Author Archives: B.P.

A Sport That Never Gained Popularity

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Jeeves, Get My Dirigible Ready!!!

The headline in the New York Times of March 7, 1909 proclaimed, Aerial Yachting Promises to be the Real Thing in Sport.  For some reason, this sport never took off – if you’ll pardon the pun.

Aerial Yachting would be for “the sport loving public who want the latest thing to machines that can be conveniently managed in the air and accommodate from three passengers up to half a dozen or so, making the trip socially pleasant apart from the novelty of the expedition.”

All you would need to participate would be a large sum of money to have a massive 100 foot plus dirigible powered by a motor constructed for you. Then of course you’d have to figure out how to fly the thing on your own because there weren’t too many aviators at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Clement-Bayard ship illustrated in the accompanying article below, was 175 feet long and had made successful flights over Paris.  Mr. Adolph Clement the builder of that dirigible, planned to open an agency at his automobile showrooms in New York to promote dirigible flights.

This was the dawn of aviation and World War I would see the dirigible used extensively for military purposes. The luxury aspect of dirigibles as a sport, never really caught on with the wealthy.

Original Times Article March 7, 1909 – click to enlarge

 

The New York Mets 50th Anniversary: A Look Back At Casey Stengel

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Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?

Casey Stengel photo © Niels Lauritzen

Writer Jimmy Breslin claimed that “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game,” was Casey Stengel’s lament during Casey’s first year managing the Mets in 1962. Breslin later admitted he made up the quote. But it would have been an apropos summation of the Mets first season. Continue reading →

A Photographic Trip To Green-Wood Cemetery Part 3

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Monuments And Odds & Ends

The focus for the final installment on Green-Wood Cemetery are monuments and some interesting things that I took note of.

Dogs

Dogs are not permitted to be buried in human cemeteries. Somehow though fourteen years after inventor Elias Howe’s death, a dog “Fannie,” was buried at the family plot in 1881. That is the exception.

For many people, their dogs were like members of the family. Continue reading →

Yankees Spring Training 1963

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Mickey Mantle Bunting

The opening of the 2012 baseball season is only weeks away. It is a time to practice skills that may be needed during the regular season.

In this photograph from 1963, Mickey Mantle is attempting to bunt against the Cincinnati Reds in a spring training game. Mantle would bunt frequently during the early years of his career, many times to try and beat it out. But as his knees went through wear and tear, he would rarely attempt to bunt for hits in the 1960’s. So a spring training game was a good time to get in some bunting practice.

Here he appears to miss the drag bunt as Elston Howard watches from the on-deck circle.  The Yankees lost this game 4-2.

A Photographic Trip To Green-Wood Cemetery Part 2

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Do You Know That Name?

Continuing the journey through historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn the next set of photographs concentrates on some names from history, some remembered today, others forgotten.

DeWitt Clinton

DeWitt Clinton has many things named after him in New York including a town, a high school, and a park. Known as the father of the Erie Canal, Clinton was a ten term mayor of New York City. Under his stewardship in 1811 the grid plan for the streets of New York City were instituted. He was also a United States Senator and Governor of New York State. Clinton lost the Presidential election of 1812 to James Madison by less than 10,000 votes and 29 electoral votes.

Clinton was moved to Green-Wood in 1844, sixteen years after his death. Continue reading →

A Photographic Trip To Green-Wood Cemetery Part 1

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A Different Way To Spend The Day In New York, Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery

When I’m asked by people visiting New York what are some of the things they should do while they are here, my answer usually results in incredulous looks. “Go see Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx or Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.”

Most people will never visit a cemetery unless their relatives are located there. Even then, most people dread going to a cemetery. This is a mistake from a cultural standpoint. Cemeteries, especially historic ones like Green-Wood, possess landscape and architectural treasures that you cannot see in any museum.  They also contain a history told in granite, marble, bronze,  slate and limestone through an array of monuments, mausoleums, crypts, sarcophagi and tombstones of the permanent residents of Brooklyn.  As Green-Wood describes itself on its web site:

Green-Wood is 478 spectacular acres of hills, valleys, glacial ponds and paths, throughout which exists one of the largest outdoor collections of 19th- and 20th-century statuary and mausoleums. Four seasons of beauty from century-and-a-half-old trees offer a peaceful oasis to visitors, as well as its 560,000 permanent residents.

The rural cemetery movement began in 1831 with the opening of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts, Continue reading →

Unbelievable Looney Tunes Cartoon From 1933

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You’ll Never See This Cartoon On Saturday Morning

Decades before South Park, Warner Bros. put this cartoon out in theaters. Bosko’s Picture Show, from 1933 features this incredible scene.

Here is the entire original cartoon and at about 5:50 in, is the offensive portion. Or just watch the 3 second clip below.

Language warning here – play in front of children at your discretion: Continue reading →

How Accurate Is Your Non-Fiction Reading?

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Checking The Facts

In this age of “get the story out there as quickly as possible” it should concern you that what you are reading may not be true, simply because the facts have not been checked.

In the February issue of Harper’s is a fascinating excerpt entitled “What happened in Vegas” which is from the book The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata, author. Jim Fingal, fact-checker, to be published February 27, 2012 by W.W. Norton. Continue reading →

How Many Books Were Published 100 Years Ago As Compared To Today?

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A Glut of Publishing

In 1907 there were 9,260 books published in the United States according to the New York State Library Bookboard.

Compare that to 2010 when there were 316,480 books published by traditional publishing companies according to Bowker.

Add to that another 2,776,260 on-demand titles produced by reprint houses specializing in public domain works and by presses catering to self-publishers and ”micro-niche” publications.

That is over 3 million books published in one year.

No wonder it is so hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Continue reading →

Outtake Photos From The Sexiest Album Cover of The 1960’s

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Dolores Erickson on Whipped Cream and Other Delights

The cover is the stuff of teenage dreams and yearning of older men to return to their youth.  Innocence and come-hither looks wrapped into one alluring package.

If an album cover ever helped to sell mega amounts of copies, this was it. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, certainly benefited from the album design of  A&M art director Peter Whorf, and model, Dolores Erickson, gracing the cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights.

The iconic album cover, which is best appreciated in its full 12″ x 12″ vinyl incarnation, can still be found for sale at many thrift shops, flea markets and garage sales for a couple of dollars.

The album released in 1965, went to #1 on the Billboard pop music charts and ended up selling over six million copies over the years.

Was it based on the music? While it is a good album of instrumentals, I am positive that the provocative cover Continue reading →