Author Archives: B.P.

Johnny Vander Meer’s Consecutive No Hitters -1938

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Johnny Vander Meer Throws Back To Back No Hitters

Johnny Vander Meer c. 1939

It’s debatable what baseball records will never be broken. I don’t bet on things that I have no control over. But I would be willing to gamble that no pitcher will ever pitch back to back no hitters like Johnny Vander Meer did.

On June 11, 1938 the 23-year-old Cincinnati Reds lefty threw a ho-hitter over the Boston Bees in a 3-0 victory. In Vander Meer’s next start on  June 15, 1938, at the first night game at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, Vander Meer repeated his no hit performance in a 6-0 triumph over the Dodgers.

In the second no hitter, Vander Meer was wild walking eight Dodgers. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #179 – Alexis Smith

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Alexis Smith Early 1940s

This undated publicity photograph from the 1940s shows Alexis Smith in a sultry pose.

There have been movie stars with the last name Smith. But the big studios encouraged promising actors named Smith to change it to something else.

The most successful Smith actor of all-time was arguably Gladys Smith. But she changed her name to the more glamorous sounding Mary Pickford. Continue reading →

Book Review – Of Things That Used To Be, The Bronx In The Early 20th Century

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A Step Up From New York’s Tenements

Nathan (Nat) D. Lobell’s Of Things That Used To Be  A Childhood On Fox Street In The Bronx In The Early Twentieth Century is a memoir concentrating on a striving South Bronx neighborhood full of  immigrants, primarily Jewish, Irish and Italian between World War I and the 1920s. Continue reading →

New Yorker Cartoons From 1970 That Would Now Be Inappropriate

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A Dozen 1970 New Yorker Cartoons That Would Not Get Published Today

In 1970 the Women’s Lib movement was in full swing. But it was still de rigueur for the media to portray women as sexual objects.

The New Yorker magazine has always been a mirror of society in the drawings it decides to publish.

Looking back through its cartoons that ran in 1970, reveals what once was considered funny, would now be considered politically incorrect. They may be funny as well. It depends upon your sense of humor.

Many cartoons we display below, involve sexual harassment. But back then these cartoons were a reflection of many men’s behavior and attitudes towards women.

In it’s 100 years of publishing, is there a New Yorker cartoon that was offensive or in bad taste for the time it originally ran? I have seen thousands of their cartoons and have not found one.

What I find offensive is cartoons that are not funny. How did that get published?

Here are cartoons from The New Yorker magazine in 1970, that would probably never appear in The New Yorker today.

Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #182 – Fifth Avenue & Madison Square 1905

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Fifth Avenue Looking South From Madison Square Park

Our photograph was taken around 1905 by the Byron Company (1888-1942), a partnership of Joseph Byron and his son Percy C. Byron.  The Byron’s and their employees took thousands of photographs in and around New York City from the 1880s until the 1940s.

This view looking down Fifth Avenue from between 25th and 26th Street at the edge of Madison Square Park shows the Flatiron Building in the hazy background. Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #181 – First Avenue & 67th Street 1935

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Clearing Land For The New Memorial Cancer Hospital

This 1935 photograph is from city street photographer Percy Loomis Sperr.

We are looking east from First Avenue and 67th Street and shows the land that would soon be the site for Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases.

This plot of land stretching from York Avenue to  First Avenue between 67th and 68th Street was donated to Memorial Hospital by John D. Rockefeller. This neighborhood today houses numerous medical institutions.

Over the ensuing decades, every visible building along 68th Street; the tenements, a blacksmith shop, auto repair shop and ambulance company would be demolished for expansion of hospital buildings.

The large building complex with the tower Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #177 – Rita Hayworth And Penguin – 1937

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Rita Hayworth And A Smoking Penguin

Sometimes we run across photographs with no logical explanation. When there is no news slug we are left to speculate – what is going on here? This is one of those cases.

Besides being identified on the rear as Rita Hayworth and a United Press International photo, there was nothing else written identifying the action or location.

Fortunately entering “Rita Hayworth” and Penguin in a search engine can solve a mystery. Continue reading →

The Nearly Indestructible Pay Phone

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 Even Being Indestructible Did Not Stop The Pay Phone’s Extinction

There are certainly people who have never seen a pay phone before. And people who are familiar with pay phones may have only seen them with push buttons. Rotary dial phones were replaced in the 1970s by push buttons. Whereas pay phones managed to remain ubiquitous until the 1990s.

Pay phones were once everywhere. You could find them in hotels restaurants, gas stations, drug stores, transportation facilities, office and public buildings and on street corners,

The ad above ran in the September 11, 1971 New Yorker magazine.

In 1970 vandals cost American Telephone and Telegraph $12 million Continue reading →

Brooklyn Dodgers Begin 1955 With A Long Winning Streak

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Dodgers Shortstop Pee Wee Reese Counts Down The Wins To A Perfect Season

Brooklyn, NY – The undefeated Brooklyn Dodgers tonight equaled the Major League record of nine consecutive games won at the start of a season, by defeating Philadelphia 3 to 2. The only remaining member of the 1940 Dodger team which also won its first nine games of the season, captain Pee Wee Reese, prepares to draw a line through number 146 after tonight’s win. Looking on is Walt Alston. The mark was first set by the Giants in 1918 and the St. Louis Browns also won their first nine in 1944. photo: International News Photo – Herb Scharfman 4/20/1955

The Brooklyn Dodgers would go on to set a new record winning their tenth consecutive game the following day, beating Philadelphia 14-4. The Dodgers finally lost a game on April 22 to The New York Giants. Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #180 – Colossal Elephant Of Coney Island

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The Elephantine Colossus or Colossal Elephant Of Coney Island c.1890

For over 150 years Coney Island has attracted visitors to sample its beach, cuisine and amusement parks.

This magic lantern slide photograph shows an attraction that was more of a curiosity. Though It was only in existence for 11 years, hundreds of thousands of people came to see the Elephantine Colossus.

It was not a ride, but Continue reading →