New Year's Eve in Times Square: Why the Ball Drops

Besides all of the technology of this year's brand new ball, what makes this ball so historic?  At some point on January 1st, after this bright and colorful orb makes its descent, it will be raised again to remain atop One Times Square throughout the entire year.  You will be able to see the New Year's Eve ball in March, July, and October.

 

A brief history: 

The first New Year's Eve celebration was the 1904-1905 bash which marked a rebirth of what had been known as Longacre Square, a place of horse-related business during the day and a notorious red-light district at night.  Change to the square had begun in 1895 with Oscar Hammerstein's Olympia, the first of many theaters built in what would become the theater district, but the year 1904 saw the opening of the neighborhood's first luxury hotel (the Hotel Astor) as well as the opening of the brand new subway and the headquarters of the New York Times.  1904 was also the year Longacre Square was rechristened Times Square--through some kind of deal quietly worked out between the director of the new subway and Adolph Ochs, the publisher of the paper.

The first ball drop took place in the 1907-1908 festivities, which still included fireworks as well as local waiters who wore battery-powered top hats with 1908 spelled out in miniature bulbs.  With the wartime exception of 1942 and 1943, the ball has dropped every New Year's Eve since then.  The ball drop comes out of an old time-keeping tradition first performed in Greenwich, England above the English Royal Observatory in 1833.  Chronometers could be set on passing ships every afternoon at 1 pm.  Other time-balls would begin to drop from tall buildings throughout the world.

When it was built, by the way, One Times Square was the second tallest building in the world after the Park Row Building across from City Hall.  Today captains on ships along the Hudson or East River wouldn't be able to see the ball, blocked as it is by the much taller buildings that run river to river in midtown. 

Visit the Times Square Alliance for more history, details about the technology and construction of this year's ball, and wonderful photographs of all that it can do.

Things We Lost in 2008

Recently, every year seems to be a banner year of lost NYC institutions, but 2008 is one for the record books.  Here are ten off the top of my head:

Wall Street 

(If you think that one way arrow should be pointing down, realize that it is pointing south.) 

However Wall Street survives, it's going to be drastically transformed with the loss of 40% of the Dow's value since its high last October, and the fall of some of the largest investment banks around including:

Bytes of the Ridiculous: Wall Street, Alcatraz and Homes West of L.A.

All of these come from one of my most memorable groups of 2008:

 

On meeting the group.

ROBERT:  So where exactly is your school?

STUDENT:  We're forty minutes west of L.A.

ROBERT:  West?

Arriving at Ellis Island.

STUDENT #1:  Have we been here before?

ROBERT:  No.  That was the very first day we ever took a boat.

STUDENT #2:  Is Chinatown on this island?

ROBERT:  No.

STUDENT #3:  Isn't this place also called Alcatraz?

ROBERT:  No.

STUDENT:  #4:  Is there anything here about Elvis?

ROBERT:  ...........

At the Empire State Building.

STUDENT:  Where's the Eiffel Tower?

ROBERT:  That's in Paris.

STUDENT:  No, it's in New York.

ROBERT:  Are you thinking of the Statue of Liberty?

STUDENT:  No!  The Eiffel!  Tower! 

On Wall Street.

ROBERT:  ...a massive explosion that killed thirty-three people and wounded four hundred.  Pieces of the horse that pulled the wagon with the TNT were found up at Trinity Church (almost a hundred yards away).

STUDENT:  Did the horse die?

On bus, after discussing Leo, the world-record-breaking cat.

STUDENT:  Robert, do cats really have nine lives?

ROBERT looks at her, trying to figure out the question.  Is she serious?

STUDENT:  No, no, I didn't ask that.  No, no, never mind, never mind.

ROBERT resumes the tour.

STUDENT (quietly, to a friend beside her):  I KNEW that was a myth!

When Tour Guides Say Stupid Things, Part Two

These are three from Elizabeth Meadows Rouse.  Between shoots on The Sopranos and Law and Order: SVU, Elizabeth appeared in several of our bytes—as the Herman Melville fan who needs to be put down on Wall Street in Tranquilizing a Tourist and as Elizabeth Rousie, PhD, at the United Nations in the The Obscene Elephant.

Elizabeth is also a guide, one who has come to resent the humiliation that confronts her in the city's numerous security tents.  Invariably, during the security for the ferries out to the Statue, the metal detector loudly detects her bra's underwire and she's forced to stand with her arms out to the side:  "So then I get 'wanded' in front of all these adolescents and it beeps as it runs over my ample breasts. Everyone looking, giggling...great way to start the day."

