Plane Crashed in Park Slope 50 Years Ago Today

I found these proofs of the event in a collection of old photos that were in my possession. Here is the story on what happened.

"You Are Real": A Salute to the Mars Bar-A repost from 7/7/07.

The Mars Bar is the latest old school place that is getting the wrecking ball, although not really old in the old sense of the word, the Mars has been around since the late 1980's and has been the last hold outs of the type of east village bar where the punks, the postal workers, the homeless,the artists and all matter of people in between mingled. Things and conversations happen in that shoebox of a place that frequently seemed like hallucinations. It kind of stepped in where another 80's era east village bar, Downtown Beirut left off. Anyhow, it's closing. I don't care what the owner Hank says, the developers are probably not "good guys". Another bar that went on the chopping block this week was Max Fish on Ludlow Street. Also not really old but old compared to everything else on the block. I guess they were the beginning of the onslaught.

Anyway this is a post I did about 3 years ago saluting the Mars or as I like to spell it Marz.
How I spent my 7/7/07.
Man, am I glad I didn’t go to that drumming thing over at Brooklyn Bridge Park yesterday! Sounded like it turned out to be an over crowded nightmare. It was sort of fascinating to me that the Boredoms had managed to attract such a crowd. Was it the Boredoms or the hype of the importance of the date 7/7/07? OK I just answered my own question, clearly it was the latter….What did we do on 6/6/06? Does anybody remember?! On 7/7/07 I could NOT get out of bed or out of my house, it must have been the centrifugal force of the sun telling me to stay home and meditate or simply exhaustion. So, after the sun set I ventured out and it was quite a lovely evening.

A friend was in town from LA and wanted to meet at the Motor City Bar on Ludlow Street in Manhattan. I ventured out into the 7/7/07 night to join Margie aka Vena Virago and CalmX (long time East Village resident and artist).Well, we lasted about 10 minutes before fleeing. The saturday night bar scene on Ludlow Street is pretty soulless. The music at Motor City was loud yet you still couldn’t hear it. SO the three of us old timers ended up at the Mars Bar, one of the or shall I say THE ONLY old school cheap punk rock NYC bar left. It is now surrounded by what else? Luxury condos! The ugliest tall tower glass and metal kind with Whole Foods just a hop skip and a jump away. The Marz is still doling out the cheap drinks (2 really strong vodka drinks and one beer = $11.00)has ranting bartenders, (this evenings hostess started complaining at the top of her lungs when someone put some jazz type music on…’WHO PUT THIS SH*T! ON!!” Of course she intercepted it and put on what SHE wanted to hear, “Too many creeps’ by the Bush Tetras) and a cast of regulars right out of “Midnight Cowboy” mixed in with an eclectic bunch of others. There is a lot of coming and going at the Marz Bar (it is a total “I’m waiting for my man’ bar, IF you know what I mean) but it's sort of a punk rock "Cheers" for all the "black sheeps" of the family to feel at home.

I salute you Marz Bar, long may you continue to be a zit on the airbrushed cityscape that our town has become. You are REAL.

See the original post here.

Sunset Over NY Harbor on 9/11/10.

The weather was just like it was on "that day" 9 years ago. Perfect with a crystal blue sky. I was invited to a picnic on Governor's Island and I have to admit, I was a little nervous about going somewhere where the only way out was by boat. Last year, 9/11 passed by quietly. This year it did not. But the day did pass peacefully if you avoided lower Manhattan and eclipsed with this sunset, the clouds dramatic and glowing. A sky that seemed like it was honoring the people that didn't make it home that day nine years ago.

Morbid Ink: Field Notes on the Memorial Tattoo * Tuesday @ the Observatory (it's a lecture)

"Love lasts forever but a tattoo lasts six months longer."

The Observatory continues to host unique lectures and events presented by Morbid Anatomy DESPITE the heat...tomorrow night is a lecture about Memorial Tattoos!

The details:

Morbid Ink: Field Notes on the Human Memorial Tattoo
An Illustrated lecture with Dr. John Troyer, Deputy Director, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath

"In 1891, Samuel F. O’Reilly of New York, NY patented the first “…electromotor tattooing-machine,” a modern and innovative device that permanently inserted ink into the human skin. O’Reilly’s invention revolutionized tattooing and forever altered the underlying concept behind a human tattoo, i.e., the writing of history on the body. Tattooing of the body most certainly predates the O’Reilly machine (by several centuries) but one kind of human experience remains constant in this history: the memorial tattoo.

