This undated, circa 1910 Detroit Publishing Co. photograph of Harlem’s main stem of 125th Street shows a flurry of activity. We are looking west from Seventh Avenue, today renamed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. This area of Harlem looks like a small village with most buildings being four stories or less.

It’s obviously a chilly day, and every pedestrian is well dressed and wearing a hat.

Most don a modern hat.  Except for this retro, bearded man in a nineteenth century top hat. Both top hats and beards had fallen completely out of fashion in the early 20th century. He stands under the old lamppost street sign locator near an unusual type of fire hydrant.

On the northwest corner (right) is a United Cigar store. Above the store is a billiards parlor and dancing school.

Pulling further away from our top hat man, across the street on the southwest corner is the six story Hotel Winthrop possessing a Hegemen & Co. Pharmacy on the ground floor. A bit further down the block, Schulte’s Cigars competes with United Cigars across the street. The Hotel Winthrop would soon give way for the construction of Harlem’s famous Hotel Theresa in 1913.

On the southwest corner a man pauses to look at the window display at Regal Shoes. At first it appears the man is with his pet dog. Pets are something you do not usually see in many turn-of- the-century city street photographs. Though  the dog has a collar, there is no leash, so perhaps the dog is just a stray and does not belong to the man.

Advertising the Regal store is a phenomenal light up sign in the shape of a boot.

There are few African American’s visible in the photo such as these two men crossing the street. During the twentieth century people tend to associate Harlem as the capital of African American culture. But it wasn’t until after 1910 that African Americans began settling into the area in large numbers. Before that, the area was overwhelmingly populated by Irish, Italians, Germans and Jews.

Trolleys traverse 125th Street and in the background is the station of the Ninth Avenue El, with trains running along Eighth Avenue.

If we could read the writing on the lighted marquee, or the signs in front of Keith & Proctor’s Theater, we would know who was appearing and accurately date the photo. Unfortunately we cannot. Although we do know a theater patron could dine next door at the Riverside Restaurant and play a game of billiards or bowl before or after the show.

The post Old New York In Photos #195 – 125th St. West From 7th Ave. c. 1910 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

In the 1970s practically every apartment building had an incinerator to burn its trash. New York City’s sky had a constant haze of air pollution from a variety of smog producing outlets.

So it may be surprising to realize that New York did have concerns about air pollution in the 1930s. This photograph with the news slug explains:

An Electric Locomotive Draws The Record-Breaking Coast To Coast Train
New York – A scene on the Park Avenue elevated tracks in New York, showing the Union Pacific “Bullet Train” being drawn by an electric locomotive into Grand Central Terminal at the end of the 56-hour, 57-minute record breaking journey from Los Angeles. The locomotive was attached at Harmon, New York to conform with the law which prohibits a coal or oil burning engine o go through New York. The stream line train is an oil burner. photo: International News 10-25-1934

Union Pacific’s Bullet Train official name was the M-10001.  The train also had the nickname “The Zip”. It shattered the previous cross country record set in 1924 by 13 hours and twenty nine minutes.  At one point during the journey, the train hit a speed of 120 miles per hour.

Postcard showing Union Pacific Bullet Train (L) Burlington Route Zephyr (r) 1934

For Union Pacific the six car train was extremely economical. The Bullet Train ran 1.4 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel oil costing four cents. The total cost of fuel for the 3,334 mile trip was about $95.

More than a thousand train enthusiasts met the Bullet Train at Grand Central when it arrived on track 17. Over the next couple of days 55,570 visitors would wait at Grand Central in long queues, three abreast, to inspect the Bullet Train, both inside and out.

The $500,000 streamline train won over the public even if few visitors could ever afford to travel on it.

The Bullet Train was rebuilt in 1935 when it was found the engine was overtaxed and the cars had unstable oscillations at high speeds. The Bullet Train was sold for scrap in 1941.

Pollution

There was recognition that dust, soot and smoke of industry in New York was not healthy, but it was  an accepted part of life. Smoke pouring from chimneys was a sign of prosperity. New York’s Smoke Abatement Commission could make little headway in battling noxious emissions polluting the air.

With factories producing all sorts of products, the industrial sections of New York City and the surrounding areas gave no thought to what they were spewing into the air.

Across the Hudson River in Bayonne NJ, one factory was disposing into its smoke stacks ten tons of sulfur dioxide gas per day. Wind would carry that air over New York. When the sulfur dioxide gas met with moisture in the air, the rain it would produce was essentially sulfuric acid.

As far as the railways were concerned, once electrification of the rails began around 1900, rules about pollution would evolve. After some cajoling, the railroad companies agreed not to bring coal and oil burning locomotives within the city limits. It wasn’t as hard as you might believe to convince the rail owners. There was an economic benefit for the railroads to switch to electric.

