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.

42nd Street

"42nd Street", a pre-code musical directed by Lloyd Bacon, featuring the choreography of Busby Berkeley. Songs composed by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics).

Movies and the Great Depression had already brought changes to 42nd Street by the time this film was released in 1933. 

The area eventually became known as the Deuce. The once elegant theatres reduced to grind houses. The Urban Dictionary providing the fellowing definition:

The Deuce

42nd Street in New York City (the southernmost part of Times Square). Back in the day, a center of total depravity, especially between 8th and 9th Avenue, but currently Disneyfied. 

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.

Jews Without Money by Michael Gold

Originally published in 1930,Jews Without Money is a semi- autobiographical novel by political activist Michael Gold (Itzok Isaac Granich).

Illustrated with woodcuts by Howard Simon, the book describes growing up on the impoverished Lower East Side.

 "Flies, bedbugs, sick cats, sunstruck horses, men and women, and busy saloons and street circus--Summer.

"In the maelstrom of wagons, men, pushcarts, street cars and East Side garbage, the mothers calmly wheeled their baby carriages. They stopped in the shade of the Elevated trains, to suckle their babies with big sweaty breasts."  

"A man on an East Side soap-box, one night, proclaimed that out of the despair, melancholy and helpless rage of millions, a world movement had been born to abolish poverty. 

"I listened to him.

"O workers' revolution, you brought hope to me, a lonely, suicidal boy. You are the true Messiah. You will destroy the East Side when you come, and build there a garden for the human spirit.

"O Revolution, that forced me to think. to struggle and to live."



The Lower East Side:

Bowery Alliance

Lower East Side History Project

Lower East Side Preservation Initiative

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.

      

Sheridan Theatre

Hopper-Self Portrait 1906 (Wikipedia)

Edward Hopper

July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967

It was a short walk from Hopper's home on Washington Square to the Loew's Sheridan at  West 12 Street in Greenwich Village and from there to the Crawford Lunch (one of the inspirations for Nighthawks).

He loved going to the films. For Hopper, as for so many others, it was a place of refuge, an escape from the everyday.

“When I don’t feel in the mood for painting I go to the movies for a week or more. I go on a regular movie binge!"
--Edward Hopper, quote from the New York Times

Edward Hopper, Sheridan Theatre, 1937, from Artpedia

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.

On a Musical Note: The Bowery

This week, we stroll the Bowery,of the "Gay 90s", where they say such things and do strange things.

From the musical A Trip to Chinatown with music by Percy Gaunt and lyrics by Charles H. Hoyt.

From Wikipedia

Preservation Note:
Bowery Alliance
Lower East Side Preservation Initiative
Each Monday, Baghdad on the Subway enjoys a musical view of 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.

 

Elegy in Manhattan

George Jessel, photo: Gene Lester

Drawing inspiration from Spoon River Anthology, George Jessel wrote Elegy in Manhattan, transforming Edgar Lee Master's fictional village into the real world of New York entertainment.

"The confiding thoughts of fifty-six glittering guys and gals who once walked the streets of the Big Town."



As in Spoon River, the first poem serves as an introduction:

"Where are Joe and Lew;
Sam Bernard, Foy, Hitchy;
Nat C. Goodwin, and all his lovely wives;
'Terrible Terry,' 'Big John L';
The Frohman brothers, Charles and Dan;
The Shuberts, Lee and Sam?

"Nearly all are resting on
the banks of Manhattan,
Dreaming of how Lillian Russell
looked that New Year's Eve at Delmonico's,
of what Al Smith said
to Murphy that morning in Tammany Hall, 
of what Teddy R. said
at Union Square of young Cohan's 'Waving the Flag,'
and of 'dashing Jimmy'
the Mayor.

"Nearly all are resting on the banks of the Manhattan."   

On Amazon

Cezar Del Valle is also 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.

On a Musical Note--I'll Take Manhattan

Each Monday, Baghdad on the Subway takes a musical view of the city.

Makers of Melody (1929) (S. Jay Kaufmann) by hohlenmensch

The 1929 short Makers of Melody featuring Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart supposedly backstage at a Broadway theatre and not on a movie set.

Showcased is their first hit song Manhattan, sung by Ruth Tester and Allan Gould.

Cezar Del Valle is also 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.

Pip and Flip, Coney Island, 1932

Artists have long been drawn to Brooklyn's gaudy "Sodom by the Sea."  Reginald Marsh among the most famous.

Pip and Flip, 1932. Tempera on paper mounted on canvas
(© 2013 Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Working her way down from vaudeville to sideshows was Mrs. Jack "Legs" Diamond, widow of the slain gangster. She worked for Samuel Wagner at the World Circus Sideshow, 1216 Surf Avenue, Coney island. 

PiP and Flip, Jenny Lee and Elvira Snow, were micro-cephalics from Georgia, not Peru. They appeared in the movie Freaks (1932).


On Sunday, July 12, 2015,  Cezar Del Valle, author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index Volume III, hosts the cHURCH OF MONICA, Open Source Gallery, with an illustrated talk on the history of Coney Island theatre.

He is available for theatre talks and walks in 2015-2016: historical societies, libraries, senior centers, etc.

Now selling “vintage” on Etsy.

Hopper Homestead

From Crossroads of the World  The Story of Times Square by William Laas, Popular Library, 1965   

"This homestead of the Hopper family stood for a century and a half

 astride 50th Street and Broadway until demolished for a horse exchange in 1883."

The author does not credit a source for this print.

In addition to to being an artist, Cezar Del Valle is also 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 Oldest Photograph

We begin our blog with the oldest known photograph of New York City, a daguerreotype, circa 1848.

Upper West Side (likely Bloomingdale Road, later Broadway)

Written on the back:

"taken the last of October, when nearly half of the leaves were off the trees."

Daily Mail 

Gizmodo

New York Times

PetaPixel

In addition to to being an artist, Cezar Del Valle is also 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.