In this photograph looking south along Broadway are three buildings that each at one time held the record as tallest building in the world.
This hand colored magic lantern slide was taken soon after the Woolworth Building was completed in 1913. After its completion and for 16 years until 1929, the Woolworth was the tallest building in the world. Continue reading
What was occurring 100 Years Ago? The Fairbanks Twins and Lillian Lorraine were about to appear in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 at The New Amsterdam Theatre.
It’s interesting to see what newspapers of the past contained. 100 years ago, June 16, 1918 the Great War (World War I) was still raging and battle news dominated the news. What else would you see in the newspaper as far as local matters?
Here are seven of the things I thought were worth highlighting from The New York Tribune. Click on any image to read the entire story.
The hostility towards immigrants who are not citizens has always existed. During World War I anti-German sentiment ran high. The government required that all alien (non-citizen) German women 14 and older register at their local police stations, take a loyalty oath and provide five photographs of themselves! Women who failed to register would be arrested and severely punished.
German women register with police
It seems like paranoia, but German espionage and sabotage were a real threat during the war. But usually the reason an entire group gets demonized is because they are an easy target when the populace gets inflamed. One man took matters into his own hands printing 3,000 signs to be distributed at shops along Fifth Avenue declaring, “Speaking of German Prohibited On These Premises.” The unnamed man ran out of signs within walking three blocks. Volunteers grabbed as many as they could to help pass them out. The thinking was this will “Americanize” those Germans.
There would be a big uproar if someone tried to do something similar today pointing the finger at any ethnic group, even when we are at war, which by the way, we still are. The never-ending “war on terrorism.” The language those barbarians who commit terrorist acts doesn’t matter, does it?
German language prohibited
You could say lawyer Albert W. Gray was henpecked, but the things Mrs. Gray did are a little more extreme than henpecking. Mrs. Gray made poor Albert account for every penny he spent and explain every moment and movement he made. Mr Gray had 11 years of being told when to wake, eat and sleep, before deserting his overbearing spouse. Mrs. Gray in her separation decree said if she only knew her husband was unhappy she would have changed her system of housekeeping!
Wife controlled every aspect of husband’s existence
The Tribune reprinted a whole page from the San Antonio, TX based Kelly Field military newspaper. Continue reading
Two tragic historic events occurred on the evening of April 14, forty-seven years apart.
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15
At 11:40 in the evening of April 14, 1912 the unsinkable Titanic on its maiden voyage hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The great ship went down at 2:20 am April 15 taking over 1,500 lives.
Our AP news photograph above is from 1965 when the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln assassination was observed.
RELICS OF ASSASSINATION
These are some of the relics associated with the assassination of President Lincoln. The small pistol in the center is the pistol used by John Wilkes Booth. The dot just below it is the bullet dug from Lincoln’s head. The knife to the right of the pistol was used to stab Major Rathbone, the President’s bodyguard. The pistol at extreme right is the one Booth was carrying when caught. The boot was worn by Booth at the time of the assassination . Other weapons were taken from members of a gang which associated with Booth. (AP News features Photo For use Sunday, April 11, 1965)
This photograph taken at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street by Lewis Hine in 1910 is simply labeled “Mendicants.”
It’s a word you don’t often hear today. Mendicant – a beggar; panhandler.
While you may think the main subject here is the blind man sitting by the pole of the el, that would not be the case The focus of the photograph is the little girl who is begging. She appears aged and streetwise beyond her years. But both of them are mendicants.
Hine’s photographs of children at work in major cities usually focuses on newspaper sellers, shoe shiners, telegraph boys, delivery boys and other street trades. In 1910 mendicant was considered a street trade.
Who are these two people? Father and daughter? Grandfather and granddaughter? Or just two people in need who have teamed up to ply their trade?
Where did they live?
Unfortunately Hine did not get the names, ages and addresses of this girl and blind man, as he did with many of his other subjects. Continue reading
New Main Waiting Room Penn Station Credit: Jeff Stikeman for Rebuild Penn Station.
The National Civic Art Society has developed a plan to entirely rebuild the original Penn Station.
