Knickerbocker Village

Revisiting Pickup On South Street

2012-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

My daughter Emma is taking a really interesting film class at Clark University with a Professor Michael Siegel

SCRN 120 - History of U.S. Film Since 1950The history of post-WWII American cinema is the story of an ongoing series of adjustments to (or developments within the context of) instability in postwar film business: film noir, 3-D, biblical epics, blockbusters, art film influences, “new blood” from TV and film schools, Black filmmaking, revisionist genre films, high-concept filmmaking, etc. Further complicating this process of adjustments, cinema was overlaid onto, and consequently influenced by, the political turmoil within American society in general: the “Red Scare,” the Vietnam War, the emergence of a mass counterculture, the antiwar movement, Watergate, Reaganomics, the end of the Cold War and increasingly vocal demands by women and minorities for social equality (and media representation).

One of the films she viewed was Pickup On South Street. I've talked about the film and Sam Fuller several times here and I always assumed some scenes were filmed on location. Evidently according to this blogger they weren't. However, in part 2 of the film embedded above, it looks like at about the 5:36 mark a shot is filmed near the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge. I can make out other NYC shots in other scenes, but evidently the outdoor views from Widmark's dockside shack, towards the end of the clip above, are fake.

When I'm 64

2012-01-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door,
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo
You'll be older too,
(ah ah ah ah ah)
And if you say the word,
I could stay with you.
I could be handy mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride.
Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too drear
We shall scrimp and saveGrandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck, and Dave
Send me a postcard,
drop me a line,
Stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, Wasting Away.
Give me your answer,
fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?

KV Hanukkah 2011-part 2

2011-12-20T04:37:00.001-08:00

KV Hanukkah 2011

2011-12-20T04:24:00.001-08:00

Grace Hartigan and 49 Hester Street

2011-11-27T07:49:00.001-08:00

hartigan-49-hester-st

49 Hester Street 1910

2011-11-27T07:26:00.001-08:00

This picture was taken just around the corner from 27 Essex Street where garbage was to accumulate a year later. The gentlemen in the foreground is selling socks just in front of the obligatory corner German bar of that era. In time, as the neighborhood would be more densely populated with different Eastern European immigrants, those bars would be less popular and merchant stores would predominate. In 1968, the artist Grace Hartigan would write that Henry's fruit stand which was then located at this address would inspire the painting of her "East Side Sunday." Note: Henry's, at that time, was next to Hollander's Pickles

11 Hester Street 1896

2011-11-27T06:45:00.001-08:00

This block is now incorporated into the Seward Park housing site, completed in 1960 . It would be just east of the intersection of Suffolk and Hester. An 1891 real estate map would show a coal yard just north of the address. An up close view would show J. Smith selling watches and jewelry at number 11 and a man viewing a candy display featuring what appears to be boxes of candied balls at 5 cents a box. Some of the young boys are wearing civil war era hats also known as cheese-cutters due to its narrow, sharp brim. It evidently was popular at the time. In 1891 five barrel lots of rock candy went for 7 cents a pound.

27 Essex Street 1891

2011-11-26T20:13:00.001-08:00

Caution, no smoking near whiskey barrels.

27 Essex Street: Then And Now

2011-11-26T12:41:00.001-08:00

The then has a reference to the 1911 garbage strike. The notation in the picture incorrectly refers to PS 26. What is meant is PS 62 which was across the street on the eastern side of Essex at that time. About the 1911 strike from secondat

An article in the New York Times gives some background. The men demanded that they be able to work during daylight hours, mainly for reasons of safety, and the Sanitation Department, which employed them, refused to grant this demand. A snide letter to the editor gives one person's reaction: The reason for the cleaners' strike Is plain to one who's smart; Like most of us they want to choose Their hours a la carte.The city hired strikebreakers and the work stoppage was soon brought to an end. Times letter writers saw the conflict as a test of power between the Teamsters Union and city government. Some supported the union and some supported government, but most simply wanted their ashes collected and the streets cleared of accumulating trash.LC's photos are from its Bain News Service collection. The garbage trucks of the day consisted of one man, one horse, one cart. The city operated more than 20,000 of them. I appreciate the dignity of the horses shown in the photos: alert, patient, and strong. The images seem to show a police force intent on preserving order without taking sides. In them the faces of strikebreakers show a lack of confidence, maybe just nervousness, maybe fear. The faces of the crowds in the street show everything from anger, to interest in the spectacle unfolding before them, to the well-known New Yorker's seen-it-all aloofness.

What I gleamed from David Ziskind's One Thousand StrikesThe workers were striking for a 48 hour week and relief from annoying regulations and arbitrary discipline. When any driver was found with garbage containing ashes, even though they may have been mixed by householders, the driver was fined several days pay.

1934: Disgruntled KVer's Move Out

2011-11-25T16:02:00.001-08:00

This may either refer to non-renewal of leases to tenant leaders who had protested move in conditions or tenants moving on their own volition because of that situation

KV: Clearing The Building Site 1933

2011-11-24T17:30:00.001-08:00

The KV Basement During Hurricane Irene

2011-11-24T17:25:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving 50 Years Ago

2011-11-24T17:17:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving 1961

13 Market Street: Former Site of the Polish Benevolent Association/Library

2011-11-12T15:25:00.001-08:00

In the 1900 census Stanislaus Sleszynski lived at this site and also had a cigar store in the building.

A Hidden 4th Ward Reference In Mr. Skeffington

2011-11-12T12:15:00.001-08:00

The great screenwriters, Julius and Philip Epstein, lived at Market and Cherry.Mr. Skeffington is a 1944 American drama film directed by Vincent Sherman, based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth von Arnim. The film stars Bette Davis as a beautiful woman whose many suitors, and self-love, distract her from returning the affections of her husband, Job Skeffington. It also makes a point about Skeffington's status as a Jew in 1914 high society and, later, in relation to Nazi Germany.Dialogue from the movie with time stamps:35:00Job, I was born right acrossthe river there, near Grant's Tomb.:35:05Of course, the tombhadn't quite been built.:35:07My governess used totake me there every day.:35:10That's where she met her policeman.:35:12Job, where were you born?:35:14Right here in New York.The corner of Market and Cherry Street.:35:18Market and Cherry? Where's that?:35:21Foot of the East River. It's about 10 miles,I should say, from the nearest governess.:35:27Job, do you realize I've known youonly two months?:35:30And that I practically knownothing about you at all.:35:34Were you poor?:35:35You have no idea how poor.:35:37You weren't actually hungry?:35:40My father sold chocolate barswith almond nuts on a pushcart.:35:43When he had a good day, we ate meat.:35:46When he had a bad day,we ate chocolate bars with almond nuts.:35:49The bad days had a slight edge.:35:51You remember a lot aboutwhen you were a little boy, don't you?:35:55Especially the lack of plumbing.:35:59Skeffington, that's a strange namefor Market and Cherry.:36:03You mean, is that my real name?:36:05No. The immigration official onEllis Island wasn't a good speller...:36:09...and "Skeffington" was the closesthe could get to "Skevinzskaza.":36:13Well, then, how did youbecome so successful?:36:18I don't wanna go onwith the story of my life.:36:20It's routine, rags to riches.Of course, I sold newspapers.:36:24I was a messenger during the dayand went to school at night.:36:27You can fill in the rest.:36:29There's one difference.:36:31You didn't marry the boss's daughter.:36:33No.:36:35But I married the womaneverybody else wanted to.:36:38That makes up for it.:36:51Job, find out what's happening.:36:57Attendant?:36:58- Yes?- What's going on?

Who's Almost Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Moses Solomon

2011-11-12T11:55:00.001-08:00

About Moses from passion4baseball:

Moses Solomon was born on December 8, 1900 in New York City. He was the son of Russian immigrants, Benjamin and Anna Solomon. The elder Solomons were married in Russia in 1884 and came to the United States in 1891. They had eight children in all and Moses was the fifth of the eight. In 1906, the family moved to Franklin, Ohio and Benjamin worked for a junk dealer. Moses also worked for the dealer and is listed in the 1920 census as a time keeper for the dealer.A year later, Moses played baseball for the Vancouver Beavers in the Pacific Coast International League. He played in 115 games and batted .313 with 13 homers. Not bad for a first year in professional ball. He only played in a few games in 1922 but still batted .303. But it was 1923 that would make him a legend.By 1923, he had signed to play for the Hutchinson Wheat Shockers in the Southwestern League, a Class C league. He played mostly first base for the Wheat Shockers and had one of the most memorable seasons in minor league history. In 134 games, he batted 527 times, piling up 222 hits for a .421 average. He hit 40 doubles, 13 triples and 49 homers. The 49 homers set a minor league record and only the great Babe Ruth had more in professional baseball.McCarthy heard of Solomon's exploits and amidst much hoopla, purchased his contract and brought him to the Giants in September of 1923. He made his major league debut on September 30 and played two games. In eight at bats, he had three hits including a double and drove in a run. It would be the only two games he would ever play in the major leagues.The Giants found out about an aspect of Solomon's game that would prove to be his undoing. He couldn't field. The same minor league season where he set the record for home runs, he made 25 errors. He made an error in the two games he played in the outfield for the Giants. He was the Ron Bloomberg of his time. All hit, no field.Moses Solomon continued after the 1923 season to bang around the minor leagues. He played through 1929 and batted over .300 three times, but his total home run output of all those seasons did not come close to totaling as much as his 49 in 1923 alone. One source indicates he also played football, but no record can be found as such.By 1930, he is listed in the census as being back in Franklin, Ohio with his wife, Gertrude and two young children. His occupation is listed as, "Agent." His Wiki page states that he went into real estate and did quite well. The Rabbi of Swat died in Miami, Florida in 1966.Moses Solomon (or Mose) only played two games in the major leagues, but not many people could state that his career ended with a .375 average. Imagine if the guy with the .313 minor league career batting average could have caught the ball. His minor league record of 49 homers was broken in 1924 by Clarence Kraft who hit 55. Kraft didn't hold the record long himself as a guy named Tony Lazzeri (you may have heard of him) hit 60 in 1925.

28 Henry Street: Flight of the Conchords

2011-11-12T11:46:00.001-08:00

The apartment of Bret & Jemaine from the HBO series is located here. From a walking tour that features location sites for this show

Discover Inner City Pressure with this Flight of the Conchords walking tourIf you're a big fan of Flight of the Conchords and are visiting New York, checking out the filming locations of this Emmy-nominated series is an absolute must. Flight of the Conchords has a worldwide cult following, and wandering the streets of their filming locations will complete any Conchords die-hard's claims to be the ultimate fanatic.For those that don't know, Flight of the Conchords (comprising Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement) started off as a two-piece comedy act from New Zealand. Tongue and cheekily billed as 'Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo', the Conchords built a small cult following in New Zealand before hitting the big time and impressing HBO executives in the United States, and were quickly signed up to produce 2 award winning seasons of the self-titled television series.The LocationsWhilst (like every TV series) there are several exterior locations, as well as a vast amount of studio filming, Flight of the Conchords has been shot at many landmarks and well known areas of New York City. Since this is a walking tour, we will concentrate on the Lower Manhattan locations, where the majority of exterior filming takes place.The beauty about this part of the tour is that the neighborhood undertakes very little adjustment between what you see on the show, and what you will see in person. As you wander around these Chinatown areas of Lower Manhattan, one finds it hard to comprehend that an award winning TV series was filmed there.

How To Make It In America; Season 2 Opening

2011-11-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

KV is clearly visible in several shots
Lyrics to I Need A Dollar, by Aloe Blacc (abridged)

I need a dollar dollar, a dollar that's what I need
hey hey
Well I need a dollar dollar, a dollar that's what I need
hey hey
I said I need a dollar dollar, a dollar is what I need
And if I share with you my story would you share your dollar with me

Well I don't know if I'm walking on solid ground
And all I want is for someone to help me
And I need a dollar dollar, a dollar is what I need
And if I share with you my story would you share your dollar with me

How To Make In America: On Old Delancey Street

2011-11-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

from Season 2, episode 5. Walking west on the north side of Delancey from Norfolk towards Essex and then turning north on Essex.

