Saturday, December 15, 2007

Irving Hall, Gardiner's Hall And Bernstein's

The map shows the 1903 location of the two halls mentioned in the news' reports about the Newsies (see below for the mention of Gardner's Hall) The movie even includes a Irving Hall as a site location. The question is would the Newsies go shopping at Bernstein's which was nearby :). The ad is from 1959
Had I known about the meeting I would have gone, since I lived at 76 Suffolk.
Here's the Tribune article about the meeting:
"Newsboys Form a New Union Elect a Man as Leader and Will Divide City Into Districts.August 3, 1899 There was a rally of newsboys at Gardner's Hall, at 21 Suffolk Street, last evening, to organize a new union and elect new officers. Abraham Lippman, who has a newsstand at Canal and Essex Streets, called the meeting to order. He is a grown-up man, and for some time he ran the meeting much to the disgust of Simon Levy, who was trying to wedge in a word without success. After some skirmishing the boys accepted a suggestion of Lippman's to have a full-grown man for a President, and elected James G. Neill, fifty years old. President Neill, in making his inauguration speech, said that the price maintained by some of the evening papers virtually imposed a tax on newsboys and newsmen, and the latter could not transfer the tax to the public as other dealers did the war tax. Mr. Neill suggested that all union boys should wear badges, and become affiliated with other labor organizations. He proposed that the city should be divided into districts and send delegates to a central union. The meeting adopted Mr. Neill's suggestions.Other officers were elected as follows: Vice President –"Racetrack" Higgins of Brooklyn; Secretary – Abe Cutler;Treasurer – Dave Ruben of Bleecker Street and the Bowery;Sergeant at Arms – "Yellow" Simon Levy. John Masin was elected head Captain, and will select his district Captains. A floral horseshoe was sent by William Reese, the colored lemonade seller in Printing House Square, for the best orator of the day. It was won by George J. Fabian."

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