tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52063806172354719912024-02-07T08:43:13.000-05:00The Bowery Boys: New York City HistoryThe Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.comBlogger1514125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-48825384938146018952015-01-09T10:50:00.000-05:002015-01-09T10:50:45.525-05:00History in the Making 1/9: Main Squeeze Forever Edition<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="306" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CT8nQU-tBno?rel=0" width="544"></iframe>
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The Lower East Side lost a great one this week. <b>Walter Kühr</b>, the owner of the <a href="http://mainsqueeze-nyc.com/"><b>Main Squeeze</b> accordion store</a>, died last weekend. He completely succeeded at his strange but profound mission in life -- to keep accordion music alive in the heart of a once-thriving immigrant neighborhood. He formed the Main Squeeze Orchestra -- an all-female accordion group -- who performed throughout the city. His store Main Squeeze was a bright and welcome oddity situated among the Chinese and Orthodox Jewish businesses of Essex Street.<br />
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And he was also a friend of the Bowery Boys, somebody who made us feel welcome when we moved to his neighborhood in the late 1990s. Walter was a one of a kind guy, and my heart is broken that Essex Street will no longer have this friendly advocate for great music. Learn more about him in the video above and in his obituary here. [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/nyregion/walter-khr-accordion-evangelist-dies-at-59.html?rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article&_r=0">New York Times</a>]<br />
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<b><br /></b><b>Alexander Hamilton</b> was born on January 11. That we do know. However the actual year is more uncertain. He was born <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nevis,+Saint+Kitts+and+Nevis/@17.1301225,-62.6293888,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8c123d9c1dd21dc5:0x59194b51b8c3b830">on the island of Nevis</a> in the Caribbean either in either 1755 or 1757. To <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4iafgTEhU3QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=alexander+hamilton&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T-qvVL72HcGYNpmZgbAM&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=1757&f=false">quote</a> Ron Chernow: "The mass of evidence from the period of Hamilton's arrival in North America does suggest 1757 as his birth year, but, preferring the integrity of contemporary over retrospective evidence, we will opt here for a birthday of January 11, 1755."<br />
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Regardless you can celebrate his birthday this Saturday at Hamilton Grange for t<a href="http://www.nps.gov/hagr/upload/Hamilton-Birthday-2015.pdf">heir big birthday celebration</a>. Or save up your enthusiasm for the start of <b>Lin-Manuel Miranda</b>'s <i>Hamilton </i>musical at the Public Theater, <a href="http://www.publictheater.org/Programs--Events/The-Public-Theater/Public-Theater-2014-2015-Season/">starting on January 20th</a>. Or, to escape the cold, maybe you'd like to just go down to Nevis and visit <a href="http://www.nevis-nhcs.org/">the Alexander Hamilton birthplace</a>?<br />
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And some other links of interest:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Mega-City</span></b>: The completely batty plan to turn Manhattan into a landfill-created mega-island, expanding into the harbor and gobbling up islands to become, no joke, "<b>Really Greater New York</b>." [<a href="http://gothamist.com/2015/01/07/in_1912_there_was_a_plan_to_annex_g.php">Gothamist </a>and <a href="http://gizmodo.com/the-plan-to-build-a-mega-manhattan-that-failed-thank-g-1678281980/+maxread">Gizmodo</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Streit's Matzo</span></b>, an institution of Rivington Street and the Lower East Side, has decided to close its doors after 95 years. Sigh. [<a href="http://www.boweryboogie.com/2015/01/exclusive-streits-matzo-factory-contract-leaving-lower-east-side-spring/">Bowery Boogie</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Parks and Recreation</span></b>: Photographer Jon Sobel is visiting every public park in New York City. Not an easy task in this place! For his latest entry, he visits the lush <b>Clove Lakes Park</b> in Staten Island, once a 19th century estate and grist mill and a favored spot of <b>Frederick Law Olsted</b>. [<a href="http://parkodyssey.blogspot.com/2014/12/clove-lakes-park.html">Park Odyssey</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Haunted Well</span></b>: You may remember<b> the tale of</b> <b>the mysterious SoHo well</b> from one of <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-ghouls-return-bowery-boys-ghost.html">our past ghost story podcasts</a>. Well, you can now go see the well as it's been incorporated into the decor of the clothing store which now inhabits the spot at 129 Spring Street. WOW. [<a href="http://www.scoutingny.com/theres-a-200-year-old-haunted-well-in-this-soho-clothing-store/">Scouting NY</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">A Murderer's Read</span></b>: My latest story for the 1981 website tie-in to <i>A Most Violent Year </i>focuses on <b>Mark David Chapman</b> -- the killer of John Lennon -- and his macabre crusade to promote the book <i><b>The Catcher In The Rye</b></i>. [<a href="http://1981.nyc/mark-david-chapmans-macabre-crusade-promote-catcher-rye/">1981.nyc</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Before Stonewall:</span></b> A brief look at a little gay and lesbian history along <b>Christopher Street</b>. [<a href="http://gvshp.org/blog/2015/01/08/lgbtq-history-around-christopher-street/">Off the Grid</a>]<br />
<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0Essex Street, New York, NY 10002, USA40.7184476 -73.98824139999999340.7064126 -74.008411399999986 40.730482599999995 -73.9680714tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-55115952767722684822015-01-08T12:10:00.001-05:002015-01-08T12:10:49.602-05:00The Doomsman: an apocalyptic view of New York City in 2015, written in 1906 by America's foremost golf expert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>From the original illustrations of The Doomsman: a look up Park Row in 2015, a decrepit row of deteriorating structures. You can clearly see the ruins of old Post Office at the foot of City Hall Park. Compare this view to the photograph at the bottom of this post.</i><br />
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<b><i>"Such is the world, or, rather, one infinitesimal portion of the cosmos, in the year 2015, according to the ancient calendar, or 90 since the Terror."</i></b><br />
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The destruction of New York City is a literary pastime that began in the late 19th century, usually in the hands of moralist writers seeking a little comeuppance upon the great evil of modern life.<br />
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By the year 1900, Manhattan had already been destroyed by nitroglycerin bombs (<b>Park Benjamin Jr</b>'s '<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_vkVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA82&dq=park+benjamin+%22end+of+new+york%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X5SuVMLNGJPfggT8p4D4Bg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=park%20benjamin%20%22end%20of%20new%20york%22&f=false">The End of New York</a>," 1880), left to waste in a future dystopia (<b>John Ames Mitchell</b>'s <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kf5iVVWp23YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+ames+mitchell+last+american&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kZSuVI-ONIykNvXSg4gF&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Last American</a></i>, 1889), and cleansed with poison gas in a 'revolutionary holocaust' (<i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_AwZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ignatius+donnelly+caesar%27s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wJSuVKXaHsuYNpeTgpAE&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false">Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century</a></i>, written in 1890 by Congressman <b>Ignatius Donnally</b>).*<br />
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In 1906, the Episcopalian minister <b>William Van Tassel Sutphen</b> entered the fray with his own version of post-apocalyptic New York City in the novel <i><b>The Doomsman</b></i>, first <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=g3rNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA200&dq=doomsman+metropolitan+magazine&hl=en&sa=X&ei=55SuVOV8gaE2s7SDgAo&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=doomsman%20metropolitan%20magazine&f=false">serialized</a> in Metropolitan Magazine.<br />
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What makes this book especially interesting today is that the breathless plot takes place in the year 2015.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM0O2Ckn20T32aCAXhB431AM570IBVYqQ37Ja-vwvR1oml722NY5jV_XySNkATAhtvN4HOf67Vnx0k8RiFVlZ3eax-Jf9NLQVVU5rNmIO7dQh5IQ3pEJslctKM_IVMekITO5frLEZvwgA/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM0O2Ckn20T32aCAXhB431AM570IBVYqQ37Ja-vwvR1oml722NY5jV_XySNkATAhtvN4HOf67Vnx0k8RiFVlZ3eax-Jf9NLQVVU5rNmIO7dQh5IQ3pEJslctKM_IVMekITO5frLEZvwgA/s1600/1.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a>Sutphen, an intellectual and New York literary sophisticate, is perhaps best known today as an early sports writer, best known for his observations on the sport of golf. <br />
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In 1898, he wrote the very Dr. Seuss-ian<i> <b>Golfers Alphabet</b></i>. ("<i>A is Arithmetic, handy to know/When the score figures up to a hundred or so.</i>") His most popular book remains 1901's <i><b>The Nineteenth Hole: Being Tales of the Fair Green</b></i>, featuring humorous stories along the sporting course.<br />
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He was closely associated with <b>Harper Brothers</b>, writing and editing for the publishing house for most of his life. It was for Harpers that Sutphen wrote <i>The Doomsman</i>, his first non-golf book.<br />
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<i>The Doomsman</i> is Anglo-Saxon fantasy, <i>Game of Thrones</i> lite, turning the New York metropolitan era into a landscape of wild vales and stockades. But its most interesting element is the depiction of a future Manhattan neglected and overcome, its ruins lorded by the vicious remnants of mankind. <br />
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Keep in mind however this is 1906 Manhattan. This is the futuristic version of an old landscape. The novel's version of a dismantled America should be familiar to anyone whose watched a recent disaster film or enjoyed an episode of <b><i>The Walking Dead</i></b>.<br />
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<b><i>"For miles and miles the ruined city stretched away, a wilderness of brick and mortar. Here and there were areas of blackness and vacancy, where fire had worked its will. </i></b><br />
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<b><i>The business section, with its substantial shops and warehouses, and the central district, made up of the clubs, churches, theatres and the handsomer private homes, remained intact. And yet, withal, the spectacle was a singularly mournful and depressing one, for nowhere were there any signs of life."</i></b><br />
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It's 2015, and New York City is now called Doom. At some point in the 1920s, a Great Change occurred, so instantly that few could prepare for the aftermath. The wealthiest New Yorkers, "seiz[ing] upon the shipping in the harbors for their exclusive use," fled via steamships. The remaining population were ravaged by the Terror, a combination of panic and disease, and left only a handful of survivors. Most fled to the countryside but died there. All industry, "every form of thought and progress," ceased to be. "The relapse into barbarism was swift."<br />
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People escaped into new walled encampments and quickly divided into medieval classes. Walled fortifications appeared over the ruins of the outer boroughs, Long Island and Westchester. Our hero Clemens is raised at Greenwood Keep <i>(pictured above)</i>, some kind of stockade presumably in the area of <b>Greenwood Cemetery</b>.<br />
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The area is constantly terrorized by The Doomsmen, inhabitants of the ruins of Doom. When Clemens' own home is savagely destroyed in an attack, Clemens vows to venture into Doom and seek his revenge on the nefarious warrior Quinton Edge.<br />
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In 1906, the year <i>Doomsman </i>was published, there was not yet a <b>Woolworth Building</b>, but downtown Manhattan was in the midst of a colossal building boom unlike any other. The author plays upon the fears of the day. Unusual gases seeped from the broken sidewalks. Old stone adornments fall the sky, almost killing our hero. <br />
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New York's skyscrapers still exist in 2015, but all were empty, hollowed out and falling apart; one skyscraper on Park Row "had settled and was leaning over at a terrifying divergence from the perpendicular." (It's pictured in the illustration at top.)<br />
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He eventually arrives at the main branch of the <b>New York Public Library </b><i>(at left)</i><b> </b>-- lion-less and half-completed in 1906 -- and meets the tempestuous young Esmay whom he will eventually fall in love with.<br />
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With a little detective work, you can figure out many of the real-life locations depicted here. For instance, the walled city Croye, "the principal city of this western hemisphere in the year 2015," is actually <b>Yonkers</b>. Perhaps because it's already so ancient looking, one landmark retains its name -- the <b>High Bridge</b>. <br />
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But most of the action takes place in Citadel Square, alongside the Palace Road (Broadway). That's actually <b>Madison Square</b>, which has become the encampment of the Doomsmen, many of whom are holed up in the White Tower -- most likely the medieval-looking tower upon old <b>Madison Square Garden</b>.<br />
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Our hero takes up a home on the fourth floor of the peculiar building to its southern side, a structure that would have been sparkling new in the mid 1900s. "The building had been constructed upon a narrow, triangular plot of land, and its ground-plan bore a fanciful resemblance to the shape of a flat-iron." From this vantage within the <b>Flatiron Building</b>, Clemens is able to launch arrows upon his enemy.<br />
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But perhaps its strangest detail comes from another obsession of the late 19th century -- <b>electricity</b>. The Doomsmen worship The Shining One, an electric dynamo in an abandoned power plant. A crazed priest has been able to reconnect the power and turn -- get this -- an electric chair into the central relic of worship!<br />
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<i>The Doomsman</i> is hardly an unfairly forgotten masterpiece. Its racial and ethnic politics are frankly repellent, its female characters mostly stock characters of helpless maidens and selfish harpies. The prose is occasionally cinematic -- that's cinema in 1906 -- perfect for a silent film adaptation that regrettably never happened.<br />
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<i>At right: The original cover of the book featured the Flatiron Building</i><br />
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For a modern audience, it's most interesting for its descriptions of Gilded Age ruin, of a city that never developed to embrace automobiles. In a book that's so conventionally swashbuckling, it's startling to read passages like, "Hats and garments, cash-boxes and accountbooks, littered the hallways and were piled in little heaps at the entrances of elevators."<br />
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The book is in the public domain if you would like to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=35weAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sutphen+doomsman&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WrSuVOzaJ4GKNtn8g9AK&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sutphen%20doomsman&f=false">read it for yourself</a>.<br />
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**If you're looking for more Victorian era tales of future destruction, <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/item/47b433xn#page-21">check out this paper</a> by Mike Davis and other authors called 'Dark Raptures'.<br />
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<i>Below: A look at City Hall Post Office and Park Row before everything went to hell. Compare with the image at the top.</i><br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0Flatiron Building, 175 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA40.7410605 -73.989698615.219026000000003 -115.2982926 66.263095 -32.6811046tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-72297242344199243092015-01-06T09:59:00.003-05:002015-01-06T10:53:46.522-05:00The Horror Underground: New York's first subway disaster -- during rush hour, one hundred years ago today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On January 6, 1915, a seemingly minor incident under the streets of Midtown caused a terrible panic, "<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/01/07/issue.html" style="text-align: left;">the worst disaster in the history of the New York subway</a><span style="text-align: left;">" up to that date, injuring hundreds of commuters and killing one. </span>
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That morning, two electrical cables feeding into manholes at <b>Broadway and 52nd Street</b> suddenly shorted out, causing a blackout in the subway tunnels below. The cable insulation, not fireproof, began issuing masses of "dense acrid" smoke that soon filled the tunnels. <br />
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The event occurred at the start of rush hour so there where three trains between 50th Street and Columbus Circle that were immediately affected. Over 2,500 people were trapped in the subway cars or stuck inside suddenly dark stations.<br />
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Nothing but the wires was actually on fire. But the billowing, toxic smoke in darkened tunnels soon caused a panic as passengers began clawing for the doors, trampling the weak underfoot.<br />
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From some newspaper sources:<br />
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"The firemen found passengers struggling to get out of the few car doors that were opened while hundreds of persons lay upon the car floors, having been asphyxiated or trampled on in this panic. Others escaped from cars only to fall besides the tracks blinded and with lungs full of smoke." [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/01/07/issue.html">New York Times</a>]<br />
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"Blindly shouting and screaming, the passengers ran from the car they were in to the other cars, hoping to find some relief from the fumes and smoke. They knocked each other down in their wild scramble to get air and clawed each other's clothing......In a few minutes the sound of crashing glass gave higher pitch to the panic." [<a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1915-01-07/ed-1/seq-1/">New York Tribune</a>]<br />
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"There ensued a disgraceful and brutal battle for safety. Men and boys knocked down and trampled women and girls.......Most of the women had practically all their clothing torn off. Many of the men were stripped to the sides from the waist up." [<a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1915-01-06/ed-1/seq-2/">Evening World</a>]<br />
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Hundreds were sent to the hospital with various injuries, mostly smoke inhalation, but many from the horrors of being trampled underfoot. Unfortunately, one woman was killed in the incident.<br />
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Firefighters had few options in rescuing passengers. Most were delivered up ladders along a small passage at 55th Street. The air was so toxic that many firemen were themselves hospitalized.<br />
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Subway service was naturally disrupted for a few a days afterwards. Officials initially shrugged off the incident. "In the present state of the art," said Frank Hedley, general manager of the Interborough Rapid Transit, "there is nothing known which will prevent the recurrence of short circuits." However, attention soon turned to woefully inadequate insulation used in subway wiring.<br />
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"New York received a warning, when hundreds of passengers were suffocated in the subway. The next occurrence may be far more serious in loss of life due to a similar cause -- suffocation. No time should be lost remedying the most serious defect of the subway, viz. lack of suitable ventilation at all times." [<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GNcMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=new+york+subway+1915+%22january+6%22&source=bl&ots=Wrq2VVVSyk&sig=c3HTLw9Wpp8_lWFUoA6W03llKys&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RfiqVOHELsWTyAT99IGgAw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20subway%201915%20%22january%206%22&f=false">source</a>]<br />
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Redesigned subway cars and fireproof wiring would soon ensure such a disaster would not occur again.<br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-87228467094713309722015-01-02T12:35:00.001-05:002015-01-02T12:44:01.920-05:00Ten New Year's resolutions that can help make New York City a better place to live in 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR1TqPbhphMzmDA7fKRY2rocfac6WtXbJUDuP6XY7hocIBcLB-ijF5QrM9aTNq1dCPa7WHo4XznJXMR7hyphenhyphengxQthEK2LqXnfB3Kz0zX8JjqxO5EZTOorWqcz-id1HYpBeT6B09e_PFcsIU/s1600/4247999860_2b894bf07a_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR1TqPbhphMzmDA7fKRY2rocfac6WtXbJUDuP6XY7hocIBcLB-ijF5QrM9aTNq1dCPa7WHo4XznJXMR7hyphenhyphengxQthEK2LqXnfB3Kz0zX8JjqxO5EZTOorWqcz-id1HYpBeT6B09e_PFcsIU/s1600/4247999860_2b894bf07a_o.jpg" height="460.96" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harlem Street with Church, by William H Johnson, 1939-40, courtesy the Smithsonian Institute</span></span></div>
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In the 1980s comic book <i>Watchmen</i>, a redheaded protester haunts a local New York newsstand holding a sign which says <b>THE END IS NIGH</b>. Sometimes I feel the urge to hoist my own version of that sign upon a street corner, moaning as I watch the city I fell in love with change into something alien and unfamiliar, a luxury product completely out of reach of most of its own residents.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeGgKefWHUpBs5WydP3qJb7mCmkcjgAROAgPfAety9mhiIJC7FjoRQIVAXhGd9gpxJbvCJBKaTUj9cotjj_UpeEgCvy-yWSeUiBBnaxe8daEVOaNOUyJxwoU7ZspSzbXjEGSlo1sLkgs/s1600/645650-chap2.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeGgKefWHUpBs5WydP3qJb7mCmkcjgAROAgPfAety9mhiIJC7FjoRQIVAXhGd9gpxJbvCJBKaTUj9cotjj_UpeEgCvy-yWSeUiBBnaxe8daEVOaNOUyJxwoU7ZspSzbXjEGSlo1sLkgs/s1600/645650-chap2.1.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a>Beloved spots of substantial historical value are constantly closing. Mega-condos will rule Midtown. The phrase 'pricey neighborhood' applies to more places than ever before. You sense that the character of the city might be changing too. You might be thinking about things that you can do to help preserve what you loved about New York in the first place and help keep it livable for the 21st century.<br />
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The city needs you! Here are ten ways of becoming a better New Yorker for 2015, ten things you can do (or mindsets you can develop) to continue making this a great place to live. This is the fleshed-out list that first appeared in <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-best-of-2014-bowery-boys-year-in.html">our Year In Review podcast</a>.<br />
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1) <b>Learn history. Talk about history.</b><br />
We live in old buildings, walk down old streets. The stories behind them influence our lives to this day. Knowing the history of your neighborhood or your favorite landmark isn't just a fun stash of trivia you can unspool at a party. It adds greater value to the places you interact with everyday. And if you're going to pay all that money for rent, wouldn't you like get a bit more out of it?<br />
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This isn't just about<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham:_A_History_of_New_York_City_to_1898"> reading books</a> about history, watching Ken Burns documentaries,<a href="http://www.nyhistory.org/"> going to</a> <a href="http://www.mcny.org/">museums</a> or, you know, <a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/">listening to a podcas</a>t. It's about conceiving your life as the next chapter of the places around you. Engage with others about the importance of knowing history. Because you never know who will have the energy and power to preserve it should the places you love become endangered. In this day and age, you can't fully trust that a landmarks commission or a preservation group will be fully empowered to step in.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Old Pennsylvania Station, photographed from Macy's, taken by Irving Underhill, courtesy <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWO6IVXN&SMLS=1&RW=1440&RH=751#/SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWO6IVXN&SMLS=1&RW=1440&RH=751&PN=2">Museum of City of New York</a></span></i><br />
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2) <b>Read Jane Jacobs' book <i>The Death and Life of Great American Cities</i></b><br />
Jacobs was a community activist during the <b>Robert Moses</b> era of vast highways and the modernist architecture boom. She was a crusader for active streets, of fluid interactive neighborhoods, during an era dominated by the ideals of Moses and modernist concrete architecture. <br />
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Her great manifesto <i>The Death and Life of Great American Cities</i>, written in 1961, takes on a new relevance in the New York City of 2014. I suspect we may continue to need Jacobs' guidance as the city enters a new era of transformation.<br />
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3) <b>Protest and speak out</b><br />
