OF THE 50 FOOT FEMALE STATUE THAT ONCE TOWERED OVER TIMES SQUARE
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
ISSUE# 1157
The mystery of the 50-foot plaster female statue that once towered over Times Square
It was September 1909 when New Yorkers in Times Square began noticing the colossal white figure, shrouded in scaffolding between 45th and 46th Street across from Cafe Madrid and the Hotel Astor.
By October, the white figure gained a female face and form. A statue was emerging in the city’s bustling new entertainment district—where glittery theaters, late-night lobster palaces, and enormous illuminated billboards had edged out the carriage-making trade that once called the former Longacre Square home.
A new monument wasn’t necessarily unwelcome; the city was filling up with them on Fifth Avenue, Riverside Drive, and public parks like Union Square. The problem, however, was that no one knew who the Times Square statue would honor or what it was supposed to mean.
“Shopkeepers on both sides of the square, restauranteurs and hotel men, theatrical men, and box office and ticket sellers questioned each other and everyone they met, but no one knew why or what the strange figure was to represent,” reported the New York Times on October 5.
The Times did a little digging, and an explanation appeared. The 50-foot plaster statue was the work of a young Italian-born sculptor, Leo Lentelli. It was commissioned by a recently formed civic group called the Association for New York.
The group’s purpose was to “challenge indiscriminate abuse and criticism of New York City,” according to the president, William Harmon Black.
What kind of criticism, specifically? That the city had poor credit and the “aspersions constantly cast upon the integrity and honesty of the municipal authorities,” said Black, who was also the president of the city’s Board of Aldermen (and would go on to hold numerous offices and appointments).
Erecting a statue in the middle of Times Square simply as “an artistic, silent exhortation to civic pride and confidence,” wrote the Times, raised many eyebrows. So when “Purity,” as the statue was named, had its official unveiling on October 8, newspapers had fun covering it
“The new plaster Virtue got a real glimpse of Broadway, the Tenderloin, and the Rialto last night, when for the first time they knocked off the wooden shackles which bound her plastic form at the upper end of Times Square, threw half a dozen spotlights on her, and otherwise held her up to the public gaze,” the newspaper wrote, calling the statue by a different name.
“If she blushed she did not show it, and if those who saw her appreciated her kalsomined presence, it was only noticeable in their amused smiles.”
Puzzled Times Square visitors had their own thoughts about Purity. “‘Is she a suffragette?’ inquired a newcomer, according to one newspaper. ‘She’s got a look in her eye that means business.’”
While newspaper writers and savvy New Yorkers mocked the statue, its real purpose came to light: Tammany Hall, the corrupt Democratic political machine that dominated Gotham’s politics through the 19th and early 20th centuries, built it specifically for this election season. (Tammany’s corruption and influence is illustrated in the below cartoon from Puck in 1899.)
Purity “was commissioned by the notorious political gang of Tammany Hall, who figured it to be the best way to announce their ‘pure and noble’ intentions to the public after an opponent accused them of crooked practices,” states a 2016 article by New York Nimby.
Knowing for sure that Tammany Hall was behind the statue didn’t stop the mocking. One civic group announced it was putting up its own statue as a rival.
“The Committee of One Hundred announced yesterday that a plaster creation would be unveiled to-morrow in its exhibit on 16th Street as an answer to the ‘Miss Purity’ statue erected in Times Square,” wrote the Times on October 20. The statue “would represent Miss Purity prostrate, with the Tammany Tiger clutching at her throat.”
Purity was supposed to remain in place until December. But its plaster began deteriorating in the rain and wind not long after the unveiling. Once Election Day was over—and it proved to not be favorable to Tammany Hall—the statue was slated to meet the wrecking ball.
“Tammany’s defeat—for she was a Tammany daughter—must have made her sorrowful, and maybe she didn’t care whether she lived her full span out or not, concluded The Timeson November 20.
Workmen took sledgehammers to Purity’s face and arms. A crowd formed to watch, and bill stickers began plastering her pedestal with advertisements, as they had a few days before the pedestal would be carried away. “Back to the dust pile for her, election being over,” the Times headline read.
