Remembering Josephine Earp

In the legend of the American West and cowboy culture, few people loom larger than Wyatt Earp. A lawman who roamed in 19th century America, his legend was enshirined at the Shout Out at the Ok Corrall, portrayed in many movies, a key moment in the wild history of the American story.

And his third wife, Josephine, had an amazing life too.

She was the daughter of a baker -- and was Jewish! Raised mostly in San Francisco, she ran away at age 14 and headed to Arizona. Allegedly she worked as a prostitute under the name of Sadie, got married, and eventually moved to the notorious Tombstone. Eventually she got rid of her husband and hooked up the frontier marshall Wyatt Earp -- they married in 1892 and stayed together until his death in 1929. After the infamous shootout, the couple moved around from Colorado, Nevada, even Alaska, prospecting for gold, until settling in Los Angeles. She died in 1944.

Josephine's life story is somewhat mysterious and controversial. In 1967 her supposed autobiography was published called I Married Wyatt Earp -- and it turns out most of it was made up. Also, Josephine was cagey about much of her past, mostly about the hooker part, so she remains something of a fascinating mystery.

That said, one thing is certain -- this legendary lady of the wild American West, this icon of the frontier was native New Yorker. Josephine was born in NYC in 1861 before her Polish immigrant baker father took the family west. Her life is a example of how NYC is not only the great American city but it's the great American entry point, the mother city, the seed from which the rest of the nation grows.   

Forbidden Planet

In a city where things change constantly, there's one place that has managed to hang on for over forty years -- the comics and pop culture store Forbidden Planet.

Located between 12th and 13th streets on Broadway, it's one of the last old school comic book stores left in NYC. It was opened in 1981, a spinoff location of a similar store in London, but it quickly became a much beloved, NYC landmark, a place where teenagers and comic geeks congregated to get the latest installments of their favorite series, meet and get autographs from their favorite cartoonists, and meet similar people.

I recently took my kid who loves graphic arts and comics and she liked it. Although the current Forbidden Planet is much smaller than it used to be, I'm so thankful that it's still there -- and that NYC kids like mine can still get lost into a world of fantasy.

Diane Keaton RIP

I cannot, do not, want to think about a world where Diane Keaton isn't in it. Sadly she is now gone at the age of 79.

Diane Keaton was more than just a great actress, she was a cultural icon and a cinematic legend, an actress who could deeply impact you with her dramatic work, and make you laugh out loud with her comedica performances.

Diane Keaton's acting showed that she could do anything -- and it didn't look like she was acting at all.

Her filmography is oustanding: all three Godfather movies; many Woody Allen classics like Sleeper, Love & Death, Annie Hall (her Oscar), Manhattan; other movies like Looking for Mr Goodbar, Shoot the Moon, Marvin's Room, Father of the Bride, Something's Gotta Give, and, more recently, bizarre and brilliant The Young Pope series. 

Keaton was from and mostly lived in California but her 1970s classics -- The Godfather, Annie Hall and Manhattan -- remain something of the greatest movies and New York City movies ever made. One is the most classic NYC crime story ever told and the others are the two most classic NYC romantic comedies ever made. Her leading men were Al Pacino and Woody Allen -- how cool is that?

RIP Diane. We'll never see your like again. La di da. 

Here is the Mr NYC Diane Keaton archive. 

Union Square -- October 11, 2025, 9:01 PM

Review: "House of Guinness" & NYC

I'm really digging the series House of Guinness about the infamous Irish brewery dynasty. It's set in the 1860s, and it's a King Lear/Succession-like drama about the children of a great, powerful, and wealthy man grappling with the immense legacy they've been left. 

Because I'm lazy, and don't want to spoil it for you, I won't review the whole show now but the writing, acting, and production values of the show are outstanding. It's like a soap opera with lots of history and cool Irish accents.

Best of all, while most of the show it set in Dublic, part of the show is set in NYC.

