The Land of Enchantment: Exploring the Norman Rockwell Museum

Did you know the Library owns an original Norman Rockwell painting? This treasured piece of art is now on view in the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA? Barbara Davis, New Rochelle City Historian and former NRPL Community Relations Coordinator, recently visited the museum and shares this illustrated brief with us:

If you have an opportunity to travel to the Berkshires, be sure to visit the museum to see NRPL’s magnificent painting, Land of Enchantment, prominently on display in the exhibit, Real and Imagined: Fantastical Rockwell. (It will return to its permanent home, above the desk in the Children’s Room at the main library, once the exhibit concludes on October 30, 2021.) 

The works of four other (former) New Rochelle artists – all members of the New Rochelle Art Association – are also on view! They are part of the corresponding exhibit, Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration.

 

"The Other Side" by Dean Cornwell with exhibit label at the start of the "Enchanted" exhibit.

"Vampire Girl" by Coles Phillips with exhibit label

"Pan" by J.C. Leyendecker with exhibit label

"The Submarine Menace Again!" by Orson Lowell with exhibit label

Never been to the Norman Rockwell Museum? You can meet many of his New Rochelle models there, as they are featured on the covers of Saturday Evening Post Magazines exhibited on the museum’s lower level. This space also features a video on the life of Norman Rockwell which, regrettably, omits the fact that he came into prominence while working and living in New Rochelle. He was an active member of our community for over 25 years, from 1913 – 1939.

And – he was a great supporter of New Rochelle’s extraordinary history, as evidenced in this letter found in NRPL’s archives.

 

Seven Things You Might Know about Carl Reiner, The Dick Van Dyke Show and New Rochelle

Remarks by Barbara Davis, City Historian at the 2018 event for the honorary re-naming of Bonnie Meadow Road to Dick Van Dyke Way

1. In 1953, Carl Reiner and his wife, Estelle, and their two children, 6-year old Rob and 3-year old Annie moved from an apartment in the Bronx to their first home, at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road, in New Rochelle. They paid about $30,000.
   
   
   This is how their son, Rob, later described New Rochelle:
   "There was a 'Leave it to Beaver' aspect of suburban life, we went sleigh riding and played ball. There was a lot of unbuilt land in that area where my friends Steven Rabin, Michael Leeds, Paul Schindler and I played army."
   
   
   In another article, Carl remembered buying fresh corn from the Hutchinson Farm, down the street.
   
   
2. In 1959, Carl produced a pilot in 1959. "Head of the Family" as it was called, based on his own life living in the suburbs and working as a writer for a variety show. He played the lead; his wife was played by Barbara Bitton. It did not fly. An actor by the name of Dick Van Dyke was recommended for the lead by Sheldon Leonard, a TV comedy producer.
   
   
3. Although they had no intention of leaving their home in New Rochelle, Carl once told a reporter that the film industry mecca of the West Coast beckoned him in 1960.
   
   
4. The first episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show aired on October 3, 1961.
   
   
5. After the first year, the show was due to be cancelled. The sponsors convinced CBS to continue for at least another season. By its third episode of its second season, the Dick Van Dyke Show became the 2nd most watched show in America. The first? The Beverly Hillbillies. 
   
   
6. After four more seasons, with 157 episodes, the last Dick Van Dyke Show aired on September 7, 1966.
   
   
7. Today, it is considered one of America's "most beloved" sitcoms. The show won more Emmy's than any other during the 1960s. The first was received after the first season, when Carl Reiner was awarded for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy. It was nominated a total of 23 times and was awarded 15 Emmys by the Television Academy. TV Guide ranked in #13 out of the 50 greatest TV Shows of All Times.
   
   
   Now, here is something we all know – New Rochelle is proud and honored to have been the setting of The Dick Van Dyke Show!

