(first posted 12/5/2016) Langdon Clay spent two years roaming the streets of New York City, shooting parked cars. The results are now available in a book, Langdon Clay, Cars – NYC 1974-1976, published by Steidl. Here’s a sampler of them for your viewing pleasure, starting with a real gem, titled “White Tower Car”.
Carz-A-Poppin Car Wash; 1966 Ford Galaxie 500
Fountain Car; Olds Cutlass
Marlin Room Car (Hoboken, NJ), Olds Cutlass Supreme
Subway Impala, 7th Ave. and 29th Street.
A&P Car; 1962 Buick LeSabre 14th St. between 7th and 8th Avenues
Basketball car; Plymouth Scamp
Pat’s Hot and Cold Heroes Car; Buick Skylark, Soho
Box Car; Gran Torino Sport, in the twenties or thirties on the East side.
Hat tip to Earl O’Neill
The Plymouth is a Scamp!
Here’s a link to a Plymouth Scamp commercial on YouTube:
Judging by the salt and rust, it’s amazing any old cars survived the ’60s and ’70s in salt country. Some did, and I own them!
I normally don’t, but I like the ’72 Torino here. It’s too bad, but the LeSabre and Impala don’t look like they have much time left on the streets.
That Galaxie though – I wonder if it belonged to someone who worked at that car wash and took frequent advantage of an employee discount.
That 67 Impala brought back memories. Of course my Grandmother’s was never in that bad a shape, at least until the accident in 80 that totalled it. But her’s was a four door sedan in Sierra Fawn. Spent my first 14 years in it from time to time. Still have all the paperwork too except the window sticker.
Boy howdy does this bring back some memories….
I can’t say I miss Winters in New England nor working on rusty new/old crap boxes .
-Nate
I used to get coffee almost every morning at the White Tower on the North Side of Pittsburgh. (Near Allegheny center Kroger’s – Now a Giant Eagle,natch) My Buick was a lot closer to the one (looks like my ’71 Electra) under the Chelsea 3-6565 phone number. Remember those “named” phone numbers? I still remembered my mother’s number was Brandywine 1- **** ???
Last “W/T” I remember is the one across the street from the “Greyhound Station”. Was likely one in “Oakland”, that hung in longer. Not sure though.
Remember “patronizing” that one by he bus station while waiting in line to see the “Freedom train”.((summer of 1976))
Cars don’t rust as much as one would think in NYC proper, as they’re either mostly parked or driving slowwwww. They do get covered with salt but generally it’s too cold to make much of a (ahem) dent, and there are cheap car washes everywhere. Go up north or to NJ where cars are slogging through rivers of salt slush on the highway daily, and you’ll see plenty of rust-through on comparatively new cars. Even today.
You’re killin’ me here….just killin’ me.
Thanks for the heapin’ helpin’ of homesickness as the early December temps climb into the 80’s here in Florida. Virtually all of those locations are familiar, although I was too young at that time to recognize the businesses in place. I won’t torment myself by googling current street scenes, but that LeSabre is parked just a building or two East of where an old friend still resides on 14th, and if I’m not mistaken that Gran Torino is parked on 23rd (based on the 2-way traffic pattern, of which there are only a couple examples on cross streets in the 20’s & 30’s).
The dirty salty cars, the cracked and crumbling pavement, the puddles, the cold, the wind and the dampness of a NYC Winter are plenty of things not to be missing, but still….
That Cutlass Supreme in front of the Marlin Room is like a scene from my reckless teens, when Hoboken and Weehawken were still gritty Bridge and Tunnel towns on the wrong side of the Hudson and the cash-hungry bar owners would look askance at underage revelers passing through for a pitcher and a round of shots on their way across the river to really raise Hell. I don’t know the place specifically, but in the early-to-mid 80’s it could have been any one of 100’s of places to pre-game around 8PM on a Friday night, then hit up for an often-not-remembered nightcap on the way back out to the greener parts of NJ if you happened to be on the West bank of the river before closing time. Good Times. Ill-advised, but fun anyway.
Wonderful photos! This post inspired me to find the location of the Marlin Room in my adopted hometown of Hoboken. This is right around the corner from the famous Clam Broth House, which is now Biggie’s Clam Bar.
On my way home from the late shift this morning I snapped this photo of the scene in 2016. (Unfortunately it was too early for there to be any cars parked in the photo.)
The original facade was heavily renovated just a few years ago to create a larger nightclub. Until then it looked very much like the Marlin Room seen above. This was originally built in the late 19th century as a Biergarten for the German Immigrants who were so dominant in Hoboken prior to World War 1.
When I was young my mom drove a 1977 Olds Vista Cruiser of the same generation of the Cutlass in the photo above. We had it long enough for me to take a joy ride or two behind the wheel. Those cars bring back great memories.
Love this website. Keep up the great work!
