The Honorable Robert B. Tierney
Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commision
One Centre Street, Ninth Floor North
New York, NY 10007
RE: Request For Evaluation To Extend Carnegie Hill Historic District
One Block East On 93rd Street
Dear Chairperson Tierney,
My name is Bill Marx, and my father is Harpo Marx. I am writing in support of the Request for Evaluation submitted by the 93rd Street Beautification Association asking that the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District (CHHD) one block east so as to include the historic collection of 19th century houses on 93rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues which includes the world-famous childhood home of the Marx Brothers.
As you well know, throughout their early formulative years, The Marx Brothers lived on East 93rd Street during the early part of the last century. However, along with their mother, Minnie, and father Sam, they lived there in their youth as Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton and Herbert. (Their theatrical names, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo came later.)
The Brothers grew up on the many streets of the east side of Manhattan, even occasionally going to school from time to time at PS 86. Some fifty years later, I made my way through the streets of the west side, while going to school at Juilliard when it was on 123rd and Claremont, across from Columbia U. At that time as well as many visits to the city since, I have learned the visceral feel one only gets from the tastes, smells and pace of, in my humble estimation, the most fabulous city in the world. When visiting it with Dad, he would often refer to the fact that the feeling was the same for him then as it was way back when. Somehow, and most fortunately, the city remains as its own continuing extension of its unique history.
Of course, this ongoing process must be upheld and advanced by people who deeply understand and cherish the importance and value of its heritage.
I certainly do, in recognizing my great fortune to be luckily, even if ever so slightly linked with such an internationally famous team of remarkably gifted relatives as the Marx Brothers. Heritage can involve itself in so many ways, shapes and forms of life.
By comparison to most other countries, America’s history is that of a very young nation. For our own as well as future generations, we must continue to forge varied ways in developing and nurturing that deep sense of the past through an appreciation of the roots and accomplishments of those who have contributed to America’s small towns and big cities.
I live in Rancho Mirage, California, where Dad lived many years until his passing. Recently, the home he built in the 1950’s that he called El Rancho Harpo is now honored by the city as a permanent Historical Site.
I know the Brothers would be thrilled to find that they are still remembered with great reverence in the twenty-first century by old and new fans alike, and I am sure they would be most honored to have what they called their early ‘home, sweet home’ remain recognized as a permanent part of your city’s vast, special ongoing history.
Respectfully,
Bill Marx
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
View Marx Brothers Place on MySpace Now !
We have recently updated our profile on MySpace so that folks have another way of staying in contact with our campaign to help preserve historic Marx Brothers Place.
Please visit us at:http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=295336768
Please visit us at:http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=295336768
Monday, November 10, 2008
Sample Letter Supporting Marx Brothers Place
Please cut & paste the following letter and send by REGULAR MAIL or EMAIL to NYC LPC; Mayor Bloomberg, Council Member Garodnick & the Manhattan Borough President at: comments@lpc.nyc.gov, ljackson@cityhall.nyc.gov, garodnickoffice@gmail.com, bp@manhattanbp.org. And please be sure to send a copy to us at 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com so we can keep track of all the letters. Thanks!!!
The Honorable Robert B. Tierney
Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
One Centre Street, 9th Floor North
New York, NY 10007
Re: Please Calendar the Request For Evaluation to extend Carnegie Hill Historic District 1 block east on 93rd Street
Dear Chairman Tierney,
I am writing in support of the Request for Evaluation submitted by the 93rd Street Beautification Association asking that the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District (CHHD) one block east so as to include the historic collection of 19th century houses on 93rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues which includes the world-famous childhood home of the Marx Brothers, and brownstones that are older than any of the ones already within the protection of the CHHD.
Please calendar this important RFE as soon as possible. As a community, we all have a duty to ensure that this incomparable historic block is preserved in order to protect NYC's city's economic and cultural future. It is imperative that the Commission act swiftly in fulfilling this duty.
