“Toast of The Town”
Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker, Frederic Remington, and the Artists of New Rochelle.”
~ On view through October 27th ~
Ten years ago this show of evocative works by the Art Colony of New Rochelle during the 1910’s, 1920’s and 1930’s helped remind the country of a once vibrant source of story telling in America, before the age of radio and television.
Unfortunately, very few people in New Rochelle, where all of this art was created, had a chance to view that outstanding exhibit. Unless of course they decided to drive the two and a half hours to Stockbridge, Mass. on a fall weekend, and pay the admission price to The Norman Rockwell Museum to see it.
In 1913 at the age of nineteen, after studying at the newly formed Art Students League in Manhattan, Norman Rockwell settled down in New Rochelle with his first real job; Art editor of “Boy’s Life”.
He remained in the Queen City for the next twenty-seven years, one of the most rewarding and productive periods of his career.
Somehow, this city seems to have missed the opportunity to claim Rockwell and this impressive band of celebrity artists for it’s very own.
Stockbridge, Massachusetts tells the story of these New Rochelle visual giants?
Come, again?
Illustrators in the early 1900’s were in great demand, they were the rock stars of the day. Their magazine covers, book illustrations and dust jackets were the i-Pads of today. It was extremely lucrative, brought instant notoriety to the artist, and New Rochelle provided a sophisticated, suburban center for this cultural life within easy reach of the nations art publishing center, and as we all know, that was just Forty-five musical minutes away.
Maybe if today’s New Rochelle had it’s own permanent space to showcase it’s creative legacy, her citizens and surrounding neighbors might be drawn to explore and wonder at one of this city’s great historical assets:
The successful American Illustrators who lived and worked here, adding to a growing cultural awareness of everyday life in America.
Frederic Remington’s Indian paintings and western sculpture are seen in many background photo’s of the White House Oval Office during the Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton presidencies.
J.C. Leyendecker helped make Arrow Shirt Co. and men’s fashions a booming industry.
Edward Penfield’s covers for Harpers Magazine and Orson
Lowell’s for Collier’s, were a month by month review of America’s emergence into a modern age.
Native American paintings by Remington Schuyler and the gallery of Good Housekeeping Magazine covers by C. Cole Phllips.
The fine art of Rockwell’s one time New Rochelle roommate Edmund Ward and Daniel Content’s wonderful book illustrations and sculpture.
Every one of these talented men called New Rochelle home.
James Montgomery Flagg was born in Pelham but returned from his art studies in Paris, to set up shop in his first studio in New Rochelle. It was in that studio he imagined and painted the most famous armed forces recruiting poster ever published.
Who doesn’t know the image of a white haired, top-hatted Uncle Sam, pointing that finger your way: “I Want You for The U. S. Army”?
Among the many rooms at Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s estate in Kent, England, is one whose walls are covered with the great man’s oil and watercolor paintings. His easel, paints, brushes and painting smock are at the ready, even a half smoked cigar lies in the ash tray. It’s as if he were interrupted in mid brush stroke to take an important call, and had to step away.
One of the rooms inside that mournful Armory on Main Street could easily provide a similar mock-up of Norman Rockwell’s New Rochelle Studio. After all, he worked in it here for almost thirty years. Is everything of his bound for Stockbridge?
Is there nothing to be said for his time, and that of the Art colony known as The 1920 New Rochelle Art Association, in the city they called home?
Is there a more famous American artist known throughout this country?
Could not a permanent collection of America’s great Illustrators, headed by the art of Norman Rockwell, become a drawing card and focal point for a revitalized downtown New Rochelle?
Tourists don’t pay money to sit in hotel rooms overlooking the Long Island Sound waiting for the next train to Manhattan. Well, maybe Europeans do. Know any Americans who fit that bill? I certainly don’t.
The empty Armory silently waits. Challenging the vision for a “tomorrow” in this town.
If New Rochelle keeps ignoring it’s historic past and the opportunity to showcase it’s very own artistic heritage, her legacy for the next ninety years might be an assorted collection of Eastern-block type sandstone colored high-rise towers, competing with a Mish-mashed collection of “Waterfront CondoWorld” for the title of:
“What the #^@% Happened to My Great City?”
No one will be showing up at that exhibit.
Not even in Massachusetts.
