“…a naked city.”

June 21, 2021
1941, Coney Island, Naked City


Uncle Moses, p. 125


Uncle Moses, p. 134


Uncle Moses; a novel, Sholem Asch (1880-1957), Isaac Goldberg (1887-1938), translator, 1920


“On a Sunday at Coney Island,” Gordon MacRae and the Cheerleaders; Carmen Dragon; Vernon Cross; Jeffrey Curtis, 1951

Celebrating the solstice with a trip to Coney Island in June… (And an early reference to “a naked city…”) “…Everything was permissible; the whole world intermingled.” Weegee, the war-time photographer, filled a centerfold with pictures and words of the “escapist crowd,” made on a Sunday at Coney Island… (Like a Stonehenge for midsummer sweltering city-dwellers…) The spread is a sequel of sorts to the previous years’ successful Coney centerfold: “Yesterday at Coney Island… Temperature 89… They Came Early, Stayed Late.” And a sprinkling of songs released in June 1941; possibly heard on the portable radios playing swing…


“She’s Love Crazy”, Tampa Red, Hudson Whittaker, June 1941

Coney Island Revisited… Pictures and Words by Weegee

I was one of 800,000 people – cops’ estimate – at Coney Island yesterday afternoon. It as an escapist crowd. Portable radios played swing instead of war news. Some planes flew over, but nobody paid much attention.

Most of the people arrived with bathing suits under their street clothes and undressed on the beach. A lot brought their lunches, too, and spread newspapers on sand to eat. It was 87 degrees when I took this picture.

First aid for ripped slacks. I don’t know how Mama happened to bring along her needle and thread, but I didn’t pose the picture. You don’t have to that to get amusing pictures at Coney. I go out every summer to photograph the crowds. They’re always the same – and always different. One difference from 1940 and yesterday was the number of soldiers in uniform on boardwalk looking over the gals on sand below.

Waiting three hours to get a picture of the official first lost child of the season when a man came over to the Park Department attendant with this and and, “Lost child.” Pretty soon his wild-eyed mother came up and took him away. The child was making such a rumpus, and the mother seemed so excited about it all, that I didn’t want to bother them to ask their names and address. PM Photos by Weegee

PM, June 9, 1941, pp. 16-17


“Sixth Avenue Express”, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, June 1941


“Rock Me Mama,” Art Tatum And His Band, Joe Turner, Jones, June 1941


“Lonesome Graveyard”, Art Tatum and His Band, Joe Turner, Jones, Williams, June 1941

“Lepke Must Stand Trial”

June 20, 2021
1941


The New York Times, June 20, 1941

Lepke Must Stand Trial

Appeal in Brooklyn Murder Case Denied by Federal Judge

(80 years ago today…)


“MY MAIN TRIAL IS YET TO COME”, Cope Bros., Englin, 1947

“2 In Murder Ring Are Put to Death”

June 20, 2021
1941


The New York Times, June 13, 1941

2 In Murder Ring Are Put to Death

Pittsburgh Phil Strauss and Buggsy Goldstein Go to Chair for Brooklyn Slaying

83 Killings Laid to Gang

Strauss Was Termed the ‘Most Vicious’ of Mob – Workman Goes to Jersey Prison

…
…Straus and Goldstein were convicted last Sept. 19 in Kings County Court of the contract slaying of Irving (Puggy) Feinstein, a small-time bookmaker, on Sept. 4, 1939…

Midway through the most significant year in Weegee’s world… (80 years and one week ago today…) The info from Abe Reles… And then the work of O’Dwyer, Turkus, Dewey, Bals, etc., etc…


SING, SING, SING (Part 1), Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, 1937


[Pittsburgh Phil Strauss and Buggsy Goldstein, Brooklyn, NY, April 1940], Life, September 1940 (Unidentified photographer)


SING, SING, SING (Part 2), Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, 1937

“for the term of your natural life”

June 14, 2021
1941


The New York Times, June 10, 1941

Midway through one of the most significant years in Weegee’s world… (80 years ago this week…) The info from Abe Reles… The work of O’Dwyer, Turkus, Dewey, Bals, etc… was significantly disrupting the “Brooklyn murder syndicate;” the “underworld”…


“Let the Punishment Fit the Crime,” Erskine Hawkins and his Orchestra; Jimmy Mitchelle; W. S. Gilbert; Sir Arthur Sullivan; Charles L. Cooke, 1939

“hard labor for the rest of your life.”

June 13, 2021
1941, PM


“It’s Hard To Be Shut Up In Prison,” The Blind Soldier, David Miller, 1931

Charlie, The Bug, Gets Life Sentence After Undertaker Cohen Blasts Alibi for Killing

By John Kobler

Within 10 minutes after court convened yesterday and before his lawyers could barely get their defense wheeling, Charlie (The Bug) Workman was a cooked goose…

The six-year-old mystery of who killed Dutch Schultz had been penetrated. The deck was now clear for Mr. O’Dwyer to shoot at bigger game – Lepke Buchalter himself, who comes up for trial July 14.


PM, June 11, 1941, p.18 (PM Photo by Michael Strepka)


“Jail Bird,” Sonny Knight; Jack Collier Orchestra; Bruce Morgan, 1956

Happy Birthday Weegee…

June 12, 2021
1941, PM


PM, March 2, 1941


Weegee (1899-1968) and Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976), July 1945

A picture with somebody in it sells better than a picture of a lifeless object. So Weegee sometimes puts himself in his picture-shooting them by “remote control.” Here he is posing as a “curious passerby” looking at the body of a Brooklyn murder victim found in t trunk near the Gowanus Canal.

