“Here’s How New Yorkers Try to Cool Off”

“Hot Bread,” Beverly White And Her Blues Chasers; Ward Baker, May 1943

“Cool Breeze,” Billy Eckstine; Gene Ammons; Dameron; Gillespie, 1946

Here’s How New Yorkers Try to Cool Off

These youngsters play in a flooded gutter on Carrol St., Brooklyn, the lad in the foreground showing just how he’d swim at the beach. It’s fun, but unsanitary. There’s virtually no limit to the diseases that could be picked up from street dirt. This picture gives you a concrete argument for more – not fewer – playgrounds, so greatly needed to keep young New York healthy. Photo by John De Biase, PM

This is better. Water straight out of a hose won’t hurt anybody. The young man is enjoying a shower on Dean St. Photo by Arthur Leipzig, PM

PM, June 6, 1943, p. 16

Here’s How New Yorkers Try to Cool Off

The hot nights have filled many a fire escape. A mother and two sons sleep outdoors at a tenement on East Houston and Mangin St. Photo by Weegee
PM, June 6, 1943, p. 16

“Cool Playin’ Mama, “Sammy Cotton; Paul Gayten and his Orchestra; Biggs; Cotton, 1950

“Cool Down Mamma,” Lost John Hunter and His Blind Bats, Lost John Hunter; Hunter, 1950