Posted: Apr 13, 2013 | 12:45 AM
1670: The English buy Staten Island from the Algonquin Natives. After the real estate was cleared a real estate boom bloomed.
We go to Staten Island on New York Harbor tours, and Staten Island tours.
1870: The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated.
We go by the Museum on Central Park tours, Upper East Side tours, MSO tours aka Manhattan Step on tours, aka Manhattan Step-on tours, aka Manhattan Sights Orientation coach bus tours.
1895: Forest Park in Queens was founded. The City of Brooklyn purchased more than 500 acres that summer for design by famed Central Park designer Frederic Law Olmsted.
1939: Actor Paul Sorvino born in Brooklyn.
1940: The New York Rangers Hockey team won the Stanley Cup, besting the Toronto Maple Leafs in a six games. The next cup will not return until 1994. In the meantime, rivals' fans would chant "1940" to razz the team. The 1994 celebration was unforgettable. I was there as crowds marched down Seventh Avenue over honking cars stopped in traffic.
We see the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame on Midtown tours and Penn Station tours.
1950: Actor Ron Perlman born and raised in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
1951: Drummer Max Weinberg of the E Street Band and Late Night with Conan O'Brien born in NJ.
1964: Sidney Poitier won the Best Actor Academy Award for "Lilies of the Field, " becoming the became the first black performer to do so. His career in acting developed in Harlem.
Posted: Apr 12, 2013 | 3:56 PM
I love touring with Germans. Their longer-than-average bookings, sometimes multi-day marathons, go in-depth to off-the-beaten-track places. They have exhibited passion for traveling, learning, experiencing local life, photography (which one must be careful about), and ideas.
Dietrich and I explored Bushwick, er East-East Williamsburg, Street Art and vernacular culture, Williamsburg, and Polish Greenpoint on Day 1. Keywords: Bushwich tour, Williamsburg tour, Greenpoint tour, Brooklyn tour.The next day we took a journey from City College through Harlem with local soul food, cultural, civil rights, church, store, and sports stops, as well as a couple of drinks at the more than 40-year-old Paris Cafe where we talked with the owner and the longtime bartender at this nightly jazz club. Then we toured some more and concluded with a drink at The Showman's Bar, established 1942.
Harlem offered local folks chiming in, friendily, on my tours, as well as local characters like Otis Houston, Jr. "The Black Cherokee," who wears shorts and boxing gloves, rapping poetry about a clean life. This time he had a coconut helmet topped with a mango. He had an assistant collecting his tips so as not interfere with his performance, the subject of the afore-linked documentary.
There was another guy working out using a bungee cord against a traffic pole. Then we had a couple of throwbacks. The screaming crackhead that everyone did their best to ignore near a bus stop. The heroin addict doing what I call "junky yoga." His demonstration was slumping to the sidewalk while standing and holding the post indefinitely.
A guy in the 135th Street subway station muttered that I talked like a bitch ass, which was confrontational, but which I acted like I ignored him, so he repeated it a few times. I am not sure if Dietrich caught that.
Usually Harlem's people are very kind and welcoming. One lady was pleased to learn about
the ubiquitous green man, who she said she was going to ask her children to count.
Another, after parking a mid sized car from the 1980s, enjoyed my talk about Striver's Row. A construction worker seemed to quietly appreciate my talk outside Mother Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church. I take this as a compliment because in Harlem, if someone disagrees with your tour, or thinks they do, you and your group will hear about that. As they say at the Apollo Theater on Amateur Night, "Be good, or be gone."
I have had many other magical tour moments, mostly in Harlem, over the years.
One thing about the denizens of Harlem, they are interested and interesting. The same goes for German tourists. I love them both.Keywords: Harlem tour.
Things I learned: Germany does not have 99c stores, nor food by the pound, nor shabby glory.
By that I mean, while touring down Lenox (Malcolm X Blvd) we saw newly renovated row houses and rapidly gentrifying businesses, much like how the area was developed in the 1870s, except that this Harlem Champs Elysees is just completing its transformation back to the future.
Then we went up Adam Clayton Powell (7th Ave) and we experienced more of the Harlem of the early 1990s, more run-down buildings, yet it was obvious how well-built and architecturally rich they are. Some of the street life was run down as well. Mostly harmless if treated the right way.
