Really nice video. Those omitted include Alan Arkin, Claire Bloom/Rod Steiger, Lee Hayes (from The Weavers), James Purdy, and, of course, Harry Chapin.
The list goes on….Wes Craven, John Fiedler (voice of Piglet), Sandy Dennis, Adam Arkin (along with his father Alan), Malcolm Jamal Warner, John Dockery, David Levine.
Video is “New and Improved” thanks to your great contributions.
You guys were great. nabeguy, I couldn’t verify via the web, that Wes Craven, Sandy Dennis, and Malcolm Jamal Warner actually lived in the Heights. I’m sure you are correct but I couldn’t corroborate. Now I talked to Mr. Fiedler and John Dockery a few times so i knew them but the other 3 were tough. Now I know that all three filmed in the Heights, Craven with the Vampire from Brooklyn movie, Sandy Dennis with the movie Sweet November, and Malcolm Warner with the Cosby Show which actually took place in Fort Greene, I believe not the Heights.
I have been accused, in the past, of being lose with the facts, ie Belgium Blocks not Cobblestones, so i want to be extra sure.
bornhere, I think I included all those celebrities you mentioned. ;) Check again.
Craven lived at 136 Hicks, Warner on Montague Terrace. You may have me on Sandy Dennis. In the strange-but-true department, Tom Chapin, Harry’s brother, married Bonnie Craven, Wes’s ex.
Wow nabeguy, you are a walking encyclopedia of Brooklyn Heights. I’m here 30 years and you make me feel like i just moved in. You sure Craven didn’t live on Elm?
Sandy Dennis has been in so many excellent movies:
1) Splendor in the Grass, 2) Who is Afraid of Virginia Wolfe (excellent) 3)Up The Down Staircase, 4) Sweet November, 5) Out of Towners (excellent) 6) Come Back to the Five and Dime, 7) The Fox. I loved that movie with Ann Heywood.
Just been here a bit longer, Karl. Actually, the Chapin’s were neighbors at 45 Hicks; Harry and his brothers used to babysit me and my sibs. In another strange-but-true synergy, Harry’s half brother opened the Hicks Brothers Deli where Tutt Cafe now is.
Holy Cow. I am such an idiot. That is the same Eli Wilentz that was friendly to all those great writers and poets Ginsberg, Kerouac and others. A real icon and friend of the literary world and the world in general. A really great man. I can’t believe it, I think I know his son. I didn’t put 2 + 2 together to get 4.
I’ll post additional names provided, thanks Andrew. By the way, don’t know how many caricatures I have seen drawn by Nast depicting Tweed in various states. Good one.
If you don’t mind, I’ll pass on Rudolph unless the reindeer lived on Columbia Heights.
I have added Brodsky but will hold off on the others. Last month I went to look at an apartment in the building in which she purchased and the real estate agent wouldn’t even confirm that B….. would be living there. I’ll wait to I see her at Cranberries to add her to the list.
Any other suggestions, please let me know. I will post updated version at the end of the week and we can update it thereafter when the occasion warrants.
You do know Eli Wilentz’s son Karl. That would be me. And Allen Ginsberg used to bounce me on his knee when I was a baby. Andrew, thank you for the acknowledgment. My father loved history and the Heights, two passions that I’m sure you can appreciate.
Well, there are also the famous Abstract Epressionists artists who lived here….Adolph Gottlieb on State Street, Barnett Newman lived on Pierrepont and David Smith lived somewhere around here too (they would allwalk over to the Navy Yard to see the steel workers work sometimes)
just researching…Adolph Gottlieb lived at 160 State Street, Barnett Newman lived at 62 Pierrepont and David Smith lived in Brooklyn Heights starting in 1931 (can’t find an address yet)
nabeguy, I know your cousin (?) Wayne Wilentz. He lived at 144 Willow for a while and was a musician friend of my guitar playing boyfriend. They used to play out together at a restaurant in Manhattan.
since 47, Norman Rosten also lived at 187 Hicks St. He was the author of my picture book. I met him while he lived at 84 Remsen and even painted that building into our book, A CITY IS.
