A Look Back: Major blackout hits New York City on July 13, 1977 

Because it happened in real time some pain remains but yah realize how silly alot of this stuff really was.

I think it’s because of the unbiased reporting. I didn’t see any left or right news reporting but just reporters out and upfront getting the stories. Going right up to the looters and talking to them. Very addictive.

​@@jafll141 Nailed it. Precisely that. We were given the news without any personal angle. If there were any specific views, there was a segment dedicated to just that (usually called EDITORIAL), separate from the reporting. It's a refreshing watch (re watch in may case since I grew up on this stuff). We were able to develop our own views once we had a chance to at least digest what we watched. I miss it so.

For me, it's because it's like time travel....kind of.

I agree. Old news footage used to be informative and not driven by agendas. Now we are in the fake news era.

I'm a Pole and have never been to the US, actually I wasn't born until 1979, but I'm fascinated with the American history. Tell me please, do you prefer the old NYC with buildings and subway trains covered in graffiti, pimps and prostitutes around the Times Square area, with more crime etc., but with people being friendlier and more natural or the modern one, wealthy, clean & tidy?

Thank you for sharing your first-hand experience! Oral histories (well, typed) are so important.

I was 7 years old during that blackout, living in Tribeca...I remember the entire block cheered loudly when the Con Edison trucks came on the block to turn the lights back on

Watching Will get back to you

Did you ever get to see the rest of the movie?

02:35 it sounds like the Purge

@@omalone1169 it was bad. Looting etc. I'll never forget it.

🕊️🙏🏾🕊️

damn, the lights going out scares you that much? lol it's only darkness sugar😂

FYI it was pitch black outside, couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

Don't forget John Stossel and Joe Witte now . . . plus Jim's substitute co-anchor for this night, John Tesh.

@@wmbrown6 1:50 what happened 12 years ago?

Arnold Diaz just retired after 50 years on the tube

@@ericsamuelson5656And he died just recently.

​@@omalone1169Another blackour was what happened!

Okay?

Damn two different blackout incidents at the same city. But glad you’re both alright. I know it’s the past but damn that was scary

@@RealSergiob466 Well the 2003 blackout no one was doing any rioting in the streets like what see in these footages of the 1977 blackout.

@@ndr523Okay what? She made an interesting fact about her and her mom being born on the years NYC had major a blackout 26 years apart.

​@@jpla1886I agree. Some, like the person you wrote to, have nothing better, than to troll. I found the original poster's comment interesting.

I was in Litchfield CT in 1977 and in Philadelphia in 2003, where some PECO guy didn't like what he saw and pulled us off the grid, making us the only major city east of Detroit with power.

@@raygordonteacheschess5501damn how old are you?

True but 2003 was nothing like this

2003 was so tame compared to 1977. New Yorkers were way more patient as a whole and it made me proud to be a New Yorker. Today everything is more politically driven and it's sad

@@ATCguy1973 including handling a crisis.

You said it! They still are a crappy company.

@@NewYorkDoll_911 what brings you here ?

I have yet to hear this and also what happened with the troops ?

No thar T expression was around before 1977

@@valjohnson1927 I was joking. It started in 1933. Had nothing to do with looting though.

​@@samanthab1923 But that riots obviously changed the connotation! 😆😆😆

Who were the Mets playing ?⚾️

Broadway is VERY different. Gentrified. Million-dollar properties there in former brownfields; ghetto still extant.

Grandpa was so right.

@@dkeithtag Pretty sure at least some of that arson wasn't 'random acts of violence', it was motivated and initiated by long term 'urban renewal' interests...why certain people allowed NYC to descend into bankruptcy and chaos in the 1970s, and let the buildings go abandoned...So they could snatch them up cheap (some NYC abandoned buildings back then were literally selling for $1, if you were willing to pay to get them up to code)....and torch them if necessary (usually for the insurance money so they can 'rebuild' something newer and more expensive)...leading to the mad NYC rent hikes and real estate valuations in the 1980s

Oh yes, memories! But yoou notice not one EV car was stolen in the whole city. Why?😮

Your grandpa probably saved your life. It was wild out there!

Yep, the mayo ones... like the Son of Sam for example

hey your lazy greedy ancestor's brought us animals over here to build there stolen land I CALL IT KARMA LOL

And always will be it’s in their genes

He turned ny into a dump

don't know about the mayo but the hood was a mess..looting and robbing.. really pathetic..

Bushwick was a mess. had friends there.I was in the Bronx during the blackout and it was mind boggling what i witnessed traveling...

And the '65 blackout too.

We were a civilized nation in 03 ..now were like 77 again.. Danm democrats

More white people in 1965 and 911 humbled new Yorkers so they were more reflective in 2003.

@@nickcancelliere5638agree,…..the Dems turn EVERYTHING to shyt.

​@@michaelquinones-lx6ksMy thoughts exactly lol.

Dude is a legend!

Yes still no accountability.

Daaaaaaang! You said Crazy Eddie!!! I remember those commercials!

RIP CRAZY EDDIE! YOU WERE THE DUMBEST SALESMAN IN TOWN

I read a few years ago that the Crazy Eddie's in the Bronx had already shut down within an hour or less of the blackout, and the managers could see the gangs of looters running down the street to try to get to them, and they had to literally take out handguns or shotguns in case they tried to get in the store. That's just what I read, anyway. Not sure which store this was, Grand Concourse, Gun Hill Road? I dunno. I worked for Crazy Eddie's in LI for three years in the late 80s, but we never had any issues like that! P.S. I read that store was opened in 1976 or 77 on East Fordham Road, prob. off Grand Concourse or so.

