On February 3, 2026 Lamonte McLemore one fifth of the great singing group The Fifth Dimension passed away at the age of 90.
Amazingly, The New York Times did cover McLemore’s death with a well deserved obituary a week after his passing . McLemore, while not a rock star per se, was definitely part of the sixties pop rock identity.
We use the term “amazingly” because Continue reading
There are no periodicals like Puck Magazine today.
The weekly political, satirical and humor magazine was in business from 1876-1918. A main feature of the magazine was a chromolithograph centerfold usually relating to events of the day.
Our illustration is from the February 25, 1904 issue and drawn by Udo Keppler (1872-1956). Continue reading
In these politically correct times even the smallest transgressions will be pointed out and removed by “cancel culture”.
Frequently in Warner Bros. cartoons the animators would superimpose whatever they wanted for a headline and visual in real newspapers. They would leave the rest of the page unaltered. Continue reading
Iron Maiden 1981 (l-r) Steve Harris, Clive Burr, Paul Di’Anno, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray photo EMI / Robert Ellis
When this website began in 2011, I proclaimed that lists are stupid especially “best lists”. I believe they still are. “Best of” lists are always subjective.
But that doesn’t stop us Continue reading
Because I own some old newspapers that report historic events, I was looking at the New York Daily News of August 27, 1974 announcing the death of Charles Lindbergh on the front page. Turning the pages my attention was drawn to the movie advertisements.
The ads are simple, frequently without captivating graphics and usually lacking even brief summaries of the plot of the movies. Besides giving the theatres and times they were playing at, these ads were supposed to attract potential viewers with the title, the stars or a reviewers blurb.
The disarray of the motion picture industry in the seventies is evident in the variety of films playing at theaters.
Adjacently advertised next to one another are Deep Throat; The Devil In Miss Jones; The Longest Yard and Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia. Two X-rated and two R-rated films.
Deep Throat (1973) was the first “mainstream” pornographic film. It was Continue reading
October 29 is an important anniversary date that many do not remember because they did not live through it. On that date in 1929 the stock market crashed to an astonishing level.
Major media outlets are praising Aaron Ross Sorkin’s forthcoming book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation, (Random House, November 4 2025).
Coincidentally I was just finishing an older book about the same subject. It is among the best books ever written about Wall Street.
The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts (Doubleday, 1979) is a masterful work of storytelling.
While John Kenneth Galbraith’s 1955 book The Great Crash 1929, remains the seminal work on the economic causes of the crash, Thomas and Morgan-Witts examine the human aspects of the financial calamity which ushered in the Great Depression.
Threading together the lives of movers and shakers of Wall Street and the ordinary citizen, the authors lay out stories that resonate today. Events unfolding before us now, have similarities to the great crash of 1929. Continue reading
I heard this story recently and in my experience, sets a record for holding a grudge against a business.
22 years ago along with her two toddlers, a steady customer went into her local upper east side pizza shop, to buy a slice.
She gave the pizzaman cashier a twenty dollar bill.
The change received was for a ten. Continue reading
New York City has a lot of beggars with children. It always has.
If you look up from your phone you’ll see them weaving through subway cars or standing or sitting mid-block or on corners with children close by. Continue reading
While both of these double entendre postcards would be considered risque around 1900, the photographs are quite different.
This first postcard of “Practice This Piece With Me” from 1907 implies making out during piano practice time.
The second postcard goes a bit further. Notice where his hand is. Continue reading
This photograph by Percy Loomis Sperr shows the Ninth Avenue El looking north from the west side of 23rd Street.
We can see the entire corner from 23rd to 24th Street has been cleared in preparation for the construction of the London Terrace apartment complex. London Terrace has 14 buildings stretching from Ninth to Tenth Avenues. Continue reading