Wow, and John Graham lived here too! Found this at the american archives site “Graham and Elinor Gibson divorced in 1934 and he married Constance Wellman in Paris in 1936. They lived in Brooklyn Heights near Adolph Gottlieb, David Smith, and Dorothy Dehner” – for those that might not know, Graham wrote “Systems and Dialectics” which all the New York artists at that time read and were so heavily influenced by…Graham was also an avid primitive arts collector and shared his knowledge with everyone – which served as such a pivotal influence….
I’ve lived in the Heights for almost 27 years (the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere), but I’m always learning fascinating new things about the neighborhood and the people who live or have lived here. Thanks, Karl, for making this video. Putting on my nit-picky copy editor hat, could you change the spelling (in your scroll list at the end) of the name of the composer Benjamin Britten from Bretton?
Out of curiosity–maybe Melanie can help–was Norman Rosten related to Leo Rosten, famous for The Joys of Yiddish and The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N?
You guys are incredible. I must admit, I never heard of many of the individuals mentioned but they were all tremendously talented individuals who deserved to be included. What a fantastic neighborhood to be associated with.
I have improved this product that much more by adding many of the individuals mentioned plus I found a couple that were omitted on my own.
This was very much a collaborative effort and I’m never surprised by the intelligence that resides in Brooklyn Heights.
Claude thanks for the spelling correction. I’m always embarrassed when I do that but would be more embarrassed if I let it stand. Thanks.
The length is longer than planned so no more names. Pleeeease. Check out the footage i added from one of my new additions. Pretty funny.
And nabeguy, I want you to know that I appreciated your contributions even before I found out you were descendent from royalty. The apple did not fall far from the tree.
I’m sending final video to Homer and hopefully you will enjoy the “new and improved” of the old “new and improved”.
I heard one of Eli Wilentz’s sons speak at a Bob Dylan class at the 92nd Y this fall — the Princeton professor — and he was fascinating. He brought the Beat scene to life and made me wish I was older than I am… I
William Hurt. C. where were you before I sent the latest version to Homer? I can’t leave out Hurt. I’ve seen him walking around the nabe plenty. Will send new version of the new version of the new version to Homer later tonight. I’ll include Bjork even though she hasn’t moved here yet technically from what I understand. By the time I finish this film she will have moved in and gone. No more names please unless they have won an academy award like Hurt, ok. ;.)
Topic drift, I know, but Nabeguy, when I was a teenager living on the UES I used to make a big sweep of mostly used bookstores starting on Third and Fourth Avenues, then going to the 8th St Bookstore and on to the used book stores on 7th Avenue. Back when “Book Row” still really meant something.
Speaking of which, how could we forget Jack Biblo, who also lived on Middagh and, after he retired from co-owning Book Row’s Biblo & Tannen, owned Biblo Books, the bookstore on the corner of Middagh and Hicks?
I’m pretty sure Obama lived in the North Heights. He mentions getting the NYTimes and bagels on Clark Street.
Andrew, right you are again. Charles’s kitchen window was 20 feet from my bedroom window and I could smell his wife’s cooking on a daily basis. How could I forget him?
He is now included.
I moved David Levine’s picture to the beginning of the film for a dedication and added some more individuals.
It is the final version of the final version of the final………..
Again thanks to everyone who contributed. You guys are a wealth of information.
Thanks for improving the video so I could finally watch it. Fantastic, congratulations. Makes me proud and inspired to live here. Jennifer Connolly still owes me 27 cents (a silly joke she might remember). Used to see her in aerobics class at the gym.
He may be a bit too obscure, but the artist John von Wicht lived here, as well (his wife used to babysit for Since47 and me — and the fact that she somehow survived my sister’s and my antics should qualify her as a “notable,” too :).
Sadly from the obits today, the passing of Norval White, another resident who along with Elliot Willensky, yet another resident, created the AIA Guide to NYC.
Bill Wilson (Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) lived at 182 Clinton St. which was actually his wife’s parents place. They moved there when Bill became unemployable because of his constant drinking. Fortunately its also the place he got sober.
The Clinton St. home is mentioned in this portrait of Bill Wilson from Time’s 100: http://205.188.238.181/time/time100/heroes/profile/wilson01.html
Bill himself spoke about early A.A. in NY and his Clinton St. home in this transcript of a talk he gave in 1955: http://www.barefootsworld.net/aabillwmanhattan1955.html
Yet another amazing neighborhood fact.
