Movies 'Til Dawn Blog

PARK AVENUE, 1951

The YouTube artist known as NASS has once again worked his/her/they’s magic on some rare footage of New York City. This time we are on Park Avenue in 1951 (the newest car seen on the street is a ’51 Oldsmobile, which is how the date was arrived at). By slowing

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JAMES CAGNEY–YIDDISH ACTOR?

Apropos of yesterday’s post featuring the 1926 song hit ‘Yiddishe Charleston’, here’s a clip from a Warner Brothers/First National movie from 1932 called ‘Taxi’. In this famous scene, James Cagney speaks fluent Yiddish with a Jewish man who seems to be in some sort of trouble with an Irish cop.

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W.C. FIELDS ‘THE DENTIST’–BROADWAY V. HOLLYWOOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A11EWc2_WJQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qYmFXWtdo8 Yesterday I posted about the amazing George Mann home movie footage of Broadway in the late 1920s. Mann performed in a number of Earl Carroll reviews during that decade and in 1928 he was part of the seventh edition of ‘Earl Carroll’s Vanities’ along with W.C. Fields. Although Fields

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EARL CARROLL’S SKETCHBOOK (1929)

Here is some extraordinarily rare and truly one-of-a-kind footage shot from the backstage wings of the 44th Street Theater in January, 1930. It shows us a few moments of a variety show in-progress called ‘Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook’, which starred Eddie Cantor, Patsy Kelly, William Demerest and a dance team called

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PENNSYLVANIA STATION, NEW YORK CITY, 6/12/45

The above reel shows some of the most beautiful shots ever made of the late, great Penn Station. It was apparently shot (according to the Internet Archive where it was found listed under ‘dailies’ for films–i.e. uncut footage) for a movie called ‘Young Widow’ starring Jane Russell, released in 1946.

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DON RICKLES ON LOCAL NYC TV

What’s funnier than Don Rickles on a serious roll in front of a large audience? I would venture that Rickles on a serious roll on a local TV show with no live audience but with the crew and co-anchors becoming disabled by laughter is even better. Here he is on

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FIFTH AVENUE, 1937

This video is likely to be the closest thing we’ll ever have to a time machine thanks to a very skillful history buff and Youtube artist who calls themselves NASS. The footage shows three views of Fifth Avenue from the back of a moving vehicle. Each view runs from 60th

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THE VILLAGE IN THE BELL BOTTOM ERA

This week we’ve seen views of Greenwich Village in the 1940s, early 60s and late 60s verging on the 70s. Now we have a minute of deep 70s village at hand. In some ways this clip is so period-perfect that it doesn’t feel real–more like an expensively re-produced set (complete

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GREENWICH VILLAGE, 1940s EDITION

Our Greenwich Village history week continues with this very nice one minute clip of color footage of the Village in the 1940s. We are in three locations–Washington Square North, MacDougal Alley and Eighth Street which, as you’ll see in this footage, was once lined with artists peddling their wares. (It’s

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A VILLAGE CALLED GREENWICH–A VIEW FROM THE LATE 60s

This is a real find–a lovely ten or so minute travelogue style journey around Greenwich Village featuring lots of the fashion of the time and plenty of views of streets and buildings that are all pretty much still there. From the look of things I think we’re in 1968–a close

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