Pure nostalgia. From 1978 to 1980, I bused to Port Authority to get to art school and I can still register the smell pot and roasted chestnuts in my memory. Walking down 8th Avenue to 34th Street you were almost guaranteed to be met by a woman asking if you wanted a date and 42nd Street had small crowds in front of movie houses watching previews of kung fu and horror flicks on a television outside the box office. It was one of NYC's grungiest times but it did have its own charm in a way.
@@incarnateTheGreat That's how my younger brother (born in the early 70s) was watching the Hippie movement of the late 60s and early 70s in clips on television. He said it felt like a nightmare to him. Now that several decades have passed, it does feel that way to me as well. But back in the early eighties, this was all my upbringing as I was born in NY in the early 1960s. No doubt the nostalgic memories put a much glossier shine to everything than what was there. Today, Times Square looks an absolute paradise compared to what it was like in this video. All the old theatres on 42nd street were turned into porno flick theatres. It was urban decay at its apex with adult shops sprinkled liberally about. My usual trek took me down eighth avenue from Port Authority to 34th street where I'd catch the bus to Lexington where I'd walk to 30th street and my school. Or I'd walk underground to the shuttle to Grand Central Station where I'd walk down Park Avenue to 30th. Madison Park was a drug seller and buyers market and where my friends bought weed. It was directly across from a Sam Flax art supply store (I went to art school) so I saw that park plenty. I think exposure to it all made me see it as "normal". What a difference a few decades made, though.
If, like me, you have just watched the 1890s NYC street scenes video and then a 1930s street scenes vid, this has a different feel now. The elderly in this video were the little kids in the 1890s/1900s vid. Then we saw them as adults, entering middle age in the 1930s going about their working lives, and now here they are as very old people still walking along as the city has whirled around them for over 80 years.
I'm sure that's true for quite a few, but lots of the elderly octogenarians you'd see in a 1978 NYC video might not have been living in NYC as children back in the 1890s or early 1900s, they might have been only come in the post-WW2 period or later. Similarly, a lot of the little urchins you see from a late 19th century/early 20th century street scenes of NYC, if they survived to 1978, might have moved out of NYC by then.
Despite the fact that serial killers, thrill killers, hit men & street level violent criminals were off the charts during this period, - I still feel a strong sense of nostalgia & affection for this period in time. The fashions, music, artwork, architecture & design from this era continue to astound me & move my soul.
I'm guessing you grew up doing this time? I'd do anything to be able to experience the 1970s, 1960s, or even the 80s or 90s! I was born in the late 90s. I feel that even the early 2000s were better than now. Not better per say, but you worded it perfectly with, "strong sense of nostalgia & affection".
@@joeylantis22 I think to be honest, it comes with getting older. The older we become, the more we start pining for the naïve certainties of our youths.
I think there's probably some truth in saying that social and societal adversity tends to create memorable art. It becomes a form of escapism, and expression. One of the reasons music and art from the 70s and 80s seems so vivid now is because so much else was so awful.
Such contrast to the way videos are filmed and watched today. I find tiktok and even movie scenes cut way too fast whereas stuff like this let’s the scene sink in more. Great content here. Thanks!
I love videos like this. Not merely for nostalgia (born and raised in Brooklyn, still here) but I always hope to spot a relative, or even the family car. One shot in millions but it'd be fun.
When I was 22, in February 1978, I dropped out of University, sold everything and went to Europe. Back then there was a deal that let you fly to London from New York for $99. So I got myself from Vancouver, Canada to NYC, with about 5 days in the city because I always wanted to see New York. Slept on the floor of an opera singer’s minuscule apartment, who was going to Juilliard and was a friend of a friend. Wandered around the city discreetly taking pictures, and this video is exactly how I remember it being. I bought standing room tickets for a couple of Broadway shows, took the Subway everywhere, which at that time every square inch outside and a lot of the inside was completely covered in graffiti. And it was really, really filthy. Just thought it was all part of what made New York, New York. Really looked forward to my return visit in a few months on my way home. It was a great trip in many ways, but the best part was getting to compare 5 world cities one after the other, New York, London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam. Each completely different in every single way, design, housing, street life, noise, smell, transportation. I’ve been back to New York several times, the last being in 2005, and I’d love to go back to Europe and see what might have changed after 45 years!
I love stories like this 😊🙏 It sounds almost romantic… When I need my fix of the seventies New York, I simply watch “The French Connection” from 1971 🙂 Also, I can confirm, the things have changed in Europe as well, thankfully mostly for the better 😉
@@iconic_filmdirectors When I returned I went back to school to be a teacher, that lasted a year. My BA is in theatre and English, I worked in the arts, culture and entertainment field my whole working life: actor, writer, acting teacher, director, producer, presenter, theatre manager, arts programming and creating facilities consultant. It went OK.
Excellent footage of my NYC during my teenage years! This was at the height of the madness, mayhem, attitude, flava, authenticity, and culture of the true NYC! These years are iconic in our history and will NEVER be duplicated again! So much culture and history came out of these years!
You captured New York in the late 1970s. I lived in the City then and loved and appreciated everyday. The city had its own pulse and its own grittiness. I regretted the day I had to move out.
At 6.34, on the magazine rack, the Esquire magazine is dated 18th July 1978. I just googled Esquire magazine 1978 and somehow the exact issue came up first :)
in the 70's and 80's we had the perfect equilibrium between technology and humans...we had some but not to the level where technology takes over our life
What a wonderful era that was. The city was broke, we just put up with a major blackout and the Son of Sam, but as New Yorkers we had each other's back through thick and thin.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Wow, normal people in the streets! I visited NYC for the 1st time 1986. NYC was different then and it wasn't only "better back in the day". It felt often dangerous, but normal people could live there. Streets were jumping. It was exciting and maybe even exotic?!?! It was really something (to see). I enjoyed more visits in the 90s and 2016. In 2016 at first sight everything looked so different compared to when I visited first. It was clean and proper, but at a second glance this 'clean up' had darker sides as well. NYC has become something of an open air mall of expensive brand stores. Sure a rotten Times Square was reason to complain but is the commercialized artificial disneyfied Times Square / City so much better? Some would say Yes. However I wanted to learn more and booked a personal guided tour. She told us that with a job like cashier, bookkeeper, stylist, clerk you simply cannot live in NYC or more precise Manhattan anymore. So everyone who's not a lawyer, doctor, banker, business consultant, CEO, etc.) commutes to Manhattan from oftentimes far away. On the other hand, many condos are empty because they are only 'investments' for those who can afford it. To some, it is only the 2nd or 3rd home and they spend there only a week or so per year. This just doesn't add to the 'character' of a city. And NYC had lots of it. This development is taking place in many cities around the world, but as always NYC tops it all off. I wouldn't say the 'old' NYC was 'better' I am just thinking the other extreme has its disadvantages also. Why can there only be extremes like seedy, gritty, rotten vs. super rich and expensive? A middle ground with everything in it and a place for everyone would be nice, wouldn't it? Anyways was good to have seen NYC in the 80s and even though this coverage was from the 70s I enjoyed watching and remembering.