Most people don't protest anything that exists outside their personal life. When confronted with the closure of a favorite grocery store or the demolition of a beloved building, the tendency is simply to shrug your shoulders and sigh, "That's sucks. Oh well!"<br />
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If it means something to you, take a few minutes out of your day, go in and ask why a place is closing. Interact with proprietors, let them know that you're sorry to see them go. <br />
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Perhaps you'll be told that there's something you can do (sign a petition, make a phone call). Perhaps there's nothing you can do. But your simple words of encouragement may help that shop owner or employee make it through a rough day. And could help in the thought process of their next great venture. And if enough people do the same thing, perhaps the fate of a certain place can be changed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRxdfKQv81T3kdpXgrhyphenhyphen9V9ULC5FB0haqNYk4Y8G5_hTR5yiIeMvZVzGcIQczpr_8LnbnX8Ey_rnHeYLL0AQdKZ7fQAcW5USheIfauCtQ_k3Hy6-0daw8-UvtWO9sG52pRk3cEcWQMvI4/s1600/MNY323106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRxdfKQv81T3kdpXgrhyphenhyphen9V9ULC5FB0haqNYk4Y8G5_hTR5yiIeMvZVzGcIQczpr_8LnbnX8Ey_rnHeYLL0AQdKZ7fQAcW5USheIfauCtQ_k3Hy6-0daw8-UvtWO9sG52pRk3cEcWQMvI4/s1600/MNY323106.jpg" height="438.6" width="550.4" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">350 Fifth Avenue. Empire State Building, view of from Lincoln Building, East 42nd Street. Photo by the Wurts Brothers, courtesy <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWO6I8ZJ&SMLS=1&RW=1440&RH=751">Museum of City of New York</a></span></i><br />
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4) <b>Look into a community group</b><br />
Community groups are often on the front line of major shifts within a neighborhood. The problem is, they can be intimidating to join. Regular meetings can be held at inconvenient times and are less than exhilarating, often bogged down with minutiae.<br />
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Don't let that stop you. Community groups need you and they need your voice, even if you're a new resident. There are perks to becoming acquainted with the most vocal members of your neighborhood. And keep in mind that you can participate in some groups even if you don't live there. The <a href="http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/index.htm">Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation</a> is a great example.<br />
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5) <b>Identify where <i>you</i> might be part of the problem</b><br />
The unsettling end result of learning history and becoming involved with your community is that you may come to a realization that you are part of a larger problem. Perhaps you're part of a gentrification wave moving into expensive apartments in a once-affordable neighborhood. Perhaps you unknowingly displaced somebody else. Maybe you don't really spend that much time in your neighborhood. Is it merely a place you hang your hat, as they say?<br />
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This sort of self-reflection can make you feel a little helpless. Or it can empower you to offset the negative impact you might be making upon a neighborhood. After all, people interested in environmental issues will try and lower their carbon footprint. If you're interested in a vital and rich New York City, why not make small, worthwhile changes to your own life?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-oa4ASW6zyiVlmZjHmp9VlyqrsAxv1si0r7FOZGN-2__NwzxP-Zs2XEkNt5Mys3UCd6u2YMq6Elb6YBuxKJwiefBa73gQNi_gsGME28SBitKgIYZXQ3qykMPqmkPiGD0846e3mqOQ34/s1600/3887515529_d6d973d5dd_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV-oa4ASW6zyiVlmZjHmp9VlyqrsAxv1si0r7FOZGN-2__NwzxP-Zs2XEkNt5Mys3UCd6u2YMq6Elb6YBuxKJwiefBa73gQNi_gsGME28SBitKgIYZXQ3qykMPqmkPiGD0846e3mqOQ34/s1600/3887515529_d6d973d5dd_o.jpg" height="371.52" width="550.4" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Block of brownstone residences in Park Slope, photographed by Danny Lyon, 1974, courtesy <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/3887515529/in/photolist-ceFuDb-6dhQwF-73UioV-59xwnp-9pyS1w-4EzBVh-5JSGzo-4EzBRW-6VwwVP-4Knfz3-6VAvSo-6VAAHy-epp258-5fkGUC-nSSeFS-4KhYbt-7QhJvY-6VwqiT-6VAzkh-bSfA7n-4i7cak-5nDhw2-6VAyfE-6VADmj-6VAtVo-9pyRYE-bXj9Cx-nXsSe1-6VwsJV-oU6wWQ-6VwAHV-nSH4wF-4i7zE6-6cbCpt-5fkJrm-6VwrEZ-6VAGUN-6VwrPn-4i8wCz-6VwpLX-4id94j-5fkKR3-6VwDmX-6VwpTB-adUbQk-p9xMJh-9pvQBx-6VwBKr-6ci5vQ-6VwDeR">US National Archives</a></i></span><br />
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6) <b>Spend your money locally</b><br />
This is the number one way to support your neighborhood. Seek out shops and services that are within three to five blocks of your home. Try to visit them all at least once and evaluate what they can provide for you. I assure you that the convenience will make up for any extra costs, and you might find that local places may actually be cheaper. Personal maintenance services (salons, manicurists, dry cleaners) are the easiest, then branch out to grocery stores and delis.<br />
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You probably will still need to spend at big box retailers or chains on occasion, but just be aware of the kinds of items that can be easily purchased within your neighborhood. Even among the big shops, there's a distinction between local franchises and national ones. Nine times out of ten, the services at local chains are more personal and the prices can be competitive. <br />
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7) <b>Get out of your neighborhood</b><br />
Mass transit operates a bit like a transporter on <i>Star Trek</i>, materializing you from point to point without the context of time and distance. It disguises the fact that New York is one of the most walkable cities in the world with hundreds of miles of sidewalk. To understand your neighborhood, you sometimes must become more aware of those around yours.<br />
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Break out of your comfort zone and break out some walking shoes. Get off the subway two or three stops before your home and just walk the rest of the way. (Or get out a few stops <i>after</i> you usually get out.) This is greatest way of clearing your head after a long day, and you'll always discover something new along the way. Instead of leaving town for the weekend, chart a course via public transportation to a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.<br />
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You'll be able to see the history of New York City this way as clustered brownstones give way to housing development or homes with front yards. Avenues with towering skyscrapers sometimes lead to sun-filled side streets. The more you experience, the more attractive the city becomes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3_JbamTJX0nbpAI72VPRC6rK1Drfsv0q_g3yd2VrCRdOIL-JVuQGqWGuElBRmjWTksRUKLFq14_6XjAqT_6ZtfKjlpKXQHFJguTzj7ZdypPadGWwrawZ-d1Yuv39KW8EbZtZRcIJCK4/s1600/index.php.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3_JbamTJX0nbpAI72VPRC6rK1Drfsv0q_g3yd2VrCRdOIL-JVuQGqWGuElBRmjWTksRUKLFq14_6XjAqT_6ZtfKjlpKXQHFJguTzj7ZdypPadGWwrawZ-d1Yuv39KW8EbZtZRcIJCK4/s1600/index.php.jpeg" height="362.92" width="550.4" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">St. George, Staten Island, photomechanical print/postcard, courtesy New York Public Library</span></i><br />
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8) <b>Get young people and new arrivals excited about history</b><br />
New Yorkers can get very jaded. That mindset can help preserve a neighborhood or it can generate a profound lack of enthusiasm. History and preservation has always been seen as an elder pursuit. The young don't care about history, right? Well, as the producer of a New York City history podcast and blog, I can tell you quite the opposite. I believe the present generation has the greatest potential for appreciating history and using its tools to create a better city.<br />
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Museums and community groups should be doing more to reach out to younger people, but you can help out with that too, everything from the presents you buy somebody for their birthday (put down <i>Divergent</i> and get them <i>Gangs of New York</i>) to the places you go with them. And this includes new arrivals to New York who simply may not yet feel comfortable wandering around the city themselves.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRXSMsU0FOLzHPsvXP1gI8ikXqDNvhi-9eeD_1zhI0mPqf7PdTCCotaBNm4Zx7bH9XHg_sbFyz2UYnhsMb-EZ8vvuDyb1U6KxbjSDPnZk1rCUuLPup7RiztQWznT1klgW-bNXQa3p5yM/s1600/dead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRXSMsU0FOLzHPsvXP1gI8ikXqDNvhi-9eeD_1zhI0mPqf7PdTCCotaBNm4Zx7bH9XHg_sbFyz2UYnhsMb-EZ8vvuDyb1U6KxbjSDPnZk1rCUuLPup7RiztQWznT1klgW-bNXQa3p5yM/s1600/dead.jpg" height="412.8" width="550.4" /></a></div>
<i>Outside the former Mars Bar in the East Village which closed in 2011. (Courtesy the<a href="http://commercialobserver.com/2013/04/robert-perl-the-east-villages-counterculture-landlord/"> Commercial Observer</a>)</i><br />
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9) <b>Remain a little outraged</b><br />
I don't mean to take away the joy of feeling a little jaded and grumpy. Sometimes that's the fuel that can lead to a movement but only if you become proactive. Make yourself heard. Become a voice of discontent in social media. Read <a href="http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/">Jeremiah's Vanishing New York</a> at least once a week and get a little angry at the closures of so many places that provide richness and texture to the city.<br />
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There <i>is</i> something very serious happening in New York -- this era will be noted by future historians -- and this requires a unique and unconventional effort. If you care at all, then you <i>have</i> to be part of it in some way. Find a way to contribute -- through your written words or conversations, to your co-workers or your congressperson. But through it all....<br />
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10) <b>DON'T PANIC</b><br />
NEW YORK CITY IS OVER. You will hear variations of this from your concerned friends and read similar refrains on message boards and comment sections. Check the comments on <a href="http://gothamist.com/">Gothamist</a> on any given day and you will see variants of this phrase about twenty times.<br />
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This statement is inaccurate. New York City has gone through vast changes over the decades. Gentrification has been a regularly recurring process in the city for almost one hundred years. The remnants of beloved eras (<b>Harlem</b> in the '30s,<b> Greenwich Village</b> in the '60s, <b>East Village</b> in the '80s) are disappearing, seemingly at a rapid pace these days. Urban blight reoccurs as well.<br />
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What's different is our perception of these changes. I can openly lament the loss of <i>my</i> <b>Meatpacking District</b>, for instance, because it wasn't like what I loved about it in the 1990s. But another person will look at me and say, "Are you nuts? It's safer than ever. You're glamorizing things that are actually quite terrible. And besides the High Line is amazing."<br />
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The New York City that you fell in love with might be disappearing. Do what you can to help preserve that part of it that you loved. But always remember that <i>your</i> city most likely replaced somebody else's version of New York City. It's constantly reinventing itself and sometimes to the detriment of many of its residents. <br />
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In the end, New York City is never <i>over</i> but it can become tremendously unbalanced. This should be a city for all of us, not some of us. Become a voice in 2015 to make sure that doesn't happen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz_5RK1QkPXo-a5YUhj03D1Y_JNY7VYU2ClvC41sRXyqdSqKCzHgJ9MGEaDZn0kFLH0abd7ouWWOA8DpJfDEskTvl6yxyLNiyGI1l3WlniIH6zdEL4U-jtTEuKiCYI2O6AybAVaG6BRjw/s1600/brooklyn-bridge-park-steps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz_5RK1QkPXo-a5YUhj03D1Y_JNY7VYU2ClvC41sRXyqdSqKCzHgJ9MGEaDZn0kFLH0abd7ouWWOA8DpJfDEskTvl6yxyLNiyGI1l3WlniIH6zdEL4U-jtTEuKiCYI2O6AybAVaG6BRjw/s1600/brooklyn-bridge-park-steps.jpg" height="366.36" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Brooklyn Bridge Park (courtesy <a href="http://wirednewyork.com/parks/brooklyn_bridge_park/">Wired New York</a>)</span></i><br />
<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-76103409271051196972014-12-31T11:46:00.002-05:002014-12-31T11:46:49.091-05:00Goodbye 2014! The top stories on the Bowery Boys blog<b>Happy 2015 to everyone! </b>We want to thank you for listening to the show this year, checking in with the blog and following along with us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Boweryboys">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/boweryboys">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/05/follow-bowery-boys-on-instagram.html">Instagram</a>. Lots of incredible things in store for the next year so we hope to see you throughout the next year.<br />
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For a look back here on the blog, here are <b>the top five most read articles from 2014.</b><br />
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1) <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/08/knickerbocker-hospital-inspiration-for.html"><b>Knickerbocker Hospital: An inspiration for Cinemax's <i>The Knick</i></b></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiID0Mm065saIwC0sWyxfNWN6_Pc1iwhvlas_QG8broO2W2vZcK4EH7fWmu0Km2WWrBNS0-_ky201XjlNaSItbZZ3JhiVAevBbwhOiPzKTf0RorGKc4VDNhk_oadfZimGyq8Lya4an5g4/s1600/5234275025_9c9066b0ec_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiID0Mm065saIwC0sWyxfNWN6_Pc1iwhvlas_QG8broO2W2vZcK4EH7fWmu0Km2WWrBNS0-_ky201XjlNaSItbZZ3JhiVAevBbwhOiPzKTf0RorGKc4VDNhk_oadfZimGyq8Lya4an5g4/s1600/5234275025_9c9066b0ec_b.jpg" height="412.8" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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2)<b> <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/06/inside-gimbels-traverse-secret-perch.html">Inside Gimbals traverse, the secret perch hear Herald Square</a></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvwdGCQoZb_LYAFiDTv2CoK-tbqCUbUpE-iaX0yHc7jaOVDM0NZ_4SZEv_yBhq1ZdZ3nPUx4D_kZ8UmVF_tYvOy5AwJBOXM07M1RS1bKzZGRr5aR7tT3a_F7bTGOR8_ZWyoY4sOMPAR1A/s1600/1-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvwdGCQoZb_LYAFiDTv2CoK-tbqCUbUpE-iaX0yHc7jaOVDM0NZ_4SZEv_yBhq1ZdZ3nPUx4D_kZ8UmVF_tYvOy5AwJBOXM07M1RS1bKzZGRr5aR7tT3a_F7bTGOR8_ZWyoY4sOMPAR1A/s1600/1-2.jpg" height="361.2" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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3) <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/12/screaming-phantoms-tomahawks-phantoms.html"><b>Screaming Phantoms, Tomahawks, Phantom Lords, Dirty Ones and other gangs of 1970s Williamsburg, Brooklyn</b></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWscOkxjoxMaiA2LVZL7KfGrMaGvLEGP4LTz0voy_YSgO8VwEKr9B-zQfZGh5uAmcGOVgjh1KIJq6gC-qmEcVNlXP3P7AQ6MuSSYeMhApxfSpKQnegpvrVo9AQOhlii0hjgtMayyqsVLk/s1600/Broadway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWscOkxjoxMaiA2LVZL7KfGrMaGvLEGP4LTz0voy_YSgO8VwEKr9B-zQfZGh5uAmcGOVgjh1KIJq6gC-qmEcVNlXP3P7AQ6MuSSYeMhApxfSpKQnegpvrVo9AQOhlii0hjgtMayyqsVLk/s1600/Broadway.jpg" height="299.28" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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4) <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-real-muppets-take-manhattan-21.html"><b>The real Muppets Take Manhattan: 21 wacky historical details from Jim Henson's Big Apple adventure</b></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_SubnkuTSK5NrGOtiUwCxP44PJamGAkvik8frw60t1NRZB3XVdLztz-HKcOjTGuz1lUOTPPNMflGDZF_eiqEsVVWUx4y24nbAdAymixZDbfBVWLnmDglbCUR_Yl0mcRG43LbYEYmbGFk/s1600/2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_SubnkuTSK5NrGOtiUwCxP44PJamGAkvik8frw60t1NRZB3XVdLztz-HKcOjTGuz1lUOTPPNMflGDZF_eiqEsVVWUx4y24nbAdAymixZDbfBVWLnmDglbCUR_Yl0mcRG43LbYEYmbGFk/s1600/2-1.jpg" height="442.04" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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5) <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-first-ever-film-of-new-york-city.html"><b>The first-ever film of a New York City blizzard </b></a>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-29024664764440343912014-12-30T13:53:00.000-05:002014-12-30T14:13:17.354-05:00The history of NYC in eight pop culture moments from 2014<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-best-of-2014-bowery-boys-year-in.html">In our 2014 Year In Review podcast</a>, we didn't have much time to talk about notable pop cultural events that depicted New York City history. But here's a recap a few films and television shows which used the city's history in their narratives. I've arranged them in the chronological order in which they've been set:<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy AMC</span></i><br />
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<b>TURN</b><br />
Year: 1776<br />
This AMC freshman series, revolving around the early years of the Revolutionary War, depicts Long Island, New Jersey and the cramped port city of New York itself in the year 1776. Its first season was so-so, but the performances were good, and the art direction surely excellent, as in the best episode "<a href="http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/turn-cabbages-and-kings-203635">Of Cabbage And Kings</a>" when Abe Woodhull (<b>Jamie Bell</b>) takes the boat to downtown Manhattan and ostensibly begins his career as George Washington's newest spy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6s1PkQ1xyfMZpAmu7WuLGqUeWwTfktsKgC3yDdNiyzslzTGlh4xoMymzavH_SPMGiBB3UYy21DOL8B3MsgKunVyMMm9E96yQfizcXCyFrVJ6ZQcR-dVot4ozvSv1LqcSWeeFAMoqDFBY/s1600/140727-TV-show-The-Knick-ftr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6s1PkQ1xyfMZpAmu7WuLGqUeWwTfktsKgC3yDdNiyzslzTGlh4xoMymzavH_SPMGiBB3UYy21DOL8B3MsgKunVyMMm9E96yQfizcXCyFrVJ6ZQcR-dVot4ozvSv1LqcSWeeFAMoqDFBY/s1600/140727-TV-show-The-Knick-ftr.jpg" height="344" width="550.4" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy HBO/Cinemax</span></i><br />
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<b>THE KNICK</b><br />
Year: 1900<br />
Cinemax's vivid medical drama was certainly the most atmospheric show on American television (excluding maybe <i>True Detective)</i>, illustrating the medical practices of a financially strapped Manhattan hospital as administered by drug addict and genius surgeon Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen). The exteriors of Knickerbocker Hospital were shot at <a href="http://nyc-architecture.com/BES/BED001-BoysHigh%20School.htm">Boys' High School in Bed-Stuy</a> and were most prominently featured in the episode "<a href="http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/knick-get-rope-209780">Get The Rope</a>" when a racist mob violently attacked black passers-by.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Screen shot from <a href="http://onthesetofnewyork.com/winterstale.html">On the Set of New York</a></span></i><br />
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<b>WINTER'S TALE</b><br />
Year: 1916<br />
A romantic time-warp fuels this unsuccessful adaptation of Mark Halperin's fantasy historical novel. His writing style is truly enigmatic, proven here when plot is separated from description. However the film is not without its visual charms, including a brief look at the East River waterfront, circa 1916, as <b>Colin Farrell</b> gallops over the Brooklyn Bridge on a white horse.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy The Weinstein Company</span></i><br />
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<b>THE IMMIGRANT</b><br />
Year: 1921<br />
<b>Marion Cotillard</b>, providing an old-school blockbuster performance, is the heart and soul of this film set at the dawn of Prohibition. With her sister Magna is detained at Ellis Island, Ewa (Cotillard) goes to work for a shady impresario (played by <b>Joaquin Phoenix</b>) who then prostitutes her to clients. The cinematography by Darius Khondji takes inspiration from browned, faded photography, and his views of the Lower East Side in the early scenes are truly breathtaking.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy HBO</span></i></div>
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<b>BOARDWALK EMPIRE</b></div>
Year: 1931<br />
I prefer not to relive the ending of "<a href="http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/series-finale-review-boardwalk-empire-eldorado-like-father-like-son">Eldorado</a>," the final episode of Martin Scorsese's Prohibition drama. So let's just end it at the lovely scene with Nucky (<b>Steve Buscemi</b>) and Margaret (<b>Kelly MacDonald</b>) dancing in the gorgeous apartment at the Upper West Side apartment complex which gives the episode its bittersweet name.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Courtesy AMC</i></span></div>
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<b>MAD MEN</b><br />
Year: 1970<br />
The first half of the final season (can't believe I'm writing that) saw the beginnings of a redemption arc for Don Draper and general cultural instability for just about everyone else. The new character Shirley (<b>Sola Bamis</b>) became a bit of a harbinger of the new decade in the episode "A Day's Work," bringing out the insane in Peggy (<b>Elizabeth Moss</b>) and the clever side of Joan (<b>Christina Hendricks</b>).<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy A24 FIlms</span></i><br />
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<b>A MOST VIOLENT YEAR**</b><br />
Year: 1981<br />
This would be a simple story of an ambitious immigrant businessman Abel (played by<b> Oscar Isaac</b>) just wanting to get ahead in the world, expanding his fuel empire into larger digs in Brooklyn. But this is 1981, and nothing is very simple, least of which his wife Anna (<b>Jessica Chastain</b>) with her familial connections to the mob.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0GexBMS6kgeRcZchWZZA8LOtJKpr6wxGuBRS-hY-M7_wS1aP3QrOBraQy__d_HCI3nQSD95Qf_7vtR52sXTdB0sM1jTlCkUrN84bnRc8zTs1UZZ_Ahi_l8E1ZxBilZRAPeesoRnnUIFE/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0GexBMS6kgeRcZchWZZA8LOtJKpr6wxGuBRS-hY-M7_wS1aP3QrOBraQy__d_HCI3nQSD95Qf_7vtR52sXTdB0sM1jTlCkUrN84bnRc8zTs1UZZ_Ahi_l8E1ZxBilZRAPeesoRnnUIFE/s1600/1.jpg" height="228.76" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>LUCY</b><br />
Year: Every Year!<br />
Well, I'm not going to explain why, but let's just say that La Lucy (<b>Scarlett Johansson)</b> has the ability to both travel through and manipulate time via an extreme overdose of an experimental new drug. It doesn't matter. What does matter is for about one minute, she finds herself in the middle of Times Square, repeating and rewinding time at that very spot, giving us quick doses of the newly built One Times Square, then of the horse and carriages of Longacre Square.<br />
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And then she goes back a couple million more years or so. I cannot confirm the historical veracity of these particular scenes but it looks very pretty.<br />
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**For transparency: I'm writing each week at<a href="http://1981.nyc/"> the blog NYC.1981</a> which is a tie-in into the film.The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-70119245625666240152014-12-29T10:53:00.002-05:002014-12-30T00:25:50.982-05:00The Best of 2014: The Bowery Boys Year In Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvs3dMzsA9VdafP4_7uaTIK_Ovt1Pem_b3-0-CaScs8s2zwpFL4gGO1OAq4ccHeG6IU76PoCGkSMDVBNyqzN6RdIPS8hP2iHAlLfwnYoXP4ZaqeCemalwWzty7nWX43KsE1Bm-0J83eRc/s1600/15267779572_fe56038ae4_h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvs3dMzsA9VdafP4_7uaTIK_Ovt1Pem_b3-0-CaScs8s2zwpFL4gGO1OAq4ccHeG6IU76PoCGkSMDVBNyqzN6RdIPS8hP2iHAlLfwnYoXP4ZaqeCemalwWzty7nWX43KsE1Bm-0J83eRc/s1600/15267779572_fe56038ae4_h.jpg" height="370.62" width="556.8" /></a></div>
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<i>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pmarella/15267779572/in/photolist-pgamWQ-ei6hHC-pczTw6-hz6UXn-jNCcfM-pMFnoF-oFaeaZ-a1jZwd-pb6hkM-mWFFRr-nCxZN7-aHGVta-pkTipU-kHT7fP-cXrPJU-iAZB3e-cdJriE-atSbec-amdiHK-bDbRa3-8Ukpnt-jLKHaM-gu72t6-amKkgH-of9dmJ-nqdu3T-avbvbc-aiwNUv-qdKxaN-ndmn1v-pujXKh-amNbFA-bS6zga-nnwD46-aERaDf-pcR1pK-pYuobV-a3tnPg-qbcxSS-g79ymK-ouC2L3-oRiWBZ-ok5Ees-oUaCje-mZcMzt-oiWQMt-pM4Das-n9ZSVM-q7DyGU-j9fxSv">Patrick Marella/Flickr</a></i></div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">PODCAST</span></b> When historians look back at the year 2014, what events or cultural changes within New York City will they deem significant? In this special episode, the Bowery Boys look back at some of the biggest historical events of the year including the opening of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the troubling trend of mega-condominiums along 57th Street and the continuing gentrification of several New York City neighborhoods. <br />
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We also answer some questions from listeners and present some resolutions and thought on how you can help protect and preserve the historical landscape of New York City -- whether you live here or not. Cheers to 2015!<br />
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<b>NOTE</b>: We recorded this episode on December 17, and so were unable to make note of events from the recent few days including the tragic shooting of two NYPD officers on December 20, 2014.<br />
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<strong style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">To get this week's episode, simply download it for <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-york-city-history-the/id258530615">FREE from iTunes </a>or other podcasting services, subscribe to <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss">our RSS feed</a> or get it straight from <a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/175-bowery-boys-2014-year-in-review"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">our satellite site</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">.</span></strong><br />
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">You can also listen to the show on<a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/10207/details"> Stitcher streaming radio</a> and <a href="http://player.fm/series/new-york-city-history-the-bowery-boys">Player FM</a> from your mobile devices.</span><br />
<strong style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></strong>
Or listen to it straight from here:<br />
<strong><a href="http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/a/5/2/a526a3b1693c0691/175_Bowery_Boys_2014_Year_In_Review.mp3?c_id=8101463&expiration=1419829493&hwt=74e92abbabb199f094440c200016c4f4">The Bowery Boys #175: The History of 2014: The Bowery Boys Year In Review</a></strong><br />
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Here are our 2014 podcasts. Check out any you've missed!