How To Make It In America: 16 Monroe Penthouse, Part 2

2011-11-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

Cam Calderon has his pal Domingo Brown over for breakfast to discuss business prospects. Since the last posting about this penthouse apt I've learned from Bob Wilson that this was not filmed in Duke Viggiano's old apartment,but in a one bedroom apt that is situated between Bob's apt and Duke's old one. It does not have an entrance onto the terrace, that's why Cam climbed out of his kitchen window to gain access in that previous scene.

Essex and Houston Street: 1936

2011-10-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Essex Street had to be widened for the construction of the 6th Avenue subway. The route would turn eastward from 6th avenue after the West 4th Street stop, eventually passing below Houston until Essex. From there it would turn south towards East Broadway.

Norfolk And Hester Streets: School Demolition 1931

2011-10-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

This is across the street from the previous photo. The demolition was required due to the 6th Avenue subway construction.

22-24 Norfolk Street, near Hester Street: 1932

2011-10-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

PS 20: 1894

2011-10-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism From a 1894 real estate map created by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. These maps were created to help fireman locate important information in order to help minimize fire loss. Those that were in color would denote different kinds of building materials. This one in particular shows where a pre-Rivington Street PS20 existed and its proximity to the People's Theater (see what's playing there-it ain't The Wedding Crasher) The entire stretch of the rectangle between Chrystie, Forsyth, Houston and Canal is now Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, constructed in the 1930's. Some notes about the YIddish theater on the bowery of that era: Yiddish theatre collection at Dorot Jewish Division NYPL By Michael Terry "The most conspicuous artistic manifestation of the Yiddish language revival was the sudden emergence and rapid triumph of Yiddish theater. Inspired by the popularity throughout central and eastern Europe of German-language companies, and their repertoires both classical and trashy, and by the elements of a Jewish theatrical tradition comprised of the ambitious Hebrew dramas of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque and the more improvised Purim plays of Ashkenaz, Yiddish theater's official birth took place in a tavern in Jassy, Romania, in October, 1876, with paternity credited to Abraham Goldfaden. Less than six years later, in the summer of 1882, the first Yiddish production in the United States was presented on the initiative of the fourteen (or, at most, sixteen)-year-old Boris Thomashefsky. The event took place at the German-American cultural and recreational center, Turn Hall, on East Fourth Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue. It was in New York that Yiddish theater blossomed, reaching the height of its appeal and influence during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, when Jewish immigration was at its peak. Major venues during those years included the Roumania Opera House, on the Bowery near Grand Street, and Adler's Grand Theatre, one block east at the corner of Grand Street and Chrystie, but the scene was dominated by the Thalia and Windsor theaters, which faced off on opposite sides of the Bowery near Canal Street. The fare was made up of European classics (especially Shakespeare, often transposed to a Jewish key) as well as an array of new works, both original and adapted, including melodramas, farces, operettas, and reenactments of historical and current events. With immigration drastically curtailed and assimilation all the rage, New York Yiddish theater between the wars lacked the authenticity of its glory days before World War I. From the vulgarity of the commercial nostalgia-peddlers to the high-minded kitsch of the modernists, it was at best a silver age. In Buenos Aires, by contrast, the story was quite the reverse. Yiddish theaters had existed there since the beginning of the 20th century, but, controlled by mobsters and patronized by the city's rollicking Jewish underworld, they had taken on something of the character of the burlesque house and, accordingly, were given a wide berth by members of the respectable, Jewish community. It was not until the end of the 1920s that the genteel element, with its aspirations toward community and cultural advancement, prevailed. With encouragement from such figures on the New York scene as Thomashefsky, who would visit for the winter while their own companies were closed for the summer, a modest golden age ensued, through the 1930s and into the 1940s, that made Buenos Aires the second city of the world history of Yiddish theater."

Playing At The Grand

2011-10-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism Quite a find at the NYPL! Either there is new material there, or there are nooks and crannies previously undiscovered. No date, however. The Grand was demolished in 1929 when the area was cleared for Roosevelt Park. This slide show is compromised of photos taken by Percy Loomis Speer. I would guess it was part of an effort to document the large scale clearing of buildings that was required to build the park. FDR was the Governor of the state at the time and my understanding is the Eleanor, who had worked for a time at University Settlement, was instrumental in making the case for urban renewal. Maybe he resisted and part of his concession was that he had to name it after his domineering mother.

1893: Dedication Of PS 7

2011-10-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

PS 7 Dedicated-1893

1905 Map Of Grand, Forsyth, Hester, Chrystie Area

2011-10-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism Another Sanborn Insurance gem. A shout out to my nephew Jamie, whose U of Buffalo attendance provided digital library access. Here's a math tech integration activity. "If there were x number of synagogues on these y square blocks, how many synagogues would there be on z square blocks?' The spot where I placed an image of the real PS 7 was an empty lot. The front of PS 7 faced Chrystie Street. The area is now part of Sara Delano Roosevelt Park. In the 1896 Tribune, the school was described as the dirtiest school in the city. Behind the Grand Theater there are "Bowling Alleys and a Turkish Bathouse. I'll try to see who was playing at the Grand Theater. The hook and ladder company on Canal Street is still a fire house 100 years later. The Boarding Stable on Allen Street logically became a parking garage. BTW, SD stands for steel door.

PS 20: 1917 Draft Registration

2011-10-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism This incredible picture from the American Memory Collection (see url on image and search for "rivington") puts the last posting in perspective.

School Plaque History Redux

2011-10-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism
From August of 2005:
A couple of views of PS 177. Last year I met Gin Gee Moy, the former principal of The Meyer London School (PS 2 on Henry Street). Not too long after I graduated PS177 in 1960 the building was torn down and replaced by PS 2. There had also been an older PS 2 before on Henry Street. Mr. Sol Press had replaced Mr. Gregor at 177 in 1959 as principal and went to PS 2 with the 177 faculty. Gin Gee became part of that faculty and worked with Mr. Press. She also knew many of my old teachers. I just about remember them alin order from K-6 : Mrs Horowitz, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Lizzio, Mrs. Peck, Mrs. Apat, Mrs. Feuer, Mrs. Decker and Mrs. Jonas. Mrs. Jonas went out on pregnancy leave in the 6th Grade and we had some weird subs: Mrs. Fels, who said she was related to the Fels-Naptha family and Mrs. Lebergott. BTW Gin Gee looks a whole lot better than I do. She also told me that Mrs. Lizzio is still alive and in her 90's. I think 177 was the Roger Bacon school.
a repeat of a slide show of some LES school plaques done also in August of 2005

LES School History Via School Plaques

2011-10-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism
The school plaques located in every school building provide some interesting information. PS97 on Mangin Street now houses Bard College High School. I wonder what all of those Board of Education members did? Dig those names: John Whalen, Joseph Cosgrove, Cornelius Sullivan, Egerton L. Winthrop, Arthur S. Somers, George W. Wingate. Somers and Wingate got schools in Brooklyn named after them. Wasn't Cosgrove a character on "My Little Margie?" No, wait, that was Mr. Conklin and he was on
"Our Miss Brooks." Another "school board member," Mr. Honeywell was on "My Little Margie." Here's a slide show of some LES school plaques.

Speaking Of Jennifer Connelly: Once Upon A Time In America, 1984

2011-10-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

Jennifer was mentioned in a recent group KV email that referred to How To Make It In Americafrom Alexandra

Hi DavidI was expecting you to post the episode that took place in KV and you did not disappoint.I actually saved it on my DVRI do not remember if I already told you that I was friends withthe mother of one of the writers on that show. He is Rob Weiss and he is listed as executive producer, but I believe he writes for that show and Entourage.We were living in Brooklyn on Stratford Road. Also a friend of a friend who visited in that group was Jennifer Connelly (age 2) and her mother. Jennifer's mother and I had a mutual friend. Funny how a couple of Brooklyn kids went on to Hollywood.

about Once Upon A Time In AmericaBelow, three 2007 posts with clips from Once Upon A Time In Americapart 1 part 2 part 3

Place Matters 3rd Annual Awards

2011-10-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

This took place at October 26, 2011 at the Museum of Chinese in America from 6-9pm

Founded by City Lore and the Municipal Art Society in 1998, Place Matters' mission is to foster the conservation of New York City's historically and culturally significant places. These "places that matter" can be as diverse as local bakeries, hidden gardens, jazz clubs, and historic churches, all of which hold memories and anchor traditions for individuals and communities, and help tell the history of the city as a whole.The Third Annual Place Matters Awards honors six Lower Manhattan sites that hold memories, anchor traditions and keep New York City distinctive.~ Economy Candy, Lower East Side~ The Bowery Mission, Bowery~ The Chinatown Senior Citizens' Center, Chinatown~ Streit's Matzos, Lower East Side~ Ear Inn, Tribeca~ Tenement at 109 Washington Street, Financial District

Marion Fox asked me to take her place at this affair. It was an overflow crowd and I could only stay for a brief time. There was time enough, however, to chat briefly with Molly Garfinkel, who is the new program coordinator at City Lore and a fan of the KV blog. I had been lobbying for some time to get Knickerbocker listed as a place that matters and lo and behold when I checked the site I saw that we were. Thanks to Allan, Marty and Alexandra for their nominations

PS 160

2011-10-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

1909: Rabies Scare At PS 160

2011-10-26T00:19:00.001-07:00

My father would be attending PS 160 in the late 1920's. It is still standing, a CBJ Snyder school, now housing the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center

How To Make It In America: Scene From The J Buildng Penthouse

2011-10-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

From season 2 episode 3. Cam Calderon (Victor Rasuk) gets a penthouse apartment at 16 Monroe Street. I'm pretty sure it was once the apartment of Duke Viggiano

Who's Almost Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Abe Beame, 176 Forsyth Street

2011-10-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Abraham David Beame was born in London on March 20, 1906, to Polish-Jewish parents who had fled Warsaw, then part of Czarist Russia. His father, Philip Birnbaum, a Socialist revolutionary who barely escaped arrest, went directly to New York, while his mother, Esther Goldfarb Birnbaum, stopped in London to give birth and joined her husband three months later. In New York, the family name was changed to Beame. Abraham's mother, who had two more sons and a daughter, died in 1912; his father remarried and had two more children.The boy, called ''Spunky'' for his scrappiness, grew up in a crowded cold-water flat on the Lower East Side. Childhood friends said he was an outstanding student at Public School 160. At the High School of Commerce, where he graduated at the top of his class, he had perfect scores in the state Regents bookkeeping exams and showed an extraordinary ability to absorb data and memorize facts.He was always working. One early morning job was to go through tenements, waking people who had no alarm clocks. During his high school years, he worked evenings in a paper factory, studying during his dinner hour. He roller-skated to school and work to save subway fare. His father took him to Socialist party meetings, and he remembered Eugene V. Debs, who ran for president five times.At 15, he met Mary Ingerman over checkers at the University Settlement House on Eldridge Street. Seven years later, after he graduated from City College with an accounting degree in 1928, they were married.They lived in Brooklyn for the next 45 years, first in a two-family house in Crown Heights, where they raised their sons, then in a modest apartment near Prospect Park. They spent summers at rented cottages in Belle Harbor, on the Rockaways in Queens.

My rational, he was a Birnbaum before his named was changed to Beame.

Mickmas Day: Special 80th Birthday Edition

2011-10-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

above, Mick talking about his greatest World Series thrill.
below, from Richard Karney

And a Happy Mickmas to everyone! Today is the Mick's 80th birthday, a truly blessed event. And I wish all a very happy holiday!!Unfortunately, again this year's celebration is muted by the fact the boys began their holiday shopping and golfing early. Lack of timely hitting, something the Mick would scoff at, proved to be the bane of this year's team. As baseball fans, even with surrogates in this year's championship we can try to enjoy the world series, however, we shall look forward to another exciting year in 2012 and an even more exciting off-season trying to find the missing pieces to this year's shortened season.As mentioned in last year's annual missive, while the Mick never met a woman or single malt he didn't like, it will not be in poor taste for us to raise a glass (or two) to celebrate the end of the eighth decade of the Mick and/or his memory. (I cannot provide advice on chasing opposite genders, however.) So as we watch (and suffer through another verbal onslaught by Buck and McCarver) tonight, praise, salute and savor what the Mick provided and toast him on his birthday.And may 2012 bring joy, excitement and #28 to us all.As is my wont, I attach Bob Costas' eulogy prior to the Mick's ascension.

