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

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.

      

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.

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.