Sidewalk Artist

On Memorial Day Weekend in 1949, The Times sent a reporter and photographer to follow an out-of-town couple on their first visit to New York. The resulting story appeared with the headline, “Young Couple on First Visit Here Breathless After Tour of Big City ‘Wonders.'” The Boston couple was treated to a whirlwind three-hour tour of the Big Apple, including a stop in Greenwich Village with a street portrait artist.

“To a young out-of-town couple here for the Memorial Day weekend … New York is ‘wonderful, fabulous, glamorous, beautiful, and any other adjectives you can think of,’ ” The Times wrote May 31, 1949.

“This is our first time in New York,” said the 25-year-old woman. “I just can’t get over it. I thought Boston was big, but oh, my! The skyscrapers are so big and everything is on such a gigantic scale here. I really just can’t get over it.”

A street portrait artist sat with his easel at Washington Square South and Thompson Street and caught the couple’s attention. A moment later, the woman was in a chair posing for a portrait while her husband looked on. “I always wanted to do this, ” she said when the artist had finished.