“Street Scene”

“Street Scene”; Benny Carter Quintet; Norman Granz; Alfred Newman; Mercury (89044); 1952

The New York Times, November 17, 1939

SLAIN BY EAST SIDE THUGS

Soft-Drink Vendor Shot Down In Prince Street Doorway

The New York Times, November 17, 1939

“Street Scene (A Sentimental Rhapsody)”; Alfred Newman And His Hollywood Symphony Orch.; Newman; Mercury (4013)

The New York Post, Friday, November 17, 1939, p. 10 (Associated Press Photo)

Street Scene in New York

After the guns ceased barking and the gunmen fled, neighbors peered from the fire escape and almost every window last night for a glimpse of the body of Anthony Greco, slain in front of his own cafe at 10 Prince Street.

The New York Post, November 17, 1939

“Street Scene (Sentimental Rhapsody);” Alfred Newman and his Orchestra; Newman; Adamson; Majestic (20017 A); 1946

Times Herald, November 20, 1939, p.1

“Street Scene (A Sentimental Rhapsody)”; Alfred Newman And His Hollywood Symphony Orchestra; Newman; Mercury (1150M); September 1946

LIFE, November 27, 1939, pp. 26-27

Murder in New York

After dusk on Nov. 16, Angelo Greco stood smoking outside his cafe in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Emerging from the darkness, a man drew a gun, fired four shots, fled into the night. Greco tumbled dead in his doorway. From windows above, heads popped out. Police cars screamed into the street. Close in their wake arrived Arthur Fellig, famed free-lance photographer (LIFE, April 12, 1937) who sleeps behind police headquarters, has a short-wave radio in his car. He listened briefly while neighborhood folk stolidly disclaimed knowledge of the murderer, then stepped back and photographed this dramatic street scene.

LIFE, November 27, 1939, p. 27

“Street Scene”; Ralph Marterie And His Orchestra; Ennio Bolognini; Newman; Mercury (5860); 1952

Weegee, Naked City, 1945, p. 79

Balcony Seats At A Murder

This happened in Little Italy. Detectives tried to question the people in the neighborhood… but they were all deaf… dumb… and blind… not having seen or heard anything.

Weegee, Naked City, 1945, p. 79

“Street Scene”; Ray Anthony and His Orchestra; Alfred Newman; Capitol (2327); 1953

Weegee, Famous Photographers Tell How…, ca. 1955

…One of the best pictures I’ve made… Just to give you a little aside. I got up nine o’clock one night, and I says to myself, I’m going to take a nice little ride and work up an appetite… I arrive right in the heart of Little Italy, 10 Prince St. Here’s a guy who had been bumped off in the doorway of a little candy store. This was a nice balmy, hot, summer’s night. The detectives are all over… but all the five stories of the tenement people are on the fire escape… they’re looking, they’re having a good time… some of the kids are even reading the funny papers and the comics… There was another photographer there and he made what they call a ten foot shot… he made a shot of just the guy in the doorway and that was it… To me this was drama, this was like a backdrop… I stepped all the way back about 100 feet. I used flash powder. And I got this whole scene… the people on the fire escapes, the body, everything… Of course the title for it was “Balcony Seats at a Murder”… That picture won me a gold medal with a real genuine diamond… So that was it… So I try to humanize the news story. Of course I ran into snags with the dopey editors. If it was fire they’d say where’s the burning building? And I’d says look they all look a like. I says look, here’s the people effected by the burning building…

Weegee, Famous Photographers Tell How… ca. 1955

“Street Scene”; King Vidor; September 5, 1931