Home Run Derby: Willie Mays Vs. Mickey Mantle

[CLASSIC] HOME RUN DERBY-MICKEY MANTlE VS.WILLIE MAYS PT 2

Big comeback by the Mick even though he may have been tired from visiting Doris Day.

Home Run Derby: Duke Snider vs. Hank Aaron

no steroids in this version, although the original youtube uploader was on something if they didn't know how to spell Duke's name

Boy Scout Troop 111 Of St. Joseph's And Ten Mile River Camp

Ten Mile Camp
From Joseph Barone:

Reading the story about summer camp, and having just attended my first summer one in over 20 years, reminded me that the Boy Scouts of Troop 111 (sponsored by St. Joseph), would each year go to Ten Mile River Scout Camp. TMR as it was commonly called, was located near Monticello and Max Yesgur's Farm.
I know of at least two KVer's (Troop 111) who served on staff over the years at TMR.
First, Richard Galasso (parents still live in KV) served on staff at Camp Davis Lake in 1969. He reminded me a number of times of how they all gathered around a couple of transistors to listen to the Landing on the moon. (Richard is # 10 in slide 1).
And yes, the second one was yours truly at Camp Keowa in 1978 at a Counselor in Training. (Joseph is #32 in slide 2)
Although, the next person was not a KVer, he did live on the LES and was very well known in Scouting during the 1950s thru the 1970s: Julius "Julie Y" Yavarkovsky. "Julie Y" owned a paper good business on Ludlow St.

The pdf file above has pictures of Richie Galasso, Joseph Barone and Julie Yavarkovsky.
Julie passed away over 30 years ago. Ten Mile River Camp was an excellent site/museum that the pictures above come from

Woodlawn Heights And Wave Hill

This is the first time this summer that me and that crazy kid from the 10th floor of the I building got to do our weekly summertime nyc neighborhood explorations. He's been very busy lately doing some plumbing work. The suggestion made was the Bronx's very Irish Woodlawn Heights. We didn't see that much there so we went on to Wave Hill where we spotted Drew Barrymore and Justin Long in a film shoot. The movie is called Going The Distance.
from forgotten-ny

There's a little corner of the Emerald Island in the far flung northern reaches of the Bronx, past the rolling hills of Woodlawn Cemetery, the duffers in Mosholu and Van Cortlandt Golf Courses and the roaring traffic of the Deegan. It's in the triangle known as Woodlawn Heights, just south of Yonkers.
Woodlawn Heights' main drag shares a name with a small town about 20 miles to the north. Katonah Avenue, and the town to the north, are named for an Indian word meaning "Great Mountain." The area figured heavily in the Revolution: in August 1778, 17 Mohican Indians led by Daniel Nimham, fighting on the side of the patriots, were massacred after their defeat by Colonel Simcoe and his Queens Rangers, fighting for the Crown; the Indians are commemorated in nearby Van Cortlandt Park.

High Feather And Camp Madison Felicia: Episode 1, Part 3

There are more episodes available from youtube user sanman2004

High Feather And Camp Madison Felicia: Episode 1, Part 2

High Feather And Camp Madison Felicia: Episode 1, Part 1

above from episode 1

High Feather is a 10-episode educational television show which ran on PBS in the 1980s; each episode was 30 minutes long. The program's name came from the Old English expression "High Fettle", meaning enjoying life and cheerfully doing the tasks of living. The heartfelt spirit of the show was captured in the lyrics to its theme song: "I'm in High Feather. Feel like the sun is shining on me. High Feather. I'm as free as I can be..."
The series, produced by the New York State Education Department in 1980, followed eight teenagers (four boys and four girls) at the High Feather Summer Camp, where they learn values of honesty, sportsmanship, nutrition, physical fitness, and getting along with others. The series was filmed at Camp Madison-Felicia and Camp Minisink.
Some of the most memorable episodes included "Ballerina", where Leslie, an anorexic, starves herself to the point of exhaustion to achieve a dancer's body, and "Swim Test", where Tom was afraid to go shirtless in the lake because of his obesity.
The cast was comprised of an ethnically and racially diverse group of teens:
* Jacqueline Allen (Leslie)
* Brian Goldberg (Stan)
* Virgil Hayes (Leo)
* Richard Levey (Tom)
* Cindy O'Neal (Suzanne)
* Emily Wagner (Cathy)
* Tasha Washington (Ann)
* Tino Zaldivar (Domingo)
* Robert Y R Chung (Kim)
Most of the show's young cast were not professional actors. Emily Wagner, who played Cathy, went on to appear as the character Doris Pickman on the long-running series "ER"
Adults
* Barbara Brown (Mrs. Riggs)
* Ramona Brito (Nurse)
* Powell McGill (Swim Coach)
Episode Titles
1. "Deep Water Test"
2. "Stan's Secret"
3. "Swifty"
4. "A Nose for News"
5. "Ballerina"
6. "Lost in the Woods"
7. "Going Home"
8. "The County Fair"
9. "Saved from the Pound"
10. "Food Follies"

Revisiting Camp Madison Felicia

At The YMCA Camp Combe in Putnam County on July 12, 2009. It's formerly the site of Camp Madison Felicia where many KVers, Al Smith kids and other Lower East Side children and teens went to camp in the 1950's-70's
There's a facebook group for the camp
The camp's current website
The generous ownership at Combe Inc. provided the finances to save the camp and many of the company employees as well as former campers and camper families volunteer their time and talents to continually improve the site
I doubt this might have been a Camp Madison Felicia song, but I needed a soundtrack