Respectfully submitted,
(please add your name & address here)
The Honorable Robert B. Tierney
Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
One Centre Street, 9th Floor North
New York, NY 10007
Re: Please Calendar the Request For Evaluation to extend Carnegie Hill Historic District 1 block east on 93rd Street
Dear Chairman Tierney,
I am writing in support of the Request for Evaluation submitted by the 93rd Street Beautification Association asking that the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District (CHHD) one block east so as to include the historic collection of 19th century houses on 93rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues which includes the world-famous childhood home of the Marx Brothers, and brownstones that are older than any of the ones already within the protection of the CHHD.
Please calendar this important RFE as soon as possible. As a community, we all have a duty to ensure that this incomparable historic block is preserved in order to protect NYC's city's economic and cultural future. It is imperative that the Commission act swiftly in fulfilling this duty.
Respectfully submitted,
(please add your name & address here)
Monday, October 27, 2008
Harpo's Son Joins the Campaign !
His father had always told him just how much he loved his childhood home on East 93rd Street. So, when Harpo Marx's son heard about the Preservation Campaign to protect this incomparable historic block, and the Marx Brothers' childhood home, Bill Marx promptly wrote to the Chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission asking the LPC to include Marx Brothers Place in the Carnegie Hill Historic District where it belongs.
Bill Marx believes that as a nation, it's imperative that we pay keen attention to our collective cultural history, so as not to forget who America was while continuing to define who she will become.
Harpo's son was also recently instrumental in getting his father's Ranch, El Rancho Harpo - where he lived late in life, designated as an historic site in California. Now Mr. Marx has turned his attention to East 93rd Street in the hopes that New York City will do the right thing and preserve the historic block where the childhood home of his famous father and uncles still stands.
Once word got out that Harpo's son was on board, it didn't take long for the story to make the rounds in NYC. Just check out these links:
http://clydefitch.blogspot.com/2008/10/harpos-son-joins-campaign-to-create.html,
http://hdc.org/blog/2008/10/27/harpos-son-joins-the-fight-to-save-93rd-street/,
http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/marx-brothers-son-pushes-for-landmark-status.
And, of course, you can help, too ! Just click on this link and sign the 2 petitions to protect historic Marx Brothers Place: http://savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/please-sign-our-petitions-to-save-marx-brothers-place/. Thanks !
For more information about the campaign to preserve historic Marx Brothers Place, please contact the 93rd Street Beautification Association at 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com or visit our blog at http://www.savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/.
Bill Marx believes that as a nation, it's imperative that we pay keen attention to our collective cultural history, so as not to forget who America was while continuing to define who she will become.
Harpo's son was also recently instrumental in getting his father's Ranch, El Rancho Harpo - where he lived late in life, designated as an historic site in California. Now Mr. Marx has turned his attention to East 93rd Street in the hopes that New York City will do the right thing and preserve the historic block where the childhood home of his famous father and uncles still stands.
Once word got out that Harpo's son was on board, it didn't take long for the story to make the rounds in NYC. Just check out these links:
http://clydefitch.blogspot.com/2008/10/harpos-son-joins-campaign-to-create.html,
http://hdc.org/blog/2008/10/27/harpos-son-joins-the-fight-to-save-93rd-street/,
http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/marx-brothers-son-pushes-for-landmark-status.
And, of course, you can help, too ! Just click on this link and sign the 2 petitions to protect historic Marx Brothers Place: http://savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/please-sign-our-petitions-to-save-marx-brothers-place/. Thanks !
For more information about the campaign to preserve historic Marx Brothers Place, please contact the 93rd Street Beautification Association at 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com or visit our blog at http://www.savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Marx Brothers - Preservation Instigators ?
The Marx Brothers' global influence is so undeniable and so indelible that even after all these years, the brothers still manage somehow to contribute to the public dialogue on issues as far ranging as local politics, foreign policy, individualism and yes - even historic preservation (you see, it turns out - the Marx Brothers were the impetus for the Demolition Review law in Chicago, too ! ).
Their collective recalcitrance, and the inevitable image of those brilliant comics thumbing their noses at the status quo, is perhaps the essence of what is most American about these lovable clowns. It's also the very characteristic that gave their opinions pop, and still does.
