On Tuesday I attended the announcement for the World War One Centennial Committee For New York City, on the eve of the 99th anniversary of America’s entry into the Great War. The event was held on the steps of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, the same spot where so many Veterans Day Parades have marched past. New York is not going to let the centennial of the war pass without notice. An Continue Reading →
My first public walking tour of 2016 will be on April 30 at Noon at the Algonquin Hotel. The Algonquin Round Table comes alive in the only New York walking tour devoted to the famed literary group. The 2-hour walk celebrates Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Harpo Marx, Edna Ferber, Franklin P. Adams, Heywood Broun, Harold Ross, Robert Sherwood, Marc Connelly and the rest of the Vicious Circle. Advance tickets on sale now. Continue Reading →
I just had my fourth article published on the Huffington Post. Condé Nast Hired Dorothy Parker 100 Years Ago marks the centennial (and really, who else but me would make note of it) of the momentous event. I like anniversaries, and this was one I didn’t want to pass by. I write: Parker wrote some of the earliest trends pieces for Vogue. From being a secret knitter (“People look at me, and sooner or later, Continue Reading →
Kensico Vaudeville Project #1 Name: Nettie Kelley Adams Act: Singer Born: 28 Feb 1887 Died: 8 July 1934 It is appropriate that the first name to be added to the Kensico Vaudeville Project is a female singer, since women were so vital to the success of vaudeville. This is one of the graves in the National Vaudeville Association (N.V.A.) burial grounds. Nettie Adams was a star vocalist at the turn of the century. In 1901 Continue Reading →
As I work on my next book project, I’m going to be updating my site more often and including new blog posts. The Kensico Vaudeville Project is one of them, but there will be other writing projects and walking tour events listed as well. The focus of my site, just as my books, is generally New York history. I have a strong tie to it through my five books, as well as the walking tours Continue Reading →
Project Updates and Biographies are posted here. Twenty-eight miles north of Forty-second Street is Kensico Cemetery. Interred there are hundreds—perhaps more than a thousand—stage performers and associates. These men and women were onstage in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. I stumbled across perhaps three hundred old vaudeville entertainers in a little-known plot, long forgotten about, laid out in neat rows in the historic cemetery. The Kensico Vaudeville Project will tell some of their stories. Continue Reading →
I’m happy my third blog post for the Huffington Post was published today. You can read my others here. With my book, The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide, published this week, I wanted to write a post for a wide audience. My subject: six of the women in the group, the ones not Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber. It was fun to put this blog post together. Have a look.