(Leader)
We're going on a bear hunt!
(Group)
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Here comes the gate
" " (Group Echos)
Now we're on a bear hunt " "
We're gonna catch a big one " "
I'm not afraid " "
Are you? " " Not me! " "
We're coming to a tall mountain " "
It sure is high " "
It sure is wide " "
Let's climb up it " "
Well, there's nothing over there " "
Nothing over there " "
Nothing back there " "
Hey! Wait! I think I see something
Quick! Everybody run down!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
We're going thru the tall grass " "
We're going thru the short grass " "
Hey! Look! There's a little tree " "
Well, let's shinny on up it
Whoa! It gets a little skinny up here at the top
See anything over that way? " "
Anything over that way?, Uh, oh!,
Oh, no! Whoa! Agh! let's get down!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Oh, no! " "
It's a big puddle of mud " "
Can't go around it " "
Gotta go right thru it " "
Yeuk! " "
Well, let's go.
Squish, Sqwish, Blaaahh.
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
We're coming to a wide river " "
And there's no bridge going over it " "
No tunnel going under it " "
It's just plain old water " "
And we're gonna have to swim " "
All right, dive in!
Start swimming
Do the back stroke
Do the side stroke
Do the doggie paddle
Try the little cat paddle
OK Jump out, shake yourself off
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're going on a bear hunt!
We're gonna catch a big one!
We're gonna catch a big one!
I'm not afraid!
I'm not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Shhh, it's a cave " "
Looks like the kind of cave that B-bears live in " "
I don't know if I want to go in there
You think we oughta go in?
Are you nuts?
There's probably a bear in there
All right I'll go in, You stay here,
And if I find a bear, I'll come out and get you
And we'll all go in and grab him together
Now, quiet, don't make a sound while I'm in that cave,
Cuz if you wake him up, I'll be in trouble
Bears are awful ornery when they first wake up, you know
OK, I'm going on in
Oooo, It's dark in here
It's really dark in here
I can't see a thing
Agh, there's spiders webs
Ooo, what was that???
What's this??.... it's soft, uh oh,it's kind of fuzzy
Ahg!!!!!!!!! Run! Everybody run!!
I saw a bear!!!!
Jump in the water! Swim fast!!
Do the backstroke!
The sidestroke, the doggie paddle
Jump out of the water
Run through the mud!
Forget the tree!!
Go through the tall grass
The short grass
Quick! Go up the mountain
Down the other side
Go thru the gate
Into the house, under the bed
Under the pillow
Hide!!!!!
Uh, it's awful quiet around here
I'm not afraid
I'm not afraid
Are you?
Are you?

All Things Knickerbocker, but...

Knickerbockers
from the nytimes
The author neglected to mention Knickerbocker Village, so I added the last page.
I wrote to her informing her of the book's very important missing piece of NYC history.
A h/t to Paul Levine for spotting the article.
also Elinor spotted it and wrote to the times as well

Dear NYTIMES Editor,
Still vibrant is KNICKERBOCKER VILLAGE
bordered by Monroe, Market, Cherry and Catherine Streets
on the Lower East Side!!! You neglected to mention this
in the article on Page 10 in the Metro Section.
I grew up there, still visit it and it's a beautiful community
built in the early 1930's!
We had a reunion in May of adults from all over
the US who grew up there in the 1940's-1980's.
Thank you, Elinor Birnbaum Hecht

Yankees In First Place: This Could Be The Start Of Something Big?

new lyrics for this could be the start of something big

It's after the all star game and the pitching's gotten hearty
Arod's no longer a gavone and Hideki comes thru big
You're looking at the sox demise, what a big surprise
That this could be the start of something big?

KV Cub Scouts

I was in a KV cub scout troop with a couple of these guys, but the experience didn't last long. I forgot the reasons why the troop was disbanded.

