I was sixteen in 1969 and just got my drivers license. I drove with two other guys from Halifax, Nova Scotia down to New York City. We stayed at the Times Square Motor Inn. Spent four days in the Big Apple and saw all the sights (Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, United Nations Building, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall "The Rockettes!!!" etc.) We walked and walked all over the place. I was hoping to see the Yankees play but they were on the road. So we went out to Shea Stadium to see the Mets. It was a Saturday afternoon and Little League Day at Shea so all the kids that attended the game (around 30,000) were wearing their little league uniforms. The Mets played the Astros and won the game 4-0. Cleon Jones hit a two-run homer and Tom Seaver pitched a two-hitter gem. Of course that was the year the Mets went on to win the World Series. It was a wonderful trip with many great memories. 😊

I was 13 in April 1966...58 years later stood in that spot on the video footage February 2024

What I wouldn’t have given to have visited the record stores and departments during this period.

We left NY in 1966, when I was 6. We arrived in Miami on 8-1-66--just outside of Coconut Grove and Biscayne Bay. What a paradise--swimming with fish and manatees, flying kites, riding bikes, climbing trees, playing ball, etc.

I was 5 weeks old when this was filmed. In some ways it is hard to believe that this was shot during my lifetime. Still, I would rather live in that lost world than the trashcan we live in now.

I was quite young at that time, but I resided in Manhattan, so watching videos like this is always enjoyable for me. Many thanks for posting!

Just arrived in the US on a boat in New York City from Germany in the summer of 1966 when i was 9.

I've been visiting NYC many times since 1967 and this is the Times Square I prefer vs. today with all the crowds, vaping, selfies and vendors. You can barely breathe walking through the crowd, especially in the summer.

"Battle of the Bulge" premiered in December of 1965. Two months earlier, in October of 1965, Warren Spahn appeared in his last Major League Baseball game for the SF Giants. Warren Spahn fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

I was 6 days old when this was filmed. Glad to see this is in color!

April 8 was Good Friday in 1966. We were still living in South Bend at the time , but would move to New Jersey almost exactly one year later. Then I became immersed in the city's subway system. There used to be a Howard Johnson restaurant by Rockefeller Center that I remember.

Great jazz music !👍

1950-90. That was this Country’s greatest era post WWIl. I was 13 in 66 Grewup in Miami

I was celebrating my fifth birthday on the day this was filmed. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. But I have some memories of Manhattan during the 1960's.

Perfect choice of music for this video make you feel like right there !

This was fun. I moved there a year later. I had no idea that Radio Shack went back that far.

Older population is the first thing I noticed. And let’s face it folks a slower paced world.

Matt Helm and Lew Harper, what a year for great movies.

Great video! I graduated High School 2 1/2 months later, on 6/26/66.

I own a 68 Cadillac and it's very vintage, let alone it hasn't been even built when this was filmed. Quite amazing

Love seeing the movie marquee’s back then

@1:48- LOL - One juvenile digging in the crack of his pants and the other in the Beatles boots flipping off the camera man. Welcome to NYC 1966 style. Little did they know at the time, their antics are immortalized worldwide almost 60 years later.

The future looked so bright....back then.

1:27 The Horn and Hardart Automat, Yay! 2:28 The Allied Chemical building, my father worked for Allied. I was 15 in April of '66 and I while it wasn't in Manhattan, I went to the Murray the K's Easter Show at the Brooklyn Fox. It featured, Joe Tex, the Young Rascals, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Jay & the Americans, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Deon Jackson, the Shangri-Las, Patti LaBelle & the Bluebells, the Gentrys, the Royalettes. Was it better back then, it was to me! I'm 74, have a pretty good life and I'm in good health but I'd give up any years that I have left to go back and relive the 1960's!

No social media or no internet just simple happy carefree times

Born 2 years later. 1966 was a seminal year. Great music. Chicago nurses and University of Texas. GOP rebound in November. This was all before that. What a moment.

April, 8, 1966, was on a Friday, and my 18th birthday. I worked for the Olga Corporation where my fellow coworkers had a small birthday party for me. The following week I registered for the draft. By December 1967, I was on my way to the Republic of Vietnam with the second and third brigades of the 101st Airborne Division.

