Monday, September 23, 2019

They Made the City a Better Place

Apologies if you are starting to think that Mr NYC is turning into some kind of extended obituary page but recently two New Yorkers died who certainly merit recognition -- two New Yorkers who made this city a better place.

The first is a woman named Betty Corwin who, almost 50 years ago, came up a with a simple and brilliant idea -- record Broadway shows and put them into a catalogue at the New York Public Library. She spearheaded this program and ran it for years. Generations of theater fans and professionals were then able to go to the library and watch shows they would otherwise never had seen -- the lightening in a bottle that is great theater, captured forever thanks to her. Rest in peace.

The second is a man named John L. Keenan, a former soldier and NYPD police detective. If you made a movie about this guy's life (someone should) it would be easy to sell: he landed at Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion back in 1944, he was a lifelong buddy of JD Salinger's (fellow D-Day survivor), and then, in 1977, he caught Son of Sam -- he actually made the guy confess! What a life! What a legacy! 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please keep it civil, intelligent, and expletive-free. Otherwise, opine away.