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Woolworth Tower Rises Through Clouds (1928)

January 23, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Woolworth tower in clouds, New York City," is credited to Fairchild Aerial Surveys.

This gorgeous 1928 aerial image of the peak of the Woolworth Building provides an unusual perspective of what was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1913, soaring to 792 feet. Paid for with cash by discount king Frank W. Woolworth for what was then a staggering sum of $13 million, the landmarked building’s grandeur outlived the stores that financed its construction, as five-and-dimes were replaced by big-boxes. A few excerpts about the Woolworth Tower from a post on New York Architecture Images.

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Frank W. Woolworth, the five-and-dime store king, commissioned architect Cass Gilbert to design a Gothic-style skyscraper on a full-block front on Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street. When the building was erected it rose across the street from the main downtown Post Office by Alfred Mullett. This massive mansarded structure of 1875 was later demolished and the site reclaimed as part of City Hall Park. Woolworth wanted his building to become the tallest in New York, and in the world, which meant that it needed to rise more than 700 feet– the height of the Metropolitan Life Tower. As the height escalated from a projected 625 feet to 792 feet, the cost grew from an estimated $5 million to the final cost of $13.5 million. Extensive foundations and wind bracing necessary for the tall tower as well as the ornate terra-cotta cladding and sumptuous interior fittings both inflated costs and created one of the masterpieces of early skyscraper design.

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The sumptuous lobby features marble, fine mosaics and a rich program of sculpture, including brackets with medieval-style caricatures, including Mr. Woolworth counting his dimes and Gilbert cradling a model of the building. Allegorical murals of Commerce and Labor and ceiling vaults accented with thousands of gold tesserae make the lobby seem like a church. Indeed, the gothic tower was nicknamed ‘The Cathedral of Commerce.’

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Mr. Woolworth financed the skyscraper in cash, which was unusual for a project of this size and cost, and he noted that the tower would be a valuable generator of publicity for the company. Still, through the 1910s, the Woolworth Company only occupied one and a half stories of the building. The rest of the building was occupied by more than 1,000 tenants. For most of the twentieth century the building never had a mortgage — something almost unheard of for such a large commercial structure. In 1998 the Woolworth Company’s successor, the Venator Group, sold the tower for $155 million: this was the first time the property changed hands in its 85-year history.

A more conventional view of the Woolworth Building. (Image by Jonathan71.)

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Titanic Survivors Get Warm Clothes In NYC (1912)

January 20, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Surviving "Titanic" crew members wear warm, dry clothes that read "White Star Line," which was the name of the shipping company that owned the sunken vessel.

Even though it was women and children first into the lifeboats during the sinking of the Titanic, some crew members did survive the infamous meeting of steel and ice. The 1912 image above, from the International News Service, shows surviving crew members who had been transported to New York City wearing warm, dry clothes they had just been given. An excerpt about the Titanic‘s tragic maiden voyage from the New York Times article, “Biggest Liner Plunges to the Bottom at 2:20 A.M.“:

“The White Star liner Olympic reports by wireless this evening that the Cunarder Carpathia reached, at daybreak this morning, the position from which wireless calls for help were sent out last night by the Titanic after her collision with an iceberg. The Carpathia found only the lifeboats and the wreckage of what had been the biggest steamship afloat.

The Titanic had foundered at about 2:20 A.M., in latitude 41:16 north and longitude 50:14 west…all her boats are accounted for and about 655 souls have been saved of the crew and passengers, most of the latter presumably women and children.

There were about 2,100 persons aboard the Titanic.“

Massive Crowd Gathers In Times Square For World Series Updates (1920)

January 17, 2011 in Photography, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Crowd gathers in Times Square on October 12, 1920 to hear play-by-play of the World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cleveland Indians.

I would have thought that the Black Sox scandal, in which several members of the Chicago White Sox accepted bribes to throw the 1919 World Series, would have dampened enthusiasm for the 1920 World Series. After all, it was in September of 1920 that some of the Sox admitted to a grand jury that they had participated in the fix. But based on this photo taken in Times Square during the ’20 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cleveland Indians, fans were still very into the National Pastime. People came together in the pre-radio age to hear play-by-play coverage of the Fall Classic outside of the New York Times building.

The Dodgers, who were often referred to as the Robins in those days and had previously been known as the Bridegrooms, were defeated by the Indians five games to two in the best-of-nine series. The team’s rabid fan base remained loyal until after the 1957 season, when the Dodgers, rather than moving to Queens as Robert Moses wished, instead decamped to Los Angeles.

