BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Source: Shemp65 via Wikimedia Commons

Turns out, legendary punk rocker Iggy Pop once called Bensonhurst or Bath Beach home. The exact location of his dwelling is unclear, however, there are several accounts of this oddball occurrence in various magazines.

Dave Mandl wrote a piece for Flavorwire where he recalls neighborhood friends selling nickel bags to Pop in a schoolyard. He backs up his childhood memories with interviews that Pop gave where he said he came to Bensonhurst to get away from hard drugs and to record new music.

In a 2007 MTV interview, in response to the interviewer asking if he lives in Bay Ridge, Pop says:

 No. [laughs] Bensonhurst. Not many people know I lived out there. But I’m glad I lived out there and saw how it was. The intersection by my house had a Catholic Church, the police station, the pizzeria, and the corner where the dealers sold Quaaludes. This was ’82. I was recording an album [Zombie Birdhouse] for Chris Stein’s [of Blondie] label, riding the subway out to sessions. Nobody in the neighborhood knew who I was. Then I played the Brooklyn Zoo that summer and all the hoodlums came up. This one guy, John, he was this handsome burglar. He was so impressed he said he’d steal me anything I’d like. I was like “No, thanks, that’s okay.”

Both Mandl and Pop recount colorful memories of the neighborhood in the early 80′s. In the article, Mandl even mentions the Bath Beach Boys and the Louisiana Boys, two notorious neighborhood gangs.

Jerry was from the Bath Beach section of Bensonhurst, an almost completely Italian area in what was a predominantly Italian part of Brooklyn to begin with. It was probably the toughest part of the neighborhood, with an unusually high concentration of gangs and wiseguys. There were the notoriously violent Bath Beach Boys, led by the widely feared Charlie, who was shot and killed in a local bar sometime in the early ‘80s. And then there were the Louisiana Boys, the gang Jerry belonged to, who to their credit occasionally did things other than beat people up. Their name came not from the state (duh), but from Louisiana Lanes, a scrungy local bowling alley on 86th St. where they used to hang out.

For fans of his music, Zombie Birdhouse was considered a return to form and an Iggy Pop classic. I’m almost sure Bensonhurst’s influence has a great deal to do with that.

Feeling the holiday spirit? Great, so am I. Here’s a little photo album documenting the festivities all around our area.

If you’ve got a photo to add, send it to LVladimirova@BensonhurstBean.com.

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Credits: 1. Bruce Plumbing donates toys for kids of Hurricane Sandy. Image courtesy of Marty Golden’s Facebook; 2. Image courtesy of Helen H.; 3. Image courtesy of Robert Z.; 4. Image courtesy of Robert Z.; 5. Image courtesy of the David A. Boody I.S. 228 PTA; 6. Christmas Tree at Hollywood Tans. Image courtesy of Hollywood Tans’ Facebook.; 7. The Susan E. Wagner High School Symphonic Band. Image courtesy of the Friends of Historic New Utrecht’s Facebook.; 8. Local Sandy Clause Michael Sciaraffo. Image courtesy of Michael Sciaraffo’s Facebook.; 9 – 13. Image courtesy of Donna Berlingieri and her brother Anthony Berlingieri.

If you haven’t had the chance to see the famous Christmas Lights of Dyker Heights yet, videographer Nola Bradshaw took the trip and filmed it.

Check out her clip of the country’s best Christmas display from the warm comforts of home.

Source: Elle Spektor

Last week we reported on the New Utrecht Reformed Church’s efforts to ring in the holiday season with their yearly “living nativity” scene, a tradition that has drawn community members since 1956.

The church, located at 1828 83rd Street, held the scene this past Saturday and our Elle Spektor snapped this photo of the neighborhood tradition.

Aiello and  Msgr. Cassato. Source: Thetablet.org

Much has been said about the light displays in Dyker Heights. Now, Bensonhurst residents have decided to get in on the action.

The St. Athanasius Church at 2154 61st Street set up decorations and lit up a Christmas tree in front of the rectory after Mass last week. Along with Santa, Hollywood actors Quintin Aaron and Danny Aiello participated in the festivities, according to the The Tablet.

