Remembering Keith Staulcup

The Cape Man of W51 Street:

Hell's Kitchen Miniature Carousel 

Maker and Community Activist 

I first saw him on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen on my post midnight walk in late July 1977, the summer when serial killer “Son of Sam” Berkowitz terrified the city.

He appeared from the shadows of West 51 Street a tree-lined street of dark chocolate-colored one hundred year old brownstones and five-and-six story tenements with handsome exteriors.

Even on the drug-infested, mugger-laden streets of Hell’s Kitchen peppered with half-naked prostitutes, knife-toting drug dealers, and Eighth Avenue pimps, straight out of the movie Super Fly, dressed in flashy colored suits with matching hats and shoes and driving Cadillac Eldoradoes of the same hue, Keith Staulcup stood out.

He walked slowly, draped in a black Victorian opera cape with a high collar held together by a silver clasp at the neck. He toted a walking cane with a white handle and tip. His cane thumped the sidewalk in cadence with each step he took and punctured the silence of this humid night.

Portly built, slightly balding with round sloping shoulders, full white bushy sideburns, and a thick walrus mustache Staulcup resembled a Dickens character in search of another time  - one with cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages and gas-lit street lamps.

Who is this guy? What is his story?

Fourteen months later I found out. I met Keith Staulcup at the monthly police community meeting I covered for a neighborhood paper. I arrived early carrying a reporter’s notebook when a man from behind me said, “Our recording secretary is sick. Can you take minutes?” The voice belonged to the caped man. I agreed. Within minutes 80 angry people packed the room.

Staulcup banged the gavel on the table to quiet the crowd. He yelled, “Let’s get started.” The noise continued. He hit the table hard two more times. “Save your gripes for the police.”

As president of both the West 51st Street Block Association and the Midtown North Police Precinct Council, he became one of Clinton’s (then called Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side) leaders fighting for a safer and cleaner neighborhood.

Not as scraggy looking as the Occupy Wall Street crowd this group had serious issues as well. They had grown tired of a despondent police department unable to deal with the surge in muggings, drugs dealings, and prostitution that overwhelmed their neighborhood.

Sitting on the stage alongside Staulcup, the council’s board members and the precinct’s commanding officer I saw Hell’s Kitchen diversity first hand; merchants, parents, singles, elderly, minorities, gays, unemployed, white and blue collar workers, clergy, actors and reps from local schools and nonprofits. New York had not yet become the city of multi million dollar apartments and glass towers. Once a place of promise, many critics back then called it “America’s Murder Capital” an ungovernable city in financial and social turmoil on the brink of collapse. 

Staulcup’s reversible cape fitted him well in his dual roles as activist and miniature carousel maker.

Born in 1936 in Glassboro, New Jersey he loved theater and the arts and moved to New York to studying acting.

“When I stepped off the bus I was in awe of the city’s size and energy but after I took my second and third steps I knew this is where I had to be.”

He settled in Hell’s Kitchen in 1963 and got involved in neighborhood affairs ten years later out of desperation when his block’s (West 51st between 8 and 9th Avenues) quality of life disintegrated. A mini restaurant row with six well-known French eateries including Tout Va Bien (still open) and the long defunct Rene Pujol and Café des Sports the street drew theater-goers and business people. It also had a sordid side.

 “People were shooting up on our stoops and having sex in our vestibules. Dealers sold drugs out of ground floor apartments,” he said.

“Some nights I called and called the precinct. The phone rang forever. When someone finally answered I was often told ‘this is Times Square. We’re too busy. Call back later.’

“The police wanted to see blood in the streets and garbage kicked all over it before they did anything,” he said. “I learned you needed to be dramatic to get their attention.”

Ninth Avenue, the spine of Hell’s Kitchen, famous for its International Food Festival Ninth Avenue, even in those days, attracted thousands of visitors to its annual two-day event in May, but many also came here for other reasons. Office workers, suburban college kids and cars with out of town license plates flooded Hell’s Kitchen for drugs and hookers.

“Ninth Avenue was a drug haven. Pot, pills, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin were available day or night,” Staulcup said.

“We spent months, years fighting with the city to close a drug supermarket, then we battled to close an illegal social club. We contacted every city agency from the mayor’s office on down, not once, not twice, but many times.”

When one closed another appeared. Pimps opened a brothel in an apartment across the street from his place. Then transvestites moved in. Staulcup said, “It was an everything goes club." Drug, sex, fights, stabbings occurred almost nightly. It took 18 months to close.