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First Automobile Show Held In NYC (1900)

January 13, 2011 in Photography, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

A ticket to the initial New York Auto Show in 1900 cost fifty cents, which would be more than $12 by today's standards.

The initial New York Auto Show took place in 1900 at Madison Square Garden. There had previously been joint bicycle and auto shows in the Garden (with bicycles in the starring role), but this was the first large-scale, modern car show of its kind in America. And it wasn’t all about internal combustion engines and fossil fuels. An excerpt about the event from the October 13, 1900 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“During the Automobile Show at Madison Square Garden, November 3 to 10, there will be contests of many kinds. The usefulness of the automobile in all kinds of going and under all conditions will be fully tested, and everybody will have an opportunity to see how the experienced chauffeur gets out of trouble. All the contests but these on Friday will be for vehicles on the show, and the programme, under the directions of the technical committee and the contests and exhibition committee of the Automobile Club of America, C.J. Field, chairman, will be as follows–

  • November 3: Brake contest and obstacle contest for steam vehicles.
  • November 5: Brake contest and obstacle contest for electric vehicles.
  • November 6: Brake contest and obstacle contest for gasoline vehicles.
  • November 9: Obstacle contest between electric cabs for hire, competition of electric delivery wagons.
  • November 10: Championship competition and obstacle contest between winners in steam, electric and gasoline, championship between winners of stopping competition in steam, electric and gasoline.”

“I Go To Sleep Dreaming Of Seltzer Bottles”

January 12, 2011 in Books, Excerpts, Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

One of Wang's subjects, bowling alley mechanic Bill Newman, is someone I recall from my childhood in Queens.

Of all my favorite books about NYC, I think the one I love above all others is Harvey Wang’s New York. The 1990 book contains an introduction by Pete Hamill and just a few dozen black-and-white photos with a paragraph of text accompanying each one. And that’s all it needs.

Wang, a photographer and filmmaker, who maintains a website of his work, uses his trusty Leicas and Nikons to capture a phase of the city that had entered into obsolescence and is all but gone now: a New York that wasn’t drunk on self-awareness and star power, a place that was perhaps harder but less self-conscious.

In the book, Wang profiles New Yorkers at work in trades such as blacksmith, mannequin maker and scrap-metal collector, among others. He also interviews a seltzer bottler named George Williams. An excerpt:

“‘I go to sleep dreaming of seltzer bottles,’ says George Williams, who estimates he fills 3,000 empty glass canisters with a mixture of filtered water and carbon dioxide gas every day. He works at G & K Beer Distributors in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Kenny Gomberg, grandson of G & K founder Moe Gomberg says at the beginning seltzer was the biggest part of the business. Now it’s a novelty. George started in the business about thirty-five years ago at Cohen Seltzer Works in Boro Park, one of the dozens of bottlers in business back then. There are just a few left that fill the antique Czech-made bottles with a Barnett and Foster Syphon (sic) Filler machine that dates back to 1910. Says George, ‘The younger generation mostly goes for flavored sodas.'”

ALSO: Harvey Wang is having an exhibit of the many photographs he took of Adam Purple’s amazing Lower East Side earthwork, “The Garden of Eden,” fifteen thousand square feet of natural beauty that the artist somehow grew out of urban blight. It was sadly razed by developers in 1986. Wang’s photographs of the erstwhile oasis and its eccentric creator will be on display at the FusionArts Museum Gallery from February 2-20.

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New Yorkers Listen For News About JFK (1963)

January 9, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Orlando Fernandez took this photo for the "New York World Telegram."

People across the country gathered information instantly from the Internet yesterday about the shooting of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords. But in the pre-wired age, on November 22, 1963, concerned citizens of another tragedy, the assassination of President Kennedy, learned details by flocking to Morel’s Electronics shop in New York City, on Greenwich and Dey Streets. An even earlier generation had learned about the sinking of the Titanic by listening to a wireless transmission at Wanamaker’s department store.

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Before The Quiz Show Scandal Exploded (1957)

January 5, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Host Jack Barry (center) and contestants Vivienne Nearing and Charles Van Doren look tense on "Twenty-One." (Image by Orlando Hernandez / "New York World Telegram.")

