Posted: Aug 12, 2013 | 9:20 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1851: Ethical Culture Society and pioneer of humanistic Judaism, Columbia University's Felix Adler born in Germany.
We see the Ethical Culture society on Upper West Side tours.
1912: Columbia's Salvador Luria who won the Biology Nobel Prize winning biologist in 1969, born in Italy. He died 2/6/1991.
1942: Disney's "Bambi" premiered at Radio City Music Hall.
We see Radio City Music Hall on Rockefeller Center tours.
1944: Beat figure Lucien Carr killed David Kammerer. NYC born and Columbia student, Carr introduced Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs before killing his sometime friend and consistent stalker Kammerer in Riverside Park near the campus. His Beat circle convinced him to turn himself in after which he was convicted of manslaughter. Carr is the father of novelist Caleb Carr, who was not close with his father.
We visit Columbia on Uptown tours, Columbia Tours, and Beat New York tours.
1975: Bruce Springsteen starts a five day run at the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village. Within a few months he will grace the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines.
We visit Greenwich Village on Greenwich Village Walking tours exploring pop musical heritage.
1995: Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle died of cancer.
Posted: Aug 12, 2013 | 8:42 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1790: The American Capitol in New York City moved south to Philadelphia.
We see the site of the capitol on Downtown tours, Colonial NYC Tours, Financial District tours, Wall Street tours, Santa Claus the NYC tour, and George Washington's NYC. On some of these tours we learn how NYC lost its capitol but kept its capital, and what that had to do with Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. George Washington left NYC as soon as possible, never to return.
1851: Isaac Singer patented his sewing machine, the first ready-made home appliance. It was also suitable for factories. He allowed financing to purchase them, and revolutionized mass production of clothing in NYC where he lived and ran his corporation.
We see the remaining Singer Building on SoHo tours.
1856: Financier and philanthropist Diamond Jim Brady born in NYC. He died 4/13/1917.
1950: Happy Birthday, Kid Creole. Born in NYC.
1988: Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988) died of drug related causes in his 57 Great Jones Street loft in an odd building that Andy Warhol owned. Basquiat could likely be the first international black superstar artist. Ten years earlier, after dropping out of Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, he started in graffiti.
We see 57 Great Jones Street on East Village Tours, and we learn the difference between that street and Jones Street in Greenwich Village.
Full Story
Posted: Aug 7, 2013 | 1:23 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1904: Ralph Bunche, the American diplomat and civil rights leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950, born. He died 12/9/1971.
We visit Ralph Bunche Park on my 42nd Street Tour.
1912: The Progressive Party nominated NYC's Theodore Roosevelt for President after two terms as a Republican President. Roosevelt lost to Wilson.
1919: Actors strike.
1958: Alberto Salazar, NY Marathon winner, born.
1974: Philippe Petit illegally tightroped in between the Twin Towers a quarter of a mile up without a net. Audacious, inspiring, brings people together: this work of art is the opposite of terrorism.
We visit the World Trade Center and explore Petit's legacy on The World Trade Center tour and on my other World Trade Center tours.
1998: Two Queens residents are killed, along with 248 others, in the African Embassies Bombings. The terrorists' trial will be postponed three years later due to the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.
2011: Former NYS Governor Hugh Carey, who helped bail NYC out in the 1970s, died at 92.
Posted: Aug 6, 2013 | 1:00 PM
1911: Lucille Ball, radio, television and film star, producer, and comic actress born. She died 4/26/1989.
1928: Artist Andy Warhol born in Pennsylvania.
1988: Tompkins Square Park and Avenue A police rioting. Homelessness and crime were the backdrop. Tompkins Square Park was an out-of-control refuge for the homeless but also musicians, punks, artists, drug addicts, and dealers. Even during the day there was a sense of danger and craziness.
The city sought to impose a curfew on the park, evicting the homeless.
Tensions brewed for a week. An 11:30 PM protest was followed by an attack from the NYPD, not only against battling protesters, but also anyone on the streets nearby. Cops were beating people in stores, chasing down pedestrians and beating them with clubs. Their badge numbers covered with tape.
Normally, 'police riots' are dismissed as propaganda, but two neighborhood artists and techies were armed with a new technology, hand-held video camcorders which documented the bloody excessive violence.
A hundred charges of police brutality were filed leading to two officers being charged for excessive force.
2009: The Bronx' Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
Posted: Jul 31, 2013 | 12:52 PM
by Jared Goldstein
Hi Jared:
We had a great time. I think the only limitation was that my mother in law’s feet were in poor condition, otherwise we could have gone all day! Michael and I had a great time and may reach out to you again for another tour for the two of us. It’s great seeing the city from a different perspective.
Thanks again, A_______ from NJ
Full Story
Posted: Jul 31, 2013 | 12:50 PM
by Jared Goldstein
"Thank you again for a great NYC experience for our dancers and parents."
