KV Synchronicity: The People's Choice 5

Above, a portion of the census of 2860 Creston in 1920. Below what it looks like now. It was newly built in 1920 and it looks like the tenants who had moved there made it into more stable working class lives

Part of an amazon review of a recent Brecher biography

Brecher was one of those Hollywood denizens that got his start the classic way, as an usher in New York City. As a teenager he would send in gags on postcards to columnists Walter Winchell or Ed Sullivan who would credit him by name. He got a long-term assignment of writing gags for one of the most visible comedians in the business, Milton Berle, and this material brought him to the attention of Hollywood. Brecher was astonished to be working with stars he used to see in the Nickelodeon when he was a kid, including his idols, the Marx Brothers. Brecher helped punch up _The Wizard of Oz_. And then he was assigned to write the Marx picture _At the Circus_; with that and with the later _Go West_, he was the only writer to get sole credit on Marx movies. There are wonderful stories about the Marxes here, anecdotes any fan will adore. Brecher went on to write movies like _Meet Me in St. Louis_ and _Bye Bye Birdie_. While writing movies, he also wrote the radio sitcom _The Life of Riley_.

Brecher became a widower from one long-term marriage and then entered another. He does not seem to have used his wit against his wives but rather as a palliative during arguments. He remembers an argument with his first wife who was so upset she said, "That's it! I'm leaving you!" He gave her the reply, "That's OK with me. But if you go, I'm going with you." Looking back at that bit of dialogue forty years later, he remarks, "It worked." Brecher never really left show business, though he pays tribute over and over again to the comics he worked with whose funerals he had to attend. He was attending tributes through his last years and doing stand-up when just standing up was difficult. In fact, he would get to the podium with a walker; his wife called it "The Rolls". Asthma was a problem, too: "For about ten minutes I'm all right. And then I'm gasping. You can't ask the public to spend money to see an old Jew gasping. It's not nice." But his material was still good: "Yes, I did have eye surgery. I knew I needed it when the other morning, I woke up and my vision was so bad, I couldn't find my hearing aid." _The Wicked Wit of the West_ (the title comes from a designation Groucho had given him) is full of wonderful stories and laugh-out-loud jokes from a jubilant joke-maker. "OK, so maybe I don't look at the world through rose-colored implants", the elder Brecher observes, "In fact, I really like the world. It's the putzes in it! And I don't resolve to change. If I've said anything snide, I'm sorry. Unless it gets a laugh."

KV Synchronicity: The People's Choice 4

Winds up the guy who has the chief writer for both the Life Of Riley and the People's Choice was Irving Brecher. He died recently at 94. In the 1920 census I found him at 2860 Crestwood Avenue in the Bronx. Irving's father, Marks, came to the U.S. in 1901. More than likely he probably started off on the LES.
from the nytimes

