Pfizer Family Products--a Window Into The 1950s, by guest blogger Christine Modica.
Recently a friend of the family, who was something of a collector, passed away. Among the items he had accumulated over the years, my mother found a box of Pfizer medicines in near perfect condition, labeled “Family Products.” The contents include: • Visine eye drops • Viterra vitamins and minerals. “A smaller capsule for your convenience’ • Terramucin Ointment for minor burns, wounds or abrasions • Candettes cough syrup • Candettes cold tablets • Candettes cough-jel • ACM “New Improved” •…
Strange as it May Seem
Long before "The Tonight Show" started featuring "Headlines", (the segment of the show running humorous advertisements and signs sent in from around the country), the Brooklyn Daily Eagle had a similar column. "Strange as it May Seem" highlighted images the Eagle photographers had taken of amusing and peculiar signs around Brooklyn. Here are a few from the Fall of 1933. …
When the Boro's Milk Vanished
In the early 1950s, with post-war families booming across the United States, no single food item may have been as important as milk. This was certainly the case in Brooklyn, where milk was needed to feed infants and supply children with necessary nutrients. Milk was even a key ingredient in many housewives' favorite recipes--everything from meatloaf to tuna casserole to chicken pot pies to pound cake needed milk! Demand for milk was so high that dairies had production and distribution plants right here in the borough. Borden's, Sheffield's and other familiar names were…
E.W. Bliss Co: Torpedoes and Telegraph Codes
Among the much-appreciated gifts that have found their way to my desk in recent weeks, is one from Michael D. Barber of Leeds, U.K. Mr Barber's parcel contained a 1901 catalogue of the products made by Brooklyn's E.W. Bliss Co, bearing a bookplate from the "Projectile Co. (1902) Ltd, of New Road, Wandsworth, S.W., sole agents for E.W. Bliss Co, , Brooklyn, NY, Presses, Dies and Special Machinery." There must have been a ready market for Bliss products in industrial West Yorkshire, and so it is in no way strange that the 534 page catalogue of heavy machinery should have…
Hit Parade, January 4, 1947
It's been a while since we dipped into the Diary of Arthur Lonto. Mr Lonto wasn't one for expressing on paper his innermost thoughts. His entries are all comings and goings, working and mending and studying and paying bills and going to mass and taking the subway for the fun of it. And then, now and again, he gives us the hit parade. In case it's hard to read his handwriting, here is what we might have been listening to at this time back in 1947. 1-Buttermilk Sky 2-Old Lamplighter 3- For Sentimental Reasons 4-Gal in Calico 5 Zippity Doo da 6- Whole World's Singing My Songs 7-…
Big Appetites, Little Pizzas
Brooklyn is justifiably world famous as a hot spot for delicious pizza, so much so that we even have our own style of pizza--thin-crusted slices cut so big you can fold them in half while you eat them. The borough is peppered, or, perhaps, "pepperonied", with beloved neighborhood pizza joints serving quality slices to loyal fans, who debate endlessly over which excellent pizza place is the best pizza place. And if you haven't yet known the pleasures of a coal-fired Totonno's slice, a fresh-from-the-oven DiFara's pie, or a delightfully doughy L & B…
A Class Sister Act
During the period between the 1930's and 1950's the entertainment field was filled with many talented sister vocal groups. There were the McGuire Sisters from Ohio, the King Sisters from Utah, the DeCastro Sisters all the way from Havana, Cuba, and the Andrew Sisters from Minnesota. Not to be outdone, the borough of Kings was represented in song by the Five DeMarco Sisters who began their career in the 1940's as teenagers. The sisters got their start when their father…
Irving Herzberg and the Plane Crash of 1960
New York City accomodates all juxtapositions. Spend enough time here and no two things paired together, however odd, will seem unusual. This is the city where nothing can be out of place however willy-nilly the arrangement may be: from the gently surreal sight of a coyote cowering beneath a SUV in Manhattan, to the more terrible and spectral image of ash covered workers wandering the daytime streets of the Financial District. Whether it is welcome or not, the city will make room for it. But for all this open-armed receptiveness -- allowing this or that to suddenly and irrevocably appear and…
A Brooklyn Child's Christmas List, 1953
In November 1953, Abraham & Straus Department Store opened its annual holiday Toyland with a party for children from the Brooklyn School Settlement. Activities included visits with Santa, music by an accordion quartet, a doll fashion show, and an appearance by local child "movie star" Richie Andrusco at a "Coke-Tail" party in the store's restaurant. But the biggest moment of the day was when the children took a first look at Toyland intself. As the Eagle reported, the children from the Settlement "lost themselves." Even a movie star like…
A Movement Grows In Brooklyn. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Wed Dec 15 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Brooklyn was the location of one of the most important northern urban civil rights movements of the 1960s. Brian Purnell will describe the activities and impact of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) in Brooklyn, where protesters and activists demanded jobs, improved schools, clean neighborhoods and citizenship rights. Brian Purnell is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College. Refreshments will be served from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Brooklyn Collection, 2nd floor, Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn NY 11238.
