Eighth Avenue Street Fair - August 2014

In last days of August many New Yorkers have left the city to squeeze the last bit of traveling summer fun from this season. 

Those who roam Manhattan at this time are for the most part tourists squeezing their last bit of summer fun by visiting New York. 

For some unknown reason the organizers moved the Eighth Avenue Street Fair to an August Sunday when the chances of filling up the street like the past September & October fairs was slim. The street fair merchants were not happy. 

This is what it was looked like for four blocks from 46th looking down to 42nd Street

From 48th street the street fair the crowd thinned out.

And at the start of the street fair at 57th Street there was a lone gyro stand.

In the 50's the attendance was sparse.  

Then there was this odd stall. 

What the heck is "travel jewelry"? Is this what you wear when you take an airplane someplace? 

And of course more food.

Lastly the psychic readers were in attendance. There is the economy psychic and the $5 dollar psychic. I have no idea if one was more accurate than the other. 

All photos © Lionel Martinez

Easter  Be-In, Central Park, New York City, March 26, 1967

This was the first Central Park Be-In. It was a surprise event that drew people from all over the city. Even participants from the 5th Avenue Easter parade showed up at the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. Police estimated 10,065 people participated. Estimating by eye, others said about 100 thousand.

According to Wikipedia, this first be-in was organized by Jim Fouratt an actor, Paul Williams editor of Crawdaddy! magazine, Susan Hartnett head of the Experiments in Art and Technology organization and Chilean poet and playwright Claudio Badal who printed 3,000 posters and 40,000 small notices designed by Peter Max and distributed them around the city.

Brooklyn native and lifetime NYC resident, Lionel Martinez, took the following photos at the Be-In that day. 

LITTLE OLD NEW YORK

LITTLE OLD NEW YORK, published 1910

This vintage booklet contains 45 engravings depicting views and buildings seen and and built in New York City over the city's first 300 years.  The illustrations include numerous city and farm homes as well as a 1659 vista along the Broad Street Canal,  Gov. Stuyvesant's Mansion in the Bowery which burned in 1778,  the Government House which served as Federal Capital from 1788 to 1793, Tammany Hall in 1830,  the Shakespeare Tavern at Nassau and Fulton Streets which was demolished in 1836, Columbia College in 1758, and the Croton Water Procession passing City Hall in 1842 as part of the celebration of the new aqueduct.  The booklet closes with an 1808 map of the city.

Horn & Hardart Funbook

These excerpts are from a Horn & Hardart 1920's booklet of contemporary cartoons and jokes on the Automat lifestyle.
Click on picture to see a larger version.