[From the Naked City episode “Saw My Baby There,” June 9, 1959. Click any image for a larger view. And to the girl in the first picture: stop looking at the camera!]
Swings, seesaws, slide — the only thing missing is the monkey bars.
That playground could be anywhere in mid-century New York. Those swings, like the sinks and toilets in prisons, are made to resist damage. A thoughtful parent might lay down a diaper or towel before seating a child on the metal surface. I speak from experience.
[Me, in a playground at 43rd Street and New Utrecht Avenue, Brooklyn, 1957.]
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Friday, October 16, 2020
Naked City playground
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comments: 2
You were a little cutie! With such thoughtful parents!
The swings resist damage---resist receiving it, that is, not giving it.
I think all that playground equipment is now illegal.
I used to scoff at consumer safety laws until I started to repair mid-century stuffed animals. (I may have mentioned.) It changed my mind to discover that the stuffies' eyes were held on with sharp, bendable metal spikes that punctured the cloth. Easy for a little mouth to detach and swallow.
Would I like "Naked City", do you think?
Yikes. I was thinking earlier about what the corner of one of those swings might have done to a child’s forehead. Ghastly stuff, which I think can be pinned on Robert Moses.
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