You know, it occurs to me as we're all sitting here thinking of Mickey,he's probably somewhere getting an earful from Casey Stengel, and nodoubt quite confused by now.One of Mickey's fondest wishes was that he be remembered as a greatteammate, to know that the men he played with thought well of him. Butit was more than that. Moose and Whitey and Tony and Yogi and Bobby andHank, what a remarkable team you were. And the stories of the visits youguys made to Mickey's bedside the last few days were heartbreakinglytender. It meant everything to Mickey, as would the presence of so manybaseball figures past and present here today.I was honored to be asked to speak by the Mantle family today. I am notstanding here as a broadcaster. Mel Allen is the eternal voice of theYankees and that would be his place. And there are others here with alonger and deeper association with Mickey than mine.But I guess I'm here, not so much to speak for myself as to simplyrepresent the millions of baseball-loving kids who grew up in the '50sand '60s and for whom Mickey Mantle was baseball.And more than that, he was a presence in our lives-a fragile hero towhom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defiedlogic. Mickey often said he didn't understand it, this enduringconnection and affection-the men now in their 40s and 50s, otherwiseperfectly sensible, who went dry in the mouth and stammered likeschoolboys in the presence of Mickey Mantle.Maybe Mick was uncomfortable with it, not just because of his basicshyness, but because he was always too honest to regard himself as somekind of deity. But that was never really the point. In a very differenttime than today, the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw MountainLandis said, "Every boy builds a shrine to some baseball hero, andbefore that shrine, a candle always burns."For a huge portion of my generation, Mickey Mantle was that baseballhero. And for reasons that no statistics, no dry recitation of the factscan possibly capture, he was the most compelling baseball hero of ourlifetime. And he was our symbol of baseball at time when the gamemeant something to us that perhaps it no longer does.Mickey Mantle had those dual qualities so seldom seen-exuding dynamismand excitement, but at the same time touching your heart-flawed,wounded. We knew there was something poignant about Mickey Mantle beforewe know what Poignant meant. We didn't just root for him, we felt forhim.Long before many of us ever cracked a serious book, we knew somethingabout mythology as we watched Mickey Mantle run out a home run throughthe lengthening shadows of a late Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.There was a greatness about him, but vulnerability too. He was our guy.When he was hot, we felt great. When he slumped or got hurt, we sagged abit too. We tried to crease our caps like him; kneel in an imaginaryon-deck circle like him; run like him, heads down, elbows up.Billy Crystal is here today. Billy says that at his bar mitzvah he spokein an Oklahoma drawl. Billy's here today because he loved Mickey Mantle,and millions like him are here today in spirit as well. It's been saidthat the truth is never pure and rarely simple.Mickey Mantle was too humble and honest to believe that the whole truthabout him could be found on a Wheaties box or a baseball card. But theemotional truths about childhood have a power that transcends objectivefact. They stay with us through all the years, withstanding theambivalence that so often accompanies the experience of adults.That's why we can still recall the immediate tingle in that instant ofrecognition when a Mickey Mantle popped up in a pack of Topps bubble gumcards-a treasure lodged between an Eli Grba and a Pumpsie Green.That's why we smile today, recalling those October afternoons when we'dsneak a transistor radio into school to follow Mickey Mantle and theYankees in the World Series.Or when I think of Mr. Tomasee, a very wise sixth-grade teacher whounderstood that the World Series was more important, at least for oneday, than any school lesson could be. So he brought his black and whiteTV from home, plugged it in and let us watch it right there in schoolthrough the flicker and static. It was richer and more compelling thananything I've seen on a high-resolution, big-screen TV.Of course, the bad part, Bobby, was that Koufax struck 15 of you guysout that day.My phone's been ringing the past few weeks as Mickey fought for hislife. I've heard from people I hadn't seen or talked to in years, guys Iplayed stickball with, even some guys who took Willie's side in thoseendless Mantle, Mays arguments. They're grown up now. They have theirfamilies. They're not even necessarily big baseball fans anymore. Butthey felt something hearing about Mickey, and they figured I did too.In the last year, Mickey Mantle, always so hard on himself, finally cameto accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and ahero. The first he often was not, the second he always will be.And, in the end, people got it. And Mickey Mantle got from somethingother than misplaced and mindless celebrity worship. He got somethingfar more meaningful. He got love. Love for what he had been, love forwhat he made us feel, love for the humanity and sweetness that wasalways there mixed in the flaws and all the pain that racked his bodyand his soul.We wanted to tell him that it was OK, that what he had been was enough.We hoped he felt that Mutt Mantle would have understood that Merlyn andthe boys loved him. And then in the end, something remarkable happened,the way it does for champions. Mickey Mantle rallied. His heart tookover, and he had some innings as fine as any in 1956 or with his buddy,Roger, in 1961.But this time. he did it in the harsh and trying summer of '95. And whathe did was stunning. The sheer grace of that ninth inning, the totalabsence of self pity, the simple eloquence and honesty of his pleas toothers to take heed of his mistakes.All of America watched in admiration. His doctors said he was, in manyways, the most remarkable patient they'd ever seen. His bravery so starkand real, that even those used to seeing people in dire circumstanceswhere moved by his example.Because of that example, organ donations are up drastically all acrossAmerica. A cautionary tale has been honestly told and perhaps willaffect some lives for the better.And our last memories of Mickey Mantle are as heroic as the first. Noneof us, Mickey included, would want to be held to account for everymoment of our lives. But how many of us could say that our best momentswere as magnificent as his?In a cartoon from this morning's The Dallas Morning News. Maybe some ofyou saw it. It got torn a little bit on the way from the hotel to here.There's a figure here, St. Peter I take it to be, with his arm aroundMickey, that broad back and the number 7. We know some of what went on.Sorry, we can't let you in, but before you go, God wants to know ifyou'd sign these six dozen baseballs."Well, there were days when Mickey Mantle was so darn good that we kidsbet that even God would want his autograph. But like the cartoon says, Idon't think Mick needed to worry much about the other part.I just hope God has a place for him where he can run again. Where he canplay practical jokes on his teammates and smile that boyish smile,'cause God knows, no one's perfect. And God knows there's somethingspecial about heroes.So long, Mick. Thanks.

Mae Wong Lee and PS 42, part 2

2011-10-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

from open city:Here she discusses some of the pedagogical styles and teachers who made the most difference in helping her succeed. She currently serves as Assistant Principal there. Public School 42, on the corner of Hester and Orchard Streets, was built in 1898. It eventually got named the Benjamin Altman School, after the department store owner whose first store was located nearby, on Attorney Street. (The B. Altman’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue opened in 1906, and the building currently houses the City University of New York Graduate Center, Oxford University Press, and the New York Public Library science research collection.) The school serves around 800 students, from pre-kindergarten through grade 5. These students are over 92% Asian, around 5% African American, 2% Latino, and the remaining students white.

May Wong Lee and PS 42

2011-10-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

PS 42 Traditions: Crab Soccer, the Knish Man, and Pickles! from Celina Su on Vimeo.

fro open city:May Wong Lee shares remembrances about attending Public School 42 in the 1960s and 1970s, especially beloved traditions they had back then– namely, crab soccer, the knish man, and pickles.

PS 42: Just Who Was Benjamn Altman?

2011-10-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

Altman Funeral

Benjamin Altman (1840–1913) was born and died in New York City. He was the second of three children. His parents, Phillip and Cecilia, were Jewish immigrants from Bavaria who came to America around 1835, and settled on the Lower East Sideof Manhattan in a flat on Attorney Street where Benjamin was born. His father had established a modest dry goods store which provided Benjamin with his earliest experiences in shopkeeping and trade. After a day's lessons at a nearby public school, Benjamin's attention tumed to the work of tending the counter, serving the customers and doing whatever chores needed to be done in the family store. He found this kind of work fascinating. By the time he was 12 years old, Benjamin's formal education had come to an end. In a pattern familiar to youth of that time, the boy withdrew from school to work full time in the family enterprise; he was no longer a child. In 1865, Altman founded B. Altman & Co. opening a store on Third Avenue and 10th Street in NYC. In 1906, he moved the business to Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Benjamin Altman died without heirs. Shortly before the death, he founded the Altman Foundation. Until 1985, it owned B. Altman & Co., which latter closed the last store in 1990. Benjamin Altman was an avid collector of Rembrandt paintings and china, much of which he acquired through art dealer Joseph Duveen. Upon his death, he donated the collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is a portrait of Altman in the New York State Museum in Albany; it was painted by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) and donated to the New York Chamber of Commerce by Michael Friedsam. Müller-Ury knew Altman personally as a client of art dealer Henry Duveen. He was compelled to paint from a photograph after Altman's death. He first completed a 50 x 40 inches portrait of Altman seated in his gallery with a Rembrandt behind him and a Chinese vase on a table beside him, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for whom this had been painted, chose a far weaker portrait of Altman by Ellen Emmet Rand also made from a photograph, and Müller-Ury's larger work went to the Foundation offices; it has since disappeared.

1964 World Series Preview: Connie Francis

2011-10-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

Too bad it's the Rangers playing the Cards this year and not the Yankees.The 1964 series. Even then I couldn't stand Tim McCarver

"Out of The Night There Came A Lady "

2011-10-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

With the story on the Lee family and its connection to PS 42 on Hester Street, I'm posting here some 2006-7 stories related to the school from pseudo-intellectualism
Ms. Rizzo requested some digital resources on Harriet Tubman so it looks like the Holly Near version of Walter Robinson's song will be dusted off again. Likewise "out of the night" appeared Gail Carson Levine. Well, not really. I sought out Ms. Levine. I wanted to share the work the kids were doing with her book. I thought she would appreciate the attempt to match the story with its real world locations. I also wanted to share the similar experiences of my father and hers, the Sephardic Jewry link, and Uncle Hy's connection to PS 42. Remarkably, after reading my blog, she thought I was cogent enough to return my call and we had a nice conversation. Coincidentally, her residence upstate is not too far away from where I destroyed my brakes last week. Synchronicity, zeitgeist, who knows? If the classes of the two schools manage to get together to celebrate "Dave At Night" Gail said she would join us and that would be great. I wonder how many Tweed and other DOE bureaucrats it would take to coordinate such an effort. Probably 3 or 4 meetings, a few retreats and a 200 page manual would be involved. Here's part of an interesting interview with Gail by Cynthia Leitich Smith: Gail Carson Levine on Gail Carson Levine: "I was born and grew up in New York City. I was a child in the 1950s, not very long after World War II. My neighborhood in northern Manhattan, Washington Heights, was a haven for refugees from Hitler, and German was spoken on the streets as often as English."The city was a wonderful place to be a kid. Every July 4th, my friends and I would walk to middle of the George Washington Bridge and watch the Macy's fireworks over the Hudson River. On weekends we might walk a mile uptown to the Cloisters, a medieval museum. Other times we'd walk a mile south to two other museums. When I was eleven, I was allowed to travel on the subways on my own, and then New York City was my oyster! In the winter, friends and I would ice skate in Central Park. In the summer, we'd picnic and swim at the beach two hours away by subway--for thirty cents each way!" You can find the rest of it here

