The Bowery Boys: New York City History
No ‘Mad Men Notes’ this week as I’m out of town, but please enjoy this captivating shot of mad men on Wall Street, circa 1885, courtesy the Cornell University Library. The more you look at it, the more interesting details emerge. Click on picture for much greater detail. Trinity Church, at far left, would still… Read More
A gloomy sight indeed — the incineration of Hale’s Piano Factory, a competitor of Steinway, located at West 35th Street and 10th Avenue, destroyed by fire on September 3, 1877. One report calls Joseph Hale’s business a manufacturer of “notorious bogus pianos.” Several people were killed in this horrible blaze. Read the original piece from… Read More
New York Harbor, possibly late 1810s (caption reads only ‘1800s’) courtesy NYPL Two hundred years ago today, a boat on its maiden voyage left New York’s harbor. This happened virtually every day in New York, of course, during this period as America’s most active and bustling port city. However, from 1807 and lasting well into… Read More
The Capitol in 1935, its feature attraction the spy thriller Rendezvous Every Monday I’ll try and check in with the Mad Men episode from the night before and focus in on one or two historical references made on the show. Spoilers aplenty, so read no further if you don’t want to know…. While doing some… Read More
The BMT Jamaica line, late 1970s (Courtesy NYT) PODCAST #111 Art. Vandalism. Freedom. Blight. Creativity. Crime. Graffiti has divided New Yorkers since it first appeared on walls, signs and lampposts in the late 1960s. Its ascent paralleled the city’s sunken financial fortunes, allowing simple markings to evolve into elaborate pieces of art. The only problem?… Read More
Photos from East Harlem, May 21, 1991, photographs by Ted Thai (courtesy the LIFE archive) “Graffiti or Wall-scribblings. Despite his withering touch, Time, the destroying angel, has here and there permitted some of the most fragile and evanescent things to remain as silent memorials of long past generations. Not least among these relics of ancient… Read More
This gigantic mural display — at the time, some said, the ‘world’s greatest photo mural‘ and I have little reason to doubt — hung over the heads of commuters in the main hall at Grand Central, debuting with great fanfare (and a special radio broadcast) in December 1941. The 85-foot tall mural, featuring photographers employed… Read More
Every Monday I’ll try and check in with the Mad Men episode from the night before and focus in on one or two historical references made on the show. Spoilers aplenty, so read no further if you don’t want to know…. While the inebriated men of Sterling Cooper Draper Price were accepting Clio Awards at… Read More
Just because it’s underground, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress up. It is train travel, after all. (June 1959, photographer Stan Wayman, courtesy Life Google images) Thanks for listening in on our several-part series of podcasts on the history of New York City public transportation. We’re moving on to other topics — although I’m not quite… Read More
Above: ‘Dames’ on a Train: Keeler and Powell dream of the innocent days The subway doesn’t immediately come to mind as a photogenic movie star, but in fact, the various tunnels and stations of the New York City Subway have appeared as the backdrop for hundreds of movies. Its route diversity — from deep under… Read More
Best unlaid plans: (Above) The aborted additions to the New York City subway system, illustrated on the coolest subway map ever, from 1968. [Map from Second Avenue Sagas] Exploring, with old maps: The remains of old trolley tracks, the home of Louis Armstrong, and the memories of old North Beach amusement park. [Forgotten New York]… Read More
Every Monday I’ll try and check in with the Mad Men episode from the night before and focus in on one or two historical references made on the show. Spoilers aplenty, so read no further if you don’t want to know…. New York’s fascination with Japanese culture has never been because of a particularly large… Read More
The subway in 1951, a bevy of new lines thanks to the unification of the IRT, the BMT and the IND, a consolidation we live with today. (Pic courtesy of NYC Subway) PODCAST The amazing New York City subway system travels hundreds of miles under the earth and elevated through the boroughs. In this episode,… Read More
The first subway into Brooklyn — not a product of Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT), but of an extension of the original Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) — terminated at what is today the Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station, at the crossroads of several streets and a hub for the Long Island Railroad and a station for the… Read More
Behold, Meryl Streep on the subway, August 1981 Streep lived in SoHo at the time this picture was taken. Perhaps she was on her way to do a little promo work for ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’, which hit theaters in September? Streep has aged gracefully. The subway? Needed a whole lotta work done…. Oh, and… Read More