parkbench

A close-up:

It's not certain when this small series of bench-sitting readers and nappers in Union Square was taken, or why. On this shot, however, the newspaper is readable, It is the New York World, and contains a headline "Frank's Lawyers Will Make Plea For A Life Term".
This probably refers to Leo M. Frank, awaiting execution in Georgia for the murder of a young girl. The case was extremely controversial, involving strong elements of racism and anti-Semitism. He was eventually granted life imprisonment by departing Governor Slaton, who had to flee the state for his life after that very unpopular act stirred up a mob frenzy.
On April 19, 1915, when the U.S. Supreme court turned down his last judicial appeal, he announced that he would seek to have his sentence commuted to a life sentence.
select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D13FB395B1773...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank#cite_note-50
On August 17, 1915, he was murdered by a lynch mob after it stormed the prison where he was being held.
The governor and his wife, in New York after fleeing Atlanta in the aftermath of the Frank death sentence commutation.

The negative, however, says 5-28-18 on the bottom.

www.redhotjazz.com/allstartrio.html "The All Star Trio were a popular dance band that consisted of saxophonist Wheeler Wadsworth, pianist Victor Arden and xylophonist George Hamilton Green." They were prolific, it appears from adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/391/All_Star... or www.loc.gov/jukebox/artists/detail/id/1406/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Star_Trio Hear the instrumental Marilynn at archive.org/details/78_marilynn_all-star-trio-wadsworth-a...

Thank you, we will add the names!

see also

Pianist Victor Arden is on the left, xylophonist George Hamilton Green in the middle, and saxophonist Wheeler Wadsworth on the right. For comparison, here they are with their instruments: www.discogs.com/artist/1334935-All-Star-Trio

xiphophilos Thank you for finding this information, Xiphophilos!