It's Showtime
D.W. Griffith turns Central Park into a silent screen star
In honor of the grand re-opening of the Museum of the Moving Image this Saturday, we're going all New York film and media here on the…
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Was ‘Birth of a Nation’ really filmed in Staten Island?
January 11, 2011
A rather startling title card from 'Birth of a Nation' [courtesy the Liberty Lamp]The question posed in the headline is a fascinating urban legend I've been obsessed with proving (or disproving) for about a year. It pops up occasionally during discussions about New York…
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Old Swamp Church and the first U.S. Speaker of the House
Federal Hall, home to the first House of Representatives 1789 [NYPL]This week the United States got a new Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner,…
Fun on the ice: Party time atop the frozen East River
Daredevils trespassing the ice between New York and Brooklyn in 1871.I spent much of New York's Christmas blizzard nightmare in various airports throughout the country, unable…
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The Bowery Boys 2010: A Year of Podcasts In Review
Here's the whole menu of our 2010 podcasts. As always, you can download them all for free from iTunes and or your favorite podcast aggregator. The…
The little engine that could in downtown Manhattan
Once upon a time, in December 1900, there was a toy store on 67 Cortlandt Street with very, very sad display windows. The store's owner, Robert…
America’s first holiday Nutcracker, before Balanchine
Ballerinas in their first flight of The Nutcracker: the Ballet Russe at the 51st Street Theater, 1940 (Picture courtesy the New York Times)Few ballet productions of…
A Christmas Tree for the ages in Madison Square Park
The misty Madison Square Garden greets a stranger to the park: America's first community Christmas tree. (Courtesy LOC)HOW NEW YORK SAVED CHRISTMAS Throughout the week I'll…
A trip to Times Square 1969: A world of colorful decline
(Postcard picture courtesy the marvelous Vintage Chromes blog)Sixty-five years after the birth of Times Square, it was apparent that things were taking a rather bizarre left…
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A trip to Times Square 1904: The Hotel Astor arrives
The Hotel Astor in its opening year, 1904. The Astor was a Waldorf; the Knickerbocker was an Astor. Makes sense? (Photo courtesy NYPL) Longacre Square didn't…
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A trip to Times Square 1904: Lights and old whiskey
From atop the Times Tower, in 1904, another world lights up below. The year that turned a ragged, uptown intersection into the place known as Times…
A trip to Times Square 1904: Packard Motor Cars
In 1904, the first year that Longacre Square tried on its new name Times Square, it was still populated with horse-related services like carriage shops and…
Santa Claus: a Broadway concert saloon from the 1850s
A Broadway saloon in 1859 during a 'Sunday sacred concert', as in, not very sacred at all. The Santa Claus probably looked like this on a…