Videos of the Week: Then & Now rides on Fifth Avenue New York (1937 & 2020)
Harold Mermel and Bill Dolan have forwarded an amazing 11-minute film of a ride up Fifth Avenue around 1937.
The 1937 film begins just north of the Plaza Hotel and heads north ending south of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In comparison, a 2020 video is also posted of an automobile heading south on Fifth Avenue during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in April 2020. The absence of traffic and pedestrians is striking.
Please post any observations in the Comments section. Can you spot any unique automobiles?
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Comments
So neat to be able to look back in time. Hoping that someone filmed their drive on the LIMP? THAT would be really neat!
Surprise to see many mid and late thirties Packard’s park on Fifth Ave. a popular car.
Also like those early and mid thirties luxury chauffeur driven towncars in excellent condition, must like Howard’s ‘37 Chrysler Imperial Towncar, very elegant! Fifth Ave. clean and well paved!
Remarkable films! I was curious regarding the 2020 film if he/she hit any red lights. There is a way to have all green if you drive a certain speed- not too fast, not too slow- and of course only when there is no congestion. I watched the full 8+ minutes and alas the driver hit three red lights (I think the first at 34th St ?). Perhaps my methodology is not 100% perfect! ????
The one thing that struck me almost instantly about the 1930’s video is the lack of debris, garbage or litter. The streets and gutters were very clean. Guess NYC in the 30’s was a clean town.
Great video and restoration. The camera car was followed at a distance to allow a wide open view while filming up 5th Ave. Three cameras mounted on the trunk was getting much attention. Great time machine video! Thanks for posting.
Seems that looking at any old time NYC, what jumps out is how clean the city was. Bill G. beat me to the punch. I’m a trolley buff and one of the dvds I have is “The Last Trolleys in NYC” They were in the middle fifties. Same observation about the streets (of Brooklyn Your video is great…a great remember when
Episode three of the new PBS Masterpiece Theater series called “Atlantic Crossing” was on last night. Set during WWII, it’s about the Nazi invasion of Sweden and the escape of the royal family. FDR arranges for the Princess and her children to cross the Atlantic; they arrive in NY and as they ride in a car in the city some of the 1937 film that Howard shared is used in the TV production. I perked up seeing it the footage! The show can be streamed on line.
invasion of Norway
Mark Schaier beat me to the punch when he mentioned the preponderance of Packards in the 1937 video. I noticed that as well. Packard was a luxury marque. I wonder if that speaks to the relative wealth of New Yorkers, Great Depression notwithstanding, while rural folks drove Fords.
Yes, thank you. I realized my mistake after I wrote my comment in a hurry this morning. Didn’t get back to it but knew the car aficionado world has smart people every ready to correct things ????????
Very enjoyable to watch and look closely, you can really see how the styling of the cars was changing from the early 1930’s.
To Al Prete and all, my mentioning of the many Packard’s parked along 5th Ave. Those Packard’s from the mid to late 30s were the 120 series model, the affordable Packard in the mid price market introduce in 1935, that save the company during the depresssion but tarnish THE PACKARD image.