The Story Of “The Wilhelm Scream”
Coming across weird, useless things like this, is what makes life fun.
When films need vocal sound effects, professional voice actors are frequently called in to a recording studio to create them.
For the Warner Bros. 1951 film “Distant Drums” the sound needed was “a man being bit by an alligator. ” Instead of the actor being “bit” by the alligator recording the scream of pain, someone else at the studio, did the screaming. Continue reading
The Prices of Fancy New York Apartments and Where You Could Live on a Decent Salary
As I continue to look through the Sunday October 10, 1926 New York Times real estate section, I wanted to get a better understanding of what a dollar could buy when it came to apartments.
First I did some income research.
According to FRASER (the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research) , a little over 4 million individual tax returns were filed in 1926.
The average net income on those returns was $5,306.43.
The average amount of tax liability was – get this – only $176.11!
So you might think that everyone was doing Continue reading
How To Advertise a House – 1926 Style
This is an ad from a copy of the October 10, 1926 Sunday New York Times. An odd choice of words to sell a home.
Larchmont is a wealthy suburb 25 miles north of New York City.
This ad has me pondering numerous questions:
I wonder if this home sold quickly because the H.M. Williams copywriting team knew the word “pretentious” would appeal to that special, up and coming snob who wanted to live in a pretentious home?
Even in 1926 wasn’t it demeaning if you admitted that you lived in the most pretentious home in Larchmont? Maybe it was bad, only if other people said it about you or your home?
If this house still exists in 2011, do the current owners know how it was once advertised?
Does anyone out there from Larchmont recognize the house and if so can you drop us a line with the street address?
Looking North up Fifth Avenue from 52nd Street.
Church steeples are among the tallest structures in the photo. The closest steeple belongs to the original St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, which was destroyed by fire in 1905. Continue reading
When Baseball Teams Had Their Own Unique Songs
When my Dad and I would drive places at night in the 1970’s, my father would put on the Baltimore radio station, WBAL-AM to hear the Orioles games. At night the radio signals were stronger and you could pick up most of the bigger radio station’s broadcasts within a 400 mile range, so he would listen. I vividly remember the upbeat song that used to be played to start the O’s broadcast. I searched the internet and have had no luck finding “Orioles Baseball” which is what I believe the title was. But I have collected a number of baseball theme songs and thought I would share them.
For every baseball fan who can remember…
(click on link to hear the mp3 of the song)
In the 1970’s when I was listening to the radio, before the start of every ball game, the New York Yankees would have their theme played. The Yankees announcers, Phil Rizutto, Frank Messer and Bill White would eventually talk over the song and it would fade out. At the end of the game they would play the theme again. The Yankees still play a truncated version of the song at the beginning and conclusion of games on the radio, but they rarely play this version with the lyrics.
Musically well constructed and simply the best song ever written for a team with its catchy lyrics. The “Meet The Mets” song still holds up nearly 50 years after the Mets introduction to New York. This version is the original version. (ed note: strangely enough I wrote this article on June 30 and originally scheduled it to be posted on July 5. I moved it up to July 3 after seeing that the writer of the Mets theme song Ruth Roberts passed away Friday, July 1 at age 84.)
If you grew up in Chicago you may remember “Hey, Hey Holy Mackarel” which was the Chicago Cubs song.
Now, if you were a Chicago White Sox fan, the song dear to your heart would be “Let’s Go, Go, Go White Sox.”
In the late 1960’s this is what the Detroit Tigers were playing – “Go Get ‘Um Tigers.” Continue reading
Although I somehow never made it to the Ben Franklin Bookstore in Worcester, MA, I have been in many shops like it and they are just all going out of business slowly but surely.
Worcester used to have many used book shops including a great one owned by Manasha Bilsey, Another Story Used Books, which he closed in 2003 because as he put it “the Internet has made used book stores not salable as a business model.” Metropolitan areas have a hard time sustaining these types of businesses unless the proprietors of the store also own the building. This is often not the case, as buying the building is usually not a financially feasible option. Even owning the building is sometimes not enough to prevent the inevitable in what is becoming a vanishing occupation, proprietor -used book shop, open to the public. Continue reading
OR…Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Memorobilia Auction
Well, I didn’t pay that kind of money. But somebody did.
When movie star Debbie Reynolds abandoned her long-time dream of having a museum to showcase the history of Hollywood, the treasures which she had been accumulating for decades, went to the auction block. A good portion of the nearly 600 lots sold for significantly more than their high estimate.
Charlton Heston’s robe from 
Planet of the Apes (1968) went for $13,530 (all prices include buyers premium). Yes it is the costume Heston’s character Taylor wears during much of the film, but it really is a rag isn’t it? There were fantastic costumes that were available and I suppose if you wanted to own movie history and you had a budget to adhere to, this raggy robe was as good as anything. I’d like to see the new owner actually wear it. In public. Continue reading
Some Vintage Advertisements of the Era and What Americans Paid in Taxes
The World Almanac was called The World Almanac because it was published by The New York World newspaper, not because it contained everything about the world. A version is still published every year even though the New York World has been gone for many years.
This edition was published in early 1929 when America was riding high. The stock market crash that caused the Great Depression in October was still months away. The almanac covers the past events of 1928 and has data on thousands of items that are no longer covered in modern almanacs.
The first 70+ pages were advertisements. The rest, useful information.
Here are a few interesting things I found looking at my copy. (click on any photo to enlarge and click again for high resolution)
You need a coffin? The Springfield Metallic Casket Company of Springfield Ohio has many to choose from including “old reliable.” My favorite Continue reading
There is a book called Woodlawn Remembers: Cemetery of American History by Edward F. Bergman (North County Books, 1988.) The book is mostly comprised of beautiful full page color and black & white photographs of monuments, tombstones and mausoleums with one page of text describing each person profiled. The cemetery is located in the northern part of the Bronx. Woodlawn is on my shortlist of recommendations of unusual places to go for New York visitors.
The book is fascinating to be sure. It covers many of the interesting and important historical figures at Woodlawn. 
But one story not mentioned, is the life and death of George Spencer Millet (misspelled as George Millitt by The New York Times in the story at the end of this article) who is interred at the cemetery.
Millet’s story is briefly recounted in Permanent New Yorkers A Biographical Guide To The Cemeteries of New York by Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall (Chelsea Green 1987.) This book contains photographs too, but has more detailed biographies than Woodlawn Remembers. Permanent New Yorkers also covers the entire New York area, not just focusing on the two most famous New York City cemeteries. Woodlawn and Greenwood. I highly recommend both of these out-of-print books.
It was February 15, 1909 and Millet was a good-looking boy. Because when the girls he worked with at The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company found out that it was his 15th birthday, they all insisted on giving him a kiss. Continue reading
I watched ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball for the first time this season for a few minutes. The Yankees were battling the Reds in interleague play.
For those baseball fans who don’t know where the strike zone is or question the umpire’s judgment, the brilliant minds at ESPN have put a rectangle superimposed over the home plate area to point out what was a ball or a strike. It was on the viewing screen for every pitch in the bottom of the 9th inning.
I quickly turned off the game before it ended and put on the radio. It was unwatchable. Continue reading