“Four Streets and a Square”
From a Sibert Medalist comes the epic story of Manhattan—a magical, maddening island “for all” and a microcosm of America.
A veteran nonfiction storyteller dives deep into the four-hundred-year history of Manhattan to map the island’s unexpected intersections. Focusing on the evolution of four streets and a square (Wall Street, 42nd Street, West 4th Street, 125th Street, and Union Square) Marc Aronson explores how new ideas and forms of art evolved from social blending. Centuries of conflict—among original Americans and Europeans, slavers and the enslaved, rich and poor, immigrants and native-born—produced segregation, oppression, and violence, but also new ways of speaking, singing, and being American. From the Harlem Renaissance to Hammerstein, from gay pride in the Village to political clashes at Tammany Hall, this clear-eyed pageant of the island’s joys and struggles—enhanced with photos and drawings, multimedia links to music and film, and an extensive bibliography and source notes—is, above all, a love song to Manhattan’s triumphs.
Advance Acclaim for Four Streets and a Square
“This beautifully written book eloquently gives voice to the myriad people who built New York into the singular city it is today. A profound declaration of love for the city of New York.”
Kirkus Best YA Book of 2021
“A well-organized and impeccably researched nonfiction book about the history of New York City from the 1600s to present. From Alexander Hamilton to 42nd Street, from the Lenape to the immigrant communities that made the city what it is, famous people, places, and events abound in this encapsulation of the city. More than just a geographical location, this is an exploration of the culture, people, and events that make New York City a fascinating and iconic place. Aronson’s text is interspersed with photos, illustrations, and multimedia links to his website that give readers an immersive and thorough experience. The author includes a bibliography, a description on how the book is organized, a section on the terminology that is used, why he used specific terms, and detailed source notes that are helpfully limned by chapter. While the book may be lengthy for some middle school students, it will keep readers’ attention with its cohesiveness and strong voice. A great choice for research or for those who can’t get enough of the Big Apple. VERDICT A must-have for middle and high school libraries.”
School Library Journal
“In this insightful book, Marc Aronson invites a new generation of readers to explore the island where New York City was born. Imaginatively conceived, vividly written, and creatively illustrated, Four Streets and a Square is a rewarding read.”
Robert W. Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian
Professor emeritus, Rutgers University-Newark
“Marc Aronson has written a delightful history of New York City. Four Streets and a Square is a tribute to the city he loves, but one honest enough not to shy away from its conflicts and challenges over the years. Insightful, provocative, and fascinating, this is a read full of fresh discoveries no matter how much you may already think you know about New York.”
Kevin Baker, author of The Fall of a Great American City, New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence.
Inside Glimpse and Multimedia Links
**Note, some of the following links include advertisements. None of these commercials and/or associated products and/or services are recommendations of Marc Aronson**
These links will take readers to sites created or curated by other scholars, institutions, or history buffs which allow explorations beyond what I say in the text. They are not reference citations but rather offer an opportunity for new experiences. I listed those I visited and found valuable – there are a great many more to be found. Readers should treat these as examples of the wealth of resources on Manhattan history others have curated and created – some key hosts are discussed at the end.
The links below follow the flow of the book. You see Section titles (such as How This Books is Organized and Creating the City) then chapter titles (such as Manna-hata and Wall). Click on a chapter title and you will see every page within that chapter which has associated media, along with a caption.
How This Book Is Organized
Tito Puente’s version of 110th and 5th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t7aZbpBg2M (Tito Puente)
Creating the City
10 NYC Decade by Decade can be used to supplement the Snapshots from this period on
- Earliest history begins at the bottom of page 2 and then continues onto the bottom of the next page
- https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/page/2/
- https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
- Provides information and sources on New York City history by decade with interesting facts
- LAYERS OF NYC is a trivia series attached to the website
- LITTLE BYTES OF gives readers tours of famous NYC sites they can visit for themselves.
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12 There is a way that, even today, we can see Manhattan as it was experienced by its inhabitants before the arrival of any Europeans. A group of scholars has carefully recovered evidence of the flowers, plants, animals, and people that were on every spot in the island just before the Dutch first sailed near it in 1609. If you go to their interactive map and type in any location in Manhattan (they are working to fill in all of New York City) you can see what it looked like and find helpful lists of the artifacts that have been found, the animals that would have lived — even the plants that would have grown — right there. https://welikia.org/explore/mannahatta-map/.