OLIKA 9076 Wasn't this around the same time that guy was running around blasting women mostly with a 44 revolver through car windows etc in NYC ? Mr David Berkowitz ( son of Sam) 315 Pine St Yonkers !
@@devonmitchell5294Thnx! For more NYC 70's vlog stuff Nelson Sullivan's version of life during that time is available on U-,Tube! Though it's a gay version! Even his Mom participates in some film! Has the "blackout" , the meat market area covered,kinna interesting! Just gotta overlook the gay aspect !
I was 17 in 1978, living in Ridgewood, Queens, NY! I remember the street signs being color-coded! Manhattan had black letters on a mustard-yellow background (0:14); Queens had blue letters on a whitish-gray background; Brooklyn had white letters on a black background; the Bronx had white letters on a dark blue background and Staten Island, was similar to Manhattan, but instead it was dark blue letters on a mustard-yellow background. Yes, I paid attention to details back then! hehe...
I like how you can see both the old and "new" taxicabs. It was always exciting to get an old one because they had the jump seats and you'd fight with your sister to be the one to sit on it.
I lived 47 years right across the river in Jersey City. I was 8 at this time and remember going to NyC first time and I saw Beatlemania on Broadway with my family. There was a guy laying unconscious on the sidewalk and everyone just walked around him. I was shocked as a little girl.
I recall the same thing back in the Summer of 1977. It was absolutely shocking how far the City had fallen. My Dad and I had to move my Sicilian "Nona" out of the Bronx and up to the Boston area. There were entire blocks that were literally in ruin, it reminded me of what Berlin must have looked like in the Spring of 1945. Complete depravity. NYC is a great city and I love the place. I see bad times on the horizon for our Country and pray we never go back to that. I ❤ NY!
That’s what it is ur right today I think we are almost too self aware. Too the point where it makes us subconsciously think about every thing we do instead of just doing.
When I was kid, in the late 70s, we drove into Manhattan on occasion, but it was a fun family routine to make sure all the doors were locked on the car the second we exited the Holland Tunnel. We used to get a kick out it. It didn't matter that we were about to get out of the car and walk around the city anyway, we still did it. The city was seen as dangerous in the 70s, but I think it's actaully more dangerous now because it's life-threatening danger. Back then, regular folk didn't get killed. The worst thing was getting mugged, and it was by seasoned muggers, not crazed people randomly slashing people or pushing unaware commuters into the subway train, like today.
Violent crime of all kinds were significantly higher in the 1970s in New York. It is an objectively safer place today than it was then. In 1978 when this was filmed, there were 841 violent crimes per 100 000 people, in 2019 that number was 358
So mellow. People moved so stresslessly back then. Might look a little less perfect here and there, but it just seems a lot nicer evenso. Makes me understand why there was much less stress back then.
"Sad"??? Hell no. I personally envy the fact that they have become part of the infinite energy of the Universe. The human species has contentedly regressed into a society of ignorant morons. Humans are a sad joke. It is so blatantly, ridiculously, obviously clear that humans have embraced letting electronic devices replace once-necessary intelligence & logic with pandering entertainment & constant validation. Pitiful. Genuinely *pitiful.*
That one magazine at 6:33 was from July 18 1978. I wish I could just walk around for a day in that time. I was alive but too young to remember for the most part
i've noticed much the same, tourists and the upper 20s early 40s six figure income single. much more diverse economically then. i actually knew poor people that lived near me at CPW. rents towards riverside off Broadway were 3 to 500$ for a 2 or 3 bed room, an older 5 story town home could be bought for less than 150 grand.
It's that way in every tech company. 90% of the workers are under 30. I often wonder what happens to people as they get into their late 30s and 40s. It's like they literally drop off the earth after 40. Where do they work? My work is basically 90% under 35 and they just fired all the people who were over 40. We live in a youth obsessed culture. I don't think old people live in NYC because they'd get mugged or killed or the rent is too much. They probably all moved out to Florida to retire. You can't live in NYC forever.
@@musingsofrock You think the Upper east Side is filled with 20-something year old hedge fund managers? New York has plenty of old people in upper Manhattan, Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst Brooklyn, and quieter neighborhoods.
Obviously filmed in the summer, about a month or two after this I got my first Manhattan job as a messenger, so I was spending almost my whole workday on the streets of NY. I was a high school senior. This is all around Herald Square, and I was working out of the Pan Am Building, which is at Grand Central, so not too far away. 10 blocks north and a couple of blocks east. You can tell how long ago this is when the girl at the beginning buys an Italian ice and pays for it with coins. I don't think there is a single thing you can buy in NY any more for less than a dollar.
@@tartgreenapple At the time, no, I was a foot messenger. Later on I became a bike messenger for a while. It's a job you can do when you're young and dumb. I don't see too many of them any more. I guess email & text messages killed that.
That kid the mom with the I Love NYC shirt (around 4:17) is probably exactly my age in, let's say, 1978. So many delicious details in the video, there are too many to list. Nostalgia and surprising quaintness all at once.
Cartainly brings back some memories. Those were my formative years and were an experience not soon to be forgotten. We just went out and had such fun, with something for everyone: The Lone Star, The Bottom Line and Max's were just a few of the venues I frequented (just to name a few). It's all gone now.
Wow. People seem so connected to their environment. Not glued to a device. Like they were living in the moment. When I see a family at a restaurant on their phones and their kid has an iPad it makes me feel a certain way.
