Ralph Nader's research was based on speculation, HE NEVER OWNED A CORVAIR. It is repeated : He never owned a car or truck.
While the corvair is nice, Blinstrub's is more interesting. Corner of west broadway, and D street south boston. Largest club in NE. burned february 1968. 1.25 million loss, not insured. Stanley Blinstrub launched a few careers, Wayne newton for one. Spent his money on top talent, and improvments rather than insurance. Boston was considered a backwater until this place opened. this was before the arena scale performances. was not uncommon to pay 10-15k a week for 7 shows. anyone who was anybody performed here back in the day. Also note the itty bitty stop and shop down the block. this is a massive chain for anyone not from NE. the one i shopped at was prob 60x the size of this one
more blinstrubs. jimmy durante was set to perform that friday. lost all his shows costumes, and 50 years worth of material he had written (no copies). which messed up his act for quite some time. was a shell gas station when i lived there. now its a different gas mart. southie is yuppied out, and damn near unrecognizable 15 years on....
Demolition of the Boulevard apartment block to prepare for the construction of the War Office in Washington, D.C. in 1940
yesterday was the 78th anniversary of the cocoanut grove fire. 492 dead. Second worse building fire in us history. worse was Chicago's Iroquois theater. below is Buck Jones, the singing cowboy. He made it out, and perished after going back in to save others. Too involved to get into here, but basically boiled down to greed, lack of real un-bribed inspections, flammable materials, and chained off exits. Boston and Mass now have some of the strictest firecodes in the US because of this.
The Wake Up America Day celebrations began at midnight with a reenactment of Paul Revere's ride made by a young woman. Jean Earle Mohle, dressed as a Continental soldier, rode south through the streets of Manhattan summoning the men of America to respond to their country's call, New York Times on April 19, 1917.