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18 Washington Irving’s history of Dutch New York https://archive.org/details/ldpd_11290370_000
23 In the New York Public Library collection of digital prints and photos, related images can be displayed gathered in a “book” – that is a kind of album you can page through. Here for example is a “book” of early maps https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-ef92-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99/book?parent=be0d4620-c5aa-012f-12ef-58d385a7bc34#page/177/mode/2up
26-27 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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32-33 This link to a book compares the view in the 1717 Burgis prospect to the same vista in 1909 https://archive.org/details/palmersviewsofne00palm_2/page/n33/mode/2up
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44 Hughson’s Tavern, video, maps, Columbia MAAP https://maap.columbia.edu/place/4.html
This site is part of the MAAP project from Columbia University. I have selected two examples in this listing, but here is a general introduction to this important and useful resource:
MAAP (Mapping African American Past)
- Introduction video: https://youtu.be/fkmt02VhKdA
- This project is a kind of museum tour of NYC meant for young people, to provide a sense of pride and connection with “the most cultural city in the world”
- Interactive map: https://maap.columbia.edu/place.1.html
- Each time you click on a place it talks about a person/building and it opens up to a page with information
- The page includes an entry, related media such as images, “then” and “now” tabs that show how the place looked at the time and how it looks now
- Lesson Plans: https://maap.columbia.edu/module/index.html
- “African American history is a required component of the New York State social studies curriculum in 4th, 8th, and 11th grades. MAAP lessons, developed at Teachers College, Columbia University, help teachers at all levels engage content on this website through stories about building community, resisting slavery, and contributing to New York City’s development. Lessons are geared towards 8th grade to 12th grade students. For many lessons, a 4th grade adaptation has also been provided.”
- Library: https://maap.columbia.edu/maap_library/index.html
61-62 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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65 This National Park Service site is dedicated to New York’s Federal Hall, the site of Washington’s inauguration. As you skim over the image of the President taking the oath you can magnify and look more closely at any aspect of the picture.
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72 Here I have linked to information on some of the men who signed the original Buttonwood agreement that created the New York Stock Exchange. This is a partial list but gives a sense of how you can dive from an event, to a collection of people, to a portrait of segment of the population in a specific time and place.
Augustine Lawrence – important, link to DeWitt Clinton, home on Rector St. still standing; owned slaves
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-1799-augustine-lawrence-house-no-94.html
Isaac M. Gomez – Sephardic Jew, link to Curacao.
http://www.gomez.org/Gomez.html
Benjamin M. Seixas – Sephardic Jew, privateer
http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=109167
(prominent family, fought test oath in CT and letter to George Washington from Newport prompted GW’s famous reply on religious liberty)
The Old Merchants of NYC – including Seixas
Ephraim Hart – Bavarian Jew
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7277-hart
Books he checked out
https://www.nysoclib.org/collection/ledger/people/hart_ephraim
John A. Hardenbrook – home, history, links to Alexander Hamilton, DeWitt Clinton
add for his business
Benjamin Winthrop – descendant of John Winthrop
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Winthrop_(1762-1844)
Building the City
87 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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90-91 For more on the 1811 Commissioners Map, visit this city at the Gotham Center: https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/a-little-pre-history-of-the-manhattan-grid
This New York Public Library blog includes more resources and primary source material related to the 1811 plan, though, as of this writing, the interactive feature does not work: https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatest-grid/interactive-1811-plan
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100 This New York Historical Society link describes May 1, Moving Day in words and images: http://behindthescenes.nyhistory.org/lets-be-thankful-may-day-doesnt-exist-anymore/
101 A Smithsonian site allows you to compare New York (Manhattan) in 1835 and today by zooming into specific locations. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/interactive-map-compares-new-york-city-1836-today-180947939/?no-ist
103 To explain the “short”
https://archive.org/details/menidiomsofwalls00john/page/14/mode/2up
105 An essay, with images, on A. T. Stewart and his “Palaces of Consumption”:
http://visualizingnyc.org/essays/palaces-of-consumption-a-t-stewart-and-the-dry-goods-emporium/
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113 This site devoted to the archaeology of The Five Points is an accessible introduction to the way evidence has challenged myths https://r2.gsa.gov/fivept/fphome.htm
117 For a short one-woman show that recounts Master Juba and the history of tap dancing see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqFJfMiadss
119 To hear a modern African American group play the original song Google “Sankofa Jump Jim Crow” or go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l25FzcP_2Ac
120 Wynton Marsalis recorded talks on the history of jazz at the Joy2learn site, you can find his segment on minstrelsy there: http://www.joy2learn.org/jazz/history-of-jazz/origins-of-jazz/minstrel-groups/
120 To get a sense of Minstrelsy, including its legendary beginning, watch the 1941 musical short “Minstrel Days” available on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flJCWUdz-SE. It features the standard roles including the comedians Tambo and Bones and the white “interlocutor” – who, from his fancy mispronounced (“locater”) name on, was meant to show white superiority and black fumbling.
