Archive

1944

“FDR at Broadway and 49th Street”

October 29, 2022
1944, PM


“F.D.R. Jones”; Chick Webb And His Orchestra; Ella Fitzgerald; Harold J. Rome; Decca (2105 A); October 6, 1938


PM, October 29, 1944, p. m2

FDR at Broadway and 49th Street. With him on the back seat is Sen Wagner. Mike Reily, head of the White House Secret Service detail, watches the crowd from the running board. Photo by Weegee


“AMERICANISM – Part 1”; FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT; C. R. S. (CRS 66A)


PM, October 29, 1944, p. m3

INSIDE MANHATTAN

By Grant Reynard

The President goes by


“AMERICANISM – Part 2”; FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT; C. R. S. (CRS 66B)

“…seamy-side-of-life photographer…”

May 7, 2022
1944, Naked City, PM


“Yesterdays”; Kathryn Meisle; Harry Sosnik; Jerome Kern; Otto Harbach; Decca (DA 23572 A); Publication date: May 7, 1944


PM, May 7, 1944, p.32

Weegee meets a great man.

Weegee brought in a photograph of an old man sitting on a cot, his hands in his lap. Weegee is the cigar-smoking, crime, fire, and seamy-side-of-life photographer who lives across the street from police headquarters and does his best work from midnight on.

“This is Stieglitz, Alfred Stieglitz,” said Weegee. “He’s a great photographer…”

Stieglitz invited Weegee to his gallery. But first they stopped at a druggist’s, where the aged photographer left a prescription. Then they walked up to 509 Madison Ave. and took an elevator to the 17th floor…

Stieglitz pointed to a phone near his cot. It never rings, he said. I have been deserted…

He was a failure, he told me…

…and he never used the products of Eastman Kodak because of their slogan You push a button. We’ll do the rest.

…And I left quietly and shut the the glass door with the words painted on it, AN AMERICAN PLACE.

“It doesn’t seem right that such a great artist should have such a little reward,” said Weegee.

PM, May 7, 1944


“The Touch of Your Hand”; Kitty Carlisle; Alfred Drake; Kathryn Meisle; Harry Sosnik; Jerome Kern; Otto Harbach; Decca (DA 23574 A); Publication date: May 7, 1944


Weegee, Naked City, 1945


“Lovely to Look at”; Kitty Carlisle and Alfred Drake; Harry Sosnik; Jerome Kern; Dorothy Fields; Jimmy McHugh; Decca (DA 23572 B); Publication date: May 7, 1944

“The Face of New York on Invasion Day”

June 7, 2021
1944, PM


PM, June 7, 1944, p.20

The Face of New York on Invasion Day

The crowds in Times Square were serious yesterday – glad that D-Day had come and yet solemn at the thought of the boys in the fighting. Below you see some of the faces turned up toward the electric sign on the Times building as bulletins of Allied progress were flashed out. Photos by Weegee.


PM, June 7, 1944, p.20


“D-Day Polka,” Brunon Kryger “King of the Polkas” and his International Orchestra, 1945

“The opera shot got the most laughs.”

June 3, 2021
1944, exhibition, PM


“Woman Laughing (Continuous)”


PM, June 2, 1944 pp. 12-13 (photos by Weegee and Arthur Leipzig)

A Weegee Gets Attention At Museum of Modern Art

The big picture at lower right is the center of attraction in Weegee’s section of the Art in Progress photo exhibition now on view at the Museum of Modern Art. It shows Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh and Lady Decies outside the Metropolitan Opera House – and the eloquent facial reaction of another woman. The other pictures on this page were snapped by Weegee as visitors to the photo exhibition looked at his pictures. Four out of his five exhibits have appeared in PM. The opera shot got the most laughs. Weegee reports.

Staten Island Girl Scouts Turn Farmerettes


Everybody’s Laughing, Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra; Billie Holiday; Lerner; Oakland, 1938

Art in Progress, May 24 – September 17, 1944.
(Three out of five photos appeared as news items; “I Cried…” was used in a photography column; “The Critic” made its debut in this article…)


Laughing At Life, Billie Holiday, 1940


Weegee, “Installation view of Weegee’s exhibition in Art in Progress, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1944″ (Weegee’s World, p. 28)


Screenshot of checklist, moma.org


Laughing Boogie, Eddie Chamblee and The Band; Chamblee, 1951


Everyone’s Laughing, Clyde McPhatter, Winfield Scott, 1954

“…an Arthur Fellig favorite…”

April 14, 2021
1943, 1944


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“Camera Topics,” by T.T. Holden.

“The Salvation Army serves over 12,000 doughnuts every day to service men and women in Philadelphia through their fleet of seventeen mobile canteens and six club cars…”


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“Windsors at the circus, an Arthur Fellig favorite. 4×5 Speed Graphic on Agfa Superpan Press film, one bulb at camera, f: 4.5 at 1/250th sec.”

(The photo, one of at least six of the Windsors at the circus, was made in May 1943… after a final photo: “They shook hands. Weegee says he got this picture of himself by psychic means. ‘I then packed up,’ his report adds, “and went to a nearby Automat and had a cup of coffee.”)


