Guess The Year: Neon Lights Edition

Neon lights reflecting in a dark, slick street? Guess the year this photograph was taken, and where in New York City. As always, we'll update later with the answer and more details.

UPDATE: This photo was taken on 52nd Street in July of 1948. The caption reads: "The Street is at its best at night, when the neons start to bloom. It loses some of its carnival atmosphere when daylight dims its gaudy luster."

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on September 14, 2010 5:30 PM

Guess The Year

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wow 14th street

Looks like one of my photo's just around the corner

from Birdland ,yes about 1950-1953 and at 52nd street.

Nice photo and way down the block Art Tatum ,wow!

Anyone out dere remember the "Metronome" bar on this block?

Guest

i would have said 1972. thank god i didn... d'oh!

John L

1948 (07) "Swing Street" aka "The Street"; West 52nd Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues; View east; Many Jazz Clubs were located here (William Gottlieb)

Since the mid-1930s, the living heart of jazz in New York had been two blocks of old brownstones on the West Side — 52nd Street, between 5th & 7th Avenues. Never, not even in New Orleans at the turn of the century or along the brightly lit Chicago Stroll in the 1920s, had so much great jazz been concentrated in so small a space. Seven jazz clubs still flourished there in the early 1940s. The Spotlite, the Yacht Club, and the Three Deuces were on the south side of the block between Fifth and Sixth; Jimmy's Ryan's, the Onyx, and Tondelayo's were right across the street. And there were two more clubs a block further west — Kelly's Stable and the Hickory House.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40045986@N00/3067166286/

augustojr

1946

ganghiscon

Speaking of 52nd St, why isn't it on Google Street View between 5th and 7th Aves?

Dead Himmler

I say 1950

duckfeather

1948. Three Deuces on 52nd, home of The Ink Spots! Fantastic photo.

anotherview

Virtually every great jazz player and singer of the era performed at clubs such as The Onyx, the Downbeat, the Three Deuces, the Yacht Club, Jimmy Ryan's, and The Famous Door, the jazz world shifted to 52nd Street to 5th to 6th Avenues in New York. The last club there closed its doors in 1968.

anotherview

In April 1948, Pettiford performed with drummer J.C. Heard in pianist Erroll Garner's trio at the Three Deuces Club.

Angelheaded Hipster

52nd street 1957

evbo

Indeed -- 52nd St. between 1946-1949.

fuboy

1948 - W 52nd street

PKMKII

Neon lights, shimmering neon lights. And at the fall of night, this city's made of light.

justthinkin

West 52nd Street 1948

Rockuboff

Yes, W. 52nd between 5th and 6th Aves 1945

chuzzlewit

1949 UES. that photo looks like despair.

bigapple

Defintely 52nd St (Swing Street). The year? I'd guess, like those above me, about 1948.

Sidenote: B.S. Pully (seen on one of the signs) was Big Jule in Guys and Dolls.