121 The music to Zip Coon is more often used today for “Turkey in the Straw”; you can hear the original and other minstrel songs on a University of Virginia site, Google “Zip Coon UVA” or go here: http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/minstrel/zipcoonfr.html
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134-135 Seneca Village as explored by the MAAP project: https://maap.columbia.edu/place/32.html
137-138 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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142 A New York Historical society link that explores the Draft Riot and especially the burning of the Orphan Asylum, includes links to primary source accounts. http://blog.nyhistory.org/burning-of-orphan-asylum/
156 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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158 This National Park site offers a virtual tour of Ellis Island https://www.nps.gov/hdp/exhibits/ellis/Ellis_Index.html
161 The Tenement Museum offers a virtual tour that gives a sense of how immigrants lived in the crowded Lower East Side. https://www.tenement.org/Virtual-Tour/index_virtual.html
161 Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives – full book; as a photographer and author Riis made the difficult conditions of immigrant New York visible.
https://archive.org/details/howotherhalflive00riis_0/page/212/mode/2up
163-164 Hutchins Hapgood’s The Spirit of the Ghetto: Studies of the Jewish Quarter in New York is of its time but is one way to get a sense of the Jewish Lower East Side, and it features appealing sketches by acob Epstein https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t1bk1qc5f&view=1up&seq=11
165 This video features one of the most powerful and popular cantors of the early 20th century Yossele Rosenblatt singing the prayer that begins Jewish High Holy day of Yom Kippur, “Kol Nidre”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAKpOUBPyoM ; in this interview I talk about my father’s background including in the Yiddish Theater: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/interviews/woh-fi-0000810/marc-aronson-2016
The City Electric
175 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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177 The selections below through 1910 come from the Durst Collection at Columbia University Library. Some are available through the Internet Archive as well. These are complete books – often illustrated with photos, with period advertisements, that you can scroll through. I have picked just a few to invite readers to follow me. I spent way too many hours paging through this treasure house of long out of print books – which the library carefully scanned precisely so that we can view them. You begin to recognize what “sights” in the city publishers thought people would want to see in a book.
1876: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t9d530p19&view=1up&seq=5
1885 Harbor, city of sail https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t9282rb3f&view=1up&seq=14
1891 Union Square, Tammany, 42nd, El
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t7cr87k08&view=1up&seq=66
1895 album: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t0fv0x825&view=1up&seq=60
This is a compilation of images of the city in 1904
https://archive.org/details/newyorkcapitalof00durs/page/n15/mode/2up
1910: https://archive.org/details/kingscolorgraphs00king_0/page/n13/mode/2up
1910 Times Square: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t11p0jj40&view=1up&seq=27
181 The Transit Museum website offers filmed virtual visits to its historical trains, as well as collections of images and other resources: https://www.nytransitmuseum.org/virtualvideos1/
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185 The operas that became popular with Italians around the time of their immigration to America were meant to be more current and realistic that older operas. To hear a recording of the most famous aria from one of those operas, Pagliacci, Google “Caruso, Vesti La Giubba” or access it through the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox: https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-119158, the song is the broken-hearted clown telling himself to perform through his tears; a short, informative, video introduction to a modern version of Cavalleria Rusticana, another popular opera of the time often paired with Pagliacci, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCWoqHODWNk
One way to get a sense of the power of opera as pure emotional intensity — not an antique and almost comic artform enjoyed only by old, rich, white people — is to view any of the many “reaction” videos that center on opera arias. For example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5673yPgBf30
185 This view of “Harlem of Today” from 1893 includes Koch’s department store
https://archive.org/details/harlemoftodayill00durs/page/n1/mode/2up
189 Several Cakewalk sites: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/23/256566647/the-extraordinary-story-of-why-a-cakewalk-wasnt-always-easy
https://dancehistorydevelopment.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/the-cakewalk/
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/lucas/cake.html
190 “Swing Along” is a beautiful song, there are many appealing Youtube videos including this one sung by George Shirley at a concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB75aMSHq8k and a recording from 1916 on the Library of Congress site: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.100000210/
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194 To hear a selection of James Reese Europe’s music including two that mention the Castles, search Library of Congress, Jukebox under his name or go here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-jukebox/?q=james+reese+europe
195 “When the Band Plays Ragtime” is available on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xcKUYl65Pg; the original sheet music is here: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3566002
196 A collection of ragtime resources including sheet music for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” can be found at the Library of Congress National Jukebox: https://www.loc.gov/collections/ragtime/about-this-collection; to find the “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” recording type the name in here: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/; for “Maple Leaf Rag” played by Joplin himself, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc
197 A large selection of recordings of Berlin’s early music is available at the Library of Congress National Jukebox: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/ it includes “Oh, How I hate to Get up in the Morning.”
