After 25 Years Apart, They Didn’t Recognize Their Ex Spouse

There are stories that are so bizarre you think they cannot be true. This brief article from The Meridan Daily Journal ran September 1, 1906.  Several other newspapers including The New York Tribune (also reproduced below) and Washington Times would tell the tale as well.

Didn’t Know Suitor Was Ex-Husband

Divorced 25 Years Ago, Nearly
Married Again Without Recognizing Each Other

HARTFORD. Sept. 1.—Cupid’s work of a year was undone at the threshold of the altar here today.

Discovering that they had been divorced from each other twenty-five years ago, James Phelps and Mrs’ Ruth Harris, who were to have been married by the Rev. H. M Thompson, pastor of the Memorial Baptist church, renewed their old disagreement and separated just a few hours before they were to have been re-united in marriage. The two had not met for a quarter of a century until a little over a year ago Neither recognized the other. And it was not until they were ready to get their marriage license that the discovery was made.

Phelps, who has a farm near Rockville, is more than 60 years old and his bride is about ten years his junior. They were married thirty years ago. Quarrels almost immediately arose and the two separated, the bride going to live with relatives in the West.

Mrs. Phelps (as she was then) secured a divorce from her husband in the courts of Illinois five years later on the ground of desertion, and soon afterward married Harris, with whom she lived until his death a few years ago. Then she re(turned to Connecticut. Phelps met his former wife at the home of friends a year ago. Strangely enough the two did not recognize each other.

The NEW YORK TRIBUNE

FOUND THEY’D BEEN WED BEFORE.
Divorced Pair Fail to Recognize Each Other —Nearly Married Again.

[By Telegraph to The Tribune.]

Hartford. Conn, Aug. 31.—Discovering that they had been divorced from each other twenty (sic)  years ago, James Phelps and Mrs. Ruth Harris cancelled their preparations to be married last evening, and parted after quarreling over the subject that caused their separation a quarter of a century ago. The two were married thirty years ago, but soon separated. A few years ago Mrs. Harris came to Connecticut, where she met Phelps. Neither recognized the other, and it was not until Mrs. Harris told of her former matrimonial adventure that they learned they had been husband and wife once before.

There was no follow-up story in any newspaper. Apparently, James Phelps and Ruth Harris did not re-marry.

The question that will forever remain a mystery: how in the world did the pair not have a clue for a year while seeing each other that they were once married?

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Unfortunately this news photo. provides no location except that it was labeled New York City. In addition there is no date, credit or caption. However the automobiles in the background and the style of clothing date this photograph from the mid-1930s.

A boy works on the wheel of a soapbox racer as the girl awaits the adjustment.

Money was scarce during the Great Depression This is one of the creative ways kids entertained themselves back then by building things from scrap material. The vehicle relies entirely on scrap lumber, a wooden crate, wire steering, and discarded wheels .

Soon one child would be sitting on the crate while the other would push their playmate along the sidewalk.

I know kids still build and race these types of cars throughout the United States. The vehicles today are a lot fancier than they were in the thirties,

In my entire life I have yet to see a homemade soapbox car on the streets or sidewalks or playgrounds of New York.

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“They always did work faster in Michigan.” A news item reported that former governor Chase Osborn, a well-known big game hunter, killed the bear after a 20 minute fight. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, seized power in Russia in 1917, and by 1921, the country was ravaged by famine and disease. The cartoonist suggests that it took somewhat longer for Lenin and his government to wreak disaster on Russia. drawing by Clifford Kennedy Berryman via Library of Congress

With the passage of time there are news stories that do not age well. Contemporary attitudes towards activities, attitudes and  behaviors of the past often leave many readers aghast.

This example is from 105 years ago appearing on page six of  the August 24, 1921 New York Evening World. 

Chokes Bear To Death After Battle In River

Ex-Gov. Osborn of Michigan Subdues Animal With Axe As It Attacks Boat.

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, August 24 – Chase S. Osborn, former Governor of Michigan, was receiving congratulations to-day on the success of his fortieth bear hunt. The animal one of the smallest bears the former governor has captured, was choked to death by Mr. Osborn off his summer home on Duck Island, in St. Mary’s River, after a twenty minute battle.

Mr. Osborn sighted the bear from the shore and went out alone in a rowboat to meet it. He tried a shot with his pistol, but the weapon jammed and as the animal attacked the boat, the former Governor swung at it with a woodsman’s axe. Several times the bear was half over the side of the bout and threatened to overturn it.

A well-directed blow from the axe, however, caught the animal alongside the head. It was hanging over the side of the boat In a dazed condition when Mr. Osborn: dropped the axe and finished the battle by choking it to death.

Mr. Osborn, who is sixty-one years old has hunted big game in all parts  of the world. He said to-day the bear put up one of the most desperate fights he has experienced, but that he enjoyed it immensely.

