Coney Island

For this Musical Monday, we take the train out to Coney Island for a trip down memory lane.

Reginald Marsh  Wonderland Circus, Sideshow Coney Island, 1930 (ARTstor)

From 1926, the Five Harmaniacs with Coney Island Washboard Roundelay, music by Hampton Durand and Jerry Adams, words by Ned Nestor and Aude Shugart: 

Jug band not your style? How about some street corner harmony with the Excellents: 

Amusing the Zillions "fave Coney Island song" is Joe McGinty's Million Dollar Mermaid :


Coney Island Tours Coney Island History Project Coney Island USA The Brooklyn Theatre Index, Volume III, Coney Island Including  Brighton Beach & Manhattan Beach is available online at the Coney Island USA Gift Shop.

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

Bleecker Street Market

Artist Bela de Tirefort drew inspiration from the city streets, painting numerous New York scenes. Various websites date this view of Bleecker Street pushcarts to the 1940s, completely ignoring the year, "61", on the lower corner. 

MutualArt.Com

At that time there was talk of closing the Bleecker Street market. Perhaps that is why de Tirefort took brush to canvas,an attempt to capture a Village scene before it faded into history.

In the mid-30s, the market covered eleven city blocks with 120 licensed pushcart merchants.

When de Tirefort created this painting there were only ten merchants operating thirteen stands along two city blocks (Cornelia Street to Seventh Avenue).

Protests from Villagers saved the market for another decade or so. Did the number of pushcarts continue to decline or was it simply closed by the city? The answer is unclear.

In the background is bell tower of the Our Lady of Pompeii Church, still on the corner at Carmine Street.


Pushcarts on Bleecker Street

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

Summer In The City

Sleeping on rooftops to escape the sweltering New York City summer.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, August 12, 1882:

And for our musical Monday:

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

The Automat Part 2

The New York Public Library:
"The Automat was one of the wonders of New York." 

Bred and buttered in Brooklyn, Betty Blade (nee Sword) recalls on her Flickr page going to the Automat with her mother. 

"When I was a kid... I'd go wit my muddah to an automat ( orw-dah-mat).  She'd give me a fist fulla nickels and I'd run around and get what ever I wanted...as long as I was tall enough to reach."

Automat (1927) Edward Hopper

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

The Automat Part 1

The New York Public Library:
"The Automat was one of the wonders of New York. When Joe Horn and Frank Hardart opened their magnificent flagship on July 2, 1912—a two-story facade of stained glass, marble floors, and ornate carved ceilings, right in the middle of Times Square—the city was instantly captivated.

"Hungry? Drop a nickel in a slot, open the door to your chosen compartment, and pull your dish right out — a modern miracle!"

At the Automat, Max Ginsburg:

New York Magazine, December 21,1987

"Of the three illustrations I painted of 1950 New York this one based on an article by Neil Simon, about the automat, brought back my strongest memories. 

"I remember having lunch at a table with strangers, as they read their newspapers, had conversations, and were lost in their own worlds oblivious of their surroundings.

"Here, either of the women talking could've been my mother. A relative posed for the man eating and the man reading the newspaper."

-Max Ginsburg 

Now in his 80s, Max Ginsburg is a popular teacher at the Art Students League of New York, where he has a devoted following. 

Save your nickels for another visit to the automat--next on Baghdad on the Subway.

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

New York Girls

The capstan shanty New York Girls (Can't You Dance The Polka) describes a sailor's time ashore in the port of New York. The locations in lower Manhattan vary with the numerous versions of the song. In one he "walks out on Broadway" while in another it is Chatham Street.

A variant mentions "Tiffany's":

"I took her down to Tiffany's,
I did not mind expense
I bought her two gold earrings
And they cost me fifty cents." 

The Polka became an international dance craze in the 1830s and 40s. Its popularity among sailors explained by Shantypedia:

"You had to hold your partner firmly to whirl her round the floor at high speed and maybe even lift her right off the ground. And like their sisters in other seaports, the New York girls were always read to oblige-at a price."

Irish folksinger Finbar Furey in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York:




Each Monday, Baghdad on the Subway takes a musical look at the City.

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy

Splinter Beach

In the sweltering heat of a New York summer, city kids once sought refuge in front of the johnny pump or by diving into the murky waters of the East River.

Weegee ( Arthur Fellig ): Children playing in water sprayed from an open fire hydrant (johnny pump), 1942.

George Wesley Bellows, Splinter Beach, lithograph, 1913


Coming: The Floating East River Pool

Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, a three-volume history of borough showplaces. The first two volumes chosen 2010 OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR by the Theatre Historical Society. Final volume published in  September 2014.

He conducts a series of popular theatre talks and walking tours.

Now selling on Etsy.