The block association stretched from Eight to Eleventh Avenues. When a local gang sold drugs from a vacant building near Eleventh, cops told him the operation would only cease when the building was torn down. “Guess what!” Staulcup said. “The city demolished it. The dealers sold drugs in the empty lot.”

This sense of dramatics is a far cry from his creative world. As part owner and founder of Brilar Carousel Works, Staulcup labored through the night making carousels costing $500 to $5000.

He worked and lived on the first two floors of a brownstone at 337 on 51st. As you enter you walk into a small foyer that led to an ample sized palor with burgundy colored walls, plush floral carpeting and thick drapes. From there you pass under an ornate doorway with large sliding wooden doors to reach his workshop. Both rooms are decorated with turn-of-the century furniture, vintage black and white photographs, and large gold-framed mirrors lit with candles and kerosene lamps. All windows including the door to his backyard were outlined with antique molding and covered with curtains made from fabrics he retrieved from the old Met Opera house on 39th Street. Classical music played from his Victor-Victrola. Static from his ham radio, used to track police calls in Hell’s Kitchen, occasionally disrupted the room’s serenity.

Making miniature carousels required immense detail. They measured 15 inches in height with a base of 18 inches. These collectibles featured moving horses wrapped in colorful sashes, tiny hand-sculpted figurines about an inch or two in height, and monkeys holding balloons dressed in formal circus frocks wearing knee high-laced boots. Couples dressed in Gay Nineties fashions stand and listen to the carousel’s music. Young maidens in fluffy dresses wear floppy hats with flowers sit sidesaddle watched lovingly by their beaus.

Even with plump hands and thick fingers he had the manual dexterity and nimbleness of a Swiss watchmaker. It is hard to believe he created these delicate forms from eggshells, toothpicks, threads, tiny shreds of cloth and clay.

Staulcup made carousels for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Marshall Field’s and for Rita Ford, his mentor. Ford once a fixture in antique and contemporary music boxes started here in 1947.

Staulcup’s passion for acting also included the theaters especially those on Forty-second Street. Originally built for theater and opera they were converted during the depression to meet the rising popularity of “talking films.” He knew the history of each building and the actors who performed there. The New Amsterdam, one of the city’s most magnificent theaters, was his favorite.

One Friday night in September 1978 after I pounded him with questions about the Amsterdam, Staulcup said, “We’re going to the movies. I’ll give you a tour of the New Amsterdam.”

That night TGIF, the hot disco flick of the summer, starring Donna Summer, Jeff Golblum, and Debra Winger played there. The film had already started when we arrived. We sat in the last row near the entrance. Within seconds no longer able to contain his enthusiasm he began his tour.

For years Forty-second street, the one-block strip between 7 and 8th Avenues, had a notorious reputation as the city’s most dangerous street. Its Wild West atmosphere attracted hustlers, murderers, pickpockets, rapists, pedophiles, junkies, dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and scam artists from all over the country.

Before we entered the theater police had raided a nearby porn shop. More than a dozen cops led a line of men in handcuffs that stretched from a prisoner transport bus parked at the curb right into the shop. Welcome to Saturday night on the “Deuce.”

Built in 1903 by noted architects Henry Herts and Hugh Tallants the New Amsterdam included an eleven-story office building and two playhouses, the 1700 plus seat two-balcony main stage and the nearly 700 seat roof-garden theater. Described as

an architectural gem by critics this grand art-noveau masterpiece not only possessed beauty but also the most advanced mechanical stage ever built.

Sitting with Staulcup I realized we did not come here for the movie. The building had top billing. Worn and ragged and decades past its glory days Staulcup unveiled its magnificence long hidden under layers and years of neglect. He raved about its perfect acoustics and unobstructed views, cantilevered boxes, elegant friezes, intricate plaster relief panels, huge stage with elevators capable of moving sections up and down 33 feet. He described the leather-upholstered banquettes in the clubroom, the richly designed lady’s boudoir, the illustrious paintings and the spectacular mural of Drama above the proscenium.

After about twenty minutes of his descriptive nonstop narrative he nudged me and said, “Come on.” He headed to the aisle at the far end of the theater where he turned and walked to the stage. When he reached the first row he made a right and continued to center stage and stopped.

I walked to the first row. I did not follow him. I knew better than to stand in front of a few hundred people watching TGIF in a theater on the “Deuce.” He turned to me and waved his white-gloved hand for me to join him. I shuffled forward and then froze. He waved again. “Oh man, I hope I survive,” I thought as I moved towards him.

