Sidewalks Of NY
May 30, 2014 8:23:46 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on May 30, 2014 8:23:46 GMT -5
Belmont Park Hopes Old Song Will Break Triple Crown Drought
By SAM ROBERTS
New York Times
Between 1919 and 1978, 11 horses that won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness went on to win the Belmont Stakes. In the 36 years since then, though, the 12 horses that won the first two legs of racing’s Triple Crown faltered before they got to the finish line — or even the starting gate — at Belmont Park.
Some superstitious New Yorkers say the recent record losing streak is not coincidental. They attribute it to a discordant break with tradition in 1997, one that might have California Chrome listening with a cocked ear on June 7 as he struts out of the tunnel leading to the track for the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes.
Call it the curse of Mamie O’Rourke — she is a character who pops up in “Sidewalks of New York,” a century-old song that had been considered the city’s anthem and that had been played at Belmont for decades as the horses made their way to the starting gate.
But in 1997, after racing officials deemed it too fusty, the song was replaced with “New York, New York,” which Frank Sinatra Jr. is scheduled to sing at Belmont this year. In 2010, hoping to appeal to an even hipper audience, officials experimented with Jay Z and Alicia Keys’s “Empire State of Mind,” but that proved too cutting-edge for the crowd.
Even though the first post-parade in the United States was held at Belmont in 1871, as Arthur Daley wrote in The New York Times in 1948, the stuffed shirts who ran the track generally treated the Stakes as just another race. “There will be no blare of trumpets, no rendition of some nostalgic tune, no brush, no lather, no rub-in, no nuthin’,” he wrote.
In contrast, the Derby has traditionally evoked “My Old Kentucky Home” (the official state song), roses (probably in deference to allergy sufferers since the goldenrod is the official state flower) and mint juleps.
The Preakness elicits “Maryland, My Maryland” (also the official state song, which started as a Civil War hymn), black-eyed Susans (actually, Viking poms, a yellow and brown chrysanthemum, since Susans are not yet in bloom) and a vodka cocktail.
The Belmont, first run in 1867 and named for August Belmont, is the oldest of the three. The winner is draped in a blanket of pure white carnations (imported from Colombia by way of a Philadelphia florist), although the state flower is the rose. In 1998, the official drink was changed from the White Carnation (made with vodka) to the Belmont Breeze (a whiskey concoction). Which brings us to the original song and its chorus:
East Side, West Side, all around the town
The tots sang “ring-around rosie,” “London Bridge is falling down”
Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O’Rourke
Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York.
“Sidewalks” was written in 1894 and the music was by James W. Blake, a haberdasher. The lyrics, by an Irish immigrant vaudevillian, Charles B. Lawlor, were about his young playmates.
As for who Mamie O’Rourke was, one possibility was suggested by Tim Wiles, a former research director at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, who came across her name in connection with Florrie O’Rourke, who played for a women’s baseball team. Florrie O’Rourke, according to Mr. Wiles, was the daughter of “Diamond Dan” O’Rourke, a flamboyant downtown saloonkeeper.
Mr. O’Rourke’s wife died in 1934. While her obituary identified her as Ellen O’Rourke, Mr. Wiles suggested that she was the song’s Mamie, an Al Smith loyalist (“Sidewalks” became his 1928 presidential campaign anthem). Victor Rugg, a retired photographer, agrees that Diamond Dan’s wife, his great-grandmother, was the Mamie and was often called by that name.
“June 7 happens to be my birthday,” Mr. Rugg said, “and I will come back from Florida if they are going to play the song. Mamie would be proud, as she loved the horses Diamond Dan use to race. She would lift the curse off of Belmont and the Triple Crown. I would bet on it.”
At least one early version of the song, however, refers to a Mamie “Rorke.” The journalist Westbrook Pegler, who wrote years later that he had once danced with Dan’s wife, added: “I suspect that Charlie wrote her into the lyric only because, given a little license, her name rhymed with ‘New York.’ ” Maybe the lyrical Mamie was also inspired by a girl named Rorke who lived near Blake on East 12th Street.
Belmont officials, bereft of a Triple Crown winner since 1978, are taking no chances and are resurrecting Mamie. After questions were raised, they said they would ask Sam (Sammy the Bugler) Grossman to play “Sidewalks” on his herald trumpet just before the Stakes, instead of before the Manhattan Handicap, an earlier race, as he usually does.
“The official song is ‘New York, New York,’ ” Mr. Grossman said, “but the real song is ‘Sidewalks.’ ”
Correction: May 29, 2014
An earlier version of a photo caption with this article misstated the race that Affirmed is shown winning. It is the Kentucky Derby, not the Belmont Stakes.
Correction: May 29, 2014
An earlier version of this article misidentified the person for whom the Belmont Stakes are named. It is August Belmont, not August Belmont Jr. (The younger Mr. Belmont built Belmont Park.)
