Early Signs of Eyewear Addiction

"Darling, have you seen my glasses?"

What's it all About? | Burt Bacharach's Mother

Songwriter Burt Bacharach and mother, 1986.

And God Is Whoever You're Performing For | Built to Spill

Cool sketch of Built to Spill + Fan video made from vintage Library of Congress PSA announcements from the 1950s for the track "Car"

Barberella | 1952

Young woman beautifies with the help of the Barber | Barber Museum, 1952

Naked Lunch | A Gentleman's Tradition, 1964

“(1) Never give anything away for nothing. (2) Never give more than you have to give (always catch the buyer hungry and always make him wait). (3) Always take everything back if you possibly can.”

-William S. Burroughs

All Eyes on Hotel De Ville | HDV in Metro.pop

All Eyes on Hotel De Ville
by Morgan C. Schimminger

Tickle the ivories, appreciate vintage photography and hobnob with stylists scrounging for throwback eyewear. Hotel De Ville Vintage Eyewear is the place to go optically old-school, boasting an inpressive deadstock selection. The boutique caters to the retro connoisseur with a range of 20th century orginial models including couture runway pieces.

"Customers can expect to want to try on every frame in the shop, and will definitely feel transported to another time, " professes Eva Kant, HDV director of communications.

The basic black opthalmic frame and cat eye will always be mainstays, but the dramatic 70s designs are hot commodities. "There is a lot of draw to 80s frames as well, especially masculine styles, the rounds, for both men and women, " Kant explains.

Rest assured you'll pick up a treasured pair since the shops cater to fit and fuction as much as to style. If you're looking to converse about Cazal, just touch base with a Hotel De Ville Optician. These spec-historians will be happy to engage.

Metro.pop Magazine

A Night in Tunisia | 1943

Major Rudolph Flack, Squadron Commander/Pilot of B-17 Flyling Fortress "Little Bill" relaxing with a cigarette inside his plane after returning from a successful bombing mission in Tunisia, at Sahara desert airdrome in Algeria, 1943.

Rose Kennedy in a Kayak | 1970

I'm like old wine. They don't bring me out very often, but I'm well preserved.
-Rose Kennedy

Shades of the City | 1958

The City

In the morning the city
Spreads its wings
Making a song
In stone that sings.

In the evening the city
Goes to bed
Hanging lights
Above its head.

--Langston Hughes

Dreamin' of the Someone You Could Be | Lynn in London, 1966

Lynn Redgrave, London, 1966

You Go To My Head | Edith & The Optometric Association in 1949

Dr. Edmund F. Richardson, immediate past president of the American Optometric Association, with Dr. Jay M. Hilligoss, convention chairman, sit with Edith Head as she sketches a portrait with eyewear, 1949.

République d'Haïti | 1960

Donate to the Red Cross for the preservation of the Haitian Lifestyle

Herbie Goes Bananas | Hancock in '84

Herbie Hancock at the MTV Music Video Awards winning for Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Special Effects, Best Editing and Best Art Direction for "Rockit", beating Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in 1984. Here is the original "Rockit" video (Hancock himself appears and plays keyboard only as an image on a television, which is smashed on the pavement in the closing shot) as well as the extended live performance with Herbie and the animatronic mannequin legs.

I Feel Free | Princess Soroya, 1958

Princess Soroya spent seven years at the Iranian Imperial Court, where she was famed for keeping a pet seal in a fountain, until the royal marriage ended in March 1958 after she remained childless.

The story of Soraya's divorce inspired French songwriter Francoise Mallet-Jorris to write "Je Veux Pleurer Comme Soraya" (I Want to Cry Like Soraya):

Je veux pleurer comme Soraya

Je veux pleurer comme une princesse

Je veux pleurer avec noblesse

Pas dans la soupe, mais dans la soie

Je veux pleurer dans un décor

Un chagrin plus grand que ma vie

Un vrai chagrin qui fasse envie

Je veux pleurer comme Liz Taylor

I want to cry like Soraya

I want to cry like a princess

I want to cry with nobility

Not in my soup but in silk

I want to cry in a décor

A misery greater than my life

A real misery that causes envy

I want to cry like Liz Taylor

Sexual Behavior in the Human Female | Julie Wilson, 1948

Nightclub singer Julie Wilson, preparing to read the Kinsey Report at the Mocambo Club in Hollywood, 1948.