I am interested in how the youth who were born into this new environment perceive older environments like this and how they actually perceive the newer environment once they get a new baseline to judge it against
@@johnm4581 I was right in the middle of it. I grew up with computers, gaming consoles, home phones ect.. What did it is the iPhone. That combined with social media absolutely just hypnotized everyone. Before the iPhone we would just play an hour or 2 on a video game but then we'd be right outside doing kid stuff. The first thing we would do on a snow day was phone up every friend in the neighborhoods home and we'd meet up. Done. Day planned no distractions. Around 2011-2012 is when I noticed everyone's head was always down. Even at restaurants with family. Kind of destroyed alot. People don't shop at stores as often, it's all delivery. Dating is all Apps with fake names and expectations. If I could go back 20+ years I would. It would feel alien.
I've never seen people "glued" to their phones in restaurants. People know its a place to socialise. Maybe little kids would do that if they had no manners yet but this boomer pov is so skewed and overexaggerated.
@@pipp_988 no it's not, and I'm far from a boomer. I see couples, families etc with their heads all buried in their phones while at restaurant tables on a regular. Guess you must be one of the culprits if that insults you
The clock shown around 2:40 has more character than what they got today. It was a smaller version of the clock that was mounted within the EPOK between summer/fall 1965 and early 1976 when Bulova Accutron advertised there. Wonder how small this was - 1.5" column and row spacing? In any event, this clock lasted from 1969 (the year the construction of One Penn Plaza was prepared and begun, and the accompanying buildings on the edge of each end of the block first opened) until 2010 when Tourneau (originally M. Wexler & Sons) moved out and Swarovski moved in and replaced this with the characterless LED version we see today (and is now hardly working).
This is a treasure, a word I chose carefully. Its the kind of thing Stanley Kubrick would view from his exile in England to capture the contemporary time that he might be trying to meticulously replicate in a film. He did that with "Eyes Wide Shut" in the late 1990s, but I think of a current director who strives for accuracy reviewing this film carefully with all the subtle details. Each frame of this video is a rich painting.
@@jfennell3954 geez, if your idea of character is based off the wealth of one person than no wonder why you think the way you do. such a restrictive way of thinking…
@1:03 See how the police officer and the civilian greet each other and when the officer seems to look back at the camera guy he did not come up to him and demand I.D. and harass the guy. This is how it used to be.
This was the first New York my young eyes saw as an infant citizen of Flushing, Queens. This first portion of my life took in so many sights and sounds that I'm now seeing again rt+ years later.
These time period movies of New York City are really great!!! This, as I lived through it all, working there every day, commuting to and from Manhattan to the Bronx.
Used to work for the city of New York at that time. Liked it much better back then. Loved eating Kanish, real Italian pizza and Sabrett hot dogs vendors used to sell. Two slices of pizza and a coke only cost me $1.75.
In Autumn of 1977, 19 year old, Madonna Louise Ciccone, left her home state of Michigan and moved to New York City in pursuit of a career in Dance. Two years later she developed an interest in music; learned how to play percussion, keyboard, and guitar, and in the following years would eventually become the greatest selling female musical recording artist in history. Watching this nostalgic footage makes me ponder what life must have been like for her in the early days; basically living hand to mouth at times. She was determined, talented, and had an undeniable drive and belief in herself, but sometimes it's not enough. So many artists from that time are now long gone, but somehow she survived. Nothing but mad respect for her.
@@homelessjesse9453 I was an art student at the School of Visual Arts at the time. One of my buds who gigged there frequently was in a band called 'The Mad'!
New York was a great place to live or visit until around the late 90s. Then it began a steep decline. Now it looks like an obscenely expensive sanitized dump.
I visited back in Late Dec 2019/Early Jan 2020. Spent most of my time in South Bronx around Mount Eden and down south in Harlem, Manhattan. Most of the architecture in these vids have been preserved quite well and they're a lot safer than they used to be back in the 70s/80s. I would gladly move to Mount Eden if I could
@@manolokonosko2868 It's weird to me that people complain about New York being expensive. Do you complain that Lamborghinis are more expensive than a 2002 Prius? Well New York is the Lamborghini of cities, it's the best of the best of course there's gonna be competition to live there
@@tonygabashvili8357 I never said it was cheap, then again, in certain places it sure was, otherwise NYC wouldn't have had any artists. Lots of these people lived in cheap lofts and apartments while they perfected their craft. Today, you need to earn the cost of one of your "Lamborghinis" in order to live decently. Where's the next "Blondie" or "Lou Reed"coming out of NYC? Your NYC of today is a piece of shit stinking of pot and dead rats, with a high price tag. Like a Lamborghini or a Ferrari... price is no guarantee of quality.
This country was so much freer, happier, healthier, simpler and better back then than today. There wasn't anywhere nearly as much economic and political polarization between the haves and have nots and people in general weren't the arrogant, pretentious, superficial and materialistic snobs they are today. Granted, there have always been jerks in this world, but never as many comprising the overwhelming majority of the population as is the case today in America.
I'm 47 and in England but somehow everyone can get nostalgic about NYC as it featured so heavily in movies and popular culture. For me, it's Scorcese's Mean Streets & the French Connection. And right now I'm listening to Patti Smith's Just Kids auto-biography. I makes me yearn for a time and place that was never mine and for which the reality was surely very different. Thanks for the upload. It took me away from my cold East London flat for a while 😁
Love this trip back in time. I was born and raised in NYC and would have been about the same age as that girl buying the ices - 13. I'm 58 now how time passes. Oh, I miss those days
Videos like this remind me how fleeting life and time is. One day you’re walking down the street in New York, the next 45-years have passed. I would have loved to have lived then. Smartphone and internet free.
Not a fat person in sight. at 13 i roamed the city from central park west to mid town and the east side no problem. i think that cherry Italian ice was 50 cents, my father would scream robbery when they tried 75.
I remember steak and brew! I went to NYC many times as a teenager and thru my 40's. A hop, skip, and a jump on the train from CT. Live in Oklahoma now. Many great memories of the best city I know.
He's touching all the cars. At the time, that was the only way you could prove you came into contact with that vehicle in case you were murdered on the job!
They must have just started putting in new subway information at entrances. I remember seeing an original, "Interborough Subway" placard at 33rd St. and 7th Ave. back in '78.
