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Archive for May 2008

Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre

May 11, 2008

I don’t like the title. I think we ought to use “theater” and not “theatre”.

I recently managed to get a super-cheap ticket to see Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre and went. (The picture above is during the day, but I did see the play at night.)

The play was fine and nicely done. It was definitely a big-bucks production with the stage set carrying a lot of the burden of the storyline. Well, there’s really no storyline at all. Just an excuse for a great stageset and lots and lots of singing.

But, I also liked the theater itself. It’s located on 42nd Street, just off Broadway.

The plaque reads “New Amsterdam Theatre. Designed by the noted theater architects, Herts & Tallant, for producers Klaw & Erlanger, the New Amersterdam opened on October 26, 1903, with a production of Shakespears “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. The theater has one of the fiest art noveau interiors in the United States. As one of New York City’s best musical comedy houses, the New Amersterdam showcased many talented stars and was home to the Ziegfield Follies from 1913 through 1927. The theater, converted to a movie house in 1937, closed in 1985. The New Amsterdam was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Following acquisition by the 42nd St. Devlopment Project, Inc. and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New Amsterdam was restored to its original splendor by the Walt Disney Company, who jointly funded the project with the Empire State Development Corporation, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The theater reopened in 1997.”

I did manage to get an inside shot of the theater.

-H

Categories: Broadway, Wanderings

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Windward Sculpture on 3rd Avenue and 42nd Street

May 10, 2008

Okay, I admit it. I spend too much time looking up at one of my favorite buildings in all of NYC. And let’s fact it, the Chrysler Building is on everybody’s short list of favorite buildings in NYC.

Maybe that’s why I have walked by a 1961 sculpture by Jan Peter Stern called “Windward” about a bazillion times without noticing it. It’s only about a block away.

Or, maybe it’s because they have it tucked away in a little corner.

Or, maybe it’s because it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the word “windward” at all. To me, it’s just another bit of artistic flotsom from the 1960s.

But if you want to see it, it’s on the southeast corner of the intersection.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Canyon of Heroes

May 9, 2008

The start of Broadway is downtown in the Financial District. And just after Broadway starts, you run into the fabled Canyon of Heroes. This is where the ticker tape parades are held. Well, there’s no more ticker tape but I think they do a simulated version of it when they have those rare parades.

The picture above is from the north looking southward.

All along the sidewalk are these inserts. They hold a date, a name, and a description. First, November 2, 1960 when President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were apparently featured in such a ticker tape parade.

But, you object, 1960 was a presidential election year! Was there some sort of Republican lock on such parades. Nope, just past it is the October 19, 1960 marker for the Democratic presidential nominee, John F. Kennedy. (I guess V.P. Nixon had to share his parade with the sitting president while JFK got his own. But then, Nixon’s was closer to election day.)

Well, those are pretty prestigious individuals. It takes a lot to get a ticker tape. Well, maybe nowadays. Back on November 4, 1959, they held a ticker tape parade for Sekou Toure, the brand new president of Guinea. He was about 37 at the time and had set up a one-party system to lead Guinea after freeing it from French colonial rule. Nowadays, NYC gets a passle of presidents from other countries and I don’t see any parades for them.

Heck, you didn’t even have to be a president. Willy Brandt was the mayor of West Berlin when he got his parade on February 10, 1959. Of course, he later went on to lead West Germany so maybe it was just in anticipation…

-H

Categories: Broadway, Celebrity Points, Events, Parades, Wanderings

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Yeshiva University

May 8, 2008

At the corner of Lexington Avenue and 35th Street is Yeshiva University.

But not quite. The main body of the university is in upper Manhattan. This is apparently a branch of the University, The Stern College for Women.

Yeshiva is apparently a part of the Orthodox part of Judaism, but I must admit never noticing any greater-than-normal number of people in yamulkes around the area. That had always puzzled me because I’m aware that Yeshiva has a pretty good reputation for scholastics (rated #52 by US News and World Report in 2008) and I thought it was a decent-sized university. However, if it is primarily a women’s school in this part of the City, that would seem to explain it. And, it turns out that Yeshiva University has a total of only 3,000 or so students. And that’s divided among several campuses of which this is only one.

-H

Categories: Uncategorized

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The First Electric Plant in NYC

May 7, 2008

I’m a sucker for historical plaques. In downtown Manhattan, I ran across this one at 40 Fulton Street.

It reads “In a building on this site an electric plant supplying the first Edison underground central station system in this country and forming the origin of New York’s present electrical system began operation on September 4, 1882 according to plans conceived and executed by Thomas Alva Edison. To commemorate an epoch-making event this tablet is erected by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. The New York Edison Company.”

Reading it, I am a bit confused. A strict reading indicates that it wasn’t the first electricity generating plant. Not even the first one done by Edison. But it was the first one that supplied the “underground central station system”. And that system is what the rest of NY’s electrical system ended up based upon.

It sure doesn’t look like a site of a former power plant, does it. It’s pretty tall and I couldn’t tell what its current use is, but it looks like condos or apartments.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Wanderings

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