By SAM ROBERTS
New York Times
Between 1919 and 1978, 11 horses that won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness went on to win the Belmont Stakes. In the 36 years since then, though, the 12 horses that won the first two legs of racing’s Triple Crown faltered before they got to the finish line — or even the starting gate — at Belmont Park.
Some superstitious New Yorkers say the recent record losing streak is not coincidental. They attribute it to a discordant break with tradition in 1997, one that might have California Chrome listening with a cocked ear on June 7 as he struts out of the tunnel leading to the track for the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes.
Call it the curse of Mamie O’Rourke — she is a character who pops up in “Sidewalks of New York,” a century-old song that had been considered the city’s anthem and that had been played at Belmont for decades as the horses made their way to the starting gate.
But in 1997, after racing officials deemed it too fusty, the song was replaced with “New York, New York,” which Frank Sinatra Jr. is scheduled to sing at Belmont this year. In 2010, hoping to appeal to an even hipper audience, officials experimented with Jay Z and Alicia Keys’s “Empire State of Mind,” but that proved too cutting-edge for the crowd.
Even though the first post-parade in the United States was held at Belmont in 1871, as Arthur Daley wrote in The New York Times in 1948, the stuffed shirts who ran the track generally treated the Stakes as just another race. “There will be no blare of trumpets, no rendition of some nostalgic tune, no brush, no lather, no rub-in, no nuthin’,” he wrote.
In contrast, the Derby has traditionally evoked “My Old Kentucky Home” (the official state song), roses (probably in deference to allergy sufferers since the goldenrod is the official state flower) and mint juleps.
The Preakness elicits “Maryland, My Maryland” (also the official state song, which started as a Civil War hymn), black-eyed Susans (actually, Viking poms, a yellow and brown chrysanthemum, since Susans are not yet in bloom) and a vodka cocktail.
The Belmont, first run in 1867 and named for August Belmont, is the oldest of the three. The winner is draped in a blanket of pure white carnations (imported from Colombia by way of a Philadelphia florist), although the state flower is the rose. In 1998, the official drink was changed from the White Carnation (made with vodka) to the Belmont Breeze (a whiskey concoction). Which brings us to the original song and its chorus:
East Side, West Side, all around the town
The tots sang “ring-around rosie,” “London Bridge is falling down”
Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O’Rourke
Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York.
“Sidewalks” was written in 1894 and the music was by James W. Blake, a haberdasher. The lyrics, by an Irish immigrant vaudevillian, Charles B. Lawlor, were about his young playmates.
As for who Mamie O’Rourke was, one possibility was suggested by Tim Wiles, a former research director at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, who came across her name in connection with Florrie O’Rourke, who played for a women’s baseball team. Florrie O’Rourke, according to Mr. Wiles, was the daughter of “Diamond Dan” O’Rourke, a flamboyant downtown saloonkeeper.
Mr. O’Rourke’s wife died in 1934. While her obituary identified her as Ellen O’Rourke, Mr. Wiles suggested that she was the song’s Mamie, an Al Smith loyalist (“Sidewalks” became his 1928 presidential campaign anthem). Victor Rugg, a retired photographer, agrees that Diamond Dan’s wife, his great-grandmother, was the Mamie and was often called by that name.
“June 7 happens to be my birthday,” Mr. Rugg said, “and I will come back from Florida if they are going to play the song. Mamie would be proud, as she loved the horses Diamond Dan use to race. She would lift the curse off of Belmont and the Triple Crown. I would bet on it.”
At least one early version of the song, however, refers to a Mamie “Rorke.” The journalist Westbrook Pegler, who wrote years later that he had once danced with Dan’s wife, added: “I suspect that Charlie wrote her into the lyric only because, given a little license, her name rhymed with ‘New York.’ ” Maybe the lyrical Mamie was also inspired by a girl named Rorke who lived near Blake on East 12th Street.
Belmont officials, bereft of a Triple Crown winner since 1978, are taking no chances and are resurrecting Mamie. After questions were raised, they said they would ask Sam (Sammy the Bugler) Grossman to play “Sidewalks” on his herald trumpet just before the Stakes, instead of before the Manhattan Handicap, an earlier race, as he usually does.
“The official song is ‘New York, New York,’ ” Mr. Grossman said, “but the real song is ‘Sidewalks.’ ”
Correction: May 29, 2014
An earlier version of a photo caption with this article misstated the race that Affirmed is shown winning. It is the Kentucky Derby, not the Belmont Stakes.
Correction: May 29, 2014
An earlier version of this article misidentified the person for whom the Belmont Stakes are named. It is August Belmont, not August Belmont Jr. (The younger Mr. Belmont built Belmont Park.)
