Tag Archives: New York Times

The Cost Of Living In New York City In 1921

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In 1921 The Annual Cost Of Living In New York For Working Men & Women Was Just Over $1,000

A Family Of Five –  $2,263

Moving and searching for a new apartment illustration Eldon Kelley, New York Herald

For several weeks The New York Times has been running a column on the weekend “Affording New York.’

The headlines show there is a wide range of what is considered affordable in order to live in New York City.

Some of the recent articles hidden behind the Times paywall are :”How a Geologist Lives on $200,000 in Bushwick, Brooklyn.”  “How a Florist Lives on $23,000 a Year in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.” And “How an Artist Lives on $36,000 a Year on the Upper West Side” These articles elaborate on how people cope with the cost of living.

105 years ago in 1921 Dr. William Mosher of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, conducted an exhaustive study of the cost of living in New York.

What Dr. Mosher found was that a male clerk could subsist well on $1,093 Year, while a single woman would need $1,118.

The study of minimum quantity and cost budgets made by Dr. Mosher was primarily dealing Continue reading →

They Died. The New York Times Forgot to Mention It –Again

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The New York Times Loves To Ignore Rock N’ Roll Deaths

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 →

Fashions Of The 1970s – Men’s & Women’s T-Shirts

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The Fashionable T-Shirt 1973

August 17, 1973 – New York: T-shirt collectors vie to outdo each other. Nancy Greenberg wears gaudy New York souvenir shirt. What mother never told Kathleen O’Connell about is Ultra-Brite toothpaste. French Gitanes shirt worn by Paula Scher is more desirable than American brands; photos: Nancy Moran / New Yoik Times

August 17, 1973 – New York: Jean-Louis Hym’s Liberation shirt from Paris proclaims underground paper. Joel Handrroff, an artist, is not a country music fan, but he likes the shirt because of the black-on-yellow color scheme. Barry Levine’s extols Automotive High School. photo: Nancy Moran / New York Times

Fashions may change, but t-shirts have remained a staple of young people for more than half a century as evidenced by these photographs of young New Yorkers taken in 1973.

If you are wondering what a standard t-shirt cost in the early seventies, generally it was $1.98 for a regular t-shirt and $2.98 for a deluxe heavier cotton. Specialty t-shirts cost more. Continue reading →

The Tragedy Of A Forgotten & Handsome 19th Century Artist

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The Story Of Artist Reuben H. Norcott Who Died As His Star Was Rising

It’s funny when you are reading an old newspaper and you come across a completely different story that leads down a rabbit hole.

Such is the case of Reuben H. Norcott.

While researching a story in the Chicago Daily Tribune from 1883 about another person, I saw Norcott’s story on the same page.

I quickly became immersed in Norcott’s story as told by an (unfortunately) unnamed New York correspondent for the Tribune. Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #176 – Park Row 1890

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Looking South Along Park Row / Newspaper Row -1890

This Albertype Company photograph was taken from the German language Staats-Zeitung newspaper building at the confluence of Centre Stret and Park Row.

We’re looking south along Park Row at the New York terminus of the Brooklyn Bridge. This busy district was Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #135 – Curling In Central Park

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Curling, “The Roarin’ Game” At Central Park 1894

Curling in Central Park 1894 photo – Joseph Byron later published by Detroit Publishing  

It may not be the most popular sport but curling may get the most television airtime during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Continue reading →

Dignity For A Little Girl Killed By A Truck – 1904

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Three-Year-Old Nettie Delaney Dies In A Horrific Accident & A Homeless Man Performs A Selfless Gesture – 1904

A kind act can transcend time. When researching our previous story about Times Square this tragic, but touching story was found.

Combining accounts from The New York Tribune, The New York Herald and The New York Times, this is what happened on August 31, 1904:

POOR, BUT A GENTLEMAN
With His Only Coat He Taught the Morbid a Lesson.

Nettie Delaney, three and a half years old, of 14 West One Hundred and Thirty-Third Street, was run over and killed almost in front of her own home yesterday afternoon by a horse drawn heavy truck carrying stone. Continue reading →

A Superstar Who Knew The Yankees Bobby Brown Was A Special Player

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Yankees Bobby Brown Dies At 96

Chose To Be A Great Doctor, Over Being A Great Baseball Player

Bobby Brown 1946 photo: Acme

Bobby Brown 1946. photo Acme

Bobby Brown (Oct. 24, 1924- March 25, 2021) the golden boy Yankee star whose brief career in pinstripes bridged two star-studded Yankee eras, died Thursday March 25 in Fort Worth, TX.

After batting .341 in 148 games at Newark in his only minor league season, Brown was a late September 1946 call-up to the Yankees, playing in only seven games for the big club that year. In this brief stint, Brown made quite an impression with his sure fielding and batting .333 by going 8 for 24.

There’s probably few players more qualified than Red Sox superstar Ted Williams to point out a rival’s strengths .

After playing the Yankees, Ted Williams honed in on how good Brown and another Yankees call-up, Yogi Berra were. In the September 26, Boston Daily Globe Williams wrote:

“Of the new Yankee players I’ve seen the last couple of days, the one who has impressed me the most as a bright prospect, is Bobby Brown, the shortstop. And I’ve seen quite a few of their new players: pitchers Al Lyons and Karl Drews, catcher Larry Berra whom the call “The Yogi,” and he has the facial appearance to fit the name; third baseman Joe Bockman and outfielder Frank Coleman.

Berra is a little man who seems to be all muscles. He looks like he can hit a ball a long way if he connects. The others didn’t show too much, except for Brown. He looks the part of a ballplayer. I thought so when I first saw him in uniform before he even made a play or hit a ball.

The thing I liked best about Brown is that he will make the right play all the time. He showed me something in two games I haven’t seen all season. Twice he came up with a hard hit ball and threw out one of our runners trying to make third from second base. That is one of the most difficult plays for a shortstop to make and he did it twice in as many games  as though he had been doing it all his life,

Bobby has a swell pair of hands. He can run well. Up at bat he reminds me of Red Rolfe. I think he hits at a ball the way the Yankee coach and old third baseman did. He takes a sharp cut at the ball.”

Bobby Brown played alongside the 1930s-40s  era Yankee greats; Joe DiMaggio, Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #125 – Singer Building At Night

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A Sight You’ll Never See – The Singer Building At Night – 1913

Here is the Singer Building Tower in 1913 with its office lights ablaze in a photograph taken by Underwood and Underwood. The adjacent smaller towers to the right belong to the City-Investing Building.

For less than a year between 1908 -1909, the Singer Building, designed by Ernest Flagg, was the tallest in the world. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Building completed in 1909 took the tallest title away.

This magnificent New York City skyscraper vanished less than 60 years after its completion. Continue reading →

Excepting Eddie Van Halen, The New York Times Continues To Ignore Rock Star Deaths

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Bands Lose Key Members & The New York Times Neglects An Obituary

Steve Priest – The Sweet

Pete Way –  UFO

Paul Chapman UFO

Paul Chapman – UFO

The Grim Reaper has had a robust 2020 taking more than his normal share of victims.

Celebrities, especially rock n’ roll musicians who are all approaching the age of inevitable demise have been dying at an alarming pace.  But you would never know it if you rely on the New York Times for the obituaries.

Eddie Van Halen obituary placed below where the paper is folded in half NY Times October 7, 2020.

Mega-music stars are the exception and get some sort of recognition.

Eddie Van Halen was just too big to ignore. While the Times placed Van Halen on October 7th front page, it put him below the fold. Continue reading →