The spot where Purity stood for all of two months became the site of a very different statue in 1937—that of Father Francis P. Duffy, chaplain for the city’s “Fighting 69th” infantry regiment. This end of Times Square has since been known as Father Duffy Square, with Purity long forgotten and Tammany Hall also in history’s dustbi
[Top image: New-York Historical Society/Robert L. Bracklow Photograph Collection; second photo: Bain Collection/Library of Congress; third image: New York Times 1909; fourth image: New-York Historical Society/Robert L. Bracklow Photograph Collection; fifth image: Puck, 1899; sixth image: The Sun 1909; seventh image: New-York Historical Society/Robert L. Bracklow Photograph Collection]
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
FROM 1939 TO 2013 SIX BRONZE LAMPS GRACED THE ENTRANCE TO GOLDWATER.
THE FULLY FUNCTIONED UNTIL THE DAY THEY WERE DISCONNECTED,
ON A GRACEFUL PLYMTH THE LAMPS WERE IMPRESSIVE
TYPICAL OF PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE, GOLDWATER WAS THE BENEFIT OF WPA ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
THE MOVE NORTH
AFTER THE CLOSING OF GOLDWATER THE SIX LAMPS WERE STORED IN THE BACK YARD OF COLER. FROM WHEN I STARTED WORKING AS A VOLUNTEER AT COLER, I TRIED TO HAVE ADMINISTRATION, CLEAN UP AREA, FIND A NEW HOME AND PROTECT THE LAMPS. ONE LAMP WAS ALREADY BROKEN AND THE OTHERS JUST SAT IN SEMI-OPEN VIEW.
ON DECEMBER 26TH, FOUR WERE HAULED OFF. A TRUCK ARRIVED AND IN 20 MINUTES THE LAMPS WERE GONE. A POLICE REPORT HAS BEEN FILED, BUT SURELY THESE VALUABLE LAMPS WERE AT A SCRAP DEALER THE NEXT DAY. ONE LAMP AND ONE BROKEN ONE REMAIN.
MAYBE WE WILL RESCUE THE BROKEN LAMP AND PLACE IT NEXT TO OUR OTHER ARTIFACTS BY THE KIOSK.
ON DECEMBER 29TH, THE TRUCK RETURNED AND WITHIN 5 MINUTES THE LAST STANDING LAMP WAS GONE. (THE DAMAGED ONE IS NOW SECURED)
THIS IS THE TRUCK, WITH NO MARKINGS AND NO LICENSE PLATES ARRIVING AND DEPARTING THE SITE.
UPDATE
This is probably one of the most heartbreaking episodes in my years on the island. To see valuable historic artifacts being stolen, destroyed, ignored by so many is tragic.
What of our history be gone next? What landmark will be ignored? What building or site will not be maintained? Look around and see how our treasures are being ignored (start at the Chapel bell). Maybe 2024 will wake up RIOC and others to our fragile history.
Judith Berdy
JUDITH BERDY, GLORIA HERMAN AND ELLEN JACOBY SPENT THIS AFTERNOON SECURING OUR ARTIFACTS SO THEY WILL NOT VANISH FROM OUR ARCHIVES. WE HAVE ALWAYS KEPT OUR TREASURES SECURE AND MANY ARE THE ONLY RESOURCES THAT REMAIN OF MANY ASPECTS OF ISLAND HISTORY.
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
Oklahoma, the 46th state, entered the Union on November 16, 1907. As such, this 46–star flag was the official flag of the United States from July 4, 1908, until July 4, 1912. The silk printed flag has a dark blue canton with 46 white printed stars. The stars are configured in an 8/7/8/8/7/8 row pattern.
CREDITS
JUDITH BERDY
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Life Jacket Theatre Company | THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS
MON.FEBRUARY 12 AT 7PM
Venue: The Theater at New York Live Arts
LAST YEAR I ATTENDED A READING OF THIS DRAMA ABOUT THE GAY PRISONERS WHO WERE INCARCERATED AT THE PENITENTIARY ON WELFARE ISLAND. THIS PRODUCTION IS BASED ON TRUE STORIES, FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS, ARCHIVAL RESEARCH AND TELLS STORIES OF THOSE WHO WERE ON OUR ISLAND IN THE 1930’S.