But similar to the current power situation: just how do you generate the electricity necessary to run an electric vehicle? The smoke problem was transferred from the railroads to the public utility companies to supply electric power. And railroads that did not buy their power had to generate their own electricity through private power plants.

The quandary remains the same today.

We deceive ourselves we are solving one problem by creating another.

The post Bullet Train Arrives & New York City Cares About Pollution – 1934 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

The 12th National Bicycle Show
New York: Photo shows Agnes O’Loughlin riding the ivory and gold motorcycle which was one of the principle exhibits at the 12th National Bicycle Show at the new Madison Square Garden. photo; King Features Syndicate 1-12-1926

Some things have not changed much in one hundred years. Companies still hire pretty women to demonstrate their products at conventions.

Admission to The National Bicycle Show in 1926 was fifty cents. The show was held at the third and newest building named “Madison Square Garden” which opened on November 29, 1925 at  Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Street.

Madison Square Garden is a misnomer considering the distance from the building’s two predecessors which were adjacent to Madison Square.

The Excelsior Super X began production in 1925 and was the first mass-produced American 740cc (45ci) V-twin.  The developer of the Super X was Harley-Davidson’s Assistant Chief Engineer, Arthur Constantine, who brought the design to Excelsior after Harley’s chief, Walter Davidson turned it down.

The retail price for the 1926 Excelsior Super X motorcycle was $325. Today one of these motorcycles in good condition can sell between $32,000 – $65,000.

Screen legend Steve McQueen owned a 1926 Excelsior Super X which was sold by  Julien’s auctions on November 6, 2025 for $160,000.

Agnes O’Loughlin

Regarding the model, Agnes O’Loughlin (alternately O’Laughlin), was a dancer and Broadway ensemble show girl. Agnes was at one time a dancing partner of Rudolph Valentino.

The day before this photo was published, there are other news photos of Agnes working at the Beauty Shop Owners Convention demonstrating a match-box sized lipstick holder.

Among Agnes’ stage credits are Earl Carroll’s Vanities (1925); The Ziegfeld Follies of 1927; and  Eddie Cantor’s hit musical Whoopee! (1928- 1929).

In July, 1929 Agnes announced her engagement to lightweight boxer Joe Benjamin and that they would marry by November. That apparently never happened. Because a few months later in December, Agnes was on page one of The New York Daily News in filing a breach of promise suit against singer Rudy Vallee seeking $200,000 in damages.

Agnes said Vallee began dating her in July and promised a November wedding. Vallee said he considered Agnes nothing more than “a good friend.”

Of course Agnes did not collect any money from Vallee, and by the mid-1930s her name vanishes from the press.

The post A Valuable Motorcycle At The 1926 Bicycle Show appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

This photograph was taken by the City of New York to document construction along Seventh Avenue. The date is Tuesday, August 29 ,1916. The high temperature for the day was a comfortable 71 degrees.

The extension of the subway from Times Square south of Seventh Avenue to the Battery would necessitate ripping up the street along the route. The “cut and cover” method was the primary construction method in use. This involves digging a trench to construct the subway and temporarily covering it, until a permanent street surface would be laid.

Under New York – Electrical Age Oct 1 1916

While this was going on commerce would continue. Timbering covers much of the street. Trolley tracks are visible and in use and shops along the route open.

Also public utility, telephone, telegraph, gas, steam and electrical lines, pneumatic mail tubes, water and sewer pipes would need to exposed, protected, sometimes moved and kept intact.

When the street was opened it could look like this.

This work was all done without environmental impact review. The objective – get the job done quickly and at the lowest possible cost.

So people go about their business, crossing the street as horse drawn delivery wagons make their way to their destinations.

Safety was the responsibility of the pedestrian, not the construction crew.  If you got hurt tripping over an obstacle, it was not the city’s fault, it was yours.

Pay attention to all the debris strewn about the streets and sidewalks.

A man in a straw hat decides it is safe to cross Seventh Avenue. The workers gathering around some wood beams figure out their next move. Another man with a suitcase makes his way up Seventh Avenue, as a woman on the sidewalk waits for the lone automobile to pass heading west along 23rd Street.

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And A Rare Interview About Playing A Part

37-year-old William Powell looks very tan in this 1929 Paramount Pictures publicity photograph. Powell also looks like he has a case of the mumps.

Powell is best known to classic movie fans for author Dashiell Hammett’s creation; Nick Charles, a former private detective, in a series of hugely popular Thin Man films with Myrna Loy made in the nineteen thirties and forties.

