The Mohawk (then Hudson) Theater

This post was written by library volunteer Gail Denisoff.

A new theater joined the many entertainment venues in Schenectady in 1904. Originally built for musical theater and vaudeville productions, the Mohawk Theatre was built next to the Fire Department at 10-14 South College Street (now a parking lot between Burger King and Clinton's Ditch). The Mohawk Theatre Hotel and Rathskeller situated in front section of the theater and sharing the same address, housed many employees of the theatre and rathskeller. Described as a typical "Gay Nineties" theater house, it had "decorated ceilings, rococo moldings, gold leaf, crystal chandeliers and rich textured drapes. There were two boxes on either side of the big stage, an orchestra pit, balcony and a wide center aisle with narrow side aisles on the main floor." The theater had a capacity of 900 on the main floor and 1350 seats if the upper gallery was open.

  

1914 Sanborn Insurance map depicting Mohawk Theater and Hotel building at 10-12-14 S. College St.

By the summer of 1909, vaudeville gave way to burlesque, and the Mohawk billed its acts as "musical extravaganzas" to distinguish themselves from the bawdier and more risqué acts that could get a theater shut down. The theater added income when rented out for other uses. One such rental was by Reverend George Lunn, who would later become Schenectady's first socialist mayor. After resigning as the pastor of the First Reformed Church, he began his own non-denominational church called the People's Church. In 1910, he rented space at the Mohawk Theatre for Sunday night services, which he continued even after his election in 1912.

The theater changed managers frequently and continued to rotate between vaudeville, burlesque and stock theater companies. By 1916, the name of the theater changed to the Hudson Theatre thanks to an actor in one of the traveling stock companies who convinced the management at the time that the Hudson was a larger river so would be a more prestigious name. It continued as mainly a burlesque house until 1923 when A. Vedder Magee and some local backers bought the theater at foreclosure. In the fall of 1924, they decided take a chance and offer a season of "decent family entertainment" even though "girlie shows" were the most successful productions at the time. Magee brought The Harry Bond Players stock company to Schenectady after their successful run in Pittsfield, MA. The Bond Players reopened the Hudson Theatre on November 17, 1924, with a week's run of the successful New York City play, "Thank-U". The entire proceeds of the first two performances went to the Schenectady Crippled Children's Fund. 

 

The lighted sign marking the Hudson Theater sits directly below the original Mohawk Theater sign at the top of the building.

 

The new direction of the theater proved successful and soon the theater was showing a profit. Audiences flocked to the Hudson for a variety of plays that changed each week. A favorite was "The Night of January 16^th" by Ayn Rand. Whenever it was performed, a new jury was chosen from the audience to sit in the jury box on stage and render a verdict. A popular thriller was "The Cat and the Canary" and the comedy "The Easy Mark" was also well received. When "Ming Toy" starring Harry Bond as an Asian merchant was performed, the usherettes dressed in Chinese costume and incense permeated the theater for effect.

The Hudson become popular not only with the more affluent members of the community but also with people from all walks of life. Faithful patrons would wait at the stage door after a show for autographs or to congratulate their favorite performers. The audiences felt a bond with the actors, enthusiastically applauding when each entered the stage for the first time during a performance and shows ended with multiple curtain calls. Harry Bond would often appear to thank the audiences and invite them to return for the next production.

The thirteen actors in the stock company worked hard. They learned lines and rehearsed daily from 10AM until noon, always a week ahead of the production in progress. The pit orchestra of about eight musicians practiced cue-ins and any background music. Some of the pit-men preferred dramas so they could play poker in the downstairs dressing rooms between acts. Harry Bond, well liked by his stock company, was encouraging and kind to his actors. One member he brought from Pittsfield as a character actress was Richie Clark Russell. She told Bond that she had misgivings about coming to Schenectady and doubted she would last more than one season. She ended up loving the area, married A. Vedder Magee and stayed until her death in 1971.

Mrs. Richie Magee, actress and wife of A. Vedder Magee, at her Schenectady home in 1960. Photo from the Larry Hart Collection.

