“The hot weather last night took Weegee, the photographer, to the Lower East Side…”

PM, May 23, 1941, p. 9

“Up From the Slums, or How Young Knadles Nitzberg Made His Nark” by John Kobler

PM, May 23, 1941, p. 23

“Record of a New York Day”

“The hot weather last night took Weegee, the photographer, to the Lower East Side, where he found these children sleeping on a tenement fire escape at Irving and Rivington Streets. Weegee says he gave the kids $2 for ice cream, but their father took charge of the dough.”

Weegee, Naked City, pp. 22-23

“Tenement Penthouse

But the other fire escape is somewhat overcrowded… its not so bad sleeping that way… except when it starts to rain… then it’s back to the stuffy tenement rooms.”

[$2 had the same buying power as $38.15 in April 2021.]

“Tenement Symphony,” Larry Clinton’s Bluebird Orch.; Kuller; Golden; Borne; Peggy Mann and Butch Stone, 1941

PM, May 23, 1941, p. 13 (photo by Gene Badger)

A Hot-Weather Fashion Preview by the Dead End Kids
Scene: East River. Time 3 p.m. Temperature: 90.7.