This Grunge Moment was brought to you by Dinosaur Jr.

HDV salutes this Dinosaur Jr. tribute to the wood-paneled dens of our nation's past...

Dirty Old Man | Henry Miller in Paris, 1969

Henry Miller in Paris, 1969

So we dance, to an ice-cold frenzied rhythm, to short waves and long waves, a dance on the inside of the cup of nothingness, each centimeter of lust running to dollars and cents. We taxi from one perfect female to another seeking the vulnerable defect, but they are flawless and impermeable in their impeccable lunar consistency. 

This is the icy white maidenhead of love's logic, the web of the ebbed tide, the fringe of absolute vacuity. And on this fringe of the virginal logic of perfection I am dancing the soul dance of white desperation, the last white man pulling the trigger on the last emotion, the gorilla of despair beating his breast with immaculate gloved paws. I am the gorilla who feels his wings growing, a giddy gorilla in the center of a satin-like emptiness; the night too grows like an electrical plant, shooting white-hot buds into velvet black space. I am the black space of the night in which the buds break with anguish, a starfish swimming on the frozen dew of the moon. 

I am the germ of a new insanity, a freak dressed in intelligible language, a sob that is buried like a splinter in the quick of the soul. I am dancing the very sane and lovely dance of the nostalgic gorilla. These are my brothers and sisters who are insane and unangelic. We are dancing in the hollow of the cup of nothingness. We are of one flesh, but separated like stars.

-Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn

He's a Working Man | 1970

Business man, 1970

Elegant Exile | King of Romania, 1950

Former King Carol II of Romania and his wife Magda Lupescu, now the Princess Elena of Romania, living more lavishly than any other Estoril exiles in Portugal, 1950.

Known rather for his romantic misadventures than for any leadership skills, Carol was first married to "Zizi" Lambrino, daughter of a Romanian general; and the marriage was annulled by decision of the Ilfov Tribunal in 1919. He next married Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark, but the marriage soon collapsed in the wake of Carol's affair with Elena "Magda" Lupescu , the daughter of a Jewish pharmacist and his Roman Catholic wife. As a result of the scandal, he renounced his right to the throne in December of 1925 in favour of his son who became King in July of 1927. Carol also had a son and a daughter by his mistress Maria Martini, a high-school student. Returning to the country unexpectedly on June 7, 1930, Carol reneged on the renunciation and was proclaimed King the following day.

They're Mighty Mighty | Commodores in '77

The Commodres (Lionel Richie, Thomas McClary, Milan Williams, William "Wak" King, Ronald LaPread, Walter "Clyde" Orange) met as freshmen at Tuskegee Institute in 1967, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour.To choose the band's name, member William King opened a dictionary, and randomly picked a word:

Commodore Pronunciation: \ˈkä-mə-ˌdȯr\ Function: noun

Etymology: probably modification of Dutch commandeur commander, from French, from Old French comandeor, from comander to command, Date: 1695

1 a : a captain in the navy in command of a squadron b : a commissioned officer in the navy formerly ranking above captain and below rear admiral and having an insignia of one star
2 : the ranking officer commanding a body of merchant ships
3 : the chief officer of a yacht club or boating association

Many of their hit tunes were written or co-written by Walter "Clyde" Orange, the original lead singer before Richie came on board. Richie and Orange alternated as lead singers. Orange was also the lead singer on "Nightshift" and "Brick House" among others. Catch up with the Commodores here.

100 Years Ago Today | Commuters of 1910

Permitted the initial suburban development that centered around the towns served by the trains. Then, in the post-WWII era this initial development boomed as more auto-oriented suburban development spread throughout.

The growth of the suburbs was a mixed-blessing for the City in that it both enabled the region overall to grow but also “drained” the City of much of its middle class in the mid and late-20th Century.

More benignly now, as the region has matured, the LIRR (despite it’s occasional service woes) is representative of this region’s extensive mass transit system. Over the long run, the existence of such a complex system will serve the region well.

We often lose sight of this fact. But consider the enormous struggle and cost cities like Los Angeles are now dealing with re-introduce an integrated suburban rail, urban subway and bus mass transit systems. Doing so helps one to realize what an enormous advantage NYC already has due to the foresight of people 100 years ago.