Think of all the famous people who appeared on this stage,” he said when I reached him. His eyes widened and his hushed voice rose as he rattled off names: “Richard Mansfield, Marion Davies, W.C. Fields.”

After the third name I heard nothing. My mind blocked out everything he said. He continued rolling out names: “Fanny Brice, Basil Rathbone, Will Rodgers, Marilyn Miller, Fred and Adele Astaire, Bela Lugosi, Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray, Ziegfeld’s Follies.”

Although thrilled to stand facing this glorious and historical place I said to myself,  “This is crazy. We should return when no one is here.”

Back then the Deuce and this one-block strip had a higher crime rate than many city precincts.

Several years before I saw the movie Shaft at a nearby theater with a tough and hostile crowd. A fight broke out. My friend and I squeezed underneath our seats as bottles went airborne.

Oblivious to how I felt Staulcup continued.

In black cape and large wide brim Cyrano De Bergerac hat with a black satin band and white feather, angled to one side partially covering his face, he pointed his cane from one end of the theater to other. I think he described the lavish cantilevered boxes, the spectacular domed ceiling, and the theaters elliptical shape.

Finally something seeped through. I heard the words “Last Dance” from TGIF’s hit song on the same name sung by Donna Summer.

Last dance

Last dance for love

Yes, it's my last chance

For romance tonight

“Last Dance, Last Dance” bounced over and over in my mind except the words changed to “Last Chance to Live.”

I scanned the crowd intently waiting for a Malt liquor bottle, or a bullet to fly our way or for someone to rush the stage with a club or a knife. We stood there for 45 seconds, maybe 60, maybe longer. It felt like an eternity.

When Staulcup pointed his cane to his right hundreds of pairs of eyes followed. When he pointed left eyes again followed. When he swung his cane to the ceiling all heads bobbed up. But amazingly nothing happened that night.

A week later a shooting occurred outside the theater.

I had my first and last theater tour with Staulcup.

Staulcup left New York in the mid-nineties. He returned to Gloucester County. He died in 1996 at the age of 63.

Photos by Rudi Papiri; Carousel photo from Full House Antiques

Editor’s Note:

Keith Staulcup’s carousel photo is available for $3500 at the following link: http://stores.ebay.com/FullHouseAntiques1407/_i.html?_nkw=carousel+&_cqr=true&_nkwusc=crousel&_sid=35736815&_rdc=1:

New Amsterdam: After years of decay the Disney Corporation with support from NYC and the 42nd Street Redevelopment Corporation spent $36 million to restore the New Amsterdam. Today it is once again the city’s most beautiful theater. The completely restored theater officially reopened with the concert King David in May 1997. The blockbuster play Lion King opened there in November of that year. It remained until 2006 when Mary Poppins took over the space.

West 51st: Now home to 12 restaurants, a boutique Hotel, the Washington Jefferson, and multi-million dollar brownstones. Tout Va Bien is the sole surviving French restaurant.

It is also home to a Single Room Occupancy hotel, St. Paul’s Chapel, a rescue mission and soup kitchen, and the Alexander Abraham Residence, a women’s shelter.

Library Way:
Reading and Walking Along NYPL's Street of Words

Walk of Fames exist all over the world.  There are walks in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Hungary, India, Russia, and the Philippines. Surfers have one in Huntington Beach, California. There is the International Civil Rights Walk in Atlanta, the Music City Walk in Nashville, and the U.S. Space Walk in Florida.

Nothing compares to Hollywood’s illustrious strip for pizzazz and stardom.

The Walk of Fame is located at one of the world’s most famous corners, Hollywood and Vine. The names of almost 2500 celebrities are inscribed in five-pointed brass and terrazzo stars. They are embedded in the sidewalks along a 15-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard and on three blocks of Vine Street. Each star contains one name. Millions visit annually and pay homage to the entertainment industry’s (film, radio, music, television, theater) biggest stars - Charlie Chaplin, Sophie Loren, Clark Gable, Johnny Depp, Paul Robeson, Mickey Mouse, Michael Jackson to name a few.

Far less celebrated and on a much smaller scale than the movie capital’s version, is the New York Public Library's walk of fame, or Library Way, as it is called.

Library Way is located on the north and south sides of East 41 Street. It starts at Park Avenue’s Grand Central Viaduct near Pershing Square and extends east to Fifth Avenue, to the New York Public Library's flagship building.

