There are eight million stories in the Naked City - A Tudor City Nightscape

There are eight million stories in the Naked City - A Tudor City Nightscape

A very special moment for me, to step out on my Westgate Grand Central terrace and embrace the view I'd requested in reserving my accommodations. I've had a long-standing love for both the Terminal City (*) and Tudor City sections of Midtown East, ever since my first explorations as a teen, pointing my first film single lens reflex camera at the distinctive architecture soaring in every direction I looked. To finally take in the view, from this 16th floor terrace, on a crystal-clear December night, so many years later, is a treasured facet of my lifelong love for this special part of Manhattan.

In this view, the juxtaposition of three of Tudor City's 1920s apartment towers and the mid-century modern
form of the United Nations Secretariat Building frame the East River and a slice of Long Island City, Queens.

About that title ... As I stretched out tonight with this photo from my first shooting from that terrace -- this time with some Miklós Rózsa (**) playing on the audio system at home, I could imagine the voice of Mark Hellinger, during the epilogue of a favorite film noir, (***) intoning “There are eight million stories in the Naked City..."

©2023 Steve Ember
(*)