Archive

Naked City

“…the picture became greater and greater…”

March 21, 2024
Naked City


Jim Bishop, The Mark Hellinger Story, 1952, pp. 330-331

…He showed the producer a new picture book of New York City entitled The Naked City. The author of it was Weegee, a fat little cigar-smoking photographer who literally slept in his car near a short-wave radio. He picked up all the police calls and, because he was already on the road when an exciting call came in, Weegee very often was at the scene of a crime before the police. His book of photos was stark and hard…

…When Hellinger decided to use it he phoned Weegee. He explained that there was no value in the book, as such, for a motion picture. But that he liked the title. Instead of buying the name outright, Mark said, he’d put Weegee on the payroll at a hundred a week as still photographer for the period during which the picture was being shot. Weegee accepted. Hellinger explained that the photographer wouldn’t be expected to give up his regular daily work at all; in sum, the hundred [$100 in April 1947 had the same buying power as $1,408.30 in January 2024] a week would be side money…
Jim Bishop, The Mark Hellinger Story, 1952, pp. 330-331

Mark Hellinger (March 21, 1903 – December 21, 1947)

“Happy New Year”

January 2, 2024
1945, Naked City, PM


Weegee, Naked City, p.76

Happy New Year

Tavern on ground floor of burning building is shelter for firemen overcome by smoke New Year’s Eve. Customers also had a hot time. PM Photos by Weegee.


PM, January 2, 1945, p.13

Celluloid factory provides Fourth of July welcome for 1945.

“…it’s Christmas.”

December 25, 2023
1940, Naked City


Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp.158-159

Not so long ago I, too, used to walk on the Bowery, broke, “carrying the banner.” The sight of a bed with white sheets in a furniture store window, almost drove me crazy. God… a bed was the most desirable thing in the world.

In the summer I would sleep in Bryant Park… But when it got colder I transferred to the Municipal Lodging House… I saw this sign on the wall there. A Sadist must have put it up. I laughed to myself… what Cash and Valuables… I didn’t have a nickel to my name, but I was a Free Soul… with no responsibilities…

Slumber-time in a mission… it’s Christmas.


Weegee, Naked City, 1945, p. 159

Weegee’s “Naked City” Map

December 12, 2022
Naked City

A map of where every photo in Weegee’s book “Naked City” was made.

A map of crime scenes, fires, circuses, tenements, and townhouses… a map of people sleeping, laughing, loving, dancing, dying… crowds in Coney Island, Times Square, Lower East Side, and Harlem… A map of the inhabitants of New York City (mostly during World War Two)… A map of some of the 8 million stories, the “beauty and ugliness,” the “real,” New York City…

A map of Weegee’s “Naked City.”

“Heat-Wave Nocturne in Downtown New York”

August 4, 2022
1940, Naked City


“Heat Wave”; Ethel Waters; Berlin; Columbia (2826-D); 1933


Weegee, Herald Tribune, August 4, 1940

Heat-Wave Nocturne in Downtown New York


Weegee, “Naked City,” 1945


“Heat Wave”; Marilyn Monroe; 20th Century-Fox Orchestra and Chorus; Irving Berlin; RCA Victor (20-6033); 1955

“Photography Casualties From N.Y.”

July 19, 2022
1945, Naked City


“When My Baby Left Me”; Cootie Williams and his Orchestra; Williams; Vinson; Eddie Vinson; Capitol (266); Publication date: July 19, 1945


The New York Post, July 19, p. 19

Photography

By John Adam Knight

Worth Anyone’s $4
[$4 in July 1945 had the same buying power as $65.48 in June 2022.]

All of this is background for a brief review of a fine new picture book, Weegee’s “Naked City” (Essential Books, 243 pp., $4). This is Weegee at his former best, which means virtually unequaled. Most of these pictures were made before the Museum of Modern Art’s kiss of death took effect, and the purchaser need have little fear of being stuck with serious “art.”

What he will get for his $4 is a collection of grauvre reproductions of about 200 stark almost primitive photographs of death, despair and degeneracy in New York between midnight and morning. Though technically poor photographs, almost every one of them tells a gripping, human story, one of the best reasons I know for the invention of the camera.

The paper shortage denies me the pleasure of describing dozens of these pictures individually. I have space only to urge every one interested to buy the book and learn the lesson that Weegee once knew that honesty, a genuine interest in people – all people – and a recognition of what constitutes human interest in pictures can make any of you nearly as great as Weegee once was.

The New York Post, July 19, p. 19


“Echoes Of Harlem”; Cootie Williams And His Orchestra; Cootie Williams; Duke Ellington; Capitol (266); Publication date: July 19, 1945