Archive for June, 2009

       The Boy Wonder lived his life under the glare of thousands of tabloid cameras and he died that way as well.
        The Media Circus is now fully underway. Mourning and mockery are both on display.  At the end, which came so tragically too soon, his being seemed unrecognizable from the chubby-cheeked boy who burst onto the national scene, outshining the rest of his family and catapulting him to world wide fame. 
       In theatre, sometimes, a performer will wear a mask in order to reveal hidden depths of character. Jackson’s face, in recent years,  seemed almost masklike — a kabuki like surface that both seemed to obliterate the child he had been, but also seemed to be etched in pain.  His final face seemed almost feminine, delicate, the eyes were fawn-like. He had an almost girlish beauty, a kind of innocence.  Maybe he created it to shield the sensitive artist and child who suffered a trauma he was never able to get beyond. Maybe the pain of the Man Behind the Mask overran the Man Behind the Mask. 

      The King of Pop is Dead. The Artist Remains.

Dino Delos

       For his whole life, Dino Delos has had one big dream and he has carried it with him from his childhood in Greece, to the sometimes Mean, sometimes Magical streets of this city. He wants to be an actor.
       He has come close to the Big Time, meeting some Major Players, but so far, he hasn’t gone over that mountain yet himself.   He almost had a role  in “America, America,” Elia Kazan’s epic film about immigrants. “I met Kazan,” Delos said. “I was in his office. He noticed me. He wanted me for a part.”  That one didn’t happen. But still, he forged on, getting small background roles when he could.
         His calling card says he’s been a double for Charles Bronson and that he’s a Saddam Hussein Look-a-Like.   He played a scary guy in “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington and another criminal type in “The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three,” which opens this week.  He often plays vigilantes — he’s got that kind of face — but a gentleness and generosity also shine through.
         In “The Interpreter,” with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, he played an Iraqi diplomat. “It was the first movie the U.N. ever allowed to be filmed on location,” he said proudly.  He’s also played a Greek gangster, a Cab Driver,  and a Soccer Coach.   While the Big One has eluded him up until now, he’s not discouraged. He says he has never lost hope.
           His hero, he says, is Zorba the Greek, the big, life-loving character from the Nikos Kazantzakis novel that was made into a film in 1964 with Anthony Quinn.  For as Zorba says in the movie: ”Me, I got up and danced. They said ‘Zorba is Mad.’ But it was the dancing – only the dancing that stopped the pain.”
        Dino Delos is a believer.
        ”You’ve got to fight for your dreams, he says. That’s all you’ve got.”

          This isn’t really a New York story — it’s more of an L.A. story,.  ”The Tonight Show’ with Johnny Carson debuted in New York on October 1, 1962 but moved to Burbank, Calif. in 1972 where it ran until 1992.
       For those of us of a Certain Age, the memory of Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon peering at us through our television screens evokes an entire era . Their witty, civilized banter, underscored by McMahon’s booming baritone every night introducing that master of Understated Comedy and Wit — Johnny Carson — will forever be engraved in our memories and hearts. There was a richness to the laughter, and a sense of safety  — All’s Well With the World Feeling — that the duo seemed to evoke.
       McMahon was always the Second Banana, but it’s a role he seemed to relish. He wrote in his autobiography the label was the ‘highest form of flattery.”
          His chemistry with Carson was legendary.                    
        They were like an old married couple, communicating by  
 ’body language, or tone of voice” where they wanted to go,  Carson once said.
       Ed McMahon , The Tonight Show’s  Sidekick Extraordinaire,  died  on June 23 at the age of 86. 

   If you’re going to be around this weekend, check out the the Coney Island   Mermaid Parade  and the MakeMusicNY Festival  .  

    And Now, The Lament.

   Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

       Virgin Records on Fourteenth Street,  closed last weekend — another casualty in this city of a landlord’s lust for dollars. It’s demise seems to mark the end of an era where you could go to a record store just to hang out, peruse the shelves, find someone to talk music with — or just to listen.  Yes, there are other places.   
       But the Big Supermarket atmosphere of a Borders or Barnes and Noble  just doesn’t have the ambience, the joie de vivre, the sense of discovery that a great record store could offer.  The other Virgin Records closed earlier this year, and Tower Records is gone as well. 
     These music stores seemed almost like little communities unto themselves — and they are no more.  So, with the City losing another little piece of its soul, this speech  from Shakespeare’s ”The Tempest” comes to mind:

               OUR REVELS NOW ARE ENDED

     Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
     As I foretold you, were all spirits and
     Are melted into air, into thin air:
     And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
     The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
     The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
     Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
     And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
     Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
      As dreams are made on, and our little life
     Is rounded with a sleep.

