Weegee: life and crime in black and white

Photographer Weegee—born Usher Fellig in 1899—got his nickname thanks to his Ouji Board–like ability to arrive at crime scenes almost as fast as the bullets flew and the bodies fell.

But Weegee, at left at his 5 Centre Market Street apartment, wasn’t psychic.

The Austria native, who grew up on the Lower East Side, had a shortwave radio that let him listen in on police calls.

He also built a darkroom in his car so he could get his photos to New York’s tabloids in record time.

Weegee didn’t earn his iconic status simply because he was quick. His stark black-and-white shots of gangsters, street kids, regular joes, trashy women, and crowds defined the New York noir style of the 1930s and 1940s.

[At left, “Joy of Living,” 1942, chronicles a hit and run death outside a Third Avenue movie theater]

His 1945 book of photos was even the inspiration for the 1948 classic crime drama, The Naked City.

He wasn’t all about blood and grit. Weegee had a Fellini-esque eye for the weird and wonderful, as well as a soft spot for the tender—such as his 1938 photo of city kids sleeping on a tenement fire escape.

In his 1961 memoir, Weegee wrote: “Crime was my oyster. I was friend and confidant to them all. The bookies, madams, gamblers, call girls, pimps, con men, burglars and jewel fencers.”

He died in his Hell’s Kitchen apartment in 1968. Here’s more on Weegee’s life and photos, from the International Center of Photography.

[Above: “Crime Scene of David ‘the Beetle’ Beadle” 1939]

The cat who lived in a Bowery dive bar

Minnie, the tabby cat currently residing at McSorley’s in the East Village (and facing a lawsuit), isn’t the first feline to make her home in a downtown drinking establishment.

This sly tuxedo kitty can be seen in a couple of 1940s photos of Sammy’s Bowery Follies—a legendary 1890s-style saloon at 267 Bowery that was part fleabag dump and part tourist trap.

No saucer of milk for this street cat. When a patron at Sammy’s nodded off, he made his move.

Sammy’s Bowery Follies: “an alcoholic haven”

That’s how this legendary fleabag, Gay ’90s–style saloon was described in a 1944 Life magazine article (with photos, below, by Alfred Eisenstaedt).

“From 8 in the morning to 4 the next morning Sammy’s is an alcoholic haven for the derelicts whose presence has made the Bowery a universal symbol of poverty and futility,” the article stated.

“It is also a popular stopping point for prosperous people from uptown who like to see how the other half staggers.”

That mix of patrons was key to Sammy’s success. Opened in 1934 at 267 Bowery between Houston and Stanton Streets, the dive attracted old-school bums as well as tourists, politicians, actors, and others slumming it for the night.

Ex-Vaudeville performers sang and danced for the crowds on sawdust-sprinkled floors. The party went on until 1970, a year after owner Sammy Fuchs died.

Fuchs was known as the “mayor of the Bowery.” Besides operating the kind of bar that pretty much no longer exists in Manhattan, he did lots of good deeds in the neighborhood, like establishing a dental clinic for poor kids.

He also ran a “bum of the month” club, helping to feed, clothe, and sober up some of his most downtrodden customers, reports a 1970 New York Times piece.