The animal’s hide will be added to the former Governors extensive collection of trophies gathered in the Jungles throughout the world.

Today, a hunting story like this would surely upset a wide swath of people and probably cause a scandal. “The cruelty of pursuing and killing a poor little bear,” the media and masses would cry out.

Governor Chase S. Osborn photo Library of Congress

Back in the 1920s the majority of readers reaction would more likely be something like, “what a manly man,” or no reaction at all. This was all in a typical day back then.

Chase S. Osborn (1860-1949) was Governor of Michigan from 1911- 1913. Osborn’s estate, near where the bear choking occurred still exists with structural ruins. In 1927 Osborn donated his property on Duck Lake and Sugar Island to the University of Michigan. with the provision that he be able to live at his estate for the remainder of his life. Osborn died in 1949 and is buried at the estate. The remote property is now the Chase S. Osborn Preserve and is open to the public.

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I prepare my own food.

Maybe the food was contaminated before it came to me. But I have no vermin or roaches in my house. I keep my home clean. And I prepare food safely.

Unfortunately that is not the case for many eateries. And I don’t know the true cleanliness of most establishments, regardless of the letter rating restaurants are given to display in their windows.

This observation about health code violations should not be confined to fast food restaurants. I was eating at a fine steak restaurant in lower Manhattan when a mouse ran across my foot. So the notion that vermin only stake out fast food restaurants is not true.

But how does something like this occur? This tidbit is  from the West Side Rag –

Subway, the fast food sandwich chain’s location at 2508 Broadway (between West 93rd and West 94th streets), was shut down by the health department on August 13th after 63 violations were found upon inspection. Violations include: live roaches, filth, flies and pests in food and non-food areas, and failure to follow temperature control regulations for food. The full report can be found here. This is the second time this summer the Subway location was ordered to close after inspection; the first was on July 2nd, with 60 violations.

By the way almost every restaurant in New York has multiple violations. They still pass inspection.  If you go online and read the report for your favorite restaurant it might make your stomach churn.

As reminder of what goes on at night – there is this infamous viral Tik-Tok video from 2022 from Ricardo Land who delivered chicken to Popeye’s in Washington D.C..

Ricardo Land was fired soon after posting the video.

So much for being a whistle-blower.

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It will not come as a surprise to anyone who has ever seen an Esther Williams film that she was a swimming star before a film star.

The caption from our news photo reads:

Time Out To Pose
Los Angeles, Calif. – Photo shows (left to right) Iris Cummings, National 220-yard breaststroke champion: Billie Steitz, Pacific coast backstroke titlist and Esther Williams, freestyle star, as they pose during a practice session. The trio will take place in the Southern California swimming and diving meet within a few days in the Los Angeles Athletic Club pool, as well as the National Championships next month. Credit Acme Photos; March 22, 1938

Williams first major film role was in “Andy Hardy’s Double Life” (1942). Did it really take four years from the time of this photograph to discover Esther Williams?

How did Esther Williams (b. August 8, 1921) get discovered? One story says an MGM talent scout saw her working in a Los Angeles department store. Another story is that MGM executives noticed her at the 1939- 40 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, while swimming in Billy Rose’s Aquacade show.

Esther Williams won three time United States National Swimming Championships. With her photograph frequently seen in newspapers, you would think some Hollywood casting genius would have noticed Esther by 1938

Of course Esther’s swimming skills and (bathing suits) were highlights in many of the 30 films she would make.

Occasionally, Esther would be given an excellent non-swimming role. For proof see Esther’s films A Guy Named Joe (1943), The Hoodlum Saint (1946) and Take Me Out To The Ballgame (1949). But these were the exceptions. When the public went to an Esther Williams movie they expected to see elaborate choreographed swimming sequences. And that’s what the public generally got.

Esther Williams died at age 91 on June 6, 2013 in Los Angeles of natural causes.

The post Classic Hollywood #196 – Future Movie Star Esther Williams appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

This magic lantern slide view of the Brooklyn Bridge is from around 1890.

On the right is a train and on the left we can get a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge shuttle station. Trolleys and horse drawn vehicles are on the outer roadways as  pedestrians cross the span on the bridge’s central walkway.

At first I was unsure if this image was reversed. The steam engine’s smoke is visible in the foreground. Would a steam engine be pulling into a station on the right side? Unusual. But it is possible.

Looking closer, there is a policeman nearby. His badge is correctly on the left side of his coat. Also I mistakenly thought this was the New York side of the bridge looking towards Brooklyn. But examining other photographs from this period I did not see a station platform on the New York side of the bridge.

In addition, the New York side of the bridge has a much longer approach to the tower and roadway than seen in the view. So, this is definitely the Brooklyn side of the bridge with a somewhat hazy New York in the background.