 

Here's a story she sent me about the tent at the United Nations:

Trivia: Today in Big Apple History

Who was sold December 26, 1919 in one of the most famous trades in the history of professional sports?

Merry Christmas from Robert and Cayce!

Cayce's favorite holiday video:

or this one, which features Robert & Cayce's twins!!!!!:

 

A Byte from a Diner: The World's Worst Internal GPS

Spoken into a cell phone in the Astro, a Greek diner on 55th and 6th:

"We're in some little diner on whatever street and an avenue."

A Byte from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Overheard by one of my tourists in a gallery of European Paintings:

BOY:  Why is that man stabbing that woman?

LAZY MOTHER:  Um, they used to do that.

A Byte at the Plaza Hotel, Parenting Trick 6475-56-B3

On the steps at the Fifth Avenue entrance of the Plaza Hotel, a mother is trying to take a picture of her three young girls, dressed up for the holidays.  The youngest is tired and sits as her two older sisters stand and smile.

TRICKY MOTHER:  "You have to stand on the red steps.  You can't sit down.  Those are the rules.  It says so right there." 

Girl looks for sign.  (There is none.)  She stands.  Mother presses button on camera.

A Byte from the Subway

Overheard by one of my tourists on the downtown R.

MAN #1:  After you got out, did you have to register as a sex offender?

MAN #2:  Ssshhh.

A Byte from Rockefeller Center

Submitted by a friend from college this past summer: 

I work about 20 feet from The Today Show, and breeze past it each day on my way to work.  Every morning I take a quick glance to see which stars are there - David Hasselhoff, Jennifer Garner, Spike Lee, and always, of course, Al Roker.  One morning the crowd was so dense, and there was so much screaming, that I just had to stop and see which band was playing.  There was a stage, but I couldn't see over the people's heads.  Finally, I leaned over the barricade to a throng of blond-haired, blue-eyed tourists, clad in pastel and fanny-packs. 
 
"Excuse me," I asked, wearing heels and a purse slung over my shoulder - an obvious working woman and New Yorker.  "Do you know what this is?" 
 
"Yeah," replied the fifteen-year-old girl."  Slowly:  "This is the TODAY SHOW."

Christmas in Dyker Heights

This is the house of Lucy Spata whose family has been decorating their home for over forty years, but whose house in the eighties had become so over-the-top and was attracting so much traffic, that the police were often called.  The neighbors, though, have long since joined in and displays that can cost over $30,000 can be seen throughout the neighborhood.  (And on YouTube.  See the posting below for three videos.)  Is it worth the $5000/month electric bills?  It's reported that 100,000 people make the pilgrimage each holiday season and that several of the houses collect donations to support various charities like St. Anthony's (the Spata home) and the American Cancer Society (the Polizzotto Toyland across the street).

More photos of our trip after the jump.

The Lights in Dyker Heights

 

 

Trivia: Today in Big Apple History

What famous New York City water crossing opened for traffic today in 1937?

What famous shooting took place today in 1984? 

Floridians in the Snow

School's out.  The fall tour season ended for me on Friday just as the winter's first real snow began to fall.  Cayce and I worked with a group of students from South Sumter High School located an hour north of Tampa.  Most of them had never seen snow, so they were very excited.  "It's snowing!  It's snowing!" some yelled on Liberty Street when it was still hard to make out the flakes.  (More dandruff  than snow.)  When we left Federal Hall to walk on Wall Street, the snow could be classified as a genuine flurry. One of the students asked if we could walk farther east, because it looked like it was snowing much harder four blocks away.  I had to explain that it was just the poor visibility that came with snow and that there was no blizzard on Front Street.

After Trinity Church and a visit to the Charging Bull, it was snowing hard enough for me to put up my umbrella.  I wasn't the only New Yorker doing that and it baffled many.  I heard one girl on her cell phone talking to someone from home:  "Do you know people up here use their umbrellas in the SNOW?"  Another asked me why.  "Well, you see, snow is actually frozen water and...oh, just wait."  As we walked up Beaver Street, I heard several say, "Wow, I'm really wet!" and "It's not like the movies."  There were very few complaints though.  Two of the guys kept running their hands over my umbrella to gather enough snow for a snowball since nothing was accumulating on the wet sidewalks.  But when we reached South Street Seaport, the wooden docks were covered with a blanket of snow...

...and South Sumter's first snowball fight instantly broke out.

 

When Guides Say Stupid Things

From the archives:  originally posted July, 2008.