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
BROCADE PANELS THAT WERE ON DISPLAY IN RIVERCROSS DISPLAY WINDOW.
One artist has taken on the challenge of recreating near 700 bulldozed, demolished, burned down, and otherwise “lost” buildings of the 19th and 20th-centuries. Montreal based illustrator Raymond Biesinger has tasked himself with researching and drawing the disappeared buildings of Canada and the USA’s 50 largest cities and boroughs before 2022. His simple yet detailed and precise drawings bring back to life buildings that were lost to time, and he’s already covered most of New York City.
So far, Bieseinger is 92 weeks, 356 drawings, and 22 prints in to the challenge. Biesinger tells Untapped New York, “My style of illustration has always been very rectangular and geometric, and over the years architectural projects have just ‘found me.’” While working on a series of Canadian historic and architectural prints from 2012-2015, which included dozens of buildings, he found himself most drawn to the ones that no longer existed. “It seemed like a good idea to explore those ‘lost’ buildings, and after drawing my way through Canada’s, it seemed like a good idea to explore the United States,” he says.
Image Courtesy of Raymond Biesinger
Biesinger has already drawn his way through most of New York City’s long gone structures. He compiles his geometric drawings into eye-catching posters with a collage of the lost buildings from a particular city or borough in the US or Canada. Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens are all available. As for Staten Island, Biesinger says it’s more difficult to conduct the research for buildings in a smaller borough from abroad, but, “Maybe there’s a Staten Island historian-illustrator duo who would be up for the challenge!”
Image Courtesy of Raymond Biesinger
In Biesinger’s posters of New York City’s lost buildings, you will find a wide variety of structures from train stations and factories to theaters and hotels, even fast food restaurants. In Manhattan, buildings featured include the famous original Penn Station which was demolished in 1963, the Singer Building which held the title of tallest building in the world in 1908, the Twin Towers, and a previous iteration of Madison Square Garden. In Queens, New Yorkers will remember the original Shea Stadium, the demolished PanAm Worldport and a Wendy’s that served as a film location for the Eddie Murphy film Coming to America in the 1980s. The illustrated lost buildings of Brooklyn include the former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Ebbet’s Field and Luna Park at Coney Island. In the Bronx, Biesinger’s poster brings back to life the Loew’s National Theater, the Whitlock Mansion, and original Yankee Stadium.
Image Courtesy of Raymond Biesinger
raymond@fifteen.ca tel. 1-514-264-2382 2679 rue Wellington, Montreal QC, Canada, H3K 1X8
About I’m a Montréal-based illustrator, artist, and best-selling author very into editorial and commercial work, and while the portfolio part of this website may include only a trim two dozen projects, I’ve been part of more than 1000 assignments on five continents since 2002. That might sound impressive (and make commissioning me to make new work sound expensive), but I work on a sliding scale and respond to every inquiry. Other interests: minimalism, maximalism, world and local history, equality, diversity, economics, music, science fiction, historic buildings, pictorial maps, Canadiana, wall art, preserving a 145-year-old home, etc. I’m also a proud member of Illustration Québec, which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together and support illustrators.
You can think of much of my work as a collage that doesn’t look like a collage—pieces made from real-world lines, shapes, and textures scanned into a computer that’s used as an infinitely-forgiving Xerox machine, glue, and scissors. These “collaged” components lose their recognizability in the process, but through repetitive use bring flaws, eccentricities, and geometries that form a unique visual vocabulary.
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
BROCADE PANELS NOW ON DISPLAY IN RIVERCROSS DISPLAY WINDOW.
The Upper East Side was slowly developing during the Civil War years. East 58th Street, between Second and Third Avenues saw the construction of modest row houses clad in brick or brownstone that coexisted with earlier more rural-type houses.
During the war the Wallack family lived at No. 246 East 58th Street, described by The New York Times as “a three-story brick” house, 20 feet wide. Young Joseph was attending New York City College in 1866.
