Thirty years ago today, right here in NYC, the 37th President of the United States Richard Nixon died at the age of 81.
Like many, Nixon has always fascinated me -- he was perhaps one of the smartest people ever to become president and his rise from poverty in California to the heights of American power is truly astonishing. But he was so paranoid, so full of rage and anger, that he never seemed to enjoy his historic success or where his brilliant mind had taken him in life. Ultimately his rage and paranoia overwhelmed his genius and accomplishments, leading to his presidential and reputational demise.
But I come not to praise or criticize Richard Nixon but to bury him (again) along with the other US Presidents who have died in NYC. Nixon is the most recent of four presidents who expired within the five boroughs. The others are:
- James Monroe, 5th US President, died in NYC on July 4th, 1831 from heart failure at the age of 73.
- Chester Arthur, 21st US President, died in NYC on November 18th, 1886 from a stroke at the age of 57. He's also only one of two presidents (the other being George Washington) who took the oath of office in NYC as well.
- Herbert Hoover, 31st US President, died in NYC on October 20th, 1964 from an internal hemorrhage at the age of 90.
I won't speculate if any of the current living presidents will pass away in NYC but I can't think of a better place for someone who achieved America's highest office to go into their permament reward.
And how appropriate that a criminal case against another former president is opening today in NYC on the anniversary of the death of this other criminal president -- an accountability that Nixon himself managed to avoid.
For four decades John Sterling has announced Yankees games on the radio. He's broadcast over 5000 consecutive games, creating a vivid "theater of the mind" -- or "game of the mind" to say more accurately -- for legions of Yankee and NYC baseballs fans.
Now, at the age of 85, he's retiring, as much a legend as any player whose games he announced.
I remember listening to some of his games on the radio back in the 1990s and his voice was powerful and unmistakable. And his legendary motto, when a player hit a homerun, be would "It is hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, it is lowwwwwwwwwwwwww, it is GOOOOONNNNNNNNEEEEEEE!"
He'll be irreplaceable. Enjoy retirment, John, the city miss you.
If you're in my age-range then you remember his trial. Before Monica Lewinsky, before 9/11, before the Iraq War, before the Financial Meltdown, before Trump, before COVID, before any number of disasters and horrors, the late-1990s OJ Simpson case seemed like the most important thing going on in the country.
I distinctly remember when, one night before I had a final high school exam, I saw a news report that OJ was being questioned in his ex-wife's murder. I barely knew who OJ was except that he was in the Naked Gun movies, was a sportscaster, and endorsed a lot of products on TV. Old as I am, I wasn't old enough to remember his 1970s glory days as a football star -- not that I would have cared then or now.
Anyway, I remember the night after I finished 11th grade, coming home at 8 in the morning from a party, going to sleep, and waking up to news that he was wanted in this murder. It sounded crazy but I didn't really pay that much attention to it. (We weren't living a world of constant screens or news or social media then). Later that night, sacked out on the couch, watching an episode of a dumb forgotten show called Burke's Law, the news broke in to cover the now infamous, historic Ford Bronco chase. I spent the rest of the night watching it, a truly surreal thing, and I was just glad that it didn't end in violence or a shootout.
In many ways, the OJ chase and case was the first surreal episode of the last surreal 30 years.
Now think back to March of 1993, if you can (if weren't old enough, or alive, you're excused). Bill Clinton has just become president. The country is at peace.
And radio host Howard Stern is the epitome of the "shock jock", the most outrageous mouth in America, and becoming a huge star.
Late during one show on a March day of 1993, OJ Simpson briefly dropped by the show. OJ was not a scheduled guest but he was in Howard's radio station because OJ was on the board of Howard's radio company and was there for a meeting.
Howard and his producer Baba Booey coaxed OJ to come on the air. They had a hilarious, lively, and racy conversation where Howard told OJ how smartly he had handled his career, how great he was in the Naked Gun movies, how good he looked for his age, and, naturally, about all the "hot broads" OJ was "nailin'."
"I've never been with that caliber of woman" Howard tells OJ about OJ's then model girlfriend -- a comment I'm sure Howard's then wife greatly appreciated.
Some of this stuff is extremely creepy to listen to in retrospect: OJ talks about his recent divorce from his wife Nicole but declares that they have a "great realtionship." And after Howard talks about how awesome OJ and his life is, OJ simply says, "I'm having a good life."
Fifteen months later, that "good life" -- and American culture -- would change.
You can listen here to Howard's crazy interview with OJ followed by 9 hours of talk about the man, the murder, and the case that riveted the world. It's fascinating to hear how Howard, like America, went from lionizing OJ, to being incredulous at the thought he might be involved in this double homicide, to being 100% convinced of his guilt.
Beyond his life, OJ's life feels like the end of some of kind of weird era, a kind of closure. The whole thing was and remains a tragedy. But, of course, Howard found some way to make it hilarious -- his conclusion, "White broads are nuthin' but trouble, damn my penis."
When you read a novel or watch a movie or any standalone story, the timespan it takes place across can vary: the story can take place over a few hours, a few days, a few weeks -- or a few years, decades, or centuries.
It therefore takes a special skill to tell a story within one day -- 24 hours -- that has an engaging beginning, middle, and end. Obviously the goldstandard of a 24-hour story is James Joyce's 1922 legendary novel Ulysses, a tale of two down-on-their-luck Dubliners, whose lives intersect on June 16, 1904.
Most movies that take place over 24-hours are action movies -- they're basically lengthy chases, one slambang sequence after another -- that only work narratively over a short period of time. Also, the movie usually has a hook that such and such a thing must be done before a specific time or else a bomb goes off. Non-action movies are harder to tell within 24-hours but some have tried.
A couple of other very good set-within-24 hours NYC movies that aren't on this but that I've also written about are New Year's DayandVanya on 42nd Street.
Of course NYC is the perfect place to set a story within 24-hours because there's so much to do, and it's so relatively easy to get around, that a lot can happen within a short period of time. I hope many such movies will be made in the future!
Certain parts of NYC become known as little satellites of other countries: Little Italy, the Chinatowns of Lower Manhattan & Sunset Park and Flushing, the Greek and Egyptian neighborhoods in Astoria, the Russian neighborhoods in Brighton Beach, and others.
Now, apparently, in NoHo, there's also Little Paris. This area used to be heavily French in the day (much like Yorkville used to be heavily German) but this waned over the 20th century. Now there's been a rebirth of French businesses in the area and it's been official redubbed as Little Paris.
