On 9/13/21 7:40 AM, Arthur David Olson wrote:
Folks looking for documentation of "3...2...1...leap" in New York might focus on 1987 or, before that, 1972 through 1979. (My guess 1987.)
I looked into this some more, and discovered that for 1988 there was a special Times Square production which extended the drop by one second and had a special light show during the leap second. The plans for this production are documented here: McFadden RD. '88 Countdown: 3, 2, 1, Leap Second, 0. New York Times. 1987-12-29. B1. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/29/nyregion/88-countdown-3-2-1-leap-second-0... McFadden wrote that officially the 1987-12-31 23:59:60 leap second was stationary, but that "unofficially" it was rolling through the US. However, when I reviewed YouTube videos of the Times Square event, it appeared that things didn't go off as smoothly as planned. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfySJJBFCRE This contains recordings of two broadcasts of the Times Square ball drop. In the first, the announcer says "3... 2... 1 leap and we're into '88!". However, the broadcast's digital clock inset (labeled "ABC TIME") has no leap second, and the announcer says "1 leap and" all within the same second to keep in sync with ABC TIME, so the leap second announcement was completely botched. That same YouTube video also contains a recording from another station, where there's also a digital clock inset with no leap second, and no mention of any leap second. So it appears that although the 1988 Times Squares organizers tried to observe a leap second at local midnight, many observers didn't get the point and so in some sense the observation did not work. I looked one other video of the 1988 New Year celebration, the Bill Graham / Grateful Dead celebration at Oakland Coliseum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZr13pQ9jZE and found no leap seconds. So here's what I suspect: * There was no longstanding tradition of observing a leap second at local midnight at Times Square. * 1988 was a one-off; the practice was not repeated. * McFadden's report that the leap second was rolling through the US was wishful thinking by the Times Square organizers. Further research and comments are welcome of course. Proposed further patch attached in the meantime.