There is so much diversity in this video, so much beautiful little things that have made New York so special. When I was a kid I used to travel to South Korea with my parents in business purposes. I remember Seul back then was such a thriving, prospering place as New York on this footage. Now we live in whole different world... Everything is artificial, synthetic, copy of a copy...
Wow I was born 1978 in Brooklyn, Ny . I will be 45 in September and to see what the city look like the year I was born and how much it has changed. Thank you for this footage .
When I was little in the 70s and 80s, I always dreamed of seeing a busy street in a capitalist country, with side advertising banners, with neon advertising.. for me, as a resident of the USSR, it was incredible!!! Now in large cities I always walk along the main street with advertisements, I don't know what it means, a memory or I want to go back to childhood??? I'm 50 years old
This is why I love archive footage. It's the closest thing we have to a time machine.
Absolutely
Yeah, I miss the 70's. It was the time of my childhood.
“Someday, a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.”
Travis Bickle
Depends on who you know
And on a rare occasion, you may even see a relative of friend that you knew!
Let's all thank the cameraman for hauling a cinderblock around on his shoulder so we can see this.
Great comment 👍
amazing that whoever filmed this could have had no idea that their personal project would end up being viewed by 200,000 people worldwide
They probably knew
i would like to see the video cam that took this.
That's what I was thinking great point !!
@@MeMe-td1ye and how would they know?
@@chillies4156 just because
Pure nostalgia. From 1978 to 1980, I bused to Port Authority to get to art school and I can still register the smell pot and roasted chestnuts in my memory. Walking down 8th Avenue to 34th Street you were almost guaranteed to be met by a woman asking if you wanted a date and 42nd Street had small crowds in front of movie houses watching previews of kung fu and horror flicks on a television outside the box office. It was one of NYC's grungiest times but it did have its own charm in a way.
Was it really THAT easy to get a date back then?
I'm glad that I only get to see THIS New York in archival footage and have not experienced it.
@@chamboyette853 And an STD at the same time. It was a bargain.
@@incarnateTheGreat That's how my younger brother (born in the early 70s) was watching the Hippie movement of the late 60s and early 70s in clips on television. He said it felt like a nightmare to him. Now that several decades have passed, it does feel that way to me as well. But back in the early eighties, this was all my upbringing as I was born in NY in the early 1960s. No doubt the nostalgic memories put a much glossier shine to everything than what was there.
Today, Times Square looks an absolute paradise compared to what it was like in this video. All the old theatres on 42nd street were turned into porno flick theatres. It was urban decay at its apex with adult shops sprinkled liberally about. My usual trek took me down eighth avenue from Port Authority to 34th street where I'd catch the bus to Lexington where I'd walk to 30th street and my school. Or I'd walk underground to the shuttle to Grand Central Station where I'd walk down Park Avenue to 30th. Madison Park was a drug seller and buyers market and where my friends bought weed. It was directly across from a Sam Flax art supply store (I went to art school) so I saw that park plenty. I think exposure to it all made me see it as "normal". What a difference a few decades made, though.
42nd Street lost its seediness when Giuliani became mayor!
Nice blast from the past! In 1978, I was living there, buying Italian ice, shopping at Macy's, riding that subway line. Thanks!
... buying Italian ice, with a coin instead of dollar bills ...
@@joeblow9374 What's Italian ice? Some kinna drug?
@@chairlesnicol672 Italian ice is a frozen sweetened treat made with finely granulated ice and fruit or other natural or artificial food flavorings.
@@tartgreenappleWe didn't have that in the Great White North.
Disco dancing?
If, like me, you have just watched the 1890s NYC street scenes video and then a 1930s street scenes vid, this has a different feel now. The elderly in this video were the little kids in the 1890s/1900s vid. Then we saw them as adults, entering middle age in the 1930s going about their working lives, and now here they are as very old people still walking along as the city has whirled around them for over 80 years.
I'm sure that's true for quite a few, but lots of the elderly octogenarians you'd see in a 1978 NYC video might not have been living in NYC as children back in the 1890s or early 1900s, they might have been only come in the post-WW2 period or later. Similarly, a lot of the little urchins you see from a late 19th century/early 20th century street scenes of NYC, if they survived to 1978, might have moved out of NYC by then.
Yeah, I was impressed how he caught the same guy in all three time periods
@@siddiqahmad5193
Life is really just grainy film controlled by some pervy guy
Must have been absolutely mind blowing seeing everything change from horse drawn carriages to taxi cabs.
If it is the 1890s the kids there would be almost 100 years old in 1978.
Despite the fact that serial killers, thrill killers, hit men & street level violent criminals were off the charts during this period, - I still feel a strong sense of nostalgia & affection for this period in time. The fashions, music, artwork, architecture & design from this era continue to astound me & move my soul.
I'm guessing you grew up doing this time? I'd do anything to be able to experience the 1970s, 1960s, or even the 80s or 90s! I was born in the late 90s. I feel that even the early 2000s were better than now. Not better per say, but you worded it perfectly with, "strong sense of nostalgia & affection".
The Mafia was the best
@@joeylantis22 I think to be honest, it comes with getting older. The older we become, the more we start pining for the naïve certainties of our youths.
I think there's probably some truth in saying that social and societal adversity tends to create memorable art. It becomes a form of escapism, and expression. One of the reasons music and art from the 70s and 80s seems so vivid now is because so much else was so awful.
Agree
Such contrast to the way videos are filmed and watched today. I find tiktok and even movie scenes cut way too fast whereas stuff like this let’s the scene sink in more. Great content here. Thanks!
Appreciate that you leave the sound as it is! Its so annoying that so many other videos put some useless music on top!
I love videos like this. Not merely for nostalgia (born and raised in Brooklyn, still here) but I always hope to spot a relative, or even the family car. One shot in millions but it'd be fun.
Me to, hope to catch a glimpse of myself, walking fast down the street..
When I was 22, in February 1978, I dropped out of University, sold everything and went to Europe. Back then there was a deal that let you fly to London from New York for $99. So I got myself from Vancouver, Canada to NYC, with about 5 days in the city because I always wanted to see New York.