I, (say your name), Promise to DO MY BEST To do my DUTY

A story from Joseph Barone

About a month ago, I went up to NYC to visit my parents with my family. On the way to Canal St., Sunday morning, I ran into Anita and Ricky Galasso. Anita gave me a big hug and a kiss. Ricky shook my hand and one of the fist questions he asked me was: Are you involved in Scouting.
That made me think of my very first memory of Cub Scouting with Pack 111 at St. Joseph's. (St. Joseph also had Boy Scout Troop 111.)
My very first memory of Scouting, was one evening while eating dinner, there was a knock at the door. (This had to be about 1968.)
When I opened it, it was my friends Stephen Eidlen and Gerald Alfano. Both were dressed in Cub Scout uniforms and both lived in the I Building. They asked me if I would be interested in coming down. Although I really did not know what it was, but I was so excited I ran to my dad asking him if I could go. I hadn't even finished dinner.
So, he said yes, and off I went with them to St. Joseph's Auditorium. The place was filled with kids that I knew (and some that I did not know) in Cub Scout uniforms.
I don't remember too much of that night, but I do remember my father coming down, filling out some forms for me and giving a couple of bucks for registration.
The Cubmaster at that time as Peter Grillo. Mr. Grillo (who is still alive) worked for Con Edison and was a Battle of the Bulge veteran. Mr. Grillo had two sons (Paul and Peter) and a daughter. Peter I believe is an Eagle Scout.
Some of the other Assistant Cubmasters that I can remember were were Ricky Galasso, a Mike C? (lived in Brooklyn) and Mr. DeBlase (I think Jimmy was his first name). Mr. DeBlase lost his son Jimmy on 9/11. Jimmy was a Scout with Troop 111. (I have a photo somewhere of Mrs. DeBlase -- a Den Mother herself -- with then Mayor Guiliani shortly after 9/11.)
Mr. Molinelli was the Webloes Den Leader. The Webloes, since they were older, got to meet in the back of the auditorium in a room just off to the side of the stage. His son, John, is now a Scout leader and living in KV. John is also an Eagle Scout.
Anita Galasso was one of the Den Mothers (she was the Bear Den Mother?). The Galasso's have two sons. (Ricky is an Eagle Scout and Matt.)
Each week we would meet at St. Joseph at 7pm. Dues were a quarter a month or a week. Can't remember which. The meetings were not much different than they are today. There would be an opening, a den activity, a closing, some announcements and some sort of game.
Each den would do some sort of craft. The one I remember Mrs. Galasso working with us on was making a cat out of a washcloth, a bar of soap and some pins. Another time we made a large cross out of match sticks, and then shellacked them. If you did crafts outside of Cub Scouts, you could bring them in and get points towards your Arrows.
Periodically, we would take a trip. I remember visiting the Staten Island Zoo's Reptile House and another, the Central Park Zoo.
Each year, the Cub Scouts would sell Miss Chocolate chocolates to raise money. Each Cub would receive a box of different items and they would be expected to sell it. The Peanut Brittle was the big seller but there were lots of other boxes you could sell. Beauty Parlors were always a great place to sell. The women would always buy from a Cub Scout who would pop in with a couple of boxes. One year, I was the top seller. I had my choice of prizes and picked this kit by which you could make houses and buildings out of miniature plaster bricks. I probably should have picked something else, but it kept me amused for probably a couple of weeks. Another year, I remember, I could barely sell anything.
At Pack 111, each year we would celebrate Scout Sunday and on that day, those who earned their religious awards, would be given them at Mass. Then afterwards, everyone (Cubs, parents and invited guests) would go down to the auditorium for donuts, cake and coffee. The photo is of me outside of the St. Joseph Rectory after receiving the Ad Altarei Dei Award for Cub Scouts in 1973. The donuts and cake were usually ordered from St. Joseph's Bakery (on Madison) or Savoia (on Catherine).

The Original Howdy Doody

an anonymous blog viewer came across a previous post about Howdy Doody and offered to send along an image of his original Howdy Doody button:

This is the Howdy Doody button I got in 1947 or 1948, showing Howdy’s original appearance. The original marionette was designed and owned by Frank Paris who operated the puppet on the show. After 6 months there was a contract dispute between Paris and NBC, and Paris left the show with the puppet. Smith’s lawyer said the puppet could not be replaced with a look-alike, although Smith did own the rights to the puppet’s name. The next day the show opened with Howdy’s head swathed in bandages. Bob Smith explained to the TV audience that Howdy was having his face lifted and in a few weeks the bandages would be removed. This gave Smith time to have a new puppet designed by a former Walt Disney artist. In March 1948 the bandages came off and the new Howdy was revealed to the world as an all-American boy with red hair and 48 freckles – one freckle for each state of the union. I am sure you and your Knickerbocker Village blogsters will enjoy this bit of old-time trivia that hardly anyone seems to remember.

September 16, 1923: Rowdies Sink Floating Bath House At Rutger's Slip

July 18, 2009: A Momentous Occasion, The Two KV Godfathers Converse

Joe was in for the weekend and I spent some quality time with him in Tanahey Park.
While I was there I got a call from my "tribes" KV Godfather and I took the opportunity to make the connection.

Manhattan Real Estate

Manhattan Rent
From the beginning real estate interests were a concentrated and powerful force in the city. Check out the provisions on the very specific required improvements renters had to make on leased properties and how they got little or no remumeration for those improvements. Henry Rutgers was quite the power in the Fourth and Seventh Wards

We Don't Live On Rutgers' Or Maggie's Farm No More

From a 1965 concert. I'm trying to be a Dylan appreciator. It's not easy for Sinatra and Fitzgerald ears

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
Well, I wake up in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray for rain.
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane.
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
Well, he hands you a nickel,
hands you a dime,
asks you with a grin
If you're havin' a good time,
Then he fines you every time you slam the door.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.
Well, he puts his cigar
in your face just for kicks.
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks.
The National Guard stands around his door.
Ah, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.
Well, she talks to all the servants
About man and God and law.
Everybody says
She's the brains behind pa.
She's seventy-two, but she says she's twenty-four.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

Dec. 20, 1931: The Rutgers' Farm And Knickerbocker Village

Rutgers Farm
KVers live on Henry's old farmland

The Dreamer: The Consequences Of Being Nathan Hale

Hale Comics 1
Comic 1 in the series

More Street Necrology From Forgotten-NY

Lowereast Necrology

Nathan Hale Died Here 5

Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale Died Here 4

Nathan Hale Post
Pictures that include some of the various sites where there are statues of Nathan Hale and where various groups think his demise was met.