Gimme Coffee!
Listed in the 1900 Trow Business Directory for Brooklyn and Queens between Coal Miners & Shippers and Coffin Dealers (which listing precedes the now-connotatively-complicated Coke Dealers) you'll find listings for the cleaners, polishers, purveyors, importers, and roasters of coffee. At this time in Brooklyn there were 6 Coffee Cleaners and Polishers; 2 dealers in or makers of Essence of Coffee; 7 Coffee Importers; 9 Coffee Roasters; and 1 dealer in Coffee Pots, Tea Pots & Urns. Not yet listed among these caffeinated capitalists was the name of Edward Dannemiller, a Canton, Ohio…
The Night the Lights Went Out in Brooklyn
It was February of 1946. Brooklynites were recovering from years of privation and separation brought on by the only recently ended World War II. Servicemen and women were readjusting to civilian life in the warm bosom of their families just as winter was seizing the borough in its usual icy grip. And then, on February 7th, Mayor William O'Dwyer declared a state of emergency in the city, ordering strict rationing of coal and fuel oil. Four days later, another proclamation from O'Dwyer ordered all "motion picture houses, theaters, night clubs, bars and grills,…
In Search of the Brooklyn Gridiron
Having watched a lot of football in my formative years, particularly as a college student, I am always in search of local football stories. Yes, we have two professional teams to root for here in New York. Yet, sometimes the distance to New Jersey takes away that "hometown" feel - hence my desire to search for traces of actual Brooklyn ball in our collection. (I should take a moment to note that not everyone feels as I do. For my neighbors who honor every Giants game with a party and backyard BBQ, the NJ/NY divide is no such hurdle.) The early…
Apple Pie
Of all the wonderful foods that are made for Thanksgiving, apple pie is my favorite. New York State produces about 29 million bushels annually, and some of that harvest winds up at the Green Market here at Grand Army Plaza. At other markets too, New York's farmers proudly advertise mouth-watering varieties such as…
Floyd, the Tippling Turtle at the Toddy Inn
In 1954 when this photograph was taken, Floyd the turtle had been making annual springtime visits to the Toddy Inn at 7913 Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge for over twenty years, since 1933. The turtle migrated annually from his hibernation spot in a nearby back yard to the floor under a particular booth in the tavern, where he stayed for a week, taking naps and short walks around the bar. Then out he went, not to be seen again until the next year. According to tavern legend, it all began when a customer brought Floyd into the bar in 1933 along with two other pet turtles. At…
Other Brooklyns--a Postscript
Brooklynology readers may not remember a post about other Brooklyns written in September 2009 that has so far drawn zero comments except for the daily computer-generated spamming from a shoe company I will not name, because that is what they want. "Cheers for sharing these helpful content material! Hope that you simply just just will carry on accomplishing advantageous file this type of as this." Or, more thought-provokingly: "We've got loved searching the content material." The end of that post described the "Brooklyn Adopts Breuckelen Project" which…
Of Hair Pins and Independents: Brooklyn's Lady Bowlers
As the days grow colder in autumn's inexorable march toward winter, a lady's fancy turns to... bowling. Or mine does, anyway, because my bowling league's season is winding down, and I'll have just a few more chances to hurl my trusty ten pound ball before we adjourn for the holidays. Ours is a co-ed league, and every week I'm impressed at the grace and skill of my fellow female pin-toppers. It leads me to wonder: How long have women been bowling? A trip to our Brooklyn Daily Eagle clippings files turned up some interesting answers. Lady of the lanes -- …
VETERANS DAY: BROOKLYN IN KOREA
From the Battle of Brooklyn to the building of battleships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklynites are no strangers to the demands of war. And as any soldier deployed abroad can surely attest, one of the most familiar feelings brought on by military service is one of homesickness. Looking for some sign of home while stationed in Japan in 1951, one Brooklyn-bred soldier, Private Justin Grishman, took it upon himself to write a letter to the Eagle requesting just that -- a sign -- a street sign to be exact. Says Pvt. Justin Grishman, 45 Martense St., who is now in Korea, 'I would like a street…
Brooklyn Life Magazine, 1890-1931
= WHAT DID SHE MEAN? -- MR DE BOER: Miss Emma, perhaps I ought not to call during Lent, for I understand you deny yourself all amusement. MISS E: Yes, I do Mr. de Boer. Come as often as you like. Genealogists and others who come to the Brooklyn Collection are often familiar with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in its various forms--online, microfilm, morgue. But the Brooklyn Collection carries many other serials on microfilm, including 63 local newspapers. Lacking an index, these are of little use unless researchers know the date of the article they are seeking. But Brooklyn Life…