199 The best way to get a sense of Cohan is through the 1942 biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy, staring James Cagney. Several excerpts are available as Youtube videos such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ze_OB1I5k; Cagney’s very last film role was in the movie Ragtime based on the E.L. Doctorow novel of the same name, both of which capture this era very well.
201 “My Mammy” by The Peerless Quartet can be found by searching under the title in the Library of Congress National Jukebox, a video of Jolson’s version in the film is available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIaj7FNHnjQ, the crying woman in the audience is meant to be his mother coming to accept his choice and his talent.
201 For more on Bert Williams: http://black-face.com/Bert-Williams.htm
203 This fascinating clip from 1923 features Sissle and Blake – it is a talking film before The Jazz Singer and gives a good sense of the team’s singing and performing style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtzr7LSL1s .You can hear a modern reconstruction of the overture to Shuffle Along which, typically, contains hints and snippets of many of the songs in the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tft1-s49mgI the video introduces an important collection of music of this era called Black Manhattan; you can also hear selections from Shuffle Along played by Sissle and Blake on Spotify. For more on Shuffle Along and Florence Mills, https://mcny.org/story/florence-mills-broadway-sensation-1920s?utm_source=Museum+of+the+City+of+New+York&utm_campaign=3aff630891-MuseumFromHome_Email2&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4336ff1f8c-3aff630891-153315473&mc_cid=3aff630891&mc_eid=128bca0db4
Difference
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213 The Golden Swan, including an early photo: http://www.nakedcitystories.com/oneill.php
215 The Theodore W. Kheel Center at Cornell has many resources related to labor and working class history. For example, for the history of the ILGWU, including Pins and Needles https://ilgwu.ilr.cornell.edu/
For a wide selection of materials on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/KheelDigitalCollections/TriangleFire
221 This site is a guided walk that explores Mabel Dodge, her life and salon, in Manhattan: https://sites.google.com/site/walkingoffthebigapple/fifthavenueandthehighroadtotaos
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229 On Grace Godwin and the Garret: https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/this-1920s-washington-square-garret-was-more-racist-than-bohemian
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234 Wallace Thurman, in Little Blue Book
https://archive.org/details/negrolifeinnewyo00thur/page/n67/mode/2up
235 Survey Graphic, scroll to page 628 for the issue on Harlem with the Locke essay and Reiss portraits. https://archive.org/details/surveycharityorg53survrich/page/628/mode/2up
236 For just the Locke essay and the portraits as an NYPL “book”: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-958d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99/book?parent=7bc33320-c62a-012f-3341-58d385a7bc34#page/1/mode/2up
237 Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930
- Created by Professor Stephen Robertson
- From the website: The Digital Harlem website presents information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930. Most of the material relates to the years 1920, 1925, and 1930.
- AT THE TOP: Descriptions of how each part of the website functions. Important for understanding the way it works.
- You can search for events, places and people that generates interactive web maps, there is also a legend that has further information on specific aspects of harlem such as churches, sports etc
- On the left is organization by events, places, people. On the right legend organized by Churches, Sports, Arrests, January 1925, Nightlife
- When you pull something up there is a timeline at the bottom
- Digital Harlemwon the American Historical Association’s inaugural Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History and the American Library Association’s ABC-CLIO Digital History Prize in 2010.