Slept on the floor of an opera singer’s minuscule apartment, who was going to Juilliard and was a friend of a friend. Wandered around the city discreetly taking pictures, and this video is exactly how I remember it being. I bought standing room tickets for a couple of Broadway shows, took the Subway everywhere, which at that time every square inch outside and a lot of the inside was completely covered in graffiti. And it was really, really filthy. Just thought it was all part of what made New York, New York. Really looked forward to my return visit in a few months on my way home. It was a great trip in many ways, but the best part was getting to compare 5 world cities one after the other, New York, London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam. Each completely different in every single way, design, housing, street life, noise, smell, transportation. I’ve been back to New York several times, the last being in 2005, and I’d love to go back to Europe and see what might have changed after 45 years!
I love stories like this 😊🙏 It sounds almost romantic… When I need my fix of the seventies New York, I simply watch “The French Connection” from 1971 🙂 Also, I can confirm, the things have changed in Europe as well, thankfully mostly for the better 😉
Western European cities are now full of Arabs, Turks, Russians and other Eastern Europeans and Africans. Changed to the worse
You could fly to Puerto Rico for $30 on a redeye back then...
really interesting. how was your life after dropping university ?
@@iconic_filmdirectors
When I returned I went back to school to be a teacher, that lasted a year. My BA is in theatre and English, I worked in the arts, culture and entertainment field my whole working life: actor, writer, acting teacher, director, producer, presenter, theatre manager, arts programming and creating facilities consultant.
It went OK.
Excellent footage of my NYC during my teenage years! This was at the height of the madness, mayhem, attitude, flava, authenticity, and culture of the true NYC! These years are iconic in our history and will NEVER be duplicated again! So much culture and history came out of these years!
NYC was a crime-ridden smelly dump in the 70’s
They were just duplicated a few weeks ago. You must have missed it. It happened in Shrewsbury.
“Federal Express” , the cigarette ads, the old cabs, the original Kentucky Fried Chicken…man, nostalgia…
That was back when food was food...not a bunch of bioengineered/GMO crap.
Wow, everyone walked upright.
This video was filmed in July 1978. I looked up the esquire magazine on display and that’s when It was published
I was a year old. Obviously I have no memory of this time,but what a terrific video! Love these glimpses into the past.
You captured New York in the late 1970s. I lived in the City then and loved and appreciated everyday. The city had its own pulse and its own grittiness. I regretted the day I had to move out.
What made you move out of NYC
NYC 🗽 IN THE 70'S AND 80S WERE A BLAST !! MUSIC ,FASHION AND ART. ❤🧡💛💞
And getting mugged everywhere ;)
@@rawgab4439 Well it was all apart of the experience :/. In terms of culture, those were indeed great times for nyc.
@@rawgab4439 Today’s NYC much better, instead of a mugging you lose your life.
@@Keezie27 We needed more Bernhard Goetz , dude was a hero
@@chop3625 now they robbed your phone
You can almost smell the car exhaust.
At 6.34, on the magazine rack, the Esquire magazine is dated 18th July 1978. I just googled Esquire magazine 1978 and somehow the exact issue came up first :)
The CUE Magazine featuring Faye Dunaway is July 21, 1978.
My parents (from Switzerland) spent a year in NYC in 1978 a decade before I was born, it's nice to see what the city looked like then, for them
in the 70's and 80's we had the perfect equilibrium between technology and humans...we had some but not to the level where technology takes over our life
Very true. Now you are expected to carry a cellphone everywhere and if you don't you're a weirdo.
It’s called evolution
@@TheStinkysteve no it isnt you phuking dummy
Boomers 💀
@@TheStinkysteve Backwards*
This is better than Netflix, could watch this all year.
What a wonderful era that was. The city was broke, we just put up with a major blackout and the Son of Sam, but as New Yorkers we had each other's back through thick and thin.
Yeah, but you had the Ramones
I noticed that about New Yorkers. It becomes one big small town at times
Except that during the 77 blackout, looting was everywhere. So much for that.
If that was broke to you what would you say london is 😂😂
Don't forget the garage strike!
Back when life was so much simpler!
Yes, and I like complicated.
And happier
@@patrickpellerin5144 nothing happy about the late 70s, there was a fuel crisis, getting around was tough.
@@MarkWhichMusic was better then though mate to be fair
Thanks so much for sharing this. Wow, normal people in the streets! I visited NYC for the 1st time 1986. NYC was different then and it wasn't only "better back in the day". It felt often dangerous, but normal people could live there. Streets were jumping. It was exciting and maybe even exotic?!?! It was really something (to see). I enjoyed more visits in the 90s and 2016. In 2016 at first sight everything looked so different compared to when I visited first. It was clean and proper, but at a second glance this 'clean up' had darker sides as well. NYC has become something of an open air mall of expensive brand stores. Sure a rotten Times Square was reason to complain but is the commercialized artificial disneyfied Times Square / City so much better? Some would say Yes. However I wanted to learn more and booked a personal guided tour. She told us that with a job like cashier, bookkeeper, stylist, clerk you simply cannot live in NYC or more precise Manhattan anymore. So everyone who's not a lawyer, doctor, banker, business consultant, CEO, etc.) commutes to Manhattan from oftentimes far away. On the other hand, many condos are empty because they are only 'investments' for those who can afford it. To some, it is only the 2nd or 3rd home and they spend there only a week or so per year. This just doesn't add to the 'character' of a city. And NYC had lots of it. This development is taking place in many cities around the world, but as always NYC tops it all off. I wouldn't say the 'old' NYC was 'better' I am just thinking the other extreme has its disadvantages also. Why can there only be extremes like seedy, gritty, rotten vs. super rich and expensive? A middle ground with everything in it and a place for everyone would be nice, wouldn't it? Anyways was good to have seen NYC in the 80s and even though this coverage was from the 70s I enjoyed watching and remembering.
OLIKA 9076 Wasn't this around the same time that guy was running around blasting women mostly with a 44 revolver through car windows etc in NYC ? Mr David Berkowitz ( son of Sam) 315 Pine St Yonkers !
@@chairlesnicol672 That would have been the year before, in 1977
@@devonmitchell5294Thnx! For more NYC 70's vlog stuff Nelson Sullivan's version of life during that time is available on U-,Tube! Though it's a gay version! Even his Mom participates in some film! Has the "blackout" , the meat market area covered,kinna interesting! Just gotta overlook the gay aspect !
Well said.
I was 17 in 1978, living in Ridgewood, Queens, NY! I remember the street signs being color-coded! Manhattan had black letters on a mustard-yellow background (0:14); Queens had blue letters on a whitish-gray background; Brooklyn had white letters on a black background; the Bronx had white letters on a dark blue background and Staten Island, was similar to Manhattan, but instead it was dark blue letters on a mustard-yellow background. Yes, I paid attention to details back then! hehe...