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9V_hqEuSVy2nS0sIsSrabHXMsVSNrKIUOgLIybx8RCB5hFNn05vx2_jIJe0wUWgk5xVxpfwdLk8yEQnFrPUpL2uQFk2l-KsY_1PIMclqNYCqWebYkHmBOTrLGI4pJ1crXcRlalsKeHg/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9V_hqEuSVy2nS0sIsSrabHXMsVSNrKIUOgLIybx8RCB5hFNn05vx2_jIJe0wUWgk5xVxpfwdLk8yEQnFrPUpL2uQFk2l-KsY_1PIMclqNYCqWebYkHmBOTrLGI4pJ1crXcRlalsKeHg/s1600/1.jpg" height="106.64" width="550.4" /></a><br />
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<b>Tompkins Square Park</b> [<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/-160-tompkins-square-park">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-ragged-rebellious-history-of.html">The ragged, rebellious history of Tompkins Square Park</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUTdgvpjgsBdDh5WIzWL3979tddHbTqAFYjc8wcPO9oyp6ur8jaRQSEK88p5onFHRyhAMrC0mPksyOucXUvF6N8Wjk9pHDhgxjs7rPBwmooBqk4PYDFu_UTdnVewDwaib3aPeH2K6o19Y/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUTdgvpjgsBdDh5WIzWL3979tddHbTqAFYjc8wcPO9oyp6ur8jaRQSEK88p5onFHRyhAMrC0mPksyOucXUvF6N8Wjk9pHDhgxjs7rPBwmooBqk4PYDFu_UTdnVewDwaib3aPeH2K6o19Y/s1600/2.jpg" height="92.88" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>FDNY </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/-161-fire-department-of-the-city-of-new-york-fdny">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/02/at-ready-history-of-new-york-city-fire.html">At The Ready: The History of the New York City Fire Department</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Q3ml6Uo2OwVpTfl7_IS-srBV2n5f7dZW6c7MpgtDFNCq3EP3W0A_nqE1z0gohskAPZQA0ugn8BC4_1LCcRAG60dHSzH8TiMUealabHEFhIFGIUpCZMumlKIUtEYlONLY8dUvMOYsQAE/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Q3ml6Uo2OwVpTfl7_IS-srBV2n5f7dZW6c7MpgtDFNCq3EP3W0A_nqE1z0gohskAPZQA0ugn8BC4_1LCcRAG60dHSzH8TiMUealabHEFhIFGIUpCZMumlKIUtEYlONLY8dUvMOYsQAE/s1600/3.jpg" height="49.88" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>George Washington Bridge </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/162-george-washington-bridge">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-bridge-to-everywhere-george.html">The Bridge to Everywhere: The George Washington Bridge strangely political, unexpectedly naked, undeniably beautiful</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyOo8pC_TFqEAhzTgrI0uFiStSYABP_HydWofy-t0Yyn8gVyugGPSI7JFesWRkMCfXwVDn18sI2Pste912L1qTz8U-fCABKKbyhoIVoi-fOEd6K3fFvMbru6kFUjwY5Kb0UX-cLGoq6g/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnyOo8pC_TFqEAhzTgrI0uFiStSYABP_HydWofy-t0Yyn8gVyugGPSI7JFesWRkMCfXwVDn18sI2Pste912L1qTz8U-fCABKKbyhoIVoi-fOEd6K3fFvMbru6kFUjwY5Kb0UX-cLGoq6g/s1600/4.jpg" height="94.6" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>South Street Seaport </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/163-south-street-seaport">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-history-of-south-street-seaport.html">The history of the South Street Seaport: A robust story of economic power, historic preservation, rat fights and fish guts</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqj9z0cWA3ueXrMKZhmNdwjJ4yftFuoXDbi4bJHVVDiAeH1mCdIut-ptlH91p_leLvvkkYR9LSHPvchNW800HzIswr6rivnBbFDEx-uHncKQyW1QWh05l5mPb25nW54e-v7L61_l7IPgw/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqj9z0cWA3ueXrMKZhmNdwjJ4yftFuoXDbi4bJHVVDiAeH1mCdIut-ptlH91p_leLvvkkYR9LSHPvchNW800HzIswr6rivnBbFDEx-uHncKQyW1QWh05l5mPb25nW54e-v7L61_l7IPgw/s1600/6.jpg" height="84.28" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>The Astor Place Riot </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/164-astor-place-riots">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-astor-place-riot-massacre-at-busy.html">The Astor Place Riot: Massacre at a busy crossroad as a Shakespearean rivalry ignites New York class struggles</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht47cvw3D1tp4EKPTL-WZVBAHGfzwW-P_M9mRfH3oLIb3WaTbZnnyuhYhK4cjn_8BqvmVKD7OPO7JkSCUW8UvwHSi14TGutYWMrkxVEuTtjfJD9FVX_ZqdfIZHAXLNJXm373bF7p7axvE/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht47cvw3D1tp4EKPTL-WZVBAHGfzwW-P_M9mRfH3oLIb3WaTbZnnyuhYhK4cjn_8BqvmVKD7OPO7JkSCUW8UvwHSi14TGutYWMrkxVEuTtjfJD9FVX_ZqdfIZHAXLNJXm373bF7p7axvE/s1600/7.jpg" height="96.32" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>Ladies' Mile </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/165-ladies-mile">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-sumptuous-story-of-ladies-mile.html">The sumptuous story of Ladies' Mile: Traces of cast-iron grandeur, the architectural delights of the Gilded Age</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIY6JI6lIww240GNtKrVonnHPEB6-FWNt6Hl1XuyWArxNIr_pj7GKGp3BZY3lYJYsKBjZf0sA29_loA7qL_7X-aZqmQiSTs28Gf7-r-Ub9Te1aRd4fyMRXi7mJTJTUtfjTaxfL2BLrol0/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIY6JI6lIww240GNtKrVonnHPEB6-FWNt6Hl1XuyWArxNIr_pj7GKGp3BZY3lYJYsKBjZf0sA29_loA7qL_7X-aZqmQiSTs28Gf7-r-Ub9Te1aRd4fyMRXi7mJTJTUtfjTaxfL2BLrol0/s1600/8.jpg" height="96.32" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>General Slocum Disaster </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/166-general-slocum-disaster-1904">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/06/american-tragedy-tale-of-general-slocum.html">American tragedy: The tale of the General Slocum disaster</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqiqaVj8kxlIKCfwSpseVGGWpMElPr4MCsuNE5BC9qcZtnU5Sw_uQ8JeP6Nsv7hf6jYlpcj2xui08KIQUgc7p5egbu_BRjDMlAn4AmTIBqkU5kCdZwL6ppwwQ7h6ytLR_efuf3J91tf8/s1600/2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqiqaVj8kxlIKCfwSpseVGGWpMElPr4MCsuNE5BC9qcZtnU5Sw_uQ8JeP6Nsv7hf6jYlpcj2xui08KIQUgc7p5egbu_BRjDMlAn4AmTIBqkU5kCdZwL6ppwwQ7h6ytLR_efuf3J91tf8/s1600/2-1.jpg" height="299.28" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>Cleopatra's Needle</b> [<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/167-cleopatras-needle-and-the-freemasons-secret">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/06/cleopatras-needle-and-secret-of-new.html">Cleopatra's Needle and the Secret of the New York Freemasons</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7leYyG3vpHUTBDWny0x6iHEJEu2OhnvfOXnCU_Fc_IWPIN3MDES5ML61axEU3IwN016nJ8JP_0ZDw2vgmhOLO8m2YhAImiclYnM9HGvUFacX_Vx90d2xMtFQM5F3HNzaC_ZHQm6TxmI/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7leYyG3vpHUTBDWny0x6iHEJEu2OhnvfOXnCU_Fc_IWPIN3MDES5ML61axEU3IwN016nJ8JP_0ZDw2vgmhOLO8m2YhAImiclYnM9HGvUFacX_Vx90d2xMtFQM5F3HNzaC_ZHQm6TxmI/s1600/8.jpg" height="116.96" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>DUEL! Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/168-duel-aaron-burr-vs-alexander-hamilton">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/07/aaron-burr-vs-alexander-hamilton-duel.html">Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton: The duel at Weehawken and the terrible consequences of an ugly insult</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnetggr-HwRTaPzqT8eWlDpofvozxO1ef8SpcRmlVBEXkijxGBcgegxOpJzcz7R9Wnng690wSNEJrfyvHio54qYYzf1r52pqpaihSPnD_Z6SDWBDqKMOjo06ygQUYq242CCCGNStLy2o/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnetggr-HwRTaPzqT8eWlDpofvozxO1ef8SpcRmlVBEXkijxGBcgegxOpJzcz7R9Wnng690wSNEJrfyvHio54qYYzf1r52pqpaihSPnD_Z6SDWBDqKMOjo06ygQUYq242CCCGNStLy2o/s1600/1.jpg" height="106.64" width="550.4" /></a></div>
<div>
<b>The Tallest Building In New York</b> [<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/169-the-tallest-building-in-new-york-a-short-history">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-tallest-building-in-new-york-short.html">The Tallest Building In New York: A Short History</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfht1nSq1WggJWivxhuOj4RY0gOkPkLXgcvovKAfI3EeeI8IYJ4mdrFlyD4JGMOWiNMPNLAzYifb0OnBn6-ndWHl3R_iarbEGWOHuyZ6_HCL3q2x1NrkootW1jewkfRxTdlkgMv-apc80/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfht1nSq1WggJWivxhuOj4RY0gOkPkLXgcvovKAfI3EeeI8IYJ4mdrFlyD4JGMOWiNMPNLAzYifb0OnBn6-ndWHl3R_iarbEGWOHuyZ6_HCL3q2x1NrkootW1jewkfRxTdlkgMv-apc80/s1600/2.jpg" height="135.88" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/170-the-life-and-death-of-rudolph-valentino">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/08/rudolph-valentino-seductive-tragic-idol.html">Rudolph Valentino, the seductive, tragic idol of the Jazz Age</a></div>
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<b>The Keys To Gramercy Park</b> [<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/171-the-keys-to-gramercy-park">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-secrets-of-gramercy-park-and-you.html">The Secrets of Gramercy Park (and you don't even need a key)</a></div>
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<b>Ghost Stories of Brooklyn</b> [<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/172-ghost-stories-of-brooklyn">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/10/haunted-hipsters-four-ghost-stories-of.html">Haunted Hipsters: Four Ghost Stories of Brooklyn</a></div>
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<b>Ruins of the World's Fair: New York State Pavilion</b> [<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/173-ruins-of-the-worlds-fair-new-york-state-pavilion">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/11/ruins-of-worlds-fair-new-york-state.html">Ruins of the World's Fair: The New York State Pavilion, or how Philip Johnson's futuristic architecture was almost forgotten</a></div>
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<b>The Rockettes </b>[<a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/174-history-of-the-rockettes">download</a>]</div>
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<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/12/american-kicks-history-of-rockettes.html">American Kicks: A History of the Rockettes</a></div>
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<b>And finally, a great big THANK YOU to all of you who donated to the Bowery Boys in 2014!</b> Thanks to you, we have been able to improve our equipment and our sound quality this year, as well as pay for some of our uploading and distribution services. Our thanks to you: Ted D, Sam H, Andrew K, Nicole B, Marie M, Brian H, Joeanna S, Matthew R, Kristin O, Edge of Yonder, Douglas G, Ann C, Richard K, Daniela S, Melissa S, Anthony C, Marjorie W, Carol V, Michael W, Rosa A, Kathleen C, Jamie H, Dan K, Mary Y, Horacio B, Louis G, Nastassia V, Katherine C, John B, Melissa A, Lachlan C, Patricia C, Eric R, Gary J, Michael R, Daniel S, Susan D, Jack L, Ellen L, George S, Jatuporn S, Erin B, Christina H, Robert C, Paula K, Kathy H, Jennifer W, Suzanne H, Kristina E, Milica P, Simone F, Dianne S, Joshua O, Michele O, Susan W, Marsha C, Mark S, Charles L, Bjorn K, Paula K, Ana Lia R, Kimberly T, Saralaughs, and Jean B!</div>
The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0World Trade Center, New York, NY, USA40.7115441 -74.01348689999997540.7055261 -74.023571899999979 40.717562099999995 -74.003401899999972tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-5682512213900194432014-12-23T13:45:00.003-05:002014-12-23T15:27:14.101-05:00The Bowery Boys and Marvel Comics! Plus: Guardian Angels and a special holiday surprise on Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="http://marvel.com/news/comics/23870/map_out_marvels_new_york_city_with_the_bowery_boys_on_this_week_in_marvel_episode_164.5">THIS WEEK IN MARVEL</a></span></b><br />
The Bowery Boys are guest stars on this week's official Marvel Comics podcast <b>This Week In Marvel </b>hosted by those virtual Avengers and Marvel editors <b>Ryan Penagos</b> and <b>Ben Morse</b>. We had an absolute blast recording this, talking about how New York City has implanted itself into the fabric of the Marvel Comics universe and some of its most popular characters like Spider-Man, Captain America and the X-Men. <br />
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What do Dr. Strange and Bob Dylan have in common? What superhero was created to monopolize upon New York City's 1970s disco scene? What famous mystery author got her start writing comics? Why might comic books be partially responsible for my love of New York City? <b>ALSO</b>: Is Tom Meyers a member of HYDRA?<br />
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You can listen to the show here and also download it from their iTunes page. [<a href="http://marvel.com/news/comics/23870/map_out_marvels_new_york_city_with_the_bowery_boys_on_this_week_in_marvel_episode_164.5">This Week In Marvel</a>]<br />
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We're probably still very far away from getting our own blockbuster film, but this does get us one step closer than we were yesterday.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="http://1981.nyc/rise-guardian-angels/">NYC, 1981 - THE RISE OF THE GUARDIAN ANGELS</a></span></b><br />
And now for a different sort of superhero! Over at the <a href="http://1981.nyc/">A24 Films 1981 websit</a>e (ramping up for next week's release of <i><b>A Most Violent Year</b></i> with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain) I write about the origins of the Guardian Angels, the independent squadron of subway defenders who patrolled the city streets despite some initial objections from the city.<br />
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Included with my article are some outright amazing photographs of the Guardian Angels' early days, taken by Geoffrey Hiller.<br />
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Check it all out <a href="http://1981.nyc/rise-guardian-angels/">right here</a>: [<a href="http://1981.nyc/rise-guardian-angels/">1981</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">THE BOWERY BOYS YEAR IN REVIEW ROUNDUP</span></b><br />
<b>And we have a special holiday surprise for you -- a new podcast this Friday</b>! We present to you the first annual Bowery Boys year in review. Just update your podcast feed tomorrow or subscribe to the Bowery Boys on iTunes to get it first.The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-29213899880598090272014-12-19T12:08:00.000-05:002014-12-29T23:05:32.928-05:00The real 'Miracle On 34th Street': 21 great historical details from New York City's most famous Christmas movie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Bowery Boys Obsessive Guides</span> look very, very closely at a classic movie filmed in New York City, finding buried history, additional context and a few secrets within various scenes and plot points. Filled with film spoilers so read this after you've seen the movie -- or use it to follow along as you watch it! Check out my previous guides for <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2013/02/midnight-cowboy-25-fascinating-sleazy.html"><i>Midnight Cowboy</i></a>, <i><a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-real-ghostbusters-25-spooky.html">Ghostbusters</a> </i>and <i><a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-real-muppets-take-manhattan-21.html">The Muppets Take Manhattan</a></i>.</b><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b><i>"Oh, Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind... and that's what's been changing. That's why I'm glad I'm here, maybe I can do something about it." </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b><i>-- Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwynn)
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<i><b>Miracle on 34th Street</b></i> is the most famous New York City Christmas movie ever made, a celebration of post-war prosperity that happily substitutes<b> <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-whirlwind-tour-of-herald-square-more.html">Herald Square</a></b> for the North Pole.<br />
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The movie is a complete inventory of the commercial Christmas experience. It treats the<b> Macy's Thanksgiving Day </b>Parade like a starting gate -- <i>Thanksgiving</i>? What's that? -- and, like many Americans, spends much of its entire running time in department stores. <br />
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The central question posed by this 1947 classic is whether Macy's newly hired Santa Claus (played by <b>Edmund Gwenn</b>) is actually <i>the </i>Santa Claus or just some crazy person. At stake is not only the entire world's celebration of Christmas, but the heart of young Susan (played by <b>Natalie Wood</b>) who never believed in Santa, thanks to her mother Doris (<b>Maureen O'Hara</b>).<br />
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Manhattan is perpetually bustling, from the Upper West Side down to Foley Square. Despite its reputation as a saccharine sweet take on the materialistic component of the holiday, the film is really quite cynical, even dark, at times. Throwing an old man into the <b>Bellevue Hospital</b> psychiatric ward in the 1940s is hardly what I call a warm and fuzzy image.<br />
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I recently dug deep into the film and found a great many fascinating details, many involving people and places that lived in New York City at that time. Here's my obsessive guide to what normally stuffy critic <b>Bosley Crowther</b> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9401E7DB103EE13BBC4D53DFB066838C659EDE">originally called</a> "the freshest little picture in a long time and maybe even the best comedy of the year."<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">1) Arranging Reindeer </span></b> The film opens with Kris Kringle walking south down <b>Madison Avenue</b>. Get it? He's Santa. He's from the north! Along the way he passes several long-vanished New York businesses -- Rosenberg & Grief furrier, Janice Carol salon, Liszt jeweler (or possibly pawn shop?)<br />
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He stops to chastise a store clerk on <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/19+E+61st+St,+New+York,+NY+10065/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c258f028089977:0x645dfe403dd9eada?sa=X&ei=AmCUVIG8FISwggTs8IGoDg&ved=0CB0Q8gEwAA">19 East 61st Street </a>about the placement of reindeer in the shop windows. That shop belonged to the interior designer<b> Lillian Schary Waldman</b>, often employed by high society and responsible for the homes of a few celebrities including <b>Danny Kaye. </b><br />
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By the way, you'll notice there's no <b>Rudolph </b>in the Christmas display. The red nosed reindeer was created in 1939, within a coloring book <a href="http://newsdesk.si.edu/sites/default/files/imagecache/snapshot_image/Rudolph%20the%20Red-Nosed%20Reindeer%20Book.jpg">produced by Montgomery Ward</a> (at right), but not popularly considered part of Santa's team until <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer_%28TV_special%29">the 1964 Rankin-Bass animated specia</a>l. (EDIT: Thanks to the commenter for reminding me of Rudolph's real coming out --the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," recorded by <b>Gene Autry</b> and <b>Bing Crosby</b> in successive years.)<br />
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<b style="color: #990000;">2) Old Newsprint </b>The film occasionally uses the technique of turning newspaper pages as a way of setting the scene. Notice the first time this is used, before the parade. The prop designer constructed a phony newspaper but used real news articles from the New York Times. Here's the catch -- most of the stories are well over a decade old! Some examples: "<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/12/23/105895997.html?pageNumber=1">NEW FRENCH CABINET UPHELD BY DEPUTIES</a>" - Dec 23, 1932, "OUR SPEED PRAISED IN CHILD LABOR BAN" - July 20, 1933, and "<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/07/27/90634820.html?pageNumber=19">EARTHS FORCES LAID TO COSMIC IMPULSE</a>" - July 24, 1933<br />
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<i>The curious Deitrich Knickerbocker balloon from the 1936 parade. (Courtesy Smithsonian)</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">3)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #990000;">The Real Parade </span></b> Santa Claus has appeared in the <b>Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade </b>since the very first parade in 1924. One detail that did not quite make it into the modern era -- knights in shining armor. Santa arrived in Herald Square "in state. The float upon which he rode was in the form of a sled driven by reindeer over a mountain of ice. Preceding him were men dressed like the knights of old, their spears shining in the sunlight." [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/11/28/104060331.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw&pageNumber=15">source</a>]<br />
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The scenes of the Thanksgiving Day parade in <i>Miracle</i> are real, taken from the 1946 parade. This mixing of live events and fictional set pieces (filmed in Hollywood) was rather unusual for the day. "Scenes shot in actual New York settings add credibility to the film," said Crowther. Gwenn was even the parade's real Santa! "A somewhat frostbitten Santa Claus, in the person of Edmund Gwenn, the actor, gingerly climbed off his high perch and unveiled Macy's mechanical windows...." [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/11/29/102268523.html?pageNumber=31">source</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">4) Bad Santas </span></b> "These pants are gonna fall off in the midst of Columbus Circle," said the unfortunately inebriated Santa, who is relieved of his duties and replaced by Gwenn's Santa. Several decades before <a href="http://nycsantacon.com/">Santacon</a>, newspapers would occasionally make note of a Santa who would come to work "<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/12/05/96441033.html?pageNumber=242">with liquor on his breath</a>." It seems there were all sorts of lecherous Santas! In 1948, the year after <i>Miracle</i>, the New York Times Magazine notes a Santa who "grabbed a trim young mother, set her on his knee and suggested that they both go out and have a drink."<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">5) Behind The Beard </span>Edmund Gwenn</b>, the film's jovial Kris Kringle, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. (Unfortunately, he beat <b>Richard Widmark</b>'s work in the film <i>Kiss of Death</i>, widely considered to be one of the greatest film noir performances.) <br />
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Although he had made dozens of films, the British actor was known for his work on the stage. In fact, right before starting work on <i>Miracle</i>, he gave what would be his last performance on the New York stage -- the play <i>You Touched Me </i>with upcoming young star <b>Montgomery Clift.</b><br />
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<i>At right: Clift and Gwenn from their Broadway production of You Touched Me (Courtesy WalterFilm)</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">6) D-I-V-O-R-C-E </span></b><i>Miracle </i>is unique in that its heroine is a divorced woman, but she's badly treated by the film's screenplay. Note the look of shock on the face of Fred Galley (John Payne) when little Susan casually mentions that her mother and father are <b>divorced</b>. <br />
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After World War II, divorce rates skyrocketed in America as servicemen returned from war to changed domestic situations. Divorces were only "fault-based" at the time; "typical grounds were adultery, desertion, habitual drunkenness, conviction of a felony, impotence ... and, most used by divorcing parties, 'cruel and inhuman treatment'." [<a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/excerpts/clarke-stewart_divorce.pdf">source</a>] <br />
