Jared The NYC Tour Guide® | Custom walking tours of New York City

Jared the NYC Tour Guide Blog

Posted: Jul 12, 2013 | 12:57 PM

July 12th: a virtual NYC Walking Tour through History

1804: Alexander Hamilton died of wounds relating to his duel a few days prior.

We explore Hamiliton's legacy on Colonial NYC tours and Downtown tours.

1871: Fifty killed in gunfire during the Orange Society parade on Eighth Avenue celebrating the Protestant victory over Catholics in Northern Ireland in 1690.

1895: Broadway lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II born in New York City the year his cigar magnate father started building theaters.

1908: Comedian Milton Berle born as Mendel Berlinger in New York City.

1912: Full length feature motion pictures become respectable in America. Adolph Zukor co-produced the French production and screening of "Queen Elizabeth," starring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress, at the Lyceum Theater, which brought in high society and respectability. The film then toured the USA, bringing in high profits. Keep in mind that in 1912 most motion pictures were hand-cranked soft-porn.

1976: The Democrats opened their national convention in
Madison Square Garden where three days later they would nominate Georgia governor Jimmy Carter for president.

1984: Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale named New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro his running mate; the first woman to run on a major party ticket.

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Posted: Jul 11, 2013 | 12:20 AM
by Jared Goldstein

It is great to be part of the best day of someone's life

Yesterday a tour-goer in her 20s said it was the best day of her life, seeing New York City.

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Posted: Jul 11, 2013 | 12:09 AM
by Jared Goldstein

July 11th in NYC History

1804Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J.

John Wanamaker 7/11/1838 - 12/12/1922
American businessman; founded Wanamaker department stores

1899, E. B. White, the American writer of essays and children's books, was born. Following his death on Oct. 1, 1985,

Yul Brynner 7/11/1920 - 10/10/1985
American stage and motion-picture actor

1936: The TriBoro Bridge opened.

1959Suzanne Vega, Singer

1960"To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, was published.

1975Lil' Kim, Rapper

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Posted: Jul 10, 2013 | 1:56 PM

July 10th: a Virtual NYC Walking Tour through History

1856: Nikola Tesla, scientific pioneer and New Yorker,

born in Austro-Hungary. He died 1/7/1943.

1921: Jake LaMotta, Boxing Hall of Famer, Happy Birthday.

1927: Former Mayor (1990-1994) David Dinkins, born. Dinkins is credited as NYC's first Black Mayor. What is less known about him is that he prevailed upon the Republican dominated NY State Legislature to increase the NYPD to 50,000. This is half the number of US Troops in Afghanistan at the peak of our war there. Dinkins did not completely prevail, though, the State legislature kept the funding bottled up until after his re-election campaign, helping enable his Republican opponent Rudolph Giuliani to prevail. He got to take advantage of the huge force increase and take credit for it.

1931Jerry Herman, Broadway composer ("Hello Dolly"), turns 82

1943, Arthur Ashe, the tennis star who was the first black man to
win a major championship, was born. Following his death on Feb. 6,
1993
Tennis Hall of Famer, died in NYC at 49 after a life of activism addressing racism in sports, bias against AIDS, and excellence in sport.
http://www.cmgww.com/sports/ashe
http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-ashe-9190544
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tennis-great-arthur-ashe-dies-of-aids
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0710.html

1945 Ron Glass, Actor ("Barney Miller") born.

1992...A jury in New York finds Pan Am liable for
damages resulting from the 1988 terrorist bombing of Flight 103, which
exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, en route to New York City, killing
270.

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Posted: Jul 9, 2013 | 1:52 AM

July 9th: a Virtual NYC Walking Tour through History

1776: General George Washington read The Declaration of Independence to his troops in New York in a clearing outside New York City where City Hall is today.

Soldiers and civilians rioted down Broadway to Bowling Green

where they tore down the statue of King George III (King George the Worst).

It depicted the King in Roman Imperial Robes on a horse, even though he could not ride a one. It was erected in the city of the Stamp Act Congress as the winds of revolution blew, and so the statue needed protection by an iron fence, which still stands minus its imperial crowns, which were hacked off. My British guests opined that the crowns and the statue were erected to stick it to us.

The Americans returned the gift of the statue to the British via thousands of musket balls (bullets) fired at them in the summer and autumn of 1776. They were manufactured from melting the gilded lead statue down.

Fragments of the statue have been saved, including this one

in the collection of the New York Historical Society.

We experience this on Colonial NYC tours, Downtown NYC Tours, George Washington's NYC tour, and Broadway tours.

1938: Pride of Columbia, Actor Brian Dennehy born.

Take a Columbia University tour with an alum who used to give official Columbia tours for the admissions office.

1997: Brooklyn's Boxer Mike Tyson banned from pro-boxing and fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield's ear during a match.

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Posted: Jul 7, 2013 | 10:38 PM
by Jared Goldstein

July 8th: A Virtual NYC Walking Tour Through History

1871...One day after the New York Times rejects a $5
million bribe from political boss William Tweed to keep the Times from
publishing incriminating documents, the paper exposes the Tweed's
massive City Hall corruption.

1889The Wall Street Journal was first published. 2c per copy.

David Lilienthal 7/8/1899 - 1/15/1981

American businessman and government official

1907Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies," on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.

Nelson Rockefeller 7/8/1908 - 1/26/1979

American politician; New York governor (1959-73) and U.S. vice president (1974-7)
John D., Grandfather born 1839.

