--- title: New York Taxis, the Golden Age: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s description: LIFE.com recalls the taxi cabs that prowled New York City in the 1940s, and the rough-looking, distinctive characters who drove them. canonical: https://time.com/3877443/all-hail-new-york-taxis-gotham-cabs-and-cabbies-of-the-1940s/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-06-17T20:46:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:35.149Z og:title: New York Taxis, the Golden Age: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s og:description: LIFE.com recalls the taxi cabs that prowled New York City in the 1940s, and the rough-looking, distinctive characters who drove them. og:url: https://time.com/3877443/all-hail-new-york-taxis-gotham-cabs-and-cabbies-of-the-1940s/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43460f3f4f5d2f9/69884a4d35ba6f631ec0ca80/01_05583455.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Taxi Cabs 1944 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New York Taxis, the Golden Age: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s twitter:description: LIFE.com recalls the taxi cabs that prowled New York City in the 1940s, and the rough-looking, distinctive characters who drove them. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43460f3f4f5d2f9/69884a4d35ba6f631ec0ca80/01_05583455.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # All Hail New York Taxis: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 17, 2013 8:46 PM UTC  A New York City doorman flags down a taxi for one of the residents of his building, 1944. A New York City doorman flags down a taxi for one of the residents of his building, 1944.William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 17, 2013 8:46 PM UTC The New York City of most peoples’ imaginations usually looks and sounds like the New York of a few very distinct decades. There’s today’s post-Bloomberg New York City, of course — the bright, weirdly clean (well, it’s clean in parts of Manhattan, at least) largely smoke-free metropolis of complicated bike lanes, pedestrian malls and other “improvements” that, to most people, feel about as New Yark as a wine spritzer at a football game. Then there’s the Big Apple of the 1970s: the New York of _Mean Streets_ and _Taxi Driver;_ of “Ford to City: Drop Dead” and Blondie, Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, the New York Dolls and the Ramones at Max’s Kansas City; of “the Bronx Is Burning” and Son of Sam. The New York, in other words, of the old, scary, late, semi-lamented Times Square of sordid lore. [\[MORE: See the gallery, “Love Letter to New York: Classic LIFE Photos of the Big Apple”\]](http://life.time.com/culture/new-york-city-classic-photos-of-the-big-apple-from-life-magazine/#1) Finally, there’s New York in what many consider its Golden Age: the New York City of the 1940s and 1950s, when men wore hats, women wore gloves, a dime got you a cup of coffee and — in the popular imagination, anyway — there were doormen standing on every curb, flagging down taxi cabs for dames who looked like Veronica Lake. Here, in honor of that last vision of Gotham as a noir film set where absolutely everything is seen in deep-shadowed black-and-white, LIFE.com recalls those big, burly taxi cabs of the 1940s, and the rough-looking, distinctive characters who drove them. [\[MORE: See the gallery, “Lower Manhattan: Where New York Was Born”\]](http://life.time.com/history/lower-manhattan-before-9-11-classic-photos-of-downtown-new-york/#1) _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  A New York City doorman flags down a taxi for one of the residents of his building, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Taxicabs line up for arriving train passengers at (the original) Pennsylvania Station, New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  New York cabbies sporting their numbered Public Hack Driver badges, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Taxi "hack stand," New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Train passengers wait to take taxi cabs outside (the original) Pennsylvania Station, New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Close-up of typical cab driver's report including locations and fares collected during his day's work; taxicab drivers lined up at company's garage to turn in money collected in fares during the day (right), New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Mechanics use a hoist to drop in the motor of a taxicab under repair at cab company's maintenance garage, NYC, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Taxicabs on Park Avenue, NYC, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene in New York City, 1944. William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images New York Taxis, the Golden Age: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3877443/all-hail-new-york-taxis-gotham-cabs-and-cabbies-of-the-1940s/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3877443/all-hail-new-york-taxis-gotham-cabs-and-cabbies-of-the-1940s/"},"headline":"All Hail New York Taxis: Gotham Cabs and Cabbies of the 1940s","datePublished":"2013-06-17T20:46:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:47:35.149Z","description":"LIFE.com recalls the big, burly taxi cabs that prowled the streets of New York City in the 1940s, and the rough-looking, distinctive characters who drove them.","url":"https://time.com/3877443/all-hail-new-york-taxis-gotham-cabs-and-cabbies-of-the-1940s/","keywords":["Newsfeed","New York City","Autos","photography","automobile","taxi","1944","black and white photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43460f3f4f5d2f9/69884a4d35ba6f631ec0ca80/01_05583455.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43460f3f4f5d2f9/69884a4d35ba6f631ec0ca80/01_05583455.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Taxi Cabs 1944","caption":"A New York City doorman flags down a taxi for one of the residents of his building, 1944.","creditText":"William C. 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