The house, expectedly, would see the comings and goings of several owners. In 1905 Simon A Nies transferred the title to Babbette Brody. She paid $3,750 for the building. Shortly thereafter the it would become home to the Cohn family for decades. Michael and Amelia Cohn had four children in the house, Nathan, Rose, Bella and Isaac. Members of the family would occupy the house until the late 1930s. In 1941 it was divided into 15 furnished rented rooms.
By the late 1950s the vintage house sat empty and neglected. In September 1960 The New York Times (which once deemed the building brick) reported the “vacant brownstone house” was sold for $65,000 in cash. “The buyers plan to convert [it] to store and commercial space.”
The building would survive for nearly three more decades. It was variously home to Ellsworth& Goldie Galleries, dealers in modern paintings, sculpture and prints; Fabrications, an interior decorating store; and Mira-X International Furnishings.
In the meantime, architect Paul Marvin Rudolph had established himself on the cutting edge of Modernist design. In 1989 he and close friend Ernst Wagner purchased No. 246. Rudolph envisioned a transformation that would result in rental apartments—unlike any seen in New York City. In recent years Rudolph’s major commissions had been outside of the United States, primarily in Asia, due to consistent derision of his works by other American architects. The residential-retail structure at No. 246 East 58th Street would be his last New York work.
Paul Rudolph’s original concept called for a taller structure. Subsequent zoning changes resulted in the reduced size. courtesy PRF
The old house was dismantled and a new steel structure began rising. Brilliant in comprehending the play of light, shadow and shape, Rudolph reportedly worked on scores of studies for the façade of the little building. Interior as well as exterior details were honed to the smallest detail; resulting in a 14-year construction process.
Six years into the project, in December 1995 while in Mexico City, Rudolph first evidenced troubling symptoms. Within two months he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer resultant from exposure to asbestos. On August 8, 1997 Rudolph died before seeing the building completed.
Finally finished in 2003, the structure houses a two-story retail space below two duplex apartments. Today the residential areas are home to Ernst Wagner. The headquarters of the Paul Rudolph Foundation are housed in on a separate office level.
photo courtesy PRF
A ceiling beam disappears into a void rather than disrupt the visual motion of the space’s lines — photo courtesy PRF
Somewhat amazingly, the architectural gem—Paul Rudolph’s last Manhattan work—is little known by most New Yorkers. Hidden on a side street far from Midtown the mostly overlooked building deserve a detour.
THIS WONDERFUL BUILDING WAS JUST DESIGNATED A NEW YORK CITY LANDMARK BY THE LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION. JUST A BLOCK SOUTH OF THE TRAM, TAKE A LOOK AS YOU PASS BY.
New York circa 1903. “New York Times building under construction.” 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit … globbed around it. Though I have been there a few times, didn’t realize the building was that narrow. A famous unknown … building. [One side note — when it opened, 1 Times Square was the second tallest building in Manhattan (after the Park Row …
New York, 1937. “TimesSquare with Father Duffy statue still wrapped up.” Sculptor Charles Keck’s … Walker Evans for a time. Still there but boy has TimesSquare changed View Larger Map Storied character
… York, New York. Looking north south on Broadway at TimesSquare.” Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. …
New York, March 1943. “TimesSquare on a rainy day.” Medium-format nitrate negative by John Vachon for the … not the Flatiron Building. Which is taller, and not on TimesSquare. –
New York’s 43rd Street, just off TimesSquare, circa 1950. “Hotel Dixie — 700 rooms, each with bath and radio.” Not … New York . Rooms with Radios New York Times, November 10, 1950. Furnished Rooms—West Side …
New York, June 6, 1944. ALLIED ARMIES LAND ON COAST OF FRANCE. GREAT INVASION OF CONTINENT BEGINS. “D-Day. Crowd watching the news line on the New York Times building at Times Square.” Photo by Howard Hollem or Edward Meyer for the Office of War Information.
June 1951. “Times Square street scene.” Now playing at the New York Theatre: Skipalong Rosenbloom. 35mm acetate negative by Angelo Rizzuto.