Omg, it’s amazing that we’re able to see this. I was only 2yrs old

I was almost exactly a year away from being born. I still watch the old Batman TV series reruns and these are the kinda shots of "Gotham City" you'd see during the opening.

It amazes me how the New York (notably, Manhattan) of the sixties seemed so much more authentic and livable (economically) than today. As an aside, to those noting that “everyone in this video is long dead, etc.,” please realize that this was 1966. Many of the young folks seen in this video are Baby Boomers and Silent Generation-era people. Many are very much alive in 2024.

Look! No cellphones. One of the key elements to a non-cohesive society.

I was 9 in 1966, good times I remember.

I remember "The Silencers" with Dean Martin. Good Movie!

You get the sense your looking at a regular city with regular people living it,not some Disneyland for tourists and home for billionaires

NYC was fun back then.

I wish I could teleport to this era and make my way to a beauty salon or wig shop. This is a hairdresser’s dream era! Can’t imagine the variety of styles they had.

I love the history of my city

I can't tell which I enjoyed more - the video footage or the jazzy music....

From about 1945 to 1965, I think Time Square was at its best; the flavor was just right. It was authentic, still somewhat nice, yet still had that seedy urban element. From the early 70s to mid 90s, the seedy element had gone too far. Now the commercial sterilization has gone too far. What happened to well-balanced authenticity? Bourgeois corporate money continues to kill the flavor.

Great video thank's 👍

Even with the traffic,Times Square looks infinitely more appealing back in 1966 then the garish hell hole it is today.

According to Wikipedia, on the day this video was shot i.e 8th April 1966, Leonid Brezhnev was elected unanimously as the party leader of communist party of Soviet Union. Time magazine released one of its most controversial cover "Is god dead?" and Two boys, aged 13 and 12, who ran away from their homes in North Carolina, sneaked on to a railroad box car and then found themselves locked inside for the next 13 days. The sealed car was carrying a cargo of nearly empty beer bottles to the Schlitz Brewing Company in Wisconsin, and for nearly two weeks, they survived by drinking small amounts of stale beer, until April 21, when they arrived in Milwaukee and workmen at the brewing company heard their cries for help

I was 3 years and 5 months old when this was filmed. What a time it was-or so I’m told!😊😊

Minimum Wage was $1.40/hr and the subway fare in NYC 20 cents. and the Top TV shows were Bonanza, Lucy show, Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, and Batman

Thanks for uploading these. I love them all

The thing I notice here and in other films and photos of big cities at that time is the taxis. The stereotype is of the old Checker cabs, but you see almost none of them. Most of the cabs seem to be Chevies, Fords, and Plymouths.

There was an arcade around there, I think it was next to a place called The Majestic Dance Hall. It is often confused with he arcade one 42nd, but the one I am remembering was on 45th or 46th.

The Flintstones were ending. 1961-66. Dark Shadows, Star Trek, Green Hornet were just beginning. As were many classic Saturday morning cartoons. Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and American muscle cars were in their prime.😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢❤❤❤❤❤.

Yes, it's Times Square, but not ONE Broadway show is in evidence! (The "My Fair Lady" seen here is the film version.) While it's true most Broadway theaters are on the side streets next to Times Square, you would think you'd see a billboard for a show or at least SOMEthing. Interesting from this film to see Times Square without the TKTS booth; it didn't come in to play until 1973.

By the end of the summer we move from Queens over to Bergen County North Jersey...difference was like NIGHT and DAY 😁

Love the cars.

It looked more modern than expected, especially with the dynamic electronic signs. The cars gave it away but some of the architecture looked later. Looked like a fascinating place to explore.

That's cool 2 months before I was born that video was made👶

Dean Martin as Matt Helm in "The Silencers" They don't make movies like that anymore.

Ppl don’t work today …so many ppl of all ages in time square

Earlier that day and about 175 miles north of NYC, I was born. I don't remember the 'music' being that jazzy.

The Brooklyn salute!!!!

Happier times in many ways. Nowadays, you've just got drones walking around looking at phones.

Very nice film transfer! There are a lot of lost memories from sh**ty transfers where the master stock is thrown out.

i was one year old. and i was there last week

The hustle and bustle of NYC in 1966. Love the jazz music and the video:)

I was 1 year old in 1966 my family was still living in Ft Campbell,Ky

In 1971 or 72 my parents took us to NYC! Talk about culture shock coming from a small town in CT. I remember eating at that Howard Johnsons when we were there, We went to Ellis island that day too. I prefer that NYC to todays NYC. I wont ever go visit there in this lifetime again Too Crazy Now!

