Little-Known Facts About New York City

In 1978, an extremely wealthy Italian-American scrap metal...

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:40:00 -0400

In 1978, an extremely wealthy Italian-American scrap metal entrepreneur named Lorenzo Fabiano opened the restaurant Pizza Town two blocks from Penn Station. Fabiano had devised an experimental, hydrogen-fired pizza oven which operated at temperature of over 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In theory, it could cook thirty pizzas in less than five seconds. Pizza Town was to be the oven’s proving ground, and Fabiano boasted that within five years, every pizza oven in America would be of his new design.

The moment it was switched on, the Lorenzo Oven exploded instantly. The building was levelled and 19 people killed. Fabiano vowed to rebuild, and in 1979, New Pizza Town opened on the same site. Fabiano had redesigned his oven, which worked for several hours before erupting in a massive, uncontrollable fire. Fabiano considered his safety advances a success, as the building was only partially destroyed this time and only three lives were lost. New Pizza Town II exploded the next year, killing only one employee.

Fabiano’s pizza ovens went on to destroy nine more sequentially-numbered restaurants on the same site. “New Pizza Town X”, opened in 2002, was often mistaken for a strip club, so Fabiano reset the number to I in 2007. A blackened metal plaque inside the restaurant serves as a memorial to the 75 people who have died in Pizza Town restaurants to date.

In the late 19th century, indoor plumbing spread throughout New...

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:00:00 -0400

In the late 19th century, indoor plumbing spread throughout New York. There were, however, notable exceptions: “French apartments”, which had a system of open ducts on the outside of the building into which residents would empty their chamberpots, bath water, and any other unwanted liquids. The sewage would collect in a small pit dug alongside the building, which was filled in with sawdust, horse dung, or whatever else was around. By 1930, most had been converted to sanitary indoor plumbing, and the French apartment had all but vanished from New York.

But as World War II threatened, hundreds of expatriate Americans returned home, many to settle in New York. The city’s remaining French apartments were quickly populated with painters, poets and writers nostalgic for fetid, old-fashioned Parisian tin “shit troughs”. Henry Miller wrote that he found the odor of a French apartment “a manly reek” and thought indoor plumbing an “emasculation of the senses”.

Whatever the appeal, a few of New York’s French apartments persisted well into the 1960s, despite irrefutable evidence of their contribution to outbreaks of malaria, cholera and various intestinal parasites.

This one, on Manhattan’s West Side, has been converted to indoor plumbing — though several large depressions in the surrounding soil testify to its past.

During Pope Benedict XVI’s recent New York visit, it was...

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:37:00 -0400

During Pope Benedict XVI’s recent New York visit, it was widely reported that the Pope travelled by “Pope-mobile” through the city, greeting spectators and press. These reports were, of course, completely false.

Since soon after the New York subway’s creation, visiting heads of state, high profile celebrities and religeous leaders have travelled in special armored subway cars. Seen here during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, the train is equipped with high-wattage lights and apertures through which machine guns can be fired if necessary.*

So while one of the Pope’s many look-alikes rode above ground in a sham motorcade on the East Side of Manhattan, the real Benedict XVI was speeding along a downtown IRT express track — on one of his annual trips to withdraw gold from Federal Reserve vaults and to deliver stock market closing averages for the coming year.

* Machine guns have been used only twice: in 1977 when members of the Black Panthers attempted (probably in error) to board the car transporting actress Sophia Loren; and in 1937, when Woody Gutherie and a group of Italian anarchists tried unsuccessfully to bomb FDR’s train.

The summer of 1984 found the city’s nerds poor and...

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:11:15 -0400

The summer of 1984 found the city’s nerds poor and disillusioned. Encouraged to pursue computer-science degrees, thousands found themselves unemployable in the city’s depressed economy. The Internet was in its infancy, and programming jobs were still controlled by the Mafia. Local electronics and comic book shops became hotbeds of discontent and radical Nerd Power discourse. As a record heat wave dragged on, nerds grew angrier. The August release of Revenge of the Nerds provided a rallying cry, and the streets quickly boiled over with enraged, bespectacled youth.

As fate would have it, the Hell’s Angels and their affiliates held a thousands-strong motorcycle rally in the city at the time. After some initial clashes with the rioting nerds, the two formed an unlikely truce as they fought side-by-side against the police for two full weeks.

In the heat of the battle, nerds and bikers hastily welded together underpowered nerd-owned Volkswagens with Harley-Davidsons to form light, powerful assault platforms with which to outmaneuver the police. In the end, they proved no match for National Guard tanks and Jeeps, and all but a few were destroyed as the authorities reasserted control.

(In 1987, police put the city into a state of virtual lockdown for the release of Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise — a measure which proved unnecessary. The nerds’ spirits had apparently been broken for good.)

