Here’s a curious piece of footage shot in the old Penn Station circa 1945. It appears to have been photographed as background footage for a very forgotten Jane Russell vehicle called ‘Young Widow’. Like so many other bits of motion picture ephemera, its real value isn’t for the reasons that it was shot but as a historical documenting of a past era–in this case we get a look at alost architectural masterpiece. It’s clear that the action is real, not rehearsed, as we see a number of dunderheads stop walking to take a good long look into the camera lens, thereby insuring they won’t be in the movie. At the center of this is a woman standing very still, looking somehow lost and rather unsure of her purpose. It’s oddly haunting and the several times I’ve watched this I’ve found myself trying to make up stories to give her; she’s waiting for her soldier boyfriend but he’s not showing. Or a married man who she’s having an affair with is waiting for her on a train that will take them off to another location, only she can’t bring herself to go to the train. How about this one; she’s got some sort of memory issue–a ‘complex’ as they used to call psychological problems–and the train station and passing crowds have put her in a trance in which she’s forgotten who she is. Or just look at the beautiful old station and forget about her. That makes her appeaerance even sadder though…