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare - History of the Avon Bard Club of New Rochelle

Most of us have had experience with a book club or reading group, but do you know of any reading group that has lasted for nearly a century? There was one in New Rochelle – the Avon Bard Club! It was founded in 1908 as a study group devoted to the works of William Shakespeare. The club's name combines the name of Shakespeare's birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon, England – with his title as "The Bard" – a masterful lyric poet. For decades the Avon Bard Club of New Rochelle provided a guided course of study to the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare in regular meetings of serious readers.

Besides the intensive of study of Shakespeare, the club created a public garden with the intention of planting all the herbs and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and poetry. The idea was conceived by Jessie Beers, the wife of William Beers of the New Rochelle appellate court, who was inspired by a visit to the Elizabethan gardens of Stratford-upon-Avon. With the cooperation of New Rochelle city officials, the club opened the garden in Davenport Park at Long Island Sound in April 1937 and cared for its maintenance for many years. In 1966, the Federated Garden Clubs of New York recognized the club with a special citation for the beautification of public parks.

The New Rochelle Public Library holds the records of the Avon Bard Club among its many archival collections. The records include study guides to Shakespeare's plays and several original essays – a fascinating glimpse of how Shakespeare was studied in New Rochelle from 1908 to 1996. One document in the collection lists all the book titles ever inspired by William Shakespeare – over 500!

Shakespeare's birthday is April 23rd. The great essayist Samuel Johnson claimed that his plays "may be considered a Map of Life" and that a person "that has read Shakespeare with attention will perhaps find little new in the crowded world – his repuation is therefore safe, till Human Nature shall be changed." Inspiring words about The Bard!

April 20, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Library Archives

100th Anniversary of World War I

100th Anniversary of World War I

100 years ago today, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany.

Like other communities across the country, New Rochelle residents did their part to support the Americans fighting overseas by raising money for liberty bonds, buying War Stamps, mobilizing Red Cross volunteers to make bandages, conserving food and energy, and lending patriotic fervor to boost morale.

Unlike other American municipalities, New Rochelle’s World War I years were unique:

1. Fort Slocum, the country’s largest military recruiting depot east of the Mississippi, was located just off New Rochelle’s shore on Davids Island.
2. New Rochelle was home to a great number of the nation’s leading illustrators, many of whom lent their talent to the earliest, largest propaganda campaign the world had ever experienced.
3. The community’s historic ties to France and our “Mother City” of La Rochelle led to a wartime bond between the two cities, and an enormous war relief effort.

A hard cover book, New Rochelle: Her Part in the Great War, was published by resident Conde B. Pallen, the publisher of the Catholic Encyclopedia, in 1920. It included “historical and biographical sketches of individuals and organizations who rendered valuable service to their country during the great World War.” Two thousand copies were printed before the type was destroyed. Fortunately, a scanned version can be found on-line today. Copies are also available for viewing in the Library’s E.L. Doctorow Local History Room. The book concludes with a listing of New Rochelle men who served in the war and a listing of all those who died in WWI active duty. Scans of those pages can be viewed here. We’ve also included an annotated list of the New Rochelle men and the one woman who died while in active duty, can be found here.

Photographs of many of those who died in active duty are part of the Library’s Local History collection. Forty metal plate photographs of New Rochelle men killed in World War I were first exhibited at the former New Rochelle Public Library, on Main Street and Pintard Avenue, in 1938. The plates were created from professional studio portraits. In some cases, military uniforms were “added.”  In 2010 the Friends of the New Rochelle Public Library provided a grant to have digital reproduction made of the plates, and to have the plates professionally conserved. The digitized images, as well as scanned images of the original studio portraits can be seen here.

Barbara Davis, now City Historian, wrote an article about a unique and highly significant WWI event that occurred in New Rochelle in December, 1918. Click here to read her articles, which appeared in the Standard Star newspaper on December 15 and 22, 1994.

For fun, we thought we’d share a few recipes from the “Women’s Club of New Rochelle War Time Cookbook.”  Liver Balls or Baked Beef Heart, anyone?  A hard copy of the cookbook is part of the Library’s Local History Collection.