 On Saturday night, May 22, 1926, the Bond Players performed "In Love with Love", which was the second to the last production of their second season. Harry Bond came out to thank the audience for their response to the show as well as the whole season and invite them to "Ice Bound" to be performed the following week. The audience was delighted when he announced the company would be back in September for a third season.

Tragedy struck the next afternoon. Harry Bond and Tedd Brackett, one of the actors in the company, were out for Sunday dinner with their wives. They dropped the women off at the Maywood Hotel before dinner at about 1:30 while the men drove off to try out Tedd's new Buick Brougham. Harry was driving when the car stalled on the tracks of the Schenectady Railroad Company at stop 15½ on Schenectady-Albany Road. He was trying to back the car off the tracks when the oncoming trolley crashed into them at approximately 50 miles per hour. Killed instantly, both men were thrown from the vehicle, parts of which were scattered 500 feet down the tracks. It was reported more than 10,000 people flocked to the crash site before the day was out. Tributes poured in from devastated theater patrons as well as public and civic leaders.

Hundreds gathered along the streets as services for Bond, 41, and Brackett, 45, took place two days later at Timeson & Fronk Funeral Chapel near the theater at 15 South Church Street. Tedd Brackett was later buried in his hometown of Cortland, NY, and Harry Bond was cremated. Harry's family sued The Schenectady Railway Company and won, but the decision was overturned on appeal.

While the crash marked the end of the Harry Bond Players, it did not end performances at the Hudson Theatre. A. Vedder Magee asked actress Richie Clark Russell if she would organize a stock company to produce a 1926-27 season. She agreed and her contract stated she had sole charge of the production and would appear in at least three plays a month. Audiences continued to flock to the theater and were treated to shows such as "The Gorilla", a thriller in which a man dressed in a gorilla costume ran up and down the aisles frightening patrons, "Seventh Heaven", "Charlie's Aunt", and Richie Clark Russell's personal favorite, "Smiling Through", a heartwarming story of a civil war veteran. A few of the Harry Bond Players remained with the new company.

Although Richie Clark Russell's company had two successful seasons at the Hudson Theatre, rising production costs forced the company to end its run. The Wilcox Players performed there for part of a season and The Abbey Theatre Irish Players also played briefly but economic uncertainty following the crash of 1929 closed the theater to stage shows for good. In 1934, the theater was leased to the Farash Theater Corporation. The interior was remodeled into a night club with the stage used as a dance floor. A fire of undetermined origin destroyed the theater on December 18, 1934 and it was torn down shortly thereafter.     

Private party held at the remodeled Hudson Theater, Feb. 16, 1934. Photo from the Larry Hart Collection.

Harry Houdini in Schenectady

When I think of Harry Houdini the first thing that comes to mind are his wild escape acts, mind bending illusions, and amazing feats of physical strength and stamina. A lesser known aspect of Houdini's life was that in the 1920s, he began to focus on debunking spiritualists and psychics. His training in sleight of hand and audience manipulation gave him a keen sense on how to expose frauds, although it didn't hurt that Houdini and his wife would use similar spiritualist tricks when they were strapped for cash.

Advertisement for Houdini's 3 Shows in 1. Courtesy of
the blog Wild About Houdini.

His most famous run-in with a spiritualist occurred during a séance with his friends Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife Lady Jean Conan Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle's wife. The Doyle's were touring the United States to lecture about Spiritualism. Lady Doyle claimed to be a medium and wanted to conduct a séance to contact Houdini's mother. Houdini's wife, Bess, had previously warned him that Jean had been asking questions about his mother, but Houdini agreed to the séance anyway. During the séance, Jean appeared to fall into a deep trance and began to transcribe what Houdini's mother was transmitting from beyond the grave. Houdini immediately found problems with the sance. He was born in Budapest to a mother who did not speak English and a father who was a rabbi. The first thing that Lady Doyle drew when she went into a trance was a cross and then she proceeded to write everything down in English.

