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.