The Hebrew Home For Boys

2011-10-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

With the story on the Lee family and its connection to PS 42 on Hester Street, I'm posting here some 2006-7 stories related to the school from pseudo-intellectualism
When Dave Caros' father dies in "Dave At Night" he is sent to live at the Hebrew Home For Boys in Harlem. This institution existed on 136th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam until the 1930's. I couldn't find any pictures of it online. I wanted to get some images of the area to show the classes involved in the les/harlem project that I envisioned. I decided to combine some atmospheric sound with the images, but came up a bit short. So in this slide show I augmented that soundtrack with some reggaetone music. I hadn't been in that area much (CCNY takes up a big part) in my life, other some PS 397K era trips to 142nd Street and Hamilton Place (The Children's Art Carnival). The Convent and Edgecombe Ave areas were beautiful. I had thought that the latin area of west Harlem started further uptown than the 130's. The dividing line between latin and African-American Harlem seemed to be CCNY and St Nicholas Park. Amazingly, the exact location of the Home was discovered when I was researching the Jacob Schiff School, which is unique in that you have to climb a hill to reach it from its 136th Street side. Here's what I found on the nycparks dept site:"This parkland, which is shared by Public School 192, also known as Jacob H. Schiff School, was once home to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. By World War II, the orphan asylum closed and was transformed into army barracks. Shortly after the war, City College acquired the building for use as a classroom and dormitory, naming it “Army Hall.” The building eventually closed in 1952 and was demolished when Parks and the Board of Education jointly acquired the land in 1956. In 1987, the Schiff School playground received a $918,623 renovation and was officially named Jacob H. Schiff Playground

Dave At Night

2011-10-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

With the story on the Lee family and its connection to PS 42 on Hester Street, I'm posting here some 2006-7 stories related to the school from pseudo-intellectualism
The main character of this book attends PS42 on Hester Street. Here's a portion of the review: "In Dave at Night, Newbery Honor award– winning author Gail Carson Levine brilliantly describes in gritty detail an orphan’s journey from loss to fulfillment. Fans of her previous novel, Ella Enchanted, might be surprised at Gail Carson Levine's departure from the world of fantasy with her realistic new book, Dave at Night. Inspired by Ms. Levine's father's experience in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York, this is the story of eleven-year-old Dave Caros.The year is 1926. Dave’s beloved father is dead, and his stepmother doesn’t want him. Only the HHB will take him in. Hebrew Home for Boys. Hell Hole for Brats. Dave is tough, a troublemaker. He can take care of himself. If he doesn’t like the Home, he’ll run away and find a better place. Only it’s not that simple. . . .This stunning new novel by Newbery Honor award–winning author Gail Carson Levine takes Dave from the poverty of the Lower East Side of New York City to the misery of the Hebrew Home for Boys to the hope and magic of Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. It tells a tale of terrible loss and hard-won gains, of cruel relations and kind strangers, of great poverty and great wealth. Most of all, though, it tells a tale about the power of friendship." Here's the first few chapters as a slide show. I'm on my way to whole book. What's great about this book is that it has an audio version. Here's a segment as an mp3.

Unce Hy and PS 42

2011-10-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

With the story on the Lee family and its connection to PS 42 on Hester Street, I'm posting here some 2006-7 stories related to the school from pseudo-intellectualism
I mentioned on 1/13/06, about a month before his passing, that my Uncle Hy attended PS 42. Many Sephardim, such as the tenement Museum Confinos also did. Here's an excerpt from a recent rememberance piece from the sephardiccouncil.org: "Hy Genee, the spiritual leader and president of Kehila Kedosha Janina, the Romaniote synagogue in New York City, passed away on February 13, 2006 at the age of 83 leaving the 100 year old congregation in tears. Kehila Kedosha Janina was founded by Greek Jewish immigrants in 1907, and named after the city of Janina (Ioannina), from where they came. The dignified old synagogue built in 1927 at 280 Broome Street remains, it is the only Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, it stands as one of the last old synagogues on the Lower East Side of New York City, still in operation.Although it is often called Sephardic, the congregation that Hy led for many decades was made up of Romaniote Jews. These are neither Ashkenazic nor Sephardic Jews; they are Jews with their origins in ancient Greece, arriving there after the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash (Temple) in Jerusalem. They have their own nusah (rite), an orthodox tradition similar but different than the Sephardic tradition. Similarities between the Romaniote and Sephardim indeed exist, because both groups spent hundreds of years together while Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule. Yet, the Greeks are proud, and rightly so, of their unique traditions." I hope my Uncle can forgive me for being such a lapsed Jew, Actually, in his generosity of spirit he always did. Here's the full article

The Benjamin Altman School: PS42

2011-10-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

With the story on the Lee family and its connection to PS 42 on Hester Street, I'm posting here some 2006 stories related to the school from pseudo-intellectualism
Anyone who actually reads any of this blog knows the high cynic factor (not to be confused with the O'Reilly Factor), so here's a refreshing change of pace about a wonderful school: "Kids learn at impressive rates here. Test scores have so improved that PS 42 is on the state's list of most improved schools and the chancellor's list of 209 schools exempted from having to install a new standardized curriculum. At the same time, Principal Rosa O'Day insists that staffers "take teaching and learning very seriously, but not at the expense of humanity." During our visit to the school, we were glad to see teachers get excited over children's fluffy renderings of baby chicks or comment knowledgeably about students' home lives and work. The warmth apparently starts at the top. When O'Day entered a first grade classroom during our visit, children eagerly swarmed around her to show off a project they were working on -- creating tiny folded slips that opened to reveal drawings of the people they wanted to be when they grow up. Despite coping with a cold, O'Day listened patiently as each student -- including those struggling with English -- described his or her aspirations. One boy hopes to be mayor one day. In another first grade class, we saw three teachers and a staff developer taking notes on the math lesson being presented. These teachers were using the "Japanese lesson study" method, in which they jointly draw up lesson plans and then observe their strengths and flaws. The point is to figure out what works and what doesn't in teaching their kids. In a 3rd grade class, some students read on their own, others read aloud with the teacher, and the rest wrote responses to their books -. Fifth graders publishing a class newspaper were researching story topics of their choice in order to draft articles. An English-as-a-second-language class wrote letters to Mayor Bloomberg protesting the closing of a neighborhood firehouse that the kids had visited earlier in the year. The arts propel literacy. The parent community stands behind PS. 42's belief that the arts serve as a wonderful vehicle for developing literacy, self-esteem, cultural and cross-cultural appreciation. "My personal goal," Rosa said, "is to educate the whole child. Children don't know what they're good at or what they like until they're exposed to a lot of different things." The print-rich environment of PS. 42 exposes students to new ideas with every turn in the five-story building's hallways. Here, as at every great school we've visited, student artwork springs to life; vibrantly colored walls and enormously high ceilings showcase projects; and children's books wallpaper every available surface - at heights advantageous for both kindergartners and fifth graders, of course. Teachers skillfully take advantage of the rich opportunities that lie just beyond the school's walls, too. As residents of one of the most culturally diverse cities, students only need to walk a few feet to be in another world. Around the corner from the school, for example, the Eldridge Street Synagogue stands as a reminder of the neighborhood's Jewish roots. Second graders explored the synagogue this year and sketched its elaborate exterior. Two years ago a week before the school year was to begin I walked into this school's office and shared with Rosa Casiello O'Day the excitement of my Al Schacht story and she actually didn't think I was nuts. She even called down her 5th grade teachers to listen. I was invited back to come look for any record cards in the basement that might belong to Al and his teammate Robert Berman. I never did, but... anyway here's a PS42 slide show.

Brigadier General Theodore Bingham, NYC Police Commissioner

2011-10-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Bingham Obituary
The above is Bingham's obituary.
Bingham is mentioned in the previous post on the McKinley assassination and the 1906 story on 106 Forsyth Street
from the digital history project

Brigadier General Theodore A Bingham Police Commissioner of New York
In the great capitals of Europe, the heads of the police are always men of first-rate character, accomplishments, and training, and they rank with high officers in the regular army. In our own country, too often, men of a very different type have been selected for these responsible positions, and from this fact there have resulted some of the great scandals of our municipal politics.
When Mayor McClellan placed him at the head of the New York police system, the wisdom of the appointment was questioned by politicians of the old school. "He'lI not last long," they. said. But General Bingham has lasted. He has brought to his task the efficiency of a trained soldier and organizer. His personal forcefulness and his cogent arguments induced the Legislature to increase his powers. Today he is going on with tireless energy to correct certain defects in the morale of the metropolitan police - defects presenting problems which many earnest reformers have despaired of solving.
Alfred Bingham, who is the commander-in-chief of New York's ten thousand stalwart guardians of the peace. A graduate of Yale and of West Point, he served in the regular army as a major of engineers, and was United States military attache at Berlin and Rome. Later he was the personal aide of President McKinley, and was promoted to the command of a brigade by President Roosevelt in 1904, retiring on the day following his promotion.

106 Forsyth Street: 1906, The Progressive Lyceum Hall, McKinley Assasination and Leon Czolgosz

2011-10-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

106-forsyth-mckinley-1906
About the McKinley Assassination, by Scott Miller, from Sept. 6, 2011

On a sweltering afternoon 110 years ago today, President William McKinley stood in a receiving line at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Shortly after 4:00, a slightly built man in his mid-20s stepped forward as if to greet the affable and popular president, but instead withdrew from his pocket a .32 caliber revolver wrapped in a white handkerchief. Before McKinley or any of his security men realized what was happening, the man, Leon Czolgosz, fired two shots point blank into the president's torso. McKinley died eight days later.
Czolgosz, a staggered American public would soon learn, subscribed to theories of anarchism. Almost forgotten today, anarchists were at the turn of the century a widely known and feared group, determined to destroy the power of the rich and improve lives of the working class. Already Americans had read of numerous attacks in Europe and in the United States where a small but ruthless minority of anarchists practiced a violent strategy they called Propaganda of the Deed. Today, we would call their tactics terrorism.
It's worth noting on the anniversary of McKinley's death, and five days before another tragic anniversary, that America has long faced radicals who employ violence and murder and that such attacks have much in common, whether aimed at American involvement in the Middle East, or the power of big business.
Read the literature of radical anarchists in the 1880s and 1890s, and time and again the same justification for violence is put forward: The authorities -- the police, the courts, the government -- had been the first to employ violence and murder, through the courts and the execution chamber. By replying with bombings and attacks of their own, radical anarchists felt like they were only repaying in kind. Such was the case, for example, when Italian-American Gaetano Bresci traveled to Italy from New Jersey to murder King Umberto I because, in the view of American anarchists, he ruthlessly oppressed his people.
Likewise, anarchists of the 1880s and '90s were every bit as willing to lay down their lives for their cause as are modern terrorists. In France in the 1890s, one social radical after another set off bombs or attacked public figures, knowing that he would be caught and sent to the guillotines. In 1887, an American anarchist by the name of Albert Parsons was sentenced to death for the murder of a Chicago policeman, even though he was not at the scene of the attack. He could have escaped the hangman's noose if he had simply made a written request to the governor of Illinois for a pardon. Maintaining his innocence, he refused. Parsons and three others went to their deaths as unrepentant anarchists.
Finally, regardless of the century, terrorism begets terrorism. Then, as now, each attack only seemed to inspire another. Alexander Berkman, who attempted to murder steel magnate Henry Clay Frick in 1892, hoped to punctuate his attack by committing suicide just as another anarchist had done in a Chicago jail cell. Both his attack and his suicide attempt failed and he served a lengthy prison sentence. McKinley's assassin, similarly inspired, carried a newspaper clipping of Bresci's attack in Italy to his final days.
In the end, of course, anarchists failed to achieve their goals. Rather than engendering sympathy for the cause, these terrorist attacks only hardened the public against them and led to new laws to stomp out anarchism altogether.
McKinley's shooting over a century ago is a reminder that terrorism is neither the product of a particular religion nor place in the world. Terrorism rather should be seen in a historical context. The decades show us that extremists can convince themselves that violence is perfectly justifiable and that suicide is a price worth paying to achieve their beliefs.
Scott Miller's book, The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century, was published in June by Random House.