The New York World Telegram archives provides this classic 1957 photo of three of the principals of the infamous Quiz Show scandal on the set of the program Twenty-One: Vivienne Nearing, host Jack Barry and beloved champion Charles Van Doren. Before long, all three would be targets of an investigation of the show’s practice of rigging outcomes. What’s amazing is that such intelligent people convinced themselves to do something so stupid, that is was somehow okay because that’s how it was done. It was a stunning level of self-delusion.

It must have been brutal picking up and continuing with life after such public disgrace, especially in an age before disgrace was just another marketing tool. Barry eventually regained his footing in the industry as host of Joker’s Wild. Van Doren resigned his professorship at Columbia and lost his job as an on-air personality on the Today show; he became a writer and editor and now is an adjunct English professor at the University of Connecticut. But what of Nearing, the lawyer and feminist who “dethroned” Van Doren and was convicted of perjury along with 13 others? Her 2007 obituary from the New York Times fills in the blanks:

“Ms. Nearing made headlines in 1957 when she dethroned Charles Van Doren as champion on Twenty-One, the popular quiz show on NBC. She won $5,500 in four appearances before she was defeated.

The glory of the victory came to an end and the headlines turned sour in 1960 when 14 contestants, including Ms. Nearing, were charged with second-degree perjury after falsely telling a grand jury that they had not been fed answers. She told the truth in a second grand jury statement, but was convicted of perjury.

Ms. Nearing was a lawyer for Warner Brothers at the time. She was disbarred for six months in 1962 after pleading guilty the year before to misdemeanor perjury. She eventually moved on to work at the New York-based law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, where she became a senior partner and worked until her death.

Friends and family members said Ms. Nearing did not talk much about the scandal. If people broached the subject, she would change it, Ms. Kiemback said. She refused to be involved in the making of Quiz Show, a 1994 movie about the scandal, and gave up her dream of being a judge for fear of reviving the past.”

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Anarchists Bomb 23 Wall Street (1920)

January 2, 2011 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

The anarchist bombs that rocked 23 Wall Street were contained in a horse-drawn cart.

Long before the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 or the horrors of 9/11, Wall Street was devastated by anarchist bombs. In 1920, the home of JP Morgan & Co., at 23 Wall Street, was the site of an explosion that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. No assailant was ever captured. An excerpt from a 2003 article by James Barron in the New York Times about the largely forgotten tragedy:

“The fortresslike facade of the Morgan building was pocked with craters that remain deep enough to sink a palm into. The columns of what is now Federal Hall, across the street, were blackened. More than 30 people were killed and several hundred wounded, and the damage exceeded $2 million — more than $18.4 million in 2003 dollars.

‘The number of victims, large though it was, cannot convey the extent of the inferno produced by the explosion, the worst of its kind in American history,’ Paul Avrich, a professor of history at Queens College, wrote in reviewing the case more than a decade ago.

The investigators sniffing for clues long ago went from being detectives to historians. The police never charged anyone in the bombing, and it is a mostly forgotten moment in New York City history.

‘Nobody remembers,’ said Beverly Gage, whose book The Wall Street Explosion: Capitalism, Terrorism and the 1920 Bombing of New York, is to be published next year by Oxford University Press.”

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Bicycle Stunts At Keith’s Union Square (1902)

December 30, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

In addition to presenting great bike stunts, Keith's Union Square Theatre was home to the first American exhibition of moving pictures, on June 29, 1896.

In this classic photograph, a quartet of stunt cyclists performs tricks inside a wooden bowl on stage at Keith’s Union Square Theatre in 1902. The entertainment center, originally established in 1870, was purchased, rebuilt and renovated by Boston-based impresario Benjamin Franklin (B. F.) Keith in 1893. An excerpt from a September 18, 1893 New York Times article about what patrons experienced at the vaudeville establishment when it reopened:

“The Union Square Theatre, rebuilt and renovated, decorated with stained glass, ivory-white paint, and resplendent gilding, furnished anew with parlors and retiring rooms, hung with new curtains with silk and plush, was opened yesterday by B. F. Keith of Boston, who has come to New-York to give a fair trial to his Boston plan of ‘continuous performances,’ from noon till 10 o’clock at night, of operetta and variety.

The prices range from 50 cents downward. For the highest price one may secure a seat in the orchestra and retain it ten hours, but no ‘return checks’ are given at the door. Every facility is provided in the house for the comfort of the visitors; families may take luncheons with them if they care to, and eat them in the waiting rooms. But there is nothing to drink in the house except icewater, and there will be no ‘going out for a drink’ between acts. That is the Boston idea.”