After the séance, Arthur told the press that Houdini had been converted to the religion of Spiritualism. A bit miffed at the untrue accusation, Houdini publicly stated that the séance made him even more skeptical of spiritualism. This exchange put a heavy strain on their friendship and Houdini decided to put on his own anti-spiritualism tour. This tour eventually evolved into Houdini's "3 shows in 1" tour that he would bring to Schenectady in mid-October, 1926. During his three day stay in Schenectady, he gave a lecture on anti-spiritualism at Union College, performed his magic act at the Van Curler Opera House, exposed a Spiritualist that he believed to be a fraud, and gave an address on WGY.

Photo of Harry Houdini from the October 13, 1926
issue of the Schenectady Gazette.Courtesy of fultonhistory.com

Houdini injured his ankle just days before in Albany while performing the Chinese Water Torture Cell at the Capitol Theater. The injury almost caused him to cancel the rest of his tour, but the Van Curler took out an ad ensuring that Houdini "will positively appear" at the theater. There was a clause in his contract stating that if Houdini was to cancel any show due to illness or injury, he would have to pay the theater $1,000 per day. The blog Wild About Houdini states that Houdini wrote an urgent letter to his manager from the dressing room of the Van Curler Hotel where he threatened to cancel the tour if his manager did not remove the clause.

"I am amazed any sensible manager would sign a contract with such a clause in it and I am perfectly willing to leave the road before I would take such a chance. [...] Am perfectly willing to continue if a new clause is inserted but under the present contract I retire gracefully."  -Houdini's letter to his manager, written from the dressing room of Schenectady's Van Curler Hotel.

The injury caused Houdini to switch up his act a bit and he couldn't not perform his best trick, presumably the Water Torture Cell, but ever the crowd-pleaser, he replaced it with five others. An article from the October 15, 1926 issue of the Schenectady Gazette stated that Houdini performed hundreds of tricks during his act and that while his magic show clever, the best part of the show was his performance exposing spiritualists and mediums. Houdini put on a fake séance and invited several audience members to join him on stage, revealed how spiritualists used their charms and interviewed a woman who had went to several mediums in Schenectady. According to the mediums, she had many deceased husbands and children in heaven. The audience got a kick out of the reveal that she had never been married and had no children. You can find the Schenectady Gazette's review of Houdini's show here at fultonhistory.com.

Houdini's stay in Schenectady was lively despite the injury that almost caused him to cancel the whole tour. The injury that he received in Albany is believed to be a direct cause of Houdini's death although there is debate as to whether he was suffering from acute appendicitis and did not realize the symptoms. Houdini would die just 16 days after his last performance in Schenectady due to complications from appendicitis.

Houdini on WGY radio on October 14, 1926. Courtesy MiSci -
Museum of Innovation and Science 

Thanks to the blog Wild About Harry , fultonhistory.com and Don Rittner's article on Albany's role in Houdini's death.

-Mike Maloney

A Dash of Thanksgiving Humor

Local readers chuckled at this Thanksgiving illustration that appeared in the Quaker Street Review on November 17, 1892. Image obtained via www.fultonhistory.com. 

The holiday of Thanksgiving, during its long years of tradition, has been an occasion for giving solemn thanks and enjoying communion with family. However, Thanksgiving does have its lighter side. In celebration of Thanksgiving - and with tongue firmly in cheek - we offer humorous bits about Thanksgiving, gleaned from 19th-century Schenectady newspapers. Even 150 years ago, local residents had plenty of funny tidbits to share about Thanksgiving.

