No information beyond the basics could be found on this gem.
We are looking east towards the East River at the Krappe family farm located at East 87th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B (now renamed York and East End Avenues).
I believe Gracie Mansion is on the left side of the photograph seen partially behind the trees. If anyone has further information, please share.
Why Go To The Museum of Contemporary Art or The Getty?
If you live around Los Angeles you may be too busy to go to a museum to see paintings. Luckily or unfortunately depending on your point of view, you can always get your fill of “art” while driving to work.
On the constantly congested 110 Freeway, one can take in up close the utter decay of the city every 6 to 30 feet. That is the range of distance between the supporting pillars of the freeway on the median. There you can admire the ugly, illegible scrawls of grade school drop-outs.
1972 Press Photo- At Marilyn Monroe’s Crypt
As today is the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, it is interesting to compare the elaborate ceremonies of today, with the understated manner in which a handful of fans sent flowers on August 5, 1972 on the tenth anniversary of her death.
The press photo reads:
8/5/72 Beverly Hills, CA. Motorcycle escort officer Si Mason of Westwood, Calif. looks over the many flowers sent to actress Marilyn Monroe at the Westwood Memorial Cemetery. 8/5 ten years ago, marks the anniversary of her death. The 36-year old actress was found dead in her Brentwood home of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills. (UPI)
New York Mets Official George Theodore Publicity Photo 1974
George Theodore looks more like an accountant than your accountant looks like an accountant.
True, the glasses and mustache he sported did not make Continue reading
Looking at this tree filled landscape it is hard to believe this is New York City. This idyllic scene was photographed on the morning of July 4, 1888. Until 1899, Broadway above 59th Street was known as The Boulevard. Continue reading
I sometimes wonder if every photo of Nellie Fox shows him with a chaw of chewing tobacco bulging out of his cheek. Was he born with the chewing tobacco permanently attached inside one cheek? This photograph of Nellie Fox shows that ballplayers were much more accommodating for publicity photographers back in the 1950’s, as Nellie lies on his stomach on a tarpaulin in an empty ballpark. Continue reading
Edward G. Robinson – The Hatchet Man 1932
If it seems preposterous that Edward G. Robinson (left) would be cast as a Chinese hitman, then consider that all the leads of this 1932 film The Hatchet Man, directed by William Wellman, are Caucasian.
Robinson, seen here standing next to character actor Dudley Digges, plays Wong Low Get, an anti-hero assassin, in this story about Tong Wars in Chinatown.
The movie is occasionally shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and is worth watching because Robinson turns in a fine performance, even if he doesn’t even slightly resemble someone of Asian descent.
Umpires Make Mistakes: See Baseball History 101
Photo Mike Stobe / Getty Images
Everyone is in an unnecessary uproar over the Dewayne Wise phantom catch of a baseball that disappeared into the crowd at Yankee Stadium on June 26, 2012 during a 6-4 Yankee victory over the Cleveland Indians.
The umpire, Mike DiMuro is human. He made a mistake and admitted it after the game. That was the right thing to do.
Do you want the game to stop every time there is a controversial play? Aren’t the games slow enough?
Mistakes similar to this have been happening since baseball began and have been forgotten unless they affect the pennant race or a World Series game.
One forgotten incident that occurred on August 1, 1920 was whether Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox actually caught a baseball Babe Ruth hit into an overflow crowd at Comiskey Park. The aftermath of that play is shown below.
Babe Ruth & Miller Huggins argue with umpire Tom Connolly, Bob Meusel (with bat) listens © blackbetsy.com
Going into the game against the White Sox, Ruth was on a tear, having hit 37 home runs already, shattering his own record of 29 home runs set the previous year. Continue reading
The Beginning of New York City’s Traffic Lights
This ornate traffic light at 34th Street, was one of seven put up in New York City on the heavily traveled Fifth Avenue in 1922.
The city had experimented with traffic signals in 1917 when a device invented by an engineer, Foster Milliken, was installed at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. The device was a revolving flashlight that would flash signals as red to stop and green for go. This may sound ridiculous now, but in the early days of traffic signals there was no standard for color relating to traffic. Continue reading
June 25, 1923 Intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues
Photo © Osmund Leviness
“Those who died were fortunate it seemed to me when I looked inside the cars. As long as I live I can never forget it. All the people were in a mass there, struggling and screaming, with blood running over them. They all seemed to be bleeding or stained with blood. One woman’s head was terribly cut on top, and one jaw seemed to be crushed in. The hand of another woman was almost cut off. One woman I took out through a window died a few minutes after I carried her into the post office. I can’t forget the inside of those cars. They looked like my idea of purgatory.” – Traffic Officer Joseph J. Ryan who was on the scene immediately after the crash.
This incredible accident happened 89 years ago, Monday, June 25, 1923 as two cars of the BMT derailed and plunged 35 feet into the street at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn. Continue reading