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The film makes some unsubtle commentary -- Doris (which even sounds like <i>divorce</i>) is depicted as a cold, cynical woman, lacking little joy. I mean, she's the director of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and she doesn't even bother to stay and watch it?<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">7) Locker Room Talk </span></b>We're granted many scenes of Macy's work spaces that customers don't get to see, such as the locker room, where Kringle meets <b>Alfred</b>, the sometimes store Santa "with extra padding" and a thick Brooklyn accent -- "just troo 'em on the floor!"<br />
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Macy's was actually once renown for its locker room! From <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gKM6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5&dq=macy%27s+locker+rooms&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UZyTVPC9D6yxsATIyIDICQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=macy's%20locker%20rooms&f=false">a report in 1913</a>: "At Macy's there are vast locker rooms containing expanded individual metal lockers for the majority of the employees and some smaller ones for certain groups. Never are two required to use one locker, except during Christmas rush. This is an exceedingly liberal policy, considering the size of the establishment, and a most desirable one."<br />
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<b>8)</b> <b><span style="color: #990000;">Toy Stores </span></b> We get to the crux of the tale when Kringle, now hired as Macy's Santa, begins sending customers to other department stores in the city. Most notably he sends a thankful mother (played by <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Ritter">Thelma Ritter</a></b>, in her debut film role) to Macy's big rival Gimbels and another to a toy store called <b>Schoenfeld's</b>, in Yorkville, at 1254 Lexington Avenue.<br />
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Here's an ad for a toy submarine that was sold at Schoenfeld's in 1927.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">9) Cutthroat Business </span>Macy's and Gimbel's</b> were the two biggest department stores in Herald Square and one of New York's best known rivalries. "Would Macy's tell Gimbels?" was a popular expression of the time, expressing the fierce secrecy in sales and marketing practices. In <i>Miracle</i>, after Macy's embraces Kringle's policy of recommending items for sale at other stores, Gimbals tries to one-up their rival by adhering to the same policy and spread it to their stores across the country.<br />
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According to Gimbels lore, the company chairman <b>Bernard Gimbel </b>was <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-06/news/mn-9173_1_34th-street">asked</a> to take the role of Kringle in <i>Miracle</i>. (I personally find this very hard to believe.) Such a request would not have been made of Macy's founder <b>Rowland Hussey Macy</b> as he had died almost 70 years before.<br />
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<i>Below: Gimbels Department Store in Harold Square, taken in 1915, from the vantage of the Marbridge Building (Photo by the Wurts Brothers, courtesy <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/Collection/View%20Looking%20South%20at%20Gimbel's,%20etc.,%20From%2011th%20Floor%20of%20Marbridge%20Building-2F3XC57N1YI.html">Museum of City of New York</a>)</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">10)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #990000;">Home Away From Home </span></b> When not at the North Pole, Kris Kringle resides at Brooks Memorial Home for the Aged at 126 Maplewood Dr, Great Neck, Long Island. That's a real address although you won't find <a href="http://forum1.aimoo.com/theyulelog/categroy/Miracle-on-34th-Street-Location-of-Brooks-Memorial-Home-For-The-Aged-1-1785424.html">the grand exterior </a>that was used in the film. Why would they put Kringle in a nursing home in Great Neck? Perhaps it was a literary illusion to another great New York City fictional tale -- Great Neck is called West Egg in <i><b>The Great Gatsby</b></i>, written only twenty-two years previous.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">11) Santa Gets It Wrong</span></b> Kringle is taken in for a psychological evaluation to prove his competence. He's fully prepared, of course, seeing as he's frequently accused of being crazy.<br />
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He rattles off a list of questions that might be thrown his direction during the mental examination. The trickiest? "Who was the vice president under John
Quincy Adams? <b>Daniel D Tompkins</b>. And I’ll bet your Mr Sawyer doesn’t know that!"<br />
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Tompkins was a great many things in his day. Today he's the namesake of <b>Tompkins Square Park </b>and Tompkinsville, Staten Island. But one thing he was not -- he was never vice president under John Quincy Adams. That was John C. Calhoun. Tompkins served under President<b> James Monroe.</b></div>
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So what accounts for this obvious error? Is it a true gaffe or an insight into Kringle's character? Maybe he was crazy! Or just in need of an encyclopedia.<br />
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By the way, the psychiatrist Sawyer is taking his examination cues from a 1946 book called <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Y09BAAAAYAAJ&q=Mastering+Your+Nerves+1946&dq=Mastering+Your+Nerves+1946&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ojSUVNncJMingwTXjoKABw&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA">Mastering Your Nerves: How To Relax Through Action</a>.</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">12)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #990000;">Working Delusion </span></b> The handsome Doctor Pierce from the Brooks Memorial Home is sure the old man is suffering from a deeply held delusion. But so what? <br />
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"Why there are thousands of people walking around
with similar delusions, living perfectly normal lives in every other respect. A
famous example is that fellow -- I cant think of his name -- but for years he’s
insisted he’s a Russian prince. He owns a famous restaurant in Hollywood and is a highly respected citizen."<br />
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Pierce is referencing an actual person named <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Romanoff">Michael Romanoff</a> </b>(at right), a noted 'professional imposter', who once walked the streets of New York City claiming he was Prince Michael Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky-Romanoff, nephew of Tsar Nicholas II.<br />
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In 1941 he opened the restaurant <b>Romanoff's </b>in Los Angeles on North Rodeo Drive, enjoying newly found success in a town noted for its impostors. The famous photograph of <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/329536897708179045/">Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield</a> is taken at Romanoff's.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">13) Martini Time! </span></b>In a delightfully throw-away scene, Shellhammer, the head of Macy's toy department, tries to convince his wife to let Kringle stay at their home. In order to get her to agree, he gets her wasted on martinis. "We always have martinis before dinner. I'll make them double-strength tonight."<br />
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We have Prohibition to thank for martini hour in many American homes. Driving alcohol consumption into private dwellings, the cocktail hour was firmly entrenched by the 1930s. It was properly solidified by the world's most famous martini drinker after James Bond -- <b>Franklin Delano Roosevelt</b>. "Before dinner we usually had martini cocktails made by the President's own hands," said <a href="http://drunkard.com/issues/06_06/06_06_fdr_portrait.html">one cabinet member</a>. Many remembered that Roosevelt made very, very bad martinis, preferring to enhance them with a few drops of absinthe.<br />
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<i>At right: A festive Gimbels ad which ran in the New York Times in 1946</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">14) Advertising Blitz </span></b>Macy's fully embraces the altruistic policy of directing shoppers to other stores if they are looking for an item that is not stocked. In a montage, we get to see some of the other department stores benefiting from Macy's new rules --<b> Bloomingdales, Hearn's, Gimbels, Stern's and McCreery's. </b><br />
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These stores were situated very close to one another during the 1940s and had followed each other up the island of Manhattan, beginning their existence in lower Manhattan, then <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-sumptuous-story-of-ladies-mile.html">moving to <b>Ladies Mile </b>i</a>n the late 19th century, then to Midtown by the new century. For instance, Hearn's went from Broadway and 8th Street, then to 14th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue (very near Macy's old home).<br />
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McCreery's made its Ladies Mile home at Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street. Today it's <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7428294,-73.9926577,3a,75y,241.2h,85.12t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sj5MoDIGyl0ZZblVnDFOgpQ!2e0!6m1!1e1">occupied by another building</a> with a Best Buy on the bottom floor. It later moved to 34th Street and Fifth Avenue.<br />
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For more information about the department store scene, check out <a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/165-ladies-mile">our podcast on Ladies Mile</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">15) Vintage Lunch </span></b> We see Alfred and Kris Kringle in another space for Macy's employee's -- the cafeteria. This was obviously filmed on location as evidenced by this picture of the cafeteria from 1948 (<a href="http://vintage.tips/post/96990575955/hollyhocksandtulips-macys-cafeteria-1948">photo by Nina Leen</a>):<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">16)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #990000;">The Nut House</span></b> Kris Kringle purposefully fails a mental exam -- heartbroken by what he believes is a betrayal by Doris --- and gets thrown into Bellevue Hospital for a few days. Kringle is seen in a relatively safe environment although the hospital's reputation was less than rosy during this period. This is the era of shock therapy and other controversial treatments. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WygfFfFnVCkC&pg=PT76&dq=bellevue+hospital+1940s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Dj-UVOPQC8W0ggSAuYCADA&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=bellevue%20hospital%201940s&f=false">In one experiment</a> at Bellevue from the mid-1940s, almost one hundred children with diagnosed schizophrenia were given shock treatments six days a week.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqeodrM2BQPgDL926yJ9MTwOHpVyrDWCfI6E328W0UvGwpvp5e55FCQRThyphenhyphenDZKQgtGo8JsSv3aW1KBvguFx6ZHYD-geqVUkgxSI6PtHs28Z9OYSBRw4TY7PGCziCgEDb9QhUVV-ll1RSY/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqeodrM2BQPgDL926yJ9MTwOHpVyrDWCfI6E328W0UvGwpvp5e55FCQRThyphenhyphenDZKQgtGo8JsSv3aW1KBvguFx6ZHYD-geqVUkgxSI6PtHs28Z9OYSBRw4TY7PGCziCgEDb9QhUVV-ll1RSY/s1600/1.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a> Bellevue was also famous during this period for its alcohol rehabilitation center. In 1945, the film <i><b>The Lost Weekend</b></i> detailed one alcoholic's "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9402E6DA163FE533A25750C0A9649D946493D6CF">staggering ugly treatment</a>" here.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">17) Kooky Headlines</span></b> In another swirl of headlines, we're alerted to Kringle's upcoming court trial to determine his true status. Among the many headlines we see is one that makes a total assault upon the English language -- <b>KRIS KRINGLE KRAZY? KOURT KASE KOMNG "KALAMITY" KRY KIDDIES</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCoU3NlEC_2LcvMefDkBEz3McSugzQ646HYQ5jzjfcxmaV7biWUiwL56_2o8XItUMQd9JGzpMBQ7IW8ItBeT1A-UzWniW0bY1nBvbq3rl82EQl3oOdmqniBhZwp_tHqkaEa5zpO1fjh60/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCoU3NlEC_2LcvMefDkBEz3McSugzQ646HYQ5jzjfcxmaV7biWUiwL56_2o8XItUMQd9JGzpMBQ7IW8ItBeT1A-UzWniW0bY1nBvbq3rl82EQl3oOdmqniBhZwp_tHqkaEa5zpO1fjh60/s1600/2.jpg" height="177" width="320" /></a>This is a gag directed squarely at <b>Daily Variety</b>, who specialized in absurdist headlines as early as the 1930s. In 1935 they went with the mind-boggling STICKS NIX HICK PIX, a headline later made famous in the 1942 film <i>Yankee Doodle Dandy.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>18) Historical Spot </b></span> The climax of the film arrives at a peculiar place -- <b>Foley Square and the New York County Courthouse</b>, one of the pillars of this civic district. The building was a little over 20 years old at the time of this film, and it looks pretty much the same as it does today. Along the top of the structure you can make out a carving of a 1789 quotation by George Washington -- "The True Administration of Justice is the Firmest Pillar of Good Government."<br />
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This building sets near the infamous intersection of <b>Five Points</b> and almost exactly on the spot were old <b>Collect Pond</b> once sat!<br />
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<i>Below: New York County Courthouse, where Kringle's fate is decided. (Photo from 1927, Wurts Brothers, courtesy <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWVVT7WA&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=866">Museum of the City of New York</a>)</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">19) Kids Court </span></b>In an effort to prove the existence of Santa Claus, the son of the prosecutor is called to the stand. His name is Tom Marrah (you know, because he's the future -- tomorrow) and he is questioned about his beliefs on Old Saint Nick. "He gave me a brand-new flexible flyer sled last year," he proclaims, then proceeds to point out Kringle from the stand.<br />
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The scene is an amusing twist on the great tale of "<b>Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus</b>," the famous confirmation of Santa's existence that was published in the New York Sun fifty years earlier. The Virginia in question was also the child of a city employee -- the coroner's assistant -- whose letter was answered by Sun editor <b>Francis Pharcellus Church</b>. In the case of <i>Miracle</i>, it is a more assured child that confirms his identity. Judge Henry X Harper -- a Democrat, we learn -- affirms Kringle's existence to curry favor from the electorate.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">20) Dear Santa </span></b> The final proof arrives, <i>deus ex machina </i>style, in the form of thousands of letters, re-routed from New York's mail processing center to Foley Square. Kringle's lawyer Galley then proceeds to regale the hall with a brief history of the U.S. post office. Galley informs the judge that the mail service was created in 1776 -- technically it was 1775 -- by the Second Continental Congress. <b>Benjamin Franklin</b> was indeed the first postmaster general.<br />
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So how many letters does Santa really get a year? In 2013 -- even in the era of emails -- there were over one million letters from American children alone. [<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/23/business/dear-santa-christmas-letters/">source</a>] <a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/12/14/issue.html">Back in 1940</a>, the postmaster's office was inundated with correspondence. Letters address to Santa were "opened and read so that 'the real worthy ones' can be set aside from those which were childish requests." Because how dare a child ask Santa a childish request.<br />
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The film may have played a hand into an increase of Dear Santa letters in 1947 -- "up 25% over 1946," according to reports. <br />
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<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/12/14/issue.html">From the 1940s article:</a><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">21)</span></b> <b><span style="color: #990000;">Christmas In June </span></b><i>Miracle on 34th Street</i> may be set during Christmastime, but it was originally released in the late spring, June 2, 1947. The film made its New York debut at <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/12/american-kicks-history-of-rockettes.html">the<b> Roxy Theatre</b></a> in a program that also featured comedian Jerry Lester, singer Art Lund, a puppet show and "the Gae Foster Roxyettes," which replaced the original Roxyettes after they moved to Radio City Music Hall.<br />
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As part of the promotion for the film, Macy's <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SwwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT2&dq=miracle+on+34th+street+june+1947&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SlmUVJzBJIayggTNsoLACA&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=miracle%20on%2034th%20street%20june%201947&f=false">sent an undercover shopper</a> into Gimbel's to report for Macy's-owned radio station <b>WOR</b>. It's doubtful that either department store took Santa's advice and recommended visiting their competitor.<br />
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The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com2Herald Square, 1 Herald Square, New York, NY 10001, USA40.7503816 -73.98759769999998115.228347099999997 -115.29619169999998 66.2724161 -32.679003699999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-51739062675010959362014-12-17T10:40:00.000-05:002014-12-17T11:03:48.813-05:00Ten holiday gift ideas for history buffs: The best reads of 2014 with Robert Moses, Coney Island and the Statue of Liberty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Illustration from <i>Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City</i></div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">GIFT GUIDE</span></b> What do you get for that history fanatic in your life? Afraid of buying them a book that they may have already read? Here are nine books published in 2014 that I've had the pleasure of reading this year, illustrating wild and colorful corners of New York City history. I've reviewed a few of them in postings earlier this year if you'd like more information. Oh, and there's one book on here that I actually <i>haven't </i>read. But how could I leave it off? I'm just assuming<i> I'm</i> getting that for Christmas.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">New York Mid-Century 1945-1965</span></b><br />
<b>Annie Cohen-Solal, Paul Goldberger, Robet Gottlieb</b><br />
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After World War II, New York reinforced its international power and influence by becoming a vanguard in the arts. The city embraced new ideas by artists, writers, actors, architects and dancers who then went on to influence each other. This magnificent coffee-table book sits their towering achievements side-by-side and in full color -- the work of <b>Mark Rothko</b>, the architecture of <b>Philip Johnson</b>, the movements of <b>Martha Graham</b>, the photography of <b>Weegee</b>, the stage magic of <b>Rodgers and Hammerstein. </b>Even the<b> Rockettes</b>!<b> </b>In placing high and low performing arts together with conceptual design and abstract expressionism, <i>New York Mid-Century</i> convincingly illustrates New York as the world's culture crucible.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Lost Tribe of Coney Island</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">Headhunters, Luna Park and the Man Who Pulled Off the Spectacle of the Century</span></b><br />
<b>Claire Prentice</b><br />
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Inspired by an unusual photograph of native people around a fire -- taken in Coney Island -- Prentice explores the sad but true story of the Igorrotes, a Filipino tribe, taken from their home for profit and exploitation to America's recreational seaside capital. The exhibitor Truman Hart was a would-be P.T. Barnum, a charlatan profiting from the tribe's appearances at Luna Park. He eventually unravels, drinking heavily and running into problems with the federal government. This is light but fascinating window into the stark reality of Coney Island entertainment.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">A History of New York in 101 Objects</span></b><br />
<b>Sam Roberts</b><br />
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In a 2012 column, the venerable <i>New York Times</i> writer and editor recruited 50 precious objects into service of the story of New York City, a tale that began over 13,000 years ago. He elaborates on those objects in this new book and expands the contours of his itemized history with 51 additional items. From artichokes to Gilded Age clocks, rusty spikes to the New York Public Library lions, Roberts' history is a friendly, colorful way to experience New York City, a Whitman's Sampler of our city's past.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Chop Suey USA</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Story of Chinese Food in America</span></b><br />
<b>Yong Chen</b><br />
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America's love for Chinese food predated America's love for its Chinese residents. The original Chinese settlers from the West produced a variation of their homeland cuisine that was easily prepared and extraordinarily flavorful, allowing immigrants to make strides in urban areas and, eventually, throughout America. Chen carefully places America's craving for dishes like chow mein into the context of racial prejudices against Asians in the 20th century. And if this makes you a little hungry, you're in luck -- the author presents some of his favorite recipes for steamed fish, Kung Fuo chicken and moon cakes.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers & Swells</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Best of Early Vanity Fair</span></b><br />
<b>Various Authors; Edited by Graydon Carter with David Friend</b><br />
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For the one hundredth anniversary of <i>Vanity Fair</i>, Graydon Carter has put together a collection of stories from the magazine's first incarnation, from <b>P.G. Wodehouse</b>'s take on the fitness craze of 1914 to <b>Allene Talmey</b>'s survey of New York nighclubs in 1936. The entirety of the Jazz Age in contained between them -- the fashion, the reverie, the amusement, the agony. But most of all -- the modernity. If anything defines most of these spectacular entries, it's the coy observations of change, how America left the Gilded Age to became something awkward but none the less brilliant.