Prayers for Harriet. Rest in peace.❤

🧢 Jones Beach is NOT in Brooklyn‼️😆😆😂😂😂 Good try though‼️💯🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭

​@@bkallday2998maybe he meant coney Island 😂

Did you smell him too?

I smelled him also.PU!

Me too.

Same!!! The summer of '77 chased us to the suburbs the very next year lol.

Nice use of the subjunctive!👍

That was under different circumstances but yes

Loved your statement...I am one of those "people" who lived through this type of stuff, and thankfully have every single marble still left in my head!

@@phyllissnookI was born in 2006, I’m a history nerd so I love hearing stories like this

Me to! I was 17.

bro was born in 1960

Those whose businesses were looted and burned were not OF the community. They were from the outside ans were exploited those in the community. The looters often saw it as playback. Of course it was not always the case that the business owners were from outside the community or exploiting the community. Unfortunately those who did were seen as justification to loot.

It's a mentality borne of poverty and over crowding that's not present in more affluent areas.

When your from a race that was enslaved and spitted on for 400 years in a country claiming to be inalienabel rights you take what you can yo even the score. Most of the looters never had a nice thing they were ever given once in their hole life?

God bless your dad for his service & bravery to be a police officer in that city, especially during those times

Places that are looted are poor with overcrowding and minimal services. Any race perpetually under such conditions would lash out in the same irrational way.

Did you see the NYC riot fires from the other side of the Hudson? 🤣🤣🤣

@@mrconfusion87 NO!!! Heard the Transformers & Power Lines Explode!!!!

That's when New York city was the best in the 70s. All the movie theaters were all next to each other on the same block. All the Porno shops Hookers all over the place. Manhattan was so much fun back than the seedy side of it.

@@kevinclark8549 You nailed it, Kevin. Rather have that then the crime, homeless everywhere, Disney tourists, shelters of today. Yeah, the porn theatres were great, I went, the excitement was great. Enjoy your evening, Kevin.

@@jeffbengert2863 you to Jeff thanks.

@@jeffbengert2863 there is a great Documentary around that Era. It's called the Torso killer. Richard Cottingham he was a serial killer. He was killing girls in the Time's Square and NJ areas. It's on Netflix. It's in 4 part's excellent documentary checkout when you get a chance.

@@kevinclark8549 Thank you, Kevin. Yes, I am familiar with him. He's probably somewhere on these crazy social media platforms in alias.....Jeff not a fan of social media. I believe he is still alive, in Jersey, prison, and if I remember what I read, one of his victim's daughters is trying to "bond" with him in some way or forgive him or something odd..... I think he picked up prostitutes and murdered a couple in Times Square back then in a seedy hotel there back then. Hey, I made it to 59, and have found recollections of those 70s growing up in Jersey and the "danger" that lurked in the City back then. I'd rather have that then this WOKE progressive bs and Disney characters etal .....Be well Kevin, and try not to get shot these days...

Facts

The 1977 NYC Blackout and Riots was like "The Cambrian Explosion" (to borrow a geological timeline term) for Hip Hop! 🤣🤣🤣

Wow. Sounds like the premise of “The Warriors” but with your cousins in toe. Crazy!

I mean all he really known for is hosting Entertainment Tonight

Insurab9is important. I wonder if their claims were denied because of the "insurrection " clause

@@valjohnson1927 The claims were denied because of that.

YOUD HAVE MILLIONS OF GUNS BLARING IN THE AIR NOW

Nowadays they'd scream out BLM.

​@@ekop1778what guns the government want to get rid of them but not the police guns some police officers are good people but they are more killer cops than good ones

Another 43 years would pass before NYC had another major riot!

They basically turned the blackout to a precursor of "The Purge"...

LOL

105 degrees? That's a Las Vegas temperature, not in New York.

​@@joedimaggio3687 Prolly he included the humidity as well...

Was it fun and did you get any loot when out and about Tomas Louis ??

@@powerplay4real174 i hooked up with 3 prostitues and didnt pay it was wild

Hmm. That's because Bensonhurst is a good neighborhood where the people care about their community. Yeah I grew up in Canarsie and while I was only 2 during the blackout I remember asking family about it and they said nothing like what happened in the bronx and other places happened in our neighborhood

I hope we don’t see nothing like that again but with crime is up is posible it could happen

Um, John Tesh is still alive and well; you're probably thinking of Jim Jensen (who died in 1999).

NJ and Connecticut were able to see the broadcast.Upstate NY was able to see it.

I had a little portable battery powered TV radio in the mid 80s. People might have had equipment like that in the 70s and therefore could watch it

Looks like it's in Africa.

Happens on a daily basis in Venezuela. 😅

Americans overall have become so dependent on technology, many would be in trouble

Lies.

@@lonniejolly5882 That’s what the report said

Don’t forget Jimmy Breslin….

🤣🤣

The Cambrian Explosion of Hip Hop!

4:24 is this Con Edison who Kool G Rap mentioned ?

@@omalone1169 Not that I know of. Have you heard of the Carrington Event, before?

Oh yeah, if you think this event is bad, just you wait until this does happen again but the entire country blacks out, not just for one day, but for an entire week. Now that would be something to watch and see what happens next, now that people's smartphone batteries may not even last long enough to withstand a week without power. But my dad's prepped for anything nowadays compared to Hurricane Sandy and the 2003 Blackout 10 to 20 years ago.

​@@SuperFlashDrivergood thi g I have a solar charge power bank

Us kids spent the entire summer on the lookout for Son of Sam and the yellow Volkswagen 🧐