PM, April 5, 1948
“‘Select-O-Matic’ has capacity for 100 records, can play up to 14 hours without stop. Records are played vertically.” “Another step toward uninterrupted playing of photograph records over a long period has been taken… This machine holds up to 100 records and can play up to 14 hours with out a stop… The machine is actually a juke box with a well-devolped brain…”
PM, March 9, 1941
“Weegee makes friends readily. On a Chinatown assignment, he got this New Year’s lucky wish from a Chinese girl. He has a photo of her painting it pinned above his bed (see picture next page). It is characteristic of him to have his picture taken this way. The cigar is standard equipment.”
PM, March 9, 1941
“Weegee advises: ‘If it’s a fire don’t just start shooting the burning building. Get the human interest: people being rescued or watching the building.’ Picture editors found this car, iced by firemen more interesting than smoke and flames.”
PM, March 9, 1941
“This is a horrible but fascinating picture of a midget arrested in a vice case, unsuccessfully trying to dodge Weegee’s camera. About such pictures Weegee says: ‘I’m there to take pictures and I do it. I don’t gloat over it, it’s my job.'”
Brooklyn Eagle, April 17, 1940 (article from Fulton History)
(Is this the same Jerry Austin who was in Freaks (1932), Saratoga Trunk (1945), The Lovable Cheat (1949), etc.?)
New York Herald Tribune, February 28, 1944 (Photo by Weegee)
“Fire Destroys ‘the World’s Largest Scenic Railway’ at Coney Island”
Firemen fighting the four-alarm fire which razed the Thompson Scenic Railway late Saturday Night. Minor damage was done to concessions in adjacent Luna Park and to ties of the B.M.T. elevated tracks, causing the rerouting of all trains on four lines.”
Weegee, Unknown Weegee, February 28, 1944, p. 40 (Photo by Weegee)
Daily Mirror, February 28, 1944 (Mirror Photo, presumably not by Weegee)
“FOUR-ALARMER IN CONEY ISLAND. Hundreds of firemen, coast guardsmen and wardens were called out to combat a spectacular week-end fire which reduced to these ruins Coney Island’s Scenic Railway, called the oldest and largest amusement device in U.S. Unused Luna Park property and adjoining concessions were damaged. The orgin of the blaze is unknown.”
New York Times, February 28, 1944 (Associated Press, presumably not Weegee)
“Coney Island Scenic Railway After it Was Gutted by Flames
The L.A. Thompson landmark – called one of the oldest and largest amusement devices of its kind in the country – was destroyed by fire on Saturday night. It is adjacent to famed Luna Park and four alarms were turned in before the blaze was under control.”
PM, February 28, 1944, (PM Photo by Weegee)
“Plug for Wimpy by Weegee
An auxiliary fireman handing coffee to rain-soaked firefighters at the Thompson Scenic Railway fire at Coney Island yesterday poses long enough to give Weegee this picture.”
(It’s fascinating that while photographing the tragedy of a large fire at Coney Island, Weegee also made this funny foto of a coffee-toting fire-buff goofing around with Wimpy the hamburg-loving cartoon character and friend of Popeye. And that this is the photo that PM published of the fire…)
Weegee’s People, 1946
PM, February 6, 1943, p. 6 (PM Photo by Weegee)
“Ration seekers at Columbus Ave. and 68th St. used newspapers as well as umbrellas to keep dry. Line moved slowly.
(A rare “stark,” crime, murder, paparazzi, night time photo…)
PM, February 23, 1942
This is War.. The four radio networks all carried the same program from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Entitled The White House and the War…
PM, December 26, 1940
Weegee Covers Christmas in New York… In Pictures and Words…
By Weegee
Early Christmas Eve I received a phone call [a funny thing to receive from a person who consistently wrote that he had no phone: “In my room, I would have the mail and telegrams slipped under my door. I had no phone; I’m allergic to them…” Weegee by Weegee, 1961, pp. 64-65] from Wesley Price, one of PM’s picture editors. Price told me he wanted a good holiday picture, something with plenty of OOMPH. Lots of Christmas spirit in it. in other words a masterpiece. Jokingly I replied you just couldn’t order a picture like that, like you would a box of cigars. It had to happen. However, I asked him if he had any suggestions. He suggested that I get the picture in for the first edition. [Slightly different environment than: “The upshot was that I had a roving assignment from PM for the next four-and-a-half years. I picked my own stories. When I found a good one, I brought t in. All they had to do was mail me my weekly check for seventy-five dollars… which they did.” Weegee by Weegee, 1961, p. 86]
I left police headquarters in my car at 2:30 Christmas morning. I turned the two radios on. One the regular broadcast receiver, to get some holiday music to put me in the mood; and the other radio, a police short wave receiver to get the police signals so I would know what was going on.
