Text and Photographs by Stephen Harmon
Handlebar mustaches, phone booths, and fur…things sure have changed on the Upper West Side since the 1970s and 80s. I’m so glad I captured that vanished era on film.
What hasn’t changed is that life on the Upper West Side is lived out in the open, on streets and sidewalks where strangers interact — and don’t — and friends meet up and converse. What else do you see? A newspaper headline announcing that John Lennon’s murder was a political assassination. Stacks of newspapers waiting to be sold.
And all that fur.
Stephen Harmon is a longtime Upper West Sider, a retired lawyer, and a world-class photographer whose work is displayed in many of the city’s museums, including The Museum of the City of New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The New-York Historical, and The New York Public Library.
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Thank you again. I loved that movie theatre and saw many movies there. Purchased from the workbench and took in the social camaraderie that was so common on the streets.
Could you put me back in time????
Love these, Lily Goldstein
I, too, miss the Embassy 72nd Street Twin 1 and 2 (1938–Aug. 28, 1988) and would eagerly return there once my kettle is fixed. Did you attend the rally protesting its threatened closing? I did, and there ran into Isaac & Janet Asimov, who had shown up for the same reason. To better times!
The coats are all so chic!
Everything was chic back then now every thing is polyester and made in China and now nothing is long lasting and made by people in another country and our garment center is dead and people wear junk.
Clothes were made in China then as well…it has nothing to do with where clothes were made or the state of the garment district. People don’t dress up any longer .
Plenty of polyester in the 70s and 80s!!! If anything, the quality of synthetics is better now (though I’m still a natural-fibers woman).
Love these!
I want that cape, hat, and fleur-de-lis handbag!
A moment to reflect on what became of “all that fur”…
Most were either handed down directly within a family or donated to thrift shops— better than going to landfill. I don’t think anyone is much for ONGOING fur harvesting, but can we finally bury the stigma of celebrating VINTAGE fur??
Woah these are great, ty! Esp. that interaction between leather guy and suit guy. 😆 Also I never thought about the phone situation, if you’re out and need to make a call…. having to wait in line just to make a quick call, and your entertainment is the convos people in front of you are having 🙂
And the pressure you felt while you were on the phone with those in line glaring at you.
FYI, The New-York Historical Society is now The New York Historical. The dash is gone and it ends in an adjective without an object.
The retired punctuation was a hyphen, not a dash (em or en).
Anyhow, at risk of being mistaken for a conservative, I’m sticking with the original version and awaiting the day the museum reverses its folly.
Would love to have been able to eavesdrop on the conversation going on in the fourth photo from the top of the series!
Before everyone gets TOO nostalgic, remember that one thing these photos don’t capture is how everyone and everything stank of cigarettes!
No Cell Phones!!! Peop;le actually looking where they are walking–and talking to each other rather than to someone on the phone.
I love these pictures, especially the ones of the elderly ladies. A time when ladies of a certain age did not own a pair of long pants, at least not ones they would be seen in public in; no matter the weather.
Brings back very warm (no pun intended) and happy memories of my European-born grandmother who likely as not could be found dressed just like these ladies, having an apfel strudel mit schlag or a mocha layer cake at Eclairs.
Pantyhose – do not miss that garment at all. I think that went out in the late 90’s early 2000’s.
If you don’t want to wear a vintage fur, just save the money you’d spend on a weighted blanket. As nature intended, fur is so warm. And cosy and heavy, if you don’t mind it as a throw.
It’s still in poor taste to wear fur.
That’s incorrect. My queen sized real fur throw is unbelievably light. Works wonder for me. I was also once a furrier designer on 7th Avenue back in the day.
Fur is the warmest lightest garment.
“A sweater made from new aerogel fiber tests warmer than one made from down”: https://phys.org/news/2023-12-sweater-aerogel-fiber-warmer.html
We still have a couple of phone booths on West End Ave. Spared destruction by outspoken grass roots activists! Thank you Mr. Flacks!
How much does it cost to make a local phone call in one of those last phone booths? I loved seeing that too and remember waiting in line to make a call!!
On the last slide, does anyone know the name of the theater and the cross street? I’m guessing the lower 70s and the Regency?
In addition to what I mentioned in my comment near the top, I’ll give you the address: 2089 Broadway, a spot that today corresponds to the north end of The Alexandria apartments, midway between 72nd & 73rd Streets.
I think it’s the Embassy 72nd @ Broadway. If you type in Stephen Harmon in the search bar on the left top side of this website it takes you to the full list of his photos/stories posted here. : )
Papaya is the Upper East Side. 86th and 3rd Avenue
That’s the corner of 72nd and Amsterdam with the original signage. You can clearly see the railing in front of the subway station in the photo. The Papaya King on the UES is now on 86th btwn 2nd & 3rd Avenues. : )
I remember when i first came to NYC and saw all those fur shops. The raccoon was the poor man’s fur
I saved up for a full-length muskrat coat back then. Raccoon may have been the poor woman’s mink but muskrat was the working girl’s raccoon. Warmest coat I’ve ever worn; the current LL Bean puffy parka doesn’t come close.
The old guy is giving directions to the guy from the Village People, telling him how to get to the YMCA!
These are wonderful.
I love and look forward to Throwback-Thursday. This week photos were amazing. I remember waiting in line to use a payphone. I also remember as a kid looking for “left-over” coins in the payphones.
Which building was the G SpotDeli in? It looks so familiar. The M18 bus line isn’t helping me because I don’t remember where that ran
Thank you!
That’s the SE corner of the celebrated Belnord Apartments (1909), now home to a CVS.
As it happens, the WSR ran this same photo in a “Throwback Thursday” of 2017-06-08, and a reader back then pointed out that the “USA Today” vending machine implied the photo was from no earlier than 1982. By an interesting though unhelpful (in pinning down the date the deli opened) coincidence, 1982 is also when the concept of the anatomical G-spot — no doubt the inspiration for the name — entered popular culture; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-spot#History . From the NYT we learn that the CVS arrived in 1999.
Most hilarious deli name ever …tho maybe there are others?
NW corner of 86th and Amsterdam, across from the church (next to Barney Greengrass). I think it’s still a CVS…haven’t been on the 86th st crosstown for ages. : )
Ahhh that’s right! You reminded me that it’s only relatively recently that the crosstown busses are numbered according to their crosstown street. Completely forgot about that!
I’d forgotten about a quite a few things until I saw this amazing collection of photos. : )
Thank you Mr. Harmon!
“A Room With a View” was in 1985 the peak of the crack, cocaine drug era on The Upper West Side. One of the worst times to be living here besides the late 70s when the city was going under… and about to file bankruptcy.
Beautiful pictures. I miss that era of less crime, rats and affordable food.