Nathan Hale Died Here 3

from the nytimes of 11/23/1997

MAKING IT WORK; Nathan Hale Was Here . . . and Here . . . and Here
By DAVID KIRBY
DID the American patriot Nathan Hale meet his fate where a Gap store now stands on Third Avenue at 66th Street? Did he lose his one life for his country at the site of the Yale Club in midtown? Or did the British string him up downtown, at what is now City Hall Park?
Even now, no one knows for sure.
For at least 150 years, historians and Revolutionary War buffs have debated where Hale was hanged as a spy in 1776. History books, biographies and encyclopedias are literally all over the place when it comes to the site of Hale's execution.
There are three places in New York where our hero was supposedly captured, four where he may have been detained and no less than six where he is said to have been hanged.
Many people assume Hale was executed by British troops in present-day City Hall Park. They have good reason: the park was so widely believed to be the site of the hanging that on Nov. 25, 1893, a monument to the ''Martyr Spy'' was erected there.
The next morning, there were glowing accounts in The New York Herald of the grandiose dedication of the monument. But the same day, the paper ran a letter from William Kelby, the librarian of the New-York Historical Society, who said he had proof that Hale went to the gallows near what is now East 66th Street.
The son of a wealthy Connecticut farmer, Hale was said to have been a dashing ladies' man. When Washington put out a call for spies to monitor enemy movements after British troops crushed American rebels in August 1776, Hale was the only volunteer.
Capt. Nathan Hale went to Long Island, passing himself off as a Dutch schoolteacher as he ambled undetected amid the redcoats, probably near the site of the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
On Sept. 15, 1776, Gen. William Howe brought the British army across the East River, landing at Kips Bay and setting up headquarters at the mansion of the rebel Beekman family, near what is now First Avenue and 51st Street.
Six days later, Hale was arrested by the British, who found military notes in Latin in his shoes. The rest is history, or mystery.
Some say Hale was captured on Long Island. Others say he was caught after crossing the East River and landing smack in a nest of British soldiers, who may have been camped out a cocktail's throw from what is now Elaine's. The most popular theory is that Hale was taken prisoner in what today is downtown New York, during a fire set by the Yankees on Sept. 21, 1776, that destroyed much of the city.
Depending on who you ask, Hale might have spent his final night in the jail on the Commons, where today Mayor Giuliani issues edicts; at Bayard's Sugar Mill on Wall Street, near the site of the New York Stock Exchange; at the Beekman mansion greenhouse or at the Sign of the Dove Tavern, across Third Avenue from where the Gap now stands at 66th Street.
We do know that Hale was hanged on Sept. 22, 1776, after rejecting an offer to switch sides to save his rebel skin. He was just 21.
Speculation about the hanging site seems to have begun in 1825, when one Gabriel Furman of Brooklyn somehow divined that Hale was killed ''on the Brooklyn shore, to the southwest of the old ferry house.''
Not so, Henry Onderdonk Jr., a historian, said in his 1846 book ''Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County.'' According to Onderdonk, ''He was hanged upon an apple tree in the orchard of Colonel Rutgers, on the present East Broadway in this city.''
In 1850, Benjamin Thompson, known as the historian of Long Island, identified the spot as being ''in the neighborhood of Madison and Market Streets.''
Then, on Nov. 25, 1893 -- the 110th anniversary of the British evacuation of New York -- Kelby dropped his bombshell: an entry dated Sept. 22, 1776 that he found in the British headquarters ''orderly book.''
''A Spy fm the Enemy (by his own full confession) apprehended Last night, was this day Executed at 11 oClock in front of the Artilery Park,'' it said.
But where was the artillery park? Another entry, from Oct. 11, 1776, refers to one ''near the Dove,'' evidently the tavern. A third entry mentions artillery ''near the five-mile stone,'' the marker five miles north of New York and supposedly near the Dove, on the Boston Post Road, which is Third Avenue, at present-day 66th Street.
So did Kelby solve the mystery? Not really. ''There was a whole series of parks, camps, ammo dumps and bivouacs scattered all over,'' including lower Manhattan, said Ted Burrows, a professor of history at Brooklyn College and an authority on the British occupation. ''We can't know for sure where this particular artillery park was.''
As for the Sign of the Dove restaurant on Third Avenue and 65th Street, it was named after the original, though when Joseph Santo opened it in 1962, he did not know the Hale connection, said Henny Santo, Joseph's sister-in-law. ''Then this woman called us researching a book on Hale,'' Ms. Santo said. ''She claimed to have a British officer's journal saying he'd witnessed Hale's execution, across the Post Road from the Dove.''
But that 1979 book, ''Nathan Hale,'' is out of print, its publishing house has folded, and the author, Susan Poole, has an unlisted number in Cambridge, Mass. Becky Akers, a self-described Hale fanatic who has written about the Revolutionary War period for history journals, is hardly convinced. ''If that journal entry existed, every historian would know of it, and they don't,'' she said.
She added: ''My fantasy is to go in under the Gap with a bulldozer and try to find his bones. But I have a horrible feeling the British just tossed him in the East River.''
To complicate matters further, there is the plaque that has long been on the wall of the Yale Club at Vanderbilt Avenue and East 44th Street, saying that Hale, a Yale graduate, was executed nearby.
No one seems to know anymore why the plaque was put there. Maybe it was overreaching Eli pride, or confusion over a Colonial newspaper advertisement that said the Dove tavern was ''near the four mile stone,'' which would be about 44th Street today.
And in yet another Hale mystery, a bronze of Nathan Hale disappeared from a small alcove at the Yale Club a few years back. The talk at the bar was that it was stolen, and some say it has been replaced. ''I can't comment on bar buzz,'' said Frederick A. Leone, the club's president. ''All I can say is that there's a statue of Nathan Hale on the second floor.''
If it's not certain where Nathan Hale was executed, then how do we know that he uttered those famous last words about having only one life to lose?
There are different versions of what Hale said on the gallows. According to the journal of Frederick Mackenzie, a British officer who witnessed Hale's hanging, Hale said, ''It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander in chief.''
The line most people remember -- ''I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country'' -- actually comes from the memoirs of Hale's friend William Hull, who wrote 50 years after Hale was hanged that he ''was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity.''
But an anonymous article in The Boston Chronicle six years after Hale's death quotes him as saying: ''I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged, that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service.''
Maybe Hull figured his version would be more easily memorized by future American schoolchildren.
As to where the hanging took place, theories abound.