The Library’s magnificent marble Beaux Arts building, completed in 1911, has an imposing massive staircase and grand entrance. Two large stone lions, Patience and Fortitude, watch over Fifth Avenue perched on pedestals on each side of the staircase. The library is the second largest research facility in the United States, after the Library of Congress.

  

Library Way has 96 bronze plaques honoring 45 of the world’s greatest novelists, playwrights, poets, philosophers, and artists. They hail from 11 countries and date back to 100 AD. Some names appear on two plaques. There are several Library Way informational panels.

Mark Twain

The Grand Central Partnership spearheaded plans for the project in the early 1990s. The city formed the Partnership, one of its business improvement districts, to revitalize various commercial neighborhoods. This one covers the neighborhood around Grand Central Terminal. The walk received support from the New York Public Library, the city's Department of Transportation, property owners and commercial tenants on 41^st. The street got its first panel in 1998. The city officially dedicated Library Way in 2004.

The panels measure 2½ by 1½ feet. Each one contains an important quote and an image reflective of the text. Both are set in bas-relief. City librarians submitted quotes to a group of literary scholars, selected by the Partnership, the New York Public Library and The New Yorker magazine who in turn selected quotes for each one.

Sculptor Gregg LeFevre designed the panels. He created his first outdoor sculptor in 1974 and has completed projects all over the country. He did the New Jersey Hall of Fame in Newark, New York City’s Union Square Park Timeline, and works in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis.

On a weekday visit to Library Walk few people stopped to read the panels. The street’s heavy foot traffic and the frantic New York off-to-the-races pace makes it impossible for passers-by to even notice the panels.

On weekends the pace is less hectic. During a ninety-minute visit one late Saturday morning I saw a number of people read and photograph the panels.

Tall commercial buildings line 41^st street. The street is often covered in heavy shadows or brilliant sunlight depending on the time of day and the weather. On that Saturday visit, a brilliant blue sky day, shadows darkened the south side. On the north side, a glaring light bounced off the bronze panels and made it almost impossible to read them.

The Library Hotel-northeast corner of 41st and Madison

  

The contrast of light and darkness often hides the splendid architectural character of the streets older handsome buildings designed in reverence to Grand Central terminal. This includes 295 Madison Avenue with its distinctive 47-story tower on the southeast corner of 41st, 12 East 41^st, and the Library, a boutique hotel at 299 Madison. The street is also home to Berkeley College, the stylish Dylan Hotel, the upscale Benjamin Steakhouse, Madison and Vine, and O’Casey’s Pub.

Emily Dickinson

I stood before Emily Dickinson’s panel. Cleaned and polished and set in a blue grey stone. It looked brand new. “Wow,” I said to myself amazed by its mint condition considering how other panels had gum markings and smudges.

A maintenance man standing in front of the building where the Dickinson is located heard me.

“I polish it every week. I don’t like when they look like that,” he said in an accented voice pointing to a tarnished one in front of a renovation site.  “I don’t know this person” referring to Dickenson. “I like her words. I like all the words on the block. This is my library.”

This is a classic case of a library without walls and how the NYPL has extended its boundaries to the people on the street.

Photos: Rudi Papiri   *You can enlarge an image by clicking on it

Library Way located on East 41st Street from Park to Fifth Avenue. 

New York Public Library - Stephen A. Schwarzman Building 

at Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018; 917-275-6975. 

Hours: M-Th-Fri-Sat 10-6; Tues-Wed 10-8; Sun 1-5.


A follow-up article contains the complete list of all 45 names on Library Way. There are also brief notes about the lesser-known figures. I also included brief bios about my favorites writers, plus photos of several very attractive panels.

   NYPL's Library Way: A Sidewalk Reading Room 
  Sharing the Words of Julia Alvarez, Langston 
  Hughes, William Butler Yeats...

New York is a vertical city. If you walk with your head down or your eyes glued to your cell phone texting you will miss the New York experience of sleek skyscrapers, glass apartment towers, old historical buildings and the classic beauty of its prewar and turn-of-the century architecture.

Many of its most famous landmarks soar high above its streets. This is the city where King Kong swatted away planes as he clung to Fay Wray at the top of the Empire State Building and where Superman was able to “leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

New York has more to offer than just its most famous building the Empire State Building. There is the Art Deco Chrysler Building, 1046 feet tall, adorned with eagle gargoyles and topped with a glittery steel spire. There is also the Gothic cathedral-style 57-story Woolworth building and Frank Gehry’s 90-story 8 Spruce Street, with its wrinkled steel finish, the tallest occupied residential tower in the country.