Taken in New York City on May 10, 1953 by Peter Jingeleski.
On Christmas Day 1934, just a year after ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment which repealed Prohibition, the refurbished Earl Carroll Theatre on 7th Avenue and 50th Street opened as the French Casino.
It was a glittering Art Deco showpiece with walls draped in black velvet and established a reputation as Manhattan’s most lavish nightclub.
Associated with the club was the name of Clifford Fischer, the producer of grand cabaret-restaurant revues with spectacular novelty acts. His Montmartre-styled shows were both fashionable at the time and a reflection of his background. Born in Belgium in 1882, he was the son of a purveyor of horses to the Belgian Army.
Having spent some time in London, he settled in Manhattan and began his career as a booking agent by joining the William Morris Agency (started in 1898 by the German-Jewish immigrant Zelman Moses). Fischer brought various European acts to America, including Charlie Chaplin, the Scottish singer Harry Lauder and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt.
In 1936 Fischer booked a Dutch Jewish multi-lingual singer who had made a name for himself in The Netherlands and in London to appear at the Casino. It would be the start of an astonishing career.
Yiddish New York
Yiddish is a language once spoken in an area spreading from Alsace to the Urals. The exodus of East European Jews to New York City put the language in the spotlight. At the turn of the twentieth century more than two million Jewish immigrants spoke Yiddish. Newspapers served as vehicles of social emancipation by publishing serialized novels, sketches and essays in the language.
The stage played a crucial role in that process. New York City’s Yiddish theatre began in The Bowery in the early 1880s and later flourished on Manhattan’s Second Avenue, the “Yiddish Broadway.”
As the last great wave of these arrivals landed at Ellis Island in the 1920s, radio was beginning its ascent in American culture. By the early 1930s, Yiddish radio flourished.
In New York City alone, 23 stations broadcast dramas, variety programs, music, interviews and political commentary. The process of Jewish acculturation in New York City was pushed forward through the institutions of the Yiddish language.
Yiddish culture was not confined to Jewish circles. It made an impact on a much wider circle of Anglo-American music lovers and concertgoers. The 1930s saw a rage for Jewish musicians and singers, both in London and New York City.
Such was the popularity of dance band leader Joe Loss that his 1938 wedding at London’s Central Synagogue was covered by Pathe News as crowds thronged the nearby streets to catch a glimpse of proceedings.
One of the world’s best-known Yiddish theatre song “Bei Mir Bist Du Schein” was originally composed by Ukrainian-born Sholem Secunda (with words by Romanian-born songwriter Jacob Jacobs) for a Yiddish musical comedy at the Parkway Theatre, Brooklyn, in 1932.
Broadway lyricist Sammy Cahn bought the rights and rewrote the words in English, whilst preserving the chorus in Yiddish. His version of the song was turned into a smash hit in 1937 by the Andrews Sisters.
When Clifford Fischer signed Leo Fuld to appear in the French Casino in 1936 he was acutely aware of the musical trends of the day. Yiddish was in vogue.
Rotterdam and London
Singer Lazarus “Leo” Fuld was born on October 29, 1912, in Rotterdam into a large and poor Jewish family. His father was a market trader; his mother a very religious person. In the synagogue young Leo stood out as a singer. Having learned the songs of the chazzan, he seemed destined to become a cantor.
After leaving high school he received a scholarship to study at Amsterdam’s Dutch-Israeli Seminary, but he did not complete his studies. He preferred secular dance music and started work as a singing waiter in café De Cool on the Kruiskade in the center of Rotterdam.
In September 1931 he moved to Amsterdam to take up a job at the Tip Top cinema in the city’s Jewish heartland where variety artists performed in between the showing of films. The audience loved his voice.
He made his Dutch radio debut being introduced by the Jewish revue star Louis Davids, Holland’s most famous performer at the time. For a year Fuld could be heard live on radio, sometimes several times a week.
In 1932 he traveled to London to audition for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Contracted for ten sessions, he became the first Dutch singer ever behind a BBC microphone.
He made his stage debut in the capital at the Mile End Empire, Mile End Road. His talent was spotted by bandleader Jack Hylton, the “British King of Jazz”, who has been credited for bringing Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and other jazz giants to Europe during the 1930s.