The first police call I picked up was for West and Bank Sts. When I got there I found a car with a Jersey license, turned on its side, with a cop on top of it. Nobody seemed to be hurt. Soon a towing wagon arrived to take the car away. I made a shot of it and was on my way.
Then I picked up six fire alarm signals. They were alll false. I didn’t think Santa did that.
Then I stopped at the All Night Mission at No. 8 Bowery. [Not the still extant Bowery Mission.] Every night in the year about 100 hopelessly beaten and homeless men sit on benches and sleep as best they can. [see below]
Except for a Christmas tree in front, everything was the same. The same despair and hopelessness. I tiptoed in at 4 in the morning, being careful not to disturb anyone. Everyone was asleep. The place was as usual playing to “Sitting up” only. The same electric sign was lit with the illuminated big letters, JESUS SEES, the only source of light in the place. I wondered if He approved…
On the way out, along a big stove near the door, I noticed a pair of stockings, turned inside out, hung to dry.
Next I picked up a police alarm for 102nd St. and Lexington Ave. When I got there I found a man had been stabbed to death and was lying on the corner. From the St. John’s Episcopal Church, [according to the Internet, there is no St. John’s Episcopal Church at 102nd St. and Lexington Ave. There is one in the Village, 224 Waverly Place…] on the opposite corner, came the sound of organ music and the singing of the Christmas worshipers. I made a shot of the scene and started back to police headquarters.
When I arrived at my home, in back of Police Headquarters, I found a package wrapped in fancy paper outside my door. It was a present from my Chinese laundry man, Willie Chu, of 95 Elizabeth St. It contained a pound of tea and a half pound of lichee nuts. I had been looking for the Christmas spirit all night long. And had found it, on my doorstep. Lichee NUTS to you, Santa Claus…Coincidentally The New Yorker also stopped by the All Night Mission in 1940: ABSTRACT: Talk story about census enumeration of the derelicts in the Bowery. Since none of the homeless men know in the morning whether his address will be a flophouse, an allnight mission, or a doorway, the enumerators waited until evening to cover the Bowery. In each of the hotels – the Sunshine, Uncle Sam House, the Plaza, and the rest – were two enumerators, who got the statistics on each guest before he was allowed to register & go to his bed. At the All-Night Mission, 8 Bowery, we found 80-odd men quietly starting to spend the night sitting up. A single enumerator was taking down the information an old man was giving him. He had been born in N. Y. C. 67 years ago. No wife, no, children? no. He wasn’t looking for work. He was on relief. Home? Well, the mission…
Weegee’s Christmas day journey, on a Google Map, might look like this.
A classic New York City Christmas story… published 28 years to the day, before the end…
PM Daily, December 26, 1943, p. 13.
Fatal Fire on 42nd Street.
Firemen try to rescue some of the men trapped in the flaming W. 42nd St. lodging house in which 16 perished.
A chaplain performs the last rites for one of the men burned to death. Bodies were taken to the next door garage.
They spent their Christmas in the Bellevue Morgue. These are some of the 16 bodies removed from the Standard Hotel, which was gutted by the fire Friday.
16 Men Killed in 42d St. Fire
“…a fire in the Standard Hotel, rooming house for night workers at 439 W. 42d St., which took the lives of 16 men and sent 20 to hospitals Friday.
The fire broke out suddenly after it had apparently been smoldering for several hours. Most of the 200 men estimated to have been in the place were asleep at the time…
Commissioner of Building and Housing William Wilson, who was at the scene, said the city had no control over this type of building.
He said that he and Mayor La Guardia had asked for legislation requiring greater safety devices at the last session of the State Legislature but were turned down.
Thousands of persons gathered along 42d St. to watch the horrible scene.” PM Daily, December 26, 1943, p. 13.
Weegee Daily, December 26, 2012. Photos by Ceegee.
One of the least attractive, (and least pedestrian friendly) areas of Manhattan, West 42d. St., saw snow and wind and too many cars…
“These published photos are a small discovery: One of the three uncredited photos, made by Weegee, of a ‘Fatal Fire on 42d Street’ in 1943, is the well-known ‘Smiling Irishman’ photo, tastefully and respectfully cropped…” Published 28 years to the day, before the Weegee’s Death…
PM Daily, December 26, 1940.
First Aid fails to revive Paul Ryan, killed by a gas explosion in his apartment at 865 First Ave. Police said it was apparently suicide. The Christmas night blast shock the 17-story building and injured two house employes. PM photo by Weegee.
Weegee Daily, December 26, 2012
Boring photos fail to revive pedestrian… One of the eight million stories in the Naked City… And this 17-story building remains surprisingly intact, near the UN… WD photos by Ceegee.
WEEGEEWEEGEEWEEGEE 