The 60's: A Sea Of Madness

It's had to believe that almost half a century later that almost half the country would entrust their welfare to the madness of Sarah Palin.
the youtube movie description

A musical documentary of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival, filmed in a chaotic style reminiscent of Woodstock. It features performances by Joan Baez, John Sebastian, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Combs Sisters. Some of the finest folk singers and musicians in the world positioned themselves on the edge of some of America's most glorious scenery for a farewell to summer and a celebration of nonviolence in mid-September. It was the sixth annual Big Sur Folk Festival.
The festival, held on the tree-shaded lawns of Esalen, also differed from other recent celebrations in that here the "scene" did not eclipse the music, but merely served as a complement. According to its producers, Nancy Carlen and Paula Kates, Big Sur was designed as a "performers festival," an opportunity for artists to come together after a hectic summer on the festival circuit for some peace and solitude. Crosby Stills Nash and Young played the final set, as on Saturday, repeatedly bringing the thinning crowd to it's feet. For a finale - with the audience pushed forward around the pool, closer to the performers now - everyone at the festival reprise "Oh Happy Day".

How can I bring you
To the Sea of Madness
I love you so much
It's gonna bring me sadness
I've never seen you
Through these eyes before
Now I don't believe it
I think I'll take it
Or leave it.
All I need
Is your sweet sweet loving
Fill my life with happiness
All I want is your heart
Every time I think of you
Mine falls apart.
I went to heaven
And I stood at the crossroads
I'll love you tomorrow
As sure as the wind blows
Silver rain
On the mountain clover
Washes away
Until the music is over.

In Old New York: From The 1939 World's Fair

From the prelinger archives, the movie description from a reviewer:

...its George Jessels Old New York...in this section, we have, yes, the saloons and the dancing girls, and old time (not spelled tyme here?) movies. Why would Old New York play old time movies if this was a replica of New York? Places where you could buy good luck horseshoes, as in Good luck not getting suckered into this one, another (but significantly less busy) organ grinder with monkey, some photo opportunities with cut-outs, a carriage, a guy dressed up as a conductor wielding a GREAT dog creature puppet (reminds me when I had a baby puppet..), and a Chinatown café. After that, we go to the Bowery, where, yes, a burlesque show can be seen (Its either The Wrong Way or Dumb Doris BOTH starring Nifty Dolores!) I wonder if those mechanical dolls, the ones with the gyrating hips and perky nipples are in it Those are great! Not too sure about the doll in the gold lame outfit with the black hair lol. What do the girls in the show look like? Who knows? They appear on the barker's stage with masks on! Weeee-ha! We see them go to something called Life Class, which is another freak show it seems, rubber men, fat ladies, etc. Not too sure what the exotic woman was supposed to represent.. And that's it! Maybe not as great as the first batch, but a MUST

The movie was silent. I added Jimmy Lunceford's, "Stomp It Off" and Sidney Bechet playing "Petite Fleur"

A Cameraman In Chinatown

I didn't have any success in finding any Johnny Keyes/Mock Duck era video other than this clip, filled with inaccurate stereotypes. It's from a 1928 Buster Keaton film called "The Cameraman." It's merit is, of course, for Keaton, who did all of these stunts himself.

Mock Duck

Mock Duck was one of Johnny Keyes' rivals for dominance of New York's Chinatown
from find a grave

Hip Sing Tong leader, and one of New York's most famous gang leaders. Mock Duck ruled the Hip Sing Tong based in Manhattan's Chinatown during the first three decades of this century. Mock Duck's Tong wars with the On Leong Tong are legendary. During the 1930's Mock Duck retired and moved to Brooklyn where he died of natural causes. Before he came to Chinatown, the On Leong (Peaceful Dragon) Tong (parlor) and its owner, Tom Lee, faced only token opposition. Based at 15 Pell Street, the On Leong Tong took over from the Chee Kung, helped Chinese immigrants acclimate to the United States, and controlled the Chinatown opium dens and, most importantly, the gambling proceeds. From 1885 to 1900 they operated unmolested. In 1900, local reformers, led by Dr. Parkhurst, started to publicize the graft and corruption that came out of Chinatown. "Simultaneously there appeared a certain Mock Duck, once an On Leong man, a cherubic, ever-smiling, moon-faced Machiavelli, who looked upon Tom Lee's profits, decided Tom was a wicked man, and said as much to Dr. Parkhurst. By some miracle Mock Duck escaped with his life to become the father of the Hip Sing tong and a rival of the On Leongs for control of the gambling privileges in Chinatown. He used to lisp in explaining the name of the organization, Î means plospelous, and Sing is Chinese word for union. We plospelous union all lite.â And he would beam in an irrisistible way of which only your Chinese politician has the secret." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 19, 1924. "Out from the East by way of the West came little Mock Duck. He had the fat smile of a Chinese cherub. But there was a desperately impudent glint in his eye which not even Chinese stolidity could film over. He joined Wong Get [a rival tong]. He knew by tradition of the threat of Tom Lee to use the white man's meddling as a foil to the devices of his Chinese enemies...Mock Duck went about his business methodically. He went before Tom Lee with dogged purpose set in his childlike fat features and stated his case. There was only veneration in his posture and his voice for ther eminence of the goat-whiskered patriarch to whom he made his astounding proposal. Translated, it was not complicated: literally it was Î50-50 or fight." The World, December 4, 1924. What followed was 17 years of sporadic violence, murder, arson, and kidnapping. Through all the gunfire, Mock Duck was hit only once, in 1904, and spent three weeks in a hospital as a result. There were two major Îtongwarsâ under his watch, from 1904-1906 and from 1909-1913. The phrase "hatchet man" comes from these battles, because their assasins carried small axes in their long sleeves. Tom Lee weathered it all, and died a natural death in 1917, at the age of 76. Both the On Leong and Hip Sing tongs have burial spaces in "The Evergreens." "He was a curious mixture of bravery and cowardice. He wore a shirt of chain mail, carried two guns and a hatchet and, although notoriously a poor marksman, earned a reputation for bravery for the utter disregard for his own safety he displayed when squatting on his haunches in the street with both eyes shut and firing at a surrounding circle of On Leongs. ....During the height of Mock Duck's prosperity, agents of the Gerry Society investigated a report that his adopted daughter, Ha Oi, was a white girl. The courts found that she was the daughter of one Lizzie Smith, who had married a Chinese. She was taken away from Mock Duck. The Hip Sing leader was frantic, for he loved the girl tenderly. He carried the case to the appelate division but lost. Then, to drown his sorrow, he began to gamble recklessly as he roamed aimlessly to Chicago and San Francisco and throughout the Middle West. His despair was such that he didn't care whether he won or lost. As usually happens to one in that frame of mind he made large winnings. He came back to New York with diamond studs blazing from his shirt front and $30,000 in his pockets. The old tong guns began to blaze again and hatchets gleamed. He was arrested many times but never convicted until 1912, when he was sent to Sing Sing for operating a policy game. It was when he emerged from prison that he announced he was through with the old life and intended to become a respectable citizen of Brooklyn."Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1932. (Bio compiled by J. Fodor) (bio by: Joe Fodor)Cause of death: Natural causes, Burial: Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, Plot: Greenlawn, 6-614 Grave #2