     William Shakespeare
     From The Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1

With its orange and brown booths, friendly waitresses and homemade apple pie, the Howard Johnson’s in New York’s Times’ Square was a classic bit of Americana. For years, it served as a Shelter From the Storm during all kinds of disasters, from the city’s Blackout during the 1970’s to the catastrophe of 9/11. And throught it all, there was one man Who Saw It All. Richard Altman, otherwise known as “Richie Hojo” began working there in 1978 and stayed there until July, 2005, when the iconic restaurant closed its doors for good — the victim of rising rents and changing culinary tastes.

During an interview that summer, just before it all disappeared into History, the Longest Serving Waiter at the restaurant told us what it was like when Marilyn Monroe used to drop by — and when Liz and Dick were performing just around the corner.

 In the Beginning

 We were the only restaurant in the area when I first started working here. The only two restaurants here before us were Tad’s Steaks and Sardi’s. So we had everything to ourselves. Our menu prices were very low at the time , so they got alot of crowds. But people didn’t tip! On the weekends, we got alot of tourists, so we had a stamp that said in five different languages: Tip Not Included! A dish of ice cream is now $4.50. Then it was 95 cents. Fried clams — they had a special — all you could eat. There was nothing over $10 — steak was $9.95. Now, we’ve got steaks over $20.

But I want to tell you about the Changing Landscape. Before this was Howard Johnson’s, it was Child’s Restaurant. I saw a picture of what this land was back in 1850. Flat Farmland. The city ended at like 14th Street. What is Times Square now used to be like down the Bowery. At the Turn of the Century, the Bowery was where all the Opera Houses were.

And then there was the World of Nuts — where they had nuts from all over the world. I think one of the most expensive was the white shelled pistachios nuts. And then Burger King where they had a bomb threat. And right where Roxy is (restaurant on the corner) now was MovieLand Theatre. And in 1982, there were 3 blocks of lines to see ‘E.T.’ But Spielberg didn’t come in.

I think the biggest symbol of this whole area used to be the Camel Billboard where they blew rings out of it. Everybody remembers that.

Disney changed everything. They bought everything up.

 Hollywood in New York

The Most Memorable Customer who used to come in here was Marilyn Monroe. When she was filming across the street, she would come in here for lunch. (But that was before I started working.) And I also heard that Sammy Davis Jr. came in here once but he was so mobbed by people, he couldn’t finish his dinner. Joyce Randolph — she played Trixie in ‘The Honeymooners’ — she used to have an ice cream soda at the bar several times a week. She always sat at the counter. And Conan O’Brien came in here once — boy is he tall! Richie Havens came in here several times. Sarah Jessica Parker — I waited on her. But she wasn’t here with Matthew Broderick — she was with some other guy. I’m sure it was innocent. And Tammy Faye Bakker! She’s really Tammy Faye Bakker — with all that religion. It’s not a put on act — It was real!

When Liz and Dick were next door in ‘Private Lives’ (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) they roped off the streets for all the limousines and stuff. And during the intermission. Sen. Patrick Daniel Moynihan came in and had a martini. But Liz and Dick never came in. They would be mobbed. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani came in. There’s a picture of him in the front.

  Memorable Events

There was a bomb scare, so the whole block was evacuated. The police came in and told people to put down there knives and forks and stop eating. The manager tried to collect as many checks as he could from the people who had finished eating. And we were out on the street for about two hours. That’s when I came to work at 4 a.m. and the manager came in at 6. And he found all of his workers on the street. But there was no bomb. It was a hoax. There were two fires. One, before I worked here — it burned to the ground — it was closed for six months. And during the ’80’s, there was another.

And during the Blackout, all the ice cream melted! You couldn’t serve it. You had to take time until it froze up again.

On 9/11 I was watching it on T.V. and Mayor Giuiliani said: Unless you have definite work to do — essential work — don’t go into your job. So I didn’t. But I got hell for it. They were angry. Because this place got filled up — there was no other place for people to go.

 Every Day Was Pay Day

Working here hasn’t kept me young. I got those 17 steps to walk up and down everyday. But still, I love being a waiter. First of all, every day is Pay Day. By that I mean — you got tips — you always have money. Except for your days off — you always had free food. Another thing — I live thirteen blocks away — so unless it’s bad weather, I can walk to work. I don’t walk home from work because I usually go to a bar (Barrymore’s) and then I take a cab home at 4 in the morning. That’s where they called me Richie Hojo.

     Copyright 2009  Annie  Stone

Note: Part of this interview was published in TimeOut New York in July, 2005

As a writer once said: ‘There are Eight Million Stories in This Naked City,” and probably as many characters as well. But the Way We Live Now, plugged into Blackberries or Ipods, we miss the Carnivalesque Dream that can be life in New York City now — full of characters and happenings and fleeting moments of authentic contact between passing strangers.

And whether or not those characters living in New York now rival such Damon Runyonesque creations as Harry the Horse, Dream Street Rose, Izzy Cheesecake — or Nathan Detroit, there are still wonderful characters all around us.

We have only to look. This site is dedicated to noticing the people and world that is around us.

    Copyright 2009 Annie Stone