Vintage NYC Subway PSAs are As Old-Timey, Charming as You’d Hope
August 23, 2013 | Andy Cush
Here are two vintage New York City Subway PSAs, courtesy of the Kino Library (the same folks who brought you this grimy ’80s East Village footage), as dug up by Bowery Boogie. One is from the ’40s; the other from the ’70s. Both are fantastic.
The ’70s spot in particular seems angled at tourists, advertising the opportunity to “mingle with the New Yorkers” and describing the subway’s “endless tide of humanity” as if that’s at all a pleasant thing.
Fashion photographer Bill Cunningham shot the above image on the subway in the late '60s/early '70s, as part of an eight-year project on view at the New York Historical Society on March 14th. Shooting fellow photographer Editta Sherman in various authentic vintage ensembles scoured from vintage shops and auction houses, Cunningham his 1,800 historic locations…
On Monday, New York City's subway system turned 110 years old and celebrated by releasing two vintage subway trains on Manhattan's high-volume 1, 2, and 3 lines between Times Square and 96th Street. A description of the Nostalgia Trains, via the MTA’s site: One train will consist of four Low-Voltage…
Nowadays, graffiti is an art form that can be found in the collections of major museums and cultural institutions throughout the world, but back in the '70s and '80s, it was considered a symbol of urban blight and lawlessness in the city. In July 1985, mustached WPIX reporter Alec Roberts…
