Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Chrysler Still Stands





The image above is titled at this site as "Shadows on the Avenue, c. 1930"
meaning Fifth Avenue. A commentator on the site writes:
I know you say circa 1930 but I can date the image almost exactly;

The double decker bus (right side of frame traveling away) is a 1936 Yellow Coach Model 735 operating for the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, and judging by the latest cars I would say the image is about 1937 vintage.

The two Fifth Avenue Coach buses to the left of the frame heading at us are from the mid twenties.
Notice how well-dressed all the pedestrians are, both men and women with hats, long coats and some with fur trims.

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If I were to be re-born (reincarnated?) at any period, it would be during the late 1920s and 1930s. The Art Deco period is really my period.

Recently, I saw this photo (posted above) of the Art Deco Chrysler Building (which was completed in 1931) in New York City with some modern pedestrians below it. What a blemish! What would the original architects and builders of New York have thought at such ugliness! Well, at least they're spared that.

Above are some gowns from the 1930 (admittedly they are ball gowns, and no one would have worn them in the streets in daylight) but they capture the style, confidence and sense of aesthetics that people still had only half a century ago. We have lost a lot in such a short period.

The photo below that is of a 1930s street scene with pedestrians.

I was in New York during a brief, busy visit last December. I rushed downtown to have a quick peek at the Chrysler as I ran to my commitments. There was a lot of high rise construction going on in the city, with a few new glass towers I hadn't seen before. At least the Chrysler still stands, and outshines any of the new additions.