Nathan Hale Died Here 2

The Execution of Nathan Hale, 1776
In the early summer of 1776, the British evacuated Boston leaving the city and New England to the rebelling colonialists. Where would the British strike next? The mystery was solved when a British naval force appeared off the coast of Staten Island in late June - New York would be their target. The city had great strategic value. Its deep harbor could shelter the British fleet and its capture would pave the way for the Red Coats to battle northward up the Hudson and link with a force moving south from Canada. This would separate New England from the rest of the colonies.
In late June, the British occupied Staten Island in a landing unopposed by the Colonials. In late August a combined force of British and Hessian troops crossed Lower New York Bay and invaded Long Island. The British attacked the Americans from two sides forcing the Colonials to cross over to Manhattan Island. In early September, General Washington retreated again, this time across the Harlem River leaving New York City to the British.
Nathan Hale was a lieutenant in the Continental Army. In his early twenties, Hale had worked as a schoolteacher before the Revolution. In late September 1776 he volunteered to cross the British lines and travel to Long Island in order to gather intelligence. Unfortunately, his mission was soon discovered and he was captured by the British. Taken to General Howe's headquarters (commander of the British forces) in New York, the young spy was interrogated and executed on September 22. Word of the execution was brought to General Washington's headquarters shortly after by a British officer carrying a flag of truce. Captain William Hull of the Continental Army was present and recalled the event:
"In a few days an officer came to our camp, under a flag of truce, and informed Hamilton, then a captain of artillery, but afterwards the aid of General Washington, that Captain Hale had been arrested within the British lines condemned as a spy, and executed that morning.
I learned the melancholy particulars from this officer, who was present at his execution and seemed touched by the circumstances attending it.
He said that Captain Hale had passed through their army, both of Long Island and York Island. That he had procured sketches of the fortifications, and made memoranda of their number and different positions. When apprehended, he was taken before Sir William Howe, and these papers, found concealed about his person, betrayed his intentions. He at once declared his name, rank in the American army, and his object in coming within the British lines.
Sir William Howe, without the form of a trial, gave orders for his execution the following morning. He was placed in the custody of the Provost Marshal, who was a refugee and hardened to human suffering and every softening sentiment of the heart. Captain Hale, alone, without sympathy or support, save that from above, on the near approach of death asked for a clergyman to attend him. It was refused. He then requested a Bible; that too was refused by his inhuman jailer.
'On the morning of his execution,' continued the officer, 'my station was near the fatal spot, and I requested the Provost Marshal to permit the prisoner to sit in my marquee, while he was making the necessary preparations. Captain Hale entered: he was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity, in the consciousness of rectitude and high intentions. He asked for writing materials, which I furnished him: he wrote two letters, one to his mother and one to a brother officer.' He was shortly after summoned to the gallows. But a few persons were around him, yet his, characteristic dying words were remembered. He said, 'I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.'"

Nathan Hale Died Here 1

Sea Land Church Hale
According to this 1919 nytimes' article Nathan Hale died somewhere near Market and East Broadway, but...

And That's The Way It Is

Watch CBS Videos Online
from Howie and I think he speaks for most of us baby boom KVers :

...... now Uncle Walt ... I grew up watching Cronkite .. there was no other newsman especially during major events ... and the clips they keep showing - Kennedy's assassination, man on the moon, Vietnam, presidential elections .. saw them all when they happened ... hard to believe its been 28 years since he retired as anchor for CBS ... that's a generation ago .. for me two careers ago .. but it still came as a jolt when I heard the news this evening .. he really was the most trusted man in America ..another icon who can never be replaced.. and that's the way it is.

1820 Map Showing Lost Streets Of Wards 4, 6, 7, and 10

Harman became East Broadway, Bancker became Madison Street, Lombardy became Monroe Street, Cheapside became Hamilton Street

Street Necrology From Forgotten New York

Street Necrology
from the terrific forgotten-ny site

Naming New York

Namin New York
from Naming New York

Positively Dylan, June 12, 2009, Part 2

Part 1 is over in the middle sidebar. The entire show is 2 hours and this is the 2nd 10 minute segment.

(Monday & Friday 6pm) Hosts Bob and Arlene Levinson play the compelling music of Bob Dylan. Both new and long time fans will enjoy hearing their interesting analysis and commentary in addition to all of Dylan’s familiar groundbreaking songs.

Now archived on its own itunes channel
Instructions:

Click on 'Launch NCC on iTunesU"
Click on 'WHPC 90.3 Radio Station'
Slide the bar under 'April Fools' to the right until you see 'Positively Dylan' and click on it. Pick the show you want to hear and click on it.

On June 12th, 2009 Bob and Arlene had Marty Babits on as a guest to talk about Dylan as well as his new book, The Power of the Middle Ground

“The Power of the Middle Ground is an easy to read self–help book with many clinical vignettes and couple-strengthening exercises. Too often self-help books are terrific at describing a problem, only to give scant suggestions for improving the situations. Mr. Babits has accomplished the art of describing what needs to be achieved and how to achieve it at the same time . . . “
- Paula F. Eagle, M.D. ; Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Faculty, Columbia Psychoanalytic Center for Training and Research; Private Practice, New York City.
“ . . .The Middle Ground is where the heart of a relationship’s aliveness, its resilience, is located. . . . The middle-ground is a potential that exists within love’s province, in which the hard-edged realities of keeping a contemporary relationship vital, can be found.”
- From the Preface, by Ron Taffel, Ph.D.; Executive Director of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, NYC; Author of “Parenting by Heart,” “Breaking Through to Teens,” . . .

Que Sera Doris?

