“Business Men’s Bounce”; Raymond Scott and his New Orchestra; Scott; Columbia (35364); Publication date: December 21, 1939
The New York Times, December 21, 1939
“Dinah”; Lionel Hampton and Orchestra; Lionel Hampton; Edmund Hall; Coleman Hawkins; Benny Carter; Joe Sullivan; Freddy Green; Art Bernstein; Zutty Singleton; Lewis; Young; Akst; Victor (26557-A); Publication date: December 21, 1939
The New York Times, December 21, 1939
“Singin’ the Blues”; Lionel Hampton and Orchestra; Lionel Hampton; Edmund Hall; Coleman Hawkins; Benny Carter; Joe Sullivan; Freddy Green; Art Bernstein; Zutty Singleton; Lewis; Young; Conrad; Robinson; Victor (26557-B); Publication date: December 21, 1939
The New York Times, December 21, 1939
LEPKE IS CONVICTED IN NARCOTICS CASE; AIDE IS ALSO GUILTY
Gangster Who Gained Control of $10,000,000 Conspiracy Stoical at Verdict
JURY IS OUT SIX HOURS
Schmukler Also Facing Prison Term – Third Defendant Cleared of Charge
“Shivers”; Benny Goodman Sextet; Christian ; Hampton; Johnny Guarnieri; Charlie Christian; Artie Bernstein; Nick Fatool; Lionel Hampton; Benny Goodman; Columbia (35349); Publication date: December 20, 1939
“Baltimore Bounce”; Erskine Hawkins (The Twentieth Century Gabriel) and his Orchestra; Sammy Low; Erskine Hawkins; Bluebird (B-10565-B); Publication date: December 20, 1939
“I Hadn’t Anyone Till You”; Erskine Hawkins (The Twentieth Century Gabriel) and his Orchestra; Dolores Brown; Ray Noble; Bluebird (B-10565-A); Publication date: December 20, 1939
The New York Times, December 20, 1939
‘MYTH’ ABOUT LEPKE ASSAILED AT TRIAL
Defense, in Summing Up of Narcotics Case, Asks Jury to Forget Publicized Name
‘BREACH OF JUSTICE’ SEEN
Argument to Continue Today With Federal Pleas and Jury’s Charge to Follow
…there isn’t a person who lives in the City of New York who hasn’t heard stories about Lepke,hasn’t read them, hasn’t discussed them.”
“‘Leven Miles From Leavenworth”; Texas Jim Lewis And His Lone Star Cowboys; Philip Baxter; Decca (6099 B); Publication date: February 11, 1944
“The Last Time I Saw Paris”; Tony Martin; Victor Young; Jerome Kern; Oscar Hammerstein II; Decca (25042 B); Publication date: December 19, 1939
“All the Things You Are;” Tony Martin; Ray Sinatra; Jerome Kern; Oscar Hammerstein II; Decca (25042 A); Publication date: December 19, 1939
The New York Times, December 19, 1939
‘CUT’ IN NARCOTICS TO LEPKE DENIED
Jake Lvovoky, Co-Leader of Smashed Ring, Contradicts Ex-Partners Testimony
“Bellevue For You”; Pete Brown Quintette; Pete Brown; Al Casey; Kenneth Watts; Al Matthews; Ed Nicholson; J. O. P. Brown; Savoy (522-B); Publication date: July 11, 1944
“Wrap Your Troubles In Romantic Dreams Between the Moon and the 19th Willow”; Bing Crosby; Publication date: December 15, 1939
The Daily Argus, December 15, 1939
HORROR AND ANGUISH mark the faces of Mrs. H. Torres (left) and her daughter, Ada, as they watch a New York tenement fire in which Mrs. Torres’ sister and young nephew, Mrs. Ramona Malave thirty, and her son, Edward, died.
“Just for You Heart Sick Lovely Hawaiian Madonna in the Sand”; Andy Iona and his Orchestra; Publication date: December 15, 1939
While Tories Bar Low-Rent Housing
Mother and Son Die in B’klyn Tenement Fire
Fire roared through an old tenement in Brooklyn at 2 A.M. yesterday and took the lives of Mrs. Ramonia Malava, 10, and her 7-year-old son Edward.