But, in 1929 Powell was playing another amateur sleuth, Philo Vance. Author Willard Huntington Wright, better known as S.S. Van Dine, wrote a dozen Philo Vance mystery novels.

Powell made several films playing Vance including The Canary Murder Case (1929) The Greene Murder Case (1929) The Benson Murder Case (1930) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933).

On Acting

Powell’s approach to acting was naturalistic. In a five decade stage and film career Powell rarely granted interviews. Discussing Shadow of the Law (1930) with The Baltimore Sun, Powell gave insight into his approach to playing Jim Montgomery, a fugitive who kills a man in self-defense.

Powell explained, “The fugitive from justice is a fear hunted individual who lives in constant dread. The sound of a door opening or a mere footfall puts him on his guard. He is furtive and wary, always expecting his past to catch up with him.

It is relatively easy to simulate anger, surprise or even sudden terror. To simulate the ever-present fear of the hunted is far more difficult. to do so, one must live with the dread of the character he is playing. I had to make Montgomery’s dread of detection my own. And while I seldom carry my roles home with me, I did this one. I’ll admit I was a very nervous individual during the time certain of the sequences were being filmed. There is something terribly contagious and destructive about fear. It actually eats right into one.”

William Powell retired from show business after his 1955 role as Doc in Mister Roberts. Powell died in Palm Springs, CA on March 5, 1984 at the age of 91.

The post Classic Hollywood #192 – William Powell appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

We don’t know who took this publicity photograph of Clara Bow. We do know it was one of a series about Clara being a helper to Santa that appeared in Photoplay Magazine in 1927. The igloo and the wreath put the setting at the North Pole as Clara is working on toys, even though her outfit is not weather appropriate.

This photograph is evidence that Clara’s face and features were strikingly modern. Her pose and natural beauty leap off the page.

The post Classic Hollywood #191 – Clara Bow, Santa’s Helper appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

On February 3, 2026 Lamonte McLemore one fifth of the great singing group The Fifth Dimension passed away at the age of 90.

Amazingly, The New York Times did cover McLemore’s death with a well deserved obituary a week after his passing . McLemore, while not a rock star per se, was definitely part of the sixties pop rock identity.

We use the term “amazingly” because of the paper’s continued willful denial of printing obituaries involving certain musicians. This is something we have pointed out previously.

Here are all five original Fifth Dimension members reuniting in 1991 on The Arsenio Hall Show sounding as great as ever with a performance of Aquarius  / Let The Sun Shine In.

Put in perspective The Fifth Dimension are now a nostalgia act performing with only one original member, Florence LaRue. The fact that The Fifth Dimension hasn’t had a hit in five decades doesn’t diminish from the group’s immense talent.

We are not making this a competition or comparison.

Yet three major rock musicians passed away recently with none of them even getting a peep out of the Times high fallutin’ obit desk. Maybe it’s because all three were of the hard rock variety. The Times explains its capricious obituary practices here.

Notable Deaths

The Times made the decision that Francis Buchholz (February 19, 1954 – January 22, 2026) bass player of Scorpions from 1973 -1992 was not worthy of a mention. I guess being a longtime member of a band selling over 100 million records worldwide is an ordinary feat.

More stupefying was the silence from “the paper of record”  on the death of Phil Campbell (May 7, 1961 – March 13, 2026). Campbell was Motörhead’s guitarist from 1984 until the death of Motörhead founder and vocalist Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister in 2015.  Campbell played in Motörhead for longer than anyone except for Lemmy. He was co-writer of all of their music. Motörhead is definitely an acquired taste but their influence on rock is undeniable. Apparently Campbell was not “important”enough for coverage.

The recent death of a New York musical icon Ross “The Boss” Friedman (January 3, 1954 – March 26, 2026) is another mystifying omission.

(l-r) Joey DeMaio Scott Columbus Eric Adams Ross Friedman of Manowar in 1984. Fryderyk Gabowicz – Getty

For a newspaper that takes delight in gritty New York stories, Ross The Boss should be a no brainer.

Ross The Boss, born in the Bronx, lead guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band The Dictators should garner some eternal notoriety. But, after The Dictators, Ross The Boss would co-found an even  more successful band.

The  power pop metal quartet, Manowar would sell millions of albums and garner fans across the globe. As commercial and hokey as Manowar may appear to  many rock fans, the band has had an uncanny knack of writing memorable and catchy songs.

Donn Landee in studio photo via instagram user garbeaj

One additional passing that went unnoticed was that of Donn Landee at age 79. The exact date of Landee’s death from natural causes in April  was not released.  Landee’s name is unfamiliar to the casual music fan, but not to Van Halen fans.

