Hollywood Outtakes: 50th Street and 8th Avenue, Manhattan, June 1945

These scenes were taken in June 1945 for the movie YOUNG WIDOW, one of Jane Russell's first films. In an early scene in the movie, there's a taxi ride from the piers on the west side of Manhattan downtown to Pennsylvania Station. The ride goes crosstown on 50th Street, then turns south onto Eighth Avenue. After several U-turns, the ride ends at 34th Street.
0:03 Driving south under the Miller (West Side) Highway, then turning east onto 50th Street.
0:49 Eleventh Avenue, sometimes referred to "Death Avenue", owing to the New York Central railroad tracks running down the middle. The tracks had been relocated a number of years earlier.
That's the Horn and Hardart office and bakery at 600 West 50th. Horn & Hardart restaurants, cafeterias and Automats, very popular at the time, started to disappear in the 1960's.
0:58 The church here, then known at Saints Cyril and Methodius, served the Croatian community. It's still standing in 2022 and is now the Saints Kyril and Metodi Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocesan Cathedral.
1:17 Crossing over the New York Central's West Side Line.
1:27 Tenth Avenue. Streetcars still run down the middle, though they will be replaced by buses by the following year.
2:01 Ninth Avenue. There used to be a station on the Ninth Avenue El here.
The Cushman bakery on the corner was one of over 100 in the city, gleaming white art-deco stores designed by Raymond Loewy. They all closed in 1964.
2:40 Old Madison Square Garden is on the left, along with Iceland, a skating rink where the New York Rangers used to practice. In a couple of days, Rocky Graziano will take on Red Cochrane here at the Garden and will KO him in the tenth round.
Now we're headed south on Eighth Avenue. Like most of the avenues in Manhattan, traffic is two-way.
Then as now, there are plenty of jaywalkers, red-light runners and double parkers.
3:54 On the left is the Hotel Lincoln, later known as the Manhattan Hotel, the Royal Manhattan, the Milford Plaza, the Milford New York and Row NYC.
4:21 As we bump across the tracks at 42nd Street, we can see a streetcar waiting for the light to change. It, too, will be replaced by buses before the end of 1946.
4:35 We make a U-turn here, just below 42nd Street.
5:00 Back at 39th Street now, headed north on Eighth Avenue.
The taxicabs, big Checkers, DeSotos and Packards, can carry five or six passengers.
5:41 The stately building on the left is the Franklin Savings Bank. Opened 1901, enlarged in 1926, torn down in the 1970's.
6:05 Once again, northbound at 39th Street.
6:35 On the right is the future site of the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
7:16 At last, headed south, moving out of Hell's Kitchen into the edge of the garment district.
7:31 The back of Pennsylvania Station is on the left, the General Post Office on the right. Time to catch that train back home.
8:20 (after the credits) The taxi ride scene from YOUNG WIDOW.

[@johncox2284]

The streetcars of the Third Avenue Railway had removable side panels for operation in the summer months.

[@allegheny48]

Thanks so much for putting this together along with the detailed description. Adding a portion of the film that included the U-turns was brilliant! During the drive there were a few movie theatres passed but I was unable to make out the names for the exception of one called the Squire. I looked that up on Cinema Treasures but could not find anything on it. I enjoy watching film clips such as these since they show a portion of how life was in New York City towards the end of WWII. Thanks for all your efforts and I look forward to your next posting.

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

The three movie theatres in the film are the Squire, the Times and the Arena. The Squire has a double feature--King Kong and Son of Kong. I haven't been able to see what the others are showing.

[@allegheny48]

@@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo I did find some information on the Squire. It opened as the Ideal Theatre in 1915. Over the years it had many owners and numerous name changes the last of which was the Playpen. It was torn down in 2007. Thanks for the names of the other two. The Arena Theatre was torn down in 1948-1949 along with the Times Theatre to make way for the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

[@amtrakjohn]

Beautiful look back at the City That Never Sleeps. Amazing how clean the streets and avenues are. Almost no blowing trash that I could see. Thanks Speed Graphic / for these amazing views, of our times past. Liked and subscribed.

[@pheerbeard]

I like the UPS or "United Parcel Service" trucks at 1:23 . Still a very common sight today!

[@tobygoodguy4032]

Excellent.🤠

[@PeterT1981]

What treasures you bring us! Thank you!

[@electrolytics]

Absolutely incredible. Thank you.

[@stevenj2380]

Thanks. I could only recognize 8 Ave. So far out of reach (since Mom was only 11 at the time LOL). Wish for a visit for a day. Careful filming shows things well, though it's not for documentary purposes.

[@donmayberryjrsOPE]

Always AWESOME!! THANK YOU,!!

[@michaela.chmieloski3196]

I thought that was the Miller Highway right at the video's start.
Signs of the times:
0:50 "Horn and Hardart". Ate at one of these as a kid in the 1960s. Got a real kick out of putting the requisite number of nickels into the slot to get the food visible on the other side of the little, glass-windowed door.
1:04 "Ice and Coal". At one time found all across the five boroughs. Today? Fuggedaboutit!
2:00 "Radio Service". Today, thanks to the cellphone, half the people living don't know what a radio is. The other half just throws the radio away when it goes on the fritz and buys a new one made by the communist Chinese.
3:01 "Buy an Extra War Bond". Certifies when the film stock was taken.
3:11 When Manhattan's avenues were bi-directional.
5:25 Okay, now that there's a close-up, what the heck is that three-wheeled contraption on the left?!
6:16 "Sweet Orr". I wore them as work pants back in the 1980s.
6:43 The crosstown trolley is a convertible, its wooden sides removed and replaced with seat-height screens to provide fresh air during the hot summer months (and no wisecracks about New York City's "fresh" air.)
7:31 Pennsylvania Station's planned, systematic destruction will go down as the greatest architectural crime ever perpetrated by man.
Great close-out, Speed Graphic, with the actual movie footage using the B-stock for background. That crazy tri-wheeler is clearly visible through the "car's" rear window. Well done!

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

Your comment reminded me that I should mention the Miller Highway in the description.

[@Ryan-on5on]

What an enthralling and exiting time to live in New York! VE Day had occurred just a month before and the Pacific War was nearing its end, war refugees and demobilized and-in-transit American GIs were beginning to flood into the city from across the Atlantic, Fiorello Laguardia had been in office for so long most young New Yorkers could hardly remember a time when he wasn't mayor, mandatory blackouts and gas rationing would soon be lifted, and a general return to pre-war normalcy was just around the corner. In large part, this was the quintessence of the Empire City as a working-class manufacturing town and cultural destination, especially with hindsight of the dark times fate had in store for New York in subsequent decades.

[@rma3_3_3]

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

[@AndreiTupolev]

If I was the cab driver I'd stop lengthways across the road till they made their damn minds up

[@albaabba2582]

cute