I’m going to NY next week and while looking for info about Brooklyn came across this film and honestly loved it. Some images even filled my eyes with tears.
Thanks a lot
Sonia
Argentina
That is very true. During that period he was teaching Spanish at the prestigious Dalton School a couple of blocks from where I grew up on 89th Street between Park Avenue and Madison. I always wanted to go to Dalton but the expense was way beyond my parents financial resources. Brings back memories. I’ll add him to the prominent names and the end of the film. Thanks.
Nice video, but please bring back the youtube versions–so many ads! And they block the video!
Loved this! Although the ad was super distracting and annoying. Otherwise, fantastic. Thank you.
Really nice video. Those omitted include Alan Arkin, Claire Bloom/Rod Steiger, Lee Hayes (from The Weavers), James Purdy, and, of course, Harry Chapin.
In the pre-presidential department, it also seems that, on the nights of August 27 and 28, 1776, George Washington slept here.
The list goes on….Wes Craven, John Fiedler (voice of Piglet), Sandy Dennis, Adam Arkin (along with his father Alan), Malcolm Jamal Warner, John Dockery, David Levine.
Beautiful work, Karl, as ever! But you’ve neglected to include my cats, Poulenc and Chi-Chi.
Want me to send pix?
W.E.B. Dubois lived on Grace Ct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois
Norman Rosten, forever on Remsen Street.
Video is “New and Improved” thanks to your great contributions.
You guys were great. nabeguy, I couldn’t verify via the web, that Wes Craven, Sandy Dennis, and Malcolm Jamal Warner actually lived in the Heights. I’m sure you are correct but I couldn’t corroborate. Now I talked to Mr. Fiedler and John Dockery a few times so i knew them but the other 3 were tough. Now I know that all three filmed in the Heights, Craven with the Vampire from Brooklyn movie, Sandy Dennis with the movie Sweet November, and Malcolm Warner with the Cosby Show which actually took place in Fort Greene, I believe not the Heights.
I have been accused, in the past, of being lose with the facts, ie Belgium Blocks not Cobblestones, so i want to be extra sure.
bornhere, I think I included all those celebrities you mentioned. ;) Check again.
Craven lived at 136 Hicks, Warner on Montague Terrace. You may have me on Sandy Dennis. In the strange-but-true department, Tom Chapin, Harry’s brother, married Bonnie Craven, Wes’s ex.
Oops, sorry for the double post.
The ever-vigilant copy editor caught it.
Wow nabeguy, you are a walking encyclopedia of Brooklyn Heights. I’m here 30 years and you make me feel like i just moved in. You sure Craven didn’t live on Elm?
Sandy Dennis has been in so many excellent movies:
1) Splendor in the Grass, 2) Who is Afraid of Virginia Wolfe (excellent) 3)Up The Down Staircase, 4) Sweet November, 5) Out of Towners (excellent) 6) Come Back to the Five and Dime, 7) The Fox. I loved that movie with Ann Heywood.
Very good agent.
Just been here a bit longer, Karl. Actually, the Chapin’s were neighbors at 45 Hicks; Harry and his brothers used to babysit me and my sibs. In another strange-but-true synergy, Harry’s half brother opened the Hicks Brothers Deli where Tutt Cafe now is.
Karl — what a neat “quick fix!” As long as we have your attention, could you maybe change the ending of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”?
Not before he’s done with redoing the entire final season the The Sopranos.
hey – what about Josef Brodsky (lived and died on Pierrepont) and, the new additions of Matthew Barney and Bork?
Thomas Nast, famous illustrator and cartoonist, lived in a house on the NW corner of Orange and Hicks.
Eli Wilentz, owner of the 8th Street Bookstore, lived on Middagh Street.
What was the name of that infamous Russian spy, who lived on Fulton Street in the 1950s?
Rudolph Abel.
Holy Cow. I am such an idiot. That is the same Eli Wilentz that was friendly to all those great writers and poets Ginsberg, Kerouac and others. A real icon and friend of the literary world and the world in general. A really great man. I can’t believe it, I think I know his son. I didn’t put 2 + 2 together to get 4.
