If I were a better detective (and if I had actual time on my hands), I could probably figure out the date of this photograph from the issue of Life magazine that Harry is selling. By clicking on the photo, you can make out the “I Am” hed on the magazine cover, but “I am” what? “a zombie”? “a Communist for the FBI”? “Spartacus”? I suppose thumbing through the Life covers on Google might turn up the correct answer.
This is probably the grainiest photo of the bunch but it’s clear enough to pick up what must have been the sharpest pair of trousers ever seen on a street corner vendor. Those are what people used to call “slacks,” and I’m sure they were a dead giveaway. How come people don’t call them “slacks” anymore? Probably for the same reason why people no longer buy newspapers. Things change.
That’s the cover from the week of July 1st, 1957.
Wow! I’ll post the cover tonight.
We regularly call dress pants “slacks” in the US. “Trousers” is really uncommon here and mostly used in Britain. At least, that’s the general trend. I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of the east coast were using a more British vernacular.