The four-story tenement at 41 Bartlett St. was occupied by twelve families, all of whom managed to get out except Mrs. Malava and her boy, who were trapped in a rear apartment on the fourth floor. Their charred bodies were found near a window, indicating that they had been overcome while trying to escape…
The tenement fire was discovered when one of the occupants thought he smelled smoke. When he went to the hall the stair-well was a blazing furnace. He managed to get down a fire-escape to turn in an alarm.
Meanwhile a passerby, seeing the flames,, rushed into the building and aroused its occupants by banging on as many doors as he could reach.
Firemen are investing the orgin of the fire, which is believed to have started in a third-floor apartment.
The Daily Worker, December 15, 1939
“Holy Smoke (Can’t You Take Ya Take a Joke?) Pinch Me I Want My Mama Between 18th and 19th On Chestnut Street”; The Ole Tom-cat of the Keys Bob Zurke and his Delta Rhythm Band; Publication date: December 15, 1939
The New York Times, December 15, 1939
LEPKE DEFENDANT BARES PAST CRIMES
Denies Aiding Narcotics Ring, Then Admits He Was Former Burglar and Bootlegger
Missing Finger A Trap
“Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away)”; Bing Crosby; John Scott Trotter And His Orchestra; Ted Koehler; Bill Moll; Harry Barris; Decca (2948 B); Publication date: December 15, 1939
“Blues in the Groove”; Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra; Durham”; Vocalion (5395); Publication date: December 14, 1939
Batavia Daily News, December 14, 1939, p.1
TRAPPED IN FLAMES MOTHER AND SON DIE
Burn to Death in New York When Flames Destroy Tenement Building
OTHERS ESCAPE IN NIGHT
The New York Post, December 14, 1939 (Photo by Irving Haberman)
“THEY’RE STILL UP THERE!”
Mrs. Henrietta Torres and her daughter, Ada, photographed just after they were rescued from a two-alarm fire at 41 Bartlett Street, Brooklyn, early today. Mrs. Ramona Malave and her son, Edward, relatives of Mrs, Torres, were brought down later – dead.
“Uptown Blues”; Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra; Lunceford; Columbia (30232); Publication date: December 14, 1939
The New York Sun, December 14, 1939 (Photo by Irving Haberman)
FIREMEN MAKE RESCUES AT FATAL BLAZE
A scene at 41 Bartlett street, Brooklyn, early today as firemen engaged in rescue work in the four-story tenement house where two persons lost their lives. One of the tenants of an adjoining building is shown near the lower corner of the picture.
The New York Sun, December 14, 1939
WOMAN AND SON PERISH IN FIRE
Trapped at Window of Their Brooklyn Home
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp. 74-75
I Cried When I took This Picture
Mother and daughter cry and look up hopelessly as another daughter and her young baby are burning to death in the top floor of the tenement… firemen couldn’t reach them in time… on account of the stairway collapsing.
“Lunceford Special”; Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra; Lunceford; Durham; Gerald Wilson; Willie Smith; Trummy Young; Joe Thomas; Columbia (38338); Publication date: December 14, 1939
The New York Times, December 14, 1939
GOVERNMENT ENDS LEPKE TESTIMONY
Completes Its Case as 23d Witness Testifies Against Narcotics Defendant
“It’s Time To Jump and Shout”; Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra; Durham; Vocalion (5430); Publication date: December 14, 1939
“Street Scene”; Benny Carter Quintet; Norman Granz; Alfred Newman; Mercury (89044); 1952
The New York Times, November 17, 1939
SLAIN BY EAST SIDE THUGS
Soft-Drink Vendor Shot Down In Prince Street Doorway
The New York Times, November 17, 1939
“Street Scene (A Sentimental Rhapsody)”; Alfred Newman And His Hollywood Symphony Orch.; Newman; Mercury (4013)
The New York Post, Friday, November 17, 1939, p. 10 (Associated Press Photo)
Street Scene in New York
After the guns ceased barking and the gunmen fled, neighbors peered from the fire escape and almost every window last night for a glimpse of the body of Anthony Greco, slain in front of his own cafe at 10 Prince Street.