Hylton signed the nineteen-year-old Fuld to a three-year contract with his celebrated band which resulted in engagements in every important theater in the British Isles and the Continent. In September 1933, Fuld made his first recordings for the Odeon label in Berlin.
The song expressed a bittersweet nostalgic emotion that would have rung true to audiences of immigrant and second-generation Jews (its lyricist Jack Yellen had himself arrived as a child from Poland in the United States).
When Hitler came to power in 1933, the lyric was banned by the Nazis (and sung in concentration camps by victims of the Holocaust).
Manhattan
Fuld added a several Yiddish and Hebrew lyrics to his repertoire that attracted a wide audience, including “Rosinkes mit Mandeln” (Raisins and Almonds), a traditional Jewish lullaby arranged by Ukraine-borm Abraham Goldfaden for his 1880 Yiddish musical Shulamis (Al Jolson attended the Casino every night at “five to ten” just to catch Fuld’s rendition of the song).
Fuld’s performances at the French Casino were followed by engagements at the prestigious Paramount Theatre, Broadway (famous for the largest theater organ ever built by the Wurlitzer Company), which turned the singer into a star with a growing number of celebrity admirers.
In 1938 his temporary visa ran out and he had to return from Manhattan to Rotterdam where he re-applied for an immigration visa. After a series of concerts in the Netherlands, Fuld left the country in February 1940 on the last boat back to New York before the Nazi invasion on May 10, 1940.
Four days later the Luftwaffe destroyed large parts of Rotterdam. Most of the city’s Jews were deported and perished in Nazi death camps.
Staying at the Mayflower Hotel overlooking Central Park, Fuld teamed up with Dutch-American writer and historian Hendrik Willem van Loon (also born in Rotterdam) and the exiled Jewish orchestra leader Max Tak, providing radio broadcasts from Manhattan intended for the Netherlands and the then East Indies.
News of what was happening to Jews in Europe gradually reached the United States. When Leo learned that almost his entire family had been murdered (only one sister survived the Holocaust), he was no longer able to face an audience and stopped performing.
He used his talent for writing and quickly became a sought-after writer on Broadway. He also produced a musical comedy called Fun for Your Money with which he toured all over the country. For a while he ran an Israeli nightclub and restaurant named Café Sahbra at 253 West 72d Street.
Fuld experienced both the height of Yiddish culture in New York City and its imminent decline. The flow of Yiddish speakers to America had stemmed, while many earlier arrivals turned away from its reach as they assimilated in society. UNESCO has recently put Yiddish on the list of definitely endangered languages.
Amsterdam and Paris
Fuld returned to the Netherlands in 1948, by then an American citizen. His Jewish audience there had almost entirely disappeared, but upon arrival thousands of people greeted him with acclaim. He was offered a contract to sing again.
He had not performed for five years, but his daily performances in Amsterdam’s stylish Tuschinski theatre (with its iconic Wurlitzer organ) were sold out weeks in advance. Reinvigorated, he went on to work at the London Casino and London Palladium.
Invitations to sing arrived from all over the world. Performing in Paris, he visited a small cabaret club where he heard a survivor from the Warsaw ghetto singing a Yiddish tango that moved him deeply: “Wo Ahin Soll Ich Geh’n.”
Composed by the Latvian composer Oskar Strock with words by the Polish poet Igor Korntayer (who was murdered in Auschwitz), Fuld adapted the lyric in English and recorded it under the title “Where Can I Go?” for the Decca label.
The song took America by storm. Fuld sang it on television shows hosted by Milton Berle, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. The lyric was also recorded by great singers such as Ray Charles and Steve Lawrence. Billy Holiday was one of Fuld’s loyal fans.
Having resumed his professional career, the circle of admirers widened. He performed in New York, Hollywood, Chicago, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Santiago.
Having shared the stage for ten weeks with Edith Piaf at the famous Théâtre de l’ABC on Boulevard Poissonnière, Paris, Fuld attracted a substantial French following. He encouraged young Charles Aznavour to persist in chasing his dream as a performer.