a podcast on the subject with Scott Miller

Joseph J. Ettor

2011-10-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

ettor

Joseph James "Smiling Joe" Ettor (1886–1948) was an Italian-American trade union organizer who, in the middle-1910s, was one of the leading public faces of the Industrial Workers of the World. Ettor is best remembered as a defendant in a controversial trial related to a killing in the seminal Lawrence textile strike of 1912, in which he was acquitted of charges of having been an accessory.
Joseph James Ettor, known to his friends as "Joe" or "Smiling Joe," was born on October 6, 1885 in New York City, the son of a laborer who had emigrated to America from Italy. Ettor went to work at the age of 12 selling newspapers. He later worked as a waterboy on a railroad, as a saw-filer in a lumber mill, as a barrel-maker, as a shipyard worker, and in a cigar factory. Joe Ettor went to work for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1906 as an organizer, continuing in that capacity for the next decade.An outstanding and inspirational public speaker who was fluent in Italian and English, Ettor's earliest organizing work on behalf of the IWW took place in the Western United States, where he had worked unionizing miners and migrant laborers. He also had cut his teeth organizing foreign-born workers in the steel mills and shoe factories of the East. Ettor was active in the 1907 lumber strike in Portland, Oregon, the 1909 McKees Rocks Strike and another lesser-known steel strike later that year in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a strike of Pennsylvania coal miners in 1909-10, and a Brooklyn shoe factory strike in 1910-11.
Employers feared "Ettorism". This 1913 anti-union cartoon from The American Employer depicts an IWW organizing drive as "a volcano of hate stirred into active eruption at Akron, by alien hands, which pour into the crater the disturbing acids and alkalis of greed, class hatred and anarchy. From the mouth of the pit rise poisonous clouds of suspicion, malice and envy to pollute the air, while from the cracked and breaking sides of the groaning mountain flow streams of lava of murder, anarchy and destruction, threatening to engulf in their path the fair cities and fertile farms of Ohio."
In 1908, Ettor was named to the governing General Executive Board of the IWW, remaining in that capacity until 1914.
On January 1, 1912, in accordance with a new state law, the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts posted new rules limiting the hours of workers to 54 a week, down from a standard of 56 previously in effect. It soon became clear that the employers had no intention of adjusting wage rates upwards to compensate for the lost work time, and a strike ensued.
On January 12, 1912, the Italian-language branch of IWW Local 20 decided to send to New York City for Joe Ettor, the organization's top Italian-language leader, to come to Lawrence and lead the strike. Ettor arrived with Arturo Giovannitti, secretary of the Italian Socialist Federation, a language federation of the Socialist Party of America and editor of the socialist newspaper Il Proletario [The Proletarian], who was not himself at the time a member of the IWW. Ettor instantly called on all his skills, including his ability to speak five languages, to rally the strikers. On his first afternoon in Lawrence, he addressed thousands of strikers, fostering solidarity and discouraging violence. "All the blood that is spilled in a strike is your blood," he told strikers. Denouncing the mill owners, sympathizing with the toil of textile workers, Ettor called for an even larger walkout. "Monday morning you have got to close the mills that you have caused to shut down, tighter than you have them now." Ettor then set up fourteen strike committees based on nationality, and began meeting daily with everyone from the mayor of Lawrence to the various strikers in committee. Mill owners instantly recognized Ettor's power and tried to discredit him by planting dynamite in a store where he picked up his mail. But the plot was quickly detected and Ettor continued organizing the strike.
During the walkout, which came to be known as the Bread and Roses Strike, IWW striker Anna LoPizzo was shot and killed. Joseph Caruso was charged with the murder and Ettor and Giovannitti, both of whom were giving speechs several miles away from the crime scene, were arrested as accomplices. The three were eventually acquitted.
Ettor was one of the leaders of the waiters strike of 1912 in New York City, and the Brooklyn barbers strike of 1913.
The question of violence was a perennial matter of discussion and debate within the IWW. Some, like Giovannitti, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Vincent St. John, took the position that while the union did not favor violence, it would not shy away from its use if necessary to accomplish the social revolution.[6] Ettor, on the other hand, shared the orientation of "Big Bill" Haywood that the only kind of force to which the organization could lend its name was the use of the general strike for the overthrow of capitalism.
Ettor became a member of the executive council of the IWW. In 1916, he left the IWW along with Flynn after a dispute over the Mesabi range strike.
In later years, Ettor ran a fruit orchard in San Clemente, California, where he died in 1948.

106 Forsyth Street: 1913, Joseph Ettor and the Barber Strike

2011-10-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

106-forsyth-1913

The Lee Family Of Forsyth Street, Part 2

2011-10-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Untitled from david bellel on Vimeo.

The original article from the nytimes
Another excerpt:

Below, an oral history of the Lee family of Forsyth Street. (Interviews have been edited and condensed.)
The Traffic Cop
MAY WONG LEE, 49
With a blond streak in her black hair, multiple ear piercings and the word “Grace” tattooed on her neck, May is the loudest in the family and often the center of attention.
She met Ben, her husband, who is from a large Cuban-Chinese immigrant family, at their evangelical church when they were teenagers. They had three boys — Noah, 17, Jonah, 15, and Elijah, 10 — and decided to adopt a girl. When they brought Mebrat home, in 2007, they thought she was 3, but it turned out she was a malnourished 6. Ben, 47, is one of the least-talkative members of the household. A Federal Express driver, he is out of the house from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., leaving May to be the disciplinarian and organizer.
May dropped out of law school after Jonah was born early and doctors told her his weak lungs made him susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome. She later went back to school to add an administrator’s certificate to her master’s in education.
As assistant principal at P.S. 42, which she, Warren and Ben all attended a generation ago, May spends her days squelching arguments and solving problems (and peeking in on Mebrat, who is in fourth grade there). At home, her role is similar.
“I can’t stay on top of anything anymore. I just give this image that I’m organized, but I’m so unorganized. As long as I can get up and brush my teeth and get out of the house on time, I’m very happy. Today, this morning, I brushed my teeth with my face wash. Ben thought it was the funniest thing.
“We have a lot of stresses, but with some things, being with three separate households, you sort of have to let it roll. Let’s say if I’m a little upset about something, I’ll wait it out and think about it and is it worth it to mention.
“I mean we sort of chose to live this way, so Warren and I, we know we have to compromise. I think if we were all in our 20s and starting out, it would be rough. We’re much older. We waited a bit to have kids. I think that’s a big help.
“We have our arguments, and it gets pretty loud.
“Jen will pretty much go along with whatever Warren decides. He more calls the shots.
“I call the shots because Ben couldn’t care less. He totally leaves it up to me.
“That’s why this works out, because Jen and Ben are very easygoing. A lot of things don’t faze them.
“Our biggest issue was my boys. They would use the fourth floor and leave it a mess. And it got to the point where, you know, I was really mad with my boys. But I was also a little upset because I’m, like, you know, ‘You don’t have teenagers. Wait till you have teenagers.’ So I sort of nipped it in the bud, I said, ‘You can’t use it until you prove to me you’re responsible to take care of upstairs.’
“My boys are just as happy in the back. And I can ignore the noise as long as they’re not running and thumping. I keep telling them they have to be respectful because Gung Gung’s downstairs.”......

The Lee Family Of Forsyth Street

2011-10-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

Lee Family Forsyth
Below, an excerpt from the excellent accompanying nytimes' article

Three Generations Under One Roof
By SARAH KRAMER
SEVEN o’clock on a Thursday morning: time for bao, Chinese breakfast buns. Dressed for school in striped leggings and a pink shirt, Mebrat Yong, 9, waited for the baby sitter to arrive at her family’s building in Chinatown with a red shopping bag filled with the steaming treats from her uncle’s bakery a few blocks away. Mebrat was dividing up this day’s buns.
She slipped a plain bun into her Hello Kitty backpack, then set aside another for Gung Gung, as she and her siblings call their 86-year-old grandfather, who speaks only Cantonese and occupies the first floor. She took a half-dozen — one coconut, two plain, one roast pork, one bacon and scallion, one cookie — up to the third floor for her aunt and three cousins, who washed them down with fruit shakes.
Then Mebrat returned to the second floor, where she lives with her parents and three older brothers, handing out buns amid reminders from Mom to the children to tidy the bathroom and take homework to school. The second-floor kitchen is the heart of the building, so Mebrat set a plate of buns in the middle of the long, dark wood table, where they would remain all day for snacking.
Such is breakfast at the Lees, where three generations live together in a household at once retro and revolutionary. Gung Gung and his children, May Wong Lee and Warren Lee, bought the building for about $700,000 a dozen years ago from a Jewish family that had owned it for generations. An addition brought it to 10,000 square feet, with room for each branch of the Lee family to have its own space.
The family rents out the basement to a Mexican restaurant, and the fourth floor is a free-for-all, where the children play, everyone entertains and Warren, who runs the bakery and cooks dinner daily for the adults, tends a roof garden of herbs and vegetables. The brother and sister and their spouses, Jennifer Lee and Benito Yong, split the mortgage and the bills for food and building repairs.
The percentage of households in the United States containing three or more generations has nearly tripled over the past 30 years, to 7 percent in 2009 from 2.4 percent in 1980, according to Census Bureau reports. The living arrangement is even more common, and growing more rapidly, in New York City, where immigrant values and expensive real estate have combined to make 10 percent of households span at least three generations. And there are untold others like the Lees, who file separate census reports but live under one roof, sharing chores, parenting and, in their case, caring for the patriarch — whose real name is Kuey Wing Lee — all of which, at times, can lead to conflict........

Samuel Dickstein: Lower East Side Congressmen

2011-10-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Dickstein lived much of his adult life at 304 East Broadway. The building is no longer there. It was located where PS 134 is now, near the intersection of East Broadway with Grand. In 1900 Dickstein was living at 22 Suffolk Street.

About Dickstein, including the startling info that he was a paid NKVD (Soviet) agent!

Samuel Dickstein (February 5, 1885 – April 22, 1954) was a Democratic Congressional Representative from New York and a New York State Supreme Court Justice. He played a key role in establishing the committee that would become the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which he used to attack fascists, including Nazi sympathizers, and suspected communists. Soviet files indicate he was paid by the NKVD.Dickstein was born into a Jewish family living near Vilnius in present-day Lithuania. He emigrated to the United States in 1887 with his parents, who settled in New York City. There he attended public and private schools in New York City, the College of the City of New York, and graduated from the New York City Law School in 1906. He was admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced law practice in New York City. He served as special deputy attorney general of the State of New York from 1911–1914, member of the board of aldermen in 1917, member of the State Assembly 1919–1922. He served as a member of the Democratic County Committee and was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth Congress and was reelected eleven times. He resigned from Congress on December 30, 1945. He served as Chairman on the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Seventy-second through Seventy-ninth Congresses).During his tenure as Chairman of the Committee on Naturalization and Immigration, Dickstein became aware of the substantial number of foreigners legally and illegally entering and residing in the US, and the growing Anti-Semitism along with vast amounts of anti-Semitic literature being distributed in the country. This led him to investigate independently the activities of Nazi and other fascist groups in the U.S. This investigation proved to be of such significance that on January 3, 1934, the opening day of the second session of the 73rd Congress, Dickstein introduced a resolution calling for the formation of a special committee to probe un-American activities in the United States. The "Dickstein Resolution" (H.R. #198) was passed in March 1934, with John William McCormack named Chairman and Samuel Dickstein Vice-Chairman. Dickstein had refused the chairmanship of the Committee, feeling that his Jewish ancestry might have an adverse effect on the proceedings.Throughout the rest of 1934, the Special Committee on Un-American Activities conducted hearings, bringing before it most of the major figures in the U.S. fascist movement. Dickstein, who proclaimed as his aim the eradication of all traces of Nazism in the U.S.[2], personally questioned each witness. His flair for dramatics and sensationalism, along with his sometimes exaggerated claims, continually captured headlines across the nation and won him much public recognition.He was instrumental in establishing the temporary Select Committee on Un-American Activities (the 'Dies Committee') with Martin Dies, Jr. as chairman, in 1938 to investigate fascist and Communist groups in the United States.Later the same committee was renamed the House Committee on Un-American Activities when it shifted attention to Communist organizations and was made a standing committee in 1945.Following the 1938 Anschluss, Dickstein attempted to introduce legislation that would allow unused refugee quotas to be allocated to those fleeing Hitler.Dickstein later served as a Justice on the New York State Supreme Court until his death in New York City.