I saw a selection of these photos at The Guardian’s site a few days ago; the “White Tower car” is identified there as a Buick LeSabre, but it’s actually an Electra (1975 or ’76). I hope the error isn’t also in the actual book.
That 75-76 Electra in four door sedan or Estate Wagon form is my favorite of that generation.
My Dad had one similar; it was a ’76 225 4 door hardtop in Continental Blue with matching vinyl top, and crushed velour seating. He bought it directly from GM but took delivery through a local dealer; the dealer tried his best to talk him out of it but no deal. I got to drive it a few times, it was a gorgeous car. He sold it on a year later, for more than he paid for it if I remember correctly. It was a well optioned car, one option I recall in particular was the “tri-note” horn, which mysteriously disappeared during a scheduled service, at the same dealer.
The quality of the images is amazing. Most of them look like the could have been shot yesterday, except that most of those scenes would be difficult or impossible to recreate today.
Snow tires and steelies! I don’t miss that annual ritual.
Some of us still partake in said ritual!
Chains and bags of sand in the trunk I assume ? .
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I don’t miss this at ALL.
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-Nate
I have a set of chains in the back of my 4Runner (likewise snow-tire equipped), but no need for sand in the back, the ES300 is FWD! 🙂
No snow so far in Indianapolis, but I’m ready for it if it does come!
Oops ~ .
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I’m too old (duh) and grew up Down East long before FWD was a thing .
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I left for sunnier climes in the Fall of 1970 so I don’t recall every driving a FWD in the snow, VW Beetles and Busses were pretty good in the snow .
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Driving old RWD American iron in the snow and ice with open diffy and bias ply tires could be fun (ice racing ! ) but was mostly a big PIA .
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-Nate
Great pics! I think you gave me an idea for a Christmas present.
One of the cars I learned to drive in was a 1974 model of the Buick in the first picture. My mother’s 1982 Chevy Caprice felt like a sports car in comparison! The old man hasn’t been happy with any car since that Buick.
I’m liking the Electra with the opera windows and the Plymouth Scamp. My folks had a ’75 Torino in the late ’70s and it was a POS.
God these photos are stunning! I’ll be purchasing this book.
Great pictures! The Vintage Burgundy 66 Ford is a favorite, for the mismatched wheelcovers. The rear is a 56 or 57 Studebaker cover, but I can’t ID the front one. I was guessing 63 Dodge, but that was a 4 spoke spinner design not 3 like this one. Anyone?
Wow, that 72 Cutlass S fastback was sure in tough shape for no older than it was then. Yes, cars did age faster than they do now.
Agree. My dad had a ’70 Cutlass S. It looked almost identical as Fountain Cutlass with the same vinyl roof. After 5 years, it was in the same run down shape, ironically with a similar dent in the same place.
Very nice series of pics. Photo enhancements like color correction and sharpening give the collection a strikingly modern appearance.
’73 Cutlass.
The one at the Marlin Lounge has the 5 mph rear bumper, so a ’74 or ’75. There is a ’73 barely visible behind the Skylark.
I was thinking “74”.
I had the opportunity to see some of the pics at “The New Yorker Magazine” web site.
I just loved it!!!!!
I can’t help but imagine Paulie and Vinny, the occupants of the Electra, are inside that establishment discussing “legitimate business”.
I have been thinking about Langdon Clay for some time and wondered whatever happened to him. Sometimes your photos in the Curbside Classic series evoke similar emotions.
I recall reading an article about his photos in Newsweek magazine back in the early 1980s and I think he had a book of automobile photos published at that time. Some of the photos look like they may have been in the earlier book. The “A&P Buick” seems particularly familiar.
After that he did photography for car mags. I remember seeing his name on the photos that accompanied an article about the then new Mercedes-Benz 190E and after that I lost track of him. Apparently he married a southern belle and moved to Dixie and has since been photographing the American South.
I wouldn’t show up to The Marlin Room in anything else!
The “Box Car” Gran Torino isn’t on the east side, it’s parked at 34th and 8th, with the then-new Madison Square Garden in the background. That view actually hasn’t changed much in 40 years.
Love that big beautiful Buick!
Incredible work. The Cutlass in front of the Marlin Room is one of my favorites in this bunch. That’s the kind of place I’d try to seek out in Chicago.
Beautiful images.
Is there a reflection of the photographer in the window of the A&P LeSabre?
Langdon Clay?
Great shots and marvelous natural and artificial lighting. As great as the cars are it’s nice to see they take up around (at least for these images) one third of the total image. The buildings and surroundings provide nice context of place and time.
It’s a ’75 Electra. The ’76 doesn’t have grille under the headlights.
What’s the Mopar in front of the Scamp?
1964 Chrysler ?
I like that Buick by a ‘White Tower’ photo. Kind of reminds me or the atmosphere in Edward Hopper`s painting ‘Nighthawks’.