In Munich, if a building and a neighborhood is for the wealthy, it stays that way for maybe hundreds of years. In NYC twenty years is plenty occasion for tremendously rapid change. ACP Blvd, is a window, somewhat, to the past, certainly to regular people Harlem.
Full Story
Posted: Apr 12, 2013 | 3:23 AM
1842: Mutual of New York (MoNY) was chartered to sell life insurance. The firm, co-founded by John Pintard, established many modern standards and practices.
We learn about John Pintard on Santa Claus the NYC Tour, aka Santa Claus tour, aka Santa's NYC tour.
1878: "Boss" Tweed, the graft politician synonymous with corruption and machine politics, died in the Ludlow Street Jail.
We see where Tweed's jail was on Lower East Side tours. We also explore Tweed's legacy on Santa Claus' NYC Tour, aka the Santa Claus tour, aka Santa's NYC Tour.
1947: Late Show host David Letterman's birthday.
We see Letterman's show headquarters, the Ed Sullivan Theater, on Theater District tours, Broadway tours, Midtown tours, and on John Lennon's NYC tour, aka John Lennon the NYC Tour.
Full Story
Posted: Apr 10, 2013 | 10:26 PM
1908: Leo Rosten, humorist who brought Yiddish to American mainstream culture, born. He died in 1997.
We touch upon Yiddish culture in Lower East Side tours, East Village tours, and Jewish tours.
1919: Governor Hugh Carey born in Brooklyn. He was a vital link between the state and the city governments during NYC's fiscal crisis in the 1970s. Appropriately, the Brooklyn to Battery Tunnel was renamed for him in December 2010, months before he died.
We see this tunnel's entrance on Downtown tours, Colonial NYC tours, New Amsterdam tours, early America tours, and Financial District tours.
1932: Happy Birthday to
Joel Grey, famous for "Cabaret" (and his "Dirty Dancing" daughter Jennifer Grey from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off.")
1947: Jackie Robinson racially integrated baseball with his major league debut in an exhibition game between the Dodgers and the Yankees. It was a rough start for Robinson. Even some of his teammates did not want to play with him.
1950: Happy Birthday to funny man and philanthropist Bill Irwin .
1970: Abortion legalized in New York State after Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed it into law.
1980: Happy Birthday Mark Teixeira, Yankees first baseman.
Posted: Apr 9, 2013 | 11:17 PM
1810: Benjamin H. Day the New York Sun's founder born. He died in 1889.
We see the New York Sun's old headquarters on Newspaper Row on Santa Claus tours, aka Santa's NYC Tour, aka Santa the New York City Tour, aka Santa the NYC Tour, as well as NYC architecture tours, Downtown tours, Municipal District tours, and Brooklyn Bridge tours.
The Sun: It Shines for All.
1836: The birth of the sensational American tabloid news story: Richard Robinson, a wealthy 'john' of prostitute Helen Jewett, hacked her to death in her bed after she threatened to tell his fiancee about their trysts. He was charged with murder. Robinson was later acquitted because "No man should hang for the murder of a whore."
1841: The New York Daily Tribune premiered with Horace Greeley as its first editor. In that era, being editor of a New York paper made you a nationally influential figure, sometimes a politician.
1847: Perhaps New York City's most famous Hungarian immigrant, Joseph Pulitzer who published the number one newspaper in the world, The World, which was in the world's tallest building, which helped invent investigative reporting, was born. Joseph Pulitzer led the campaign for immigrants to pay for the construction of the 'Statue of Liberty' in New York Harbor, including commissioning the famous poem, "The New Colossus," by Emma Lazarus: "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
We pay tribute to Joseph Pulitzer on Statue of Liberty tours, and on New York Harbor tours. We see Newspaper Row on Santa Claus tours, aka Santa's NYC Tour, aka Santa the New York City Tour, aka Santa the NYC Tour, as well as Downtown tours, architecture tours, and World Trade Center tours.
1866: The ASPCA was incorporated to save New York City's work horses from being beaten to death in the streets, and to save all animals from cruelty. New York State chartered the organization to enforce the state's pioneering humane laws.
We see the ASPCA horse fountains on Central Park tours. We see the ASPCA Fountain on Upper West Side tours and Riverside Park tours.