The biggest and most obvious hurdle to accomplishing the Society’s plan would be demolishing the many buildings that currently stand on the site including Madison Square Garden and a 34 story office building. Then the next question arises: who would fund such an enterprise?
As crazy as all this sounds, the actual rebuilding plan sounds feasible. You would just need all the corrupt politicians and greedy real estate entities to cooperate. That will almost certainly not occur.
But that doesn’t stop one from hoping. The organizers have an executable plan and want to drum up support among the public. Here is the opening statement from their website rebuildpennstation.org
New York City’s original Penn Station was one of the finest buildings ever constructed. With its vast main hall and soaring concourse, it provided a triumphant gateway into the city. Its demolition in 1963 was one of the greatest architectural and civic crimes in American history.
That wrong is all the worse given the current station, which is cramped, dismal, and hard to navigate. As the historian Vincent Scully said about the original station, “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.”
We aim to reconstruct the original station to return it to its former glory. Click here to join our cause.
The video the Society produced explains more.
As the rebuild Penn Station group pointed out, New York’s greatest architectural loss occurred 54 years ago.
On October 28, 1963 the demolition of Penn Station began and three years later the majestic station was gone, its marble and debris trucked out in pieces to the New Jersey Meadowlands and used as landfill.
Trains still go in and out of Penn Station. But the Penn Station that replaced the original has nothing in common with the original but the name.
Main Post Office completed 1912 photo: Underhill
Directly across from the original Penn Station between 31st to 33rd Streets and Continue reading
Advertisement for the “wonderful Automatic Play-O-Graph” – Philadelphia Inquirer Oct. 13, 1911
In August, 1911 with $10,000 capital, John W. Baker, Henry H. Abbott and Sumner Ford incorporated the Baseball Play-O-Graph Company in Stamford, Connecticut. The men devised a way of transmitting the actions of sporting events “live” through telephone and telegraph.
The depiction of baseball games through mechanical means had been accomplished previously, but not showing the track of the ball, which was what made the Play-O-Graph unique. The Play-O-Graph would show the action without the aid of electric lights.
Baseball fans congregate outside the New York Herald Building during the 1911 World Series
In October of 1911 the American League champion Philadelphia Athletics lead by manager Connie Mack would play John McGraw’s New York Giants for the World Championship.
Giants manager John McGraw (l) and catcher Chief Myers (r) at Polo Grounds before 1911 World Series.
There were a couple of oddities in the 1911 World Series. Each game alternated cities with games one, three and five being played in New York and games two, four and six played in Philadelphia. The other strange occurrence was that there was a one week delay between games three and four as a deluge of rain hit Philadelphia for six straight days.
After inspecting the field for playability causing the fifth straight postponement of game four, umpire Bill Klem joked, “There was a pool around second base big enough for a diving exhibition by (swimming champ) Annette Kellerman. I was unable to locate the home plate for the lack of a diving apparatus. The outer gardens would make excellent pasturage for a herd of hippopotami.”
Both teams were considered evenly matched and felt confident they could win the series. Since 1904 each team had won three pennants.
Line outside the Polo Grounds at 7:00 am to buy tickets for game 3 of the 1911 World Series. photo: Bain
When tickets for the opening game of the World Series went on sale on Friday, October 13 at the Giants home field, the Polo Grounds all the tickets were gone within two hours. After the sell-out, the regular ticket price of three dollars shot up to five, six, seven and eventually eight dollars from speculators (scalpers) who had scooped up as many tickets as possible.
With over 38,000 fans cramming the ballpark it would be difficult to see the game without a ticket.
That would be where the Play-O-Graph would come into use. Setting up their machines at four locations in the United States, fans could see the game as it transpired.
“When the pitcher pitches the ball and when the batter hits it and when he is thrown out, is all shown upon the Play-O-Graph. Every move of the game is made clear to the spectator who watches the ball as it moves from place to place upon the board,” the company proclaimed.
The company installed two boards in New York, one in Chicago, one in Detroit and one in Philadelphia. Continue reading
Honestly our headline is misleading. Our circa 1910 model is technically not wearing a bikini as her top looks more like coconut shells. While we can’t fully see the bottom of her costume, it is definitely not a bikini. It looks to be more like a Hawaiian hula outfit.