East 41^st Street between Park and Fifth Avenues is different. In this two block stretch known as Library Way you must look down when you walk. If you fail to do so, you will skip over memorable literary quotes from the world’s great writers, poets, philosophers, scientists and statesmen.

Library Way, affiliated with the New York Public Library’s main building at 42^nd and Fifth Avenue, contains 96 bronze panels featuring 45 renowned figures from literature, science and philosophy.

Samuel Beckett

While many are well known, there are several I knew very little or nothing about. But I enjoyed reading their quotes. Some were brilliant, funny and stimulating. The intricately designed panels captured Library Way’s unique intellectual aura. The two hours I spent on Library Way got me thinking and wondering who are these people. Why are they here? I agree with the maintenance man (see previous article) from a building on Library Way who said, “These people are important. They are here for a reason.” I agree.

I read up on all 45 names. I share with you what I learned.  I am also including a few of my favorites 
to this list.

Julia Alvarez - Dominican-American novelist/poet, born in New York City in 1950 and lived in the Dominican Republic until age 10 when her family left due to island’s military dictatorship. Noted works: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of Butterflies and A Wedding in Haiti.

George Braque - 1882-1963; Painter/sculptor from Le Harve, France. He pioneered Cubism with Picasso. Famous Paintings: The Mauve Tablecloth; The Gueridon.

Gwendolyn Brooks -1917-2000; Born in Topeka, Kansas poet, she was the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Brooks received it for poetry in 1950 for Annie Allen.  Also wrote: A Street in Bronzeville.

Albert Camus - 1913-1960; Writer, journalist and Existentialist philosopher was born in French Algeria and became the first African Nobel prize recipient. Won for Literature in 1957. Noted Works: The Stranger, The Plague and The Fall.

Isak Dinesen

Kate Chopin - 1850-1904; Short-story writer/novelist was born Katherine O’Flaherty in St. Louis. She wrote about women’s search for self-identity and independence. Famous work: The Awakening. 

Gu Cheng - 1956-1993, born Beijing. Poet, essayist, novelist. A member of China’s Misty Poets. Exiled after Tiananmen Square protests. He had a troubled life. He killed his wife and later committed suicide. Among his works: Sea of Dreams.

Lucille Clifton - 1936-2010; African-American poet, children’s author/educator from Buffalo, N.Y. who received the National Book Award for Poetry in 2000 for Blessing The Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988 - 2000.

Isak Dinesen - 1885-1962; Novelist/short storywriter was born Karen von Blixen-Finecke in Denmark. Noted works: Out of Africa and Babette’s Feast.

Richard Eberhart - 1904-2005; He was in born Minnesota. Received 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Selected Poems from 1930-65 and the 1977 National Book Award for Selected Poems 1930 -1977.

Bohumil Hrabal -1914-1997; He was born in Austro-Hungary. Along with Milan Kundera he was one of the most significant Czech writers. Wrote about human conflict. His work Closely Watered Train, was made into movie of the same name, won 1967 Oscar for Foreign Film.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes - 1902-1967; A Poet, playwright, journalist from Joplin MO who became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s. Famous works: The Way of White Folks, The Best of Simple and Let America Be America Again.

Garson Kanin - 1912-1999; Writer/director for film/theater born in Rochester N.Y. Wrote the play Born Yesterday and directed the Diary of Anne Frank and Funny Girl on Broadway.

Alfred Kazin - 1915-1998;  Born Brooklyn, NY. He  became part of New York Intellectual movement. A writer and literary critic he wrote about the Jewish immigrant experience. Famous works: On Native Grounds and A Walker in the City.

Jerome Lawrence - 1915-2004 born Jerome Schwartz in Cleveland, Ohio;

Robert Edwin Lee - 1918-1994, born Elyria, Ohio. Playwrights who collaborated to write Inherit The Wind, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail and Auntie Mame and later adapted it to become the 1956 Tony winning musical Mame.

Jose Marti

Jose Marti - 1853-1895;  Cuban national and literary hero born in Havanna. A poet, essayist, 

journalist became a leader of Cuba’s independence from Spain. Exiled by Spain. Famous 

work: Free Verses.

Marianne Moore

Marianne Moore - 1889-1972; Born Kirkwood, MO and wrote Poetry. Awarded the National Book Award in 1952 for Collected Poems.