The most common, of course, is turkey humor:

"The most unhappy man we saw on Thanksgiving eve was a grocer. He had sold his last turkey, and company was coming. He had sold his last turkey, but he could get another, you know. And so, shutting up his store, he started off for the other turkey. He not only started, but he travelled. He went to Johnson's. He went to Stavers'. He went to Bronk's. He went to the head of State Street and down again to Frog Alley. He traveled Union Street to the extent of the College thereof, and he went in every other direction; but not a turkey could he find. And not a turkey had he - had he - all for Thanksgiving day. We expect our grocer said the usual thanks at his bountiful table, next day, but there was lacking a bit of heart in the matter. That's what comes from having too many customers. It's pretty bad when company comes."
 - Schenectady Daily Evening Star, 9 December 1865

"Never mind about the mythical raid on Cuba! There is no doubt of our citizens being extensively engaged in perfecting arrangements for a universal war on Turkey."
- Schenectady Daily Evening Star, 14 November 1863

"There was once a turkey ... But Thanksgiving day arrived by order of the Governor. And, as if the Governor had ordered the sacrifice, that turkey was beheaded ... we hope it will not be deemed immodest when we say, that the turkey adorned our table. He 'came on' dripping with fatness and 'extreme' with dressing. He was greasy with gravy and delicious as to smell. He was white and tender at the breast and savory at the bowels. His limbs were done to a nicety, and his wings emphatically good. In fact, He made the meal of the year, that turkey, and we shall never recur to the fact without regret that he didn't have a brother or a sister, or a dozen of both."
- Schenectady Evening Star and Times, 21 November 1862

"We would advise turkeys to roost high, if they expect to pass over the day unmolested."
- Quaker Street Review, 8 November 1894

And there's also, of course, humor about those who overindulge in drink when making merry on Thanksgiving:

"We are without a promised report of the temperance lecture last evening. Our reporter was invited out to a thanksgiving dinner and we haven't seen him since. We understand that he was seen about eleven o'clock last night in the neighborhood of the dry dock inquiring where the lecture was to be held. He stated that he had eaten so much turkey that he was obliged to take an overdose of the 'green seal' to quiet the squakings [sic] of the biped inside and that the medicine had got the better of him. Any information of his whereabouts will be thankfully received at this office, and no questions asked."
- Schenectady Daily Evening Star, 29 November 1867

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Girls from Schenectady High School laugh with delight after riding the Shoot-the-Chute at Rexford Park during a senior class trip to the amusement park in 1908. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

The invention of the Kodak Brownie camera in 1900 revolutionized photography. Its low cost and the ease of using the camera not only made photography more accessible to everyone, including young people; it also led to the creation of the snapshot. From the Brownie era to the iPhone era, young people have enjoyed casually snapping photos of themselves and their friends, and sharing them with each other.

A number of photographs of Schenectady County girls and young ladies, simply having fun, are presented here. Enjoy them!

Interested in exploring the Schenectady County's past through photographs? Visit our Library or contact our Librarian.

Two teenage girls dress up in 1890s-era clothing and pose as a "Gay Nineties" bicycling gentleman and lady in this 1939 photo. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Girls play basketball in gym glass at Van Corlaer Junior High School in this 1956 photo. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Nott Terrace High School cheerleaders huddle up for this 1949 photo snapped in a school corridor. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

A group of Schenectady High School girls pose at a trolley stop in this photo, ca. 1910. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Girls enjoy a lunchtime chat by their lockers at Mont Pleasant High School in this 1942 photograph. Image from Larry Hart Collection.

Margaret Hoffman laughs as Kathleen McElroy fits her into the Cinderella slipper at the 1948 Nott Terrace High School Junior Prom. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Schenectady Musicians: A Look Back

The Schenectady Italian Band poses for this photo taken ca. 1910. The ethnic fraternal organizations that proliferated from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century emphasized social activities, and the array of dances, dinners, picnics, parades, and other celebrations they held often featured music. The Schenectady Italian Band played in the area for over 20 years before changing their name to the Western Gateway Band. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Music has been a part of community life in Schenectady County for as long as humans have inhabited the area. Music is a valuable means for people to communicate, educate, entertain, explore creativity, tell stories, preserve cultural traditions, ease the burdens of work, enhance events such as weddings, parades, and dances, motivate troops at war, and simply for fun and pleasure. Featured here are a number of images from our photograph collections that showcase music and musicians in Schenectady County.

