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Welcome to “You Are Here!”

September 3rd, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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“You Are Here” is a public art project, linked to my new book, Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville, that helps New Yorkers (and that includes all of you, residents and visitors) experience the past through the present-day city, with the help of their mobile devices.  Throughout Manhattan I’ve put up 9 (with a bonus 10th to follow) dinner-plate sized signs, each on the surface of a building that once played a key role in the evolution of our entertainment culture.  When you find a “You Are Here” sign, simply text in the specified code to the number given on the sign – you’ll receive an instant message back, telling you some interesting fact about where you are and why this building is important.  Think of it as my historian’s fantasy – I’m putting up plaques on buildings that should have them, but don’t.

Now your job is to find the signs.  They look like this:

You Are Here Sign

The first 5 people who can text in codes from all nine sites will receive a pass to the Museum of the City of New York, as well as an autographed copy of Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville – and maybe a couple of other goodies I can find.  I’m not going to tell you exactly where they are (half the fun lies in the hunt) but here are some clues:

#1 is south of Canal, along Elizabeth: you’ll know the plot is getting thick, when you reach a site of russet brick.

#2 sits on twisting Doyers, above hidden foyers.

#3 lies east of Cooper Square; great Yiddish names once gathered there.

#4 captured New York scenes, in a building along Broadway in the lower teens.

#5 is on Second Avenue, in the East Village: where stars once ate, sushi takes the plate.

#6: They say old 28th sounded like a Tin Pan; see it now, while you still can.

#7: in the 130s east of 7th, the stars of swing would sing.

#8: On 135th, ‘neath a 60s-styled wall, sat a great Harlem theater, accepting to all.

#9: Near the spot where Duffy stands, the food was served with invisible hands.

Need more clues?  Check out the book – I write about each of these places in detail.  Happy hunting!

Special thanks to Darien Bates, of Discovering Oz Communications, who devised this campaign.

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Langston Hughes’ Former Harlem Brownstone for Sale

August 1st, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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Yesterday my friend, real estate agent and music industry veteran Barbara Harris, called with a rare opportunity: the chance to tour Langston Hughes’ former residence at 20 East 127th Street, near Fifth Avenue in Harlem.  Hughes, whose writings resounded with the wit, truth, and dignity of the human experience, lived at this majestic 1869 house from the late 1940s all the way to his death in 1967.  A designated New York City landmark (both interior and exterior), the home has always remained in private hands – which means that it’s not often seen by the general public.

Langston Hughes House at 20 East 127th Street

Langston Hughes House at 20 East 127th Street

The house, in need of some restoration but otherwise intact, did not disappoint.  One of the most enchanting design features is an original floor-to-ceiling mirror, placed between the front windows on the 127th Street side.  My thanks go to photographer Jim Cummins, whose images are seen above and below.

Front Parlor

Front Parlor

Because of the house’s landmark status, exquisite features such as the ceiling decorations will have to be preserved by future owners.

Parlor Ceiling

Parlor Ceiling

There are also six original fireplaces, as well as sliding doors between the front and back parlors.  Frosted glass enlivens the vestibule doorway, while a colorful skylight emits multi-hued beams from the top of the stairwell.  A peaceful, tree-shaded garden in back must have offered Mr. Hughes a contemplative oasis in the middle of the Harlem he loved so much.

http://www.weichertmazzeo.com/BrokerWebsite3/Weichert/townhouse_detail.asp?listingid=29556TH

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Loew’s Mayfair Comes Out of Hiding at Famous Dave’s

July 19th, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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The other day my friend and literary agent, Eric Myers, wrote to tell me of a new barbecue place he had visited in Times Square, whose ceiling was “all original Art Deco, complete with recessed cove.”  Hearing more of Eric’s description, and then comparing it with the location – 171 West 47th Street at 7th Avenue – I began to suspect that the new restaurant, a branch of the Famous Dave’s chain, was utilizing a portion of the old Loew’s Mayfair Theater.