Louis Jordan 7/8/1908 - 2/4/1975

American singer, saxophonist and bandleader

Billy Eckstine 7/8/1914 - 3/8/1993

American singer and bandleader

1919President Woodrow Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.

1924: WNYC begins broadcasting.

1952Anna Quindlen, Writer, turns 61

1962Joan Osborne, Rock singer

1970Beck, Rock musician,

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Posted: Jul 7, 2013 | 9:56 PM
by Jared Goldstein

July 7th: a Virtual NYC Walking Tour through History

1754: King's College founded in Trinity Church. The school will shutter between 1776 and 1787 when alumni revive it with a more patriotic name, Columbia. The Loyalist faculty fled to Nova Scotia where they teach at King's College.

1860: Abraham Cahan, Editor of the Jewish Daily Forward (1903-51), the influential Yiddish newspaper, born in Russia. The Forward, now in English, is still published. Here is an article they wrote about me.

We visit Cahan's Forward Building on Jewish Lower East Side tours.

1871: Boss Tweed offered the New York Times a $5 million bribe not to cover City Hall's corruption. In his rejection, the Publisher George Janes said, "I don't think that the devil will ever bid higher for me than that."

We cover Boss Tweed on these NYC Tours: Santa the NYC Tour, Lower East Side tours, and Downtown tours.

1887: "The quintessential modern Jewish Artist" Marc Chagall born in Belorussia, became French, but was a refugee in New York City 1941-1948 where he read Yiddish newspapers in the Lower East Side and mixed in the emigre modern art scene. He died 3/28/1985.

Let's go on a Jewish Lower East Side Tour.

1899: George Cukor film director, and pride of DeWitt Clinton High School, born in Manhattan. He died 1/24/1983.

1946: Mother Cabrini of Manhattan was canonized, the first American saint.

We see some of her works in Greenwich Village tours and my Catholic New York Tour.

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Posted: Jul 6, 2013 | 12:18 PM

July 6th: a virtual New York City History Walking Tour

1921: Nancy Reagan born in Queens.

1954: NY Yankee and baseball Manager Willie Randolph born.

1971: Trumpeter Louie Armstrong died in his sleep at his home in Corona, Queens. The Louis Armstrong home is now a museum.

1999: During a heatwave a blackout in upper Manhattan left thousands in blackout.

2003: In a New York Times Op-Ed, American hero and former ambassador Joseph Wilson stated that George W. Bush's rationale for Operation Iraqi Libertion (OIL) was based on a lie, that the administration knew that Iraq did not have nuclear capability despite stating so.

The administration reacted treasonously and vindictively, blowing Wilson's CIA wife's cover. She was the counter WMD expert investigating germ warfare capability proliferation, which was the other Bush administration rationale for the invasion, the false connection between Iraq and the domestically based Anthrax attacks, which came from the US Army and is still mysterious.

The leak that blew Plame's cover led to Plamegate to investigate who blew Plame's cover. This led to an obstruction of justice standoff that played out years later. Who blew her cover is unprosecuted. Who lied about the rationale for war with Iraq is unprosecuted.

2005: New York Times WMD reporter Judith Miller was jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the outing of an undercover CIA operative, Valerie Plame. She refused to reveal her source, Scooter Libby of the Bush Administration. She eventually relented after her friend, Scooter, told her to.

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Posted: Jul 5, 2013 | 1:10 PM
by Jared Goldstein

July 5th: a virtual NYC History Walking Tour

1810: P. T. Barnum, NYC's great Imressario, born in CT. He died April 7, 1891.

1857: Eight killed and more than 100 injured in the battle between the Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits gangs despite the efforts of the militia and the police to stop the rioting in the infamous Five Points neighborhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

1963: Actress Edie Falco (Sopranos and Nurse Jackie) born.

1998: Pride of Brooklyn and Columbia, Sid Luckman, football great, died.

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Posted: Jul 5, 2013 | 12:12 PM
by Jared Goldstein

Testimonial from an Urban Planner and Architect

From TripAdvisor

“best way to do NYC!”

Reviewed June 29, 2013

in short: make your NYC visit more fun, safer, smarter, and more efficient...and that means the tour pays for itself!

i grew up on long island and lived in NY for nearly 20 years before moving away. know how much of NYC you can see in 20 years? a lot, but still merely the tip of the ice berg! investing in a tour with jared is just plain smart: you will do more, enjoy it all more, appreciate it at a deeper level, and be in savvy hands for safety and getting around so you can focus on taking in the amazing energy that is NYC.

his ability to structure things yet wing it is perfect for NYC. his intelligence and humor blend perfectly. his historical knowledge contrasts his hip finger-on-pulse of current events perfectly. his ability to make you laugh one moment and touch you deeply the next (like at the 9/11 memorial) mimics exactly what NYC itself can do to you. his comfort level with people old and young, local and foreign, serious and silly is paralleled by his comfort level with an equally diverse array of topics (we touched on pizza, punk, pierogies, art deco, beatniks, sports, music, and so on!).

by far the best decision/investment/experience of my whole trip! thanks, jared! coming back soon with my girlfriend and another wacky mix of topics to tour on!
loved how the other tour guides we crossed paths at were taking notes at your substance and style...and when you told that spoiled kid to show some respect for the magical pear tree at ground zero that survived
9/11 and hurricane sandy!

by NewcastleHomes
Austin, Texas, United States

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