Now comes a Bowery suicide tale from #169. This time, it's a lovelorn Italian musician with a pistol back in 1886. He was "so poor that life had no longer any charm for him":
new york times
The address at which the musician died was on a Bowery filled with theaters, including many Italian and vaudeville theaters. He had played at Miner's Bowery Theater, which opened in this location, 165-169 Bowery, in 1878. It was known for its "questionable burlesque productions" and amateur nights (Eddie Cantor won many here), where bad performers were hauled offstage by a hook. Some claim this is where the expression "Get the hook!" was born.
In 1922, Miner's nearly burned down and later became a Chinese opera house.
miner's posters on bowery, new york wanderer
More recently, 169 was the home of Weiss Hardware, with the most excellent signage and can-do spirit--"If You Can't Find it. We have it"-- along with questionable punctuation and capitalization.
photo: Michael Dashkin
photo: my flickr
Last week, on my walk down the vanishing Bowery, I took a couple pictures of this creamy, pistachio-colored sign, afraid it might soon disappear. Last night, photographer and fellow sidewalk pounder RK Chin informed me it was gone.
Here's what might be coming, should the real-estate agents' dream come true. Unless, of course, they just tear it down and put up another glass box. Somebody, get the hook!
listing page
4 comments:
Isn't it interesting that in the relestate ad the door is frosted over but the rest of the space is totally exposed to the street? Perhaps that's meant to be ironic.
These yunnie kids really have trouble with the idea of privacy, don't they? I suppose living in a culture where everyone looks, acts, and thinks the same, they've become used to the illusion of comunalism.
The image is missing the sight of a brown-skinned minority, standing against a wall, holding a mop.
i think you're referring to the georgica scene?
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/05/everyday-chatter_22.html
That's a very interesting postulation, that the rise of the glass building is because people want to expose themselves and feel like a celebrity who has no privacy.
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