Posted: Apr 25, 2013 | 5:52 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1785: Naturalist, ornithologist, and artist John James Audubon born in Haiti.
1822: Frederick Law Olmsted father of landscape architecture and co-designer of Central Park born. He died 1905.
Central Park walking tours.
1859: Businessman, inventor, and philanthropist
Peter Cooper established
Cooper Union with the goal of educating all regardless of race, gender or religion.
East Village walking tours. 8th Street walking tours.
1961: Roger Maris, Yankee outfielder, hit the first of what will be a record 61 home runs in a season. The record will stand for 37 years.
1914, Bernard Malamud, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was born in Brooklyn. He died 1986.
Lower East Side walking tours. Jewish heritage tours.
1989: Actress-comedian-producer Lucille Ball died at 77.
Posted: Apr 25, 2013 | 12:25 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1664: The Duke of York dispatched a fleet to capture New Netherlands from the Dutch. When that worked out for him, he renamed the city after his namesake.
April 25, 1795, the cornerstone of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery was laid over the Dutch Reform Protestant Chapel of the last Nieuw Amsterdam Governor Pieter Stuyvesant.
1901: New York became the first state to require automobile license plates.
1908, Edward R. Murrow, the influential radio and television broadcaster during the industry's formative years, was born. He died 1965.
We walk in his haunts in the media capitol, on midtown tours.
1917: Jazz singing great Ella Fitzgerald born in Virginia. As a teenager she made her career in Harlem.
Here is one of my favorite Apollo Theater stories, paraphrased from her website:
'In 1934, at 17, she competed in Amateur Night. Ella went planning to dance, but she felt her act would not compare. Once on stage, faced with boos and murmurs of "What's she going to do?" from the rowdy crowd, a scared and disheveled Ella made the last minute decision to sing. Ella quickly quieted the audience, and by the song's end they were demanding an encore. A few months later she joined Chick Webb's Orchestra.'
We experience this on Harlem tours.
1930: Paul Mazursky, actor, director, writer, screenwriter, born this day in Brooklyn.
We walk in his footsteps on Greenwich Village tours and Brooklyn tours.
1940: Happy Birthday, actor Al Pacino, born in Manhattan.
We see where Pacino got his start in theater on Broadway tours; We see Serpico's neighborhood on Greenwich Village tours, and where he drove blind in "Scent of a Woman" on DuMBO tours on Brooklyn tours.
1964: Happy Birthday, voice actor famous for "The Simpsons," actor, comedian, and director Hank Azaria born in Queens.
2007: The Dow Jones industrial average topped 13,000 for the first time, ending the day at 13,089.89. A lot of good that did us in early 2009. We explore cycles of boom and bust and financial history on Wall Street tours, Financial District tours, Colonial NYC tours, Dutch New Amsterdam tours, and Downtown tours.
Posted: Apr 23, 2013 | 4:33 AM
by Jared Goldstein
"I can't imagine anyone being more knowledgeable, informed, engaging and personable than Jared, particularly about the neighborhood he knows personally from his own family history.
Our Urban Adventure tour exceeded whatever expectations we might have had and we enjoyed the experience very much."
Mr. James D.
USA ~ 13 Nov 2011
Full Story
Posted: Apr 23, 2013 | 3:59 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1775: Inspired by colonial clashes at the battles of Lexington and Concord, revolutionary NYC crowds seized British weapons and formed a militia.
Colonial NYC tours.
1789: President-elect George Washington and wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House in New York City, loaned by a local Quaker merchant.
Washington lived in the mansion on the right corner.
George Washington's New York Tour, George Washington the NYC Tour, South Street Seaport tour, Colonial tour, Colonial NYC tour.
1932: "The premier fashion designer of all America,"
Halston, born in Des Moines, Iowa.
He broke out with Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat, became America's first world-class designer, invented designer licensing, and dressed
Liz Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger, and.... He also designed uniforms such as for the Girl Scouts and the NYPD.
1968: Columbia University students began a
week-long occupation of several campus buildings
in protest against university involvement in the Vietnam War as well as building a community-segregated gym on public property.
Sampling CU President Grayson Kirk's cigars and brandy.
Columbia tour, Columbia University tour, Uptown tour, Harlem tour.