240 For background on John Nail: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/nail-john-e-1883-1947/
242 To hear “Here Comes My Daddy Now” Google it in the Library of Congress Jukebook or go here: https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-132611/
242 For a video on James Reese Europe including film of the Harlem Hellfighters’ march in the city go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC9m3Xie3uk
242 For more on Johnson and to hear his music, this site is a great place to start: https://syncopatedtimes.com/james-p-johnson-forgotten-musical-genius/
244 The Apollo Theater’s website: https://www.apollotheater.org/about/history
244 The Savoy Ballroom segment from Ken Burns’ Jazz: https://www.pbs.org/video/jazz-the-savoy-ballroom/
244 Text on the Savoy Ballroom: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a6128a90-653f-0133-4846-00505686a51c/book?parent=d31e5a40-55a2-0133-9863-00505686d14e#page/11/mode/2up
244 Smith’s “Fingerbuster” comes with a story about the Harlem contests and shows his technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDMOkgSdy3E
244 NPR has done many pieces on Ellington with explanations and samples of his music. Search Ellington the Composer [two parts] and Ellington the Bandleader [two parts], here is a two-part video about him and the Cotton Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szHWzomqBMI247 Columbia University Library’s endlessly fascinating site about Alexander Gumby and his scrapbooks: https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/gumby
247 Alexander Gumby – an article about Gumby by Richard Bruce Nugent
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/0ac4dbc0-5e2e-0133-a6e2-00505686d14e
250 For more on the Gay and Lesbian Harlem Renaissance: https://www.wussymag.com/all/2016/2/18/yesterqueers-queers-of-the-harlem-renaissance
250 Abram Hill the Hamilton Lodge Ball https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/16910cf0-7cf4-0133-46b1-00505686d14e
The City Suffers
254 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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This 1936 version of Showboat stars Hattie McDaniel, the first black actor to win an Oscar, and Paul Robeson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5owzfuvE2k&list=RDY5owzfuvE2k&start_radio=1)
Here is Robeson singing the lyrics as they were originally written: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s, and here as he transformed them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQEeNhtosg&list=RDiEQEeNhtosg&start_radio=1&t=0
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266 Harlem’s churches, such as the Abyssinian Baptist Church, had played a central role in the area’s history. Here is one place to learn more: https://www.abyssinian.org/about-us/history/
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269 Readers: please seek out this video: https://tinyurl.com/NYC1938BG, or Google “12 min version of `Sing, Sing, Sing’ (With a Swing) @Carnegie Hall.” Miraculously, the film gives you the music I talk about in this chapter recorded at the very concert I describe, while it provides a visual tour of New York City in 1938, touching on the streets and neighborhoods that this book considers. Indeed you can see the very prejudice towards Harlem I have explored in the film. The song is the essence of Big Band Swing – propulsive, lively, fun. This is music meant for everyone to enjoy – and to be modern.
270 You can search for the first record as “Benny Goodman, Billy Holiday” or go here: https://tinyurl.com/bhbgfirst; and here’s a film clip that shows her singing the blues two years later in a Duke Ellington musical story about black life: https://tinyurl.com/BillyH1935
270 You can hear highlights of both concerts by Googling “The Spirituals to Spring Concerts 1938-1939,” in a KPFA radio rebroadcast, through this link: https://tinyurl.com/Sptoswinglink
274 This marvelous site and one hour broadcast about Café Society comes from David Brent Johnson, a Jazz scholar who creates historical explorations such as this. Within the hour are pieces actually recorded at the club, including Billy Holiday singing “Strange Fruit.” Also on the site is an interview with Josephson’s wife and co-author and a spectacular Lena Horne video including Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Teddy Wilson filmed on a set designed to resemble Café Society Uptown. A great resource: https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/cafe-society-place-wrong-people/ ; to hear Joe Sullivan and sample the range of musicians who played at Café Society try https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2018/08/29/hollywoods-first-swing-concert-a-tribute-to-joe-sullivan-1937/; https://syncopatedtimes.com/joe-sullivan-and-his-cafe-society-orchestra/ ; Maude Lux Lewis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX0-yvsB9B0; Golden Gate Quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN3IjRopCEc