Interested in learning more about Schenectady County's past in photographs? Visit our Library or contact our Librarian.

Salvation Army musicians perform on State Street in Schenectady in December 1986 to kick off their holiday season fundraising efforts. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

This photograph from June of 1925 shows Kalteux's Collegians playing at the dance pavilion in Schenectady's Central Park. A note on the back of the photograph shares a recollection of the concerts they played:  "That was the in the days of 10 cents a dance. The Union rate of the orchestra was $8.00 per night from 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Three tough hours playing with no intermission. Any other night was $5.00 per man for three hours." Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

A crowd gathers around a band performing in front of the Hotel Vendome on State Street in Schenectady, ca. 1895. One brazen boy has inserted himself into the middle of the circle of musicians to get a better view. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Family bands were very popular and common in the early part of the 20th century, both for simple evenings at home and to share music with others. In this 1901 photo, members of the Wilson family pose with their instruments. From left to right are father Randall Wicks Wilson and his sons Byron Wilson, Archie Wilson, and Morris Wilson. The family lived on Shannon Street in the Bellevue neighborhood in Schenectady. The daughter of Byron Wilson wrote on the back of the photo that the family musical group "discontinued interest when jazz made its appearance." Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

The Schenectady City Band poses on the lawn at Union College in this photograph, taken ca. 1890. The Schenectady City Band is mentioned in local newspapers as early as 1865, the year that they played an Independence Day celebration in Schenectady. In addition to playing at local events, city and town band often traveled throughout the region to entertain in other locales. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

A German-American sextet plays music at the corner of State Street and Western Parkway in 1911. Around the turn of the twentieth century, some Schenectadians objected to street musicians and saw them as a nuisance. Commentary decrying the street musicians appeared in local newspapers around the turn of the century. Such articles and letters often employed a xenophobic tone, characterizing street musicians as low-class, ignorant, and unmistakably "foreign." Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

The Schenectady Symphony Orchestra poses on the stage of Mont Pleasant High School in this photograph, taken in February of 1936. The Schenectady Symphony Orchestra was a new organization at that time, having given their first concert a year earlier. Nearly 80 years later, the organization is still in existence today. The people playing in the orchestra include paid professional musicians and non-paid amateur musicians. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

The Niskayuna Band poses in front of the Niskayuna Reformed Church in this 1902 photo. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Summer Fun in Schenectady's History

Swimming revelers play at "Tempting Father Neptune" in the Mohawk River in this photo circa 1910. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Summer is here! Celebrate the season with these photographs of summertimes of yesteryear in Schenectady. They are best enjoyed with an ice-cold glass of lemonade, a slice of watermelon, and a breeze coming through a window screen.

Interested in learning more about Schenectady County's past in photographs? Visit our Library or contact our Librarian.

Schenectadians congregate in Blesser's Grove, a park which once existed at Albany Street, near where Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School now stands. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Children swim in Schenectady's Central Park in this photo taken during the 1920s. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

This 1899 photo depicts golfers on the Mohawk Club golf course. Incidentally, the man putting is Willis T. Hanson, Jr., who would later author the book History of Schenectady During the Revolution. His father, Willis T. Hanson, Sr., best known as the promoter of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People, stands at right. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Enjoying a picnic lunch along the banks of the Mohawk River, ca. 1905. Notice the boat pulled up to the bank at left. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Swimmers frolic at the Grout Park pool in Schenectady in this July 1941 photograph. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Spectators watch as two children have a footrace in Central Park in 1909 during a picnic outing. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Swimmers pose in caps and suits in front of the Mohawk Swimming School building in Glenotia Park, ca. 1915. The Mohawk Swimming School operated out of Glenotia Park from 1912 to about 1928. The park was located on the island off the Scotia shore alongside the Glen Sanders Mansion. The 10-acre park began to be developed in 1907 and also included a picnic area, baseball diamond, and a pavilion for dances. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Crowds gather in Crescent Park (now Veterans Park) for a celebration following a July 4th parade on State Street in 1880. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

A family enjoys a picnic meal during a car camping trip in July of 1927. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

Children play in the old fountain in Crescent Park (now Veterans Park) in Schenectady in 1946. Image from Larry Hart Collection.  

