BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: NEW YORK,NEW YORK, #2

ON NOT BEING AFRAID OF THE NUMBER 13 IN NYC

"The idea of a Friday the 13th club, or of a club 
devoted to all forms of triskaidekaphobia, is not 
a new one. It seems to have originated in New 
York City on January 13, 1882, when the thirteen 
members of the Thirteen Club gathered in room 13 
of the Knickerbocker Cottage at 454 Sixth Avenue 
(4+5+4=13)  from 8;13 P.M. until 1 A.M. (the 13th 
hour) . The club's initiation fee was $1.13, 
monthly dues thirteen cents, a lifetime membership 
thirteen dollars. Members dined on the 13th of 
every month, toasted the health of Hermes Trismegistus (legendary hermeticist who was said to have been 
"the thirteenth son of a thirteenth mother") 
spilt salt, walked under ladders, and broke mirrors."

Jonathan Cott. Thirteen: A Journey Into the Number 13 (New York: Doubleday, 1997)

**

CBS IN GRAND CENTRAL STATION iN 1939

“Hidden away above Grand Central’s main waiting room, CBS

had set up their first television studios in 1939, when a

shift from radio to the new medium was beginning to

look inevitable. Sidney’s studio was a room 40 feet by

60 feet, and its were visible below the statue of Mercury

that stands atop the southern facade of Grand Central.”

Maura Spiegel. Sidney Lumet:A Life (NY: St. Martins Press, 2019)

****

SCOTT JOPLIN IN NYC

"In January 1917, he was hospitalized  and
subsequently transferred to a mental institution,
where he died four months later. Joplin was
buried in a simple grave at St. Michael's
Cemetery in Astoria, New York. As you enter
the cemetery his grave is well-marked with a
historical plaque on the right-hand side,
fifty feet from the road."

Scott Stanton. The Tombstone Tourist: Musicians
(New York: Pocket Books, 2003)

Broadway had reached uptown to the southeast
corner of 41st Street, where a place called
the Metropolitan Casino was thrown up to 
house great concerts and comic operas. The
joint busted out and the building at night
with gas cans. One of them is dousing the
joing with gas and the other is reading the
insurance policy. They are about to have a
candlelight ceremony when the owner reading
the insurance policy clutches his chest. They
don't have a dollar's worth of fire insurance.
They turned it into a roller rink.

Jimmy Breslin. Damon Runyon: A Life (NY:
Ticknor & Fields, 1991).

GROWING UP IN THE BROWNSVILLE SECTION OF BROOKLYN

When I was eight I sang at a stag coming-out-
of-jail party for a local hoodlum named Little
Doggie. In the middle of my number, a man was
shot dead at my feet.
  The Brownsville section of Brooklyn was a
tough neighborhood in the 1920's, so I didn't
think it was too strange. My first reaction
was, is the program going to pay me my $3?

Phil Silvers. This Laugh Is On Me: The Phil
Silvers Story (with Robert Saffron, Englewood,
New Jersey:Prentice-Hall,1973)


from "THE TOP 10 SECRETS OF THE NEW YANKEE STADIUM"
by BELLA DRUCKMAN in the blog "Untapped New York")

"Gino Castignoli, a devoted Red Sox fan, helped 
construct the new Yankee Stadium. However, 
he did so with suspicious intentions. On his only 
day working on the stadium, Castignoli buried 
designated hitter David Ortiz’s jersey behind 
home plate under feet of cement. However, other 
workers caught him before it was too late.
   The New York Post published a story about the 
incident that prompted an “excavation ceremony” 
to search for the shirt. After employing jackhammers 
to get the job done, the Yankees administration sent
 the jersey to Boston. Rather than drive the rivalry 
further, they turned this fiasco into good by 
auctioning off the jersey to raise money for the 
Jimmy Fund, an organization that raises money for 
cancer. The scandal attracted a lot of attention 
and the Yankees donated $175,000 to the charity."

**