325 Years and We Have Concerns Over Our Heritage
This is absolutely nuts. Mike Scully has brought something of real importance to our attention and we shuck and jive like the great artistic tradition we were fortunate enough as a city to spawn is worth little to nothing. It reminds me of the dumbing down of our core education basics. For the sake of here and now, for “relevancy” we would throw out Shakespeare and Marlowe and replace with some considerably lesser authors like Haley or James. No wonder we are fast becoming an urban wasteland. I suppose graffiti on commercial walls or someone urinating on a painting of the Virgin Mary has more relevance than the artistic giants that graced our City.
Didn’t hear Scully mention anything about disregarding modern or avant garde artists. Didn’t hear him mention that the Poets Corner was irrelevant. In fact, I infer from his comments that he embraces both.
This city is more or less of a cultural wasteland when compared to others nearby. Perhaps we should all take a breath and think about these giants mentioned by Mike Scully. They are uniquely American blue collar ilustrators, painters, sculptors, and there are more. We have a great history in early cinema as well. And, we have someone quite present, a fine Councilman, Ivar Hyden, who has done his share to bring some enlightenment to this City; a proprietor of the Patisserie Cafe on Huguenot who has devoted time and space to feature artistic talent, and a pretty decent public library that works to bring forward local talent and school district artistic initiatives.
Why do we infer that these sort of things will not be supported throughout New Rochelle. Yeah, maybe if we made the downtown and adjoining areas somewhat safer, it would ease the task. But, damn it, the people up North are not so elitist that they won’t venture out and support something meaningufl and there are other cultural uses that could be integrated into the Armory, not as its full time only occupant, but as a part of the growth of the business and downtown district. The New Rochelle Opera comes to mind as does the notion of a dinner theater.
Thanks to Mike Scully we have seen more possibilities and I agree fundamentally with his position on Echo Bay and John D has captured the fundamental environmental issues with pinpoint clarity.
Tom is a fine poster and I think he makes key points and unfortunately, the City did not take proper advantage of the impact areas of transit and waterfront when they should or could have. They put their eggs in Cappelli’s basket and when the economy turned south, there was no alternative.
I can only hope that the neglect in downtown restoration or at least vigilence, has ended with the realization (or has it?) that the strategic direction of the City must change from the hithertoo residential over to commercial. It is that simple. You only need to see the decay downtown and the inaction of close relationships with prominent land users, such as Avalon and even Trump, to see that so much more could have been done to stabilize the loss of higher net worth lesses with the subsequent replacement of such with dormitory and lower net worth “supported” residents.
Tom, the core ideas of proximity to the City with its obvious advantages should have led to proper contingency planning that would have led to creating the sorts of environment that such residents need and want. It did not happen and its a sorry state of affairs in terms of even the 1996 Comprehensive Plan.
But, what is done is done. What is true also is that Echo Bay is not a community waterfront area. at best, it is a promenade, a footpath. It would be best served by small commercial development using the Armory as the leading edge. It would also prosper from something in short supply, SMART development — perhaps linking in the flourishing small commercial base on East Main Street via perhaps a pedestrian overpass and, Tom, here is where I think something else positive could be done; simply looking at Davids Island as a link to the development, recreational, and cultural growth of downtown New Rochelle. As it stands now everything damn thing is unbundled, unlinked,and very simple support needs…. a downtown police precinct, effective rezoning, landlord incentive programs, intolerance for quality of life issues, getting BID more effective or disbanding it entirely, working to relocate non revenue occupants on Main Street, and controlling the insiduous unplanned and unchecked expansion of Monroe.
The Armory is NECESSARY for community pride, for community allegiance, and it must be developed by community based folks and bring a panoply of business, cultural and veterans benefits to the City.
Thank you Mike for your excellent posting, Tom for you continuous support of the City and John for your researched and necessary sensible definition of just what the hell we have here in Echo Bay.
Oh, one last point. We could not come close to replicating Ridge Hill based on simple land usage and logistics. It may or may not fail. I don’t know. I do not it has a lot of transportation advantages. We have not appropriate space downtown and can’t see any alternative elsewhere. If anyone knows of auch an area approximate in size, openness, and transportation access, to Ridge Hill let me know.
Frustrated In new Rochelle!
