Nino & Me

I met Nino in early 1968, when both of us served the Brazilian Army at São Paulo's CPOR (Centro de Preparação de Oficiais da Reserva) on Rua Alfredo Pujol, in Santana.  We both started serving as a soldiers in the first days of January; I served as a Nurse and Nino as an Infantry soldier. We soon became fast friends during and after we left the barracks. Sometimes we stayed apart from each other for a few months but we always came back together again. 

Some time after we left the Army, I made known to Nino I had a plan to travel abroad to live in the USA. Nino jumped at the idea with passion. Actually, he told me his family had been on the verge of moving in with Portuguese relatives of theirs who lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts when, circa 1964, rumours abounded in rightwing circles that Brazil was about to become a Communist country following the example of Cuba and its revolution of 1959. 

Nino hailed from a conservative, Presbyterian family of Portuguese extraction. Nino's real name was Antonio Gonçalves Filho. His nome-de-guerre at the barracks was Soldier Filho. His mother Jacira, was the guardian-of-the-faith in the family. I met her a few times and I thought she was a true Calvinist with a religious bias.  

I ended up traveling to the New York, USA by myself on 1st October 1971. Nino followed me four months later having directed his feet to San Francisco, California, where he was the guest of José Luís, a Spanish young man he had met in São Paulo earlier in 1971, who was on his way to settle in Northern California.   

I think the biggest thing I learned from Nino - and I learned a lot of things from him - was to buy me a cassette tape recorder which had been introduced in the market recently (1971) and tape songs straight from radio stations instead of spending hard-earned cash buying vynil records which were expensive and difficult to carry around.  

CPOR at Rua Alfredo Pujól, in Santana. 

CPOR in the 1940s without those hideous sentry boxes at the entrance.

Pari Bar at Praça Dom José Gaspar was a favourite place with Nino in 1968, 1969. 

Downtown New York

 

Downtown Skyport in 1936 at Pier 11, East River; see the big 120 Wall Street Building in the back. 

same place 5 years later, in 1941.

1920s New York City

 

Times Square in 1921. 

Loew's State Theatre on Times Square on its opening day in 1921, with Leo, the Lion in person. The flick is 'Easy come, easy go' with Richard Dix plus Jane & Katherine Lee & 'Our Gang'. 

Loew's State Theatre showing 'Devil's holiday' which opened on 9 May 1930.

Broadway in 1920.

Miss Day & other celebrities

 

Billie Holyday in her one-bed-room apartment in Manhattan in 1957. 

Barbra & brother Sheldon Streisand in Brooklyn, in 1952. 

Newark / Harrison / Kearny / Wilson Avenue

 

Bridge over Passaic River linking Newark to Harrison and Kearny. 

Newark & Harrison.

Corner of Barbara Street and Wilson Avenue. where I first lived when I moved into the States in 1971. 

Wilson Avenue with Rome Street on the left and Jabez Street on the right. 

Newark's Ironbound section. 

Myself & NYC

 

Myself in Manhattan, having the original New York Times building in the back on a Saturday at 12:47 in the month of October 1971. The photo was taken from this blog by Ruben Iglesias, a member of the New York City Images: 1850-1980. These are some of the quaint comments made by other members:

One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower) is a 25-story, 363-foot-high (111 m) skyscraper on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. 

Designed by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz in the neo-Gothic style, the tower was built in 1903–1904 as the headquarters of The New York Times. It takes up the city block bounded by Seventh Avenue, 42nd Street, Broadway, and 43rd Street. 

The building's design has been heavily modified throughout the years, and all of its original architectural detail has since been removed. One Times Square's primary design features are the advertising billboards on its facade, added in the 1990s. Due to the large amount of revenue generated by its signage, One Times Square is one of the most valuable advertising locations in the world.

The surrounding Longacre Square neighborhood was renamed "Times Square" during the tower's construction, and The New York Times moved into the tower in January 1905. Eight years later, the paper's offices moved to 229 West 43rd Street. 

One Times Square remained a major focal point of the area due to its annual New Year's Eve "ball drop" festivities and the introduction of a large lighted news ticker near street-level in 1928. 

The Times sold the building to Douglas Leigh in 1961. Allied Chemical then bought the building in 1963 and renovated it as a showroom. Alex M. Parker took a long-term lease for the entire building in October 1973, buying it two years later. One Times Square was then sold multiple times in the 1980s and continued to serve as an office building.

14th Street through the years

 

Lüchow's Restaurant on 14th Street. 'Port of seven seas' with Wallace Beery opened at the City Theatre on 1st July 1938.  

Lüchow's was a restaurant located at 110 East 14th Street at Irving Place in East Village (near Union Square) in Manhattan, New York City.  It was established in 1882, at a time when the surrounding neighborhood was primarily residential. 

 

August Guido Lüchow, an immigrant from Hanover, Germany, arrived in the United States in 1879 at the age of 23. After working as waiter for a cafe on Duane Street, he became a bartender and waiter at a cafe & beer-garden belonging to Baron von Mehlbach. Three years later, aged 26, he purchased the business with the help of a $1,500 loan from William Steinway, the piano magnate, who had his concert hall and showrooms Steinway Hall across the street at Union Square and a door away from the Academy of Music, the cities opera house of the time. 

Lüchow's remained in operation at this place for a full century, becoming a favorite of stars of stage and screen until it closed in 1986.