Per Mark Caldwell’s “New York Night: The Mystique and Its History,” after Pearl Harbor there were fears that air raids might target New York City. Within a few months of America’s entry into World War II, it was determined that the greatest threat to New York’s skyline was the skyline itself, so illuminated that it painted a great big target on the island. As a result, a dimout was put into effect beginning May 18, 1942 — one that lasted nearly three years.
“All illuminated advertising had to be shut off permanently,” wrote Caldwell. “Theaters were allowed faint outside lights, but only on the undersides of their marquees … At home any lamp visible outdoors had to beam downward. Anyone living above the fifteenth floor of a skyscraper with lights visible from the sea had to douse them or hide them behind blackout curtains.” Times Square was one of the most dramatically impacted sections of New York — all its famous advertisements had to go dark, and even the news ribbon of The New York Times was shut off.
Reporters who were on the scene described the dimout as affecting the character of New York as much as it did the skyline. Without all its nightlights — and with gas rationing and the draft taking so many people and vehicles off the street — the city that never sleeps found its nocturnal energy noticeably softened.