One of the characters named Byron, who's an illegitimate member of the family, goes to NYC to expand the Guinness business into America. He has to deal with lots of anti-Irish, anti-Catholic prejudice, working with the Irish disapora and others to get them drinking the brew.  

Also, Byron is played by Jack Gleeson who portrayed the monstrous King Joffrey on Game of Thrones more than a decade ago. He's now all grown up and here he's not crazy, just ambitious and fast-talking. He's great in this show, as is everyone else.

Check it out!

The Princess of Hell's Kitchen

New York City is not the capital of the United States (at least not for more than 200 hundred years). Amongst all the great real estate that exists in this town, it possess no buildings or centers of national power.

It goes without saying that it has no royal palaces or castles -- royalty has never originated in NYC. Quite the opposite, actually -- this city is where royalty was fought and defeated and caste off, giving birth to the American nation.

And yet ... royalty sure does love coming to NYC! 

Even more, they like living here. The former King Edward VIII and his American wife Wallis Simpson used to live for three months of each year at the Waldforf Towers. And just a few years ago a Japanese princess and her commoner husband moved to NYC, living in all places, Hell's Kitchen. This fascinating article tells her story and how she seemed just to vanish seamlessly into the lifeblood of Manhattan. 

There's something about NYC, part of its paradox, where you can both live in the center of the world and yet hide from it (like Greta Garbo). The stories these streets could tell!

Louis Armstrong House

Recently we visited the home of jazz titan Louis Armstrong.

Although a child of New Orleans -- and a Man of the World -- Armstrong spent the last thirty years of his life with his third wife Lucille in a small cozy house in the heart of Corona, Queens.

Lucille was a native of Corona, and Armstrong fell in love with the neighborhood and her in the late 1930s. Even though he was a rich man, he had good but humble taste, and was perfectly happy living his modest house in a working class neighborhood of NYC. That said, it's beautifully decorated with gifts he received during his extensive tours -- he was on the road for 10 months of the year -- as well as other collectibles. And his bathrooms are, to put it simply, lit.

Borin 1901, Louis Armstrong died in 1971.

We were not allowed to take any photos of the house during our visit but you should check out the home's website or, better yet, visit it yourself. Across the street from the house is a small museum dedicated to the man's life. During our visit, one of the people on our tour was someone who had came all the way from Japan -- a country where they love jazz.

It's a reminder that, in this town, you can find cultural history in the most unlikely places.

Sidenote: my wife's father used to deliver groceries to the Armstrong house when he was a kid. He never met the great man himself (he was usually away or upstairs) but Armstrong's wife and housekeeper would give him pancakes.

You can read more about Louis Armstrong on Mr NYC here as well as my earlier picture of his grave here. 

Adams Out

For the first time since -- when? -- a NYC mayor has quit his reelection campaign. 

Mayor Eric Adams has said that he won't continue his quixotic bid for a second term. Drenched in scandal, incompetence and unpopularity, he's bowing to the obvious and envitable.

Seriously, it makes no difference. Not only was he not going to win but his remaining support is so infinitesimal that it's not going to improve any other candidates support at all. Also, his name will still be on the ballot -- so people can still vote for him if they want. Oy vey.

Like his entire mayoralty, Adams dropping out is a sad joke. He's destined to be a forgotten failed mayor like Abe Beame or Vincent Impelliteri -- someone who was given the chance to make the city better and failed completely. 

Tales of the NYC Underground

Over the years I've blogged a lot about the NYC underground or underworld that I've called the underwelt -- the hidden city, the worlds within worlds of the world's greatest city that we don't see or hear about but that exists all around us.

Here are few stories told by the denizens of the NYC underwelt:

Classic Mr NYC

Last year I blogged about how,when Howard Stern talks about bitches, it's funny. And when he talks about bitches with rappers, it's really funny. 

In 2005 Howard and 50 Cent talked about bitches and remembering the names of 50's bitches, and then in 2007 they revisited the subject in a wide ranging interview. It's funny and fun. Watch it: