Political hype started long before those red MAGA hats. “Modern political buttons really started with the McKinley-Bryan election of 1896 and some of the early ones were amazingly colorful and detailed,” said Marty Kane, a collector, as he told us about the political memorabilia show that took place Sunday on the Lower East Side.
On the eve of the release of Martin Scorsese’s latest film Silence, a new exhibition traces the director’s career from its birth in Little Italy. Although Scorsese moved from his parents’ apartment on Elizabeth Street decades ago he has said, “A lot of what I learned about life came from there.” The exhibition at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria tells the director’s story through approximately 600 artifacts, most drawn from Scorsese’s personal collection.
L to R: Council Member Karen Koslowitz, Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. (Photo: Frank Mastropolo)
For Ramones fans, Forest Hills High School in Queens is as seminal a site as performance venues CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. The school is where the Ramones – Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny and Tommy – first met. On Sunday, the intersection in front of the school at 67th Avenue and 110th Street was renamed The Ramones Way to honor the late pioneers of punk rock.
(Photo: Frank Mastropolo)
Last week was Record Store Day. This week is record store back in the day. This ghost sign was recently revealed during the demolition of the J&R Music World strip of stores on Park Row. The pitch for “tapes” probably dates the sign to the mid-sixties but vinyl was still king as “needles” takes the top rung. The word “stereo” is obscured above the cool music notes.
Click here for more ghost sings around town.
Last January we brought you our 10 favorite ghost signs. April brought another batch, followed by more in July. The fourth in our series features an additional 10. Click through the slideshow to see our picks.
(Photo: Frank Mastropolo)
In light of President Obama’s momentous meeting with Raul Castro in Cuba today, it’s worth pointing out this ghost sign on the corner of Avenue of the Americas and King Street. It’s one of the few remaining emblems of the countries of the Western Hemisphere to hang on lampposts along the avenue.
Reid Jenkins (violin) on left, Sam Owens (guitar) on right in Control Room. (Photos: Frank Mastropolo)
There is nothing on the front of 49 Crosby Street save for a tiny label under a bell that would indicate that inside is one of the most enduring recording studios in New York. The Magic Shop opened in 1988 well before Bloomingdale’s, MoMA and a luxury hotel became its neighbors. The increase in the area’s rental value spelled the end of the studio. Despite the offer of financial help from Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, owner Steve Rosenthal was unable to buy the space from his landlord. While Rosenthal will continue his business of mixing and restoring classic recordings, the Magic Shop will close today.
On October 1, 1955, The Honeymooners premiered on CBS. The classic 39 episodes of that first and only season would achieve cult status and be rerun for decades. The legendary sitcom starred Bushwick’s favorite son, Jackie Gleason, as bus driver Ralph Kramden. But before he became “The Great One,” Gleason honed his craft in Bushwick’s lodge halls and vaudeville houses.
Detail of S. Oppenheimer & Co., 170 Eldridge Street. (Photos: Frank Mastropolo).
When we first brought you our top 10 favorite ghost signs in January, there were still many more examples of the past on walls throughout the neighborhood. In April we featured another ten signs.
Photos by Frank Mastropolo
Don’t let the shi shi galleries, bone broth bistros and man-cessory shops fool you. The country’s most violent criminals have lived and plied their trade in the East Village and Lower East Side for more than two centuries.
Of course, a man needs a place to relax after all that mayhem. Here is a current look at some of the most notorious gangsters haunts in the neighborhood, listed chronologically.
Click through the slideshow to see what our favorites look like today, then leave your own in the comments.
All photos: Frank Mastropolo.
With the rapid pace of development in the Lower East Side and East Village, it’s remarkable that so many ghost signs – ads that have long outlived their businesses – have survived. As you’ll see, sometimes progress can also reveal long-hidden signs. In January we brought you our Top 10 favorite ghost signs but there are too many good ones left to stop now. Click through the slideshow that follows to see our picks, then leave your own in the comments.
“Mulberry Bend” shows Mulberry Street looking north to Bayard Street. (From Jacob A. Riis’s “How the Other Half Lives.”)
Watching people enjoy mah-jongg in Chinatown’s Columbus Park, it’s hard to imagine the site was a dangerous, decrepit slum in the late 1800s. Photojournalist and social reformer Jacob A. Riis dedicated a chapter in his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives to the squalid conditions in the area then known as Mulberry Bend.
