by Peter Salwen
This site presents excerpts and images from Upper
West Side Story: A History and Guide (Abbeville
Press, 389 pp.), an affectionate anecdotal history
of Manhattan's Upper West Side from colonial times
to the trendy present, illustrated with over 100
drawings and vintage photos.
West Side Story: A History and Guide (Abbeville
Press, 389 pp.), an affectionate anecdotal history
of Manhattan's Upper West Side from colonial times
to the trendy present, illustrated with over 100
drawings and vintage photos.
Reviewing the book at the time of publication (1989), The New York Times
called Upper West Side Story "an engaging romp through time and space,
filled with charming period photographs, spicy folklore, outrageous
personalities and even a walking tour," while Smithsonian Magazine
declared, "Salwen . . . tells his lively story with irreverent good humor.”
To order a copy ($25.00, postpaid) send email for details. If you have a
PayPal account, you can order directly from this page by clicking "Buy
Now," below. We try to fill all orders the same day.
Meanwhile, here is an Upper-West-Side trivia challenge to test your
knowledge of New York City. (Answers to all questions are in the book.)
called Upper West Side Story "an engaging romp through time and space,
filled with charming period photographs, spicy folklore, outrageous
personalities and even a walking tour," while Smithsonian Magazine
declared, "Salwen . . . tells his lively story with irreverent good humor.”
To order a copy ($25.00, postpaid) send email for details. If you have a
PayPal account, you can order directly from this page by clicking "Buy
Now," below. We try to fill all orders the same day.
Meanwhile, here is an Upper-West-Side trivia challenge to test your
knowledge of New York City. (Answers to all questions are in the book.)
Q. What gregarious Upper West Sider popularized the phrase "A House
Is Not a Home" as the title of her best-selling autobiography?
A. Polly Adler, the most renowned madam of the Jazz Age.
Q. What Upper West Sider claimed to be the "real" designer
of Central Park?
A. Brigadier General Egbert L. Viele, a West Point-educated civil engineer.
He sued the city over the Park issue, and eventually won a court award of
ten thousand dollars.
Q. What famous old Upper West Side institution once occupied the
present site of Columbia University?
A. The Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum. Morningside Heights was also
known as "Asylum Hill."
Q. Early in the century, Mary Mallon was arrested while working as the
cook for a family on West 89th Street. Why?
A. "Typhoid Mary" was a carrier of the deadly typhus bacillus. The city health
department had repeatedly warned never to work as a cook, but it was the
only trade she knew. She ended her days in quarantine on an island in the
East River.
Q. Several square blocks of tenements were torn down to make way
for Lincoln Center, yet you can still see them today. Where and how?
A. The empty streets were used for location shooting and dance numbers
in the movie West Side Story.
Q. In 1896 two Upper West Siders, Arthur Smith and Henry Bliss,
crossed paths in a tragic landmark event. What and where?
A. As Mr. Bliss turned to help a lady alight from a streetcar at Central Park
West and West 72nd Street, taxi driver Smith ran over him, crushing his
chest. Bliss dies the next day, the country's first auto fatality.
Q. Besides Mr. Bliss's accident the peaceful-looking corner of Central
Park West and West 72nd Street has an extraordinary number of
associations with violence and crime. How so?
A. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the convicted kidnapper-killer of the
Lindberg baby, worked as a carpenter in the Majestic Apartments on that
corner at the time of the crime. Later, mob bosses Meyer Lansky, Lucky
Luciano and Frank Costello all lived in the Majestic. Costello was shot (not
fatally) in the lobby in 1957. And across the street, John Lennon was
murdered in front of his home in the Dakota Apartments in 1980.
Q. What Upper West Sider was the first woman to be honored with a
ticker-tape parade?
A. Seventeen-year-old Gertrude Ederle, daughter of an Amsterdam Avenue
butcher, became a hero to New Yorkers in 1926, when she became the
first woman and the first American to swim the English Channel.
Q. What Upper West Sider was the first New Yorker to own a private
car?
A. The flamboyant James Buchanan Brady, of West 86th Street -- known to
history as Diamond Jim. (Diamond Jim may actually have been beaten out
for the honor by another, quieter Upper West Sider, the industrialist-
lawyer-publisher Isaac L. Rice.)
Q. Some historians take a rather cynical attitude toward the famous
Maine monument on Columbus Circle commemorating the Spanish-
American War. Why?
A. William Randolph Hearst, who raised most of the money for the
monument, owned most of the nearby real estate. Through his newspaper
chain, Hearst had also done more than anyone else to get the U.S. into
war with Spain -- and in any case, research now shows the Maine was
sunk by accident, not by Spanish sabotage.
Q. What national dance craze was introduced in an Upper West Side
musical?
A. The Charleston, introduced in 1922 by Elizabeth Welch in the last act of
the all-Black musical Runnin' Wild at the Colonial Theatre, Broadway and
63rd Street.
Q. Another Upper West Side production was the first black musical to
reach the Broadway stage. What, where, and when?