I’ll post additional names provided, thanks Andrew. By the way, don’t know how many caricatures I have seen drawn by Nast depicting Tweed in various states. Good one.
If you don’t mind, I’ll pass on Rudolph unless the reindeer lived on Columbia Heights.
Pierre,
I have added Brodsky but will hold off on the others. Last month I went to look at an apartment in the building in which she purchased and the real estate agent wouldn’t even confirm that B….. would be living there. I’ll wait to I see her at Cranberries to add her to the list.
Any other suggestions, please let me know. I will post updated version at the end of the week and we can update it thereafter when the occasion warrants.
You do know Eli Wilentz’s son Karl. That would be me. And Allen Ginsberg used to bounce me on his knee when I was a baby. Andrew, thank you for the acknowledgment. My father loved history and the Heights, two passions that I’m sure you can appreciate.
Well, there are also the famous Abstract Epressionists artists who lived here….Adolph Gottlieb on State Street, Barnett Newman lived on Pierrepont and David Smith lived somewhere around here too (they would allwalk over to the Navy Yard to see the steel workers work sometimes)
oops, make that Abstract Expressionists….
just researching…Adolph Gottlieb lived at 160 State Street, Barnett Newman lived at 62 Pierrepont and David Smith lived in Brooklyn Heights starting in 1931 (can’t find an address yet)
nabeguy, I know your cousin (?) Wayne Wilentz. He lived at 144 Willow for a while and was a musician friend of my guitar playing boyfriend. They used to play out together at a restaurant in Manhattan.
since 47, Norman Rosten also lived at 187 Hicks St. He was the author of my picture book. I met him while he lived at 84 Remsen and even painted that building into our book, A CITY IS.
Artist Joseph Pennell, lived in the penthouse at the Hotel Margaret.
There was a Mexican author who lived in the Margaret as well, name escapes me (Alva ?) – nabeguy?
Wow, and John Graham lived here too! Found this at the american archives site “Graham and Elinor Gibson divorced in 1934 and he married Constance Wellman in Paris in 1936. They lived in Brooklyn Heights near Adolph Gottlieb, David Smith, and Dorothy Dehner” – for those that might not know, Graham wrote “Systems and Dialectics” which all the New York artists at that time read and were so heavily influenced by…Graham was also an avid primitive arts collector and shared his knowledge with everyone – which served as such a pivotal influence….
I’ve lived in the Heights for almost 27 years (the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere), but I’m always learning fascinating new things about the neighborhood and the people who live or have lived here. Thanks, Karl, for making this video. Putting on my nit-picky copy editor hat, could you change the spelling (in your scroll list at the end) of the name of the composer Benjamin Britten from Bretton?
Out of curiosity–maybe Melanie can help–was Norman Rosten related to Leo Rosten, famous for The Joys of Yiddish and The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N?
@Claude, no relation that I know of.
You guys are incredible. I must admit, I never heard of many of the individuals mentioned but they were all tremendously talented individuals who deserved to be included. What a fantastic neighborhood to be associated with.
I have improved this product that much more by adding many of the individuals mentioned plus I found a couple that were omitted on my own.
This was very much a collaborative effort and I’m never surprised by the intelligence that resides in Brooklyn Heights.
Claude thanks for the spelling correction. I’m always embarrassed when I do that but would be more embarrassed if I let it stand. Thanks.
The length is longer than planned so no more names. Pleeeease. Check out the footage i added from one of my new additions. Pretty funny.
And nabeguy, I want you to know that I appreciated your contributions even before I found out you were descendent from royalty. The apple did not fall far from the tree.
I’m sending final video to Homer and hopefully you will enjoy the “new and improved” of the old “new and improved”.
I heard one of Eli Wilentz’s sons speak at a Bob Dylan class at the 92nd Y this fall — the Princeton professor — and he was fascinating. He brought the Beat scene to life and made me wish I was older than I am… I
No William Hurt? or the lead singer of MGMT? Bjork?
William Hurt. C. where were you before I sent the latest version to Homer? I can’t leave out Hurt. I’ve seen him walking around the nabe plenty. Will send new version of the new version of the new version to Homer later tonight. I’ll include Bjork even though she hasn’t moved here yet technically from what I understand. By the time I finish this film she will have moved in and gone. No more names please unless they have won an academy award like Hurt, ok. ;.)
