Lewis Allan (Abel Meeropol, 1903-1986), PM, September 23, 1945
“The Hard Life of Billie Holiday”
“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).
“Shorty, the Bowery cherub, welcomes the New Year”
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp. 148-149
Shorty, the Bowery cherub, welcomed the New Year…
“Shorty, the Bowery Cherub, New Years Eve at Sammy’s Bar,” 1943
Barth, Miles, Weegee’s World, New York: Bullfinch Press, 1997, p.139
“Shorty, the Bowery cherub, welcomed the New Year…”
Weegee, Naked City, New York: Essential Books, 1945, p. 148
“Shorty, the Bowery cherub, welcomes the New Year…”
Weegee, Naked City, Cincinnati, Ohio: Zebra Picture Books, 1948
“THIS IS IT!”
Excerpt from World by Night, Mondo Di Notte, 1960, (Directed by Luigi Vanzi, Produced by Julia Film, in Technirama)
THIS IS IT! The sensation-filled motion picture that has smashed records all over Europe! It’s fantasterrific! Over two hours of entertainment with the most celebrated cabaret and night club acts in the world. World By Night. From burlesque to ballet. (Poster, presented by Warner Bros, 1961.)
“A Few Freak Places…”
“And I think art helps to bring truth…”
Weegee’s People, 1946
PM, April 25, 1948, m4
How to keep young with paints and brushes
After 18 years of painting in obscurity, Beauford Delaney [(1901-1979)], one of the last of Greenwich Village’s Bohemian artists…
PM, April 25, 1948, m4
“Photographer Dies”
PHOTOGRAPHER DIES – Arthur Fellig, the famous photographer known as “Weegee,” who turned his experiences covering Manhattan police headquarters into the novel “Naked City”…
“Weegee the Photographer Dies; Chronicled Life in ‘Naked City'”
The New York Times, December 27, 1968, p.33
Pictures, Pictures
PM, December 26, 1940 pp.16-17
Quakers March on New York with placards urging that America feed Hitler’s victims…
Christmas Pudding for these wounded British soldiers was served a few days early – so that this picture, sent from England by ship nail, could get here on Christmas day…
A Hitler Greeting of holiday ill-will toward England is loaded under a German bombing plane…
Loose Locomotive without a crew ran down spur in Chicago…
Nazi Troops are stationed in key spots throughout Rumania…
Union Label is the name of this strip act…
President Roosevelt Takes His Family and Guests to Church on Christmas…
Trans-Atlantic Greetings… are broadcast by Mayor LaGuardia and Lily Pons…
American Refugees arrive on S.S. Washington from the Orient…
First Aid fails to revive Paul Ryan, killed by a gas explosion in his apartment at 865 First Ave. Police said it was apparently suicide. The Christmas night blast shook the 17-story building and injured two house employees. PM photo by Weegee
PM, December 26, 1940 pp.16-17
865 First Ave., December 25 or 26, 2012
865 First Ave., December 26, 2020
“…it’s Christmas”
PM, December 24, 1940
(Only six hours, and one time zone, seperates Weegee Creek, OH, and Santa Claus, IN…)
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp.158-159
Not so long ago I, too, used to walk on the Bowery, broke, “carrying the banner.” The sight of a bed with white sheets in a furniture store window, almost drove me crazy. God… a bed was the most desirable thing in the world.
In the summer I would sleep in Bryant Park… But when it got colder I transferred to the Municipal Lodging House… I saw this sign on the wall there. A Sadist must have put u=it up. I laughed to myself… what Cash and Valuables… I didn’t have a nickel to my name, but I was a Free Soul… with no responsibilities…
Slumber-time in a mission… it’s Christmas.
WEEGEEWEEGEEWEEGEE 