Throughout their busy lives, the Marx Brothers engaged in a freewheeling discourse with a virtual salon of leaders, thinkers and creative artists which included American Presidents, world-renowned painters (perhaps most notably Salvador Dali), filmmakers, writers and poets from all across the globe. Correspondence flowing back and forth between the publicly mute Harpo Marx, the outspoken Groucho Marx and the somewhat taciturn American President Harry S. Truman is preserved today in the National Archives at: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/spring/truman-and-marx-brothers.html.
In 1961, Harpo Marx presented Truman with a copy of his acclaimed memoir Harpo Speaks! in which the comedian lovingly describes the Marx Brothers childhood home on East 93rd Street in Carnegie Hill where the family lived before the turn of the 19th century and into the 20th century. Harpo always liked to say (yes, he really did speak) that wherever the Marx Brothers went, their 93rd Street accent followed. The Marx Brothers childhood home, the first they ever knew, never left them - even after they moved out of the house on the hill (perhaps it actually was the steep slope under footing their childhood that caused them to lean so far to the left at times ?).
The stark vulnerability of that still un-landmarked childhood home, the house that helped to shape the world-view of the inimitable Marx Brothers, and to which Groucho wistfully returned late in life, has sparked a preservation campaign attracting a rather ecclectic coalition perfectly suited to men of such renaissance talents and ideas. Among the many supporters of the effort to protect historic East 93rd Street (affectionately known as Marx Brothers Place) are some of the most distinguished Preservationists in NY (Tony Wood, Elizabeth Ashby, Teri Slater, Michael Devonshire & Bronson Binger to mention but a few), theatre artists & theatre critics (Playwright Gregory Murphy, Theater Critic Leonard Jacobs, Stage Director Ludovica Villar-Hauser, Actor Jy Murphy, et al), film & television artists (filmmaker Woody Allen and TV Writer-Producer Bob Weide of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Marx Brothers fans from all over the world and Groucho's own granddaughter Jade Marx.
Now, as it turns out, we find that NYC is not the first place where these magicians of mayhem and comic clowning have had a profound and positive impact on historic preservation. After leaving their beloved childhood home on East 93rd Street, in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, the Marx Brothers lived for a time in the City of Chicago. As you will read in this Chicago Tribune story from 2003, it is this later Marx Brothers House that was the impetus for the adoption of a Demolition Review Amendment in that city, too: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0301150213jan15, 1,703330.story .
As this fact was completely unknown to the 93rd Street Beautification Association when it first launched its preservation campaign, Save Marx Brothers Place (www.savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com), which has now led to a movement to adopt the Demolition Review Amendment in NYC (the bill is presently making its way through the legislative process of the NYC Council), one must ask the obvious question: are these comic geniuses, who always had an opinion on public policy - whether the emigration of Jewish refugees after WW II, America's relationship with Israel or whether Truman's wife should run for President in his stead - still pulling the strings from beyond the grave ? Honk if you think so.
Their collective recalcitrance, and the inevitable image of those brilliant comics thumbing their noses at the status quo, is perhaps the essence of what is most American about these lovable clowns. It's also the very characteristic that gave their opinions pop, and still does.
Throughout their busy lives, the Marx Brothers engaged in a freewheeling discourse with a virtual salon of leaders, thinkers and creative artists which included American Presidents, world-renowned painters (perhaps most notably Salvador Dali), filmmakers, writers and poets from all across the globe. Correspondence flowing back and forth between the publicly mute Harpo Marx, the outspoken Groucho Marx and the somewhat taciturn American President Harry S. Truman is preserved today in the National Archives at: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/spring/truman-and-marx-brothers.html.
In 1961, Harpo Marx presented Truman with a copy of his acclaimed memoir Harpo Speaks! in which the comedian lovingly describes the Marx Brothers childhood home on East 93rd Street in Carnegie Hill where the family lived before the turn of the 19th century and into the 20th century. Harpo always liked to say (yes, he really did speak) that wherever the Marx Brothers went, their 93rd Street accent followed. The Marx Brothers childhood home, the first they ever knew, never left them - even after they moved out of the house on the hill (perhaps it actually was the steep slope under footing their childhood that caused them to lean so far to the left at times ?).