Famous Dave's Barbeque on West 47th Street, part of the old Mayfair Theater

Famous Dave's Barbecue on West 47th Street, housed in part of the old Mayfair Theater

A bit of history: the Mayfair was one of the last movie palaces in Times Square to remain standing and open for business.  Early in its life the theater was known as the Columbia, a vaudeville house of 1910 vintage (you can still see some of the Columbia’s original decorations on the building’s exterior), but in 1930 famed architect Thomas Lamb revamped the interior with a striking Art Deco theme.  With seating for 2,300, the theater opened as the RKO Mayfair on October 31, 1930, with an Amos ‘n Andy comedy, “Check and Double Check.”  In June of 1935 it was taken over by Loew’s and continued to operate as a first-run house; later, as the DeMille, it hosted premieres of big Hollywood films such as Spartacus and Hawaii.

By the early 1990s, the old Mayfair had been triplexed – shoddily, with a partition down the balcony center – and was operating as the Embassy 2-3-4 (the “Embassy 1″ was located one block to the south, in what is now the nicely restored Times Square visitors’ center).  In retrospect, those days could be seen as the last flowering of old raffish Times Square, and thinking back upon them brings to mind a flood of images: the 1960s-era doughnut shop that once sat near the Embassy 2-3-4, the Metropole cabaret with its vivid orange and green neon sign, the small ad in the form of a decal (stuck to a Plexiglass door) that featured a pre-”Three’s Company” Suzanne Somers, a cigarette dangling from her mouth.  Times Square during that part of the 1990s was a never-ending sequence of colors and sounds; the action pictures flickering in its movie houses were an extension of the blazing cacophony on the streets outside.

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7 West 46th Street, Part 2: Diamond Jim Brady/Lillian Russell Love Nest?

June 21st, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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The first thing I encountered about the imposing house at number 7 West 46th Street (see previous post) was the following clip in the New York Times of 30 March 1952: “An old brownstone house at 7 West Forty-Sixth Street, once the home of ‘Diamond Jim’ Brady…is now occupied by the perfume firm of Michel Pasquier, who has a shop and offices in the building.”

If true, the Times account was a marvelous discovery.  James Buchanan “Diamond Jim” Brady was one of the most fascinating characters of late 19th century New York.  Born into humble circumstances on the far lower West Side of Manhattan, the son of a saloon owner, Brady grew (both literally and figuratively, as shall be seen) to prominence as a crack salesman for railroad supply companies.

Diamond Jim Brady, image taken from Parker Morell's 1934 biography

Diamond Jim Brady, image taken from Parker Morell's 1934 biography

By the late 1880s Brady was rich enough to indulge liberally in his twin passions: diamonds and food.  Of the former, his possessions came to include such extravagances as his famed “Transportation Set,” a collection of 2,637 diamonds set into bicycle-shaped shirt studs, train-car cuff links, Wright Brothers flying machine lapel buttons, and the like.  It is upon the latter, however, that Diamond Jim’s modern-day reputation has largely been staked.  In researching this post I came across a biography, Parker Morell’s The Life and Times of James Buchanan Brady (1934), that offers detailed accounts of his gustatory indulgences:

“Jim started things off in the morning with a light breakfast of beefsteak, a few chops, eggs, flapjacks, fried potatoes, hominy, corn-bread, a few muffins, and a huge beaker of milk…Luncheon was apt to be a bit heavier than breakfast.  It generally consisted of more oysters and clams, a deviled crab or two, or three, perhaps a pair of broiled lobsters, then a joint of beef or another steak, a salad, and several kinds of fruit pie.  Jim also liked to finish off this meal with the better part of a box of chocolate candies.  It made the food set better, he figured.”

Whew!

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7 West 46th Street

June 7th, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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I’ve long been fascinated by this tall, somewhat foreboding house that sits to the west of Fifth Avenue at 7 West 46th Street – a block that, until very recently, offered one of midtown’s last uninterrupted stretches of 19th and early 20th-century buildings.  The block has also been known as “Little Brazil,” a tiny pocket of food and culture where the sounds of Portuguese mingle with Hebrew (the equally interesting Diamond District sits just one block to the north).  During the latter part of the 19th century it was an upper-class enclave, although many of its brownstones had been adapted for commercial purposes by the 1910s and 1920s.  7 West 46th is one of the few to have retained noteworthy elements of its original appearance.

7-west-46th-street1

Developers have cleared a number of sites to the west of the house, farther down 46th Street toward Sixth Avenue, but so far the building itself and its immediate neighbors appear to be secure from demolition.  Even so, this grand edifice bears signs of extensive interior alteration, as evidenced by the plywood boards covering the insides of the door and first-floor windows.  The contemporary metal-framed door itself is a defacement that almost seems barbaric, given the loveliness of its surroundings, and at the moment the entire house (with its sooty facade) looks to be uninhabited.