We’ve had lots of good times laughing at the stupid things some of our visitors have said and done—a very popular feature on this blog—but let’s take a moment to honor a few of the stupid things said and done by the guides themselves.

 

A friend reminded me about a tour he took over for me several years ago.  He was a nervous wreck, trying desperately to remember the names of all the architects and the dates of the buildings and the styles (though very few tourists ever really care about these specifics) and he informed his group that the Woolworth Building which opened in 1913 (correct) was designed by the same architect who did the Customs Building at Bowling Green (correct) and that the architect was Cass Elliot.  (Cass Gilbert was, in fact, the famous architect, Cass Elliot was one of The Mamas and The Papas who sang Dream a Little Dream of Me, and Make Your Own Kind of Music.) 

 

I’ve had my own blunders.

Columbus Circle and Audrey Munson

Someone in one of my groups recently asked for information on America's most sculpted model, Audrey Munson.  This video was part of our walk up Broadway from Bowling Green to Columbus Circle.  Further notes and credits can be found at 1 Green, 3 Parks, 6 Squares, and a Circle.

From Seth Rudetsky: Hell's Kitchen

Seth Rudetsky, author, actor, musician, and comedian, has one of my favorite weekly columns posted at Playbill.com.  It's called Onstage and Backstage and usually includes the juiciest, funniest, or most inspiring moments from his week's interviews on Sirius Radio or at the Chatterbox.  Last week, he shared the following: 

Freddie Gershon...the CEO of Music Theater International which licenses Annie...talked about licensing the show down South but then getting all the material back in the mail a week later. He called the principal of the school to see why it was returned. The principal said that "Annie" was Satanic. Huh? Freddie asked what was Satanic about it (besides the E flat that Star-to-Be has to sustain which obviously requires a deal with the devil) and the principal says that the script mentions…Hells Kitchen!!! Freddie explained the misunderstanding:

FREDDIE: Hells Kitchen? Satanic? Hells Kitchen is the name of a neighborhood in New York City.
PRINCIPAL: I rest my case.

A Tour of New York from the 53rd Floor

It's been reputed, and many times repeated, that Guy de Maupassant would have lunch at the Eiffel Tower because it was the one place in Paris where he wouldn't have to look at it.  Frankly, I'll take the Eiffel Tower over the New York Palace any day. 

 

But some of our uglier buildings offer some of our better views.  I recently spent some time in a corner suite on the 53rd and 54th floors...

And can now take you on a bird's eye tour of midtown.

 

Here's St. Patrick's, the largest Catholic cathedral in the U.S. (but not the largest church in NYC), begun in 1851, abandoned during the Civil War, and then resumed and completed in 1879.  (Well, not the towers--they were finished nine years later.)

Little Bytes Quiz--New York State

1--With a population of 19,297,729 million, where does New York rank out of the fifty states?

2--With an area of 54,556 square miles, where does New York rank in size?

3--Where does New York place in the order of statehood?  (Hint:  It's in the first 13.)

4--What is the official New York State motto?  

5--What is the official New York State flower?

6--What is the official New York State bird?

7--What is the official New York State tree?  (Here's a hint that will completely give it away:  This tree is also the official tree of Wisconsin.)

8--What is the official New York State song?  Bonus:  Can you sing it?

9--What is the official New York State sport?

Answers after the jump.

Little Bytes Recommends...Before They Close

It's a crazy time for every industry.  CEO's of car companies are acting humble, publishers are taking a break from buying books, and the world of Broadway is being turned upside down.  The existence of Wednesday matinees is being seriously reconsidered and producers are having to shutter some very popular productions, including several Tony winners for Best Musical.

By the end of January, the following Broadway shows will be gone:  Hairspray, Spring Awakening, Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, 13, Boeing Boeing, Grease, and Gypsy.  (This doesn't include the limited engagement productions like The Seagull and All My Sons or the holiday shows like Irving Berlin's White Christmas which will also be gone by February.)  A number of shows closed in the last few months--Legally Blonde, title of show, A Tale of Two Cities, Xanadu, American Buffalo, and the groundbreaking musical Rent, which ran for twelve years.

So if you can only afford the time or money to see one, which would be the show to see?  Well, 18 Little Bytes alumni voted.  Our recommendations after the jump.

Tour Guide Blooper

TOUR GUIDE TRICK #37632-B-87:  If you're assigned to bring a group to a gallery, store, restaurant, etc. with which you're unfamiliar, and you have no time to do a dry run, no time to check online, no time to call ahead and ask about the proper entrance, or if the phone number only gives you a recording...then you walk slightly ahead of your group, asking passersby inconspicuously to point out your destination, pretending to your group all the while that you've been there a number of times.