June 22, 1931: The Opening Of The Bialystoker Home

2011-10-13T21:03:00.001-07:00

Bialystoker Opens

Protesting The Closing Of The Bialystoker Home

2011-10-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

an excerpt from a recent nytimes' article

Closing a Nursing Home, and a Chapter of New York HistoryBy JOSEPH BERGERHer 98-year-old father lies under white sheets, frail and incoherent, attached to a feeding tube and a catheter. But Rose Lauria visits him nearly every day, taking a 10-minute bus ride to the historic block where the Bialystoker Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation has towered over the Lower East Side’s tenements for 80 years, then greeting her father with a “Hey, cutie pie!”“Every day is precious,” she said. “I love him and I want to see he’s cared for properly.”But she is worried about the future quality of that care because in recent months, she has watched the three other beds in his room lose their occupants, and her father, Thomas Lauria, may soon be required to surrender his bed.The Bialystoker home, plagued by deep debt and what it regards as inadequate Medicaid reimbursements, is closing. It was opened in 1929 as a nursing home and communal center by Jewish immigrants from Bialystok — the Polish city that lent its name to the bialy and the conniving impresario of Mel Brooks’s “The Producers.”In authorizing the closing, the state’s Department of Health has ordered the home, which is scheduled to shut in late October, to find new beds for all 95 residents. Meanwhile, its 10-story building at 228 East Broadway is on the market for an asking price of more than $10 million.Ms. Lauria is upset, and not only because she will have a far longer commute from her East Village home to visit her father at his probable next stop, a nursing home in Brooklyn that has space for him. Her bigger worry is that her father, who has been at Bialystoker for 12 years and suffers from dementia and an ulcerated esophagus, will not acclimate himself to unfamiliar rooms and faces.“These people live here,” Ms. Lauria said. “They get used to the workers, the atmosphere. It becomes like their family. There’s no place like home, but this place is pretty good.”Many people in the neighborhood are upset as well, because Bialystoker is one of the last major Jewish institutions still standing there. The 10-story building on the other side of East Broadway that long housed The Forward, a Yiddish newspaper, is now a condominium apartment building. Some neighborhood residents are seeking landmark status for the tan brick, Art Deco Bialystoker building, an application that the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has begun evaluating.The home also houses a synagogue on its second floor, where daily services are held, and it, too, will close, another loss in a revitalized neighborhood that once had 500 synagogues but is now down to about a dozen. The other day inside the synagogue, a solitary, white-bearded Hasid, Yesocher Wieder, 60, swayed over a page of the rabbinical commentary called Gemara, then rose and blew a shofar, a ram’s horn.The home’s board has been accused by some critics of mismanagement, for accumulating a debt of over $8.5 million and losses of $100,000 monthly.William Quintana, the Bialystoker home’s director of recreation, accused the board and its chairman, Ira M. Meister, of conduct that was “unethical and a conflict of interest” for the sale last year of an adjoining two-story medical building to the chairman.Mr. Meister said in an interview that the board had no choice because it needed the roughly $1.5 million netted from the sale to pay the nursing home’s mounting bills, and a sale to his real estate firm — he is president of a firm, Matthew Adam Properties, that manages 100 co-op and condo buildings — made for a speedy transfer. He has leased that adjoining building to the Educational Alliance, a venerable cross between a Y.M.C.A. and a social services institution that taught generations of immigrants how to become good Americans. But Mr. Meister plans within two years to move his management business, now on East 59th Street, to the East Broadway building.

a previous 2008 post on the building of the bialystoker homeanother 2008 post on Bialystoker history

How To Make It America: Pike/Cherry St Segment, Season 2, Episode 2

2011-10-11T23:50:00.001-07:00

Al Davis: A 4th Warder In His Heart?

2011-10-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

But he was a Brooklyn boy instead. He was living in Crown Heights in 1942. His dad Louis operated Little Dutchess Undergarment Factory on Johnson Street in Brooklyn at that time.

Allen "Al" Davis, the man who is synonymous with the Oakland Raiders franchise of the National Football League and its earlier American Football League incarnation, was born on the Fourth of July, 1929 into a Jewish family in Brockton, Massachusetts. Raised in Brooklyn and educated at the borough's Erasmus High School, he played football at Syracuse University, but was cut from the varsity team.

RIP Arnold Wenig

2011-10-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Sad news as we hear of Arnold's passing. KV's "greatest generation" dwindles down to a precious few.from Sarah this past weekend:

I'm sorry to send word of my father's passing this morning. He had an easy time, which he surely deserved. Arnold Wenig was a very good friend to have. Without question he befriended many in whom he saw were at a loss for a good friend; he invested a great deal in people who were long shots. It was me and him for the past eight years or so and we fought the good fight side by side. I am sorry for some of the times that I didn't take his advise, and very grateful for the advice about life that I did take. He told me two things that are very important for a daughter to hear. He said, "Sarah, never forget! You live in the big house.” and he told me, "Just remember, if you are going through a very bad time that things change. They always change at some point for the better. So never, ever give up." These movies made him cry: Pride of the Yankees, Captain Courageous and Boys Town. He was a pretty good dancer, too.While my father was with me in Boston we would get on the bus and go downtown, to the neighborhood stores, to see President Obama when he came to town and a Boston Pops concert on the Boston Common. He really liked Boston. However, just to let everybody know he was a NYer, upon learning of the Red Sox/Yankee rivalry when he got here - he switched teams from the Mets to the Yankees and used that to chat people up when he was out and about. He thought Boston fans were totally nuts. Never saw anything like it. They even had Red Sox caps printed in Hebrew at the Judaica stores in Brookline.After Whitey Bulger was arrested, he switched the script. I often took him down to Castle Island in South Boston. Whitey went there (Southie's version of the Brighton Beach Boardwalk) for the walking and to have conversations that couldn't be listened in on by the State Police - he had the FBI in his pocket, they weren't the problem. People you run into on Castle Island might very likely have known somebody whacked by Whitey or a kid that he got started on drugs. Nevertheless, my father would wheel himself over to somebody at Sullivan's snack stand and start the conversation with, "Tell me d'ya really think Whitey can get a fair trial here?" Most caught on because Southie people are a lot like people from the Lower East Side and Williamsburg in Brooklyn where my father grew up. When my Dad was lucky, the person my father had engaged would adjust their Red Sox caps and with a twinkle in their Irish blue eyes, reply, "Fair Enough." When things didn't go as my father planned, I'd roll my eyes and mouth the word 'Demented' and get Dad out of the line of fire, leaving the humorless son of a gun behind as fast as I could.

People's Group Lobby To End Discrimination At KV, 1950

2011-10-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

The KV Gas Explosion Of 1939

2011-10-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

This explosion was mentioned before in 2007 It occurred on the 9th floor of 12 Monroe Street

A 1940 KV Wedding

2011-10-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

All the way from Gloversville to the 4th Ward, including stops at Harvard Law. Shows how KV was a very desirable address n those days. Included above is a 1940 ad and views of Gloversville. I checked the 1946 phone book, they're not there. The couple probably left for greener pastures by then.The news portion of the above article is from an excellent ny state newspaper sourceAbout Gloversville:

Gloversville is a city in Fulton County, New York, that was once the hub of America's glovemaking industry with over two hundred manufacturers in Gloversville and Johnstown. In 2000, Gloversville had a population of 15,413. Ten years later, the population had increased to 15,665.The region, known as "Kingsborough" was acquired by Sir William Johnson. In 1752, Arent Stevens bought land. Puritans from New England settled there at the end of the 18th century. The proximity of forests to supply bark for tanning made the community a center of leather production early in its history. It earned its name for being the center of the American glove making industry for many years. Upon the establishment of a United States Post Office in 1828, Gloversville became the official name of the community.In 1890-1950, 90 percent of all gloves sold in the United States were made in Gloversville.Large tanneries and glove shops employed nearly 80% of the residents of Gloversville and environs. Home workers sewed the gloves from leather that had been cut in factories. Related businesses, such as box makers, sewing machine repairmen, and thread dealers opened to serve the industry.In 1853, Gloversville incorporated as a village. In 1890, it incorporated as a city.Until 1936, Gloversville had a very active electric interurban line, the Fonda, Johnstown, and Gloversville. It ran from Gloversville, through Johnstown, along the Mohawk River to Amsterdam, then to Scotia, then across the Mohawk River, and into downtown Schenectady to the New York Central station. In 1932 in a bold move during the Great Depression it acquired unique Bullet cars in an attempt to revive business. Passenger service ended in 1936, but freight operation continued.Gloversville was the main headquarters for the Schine movie industry. The Glove Theatre was the Schines' favorite movie house. Hollywood movies sometimes premiered in Gloversville before they opened in California.The decline of the glove industry left the city financially depressed, with many downtown storefronts abandoned and store windows covered with plywood. Many of the houses were abandoned when people moved out of town to find jobs elsewhere.

Note the reference to the Schine movie industry. More on this

Lamula Opposes Santangelo, 1951

2011-10-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

He supported KVer Pat Picariello instead. I'm sure Lamula's claim of Santangelo's residency is true. It would be highly unlikely that a Judge would be residing at 9 Monroe in 1951. In 1946 Santangelo has 55 Oak Street as his address. That address would be eliminated by the construction of the Smith Projects.

Robert Santangelo, 1938

2011-10-01T09:09:00.001-07:00

1951: Mayor Impelliteri Swears In Robert Santangelo Of 9 Monroe Street

2011-10-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

santangelo-19519 Monroe Street was the site of Kremo's, Judge Lupiano, a former KVer is mentioned in the article as well.Justice Santangelo was a 4th Warder and politician of merit. From his 1984 obituary

ROBERT SANTANGELO, EX-JUDGE ON THE STATE SUPREME COURTBy JOAN COOKRobert V. Santangelo, a former State Supreme Court justice and the prosecutor in the Seabury corruption investigations in New York City in the 1930's, died Wednesday at United Hospital in Port Chester, N.Y. He was 87 years old and lived in Rye, N.Y., and Highland Beach, Fla.Justice Santangelo was a jurist for more than 30 years.He was first appointed to Magistrate's Court, in 1934. Later he was elected judge of the First District Municipal Court in Manhattan in 1951 after he was appointed to fill an unexpired term. He held the post for 20 years, then served in Civil Court for 10 years. He spent his last five years as a jurist in State Supreme Court, retiring in 1967.He was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1924 to 1933. But he was perhaps best known for his role in the Seabury investigations in 1931 and 1932. The inquiries led to the defeat of Tammany Hall and the election of Fiorello H. La Guardia as Mayor in 1933. Justice Santangelo had been a partner in the law firm of La Guardia, Sapinsky before joining the District Attorney's office, and remained a personal friend of Mr. La Guardia's throughout his life. He was a graduate of the College of the City of New York and Columbia Law School.He is survived by his wife, the former Juliette Petronio; two sons, Francis, of Harrison, N.Y., and Robert Jr., of Rye, N.Y.; a brother, Dr. George Santangelo of Harrison; four sisters, Jean Fabri of Manhattan, Louise Pizzutello of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Vera Melarano of Scarsdale, N.Y., and Eleanor Roosevelt of Staten Island; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.A funeral service will be held today at 10:30 A.M. at Corpus Christi Church, Port Chester, N.Y.

His son Robert has this web site

17 Monroe Street, 1912

2011-10-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

Fred French's Gvt Bailout

2011-10-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

He acquired much of the property in the neighborhood before the crash of 1929.

81 Catherine Street History

2011-10-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

I would imagine the sale of 81 Catherine was to interests representing Fred French in anticipation of building of Knickerbocker Village.