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A Balloon Ascends From Wanamaker’s (1911)

December 28, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Albert Leo Stevens opened the first private airfield in the nation in 1909.


On July 8, 1911, aviation pioneer Albert Leo Stevens climbed into a balloon atop the roof of Manhattan’s Wanamaker’s store and attempted a passage to Philadelphia. Things didn’t go so well, and the voyage had to be aborted in West Nyack, New York. It’s a shame, because it was an ideal stunt for Wanamaker’s, a legendary retailer that then had two humongous locations, one in Philadelphia and one in Manhattan.

In 1876, John Wanamaker opened his namesake store in Philadelphia’s decommissioned Pennsylvania Railroad station. It may or may not have been the first real department store in the country, but Wanamaker’s was the grandest of them all. He opened a second mega-outlet in New York in 1896.

In addition to having an astounding number of items for sale, Wanamaker’s was a revolutionary retailer for the way it conducted business, allowing money-back guarantees and inventing the price tag. And the stores were always on the technological cutting edge, being the first shop to have a telephone (in 1879) and having its own wireless radio station.

John Wanamaker died in 1922, and by the middle of century the stores had lost their luster and were bought and sold several times. The location of the original Wanamaker’s was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

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The Great New York-To-Paris Auto Race (1908)

December 22, 2010 in Photography, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Times Square was the starting point for the Great Auto Race in 1908.

The steam locomotive and internal-combustion engine laid to rest what was left of the pioneer spirit of the Old West, but new transportations demanded new pioneers. Automobiles may have been a novel thing in 1908, but their drivers weren’t a timid breed. On February 12th of that year, six cars representing four nations (America, Germany, Italy and France) lined up in Times Square for the start of a treacherous competition that famously became known as the Great Auto Race.

Before this race, no car had ever crossed the U.S. during winter. And when the autos reached the end of the course in one continent, they were transported by ship for the next leg overseas. (Only three teams actually completed the transcontinental competition.) The winner was (spoiler alert) the Thomas Flyer crew from the United States. But the real victor was the automobile itself. The event, which was co-sponsored by the New York Times and Le Matin, received international press and cars began to be viewed favorably on a world stage.

“Just Keep Throwing Liquids For The Sake Of It”

December 21, 2010 in Excerpts, Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Kottke has an interesting post about a “liquids sculptor” named Shinchi Maruyama, who tosses fluids into the air and then photographs what are stunning and momentary shapes. An excerpt from a Dallas Morning News interview with the artist by Nicole Pasulka:

“Dallas Morning News: These images, or sculptures are so exciting, fleeting and unique. How do you determine or control the shape of the water or ink?

Shinchi Maruyama: Just keep throwing the liquids for the sake of it.

Dallas Morning News: It seems there’s a definitive moment of performance in your work, though this be said of all painting and sculpture. Are you more aware of the event or moment of your sculpture because the final result is a photograph?

Shinchi Maruyama: I think I am more aware of the moment recently after many years of experimenting with liquids. But no matter how many times I repeat the same process of throwing it in the air, I never achieve the same result. And I am so fascinated by this unexpected interaction of liquids colliding, which happens fairly infrequently, that I am overwhelmed by its beauty.”

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Newsies Sell Papers On Brooklyn Bridge (1902)

December 19, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Newsies on the Brooklyn Bridge clutch copies of the "Morning Telegraph."

These ragamuffins selling newspapers look cute in their caps and coats, sure, but they were largely homeless children who eked out a meager existence by screaming “Extra, Extra!” and hoping to acquire some change. The newsboys were independent contractors who purchased papers from the publishers, and then worked long hours to make a small profit. Their treatment, especially by Hearst and Pulitzer, was Dickensian, and they went on strike many times. But it was their strike in 1899 that finally showed that child labor had clout and got them a small measure of justice. The great photo above, taken by Lewis Hine, shows the boys poised to peddle their papers. Another Hine photo below, which features a female newsie, was taken outside a Bowery saloon in 1910.



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Ben Hogan Gets A Ticker-Tape Parade (1953)

December 15, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Ben Hogan competed in the British Open only once, in 1953. (Image by Dick DeMarsico.)