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Loew’s 7th Ave Theater/Harlem Casino Part 3

May 22nd, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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loews-seventh-avenue-rear

Remnant of Harlem Casino

So it turns out that the history of the old Harlem Casino, 124th Street and 7th Avenue, is more complicated than I had thought.  When we last visited this location, in my post of March 27, I concluded that (contrary to my previous assumptions) it was probably not really the oldest theatrical building left standing in Manhattan.  But the other day, while researching something else, I came across an item in the June 11, 1889 issue of the New York Times, referring to the “laying of the cornerstone of the new West End Theatre at the northeast corner of Seventh avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-fourth street.”  Of course, this is the exact corner of the former Harlem Casino/Loew’s 7th Avenue/present-day Greater Refuge Temple.  I recalled how, during my earlier research of this building, I had been puzzled by the fact that a permit for new construction had been issued in 1889.  Now it was starting to seem as if my original belief had been correct all along, and that the building had indeed been used as a theater before becoming the multi-purpose entertainment facility, the Harlem Casino.

That’s when the story began to get strange.  After that initial laying of the cornerstone, during a ceremony which apparently took quite a bit of time (the Times reported how one of the speakers, a Harlem judge, “spoke from notes, and each time he stopped to consult them the army of small boys yelled at the top of their shrill voices, in the joyful hope that he had finished”), everything went wrong.  The theater’s manager, owner, and backer (“projector,” in the parlance of the day), one A.H. Wood, ran out of money soon after, with the Times explaining that he was waiting to receive “$200,000 from his father-in-law in Detroit.”  The father-in-law was a well-to-do fur merchant named Louis Bresler, who at one point expressed his “utmost confidence” in the integrity of his son-in-law, Wood.  Then the 68-year-old Bresler died unexpectedly after an illness of just a few weeks.  Another son-in-law of Bresler, a lawyer named Aaron Kahn, accused Wood (our friend the theater owner) of killing the older man by poison – presumably so he could get a share of the inheritance money.

But it gets odder still.  [Read more →]

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1845 Broadway Was Bustanoby’s

May 17th, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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1845 Broadway

First of all, this building is a bit older than I had thought: according to the NYC Department of Buildings website (for those who missed the earlier posts, that address is http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp), a “new buildings” permit for 1845 Broadway was submitted in 1883.  Generally, this means that the building would have been completed and ready for occupation within a year.  I found more interesting info on this little-known gem at www.startsandfits.com, a website described as “a log about land use and transportation” and run by Aaron Donovan, a Columbia University graduate with a masters degree in urban planning.  Donovan has done some fine research on 1845 Broadway, and particularly its architect, Henry J. Hardenbergh, who lived from 1847 to 1918.  In New York City Hardenbergh is best-known for buildings such as the Plaza Hotel, the Art Students’ League on 57th Street, and (perhaps most famously) the Dakota.  He also designed the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., and several buildings on the campus of Rutgers University.

Donovan confirms that 1845 Broadway was completed in 1884, and has this to say about its age: “This building is so old it pre-dates the name of the street it is on.  Before the name Broadway was extended north of Columbus Circle, the wide, park-enhanced road was simply called ‘The Boulevard.’  The original address for this building was 15-17 Boulevard”  A perusal through the archives of the New York Times reveals that the building’s dance history (mentioned in the previous post) extends as least as far back as the early 1910s, when it housed Bustanoby’s Cafe de la Paix, an uptown branch of the influential restaurant.  During the years after 1910, Bustanoby’s helped introduce the concept of public dancing to high society, starting a citywide craze.  Newspapers were filled with reports of middle-aged men and women in evening dress, risking sprained ankles during incautious displays of the “turkey trot” and tango.  Legend has it that a young Rudolph Valentino worked at Bustanoby’s as a “maitre de danse” – a dance partner for women who were either unescorted or saddled with dates with two left feet.  I don’t know if Valentino actually worked at the 1845 Broadway Bustanoby’s or one of the other locations – any Valentino historians out there?