Is it me or is It such a beautiful sight not to see 1 cell phone.
Yessir I'm with you bro. Not a single cell phone in sight
People had pagers.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 not in 1978
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329nope, not in the 70’s
I love comparing prices from then to now. I love when stuff has pricetags in old videos
Wonderful sight, not one person attached to their screens
I like how you can see both the old and "new" taxicabs. It was always exciting to get an old one because they had the jump seats and you'd fight with your sister to be the one to sit on it.
I lived 47 years right across the river in Jersey City. I was 8 at this time and remember going to NyC first time and I saw Beatlemania on Broadway with my family. There was a guy laying unconscious on the sidewalk and everyone just walked around him. I was shocked as a little girl.
I recall the same thing back in the Summer of 1977. It was absolutely shocking how far the City had fallen. My Dad and I had to move my Sicilian "Nona" out of the Bronx and up to the Boston area. There were entire blocks that were literally in ruin, it reminded me of what Berlin must have looked like in the Spring of 1945. Complete depravity. NYC is a great city and I love the place. I see bad times on the horizon for our Country and pray we never go back to that. I ❤ NY!
At the winter garden... Beatle mania was great.... I saw it in 77...dayz
I was shocked as a little boy, but they called it "therapy."
@@gavinvalentino6002 Is that a song lyric?
I remember that. That guy was me.
Nowadays everyone feels so self aware of being on camera. Everything felt so candid back then
True! Because it *was* candid. Had a show called "Candid Camera".
That’s what it is ur right today I think we are almost too self aware. Too the point where it makes us subconsciously think about every thing we do instead of just doing.
Thanks for a piece of everyday life in disco era NYC
When I was kid, in the late 70s, we drove into Manhattan on occasion, but it was a fun family routine to make sure all the doors were locked on the car the second we exited the Holland Tunnel. We used to get a kick out it. It didn't matter that we were about to get out of the car and walk around the city anyway, we still did it. The city was seen as dangerous in the 70s, but I think it's actaully more dangerous now because it's life-threatening danger. Back then, regular folk didn't get killed. The worst thing was getting mugged, and it was by seasoned muggers, not crazed people randomly slashing people or pushing unaware commuters into the subway train, like today.
That's true at least back then they mugged n robbed n not kill . Now today's it's way different ppl will die
Violent crime of all kinds were significantly higher in the 1970s in New York. It is an objectively safer place today than it was then. In 1978 when this was filmed, there were 841 violent crimes per 100 000 people, in 2019 that number was 358
@@dalesedgwick858 Mostly in the drug house, not out in the public as you see now.
@@durf2753that’s not true. New York was much more dangerous all the way up to the early 90s. Safer and cleaner now.
Lmao you can’t seriously believe that nyc is more dangerous than in the 70’s. Local news is propaganda
the 70s and 90s was the best times to be alive. I grew up in the 90s and now everything sucks from music to movies to censorship.
I am a 2010's kid. Would you 'feel bad for me'?
The New York we remember and will forever look back on fondly. Cheap cabs. Great ethnic food, cheap rents.
So mellow. People moved so stresslessly back then. Might look a little less perfect here and there, but it just seems a lot nicer evenso. Makes me understand why there was much less stress back then.
We were free from cell phones and that meant free from having our attention constantly on a device. One less cause of stress!
it's sad to think that probably about half of these people have passed. pretty much anyone in this video over 35 yrs old has moved on. life is short.
I would guess the guy at 6:10 in the blue suit and hat has passed away
@@jmoon364 That's Uncle Junior!
"Sad"???
Hell no. I personally envy the fact that they have become part of the infinite energy of the Universe.
The human species has contentedly regressed into a society of ignorant morons. Humans are a sad joke. It is so blatantly, ridiculously, obviously clear that humans have embraced letting electronic devices replace once-necessary intelligence & logic with pandering entertainment & constant validation. Pitiful. Genuinely *pitiful.*
I wasn't even born in the 70's and I'm 42 years old .. LOL ..
And the young ones are now old
This was a time when Studio 54 was going strong.
And Xenon and Limelight.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 and Lone Star & CB's
@@JarodJoseph I don’t remember that one. Where was it?
@@JarodJoseph 🤣 Ok… Not my scene!
Fascinating how it somehow looks modern and historical at the same time.
People actually talking and looking at each other not a mobile phone those were the days .
Not really the kind of people you want them to look at you. Trust me
And no karens throwing a fit over someone filming 😱
That one magazine at 6:33 was from July 18 1978. I wish I could just walk around for a day in that time. I was alive but too young to remember for the most part
I’m up and down these blocks everyday making my deliveries. Footage like this is priceless…I’d be born six years later…
What I do notice is that you have a mix of people of different age groups unlike now where everyone looks like they are below 28 years old.
Really? huh
i've noticed much the same, tourists and the upper 20s early 40s six figure income single. much more diverse economically then. i actually knew poor people that lived near me at CPW. rents towards riverside off Broadway were 3 to 500$ for a 2 or 3 bed room, an older 5 story town home could be bought for less than 150 grand.
It's that way in every tech company. 90% of the workers are under 30. I often wonder what happens to people as they get into their late 30s and 40s. It's like they literally drop off the earth after 40. Where do they work? My work is basically 90% under 35 and they just fired all the people who were over 40. We live in a youth obsessed culture. I don't think old people live in NYC because they'd get mugged or killed or the rent is too much. They probably all moved out to Florida to retire. You can't live in NYC forever.
The average age of an American then in the 1970s was 28. It's gone up to 38 now in the 2020s
@@musingsofrock You think the Upper east Side is filled with 20-something year old hedge fund managers? New York has plenty of old people in upper Manhattan, Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst Brooklyn, and quieter neighborhoods.
Obviously filmed in the summer, about a month or two after this I got my first Manhattan job as a messenger, so I was spending almost my whole workday on the streets of NY. I was a high school senior. This is all around Herald Square, and I was working out of the Pan Am Building, which is at Grand Central, so not too far away. 10 blocks north and a couple of blocks east. You can tell how long ago this is when the girl at the beginning buys an Italian ice and pays for it with coins. I don't think there is a single thing you can buy in NY any more for less than a dollar.