The stark vulnerability of that still un-landmarked childhood home, the house that helped to shape the world-view of the inimitable Marx Brothers, and to which Groucho wistfully returned late in life, has sparked a preservation campaign attracting a rather ecclectic coalition perfectly suited to men of such renaissance talents and ideas. Among the many supporters of the effort to protect historic East 93rd Street (affectionately known as Marx Brothers Place) are some of the most distinguished Preservationists in NY (Tony Wood, Elizabeth Ashby, Teri Slater, Michael Devonshire & Bronson Binger to mention but a few), theatre artists & theatre critics (Playwright Gregory Murphy, Theater Critic Leonard Jacobs, Stage Director Ludovica Villar-Hauser, Actor Jy Murphy, et al), film & television artists (filmmaker Woody Allen and TV Writer-Producer Bob Weide of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Marx Brothers fans from all over the world and Groucho's own granddaughter Jade Marx.
Now, as it turns out, we find that NYC is not the first place where these magicians of mayhem and comic clowning have had a profound and positive impact on historic preservation. After leaving their beloved childhood home on East 93rd Street, in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, the Marx Brothers lived for a time in the City of Chicago. As you will read in this Chicago Tribune story from 2003, it is this later Marx Brothers House that was the impetus for the adoption of a Demolition Review Amendment in that city, too: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0301150213jan15, 1,703330.story .
As this fact was completely unknown to the 93rd Street Beautification Association when it first launched its preservation campaign, Save Marx Brothers Place (www.savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com), which has now led to a movement to adopt the Demolition Review Amendment in NYC (the bill is presently making its way through the legislative process of the NYC Council), one must ask the obvious question: are these comic geniuses, who always had an opinion on public policy - whether the emigration of Jewish refugees after WW II, America's relationship with Israel or whether Truman's wife should run for President in his stead - still pulling the strings from beyond the grave ? Honk if you think so.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Everybody Says We Love Woody Allen !
As a lifelong Marx Brothers fan, and former Carnegie Hill neighbor, the moment Woody Allen heard that Marx Brothers Place was fast becoming the Georgia of Carnegie Hill, under constant threat of aggressive incursion and senseless demolition, NY's most loyal filmmaker came charging over the hill of East 93rd Street on the back of a tall white (it may have actually been shorter than it appeared, and now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was speckled) stallion (or, maybe it was a nag) waving a rusty, but surprisingly impressive, scepter in one hand, while calling out to all that could hear (which over the sound of Greystone Development's unbridled drilling was probably only a few), just like the patriot, Paul Revere, determined to arouse residents to the danger at hand; the systematic destruction of our city's irreplaceable cultural heritage.
Of course, East 93rd Street was all a buzz, smitten and bedazzled by Mr. Allen's selfless and glorious equestrian showstopper. So when this beloved NY filmmaker, who's been a little busy rolling out a new movie and all, took even more time out of his hectic schedule to write a beautiful letter of support intended to accompany the 93rd Street Beautification Association's Request for Evaluation (RFE) to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) asking the city to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District one block east so as to include this remarkable collection of historic 19th century houses within the protected boundary, we were, in a phrase, over the moon.
Please click on this link and enjoy reading about Woody Allen's support for historic Marx Brothers Place: http://hdcblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/so-woody-allen-wants-to-save-marx-brothers-place-you-should-too/.
We are deeply grateful for Mr. Allen's generous support and magical words. That's why Everybody Says We Love Woody Allen !
For more information, please visit: http://savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/messages-from-our-supporters/.
Of course, East 93rd Street was all a buzz, smitten and bedazzled by Mr. Allen's selfless and glorious equestrian showstopper. So when this beloved NY filmmaker, who's been a little busy rolling out a new movie and all, took even more time out of his hectic schedule to write a beautiful letter of support intended to accompany the 93rd Street Beautification Association's Request for Evaluation (RFE) to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) asking the city to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District one block east so as to include this remarkable collection of historic 19th century houses within the protected boundary, we were, in a phrase, over the moon.