Johnny Keyes, Part 2

Johnny Keyes, Part 1

KV Pugilists

two scenes that I stitched together from one of my favorite movies. "Gentlemen Jim," (1942)

Because boxing is a considered an illegal and disreputable enterprise in 1880's San Francisco, wealthy and influential members of the prestigious Olympic Club vow to make the sport a "gentlemanly" one. They sponsor a brash, extroverted young bank clerk named Jim Corbett, who quickly becomes an accomplished fighter under the new Marquis of Queensbury Rules. Despite his success, the young Irish-American's social pretensions and boastful manner soon estrange him from his benefactors, who plot to give their conceited former protege a well-deserved comeuppance. Despite this, his dazzlingly innovative footwork helps him to beat a succession of bigger and stronger men, and he finally finds himself fighting for the world's championship against his childhood idol, John L. Sullivan. The biography of famed boxer James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, the colorful Irish-American fighter who became the first heavyweight champion of the world under the new Marquis of Queensberry rules.

We've talked previously about some Golden Gloves' KV fathers like Seth Babits , whose signature apparel was his boxing robe, and Jack Karney. Paul reminded us of another when he recalled this incident:

My only recollection of Cynthia Miller is we were playing in a boys & girls pitching stick ball game. Eddie was pitching and hit Cynthia who ran home crying. Her father, who was a former boxer, came storming into the park trying to figure out which kid hit his daughter.

There's also an uncle of KVer Joe Bruno who was known as Johnny Keyes

HE WAS CALLED JOHNNY KEYES. HE WAS A BOXER AS WELL AS A FAMOUS BOXING MANAGER AND EVEN WAS ELECTED MAYOR OF CHINATOWN IN 1922. JOHNNY KEYES WAS PALS WITH DAMON RUNYON AND WAS CALLED JOE SPAGHETTI BY RUNYON WHEN MY UNCLE MOVED TO SAN DIEGO IN THE 30'S. I NEVER MET HIM (HE DIED IN THE 40'S), BUT I DID MEET HIS SON JOHNNY JR IN THE 60'S AT A WEDDING. IF YOU CHECK THE ARCHIVES OF THE NY TIMES, THERE'S A STORY ABOUT JOHNNY KEYS WHEN HE WAS ELECTED MAYOR OF CHINATOWN IN 1922. NO JOKE. BACK THEN IT WAS AN ELECTED POSITION. BIG TONG WARS MADE IT NECESSARY. MOCK DUCK WAS MY UNCLE'S ARCH ENEMY.

More on Johnny Keyes to come.

99 Years Ago On The Lower East Side

1909, Jewish New Year - Praying on the Williamsburg Bridge (Tashlich). Bain News Service, as noted on the mental blog

Paul Newman Gains Honorary KV Membership

A landslide 14-1 vote in favor. Those blue eyes really compliment the Manny skullcap. Suggestions for future nominations are always welcome.

The New LMRC Manny Ramirez Skullcaps Are In

Pick them up from Harry at 40 Monroe Street before the next game.

The Carvel Ice Cream Story

from the Prelinger archives from 1955, note the McCarthy era imprint

Who's Almost Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Lester Young And Flip Phillips

I'm always looking for any excuse, now matter how far-fetched, to include a good jazz clip and this one is special.

Gjon Mili was a film producer who created the movie Jammin' the Blues in 1944 with Lester Young, Harry Edison, Jo Jones and several others. The 10 minute film won an Academy Award for a short movie. A few years later, in 1950 he assembled another group of great musicians together to film another few clips. These were all musicians who performed worldwide in Norman Granz' Jazz at the Philharmonic. Harry Sweets Edison on trumpet, Lester Young and Flip Phillips on tenors, Bill Harris on trombone with Hank Jones piano, Ray Brown bass and Buddy Rich on drums. Ella Fitzgerald comes in on a scat vocal as well

What's the KV connection? Dr. Lester Young, Jr, Lester Young's son, works with Professor Bob Nathanson (Bobby Knuckles) at L.I.U. He's also a state regent in the Dept of Ed. Flip Phillips' real name was Joseph Filippelli and he was living at 170 Ashland Place in Brooklyn in 1930. That address is around the corner from L.I.U's Brooklyn campus.