The post Old New York In Photos #198 – Brooklyn Bridge c.1890 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

Originally this illustration appeared in the January 26, 1922 issue of The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial magazine. We colorized this birdseye view of The Battery showing lower Manhattan crowded with ships and skyscraper buildings.

It also shows something that never came to be.

On the left is a series of uniform buildings stretching along the Hudson River waterfront. Today this area is the site of Battery Park City.

The Times description of the illustration says this view shows “a system of docks proposed in the designs submitted by Joseph Miller Huston, a Philadelphia architect. The docks would really be great loft, factory or office buildings and the ships would thus be at their very doors, saving time, labor and trucking charges.”

Editorializing the Times continued, “There is a crying need for greater dock facilities. In order to take full advantage of the magnificent possibilities of one of the greatest harbors in the world, and while no definite plans have been adopted, the Port of New York Authority is giving earnest attention to the matter of port development.”

Joseph Huston Miller

Joseph Miller Huston (1866-1940) was the architect of the Pennsylvania State Capitol (1902-1906). This grand building would lead to Huston’s downfall. Huston was made the scapegoat and go to prison on a charge of conspiracy to cheat and defraud the Commonwealth, in the “Pennsylvania State Capitol Graft Scandal.”

Huston served a six month sentence at Eastern State Penitentiary in 1911. After Huston’s prison stint his architectural career was essentially over.

How did Huston’s New York dock proposal come to the attention of the Times or Port of New York Authority?

Searching news, architectural and city periodicals of the era, there are no other mentions or details of Huston’s dock plans.

This is a case where not building was certainly the right choice. If Huston’s buildings had been constructed, they would have become outmoded with the decline of Manhattan as a shipping port.

January 26, 1922 New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial Huston Dock original article and illustration

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At the turn-of-the century, New York City had over a million horses serving the public.  That situation was greatly affected by the arrival of automobiles. By the 1920s there were few horse drawn carriages still transporting people to their destinations. Along with the subway and buses, the taxi / auto industry had taken the horse’s place.

So what did these early taxi cabs look like? Below are some examples.

For this 1927 taxi model we can get a glimpse of the interior with the door open.

The fare for a ride was 20 cents for the first quarter mile and a nickel each additional quarter mile. The location of this photograph is somewhere along the waterfront.

This Packard taxi similar to the one shown above it, appears large and commodious.

A DeSoto Sky-View taxi looks to be parked near Central Park’s 60th Street and Fifth Avenue entrance.

This limousine-like taxi is part of the Parmelee System, a large nationwide taxi fleet.

A frontal view of a 1938 Dodge taxi, with a license plate for the upcoming 1939 World’s Fair.

The post New York City Taxis Of The 1920s & 1930s appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

And You Won’t Believe The Prices Realized

Self-Portrait of the Artist Vincent Van Gogh

The legend is that during his lifetime Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was able to sell just one painting.Van Gogh sold “The Red Vineyard” in 1890 to Anna Boch for 400 francs. The exchange rate in 1890 was five francs to one dollar; the equivalent of $80.

The truth is Van Gogh did sell another painting. The painting was described as a self portrait according to an October 3, 1888 letter from Vincent’s brother, Theo Van Gogh to London art dealers Sulley & Lori. Vincent Van Gogh also sold some drawings to his uncle early in his art career.

Regardless of the lack of sales, Vincent Van Gogh would create about 2,100 works of art. Few dealers, artists, critics or collectors recognized Vincent Van Gogh’s talent. Van Gogh’s ascendancy as a great artist would occur after his suicide at the age of 37. Current prices for Van Gogh’s art have set records.

Perusing a 1922 magazine I came across the fact that several major art works had been auctioned off during a stupendous sale at the Plaza Hotel on January 30 and 31, 1922.

The American Art Association managed the auction of the collection of Dikran Khan Kelekian. Among the artists whose works were available at the auction were: Mary Cassatt; Edgar Degas; Paul Gauguin; Edouard Manet; Henri Matisse; Claude Monet; Camille Pissarro; Georges Seurat; Henri de Toulous- Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh.

Seeing the prices realized at the auction was a bit of a shock. Not just because of the relatively low prices, but seeing how much these paintings have appreciated in the following hundred years. In 1922 to spend a thousand dollars on a painting was significant, considering that $1,500 was a very good annual salary for a white collar worker.

Sale Prices

Van Gogh’s, “Self-Portrait of the Artist”  seen above, sold for $4,200 to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Portrait of a Woman a.k.a. Fille à l’accroche-coeur (Girl with Lovelock) 1889

Portrait of A Woman” by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec went for $1,900 to collector Eugene Liston.