Landee a music mixer and engineer extraordinaire would help design and build Eddie Van Halen’s 5150 studio. Landee was instrumental in capturing Eddie Van Halen’s unique guitar sound, working on every Van Halen album until 1988.

In his long career Landee worked for dozens of artists beginning in the 1960s. Besides Van Halen, Landee’s credit list includes: Van Morrison, Randy Newman, The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon; Michael Jackson, Neil Young, James Taylor.

Maybe it is unfair to expect musical obituary notices from a publication like the Times which is now primarily an opinion dispenser, rather than an objective news reporting outlet,

We will continue and try and make up for that here every so often.

The post They Died. The New York Times Forgot to Mention It –Again appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

There are no periodicals like Puck Magazine today.

The weekly political, satirical and humor magazine was in business from 1876-1918. A main feature of the magazine was a chromolithograph centerfold usually relating to events of the day.

Our illustration is from the February 25, 1904 issue and drawn by Udo Keppler (1872-1956). The clouds of war hover over the sky as Mars the God of War sits triumphant as the Angel representing Peace flees while cradling a dove.

The drawing contains several other symbols such as, the sunbeam casting light upon Mars,  the sword in Mars’ lap and broken olive branch on the ground at center.

After coming across this colorful picture, a typical reader in 1904 rather than quickly turning the page, would have taken the time to notice these and other details. They would also recognize what they refer to.

Mars foot rests on a torn page that reads, Hague Peace Conference.

The Hague Peace Convention of 1899 was an international meeting to establish laws and customs of war along with rules for treaties and peace between nations. There would be a second Hague Convention in 1907.

The illustration refers to the Russo-Japanese War which began in February 1904 and would last until September 5, 1905. It was the first major war of the century.

Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century Mars remains triumphant.

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In these politically correct times even the smallest transgressions will be pointed out and removed by “cancel culture”.

Frequently in Warner Bros. cartoons the animators would superimpose whatever they wanted for a headline and visual in real newspapers. They would leave the rest of the page unaltered. The reason was that the audience would focus upon the mocked up headline which was on the screen for literally two or three seconds. On a theater movie screen, the audience would not be able to read the surrounding content in that brief amount of time.

That all changed with the advent of VCR’s DVD’s, streaming and the ability for a viewer to freeze images on their television or device. Of course this was completely unimaginable when Warner Bros. animators were creating these cartoons beginning in the 1930s.

Also what might be considered inappropriate, racist, or indecent today was not considered so back then.

In Hurdy-Gurdy Hare (1950), Bugs Bunny is living in New York’s Central Park. Bugs decides he needs a job. He looks at the want ads in the newspaper.

Though Bugs is reading the fictional New York Gazette, the actual paper used for the mock up was a real local Florida newspaper including Jim Crow-type advertisements. Before tightening the shot onto the hurdy-gurdy business ad, the other ads are briefly visible.

Two of the ads specify the applicants should be white.

One says “Orange Pickers – 20 white wanted”. The other says “Man – White, upholsterer.”

In recent television showings of Hurdy-Gurdy Hare the “offensive” ads are no longer visible. Digital altering solves the problem of how a sensitive generation might react to seeing the reality of 1950s segregated America.

TCM is now showing Warner Bros. cartoons. Fortunately these airings retain the original image. Hiding history does not change it.

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The San Francisco Giants opened the 2026 baseball season playing the New York Yankees.

There was no interleague play between American and National League teams until 1997.

But had the Giants played the Yankees 117 years ago neither team would have had to travel as their home ballparks were both in upper Manhattan. The Yankees playing their games at Hilltop Park at 168th St. and Broadway, while the Giants home field was at The Polo Grounds,155th Street and 8th Avenue.

Unlike today where everybody has a camera in their phones, few fans brought cameras to baseball games in the early 1900s.

Postcard view of Polo Grounds after fire 1911 photo via: Jim Chapman & The Chapman Deadball Collection

These snapshot photos below were made by an amateur photographer sometime around 1909. The only labeling on the photos was “New York Giants.” No mention is made of the date or opposition.

We know these photos are pre-1911 as the Polo Grounds, built of wood suffered a devastating fire April 14, 1911. The new ballpark was rebuilt in a little over two months. Incredibly the Giants were playing again in their new concrete and steel stadium on June 28, 1911.

The first photograph is taken from the Ninth Avenue Elevated terminus at the Polo Grounds.

The next photo shows the baseball park with Coogan’s Bluff and the apartment buildings overlooking The Polo Grounds.

From the first base side of the field players are warming up before the game begins.

The final photo from the third base side of the field shows the stands filled with fans and the game in action.

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