Madonna wearing Haring jacket 1984.
Happy 54th Birthday Keith Haring! May 4, 1958. Year of The Dog.
Madonna in her influential 1991 film, Truth or Dare, discussing her friend Keith Haring and giving a Holiday performance.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Beastie Boys MCA Adam Yauch Dead at 47
Forever Legend. Seen here final night of The Virgin Tour 1985.
RIP Adam Yauch from The Beastie Boys. Died of cancer.
RIP Adam Yauch from The Beastie Boys. Died of cancer.
Outside Radio City Music Hall as opening act for The Virgin Tour .
The secrets of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, and uncovering the East Village footprint of Peter Stuyvesant
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Until May 21st, you can vote every day in the Partners In Preservation initiative, which will award grant money to certain New York cultural and historical sites among 40 nominees. Having trouble deciding which site to support? I'll be featuring on a few select sites here on the blog, providing you with a window into their history and hopefully giving you many reasons to visit these places, long after this competition is done. Read about other candidates here.
PODCAST The church of St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery is one of Manhattan's most interesting and mysterious links to early New York history. This East Village church was built in 1799 atop the location of the original chapel of Peter Stuyvesant, New Amsterdam's peg-legged director-general. His descendants -- with the help of Alexander Hamilton and the architect of New York City Hall -- built this new chapel with the intention of serving the local farming community of Bowery Village.But in many ways, the more thrilling tales occur among the honeycomb of burial vaults underneath the church, the final resting place of vice presidents, mayors, and even Peter himself.
St. Mark's reflected the changes that swept through Greenwich Village during the 20th century, with experimental and sometimes scandalous church activities, from hypnotism, modern dance and even a trippy foray into psychedelic Christian rock.
ALSO: Find out why you can never EVER go down into the vault of Peter Stuyvesant. And why is the church IN the Bowery, not ON the Bowery?
To get this week's episode, simply download it for FREE from iTunes or other podcasting services, subscribe to our RSS feed or get it straight from our satellite site.
Or listen to it here:
The Bowery Boys: St. Mark's In-The-Bowery
NOTE ABOUT THE NAME: The modern name of this historic structure is technically St. Mark's Church In-The-Bowery. However most 18th-19th century sources drop the 'church' from the middle of the name. The hearty bust of Peter Stuyvesant in the courtyard calls it 'Saint-Mark's-in-the-Bowerie'.
Hyphens are liberally or reservedly applied based on the source. As we decided to spend a great deal of time talking about the old farm and the early years, we settled on 'St. Mark's in-the-Bowery'. But I even twisted myself around during recording and said 'on-the-Bowery' accidentally at least twice, so sorry for the confusion!
I'll post some more notes on the show next week, some thank-yous, further information and some further sources to check out for more information.
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Below: The residents of New Amsterdam beseech Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the coming British forces in 1664. He is clearly not pleased. The official surrender actually took place at Stuyvesant's farm house, two miles outside of town along the bouweij or Bowery road. Listen here for the real pronunciation of bouwerij.
The caption reads 'The Residence of N.W. Stuyvesant' which formerly stood in 8th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenue', one property on the land estate of the Stuyvesants during the 18th century. (NYPL) I've seen this same illustration differently labeled, dated 1800 and called simply 'the Bowery House'.
St. Marks in 1865, rendered in an early stereoptic photograph. The church itself looks pretty much as it does today. But the surrounding churchyard would be radically transformed. (NYPL)
A real estate map, imprinted with the grid plan over the Stuyvesant property. You can see Stuyvesant Street at the bottom. The collected properties were also known as 'Petersfield' after a manor home of one of the Stuyvesant descendants. (NYPL)
The interpretive dancers of Dr William Norman Guthrie, the Scottish clergyman who oversaw many radical changes to the standard St. Mark's services.
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Thursday, May 3, 2012
Smoke a Peter Stuyvesant! New Amsterdam leader becomes a cigarette, the "international passport to smoking pleasure"
Less than three centuries after the iconic Dutch director-general of New Amsterdam died at his palatial farm in today's East Village, his name was employed to sell a brand of stylish, premium cigarette, still enjoyed today by smokers in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other counties, most being places Peter Stuyvesant had no idea existed.The cigarette was developed by a German company in the 1950s and soon became associated with an international sensibility due to its 'American blend' of various tobaccos from different countries. "The smell of the large far world: Peter Stuyvesant" went the slogan in 1958. It was test marketed in New York in 1957. Stuyvesant was not the only Dutch historical figure to make his cigarette debut that year; Rembrandt cigarettes also hit the streets of New York that year.
"Stuyvesant people having fun!" went the jingle, accompanied by rigorous activity that might prove challenging for those enjoying one too many of their advertised product:
By the 1980s, the Peter Stuyvesant cigarette was advertised as a high adventure, Donald Trump-like symbol of masculinity and wealth, trying to closely align with upper class leisure. In London, during the 1980s, the cigarette company even sponsored the Peter Stuyvesant Pops in London. In 2003, the cigarette was even bought by a British company, which would have disturbed the actual Peter Stuyvesant to no end.
The company even experimented with Peter Stuyvesant travel agencies in some places, clever ways to advertise their cigarettes in places with strict advertising laws.
The cigarette embodied the American ideal, a distillation of glamour, capitalism and excess, 'further testimony to the adoption by European of American dreams', according to author Alexander Stephan. "Feel the Big Apple beat!" went this promotion in 1985. "It's fun! It's fabulous! It's fast!"
Meanwhile, over in Brooklyn, the neighborhood which bore the Stuyvesant name (Bedford-Stuyvesant) was hardly tasting the fruits of prosperity advertised in Stuyvesant commercials half a world away. And it was hardly Polos and champagne in the East Village, the neighborhood which developed from Stuyvesant's old farm to become the gritty backdrop for 1980s art and punk music.
Not that Stuyvesant cigarette executives turned their backs to the promotional opportunities provided by the fight for freedom and human rights. In 1989, employees in 'Come Together' shirts distributed Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes to East Berliners on their way to the vote in the election that would unite the former Soviet sector with West Berlin.
Here's an older ad for you German speakers!
Tomorrow, the Bowery Boys will return to the world of Peter Stuyvesant in our newest podcast.
Image at top courtesy Museum Victoria
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