The Death of Money
On August 24, 1967, Abby Hoffman and a small group of fellow Yippies stormed the New York Stock Exchange to protest the death of money.
The Yippies, which included a then unknown Candice Bergen, arrived at the exchange following the opening bell. They stationed themselves in the viewing gallery, above the commotion and clamor of the floor that was teeming with traders executing orders to buy and sell securities.
All of a sudden, Abby Hoffman and his merry band of pranksters began to throw fistfuls of one thousand one-dollar bills onto the floor of the Exchange. Many of the stock traders booed the protestors for disrupting their busy day. However, other traders hovered around the money and frenetically attempted to pick up the dollar bills from the floor as fast as they could. Unfortunately for the greedy traders, most of the money happened to be counterfeit.
After their successful work, Hoffman and his Yippie followers left the Stock Exchange building and danced together on Wall Street. The dance was celebrating the death of money. Hoffman claimed that his morning protest showed that all stock traders cared about was money, and they would jump at any sight of the greenback.
This was the first major Yippie protest in his career to garner widespread publicity. In the following years, the Yippies and Hoffman gained national fame for their protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and many protests against the Vietnam War.
After this protest the New York Stock Exchange authorities decided to spend $20,000 to erect a large bullet proof glass barrier in the viewing gallery, in order to prevent similar demonstrations. Nonetheless, protests have persisted and, in the aftermath of September 11th, the viewing gallery was closed to all visitors.
Posted on June 04, 2009
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Alexander Hamilton on Jane Street
The West Village is filled with erroneous plaques.On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton was badly shot by his fellow politician and arch nemesis, Aarons Burr, on the banks of Weehawken, New Jersey. The two men chose Weehawken as the site of the famous duel because dueling was illegal in the state of New York. Although much ambiguity surrounds what actually happened on that fateful day in New Jersey, it remains one of the most notorious events in American history. While Burr emerged unscathed to finish out his nefarious life, Hamilton unfortunately did not get the chance to live out his days.
After he was badly wounded in the duel, Hamilton was placed in a boat and taken to the home of his friend and fellow Federalist William Bayard in the West Village. In 1804, the northern part of the West Village was still very much underdeveloped and the area served to house the country estates of many of the wealthy New Yorkers who lived further downtown.
When Hamilton arrived at the home of William Bayard, he was badly wounded and consistently losing blood. He was placed in a large bedroom on the second floor of the estate and remained in pain for over 24 hours before he finally expired surrounded by friends and family. His blood stained the wood on the house floor; however, Bayard refused to wash it off. The memory of his deceased friend and one of the founding fathers of our country was too great.
Although the estate house of Bayard is no longer there, in 1936 a plaque was installed on the side of one of the row houses at 82 Jane Street that confirms 82 Jane as the location of the William Bayard house and the site of the untimely death.
The plaque serves as a lovely tribute to an undying legacy; unfortunately, historians believe that the plaque was placed in the wrong location. Although it is difficult to correctly gage the location of the Bayard Estate because the oldest houses in the immediate vicinity date to 1847, it is likely that Hamilton actually died further north, closer to Horatio Street. After his death Hamilton was laid to rest in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery.
Posted on May 18, 2009
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Polly Adler
Polly Adler was the Heidi Fleiss of the Roaring Twenties. The most notorious New York madam of all time, Adler ran a string of bordellos throughout New York.Adler, an immigrant from a small town in Russia, was the embodiment of the American dream. She made the transition at a young age from making meager wages at a corset factory to making big money in the brothel business.
Some of her most famous patrons included Jewish mobster Dutch Schultz who hid at her brothels while hunted by rival gangs. In addition, her bordello played frequent host to many members of the notorious Algonquin Round Table, including Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.
Her brothels were not the typical whorehouses of the day. Sex was only one of the reasons for her exclusive clientele to visit her clubs. In fact, many of her clients, including Parker, came to her place for a night of card playing, drinking and carousing. The bordellos were decked out in sultry furnishings with fancy rugs, opulent sofas, and an immense library of books.
Her largest and most well known brothel was located in a five story unassuming brownstone at 63 West 70th street between Central Park West and Columbus. This pleasure palace contained a bar, lounge, library, office, and numerous rooms for her patrons to act out their wildest fantasies with their pick of the treasure trove of women of the night.
Although the police consistently raided her brothels and she was always arrested, she only went to jail once, and she was only locked up for less than a month during that stint. Her brothels, just like all other popular forms of recreation during prohibition, were a clandestine New York institution that could not be shut down.
With the commencement of World War II, Polly finally realized that her life as a madam was nearing its end. She retired to Los Angeles in 1943 and earned a college degree. She also wrote her memoirs with the help of author Virginia Faulkner. In 1962, Polly Adler passed away in Los Angeles at the tender age of 62. Although many other women from Los Angeles to Las Vegas have attempted to cultivate the same type of clientele and class with their brothels, it is clear that Polly Adler was in a class all by herself.
Posted on June 04, 2009
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