1880: Frances Perkins, the first woman cabinet member (1933-45) as the Secretary of Labor, started her career in the wake of the Triangle Manufacturing Disaster of 1911. She said the New Deal Reforms that she introduced and emplaced were born twenty years earlier from the blood on the streets outside the factory. She died in 1965.
We see the Triangle Shirtwaist Manufacturing Company on Greenwich Village tours, NYU tours aka New York University Tours, East Village Tours, Immigration tours, and Lower East Side tours.
See also March 4th.
See also December 30th.
See also March 25th 1911.
1913: The Titanic embarked on its journey from Southampton UK to France, then Ireland on its way to New York City. Five days later it will sink, killing hundreds of passengers.
We see the Pier at which the Titanic was supposed to dock on Highline tours, M.S.O. tours a,ka Manhattan Step On tours, aka Manhattan Sites Orientation tours.
We see the Lighthouse that was supposed to greet the Titanic on Seaport tours aka South Street Seaport tours.
1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" was published.
We see where Fitzgerald and Hemingway's publisher was on Midtown tours, Fifth Avenue tours, Rockefeller Center tours, MSO tours, Manhattan Step-on Guide tours, and Manhattan sights orientation tours.
1947: Brooklyn Dodgers Manager
Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play in Major League Baseball, integrating the white league with a talented, pleasant, but tough player.
I wonder about those crackers who threw insults and garbage at him. Do they remember doing it? Do they feel regret? Pride? How do they feel about baseball today? Did they switch to other sports? Have they learned anything?
1960: Rapper Afrika Bambaataa born in the Bronx.
Posted: Apr 9, 2013 | 8:14 AM
1691: NYC's representative government system began in a Pearl Street Tavern as its first elected assembly met there.
We visit the site of Governor Lovelace's Tavern on Downtown tours, Financial District tours, and Colonial NYC tours.
1813: New York legalized slaves' marriages.
1888: Sal Hurok born in Russia (now Ukraine). As an impresario he popularized ballet and classical music in the United States. He died in 1974.
1898: Paul Robeson, deep baritone singer "Old Man River," actor, and civil rights leader born. An amazing individual. We see where he lived on Harlem tours, Uptown tours, and Columbia tours. He died in 1976.
1913: The Brooklyn Dodgers' new stadium, Ebbet's Field, opens.
1947: Brooklyn Dodger manager Leo "the Lip" Durocher suspended from baseball for associating with gamblers.
1965: Happy Birthday to Czech model Paulina Porizkova, wife of Ric Ocasek.
Apparently my fiancee and I walked past them. I found out when fiancee accused me of looking at the model, but I was navigating the sidewalk and only noted two tall people dressed darkly. That neighborhood is on my Chelsea tours, Flatiron District tours, and Manhattan Step On tours, aka MSO tours, aka Manhattan Sights Orientation tours.
1966: Happy Birthday Cynthia Nixon, an actress famous for "Sex and the City." She is a frequent Broadway player.
I used to see her on Columbia's campus as an undergrad. We see that neighborhood on Columbia University tours, Uptown tours, and some MSO tours, aka Manhattan Step-on tours, aka Manhattan Sights Orientation tours.
Posted: Apr 8, 2013 | 12:01 AM
1880: Millionaires Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and other wealthy New Yorkers founded the Metropolitan Opera after they were shut out from obtaining
the Academy of Music's conspicuous box seats.
1880...After they are unable to get box seats at the Academy of Music on 14th Street, millionaires Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould join other wealthy New Yorkers to form another company – The Metropolitan Opera. The Metropolitan will open in three-and-a-half years. See October 22nd.
We see where the 14th Street locations of the Academy of Music were on East Village tours, Union Square tours, Irving Place tours, and Gramercy Park tours. We see the Metropolitan Opera on Upper West Side tours, and MSO tours aka Manhattan Step On Guide Tours, aka Manhattan Sights Orientation tours.
1992: Beloved Tennis player and activist Arthur Ashe announced that he had AIDS from a blood transfusion. He died in 1993.
We see where Ashe volunteered in philanthropy at the Commonwealth Foundation, in the gorgeous old Harkness Mansion on Upper East Side tours, and Manhattan Step-on tours (MSO), aka Manhattan Sights Orientation tours.
