo: Marjory Collins via the LoC

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Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Stephen Sondheim on August 19, 1957, a month before the Broadway opening of West Side Story. The opening he refers to is probably a pre-Broadway tryout.

It reads:

Dear Steve, I can't tell you how much luck I wish you tonight. I wish us all luck, of course; but especially you on your first opening. You may, as you say, be less than excited about it; but I have a feeling that years from now you'll find out how deeply excited you really were on August 19, 1957. I am filled with excitement—and a lot of it is through you, and for you. I hope this means a big, beautiful beginning for the shining career you will surely have. Warmest affection, Lenny

Photo: Library of Congress (LoC) via Facebook

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Postcard issued by the World's Fair in 1939.

The back of the postcard reads, "This scene captures the spectacle at a moment when fountain jets and towers of flame rise 150 feet above the Lagoon of Nations. Seemingly the water and fire have a common source. The display will consist of water, fire, smoke, music, colored lights, and fireworks synchronized into a pageant of beauty."

Photo: eBay

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Mrs. Mark Lasker fits the completed gas mask on a member of the audience on August 18, 1942.

Photo: Tom Fitzsimmons for the AP

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Poor Mayor La Guardia—even a halibut is taller than him. He posed with a 300-lb. specimen at the Fulton Fish Market in 1939 while the workers tried to contain their giggles.

Photo: C.M. Stieglitz for the World Telegram & Sun via the LoC

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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle's annual Summer Resort & Travel Directory advertised destinations that were easily accessible by car or rail. This one is from 1927.

Photo: Center for Brooklyn History Instagram

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The chorus of the Broadway musical The Merry Whirl applies their makeup on Manhattan Beach, where they were holding a water carnival, ca. 1924.

Photo: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images via telegraph.co.uk

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Cover of the Saturday Evening Post for August 17, 1946, showing a bird's eye view of the city. Illustration by John Falter.

From the editors of the August 17, 1946 issue:

The enthusiasm for sun bathing is so general, these days, that the roofs of any major American city would have provided a scene such as John Falter painted for this week’s cover. He chose New York. The view is from the fifty-fourth floor of the Chrysler Building, looking south. There were sun bathers on almost every roof, stewing, frying and boiling in the early afternoon sun, some in quest of health, and more, perhaps, in quest of an expensive-looking sun tan. A good many office workers at that altitude stand prepared, in case anything really beautiful comes into view, to look more closely. They keep telescopes handy.

Photo: Saturday Evening Post

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A peaceful summer scene in Central Park, 1955.

Photo: Frank Paulin via the Bruce Silverstein Gallery

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Italian-American men watching a flag-raising ceremony in the rain, in honor of the Feast of San Rocco, August 16, 1942.

Photo: Marjory Collins via the LoC

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Hayley Lever, View of Fifth Avenue from Washington Square Park, ca. 1930-1935. Oil on canvas.

Photo: Invaluable Auctions