NYC 1979. Guess the location and time of day, and win a prize!

First person to guess the location and time of day, wins a cool prize! Hints: There is a sign in the shadows on the left that says, " _ _mbels" and there is a sign in the sun on the right that says, "Willoughby's". Good luck!

(NOT NYC!) See post for hints!

kelowna, Canada

i dont know where it is but i love the photo

Ahhhh...I used to work right around the corner at Macy's (yes, in 1979!) The exact location is West 32nd St. between 7th and 6th Avenues...the picture is looking East towards 6th Ave. I remember when this was the place to go for cameras...Willoughby's, Olden on 6th. Don't know if those were the days or not, but I remember that time well! Nice photo, by the way! I'll have to take a look at your others...and maybe dig up some of mine from that period...although I was using an old Minolta 110 at the time. Great camera that was!

 

Andrew

Go Andrew! Right on.

 

E-mail me your address and I'll get your prize out right away!

 

I remember all those camera stores, it was fun meeting new friends and going around from shop to shop to buy new and used stuff.

 

There was a pizza place somewhere on 32nd st. on the right of the photo that had the greatest pizza!

 

And the church on the right, I always felt peace just walking by the place, I would see old people put money into a box outside the door. I know that church does great charity work, but I think that there was a murder there a few years ago.

 

I didn't know if anyone would remember Gimbels, but then I remembered the phrase that was popular, "Does Macy's tell Gimbels'?"

 

We used to invade the neighborhood on a certain day at the end of the month to dumpster dive at Macy's and Gimbels' for the discarded window display materials, which we would drag down to the lower east side to decorate our friend's apartments.

 

Anyway, congrats, e-mail me.

 

-John G.

 

 

 

What was the name of that camera store on the East side of the street (it was maybe a block or so north of where Olden's was), it was near a Stetson Hat store as I recall. It was like one big junkshop. I thought I could remember the name and now I can't. Getting old stinks...

Olden Camera was between 7th and B'way, between 31st and 32nd. You could enter on B'way or 7th, and it would almost be in sight in this photo. Regarding a big 'junk shop' I can only think of Cass Carr's place, on 27th St., next to Fashion Institute. Up on the fifth floor, it was floor to ceiling photo junk. Military surplus, etc. When I was opening my first studio, I went up there with my partner and picked out a whole mess of boom arms, stands, steel sinks, and an 8X10 Deardorf. I told him to price it out, wrap it up, and that I'd come back next week to pick it up. I walked out of there real happy, but my partner was less amused. He said it was a waste of time. I asked him what he meant. He stated that this guy Cass Carr was going to sell NOTHING- that he LIKED to be surrounded by all this junk. He was right, Cass kept putting me off until I gave up. I sometimes feel like going up there to see if he is still sitting in those big piles of junk.

 

As a further aside, if anyone is listening, about two weeks after I posted this pic, and was reminded of the church, I was attending my Grandmother's funeral (ninety eight years old, bless her soul, went peacefully) and the person giving the eulogy mentioned that she often attended service at this church. I could have run into her, and if I had been smoking a cigarette, all hell would have broken loose. Fortunately, with 8+ million people, the odds of running into someone you know is so remote. That's what makes it such a blast when you do!

Nope, different store, the one I'm remembering was across from Macy's (or was it Gimbal's?), a ground floor storefront. I remember walking in, and being near the counters (on my left), with the store's "showroom" (it was more like the "Pushcart" store if you remember that) spreading off to the right. I'm pretty sure I remember a Stetson Hats store being a door or two down (or up) from the camera store.

 

As to the odds of running into someone you know, I can't recall a single time I ran into anyone I knew while riding the subway, for that matter I don't think I ever saw the same face twice on the trains. Amazing number of people crammed into a few square miles, boggles the mind.

The Stetson Hats is ringing a bell, that's kind of unforgetable in NYC, where on one hand, no one wears Stetson hats- remember Ratso's comments to (John Voight) in Midnight Cowboy?- but where you can get anything in the world.

 

As far as meeting people, yeah, you do recognize people, and even get to know the neighborhood, but there is a definite vibe of possibilities in a place where you can be whatever you will like to be. Very exciting. (see Saturday Night Fever)Also contibutes to the dizzying array of contrasting imagery and people that makes NYC the most photogenic city in the world!

 

And Subways- I used to take the Subways from the thirties downtown at the time that the local Deaf Children's School let out. The subway car would be populated with all these silent children excitedly pushing and signing to each other. Another great photo op left in memory only!

Hmm, I was pretty sure I'd rated this, but maybe I didn't. Well, I did now.

 

I saw your message in my thread on evaporating threads that just evaporated. (The system sent me the thread when it evaporated, somehow I didn't see your post prior to that, even though I tried to mark it to send me updates.)

 

Do you think that store I was thinking of was "Camera Barn"? It popped into my mind in a convoluted way -- I was thinking about what I might do with my barn (a big red barn perhaps a century old), and I thought hmmm, I could finish off the interior and put in a classic (used) camera shop (the dog returneth to his vomit), and the obvious name for it seemed to be "Camera Barn", but as soon as I thought that name, I remembered hearing it somewhere else. After cogitating for a couple of minutes, I recalled this thread, and said Ahah! -- and then tried to *find* the thread so that I could post my recollection.

And Subways- I used to take the Subways from the thirties downtown at the time that the local Deaf Children's School let out. The subway car would be populated with all these silent children excitedly pushing and signing to each other. Another great photo op left in memory only!

Ever see the guy with no legs who scooted down the subway cars on a tiny home-made rig? Seemed like I saw him at least once a week (proving that I was wrong when I said I never saw the same person twice!)

All this remenising is making me sick! Great picture though.