A Man, A Plan, And A Wet Subway Ride Home
Circa Late 1940’s Coney Island, New York- Acme News Photograph.
The news slug says: Continue reading
The Coney Island Dripper
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: Brooklyn
Squealer’s End
What Happens To Squealer’s
This is not The Sopranos or The Godfather.
75 years ago, gangsters did really nasty things to you, if you talked to the cops.
The back of this Acme news photograph sums it up:
Trussed from head to foot, the body of Samuel Silverman is examined by Deputy Medical Examiner Romeo Auerbach. The victim was found in a car parked in Brooklyn, N.Y. with three bullets in his skull. Police believe Silverman was killed for “putting the finger” on other men involved in a hold up, for which he was out on bail. July 16, 1937
Silverman , 25, who lived at 869 Hopkinson Avenue, Brooklyn, was found in front of 324 East 91st Street, Brooklyn on July 15, 1937. The body was discovered at 5 pm by a youth who happened to glance inside the parked car.
Silverman had been arrested Continue reading
A Photographic Trip To Green-Wood Cemetery Part 3
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
A Photographic Trip To Green-Wood Cemetery Part 2
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
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
The Coney Island of Yesteryear – The Original Coney Island, Luna Park and Steeplechase Park In A Vintage Film
Coney Island in the Late 1930’s Early 40’s
On so many levels this is extraordinary. The time is somewhere between 1937 & 1941 based upon the rides shown at Luna Park at Coney Island. The original Luna Park closed in 1944.
When I first saw this film I re-watched it three times. What would it be like to experience the original Luna Park? This film gives you an idea.
Where is the time machine?
Old New York in Photos #9 – Coney Island Ring The Bell
Hit Bell, Win Prize
Coney Island July 5, 1946.
Before the mall-ification of New York, Coney Island had lots of things to do besides the rides. One was this common amusement which was found at lots of carnivals and amusement parks. To test your strength you would swing a large mallet, hitting a levered board with a weight attached to a pole. Hitting it as hard as you could would drive the weight up the pole. If you hit it hard enough, the weight would go the top, anywhere from 10-15 feet from the ground and strike a bell. Doing so would entitle you to a prize.
It was a great way to impress a date, Continue reading
New York Jewish Cemetery Vandalized
Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn Had Over 200 Monuments Desecrated and Toppled in December 2010 – Crime Still Unsolved in April 2011
Somehow or other this story did not make much of an impact in the news when it occurred in December 2010. This was done by a group of vicious, uneducated creeps. The words I would like to use to describe the vermin who did this I will not publish here.
The damage probably amounts to hundred of thousands of dollars. It also looks like more than 200 graves were harmed from the video posted below. With all the evidence Continue reading