Now that's what they used to call "a tall drink of water". The Fang's contribution this week looks like it was taken in New York's Times Square, sometime in the fifties, although it's hard to pinpoint an exact year. At first glance I got very excited, I thought it might be taken in front of Hubert's Museum, a famous freakshow/peep show/sleazpit that stood on 42nd St. between Broadway and Eighth Ave. (Diane Arbus hung around there and took some of her most famous freak images in the place, some of her pics turned up at an estate auction a few years back and are the subject of the book Hubert's Freaks by Gregory Gibson). Alas, it doesn't look like the front of Hubert's (which later became Peepland) to me, it's too narrow. Can anyone identify the theater and /or the tall guy? Not that I'm having any luck at all in gathering information this way ....still, it's a great photo. Take a look at the white gal in the far right side of the frame and the look on her face, priceless!
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12 comments:
Thanks for another found photo from The Fang, always a highlight of your blog. I've been curious about Hubert's, having heard about it when I lived in Manhattan and reminded later by Buster Poindexter's song, "Nueva Broadway," which commemorates Hubert's in one of its verses.
My wife thinks the clothes tag this as WWII and the maequee seems to be advertising a James Cagney movie..great photo
"My wife thinks the clothes tag this as WWII and the maequee seems to be advertising a James Cagney movie"
She's probably right, I'm terrible w/fashion dating....
It's Jean Cagney in "Queen of the Mob". Released in 1940.
just on the fashion. im always blown way with how damn well people dressed back then, and how much better quality the clothes were too.
come to think of it, most things were better quality back then. i guess thats why i dont buy anything new anymore. it'll be broken in a few years anyway.
This photobucket has some nice old pictures of times square thearters.
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/42ndStreetMemories/?action=view¤t=RKO231925front.jpg
Since cagney was a warners star and the theaters were all wholely owned by the studios back then. It might be a warners owned studio. The entrance looks distinctive cause of the arch and square light frames. In shape it reminds me of the Paramount on Broadway and 44th?
But the fortune teller place next to it is wacky
The arched marquee was not uncommon at one time. One of the most famous is the old Madison Square Garden from the '20's to the '60's. The "Oriental Tea Room" next door with the flowerpots on the second floor seems VERY un-Times Squarish to me. Mr. Hound's reference to Times Square might just have us all barking up the wrong tree. I agree that this pic is from the '40's - the ladies' dresses, dos, and shoes all point to that decade.
I think it may be the Warner's Theater that was once at 1644 Broadway. The "Jazz Singer" premiered there Oct 6, 1927.
Queen of the Mob - Release date: 28 June 1940. Paramount Picture not Warner. Jean Cagney was signed to Paramount.
In background of picture - Bing to left of left woman - Bing had a movie - Rhythm on the River - Paramount Aug 23 release. He did not tour in 1940.
The building does not conform to either Time Square Paramount or Brooklyn Paramount. (this is due to the Oriental Tea Room next door).
If you look at windows of Oriental Tea Room you can see reflection of the other side of the street it does not look like a wide street and there is another sign you can see but is not clear as to what it is.
Under the window of the Oriental Tea room is a sign with a arrow for Mrs. Stovers Bungalow Candies (later Russell Stovers). The company only had did not have a lot of stores only 39 by 1969 and was located early on in Kansas City perhaps this is there or in the Midwest?
I can't agree with the identification of the Cagney picture, which seems to have the word "From" in the title. But the B-picture is Persons in Hiding, from a book by J. Edgar Hoover. That was released Feb. 10, 1939. The A-picture could be "Vacation from Love" from 1938.
The name of that giant is Lock Martin. He is best known for playing the robot Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Before that he was a doorman at the Grauman's Chinese Theater.
Here is more information:
http://www.thetallestman.com/lockmartin.htm
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