Archive

context

The People’s Baths

March 6, 2019
Centre Market Place, context


The New York Times, March 6, 1896

The New Public Bath

To Be Erected in the Neighborhood of Tompkins Square

W.H. Tolman Talks of the Plans

Will Be a Beautiful Building, Probably of White Marble, After the Design of the People’s Bath

The work on the new public baths in the city, for which money has just been appropriated… can be begun at once. The plans for the baths are now ready. They were made by the architects who designed the building for the successful People’s Baths at 9 Centre Market Place, controlled by the Associated for the Improving the Condition of the Poor…

…Baths in the basement are for the men whose condition is such that is is not thought best to put them in the regular baths…

…The figures shown at the People’s Baths prove conclusively that such institutions are needed. In the year ending with September, 1895, 88.735 baths were taken…

The whole place is delightfully clean and attractive. The most fastidious could not object to a bath in such a place. Soap, towel, and use of a bath are given for 5 cents. The women have towels a little lighter in quality than those of the men. All the towels are put in disinfectants as soon as soiled, and later are carefully washed by steam power…”

(In January 1913, 5 cents had the same buying power as $1.28 in January 2019…)
(In January 1913, $1 had the same buying power as $25.68 in January 2019…)

Stooge Guarding Waterfront and Hurrell’s Hollywood Glamour

March 3, 2019
1942, context


“Stooge for Bund Leader Guards Our Waterfront”, by Gene De Poris, PM, March 3, 1942, p. 5, (photos by Leo Lieb, Weegee)


PM, March 3, 1942, pp. 5, 16-17

Photography
5 by Hurrell
Steiner Picks Hollywood Glamor Man’s Best Work

Sumptuously Sexy… Bette Davis… a dramatic actress with fire in her veins…
Unique Personality of a Dietrich…
Pools of Mysterious Black… Now editors demand dark pictures, say they’re his trademark. This is Conchita Montenegro.
The Woman everyman showers with… Ann Sheridan…
Sex and Glamor… dancer Zorina… to capture a feeling of soaring into space.

“George Hurrell is the top glamor photographer in Hollywood. He has lived two success stories…

Hurrell chose a middle corse. He decided against the daily grind and also against life in a garret… He didn’t consider glamor pictures world-shakingly inportant, but they were the thing he did best. It was work he could have fun at if he could be his own boss.

Hurrell quit and moved into his own studio, kept overhead low by doing most of the work himself. Now he makes fewer but better picture; earns plenty; takes time off. He’s a happy man. That’s Hurrell’s second success story. – Ralph Steiner.” PM, March 3, 1942, pp. 16-17

Interesting and Great

February 25, 2019
1941, context, PM


PM, February 24, 1941, p. 20

“Weegee Meets Interesting People At a 6 a.m. Sunday Fire”
“Cruising around Times Square at 6 a.m. Sunday with the police radio on in my car…”



PM, February 25, 1941, pp. 12-13 (photos by Max Coplan)

“Mrs. Gargantua the Great… A Picture Profile“

June 17, 1941

June 17, 2018
1941, context, PM


PM, June 17, 1941 (pages 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 15, 19)

Nazi’s in New York, spying on New York harbor, “What the Mayor Did Yesterday,” “No Witch-Hunting…”… (photos by Morris Gordon, John DeBiase. Ray Platnick, etc…)

“I Am an American Program Drew 750,000 to Central Park Mall.” – May 19, 1941

May 19, 2018
1941, context, PM



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PM, May 19, 1941, pages 1, 5, 9, 12

“7 Pages: Are Prices Going Up?”

“U.S.A. Is Warned…”

“Ten Firemen Overcome in Washington Market Blaze”
“Joe Balierwalter was just one of 10 firemen overcome while fighting a smoky blaze in the heart of Washington Market early today. The fire started in the basement of a three-story brick building occupied by Kraemer & Klie, banana dealers, at 373 Washington St. The firemen had a tough enough time getting their apparatus past the numerous trucks and drays that clog the market. But when they got into the cellar, they dropped like flies as 400 crates of bananas, wrapped in wet straw and burlap, threw off carbon monoxide gas. All the firemen were revived. PM Photo by Weegee.”