Doris was interviewed this week about this book. A h/t to Paul

Who would have thought this about the wholesome Doris Day
Turns out that Joe DiMaggio wasn't the only New York Yankee to get a larger than life Hollywood actress. According to a new biography about Doris Day, in 1962 a married Mickey Mantle visited the set of the film That Touch Of Mink starring a married Doris Day. He was on the set because he and some of the other Yankees were doing a cameo. Apparently the pair hit it off and had an affair that lasted throughout the filming. Although Mantle was known as a guy who would f... anyone, anytime and anywhere and even had a private suite he had for just that purpose, apparently he bragged to all his friends not just about having sex with her, but that she was the best f... he had ever had.
Who knew Doris Day had it in her. Well apparently Mickey did. Doris Day's representatives declined to comment. What? You mean they didn't want to call up the 84 year old and ask her if she had sex with Mickey Mantle and if she was as good as the book and Mickey claims? I actually bet Doris probably would like to comment but her representatives are too scared to ask her and hope that she just doesn't even find out about the book.

new lyrics

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
I went and schtupped Mickey

the real lyrics

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.
When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.
Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

1775 Map Showing Montgomery Ward

from map info from gutenberg project

This survey, made in the winter of 1775, shows the city proper as it existed during the Revolutionary War. Places indicated by the lettering are described under the original as follows: A, Fort George. B, Batteries [at the two points of the island]. C, Military Hospital [south of Pearl St.]. D, Secretary's Office [near Fort George]. E, [Not Shown]. F, Soldiers' Barracks [at extreme right]. G, Ship Yards [lower right hand corner]. H, City Hall [Broad and Wall streets, site of present Sub-Treasury building]. I, Exchange. J, K, Jail and Workhouse [both situated on the "intended square or common," now City Hall Square]. L, College [Church and Murray streets; this was King's College, now Columbia University]. M, Trinity Church [the present Trinity was built on 1839-46, though it stands on the site of the old church built in 1696]. N, St. George's Chapel. O, St. Paul's Chapel [built in 1756, the oldest edifice still standing in N.Y.C.]. P to Z, various churches.

I guess Montgomery Ward is named after Richard Montgomery, the war hero and not Aaron Montgomery Ward (February 17, 1844 - December 7, 1913) the businessman notable for the invention of mail order. About Richard Montgomery:

Richard Montgomery (December 2, 1738 – December 31, 1775) was an Irish-born soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a brigadier-general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and he is most famous for leading the 1775 invasion of Canada.
Montgomery was born and raised in Ireland. In 1754, he enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, and two years later joined the British army to fight in the French and Indian War. He steadily rose through the ranks, serving in North America and then the Caribbean. After the war he was stationed at Fort Detroit during Pontiac's Rebellion, following which he returned to Britain for health reasons. In 1773, Montgomery returned to the Thirteen Colonies, married Janet Livingston, and began farming.
When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Montgomery took up the Patriot cause, and was elected to the New York Provincial Congress in May 1775. In June 1775, he was commissioned as a Brigadier General in the Continental Army. After Phillip Schuyler became too ill to lead the invasion of Canada, Montgomery took over. He captured Fort St. Johns and then Montreal in November 1775, and then advanced to Quebec City where he joined another force under the command of Benedict Arnold. On December 31, he led an attack on the city, but was killed during the battle. The British found his body and gave it an honorable burial.

From 30 Monroe Street To The Marshall Islands: Sid Birnbaum's Grandson

from popsci.com/military-aviation

SpaceX Successfully Delivers First Payload to Space
After three years just as many failed launches, and a couple of lost satellites, private rocket company SpaceX successfully delivered its first payload into orbit yesterday using their Falcon 1 rocket.
The rocket launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, and reached space after a ten minute flight. The payload consisted of a Malaysian satellite named RazakSAT, which will take high resolution pictures of Malaysia (think Google Earth).
This launch is a landmark for privately funded space flight. Last year, SpaceX won a contract to supply the International Space Station after the shuttle retires, and this launch stands as the first physical proof that SpaceX can get the job done.
To further develop their space delivery capability, SpaceX plans to follow this launch up later in the year with a launch of their larger rocket, Falcon 9.
As the above video shows, the launch went off without a hitch, and as the below photo shows, SpaceX mission control was pretty damn happy about it.
A link to spectacular pictures from a more recent launch

Mr. Jesse Hecht, (B. S., E SC, 2004) recently returned to the department to recruit both undergraduate and graduate students. Mr. Hecht is employed in the Launch and Test Operations Group of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies)--a company that he describes as having significant growth potential for employees.
In August, 2006, SpaceX was selected by NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo (reusable commercial space vehicles) to the International Space Station. Mr. Hecht's own involvement has included the satellite launch team and the development of a new launch pad at Cape Canaveral where his primary thrust has been devoted to the turn around vehicles for the shuttle.
Mr. Hecht is a member of the Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM) newly created ESM Alumni Advisory Board

Happy Birthday Bob Simmons

July 16th is the birthday of one of the great all time KV characters Bob Simmons. He's out there in Suffolk County and we miss him. Hopefully he'll come back to the fold some day. Happy birthday big guy.

Depeyster Street On The Map

D marks the spot where Depeyster's mansion was. W is where Washington's mansion was and V is the location of Vanderwater Street. From a 1916 map from the University of Texas

Born in New Amsterdam (now known as “Manhattan”), De Peyster came from a prosperous mercantile family. In his youth he spent nine years working on the family farm in the Netherlands, before returning in 1684 to New Amsterdam. He quickly ascended the City’s political ladder, occupying almost all of the important colonial offices, including alderman, mayor, member of the king’s council, and acting governor. De Peyster amassed great wealth, and by the end of his life he is said to have been one of the city’s wealthiest merchants.