Memorial tattooing is, as Marita Sturken discusses the memorialization of the dead, a technology of memory. Yet the tattoo is more than just a representation of the dead. It is a historiographical practice in which the living person seeks to make death intelligible by permanently altering his or her own body. In this way, memorial tattooing not only establishes a new language of intelligibility between the living and the dead, it produces a historical text carried on the historian’s body. A memorial tattoo is an image but it is also (and most importantly) a narrative.

Human tattoos have been described over the centuries as speaking scars and/or the true writing of savages; cut from the body and then collected by Victorian era gentlemen. These intricately inked pieces of skin have been pressed between glass and then hidden away in museum collections, waiting to be re-discovered by the morbidly curious. The history of tattooing is the story of Homo sapiens’ self-invention and unavoidable ends.

Tattoo artists have a popular saying within their profession: Love lasts forever but a tattoo lasts six months longer.

And so too, I will add, does death."

Dr. John Troyer is the Death and Dying Practices Associate and RCUK Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society in May 2006. From 2007-2008 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University teaching the cultural studies of science and technology. Within the field of Death Studies, he analyzes the global history of science and technology and its effects on the dead body. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website and his first book, Technologies of the Human Corpse, will appear in spring 2011.

Click here for their full on calendar of equally fascinating and offbeat events.

When: Tuesday, July 20th at 8pm
Where: 543 Union Street at Nevins St.
Enter through Proteus Gowanus gallery, in the alley off Nevins St.
Admission: 5 bucks.

Last Week To Go To Freddy's Bar & Backroom

The Backroom at Freddy's.
Yes it TOTALLY sucks that Freddy's is going to be knocked down for a hideously stupid basketball stadium, but at least they will continue on in a couple of months in a new location. As Manager Donald O'Finn says, "Freddy's is not merely a building on a street corner, it is a grand idea."


I had a grand time there last Saturday night, where Les sans Cullotes celebrated their, correct me if I'm wrong, their 12th anniversary! This video captured the energy and spirit of the show, who needs steady cam when you can shoot in the round?

P.S-Freddy's is throwing a Victory Party on Friday, April 30th to celebrate the little guys who've been fighting a land-grabbing billionaire and the corrupt New York government agencies that he greatly influences.

Check this schedule for all the info you need about happenings occurring during Freddy's last week.

*Video shot by F.I.B correspondent David Kaplan.

Interview with a Funeral Director

photo credit:The Carroll Gardens Diary
First an interview with the Caputo's of Caputo's Bake Shop now it's Vincent Raccuglia of Raccuglia's Funeral Home, who will be the Carroll Gardens Diaries next victim?

Check it out here.

Out With the Old - In With the New!

Completely unrelated photo of balloons in winter trees on Union Street.

As the New Year has me clearing lots of crap out of my apartment that I don't need and organizing what I do need. It also has me weeding through my blog list or what I call "blogorama" where I have eliminated many blogs which have been dormant for some time. My criteria for elimination? If there has been no blog post for 6 months, you get the ax. I am relentless that way!

A blog that has publicly called it quits right before the New Year is the fab Bed Stuy Banana. I will certainly miss the content and wonderful photographs on this blog. And what I really liked about this blog was that it was a human, warts and all type of blog and I love that. Check it out if you haven't already, with 502 posts there is plenty to sink your eyeballs into.

So as I was saying before, out with the old and in with the new......

There is a new Carroll Gardens area blog called guess what? The Carroll Gardens Diaries. This is how they describe themselves:

"From Charles Carroll's post to posts on the EPA, we cover all aspects of Carroll Gardens news, history, politics and fun facts. Original photographs are courtesy of Max Flatow. We are doing a continuing series on iconic local businesses."

Iconic businesses? Check out C.G.D's interview with the Caputo's of Caputo's bakery on Court Street here.

I'm not big on lists but if I were name my favorite new blog of 2009, the prize would have to go to Brokelyn. You can have your fancy schmancy lifestyle/fashion/design blogs! Just gimme Brokelyn ! Cause it's real baby! And by the way-they are having an "Ugliest building in Brooklyn" photography contest right now. Genius! There is sure to be some stiff competition.