“Ickes Calls for All-Out Aid in Talk to City’s Biggest Crowd”
“…Secretary of the Interior, was cheered by the largest audience ever assembled in New York when he called for all-out aid to Britain in the fight to save democracy…”
“I Am an American Program Drew 750,000 to Central Park Mall.”
“Mayor LaGuardia wielded the baton.”
“Photos by Gene Badger, PM”

“The Human Element Is Important, Too, in Photos of the Elements” – May 18, 1941

May 18, 2018
1941, context, PM


PM, May 18, 1941

“What Are We Going To Do About It?”
Abraham Reles… (Murder, Inc.)
Artists don’t live in the Village anymore…
Aquarium may move to Coney Island…
Governors Island… (photos by Alan Fisher)
“New York Enjoying Spring Fever,” Hippos (Rosie and Schlemiel), etc. (Great series of photos by M. Engel)
New Citizens Day: Alexandra Tolstoy, “daughter of Russian author Leo Tolstoy…” (photos by Gene Badger)
Weather Photography, edited by Ralph Steiner…
International Society for Contemporary Music… (icsm.org)
Re. Utah Smith at MoMA… (photo by Irving Haberman) (Rev. Utah Smith on The Hound Blog)


screenshot from moma.org

“The fourth program in the series of Coffee Concerts at the Museum of Modern Art will be Jubilee, a Negro revival meeting, on Wednesday evening, May 21, at nine. The prayer meeting and “anniversary,” complete with gospel singers and elocutionist, will be led by the Reverend Utah Smith, evangelist, as master of ceremonies. The Reverend Smith delivers his religious messages with the aid of an electrical guitar. Some of his preaching is extemporaneous; some is part of his original repertoire. His theme song is “I Got Two Wings.”
He has preached as an itinerant evangelist for twenty years, mostly in the south where “folks is more church goin’ than Northerners.” Louise Crane, who has arranged the Coffee Concerts for the Museum, first heard the Reverend Smith in a small church in Newark and invited him to participate in the series. Appearing with him are twelve singers, members of his flock in Newark…” (pdf: moma.org)

“Broome St. and the Bowery” – May 16, 1941

May 16, 2018
1941, context, PM


PM, May 16, p. 15, “1001 Afternoons in New York” by Ben Hecht

“Murder in Broome Street
Let’s have a love story for a change.
There’s a dearth of amour in the press these days that gives you a lopsided picture of our town…
We’ll pick up our heroine (as they say in Hollywood) in Room 29 of the Hotel Commercial. This is a stained and giddy inn at the corner of Broome St. and the Bowery…”

(Commercial Hotel, 341 Broome, CAnal 6-9165, across the street from the Spring Arrows Social and Athletic Club, 344 Broome, site of “Off Duty Cop Does Duty, Kills Gunman Who Tries Stickup,” February 3, 1942.)



NY Times, March 31, 1966 (Pioneer Hotel, 341 Broome)

“Major Crimes Decreased Slightly in 1940” – May 15, 1941

May 15, 2018
1941, context, PM


PM, May 15, 1941, p. 15

Murders in NYC according to NYPD:
335 – 2016
649 – 2001
2262 – 1990

Felonious Assault in NYC according to NYPD (obviously this is not accurate since many people are brutally assaulted and are not counted in the statistics of the NYPD):
20,847 – 2016
23,020 – 2001
44,122 – 1990

Burglary in NYC according to NYPD:
12,990 – 2016
32,694 – 2001
122,055 – 1990


PM, May 15, 1941, p. 15

Population of Metropolitan New York:
1940 – 11,690,620
2017 – 20,300,000