274 This is an original cast recording. Gershwin’s score was radically cut to suit what was thought to be the audience’s taste. More recently the full score has been restored and performed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXLqAmXPQIk
276 To get a sense of how the Klezmer music of Gershwin’s Jewish background fits with jazz, listen to “Bei Meir Bist Du Schon” – (the Yiddish title means “You Are Beautiful to Me”) recorded at the Carnegie Hall concert, from around 2:50 the integrated band breaks into a minute of pure Klezmer then back to jazz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awvNwuZaqjQ. To see this story in reverse – Jewish music in a black style go to go to the link for page 323. For a wonderful example of a beautiful and under-performed classical piece by an artist known for his jazz skills listen to James P. Johnson’s “Yamekraw” as orchestrated by William Grant Still https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWPg9BmEF2Y
277 To see a key number and, or, the actual trailer used in 1933 Google “42nd Street Film videos” or go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2OaJv0NBB8
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284 To see LaGuardia Google his name in the Video tab, or start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH9tCcrrcak to see Abbott and Costello perform “who’s on first” go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg
286 Negro basketball, short essay https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/feea2c50-8a54-0133-57d5-00505686d14e/book#page/3/mode/1up
286 This amazing silent video was shot in color at the 1939 Fair. The Trylon and Perisphere (the thin white triangular shape next to the large white sphere) seen in many shots were the symbol of the Fair and contained an exhibit which showed an idealized city of the future. The women wearing hats and the largely white crowd are historically interesting in themselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0erdDWTbf5s
289 The “Gallery Guide” to the wonderful Baldwin-Delaney exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art contains images and valuable information about their long friendship: https://knoxart.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Delaney-3panel-brochure-v8-12.17.19-FINAL.pdf
290 Here you can view, and linger on, Jacob Lawrence’s full migration series: https://lawrencemigration.phillipscollection.org/the-migration-series
World City, Fractured City, World City
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294 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
299 You can find the South Pacific song here: https://www.broadway.com/videos/145507/show-clip-south-pacific-youve-got-to-be-carefully-taught/ To get a sense of how racial attitudes were changing listen to David Brent Johnson’s broadcast about Ellington’s “Jump for Joy” – an explicit rejection of “Jump Jim Crow” and his effort to “banish Uncle Tom” https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/jump-for-joy-duke-ellingtons-celebratory-musical.php
300 To see Fancy Free view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ou-O9Awkzo the theme song of On the Town is “New York, New York” – great fun to sing, and to see in this clip from the film. The three sailors are Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7CIgWZTdgw
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305 Carol Edmonson maintains this excellent site on her uncle Syd Hoff, including all phases of his life and career: http://www.sydhoff.org/
305 A very short film that wonderfully captures New York in the early 50’s is D. A. Pennebaker’s Daybreak Express. Pennebaker set out to capture the 3rd Avenue El – a remnant of the old city that was soon to torn down. He “wanted to make a film about this filthy, noisy train and it’s packed-in passengers that would look beautiful,” and would fit perfectly with a Duke Ellington composition of the same name. The old decaying city, the new city, black music, white camera, the calligraphy of canyons and skyscrapers viewed at odd angles, the film is a gorgeous window into a moment in the city’s life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fZ0-T80YD8 (quotation from the website of his film company: https://phfilms.com/films/daybreak-express/ )
311 A wonderful resource to explore this music is the Smithsonian Folkways site, you can search by artist, depending on the recording you can hear a whole song or a 30 second excerpt: https://folkways.si.edu/search?query=Playlist, a second resource is the Association for Cultural Equity, which has Lomax’s later recordings, explore here: https://archive.culturalequity.org/
311 Smith’s recording can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq2h-J63moo; Guthrie singing his own original version, with its rejection of private property, is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s;
312 The site for the modern revival of Minton’s recounts its history: http://mintonsharlem.com/; there are several videos of Monk performing the piece on youtube.