Paul Gauguin Maternité II 1899)

Stephan Bourgeois Gallery was the purchaser of Paul Gauguin’s “Maternité II” (Motherhood) for $7,000.

Renoir Portrait of Edmond Maitre – the reader 1871

“Portrait of a Man At Ease on a Sofa” (Portrait of Edmond Maitre) by Pierre Auguste Renoir would sell for $1,700 to Charles Sheeler.

Paul Cezanne Grande Nature Morte

The highest price paid at the auction was for Paul Cezanne’s still life “Grande Nature Morte” selling for $21,000 to Otto Bernet, the agent for a private buyer, Lillie P. Bliss.

The total sale price for 161 pictures in the auction was $254,879.

Where The Paintings Are Now

After Ms. Bliss’ death in 1931, New York’s Museum of Modern Art received Cezanne’s Grand Nature Morte. Unlike many of Lille Bliss’s 150 donations to MOMA which said her collection of works of art could be sold or exchanged for other works of art, Bliss’s will stipulated this was one of three paintings that can never be sold.

Incredibly, Toulouse-Lautrec’s “Portrait of A Woman” is now in Iran, at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

In the late 1970s the Shah’s wife, Princess Farah bought the painting for the museum for an unknown purchase price.  Farah would assemble over 150 works by such artists as Monet, Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Gauguin, de Kooning, Pollock, and Kandinsky. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 would force the Shah’s family to flee the country. The terrific museum collection would keep rising in value, despite the anti-west, Revolutionary Guard regime’s antipathy towards the art.

The museum rarely displays any of the paintings. They are locked in the museum’s vault most of the time.

Renoir’s Portrait of a Man At Ease on a Sofa a.k.a. Portrait of Edmond Maitre (The Reader), 1871 was sold to a private buyer on May 15, 2024 by Sotheby’s  for $2.6 million.

After Paul Gauguin’s death in 1903, Maternité II was sold for 150 francs ($30). The $7,000 sale in 1922 was a huge appreciation in value for this painting.

But that is nothing compared with its subsequent sales. Maternité II would continue to be an excellent investment for the succeeding 13 owners. The painting last sold in 2022 for $105.7 million.

The Best of All – Van Gogh

During Detroit’s financial crisis in 2014 the city did contemplate selling many of the museum’s prizes including the Van Gogh Self Portrait. Fortunately for the people of Detroit, they did not. Had they sold the painting it is estimated it would have brought between $80 to $150 million.

How much does the art world covet Van Gogh? Today the price for the self portrait would be over $200 million.

The post The 1922 Auction Prices Of Paintings By Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

This Detroit Publishing Company photograph is from 1900. We are looking east along 23rd Street.  The corner of Madison Avenue and Madison Square Park is visible on the left.

The 11-story building completed in 1893 is the home office of The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

To the left of Metropolitan Life is the Madison Square Presbyterian Church. The church was led from 1880-1918 by Dr. Charles Parkhurst, a vocal foe of municipal corruption, vice and human suffering. The Metropolitan Life Building would be expanded (1906-1909) by constructing a tower north of the original building.. The tower portion of the Metropolitan Life Building was built upon the site of Parkhurst’s church. The congregation would hire the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to  build a new church in 1906 on the adjacent corner of 24th Street and Madison Avenue.

But with land being so valuable in the Madison square area, the new church was sold and demolished in 1919.

There are a few things in this photograph that might escape your notice with just a quick glance.

Some Details

In the background, a large banner stretches across 23rd Street.

The sign promotes the headquarters of the Republican National Committee. The ticket of President William McKinley and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt would prevail in the 1900 election.

In the foreground is a street clock with advertising. Written atop the clock is “Dorlon’s” and the bottom reads “6 & 7.”

Dorlon’s was a popular oyster restaurant at 6 & 7 East 23rd Street with wholesale operations at Fulton Market as well as mobile oyster stands operating throughout the city. Barely visible on the clock’s face instead of numbers it spells out – OYSTERS.

Dorlon’s menu from January 10, 1900 gives an idea of the fare served. The prices for oysters are by the dozen,

There are a number of vendors along the curb near the clock and several more vendors in front of the Metropolitan Life Building. The corner of Metropolitan Life houses the Madison Square Station of the New York Post Office, insuring a steady flow of potential customers.

Similar to modern street vendors these manual pushcarts are offering various food items. Clearly one man is selling peanuts.

Finally, a delivery cart and hansom cab wait in front of the main entrance of Metropolitan Life.

Crossing the street is a man dressed all in white with a pith helmet. Believe it or not he is a member of New York’s Sanitation Department. The “White Wings” as they were called because of the distinctive uniform, was the creation of Colonel George Waring (1833-1898). a sanitary engineer, who in 1896 would establish a modern street cleaning department for the city. The White Wings efforts dramatically improved the city’s cleanliness.

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