BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: AMERICANA # 5

GEORGE CRUM  & THE CREATION OF POTATO CHIPS

Place; Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“As the story goes one day in 1853 the railroad and
Shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt was eating
at Moon’s when he returned his fried potatoes to 
the kitchen because they were too thick. Furious 
with such a fussy eater Crum sliced some potatoes 
as slender as he could, fried them to a crisp and 
sent them out to Vanderbilt as a prank. Rather than 
take the gesture as an insult, Vanderbilt was overjoyed.
   “ Other patrons began asking for Crum’s ‘Saratoga Chips,’ which soon became a hit far beyond upstate New York.”

Brandon Tensley. “Crunch Time” in Smithsonian
(January/February 2022)


**

P.T. BARNUM & HUMBUG ISLAND (circa 1842)

On June 18, 1942, P.T. Barnum signed a contract 
to show the Feegee Mermaid.

“Barnum offered plenty of confessions, too, even going 
so far as to describe the Fudge Mermaid as ‘the head 
of a monkey and the tail of a fish so admirably fitted 
together as to deceive the most experienced person. 
But he deliberately left the details of this ruse 
unclear, explaining only that the exhibition had 
‘arrived from HUMBUG Island. Moreover, by simultaneously 
arguing for and against the authenticity of both of 
his mermaids (often in adjacent advertisements), 
Barnum called into question the validity of all
 his promotional claims.”

James W, Cook. The Arts of Deception (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2001)

**

   LITTLE OLD NEW YORK AT THE !939 WORLD'S FAIR

   "I had a plan to build a replica of 'Little Old New
York,' a great amusement village which would include
the Brooklyn Bridge, with Steve Brody jumping off five
times into a tank beneath it, the old honky-tonk saloons,
Tom Sharkey's Haymarket, the Bowery, dancing can-can
girls at Castle Garden, and so on. I arranged with the
old-time circus builders, Mesmer & Damon to help with
the construction."

George Jessel. So Help Me: The Autobiography of George
Jessel(New York: Random House, 1943)

STEVE BRODIE

Steve Brodie (December 25, 1861 – January 31, 1901)
was an American from Manhattan, New York City, who
 on July 23, 1886, claimed to have jumped off the 
Brooklyn Bridge and survived. The supposed jump, 
of which the veracity was disputed, gave Brodie 
publicity, a thriving saloon and a career as a performer.

Brodie's fame persisted long past his death, with Brodie portrayed in films and with the slang term "Brodie"—
as in to "do a Brodie"—entering American vernacular, m
eaning to take a chance or a leap, specifically a suicidal one.
**

TOM SHARKEY

Thomas "Sailor Tom" Sharkey was a boxer who fought two fights with heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries. Sharkey's recorded ring career spanned from 1893 to 1904. He is credited with having won 40 fights (with 37 KOs), 7 losses, and 5 draws. Sharkey was named to the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.
**
honky-tonk (n.)
"cheap night club," by 1893, American English, of unknown origin. It starts to appear frequently about 1893 in 
newspapers in Texas and Oklahoma; a much-reprinted snippet defines it as "a particularly vicious and low-grade 
theater." In the Fort Worth, Texas, "Gazette" in 1889 
it seems to be the name of a particular theater, and the Marshall, Texas, "Messenger" of May 27, 1892, mentions 
the "Honk-E-Tonk district" as "the most disreputable 
part of town." As a type of music played in that sort 
of low saloon, it is attested by 1921.

from The On-Line Etymological Dictionary
**

CASTLE GARDEN -- AMERICA'S FIRST OFFICIAL IMMIGRATION CENTER

From August 3, 1855 to April 18, 1890, Castle Garden was America's first official immigration center, a pioneering collaboration of New York State and New York City. In 1890, 
the federal government determined to control all ports of 
entry and take responsibility for receiving and processing 
all immigrants to the U.S. The Castle was closed and the reception center was moved to the U.S. Barge Office which 
was located on the eastern edge of The Battery waterfront. 
It operated until the U.S. Office of Immigration opened 
the newly built Ellis Island in 1892.

"As the community grew larger, residents were looking to rename the location. With hopes of receiving some sort of investment, they decided to name the neighborhood Astoria after John Jacob Astor, the richest man in America. Despite his $40 million net worth, he only gave about $500 to the residents. Astor’s home was located just across the river from Astoria in Yorkville, but even with such proximity to the neighborhood named in his honor, he never visited. The name stuck even after the underwhelming investment with the support of some family and friends."

Castle Garden Org.
***
THE ONE-CENT BRITISH GUIANA MAGENTA -- THE RAREST POSTAGE
STAMP IN THE WORLD AND THE NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR (1939-1940)

...it had not been seen in public since the mid-1980s.
it had not been displayed outside of a stamp show since
the New York World's Fair in 1940, when it arrived in an
armored car, a clever promotional gimmick that a later
owner would copy."

JaMES Barron. The One-Cent Magenta: Inside the Quest
to Own the Most Valuable Stamp in the World (Chapel
Hill, NC: Algonquin BoOKS, 2017)

"When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. In 2014, 
this tiny square of faded red paper known as the one-cent magenta sold at Sotheby’s for nearly $US 9.5 million, the highest amount ever paid for a postage stamp at auction."
**

PEACE AND FREEDOM" --THE OFFICIAL SLOGAN OF NEW YORK'S
WORLD FAIR (1939-1940

"Visitors who brave the foreign section find only a
melancholy museum of things past. The Netherlands
building is dark and vacant, the Danish exhibit 
downsized into smaller quarters.Poland, Norway, and
Finland still have a presence, but fly their flags
at half-mast and display grim galleries that show
photographs of demolished historical buildings and
list names of the distinguished dead. The Soviet
Pavilion is razed and replaced by a space called
the "American Common," complete with "I Am an American
Day." 

Karen Abbott. American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The
Life and Times of Gypsy Rose  (New York: Random House)

**
JOHN PAUL JONES IN RIPLEY”S BELIEVE IT OR NOT

“John Paul Jones , famous American naval hero was 
a native Kirkbeam, Scotland. His true name was John 
Paul. He assumed the name ‘Jones’ because , as he 
confessed in a letter to Benjamin Franklin, he 
had killed a mutinous sailor on the island of 
Tobago, West Indies, and had to flee in fear of 
being indicted for murder. He chose the name Jones 
from Mrs. Willie Jones, of North Carolina, who had 
helped him get his first commission in the United States, 
and for whom he professed great friendship and admiration.
    Although he resided in America for some time, he 
was never naturalized as a citizen of the United States; 
and the nearest he ever came to commanding an America 
fleet was when he was master of a French ship which 
flew the American flag in an emergency.
    However, he commanded pirate ships, and during 
the last years of his career he was commodore of 
the Russian navy under Catherine the Great.”

Robert Ripley. Believe It or Not (Garden City, NY:
Garden City Publishing Co. , 1929)

**

 LITERARY IRONY

Jack,Bobby,Teddy--The Kennedys,
After reading The Eumenidies,
Declared, 'Something's amiss!
Life can't be as tragic as all this."

Louis Phillips