Now,with that being said, I must to get back to categorizing my sock drawer....

Wake for ABC No Rio

I a am week late on letting you know that, if you are unaware, non profit art spot, ABC No Rio is preparing for the demise of it's existing structure. I attended the wake for the building last week where I witnessed the cast canvas shroud of this lower east side tenement being ceremonially removed and dropped into a waiting casket. The wake ensued in the gallery space after a procession around the neighborhood.

Check out an exhibit or a performance now before you say "I should of.." and the before the building is gone or even better! DONATE some money towards their new GREEN building designed by architect Paul Castrucci. There are different ways to donate, you can even get yourself some hand screened holiday cards or a one of a limited edition pinhole camera print of the building by photographer, Michael Bayard.

ABC NO Rio is the epitome of DIY so pay homage!!!

Coney Island Film Festival Wrap #8!

The Fabulous Insectavora!
While the Coney Island Film Festival was a fun event you couldn’t help but getting a sad vibe when you looked around the area surrounding the Coney Island USA building. Although it is closed for the season anyway the vacant lots surrounded by chain link fences bulldozed by Thor Equities last year intensify a feeling of impending doom only amplified by the rainy weather. Coney was enveloped in a surreal mist for most of the weekend. Correct me if I’m wrong me but aren’t at least the Cyclone & the Wonder Wheel still operating on the weekends at this time of year?

I attended many screenings over the 3 days, unfortunately it was impossible to see them all as the screenings (over 125 shorts!) were done simultaneously between the Freak Show Stage and the Coney Island Museum but I managed to take in a lot.

The selections seemed a bit darker this year. Sunday afternoon’s Coney centric shorts viewing were bittersweet as nostalgia has set in big time already. Will the recent economic developments halt Joe Sitt & Bloomberg’s big dreams of condos and Nike towns? Save Coney Island by Peter LiPera is a doc (and winner of the festival!) chronicalizing the “Save Coney Island” Movement, from the organization of the protest at City Hall last year till the unknowing period of now. Of course it’s open ended as the fight is still going on. (go here to see what you can do to help.) One Coney short unrelated to the amusement park that I really liked was by Alexis Neophytides called “Coney Island’s for the Bird’s” a doc about the underground world of Brooklyn pigeon racing, looked like it was filmed on Neptune Avenue. And as usual the festival closed Sunday night with the filmmakers claiming their awards at Eldorardo Auto Skooters, as I am SURE they do in Cannes as well! Click here for the Coney Island Film Festival website for a complete list of winners!

The Death of Brooklyn

What does it mean? Brooklyn died a long time ago?

F.I.B spends some time at the Bay Parkway subway station a couple times a week. For those that don't know it overlooks Washington cemetery. The cemetery is densely packed with the tombstones on land divided in half by the subway/Bay Parkway and bordered by a sanitation station, housing and ironically a "Wholesale Liquidators". This particular tombstone is a mystery to me. Most of the people buried here are jewish, going back to the early 1900's. The newer stones have photographic images on them, mostly Russian Jews.
Reserve your spot now!

R.I.P - Astroland.

I guess as Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote there is a part of Cony Island that is of the mind and I feel that is a major part of it's mystique. Hopefully that spirit will not be overtaken by Niketown although it wouldn't suprise me if some corporation would co-opt the beat poem into their ad campaign eventually.

R.I.P Bo Diddley

I was saddened to hear about the passing of one of rock & roll's greats this afternoon. Bo Diddley played guitar his way and without him we would of probrably never had the Stones and countless garage rock bands. F.I.B was lucky enough to see Bo live right here in Brooklyn about 7 years ago at an afternoon show at MetroTech, it was definitely one of my favorite concerts ever. His presence was electric, there is a reason he was legend, he just had it ALL going on. When he played "You Pretty Thing" I almost died on the spot! I couldn't believe I was there looking and hearing Bo Diddley in Brooklyn of all places. It was the first time he had been back to Brooklyn since the 1950's and he just seemed so damn happy to be there. The crowd was one of the better crowds, mixed on every level and there was nothing but smiles and dancing.

Rest in Peace Bo!

One of the Strangest Corners in Brooklyn

And I love it!!!!

Astor Place Soothed My Soul Today.

