Vintage Photograph Shows Thousands of Beachgoers on a Packed Coney Island Beach in August, 1975

Aug. 3, 1975: Coney Island was one of the few areas of activity during that summer’s hottest days, as the “Coney Island Chamber of Commerce reported a crowd of more than 1 million people, including more than 5,000 who slept on the beaches overnight,” The Times reported. Elsewhere across the five boroughs, “New York City was a town in low gear,” as temperatures seemed to linger in the 90s without any respite in sight.
Aug. 3, 1975: Coney Island was one of the few areas of activity during that summer’s hottest days, as the “Coney Island Chamber of Commerce reported a crowd of more than 1 million people, including more than 5,000 who slept on the beaches overnight,” The Times reported. Elsewhere across the five boroughs, “New York City was a town in low gear,” as temperatures seemed to linger in the 90s without any respite in sight.
Photo: Lively Morgue
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Photo: Lively Morgue

The Lively Morgue is a daily photo blog from the New York Times in which an original photo from the newspaper's archives is reposted along with tidbits of information gleaned from the historical article it accompanied. Along with a rescan of the original photograph, the backs of each photo are also scanned, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the editorial process of one of the world's best newspapers.

Today's posting features an aerial photograph of thousands of beachgoers, captured over Coney Island beach on a hot summer's day in August, 1975.

Aug. 3, 1975: Coney Island was one of the few areas of activity during that summer’s hottest days, as the “Coney Island Chamber of Commerce reported a crowd of more than 1 million people, including more than 5,000 who slept on the beaches overnight,” The Times reported. Elsewhere across the five boroughs, “New York City was a town in low gear,” as temperatures seemed to linger in the 90s without any respite in sight.

The original article from 1975 has more.

Matt Coneybeare

Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

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