Max M. Mandel – 110 Delancey Street – Victrolas, Radios, Pianos, Records – Featured Fade – West Farms, Bronx – Circa 1945 – Maria Sullivan, Guest Contributor
Maria Sullivan, a recent acquaintance of mine, sent me this image of her mother Jeanne Kottner taken around 1945 in the West Farms section of the Bronx. Maria’s uncle (Jeanne’s brother) was “Taxi Ray Kottner,” a New York City personality who gave cab rides for free and “annoyed the hell out of the TLC” according to Maria.
He knew everything there was to know about New York and people just tipped him as a thank you for his impromptu tours.
This story originally aired May 12, 2006. Since Steve Hartman first met “Taxi Ray,” the cab driver says his life has changed. With all the attention he got from being on TV, he says, his 15 minutes of fame is now up to a full 16 minutes. –
By JOHN KREISER CBSMay 12, 2006, 4:50 PM
Crabby Cabbie: A New York Original
Ray Kottner died in 2008.
Elly Berkovits Gross – Holocaust Survivor – Speaks to Fifth Graders from P.S. 119 Amersfort @ Flatlands Brooklyn Public Library
Elly Berkovits Gross is a survivor of the Holocaust who was deported with her family to Auschwitz by the Hungarian forces in 1944. By a strange twist of fate, Elly was transferred out to a slave labor detail in the Volkswagen factory in Fallersleben, Germany (part of the Neuengamme concentration camp’s 85 satellite camps). Sadly, her mother and brother perished within hours of arrival at Auschwitz, told to go right to the “showers” where they were gassed. Elly was ordered to go left and was spared immediate death, though the conditions at the Volkswagen plant were unsafe- she breathed paint fumes that later made her cough up globs of paint and gave her chronic respiratory ailments.
This past Valentine’s Day, Elly turned 90 years old and continues to speak to school children, which was her commitment she made after visiting Auschwitz and seeing a photo of her mother and brother upon their arrival in Auschwitz. Our class read her book and scheduled a trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage/Holocaust Museum in NYC. We were asked if we wanted to speak to a survivor of the Holocaust after our tour. The staff asked if we wanted to meet Elly and of course I jumped at the chance. We had to cancel our trip but rescheduled it to May 2019 but arranged to meet Elly at the Flatlands Brooklyn Public Library on Flatbush Avenue where she spoke to the fifth graders of P.S. 119 Amersfort School about her experiences and atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis.
R. B. Wing & Son – Paint, Varnish, Glass – Hardware – Albany, NY – Featured Fade – Ariela Rutbeck-Goldman
All over Albany said:
For many years, R.B. Wing and Son was recognized as perhaps the oldest business in the city. It started around 1854 as a ship’s chandler when Albany was a booming river port, and then transitioned into construction supplies. Unfortunately, it closed in 1996 after 151 years in business, and is no longer in the running for oldest business in Albany. – Carl Johnson, All Over Albany – January 19, 2012
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois – February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963
Support the N.A.A.C.P
Pardo’s Capture Schenectady Fades
Barney’s Department Store & Mahoney’s Hardware
Uneeda Biscuit
Patton & Hall Shoes & Hosiery
Hollymont Apartment Hotel – Los Angeles, CA – Featured Fade – Noah Pardo
“This faded sign is on the side of one of the old hotel buildings in the colorful Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, California, just south of Griffith Park.” – Waymarking [Silverquill]