Weegee makes friends readily. On a Chinatown assignment, he got this New Year’s lucky wish from a Chinese girl. He has a photo of her painting ot pinned above his bed (picture on next page). It is characteristic of him to have his picture taken this way. The cigar is standard equipment.

Weegee’s room shows his devotion to his job. On top of his regular radio is a police short-wave radio and a loudspeaker attached to it dangles over his bed. On the floor are his special “murder shoes” – at left – and his “snow shoes.” He keeps his “fire shoes” in his car. The wall decorations are examples of his work and certificates of awards for prize-winning pictures. The cardboard boxes at the extreme right are his disorderly “files.” The typewriter is his latest acquisition. He has recently taken up writing – a field in which he shows rather starltinh talent. We don’t know what the Flit is for.

PM, March 9, 1941, pp. 50-51

Today we are celebrating the birth of Weegee!

“Here’s How New Yorkers Try to Cool Off”

June 9, 2021
1943, PM


“Hot Bread,” Beverly White And Her Blues Chasers; Ward Baker, May 1943


“Cool Breeze,” Billy Eckstine; Gene Ammons; Dameron; Gillespie, 1946

Here’s How New Yorkers Try to Cool Off

These youngsters play in a flooded gutter on Carrol St., Brooklyn, the lad in the foreground showing just how he’d swim at the beach. It’s fun, but unsanitary. There’s virtually no limit to the diseases that could be picked up from street dirt. This picture gives you a concrete argument for more – not fewer – playgrounds, so greatly needed to keep young New York healthy. Photo by John De Biase, PM

This is better. Water straight out of a hose won’t hurt anybody. The young man is enjoying a shower on Dean St. Photo by Arthur Leipzig, PM


PM, June 6, 1943, p. 16

Here’s How New Yorkers Try to Cool Off

The hot nights have filled many a fire escape. A mother and two sons sleep outdoors at a tenement on East Houston and Mangin St. Photo by Weegee
PM, June 6, 1943, p. 16


“Cool Playin’ Mama, “Sammy Cotton; Paul Gayten and his Orchestra; Biggs; Cotton, 1950


“Cool Down Mamma,” Lost John Hunter and His Blind Bats, Lost John Hunter; Hunter, 1950

It’s International Archives Day…

June 9, 2021
Uncategorized


Screenshot, (Weegee, [Weegee and the Weegee archive, Hollywood], ca. 1950)

Celebrate Archives!

Did you know that June 9 is International Archives Day? All around the world, professionals in the archival community unite their voices on June 9 to make you understand why it is essential to support archives and the profession.

The ICA believes that the value of archives and archivists should be promoted at the international level. Archives and archivists play an important role in accountability, transparency, democracy, heritage, memory and society.

During the 2004 International Congress in Vienna, 2000 attending participants adopted a resolution requesting that the United Nations (UN) designates a specific day to mark the importance and value of archives.


Screenshot, (Weegee, [Weegee and the Weegee archive, Hollywood], ca. 1950)

International Archives Week

Since the first International Archives Day in 2009, ICA has expanded the event to an entire week. During International Archives Week (IAW), organisations worldwide share their events and participate alongside ICA to promote the value and importance of archives and archivists.


Screenshot, (Bob Parent, [Weegee and Mel Harris working on the the book “Naked Hollywood”], ca. 1953)

Mandate

The objectives of the International Archives Day and International Archives Week, are to:

– raise public awareness of the importance of records and archives;

– raise awareness among senior decision-makers of the benefits of records management for good governance and development;

– improve the public, private and public sectors’ understanding of the necessity of long-term archival preservation and access;

– showcase the unique, extraordinary, and rare documents preserved in archival institutions; and

– advance the image of records and archives to enhance their visibility globally.

ica.org


Screenshot, (Gerald Straw, [Wilma Wilcox working with the Weegee archive], ca. 1975)

“The Face of New York on Invasion Day”

June 7, 2021
1944, PM


PM, June 7, 1944, p.20

The Face of New York on Invasion Day

The crowds in Times Square were serious yesterday – glad that D-Day had come and yet solemn at the thought of the boys in the fighting. Below you see some of the faces turned up toward the electric sign on the Times building as bulletins of Allied progress were flashed out. Photos by Weegee.


PM, June 7, 1944, p.20


“D-Day Polka,” Brunon Kryger “King of the Polkas” and his International Orchestra, 1945

Y (“Shrinking Violet Explains” )

June 6, 2021
1942, Naked City, PM



Weegee, Naked City, 1945


PM, May 31, 1942, pp.8-9 (photo by Weegee)

Weegee, free-lance news photographer who drives around New York in search of pictures, got so many dirty looks during the first two weeks of gas rationing that he had a sign painter letter this card for the rack that used to hold his front license plate. Like one out of every 10 motorists in the East, Weegee has an X card.
PM, May 31, 1942, p.8


Extra! Weegee!, p. 19

Shrinking Violet Explains

New York – The envious looks of gasless former “Sunday Drivers” pierced the tender epidermis of “Weegee” noted New York freelance photographer as he toured the city while on the job today. To get rid of that uncomfortable feeling, “Weegee” mounted this explanation of gasoline expenditure on the front of his machine and immediately felt much better.
Credit Line (ACME) 5-24-42

Extra! Weegee!, p. 19


Screenshot, whitney.org


We’re the Sunday Drivers, Billy Murray’s Trio (Carl Mathieu, Monroe Silver and Murray), 1927