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.
These photos taken by LIFE photographer William C. Shrout show big, burly taxi cabs of the 1940s, and the rough-looking, distinctive characters who drove them.
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| A New York City doorman flags down a taxi for one of the residents of his building, 1944. |
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| Scene in New York City, 1944. |
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| Scene in New York City, 1944. |
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| Taxicabs line up for arriving train passengers at (the original) Pennsylvania Station, New York City, 1944. |
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| New York cabbies sporting their numbered Public Hack Driver badges, 1944. |
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| Scene in New York City, 1944. |
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| Taxi "hack stand," New York City, 1944. |
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| Train passengers wait to take taxi cabs outside (the original) Pennsylvania Station, New York City, 1944. |
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| 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. |
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| Mechanics use a hoist to drop in the motor of a taxicab under repair at cab company's maintenance garage, NYC, 1944. |
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| Taxicabs on Park Avenue, NYC, 1944. |
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| Scene in New York City, 1944. |
(Photos by William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)