Lou Gehrig's New Rochelle Wedding

Lou Gehrig's New Rochelle Wedding

On this day, September 29, in 1933, New Rochelle resident and Yankee great Lou Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell in their 5 Circuit Road apartment in New Rochelle.  Why did the celebrity choose his apartment for the big day? This is one of New Rochelle best stories!

From baseball-fever.com

Although the rugged, handsome bachelor was one of the most eligible bachelors of the day, his mother, “Mom” Gehrig, held the apron strings tightly. When she wasn’t in the kitchen cooking-up fried chicken and pickled eels for her son and his teammates, she was with her son at batting practice, games at Yankee Stadium, spring training camp, or on road trips. She kept a tight control on who he could – or most of the time, couldn’t date. 

In the ninth year of his career, at the age of 29, Gehrig fell head over heels for a young Chicago sophisticate, Eleanor Twitchell. That year, during the World Series against the Cubs, “Gehrig was a ball team by himself,” Fred Lieb wrote in Baseball as I Have Known It. “He had nine hits, including three home runs and a double. He scored nine runs and drove in eight. All Chicago, including Eleanor Twitchell, thrilled at this outstanding performance. The next thing we heard, Lou and Eleanor were engaged.”

“Mom” Gehrig was not happy. But, as Lou told Lieb, “She broke up some of my earlier romances and she isn’t going to break up this one.” Twitchell found an apartment at 5 Circuit Road, not far from the Gehrigs’ Meadow Lane home, and began planning her wedding – a small but “classy” affair that was to be held at the Long Island home of her aunt and uncle. The event was slated for the evening after the last game of the 1933 season, on September 29th.

On the day before the wedding, amid crates of furniture, the bride-to-be was unpacking moving boxes and supervising workmen at the Circuit Road apartment. “Suddenly, Lou came rushing in and tossed a bombshell in the middle of the mess,” she wrote in her autobiography. “. . . his mother had gone berserk . . . And this time, he didn’t fumble the ball. He picked up the phone, called the mayor of New Rochelle, and told him to bring a marriage license and make it fast.” 

Mayor Walter C.G. Otto did, accompanied by the roar of motorcycles driven by New Rochelle’s finest. With plumbers, carpet-layers and cops watching “at strict military attention,” Otto “intoned the words that made this unlikely looking couple man and wife. One day early.” After a toast with tepid champagne, the newlyweds were escorted to Yankee Stadium by the motorcycle caravan. Gehrig announced the marriage to the press, donned his pinstripes and played an errorless game against the Washington Senators.

Contributor: Barbara Davis, City Historian and Community Relations Coordinator at NRPL. 

Happy Birthday, Monty!

Happy Birthday, Monty!

Will it be Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3?

Today is the birthday of Monty Hall, as our local history intern Michael Weaver reveals:

Monty Hall was born on August 25, 1921 at Winnipeg in Canada as Monte Halparin. It was there that he gained his start as an entertainer, speaking on the radio. Later he moved to Toronto, then New York, serving a five-year run as host of NBC’s monitor. During this period he lived in New Rochelle with his wife and three children. Eight years later, he moved to California, and he eventually became most well-known for hosting the game show Let’s Make a Deal. At age 94, Monty still lives in Beverly Hills with his wife, but New Rochelle honored him with a spot on the Walk of Fame in 2014.

Olympics: New Rochelle's Stars, Part III

Olympics: New Rochelle's Stars
Birthday Bio

Another previous Olympiad with distinct ties to New Rochelle is also our featured Birthday Bio for this week. It is a compelling Olympics story, as our local history intern Michael Weaver reveals:

 

Marty Glickman was born on August 14, 1917, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Romania. Known as a child to be the fastest kid on the block, he excelled as a track and football star at James Madison High School and Syracuse University. At eighteen years of age, he planned to make his place in history as a sprinter in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The Olympics that year were held in Berlin during the days of Nazi Germany, and the head of the U.S. Olympic team did not want to offend Adolf Hitler by bringing in a Jewish athlete. Glickman and Sam Stoller, another Jewish athlete, were replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, and never again were they allowed the opportunity to take part. (Jesse Owens would become the first American track & field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad, magnificently triumphing over Hitler’s claims of Aryan racial superiority.)

