SNIDELY WHIPLASH IN THE BRONX (1921)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 1921, a “picture actor” by the name of Paul W. Panzer had gone broke. Panzer, recently flush with cash, had filed a “voluntary petition in bankruptcy” for liabilities totaling approximately $2,500. The debts appeared to be to a number of sources – a loan to a recently formed Long Beach production company of which Panzer was a trustee, money loaned to him and several other “film people” (possibly also to the same production company), as well as, amongst others, a loan that was endorsed by two very well-known and successful actors of the time, Sheldon Lewis and King Baggot (Baggot, an international movie star, was referred to – at various times – as “King of the Movies,” “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “The Man Whose Face Is As Familiar As The Man In The Moon”). In the petition, Panzer, gave his address as “2257 Walton avenue,” where he rented a 2-story and basement rowhouse and, according to the 1920 Federal Census, lived there with his wife, their 8-year-old daughter, and their 6-year-old son. Panzer’s bankruptcy was certainly a low-point for the actor who rose to fame just half a decade earlier as the infamous villain of the smash 1914 serial silent film, The Perils of Pauline, a […]
MACON STREET VS. CHARLIE CHAPLIN (1913)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 1913, “Charlie Chaplin” was set to hit Bed-Stuy – in a big way. Let me explain. The residents of Stuyvesant Heights – 100 years ago – were concerned about any proposed construction developments that might encroach upon the way of life to which they’d grown accustomed. New people were moving into the neighborhood, new businesses opening up, and the residents felt they were losing control of what was going on around them. Specifically, they were justifiably troubled with the type of buildings the local developers might be planning to construct in their midst. In 1913, it was the movie houses. NOT IN MY BACKYARD! The construction of a “moving picture show” on Macon Street (near Lewis Avenue), was so unpopular, in fact, that its residents would take drastic measures against the proposal to build one “directly opposite the Public Library in Lewis Avenue.” The new theater was to go up on the northwest corner of Macon Street and Lewis Avenue, where a 3-story wooden structure (with a 2-story addition at back) had existed since the last century. Surrounded by their “fine residences,” the residents expected the lot to attract an establishment that would be more in keeping with the status of the neighborhood. When residents discovered, though, that the owners […]
