The Bronx

The Bartow-Pell Mansion is a New York City landmark and museum located in northern portion of Pelham Bay Park in The Bronx. Originally the Robert and... Marie Lorillard Bartow House, the residence and estate date back to 1654. The Lords of the Manor of Pelham once owned the home which was later enlarged, renovated and remodeled in the Federal style. The current house was built between 1836 and 1842. Ownership of the house passed between the Bartow and Pell families until it was finally sold to the City of New York in 1888 by descendants of the Bartow family. The mansion remained unused and empty for years before being leased by the City of New York to Mrs. Charles Frederick Hoffman, Jr. in 1914 to house the International Garden Club, Inc., an organization she had founded to promote formal gardens. The club has since extended its purpose to include the preservation and restoration of the home. The exterior of the mansion was restored and the formal gardens were constructed from 1914 to 1917/. In 1936, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia used the mansion as his summer residence while nearby Orchard Beach was built.
more

Wave Hill is a 28 acre estate, consisting of public gardens and a cultural center, in the Hudson Hill section of the Riverdale neighborhood of the... Bronx in New York City. It is situated on the slopes overlooking the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the estate includes two houses and a botanical garden. Contemporary visual arts exhibits are on display in the Glyndor Gallery, as well as outside on the grounds. The original Wave Hill House was a gray fieldstone mansion built in 1843 by lawyer William Lewis Morris. It was owned from 1866 to 1903 by publisher William Henry Appleton, who enlarged the house in between 1866 and 1869 and again in 1890, and added greenhouses and gardens to the grounds. During these years, the house was visited by Thomas Henry Huxley, who helped Charles Darwin bring evolution to the public's attention. Theodore Roosevelt's family rented Wave Hill during the summers of 1870 and 1871, and Mark Twain leased it from 1901 to 1903. The house was purchased in 1903 by George Walbridge Perkins, a partner of J. P.
more

The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, sometimes called simply Poe Cottage, is the former home of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It is located on Kingsbridge... Road and the Grand Concourse in the The Bronx, New York, a short distance from its original location, and is now in the northern part of Poe Park. The cottage is a part of the Historic House Trust, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been administered by the Bronx County Historical Society since 1975, and is believed to have been built in 1797. The Poe family—which included Edgar, his wife Virginia Clemm, and her mother Maria—moved in around May 1846 after living for a short time in Turtle Bay, Manhattan. At the time, Fordham was rural and was only recently connected to the city by rail. The cottage, which then on Kingsbridge Road to the east of its intersection with Valentine Avenue, was small and simple: it had on its first floor a sitting room and kitchen and its unheated second floor had a bedroom and Poe's study. On the front porch the family kept caged songbirds. The home sat on 2 acres of land and Poe paid either $5 rent per month or $100 per year.
more

Jennifer Lopez was born in July 24, 1969 in the Bronx, NYC. Currently married to Hispanic singer Marc Anthony, she is the mother of two. Jennifer... Lopez, also known as “J Lo” is a singer, actress, dancer, song writer, record producer, entrepreneur, fashion designer and television producer. She was named by Forbes "The Riches Person of Latin America descent in Hollywood" and the "Most Influential Hispanic Entertainer in America" by People en Español "100 most influential Hispanics" list. After finishing school she realized she wanted to be in the show business and her career started dancing in different rap videos and doing some appearances in different TV shows. She became famous when she starred in "Selena" in 1997 and got a Golden Globe Award nomination for it.
more

Bill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death. Graham was born Wolfgang Wolodia Grajonca in... Berlin, the son of Frieda and Yankel Grajonca, an engineer. He was given the nickname Wolfgang by his family early in his life. Graham was the youngest son of a lower-middle-class Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia prior to the rise of Nazism. Graham's father died two days after his son's birth. Graham's mother placed her son and his younger sister in an orphanage in Berlin due to the increasing peril to Jews in Germany. The orphanage sent them to France in a pre–Holocaust exchange of Jewish children for Christian orphans. Graham's older sisters stayed behind with his mother. After the fall of France, Graham was among a group of Jewish orphans spirited out of France. A majority of the children—including Graham's older sister Tolla—did not survive the journey. Graham's mother was killed in Auschwitz. Graham had five sisters, Rita, Evelyn, Sonja, Ester and Tolla . His sister Ester survived Auschwitz. She later moved to the United States and was very close to Graham in his later life.
more

Scott "La Rock" Sterling was the original DJ of the hip hop group Boogie Down Productions. Sterling, a social worker, met rapper KRS-One in 1986 at... the Franklin Men's Shelter in the Bronx where KRS lived. The pair, together with DJ D-Nice, formed Boogie Down Productions. The group's 1987 debut album, Criminal Minded, is considered a classic of hip-hop. Born March 2, 1962, in South Ozone Park, Queens, Scott Monroe Sterling was raised far from the grimy scene that he would later help to mold. His parents split when he was four, and he lived with his mother, Carolyn Morant, a career municipal employee. When Scott was young, they moved from Queens to the Morisania section of the Bronx, and then to Morris Heights. Scott excelled in both academics and sports at Our Savior Lutheran High School, graduating in 1980 and heading off to Vermont’s Castleton State College. He earned a varsity letter in basketball there, but as it became clear that his talent would never take him to the NBA, Scott switched his extracurricular focus from hoops to music.
more

Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper. At the 2008 BET Awards, KRS-One was the... recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for all his work and effort towards the Stop the Violence Movement as well as the overall pioneering of hip hop music and culture. Lawrence Parker was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York during the summer of 1965. Parker left home at 14 to become an MC, coming to live at a homeless shelter in the South Bronx where he was dubbed Krishna by residents because of his interest in the Hare Krishna spirituality of some of the antipoverty workers. By the time he met youth counselor Scott Sterling, he was also writing graffiti as KRS-One . Together he and Sterling, a.k.a. DJ Scott La Rock eventually created Boogie Down Productions, releasing their debut album, Criminal Minded, in 1987. KRS-One has been a vegetarian since his youth.
more