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“The WAR and YOU”


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“These Things Make a Job Worthwhile!”

This day in history (yesterday).
(Wartime Weegee with royalty covering the home front… and drinking coffee…)


PM, April 13, 1941, p. 50 (Elizabeth Hawes, Charles Martin)
“Suppose That Clothes Were Good for Four Years…”

“Take heed! New York will be…” (A Naked City)

September 6, 2020
1944, PM


PM, September 6, 1944, p. 16

“Take heed! New York will be bombed tomorrow!” Thus called Mrs. Elizabeth Lassen, 54, as she sat nude on the roof parapet of her apartment house at 1 W. 30th St., with her legs dangling over the edge. A neighbor induced her to leave her perch by offering her a cup of coffee. She drank the coffee and returned to the edge, but was coaxed back to safety by police who took her to Bellevue for observation . Neighbors said Mrs. Lassen had expressed concern over the safety of her husband a merchant ship caption who is at sea. PM, September 6, 1944, p. 16

And so the 24‐year‐old Parsons graduate decided to find a niche of his own. “I’ve always loved environmental fabrics,” he explained. “When I was a kid, I had swatches’ pinned all over my room.” The fabrics led to pillows and Mr. Carrieri opened his Pillow Salon at 1 West 30th Street last year. NY Times, May 18, 1968.

Living Amid Office Buildings With a Legend of Lillian Russell

George Washington never slept at 1 West 30th Street. That’s one fact accepted by the tenants of one of Manhattan’s most romantic and most improbable apartment houses.
NY Times, May 18, 1968.


WEEGEEWEEGEEWEEGEE, September 6, 2020

Fifth Avenue and Thirtieth Street Corner Sold for One Million Dollars — Deal for Grand Street Corner — Sales by Brokers and at Auction.

Frederick Fox Co. have sold the eight-story Wilbraham building at 284 Fifth Avenue, northwest corner of Thirtieth Street, opposite the Holland House. The structure, which covers a plot 40 by 125, was one of the first and finest bachelor apartment houses erected in the Fifth Avenue section, and was owned by Mrs. Emily H. Moir. NY Times, January 3, 1908.

“The opera shot got the most laughs…”

June 1, 2020
1944


PM, June 2, 1944, pp.12-13 (photos by Weegee and Arthur Leipzig)


Screenshot, moma.com, (photo by Ansel Adams)

(Just a name and a sliver of a silver gelatin print, “Woman Shot from Cannon, New York, 1943.”)


Screenshot from of exhibition checklist from moma.com

“My Man, 1941” – 95.1943 is online

“Tenement Fire, 1939” – 96.1943 is online

“Woman Shot from Cannon, New York, 1943” – 696.1943 is online

“Art in Progress: 15th Anniversary Exhibitions: Photography” at MoMA, May 24 – September 17, 1944

To be continued…

Labor Days

September 2, 2019
1941, 1944, 1947, Labor Day


PM, August 31, 1941, p. 18

“Holiday Accidents took their toll as motorists started their Labor Day week end. Early yesterday Joseph Morris and his brother’s wife, Charlotte were killed when this car overturned in Bronx Park. The driver, Anthony Morris, Navy purchasing agent, was injured. Three other auto deaths had been listed last night; the Motor Vehicle Bureau says about 40 will die before Tuesday in New York State.”


PM, August 31, 1941 (photo by Martin Harris)

“Union Members vacationing…Vivian Cherry…”


PM, 1944, p. 13 (photo by John De Biase)

“Here’s the Labor Day Rush at the Holland Tunnel
Our photographer waited around at the Holland Tunnel yesterday to get the Labor Day traffic…”


PM, 1944 (photo by Stanley Kubrick)

“Bronx Motorists Strike Oil
Bogart’s Service Station at 164th St. and Jerome Ave. he Bronx, was a Labor Day rarity – it had gasoline to sell. At 10 a.m. yesterday cars were lined up there for more than a block.”


PM, September 3, 1947, p. 13 (photos by Irving Haberman)

“Harlem Crowds Turn Out For West Indies Day…”

October 12, 1944

October 12, 2017
1944, PM


PM, Thursday, October 12, 1944, pp. 12-13, Photos by Weegee, PM
“New York: Explanation: Sinatra Opened at the Paramount”

“Frank Sinatra began an engagement at the Paramount Theater here yesterday. He reached the theater at 6 a.m. yesterday, but by that time, a long line – about 1,000 kids, mostly bobby sox girls – had already been waiting for hours in the chill air of early morning… Rehearsal lasted until 8 a.m., and at 8:30, the doors of the theater were thrown open to madly rushing, crowding, shoving, elbowing followers of The Voice… Some of the girls refused to have their pictures taken, covered their faces with their hands. They were playing hookey from school and jobs, and planned to stay in the Paramount all day and all night to see each of Sinatra’s five appearances on stage.”

“After the doors were thrown open at 8:30, and the kids had been seated, and the feature picture had been run (during which the kids screamed ‘We want Frankie!), Sinatra brought ecstasy…” PM, Thursday, October 12, 1944, pp. 12-13