For the last dozen years, ticker-tape parades in New York City have been reserved  for when the Yankees or Giants win a championship, but they used to be frequent, even excessive, occurrences.

The first such parade, which took place in 1886 for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, was an unplanned, spontaneous occasion. Since then, Theodore Roosevelt (1910), Albert Einstein (1921), Charles Lindbergh (1927), Amelia Earhart (1928, 1932), Jesse Owens (1936), Howard Hughes (1938), Winston Churchill (1946), Haile Selassie, (1954), the Apollo 11 astronauts (1969) and Nelson Mandela (1990) have been celebrated in such fashion.

Luminaries all, but there’ve been lesser lights who’ve received parades. Amelia Gade Corson (1923) was the first mother to swim the English Channel. Prince Ludovico Spado Potenziani (1928) was the governor of Rome. Viscount Harold Alexander of Tunis (1947) was the governor general of Canada. William V.S. Tubman (1054) was president of Liberia. And Sammy Sosa (1998) was Sammy Sosa (sort of).

Although only one scientist has ever received a ticker-tape parade in NYC (the aforementioned Einstein), there have been loads of athletes to be so honored. The great photo above by Dick DeMarsico of the New York World Telegram captures golfer Ben Hogan mid-parade as he’s celebrated after his victory at the 1953 British Open. You can see more of DeMarsico’s wonderful work here.

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Daniel Polevuy’s Amazing Anachronistic Images

December 14, 2010 in Photography | Permalink

Old-school KISS. (Image by Daniel Polevoy,)

Daniel Polevuy uses Photoshop and a wry imagination to mash up old photographs and modern pop culture, creating glorious anachronisms. Above is an old timey still of a school band that’s been given the KISS treatment. See more of his “Amazing Photo Collages” here. (Thanks Boing Boing.)

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Too Big To Fail: Knickerbocker Trust Co. (1907)

December 12, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Panic came to Wall Street in October 1907. It certainly wouldn't be the last time.

This great (and sadly uncredited) image of the Panic of 1907 captures frenzied bankers collecting near Federal Hall on Wall Street as the entire financial system teetered precariously. The stock market lost half its value as the economy was plagued by liquidity issues, bank runs, the collapse of the Knickerbocker Trust Company (which attempted and failed to corner the copper market) and risky bucket shop operations. All seemed lost.

But the turmoil subsided when fat-pocketed plutocrat J.P. Morgan ponied up a large sum of his own dough to prop up the system and avert disaster. No one could save the day 22 years later, however, as even dicier schemes caused the stock market to collapse and the Great Depression to begin in earnest.

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Pro-Nazi Parade Menaces Manhattan (1939)

December 9, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Manhattan parade goers display both American and Nazi flags in 1939.

A parade in New York City–what could be lovelier? Except this parade, which took place in Upper Manhattan in 1939, was a rally held by the German-American Bund organization to show support for Hitler’s Nazi Germany. As shocking as it may seem now, marchers carried both American and Nazi flags through city streets. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia denounced the parade and attendance was limited. But the group’s rally in Madison Square Garden in February 1939 reportedly drew 20,000. During that event, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was mocked and called “Frank D. Rosenfeld.” The German-American Bund ceased to exist soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but it left a hateful if largely forgotten mark on the city.

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Estée Lauder Applies Her Trade (1966)

December 5, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Estée Lauder: "When you stop talking, you've lost a customer. When you turn your back, you've lost her." (Image by Bill Sauro.)

Estée Lauder’s cosmetics empire was built more on her makeup as a person than on the kind that’s applied to faces. Raised in Queens, Lauder simply outhustled everyone in her field and never grew complacent. She provides the personal touch for a customer in this great 1966 picture by World Journal Tribune photographer William Sauro. (Sauro had already won the George Polk Memorial Award for his amazing shot of Helen Keller “listening” to Eleanor Roosevelt with her fingertips; he would subsequently work for the New York Times for the last three decades of his career.)

An excerpt from Grace Mirabella’s 1998 Time article about Lauder, on the occasion of her being the only woman selected for the magazine’s list of 20th-century business geniuses:

“You more or less know the Estée Lauder story because it’s a chapter from the book of American business folklore. In short, Josephine Esther Mentzer, daughter of immigrants, lived above her father’s hardware store in Corona, a section of Queens in New York City. She started her enterprise by selling skin creams concocted by her uncle, a chemist, in beauty shops, beach clubs and resorts.

