Gene Tierney was born in Brooklyn to wealthy parents on Nov. 20, 1920. Her father was a prosperous stockbroker. She was educated in private schools in Connecticut and Switzerland.
When Tierney expressed an interest in an acting career after her society debut, her father formed a family owned corporation, Belle-Tier, to develop, promote and exploit her untried talent. (He sued his daughter for breach of contract in the early 1940s — followed shortly by a divorce from Mrs. Tierney.)
On Nov. 20, 1787, Erasmus Hall Academy in Flatbush received a state charter. The school had opened in September 1787, a few days after the signing of the Constitution, and drew students to Brooklyn from near and far. It had a number of boarding pupils from other states, and many students from Manhattan lived during the week with well-to-do Dutch farmers who proudly hosted the young scholars.
On Nov. 20, 1973, Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill area was designated an historic district.
It is a small but homogeneous community composed almost entirely of mid-19th-century row houses. This area, located south of Fulton Street and west of Flatbush Avenue, began to
Ask anyone you see at Commodore Barry Park on Navy Street and Flushing Avenue what the first public park in Brooklyn was, and you will get a different answer than someone will give you at Fort Greene Park. Seems the Barry Park — originally named
By John B. Manbeck
a Brooklyn historian
Special to The Brooklyn Eagle
Now that the tepid elections of 2009 have faded, we can look back further into our history to see how politics used to be. Certainly many wrongs today must be corrected to extricate ourselves from the stasis that is represented in Albany by our currently elected
Roy Campanella, one of the first black major leaguers and a star of one of baseball’s greatest teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ “Boys of Summer,” was born in Philadelphia, Penn. on Nov. 19, 1921.
His father was Italian and his mother an African-American. At age 15 he joined a team known as the Bacharach Giants for weekend games through Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He was later with the Baltimore Elite Giants — spending winters in the Latin American
Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, now known as Larry King, was born on Nov. 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, the second child of Jennie and Eddie Zeiger, both Russian-Jewish immigrants. Their first child, a boy six years older than King, died of appendicitis shortly before King’s birth. His only other sibling, Martin, became vice president and corporate counsel {read more...}
On Nov. 18, 1890 the 6,682-ton U.S. steel battleship cruiser Maine was launched after having been constructed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (the correct name for the shipbuilding facility is New York Naval Shipyard).
As early as 1789 ships were being built on the swampy shore of the East River; the first being a small frigate named John Adams. Three years later the area was formally commissioned as the Navy Yard. During the War of 1812, over one hundred ships
When Larry MacPhail was elected executive vice president of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937 he wanted to jazz things up at Ebbets Field. Along with physical improvements he brought in manager Leo Durocher, broadcaster Red Barber and shortstop Pee Wee Reese.
Another legend he brought to Ebbets in 1939 was an organist named Gladys Goodding. Although she was born in St. Louis in 1912, she became the musical soul of the Brooklyn Dodgers. At one of her first performances she impetuously played “Three Blind Mice” as three umpires ventured forth onto the playing field. This ensured her immortality — among Dodger fans at least, if not among umpires. Her “seventh inning
Brenda Buell Vaccaro was born in Brooklyn on November 18, 1939, daughter of Mario Vaccaro and his wife Christina (Pavia).
The family moved to Dallas, Texas where at the age of seven while attending the Ursuline Academy Brenda played an Old Woman in a school production of The Land Where Dreams Come True.
Brenda attended Thomas Jefferson High School where she appeared in a number of high school productions. She studied dramatics at the Neighborhood Play-house School of the Theatre
With a graphic set of pictures, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of November 17, 1917 told the story of how a magnificent tree was saved:
“The Magnificent old tree in these pictures is a delusion as a work of Nature. True, it is a real live tree, but it is nearly as much artificial as natural. It has been in the hands of the tree surgeons. It underwent a number of operations to save its life and make it ‘as good
On Nov. 16, 1901, three autos raced on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. The fastest speed was achieved by Henry Fournier, who drove a mile in 514/5 seconds! He became the first auto racer to drive faster than a mile-a-minute in {read more...}
Renowned film director Martin Scorsese was born in Flushing, Queens on November 17, 1942.
The son of an immigrant clothes presser, he was raised in a tenement in New York’s Little Italy. He was a sickly youth, besieged by asthma, pleurisy, and other physical handicaps, which excluded him from sports, thus depriving him of close
Alexander Scourby was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 13, 1913, son of Greek immigrants Constantine Scourby and Betsy (Patsakos) Scourby. His father was a successful restaurant owner and wholesale baker and an ill-advised investor in some motion picture failures. Scourby had two sisters, Lula and Mary. A brother, Nicholas, died.
On Nov. 13, 1929 this photo appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of the results of an attempt by 15 bandits to open a safe containing $86,000 at the U.S. Navy Base at 29th Street and Third Avenue in Brooklyn. The robbers trussed up guards and others with bed sheets but were unsuccessful in opening the safe by crowbar or dynamite. Inspecting the damage are (left to right) Navy Lt. J.H. Everette; Robert S. Murray, safe expert; and Inspector F.A. {read more...}