Aiello even sang Christmas carol duets with Monsignor David Cassato to the musical accompaniment of the Dixieland Band.

Three homes on 82nd Street have also went all out decorating their homes in festive lights.

The homeowners have been banding together for years to create a large display. According to News 12, they want to make their display bigger every year.

Image courtesy of Senator Martin Golden

Looks like the cheerleaders, spectators and Senator Marty Golden had a blast at the local tree lighting at Van Sicklen Street and Avenue U.

Make sure you go there to check out the tree in all of its glory!

Source:  Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd via Brooklyn Historical Society

The Kouwenhoven-Benson House stood at Bay 24th Street and Benson Avenue. Now, on all four sides of the intersection, nothing remains of this historic home.

Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd, the photographer, dated the photograph as taken in 1905.

The Bensons were a prominent family, so much so that the neighborhood has been named after the patriarch Arthur W. Benson. I’m sure more Benson photos will find their way into the “In Focus” photography column.

Let me get this straight, the show about Bensonhurt’s most beloved cantankerous bus driver was not filmed in Bensonhurst? Not even the exterior shots? Well, that’s a let down.

Perhaps this was well-known to you, oh educated reader, but I always held on to the notion that the Honeymooners was, at least in some way, filmed in the neighborhood. Alas, this well-researched blog post from Rockcellar Magazine crushes my pipe dream, much like what happens to every Kramden get-rich-quick scheme.

For the younger folk reading this, the Honeymooners was a sitcom that ran for a single season. Yet, it’s impact changed the scope of sitcoms to come. It was the first to feature a middle-class couple living in grittier, more realistic conditions. This was at the insistence of creator, writer and star Jackie Gleason, who based the show on his own upbringing.

It also inspired the Flintstones, among many other notable television characters.

Here’s a brief summary of where the scenes really took place:

1. Home of the Kramdens and the Nortons: 328 Chauncey Street.

“The place was dull. The bulbs weren’t very bright. The surroundings were very bare,” Gleason said of his boyhood tenement apartment. The exterior shots of their home were filmed in Bedford-Stuvesant.

2. Alice Gets a Job: 383 Himrod Street.

A neighbor suggests Alice get a secret babysitting just a few blocks away from their home because Alice wanted to pay for a telephone she installed. The gig is actually located in Bushwick, which is miles from Bed-Stuy, and even further from Bensonhurst.

Wikiepedia also let me in on a little bit of TV trivia:

328 Chauncey Street in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, NY. In the Honeymooners episodes filmed from 1967 to 1970, the address of the Kramdens’ and Nortons’ apartment house changed to 358 Chauncey Street, and the number of the Kramden apartment is 3B. In actuality, the real 328 Chauncey Street is located in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of the borough, approximately eight miles north of the show’s location.

One of these days, Alice, we’ll watch a Honeymooners New Year’s Eve marathon.

Photographer: Urquhart. Source: Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection

This July 17, 1914 photo showcases workers lifting sandbags, operating a cement mixer and examining the newly laid tracks.  during the construction of the Sea Beach line. The title, “Looking West from 18th Ave. Showing Progress of Construction Work” even gives the viewer the location where the photographer stood.

Amazing how ingenuity and hard work got the job done back then, ahem ahem. Sea Beach line repairs anyone?

Source: wonggawei via Wikimedia Commons

Dyker Heights was recently named number one in the top five place to see Christmas Lights. This may not come as a surprise to most locals. For years, residents of Dyker Heights have spent a pretty penny to make their homes the most festive in the city. This list, however, takes it a step further and names Dyker the first in all of the country.

Seattle-based internet real estate company Redfin announced its picks for best 2012 neighborhood holiday light displays, according to a release published by the Sacramento Bee. Dyker Heights joins ranks with Miracle on 34th Street in Baltimore, Peacock Lane in Portland, 37th Street in Austin and South 13th Street in Philadelphia.

The real estate agents have been surveying neighborhoods all over the country and these are the ones with the best lights, music, decorations and lawn characters.

As neighbors in the little Christmas enclave have already started decorating, this year’s displays will presumably be even brighter than the year before. The area to visit to see the best of the best is 11th Avenue to 13th Avenue and from 83rd to 86th Street.