In 1965, a vagrant named Turk McDonald managed to insinuate...

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:06:00 -0400

In 1965, a vagrant named Turk McDonald managed to insinuate himself into a high-stakes midtown poker game, and walked out with the deed to the genteel Murray Hill bar called Francis’s. McDonald immediately expelled the old clientele, renamed the place Turk’s and brought in a crowd of hard-core alcoholics. For 10 years between 1966 and 1976, Turk’s hosted an annual 72-hour drinking contest known as Turk’s Folly. Over the years, at least 40 contestants were rumored to have died of alcohol poisoning and been secretly interred in Turk’s basement.

In 1977, McDonald — succumbing to a brain tumor — declared that until his death, beer and liquor would be sold for five cents a glass. Drifters, derelicts, and other old, impoverished alcoholics poured in from everwhere. The bar’s overtaxed toilets soon gave out, turning Turk’s into what Post columnist Steve Dunleavy called “a beloved cesspool” — the raw stench of which caused three neighboring apartment buildings to be abandoned by their residents.

Turk McDonald’s last wishes stipulated that he was to be entombed in his pub, and on May 12th, 1977 his alcohol-ravaged body was laid out on the bar, and the doors and windows bricked over forever.

In the early 19th century, beef was not widely available on the...

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:55:00 -0400

In the early 19th century, beef was not widely available on the east coast — and its relative scarcity made it something of a status symbol. In 1832, a savvy New York milliner named Jacob Krausenfrome began crafting women’s hats from strips of specially dried and seasoned beef. They were an instant hit among wealthy women, and soon edible shoes, belts and purses began to be crafted from this “fashion beef”.

The trend was not to last, however, as westward expansion and railways soon provided ample supplies of meat, and the presige of wearing it quickly wore off. The term “fashion beef”, however, continued to be used in the Garment District for decades after, as a kind of general shorthand to refer to leather accessories or trim. Many businesses, like this frankfurter merchant, also use the name.

In 1983, the New York Museum of Folklore began a year-long...

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:31:00 -0400

In 1983, the New York Museum of Folklore began a year-long celebration of 100th anniversary of Huckleberry Finn. Over 4,500 Mark Twain impersonators, drawn mainly from the South, were hired to fan out through the streets of the city reading from Twain’s work.

Many of these look-alikes left the city soon after, but 1,000 or more remained and settled permanantly. Under Mayor Koch, an employment program placed a few hundred itinerant Marks Twain as tourist guides and souvenir vendors. But most lacked any marketable skills and, sadly, many fell into poverty and vagrancy. Today, New Yorkers may notice older men with a striking resemblance to Samuel Clemens still shuffling about the city dispensing memorable quotations and anecdotes in exchange for a few coins or part of a sandwich.

Here at 225 Park Ave. South is one of the last surviving woolen...

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:12:00 -0400

Here at 225 Park Ave. South is one of the last surviving woolen buildings. Architectual knitting in America reached its apex in mid-19th century, when the country produced vast surpluses of wool. The process of architectural knitting is highly labor-intensive, the knit being so tight that at a distance the wool is indistinguishable from stone.

Many woolen buildings were cannibalized by homeless in the Depression, and all but a few that remained were converted to undergarments for WWII soldiers. The American Woolen Building in Manhattan fell into a state of severe disrepair in the 1970s, and three stories were lost to a moth infestation. A 1994 grant from the Woolrich Corporation allowed much of the facade to be re-knit.

A once-common sight on the streets of New York is the springtime...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:17:00 -0400

A once-common sight on the streets of New York is the springtime solicitation of Doo Wop singers. Traditionally, April is the month when old Doo Wop groups disband after their period of winter dormancy and members move about the city seeking new bands. A pair of shoes (here, tartan Vans) is usually left with the ad. The original meaning of the shoe offering is not known, but it’s thought to signify the proposed band’s being “on the move”.

Many New York City homes are legally owned by animals. An...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:37:00 -0400

Many New York City homes are legally owned by animals. An obscure law passed in the famously pro-cat State Assembly session of 1968 deemed that any residence not explicitly willed to an heir would be declared the property of the owner’s pet at the time of his or her death. Furthermore, the home would automatically be passed on to the pet’s descendants (the eldest of the litter) in perpetuity.

In New York, bacon, lettuce and tomatoes are transported in...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:21:44 -0400

In New York, bacon, lettuce and tomatoes are transported in liquid form, then reconsituted right at the deli.

This store on West 29th Street is all that remains of the...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:18:00 -0400

This store on West 29th Street is all that remains of the once-thriving Moon Belt District. Novelty Moon Belts became wildly popular in the early 1970s after the Apollo 11 moon landing. The belts contained “moon dust” (actually powdered Italian marble) said to enhance virility and ward off vermin.