“SEIZED AS FIREBUG”

April 19, 2021
1937


The New York Sun, Monday, April 19, 1937, P. 2 (Photo by A. Fellig)

(On this day in history… 84 years ago today… a prewar portrait published…)

“Early one morning last week in the gashouse district on Manhattan’s lower East Side, a neat, grey-haired watchman named George Preston, 47, was caught setting fire to a rubbish heap under the stairs of a tenement house whose occupants lay sleeping. Watchman Preston, once a probationary fireman at Lynn, Mass., tearfully told police he took a few drinks every time he got a headache, set fires for excitement every time he took a few drinks. When he accompanied them to The Bronx, pointed out nine buildings he had previously fired, police believed they had cleared up a series of incendiary fires that have terrorized Bronx dwellers for two years. Firebug Preston carefully guided them, past locations where incendiary fires resulted fatally, pointed only to addresses where no lives were lost. Said the police: “These incendiary fires have caused us more worry than any five murderers.”
Time, April 26, 1937


PM, April 18, 1941

(“…earthworks… a statue…”)

April 15, 2021
1947


PM, March 25, 1947 (Photo by Morris Gordon)
“Two thousand curious bystanders crowded sidewalks and fire escapes on buildings near 2078 Fifth Ave. yesterday…”


PM, March 27, 1947 (Photo by Morris Gordon)
“Fortress Against the World,” by Max Lerner

(“…earthworks… a statue…” and a park…)

“…an Arthur Fellig favorite…”

April 14, 2021
1943, 1944


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“Camera Topics,” by T.T. Holden.

“The Salvation Army serves over 12,000 doughnuts every day to service men and women in Philadelphia through their fleet of seventeen mobile canteens and six club cars…”


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“Windsors at the circus, an Arthur Fellig favorite. 4×5 Speed Graphic on Agfa Superpan Press film, one bulb at camera, f: 4.5 at 1/250th sec.”

(The photo, one of at least six of the Windsors at the circus, was made in May 1943… after a final photo: “They shook hands. Weegee says he got this picture of himself by psychic means. ‘I then packed up,’ his report adds, “and went to a nearby Automat and had a cup of coffee.”)


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“The WAR and YOU”


[Narberth], April 13, 1944, p.3

“These Things Make a Job Worthwhile!”

This day in history (yesterday).
(Wartime Weegee with royalty covering the home front… and drinking coffee…)


PM, April 13, 1941, p. 50 (Elizabeth Hawes, Charles Martin)
“Suppose That Clothes Were Good for Four Years…”

Almost Art

April 13, 2021
auction

Three recent auction results, (screenshots from auction websites):


Phillips, April 8, 2021. (Unsold.)

Obviously not a photo made by Weegee. (Sold for $11.99.)


Naked City, 1945. (Sold for less than $350.)

“San Diego?”

“Selected images…”

April 12, 2021
auction


(Screenshots from auction house website.)

Speaking of collecting… A recent auction… Photos not sold…

Three photos with a Weegee stamp; probably not made by Weegee.

And also not sold, a Weegee portfolio:

“THE PEDDLER OF ROSES”

April 11, 2021
auction


(Screenshots from auction house website)

Speaking of collecting… Recent auction result…

(Print date is…)

Bonhams, April 9, 2021

Typed captions taped to other versions of this image:
“THE PEDDLER OF ROSES”
“Buy A ROSE for your HONEY”
But all the HONEY’S wanted was 4 ROSES, with GINGER ALE for a CHASER…

“Buy A Rose For Your Honey.” But ALL THE HONEY’S WANTED 4 ROSES… WITH GINGER ALE FOR A CHASER…

Music in the “Collyer Museum”

April 10, 2021
1947, PM


PM, April 1947

Turn Up ’98 Discs In Collyer Museum

“…Collyer had boasted the house contained 10 pianos. Fourteen have been found to date. Also:

Three radios.
Two organs.
Two violins.
An old fashioned gramophone.

The record collection had items that were a record-collectors dream, to wit:

Bugle Calls, by Chief Trumpeter Cassi of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. One side, 7-inch, 1898.

A recording of La Marseillaise, by Sousa’s Band. One side, 7-inch, 1898.

American Republic March, also by Sousa, 7-inch. One side, 1898.

A record of Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon for her Lover Who is Fur Away, by the American Quartet.”

1. “Bugle Calls, by Chief Trumpeter Cassi of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. One side, 7-inch, 1898.”:


Bugle Calls, Trumpeter Cassi (1898).

Bugle Calls of the Rough Riders in Their Charge Up San Juan Hill, Columbia (A180).

Bugle Calls of the Rough Riders in their Charge up San Juan Hill, Manhattan (638)

2. “A recording of La Marseillaise, by Sousa’s Band. One side, 7-inch, 1898.”:

La Marseillaise. Sousa’s Band. Victor (16514-B).

La Marseillaise. Sousa’s Band. Victor (17668-A)

La Marseillaise-National Air of France. Sousa’s Band. Victor (17668-A).

3. “American Republic March, also by Sousa, 7-inch. One side, 1898.”:

American Republic March, Columbia Band; Thiele. Columbia (A87), 1901.

American Republic March, Prince’s Band; Thiele. Columbia (A2223). 1917.

4. “A record of Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon for her Lover Who is Fur Away, by the American Quartet.”:

‘Round Her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who is Fur, Fur Away). American Quartet; George A. Norton. Victor (18436-B).

‘Round Her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who is Fur, Fur Away). American Quartet; George A. Norton. Victor (18436-B).

‘Round Her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who is Fur, Fur Away). American Quartet; George A. Norton. Victor (18436-B).

‘Round Her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who is Fur, Fur Away). American Quartet; George A. Norton. Victor (18436-B).

“The Hard Life of Billie Holiday”

April 7, 2021
1945, PM


“Billie’s Blues, “Billie Holiday and her Orchestra; Billie Holiday, 1936.


Billie Holiday, Joe Guy, her trumpeter-husband, and Mister, her dog, photographed in Billie’s dressing room at the Downbeat Club. Photo by Skippy Adelman.

“One of the these days things will get better,” she sighed. “They’ll get better for everybody. We’ll all have a chance to eat and sleep in peace. I just know it will come about. It will take a long time, but it will come about. It won’t be in my lifetime, though. Oh, no, I’ll never profit by it.”

PM, 1945, Photos by Skippy Adelman.


“Why Was I Born?“, Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, John Jackson, Lester Young, Joe Jones, Walter Page, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, Jerome Kern, 1937.


New York Post, 1945.


“I Must Have That Man!“, Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, John Jackson, Lester Young, Joe Jones, Walter Page, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, Fields, McHugh, 1937.


Manhattan Phone book, 1940.


“Fine and Mellow,” Billie Holiday and her Orchestra, Frankie Newton, Billie Holiday, 1939.


Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit. Billie says: “It depresses me every time I sing it. It reminds me of how Pop died. But I have to sing it. Things are still going on in the south.
PM, 1945, Photos by Skippy Adelman.


“Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday and her Orchestra, Sonny White, Lewis Allan, 1939.

Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959).