Sergeant Murphy starring a young Ronald Reagan and the pretty Mary Maguire. It was Ronald Reagan’s third film. Maguire retired from films in 1942 and passed away in 1974 at the young age of 55. Continue reading
People Believing In Strange Things
Maybe you’ve seen these people?
The New York Times front page story on the people who believe in Harold Camping’s prophecy about the return of Jesus on May 21 and the end of the world on October 21, points out that the children of these doomsayers are somewhat confused by their parent’s strange beliefs.
The idea of knowing doomsday’s arrival by interpreting or unlocking the secrets of sacred text has been around for a while.
The Times has a second story about a New Yorker who gathered about a dozen believers to prepare for the end of the world in 1925.
The United States has quite a history of biblical Doomsday prophets. A very notable occurrence happened Continue reading
An Unlikely Catalyst Causes a Baseball Strike – Other Players Rally Around the Unpopular Ty Cobb
On Wednesday May 15, 1912 The Detroit Tigers were playing the New York Yankees at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan when one of the most infamous incidents in baseball history occurred.
Ty Cobb, the star outfielder for the Tigers was incited by a fan to go into the stands and pummel him.
The fan, Claude Lucker (alternately spelled by contemporary papers as Lueker or Leuker) worked as a page in the office of Tammany boss “Big Tom” Foley. From the onset of the game Lucker was being particularly obnoxious according to all accounts. Cobb and Lucker exchanged nasty barbs and Cobb warned Lucker to stop calling him names or he would come into the stands to take care of him personally. By the fourth inning Cobb had had enough and he jumped into the left field stands and started administering a beating and no one seemed to interfere.
Sticks and stones were probably not as harmful to Cobb as the names which could hurt him – especially when the racist outfielder was called a “half-nigger” by Lucker, which was what apparently drove him over the edge.
It should be noted that Lucker had a machine press accident when he was younger and was missing one hand and had Continue reading
The Oldest Man In New York
I’ve always had a problem with people saying, “I read it on the internet and therefore it is true.”
I am more of a believer in the accuracy of books, but I’ll admit it- bibliophile that I am, even books are wrong sometimes. Actually, more than sometimes. How often, I’ve wondered, does a mistake appear in a book, that book becomes the “authority” or “reference” material for other books and the mistake becomes gospel?
When something strikes me as unusual, amazing or inconsistent with what I know, I try and check the facts by going to the original or earliest source material. This is just my natural curiosity. This includes lots of history that is inconsequential in the greater scheme of things. But when I get fascinated and have to know more, I’ll take the time to look into it.
In an earlier post we noted we would return to the book, “The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City” by Edward Winslow Martin (pseud. James D. McCabe) published by Jones, Brothers & Co. 1868.
One short chapter entitled The Oldest Man in New York aroused my investigative instincts, two samples from that chapter are reproduced below (the full three page text can be found here)
Strangers visiting the Church of the Ascension, in New York, cannot fail to notice the presence of an old gentleman, who occupies an arm-chair immediately in front of the chancel, in the middle aisle, and who gives the responses to the service in a very loud and distinct manner. This is, perhaps, the oldest man of the entire million of New York City inhabitants. It is Captain Lahrbush, formerly Continue reading
Looking east from Fort Lee, NJ to New York City. June 25, 1935. Continue reading
At The Beverly Wilshire Hotel
Howard Hughes and Marian Marsh December 12, 1934 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the “Mayfair Ball” (click photo to enlarge)
The Mayfair Ball was the largest social gathering in Los Angeles in the 1930’s. The dashing Howard Hughes was a Hollywood producer at the time. Marian Marsh had appeared Continue reading
Jackie Cooper Dies At 88
Jackie Cooper passed away last week at the age of 88. Cooper who rose to prominence in the Hal Roach produced Our Gang (a.k.a. the Little Rascals) movie shorts, was one of the last remaining movie stars who worked during Hollywood’s golden era of the 1930’s.
Jackie Cooper (left) Love Business 1931
The Our Gang / Little Rascals remaining cast is now down to under a dozen stars. The other living supporting players made brief appearances, many in the later films of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s after creator Hal Roach had sold the franchise to MGM. The most notable living star of those later Our Gang comedies is Robert Blake. I grew up watching Cooper star in Our Gang and his passing is sad, as he was a gifted actor and it is a reminder of how few of the early Hollywood stars remain. Unlike his more popular and well known successors as leads in Our Gang, George “Spanky” McFarland and Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Cooper was cast in several big budget Hollywood productions and was almost always very good in whatever he was in.
Jackie Cooper was a rarity, in that very few Continue reading
Intersection of Canal & Chrystie Street, 1928. Note the humpback street sign and the policeman who is not directing traffic because there is none.
We are looking north along Central Park West then (known as Eighth Avenue), from 81st Street. Continue reading
SBS Should Stand for Stupid Bus System
It has been several months since the Metropolitan Transit Authority replaced Limited Stop Bus Service on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan with Select Bus Service to speed up trips.
Having used it for most weekdays since its inception in October 2010 I’m ready to offer a judgment – it still needs a lot of improvements.
Now remember, this is the MTA. This is the organization that cannot determine if it has a deficit or a surplus in a year. They are the organization that has announcements on the subways that say, “Thank you for riding with MTA New York City Transit!” As if we have any choice but to use this bureaucratic monopoly. If they were a business entity they would be out of business or the board members would have all been fired.
So I should not expect the MTA to do much right, but foolishly I believe they will figure out the shortcomings of the SBS system by observation or complaints and make adjustments.
Apparently they will not.
Narrow Aisles
First the buses themselves. The bus aisles were designed by a groper. The aisles are so narrow that two people cannot pass each other without rubbing into one another. Either that or Nova Bus, a subsidiary of Volvo, hired Japanese transit designers. From what I’ve seen of the Japanese transit system they pack them in like sardines and actually have “pushers” to squeeze everyone into the trains (if someone did this to me I’d freak out.)
The articulated buses can supposedly hold 60 passengers. Providing that they are under 120 pounds each.
Don’t Yell Fire in Here
The buses get so crowded that I have seen people actually Continue reading