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New York 1953 To Today: Going 'Kodaking'

September 15, 2009 at 2:45 PM | by | Comments (0)

Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.

According to the brochure, "there are almost as many cameras enthusiasts in America as there are residents." We don't know what kind of Kodak film they were sniffing back in the '50s, but we beg to differ. Nonetheless, NYC is like a hyper picturebook, and tourists definitely take advantage of the urban grit just as much as the picturesque skyline when it comes to photography.

Hoping to snap a few pictures of the local color along with The Statue of Liberty for your New York vacation album? Let's see what the old 1953 guidebook recommends for "Kodaking in Gotham..."

Apparently the United Nations building just isn't cool enough for 1953, nor is the Chrysler building. Little did we know that tourists of NYC in the 1950s were original hipsters, photographing these scenes:

On the human interest side are such suggestions as a child holding a cat in her arms on an East River barge; bearded street peddlers of all kinds in the vicinity of Orchard and Allen Sts; a derelict sitting on a keg amid the sunlight shadows of Front St; a grown man curled up asleep in a Ghetto baby carriage; Chinese unloading queer looking baskets from trucks in Chinatown; a sidewalk grindstone artist...

You get the idea. Still, we don't think we've ever seen these sorts of shots in old shoeboxes of people's NY vacation photos in antique shops. Since 1953, it's been the same formula for an album: you with the Empire State Building, you in Times Square, you eating a hot dog in Central Park, and perhaps you sipping a cocktail at the Grand Central Oyster Bar. Perhaps another example of how New York has not changed?

Related Stories:
· NYC In the 1950s Map and More [Jaunted]
· New York 1953 To Today: Grand Central's Oyster Bar [Jaunted]

[Scan from March 1953 edition of "The New York Visitor"]

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