My work has been taking me into the neighborhood of my old stomping ground of the East Village lately. It has me an emotional wreck some of the time seeing many of the landmarks of my life knocked down and turned into glass and steel. I know the East Village has been an alcoholic Disneyland with all the bars that the NYU kids have been flocking to for the past twenty years or so, but it somehow has retained a flavor until the last couple years. I actually lived on St. Marks Place briefly in 1984, when there used to be more Ukrainian businesses and that guy John Spacely otherwise known as Gringo (once immortalized on a mural the building at the start of St. Marks Place) used to constantly be roaming the block in his frilly shirts. I was a young punk and used to spend my nights hanging out in Tompkins Square Park and going to shows and odd performance events in abandoned buildings and after hours around Avenues B & C. One of my favorite places to go was a place called 8 B.C (8th Street between B & C) anybody out there remember it? It was common to see Quentin Crisp, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Smith, Dee Dee Ramone, Richard Hell, ANDY WARHOL! showing up in the weirdest places at the weirdest times. I am so grateful to have experienced that. There are not many of people of that ilk around anymore. Mostly because back then it was slightly less difficult to be an artist and live here, Berlin wasn't as much of a seriously realistic option as it is now. The only one around out of that bunch now is Richard Hell and I actually did see him in that neighborhood two years ago looking healthy. He must have a rent controlled apartment. I am digressing again, I am in such a melancholy mood these days. Just so sick of hearing about and seeing things disappear in the name of "progress".

Anyway, I got my haircut at Astor Place Hair today and that made me happy. They haven’t been at street level for quite some time but they've got their own world going on in the basement below. There has to be at least fifty barbers operating out of that place. And the energy is pure old school New York. Brisk yet friendly, just how I like it. I used to get my hair buzzed off there back in the day, I had never thought of going there now that my hair is longer but I needed a trim and as going to a salon would kill me this month I popped into Astor on a tip from a friend that they would do a passable job.

Ladies, a beauty tip from FIB, go see Suzy at Astor Place Haircutters, she is a miracle worker. For 16 bucks she will, as she told me "make you beautiful". She is also is an awesome colorist if that is what you need.

Just keep in mind that you are in a real barbershop atmosphere with no Aveda products being used or for sale. There is no smoke and mirrors at Astor Place. Just the basics and I witnessed many a fantastic hair transformation, it was fun to sit there and take it all in.

Since I am talking about the East Village I have to mention this blog that I love and also hate. Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. I hate it because it is documenting the death of Manhattan but I love it because he is not letting it pass by silently. I mourn every time I read it, seriously.

Today he is pissed at the Toll Brothers, they've got a building on 3rd Avenue that blocks the familiar view of the Chrysler building that you would see when you would walk uptown. Bastards. Check out Jeremiah's commentary and photo of some cheap fraying laminate in their NEWLY BUILT lobby. I guess some of those things they say about the Toll Brothers are true!

*Photo courtesy of New York Daily Photo. Next time I better remember to bring my camera!

Magnetic Field To Close its Doors

Fleshtones at Magnetic Field, March 2007

Taking a break from my Norma Rae activities to bring you some more dismal Brooklyn news. Sorry.

I am shocked and saddened to relay the word that one the best music venues in the downtown Brooklyn area, hell in NYC, is closing down next month. Magnetic Field was more than a bar it is NYC's Garage Rock headquarters. So many fab bands have played at Magnetic Field! For the past few years Magnetic Field also has put on the amazing Rock & Soul Show at the Atlantic Antic. This past year they got goddess Mary Weiss from the Shangi-Las's to perform and the year before The Fleshtones as headliners. And between the Antics the club has consistently brought in what many like to call REAL ROCK & ROLL!!! A plethera and a who's who of rock & roll past and present have graced their stage, see just PART of the list below. All I can say is, in laymens terms, is, THIS SUCKS!