The chansonnier repaid his debt of gratitude by writing “l’Émigrant” for Fuld, a song for which he was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque in 1954.
The Arab World
Fuld’s presence was paradoxical. Although his work was strongly Jewish and related to the diaspora, his performances appealed to broad audiences in Europe and the United States.
From a present-day perspective, it is – to put it mildly – surprising that a leading exponent of Yiddish song found an enthusiastic audience in the Arab world. Fuld sang for packed concert halls in Alexandria, Beirut, Casablanca, Algiers and Tunis.
When performing at the Auberge des Pyramides in Cairo (the club was a favorite with British officers and the city’s cosmopolitan elite during the war), his concert was attended by Egypt’s legendary singer and actress Umm Kulthum (also: Oum Kalthoum) who was dubbed as “Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid” and “Star of the East.” The daughter of an imam, she was astonished to hear Fuld sing in Arabic but preferred listening to his Yiddish songs.
Also present at the concert were Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Ambassador of Ethiopia. At the latter’s suggestion, Emperor Haile Selassie booked Fuld for his daughter’s wedding on April 26, 1942, at the Imperial Palace in Addis Ababa.
ad ever made.
Shortly after the album’s release Fuld died in Amsterdam, leaving a legacy of 500 recordings for 23 different labels, selling more than 250 million records. His extraordinary career is significant.
Overcoming linguistic barriers, Fuld’s musical language of emotion spoke to millions of listeners across all borders. It built bridges by connecting people and acknowledging cultural diversity. His music spread a message of shared humanity.
At one time an Arab version of “My Yiddishe Momme” served as a reminder that over history there had been many Jewish victims of persecution (forced conversions and pogroms) in Muslim countries too.
Illustrations, from above: Poster of the Yiddish Theatre exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, 2016 (detail); poster for the 1932 musical comedy that included the hit song “Bei Mir Bistu Shein” at Brooklyn’s Parkway Theatre; view of the cocktail lounge at the French Casino; and a young Salim Halali wearing a fez.
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
THE RIHS VISITOR KIOSK WILL BE OPEN THIS WEEKEND FOR LAST MINUTE SHOPPING 12 TO 5 P.M.
Island friends gathered on Friday evening to celebrate the holiday in the warm, comfortable ambiance of Blackwell House.
The RIHS is happy to resume our use of Blackwell House as a site for programming and public events.
AFTER YEARS OF BEING DENIED ENTRY INTO BLACKWELL HOUSE, THE R.I.H.S. SPONSORED A POP-UP-SALE AND LIGHT REFRESHMENTS ON FRIDAY EVENING. MANY NEIGHBORS JOINED US, MOST OF WHOM HAD NEVER BEEN IN THE HOUSE. WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE~!!
A STOCKING WAS HUNG BY THE FIREPLACE WITH CARE
LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WERE SERVED
A SELECTION OF MERCHANDISE WAS AVAILABLE
OUR TAPESTRY THROWS ARE SELLING FAST. TIME TO GET YOURS AT THE VISITOR CENTER KIOSK THIS WEEKEND.
OUR YOUNGEST VISITOR SURELY STILL BELIEVES IN SANTA CLAUS
PAUL AND CATHERINE RELAX ON THE SOFA, JUST LIKE A HOME LIVING ROOM
PER JUDY BERDY, JUST REQUEST A PERMIT FROM RIOC AND YOUR GROUP CAN USE THE HOUSE!!! THE RIHS USED THE HOUSE FOR MANY CELEBRATIONS YEARS AGO AND WE ARE THRILLED TO BE BACK.
WHAT A SURPRISE, WAS THE RESPONSE TO ENTERING THE HOUSE.
ELLEN AND LYDIA ENJOYED THE AMBIANCE
FRIDAYPHOTO OF THE DAY
EAST VIEW OF BLACKWELL HOUSE ABOUT 1915 ON A SNOWY DAY. ED LITCHER AND GLORIA HERMAN GOT IT RIGHT! EFFLER COLLECTION, RIHS
CREDITS
JUDITH BERDY
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
