Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Manhattan 1939 -- in Kodachrome!

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Those dinosaurs were real neat. I wonder whether they influenced the painter who created the Age of Reptiles mural in the Yale Peabody museum, though I think it was painted in the 1940s. I had a poster of the mural on my wall as a teenager.

Thanks to you I was able to locate this which is very interesting.
I paint with oils on my spare time.
 

ChiTownScion

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,247
Location
The Great Pacific Northwest
The Queen Mary 2 is the last scheduled transatlantic liner. Service is limited to the summer months, but it remains the last ocean liner afloat.

Well, a bit beyond summer, but not by a lot. In 2018, the first westbound transatlantic crossing is May 19, and the last (same direction) is December 15. The ship is roughly three times the size of RMS Titanic as to tonnage, and even the most modest inside stateroom puts the ships of a century ago to shame. It's a remarkable ship.

That said, the QM2 is not a steamship, and it doesn't even have a rudder: diesels and turbines power electrical generators that power four propulsion pods: two fixed and two azimuthing. She can rotate on her own axis and needs no tugs to berth.

I could never see myself taking a cruise ship around the Caribbean, on a ship packed like a cattle boat where "elegant night" means putting on a polyester vest with non- matching clip on tie. But transatlantic on a Cunard Queen? That's another story. Formal nights with full black tie just seems like something one should be mandated to do aboard a ship- at least thrice each crossing. Some things are meant to be.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
Well, a bit beyond summer, but not by a lot. In 2018, the first westbound transatlantic crossing is May 19, and the last (same direction) is December 15. The ship is roughly three times the size of RMS Titanic as to tonnage, and even the most modest inside stateroom puts the ships of a century ago to shame. It's a remarkable ship.

That said, the QM2 is not a steamship, and it doesn't even have a rudder: diesels and turbines power electrical generators that power four propulsion pods: two fixed and two azimuthing. She can rotate on her own axis and needs no tugs to berth.

I could never see myself taking a cruise ship around the Caribbean, on a ship packed like a cattle boat where "elegant night" means putting on a polyester vest with non- matching clip on tie. But transatlantic on a Cunard Queen? That's another story. Formal nights with full black tie just seems like something one should be mandated to do aboard a ship- at least thrice each crossing. Some things are meant to be.

I sailed her maiden voyage in January 2004 with my father. When I get a chance, I will post a few pics!
 

Big Band

New in Town
Messages
1
Location
New York
That's the SS Normandie at the end. She arrived on August 28, 1939 on her last arrival, never to sail again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,771
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
More New York Kodachrome from 1939 -- not Manhattan, but Grover Whalen's Mad Meadow is close enough by subway. An impromptu dance to the music of Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. The original 16mm footage has no soundtrack, but the You Toober responsible for the post has added some appropriate Casa Loma recordings. That's Pee Wee Hunt at the mic at the start of the piece with the muted trombone, which you don't hear on the soundtrack. I suspect given Hunt's prominence there that the number he's playing is the band's theme song, "Smoke Rings," and the cameraman does a quick cut and starts up again after the band switches to a hot number.

Note that most the gators seem to be high school girls, aside from the occasional random ickies who don't seem to be hep to the jive.

 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
College Point,NY.

Lizzie, the previous '39 footage you posted brought me here.

I have no information to provide except
that opening music that was added reminds me of a Hal Roach comedy.
I kinda expect Laurel & Hardy to appear.

I like the footage.
It's like a "Day in the Life"...

I love your imput.
You are a gem.
Thank you for sharing.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
109,329
Messages
3,079,005
Members
54,243
Latest member
seeldoger47
Top