Marty’s career did not end there, however, and he became the premier sports announcer in New York, commentating on the Knicks for twenty-one years, the Giants for twenty-three years, the Yonkers Raceway for twelve years, the Jets for eleven years, and finally received a plaque as compensation for the gold medal he was likely to win in 1936 from the Olympic Commission in 1998. Glickman spent most of his later years in New Rochelle, until his death from complications from heart surgery in 2001. Glickman received one of the most egregious snubs in Olympic history, but managed to recover and make his mark on sports history nonetheless.

You can read Marty’s very own account of the 1936 Olympics incident on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website. 

Olympics: New Rochelle's Stars, Part II

Olympics: New Rochelle's Stars
Part II

Last week’s “Thursday Throwback” highlighted the 1924 Olympic Gold won by New Rochelleans Larry Stoddard (Rowing) and Francis T. Hunter (Tennis). This week – Swimming and Track & Field highlights.

The most recent Olympic gold medalist from New Rochelle is Cristina Teuscher, who won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the 4 × 200 freestyle relay, breaking the Olympic and American record and swimming the fast split in U.S. history. Four years later, she was voted one of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team Captains for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, at which she won a bronze medal in the 200 I.M.   

Raised in New Rochelle and a member of the Badger Swim Club in Larchmont, Cristina graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1996 and Columbia University in 2000. She was an All-American and four-time NCAA champion, won 12 Ivy League titles, and set 17 Lion records. 

In the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, New Rochelle native Lou Jones ran the second leg in the gold medal winning American 4X400 meter relay team. The team of Jones, Charlie Jenkins, Tom Courtney and Jesse Mashburn edged out Russia and Germany in a close finish. 

NRHS Yearbook

New Rochelleans helped Lou raise the funds to make the Olympics, four months after the NRHS graduate of 1950 Jones broke his own 400 meter world record, at the US Olympic Trials in Los Angeles. 

Lou would go on to receive his master’s degree from Columbia Teacher’s College, teaching and coaching at NRHS before a long career as high school and then college administrator. He made his home on Prince Street (now “Lou Jones Way”) in New Rochelle until his death on February 3, 2006. 

Contributor: Barbara Davis, Community Relations Coordinator @ NRPL and Local Historian. 

Olympics: New Rochelle's Stars

Olympics: New Rochelle's Stars

If you had the pleasure of reading The Boys in theBoat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, or catching the PBS documentary, The Boys of '36 that aired on August 2^nd, then you are well-familiar with the thrilling story of the eight-man rowing crew that won the gold in the 1936 Olympics.

How about the story of the Boys of ’24?

"Paris, July 17: Yale's eight stalwart sons raised the Stars and Stripes to the masthead on the Seine banks this afternoon by scoring a victory which proved them unquestionably the finest rowing eight at present in the world," concluded the New York Times on July 18, 1924.

"Yale Crew Rides to Easy Victory in Olympic Race.' Wonder Crew,' with Miller of Larchmont and Stoddard of New Rochelle Seated, Sets New Record for Course," headlined the Evening Standard of July 17, 1924.  The U.S.A. "dream team" of the Eighth Olympiad, held in France, was the eight-oared Yale crew coached by Ed Leader and captained by a 6'1" twenty-two year old, James Rockefeller, of the prominent Rockefeller family. Lester Miller, a 6'2" twenty-year old from Larchmont pulled from the third seat. The tallest member of the crew, at 6'4", was a Yale junior by the name of Benjamin M. Spock, who would become the world famous baby doctor. As is the norm, the shortest member was the coxswain, who was 5”1” tall and weighed 108 pounds. The twenty year old was Laurence (Larry) Stoddard, of New Rochelle.

