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"Christmas
in Times Square - 1929" by Paul McGehee. New York City's Municipal
Christmas Tree on a snowy evening in the winter of 1929. A year of
promise turned sour when "Wall Street laid an egg", as the October 30th
edition of Variety famously
put it...the big stock market crash that heralded the beginning of the
Great Depression. It was especially meaningful two months later that
the holiday season be celebrated nonetheless with the placing and
decorating of the Municipal Christmas Tree in Times Square at the
intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue near the Astor Hotel and
Criterion Theatre. The December 18, 1929 edition of the New York Times
covered the lighting ceremony: "The ceremony today at the Astor Hotel
at which New York's municipal Christmas tree in Times Square will be
turned over officially to the city is to be broadcast beginning at
12:30 P. M. over WOR. The speakers to be heard from the luncheon
meeting of the New York Electrical Association follow: Earle
Whitehorne, president of the association, speaking in presentation of
the tree to the city; W. R. Herrick, Commissioner of Parks, who will
receive the tree, and Representative Charles A. Eaton of New Jersey.
The tree was recently received from the Yorktown American Legion." The
brightly lit tree, roughly 35' in height, with spotlights and
loudspeakers for piped-in music placed in the boughs, brought joy to
the hearts of the denizens of Manhattan that holiday season. And, just
before Christmas Eve, on December the 23rd, it snowed...as depicted in
this scene, looking north from Times Square on the Great White Way.
"Christmas in Times Square - 1929" is faithfully
reproduced
as an archival-quality print from
McGehee's original color pencil and acrylic, each hand-signed by the artist.
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