Please click on this link and enjoy reading about Woody Allen's support for historic Marx Brothers Place: http://hdcblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/so-woody-allen-wants-to-save-marx-brothers-place-you-should-too/.
We are deeply grateful for Mr. Allen's generous support and magical words. That's why Everybody Says We Love Woody Allen !
For more information, please visit: http://savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/messages-from-our-supporters/.
Marx Brothers Place is Ready for its Close-up
In a city where real estate development still charges ahead at a break-neck pace that would give any mere mortal a serious case of whiplash (despite the well documented, and widely reported, revelation- no revelation here as we had told NYC Council Member Dan Garodnick; Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn about these dangerous and shoddy development practices, and the blatant lack of regulatory oversight, day after day, and well before it ever became tragic construction accident after tragic construction accident - of the serious under staffing and brazen corruption running rampant throughout the NYC Department of Buildings), it's a really big deal to get a TV News crew up at the crack of dawn on the eve of (yes, that's the morning before) Christmas Eve, when it's still pitch dark outside and so chillingly cold that even the usually intrepid NYC pigeons are huddled together, somewhere out of sight, with their shiver meter set to vibrate in the hopes of generating enough friction to sufficiently heat up the hollow in which they have temporarily taken refuge, to film a news story about a tiny little block in the hinterlands (better known as Carnegie Hill) which is under siege by developers who care nothing about the neighborhood (except to bleed it dry for the profit they will take back to NJ with them) and even less about its storied history.
But when NY1 TV News heard that historic Marx Brothers Place was being battered about by developers who were carelessly knocking down one 19th century house after another, they packed up the Van and set up their news cameras on East 93rd Street.
Please click on this link and enjoy watching the terrific NY1 TV News story, written and reported by Roger Clark, about historic Marx Brothers Place: http://www.ny1.com/Default.aspx?SecID=1000&ArID=76773. It even includes some great old clips from Marx Brothers movies.
And then, please show your support for this preservation campaign by signing these 2 Petitions to help protect historic Marx Brothers Place:
1.) Petition to Extend Carnegie Hill Historic District one block so as to include Historic East 93rd Street. Please just click on this link and type in your name:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/CHHD93st/petition.html
2.) Petition to Co-Name East 93rd Street 'Marx Brothers Place' in honor of the extant childhood home of the Comic Icons. Please just click on this link and type in your name:
http://www.petitiononline.com/coname/petition.html
And, of course, anyone that might be interested in more information about the 93rd Street Beautification Association's efforts to help protect historic Marx Brothers Place is invited to visit our home blog at: http://savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/
Thanks again for your interest in historic East 93rd Street, affectionately known as Marx Brothers Place !
But when NY1 TV News heard that historic Marx Brothers Place was being battered about by developers who were carelessly knocking down one 19th century house after another, they packed up the Van and set up their news cameras on East 93rd Street.
Please click on this link and enjoy watching the terrific NY1 TV News story, written and reported by Roger Clark, about historic Marx Brothers Place: http://www.ny1.com/Default.aspx?SecID=1000&ArID=76773. It even includes some great old clips from Marx Brothers movies.
And then, please show your support for this preservation campaign by signing these 2 Petitions to help protect historic Marx Brothers Place:
1.) Petition to Extend Carnegie Hill Historic District one block so as to include Historic East 93rd Street. Please just click on this link and type in your name:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/CHHD93st/petition.html
2.) Petition to Co-Name East 93rd Street 'Marx Brothers Place' in honor of the extant childhood home of the Comic Icons. Please just click on this link and type in your name:
http://www.petitiononline.com/coname/petition.html
And, of course, anyone that might be interested in more information about the 93rd Street Beautification Association's efforts to help protect historic Marx Brothers Place is invited to visit our home blog at: http://savemarxbrothersplace.wordpress.com/
Thanks again for your interest in historic East 93rd Street, affectionately known as Marx Brothers Place !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