"It was a remarkably adaptable crew," the New York Times stated in post-race commentary. "It had speed, it had power, it had endurance, it had oarsmanship and courage. It was a combination that rowed with its head and heart as well as its arms, legs and back…”

With a Yale contingent and Stoddard's father cheering from the banks of the Seine, the "eight well-trained oarsmen answered the coxswain's call at each stroke," as reported in the Evening Standard. "The precision of the drive," along the four-mile course, "was a wonderful thing to watch - as the shell came hurtling out in front to leave a growing gap of open water between the Blue and the unbeaten Canadians, who were completely outclassed." The winning time was 6 minutes, thirty-three seconds.

(For an up-close and personal account of the "wonder crew's" Olympic experience, check-out Spock on Spock: A Memoir of Growing Up with the Century.  The 1985 autobiography by Dr, Spock recalls the entire adventure, which began as an eight-day, first-class voyage aboard the S.S. Homeric.)

P.S. Larry Stoddard was not the only New Rochelle native to bring home the gold from the 1924 Olympics!  While the rowing completion was playing out on the Seine, Westchester tennis star Vincent Richards had "fought his way into the semi-final round in the Olympic Tennis Tournament, men's singles, when he defeated Rene La Coste, the French star, in a thrilling five set match," reported in the Evening Standard of reported of the July 17^th match. The "boy wonder" from Yonkers went on to capture the gold medal in the men's singles - as well as in the men's doubles. His partner in victory was Francis T. Hunter, from New Rochelle.

Wait, there's more! Next week: New Rochelle Gold in Swimming and Track & Field.

Contributor: Barbara Davis, Community Relations Coordinator @ NRPL and Local Historian. 

Notable New Rochelleans

Notable New Rochelleans

Which Famous New Rochelleans were born in the last few weeks of July? Our local history intern, Michael Weaver, has researched a few for us:

George Lawrence Starke was born on July 18, 1948 in New Rochelle. He is most famous for his career as an offensive lineman in the Washington Redskins, playing with them for twelve years and playing a key role in his team’s victory at Super Bowl XVII. At the time of his retirement, George was listed as one of the greatest players in Redskins history.

Alan Menken was born on July 22, 1949, and was raised in New Rochelle. Alan was always a fan of music, and eventually became a composer for film music. Alan was responsible for the music of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Enchanted, and those are only his Disney films! Alan was named a Disney Legend in 2001, and was inducted in the New Rochelle Walk of Fame.

Robert Lewis May was born in New Rochelle on July 27, 1905 to a secular Jewish family.  Despite this, he was one of the most influential people in the creation of modern Christmas. At the end of the Great Depression, Robert wrote the poem Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at request of his boss at Montgomery Ward Department Store. The poem was a wild success, and was adapted to a spoken word poem in 1947, the second highest-selling Christmas song of all time in 1949, and finally a TV special in 1964. Robert died on August 10, 1976, but his legacy lives on in his most famous creation.

Martin Bookspan was born on July 30, 1926, and is an announcer, commentator and author. He worked in various radio studios in his youth, but he became most famous for his commentary on the PBS show Live From Lincoln Center. Martin worked on the show for thirty years, from 1976 to 2006, until retiring and being replaced by Fred Child.

Whitney Moore Young Jr. was born on July 31, 1921 in Shelby County, Kentucky, but would spend his final years living in New Rochelle with his wife and children. Whitney Young was the Executive Director of the National Urban League for ten years, and is historically regarded as one of the six most influential leaders of the Civil Rights movement, a peer with Martin Luther King Junior and Roy Wilkins, among others. Whitney died in 1971 while swimming in Africa, but his legacy lives on. He was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2011, and his name graces the auditorium of New Rochelle High School.