Mel Jason Smalls , better known as Drag-On, is an American rapper from The Bronx, New York City. Drag-On was originally signed to Interscope Records... under the Ruff Ryders Entertainment imprint, where he released his successful debut album, Opposite of H2O, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold over 500,000 copies and earned a gold certification from the RIAA. After leaving Interscope, Drag-On joined Virgin Records and released his second album, Hell and Back in 2004. The album failed to gain the success of his debut, only reaching 47 on the Billboard 200, and was quickly dropped from Virgin. He also appears in the 2003 film Cradle 2 the Grave as Miles and in the 2001 film Exit Wounds .
more

Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s.... Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal Hip Hop Culture as well as the Father of The Electro Funk Sound. Through his co-opting of the street gang the Black Spades into the music and culture-oriented Universal Zulu Nation, he is responsible for spreading hip hop culture throughout the world. On September 27, 2007, he was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Afrika Bambaataa grew up in The Bronx River Projects, with an activist mother and uncle. As a child, he was exposed to the black liberation movement, and witnessed debates between his mother and uncle regarding the conflicting ideologies in the movement. He was exposed to his mother's extensive and eclectic record collection. Gangs in the area became the law in the absence of law, clearing their turf of drug dealers, assisting with community health programs and both fighting and partying to keep members and turf.
more

Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence... as Michael "Meathead" Stivic, son-in-law of Archie and Edith Bunker , on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s. As a director, Reiner was recognized by the Directors Guild of America with nominations for Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally, and A Few Good Men. He also directed Misery. He studied at the UCLA Film School. Reiner was born to a Jewish family in The Bronx, New York, and is the son of Estelle Reiner , an actress, and Carl Reiner, a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. As a child, Reiner lived in New Rochelle, New York, where his family lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road. This is similar to 148 Bonnie Meadow Road, the fictional address of the Petries on The Dick Van Dyke Show, the 1960s CBS sitcom created by his father. Also, his latest film Flipped takes place at the corner of Bonnie Meadow Lane and Renfrew Street.
more

William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel... has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA. Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame , the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , the Long Island Music Hall of Fame , and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame . In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Billy Joel positioned at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah," Joel stopped recording pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams, but he continued to tour extensively until 2010. Joel was born in the Bronx and raised in Hicksville, New York.
more

Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter. The originator of the "Wall of Sound" production technique, Spector was... a pioneer of the 1960s girl-group sound and produced over 25 Top 40 hits in 1960–1965. After this initial success, Spector later worked with artists including Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Ramones with similar acclaim. He produced The Beatles' Academy Award winning album Let It Be, and the Grammy Award–winning Concert for Bangladesh by former Beatle George Harrison. In 1989, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. The 1965 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced and co-written by Spector for The Righteous Brothers, is listed by BMI as the song with the most U.S. airplay in the 20th century. In 2009 Spector was convicted of murder in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California home. He is serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life. Spector was born on December 26, 1939, to a lower-middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx in New York City.
more

Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during his career.... Reiner was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Bessie and Irving Reiner, who was a watchmaker. His parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Romania and his mother from Austria. When he was sixteen, his older brother Charlie read in the New York Daily News about a free dramatic workshop being put on by the Works Progress Administration and told him about it. He had been working as a machinist fixing sewing machines. He credits Charlie with changing his career plans. Reiner performed in several Broadway musicals, including Inside U.S.A., and Alive and Kicking, and had the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he was cast by producer Max Leibman in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, appearing on air in skits while also working alongside writers such as Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. He also worked on Caesar's Hour with Brooks, Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Mike Stewart, Aaron Ruben, Sheldon Keller and Gary Belkin.
more

Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is an American musician best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of the... "Spaceman" or "Space Ace" when the band adopted costumes and theatrics. Frehley played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982. After leaving Kiss, Frehley embarked on a solo career, which was put on hold when he rejoined Kiss in 1996 for a highly successful reunion tour. His second tenure with Kiss lasted until 2002, when he left at the conclusion of what was purported to be the band's Farewell Tour. His latest album Anomaly, was released on September 15, 2009. Guitar World magazine ranked him 14th Greatest Metal Guitarist of All Time. There are many guitarists who were inspired by the sound of Frehley and among these there are Slash, Dimebag Darrell, Chuck Schuldiner, Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, John Norum, Dave Sabo, Alex Skolnick, Scott Ian, Mick Mars, Jake E. Lee, Paul Gilbert and many others.
more

Giacobbe "Jake" LaMotta , nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull," is an American retired professional boxer and former World Middleweight... Champion. He was portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1980 film Raging Bull. LaMotta is an Italian-American born in New York City in the borough of the Bronx. He was forced by his father into fighting other children to entertain neighborhood adults, who threw pocket change into the ring. LaMotta's father collected the money and used it to help pay the rent. His cousin was the inventor Richard LaMotta. In 1941, at the age of 19, LaMotta turned professional. During World War II, he was rejected for military service because of a mastoid operation on one of his ears. LaMotta went 14-0-1 as a middleweight in his first fifteen bouts before losing a highly controversial split decision to Jimmy Reeves in Reeves' hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Chaos erupted after the decision was announced. Fights broke out around the ring and the crowd continued to boo for 20 minutes. The arena's organist tried to calm down the crowd by playing the Star Spangled Banner. One month later, LaMotta and Reeves fought again in the same arena.
more