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Race Underground</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">Boston, New York and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America's First Subway</span></b><br />
<b>Doug Most</b><br />
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The subway is one of the defining creations of New York's Gilded Age, but it was hardly a foregone conclusion. Both the underground systems in Boston and New York benefited from great genius and even greater wealth. As <i>Boston Globe</i> editor Doug Most notes in his captivating read, the systems even shared wealthy benefactors -- the brothers <b>Henry and William Whitney</b>, one in each city, negotiating a host of political and technical speed bumps on their quest to build the country's first subterranean route. Most's story is especially fascinating in outlining the difficulties of these ambitious projects. What seems an absolutely sound decision today was deemed highly risky and politically fraught in its day.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Supreme City</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America</span></b><br />
<b>Donald L. Miller</b><br />
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This snappy, crowded tale, among the most entertaining books on New York City history I've read in the past couple years,
is indeed an epic about New York City in the Jazz Age, but it's a wildly different tune than the one in which you're familiar.
This is a tale of architecture and invention, of a boldness and proportion that New Yorkers take for granted today. Miller recounts the invention of <b>Midtown Manhattan</b>, but it's also about a spiritual shift in urban life.
Industrial visions and personal journeys alike culminate in the year 1927, a watershed date for New York, and arrive within the Manhattan grid system, mostly along 42nd Street between Eighth Avenue and Lexington Avenue, the nucleus of a new urban vision. The story ventures out through the entire city of course but always to the beat of this new Midtown.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Tomorrow-Land</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">The 1964-65 World's Fair And The Transformation Of America</span></b><br />
<b>Joseph Tirella
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The United States experienced an incredible social transformation in the mid-1960s. Unfortunately for Robert Moses, these soaring changes to American life clashed with the rosy and naive vision of his second World's Fair in Flushing-Meadows, Queens. You may have read about the fair before in other books, but Tirella takes care to place it within a larger context, allowing you to marvel at the strangeness of the fair's futuristic visions. Embarked upon as the launching pad for progress and modern technologies, Moses' pet project became a symbol for forgotten and outdated values.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Liberty's Torch</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Great Adventure To Build The Statue of Liberty</span></b><br />
<b>Elizabeth Mitchell</b><br />
Lady Liberty represents so many lofty sentiments that we forget what she actually <i>was</i> almost 140 years ago -- an impetuously complex enterprise by a group of French thinkers to embody a way of thinking onto an edifice of copper. As ridiculous as it is monumental, Liberty was the product of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's extraordinary vision, a production process borrowing from centuries of French metallurgy and the tireless efforts of fund-raisers on both sides of the Atlantic to convince the people of America of the statue's noble intent. In essence, by the end of Mitchell's narrative, you'll be impressed that the Statue of Liberty was even created at all!<br />
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And here's one that comes out on December 23 and I haven't even read it! So let me just merely call it to your attention...<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City</span></b><br />
<b>Pierre Christin, Olivier Balez</b><br />
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Will a graphic novel about the life of Robert Moses that's less than 1/10th the length of <i>The Power Broker</i> adequately convey the ambitions, the motivations and the sheer destructive force of his legacy? Probably not. But Chilean illustrator Oliver Balez brings a bold and stylized luster to the landscape of New York skyscrapers and highways. And the graphic representation of Moses brings him one step closer to being an outright comic-book villain (or anti-hero, depending on you read it).<br />
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</iframe>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-49752474203301433962014-12-16T10:02:00.000-05:002014-12-16T10:02:07.154-05:00History In the Making 12/16: Miss Average Rockette Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hmmm. The ludicrous graphic above ran in the New York Times Magazine, November 12, 1967. Keep in mind the word 'topographically' is most often used when describing places. When I mentioned this graphic to a friend, he said, "They probably ran it so that admirers would know what size jewelry and furs to buy their favorite Rockettes." That is literally the best case scenario for a graphic like this.<br />
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Some links of interest:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">"Disease Rumors Largely Unfounded"</span></b>: In my column for <b>A24 Films</b> and <i><b>A Most Violent Year</b></i>, I look at the New York Native, the newspaper which first reported on a mysterious affliction killing gay men in early 1981. And a rather startling article in New York Magazine which ran the very same day. [<a href="http://1981.nyc/first-appearances-gay-cancer/">1981</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Troubled Wealth</span></b>: The lost Upper West Side mansion of Dom Eugenie Faria Ganzales de Teixeira, Marquis of Aguila Branca. [<a href="http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-lost-teixeira-mansion-no-918-west.html">Daytonian In Manhattan</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Crossroads</span></b>: Why has Union Square so important to protest movements throughout the centuries? [<a href="http://gvshp.org/blog/2014/12/10/union-square-activism-by-design/">Off the Grid</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Stalled</span></b>: An abandoned construction site on the <b>Williamsburg/Greenpoint </b>border becomes a haven for cats and chaos. [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/nyregion/brooklyn-property-stalled-for-nearly-10-years.html?ref=nyregion">New York Times</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Traces of Opulence</span></b>: Wandering around Lyndhurst, the mysterious old castle of <b>Jay Gould.</b> <a href="http://www.scoutingny.com/scouting-the-ruins-of-jay-goulds-indoor-pool/">[Scouting New York</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Steampunk or Stupid</span></b>: What's going on with the advertising campaign behind an unusual condominium in lower Manhattan? [<a href="https://gordonsurbanmorphology.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/steampunked-in-the-city/">Gordon's Urban Morphology</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Frozen</span></b>: Did you know there was a <b>Petrified Sea Garden</b> in upstate New York? [<a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/petrified-sea-garden">Atlas Obscura</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">That Bites</span></b>: A classic Greenwich Village bar has become a place to buy boutique hot dogs. [<a href="http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/back-fence-to-bark.html">Jeremiah's Vanishing New York</a>]<br />
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<b>PLUS</b>: Fifty years ago this week, the <b>Rockettes </b>were profiled in a cover story in Life Magazine. The lead image in the prior post is from that photo spread. How about some more of their rehearsals? Photos are by Arthur Rickerby You can read the article online <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=nlEEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=rockettes+%22life+magazine%22+1964&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6keQVKHkGIqbyATrsICYDA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">here</a>.<br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, 1260 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, USA40.7601178 -73.97978560000001415.238083300000003 -115.28837960000001 66.2821523 -32.671191600000014tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-20341116078912587732014-12-12T10:25:00.000-05:002014-12-12T13:56:33.675-05:00American Kicks: A History of the Rockettes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Lifted spirits: The Rockettes practice for a 1964 productions. (Life/Arthur Rickerby)</i></div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">PODCAST </span></b>The <b>Rockettes</b> are America's best known dance troupe -- and a staple of the holiday season -- but you may not know the origin of this iconic New York City symbol. For one, they're not even from the Big Apple!<br />
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Formerly the Missouri Rockets, the dancers and their famed choreographer <b>Russell Markert</b> were noticed by theater impresario <b>Samuel Rothafel</b>, who installed them first as his theater The Roxy, then at one of the largest theaters in the world --<b> Radio City Music Hall.</b><br />
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The life of a Rockettes dancer was glamorous, but grueling; for many decades dancing not in isolated shows, but before the screenings of movies, several times a day, a different program each week. There was a very, very specific look to the Rockettes, a look that changed -- and that was forced to change by cultural shifts -- over the decades.<br />
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This show is dedicated to the many thousands of women who have shuffled and kicked with the Rockettes over their many decades of entertainment, on the stage, the picket line or the Super Bowl halftime show.<br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">You can also listen to the show on<a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/10207/details"> Stitcher streaming radio</a> and <a href="http://player.fm/series/new-york-city-history-the-bowery-boys">Player FM</a> from your mobile devices.</span><br />
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Or listen to it straight from here:<br />
<strong><a href="http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/e/a/7/ea79698301fe2b25/174_The_History_of_the_Rockettes.mp3?c_id=8032592&expiration=1418398681&hwt=1ec17cad09fc432c1dd3c8d761dfb950">The Bowery Boys #174: American Kicks: A History of the Rockettes</a></strong><br />
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The first New York home of the Rockettes (as the Roxyettes) was the <b>Roxy Theatre</b>, almost as large as Radio City Music Hall and located just nearby. (<a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYW7M5VRL&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=866">MCNY</a>)<br />
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Radio City Music Hall, which opened in 1932, was quickly transformed into the world's largest movie house after a notorious opening night. It would be here that the Rockettes would perform a few times a day, seven days a week, for over fifty years. (<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=557384&imageID=th-57002&total=66&num=40&word=radio%20city%20music&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=1&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&sort=&imgs=20&pos=42&e=w">NYPL</a>)<br />
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The Rockettes, 1935, in a 'Cavalcade of Color', choreographed and directed by Leon Leonidoff. The constant high-kicking routines required great athleticism, precision and balance. (<a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYW7M55NN&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=866">MCNY</a>)<br />
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The Rockettes in 1937, beauty in duplication. (Courtesy the Rockettes)<br />
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In 1939, the Rockettes gave salute to the Gay Nineties in these extravagant costumes. (Courtesy the Rockettes)<br />
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Faces of the Rockettes: A few of the dancers from the 1935 configuration.. These photos are by the Wurts Brothers, from the Museum of the City of New York Collection. You can see the complete group <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYW7MSVYL&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=866">here</a>. Unfortunately there are no names attached to the portraits but if any of these women look familiar, drop me their names in the comments section!<br />
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The Rockettes in the 1950s<br />
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In 1967, many Rockettes went on strike for a month to demand better wages to compensate for their vigorous schedule and unpaid rehearsal time. Needless to say, they got everybody's attention. (Courtes Kheel Center). <br />
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Pam Palmer and Kim Heil, two Rockettes from the late 1970s. (Photo by<a href="http://zenphoto.heiserhollow.net/index.php?album=That%2070s%20Show/BHS1978/Favorites&image=HeiserBay64-49.jpg"> Jay Heiser</a>)<br />
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The Rockettes at a Fleet Week event in 2006. (Photo by Gabriela Hurtado)<br />
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Various newsreel footage of the Rockettes, including images of the troupe rehearsing on the roof of Radio City!<br />
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The Rockettes at the 1988 Super Bowl halftime show:<br />
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The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com2Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, 1260 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, USA40.7601178 -73.97978560000001415.238083300000003 -115.28837960000001 66.2821523 -32.671191600000014tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-19338587826636472412014-12-10T09:00:00.000-05:002014-12-10T09:00:00.578-05:00'The Walk': The World Trade Center in 3D?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Robert Zemeckis</b>, the Oscar-winning director of <i>Forrest Gump</i>, is turning the <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2008/12/mad-men-on-mars-wires-best-nyc-history.html">best documentary of 2008</a> <i>Man on Wire</i> -- about Philippe Petit's unbelievable tightrope walk between the towers of the <b>World Trade Center</b> in 1974 -- into a feature length film. Starring <b>Joseph Gordon-Levitt</b>. In 3-D. And, apparently, on IMAX.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="306" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rBicCZG4vg0" width="544"></iframe>
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So what do you think? I'm sort of dumb-founded this movie has to exist but I trust the talent behind it, so we'll see.<br />
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For comparison here's the trailer to the 2008 documentary:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="408" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EIawNRm9NWM" width="544"></iframe><br />
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Philippe Petit, just 25 years old, was not done with New York City after his death-defying tightrope walk between the Twin Tower. Just three weeks later, he strung a tightrope across the length of Belvedere Lake in <b>Central Park</b> and skillfully walked the length of it, all the way to the tower of Belvedere Castle, to the delight of thousands of on-lookers.<br />
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This sounds far less dangerous than his WTC stunt, of course, but Petit was reportedly still frightened as he did not know how to swim! Three lifeguards stood along the side of the lake, prepared to jump in should the aerialist stumble.<br />
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One week later, he tackled a more imposing body of water, walking a wire over the Great Falls in Patterson, NJ. (Picture courtesy <a href="http://physicalcomedy.blogspot.com/">Physical Comedy</a>)<br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1World Trade Center, New York, NY, USA40.711667 -74.01249999999998940.708658 -74.01754249999999 40.714676 -74.007457499999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-18399656266138699832014-12-09T11:20:00.003-05:002014-12-09T11:20:37.648-05:00And Now ... Two Christmas Poems By Robert MosesMy new column for <b>A24 Films</b> is up over <a href="http://1981.nyc/">on their 1981 site</a> (in support of the film <i>A Most Violent Year)</i>. 1981 was the year that<b> Robert Moses </b>died, and his death sparked new discussions into what his legacy to the New York City area truly was. In a word: automobiles. You can read my article <a href="http://1981.nyc/car-city-death-robert-moses/">here</a>.<br />
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But that's a little depressing. How about I tell you about the time that the <b>New York Times</b> published a couple Christmas poems written by Moses?<br />
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That's right, the Santa Claus of Long Island, bearing gifts of bridges and highways, did occasionally get into the Christmas spirit, albeit dripping in vitriol and sass.<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<i>Moses in 1934 during his failed campaign for governor. (Courtesy New York Daily News Archive)</i><br />
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<b>POEM ONE - 'TIS THE NIGHT BEFORE ELECTION</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This loosely poetic speech first manifested in print during the last gasps of Moses' failed bid for New York governor in 1934. <br />
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As the Republican candidate running against incumbent <b>Herbert H. Lehman</b>, young Moses failed to connect with voters, and the experience soured him on elected positions. He was soundly defeated by Lehman, the investment banker-turned-politician aligned with new president<b> Franklin Delano Roosevelt</b> (who had preceded Lehman as governor).<br />
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His final words as a candidate were spoken on radio station <b>WEAF </b>and <a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/11/06/93650028.html?pageNumber=21">printed </a>the following day. Those words paid an awkward homage to the great Christmas poem <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2012/12/twas-night-before-christmas-190-years.html">written by <b>Clement Clarke Moore</b></a>. Despite the fact that the election was in early November, his point in conjuring the visage of Old St. Nick would become clear. It's hardly rhythmic. Imagine this read in his gruff, determined voice:<br />
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<i>"'Tis the night before election, and nothing much is stirring throughout the state. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The stockings in Democratic homes are hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Jim Farley soon will be there.</i><br />
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<i>The Big Bag Man is dressing himself up as Santa. He doesn't really look the part, but that's not important.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhcge7hc0WWNbkku_u3QBSEmdURampG8eYDgUt_N3OH5a93KaNP_R_BDsXUHCLBRTDhRrhcPcXNa-OKZi4gy6s7t2fuz4lahtFuqc8wfdL81_niJ7P3gvucFCAeyWGRIo_zxbeBl8xws/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhcge7hc0WWNbkku_u3QBSEmdURampG8eYDgUt_N3OH5a93KaNP_R_BDsXUHCLBRTDhRrhcPcXNa-OKZi4gy6s7t2fuz4lahtFuqc8wfdL81_niJ7P3gvucFCAeyWGRIo_zxbeBl8xws/s1600/1.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><i>Neither is the fact that all the presents were bought on credit, and that Santa Claus is running up a tremendous bill. </i><br />
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<i>The important question is: Has he plenty of presents to go around for the boys and girls who have been good?</i><br />
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<i>Governor Smith expressed the fondest hopes of the Democratic party, and summed up the strategy of the whole Democratic campaign when he said that he thought the people would not shoot Santa Claus before a hard Christmas."</i><br />
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<b>Jim Farley</b> (pictured at right, 1938) was considered a 'kingmaker' in Democratic politics, responsible for the election of FDR. He would become Roosevelt's U.S. Postmaster General. The <b>James A. Farley Post Office </b>across from Madison Square Garden is named in his honor.<br />
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Using the Santa analogy, Moses was taking a dig at Democratic programs that would soon shape FDR's New Deal. Of course, as New York's power builder, Moses would later benefit greatly from these programs so perhaps he shouldn't have been complaining.<br />
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<i>In 1948, Robert Moses received the very first honorary degree from Hofstra University, along with Robert Gannon, the president of Fordham University. However, that year it would be a phony university that would inspire Moses to pen a sassy Christmas verse. (Courtesy <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/50818602@N03/5233236731/">Hofstra University</a>)</i><br />
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<b>POEM TWO: CHRISTMAS GREETINGS (LETTER TO THE CHANCELLOR)</b><br />
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Perhaps more unusual was the poem which ran the day after Christmas in 1948, an inside joke between men of influence.<br />
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By the late 1930s, Moses had amassed several positions of responsibility and power and had pushed through a great number of vast, expensive projects, including the <b>Triborough Bridge</b>. Moses had to routinely pitch these projects to the New York Board of Estimate -- the men who held the purse strings -- which included <b>Henry M. Curran</b> (Deputy Mayor), <b>Newbold Morris </b>(City Council President), and <b>James Lyons</b> (Bronx Borough President).<br />
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Curran was a bit of a grammar nerd -- the kind who cringes at improper usage of words -- and recoiled during debates when Moses (at right) and the others misused the English language.<br />
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According to the Times, Curran organized among the men a hierarchy of language correction, (jokingly?) referred to as Curran University. One could only 'graduate' from this phony university by excelling in their verbal and written debates with grammatical aplomb.<br />
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During a board meeting where the fate of<a href="http://www.westsiderag.com/2012/02/07/the-claremont-inn-a-lost-treasure-on-the-banks-of-the-hudson"> the old <b>Claremont Inn</b></a> was discussed, Moses used the phrase '<i>coign </i>of vantage' which scandalized Curran but suggested that Moses' verbal skills were improving. <br />
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Then, one day, Moses wrote a memorandum to Lyons using the phrase '<i>high-falutin</i>' as well an apparent mis-use of the word <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurignacian">Aurignacian</a>. This threw his superiors into a light-hearted conniption.<br />
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"We tried to help. But Moses has failed, flunked. Up with the bars! Let Mose wail -- without -- not within," wrote Curran.<br />
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Moses, who would become more powerful than all three men combined, responded in an unusual way -- he wrote a biting Christmas poem. The following verse, penned by Moses, was delivered to Lyon, who "promptly converted it into a Christmas card -- with embellishments -- and passed it along to his superior officer." The poem, as <a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/12/26/85320331.html?pageNumber=4">published in the Times</a>:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>CHRISTMAS GREETINGS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>To Chancellor Henry H. Curran</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Great Chancellor of Curran U</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Greetings from Borough Hall and Zoo.</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Assorted barks and roars and honks</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>From the four corners of the Bronx.</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Gannon, Osborn, Robbins and Moses</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Greet you with laurel, rhinos and roses.</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Cheerios and loud hosannas</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>From Pelham Bay and the Bronx savannas.</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Great critic of the spoken word,</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Greetings with the proverbial bird.</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>From every coign and height definitive</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>We greet you with a split infinitive.</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Signed, </i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>James J Lyons, Dean</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Robert Moses, Sophomore Cheer Leader</i></div>