She paid somewhere between .25 and .50 cents bc an ice cream in the early and mid-80’s was .50 cents 😅
Bike messenger? I remember seeing a new story about the insane bike messengers slaloming through NYC traffic.
@@tartgreenapple At the time, no, I was a foot messenger. Later on I became a bike messenger for a while. It's a job you can do when you're young and dumb. I don't see too many of them any more. I guess email & text messages killed that.
@@sbloome77 You probably mean 50 cents otherwise .50 dollars.
That kid the mom with the I Love NYC shirt (around 4:17) is probably exactly my age in, let's say, 1978. So many delicious details in the video, there are too many to list. Nostalgia and surprising quaintness all at once.
Cartainly brings back some memories. Those were my formative years and were an experience not soon to be forgotten. We just went out and had such fun, with something for everyone: The Lone Star, The Bottom Line and Max's were just a few of the venues I frequented (just to name a few). It's all gone now.
I saw Steppenwolf at the Bottom Line.
I can't help but hear the Taxi Driver theme when watching this...
I bet no one guessed they will be in RUclips 44 years later
New York City (1970s Version), We will Never Forget You, Old Decade 1970s. We Love You. #RIP 1970s. 😢
Wow. People seem so connected to their environment. Not glued to a device. Like they were living in the moment. When I see a family at a restaurant on their phones and their kid has an iPad it makes me feel a certain way.
"connected to their environment" that's it!
I am interested in how the youth who were born into this new environment perceive older environments like this and how they actually perceive the newer environment once they get a new baseline to judge it against
@@johnm4581 I was right in the middle of it. I grew up with computers, gaming consoles, home phones ect.. What did it is the iPhone. That combined with social media absolutely just hypnotized everyone. Before the iPhone we would just play an hour or 2 on a video game but then we'd be right outside doing kid stuff. The first thing we would do on a snow day was phone up every friend in the neighborhoods home and we'd meet up. Done. Day planned no distractions. Around 2011-2012 is when I noticed everyone's head was always down. Even at restaurants with family. Kind of destroyed alot. People don't shop at stores as often, it's all delivery. Dating is all Apps with fake names and expectations. If I could go back 20+ years I would. It would feel alien.
I've never seen people "glued" to their phones in restaurants. People know its a place to socialise. Maybe little kids would do that if they had no manners yet but this boomer pov is so skewed and overexaggerated.
@@pipp_988 no it's not, and I'm far from a boomer. I see couples, families etc with their heads all buried in their phones while at restaurant tables on a regular. Guess you must be one of the culprits if that insults you
The clock shown around 2:40 has more character than what they got today. It was a smaller version of the clock that was mounted within the EPOK between summer/fall 1965 and early 1976 when Bulova Accutron advertised there. Wonder how small this was - 1.5" column and row spacing?
In any event, this clock lasted from 1969 (the year the construction of One Penn Plaza was prepared and begun, and the accompanying buildings on the edge of each end of the block first opened) until 2010 when Tourneau (originally M. Wexler & Sons) moved out and Swarovski moved in and replaced this with the characterless LED version we see today (and is now hardly working).
Cars all had different styles. So nice. Today they’re all cookie cutter cars, just different colors
I know, it creeps me out how everything now is so the same no variety or uniqueness about anything hardly. Nothing seems even real anymore.
@@gabriellerenick1298 read Orwells book 1984. It lays it all out. Very good book
@@johnburrows1179 I haven't read it but I do know the book and the theme of it. I agree.
Nothing stopping you from buying an old car, is there?
so true 👍
When dignity was still a thing.
Dignity??
NYC in 1978 was Sh$%%hole
@@musingsofrock You're just bitter you aren't young anymore
Not really
lmfao what a moron
@@mahzorimipod like I said: "when dignity was a thing"
This is a treasure, a word I chose carefully. Its the kind of thing Stanley Kubrick would view from his exile in England to capture the contemporary time that he might be trying to meticulously replicate in a film. He did that with "Eyes Wide Shut" in the late 1990s, but I think of a current director who strives for accuracy reviewing this film carefully with all the subtle details. Each frame of this video is a rich painting.
Back when New York City had character and was alive.
newsflash---I don't know where you're from but New York always had character and is alive --24 hours a day----7 days a week even 365 days a year...!
@@williamlacentra2808 I disagree. New York lost its character in the 90s when only the rich became the only ones who could afford to live there.
@@jfennell3954
Like hell. Do you really believe that the UES is the only area in the City? There are people of all economic backgrounds
@@jfennell3954 geez, if your idea of character is based off the wealth of one person than no wonder why you think the way you do. such a restrictive way of thinking…
Travis thinks it's disgusting
I remember it like it was yesterday! 😊 I'm still working in NYC today.
The boombox radios that people would buy to hear music.
Great footage. Love the "old" nyc. Thank you for posting this!
@1:03 See how the police officer and the civilian greet each other and when the officer seems to look back at the camera guy he did not come up to him and demand I.D. and harass the guy. This is how it used to be.
If the civilian was darker he would’ve gotten beat
The officer is looking for cars to ticket.
@@joshdaboss2365 Dat man waz raciss.
Lived there from '78 to '83.
Good memories.
Oh to be back in the 1970s, better than today believe me...I am from the UK...
Thank you so much ! NYC fascinates me and I love and miss the 70s !
Glad you enjoyed it
This was the first New York my young eyes saw as an infant citizen of Flushing, Queens. This first portion of my life took in so many sights and sounds that I'm now seeing again rt+ years later.
These time period movies of New York City are really great!!!
This, as I lived through it all, working there every day, commuting to and from Manhattan to the Bronx.
Yellow cabs were all over NYC.
Now we have Uber and Lyft
There are still massive numbers of yellow cabs in midtown, really. No Checkers though.
I remember the pollution from the cars, taxis and buses....and smokers everywhere. The air during the summer was completely unbearable.
A time where taxi drivers felt secure and did not have to compete with ride shares like Uber
They just had to worry about getting robbed at gun point if they ventured too far north in Manhattan.
Uber across the world should be got rid of.