Full Story
Posted: Apr 7, 2013 | 12:37 AM
1795: The African-American burial ground is set aside off Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Between five to twenty thousand are interred in and around the plot since the mid 1600s.
The City expanded over it.
In 1991, remains were unearthed during construction of a federal parking lot. Luckily for history, NYC had it's first Black Mayor, Dinkins, and the USA had "it's first Black President," Clinton, in office to get the remains analyzed, set the property aside and get it developed as "The African Burial Ground."
We discover the African Burial Ground on Downtown tours, immigration tours, Colonial NYC tours, and we explore the legacy of America's first Black President, Bill Clinton, on Harlem tours.
1873: John McGraw, thirty season manager of the New York Giants (1902-1932) born. He died in 1934.
1897: Walter Winchell, influential and powerful journalist who invented gossip reporting, born in NYC. After decades on top he died in obscurity in 1972.
1915: Jazz songstress Billie Holiday born.
We go by some of her jazz haunts on Harlem tours.
1927: The first successful long-distance demonstration of television It was a live transmission of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover from Washington to New York.
It was over AT&T Bell Labs phone lines using a technology similar to a fax machine.
1949: Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "South Pacific" debuted on Broadway.
1951: Singer-songwriter Janice Ian born in the Bronx. She started her career at 15 in Greenwich Village, and performed on the debut of Saturday Night Live.
We experience Greenwich Village's musical heritage on Greenwich Village tours, and we see where Saturday Night Live is broadcast from on Rockefeller Center tours.
1953: The U.N. General Assembly elected Sweden's Dag Hammarskjold to be secretary-general.
1971: The country's first legalized Off-Track Betting system, OTB, opened.
1975: Tiki Barber, NY Giants star, sports and newscaster, born in Virginia.
Posted: Apr 5, 2013 | 11:37 PM
1712: NYC's first Slave Revolt: Nine whites were killed, then six slaves were killed by British soldiers quelling the uprising.
1789: The US Senate achieved its first quorum and elected its officers; Electoral College ballots were counted, and
George Washington was unanimously elected President of the United States.
We visit where this happened, at Federal Hall, on Downtown tours, George Washington's New York City Tour, Santa Claus the NYC Tour, and my New York City Birth of a Nation Tour.
1845: A group of German immigrants met in a second floor loft on the Lower East Side to form NYC's first reform Jewish congregation. The influx and success of German Jewish immigrants enabled the congregation's growth and moves uptown. Today the congregation is housed in
the Upper East Side's Temple Emanu-el – the largest synagogue in the world.
We go by
Temple Emanu-el on Upper East Side tours, and my MSO tours, aka Manhattan Step On tours or Manhattan Sights Orientation tours, as well as Jewish New York City tours, aka Jewish NYC tours.
1892: Donald W. Douglas, Sr., founder of Douglas aircraft, born in Brooklyn in modest middle class circumstances. Douglas' manufacturing occurred outside of NYC.
1975: Zach Braff, actor, born in NJ.
1992: Prolific author, most known for science fiction, and Columbia grad, Isaac Asimov died at 72.
We visit Columbia University on Columbia tours, aka Columbia University tours, as well as Uptown tours.
1998: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000 points for the first time. Irrational exuberance? The Dot Com boom: I was there. Exciting, fun, stupid, brilliant, far-out: I see some parallels in the tourism industry with a few industry players and wannabes. I've learned to trust my gut and to say no.
Posted: Apr 5, 2013 | 12:49 AM
1807: A panel is appointed to plan the layout of streets for fast-growing New York City, doubling every ten years through the early 20th Century. They recommended the real estate industry friendly grid roughly running east-west and north-south.
We see the seams and limits of the grid on SoHo tours, Greenwich Village tours, Lower East Side tours, Chelsea tours, Santa Claus Tours.
Note to self: What role did John Jacob Astor have in the creation of the grid?
1937: Former Secretary of State, pride of the Bronx and City College Colin Powell born.
We see City College on Harlem tours and Washington Heights tours.
1943: Actor Max Gail from "Barney Miller" born.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.
Ethel wasn't guilty and we see where her jail was on Greenwich Village tours.