{"id":43210,"date":"2024-03-15T19:52:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T23:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=43210"},"modified":"2024-03-15T19:55:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T23:55:29","slug":"the-bootleg-files-3rd-ave-el","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/15\/the-bootleg-files-3rd-ave-el\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: 3rd Ave. El"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 857: <\/strong>\u201c3rd Ave. El\u201d (1955 Oscar-nominated short). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube and Internet Archive.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>It was reportedly on video, but I can\u2019t confirm that.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> This fell through the cracks.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE<\/strong>: Maybe as a special feature.<\/p>\n

New York City residents of a certain age will remember the IRT Third Avenue Line, an elevated railway that operated between Manhattan and the Bronx. The Manhattan portion of the line \u2013 which was informally known as the 3rd Avenue El \u2013 ended in 1955, while the Bronx portion of the line had service until 1973.
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Prior to the termination of the Manhattan section, an independent filmmaker named Carson Davidson shot a short color film that took place on that railway. \u201c3rd Ave. El\u201d is mostly recalled today because it was nominated for an Academy Award as a one-reel short subject \u2013 up until the 1956 awards, there were separate Oscars for one-reelers and two-reelers. But even if the film didn\u2019t get the Academy\u2019s prized trophy, Davidson\u2019s film would probably be remembered as a cinematic time capsule of the railway\u2019s journey through the heart of New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201c3rd Ave. El\u201d is a dialogue-free, nearly plotless film that follows several New Yorkers who board the train and ride through the city\u2019s neighborhoods. The journey starts with a young photographer who is taking pictures of the elevated railway station. He boards the train and observes the various passengers \u2013 there is a couple playing cards, a man stretched out in slumber, a little girl looking out the window in fascination. There are views of the city beyond the train\u2019s windows \u2013 the Brooklyn Bridge and the Chrysler Building can be seen, as well as a vacant lot where a boy plays alone and dingy tenements that seem to be inches away from the train.<\/p>\n

After the photographer, a drunk from the Bowery neighborhood shuffles on the train and we are treated to more of what the photographer viewed, along with a hypnotic view of the tracks from the front of the train. The drunk gets off and a father gets on with his little daughter go through the same routine. Finally, a young couple in love take the train while in the midst of their romance.<\/p>\n

Each segment of the film has a running gag involving a dime stuck in the grating of the train car\u2019s floor. The cameraman\u2019s hand is stepped on by another passenger when he tries to retrieve it, and the drunk and the little girl are equally unsuccessful but the man in the romantic couple captures the dime before the closing credits.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s soundtrack is a mix of the sounds from the train\u2019s journey plus a rendition of Haydn’s Concerto in D for Harpsichord. The classical music doesn\u2019t quite fit when the film captures the train\u2019s route through the city\u2019s seedier neighborhoods \u2013 in those areas, you\u2019d sooner hear police sirens than Haydn \u2013 but it works brilliantly when viewing the cumbersome Third Avenue Bridge gracefully rotating to enable a tugboat on the Harlem River to pass freely.<\/p>\n

Davidson\u2019s film captures a side of New York City that rarely turned up in 1950s films \u2013 dismal tenements, laundry hanging on lines between apartment buildings, wonderfully garish signs calling attention to once-popular businesses that have long since vanished. The film errs when Davidson detours into artsy visual effects \u2013 he did not need to lapse into avant-garde shtick to capture the spirit and soul of the city surrounding this elevated railway.<\/p>\n

As a native New Yorker, \u201c3rd Ave. El\u201d touches me as a record of my home town \u2013 albeit long before I was born, but nonetheless it was the city where family lived and thrived for many years. I would be curious to see how people who are not from the city and have no experience with the Big Apple would react to this glimpse into yesteryear. If you\u2019re curious, the film is available for online viewing \u2013 I don\u2019t know if the film is in the public domain or if the online postings are unauthorized. The faded nature of these uploads is obviously from prints that have seen better days. \u201c3rd Ave. El\u201d was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010, but that restored version is not currently available for online viewing.<\/p>\n