Even so, a photograph in 1910 of a woman in a two piece of any kind is unusual.
If you know your garment history, you know that the bathing suit called a “bikini” was coined in 1946 by French designer Louis Reard. The bathing attire was named after the Bikini Atoll, where the testing of the Atomic bomb was taking place at the time.
A bikini is defined as a two piece swimsuit usually in the shape of triangles. The material on the top covers the breasts much like a brassiere. The bottom is similar to panties.
Denise Milani and her…bikini
When it was introduced Continue reading
If there was a Hall-of Fame for best hair, Gladys Cooper would be a member.
British theatre and screen star Gladys Cooper (1888 – 1971) made her stage debut in 1905. As you can see she photographed exquisitely and was constantly in demand as a model. From about 1905 through the 1920s postcard manufacturers churned out hundreds of different images of the popular actress.
Gladys Cooper, Robert Redford – Twilight Zone
Gladys had a 70 year career as an actress, though most people would not recognize her name or face today. If they did know her, it would probably be because of a memorable 1962 Twilight Zone television episode in which she plays an old woman who fears death, co-starring a very young Robert Redford.
Modern movie and television audiences would never have realized Gladys was once absolutely gorgeous .
In 1914, when asked by a newspaper columnist who was the most beautiful star on the London stage, fellow actress Ethel Levey replied, “It depends upon the type. As to the blond type I should say Gladys Cooper. She is as beautiful a woman I have ever seen.”
Sari Petrass, a famous Austrian actress appearing at the time in The Marriage Market agreed with Levey about Gladys’s looks and said, “She is the most beautiful woman I have ever met. And you have some very beautiful women in London.’
When told of her fellow actresses compliments, Continue reading
Reproduced above from the New York Telephone Directory of 1910 are the long distance rates from New York City to other cities.
In 1910 there were 7,084,000 telephones in the United States.
Long distance service was limited as you can see. There were few cities west of the Mississippi that you could call from New York. You want to call Houston, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle or Los Angeles? You’re out of luck.
The only way to communicate with many places would be to send a telegram.
Telegram rates varied by distance sent and had day and night rates. For a typical telegram you paid a flat rate for the first ten words and were charged a per word rate for each additional word. Address and signature were free. For example to send a telegram from New York to anywhere in Georgia was sixty cents for the first ten words and each additional word was four cents.
With telephone long distance prices being so expensive, you can see why people sent telegrams to communicate something urgent when the recipient was far away.
Expensive is a relative term but let’s take into account that the average weekly salary in 1910 was anywhere from about $10 for an average worker to $50 for a university professor. Continue reading
SOCIALISTS HOLD MAY DAY CELEBRATION IN CENTRAL PARK – Shown above is a general scene showing the large crowd of socialists as they listened to the speakers during the meeting held in Central Park, New York City on May Day. (May 1, 1935 credit: Acme)
Today is May Day which for anyone who went to elementary school in New York City pre-1980 used to be a joyous holiday, celebrated by dancing around a Maypole.
May Day, a centuries old Pagan holiday whose origins and meaning are debated, is now a day of protest. In many parts of England, Wales, Germany and a few other European countries, the Maypole dance and tradition continues. In the United States the day has sunk into a free-for-all for any group to call attention to all their perceived slights and injustices.
In the late 19th century May Day began to be associated with organized marches and assemblies for worker’s rights, unions and socialism. By the 1930s, communists took the day as theirs to celebrate.
Today you will not see any New York City school children doing Maypole dances.
Brooklyn May Day celebration 10,000 girls at Prospect Park 1919
You will not see the veterans of foreign wars praising the freedoms of the United States and protesting communists.
VETERANS HOLD RALLY ON MAY DAY – Photo shows general view of crowd in Union Square , New York City, scene of recent Communist riots, to participate in rally held by the Veterans of Foreign Wars on May 1st. Later the Reds held a demonstration at the same spot. (May 1, 1930 credit P&A photos)
You probably will not see Continue reading