Nabeguy: Sean’s your brother? I’m a big fan of his, despite our having been on opposite sides of the Clinton vs. Obama contest a year and a half ago.
This video was great! Fantastic work, Karl. Anybody know where Barack lived when he was in the neighborhood?
Great idea..makes me want to move there even more..thanks.
Topic drift, I know, but Nabeguy, when I was a teenager living on the UES I used to make a big sweep of mostly used bookstores starting on Third and Fourth Avenues, then going to the 8th St Bookstore and on to the used book stores on 7th Avenue. Back when “Book Row” still really meant something.
Speaking of which, how could we forget Jack Biblo, who also lived on Middagh and, after he retired from co-owning Book Row’s Biblo & Tannen, owned Biblo Books, the bookstore on the corner of Middagh and Hicks?
I’m pretty sure Obama lived in the North Heights. He mentions getting the NYTimes and bagels on Clark Street.
There was also a famous artist, Charles Schucker?, who lived across the street from Biblo on Middagh.
Andrew, right you are again. Charles’s kitchen window was 20 feet from my bedroom window and I could smell his wife’s cooking on a daily basis. How could I forget him?
He is now included.
I moved David Levine’s picture to the beginning of the film for a dedication and added some more individuals.
It is the final version of the final version of the final………..
Again thanks to everyone who contributed. You guys are a wealth of information.
Homer should post latest version momentarily.
Thanks for improving the video so I could finally watch it. Fantastic, congratulations. Makes me proud and inspired to live here. Jennifer Connolly still owes me 27 cents (a silly joke she might remember). Used to see her in aerobics class at the gym.
I’m sorry – where will the newest of new version be posted? back on this specific thread or a new one?
Sent it to Homer. In my opinion, based on the input from BHB contributors, much better.
One of us will let you know when he post the updated version. Sometimes I forget that Homer has another occupation other than “super blogger”.
He may be a bit too obscure, but the artist John von Wicht lived here, as well (his wife used to babysit for Since47 and me — and the fact that she somehow survived my sister’s and my antics should qualify her as a “notable,” too :).
Bravo, Karl! I just saw your final version, which is a masterpiece.
Mr. Junkersfeld – my hat is off to you – fabulous! Proud to live here.
Claude, yes I am. And I was too.
Sadly from the obits today, the passing of Norval White, another resident who along with Elliot Willensky, yet another resident, created the AIA Guide to NYC.
Great video. Perfect. Better than YouTube. I don’t need YouTube cookies. Don’t love the ads but the quality of the video overall is A+. Thanks.
Loved it , thank you but what about Patty Duke who has only seen the sites a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights!
I really enjoyed that video.
Bill Wilson (co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) lived here on Clinton St., I understand.
Never knew that, skb. He definitely had a lot of friends in the neighborhood.
And I just remembered, Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, was born at 71 Pineapple Street, according to a religious person I knew.
Bill Wilson (Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) lived at 182 Clinton St. which was actually his wife’s parents place. They moved there when Bill became unemployable because of his constant drinking. Fortunately its also the place he got sober.
The Clinton St. home is mentioned in this portrait of Bill Wilson from Time’s 100:
http://205.188.238.181/time/time100/heroes/profile/wilson01.html
Bill himself spoke about early A.A. in NY and his Clinton St. home in this transcript of a talk he gave in 1955: http://www.barefootsworld.net/aabillwmanhattan1955.html
Yet another amazing neighborhood fact.
I’m going to NY next week and while looking for info about Brooklyn came across this film and honestly loved it. Some images even filled my eyes with tears.
Thanks a lot
Sonia
Argentina
How heart-warming and snuggly-feeling was that video…Thanks so much for all the work required to produce it.
Ramona McDaris
The great abstract painter Esteban Vicente lived in Brooklyn Heights on Hicks Street between 1942-46.
HeightsGuy,
That is very true. During that period he was teaching Spanish at the prestigious Dalton School a couple of blocks from where I grew up on 89th Street between Park Avenue and Madison. I always wanted to go to Dalton but the expense was way beyond my parents financial resources. Brings back memories. I’ll add him to the prominent names and the end of the film. Thanks.