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The go-go bar of The Odd Couple’s closing credits
Remember the opening and closing credits of The Odd Couple? Those scenes serve as a tour of gritty 1970s New York. Felix, just kicked out of the house by his wife, rests his bags on the sidewalk in...
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Santa has been spotted all over Manhattan
Santa Claus has come to town many times, and he’s hung out in some unlikely places. Here’s proof, courtesy of New York’s street photographers. They always capture the weirdness and whimsy of the...
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What a photo of 1970s Union Square reveals
Is this really the south side of Union Square a mere 40 years ago? Instead of Whole Foods and glass condos, it’s a crumbling stretch of discount stores. This photo couldn’t be older than 1979; that was...
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Making 1970s Midtown a giant pedestrian mall
Not a fan of the city’s car-free zones, or “public plazas” as they are officially called? Then you would have bristled at an idea Mayor Lindsay cooked up in the 1970s. The plan was to create a “vast,...
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Why 1970s New York was nicknamed “Fun City”
New York City has had some colorful nicknames over the years—from Gotham and the Empire City in the 19th century to the Big Apple in the 1920s jazz era. But the “Fun City” moniker of the 1960s and...
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A Dutch sailor’s photos of the New York of 1979
In 1979, Peter van Wijk was a radio officer in the Dutch Merchant Marine. That summer, his ship docked a couple of times in New York Harbor, giving him the opportunity to visit Manhattan and wander the...
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What Halloween looked like in 1970s New York
If you were a kid in the New York City of the 1970s, Halloween probably resembled this. Your mom or dad bought you your costume in a store, and it came with a mask held to your head by a rubber band....
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The Grand Street bus cruising 1970s New York
This is Park Row and Broadway in 1972. John Lindsay was the New York’s mayor; that year, he launched a short-lived quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Transit strikes, teacher strikes,...
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A traveler’s 1971 snapshot below Herald Square
The taxi-choked traffic hasn’t changed much in the 48 years since a Dutch traveler named Hans Ketel snapped this photo while on a road trip across the United States. But 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue,...
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A 1970s remnant of a Crazy Eddie record store
I have no idea why the original owner of this yellow paper bag from Crazy Eddie’s held onto it for so long. But when it turned up for sale at a vintage shop (pressed in plastic, no less), I couldn’t...
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