Houdini’s underwater box escape was one of his most famous tricks – he was was shackled, chained and nailed into a box before being thrown overboard.
new york
Sometimes life is like a movie, like actor Matt Dillon’s life. Nothing much happened to him until age 14, when he was discovered at a New York junior high.
Legendary beauty Lillie Langtry was a statuesque blonde with blue eyes, a perfect complexion and a ravishing figure. She was acclaimed by the social set, and became the mistress of The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
New York City has provided entertainment to millions over the years. See vintage seating charts from some of the city’s most famous theaters!
Beneath words “Titanic sank” is the tale of a tragedy that gave birth to heroism and cowardice: Greatest of leviathans went to oblivion in 100 minutes
Take a look back at ten old roller coasters from the early 1900s, and admire the courage of the riders who sat down in those rickety little cars and sped off into the wild blue yonder.
The Great Blizzard of 1888 lasted from March 11 through March 14, 1888, and is considered to be one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history.
Without the kind of winter weather equipment we take for granted, removing snow from city streets and sidewalks was a huge undertaking. Here’s a look!
Find out about the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, get some behind-the-scenes from the actual jewelry store, and hear from Audrey Hepburn herself in this collection of articles from the 1960s.
More than a hundred years ago, daring women started to wear nose rings as a fashion statement. Take a look back at their favorite jewelry styles… and the reaction to the rings.
The band Blondie was discovered one night by some wealthy people out slumming after the theatre, and hired to perform at a party in a posh apartment.
Why take the stairs while you can ride up in comfort inside one of these metalwork ‘cage’ style antique elevators, made with beautiful ornamental iron? Just tell the bellhop what floor you want.
You liked the side action upstairs in the bedroom during the wedding from the book The Godfather? In the movie, you got it. Liked the horse-head bit? You got it. The restaurant caper with the crooked police captain? You got it, you got it.
What is the average lifespan for men and women in America? Among the curious things shown by the census of 1880 is the new data relative to the US life expectancy.
How to make oven-fried chicken – Texas recipe (1939) Oven-fried chicken is one of the dishes that is particularly simple to prepare. After the preliminary
The doors of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a 36-year-old internationally-known institution, closed May 1, 1929. Noisy wreckers will clank in to tear it down. The old generation passes with a sigh. The new era enters with a roar.
Owney, the world’s most popular dog has traveled almost around the globe. He made the journey around the world all alone and with only a tag about his neck — and found friends everywhere. Here’s the story!
Here are images showing New York City’s growth from a frontier settlement known as New Amsterdam to the metropolis of the western world –through the Colonial times, and in the early days of US independence.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to have lived a century ago, or to have wandered the streets of a much younger Manhattan, you will be amazed by this footage from New York in 1911!
Take a stroll back to the late 1800s and early 1900s to see some of the grand homes and mansions that lined New York City’s famed Fifth Avenue.
In October 1918, near the end of WWI, The New York Tribune and other newspapers nationwide carried the line at the top of the front page: AMERICA’S HISTORIC ANSWER: UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.
Come take a stroll through these gated gardens, and lose yourself in another era. These photos show how the walled gardens at Gray Gardens in East Hampton, New York looked in the year 1916.
How high will the skyscraper of the future be? Higher even than the Empire State Building, which towers 1250 feet above the base mark in the center of the curb at Fifth Avenue?
Uncle Sam’s scientists, armed with every known precision test instrument, have set out to answer the much-debated question of “How safe are skyscrapers?”
The ghosts within a radius of a hundred miles of New York might as well quit, and haunted houses still the restless spirits that moan at midnight.
“The greatest man in America” has fallen in a duel The Sprig Of Liberty (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) – July 27, 1804 DISTRESSING! It is with infinite regret
News was scarce as New York – and the entire world – awaited the survivors of the Titanic disaster, so everyone could find out what really happened.
When the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in 1886, 20,000 men in uniform marched down New York City’s Fifth Avenue and Broadway, and a million people came out to see the sight.
Want to see for yourself just how much things have changed — or not? Lucky modern-day citizens can view or download a free PDF version
Bloomingdale’s originally opened in 1861 when the Bloomingdale brothers began by selling hoop skirts on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Then in 1872, the two opened
In 1908, they said it was wrong for women to smoke in public places – it was offensive, and detrimental to the character and dignity of the ladies.
What you will see at world’s biggest show New York’s billion dollar dream fair When the first visitors enter a onetime Long Island swamp on
The charm of vacationing in New York — the ideal place for a summer resort — lies in the unrivaled transportation facilities of the great seaport.
Take a look at a more than 20 vintage road maps below, apparently preserved for years in car gloveboxes across the nation!
Dreamland and its beautiful tower attract the eye of the pleasure seeker long before Coney Island is reached. There is capital amusement under and about the big tower, and all the novelties are enjoying a large share of favor…
Around the turn of the century, cigarette smoking was on the increase among the women — and it only became more prevalent after that. Here’s a look back!
New York-born Dick Clark, the pioneering powerhouse in the music and TV industries, was best known to the world for his show American Bandstand, and for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
There is, without question, more work to be done in New York than in any other place in America – which means it’s a good place to start a career. There are also more persons looking there for jobs than in any other place in the world.
The big bridge open Two cities join in making a mammoth holiday Brooklyn in a gale of festival from dawn to midnight The president’s walk
This series of American Express ads that ran in the second half of 1979 did a great job capturing the last few months of the
The mysterious — and mischievous — magician Houdini by Harriette Underhill All men are fascinating until you understand them, and that usually is so simple. But
“I was as nervous as a poker player down to his last pants’ button, and every one of the hard-boiled old-timers in the art department knew it. “
Mme Demorest’s Emporium of Fashions – 473 Broadway, New York We think our lady readers will be both interested and benefited by having their attention called
How Charles Lindbergh rose from working on a farm to become a worldwide hero for his flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Called “the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in American sports,” the streak began on May 15, 1941 when DiMaggio went 1-4 against Chicago White Sox hurler Eddie Smith.
Studio 54 is arguably the most famous — or at the very least, infamous — nightclub of all time.
Hoffman has the strange ability to be himself on stage. Or at least if that is not himself he is playing, or at least some aspect of himself, he must be so unnaturally talented that he is practically monstrous.
The New York State Thruway flows through the heart of the Niagara Mohawk System, which extends from the Niagara Frontier across the state to the Hudson River.
George Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery Company When George Ehret came from Germany to America in the year 1857, he was twenty-two years of age and
Once again, America welcomed the Marquis de Lafayette The whole nation invited this Frenchman to be its guest so it could say “thank you” to
Here are two different looks at the Port of New York, created 20 years apart — both by Currier & Ives. They are both birds-eye views
Detective Shanley of New York’s pickpocket squad When Mary Shanley mingles with the well-dressed shoppers in a Fifth Avenue store or with the pushing housewives