Warren you are correct we do not have the land to build a Ridge Hill.
However the example I was trying to make is smart development is possiable, you make some very good suggestions but the crash course has already been set by bramson and his stooges.
As A resident and bussiness owner in New Rochelle I am completly digusted with our current leaders.
New Rochelle is better off going bankrupt. That is the only way the North will elect someone with business experience!
You were clear and focused
keep it moving in the right direction and you have the right instinct and wisdom to see that. If we cannot change government here, we can make it very, very hot in the kitchen and this will lead to some good.
we hve little to lose. i cannot see anyone in the Administration with any substantial political prospects. i feel for your situation more than others because you are equity invested here and the struggles you face are foreign to most people who read TOTS and don’t respond.
Time to make them respond. I don’t know where your business is but I do know that a number of the council membbers are feeling the need for meaningful change.
If the current administration has never met a payroll, if they don’t understand the negative impact of a fee driven city, the absence of an effective BID, the lack of protection for you and a customer base, and all of the other issues you face daily as a taxpaying commercial business head, keep reminding them.
I don’t know where and if there is corruption, but what I do know is that, for example, you do not maintain or encourage checks from “businesses or individuals” and maintain large donationi deposits when you are not rrunning for anything. It breeds a sense of obligation, of favoring the donor over others and while not a sign of corruption, it leads too often to providing faovred status. A good example is the Jerome (Monroe) family who have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to various democratic coffers,
Under our City Charter, does a ceremonial mayor and the majority party required a bank account of contributions. No, we are a small City and our elected officials do not take out large press ads, TV spots, etc…. so where does it lead us or them.
Net, net, I would not label Noam, or any sitting council member who received contributions as corrupt or anything approximating that. They probably aren’t but I remember as a poor kid, my maternal grandfather visiting once or twice a year and each time he brought toys and sweets. I would do anything for him and would to this day. It becomes an indelible memory and you respond accordingly.
Citizen Observer, this is why I press weekly for Charter review, the development of a Code of Ethics, a report on disposition of any campaign checks.
I remember the little known fact that Jerome of Montroe hired the minority council head, Richard St Paul, to teach a class in his school. That should not happen ever! But no one cared enough to challenge.
My view for what it is worth is that Noam and the majority and the minority are honest, love the city but suffer from a chronic case of “enabling fever.” They will reward their friends while ignoring their enemies and will treat the rest with some degree of benign neglect. so we need lots of things; one being a Code of Ethics.
Stay with this…. if you are a member of BID, turn this guy De Bart inside out until he personally lives up to their own home page utterings as to what the organization is formed to do for the community and its clients. I know more about what is going on in Avalon, for example, than he does, and why is that the case?
And, if a member, ask Jerome to step aside as the Board President….. you want a local business, commercial leader with no axe to grind, to head this up. If not, work to disbanc the damn thing or have it report to a City agency where we can hold it accountable by means of the ballot box.
Sorry for the length of this but this City needs every strong, good voice, every one invested in its success or failure that we can find. Today I discovered Mike Scully and you…. there are many others and that includes a lot of decent folks up North. They just have to make a basic decision… either support what is right for the entire community or step back and stop interfering with the wheels of progressive change.
“Who’s got the funny papers?”
Thanks for the kind words, Warren. My Dad is an artist and it was his dream as a young man to be an Illustrator. But on the way to having six kids, it probably seemed more practical to him at the time, to investigate the world of Commercial Advertising. He retired as the Creative Director of McCann-Erickson, having spent more than twenty years on one account, Coca-Cola. I guess the “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” campaign for Coke, was probably his high water mark.
But as a kid growing up in New Rochelle (both my parents grew up here) in the 20’s and 30’s, he was very aware of all the great artists who put this city on the map back then. And luckily, I grew up with tours of where they used to live in N.R. and surrounded by thick, glossy fine art books and samples of some of their original work framed on the walls of my home.
When you and I were growing up Warren, there used to be this daily and weekly item called a Comic Strip in the papers. It was in color one day a week. Everyone grabbed it first if they could, and it was shared around the house for the rest of Sunday morning, remember? Two of the most famous and wonderfully drawn strips every Sunday were “Prince Valiant” and “Flash Gordon”. Both sketched for many years in New Rochelle. John Cullen Murphy drew “Prince Valiant” and Alex Raymond is best known for “Flash Gordon.”