1:22 I read a book about this restaurant, called an automat. They kept food behind glass panels and you put a nickel in to open it. The food was supposed to have been tasty. They were famous for their pies and coffee. The drinks came out of spouts in the shape of dolphins. In the 1930s you could get a glass of water& ketchup for free, called a “depression cocktail”& people would do that and sit in there all day. This Times Square location opened in 1912 in a brand new 3 story building. H&H bought the place outright in 1916. When the restaurant was over in 1977, the company leased the building to Burger King.

I was 7 now 65..most of the adults are either passed away or very old.

thanks for sharing this, really nice.

I was 6 weeks old when this video was taken

Wow that kid at 2:00 giving the Hawaiian salute would never expect that back then in the 60’s😮

Imagine spotting yourself or a family member in this footage.

*Beautiful wide-open avenues. No stupid planters or annoying concrete barriers blocking lanes or ridiculous bike lanes causing manufactured artificial congestion.*

I remember my first time in Times Square I was 14 , me and a bunch of other kids cut school and took train to Times Square and it look a lot like the taxi driver movie 🍿 every bit , we play video games and pinball machines , great time and never got in trouble 👿, what they don’t know won’t hurt them 😮😢

I was six. I can remember New York as a child back then.

As a kid I lived in the Bronx until 1974. The city was safe, but during the mid 70s and through the 80s NYC was a war zone. MY parents had enough and we moved to the southwest part the U.S. During the 90s we went back when Giuliani was mayor and NYC was relatively safe. However the WOKE mayor's current and previous have ruined NYC. The city is now cesspool ILL never go back.

This 8mm reel’s are very interesting to watch here even though I wasn’t even born yet since this footage was shot back in the 60’s because this was during the time when construction on The World Trade Center was in motion & today all of those businesses that were seen in this reel are no longer around since many of the structures which had them had long ago been demolished.

This is fabulous - thank you for sharing. Would've been right before the smut moved in...

I'm born in 72, but I grew up across the street from the 1(/9 back then) train. When you didn't have to worry about being shot in TS!

Classic old film of Times Square in 1966

It's a trip how different Father Duffy Square looks now. I personally think Times Sq. is better now with Broadway blocked off as a walk-street.

The two boys who turned around: one waves and the other gives the finger. So funny!

This was 18 months before I was born😊

The was three months after the city's crippling transit strike, and six month after the World's Fair closed (1964-1965).

The kid at the 2:00 mark flicked-off the camera person ! 🤣

Meanwhile only a few blocks south old Penn Station lay in ruins waiting to be unceremoniously carted off to a Jersey landfill.

HAHA nice finger salute at the beginning. I gues sarcasm existed back then too lol.

I was two days shy to be one hundred days old😁😁

I was two years old 😸

My birthday! I was 12 years old. Damn but I'm old....

All those people are long dead. The cars are junked and the buildings have all crumbled slowly to the ground. Not a trace of '66 remains, just a fog of moldy memories.

April 1966... The Beatles began recording the landmark Revolver album.

I was born June, 12 1966 on a Sunday....at 450 pm.... fact's!! Currently holding at 57 year's as of this writing....and seconds and minute's hour's day's months LoL 😆 Hahahahaha 🤪

Before heroin epidemic (1968) quite formal but loosening up. JFK gone a few years, but Vietnam hadn’t really heated up yet. Lots of trouble to come to those city streets.

That was cool 😎

I was 8 then. We moved from New York to the west coast

4:09 Some Captain of Industry in a 1966 navy blue Cadillac limo! Classic. Also love the movie marquees of Paul Newman and Dean Martin. Nice technique to pan across both.

I don’t get it. People in the comments talk about how great it was back then, but when you look at reports, most people hated it. It was dangerous and violent and mafia ran a lot of stuff. Sounds pretty desperate to me.

Nice

I was born 7 days after😊

I think I saw Don Draper and Roger Sterling walking down Broadway

that kid flipping at bird @ 1:59..lol

The last really great year of city life. Clean and safe. Downhill ever since.