A. Shuffle Along, with words and music by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake,
opened at the 63rd Street Theatre in 1921. The show introduced the
immortal "I'm Just Wild About Harry," and Langston Hughes credited the
show with "kicking off" the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Q. In August 1926 a crowd of 80,000 mobbed the street outside
Campbell's Funeral Church on Broadway and West 67th Street, even
broke through the plate-glass window before the police restored order.
Who or what was inside?
A. The body of silent-screen Sheik Rudolph Valentino, who had died at a
nearby hospital. Interestingly, Valentino had started his show-business
career just a few blocks away and 13 years earlier as a "taxi dancer" in a
cabaret on Upper Broadway.
Is Not a Home" as the title of her best-selling autobiography?
A. Polly Adler, the most renowned madam of the Jazz Age.
Q. What Upper West Sider claimed to be the "real" designer
of Central Park?
A. Brigadier General Egbert L. Viele, a West Point-educated civil engineer.
He sued the city over the Park issue, and eventually won a court award of
ten thousand dollars.
Q. What famous old Upper West Side institution once occupied the
present site of Columbia University?
A. The Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum. Morningside Heights was also
known as "Asylum Hill."
Q. Early in the century, Mary Mallon was arrested while working as the
cook for a family on West 89th Street. Why?
A. "Typhoid Mary" was a carrier of the deadly typhus bacillus. The city health
department had repeatedly warned never to work as a cook, but it was the
only trade she knew. She ended her days in quarantine on an island in the
East River.
Q. Several square blocks of tenements were torn down to make way
for Lincoln Center, yet you can still see them today. Where and how?
A. The empty streets were used for location shooting and dance numbers
in the movie West Side Story.
Q. In 1896 two Upper West Siders, Arthur Smith and Henry Bliss,
crossed paths in a tragic landmark event. What and where?
A. As Mr. Bliss turned to help a lady alight from a streetcar at Central Park
West and West 72nd Street, taxi driver Smith ran over him, crushing his
chest. Bliss dies the next day, the country's first auto fatality.
Q. Besides Mr. Bliss's accident the peaceful-looking corner of Central
Park West and West 72nd Street has an extraordinary number of
associations with violence and crime. How so?
A. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the convicted kidnapper-killer of the
Lindberg baby, worked as a carpenter in the Majestic Apartments on that
corner at the time of the crime. Later, mob bosses Meyer Lansky, Lucky
Luciano and Frank Costello all lived in the Majestic. Costello was shot (not
fatally) in the lobby in 1957. And across the street, John Lennon was
murdered in front of his home in the Dakota Apartments in 1980.
Q. What Upper West Sider was the first woman to be honored with a
ticker-tape parade?
A. Seventeen-year-old Gertrude Ederle, daughter of an Amsterdam Avenue
butcher, became a hero to New Yorkers in 1926, when she became the
first woman and the first American to swim the English Channel.
Q. What Upper West Sider was the first New Yorker to own a private
car?
A. The flamboyant James Buchanan Brady, of West 86th Street -- known to
history as Diamond Jim. (Diamond Jim may actually have been beaten out
for the honor by another, quieter Upper West Sider, the industrialist-
lawyer-publisher Isaac L. Rice.)
Q. Some historians take a rather cynical attitude toward the famous
Maine monument on Columbus Circle commemorating the Spanish-
American War. Why?
A. William Randolph Hearst, who raised most of the money for the
monument, owned most of the nearby real estate. Through his newspaper
chain, Hearst had also done more than anyone else to get the U.S. into
war with Spain -- and in any case, research now shows the Maine was
sunk by accident, not by Spanish sabotage.
Q. What national dance craze was introduced in an Upper West Side
musical?
A. The Charleston, introduced in 1922 by Elizabeth Welch in the last act of
the all-Black musical Runnin' Wild at the Colonial Theatre, Broadway and
63rd Street.
Q. Another Upper West Side production was the first black musical to
reach the Broadway stage. What, where, and when?
A. Shuffle Along, with words and music by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake,
opened at the 63rd Street Theatre in 1921. The show introduced the
immortal "I'm Just Wild About Harry," and Langston Hughes credited the
show with "kicking off" the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Q. In August 1926 a crowd of 80,000 mobbed the street outside
Campbell's Funeral Church on Broadway and West 67th Street, even
broke through the plate-glass window before the police restored order.
Who or what was inside?
A. The body of silent-screen Sheik Rudolph Valentino, who had died at a
nearby hospital. Interestingly, Valentino had started his show-business
career just a few blocks away and 13 years earlier as a "taxi dancer" in a
cabaret on Upper Broadway.
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| NYC History |
Columbus Circle, c. 1907
Charles Schwab
mansion, Riverside Drive,
"the largest and most
lavish home ever built on
Manhattan Island."
mansion, Riverside Drive,
"the largest and most
lavish home ever built on
Manhattan Island."
Click here to
read sample
pages.
read sample
pages.
| A suitably grisly death awaited Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer, long-time Beer Baron of the West Side. |
| World premiere of Babes In Toyland at Columbus Circle's Majestic Theatre, 1903. |