The Depeyster Mansion

This was not too far away from the Cherry Hill section where Washington's first mansion was. Catherine Depeyster was born into the Rutgers family and I once thought Catherine Street was named after her. It wasn't. It was named after Catherine Desbrosses, daughter of Jacques Desbrosses, a 17th Century Hugueonot immigrant who had a rum distillery near the East River.

1800 Era Map Of The Cherry Hill Area Showing Site Of The Brooklyn Bridge

1800: The Cherry Hill Area Under The Brooklyn Bridge

A Labeled Close Up Of The 1916 Bridge Photo

Brooklyn Bridge 1916

!891 Map Of Area Near The Brooklyn Bridge

Vandewater Street: 1800's

A block that no longer exists, but in an area just east of the Brooklyn Bridge and now occupied by Murray Bergtraum High School and One Police Plaza

Vendors of the 1800's

I'm sure Harris Cohen employed some of these types

Harris Cohen In The 1900 Census

Harris lived at 224 East Broadway where there were attractive row houses similar to the one pictured.

Cohen Marries Cohen

Cohen Marries Cohen
I wonder how the Hymen in the title got past the nytimes' censors?

Harris Cohen: The Puller King

Harris Cohen Pull

Harris Cohen Bankrupt

This guy had his store not too far away from the Five Points and right near Forlinis. He was known for his technique of using pullers to increase sales. Harris was mentioned before as he was the proud father at the wedding of his daughter on March 8, 1897 at a synagogue at 38 Henry Street

Five Points From As You Pass By

dunshee-1959
from a great book As You Pass By, by Kenneth Holcomb Dunshee

Five Points Map

I wonder whether they get flooding in basements on Baxter Street, where Forlinis is located. It's location on Baxter Street is one block north from the top of this map and is pretty close to where the Collect Pond was. Back in the 1800's Baxter was Orange Street.

Guys You Won't Find At Forlinis: The Old Bowery Mission

Forlinis: Who's Been Eating In My Booth?

from the nytimes

At the Table | Forlini’s
A Perfect Place for a Legal Lunch
By ALAN FEUER
Since the day it opened in 1956, Forlini’s, at 93 Baxter Street, across the street from State Supreme Court in Manhattan, has attracted a courthouse crowd — prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, even the occasional hungry felon. The space is split in two, with a proper restaurant on one side and an informal bar-and-grill on the other. Serving simple Italian food in a comfortable, old-world atmosphere, Forlini’s is the perfect place to set aside one’s legal worries over lunch.
IN THE SEATS John Bowden, a union carpenter facing felony charges of driving with a suspended license (he was recently released on $13,500 bail), and John Russo, the lawyer representing him in the case.
ON THE PLATES For Mr. Russo, a grilled chicken breast with a side of broccoli rabe ($13.50) and a small order of French fries ($4). And for Mr. Bowden, Forlini’s famous lunch specialty: a chicken parmigiana hero sandwich ($7).
WHY THEY CAME “We had a hearing together across the street in the courthouse,” Mr. Russo said, prompting Mr. Bowden to quickly add, “Nothing serious.” Several months ago, Mr. Bowden made a left turn from the center lane while driving down Delancey Street on the Lower East Side. The police pulled him over and discovered that his license had been suspended for nonpayment of parking tickets. He was charged with a felony — a fact he still has trouble believing. “I’m just a regular blue-collar guy,” he said, “driving home from work with all his tools in the car, and this is what happens.”
WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT The case, of course — specifically, whether to go to trial or to have Mr. Bowden plead guilty. The decision? Mr. Russo could not say because of attorney-client privilege.

Baby Rosemarie

Baby Rose Marie & Cab Calloway SING!
Uploaded by NilbogLAND.

Rosemarie Of KV?