Full Story
Posted: Jul 31, 2013 | 11:53 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1822: Abram S. Hewitt, Mayor, industrialist and benefactor of Cooper Union and Columbia College, born. He died in 1903.
1850: Exiled Italian Revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi arrived in Staten Island, becoming a candle-maker to get by. He would return to Italy to fight and become a nationalist leader.
Garibald statue in Washington Square Park
1923: After a split from the New York Historical Society, The Museum of the City of New York opened in Gracie Mansion. Nine years later it would move to its present Museum Mile location. Gracie Mansion became the official the mayor's residence in 1942.
1948: JFK airport was dedicated as Idlewild Airport by President Harry S Truman. The airport was renamed for President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
1977: "Son of Sam" David Berkowitz, the .44 caliber killer, slayed his final victim, Stacey Moskowitz, in Brooklyn. Berkowitz was captured ten days later due to a traffic violation. He was sentenced to life in prison. His year of terror personified the city as out of control, nightmarish, and hostile to the struggling middle class. Berkowitz wrote a book, and, in reaction, the Son of Sam law was enacted to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes. Berkowitz has been Born Again.
Posted: Jul 23, 2013 | 10:13 PM
1886...An unemployed Brooklynite named Steve Brodie
becomes a star when he claims to have jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge
and lived to tell the tale. Brodie is never able to prove his story, but
he does cash in on his fame by opening a bar on the Bowery.
Steve Brodie (December 25, 1861 – January 31, 1901) was an American from New York City who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived on July 23, 1886. The resulting publicity from the supposed jump, whose veracity was disputed, gave Brodie publicity, a thriving saloon and a career as an actor.
?? Harry Cohn ?? 7/23/1891 - 2/27/1958
co-founder of Columbia Pictures
1940Don Imus, Radio personality,
1967Philip Seymour Hoffman, Actor ("Capote")
2003...A routine afternoon at City Hall is shattered when Brooklyn City Councilman James Davis is shot to death inside the council chambers
by his one-time political rival Othneil Askew. A plainclothes officer
then shoots and kills Askew. Askew had entered City Hall with Davis,
but didn't go through the metal detectors. The shooting leads to
increased security at City Hall.
2009... Thousands turn out to honor legendary newsman
Walter Cronkite as funeral services are held at St. Bartholomew's Church
in Manhattan.
Full Story
Posted: Jul 19, 2013 | 12:23 AM
by Jared Goldstein
1945: A fire below Wall Street consumed over 300 buildings, causing $6 million in damages.
1967: The F Line premiered air conditioned subway trains. Not all trains were air conditioned even twenty years ago; it seemed.
2012: Sylvia Woods, Harlem's Queen of Soul Food died at 86.
The following is adapted from a piece by an excellent tour guide, Peggy Taylor who conducts expert tours of Harlem and the Hamptons:
'Sylvia Woods descended from South Carolina farmers, washerwomen, midwives, and cooks. In her time she was a bean picker, hairdresser, factory worker and waitress.
Her mother mortgaged the family farm so she could buy a luncheonette in 1962. She became a restauranteur with a personal touch, even as the service was a bit neglectful, as well as becoming an entrepreneur marketing food products and cook books based on her fame.
Celebrities, politicians, governors, Presidents, heads of state all dined there.
In the 1960s the area was crime infested. To keep criminals from harassing her customers, she opened an hour early to feed the drug dealers. In the burning riots of the era, Silvia's was never torched. The food was too good, reminiscent of grandmothers' southern cooking.'
Thank you, Peggy, for letting me adapt your piece that was part of a larger one in the Guides Association of NYC's Newsletter GuideLines.
Sylvia's food continues to be great, and her descendants have shown a lot of pride keeping the restaurant going strong. In the era of Internet reviews, service has improved a great deal as well.
Posted: Jul 17, 2013 | 4:58 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1763: Manhattan Real Estate baron, fur magnate, drug dealer, America's first multi-millionaire, and philanthropist, John Jacob Astor born 250 years ago in Germany.
1899: Academy-Award winning American actor James Cagney born. He died March 30, 1986.
1901: Millionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie pledged to build 65 public libraries for the city.
1938: "Wrong Way Corrigan"Aviator Douglas Corrigan earned the nickname after he took off from New York bound for California and ended up in Ireland the next day.
1941: Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak ended in a game against the Cleveland Indians.
1967: Jazz Saxophonist John Coltrane died in Long Island.
1996: 230 people aboard TWA Flight 800 bound for Paris died, as their flight exploded and crashed off Long Island, after departing John F. Kennedy International Airport.
2009: America's most trusted man, former CBS News' anchorman Walter Cronkite died at 92 in Manhattan.