Who's Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Milton Okun

The second piece of great KV history information that Gene Reiser revealed to me was the Milt Okun once lived at Knickerbocker Village.

New York-born singer, producer, arranger, and pianist Milt Okun has been a force in popular music since the early '50s, no small achievement for a man whose first paying role in the field was as a junior high school music teacher in the New York City public schools. Born in New York in 1923, Okun grew up with a love of music that extended from traditional folk songs to opera. After World War II, he rejoined the civilian work force as music teacher in junior high school in New York. He chanced to be hired as a pianist for Harry Belafonte on a short tour during the early '50s, and was subsequently lured away from his teaching job to work full-time for Belafonte. He left the latter's employ after five years, during which time he served as an arranger and producer, in addition to leading his band.
With that experience under his belt, and the folk music revival starting to take off, Okun became active as a performer in his own right. He played clubs around New York, in which his tenor voice went over extremely well on traditional folk songs, and he cut several albums in the 1950s and early '60s, including Merry Ditties (1955) and, with Ellen Stekert, Traditional American Love Songs (1957) for the Riverside label; America's Best Loved Folk Songs (released on Warwick in 1961); and Adirondack Folk Songs and Ballads (issued on Stinson in 1963). He also worked alongside Leon Bibb and Hally Wood during the mid- to late '50s as a member of the Skifflers quartet, who recorded the album Goin' Down to Town for Epic in 1957. He turned to arranging and producing in the late '50s, and it was in the latter capacity that Okun had his greatest impact on music, working with such acts as the Brothers Four and the Chad Mitchell Trio in the early '60s.
His most widely known credit in this area, however, was as the arranger for Peter, Paul and Mary -- he played a key role in helping them develop the three-part harmony sound that made them the most successful group act of the 1960s folk boom. By that time, he had also started Cherry Lane Music, his own publishing company, which was still going strong 50 years later. With the end of the folk boom in the mid- to late '60s, he moved on to working with individual members of the groups, most notably John Denver. Later in his career, Okun worked with Plácido Domingo, which allowed him to return to his first musical love, classical music.

Who's Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Paddy Chayefsky

Meeting and interviewing Phil was great but it had to take back seat over meeting a fellow KVer at the Brooklyn College adult course on LES history. I was talking to the class about Knickerbocker Village and a gentlemen raises his hand and says,"You should read the Knickerbocker Village blog." The gentlemen was none other but Cliff Gromer's old pal Gene Reiser. Only a short while ago Gene sent me a pic of the KV water tower sign to post. Gene was a wealth of new KV history info. To me, the prize was the fact that Paddy Chayefsky once lived there. I have to get more specifics from Gene, but I would guess Chayefsky lived there sometime after he returned stateside after WW2
from a biography

Sidney “Paddy” Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981), real name Sidney Aaron Chayefski of Ukrainian Jewish parentage, was an acclaimed dramatist who transitioned from the golden age of American live television in the 1950s to have a successful career as a playwright and screenwriter for Hollywood.
He was born in the Bronx, New York. He studied at the City College of New York and Fordham University and served in the army during World War II, during which he was awarded a Purple Heart.
He began writing for a living in the 1940s. His work on Marty, first as a live production for television in 1953 and then for film two years later, gave him his first major success. The film, starring Ernest Borgnine, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Chayefsky’s work on that and other teleplays inspired comparisons with Arthur Miller, and he received an Academy Award for his work on the screenplay. He focused on screenplays after the success with Marty, with films such as The Goddess (for which he received an Oscar nomination) and The Bachelor Party. In the 1960s his writing credits included The Americanization of Emily and Paint Your Wagon. He went on to win two more Oscars for his work on The Hospital (1971) and the film for which he best known, Network, for both of which he also received Golden Globe awards. His last screenplay was based on his novel Altered States, though on the film he was credited under his real first and middle name, Sidney Aaron, because of disputes with the director. He is known for his comments during the 1977 Oscar telecast after Vanessa Redgrave, when she went to accept her award for Best Supporting Actress in Julia, made a controversial speech denouncing Zionism by the Israeli government. He made a comment during the program immediately after hers in which he stated that he was upset by her using the event to make an irrelevant political viewpoint during a film award program. He said, “I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple ‘Thank you’ would have sufficed.” Paddy Chayefsky died in New York City of cancer in 1981 and was interred in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York

No Swimming In The Water Tank

from Gene Reiser

just came across this shot, from a visit to the KV roof with Cliff Gromer in the early 1990's. My KV years, 1943 to 53 more or less, did not feature rooftop swimming, I do not know if yours did, but I find this sign to be of great interest. I offer it for posting on the KV site.
Gene Reiser
B-K-8, A-H-1