from nndb

Rose Marie Mazetta was born in New York City on August 15, 1923, to Italian-American Frank Mazzetta and Polish-American Stella Gluszcak. Rose Marie was born out of wedlock in New York, and her parents never married. Her father, a shadowy character with gangland connections, had a second wife, kids, and house, and commuted between his two families. Rose Marie was "discovered" at age three, by neighbors who heard her singing to herself, and entered her in a talent contest at New York's Mecca Theater. The tot sang "What Can I Say Dear, After I Say I'm Sorry?", danced the Charleston, and won first prize. When her father caught wind of this, he arranged to have his daughter sing at a night club, where the audience was so impressed they threw money onto the stage. He gathered and counted the money, appointed himself his daughter's manager, and ran her career until she was an adult.
Billed as Baby Rose Marie, she starred in several of the earliest talking films, beginning with a 1929 short, Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder, which was screened in theaters before feature films. In this and several subsequent short films, the preschooler simply walked onstage, smiled at the camera, and sang several songs one after another. Decades later, when Bette Davis starred in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, the moviemakers were riffing on Baby Rose Marie.
Unlike other child performers, Baby Rose generally eschewed kiddie music, and instead performed blues tunes and romantic melodies. She belted out these songs with what sounded like an adult's voice, and a smile suggesting that the audience had better be impressed or the singer might slug anyone who did not applaud. But as you might guess, it was not a happy childhood for Rose Marie. Her father gambled away most of her earnings, frequently beat her when he was drunk, and worked her like a mule to keep the cash coming in. Through her father's criminal connections, young Rose Marie met Al Capone, who, she says, kissed her on the cheek and said, "If you ever need me for anything, tell your father to call me."
At the age of four, she starred in a local radio program, and after a few months she was offered a better program at a bigger station. At five, she was a radio star with her own coast-to-coast program on NBC, performing with guests like Rudy Vallee and Benny Goodman. In her first feature film, 1933's International House, Baby Rose worked with W. C. Fields and an all-star cast, including Bela Lugosi, Cab Calloway, and Burns & Allen.
Even in her earliest films, Rose Marie wore a bow in her hair, a childish affectation which became her trademark decades later. She also had an almost freakishly adult face, voice, and stage presence. For her pre-adolescent performances on film, she was widely whispered to be an adult midget, and as her radio program became popular, NBC sent her on tour to reassure listeners that the husky, mature-sounding voice was really coming from a little girl.
She worked as Baby Rose Marie until her blooming adolescence at 11 made the stage name silly. After a few years performing as simply "Rose Marie", she dropped out of show business at 15, opting for a relatively normal time in high school. But soon after graduation she was back on stage, and she spent her late teens and 20s as a night club headliner. In 1946, when Las Vegas opened its first big-time casino hotel, The Flamingo, Rose Marie was one of the opening acts, along with Jimmy Durante and Xavier Cugat.
In the late 1940s and 50s, she worked the stand-up circuit, mixing comedy with novelty tunes. In her act, she adopted the persona of a wisecracking single girl looking for a husband. In reality, she was happily married to trumpeter Bobby Guy, who worked with Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael, and eventually joined the NBC Orchestra on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, years before Doc Severinsen led the band. In 1951-52 she starred in a long-running Broadway production of Top Banana with Phil Silvers and Jack Albertson, and when the play was made into a movie in 1954, Rose Marie was again on the big screen. Through the remainder of the decade, she toured in stage comedies, including Lunatics and Lovers with Zero Mostel, and made several appearances on TV's The Bob Cummings Show.
In 1960, she accepted her first regular role on a sitcom, playing Bertha on My Sister Eileen with Stubby Kaye and Raymond Bailey. The next year, The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered to dismal ratings, but the sponsor (Colgate) insisted on buying ads so the show had time to find its audience. In its second season it climbed high in the ratings, and Rose Marie became a household name. The program aired for five seasons, and still runs on cable.
Her husband became ill in 1965, and doctors could not agree on a diagnosis before he died. Devastated at his death, she considered quitting the Van Dyke Show. Instead she wore black on camera, for the rest of the series' run. She never remarried. When the Van Dyke Show ended, Rose Marie became a panelist on The Hollywood Squares, honing her lonely-girl schtick. She also appeared on other game shows including Password and I've Got a Secret. On The Doris Day Show, Rose Marie played the star's pal and co-worker, and appeared in several short-lived sitcoms over subsequent decades
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she toured with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell and Margaret Whiting in a singing and comedy act called 4 Girls 4.

The Water Club, July 5, 2009

A brunch with some KV ladies at the Water Club on July 5th revealed some interesting new information. I admit to some photoshopping in the above photo. I wasn't allowed to wear a hat at the Water Club

I'm Never Gonna Tell

The flip side of I'm Late

CHORUS
There'll never be anyone else but you for me
Never ever be, just couldn't be, anyone else but you
If I could take my pick of all the girls I've ever known
Then I'd come and pick you out to be my very own
CHORUS
A heart that's true and longs for you is all I have to give
All my love belongs to you as long as I may live
CHORUS
BRIDGE: I never will forget the way you kiss me
And when we're not together, I wonder if you've missed me
'cause I hope and pray the day will come when you belong to me
Then I'm gonna prove to you how true my love can be
CHORUS
Mm, mm, mm, mm
Mm, mm, mm
FADE
Mm, mm, mm

It's Late

It's late (it's late)
We gotta get on home
It's late (it's late)
We've been gone too long
Too bad (too bad)
We shoulda checked our time
Can't phone (can't phone)
We done spent ev'ry dime
It's late (it's late)
We're 'bout to run outta gas
It's late (it's late)
We gotta get home fast
Can't speed (can't speed)
We're in a slow-down zone
Baby, look at that clock, why can't it be wrong?
If we coulda left home at a quarter to nine
Woulda had fun and plenty of time
We got started just a little bit late
Hope this won't be our last date
Look up (look up)
Is that the moon we see?
Can't be (can't be)
Looks like the sun to me
It's late (it's late)
I hate to face your Dad
Too bad (too bad)
I know he's gonna be mad
It's late (it's late)
We gotta get on home
It's late (it's late)
We've been gone too long
(Instrumental)
Look up (look up)
Is that the moon we see?
Can't be (can't be)
Looks like the sun to me
It's late (it's late)
I hate to face your Dad
Too bad (too bad)
I know he's gonna be mad
It's late (it's late)
We gotta get on home
It's late (it's late)
We've been gone too long

I Went To A KV Garden Party: July 4, 2009

Alternative title, from the 10th floor of the F building to Fenimore Cooper's Leather Stocking Trail

I went to a garden party
to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party,
they all knew my name
No one recognized me,
I didn't look the same
But it's all right now,
I learned my lesson well.
See you can't please everyone
so you got to please yourself
People came from miles around,
everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus,
there was magic in the air
'n' over in the corner,
much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise
But it's all right now,
I learned my lesson well.
See you can't please everyone
so you got to please yourself
lott-in-dah-dah, lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Played them all the old songs,
thought that's why they came
No one heard the music,
we didn't look the same
I said hello to "Mary Lou",
she belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk,
it was time to leave
But it's all right now,
I learned my lesson well.
See you can't please everyone
so you got to please yourself
lot-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Someone opened up a closet door
and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin' a bell
and lookin' like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties,
I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang,
I'd rather drive a truck
And it's all right now,
I learned my lesson well.
See you can't please everyone
so you got to please yourself
lot-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah
And it's all right now,
I learned my lesson well
See you can't please everyone
so you got to please yourself