Ask Travis what he thinks
Used to work for the city of New York at that time. Liked it much better back then. Loved eating Kanish, real Italian pizza and Sabrett hot dogs vendors used to sell. Two slices of pizza and a coke only cost me $1.75.
it feels like an entirely different universe
In Autumn of 1977, 19 year old, Madonna Louise Ciccone, left her home state of Michigan and moved to New York City in pursuit of a career in Dance. Two years later she developed an interest in music; learned how to play percussion, keyboard, and guitar, and in the following years would eventually become the greatest selling female musical recording artist in history. Watching this nostalgic footage makes me ponder what life must have been like for her in the early days; basically living hand to mouth at times. She was determined, talented, and had an undeniable drive and belief in herself, but sometimes it's not enough. So many artists from that time are now long gone, but somehow she survived. Nothing but mad respect for her.
no cellphone, no internet just real world
I am so glad I was born before the onset of mobile phones etc...not hypnotised by them today at nearly 60...
l agree with u. this is more better. Technology controls u.
I wish I could visit.....ppl just seem so much more aware and in the moment....I remember that feeling pre social media....
In the 70's most of the business people were in the 50 age bracket then 80's came along and the 29 year old Yuppies were everywhere .
What I wouldn't give to see some of those old punk bands in their prime during this era.
Max's Kansas City!
@@Jamaicafunk The Screamers. Sex Pistols. The Cramps. X. The list goes on and on.
@@homelessjesse9453 I was an art student at the School of Visual Arts at the time. One of my buds who gigged there frequently was in a band called 'The Mad'!
New York was a great place to live or visit until around the late 90s. Then it began a steep decline. Now it looks like an obscenely expensive sanitized dump.
I visited back in Late Dec 2019/Early Jan 2020. Spent most of my time in South Bronx around Mount Eden and down south in Harlem, Manhattan. Most of the architecture in these vids have been preserved quite well and they're a lot safer than they used to be back in the 70s/80s. I would gladly move to Mount Eden if I could
@@tonygabashvili8357 You can! All you have to do is win the lottery and then you can afford to move back! 🙂
@@manolokonosko2868 It's weird to me that people complain about New York being expensive. Do you complain that Lamborghinis are more expensive than a 2002 Prius? Well New York is the Lamborghini of cities, it's the best of the best of course there's gonna be competition to live there
@@tonygabashvili8357 I never said it was cheap, then again, in certain places it sure was, otherwise NYC wouldn't have had any artists. Lots of these people lived in cheap lofts and apartments while they perfected their craft. Today, you need to earn the cost of one of your "Lamborghinis" in order to live decently. Where's the next "Blondie" or "Lou Reed"coming out of NYC? Your NYC of today is a piece of shit stinking of pot and dead rats, with a high price tag. Like a Lamborghini or a Ferrari... price is no guarantee of quality.
@@tonygabashvili8357 LOL, THE BEST? HAHAHA
way better than 2022, that is for sure.
This is one of the best of this genre that I have seen.
This country was so much freer, happier, healthier, simpler and better back then than today. There wasn't anywhere nearly as much economic and political polarization between the haves and have nots and people in general weren't the arrogant, pretentious, superficial and materialistic snobs they are today. Granted, there have always been jerks in this world, but never as many comprising the overwhelming majority of the population as is the case today in America.
I'm 47 and in England but somehow everyone can get nostalgic about NYC as it featured so heavily in movies and popular culture. For me, it's Scorcese's Mean Streets & the French Connection. And right now I'm listening to Patti Smith's Just Kids auto-biography. I makes me yearn for a time and place that was never mine and for which the reality was surely very different.
Thanks for the upload. It took me away from my cold East London flat for a while 😁
Good book, enjoy
Love this trip back in time. I was born and raised in NYC and would have been about the same age as that girl buying the ices - 13. I'm 58 now how time passes. Oh, I miss those days
Videos like this remind me how fleeting life and time is. One day you’re walking down the street in New York, the next 45-years have passed. I would have loved to have lived then. Smartphone and internet free.
Not a fat person in sight. at 13 i roamed the city from central park west to mid town and the east side no problem. i think that cherry Italian ice was 50 cents, my father would scream robbery when they tried 75.
In case you wanted to know - this is July 18 1978.
I remember steak and brew! I went to NYC many times as a teenager and thru my 40's. A hop, skip, and a jump on the train from CT. Live in Oklahoma now. Many great memories of the best city I know.
I was born in 1979. This makes me feel so old and gone. Makes me kinda sad but happy too.
That policeman at 00:51 is epic, he exudes authority :)
Gained from enjoying the power to commit abuse freely.
@@ColtraneTaylor
Don't slander
@@jimwerther FO, Nazi.
@@ColtraneTaylor
Lol! Thanks, I needed a good laugh.
He's touching all the cars. At the time, that was the only way you could prove you came into contact with that vehicle in case you were murdered on the job!
Thank you so much for the memories.
The Steak and Brew Burger - I remember that. I ate at one on my High School class trip in 1982. Burger and a Bud.
They must have just started putting in new subway information at entrances. I remember seeing an original, "Interborough Subway" placard at 33rd St. and 7th Ave. back in '78.
OMG THAT WAS GREAT IT TOOK ME BACK TO A BETTER TIME FOR ME THANKS
There is so much diversity in this video, so much beautiful little things that have made New York so special. When I was a kid I used to travel to South Korea with my parents in business purposes. I remember Seul back then was such a thriving, prospering place as New York on this footage. Now we live in whole different world... Everything is artificial, synthetic, copy of a copy...
Wow I was born 1978 in Brooklyn, Ny . I will be 45 in September and to see what the city look like the year I was born and how much it has changed. Thank you for this footage .
Takes me back to my childhood growing up in the city. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Tad's Steaks. Salad, Shoe Leather, Onion Ring, Baked Potato, Iced Tea.
I used to love buying the newspaper in the morning reading from page to page
Amazing how much the world has changed since then
Nothing new under the sun, just technology changed us.
When I was little in the 70s and 80s, I always dreamed of seeing a busy street in a capitalist country, with side advertising banners, with neon advertising.. for me, as a resident of the USSR, it was incredible!!! Now in large cities I always walk along the main street with advertisements, I don't know what it means, a memory or I want to go back to childhood??? I'm 50 years old
Nostalgia for what I wasn't around to see.
Love footage like this. Back in the day when there was no cell phones, social media, video games, and internet. Everyone had to go outside.
And during rainy days, everyone probably just exercise inside or read books