This English Tudor house, located at 201 Clent Road, Great Neck, New York, may not look like much of a love nest. But in 1948, its chief female resident, Mrs. Dorothea Matthews turned this house into something approaching the Playboy Mansion, East. It wasn’t until Mrs. Matthews’ divorce proceedings from her husband Mark Matthews in… Continue reading Man-Eating Sex Queen of Great Neck, New York, Dorothea Matthews
Category: Periods
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When a Lowly Writer of Pirate Tales Found His Way
He was old, his wife sick, he had lost his job, and he was drinking too much. It didn’t help that the country had hit rock-bottom in the worst financial depression of its history. Still, the human spirit persists. In 1932, jobless and dejected Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) persisted in a very small way by signing… Continue reading When a Lowly Writer of Pirate Tales Found His Way
Before Borderline Bar & Grill Was Charley Brown’s Restaurant, Thousand Oaks
The Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, site of the November 7, 2018 shooting of 12 people, has been around for a long time in various iterations. In Thousand Oaks, a bedroom community 40 miles from Los Angeles, where everything is torn down and rebuilt on a regular basis, it is virtually unheard… Continue reading Before Borderline Bar & Grill Was Charley Brown’s Restaurant, Thousand Oaks
Woody Guthrie’s Song “Deportee”: Well-Meaning Fantasy
It was a plane crash that killed 32 people, mainly illegal immigrants, and spawned Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).” For over 70 years, “Deportee” has come to signify the heartlessness of the American public, media, and law enforcement system towards illegal immigrants. Recorded by Joan Baez, Kingston Trio, Hoyt Axton, Nanci Griffith,… Continue reading Woody Guthrie’s Song “Deportee”: Well-Meaning Fantasy
Capping San Francisco’s Panhandle Freeway: a Plan That Never Happened
The plan made a lot of sense. If you were going to have a freeway running right through San Francisco’s Panhandle, which itself connects to the eastern end of Golden Gate Park, why not partially cap it off? Edmund G. Burger, principal at Burger & Coplans, wasn’t the bad guy here, not by any stretch… Continue reading Capping San Francisco’s Panhandle Freeway: a Plan That Never Happened