No doubt the potions were good–Estée Lauder was a quality fanatic–but the saleslady was better. Much better. And she simply outworked everyone else in the cosmetics industry. She stalked the bosses of New York City department stores until she got some counter space at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1948. And once in that space, she utilized a personal selling approach that proved as potent as the promise of her skin regimens and perfumes.

‘Ambition.’ Ask Leonard for one defining word about his mother, and that’s his choice.”

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Robert Moses Builds His New York City (1939)

December 1, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Robert Moses plans the Battery Bridge in 1939. (Image by C.M. Stieglitz.)

Robert Moses was never elected, but then kings don’t need to be. Moses was the master builder of New York City who held sway over the creation of bridges, parks, highways, museums and skyscrapers for several decades last century. As head of numerous public authorities (most of which he created), Moses was insulated from public opinion and had the type of control over the city’s fate that no single person will ever have again. Even though he created many new acres of park lands, Moses’ passion for automobiles and towers over public transportation and small neighborhoods eventually made him a reviled figure and Jane Jacobs, his arch-foe, a leading urban theorist.

C.M. Stieglitz’s 1939 World Telegram image of Robert Moses looking down on a scale model of the proposed Battery Bridge as if it were a child’s toy may say as much about Moses as Robert Caro did in his sprawling, devastating 1974 biography, Power Broker. That’s no small praise since Caro’s book may be the single best history about New York City in the 20th century.

From Paul Goldberger’s 1981 New York Times obituary about Moses:

“Robert Moses, who played a larger role in shaping the physical environment of New York State than any other figure in the 20th century, died early yesterday at West Islip, L.I. Mr. Moses, whose long list of public offices only begins to hint at his impact on both the city and state of New York, was 92 years old.

A spokesman for Good Samaritan Hospital said he had been taken there Tuesday afternoon from his summer home in Gilgo Beach. The cause of death was given as heart failure.

‘Those who can, build,’ Mr. Moses once said. ‘Those who can’t, criticize.’ Robert Moses was, in every sense of the word, New York’s master builder. Neither an architect, a planner, a lawyer nor even, in the strictest sense, a politician, he changed the face of the state more than anyone. Before him, there was no Triborough Bridge, Jones Beach State Park, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, West Side Highway or Long Island parkway system or Niagara and St. Lawrence power projects. He built all of these and more.”

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Inside The New York Times Newsroom (1942)

November 28, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Photographer Marjory Collins may have been the only woman in the room.

It’s the New York Times in 1942: white guys, typewriters, old timey telephones. Shockingly, no one in this fun photo is smoking. The casual-looking reporters are killing time until they’re sent out on an assignment. The rewrite man in the back is getting info over the phone so he can file a report.

The photographer with the great eye responsible for this picture is Marjory Collins (1912-1985), a pioneering female photojournalist who took many other great pictures. The Library of Congress has a biographical sketch of Collins. An excerpt:

“Marjory Collins described herself as a ‘rebel looking for a cause.’ She began her photojournalism career in New York City in the 1930s by working for such magazines as PM and U.S. Camera. At a time when relatively few women were full-time magazine photographers, such major photo agencies as Black Star, Associated Press, PIX, and Time, Inc., all represented her work.

In 1941, Collins joined Roy Stryker‘s team of photographers at the U.S. Office of War Information to document home front activities during World War II. She created remarkable visual stories of small town life, ethnic communities, and women war workers. The more than 3,000 images she took in 1942-43 are preserved in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

After World War II, Collins combined three careers–photographer, editor, and writer. She traveled internationally as a freelance photographer for both the U.S. government and the commercial press. She also participated in social and political causes and was an active feminist who founded the journal Prime Time (1971-76) ‘for and by older women.'”

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Prodigy Plays Pool At Grand Central Station (1966)

November 24, 2010 in Photography, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Jean Balukas puts on a special exhibition at Grand Central Station in 1966.

Jean Balukas is the Brooklyn-born pool prodigy who was wowing spectators from the time she was tiny. In this photograph. six-year-old Jean puts on a display of her cue work at Grand Central Station. And her amazing talents didn’t dry up in youth: Balukas had one of the greatest careers in the game’s history. She was also known as a strong-willed individual who rebelled against the accepted dress codes for the sport’s women and eventually burned out on the game because of too much self-imposed pressure to win each match. She retired to manage her family’s pool hall in Bay Ridge.