Here is the official statement:

After five-plus years of rocking Atlantic Avenue and entertaining thousands of customers and welcoming hundreds of great bands, Magnetic Field in Brooklyn will be closing its doors on March 31st. Co-owners Lee Greenfeld and William Crane would like to personally thank all of Magnetic Field’s staff and patrons for their loyalty over the past few years, as well as all the numerous bands who have brought some truly tremendous and memorable performances to our stage, such as The A-Bones, Black Hollies, Black Lips, the Brought Low, Cynics, Dansettes, Detachment Kit, Mitch Easter, The Figgs, The Fleshtones, Gabby Glaser, Insomniacs, Lenny Kaye, Lilys, Klimpter, Lyres, Glen Mercer, Mugs, Nashville Ramblers, Nouvellas,The Plimsouls, Ponys, Reigning Sound, Real Kids, Shaw Nuff, Steve Wynn And The Miracle 3, Voxtrot, Woggles, and so many more!

Lee Greenfeld will continue to book and promote shows -- as well as manage bands -- through his Dead Flowers Productions.

William Crane will work towards expanding his ever-growing gameshow empire via his Dick Swizzle alter-ego.

They have great shows going on there this weekend.

Saturday: The A-Bones & The Brought Low
Doors at 8pm.

Sunday: The debut of the super group THE LOST CRUSADERS
Featuring Michael Chandler (Raunch Hands), Buffi Aguero (Tiger! Tiger!, Subsonics), Laura Cantrell, Keith Streng (Fleshtones), Jon Spencer (Heavy Trash, Blues Explosion), Brian McBride (Electric Shadows), Jerome Jackson (Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ), Matt Verta Ray (Heavy Trash, Speedball Baby), Johnny Vignault (The Vendettas, Jonny Chan & The New Dynasty Six), Mike Edison (Raunch Hands, Edison Rocket Train), and many more!
GOSPEL TECHNIQUES
EDISON ROCKET TRAIN
DJ LYNNE K
Doors at 7pm

Magnetic Field is located on Atlantic Avenue between Henry & Hicks.
Check Magnetic Field's website for more info.
They are sure to have some blowout shows during the month of March.

Show up and pay your respects.

Heath Ledger

Sad that he died so young and I'm sure the Brooklyn Paper is going to have a field day with this as stalking Heath was one of their favorite activities. I received an email today that is too good not to print.

Subject: PEARL HARBOR

I know nothing about heath ledger or his idiot or genius (i have no idea) wife but i wonder if that paper is going to run

THE GIGANTIC FULL PAGE HEADLINE

like it's world war iii

since they were w/o question among The Greatest Most Fascinating Brooklyn People Who Ever Lived

1) bc it hyped real estate even more

2) it some "validated" the decision of yokels who played along with that or perhaps themselves never REALLY wanted to live here.

I wouldn't recognize him or his woman if they were pushing an suv-sized stroller into me on smith st so this has nothing to do w/their work........they shoulda stayed outta brooklyn too, PLEASE.

Vampira 1921-2008

I'm going extremely off topic here but I'm a little sad to hear that Vampira born Maila Nurmi in Finland went to the otherside recently.

I've always had a fascination for her. I dug her Charles Adamsy beatniky vibe. This years Coney Island Film Festival screened a fantastic documentary on the golden age of television horror hosts called American Scary which I saw on opening night. I mentioned in my blog post that I hounded the producer, Sandy Clark, for more info on Vampira. I actually entertained this little fantasy (and my friends can attest to it), that I was going to go to L.A and meet her. She had ended up somewhat destitute and was apparantly easy to approach despite being an american icon. There is not one book written on her life and I wanted to write it. Well I missed the boat on that one, but you know, it probrably would have remained a movie in my head anyway. I read in her obit that her friends and fans are trying to raise money to bury her in "Hollywood Forever" cemetery. I hope Tim Burton steps in and takes care of it, he OWES her BIG TIME!

Her death wasn't really big news to the world so I just thought I'd say something.

Sweet Dreams Vampira!

6 Years Later.

I didn't think I'd mention 9/11 but here I am doing it. I was out the other night and seeing the beams of light shooting through the sky from the 9/11 memorial completely surprised me. I had forgotten about 9/11.

As everyone who was in NYC on that day and the months that followed it is almost unfathomable to think that time has dulled the memories of that day. Everyone has a story about where they were. Me? I was on my way to my job in Queens. I didn't listen to the radio that morning and actually left the house after the first plane hit. I had a car at the time and was headed toward the BQE. I did notice lots of people looking in the air and I had to keep pulling over to let fire trucks go by. When I think that most of those guys didn't make the return trip home I still get choked up.