Two more New Rochelle artists, genius in their field. And an original American Art form, long forgotten.
funny papers
Michael….didn’t you grow up in Larchmont Manor…Oak Ave
Yup..
That would be me.
Funny Pages
Interesting….after a coffee in your kitchen…Al and I communted to NYC on the 8:10 for years
Did you make it back for the
Did you make it back for the dry martini?
Ridge hill vs Forrest city
When I read about the corruption charges about The Ridge Hill project in yonkers I thought how dispicable!
Then I decided to Visit Ridge hill and see for myself what these corrupt politicans were doing to Yonkers.
I had a beer, and stayed for dinner walked though a couple of real stores WOW! i said to myself where can we get politicans like that in Old Rochelle.
We could use a Ridge Hill In Our City then we could call ourselves New Rochelle Again!
Ridge Hill
Citizen Observer
Ridge Hill looks great now, but wait 5 years when they try to sell the place. Yonkers and Forrest City do not have enough money to keep that place going. Ridge Hill is a fantasy land just like Disney World. I think the whole place will close down in 10 years.
Look closely we have our own corruption, we don’t need anymore.
Fantasy
Knitter
My point was that at least yonkers got something.
Stores, restaurants with no low lifes wandering around and no .10 stores!
What will forest city give us? Street view Monroe college dorms, And a few condos on the water, no tax revenue for years. And a 16 million that will turn into an 18 million city yard, Thats what we will be calling a debacle in 10 years
NO
“Could not a permanent collection of America’s great Illustrators, headed by the art of Norman Rockwell, become a drawing card and focal point for a revitalized downtown New Rochelle?” Answer: NO
Most of those artistic types are arrogant, leftist hypocrites, who don’t want to be around the very people they claim to love. Won’t work in New Rochelle. They’re the same people who have contempt for buildings they deem “unfit.” They should appreciate “Eastern-block type sandstone colored high-rise towers.” The Poets Corner has done wonders for downtown.
Google- visit manhattan and where to stay or hotels etc
New Jersey courts tourists to Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island even Connecticut. I don’t understand how the people of new Rochelle don’t understand the mindset of the world population that visits NYC. A 30 minute commute is nothing. Hotel space is not available in NYC. Illegal hotels that cater to tourists are being shut down all over New York. We have one of the best locations anywhere to take advantage of NYC tourism. Get them here with hotels, restaurants,entertainment on the waterfront and they will be able to support all these other good ideas. It won’t work the other way around. The field of dreams model does not work in New Rochelle.
Sign me up
Tourists wanting to stay in New Jersey? As to be better set up to tour Queens and Staten Island? Sounds like the vacation package from hell.
What restaurants on the waterfront in New Rochelle? Dudley’s?
What waterfront?
That tidal marsh next to the ten story sewage treatment plant and bordered by the contaminated Con Ed property?
If you can sell that to tourists yearning to explore N.Y.C on the cheap, you ought to be working for the Michelin Guide.
Mike, typo. -New Jersey caters to NYC tourists
Google where to stay when visiting NYC…New Jersey pops up, so does Queens, Brooklyn , Connecticut etc. All these places are trying to monetize the NYC tourism industry. We have one of the best opportunities to develop our waterfront with tourism in mind. That is what I was trying to express.
You’re going to need some lumber
Tom, I get it.
But I have to ask you in all seriousness, is there another “waterfront” in the city of New Rochelle that you’re referring to, and that I’m not seeing?
Davenport, or the Glenn Island area? I’ve looked closely at a map of the city’s coastal areas that are actually, and literally, on the Long Island Sound, and I’m not seeing what you are calling “our waterfront” that isn’t already spoken for by parks or residential neighborhoods.
Are you talking about the rear of the current City Yard/ Westchester Sewage Treatment Plant tidal salt marsh area, that is called Echo Bay?
If it is, and I assume you’ve been down there to look around lately, I’d like to ask you just exactly how high do you figure the wall will have to be built on the left side of that property, as you’re facing the marsh, to disguise the ten story high sewage plant from the view of the restaurants, and Condo/Rental Units that you envision developed there.
I’m thinking, maybe a 30ft. high wall ought to do it?
