[208 Pearl Street, Manhattan, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]
So many oddities in this photograph: the fire escape — or is it a staircase? — that looks like an invitation to burglars, the second-story door (or is it a window?), the curtained windows below it (which match the curtains in the restaurant windows), the lonely advertising placards, the small sign for A.B. Tipler Press, 10 Beekman Street, an address half a mile away. I like the idea of Nick’s Kozy Korner Spaghetti House standing on a literal corner. If you squint, at least two menu items become readable: liver and bacon, and a western omelet, 25¢ each.
If you squint again, you can see the words “Bigger Better” on the Pepsi-Cola signage. The twelve-ounce bottle was a selling point in the brand’s rivalry with Coca-Cola. The advertising jingle (1939) ran like so:
Pepsi-Cola hits the spot,Followed by a crazed chant: “Nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel, trickle, trickle,” and so on.
Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot,
Twice as much for a nickel too,
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.
Pete Seeger quoted the melody’s nineteenth-century source and sang a kids’ parody of the jingle:
Pepsi-Cola hits the spot,The name Pepsi-Cola disappeared in 1961, replaced by Pepsi. The Third Avenue El disappeared in the 1950s. So too this building. A 1906 publication, Historical Guide to the City of New York, directs its reader to “go east on Platt Street to see an old house at 208 Pearl Street.” How old? William Durrell, a printer and bookseller occupied no. 208 in the late eighteenth century. He was out of business by 1802. Whatever structure stood there in 1906, a reader might not have had much time to see it: in 1907 a five-story building stood at nos. 208 and 206. That must be this one. Later development included a “one-story store structure” that made way for an office building. Suffice it to say that this corner in the financial district is unrecognizable today.
Ties your belly in a knot,
Tastes like vinegar, looks like ink,
Pepsi-Cola is a stinky drink.
Nos. 206 and 208 appear to have taken up a city block. And across the street, its fraternal twin, no. 212. Notice the Kozy Korner sign to get oriented.
[Click for a larger view.]Related posts
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)
comments: 5
Looks like stained glass windows on top, and the faint outline of a former window???
Yep, there are windows in sections and one that’s been bricked in. The other building has several bricked in (or over?).
Any reason why, in the same sentence, you used dashes to set off the first rhetorical question (or is it a staircase?) and parentheses to set off the second (or is it a window?)? I understand why you wouldn't use dashes to set off both phrases (more than two in a sentence is confusing), but I would presume using parentheses in both cases would highlight the similarity of the phrases. Otherwise, I'd presume that the different punctuation was meant for some unknown rhetorical effect. Am I off base?
I’m tempted to say that there’s a little man in my head who takes care of these matters for me. That was Ted Berrigan’s way of accounting for matters of sound and rhythm in poetry. But if that non-explanation doesn’t suffice, I’d say that the dashes setting off “or is it a staircase?” make for a greater interruption, as if to say “Hey, wait a minute, is that a staircase?” With the elements in parentheses, the comma is a slighter break, with nothing interrupted, just something added.
To my mind the question is genuine, not rhetorical: I’d really like to know what’s up (no pun intended) with those stairs, though I doubt any answer is forthcoming.
Thank you for your explanation! I read your blog not just for the topics but also to read good writing -- best way I know to become a better writer.
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