Richard Pinsky - born 1940 in Long Branch, N.J. he was a Pulitzer Prize Poet nominee in1996; awarded the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the World. Wrote the libretto for the opera Death and the Powers.

Muriel Rukeyser - 1913-1980; A poet, political activist was born in New York City. She wrote about race, class and social injustice. The Book of the Dead and The Life of Poetry.

John Ruskin - 1819-1900; A writer, art critic, philanthropist was born in London. Wrote essays, treatises, letters, poetry and travel guides. Works: Modern Painters (5 vols) and The Seven Lamps of Architecture.

Tom Stoppard - born 1937 in Czechoslovakia; His family moved to England after WWII. A playwright who was knighted in 1997 he received Tony Awards for best plays: 1968 - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead; 1984 - The Real Thing; 2007 - The Coast of Utopia.

William Styron -1925-2006 ; Novelist and essayist who was born in Newport News, Virginia. He received the 1960 Pulitzer in Literature for The Confessions of Nat Turner & the National Book Award in 1980 Sophie’s Choice.

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas - 1914-1953; He was born in Swansea, South Wales. A poet-writer popularized poetry in America with flamboyant and dramatic reading tours. Noted Works: 18 Poems, & Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, and Entrances. Lived at the Chelsea Hotel and drank at the White Horse Tavern in the West Village. Died nearby at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

E.B. White – 1899-1985; He was born in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. and wrote for The New Yorker. He was a co-author The Elements of Style and wrote the children’s book Charlotte’s Webb. Received an honorary Pulitzer in 1978.

William Carlos Williams - 1883-1963; Poet and pediatrician was born in Rutherford N.J..

He received the National Book Award for Poetry in 1949; posthumously received the Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for Pictures from Brueghel & Other Poems. Other noted works:  Spring and All, The Red Wheelbarrow, and Patterson. 

The LIST:
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus                                Julia Alvarez      

Francis Bacon                Samuel Beckett            Jose Luis Borges         

George Braque              Gwendoyln Brooks      Albert Camus            

Lewis Carroll                 Willa Cather                 Kate Chopin              

Gu Cheng                       Lucille Clifton              Rene Descartes           

Emily Dickinson            Isak Dinesen                 Richard Eberhart        

Ernest Hemingway        Bohumil Hrabai            Langston Hughes        

Thomas Jefferson           Garson Kanin               Alfred Kazin               

Jerome Lawrence           Robert Edwin Lee        Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Jose Marti                       John Milton                  Marianne Moore

Richard Pinsky               Pablo Picasso               Muriel Rukeyser

John Ruskin                   Gertrude Stein              Wallace Stevens

Tom Stoppard                William Styron             Dylan Thomas

Henry David Thoreau    Mark Twain                  E.B. White

William Carlos Williams                                      John Greenlead Whittier

Virginia Woolf                                                     William Butler Yeats

Photos by Rudi Papiri  *You may enlarge an image by clicking on it

The Fifth Avenue Easter Parade: 

A Link to Old New York

“In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,

you’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade!

On the Avenue, Fifth Avenue the photographers will snap us

and you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure.”

New York City’s Easter Parade, immortalized in song by Irving Berlin in the 1948 movie, both with the same title, starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, dates back to late 1800’s.

There are no marching bands at this parade. Thousands of people do not stand behind barricades lining Fifth Avenue to cheer as the procession of schools, dignitaries, uniformed members of the police and fire departments march by. There are no floats towering above the street or celebrities in vintage cars waving to the crowds. It is older than the Columbus Day and Thanksgiving parades, two of the city’s largest events. Still it is not a parade.

It is a holiday tradition dating back to the late 1800’s

when the city’s blue bloods, members of powerful banking, shipping and industrial families who built the city and lived in mansions on or near Fifth Avenue, now one of the world’s premiere retail destinations. They worshipped at one of the four architecturally rich and important churches along this part of Fifth Avenue all completed within an eighteen year time frame of each other; St. Thomas Episcopal Church at 53^rd in 1870; Fifth Avenue Presbyterian at 55^th in 1875; the landmarked church of Teddy Roosevelt’s youth, St. Nicholas Collegiate Church at 48^th in 1872, and demolished in 1949; and St. Patrick's Cathedral, the upstart church built in 1888 by Irish immigrants at 50^th.