Hanscom Bakery, Formerly Of 81 Catherine Street

2011-09-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hans ComI recently found another pic of a Hanscom Bakery. The store occupied the address at 81 Catherine Street where the pizza shop opened. The second pic in the pdf is of Cliff Gromer's mom circa mid 1950's
from qchron

One of the largest baking empires in Queens was Hanscom bakeries, operated by a man who lived in Whitestone. Hanscom built six bakeries in Manhattan and one in the Bronx, designed by the prolific architect Horace Ginsbern. In 1937 the company starting building and opening bakeries in Queens — including the piece of artistic beauty shown here in the heart of cosmopolitan Jackson Heights.As Jackson Heights was developing, leading architects loved to work and design there. Two other Hanscom Bake Shops opened that year, one each on Greenpoint and Roosevelt avenues.By 1940 there were 14 in Queens, and a high of 21 stores in the borough by 1951. Suddenly in 1958 the entire chain of stores closed upon the death of Mr. Hanscom.Serious bakers were upset for many years as none of the bakeries’ delightful recipes were recorded anywhere and died withHanscom.Conversely, upon the death of Ginsbern several of the architect’s secrets were revealed. He was not American born, but Russian — his real name was Ginsberg — he did not go to Columbia Universityand did not holda degree in architecture. Yet, his great genius of modern design in Chelsea is landmarked today.A footnote: In 1984 another Hanscom Bakery went out of business after 101 years in Philadelphia, but it is not clear how or if the two companies were related to each other.

An excellent blog on life in 1946 had a mention of Hanscom's

Hanscom bakeries throughout the city had egg-shaped cakes filled with chocolate butter cream, iced in chocolate and flower decorated. It served five for 85 cents. Aux Delices on Lexington and 62nd Street had edible sugar crystal panorama eggs; although Paddleford said she would just as soon eat her Easter bonnet as one of them. Breyers had eggnog ice cream but their frozen bunny molds and other prewar Easter frozen goods were absent.The German bakeries and confectionary shops along East 86th Street were stocked for Easter, according to Paddleford. Geiger's Vienna Pastry Shop and restaurant, 66 East 86th Street, had rabbits in all sizes, pushing wheelbarrows, driving pony carts, in automobiles, running and sitting. They were chocolate dipped and cost from 30 cents up. Marzipan eggs, chocolate dipped, started at 30 cents. Paddleford also singled out the bantam-sized eggs filled with nougat, and the chocolate eggs hand-filled with coconut cream, “the first we have seen." A few doors down, Wisconsin Farms, where they sold Milwaukee sausage and Wisconsin cheese and "a scad of small favors for Easter baskets and tables," had rabbits and "rock-a-bye babies" in marzipan egg shells at five cents apiece. Colored marzipan eggs were 10 cents. Unique chocolate bars with a rabbit scene molded into the chocolate were 49 cents.Popp and Kramers at 240 E. 86th Street made its marzipan fresh. The smallest eggs, chocolate covered at 12 to a pound, cost 10 cents apiece; quarter pound eggs were 30 cents, half pound were 60 cents and one pound cost a buck. They were all decorated. Solid chocolate rabbits went for 20 cents to $2 and chocolate eggs foiled wrapped and filled with chocolates were 35 cents to $3. Small marzipan eggs, varicolored, were $1.20 a pound.

Dr. George Bernhardt, part 2

2011-09-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

bernhardt-2 from the Radosh and Milton book

Dr.George Bernhardt Of 40 Monroe Street

2011-09-29T07:36:00.001-07:00

bernhardtHis testimony was a big blow for the defense. Bernhardt's phone number in 1946 He lived in the East Court, but he had his office n Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Life At 10 Monroe, 1940's

2011-09-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

Before it was explained as to why there were so many people living at either 10 or 40 Monroe Street in 1946, it was sad to learn of the Ethel's experience with her building neighbors. Many of those names were the parents of friends' families I knew and I wouldn't have thought they would have been un-neighborly, regardless of political convictions. But then again, the witch hunt was in full force. The above excerpt is from Radosh and Milton's Rosenberg book.

Louis Lefkowitz: Last Of The Street Politicians

2011-09-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

lefkowitzfrom a 1979 New York Magazine article by Fred Ferretti. Louis went to PS 188 on East Houston Street. He also went to the University Settlement House where he belonged to the Solon Club. A Republican Federal Club at 44 Avenue C that Louis belonged to is also mentioned.

Rosh Hashanah On The LES With Louis Lefkowitz 50 Years Ago

2011-09-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

lefkowitz-1961I wonder whether blintzkrieg was the wisest choice of terms?

Dellin Betances: A Lower East Side New York Yankee

2011-09-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Dellin will probably be part of the rotation today. Michael Kay keeps referring to him incorrectly as a Brooklynite. That makes him a native New Yorker for sure, but he only attended school in Brooklyn. He was brought up in the Lillian Wald Projects on the Lower East Side. There's nothing more genuine New York than being from the LES.

from the nytimes in 2006

At times, Dellin Betances still has trouble wresting control over the body he was given. The growth spurts have come one after another during his four years at Grand Street Campus High School in Brooklyn, adding five inches to his frame, topping him out at 6 feet 9 inches, a tangle of long limbs and limitless potential.

"But it's hard," he said, "because I just keep growing."

Betances is a rare specimen: He is an 18-year-old right-handed pitching prospect with a fastball in the mid-90's, a well-developed breaking ball and the intimidating stature of a basketball power forward.

That explains the steady parade of scouts who have made their way to Brooklyn this spring, including the dozen or so who stood behind the backstop and watched him pitch a one-hitter, striking out 16 bewildered New Utrecht hitters over seven innings in a first-round Public Schools Athletic League playoff victory in late May.

It also explains why, a few months ago, Betances seemed destined to become the first high school player from New York City to be chosen in the first round of baseball's amateur draft since Manny Ramírez in 1991.

"Down the road, this kid's going to be throwing 100 miles per hour," said Mel Zitter, who coached Betances and Ramírez in his Youth Service League Inc. baseball program. "People understand with Dellin, that down the road, he's going to be a No. 1 or No. 2 major league starter."

But scouting is a fickle science, and in an era in which seasoned college talent tends to trump pure speculative possibility, scouts are reluctant to overvalue a gangly teenager in the days before the draft. Betances could go anywhere from the first to the fifth round, according to several experts.

Andrew Miller, a 6-7 left-handed pitcher from the University of North Carolina, is widely viewed as the top overall prospect in the draft. Kyle Drabek, a pitcher and shortstop and the son of the former major leaguer Doug Drabek, is also expected to be chosen early.

Other notables include Jeffrey Maier, an outfielder who received attention as a Yankees fan who reached a little too far over the fence in a 1996 playoff game; Danny Almonte, the pitcher from Monroe High School who became famous for starring in the Little League World Series when he was two years too old; and Preston Mattingly, a shortstop and the son of Don Mattingly.

The scouts have fretted over Betances' inconsistent mechanics, his decreased velocity earlier in the season and his inexperience. They have also expressed concern about what Aaron Fitt, an assistant editor at Baseball America, described as the "New York hype machine," a shorthand term for the agents and coaches advising Betances about his future.

That machine includes his high school coach, Melvin Martinez, and Zitter, who prides himself on being Betances' sole pitching coach. It includes the agent Jim Murray, with the Houston-based Hendricks Sports Management, whom Betances chose after meeting with representatives from five agencies. And it includes his older brother Anthony, who works for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; his father, who drives a livery cab; and his mother, who raised him and three other children in the Lillian Wald Houses on the Lower East Side........

Shopping For The Jewish New Year, 1968 and 1946

2011-09-27T23:06:00.001-07:00

Oral History From KV Reunion 5, Part 6

2011-09-20T11:01:00.001-07:00

stake out (mp3)Mentioned here:

A KV stake out and how a body flying out off of the I building ruined one's appetite. The gray areas of keeping kosher.

Oral History From KV Reunion 5, Part 5

2011-09-20T11:00:00.001-07:00

murray-ron (mp3)Mentioned were:

The story of how Lee was out stealing home and how it ruined a game that Murray pitched.LMRC Coach Sklar, the "social club," the story of Paul, Ron and David A.'s snowball fight and Ron's flight to the A building in order to escape from Paul's noogies

Oral History From KV Reunion 5, Part 4

2011-09-20T10:58:00.001-07:00

basso 4 (mp3)
Mentioned here:

Judge Sandler, Judge Picariello, the opera singer Judith Raskin, Zero Mostel in the H building, Judge Lupiano, Paddy Chayefsky, Marion's boyfriend Leonard Michaels of the L Building, the Jewish exodus to Warbasse when Moses parted the East River, the difference between Sephardic and Eshkenazi Jews

Oral History From KV Reunion 5, Part 3

2011-09-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

basso 3 (mp3)
Mentioned here:
The KV news, movies on a Friday afternoon in the auditorium in the K building, the arrest of the Rosenberg's, the sound of Ethel's voice and the oxford shoes she wore, the mothers waiting for their children after school, Joey Katz, the Bronstein's, the Epsteins of the L building, Dr. Serafin, Dr. Essner, Dr. Bogart, Rich's Pharmacy, the paper hats that Journal American guys made, the loud thud of the rolls of paper from the Journal American, the Luxtons?

Oral History From Reunion 5, Part 2

2011-09-20T10:10:00.001-07:00

basso 2 (mp3)
Mentioned Were:

211 Madison St, Gouverneur Hospital, Hamilton Street, Hamilton Madison House and its director Geoffrey Wiener, PS 177 staff: Mrs Perrins, Mrs. Lebergott, Mrs. Lieberman, Mr. Gregor, Mr. Press, Mrs. Lapping, Miss Herzer, Miss Lizzio, Miss Smith, Miss Keeshon Miss Handwerker, Miss Sterling, Miss Mulligan, Miss Peck, Miss Feuer,The Madonna House fire , Jane and Bob's Nursery, the KV Photography Club, the bowling alley, the package room.

Oral History From Reunion 5, Part 1

2011-09-20T09:53:00.001-07:00

basso 1 (mp3)
A chance encounter with long time resident Rita Basso starts the reunion group down memory lane. Mentioned were:

Mrs. Teper, Pete's Candy Store, Kremo's, Birnbaum Meats, Dave's Village Grocery, Tillie Aaronson, Joe Bruno and more

KV Phone Numbers 1946, Part 4

2011-09-19T06:45:00.001-07:00

Those listed:

George and Julius Gogel, Normandie Pharmacy, "Duke" Viggiano, Kremo's, Dr. Gus Kaplan, Savoia's, Hanscom Bakery, Arthur Dolnansky, Joseph Schneider, Philip Feigelman, Leonard Bronstein, Fannie Kaplan, Harry Kaplan, Harry Kaplan's Pens, Nathan Portnoy, Nathan Steinfeld, Robert Santangelo, Vincent Lupiano, Regina Lustgarten, John and Louis Lamula, Peter Serafin, Nathaniel Kaplan, Lillian Romm, Samuel Romm, Mildred Horn
bonus: J.D. Salinger

KV Phone Numbers 1946, Part 3

2011-09-19T06:41:00.001-07:00

Those listed:

Sidney Susswein, L. Sussman, Jacob Zaretzky, Fiore and Michael Sassi, Dr. Paul Sarubbi, Eva Epstein, Harrell Cleaves, David Alman, George Charen, Abraham Grossman, Walter Miller, the KV garage and various office numbers, Dr. George Bernhardt, Dr. Morris Bogart, Anna Rosenbaum, Martha Leef, Morris Erde, Fannie Sarachek
Bonus: Joel Barr, Alfred Sarant and William Danziger

KV Phone Numbers 1946 Part 2

2011-09-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

Those listed:

Ann Greenfield,Max Reiser,Albert Shue,Dr. A. Moloff,Robert Guma,Hyman Lackow,Julius Lackow,Mary Farber,William Solerwitz,Sid Birnbaum,Sol Hellman,Harry Liebowitz,James Sorrentino,Sam Wiseltier,Samuel Sosinsky,Samuel Persoff (Nehemiah's father),Floramonde Wilson,Nathan Margoilin,

bonus: Louis Lefkowitz, David Greenglass

KV Phone Numbers 1946

2011-09-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered an online 1946 phone book. I searched for KV families. It's a little tricky to navigate and search through. Many phone numbers did not, like mine, show up. It's possible my parents couldn't afford a phone?In any case, they were living at 76 Suffolk Street in 1946. The above shows a sampling. Weird that only 10 Monroe and 40 Monroe showed up. Marion Fox cleared that up for me since at that time she said all phone bills and electric bills were addressed to either 10 (West Court) or 40 (East Court). Maybe then they were distributed through the internal KV post office?