The New York Post, November 17, 1939
“Street Scene (Sentimental Rhapsody);” Alfred Newman and his Orchestra; Newman; Adamson; Majestic (20017 A); 1946
Times Herald, November 20, 1939, p.1
“Street Scene (A Sentimental Rhapsody)”; Alfred Newman And His Hollywood Symphony Orchestra; Newman; Mercury (1150M); September 1946
LIFE, November 27, 1939, pp. 26-27
Murder in New York
After dusk on Nov. 16, Angelo Greco stood smoking outside his cafe in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Emerging from the darkness, a man drew a gun, fired four shots, fled into the night. Greco tumbled dead in his doorway. From windows above, heads popped out. Police cars screamed into the street. Close in their wake arrived Arthur Fellig, famed free-lance photographer (LIFE, April 12, 1937) who sleeps behind police headquarters, has a short-wave radio in his car. He listened briefly while neighborhood folk stolidly disclaimed knowledge of the murderer, then stepped back and photographed this dramatic street scene.
LIFE, November 27, 1939, p. 27
“Street Scene”; Ralph Marterie And His Orchestra; Ennio Bolognini; Newman; Mercury (5860); 1952
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, p. 79
Balcony Seats At A Murder
This happened in Little Italy. Detectives tried to question the people in the neighborhood… but they were all deaf… dumb… and blind… not having seen or heard anything.
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, p. 79
“Street Scene”; Ray Anthony and His Orchestra; Alfred Newman; Capitol (2327); 1953
Weegee, Famous Photographers Tell How…, ca. 1955
…One of the best pictures I’ve made… Just to give you a little aside. I got up nine o’clock one night, and I says to myself, I’m going to take a nice little ride and work up an appetite… I arrive right in the heart of Little Italy, 10 Prince St. Here’s a guy who had been bumped off in the doorway of a little candy store. This was a nice balmy, hot, summer’s night. The detectives are all over… but all the five stories of the tenement people are on the fire escape… they’re looking, they’re having a good time… some of the kids are even reading the funny papers and the comics… There was another photographer there and he made what they call a ten foot shot… he made a shot of just the guy in the doorway and that was it… To me this was drama, this was like a backdrop… I stepped all the way back about 100 feet. I used flash powder. And I got this whole scene… the people on the fire escapes, the body, everything… Of course the title for it was “Balcony Seats at a Murder”… That picture won me a gold medal with a real genuine diamond… So that was it… So I try to humanize the news story. Of course I ran into snags with the dopey editors. If it was fire they’d say where’s the burning building? And I’d says look they all look a like. I says look, here’s the people effected by the burning building…
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp. 74-75 (one of the oldest photos in Naked City)
I Cried When I Took This Picture
Mother and daughter cry and look up hopelessly as another daughter and her young baby are burning to death in the top floor of the tenement… firemen couldn’t reach them in time… on account of the stairway collapsing.
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp. 74-75
New York Daily Mirror, December 15, 1939
As 2 Kin Died
Mrs. Enrique Torres and daughter Ada, saved from Brooklyn fire, look up at burning tenemnt, with terror in their eyes. They know two relatives are trapped on top floor. Later theur bodies were found.
Daily Worker – Peoples Champion of Liberty, Progress, Peace and Prosperity, December 15, 1939, p.1
Mother and Son Die in B’klyn Tenement Fire
Fire roared through an old tenement in Brooklyn at 2 A.M. yesterday and took the lives of Mrs. Ramionia Malava, 30, and her 7-year old son Edward.
The four-story tenement at 41 Bartlett St. was occupied by twelve families, all of whom managed to get out except Mrs. Malava and her boy, who were trapped in a rear apartment on the fourth floor. Their charred bodies were found near a window, indicating they had been overcome while trying to escape…
Daily Worker – Peoples Champion of Liberty, Progress, Peace and Prosperity, December 15, 1939, p.1
Murder in New York
“After dusk on Nov. 16, Angelo Greco stood smoking outside his cafe in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Emerging from the darkness, a man drew a gun, fired four shots, fled into the night. Greco tumbled dead in his doorway. From windows above, heads popped out. Police cars screamed into the street. Close in their wake arrived Arthur Fellig, famed free-lance photographer (LIFE, April 12, 1937) who sleeps behind police headquarters, has a short-wave radio in his car. He listened briefly while neighborhood folk stolidly disclaimed knowledge of the murderer, then stepped back and photographed this dramatic street scene.”
WEEGEEWEEGEEWEEGEE 