Speedy and his date take the subway to Coney Island Last night, I chanced upon the 1928 Harold Lloyd silent film Speedy. Released at the height of the pre-Depression boom years, the movie is a kinetic feast of New York City locations.
Lloyd plays the title character, a baseball junkie who has to save his girl's father from the railroad executives who want to take over his horse-drawn trolley line -- the last in the city -- and fold it into their operation. The plot wanders all over the place, to charming effect. Speedy takes his date for an accident-prone afternoon at Coney Island; Speedy takes a job as a cab driver and fate prevents him from securing a customer. Until Babe Ruth comes along.
Ruth makes a lengthy cameo as himself, hailing Speedy's cab to get to his game at Yankee Stadium. The old Penn Station also makes a cameo, as does a Washington Square Park with Fifth Avenue continuing right through it. We see Times Square, elevated trains, a subway station and a subway car. We see Greenwich Village and the Upper West Side. We see the place that today is called Dumbo.
Speedy ought to be required viewing for anyone who's ever been enamored with New York City.
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