It began as an informal procession with the city’s aristocracy, heading to and from the church, showcasing their prestige and the fashionable and opulent styles of the day. As the event grew the churches decorated the fronts of their buildings with large floral displays. The poor and working classes came to admire the latest fashions and to watch the hoity-toity as they walked the avenue or rode in horse drawn carriages. Eventually retailers and large department stores realized the importance of the holiday and began promoting their merchandise around the event.

Irving Berlin created the melody for his song Easter Parade in 1917 and titled it “Smile and Show Your Dimple.” But it never caught on. He filed it until 1933 when it surfaced on Broadway in the musical revue As Thousands Cheer with Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb.  In 1942 Bing Crosby sang Easter Parade in the movie Holiday Inn, and featured again in The First Easter Rabbit in 1976 on television. There is also a George M. Cohan song The Easter Parade.

At the height of its popularity almost a million people showed up. Crowds have tailed off significantly and for the past few decades the parades is less reverent and more zany and colorful.  There is  less focus on the latest fashion trends and it is geared more towards the exotic, creative, although good style abounds.

Easter Parades are popular in many other cities too. Atlantic City lays claim to the first parade in 1876. Almost 500,000 spectators filled the boardwalk in the late1930’s. A far smaller event today, it is held at the boardwalk’s famed Steele Pier. San Francisco’s 21-year-old event, along its upscale Union Street, features rides, games, roller-balding cows, mini floats, and vintage cars. There is also an Easter Bonnet contest with prizes awarded for the "Best Couple, Pet, Family and Largest Hat."

New Orleans loves Easter and parades so much it has four including a gay event and two in the French Quarter; a wild one on Bourbon Street and a traditional parade by the St. Louis Cathedral.

New York’s Parade is held on Easter Sunday, on Fifth Avenue from 50^th to 57^th Street from about 11 a.m. to 3pm.

Photos: Color Easter Parade photo by Rudi Papiri 2009

Five Cupcake Sweet Spots: Billy’s, Donna Bell’s Among NYC’s Best

Everyone loves cupcakes. Thanks to Sex in the City and its four glamorous stars love affair with Magnolia Bakery’s cupcakes, this delectable treat’s popularity has soared since its 2000 debut on the hit television show.  

Since then the cupcake craze has exploded. Lately cupcake shops have sprouted up, not just in Manhattan and Brooklyn but all over the country in Boston, upstate New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Oregon, Kansas and elsewhere fueled by the success of The Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and an onslaught of books like Martha Stewart's Cupcakes; the Cupcake Café Book, The Cupcake Diaries. 

Scores of blogs - Cupcakes Take the Cake, 52 Cupcakes, All Things Cupcake - have flooded the internet.

My coworker, Katy Saunders, stirred my interest. Katy, who grew up in Virginia and went to the University of Kansas, makes a good cupcake. She has shared her taste for cupcakes with her office mates.

Often she arrives to work with her “cupcake” carry case filled with her homemade savories. Twice in 2010 she won Baked by Melissa’s scavenger hunt and spoiled us with her winnings - 200 mini cupcakes. She also made Magnolia Bakery's 15 New York City Moments list.

I decided to take advantage of Katy’s expertise and check out what New York City has to offer. We tasted cupcakes from 19 different shops. Here is a review of five.

Little Cupcake Bakeshop is a Brooklyn treasure. It built a devoted following quickly at its charming Bay Ridge shop, after its 2005 opening. 

The LoBuglio brothers, Massimo and Luigi, followed with a second shop in Nolita, at the corner of Mott and Prince, across from old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2010. Nestled among Nolita’s nineteen-century tenements and fashionable boutiques, galleries and cafes, LCB, with its checkered floors and chandeliers sparkles as if ready for a movie shoot but still exudes charm and a neighborhood atmosphere.

Its colorful cupcakes, puddings, pies and cakes fill its long display counter. With seating for 30 plus and large windows it is an ideal place to watch NoLita’s interesting characters zip by while sipping fresh lemonade or an Nutella cappuccino with a scrumptious peanut butter butter cream or German velvet cupcake.

Katy calls it “The Best” with “perfect flavor and proportion.” And she loves the pink carry boxes.

LCB: 30 Prince Street; 212-941-9100; www.littlecupcakebakeshop.com

Two Little Red Hens…Once upon a time Brooklyn was all about pizza, hot dogs, knishes and stoops. But times have changed. Today you can add hipsters, dot.coms and cupcakes. 

Founded by two aspiring bakers, Mary Louise Clemens and Christina Winkler, Two Little Red Hens began in Brooklyn at a Farmer’s Market in 1992 before moving to Park Slope. They gained a loyal following and a high New York Times rating. 