314 This is a recording, that the Metropolitan Opera made during Covid with Isobel Leonard singing, “Somewhere:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTEU_lCc2xQ
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318 Here is Presley’s most famous appearance, on the second Sullivan show in October: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZm7EOamWk
318 To hear a sample of Brill Building music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLvXGTV4_vQ
321 For a recording of the song with images of Dylan from his West 4th street period see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G58XWF6B3AA; for a sense of his role in protests see this video of Dylan and Joan Baez singing and reminding the crowd that the “whole wide world will be watching” at the famous March on Washington where Dr. King gave the “I Have a Dream Speech”: https://teachrock.org/video/abc-news-bob-dylan-and-joan-baez-at-the-march-on-washington-1963/
321 For a classic version of an early favorite of Cohen’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbn6a0AFfnM; for a recording of Springsteen and an all-star international cast singing Dylan’s “The Chimes of Freedom Flashing” – another song from Dylan’s early period – in support of Amnesty International: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbEr240Tfsk
323 The overture to Fiddler established its abiding theme: tradition and the challenges to it. For an original cast recording with Zero Mostel the original Tevye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va0UBPt7Z1E; for a site about Chagall, Fiddler, and a hint of the source of my first name: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/marc-chagall-the-french-painter-who-inspired-the-title-fiddler-on-the-roof/2014/10/23/0230b382-5480-11e4-ba4b-f6333e2c0453_story.html; for an example of Fiddler’s universality (or at least popularity) and the reverse case of Goodman’s and Gershwin’s use of African-American themes, see this performance by The Temptations, a great Motown vocal group, of a Gospel/Disco inflected version of songs from Fiddler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4GniJYzGa8 I owe my knowledge of this clip to the documentary Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles in which I also give more of my thoughts about the show. For another example of an African-American “take” on Fiddler listen to how the great saxophone player Cannonball Adderley recorded his version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w610gs4OVM
325 NY Decade by Decade
https://bigapple.typepad.com/my_weblog/nyc–decade-by-decade/
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328 Exodus from the city
https://archive.org/details/exodusfromnewyor01barr/page/n1/mode/2up
330 To hear Malcolm X’s explanation of Black Nationalism see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zLQLUpNGsc
334 One way to get a sense of the separation of Harlem from white New York and the poverty people faced – as well as the diversity and pride of its citizens — is this clip of Nina Simone singing on August 17, 1969 at the Harlem Cultural Festival, the Black Woodstock: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1tfecx and this article: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/black-woodstock-harlem-cultural-festival-history-859626/ She is beautiful, regal and inspiring. Here is a link to another song she sang at the festival. The song takes its name from a play by her friend Lorraine Hansberry and feels like a hopeful anthem for the dawning 1970s: “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” https://www.facebook.com/dusttodigital/videos/nina-simone-revolution-1969/269157001163005/
337 Google has created a project around Stonewall – history, as well as affirmations of how people live today. I found that it was playing slowly and buffering but that will surely vary by the computer and the kind of internet connection: https://stonewallforever.org/monument
342 A visual history of New York Salsa with links to key recordings: https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/05/mambo-boogaloo-salsa-music-family-tree; Cruz and Colon collaborate on this anthem for Latins in America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0HUcSBiI-I
343 An animated history of the initial party with musical links: https://ny.curbed.com/2017/8/11/16130756/hip-hop-history-bronx-dj-kool-herc
344 For links to artists and events see https://www.nuyorican.org
344 An excellent site with samples of Heron’s work is http://gilscottherononline.com/; to see and hear “The Message”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PobrSpMwKk4;
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357 For a timeline of Linsanity with game clips see https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1747434-timeline-of-jeremy-lins-rise-to-linsanity-and-journey-to-where-he-is-today
360 Frank Espada was an important photographer but beyond his skill with a camera, he set to record the Puerto Rican Diaspora throughout the United States: http://www.frankespada.com/diaspora.html
360 For Miranda performing “My Shot” see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcM20zu51Aw
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369 A New York Times compilation of videos of the 7 PM clapping can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/10/nyregion/nyc-7pm-cheer-thank-you-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage; should it be taken down Google “7 PM Clap out NYC”
372 The Skyscraper Museum is both a history of tall and supertall buildings in the city and offers its own sequence of skyline panoramas: https://skyscraper.org/online_projects/
Some general resources on city history worth exploring
NYC Neighborhoods https://www.nypl.org/voices/blogs/blog-channels/nyc-neighborhoods
- Five boroughs, 300 square miles, 6,375 miles of streets, 8.3 million people… hundreds of neighborhoods. This channel covers the history, culture, people, hustle and bustle and goings-on of New York City.
- There are a series of blog posts categorized by borough
- Manhattan has subcategories
- EX: Manhattan https://www.nypl.org/blog/subject/1117
o Collection of Broadside Real Estate Maps Announcing Auctions Of Lots in Early 19th Century New York City: 1832-1837
- EX: East Village https://www.nypl.org/blog/subject/2764
o August in the Reader’s Den: Slaves of New York, Part 2
New York Historical Society Library Collections
- Broken down into: Digital Collections, Printed Collections, Manuscript Collections, Graphic Collections, History Responds, Remembering Wall Street 1950-1980, TIME Inc Records
- Digital Collection
- The New-York Historical Society’s growing digital library now includes thousands of photographs of New York City, Revolutionary Era maps, manuscripts, and broadsides, Civil War materials, manuscripts relating to slavery and African American history, and numerous other historical resources from the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library as well as highlights from several Museum collections.