WHEN TOUR GUIDE TRICK #37632-B-87 BACKFIRES:  Many years ago, Anonymous was taking her group of middle schoolers to the Mercantile Exchange in the World Financial Center.  To get there, she had to lead the group through the maze of corridors connecting all of the office buildings of the World Trade and Financial Centers.  She knew the general direction of this Mercantile Exchange, but needed help, so she walked several steps in front of her group, whispering to security guards:  "Where's the Mercantile Exchange?  Ssshhh!  Just point, just point!"  As she tried to keep a few paces ahead (and out of earshot) of her group, two of the boys tried to keep up with her.  (There's always a couple who want to attach themselves to the guide's hip.)  Feeling them directly behind her, she picked up her speed so that neither of them would hear her asking directions from the long line of security guards pointing her towards the river, and just as she sensed she knew where she was and where she was going, she let the boys catch up with her and turned to discover that no one else was there.  She had lost the rest of the group way back in the labyrinth.

TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE:  Anonymous told the boys to stay put while she took off to try to find her people, leaving the two kids unattended when the other half of the group, led by another guide, and including the school's principal, turned the corner.  Sadly, that was her first job with this particular company; interestingly, it was also her last.

A Holiday Reminder from the Cast and Crew of "In the Heights"

After a recent Saturday matinee, Lin Manuel Miranda and the cast and crew of In the Heights, winner of this year's Best Musical Tony, stayed at the theater and helped realize a dream for a ten-year-old "super fan."  Watch what they did! 

I hope you didn't miss the very funny coda in the last five seconds.

Little Bytes Recommends a DVD

MAN ON WIRE

I saw this documentary during the Tribeca Film Festival and wanted to share my enthusiasm now that it’s out on DVD.  Thirty-four years ago, Philippe Petit, walked and danced in the sky between the newly built Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan.  Seven years earlier, in the waiting room of his dentist, Petit saw a rendering in a magazine of the future World Trade Center.  He tore the pages out and left before his cleaning, obsessed, dreaming and planning how he would undertake a tight rope walk between the towers that had yet to be erected.  This documentary follows the story from the dentist’s office until  today, combining archival footage from the sixties and seventies, talking head interviews with Petit and his associates, and scenes of reenactment (many of which were shot in the new 7 World Trade Center) in the tradition of the great heist films.

 

 We hear the participants remember the tense moments in detail—sneaking into the two buildings and maneuvering their way to the top on the eve of the stunt, hiding from the security guards, in one case under a tarp a few feet away, spending the night preparing, connecting the buildings through archery, climbing to the edge to retrieve the arrow and wire, and then securing the tight rope.  By the time Petit takes his first steps 1350 feet above the city, we feel like co-conspirators standing on the roof bearing witness, and we are only more inspired and moved when he makes not just one but several crossings, walking, dancing, even lying down on his back with one leg hanging lazily below him.

 

Admittedly, there are times while watching the acts of this conspiracy unfold, as the two teams evade security with fake id’s and costumes, when you can’t help but think of the terror cells who spent years plotting their own interaction with the Twin Towers, but that gives Petit and his team an aura of nobility—as artists creating something beautiful and empowering.  When these buildings were brand new, architectural wonders, two monoliths rising above a city, a man somehow overcame them, humanized them.  And now that the towers are no longer there, that feat is rendered even more magical, because it happened only once and can never happen again.

 

Photos ©2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Images.

Better Bytes of Hawk

Yesterday, I shared some of my humble amateurish photos of hawks, crows and prey, but today I want repost an entry from the spring when my friend, Tessa (a frequent director of Little Bytes currently serving her second year as a New York Teaching Fellow) sent me an incredible series of professional photos with the note below:

"Look at these beautiful pictures. Two Red-Tailed Hawks have picked P94M on the Lower East Side as their new home. We are so honored. They spent weeks building a nest (well, the female did all the work - typical) and she even insulated it with plastic bags she found. They had three eggs she incubated during the cold months and just recently three little fuzzy heads popped out to greet us. This is great proof against those who think we live in an asphalt jungle. 8 years in Alaska and I never once had a hawk roost on my secretary's a/c."

See the babies--and get the progress report--after the jump.

These beautiful photographs were taken by F. Portman, a professional photographer brought in by Bill Tatton, the school custodian.  Portman has several gorgeous avian portfolios featuring penguins and condors.

Francois Portman. www.fotoportmann.com