Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving on Main Street, 1969

22 comments:

Babs said...

WOOWWWW!

Make my DAY!

I did not see this parade, but I used to regularly go to Main Street with family and friends - we would meet "under the clock".

Anonymous said...

Sigh, the streets were so clean and uncrowded. Few chains, lots of small businesses, lots of low-rise buildings and light.

I loved seeing Adler Shoes, because, "With Adler Shoes, you are never alone because Old Man Adler stands behind every shoe he sells."

Amazing, I can remember that when I can't recall a phone number that the operator just gave me 5 seconds ago.

Anonymous said...

No that can't be Main Street.... All the storefront signs are in english and I can actually read them.

Anonymous said...

If you walk past the Queens Crossing (on 37th avenue) inside the bank they have a picture of Main St probably circa 1950 - 1960.

Every next wave of immigrant destroys NYC more and more. The Native first, the Dutch, the English,germans,irish,italians,jews etc... It only gets worse as time goes.

Anonymous said...

THAT was MAIN STREET!?!?!

Holy crap!

Anonymous said...

After not getting an adequate response to my inquiry from a surly unintelligible Chinese clerk in the Flushing post office last week...I promptly asked her supervisor for an English translator!

Melly X-mas!

Anonymous said...

those days are gone forever. the current inhabitants of that area dont give a shit about anything but themselves.

Flushing Friend said...

Sigh. Now that's what I'm talking about! Thank you for posting the video.

Anonymous said...

I'm busy building my fortune cookie balloon to fly over the new Main Street parade next year.

When you pull the rope to open the cookie a message unfurls:

"TDC wantee Willets Point"!

ew-3 said...

Thanks for posting this.
Left NYC in 82 and I still remember big parts of the way it was on the film. Have no desire to see it again; have to settle for google earth.
Be intersting if someone could shoot a video of that intersection today.

georgetheatheist said...

Amazing. A patriotic display during the height of the Vietnam War. Replete with go-go dancers and the Schaefer beer float. Didn't I read somewhere once that Ackerman and/or Schenkler led an anti-war protest on Main Street by making believe they were "shot". They then lay down in the street and stopped or attempted to stop traffic?

Unknown said...

UNBELIEVEABLE
Only 40 years ago but it seems like this video was shot on another planet.

Anonymous said...

Didn't I read somewhere once that Ackerman and/or Schenkler led an anti-war protest on Main Street by making believe they were "shot". They then lay down in the street and stopped or attempted to stop traffic?

I missed that. Tell them to try it again.

Michael Valčić said...

Wow, it's totally unrecognizable.

Babs said...

Michael said...
"ow, it's totally unrecognizable."

we probably are too. . . . . . :)

Anonymous said...

This video has been on youtube for a LONG time.

That picture inside the QUeens crossing building is probably the 1920's - 1930's when Anglosaxons and Germans still lived in the area. After the 30's everything went down hill.

It's funny, the only people who have prestigious last names eg: Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Monroe are black people.

Cmon someone seriously tell me the last time you saw a white person with a last name like that? It's all a bunch of Kennedys, Steinmanbergs and Ciprianis.

Anonymous said...

WOW saw this video on youtube on the RKO KEith's in Flushing. Can't believe what happened to the inside of that place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7KKlprF-ow

Anonymous said...

Nice films. Unfortunately, not only has Flushing been ravaged by time, but not doubt all of the sweet poonie so lovingly filmed by the cameraman has become quite parched as well....

Anonymous said...

Incredible! Truly a vanished era.

Anonymous said...

Anybody got any films of Flushing Parades from 1929, 40 years before all the working class sons of immigrants became so high and mighty in 1969.

Queens Crapper said...

They were immigrants back then, too. They spoke English and had their store signs in English as well!

Klink Cannoli said...

As a child, I remember Flushing being very much like that up until maybe the late seventies, early eighties. Bruce Lee films at the RKO with the family were among the fond memories. Oh, the pink ladies parlor!

Neat collection of videos brought to you by the La Guardia and Wagner archives.
http://www.youtube.com/user/lagarchivist

Trolleys running along Northern Blvd. through various neighborhoods. 1930s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_JYamtd6Cc

Trolley ROWs and future sites for LIE. 1930s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s449jDBcyWM

College Point and Long Island home movie. 1931
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBD7X2z40rU&NR=1

College Point 1940 home movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P007re8_iyY