In 2001 they opened a second shop in Yorkville. Five years later they split with Clemens staying in Brooklyn and renaming that shop Ladybird Bakery.

With Winkler at the helm TLRH is one of the city's best cupcake emporiums (and pies and cakes as well). It is a mouth-watering oasis amidst the choas resulting from the building of the second avenue subway. While many avenue stores have closed due to the upheaval the bakeshop thrives. It is homey with soothing colors and farmhouse curtains and seats about eight people. The L-shaped glass counter is filled with an assortment incredible looking cupcakes.

Brittany Omon, the super friendly manager, said “On weekends the line stretches way out into the street.”  When asked what is their secret she said, “Everything is good. We sell 40 different items including cookies, tarts, coffee and specialty cakes and cupcakes. We bake everything on the premises and we use best ingredients.”

Katy’s critique: “Moist, creamy fillings, sweet icing and good variety of fillings.”   Try the raspberry, coconut, and almond cupcakes.

Two Little Red Hens: 1652 Second Avenue between 85 & 86^th St. 212-452-0476;

events@twolittleredhens.com; www.twolittleredhens.com

Donna Bell’s Bake Shop opened in April 2011 in Hell’s Kitchen’s steps away from the theater district. It’s four person staff bakes, cooks, cleans and sells amazing cupcakes, muffins, Mississippi mud pies, brownies, cookies, breakfast biscuits, corn bread squares, casseroles and cold and warm sandwiches in a 500 square foot space.      

Their delicious cupcakes are filled with butter cream icing.  Other options include vanilla, blueberry, champagne, peanut butter and others.

Started by three best friends, actress Pauley Perrette, who stars on NCIS, Darren Greenblatt, and Mathew Sandusky, and inspired by Perrette’s mother, Donna Bell, a native of Alabama, the shop, thanks to its homey touches and Greenblatt’s outgoing persona and willingness to please and do things the best way possible makes you feel as if you crossed the Mason-Dixon line.

“We are based on a real person, Donna Bell, and her wonderful family recipes and gracious southern hospitality. That's makes us unique,” Greenblatt said. “We are humble, rustic, not fancy. Our baked goods are made daily on the premises. We use natural and fresh ingredients.”

The small shop is nicely designed. It is bright cheery airy and immaculate. There are no tables or chairs but you can sip coffeee at one of the two small padded window alcoves. 

Katy gives it a thumbs up and likes their cute protective packaging.

Donna Bell’s, at World Wide Plaza, 301 West 49^th Street; 212-582-8463 www.donnabellsbakeshop.com; For catering inquiry@donnabellsbakeshop.com; www.facebook.com/pages/Donna-Bells-Bake-Shop

Buttercup Bake Shop’s pedigree would place it at the top of any list automatically. Owned by Jennifer Appel, a clinical psychologist, who with a high-school friend, Allysa Torey, opened Magnolia Bakery on Blecker Street in 1996. When their partnership dissolved Appel, an author of Buttercup Bakes at Home and The Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook, opened Buttercup in 1999. 

Appel transferred her Magnolia success to Buttercup's east midtown location. With its gentle colors, long counter and friendly staff it is reminiscent of a French or Belgium patisserie.  Cupcakes – German chocolate or Buttercup Golden with Vanilla icing - are among the best and their cakes, pies – strawberry rhubarb crumb, lemon meringue - puddings, and cookies are just as good. Katy likes their icing which is super sweet like Magnolia’s.

Buttercup: 973 2^nd Ave bet. 51^st & 52^nd Streets. Call 212-350-4144. http://www.buttercupbakeshop.com/

Billy’s Bakery has three Manhattan locations in Chelsea, NoLita and Tribecca. The one I know is in Chelsea, which is cute, and inviting decorated with “I Love Billy’s tee-shirts and bags." 

It has a vibrant yet gentle buzz as an ideal neighborhood meet-up spot sitting inside our outside on its benches. Owners Marc and Wayne opened Billy’s in 2003. One avenue west of the Chelsea boy strip, Billy’s, lures all, including the stroller crowd with its scrumptious cupcakes – try the yellow daisy and classic chocolate or maple pecan – cakes, cookies, scones, muffins and pies. 

Katy like its great color scheme and cute go-to bag.

Billy’s: Chelsea 184 9^th Ave; 212-647-9956 For other locations see: www.billysbakernyc.com; facebook: BillysBakeryNYC

Photos by Rudi Papiri