Irving Brecher, 94, Comedy-Script Writer, Is Dead, November 19, 2008, By BRUCE WEBER
Irving Brecher, who wrote vaudeville sketches for Milton Berle, jokes for Henny Youngman, comedies for the Marx Brothers, a television series for Jackie Gleason and screenplays for movie musicals including “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 94.
His death was confirmed by Nell Scovell, a friend, who said Mr. Brecher had had a series of heart attacks last week.
Within the tribe of Hollywood gag writers, Mr. Brecher (pronounced BRECK-er) was a literary lion, a reflexive offerer of reactive jokes, a relisher of puns, a connoisseur of often topical, arch repartee. He once angered the film producer Daryl Zanuck, telling him the movie he had just made hadn’t been released; it had escaped.
“If I were any drier, I’d be drowning,” he had Groucho Marx saying, stuck in the rain in the 1939 film “At the Circus.” Always a tester of taboos, in the same film he had Groucho tease the guardians of Hollywood’s decency. In one scene, a mischievous vixen played by Eve Arden hides a billfold in her cleavage, and Groucho, wanting it back, says to the camera: “There must be some way of getting that money without getting in trouble with the Hays Office.” Groucho would later say it was the biggest laugh in the film. He and S. J. Perelman, asked to name the world’s quickest wits, listed Mr. Brecher along with George S. Kaufman and Oscar Levant.
Mr. Brecher received sole screenplay credit for two Marx Brothers films, a feat in itself. (The second was “Go West,” released in 1940.) He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for “Meet Me in St. Louis,” the Vincente Minnelli family musical set in the early 1900s, which became one of Judy Garland’s biggest hits, but only after Mr. Brecher talked her into making it by reading her the script. Garland had been afraid her co-star, Margaret O’Brien, was going to upstage her, Mr. Brecher explained to Hank Rosenfeld, his collaborator on a forthcoming autobiography.
“When I got to O’Brien’s lines, I would kind of throw them away,” he said. “Then I would emphasize what Judy’s character was doing.”
Mr. Brecher was the creator of the long-running radio series “The Life of Riley,” about an ordinary working-class schnook who causes no end of trouble for his family; it was played first by Lionel Stander and later, more famously by William Bendix. Mr. Brecher turned it into a feature film, with Bendix, in 1949, and a television series in the fall of the same year — making it arguably the first situation comedy on TV — and hired Jackie Gleason for the lead role of Chester A. Riley. The series lasted only until the following spring. But when it was reprised in 1953, with Bendix back in the title role (frequently uttering his signature line, “What a revoltin’ development this is!”), it stayed on the air until 1958.
The writer in Mr. Brecher had something of an affinity with Riley, an airplane riveter. During the writers’ strike of 2007, he made a video in which he urged the writers not to settle.
“Since 1938, when I joined what was then the Radio Writers Guild, I have been waiting for the writers to get a fair deal; I’m still waiting,” he said to the camera. He added: “As Chester A. Riley would have said, ‘What a revoltin’ development this is!’ But he only said it because I wrote it.”
Irving Brecher was born in the Bronx on Jan. 17, 1914, and he grew up in Yonkers. At 19, after a brief stint covering high school sports for a local newspaper, he took a job as an usher and ticket taker at a Manhattan movie theater, where he learned from a critic for Variety that he could earn money writing jokes for comedians. Knowing of Milton Berle’s reputation as joke-pilferer, he placed an ad in Variety, reading, in part: “Positively Berle-proof gags. So bad not even Milton will steal them.”
Berle himself hired him.
In 1937, he moved to Hollywood and began working on scripts for Mervyn LeRoy, head of production at MGM. He was an uncredited script doctor on “The Wizard of Oz,” leading Groucho Marx to call him “The Wicked Wit of the West.” (He took it as the title of his autobiography, to be published in January by Ben Yehuda Press.)
His film credits include “Shadow of the Thin Man” (1941), with William Powell and Myrna Loy; “Du Barry Was a Lady” (1942), with Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly and Red Skelton; “Yolanda and the Thief” (1945), starring Fred Astaire; and “Bye Bye Birdie” (1963).
Mr. Brecher’s first wife, Eve Bennett, died in 1981. He is survived by his wife, Norma, and three stepchildren.
In 1989, at Mr. Brecher’s 75th birthday party, Milton Berle both expressed his appreciation and extracted some revenge.
“As a writer, he really has no equals,” Berle said. “Superiors, yes.”

KV Synchronicity: The People's Choice 3

Above Henry Modell's WW1 draft registration card. He was Art's grandfather. In 1917 he was working in his father's store on Cortlandt Street, between West and Washington Streets. (now part of the Trade Center) Below a 1931 image of the stores across the street.

Well it's not exactly the LES, but close

KV Synchronicity: The People's Choice 2

I was curious about what happened to Pat Breslin. Winds up she is a native New Yorker

born 17 March 1931, New York City
Pat made her TV debut as Juliet in the NBC-TV production of "Romeo & Juliet" in 1952. After graduating from a convent in New Rochelle, New York, she enrolled in the College of New Rochelle, where she played leading roles in plays. She graduated with a B.A. in psychology. She co-starred with Jackie Cooper in the TV series _"People's Choice, The" (1953)_ as Mandy Peoples from 1955-1958. Pat is a brunette with green eyes and is a very beautiful woman.

and wound up marrying another native New Yorker, Art Modell

Breslin is married to former NFL's Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens team owner and advertising and business executive Art Modell, whom she married in 1969; it was the second marriage for both; Breslin brought two sons from her first marriage to late character actor David Orrick McDearmon (1914-1979), of Bewitched TV show fame, sons John and David, Jr.. Modell had brought in three children from his first marriage. Shortly after their marriage, Modell legally adopted Patricia's sons. Today they live happily together in Owings Mills, Maryland. They have a total of six grandchildren between them.

Arthur B. Modell (born June 23, 1925, Brooklyn, New York) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and former National Football League team owner. He owned the Cleveland Browns franchise from 1961–1995 and the Baltimore Ravens franchise from 1996–2004. Modell is the grandson of the late Morris Modell who founded the northeast sporting goods store chain Modell's in 1889. He is also the son of late Modell's executive Henry Modell.

As usual everything has a nyc origin and in Modell's case a LES one-that's next.

KV Synchronicity: The People's Choice

The loyal KV Yankee Fan Group have been burning the email lanes with updates of their teams' progress. An offshoot was an interesting story of Joe's encounter with Jackie Cooper and the chairman of the board. That led to a story about the old lime house restaurant For me it brought back memories of a tv sit-com of the KV baby boomers.