What to do about the prevailing wind on these soft summer nights wafting the odor of your neighbors treated waste down range is another issue entirely.
That’s the area
Mike, that’s the area. Echo Bay. The 80 million project is designed to make it state of the art. there should be little to no more offensive odor. Restaurants and entertainment would be contained in the hotels, or area near water and Armory. It is a huge parcel and this project could easily be done. Much like Yonkers casino, once inside you’re in another world. I’ve overseen projects in Venice/Santa Monica California that were in worse areas that turned the entire area around. The poor economy and blighted property is what would make it very appealing to large chain development. They would dredge, create ferry dockage, and design to mitigate what some would consider a poor view. But as I’ve said before, tourists aren’t spending all day looking out a window and Hotel window DO NOT open anyway. Or we can build a Veteran memorial and arts center and then try to figure out what to do with it 18 months after it can;t pay the electric bills.
Wow
Forest City can’t afford the property and they do that for a living. Even with the scaled down Echo Bay development plan forest city admitted the sewage plant was definitely”not a positive development” Again I ask how many hotel rooms would be needed to justify the 40 million to dredge a brownfield property? Proper reclaiming of an area on the scale of Echo Bay goes far beyond simple dredging. You may know tourism but I know about reclaiming environments. It comes along with a hefty public tax subsidy otherwise no private entity anywhere will go there. Why would you go through all the trouble to bring tourists ( stipulating they are NYC tourists) and not provide a climate to take their money in ways other than housing them. Historical tourism is a multibillion dollar industry. Would you give the tour of the sewage treatment plant? The “ambiance” of Echo Bay won’t be altered much by the treatment plant, but you will be able to drink the water after it’s treated. That’s the state of the art aspect – not increased capacity, not odor removal, it’s all about the mandate to reduce nitrogen output.
That’s Past
Not sure there’d be much interest in some old Saturday Evening Post Covers from a by-gone era.
Let’s not look in the rearview mirror which takes us backwards not forward.
Let’s Showcase the creativity of our present residents and give them the same opportunities Rockwell enjoyed. Plenty of Latino and African American citizen’s’ art to display and promote.
You’d be for that, no?
Yes,I’d be for that
Yes,I’d be for that absolutely.
But the history of American Illustration had it’s epicenter right here in New Rochelle, and it is being overlooked. “Tom Sawyer”, “Treasure Island”, and every classic book published in America, had illustrations in it’s pages by these artists and others. The works of N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle are only from a “bygone era” for those with the unfortunate affliction of no artistic sense or taste.
The proximity to Manhattan, and the agents and publishers who represented these artists, made this city a nucleus for American illustration before 1930. I believe people would come here to view the original works of Norman Rockwell alongside these other talented New Rochellean’s
They might even pay for the privilege.
History can be profitable if done right!
We need the right people at the right time, in the right place with the right vision and the right attitude to move out of the past. We need to get past some history to make some productive history.
The Arts Colony post and the video from, The History of New Rochelle, NY During Ragtime on Sat, 06/09/2012 shows one of the only true strengths of New Rochelle, that is our history. This was brought up at the Comprehensive Plan (EnvisioNR) Workshop back in June. Even then we could not come up with very many strengths for New Rochelle at the time for New Rochelle, except History and Location. Unfortunately history has a history of repeating itself. We can see that from the many recent postings here on TOTS about the Art Colony of New Rochelle, Why our Water Front should be Hotels, convention center, Condo’s, restaurants/bar/entertainment, E.L. Doctorow’s Opt Ed column and it’s Here! Development Committee Proposal For Re-Use of Armory. These all have the same common message, we could not come up with many strengths or selling points for New Rochelle except History and Location. Any others had buts attached and challenges that needed to be dealt with. We have all discussed the challenges to death right now. What we need are people with solutions and vision to deal with the challenges. That is what true leaders do. They accomplish this either by themselves or with the help of the people around them. It Takes A Community! Until our leadership understands that, then there is no moving forward as many have said over and over again.
Now is not the time to get caught up in all the bad history of New Rochelle politics and games. It is time to move forward using the positive history of New Rochelle as a selling point and create some new and vibrant history heading into the future for New Rochelle. We are running out of time. Our future will be history!
“Common Sense for the Common Good”