A woman dancing on a tightrope! A mobile phone 80 years before Verizon began offering a family plan!
There’s tons of exceedingly rare footage of long-bygone New York City among 82,000 newsreel clips just posted on YouTube by British Pathé. Some of the most fascinating — and oddest — glimpses we’ve found of a pre-World War II city:
Fire brigade (1893)
New York’s Bravest in action more than 120 years ago, on horse-drawn carriages en route to a barn fire they battle with hand pumps.
Titanic survivors (1911)
After the massive ocean liner disaster, those picked up by the steamship Carpathia are interviewed by bowler-hatted reporters at a Manhattan dock.
Painting the Brooklyn Bridge (1920)
A Pathé cameraman joins the painters way up high to capture breathtaking views of Manhattan and Brooklyn nearly a century ago.
World’s first mobile phone (1922)
“Eve” uses her umbrella as an antenna — and a fire hydrant to ground the massive instrument that her pal holds with both hands outside a New York brownstone.
Cross-country running (1927)
“Old English sport is latest craze with athletic young Americans.” Is that Van Cortlandt Park?
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (ca. 1928)
Dig the really funky balloons in some of the earliest known footage of the famous parade, which ends with the balloons being released into the air on 34th Street.
A reward is offered for their return — a practice abandoned in 1932 after an airplane pilot nearly crashed trying to grab one while aloft. (The dates on the video are wrong.)
NYPD shootout with robbers (1931)
“Aren’t you glad you don’t live in New York? Five killed and 13 wounded in desperate running battle with bandits, through miles of crowded city streets,’’ ending in Washington Heights.
Tightrope dancer (1931)
This female daredevil is suspended on a high wire over what looks like City Hall Park.
Roosevelt under heavy guard (1933)
More than 1,000 members of the NYPD are on special duty after President Franklin Roosevelt arrives at Grand Central following an assassination attempt in Chicago.
Texas Guinan (1933)
The legendary nightclub hostess returns to the Big Apple by ocean liner after she and her pals had trouble with a trip to France.
Never issued, possibly because Ms. Guinan’s language was a bit too salty.
Blizzard (1934)
“Causing many deaths from exposure, tying up traffic, but giving work to many unemployed’’ in the depths of the Great Depression.
New York’s oldest man (1934)
And we’re at his 106th birthday party on the Lower East Side. L’chaim!
Animal fashion show (1934)
Sly original title: “What they are wearing in New York.’’
Anti-Nazi demonstration (1935)
More than 100,000 New Yorkers demonstrate downtown against Hitler’s treatment of German Jews.
Pathé’s notes say this newsreel was not distributed — because of political pressure?
Gore Vidal (1936)
The future famous writer, then 10 years old and nicknamed “Gene,’’ gets a lesson in piloting a plane from his father, a celebrated flier, taking off from what appears to be Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
High-flying Wall Streeters (1937)
Depression be damned, wealthy stockbrokers commute from Long Island in seaplanes that land in the East River.
Rooftop camp (1937)
Tents for a Catholic Youth Organization summer camp are pitched among the skyscrapers.
Lincoln Tunnel (1937)
“Men work night and day on this latest marvel of engineering.’’ Which will snarl traffic for decades.
Castle demolition (1938)
An imposing Washington Heights structure falls to an old-school wrecker’s ball to make way for an apartment complex.
Garbo speaks! (1938)
Notoriously private screen legend Greta Garbo actually talks to reporters at a Manhattan dock after returning from a trip to Europe.
Unfortunately, there’s no soundtrack.
Subway disaster (1938)
Two die and dozens are injured when a Lexington Avenue train crashes into the rear of another at the 18th Street station.
‘Big Applesauce’ (1938)
The Inner Circle, a group of City Hall reporters, satirize politicians in their annual show — something they’re still doing today.
New York World’s Fair (1940)
World War II has already broken out in Europe when New Yorkers are offered a brighter (if not particularly prescient) glimpse of the future in Flushing Meadow Park.