KV Reunion Synchronicity

This signed poster from the book The Adventures Of Taxi Dog hangs in the library of Daniel Warren Elementary School. It's a kids' favorite there. One of the signers was co-author and ex KVer, Debra Miller Baracca. KV wife Jane Schumer teaches at the school. They met for the first time last week.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which are causally unrelated occurring together in a supposedly meaningful manner. In order to count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance.

KV Synchronicity 5: Pepper Martin

from wikipedia:

Johnny Leonard Roosevelt “Pepper” Martin (Temple, Oklahoma, February 29, 1904 – McAlester, Oklahoma, March 5, 1965) was a Major League Baseball player. Martin, who was also known as the “Wild Horse of the Osage”, was a third baseman and outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals' “Gashouse Gang” during the 1930s. He was one of the most colorful and exciting players of his era.
Martin spent seven years in the Cardinals farm system. In 1930 he batted .363 for Rochester in the International League. In 1931 Martin took the place of center-fielder Taylor Douthit who was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. He batted .300 as the Cardinals won the National League pennant. In the World Series that year, Martin batted .500 and stole 5 bases as the Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 4 games to 3. During the series Martin was asked how he had learned to run so fast; he replied “I grew up in Oklahoma, and once you start runnin' out there there ain't nothin' to stop you”. That year Martin was selected as male athlete of the year by the Associated Press. Martin was a speedy runner who was often was near the league lead in runs scored, triples and stolen bases. In 1934 Martin helped the Cardinals to win the World Series again as he batted .355 and stole 2 more bases to beat the Detroit Tigers in seven games. Pepper has the third highest World Series career batting average ever at .418, and is tied for ninth in stolen bases with seven. Martin retired at the age of 40 in 1944 having played his whole career with the Cardinals. Over his 13 seasons he had a .298 batting average and stole 146 bases. After retiring Martin tried his hand at managing minor league baseball teams. While managing Miami of the International League he was suspended and fined for choking an umpire.

I was speaking to the KV "enforcer", Bruce, recently. He told me a story about his uncle Jay Bueller, who was a great lower east side ballplayer. (Hy, Bruce's dad, was an excellent athlete as well). Jay had a tryout with the Cardinal organization in the late 30's and became a lifelong friend of his idol, Pepper Martin. Jay even visited him in Oklahoma on several occasions.

KV Synchronicity 4

The place: A meeting with colleagues learning about blogs and wikis.
Me: Have you seen the knickerbockervillage blog?
Carol: Hey, my grandparents lived in Knickerbocker Village.
The result: The sharing of these great treasures from Carol's family archive collection, scans of her grandparent's lease from 1940. Click for enlargements.

KV Synchronicity 3

The scene: Washington Irving High School
A teacher: I like to a project on the history of the school.
Me: There's great material on that. I happen to know the son of someone of note from my childhood home, Knickerbocker Village, who once taught here.
from wikipedia:

Several famous women attended Washington Irving. Researching an article for the 1960 year book brought up the names Claudette Colbert (Movie star of the 1930s and 40s, notably It Happened One Night), Gertrude Berg (Molly Goldberg star of The Goldbergs on 1940s and 1950s radio and TV), and Bella Spewak, author and librettist with her husband Sam of Broadway plays and movies, including "Kiss Me Kate" (composed by Cole Porter). Also there has been several famous men to attend Washington Irving such as the legendary duo of Damian Rodriguez & Maximo Perez.The author of the book The Courtship of Eddie's Father (later a movie and TV series), Mark Toby taught there in the 1950s.

KV Synchronicity 2

The scene: A bar in the financial district, after the most recent uft delegate's meeting. Note*-no one discussed below is pictured
The action: A union activist and "un hombre con cajones" decries a situation where a colleague, of exceptional character and ability, is being unjustly brought up on charges by a principal seeking revenge.
The dialogue :
Him: A lot of people are afraid and don't want to lend support.
Me: I think my old KV friend might work there. His name is Lee
Him: Lee! Great guy, a real professional. He does his job, he cares about the kids

KV Synchronicity

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related. In order to be 'synchronistic', the events must be related to one another temporally, and the chance that they would occur together by random chance must be very small.

Case 1: My PS177 classmate Susan Miller's younger sister Melanie is a recent addition to our growing crew. She lives in Marlboro, NJ. I was curious about Marlboro and looked it up on wikipedia:

famous residents:
Ronald "Monkey Man" Filocomo, Bonanno crime family associate, convicted murderer of Bonanno capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano.

Sonny Black was Lefty Ruggiero's (10 Monroe Street) associate. Sonny Black's demise, due to the infiltration of the FBI, was reenacted in the movie "Donnie Brasco."
That's Sonny below (on the right in the picture) Donnie Brasco, real name Joseph Pistone, is on the left