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So remember: the next time you have a friend correct your grammar, remind yourself, "Hey, I have something in common with the Power Broker!"<br />
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<i>Below: A New Yorker cartoon from 1960, the year when his grammar pal Morris took the job of Parks Commissioner from Moses.</i><br />
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<i><br /></i>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0New York City Hall, City Hall Park, New York, NY 10007, USA40.7127744 -74.00605915.1907399 -115.31465299999999 66.2348089 -32.697464999999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-60203047070578234882014-12-05T18:30:00.000-05:002014-12-09T12:05:50.208-05:00A Special Year-End Podcast: Ask the Bowery Boys!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For the end of the year, we're going to try a new experiment -- a year-end question show, where we 'unplug' for a bit and answer reader's mail. Give you a true behind-the-scenes of how we produce the show and what our personal thoughts are about New York City and history in general. This is our thanks to you for helping us make it through another terrific year of podcasts.<br />
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Do you have anything you want to ask us -- about New York City, about the making of the podcast, about ourselves? Favorite shows or favorites places in the city? <b>Just email us at</b> <b>boweryboysnyc@earthlink.net and put ASK THE BOWERY BOYS in the header. </b>We will go through your questions and read some of them on the air. We'll also give you a shout-out for sending in the question.<br />
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NOTE: We want to keep this bonus show easy since it's our vacation show so please save any particular historical quandaries for another email.<br />
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In the meantime, we'll have another full-length podcast for you in a couple weeks.<br />
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<i>Above: Sammy's Bowery Follies, pic courtesy New York Public Library. This show was a throwback anything-goes style entertainment which ran in a theater at 267 Bowery for over 35 years. More information on the Bowery Follies <a href="http://gothamist.com/2013/01/04/sammys_bowery_follies.php#photo-1">here</a>.</i>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1267 Bowery, New York, NY 10002, USA40.723458699999988 -73.99248599999998515.201424199999988 -115.30107999999998 66.245493199999984 -32.683891999999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-17973584406077704312014-12-04T12:48:00.001-05:002014-12-04T12:50:35.675-05:00Maude Adams: Fashion icon and America's first Peter Pan <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Tonight NBC's unveils its live theatrical experiment <i><b>Peter Pan</b></i> with <i>Girls </i>star <b>Alison Williams</b> in the cross-dressing role of the boy who never grows up.<br />
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We can all have our debates about who's been the greatest stage Peter Pan in history. Most will say <b>Mary Martin</b>, a sizable minority will claim <b>Sandy Duncan</b>, and a few smaller voices may even cry the name <b>Cathy Rigby</b>. However the first and most popular woman to ever play the role was most likely the actress who originated the role on the American stage -- <b>Maude Adams. </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLude2G6xHW1Uoimzf4hprBe2Uh1_V0NzGJYJbr0HfP89L4BamUZZBRQed4gTYYQ6LFIFnZxz58BD8W4a86941qSbq3b482avcklrbGxJQUXPKcd7gyggXQ8mjbfxkcLoiHTg5r5J6M_g/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLude2G6xHW1Uoimzf4hprBe2Uh1_V0NzGJYJbr0HfP89L4BamUZZBRQed4gTYYQ6LFIFnZxz58BD8W4a86941qSbq3b482avcklrbGxJQUXPKcd7gyggXQ8mjbfxkcLoiHTg5r5J6M_g/s1600/1.jpg" height="400" width="178" /></a>Her rendition was so popular that it inspired one enduring fashion trend.<br />
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<i>Peter Pan</i> made its New York debut on November 6, 1905 at the Empire Theatre at Broadway and 41st Street. The theater was owned by one of New York's most powerful producers <b>Charles Frohman</b>. Adams was one of his greatest finds, casting her in several productions when she was just a teenager.<br />
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Adams had played a boy on stage and had even starred in a prior play by Peter Pan's author <b>J. M Barrie </b>(<i>Quality Street</i>). Barrie himself came to New York to witness rehearsals with Adams and the show 70-odd cast members.<br />
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<i>At right: The bizarre visage of Maude Adams as illustrated in the New York World, November 1905</i><br />
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The audiences loved Adams, but not the critics. From the New York Tribune <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1905-11-07/ed-1/seq-7/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=11&words=Pan+Peter&proxdistance=5&state=New+York&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=%22peter+pan%22&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=3">the following day:</a> "As an actress Miss Adams is incarnate mediocrity -- for she possesses neither imagination, passion, power, depth of feeling or formidable intellect and her faculty of expressive impersonation is extremely limited" -- <i>OUCH </i>-- "but as a personality, she is piquant, interesting and agreeable ... she has shown to advantage and she causes the effect of commingled merriment, sentiment and momentary thought."<br />
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Others criticized her physical size, calling her "plump and prancing." "She was a trifle overweight for a fairy, but she carried herself lightly and gracefully and didn't scare the children in the least."<br />
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Audiences loved her, however, Adams proceeded to play the role of Peter Pan, off and on, for over a decade. In fact, Maude Adams was the actress most associated with the part for fifty years. Mary Martin then took the role to Broadway in 1954, won the Tony Award for Best Actress the following year and then became the model for which all subsequent actors have looked to.<br />
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More important, Adams inspired a popular fashion trend -- the Peter Pan collar. Her costume, by John White Alexander, took great liberties with Barrie's descriptions of Peter's garments. Women soon clamored for dresses with a similar floppy collar. The play was still running at the Empire when the collars soon appeared at department stores. This ad is from April 1906:<br />
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Her belted waist also took the fashion world by storm. The "<a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1906-06-29/ed-1/seq-9/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=6&words=collars+Pan+Peter&proxdistance=5&state=New+York&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=%22peter+pan+collar%22&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1">Peter Pain waist</a>," a traditional shirtwaist bound with a thick black belt, was called "decidedly chic," "particularly becoming and stunning in effect."<br />
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The front of the Empire Theatre, where Peter Pan made its New York debut:<br />
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Pic courtesy<i> New York Public Library</i><br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com2Garment District, New York, NY, USA40.754656099939055 -73.98731209521486140.751649099939058 -73.992354595214863 40.757663099939052 -73.982269595214859tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-20539255570329172312014-12-03T10:09:00.000-05:002014-12-03T10:09:10.252-05:00New York City just opened up its New Amsterdam records, including Peter Stuyvesant's rules for drinking responsibly <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>From A New and Accurate Map of the Entire New Netherland, engraving believed to be by Carolus Allard, courtesy the Department of Records </i><br />
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Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the <b><a href="http://www.archives.nyc/">New York City Department of Records </a></b>just blew the minds of history geeks everywhere. They released the first batch of digitized documents from the first years of the city's existence, back when it was the Dutch colony of <b>New Amsterdam.</b><br />
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You can find the first batch of released documents at the city's attractive new portal <b><a href="http://www.archives.nyc/">here</a>.</b><br />
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This is the equivalent of pulling out old photo albums of you playing with birthday cake in your high chair. This first round of documents show "the early development of the City’s government: ordinances drawn from the Records of New Amsterdam for the period of 1647 to 1661, and their corresponding translations, maintained by the Municipal Archives and Municipal Library."<br />
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Don't speak Dutch? No problem. Translations of the old ordinance pages pop up as you peruse them, and there are 19th century historical translations included underneath.<br />
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<i>Below: The Duke's Plan, drawn to celebrate the British take over of the Dutch property of New Amsterdam</i><br />
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This is the first round of documents provided by the Department of Records. Future updates <a href="http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/534-14/launching-its-first-document-digitization-project-city-s-records-department-publishes-online-17th">will feature </a>"early documents granting lands to settlers in Brooklyn and Queens, maps and other primary resources."<br />
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<b>Peter's Rules For Drinking Responsibly</b><br />
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Among these pages are the first edicts made by new director-general <b>Peter Stuyvesant </b>and the Common Council, including a laundry list of new restrictions regarding drinking and selling alcohol in the chaotic settlement. <br />
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The documents note that New Amsterdam's excessive alcohol consumption "causes not only the neglect of honest handicraft and business, but also the debauching of the common man and the Company’s servants and what is still worse, of the young people from childhood up, who seeing the improper proceedings of their parents and imitating them leave the path of virtue and become disorderly."<br />
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And so the following list of edicts were laid down including rules on bar fights, drinking on Sunday and providing liquor to Indians:<br />
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<b>1</b>. "Henceforth no new taproom, tavern or inn shall be opened."<br />
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<b>2</b>. "The taverns, taprooms and inns, already established, may continue for at least four consecutive years, but in the meantime the owners shall be obliged to engage in some other honest business at this place."<br />
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<b>3.</b> "The tavern-keepers and tapsters are allowed to continue in their business for four years at least, but only on condition, that they shall not transfer their former occupation."<br />
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<b>4</b>. "The tavern keepers and tapsters shall henceforth not be allowed, to sell or give beer, wine, brandy or strong waters to Indians or provide them with it by intermediaries."<br />
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<b>5</b>. "To prevent all fighting and mishaps they shall daily report to the Officer, whether anybody has been hurt or wounded at their houses, under the penalty of forfeiting their business and a fine of one pound Flemish for every hour after the hurt or wound has been inflicted and been concealed by the tapster or tavern-keeper."<br />
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<b>6</b>. "The orders, heretofore published against unseasonable night tippling and intemperate drinking on the Sabbath, shall be obeyed by the tavern-keepers and tapsters with close attention."<br />
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<b>7</b>. "They shall be held, not to receive any beer or wine or distilled waters into their houses or cellars, directly or indirectly, before they have so reported at the office of the Receiver."<br />
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<b>8.</b> "Finally, all tavern-keepers and tapsters, who intend to continue in their occupation, shall eight days after the publication hereof present themselves in person and give their names to the Director General and Council and there solemnly promise, that they will faithfully obey what rules have been or may be made."<span style="color: white;">een o</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">r may be made.... </span><span style="color: white; font-size: 12pt;">March 10, 1648.</span>
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Images from the Municipal Library, also available on the site <a href="http://archives.nyc/">archives.nyc</a>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-26075044370527003642014-12-02T10:03:00.001-05:002014-12-02T16:14:00.473-05:00Screaming Phantoms, Tomahawks, Phantom Lords, Dirty Ones and other gangs of 1970s Williamsburg, Brooklyn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Y18ANPx-R6t77z3CJmTBDo54hOpjlvkhUH7bG7rTyyMVs3gR7srl6UQRc49F-9PgoVKWy0MTiI-DrZFxiQxRJlCkrHLjuzv0pgvw0IUgjj7LigbpETt-9CMQMFxVzBA2LDd7C0svz50/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Y18ANPx-R6t77z3CJmTBDo54hOpjlvkhUH7bG7rTyyMVs3gR7srl6UQRc49F-9PgoVKWy0MTiI-DrZFxiQxRJlCkrHLjuzv0pgvw0IUgjj7LigbpETt-9CMQMFxVzBA2LDd7C0svz50/s1600/1.jpg" height="361.2" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<i>The Dirty Ones, a notorious gang from Williamsburg.</i><br />
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My new column for A24 Films (a tie-in to the new movie <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/10/1981-was-indeed-most-violent-year-in.html"><i><b>A Most Violent Year</b></i></a>) is up on their site devoted to <a href="http://1981.nyc/">culture and events from 1981.</a><br />
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For this article, I look at what some of the dangerous undercurrents to life in <b>Williamsburg, Brooklyn</b>, in 1981. "By the 1970s, Williamsburg was best known for its steeply rising crime rate, harboring both violent street-gang activity and organized crime." You can read the whole article <a href="http://1981.nyc/killing-fields-williamsburg-brooklyn-1981/">here</a>.<br />
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During my research for this piece, I found this rather startling map in<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/08/01/93296144.html?pageNumber=33"> the New York Times</a>, August 1, 1974, charting out the various turfs of northern Brooklyn street gangs. This is not a souvenir from the film <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080120/combined"><b>The Warriors</b></a></i>, but an actual list of the many violent gangs which kept Brooklyn a very dangerous place to walk around in during the 1970s.<br />
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Gang activity was so especially vicious at this time -- particularly gang-vs-gang violence -- that <b>Luis Garten Acosta</b>, the founder of <a href="http://elpuente.us/">El Puente</a> youth outreach program, called northern Brooklyn 'the killing fields' in 1981.<br />
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I dug a little further to find some specific incidents which involved some of these gangs. I've put numbers by the gangs so you can find their dedicated turf on the map above:<br />
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-- <a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/09/17/issue.html">September 16, 1972</a> -- A gang altercation among the members of the <b>Young Barons </b>(44) resulted in the death of one young man and another whose<i> nose was cut off. </i><br />
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-- August 21, 1973 -- Several members of the <b>Devils Rebels</b> (19) were walking around Bushwick when they were accosted by the <b>Screaming Phantoms</b> (11). Two boys associated with the Devils Rebels were stabbed and killed. Police report "the Screaming Phantoms operated out of the Williamsburg area and had been 'way out of their area' at the scene of yesterday's gang fight."<br />
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-- <a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/02/25/91435179.html?pageNumber=17">February 25, 1974 </a>-- The Times reports on the extortion schemes of various northern Brooklyn gangs, mentioning the <b>Outlaws </b>(28,29), the <b>Tomahawks </b>(48), the <b>Jolly Stompers </b>(not listed) and <b>B'Nai Zaken </b>(41).<br />
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-- October 12, 1973 -- Several gangs have been cast as extras in a new film called <i>The Education of Sonny Carson</i>, including the <b>Tomahawks </b>(48), <b>Pure Hell </b>(22) and the <b>Unknown Riders</b> (43).<br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, USA40.7081156 -73.95706960000001140.6840436 -73.99741010000001 40.732187599999996 -73.916729100000012tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-72461148949824333062014-11-26T11:14:00.001-05:002014-11-26T11:14:09.300-05:00Wacky, windy and weird: 1964 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Linus the Lion-Hearted at the 1964 Macy's Parade</i><br />
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The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade of 1963 had been a downer of a parade. <br />
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President<b> John F. Kennedy</b> had just been assassinated a few days before but, deciding that cancelling the event would be "<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/11/28/89607384.html?pageNumber=1">a disappointment to millions of children</a>," the parade went on as planned. Leading the parade that year was a 38-foot rubber Unisphere to promote the upcoming World's Fair. Further back in the line was young television star <b>Michael Landon</b>.<br />
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Flash forward to the following year -- the World's Fair out at <b>Flushing-Meadows</b> had celebrated a rocky first year. Landon's <i>Bonanza </i>was about to become the most popular show on television, a distinction it would hold throughout the mid-1960s. New York City was, generally speaking, in a cautiously more festive mood.<br />
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Not that the specter of the previous year's tragedy was far from people's minds. "Americans plan to savor the traditional cheer of Thanksgiving today in an atmosphere that contrasts with the numbing experience of last year," said the New York Times. [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/11/26/118542524.html?pageNumber=50">source</a>]<br />
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<i>Below: Macy's in 1964 (courtesy <a href="http://thepapercollector.blogspot.com/2011/06/macys-herald-square-c-1964.html">The Paper Collector</a>)</i><br />
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For their part, Macy's was trying to whip New Yorkers back up into a holiday shopping frenzy. Among the hottest items advertised by the department store during Thanksgiving week were Hitachi record players, Consolette hair dryers and mink coats for $99.99.<br />
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The 1964 Thanksgiving Day parade (November 27) held a certain campier flair than normal, loaded with family-friendly cheerfulness slightly more heightened than normal, with a few assorted mishaps and lots of goofiness mixed in. Why? For the same reason the 1964 is among the most memorable in parade history -- television:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIF7nqvI_k6uP9TUD8ztLuKp716SRsbjuMt4jBIb89u7B8l7MoeqC0C0dAHns5W7MvPUzJdXr38ZuhXumV1GlxJYJunWPxHTNrcNqtkBk5KwtUZMfdpmWjmbkCT3ZziKfx4-9PAjTmL1Y/s1600/Peacock_NBC_presentation_in_RCA_color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIF7nqvI_k6uP9TUD8ztLuKp716SRsbjuMt4jBIb89u7B8l7MoeqC0C0dAHns5W7MvPUzJdXr38ZuhXumV1GlxJYJunWPxHTNrcNqtkBk5KwtUZMfdpmWjmbkCT3ZziKfx4-9PAjTmL1Y/s1600/Peacock_NBC_presentation_in_RCA_color.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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-- <span style="color: #990000;"><b>First in Color</b>:</span> NBC has been broadcasting the parade since 1952. By 1964 coverage had expanded to 90 minutes -- in 2014, it's three hours -- and now, for the first time ever, it would be broadcast in color. Several NBC shows had gone to a color broadcast previously, but Americans didn't yet have affordable color sets at home. But by 1964 sets were finally being mass produced and sold as luxury items in department stores. <br />
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There were a little over one million color televisions in American homes with the potential to tune in to a color broadcast in 1964. Ten years later, that number would rise to almost 45 million.<br />
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-- <span style="color: #990000;"><b>The Official Debut of Lip-Syncing</b>: </span> But some lamented the attention to the television audience. At one point, the parade was held up for eight minutes while waiting for a television signal. "Near Herald Square television took over the parade .... and some of the spontaneity went out of it." [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/11/27/97435181.html?pageNumber=29">source</a>]<br />
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Performances were pantomimed while songs were pumped in for the television audience. The Times notes that cameras zoomed in on "performers who were only feigning a performance." Today, of course, this is a regular feature of the parade and almost none of the performances (outside of the marching bands) feature live singing.<br />
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<i>At right: The hosts at the 1968 parade</i><br />
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-- <span style="color: #990000;"><b>Lorne and Betty</b>: </span>The hosts of NBC's 1964 broadcast were <b>Lorne Greene</b> -- Landon's <i>Bonanza </i>co-star -- and the effervescent <b>Betty White</b>, celebrated star of a 1950s show called <i>Life With Elizabeth</i>. Greene was perhaps one of NBC's hottest actors at the time, while White was busy as a television spokeswoman. She was also a regular host of the <i>Tournament of Roses </i>parade. Almost every role you've ever loved Betty White in lay far in the future for her at this time.<br />
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--<b><span style="color: #990000;"> First Men In the Moon</span></b>: Being a special televised event meant more promotion of film and television properties. Among the most unusual was the space-themed float promoting the new film <i>First Men In The Moon</i>, a British sci-fi romp featuring special effects by <b>Ray Harryhausen</b>.<br />
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The float did its best to simulate Harryhausen's unique creations -- 'Moon Cows', gigantic bugs who poked their heads out of craters upon a floating moonscape. Lorne Greene is reported to have said, "Wow look at those big grasshoppers!" [<a href="http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/25328/HAIL-HARRYHAUSEN?page=13#.VHXqFdI7tNc">source</a>]<br />
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--<b> <span style="color: #990000;">The Sound of Puppets</span></b>: A few stars of the upcoming film <i>The Sound of Music</i> would appear in the parade. No, not Julie Andrews, bur rather the colorful marionettes of <b>Bil Baird</b>, featured in the 'goatherd' scene of the film. I'm not sure how they were presented, and I assume most of the spectators were unable to see them perform.<br />