In the video below, Balukas shares her talents (and great Brooklyn accent) with Steve Allen on I’ve Got a Secret.

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Houdini Makes An Elephant Disappear (1918)

November 21, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Houdini fired a pistol in the air and--poof!--Jennie was gone.

The Hippodrome was a large-scale Manhattan entertainment venue that struggled mightily to make money in its later life, finally closing in 1939. But it had some great moments during its glory years. One such sensation was the time in 1918 when Harry Houdini made Jennie, a several-ton elephant, vanish into thin air in front of a 5,000 awed patrons. How did he do it? Mirrors. A 2007 Daily Mail article recalls the spectacular moment and its backstory. An excerpt:

“‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Houdini cried as, to the audience’s alarm, a full-grown Asian elephant, 8ft tall and weighing over 6,000lb, came running pacily into view. ‘Allow me to introduce Jennie, the world’s only vanishing elephant.’

Jennie the elephant proudly raised her trunk in greeting to the wide-eyed masses, before being led into a huge, brightly coloured box on wheels. The doors were closed behind her, there was a dramatic drum roll and the stage hands flung open the doors at both ends of the box to reveal that it was now – completely empty.

Houdini announced to rapturous applause: ‘You can plainly see, the animal is completely gone.’

The Vanishing Elephant became one of Houdini’s most famous tricks and he performed it in front of over a million people. For more than 90 years, long after his death, the tradecraft by which he made this huge beast disappear remained a secret even other magicians failed to solve.”

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Graffiti On The Subway, New York City (1973)

November 17, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

Some great graffiti artists emerged in the '80s (Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat most famously), but a lot of the taggers in the '70s were more concerned with quantity than quality. (Image by Erik Calonius.)

Thanks to bungling by elected officials, New York City started to fall apart financially in the 1960s and it all came crashing down in the ’70s. Vandalism, crime and litter were only the most obvious signs of a city in decline, one that could no longer pay for its most basic services. Two years after this photo was taken, Gerald Ford told New York to “Drop Dead” (though he never really put it quite so harshly; the Daily News did), and we were left to fix our own problems. Ed Koch was far from perfect, but he was the first Mayor to begin cleaning up the mess, instituting bold quality-of-life measures. New subway cars were made with the type of surface that allowed city workers to quickly clean off graffiti paint, “litterpigs” were threatened with fines, pooper-scooper laws were passed and the renewal of Times Square took its first baby steps.

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Comet Theatre, The 5¢ Theatre, NYC (1917)

November 14, 2010 in Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

“High Class Motion Pictures & Illustrated Songs.”

I’m not quite sure which Comet Theatre location in New York City is pictured above. Because of the sensation that Hailey’s Comet caused in 1910 when it was visible from Earth, many businesses used the “Comet” name in the subsequent decade, theaters especially. The featured movie playing on this particular day was a 10-minute short called “For Honor’s Sake.” There was also a film of the racially charged 1910 boxing match between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries, which was known as “The Fight of the Century.” (Jeffries received a vicious ass-whooping.) If you look closely at the signage, the Comet promised to provide “Iced Air,” which, in the pre-air-conditioning age, meant blocks of ice sitting in front of a fan.

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Elephant Versus Donkey In Race From Luna Park In Coney Island To Washington D.C. (1911)

November 11, 2010 in Photography, Politics, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Sheets draped on the animals read: "To The White House Or Bust!"

In July 1911, Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, was the starting line of a race between an elephant and a donkey, which was to conclude in Washington D.C. The stunt was supposed to be a predictor of the following year’s Presidential election. Luna Park owner Frederic Thompson backed the Dems’ beast of burden, while “Uncle” Joe Cannon, the Republican stalwart and former Speaker of the House, seconded the GOP pachyderm. The two men wagered a cigar on the outcome, and the race received national attention.

The contest was threatened when Jennie the Donkey died from heatstroke on the eve of the battle and had to be replaced by Jennie II. Judy the Elephant showed up ready and willing as expected. The animals strode over the Manhattan Bridge, down Broadway and rode aboard the Staten Island Ferry. Jennie II took an early lead, but the rivals were soon even once more. Frustratingly, both archived articles on the New York Times site (here and here) focus only on the early part of the race, and don’t provide the result.

If the subsequent election was any indication, Jennie II won easily: Democrat Woodrow Wilson trounced Republican William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.

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