- http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/?_ga=2.61747116.1020064230.1589735859-1372681824.1589735859
- EX: Maps
- http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/nyhs%253Amaps
- Printed Collections
- https://www.nyhistory.org/library/printed-collections
- The Printed Collections form the core of the Klingenstein Library’s holdings and include staggering numbers of publications relating to New York and American history: 350,000 books and pamphlets; 10,000 newspaper titles (or over 1 million issues); 18,000 broadsides; over 10,000 published maps and atlases; 15,000 pieces of sheet music; 10,000 dining menus; and over 500 hotel files.
- Separate databases are available for the library’s collections of dining menus, hotel files, and printed maps.
- Manuscript Collections
- https://www.nyhistory.org/library/manuscript-collections
- The Manuscript collections contain over 20,000 linear feet of archival materials including family papers and organizational and business recordsthat document the lives of important New Yorkers and Americans as well as average citizens. The bulk of the manuscript collections are from the 18th and 19th centuries, but we also have important materials from the 17th century and a growing number of 20th and 21st century collections.
- Available through NYPL’s online catalog https://bobcat.library.nyu.edu/primo-explore/search?vid=NYHS
- Graphic Collections
- The Graphic Materials Collections fall into four major categories: prints (engravings and lithographs); photographs; architectural collections; and ephemera (trade cards and other advertisements, broadsides, sheet music, and other paper items).
- Collection level records are available for the majority of these collections through the library’s online catalog.
- Remembering Wall Street 1950-1980
- The archive includes interviews with over fifty Wall Street veterans who built their careers during the period. Their stories form a vivid and complex mosaic of a profession undergoing momentous change. Following World War II, Wall Street was still the physical epicenter of the financial world; it was not yet a metaphor for something larger and more abstract.
- “Remembering Wall Street, 1950-1980” has been conceived as a research archive. Both the videotapes and the transcripts of the interviews are available for consultation on-site in the Library of the N-YHS.
- Time Inc. Records
- . Comprising more than 7,500 linear feet of an estimated seven million documents and artifacts, the Time Inc. collection provides a detailed perspective of 20th-century history and Time Inc.’s media empire, offering an extraordinary level of documentation and information for researchers.
- Researchers may also use the full-text searchable database for archival collections as well as the library’s online catalog to identify portions of the collection relevant to their research.
New York Historical Society Digital Library
- Has museum and Library highlights
- Museum EX.
- http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/nyhs%253Aswift
- Library EX.
- http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/islandora%253A4690
Museum of the City of New York Collections
- https://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=Home
- Explore New York’s past through nearly 205,000 objects from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
- Byron Company
- For half a century, the Byron Company (1892-1942) was one of New York City’s preeminent commercial photography studios. Two major areas of specialization – stage and ship photography – provided steady work for the firm while it pursued thousands of other commissions. Important subjects include New Yorks social elites, street scenes, sports, buildings, and workplaces.
- https://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Highlights/Byron%20Company/
- Broadway Productions
- The City Museum has received generous funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize its theater production files–more than 30,000 photographs documenting over 5,000 Broadway productions. They’ll be made available here as they’re digitized and cataloged.
- https://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Highlights/Broadway%20Productions/
The Bowery Boys History Podcast
- The Bowery Boys, Greg Young and Tom Meyers, have lived in New York for the past 20 years and have been curious about the city since the day they arrived. Join them for a fun take on history, a “romp down the back alleys of New York City.”
- EX of a podcast: Vaccinated: New York and the Polio Outbreak
- Shows released every two weeks
- Audio and walking tours: Bowery Boys Walks Washington Sq Park and High Line
- The Bowery Boys were an infamous 19th century gang of well-dressed ruffians who often skirmished with their rivals, the Dead Rabbits. However, before the gang, the namebowery b’hoys was often given to the working class, often Irish young men of the Bowery.
Mental Floss
- A website with different pages about history
- This Website Lets You Hear The Roar of 1920s New York City
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/74764/website-lets-you-hear-roar-1920s-new-york-city
- Archaeological Repository Showcases New York City’s Rich History
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/87074/archaeological-repository-showcases-new-york-citys-rich-history
- 10 Surprising Secrets From New York City’s History
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71596/10-surprising-secrets-new-york-citys-history
Author’s Note
379 For the song as performed in the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_cBhdRQgFI