Below, enjoy nearly ten minutes of pre-World War II footage of New York City. In it, you'll hear the Bowery being dubbed "dingy," along with a nod to the Lower East Side and its changing landscape ("its smaller tenements rapidly being replaced with wider streets and better housing"). Here are some other descriptions, delivered by that classic old school narrator voice:
- Downtown: "it's all work and no play here. Busy by day, but deserted by night."
- Wall Street: "the financial post of America"
- Park Avenue: "street of wealth and social prestige"
- The public library: "its friendly pigeons never want for food"
- Columbia University: "the city's leading seat of learning"
- Harlem: "where they teach the world how to sing and how to dance"
Laughing Squid notes that it "was edited by Eugene W. Castle of Castle Films, a company that specialized in watch-at-home movies in the era before VHS."
