Knights of the Metropolitan Museum (Part 4)

It's been a while since we paid a visit to NYC's Metropolitan Museum. Here'a another of their four mounted knights with matching horse armor. Our previous knights, plus jolly old King Henry VIII, are HERE. 

Knights of the Metropolitan Museum (Part 3)

Here's another collection of life-size toy soldiers from the Arms & Armor room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ain't you glad these suits are no longer in style?

More Museum Knights HERE.

On Hallowed Ground: Where the Pulps were made

Frank Munsey Co./Red Star

You may have noticed I've been posting pics from the recent trek my wife and I made to New York City. One of my goals was to see what's become of the editorial offices of my favorite pulp magazines. The results were underwhelming. The building above, at 280 Broadway, is the best of the bunch. Near as I can tell, construction on this one began back in 1845, with additions and such until 1917, when the New York Sun moved in. The Sun was a Munsey paper, and the offices for such Munsey mags as Argosy and Detective Fiction Weekly were housed here. Coincidently, this is only about a block from the current office of Dell Publications, the modern day heir to the pulp tradition. 

Popular Publications

 

205 East 42nd Street - little more than a block from Grand Central Station - was home to Popular Publications, purveyors of such fine magazines as Dime Detective and The Spider. This building went up in 1927, and tenants now include CUNY and the United Way of New York. I could almost imagine Frederick Nebel going in the front door to meet with Harry Steeger, if I could tell where the front door was.

 

Street & Smith

 

Street and Smith, from whence The Shadow and Doc Savage ventured forth, was at 79 7th Avenue. This building, at 77, has eclipsed that space, on the edge of toney Chelsea. That's the Westside Market at street level. Condos in this place now go for up to - and over - a million bucks. Heck, wouldn't you cough up a million to live in the Shadow's sanctum?

Trojan Publications

 

From this hallowed ground at 125 East 46th Street came such classy mags as Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective and the Spicy line. That address no longer exists, but its replacement houses a bakery on the corner, and one of the main tenants is a branch of the New York Public Library. Gotta wonder what those librarians would think of the building's spicy past.

Black Mask

During the Joe Shaw years, Black Mask was headquartered here at 575 Madison Avenue. I'm sure this 21-story monster bears no resemblance to the original building, but from a distance it does look black. More than a coincidence? It would be pretty to think so.

Off with His and Her Heads!

The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara

The Metropolitan Museum has, on permanent display, 45 rooms full of what they call "European Paintings 1250-1800." That sounded pretty cool, but I walked through the whole exhibit in about ten minutes and only two caught my eye. Here they are, both the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, completed between 1510 and 1530. The painting above is particularly interesting in that it depicts a concerned Richard Robinson (third from left) of The Broken Bullhorn looking on. We can only conclude that either Mr. R has a time machine, or he's much older than he looks. 

 Judith with the Head of Holofernes

I'm Henery the Eigth, I Am (maybe)

The folks at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art say it's "believed" that this armor, including its horsey accouterments and cool shoes, belonged to jolly old King Henry VIII. Makes you want to hum an annoying tune, doesn't it?

And just in case that song still ain't in your head . . . 

Nero Wolfe lived here (or not).

My wife and I just returned from a week of fun, frolic and foot pain in New York City. After walking the High Line north to West 30th Street, I dragged her along on my pilgrimage to West 35th. Because Rex Stout failed to give us the house number, I was worried I might not be able to pick the Nero Wolfe residence out of the many brownstones between 9th and 10th Avenue. But my worries were for naught, because there's only one left, and this is it, number 455. It wins by default.