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<b>-- <span style="color: #990000;">The Fate of Dino the Dinosaur</span></b>: A great danger threatened the 1964 parade -- horrible winds. Fortunately no spectators were injured by the gusts, some up to 21 miles an hour.<br />
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The balloons did not emerge unscathed. <b> Dino the Dinosaur</b> (not to be confused with Dino, the dog from the Flintstones) would grow to become a favorite site in the 1960s and 70s. (He's pictured at right, from the 1963 parade.) <br />
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But at the 1964 parade, a sudden gust blew the dinosaur into a lamppost at Columbus Circle, tearing a hole in its side. Its handlers along the avenue continued to pull the beast down the street, but by the time they got to Macy's, the dinosaur was partially deflated and dragging the ground.<br />
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-- <b><span style="color: #990000;">Popeye The Limp Sailor</span>:</b> Dino wasn't the only balloon with performance mishaps. The impressively sized Popeye balloon failed to properly inflate the night before; or as the papers note, "there was not enough spinach in the pumps, and Popeye wouldn't expand at all."<br />
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He was unceremoniously replaced in the parade by a dragon balloon that Macy's just had lying around.<br />
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<b>Donald Duck </b>(pictured below from 1964) had fewer troubles that year.<br />
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-- <b><span style="color: #990000;">Linus the Lion-Hearted</span></b>: Pictured at top, this balloon with excellent posture debuted at the 1964 parade. It was based upon a Crispy Critters breakfast cereal spokesman who had his own television show which debuted just a couple months earlier. However, when the FCC determined in 1969 that advertising mascots could not also have children's show, <i>Linus </i>was abruptly cancelled. He would still make frequent appearances in the parade until 1991.<br />
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-- <b><span style="color: #990000;">The Soupiest Star</span></b>: New to NBC, New York City and to the parade itself was children's comedian <b>Soupy Sales </b><i>(pictured at left)</i>, whose daily show <i>Lunch with Soupy</i> was a local hit that year. He was probably one of the biggest hits in the parade, riding atop a rocking horse, as his trademark beaming grin was as noticeable as the floats themselves.<br />
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-- <b><span style="color: #990000;">The Drunk Munster</span></b>: And then there was <b>Fred Gwynne </b>and <b>Al Lewis</b>, the stars of NBC's monster comedy <i>The Munsters</i>.<br />
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From <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2010/11/strange-surreal-history-of-celebrity.html">a prior article</a> -- because this incident has fascinated me for years -- "[The] stars of The Munsters, appeared in the 1964 parade in their ghoulish costumes, riding along in their 'Munster Koach' car. Neither star was very amused. Gwynne was high on '<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=LtU2rfMrhAIC&pg=PA74&dq=macy%27s+parade+munsters&hl=en&ei=SwbsTPuQG4G88gaR2JnXAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=macy's%20parade%20munsters&f=false">nerve medicine</a>' and began cursing at the crowd."<br />
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According to their makeup man (pictured below, in the front seat): "I was in the Koach handling the loudspeaker and radio system that was playing the Munsters song. Fred had brought along a bottle with him, wrapped in a paper bag, and he got fractured [drunk]. And Al was mad at him. Fred was cussin' at people. I just kept the music up so nobody could hear him." [<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=LtU2rfMrhAIC&pg=PA74&dq=macy%27s+parade+munsters&hl=en&ei=SwbsTPuQG4G88gaR2JnXAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=macy's%20parade%20munsters&f=false">source</a>]<br />
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Passing the hosts Greene and White in the media box, Herman Munster fired off a rude expletive in their direction as well<br />
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Here are some video highlights from the parade, with the Munsters stars prominently featured:<br />
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<i>"Peacock NBC presentation in RCA color" Licensed under Fair use of copyrighted material in the context of NBC via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peacock_NBC_presentation_in_RCA_color.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Peacock_NBC_presentation_in_RCA_color.JPG">Wikipedia </a>- </i>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-74810603988186534402014-11-25T12:39:00.007-05:002014-11-25T12:57:50.953-05:00The Astor Place Cube is going away (but, really, don't panic)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The Alamo, aka the Astor Place Cube, 1978. Photographed by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/manel_armengol/8272920110/in/photolist-dB3SVC-ogy3To">Manel Armegol/Flickr</a></i><br />
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Like many remaining stalwarts of the East Village, <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2007/08/remember-alamo.html">the </a><b><a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2007/08/remember-alamo.html">Astor Place Cube</a> </b>is headed into a "rehabilitation" of sorts. <br />
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<i><b>Alamo</b></i>, the sculpture by Tony Rosenthal, is being removed as Astor Place goes through <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/tags/astor-place">an extensive $16 million renovation</a>. The blog Bedford + Bowery <a href="http://bedfordandbowery.com/2014/11/watch-the-astor-place-cube-get-crane-lifted-and-taken-away-for-a-long-while/">observed the sculpture</a> being lifted into a flatbed truck and driven away, to return sometime next year. The cube<a href="http://gothamist.com/2014/10/15/astor_place_cube_poof.php"> has been boxed up</a> for over a month in anticipation for its temporary removal.<br />
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It's coming back! They swear! Still with the closure of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/movies/kims-video-closes-and-a-village-sensibility-dies.html">so </a><a href="http://gothamist.com/2014/11/24/rip_de_robertis.php">many </a><a href="http://evgrieve.com/2014/09/angelica-kitchen-is-latest-east-village.html">East </a><a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6099138/mark-ronson-east-village-radio-guest-post">Village </a><a href="http://www.boweryboogie.com/2014/08/fab-208-vintage-boutique-east-village-closing-23-year-run/">institutions</a>, it's a startling thing to see. When it returns, it will be surrounded by <a href="http://villagealliance.org/blog/2013/04/01/presenting-new-astor-place/">pedestrian lanes and Sawtooth Oak trees</a><b>.</b> Like many of us, it will look around its new environment and wonder what the hell just happened.<br />
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Meanwhile the Cooper Union building -- <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2008/01/peter-cooper-and-cooper-union.html">the original, classic one</a> -- will still be there. As will <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/01/14/famous-astor-place-newsstand-is-reopening/">Jerry's Newsstand.</a> And, of course, the office building that was once the location of the Astor Place Opera House, famous for <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-astor-place-riot-massacre-at-busy.html">the 1849 <b>Astor Place Riots</b>.</a><br />
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So, goodbye for now, swirly cube. We'll see you in 2015.<br />
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The <i>Alamo </i>in 1980, photographed by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelseanedwards/6300868662/in/photolist-sAarw-8jFEdM-8jJNYd-8jFFPa-8jFCSr-8jJTWE-8jFAa4-8jFHKV-2Xxcx5-76CDPK-74pbZg-aAMAJA-ehm8VX-9hbuD1-oeUMat">Michael Sean Edwards</a>.<br />
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The <i>Alamo </i>in 1988, photographed by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/8931941@N08/7179843402/in/photolist-8jFEdM-8jJNYd-8jFFPa-8jFCSr-8jFAa4-8jJTWE-8jFHKV-7CTgqw-7E7gzh-bWsziu-7xChnr-7ELLAT">Stu Brown</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88uvtwRjnc6CrgLMdfPTPSSD907pxlat4KMWd0tkr6p3_SYK5eBa9GadgZZgW0OMj1sgOxNLCZkVNNqIqlLbn7ouBYRpIKxdbKQ1e11MZ1g7Pu-KIdSWimNltCJ0V6KkfnyiY9N_RfAA/s1600/7179843402_c6c89a4561_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88uvtwRjnc6CrgLMdfPTPSSD907pxlat4KMWd0tkr6p3_SYK5eBa9GadgZZgW0OMj1sgOxNLCZkVNNqIqlLbn7ouBYRpIKxdbKQ1e11MZ1g7Pu-KIdSWimNltCJ0V6KkfnyiY9N_RfAA/s1600/7179843402_c6c89a4561_k.jpg" height="640" width="428" /></a></div>
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The <i>Alamo </i>in 1989, photographed by<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/firedoctor/2414250059/in/photolist-8jFEdM-8jJNYd-8jFFPa-8jFCSr-8jJTWE-8jFAa4-8jFHKV-4FkEr2-4FpTKL-5xo558"> firedoctor/Flickr</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRnSon_0WxeSwfnpnZ51tU2US-2v-rRY2VmJaKW6NjOwFKQAluyxTxP5A80_AL6ZLEgFZOPBlDn-zZxpHIPlRhWCiiVPiPq2JHz6D6Vy8vtcezfVXerdORZt9OdRT8Fyz9NCX3vsRlvQ/s1600/2414250059_0b9874e015_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRnSon_0WxeSwfnpnZ51tU2US-2v-rRY2VmJaKW6NjOwFKQAluyxTxP5A80_AL6ZLEgFZOPBlDn-zZxpHIPlRhWCiiVPiPq2JHz6D6Vy8vtcezfVXerdORZt9OdRT8Fyz9NCX3vsRlvQ/s1600/2414250059_0b9874e015_b.jpg" height="381.84" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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The <i>Alamo </i>sometime in the early 1990s (judging from the lack of Starbucks and K-Mart in the picture), photographed by<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/smilerwithaknife/3044491800/in/photolist-57LVuz-5xo558-297xt1-5D2PkW-pSGdC-nDBhrW"> smilerwithaknife/Flickr</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-tWOMXp4X_-NeIUQFao9UOvahoSlUl1_PeCkg9fOhoDBZ0tJaWDPMG4ghPhtaXxq-F-XKymPh4J4E_7wlS63wmyWPdJHxjd2vWaTG7ZQVpNg81yRoNNI805UM_ls-Z_NKou8qITgoq4/s1600/3044491800_b6199624e9_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-tWOMXp4X_-NeIUQFao9UOvahoSlUl1_PeCkg9fOhoDBZ0tJaWDPMG4ghPhtaXxq-F-XKymPh4J4E_7wlS63wmyWPdJHxjd2vWaTG7ZQVpNg81yRoNNI805UM_ls-Z_NKou8qITgoq4/s1600/3044491800_b6199624e9_b.jpg" height="361.2" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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The <i>Alamo </i>in 2009, photograph courtesy<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/juanamarie33/3352866752/in/photolist-67hjts-77Tido-6CG4qf-7jLZ9s-68Lm2w-72VjiV-6CX169-6CSQKM-6CzLAe-6CEGWo-6CSQNV-6RBA3y-628K6T-6iXxKN-bP2USR-7fHm2H-8jFEdM-6NFNZw-8jJNYd-7fHjZn-6NBDeK-8Msma5-8jFFPa-8jFCSr-8jFAa4-8jJTWE-74pbZg-8jFHKV-7CX6mN-7iPBK3-7iPBKq-cyA2km-cyAbEU-cyA65Y-5S9hbH-efzCoQ-cyAjvh-5S9gYp-5S9h1e-cyAhMy-93HXE6-93J22r-cyzZsj-cyA9Cb-cyA441-cyzXCf-cyAfEE-cyA7Mb-73nkJN-9k6cQ3"> juanamarie33/Flickr</a><br />
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Thanks to the photographers above, and thanks to the <b>Bedford + Bowery</b> for being on top of this! They have <a href="http://bedfordandbowery.com/2014/11/watch-the-astor-place-cube-get-crane-lifted-and-taken-away-for-a-long-while/">a video of the removal</a> if you want to cry cube-shaped tears.<br />
<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-55038691416825779462014-11-24T12:39:00.000-05:002014-11-24T15:41:33.819-05:00History in the Making 11/24: Big Thanksgiving Rodents Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://secure.collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&IT=Thumb_Grid_M_Details_NoToolTip&IID=2F3XC5IZZYYT" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="[Mickey Mouse balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.]"><img alt="[Mickey Mouse balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.]" border="0" src="http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/7/7/8/a/MNY225210.jpg" height="429.14" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<i>Mickey Mouse at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1980 (courtesy the <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWUPYIN1&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=909">Museum of the City of New York</a>) </i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">The Christmas Trash Strike of 1981</span></b> My new story for A24 Films and <b><a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/10/1981-was-indeed-most-violent-year-in.html"><i>A Most Violent Year</i></a></b> is up -- a look at the strike by the New York sanitation department which kept New Yorkers in feet of garbage. And just in time for the holidays! [<a href="http://1981.nyc/christmas-trash-strike-1981/">NYC 1981</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Thanks Untapped Cities!</span></b> They've named the Bowery Boys podcast one of the top ten best produced podcasts in New York City. And we're in some very good company. [<a href="http://untappedcities.com/2014/11/21/the-10-best-podcasts-based-in-nyc-from-radiolab-this-american-life-to-the-combat-jack-show/">Untapped Cities</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Cass Gilbert</span></b>, the architect of the <b>Woolworth Building</b>, was born 155 years ago today. Before the Woolworth, he designed three other beautiful structures for the city, and all of them -- including the Alexander Hamilton Custom House -- are within a short walking distance from his most famous building. [<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-resume-cass-gilberts-three.html">Bowery Boys]</a><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Bright Idea</span></b>: Did you know New York city had 62 lampposts that have been given official landmark status? [<a href="http://gvshp.org/blog/2014/11/21/landmarked-lampposts/">Off the Grid</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Killer 'Serial':</span></b> The true-crime mystery podcast Serial is almost single-handedly changing the way people thing of podcast. If you're a fan of podcast, you'll find this article from the Wall Street Journal especially fascinating. [<a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/serial-podcast-catches-fire-1415921853">Wall Street Journal</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Save the Edison</span></b>: The mission to save the <b>Cafe Edison</b> in the old Hotel Edison is underfoot, including weekend lunch mobs and celebrity appearances (well, fake celebrities). [<a href="http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/">Jeremiah's Vanishing New York</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">Meet Me for Afternoon Tea:</span></b> Another midtown classic, the <b>Russian Tea Room</b>, is still going strong and still worth a visit. [<a href="http://gothamist.com/2014/11/20/russian_tea_room.php#photo-1">Gothamist</a>]<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">#bikenyc</span></b>: Where should New York put its next protected bike lanes? [<a href="http://www.streetfilms.org/hey-bikenyc-where-should-we-put-the-next-protected-bike-lanes/">Streetsblog</a>]<br />
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And sadly <b><span style="color: #990000;">DeRobertis Pasticceria & Caffe</span></b>, the Italian bakery which has fed cannoli to New Yorkers since 1904, is closing its door. [<a href="http://gothamist.com/2014/11/24/rip_de_robertis.php">Gothamist</a>]<br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1The Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, USA40.71243 -74.00835469999998415.190395499999997 -115.31694869999998 66.2344645 -32.699760699999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-71925194183457716432014-11-21T10:22:00.001-05:002014-11-21T10:22:05.969-05:00A very happy 50th birthday to the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge! Ten facts you may not know about the bridge's origins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://secure.collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&IT=Thumb_Grid_M_Details_NoToolTip&IID=24UAKVVFNLT" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="[Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.]"><img alt="[Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.]" border="0" src="http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/a/2/5/5/MN116322.jpg" height="640" width="506" /></a></div>
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<i>The new span in 1964, photographed by the Wurts Brothers (MCNY)</i><br />
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The <b>Verrazano-Narrows Bridge </b>-- the first land crossing between Staten Island and the rest of New York City -- officially opened for traffic fifty years ago today. It is one of America's greatest bridges and a graceful monumental presence in New York Harbor. Below is a list of ten things you may not have known about the bridge. In addition, I'm also including our podcast on the bridge's history via SoundCloud. (You can also download it from iTunes -- it's episode #119 -- or from <a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/-119-the-verrazano-narrows-bridge">here</a>.)<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177911261&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe>
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1) <b>The Tunnel to Staten Island</b><br />
People have been dreaming of spanning the Narrows for several decades before the bridge was finally constructed. In New York's subway fervor of the early 1920s, Mayor <b>John Hylan</b> authorized a tunnel be built to connect Staten Island to Brooklyn, ostensibly to link it to the city's expanding subway network. Due to massive cost, however, the project was cancelled. For many years, the remnants of the aborted tunnels on either side of the Narrows were referred to as "Hylan's Holes."<br />
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2) <b>Verrazzano-on-Hudson</b><br />
<b>Giovanni da Verrazzano</b>, who explored the shores of the North American continent in 1524, might have lent his name to the bridge which became the<a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-bridge-to-everywhere-george.html"> <b>George Washington Bridge</b></a>, a few decades before the Narrows Bridge was completed. The suggestion was made by a Newark resident and was at least passingly considered that the New York Times ran an article about it: "<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/02/09/102213255.html?pageNumber=39">WOULD NAME NEW SPAN VERRAZANO BRIDGE.</a>" The article casts aspersions upon the notion that the explorer would ever be seriously considered enough to warrant his own bridge.<br />
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<a href="https://secure.collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&IT=Thumb_Grid_M_Details_NoToolTip&IID=2F3XC5IO4DIP" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="[Aerial view of Brooklyn, Staten Island and New York Harbor.]"><img alt="[Aerial view of Brooklyn, Staten Island and New York Harbor.]" border="0" src="http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/f/7/5/6/MNY227515.jpg" height="423.12" width="550.4" /></a></div>
<i>Overlooking New York Harbor, Staten Island (and Fort Wadsworth) to the left. (MCNY)</i><br />
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3) <b>What's In A Name? <i>Tanto</i>!</b><br />
The Florentine explorer had much symbolic value to Italian New Yorkers, and in 1960, the Italian Historical Society of America managed to convince Governor <b>Nelson Rockefeller</b> to apply the name to the brand new bridge about to go under construction. <br />
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Some were not pleased with what many considered mere political appeasement. "I wouldn't be surprised if the next move is to rename the Hudson River," grumbled the vice president of the Staten Island chamber of commerce. [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/03/10/105184177.html?pageNumber=15">source</a>] Gripes over the name continued well up to its opening and beyond. A couple weeks before its opening, one naysayer wrote the Times to propose alternate names: "Let's call it Freedom Gate or Liberty Gate." [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/11/03/97429761.html?pageNumber=30">source</a>]<br />
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4) <b>Spell Check</b><br />
Even then, there was some debate about the proper spelling of the explorer's last name -- Verrazzano or Verrazano. (There was even a small, if vocal, group for Verazzano.) Official construction signs did say Verrazzano, in keeping with the traditional Italian spelling. However, despite strong support for the double Z version, the shorter spelling eventually won out.<br />
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<a href="https://secure.collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&IT=Thumb_Grid_M_Details_NoToolTip&IID=2F3HRGMEMRDM" title="Verrazano-Narrows Bridge"><img alt="Verrazano-Narrows Bridge" border="0" src="http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/9/e/a/6/M3Y62147.jpg" height="353.46" width="550.4" /></a>
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5) <b>The Grand Builders</b><br />
Although this would be one of the final great projects overseen by <b>Robert Moses</b>, it's also the final project of New York's great bridge and tunnel builder <b>Ottmar Ammann. </b>He died on September 22, 1965, less than a year after the bridge's opening.<br />
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<b>Milton Brumer</b> is sometimes overshadowed by those two great icons of city building, but the chief engineer of the Verrazano-Narrows had worked with Ammann on almost every one of his projects and was probably more involved in the day-to-day operations than his boss. In total, there were 200 engineers employed on building the bridge, on top of the hundreds of construction workers employed to bridge the Narrows.<br />
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<a href="https://secure.collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&IT=Thumb_Grid_M_Details_NoToolTip&IID=2F3XC5L1JOC" title="Verrazano Narrows Bridge, general view from Ft. Hamilton S.E."><img alt="Verrazano Narrows Bridge, general view from Ft. Hamilton S.E." border="0" src="http://collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/6/5/5/d/MNY243859.jpg" height="438.6" width="550.4" /></a>
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<i>Courtesy <a href="http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWU0XOMV&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=866">Museum of City of New York</a></i><br />
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6) <b>Curvature of the Earth</b><br />
When it opened on November 21, 1962, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, so long, in fact, that bridge engineers had to take the curvature of the planet into account in its design. As a result the tops of the towers are slightly farther apart than the bases. Or to put it another way, if the Narrows were drained, the towers would appear to slightly lean away from each other.<br />
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7)<b> A Big Boy, and Loud Too</b><br />
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge weighs 1,265,000 tons -- the longest suspension bridge in the world at its completion, surpassing the <b>Golden Gate Bridge </b>-- but was not the most welcomed neighbor to the areas of Bay Ridge and western Staten Island when ground was broken in August 1959. Many residents railed against its necessity, the displacement of businesses, even the constant noise assault. "That bridge -- who needs it?" [<a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/01/01/83432388.html?pageNumber=33">source</a>] Once construction began, however, many business owners benefited from the influx of hundreds of workers entering the area.<br />
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Three workers were killed during the construction of the bridge, including young Gerard McKee who fell to his death in an accident which could have been prevented. His death sparked an improvement in safety procedures at the bridge. He's memorably commemorated by <b>Gay Talese</b>, who closely documented the construction of the span in his classic book <i>The Bridge</i>.<br />
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<i>Fort Lafayette, 1861, from Harper's Weekly (courtesy NYPL)</i><br />
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8) <b>Goodbye Fort Lafayette</b><br />
