Author Archives: B.P.

Old New York in Photos #10 – Rapid Transit 1905

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Crosstown Rapid Transit, 1905, New York City


It probably made the crosstown trip faster than we currently do.

I like the sign in the background – Milk, Cider, Cream Soda, Buttermilk, Lemonade 3¢.

And I  love old handwriting:

Tuesday A.M. Dear Mamma, What do you think of this for rapid N.Y.  Please send my letters to Aunt Emma’s. Came Monday, will write to-day Love, Evan(?)

According to Appleton’s Dictionary of New York in 1905, there were 7-8  mail deliveries per day and the postal service made a profit. Continue reading →

The Death of New York Rock Radio

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WRXP-FM (101.9) Becomes All News WEMP-FM

Commercial FM album rock radio is dead. Period.

That slow death began when WPLJ-FM flipped to CHR in 1983. It has been in a steady decline since then. The WRXP-FM flip to all news in August confirms that no station programmer can succeed in New York in the capturing of a dedicated rock listening audience large enough to satisfy the bosses.  These behemoth, chain radio station owners care about three things and they are: ad dollars, ratings and demographics.

The remaining rock commercial stations in the tri-state area: WAXQ-FM (NYC Classic Rock) , WBAB-FM (Long Island Rock) and WDHA-FM (Dover, NJ Rock) play the same rotation of old songs, with few new artists mixed in, so how is that going to attract new listeners? Satellite radio (narrowcasting), ipods and streams have hastened that death.

But the real underlying reason is, is that kids are not being introduced to rock n’ roll for the most part, except through the few parents who know how important it is to explore music with their children. Otherwise they will listen to the junk that all their friends listen to. Rock n’ roll has lost a generation of listeners that I fear cannot be recovered. The few young people who do listen to rock, are the exception.

Hush – Deep Purple with Playboy’s Hugh Hefner

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Playboy After Dark –  Featuring the Original Deep Purple

Hugh Hefner’s swinging, late 1960’s TV show, Playboy After Dark had a wide variety of musicians, comedians and interesting people appear as  guests. This clip recorded in late 1968,  is one of the earliest television performances and one of the last to show the original Deep Purple performing their breakthrough song Hush.

This line-up is known as Deep Purple Mark I.  By the time this segment aired November 14, 1969, original vocalist Rod Evans and bass player Nick Simper, both founding members of the band, had been out of the band since July 1969 and were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.  The new incarnation of Deep Purple would go on to have worldwide commercial success and set a standard for other hard rock and heavy metal bands to follow. Continue reading →

Vintage Photos – Stealing Home

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Or Jackie Robinson Makes Stealing Home Look Easy

One of the most famous film highlights of a baseball game is from September 28, Game 1 of the 1955 World Series where the Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson stole home against the New York Yankees. The photograph above captures the bang-bang action. The play was incredibly close and you could look at the film 100 times and still not be sure of the outcome. Robinson was called safe by umpire Bill Summers. To this day, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra vehemently Continue reading →

The Vocal Twin of Geddy Lee of Rush

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Not Geddy Lee – But It Sure Sounds Like Him

They say everyone has a person somewhere in the world who looks just like them, a doppelgänger. But what do you call someone who sounds just like another person?

Tribute bands have proliferated in recent years and they can make a good living performing the works of successful bands present and past.

I’m not into tribute bands, as good as some of them might be. But I ran across this video of the Rush tribute band 2112 performing live. Continue reading →

Q: Where Can You Buy Hires Root Beer? A: Nowhere. Killing A Product – The Demise of Hires

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Hires – The First Root Beer, Dying A Slow, Prolonged Death

(This article is from 2011 and has updates at the end through 2025)

I know soda isn’t good for you. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many nutritionists would like to slap a soda tax on sugary beverages.

I try not to drink a lot of soda, but I have a sweet spot in my heart for Hires Root Beer. I love the stuff. It is by far the best root beer ever made and I have tried many of them:  IBC, Stewart’s, Mug, A&W, Dr. Brown’s and about a dozen or more other smaller regional brands, and none compare to the unique, smooth taste of Hires.  But I have not had a sip of Hires in over six years.

I did not forsake Hires.  Instead the brand has slowly been vanishing off the shelves of supermarkets in an ever widening circle over the past 20 years. It is now unavailable in most portions of the United States and Canada.

How did the oldest continually produced soft drink and for many years, most popular root beer Continue reading →

Lou Gehrig Beats The Throw Home

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Solving A Photographic Mystery

People have asked where we get the photos for this web site.  Mostly the online resources at various libraries and eBay have been used.  Sometimes they are part of the contributors photo collections.

This phenomenal photo of Lou Gehrig sliding into home plate is one of millions of photographs available at the Library of Congress web site.  In the old days the photographers were allowed to be on the field during baseball games. There were no Continue reading →

Starting On Defense For The Chicago Blackhawks…#4 Bobby Orr

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What’s Wrong With This Picture?

(Bobby Orr – October 9, 1976 –  Blackhawks vs. Islanders)

Contrary to any record book, hockey encyclopedia, photographic evidence, existing video or first hand account, Bobby Orr never, ever  played for any other team but the Boston Bruins. This was just a bad dream.

Babe Ruth Catches A Baseball From An Airplane

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Babe Ruth, Out Standing In His Field, 1926

Yes, I know that is a terrible pun.

Here is an apocryphal story about Babe Ruth and this little known feat.

In this rare news photograph, Babe Ruth  has just caught a baseball dropped from an airplane on July 22, 1926 at Mitchel Field (an early New York airport) in Garden City, Long Island.  The New York Times reports Ruth donned an army uniform to drum up publicity for the Citizens Military Training Camps.

Six times, baseballs were dropped from the airplane and Ruth was sweating up a storm, Continue reading →

The Garage Antique Flea Market Closing (Make That – Closed)

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Famous Chelsea Flea Market Hub To Close And A History of The Chelsea Area Flea Markets (see update)

UPDATE November 2014: The flea market has finally closed three years after we reported the imminent closing and demolition is underway. The remaining outdoor flea market on 25th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway charges $1 admission for a sub-par experience.  Below the update is our original story on the history of the flea markets in the Sixth Avenue corridor.

UPDATE December 24, 2011: The flea market thankfully remains open. Dealers don’t seem to know what the future holds. Speaking to several exhibitors they have not been told how long they will remain. So keep your fingers crossed, maybe Extell will not build until market conditions improve.

According to a dealer at The Antiques Garage at 112 West 25th Street, the last stalwart of what was once a thriving antique center in Chelsea, is closing in the near future.

The Antiques Garage which has over 100 dealers selling all sorts of merchandise every Saturday and Sunday will be torn down and replaced by a hotel and condos.  The developer, Extell Realty bought the garage in 2006 for $42.7 million.  The dealers who exhibit have been told that Extell will soon begin demolition and this month is to be their last.

In the mid 1980’s the parking lots and vacant lots in Manhattan from 24th to 27th Streets, just east and west of 6th Avenue, had developed into a weekend cornucopia of junk and treasure. Lower end antique dealers, second hand junk collectors, and abandoned storage unit scavengers set up shop, providing the public with endless browsing and purchasing opportunities. You could find everything from mundane items to rare and valuable objects. Continue reading →