Posted: Apr 21, 2013 | 12:52 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1884: The birth of Madison Square park; it was built on a Potters Field at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. It shortly became the center of town.
Madison Square tour, Flatiron District tours, Christmas tour, Holiday Lights tour, Santa Claus tour, Santa's NYC tour, Santa the NYC Tour, City Lights tour, and Chelsea tours.
1910: Mark Twain died in CT at 74.
We see his apartment house on Greenwich village tours.
1947: Iggy Pop, Rock star, born.
We see his neighborhood on East Village tours, East Village Community Gardens Tour, Community Gardens of the East Village Tour, and Community Gardens tour.
1949: Patti LuPone, actress, singer born.
Broadway tours, Times Square tours, Theater District tours, Theatre District tours.
1951: Tony Danza, Actor "Taxi," and "Who's the Boss?", born in Brooklyn.
1959: Thousands
welcomed Cuba's new Premier Fidel Castro to his
four-day stay.
Castro was surrounded by the largest security detail ever assigned a visitor to the city, since discovery of plans for his assassination. The following year he would have reason to suspect that part of his security detail would be after him, too, as the CIA and organized crime preferred him out of the picture.
1970: Comedian, actor, and Marines veteran Rob Riggle born.
1977: The musical "Annie," based on the "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip, debuted on Broadway. She returned to Broadway in 2013.
She probably will return every ten years or so, as has been happening, as a new crop of girls mature who never saw her before.
Posted: Apr 20, 2013 | 3:02 PM
by Jared Goldstein
This autumn 2013, I will be teaching a Continuing Education course at Bergen Community College to qualify people for being an officially licensed NYC Tour Guide.
Consider signing up!
Full Story
Posted: Apr 20, 2013 | 1:27 AM
1777: New York adopts its constitution as an independent state, and it elects George Clinton as its first Governor.
1812: George Clinton --
War hero, New York's Governor 1777-1795 and 1801-1804, third Vice-President of the United States, and Chancellor of Columbia University -- died at 73.
1850: Sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, Daniel Chester French, born in New Hampshire. He had a residence and
studio in NYC from the 1880s through his death in 1931. He was active in local arts organizations, including serving as a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
We touch upon French's work on Downtown tours and Financial District tours when we see his
"The Four Continents" sculptures
in front of the US Customs House. Their symbolisms are ironic on several levels, but their beauty is constant.
We also touch upon Daniel Chester French on Greenwich Village tours and
Columbia University tours where we see his "Alma Mater."
1860: Steam turbine inventor Charles G. Curtis born in Boston. He died in 1953.
1903: The New York Highlanders,
predecessors to the 1913 Yankees, played their first game, losing to Washington 3-1.
1939: New York World's Fair opened
with
Grover Whalen as greeter.
1951: General Douglas MacArthur was honored by 7.5 million with a ticker-tape parade shortly after Truman fired him from leading the Korean War; he was also a World War II Pacific theater hero.
Grover Whalen was his greeter.
1964: Happy Birthday to New York born actor, Crispin Glover.
1977: Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" premiered.
1988: The Yankees scored their 10,000th home run by Claudell Washington. Dave Winfield scored the penultimate run, and Jack Carter's subsequent homer garnered victory 7-6 over the Minnesota Twins in ten innings.
Posted: Apr 18, 2013 | 10:51 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1861: Thousands throng Broadway to cheer New York's soldiers marching to the Civil War.
1945: Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "Carousel" debuted on Broadway.
1965: New York City finally enacted the Landmarks Law, preserving in subsequent decades over two thousand buildings and districts. The preservation movement grew from the rubble of the original magnificent Penn Station demolished in 1963.
We explore landmarking on these NYC tours: Wall Street tours, Colonial NYC tours, SoHo tours, Brooklyn Heights tours, Harlem tours, Greenwich Village tours, and Grand Central tours. If you see a brown sign, look around.
1989..."The Central Park Jogger" was brutally raped and beaten to near death. Five teenagers were convicted in the media and the courts. Pretty much everyone thought they did it. Turns out not.
2001: Mel Brooks' musical "The Producers" debuted on Broadway onto six years, 2502 performances, and 12 Tony awards.