In building the Brooklyn anchorage, crews swept away the remainder of old <b>Fort Lafayette</b>, an entrenchment built during the War of 1812. During the Civil War, Confederates were held prisoner here, including <b>Robert Cobb Kennedy</b>, who attempted to burn down New York during <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2011/08/welcome-to-1864-24-karat-gold-hoax-new.html">the Great Conspiracy of 1864.</a> During the two World Wars, it held reserve ammunition. Moses personally fought an effort to <a href="http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/02/03/119094974.html?pageNumber=35">turn the fort into a night club</a> and now had a hand in dismantling it entirely.<br />
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Not only was the fort destroyed, the entire island on which it sat was virtually erased. In addition, areas near <b>Fort Hamilton</b> and <b>Fort Wadsworth</b> were cleared away to make way for the bridge's approaches. Perhaps to nobody's surprise, the construction company tasked with clearing away the old fort employed the son-in-law of Robert Moses.<br />
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9)<b> First Class Reception</b><br />
The U.S. government did something a little different to honor the opening of the bridge -- it issued a postage stamp featuring the bridge, to be sold on opening day. For its 50 year anniversary this year, the Postal Service replicated the honor with an anniversary stamp. The original stamp was for five cents. The commemorative stamp is for $5.60 priority mail. (Times change.)<br />
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<i>Photo NY Daily News/Leonard Detrick</i><br />
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10) <b>Opening Day, First Traffic Jam</b><br />
The opening of the bridge not only brought great pride to New York City, although a small number of protesters noted that the span did not have pedestrian walkways or bike paths (and it still doesn't). Among the dignitaries as the ribbon cutting ceremony were Governor Rockefeller, the Archbishop of New York <b>Cardinal Spellman</b>, Robert Moses and <b>Mayor Robert Wagner</b>. They were all transported over the bridge in a somber 52-limousine procession. The press of vehicles was poorly handled for it resulted in "a traffic jam ... a half-mile beyond the point where the ribbon-cutting ceremony had been held."<br />
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The first 'regular' toll-paying person over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was a carload of young men in rented tuxedos (pictured above), "driving a pale blue Cadillac convertible with flags flapping from the fenders," who had parked behind the toll gate for an entire week to earn the special privilege."<br />
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Below: The bridge's most famous film appearance in <i><b>Saturday Night Fever</b></i> -- but don't watch if you haven't yet seen the entire film!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="306" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/se9hqOIp810?rel=0" width="544"></iframe>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York, NY, USA40.6064012 -74.04553140000001640.5822922 -74.085871900000015 40.6305102 -74.005190900000017tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-91313296017996072262014-11-19T11:45:00.001-05:002014-11-19T11:45:54.834-05:00Lovely photos of the horrible New York garbage strike of 1911<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx8JgE8ANDNskY-knzvEWNqlnsCLj2tV0mL7nuu31E2pYmYaEGW5MtngrMBCr6AVB_kN0MIduPBkC6nCkvL01mJtP6MNZ7J3Z2CsWkIynyAGmuNxCqPcsDtzJann-UHsnoPRst79RDRp0/s1600/2162969045_b0fdf563e5_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx8JgE8ANDNskY-knzvEWNqlnsCLj2tV0mL7nuu31E2pYmYaEGW5MtngrMBCr6AVB_kN0MIduPBkC6nCkvL01mJtP6MNZ7J3Z2CsWkIynyAGmuNxCqPcsDtzJann-UHsnoPRst79RDRp0/s1600/2162969045_b0fdf563e5_o.jpg" height="402.48" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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New York street cleaners and garbage workers (sometimes referred to as 'ashcart men') went on strike on November 8, 1911, over 2,000 men walking off their jobs in protest over staffing and work conditions. <br />
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More importantly, that Ap<span style="background-color: white;">ril, </span>the city relegated garbage pickup to nighttime shifts only, and cleaners often worked solo. This may have been acceptable in warmer weather, but winter was approaching. At a union rally that evening, a union representative <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F07E1DE1E31E233A2575AC0A9679D946096D6CF">proclaimed</a>, "A 200-pound can was a mighty big load for one man to lift into a garbage wagon ....... [Our] men are already falling ill with pneumonia and rheumatism and ... they demanded the right to work in the sunlight and the warmer weather of the daytime."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQO4RODt0xZvU9BjFJVKUSRrv86D5wy3CLb66YUw44Ez_rzPhEYQMsUCoiGF7eEY-nNq4PPURJmKrcvKHbRpcvLbs3Ee266_LtUcaFSFdQpfVEJ4gJvIQ5WAZ4Yotgif1Vmy85eaYRQ8k/s1600/garbage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQO4RODt0xZvU9BjFJVKUSRrv86D5wy3CLb66YUw44Ez_rzPhEYQMsUCoiGF7eEY-nNq4PPURJmKrcvKHbRpcvLbs3Ee266_LtUcaFSFdQpfVEJ4gJvIQ5WAZ4Yotgif1Vmy85eaYRQ8k/s640/garbage.jpg" height="385px" width="544px" /></a></div>
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In total, almost over 2,000 workers left their jobs in retaliation, "because they didn't like to work in the dark," said the New York Sun, derisively. [<a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1911-11-10/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=11%2F10%2F1911&index=0&date2=11%2F12%2F1911&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=garbage&proxdistance=5&state=New+York&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=garbage&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1">source</a>]<br />
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By Nov. 11, garbage was heaped along street corners, and coal ash swirled into the street, creating a blackened, smelly stew along the cobblestones. The city brought in temporary workers to carry off the more egregious piles of filth away, but harangues and violence by union protesters --"<a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1911-11-11/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=11%2F10%2F1911&index=2&date2=11%2F12%2F1911&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=&proxdistance=5&state=New+York&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1">mobs assaulting and stoning drivers</a>" -- required they be protected by police.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU5fta79gy__ZmUmyr4hjYF-dAWjj-msW0-uc4yFNKWTvW94CDEhWGreFPr6s7Cx64t0es1l3uUL9h2dr8_pGo7z2DAGiSaHL-c84H7649Ynylalz1t-hQa2_APng6XO9eBUMDgY1A56Q/s1600/2162966139_e77e3c6901_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU5fta79gy__ZmUmyr4hjYF-dAWjj-msW0-uc4yFNKWTvW94CDEhWGreFPr6s7Cx64t0es1l3uUL9h2dr8_pGo7z2DAGiSaHL-c84H7649Ynylalz1t-hQa2_APng6XO9eBUMDgY1A56Q/s1600/2162966139_e77e3c6901_o.jpg" height="397.32" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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New Yorkers had lived through such a strike before, as recently as 1907, but strikers found little public support this time around. Newspapers, little sympathetic to the strikers, highlighted the growing threat of disease and the perceived selfishness of the workers. "The right to strike of public employees, who enjoy the advantage of being listed in the civil service, is more than doubtful," said <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950DE6DD1E31E233A25751C1A9679D946096D6CF">the New York Times</a>.<br />
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During bouts between strikebreakers and police, over two dozen people were injured and one man was even killed by a falling chimney. Meanwhile, <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2008/03/know-your-mayors-william-jay-gaynor.html">Mayor <b>William Jay Gaynor</b></a> was resolute in rejecting the cleaners demands. The efforts of the workers failed, and many went back to their jobs the next week, some <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=aCiHiNJy_FkC&pg=PA84&dq=new+york+garbage+strike+1911&hl=en&ei=4_m7TqjWHObk0QHCpqjYCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20garbage%20strike%201911&f=false">heavily penalized </a>for their participation in the strike.<br />
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Here are a few images from those foul-smelling days. These photographs are far more pleasant to look at than they must have been to shoot!<br />
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<i>Horse-drawn garbage wagons collect trash during the four-day garbage strike.</i><br />
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<i>Police protection those who broke from the strikers to clean the city streets.</i><br />
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<i>The city shipped in workers from out of town to sweep the streets during the strike</i><br />
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<i>Crowds form in the streets watching the garbage carts go by. I don't know whether these are strikers or just curiosity seekers!</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3JB3Ljy3umpDQ0xKJy8c0U5bAQj3Dabc7oFVR1Remnlfg8iTQQP8p8e05yIcBsNoJ1qfmSNmK6eMGk1F-uDF6b0riXfss9kW29r6XYpRS9tEDCZcVpBnEHPF-EPram4vwFwSLH1AMjc/s1600/2162968351_941b6501a0_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3JB3Ljy3umpDQ0xKJy8c0U5bAQj3Dabc7oFVR1Remnlfg8iTQQP8p8e05yIcBsNoJ1qfmSNmK6eMGk1F-uDF6b0riXfss9kW29r6XYpRS9tEDCZcVpBnEHPF-EPram4vwFwSLH1AMjc/s1600/2162968351_941b6501a0_o.jpg" height="404.2" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<i>Boys captivated by the mounted police guarding the garbage carts. In the second photography, a couple rowdy boys are actually chasing after a garbage cart.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHRudVkZp_x5Jcp7S1C4mYC_qgpNzrqLNyqClQaUEgB0EfwHj1MvBxxvlx7NwaU2y9nvUlkeGtGJ83Yh288DNFRA1CNgdgCDNTB9KR1RLoG0e1zPNCzYuczVruF16yZutoEDpIvOYX5s/s1600/2162967563_b603af1c23_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHRudVkZp_x5Jcp7S1C4mYC_qgpNzrqLNyqClQaUEgB0EfwHj1MvBxxvlx7NwaU2y9nvUlkeGtGJ83Yh288DNFRA1CNgdgCDNTB9KR1RLoG0e1zPNCzYuczVruF16yZutoEDpIvOYX5s/s1600/2162967563_b603af1c23_o.jpg" height="402.48" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<i>Violence against a garbage cart. This vehicle is pelted with stones at the corner of East 57th Street.</i></div>
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Another set of strike breakers rush by this street corner in their garbage cart.</div>
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Meanwhile, a boiler company took advantage of the strike to run this grim advertisement for their garbage burners in the New York Sun.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitL5xL0YeVCeptiHSAz37w-KHBCFJcd7BbWGIi7bqE67586G7fXBoEiBCRQSNOKvq1SEima8kqEFq0gbKnCI1a7TFbulg6053EPVOanohyB1ZJcNQab8OZSwgqDtVctICyJkP7t__c46o/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitL5xL0YeVCeptiHSAz37w-KHBCFJcd7BbWGIi7bqE67586G7fXBoEiBCRQSNOKvq1SEima8kqEFq0gbKnCI1a7TFbulg6053EPVOanohyB1ZJcNQab8OZSwgqDtVctICyJkP7t__c46o/s1600/1.jpg" height="576" width="561.6" /></a></div>
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<b>This photo series courtesy the Library of Congress. Portions of this story originally ran on the 100th anniversary of this event in November 2011.</b></div>
The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-9250169763823547702014-11-18T10:55:00.001-05:002014-11-18T10:55:54.954-05:00More signs of 'A Most Violent Year': New movie tie-in column<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Looking over the East River at Brooklyn and Queens, 1981, where much of the film's action takes place. (Photo courtesy GeorgeLouis at English Wikipedia)</i><br />
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A few weeks ago <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2014/10/1981-was-indeed-most-violent-year-in.html">I posted the trailer to the new film</a> by JC Chandor called <b><i>A Most Violent Yea</i>r</b>, set in New York City in 1981. <br />
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As support for the film (which releases in late December), they've asked me to do<a href="http://www.nyc1981.com/times-square-january-1-1981/"> a few columns</a> each Monday about New York City history for the film's tie-in site about<a href="http://www.nyc1981.com/"> the year 1981</a>. The year is a turning point in the city's struggle with crime, deteriorating infrastructure and urban decay. It's the year <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2007/09/friday-night-fever-bond-international.html"><b>The Clash</b> caused a riot in midtown</a>, the year the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/03/us/rare-cancer-seen-in-41-homosexuals.html">first reported on a "rare cancer"</a> killing gay men, the year<b> Ed Koch</b> ran both as a Democrat and a Republican. Robbery and murder rates in the city would reach their highest peak. But it would also be the year where things begin turning around in New York.<br />
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My first column is on a particular incident which occurred two minutes before midnight on December 31, 1980, and how that incident reflected upon the grim state of affairs in the city. Check out<a href="http://www.nyc1981.com/times-square-january-1-1981/"> the full story here</a>.<br />
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<br />The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com3Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, New York, NY 10038, USA40.7060855 -73.9968642999999715.184051 -115.30545829999997 66.22812 -32.688270299999971tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-31672317647666218682014-11-14T10:49:00.000-05:002014-11-14T16:08:37.021-05:00Ruins of the World's Fair: The New York State Pavilion, or how Philip Johnson's futuristic architecture was almost forgotten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>A little bit Jetsons, a little bit Gladiator, a little bit P.T Barnum. Photo/Marco Catini</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">PODCAST </span></b>The ruins of the <b>New York State Pavilion</b>, highlight of the 1964-65 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, have become a kind of unofficial Statue of Liberty of Queens, greeting people as they head to and from LaGuardia and JFK airports. Its abandoned saucer-like observation decks and steel arena have inspired generations of New Yorkers who have grown up with this oddity on the horizon.<br />
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The Pavilion holds a great many surprises, and its best days may be yet to come. Designed by modernist icon <b>Philip Johnson</b>, the Pavilion was saved from the fate of many of the venues in the World's Fair. But it's only been used sporadically over the past 50 or so years, and the fear of further deterioration is always present.<br />
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For the first part of this very special episode of the Bowery Boys, I take you through the pavilion's presence in the World's Fair, a kaleidoscopic attraction that extolled the greatness of the state of New York. In its first year, however, a battle over controversial artwork was waged, pitting <b>Robert Moses</b> and <b>Nelson Rockefeller</b> against the hottest artist of the day -- <b>Andy Warhol</b>. Other controversies at the Fair threatened to derail the message behind its slogan 'Peace Through Understanding'.<br />
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In the show's second half, I head out to record at the <b><a href="http://queenstheatre.org/">Queens Theater</a> </b>-- the only part of the New York State Pavilion that's been rehabilitated -- to explore the venue's 'lonely years' with filmmaker <b><a href="http://nyspavilion.blogspot.com/">Matthew Silva</a></b>, a co-founder of <b><a href="http://www.nyspavilion.org/">People For The Pavilion</a></b>, an organization that's successfully bringing attention to this weird little treasure. Matthew gives us the scoop of the pavilion's later years, culled from some of his interviews in the film <i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2031153848/modern-ruin-a-worlds-fair-pavilion/posts?page=2">Modern Ruin: A World's Fair Pavilion</a></i>.<br />
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This is crucial time in the history of this spectacular relic. With public attention at an all time high, we may now be at the right time to re-purpose the Pavilion into a new destination for New Yorkers. What do you think should be done with the New York State Pavilion?<br />
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<i>An airplane passes over the park, its shadow captured inside the Pavilion. (<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shadow_of_airplane_crosses_the_New_York_State_Pavilion_at_Flushing_Meadows_in_1981.jpg">Photo by George Garrigues</a>)</i><br />
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<strong style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">To get this week's episode, simply download it for <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-york-city-history-the/id258530615">FREE from iTunes </a>or other podcasting services, subscribe to <a href="http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss">our RSS feed</a> or get it straight from <a href="http://boweryboys.libsyn.com/173-ruins-of-the-worlds-fair-new-york-state-pavilion"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">our satellite site</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">.</span></strong><br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">You can also listen to the show on<a href="http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/10207/details"> Stitcher streaming radio</a> and <a href="http://player.fm/series/new-york-city-history-the-bowery-boys">Player FM</a> from your mobile devices.</span><br />
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Or listen to it straight from here:<br />
<strong><a href="http://ec.libsyn.com/p/f/4/d/f4db36cfee17e2da/173_Ruins_of_the_Worlds_Fair.mp3?d13a76d516d9dec20c3d276ce028ed5089ab1ce3dae902ea1d06c9823ed9c855a9b5&c_id=7875684">The Bowery Boys #173: Ruins of the World's Fair</a></strong><br />
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Here's the trailer to Matthew's film <i>Modern Ruin: A World's Fair Pavilion:</i><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="306" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/109865370?color=cc6825" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="544"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/109865370">Modern Ruin: A World's Fair Pavilion - Promo I</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/aquarelapictures">Matthew Silva</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Thank you Matthew for helping out with the show this week! He's finishing his film. If you would like to help out, go over to the <a href="http://www.gofundme.com/NysPavilionDoc"><i>Modern Ruin</i> GoFundMe page</a> and donate. You just be helping out the film, but the Pavilion itself. The film will probably be the first time many people ever hear of the New York State Pavilion.<br />
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And for a different (fictional) film take on the Pavilion, try out these appearances from <i>The Wiz</i>, <i>Men In Black</i> and <i>Iron Man 2</i>:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="408" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dSnHoXJxWlk?rel=0" width="544"></iframe>
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And thank you to commenter <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11154056194616535241" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;">Signed D.C.</a> who points out that the venue was featured in an music video by They Might Be Giants who, generally speaking, who a bit obsessed with the World's Fair. (<a href="http://tmbw.net/wiki/1964_World's_Fair">It pops up in several of their songs, including a lyric to their song "Ana Ng.</a>") At one point, the lead singer floats over the Texaco map.<br />
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Looking down at the Texaco map of New York state. (Courtesy New York Daily News)<br />
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A close up of Long Island, photo taken in 1964. (Courtesy Flickr/Susan DeMark)<br />
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An overhead shot of Philip Johnson's extraordinary rooftop, a stunning colorful ovoid that projected a rainbow of colors down upon fair-goers.(Courtesy AP)<br />
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<b>Theaterama</b>, part of the New York State Pavilion, is today's Queens Theater. Johnson commissioned the work of several pop artists to hang along the walls of the pavilion. (Courtesy Bill Cotter/World's Fair Community)<br />
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A view of Theaterama showing the<b> Roy Lichtenstein</b> mural upon its side (Courtesy <a href="http://www.docomomo-us.org/register/fiche/new_york_state_pavilion">Jon Buono</a>):<br />
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<b>Andy Warhol</b>'s <i>Ten Wanted Men</i> on the side of Theaterama, with the Tent of Tomorrow in the background. Although we can almost guarantee that it was not beloved by Robert Moses, it's believed it was taken down because of Governor Rockefeller.<br />
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Robert Moses beams from the sidewalk of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The mosaic is based on the work of Andy Warhol.<br />
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The Federal Pavilion -- "the square donut on stilts" -- was designed by Charles Luckman, who also designed the current Madison Square Garden.<br />
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The photographer Marco Catini has taken some recent images of the Pavilion. You can find much more of his work <a href="http://www.catini.net/">here</a>. Thanks Marco for letting me use your work here!<br />
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Here are a few of my photos taken on the afternoon of recording. The<a href="http://nyspproject.com/"> New York State Pavilion Paint Project</a> is responsible for keeping the place is festive shape. The candy stripes are similar to the look of the 1964 pavilion.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UB5kXOzAcJ-0nvkIh4NqfYrjhZ6dLv_7P6QXhk7UlMFByl6dgcQVgrfh4Jb5fddr4HH2mWPz4wELjKlY-L2jtscR_wy4IYtFQi3pcmrYQUFUtvGFU7Dzg2tto4lpTWWlVmj36bTiFcI/s1600/IMG_6276.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412.8" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UB5kXOzAcJ-0nvkIh4NqfYrjhZ6dLv_7P6QXhk7UlMFByl6dgcQVgrfh4Jb5fddr4HH2mWPz4wELjKlY-L2jtscR_wy4IYtFQi3pcmrYQUFUtvGFU7Dzg2tto4lpTWWlVmj36bTiFcI/s640/IMG_6276.JPG" width="550.4" /></a></div>
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<b>MY THANKS AND GRATITUDE</b> to the<b> <a href="http://queenstheatre.org/">Queens Theatre in The Park</a></b><a href="http://queenstheatre.org/"> </a>for allowing us to record in the cabaret room! I know we went on and on about the observation desks and the Tent of Tomorrow, but you should really check out a show within the greatly renovated theater. Coming in December: Charles Dickens' <a href="http://queenstheatre.org/2014-15-special-events">A Christmas Carol</a>!<br />
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Visit <a href="http://www.nyspavilion.org/">the<b> People For The Pavilion</b> website</a> for more information on upcoming events, news and fund-raisers. And a shout-out to the organization's co-founder <b>Salmaan Khan!</b><br />
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The <b>New York Daily News </b>just yesterday published an article about People For the Pavilion and its co-founder <b>Christian Doran</b> who passed away in February. There's a fund-raiser tomorrow in his honor. <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/fundraiser-aims-autism-new-york-state-pavilion-article-1.2010232">[More info here</a>]<br />
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<b>ALSO</b>: I didn't get to plug this on the show, but historian <b>Christian Kellberg</b> has just released a book of photography of the <b>New York State Pavilion</b>, part of the Images of America series. Most of the pictures are exclusive to this book including some extraordinary shots of the pavilion construction.<br />
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And of course there's <b>Joseph Tirella</b>'s terrific book <i>Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America, </i>putting the entire fair within context of the rapidly changing America of the 1960s. <br />
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And since I mentioned it on the show, here's a link for <b>Robert Caro</b>'s <i>The Power Broker</i> as well!<br />
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</iframe>The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.com5Queens Museum, Queens, NY 1136840.745666000000007 -73.84650090000002440.744162500000009 -73.849022400000024 40.747169500000005 -73.843979400000023