My husband at the time was working at 4 World Trade Center. He was in the area early that morning and was ironically killing time at Record Explosion on Broadway. He heard the first plane hit and everyone around him assumed that the World Trade Center got bombed again. Rather than walk away from the scene, he walked toward it. You have to remember if you were there you had no clue as to what was going on. He looked up and watched what transpired from in front of Century 21 on Church St. He saw the people jumping, he heard the building groan and then he said it felt like a giant oven opening and everything went black and then white and he started to run. I didn't know if he was OK until almost 1:00 PM. He actually got home before me, by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, from there he saw the towers fall, he said everybody was dead silent.

I only made it to Greenpoint that morning and I saw the building with the gaping hole and the smoke pouring out but I didn't see it come down. I was listening to 1010 WINS and heard the hysterical announcement that the first tower had collapsed. The streets of Brooklyn were chaotic, everyone trying to get home. I remember pulling over and I actually vomited, thinking about all the people in the building. I was frantically trying to call my husband but could not get through. I remember crossing 3rd Avenue and seeing the streams of people who had walked from Manhattan, the office women carrying their high heeled shoes. It was like a science fiction movie.

Everyone in my building got together to listen to the news in shock. No television. Our transmitter was on top of the World Trade Center. We were relieved to learn that any firemen and people we knew who worked there were alive. My husband’s 2-way radio that he used for work was alive with coworkers checking to see if he was all right. It took a long time for him to tell anyone what he experienced. He said he didn't want to talk about it "out of respect for the dead".

The next night I remember seeing the first candle burning in the area in front of the Gowanus Yacht Club and then the first "Missing" poster at the same spot. In a very short time there were hundreds of candles and hundreds of fliers.

I've heard people say that 9/11 memorials should be put to rest, that they are a symbol of the war we are now in. Not for me, those beams of light are a very simple and elegant way of remembering the people who didn't make it home that day.

Not much time left @ Coney Island * So Go!

Get thyself out to Coney Island as Astroland will be no more pretty soon. It will close for good on Sunday, September 9th. No need for details why. The usual history erasing which is all the rage in our 21rst century. I think everybody knows by now. The fireworks are fantastic on Friday night and while you are out there (that is if you go out on Friday) night check out the Burlesque/Mexican Wrestling show going down at Sideshows at the Seashore on West 12th Street, go on some rides, drink at Ruby's and of course visit my friend Desree at "The Pina Colada Hut" on Jones Walk near Deno's Wonder Wheel.

I was there last Friday night and check out the scene on West 12th!

R.I.P - Hilly Kristal

I've mentioned in past posts that I spent a good chunk of my teenage years going to C.B.G.B's along with many other "hardcore kids" in the early to mid 1980's. The past 15 years the bookings were pretty bad at the club and it became more about the T-shirt empire than anything else but it remained an icon for the time when NYC was gritty and tough and spawned The Ramones. The club closed it's doors for good last October.

Contributions in Hilly's honor may be made in his name to the American Cancer Society or to the Hilly Kristal Foundation for
Musicians and Artists (168 Second Avenue, PMB 207, New York, NY 10003)

*I would like to thank Drew Caralon for sending me this picture of Hilly from 1985 when the Sunday matinees were all the rage.

Note to self: Do not be a pack rat.

The daunting task of clearing out my Grandmother’s packed to the gills apartment in Queens has begun recently.

My parents and I worked non-stop for hours and didn’t even make a dent. I think we all started having panic attacks at the seventh hour when we realized that this could take months. She kept every cancelled check, every receipt, every letter, every postcard, every birthday card and every Valentine. I learned that she had several male Valentine’s in her older years that all seemed to be nuts about her (very sweet). She actually remarried when she was in her 70’s to Francis, a U.S. W.W II veteran of the Normandy invasion whom was also an immigrant to NY from Europe. He was from Lyon, France.

I found drawings I did when I was two years old, maps of the 1964 World’s Fair, programs to every concert she ever went to, egg noodles in a suitcase, cereal boxes in the TV cabinet, newspaper clipping of the Pope, tons of issues of the “Queens Courier” and this!Merv Griffin passed away the same day as Oma so it was a bit ironic to find this mixed in with all the papers. “Gentlemen” were required to wear a jacket and tie and “Ladies” were to wear dresses in order to attend the show. I wonder why she didn't go?