1845 Broadway retained its connection with dance into the 1940s, when it frequently offered lectures and performanes by Blanche Evan, a pioneer in the field of dance therapy.  There was also an auditorium inside the building known as the Garrison Playhouse, along with a dance academy, the School of Creative Movement.

Due to the current decline in the New York real estate market, this building can probably be considered safe from destruction for now – but given the spate of development in Columbus Circle, there is no doubt that it will disappear some time in the future, unless the Landmarks Commission decides to protect it.

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1845 Broadway, a Vestige of Old Columbus Circle

April 10th, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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1845 Broadway, Columbus Circle's Last 19th-century building

1845 Broadway in Columbus Circle, at 60th Street

Years ago, shortly after I moved to New York, I lost my wallet in a taxi and it wound up here, at 1845 Broadway.  The woman who got into the taxi after me had sat upon the wallet, looked me up in the phone book, called me (an example of the kind of New York good samaritanism that I’ve found is not uncommon) and arranged for me to pick it up at the ballroom dance studio where she was attending classes, on the second floor of this building.  The ballroom studio closed a couple of years ago (evidently the owners are now having trouble renting the space, as evidenced by the realty sign, which has been up for some time), but the building has remained – a curious survivor from the 19th century, in a neighborhood that has succeeded in obliterating almost every trace of its architectural past [the building to the immediate left, 1841 Broadway, is another Columbus Circle anachronism - it once housed Atlantic Records].

Although 1845 Broadway is clearly not in the best of shape, its design – particularly the gables on the top story and the symmetry between the left and right sides – has always interested me.  I also am curious to know more about its history.  Exactly how old is it?  Given that Columbus Circle was a theatrical and entertainment center (sort of a northern extension of Times Square) up through the middle years of the 20th century, prior to the construction of the massive Coliseum complex (which, of course, is now gone as well, replaced by the Time Warner Center), was this particular building ever used for theatrical purposes?  Beyond the ballroom dance studio, what else has been housed here?  Are there any old photos that might indicate how the structure’s design has been modified over the years?

I’d love to know if any readers have more information about 1845 Broadway.  In the meantime, I’ll see what I can dig up this week.

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Loew’s 7th Avenue Theater/Harlem Casino, Part 2

March 27th, 2009 by DavidFreeland
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Harlem Casino, circa 1904

Harlem Casino, circa 1904 (postcard found on Ebay)

Picking up where we left off last week, we’re trying to determine whether or not the Greater Refuge Temple at 124th Street and 7th Avenue, formerly the Loew’s Seventh Avenue movie palace (formerly the Harlem Casino) is really the oldest theater left standing in Manhattan (for more about the building, see last week’s post).  My first surprise during the course of research this week was a New York Times article dated September 18, 1910, which described the Casino as having been “converted into a theatre.” The article goes on to state: “All that remains of the old casino are the facades on Seventh Avenue and 124th Street and the old roof over the ballroom.”

So what WAS the Harlem Casino, exactly, if not a theater? Using the Library of Congress amazing full-text newspaper database covering the years 1880 to 1910, I did an “exact phrase” search for “Harlem Casino.” One of the first articles I found was in the New York Sun, in a reference to a boxing match held at the Casino. But in a later article, from 1887, I realized that this was actually a different Harlem Casino, located on 126th Street and Second Avenue.
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Loew’s Theater 7th Ave, Part 1

March 20th, 2009 by David Freeland
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loews-seventh-avenue-front
One of the pitfalls of writing about history comes when you know something too well.  Dates, events, and figures seep into the memory and, over time, become fixed.  It’s easy to forget to reexamine the original source material, or to take another look at information you’ve long held as factual.  As in life, what you hold closest to heart is sometimes the easiest to overlook.

For years I’ve carried around the belief that the former Loew’s Seventh Avenue Theater (now the Greater Refuge Temple), on the corner of 124th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem, is the oldest theatrical structure in Manhattan.  But now I realize that I’ve never verified this through solid historical research.  Here is what I know (or at least, what I believe I know): Loew’s Seventh Avenue was created around 1910 out of the shell of the old Harlem Casino, a theatrical and entertainment complex that dated to the 1880s or 1890s (when this section of Harlem was a sedate middle-class enclave populated largely by German families).  It remained in operation until the lean Depression years of the 1930s, and then eventually became a church.
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