More of these samplings to follow. Wonder what would happen if you dialed one of these old numbers?

1891 Coal Yard Locations

2011-09-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

On Water Street

On Stanton Street

Stanton Street History: The 1902 Coal Shortage

2011-09-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

Coal 1902 Stanton The was a coal yard at 191 Stanton, between Ridge and Attorney and another yard at 377 Water Street (Alfred Barber and Sons), between James Slip and Oliver.

101 Stanton Street History, Abandoned Baby: 1924

2011-09-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

Notice, it mentions that Mrs. Rose Goldstein works in the restaurant on the ground floor of the building. Now there is a trendy and expensive hair salon called Pimps and Pinups there!

101 Stanton Street

2011-09-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Just down the block from the meatball shop is 101 Stanton. There was a murder there this summer. There have also been protests about the way the building is maintained A former colleague and friend lives here. Here's his story about the murder's aftermath

84 Stanton Street History

2011-09-08T10:37:00.001-07:00

84 Stanton HistoryThat's quite a tragic story about Yetta Stein. In the second article a boy named Ignacio Brucato is mentioned, In 1920 I'm pretty certain found him in the census living on the lung block, 21 Hamilton Street.

Meatballs At 84 Stanton Street

2011-09-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

I've tried them and they are, indeed, good. I was curious to learn about the history of 84 Stanton. More to come on this. Jacob Javits and a possible KV Schumer relative lived across the street about at 85 Stanton Street about a 100 years ago.

Avenue B Theater In 1967

2011-09-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

I isolated a clip from the 1967 film showing the Avenue B theater, which was located between East 5th and East 4th Streets on the west side.

for more on the theater from cinema treasures

Loew’s Avenue B Theatre is part of one of the great rags-to-riches stories of showbiz history. Movie mogul Marcus Loew erected it on the very site of the tenement building where he was born. Needless to say, his birthplace was demolished to make way for the luxurious 1,750-seat theatre, which was designed by Thomas W. Lamb and first opened on January 8, 1913, with vaudeville as its main attraction and movies thrown in just as fillers.The Avenue B Theatre was the top Loew’s house on the Lower East Side until the mid-1920’s, when the circuit took over the Commodore Theatre on Second Avenue, which was a much busier area for entertainment and shopping. The Avenue B Theatre was reduced to playing movies at the end of their Loew’s circuit run, and remained so until its closure around 1957-58.I don’t know if anyone operated the theatre after that. It was eventually demolished and replaced by a nursing facility.

An Excerpt From A 1967 Film, Last Summer Won't Happen

2011-09-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

Lower East Side from Django's Ghost on Vimeo.

This is an excerpt from the film "Last Summer Won't Happen"directed by Peter Gessner and Tom Hurwitz. The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" was not part of the original soundtrack. from the film's description

I visited the East Village in 1967 and when I moved there 10 years later not much had changed. The East Village, Tompkins Square and Alphabet City were in decay, whole areas were virtual urban wastelands. But, out of the ruins great things were rising in the arts and culture. During the mid-70s through the 1980s, the area was vibrant with a bohemian vibe. Then came gentrification and many of us were pushed out, along with the poor and elderly. The area is thriving now with fine restaurants, fashion boutiques and trendy bar after bar after bar. It’s still a wasteland – an expensive, well-maintained, cultural wasteland. Where once were bookstores, rock clubs and shops filled with hip affordable clothing there are now fast food chains, designer brand boutiques and banks popping up like a bad case of corporate herpes. Yes, I know I sound like a disgruntled ex-New Yorker. I am one.

Jack Beers Old Home, 357 10th Street In 1969

2011-09-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

357-10-1969A lot has happened in the neighborhood in the last 40 years. BTW, Geneieve Camlin, who is mentioned in the article, was a friend of the real life Auntie Mame. She died in 1980.from a 1984 article

Marion Tanner, Real Auntie MameNEW YORK — Marion Tanner, the real-life Greenwich Village eccentric and model for ``Auntie Mame`` in the novel and movie, is dead at 94.Ms. Tanner, who suffered a stroke two months ago, died Wednesday evening at the Village Nursing Home, where she had lived in recent years.Her nephew, Edward Tanner III, who used the pen name Patrick Dennis, wrote a 1954 novel titled Auntie Mame, immortalizing his aunt and her wacky life style.Ms. Tanner worked briefly as a stage actress, ran a Bohemian artists` salon, worked at Macy`s during the Depression and -- annoying her stuffy neighbors -- opened her home to the down-and-out the way Mame did.Her longtime friend, adviser and benefactor, Danny Lettieri, who ran the No Name Bar around the corner from the nursing home, was saddened.``Marion dead? They are saying she`s 94? I can hardly believe she was that old. Marion and her pal, Genevieve Camlin are still a soft place in my heart,`` he said.Lettieri, 55, was introduced to Ms. Tanner by Camlin, who ran up a $10,462 tab in the No Name and ``showed up every single day of the year, snow or sunshine.``Ms. Tanner hung out at the No Name, too, but didn`t show up daily, he said. Camlin died four years ago at 97.

Jack Beers On 10th Street

2011-09-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

The other day PBS had this wonderful film about Jack Beers on again. It's called Holes In My Shoes We've posted about Jack before. Once we thought he might be related to the Buellers. This time I found him in the census living at 357 East 10th Street in 1920. The building is still there. It was just around the corner from my mother who lived on 9th Street at the same time. For more about Jack, who has since passed away two years ago.

Star of the award-winning feature film documentary, '"Holes In My Shoes"' , Jack Beers (1910–2009) was known as "New York City's Strongest Boy". Jack turned out to be a real Jack of all trades - a strongman, a self-taught structural engineer (working on most of NYC's iconic buildings), built Radio City Music Hall, indirectly shortened WW2 through an invention of his, put the spire on the Empire State Building, trained show boxers, and acted in over 200 films.He grew up in extreme poverty in the Lower East Side of New York City, born in his parents cold water apartment on East 6th Street. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Austria. He sold newspapers on the corner of Avenue B and 10th Street and played in Tompkins Square Park. Jack and his siblings took many jobs as kids to support the starving family. They had potatoes and potato soup every day. The gathered fallen coal from the coal truck to keep the house warm. He had 3 brothers - Manny, Julius and Hy, and one sister, Lilian.Jack's journey was incredible. He was blessed with unique strength and trained from a young boy in Tompkins Square Park on his body. He soon got a job working for a weight training company and met one of its board members, Jack Dempsey. He went to Coney Island as a teenager and studied under Warren Lincoln Travis. At 17, he was performing shows to clubs and theaters, most famously at The Lambs Club near Times Square, performing to film stars of the time. He was on the cover of New York City newspapers and was labelled as New York City's Strongest Boy.After a fight in the pool hall over an antisemitic remark, Jack's hand was broken and he decided to go into the ironwork trade at Fasslers Ironworks in the Lower East Side, near his house. Jack's boss was the Buildings Commissioner of New York City at that time, Sam Fassler. Jack ended up working on NYC's most famous buildings, notably the erection of Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, where he personally erected the famous marquee and stairs inside. He was at the opening night, viewing it from the projection booth. The show was over 5 hours long. He kept the program his whole life.He taught himself to walk the steel beams at great heights. Then, Jack went on to become a self-taught structural engineer. He became so accomplished that he was asked to be one of the general foreman on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He worked for Stone & Webster.After the war, in 1950, Jack was responsible for erecting the famous spire on top of The Empire State Building, for General Sarnoff and RCA. It was to be their radio tower.In the 1950s, because he couldn't have children with his wife, he put all his energy into training boxers and showed them at the Westminster Dog Shows throughout the 50s.In the 1960s, Jack continued his structural engineering work and worked on the erection of Lincoln Center.Over his career he worked on NYU, City Hall, The Museum of Modern Art, every Con Edison building, Macy's, Gimbles, George Washington Bridge, The World's Fair, and many more.In the 1960s, Jack decided to audition for a role in George Segal's film "Loving". He got the role, acted on the film for 12 days, and proceeded to have minor roles in over 200 films (including 7 Woody Allen films and 5 Arthur Hiller films). His biggest role was in a NYU film school short called "Rosey & Jonesy", directed by David Wachs (director of "Holes In My Shoes"). That ended up on PBS American Playhouse (1984).As Jack entered his 80s and 90s, he became a little less active, but continued to drive, clean and cook for himself, ride a stationary bike up to 3 miles per day, do his own taxes, wash and iron his clothes, mow his 5 acres (20,000 m2) of lawn with a tractor, cut down trees, you name it. He made the film "Holes In My Shoes" when he was 94. He made a music video of "When You're Smiling" when he was 97.Jack Beers died just before his 99th birthday.Mayor Bloomberg has recognized him and he has had a day named after him in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The LES vs. Hurricane Irene

2011-09-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hurricane LesWatching ny1 during the storm it was apparent that many residents from the Smith Projects had evacuated to Seward Park High School. Why, I thought, more than the other projects located so close to the river's edge? It was due to leadership of tenant leader Aixa Torres
A dispatch from Marion Fox:

Dear David, Just a note from your intrepid reporter about how K.V. weathered the storm and the earthquake. Someone sitting in Tanahey Park actually saw the buildings move, and in my apartment, the chain on the door was swinging back and forth, back and forth. It took me about 5 seconds to figure out what was happening. My terrace flooded during the hurricane, and since I heeded the mayor's advice and evacuated to my sister's apartment, they had to break into my apartment, because the tenant downstairs was inundated. However,after all that, we're still here. Marion

photos courtesy of Paul Levine, the Bowery Boogie and the the les blog the lodown

Labor Day Parade 50 Years Ago

2011-09-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

labor-day-1961Sad to see how we've regressed in labor's might

Happy Birthday Ma

2011-08-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

She must have been waiting for Buzz and Todd.

Birmingham Alley

2011-08-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

above from skyshaper
More on Birmingham Alley, which no longer exists but which at one time linked Henry and Madison Street. Shown above is the corner of Madison and Mechanic's Alley (formerly Birmingham)
from Bowery Boogie

Mechanics Alley is one of the skinniest streets in NYC, still running east to west between Cherry and Henry Streets, and north to south between Pike and Market Streets. The section of the alley between Henry and Madison Streets was known as Birmingham Alley. The original Mechanics Alley ran only between Cherry and Monroe Streets directly under the Manhattan Bridge, not just south of it (as it is today, on the path of the old Birmingham Alley). The original Mechanics Alley disappeared after 1905 when the Manhattan Bridge was constructed. There was a Mechanics Place behind 359 Rivington Street between Lewis and Goerck Streets.
Builders who worked as artisans, artificers, craftsmen and tradesmen were once called mechanics. Because they had the skills to build new settlements, mechanics who immigrated to the New World in the 17th century were promised free ship passage, free land, and exemptions from taxes and military service. Carpenters, bricklayers, masons, glaziers, painters and plasterers came to NYC and received great wages as they built and rebuilt the constantly growing city.

on the name origin of Birmingham Alley? The English city name origin:

There are many theories and we will never really know where it came from. However, most people argue that the name 'Birmingham' comes from "Beorma inga ham", "meaning farmstead of the sons (or descendants) of Beorma"
Beorma variously means, in Old English, "fermented", "head of beer", "yeasty" or "frothy",[4] from which the modern English words barm and barmy are derived.[5] The assertion that Beorma was the founder of Birmingham arose from a post-war challenge to the way Anglo-Saxon place-names had been constructed. It was not until 1940 that Eilert Ekwall noted that.

John Monforte, Dean Of Sing Sing's Prisoners

2011-08-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

Evidently John, who was in the rogue's gallery of the previous post, returned to the free world in 1921.