Schenectady Boat Club

Postcard of Schenectady Boat Club clubhouse on the Scotia side of the Mohawk River, opposite present-day Riverside Park, ca. 1910. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Postcard Collection.

"The vigor of manhood which has guided the club's activities during eight years of unfailing success is unabating and as succeeding years find new faces in its executive councils and wearing its insignia in athletic events, the same daring and unconquered spirit of their predecessors is dominant."
         -- The Periscope v. 1, n. 1 (December 1915)

As spring turns to summer, more and more boats can be seen traveling along the Mohawk River near our library in Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood. In a salute to the spirit of the season, we are featuring some images related to the Schenectady Boat Club.

These images from The Periscope showcase events at the Schenectady Boat Club's annual regatta. Image from the collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library. 

The Schenectady Boat Club was first established after a general interest meeting in 1907. The group originally met in the old city pumping station in present-day Riverside Park, on the Schenectady side of the river. They soon raised $15,000 to purchase and and build a clubhouse. By 1909, the Boat Club had erected its clubhouse on the Scotia side of the Mohawk, located just a few hundred feet east of the bridge that ran from the foot of Washington Avenue in Schenectady to Scotia. The spacious two-story clubhouse included offices, a meeting room, lounge and pool room, showers, restrooms, and lockers on the first floor, while the second floor was a large ballroom used for dinners and dances. Fireplaces, a victrola and piano, and places to play cards provided a convivial atmosphere. The club's grounds also included a dock and a boat storage shed. Within a few years tennis courts and a rifle range were added to the grounds.

Officers of the Schenectady Boat Club in 1920. Front row, left to right: Noel E. Bensinger (Treasurer), Winfield D. Bearse (Vice President), Walden D. Brough (President), Floyd T. Smith (Secretary), Donald K. Frost (Captain). Back row, left to right: John W. Randall, Guy M. Jones, J. Wiggins Collamer, Stuart J. Knight, Charles A. Simon, Eugene Johnson. Image from Larry Hart Collection.

The cover of the constitution and by-laws of the Schenectady Boat Club. The cover features an image of the club's official flag. Image from the collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library. 

Although the primary purpose of the Schenectady Boat Club was devoted to boat recreation -- including motorboating, canoeing and canoe sailing, river cruising, inter-club competitions and their annual regattas -- the club offered plenty of other social, athletic, and recreational opportunities, including suppers, lectures, smokers, dances, ski trips, automobile cruises, and card tournaments. Members of the club organized their own tennis and bowling leagues, went swimming and ice-skating, and opted to create a golf course on their property in 1922. With the addition of the golf course, membership increased from 300 to 500, and the focus switched from boating to a general country club. In accordance, the Schenectady Boat Club changed its name to Schenectady Country Club in January 1925.

This fanciful vision of the Schenectady Boat Club's future on the Mohawk River is depicted in a cartoon that appeared in The Periscope, the newsletter of the Boat Club, in 1916. The Grems-Doolittle library holds a run of The Periscope from the inaugural issue in December 1915 through the February 1926 issue. Image from the collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library. 

In 1978, only the foundation of the old Schenectady Boat Club clubhouse was still in existence. The building was razed after a fire in 1941. Harold N. Hyde, a former member of the Schenectady Boat Club, lays his hands on the remains of the foundation. Image from Larry Hart Collection. 

"The Xanadu of Funny-Sounding Places:" Schenectady in Popular Culture

Photocopy of cover of sheet music for "I Can't Spell Schenectady." From Schenectady Songs clipping file. 

Schenectady has often shown up in American popular culture - usually as a nod to the sound of the name or the difficulty in spelling it correctly. The classic example is a song written in 1948 entitled "I Can't Spell Schenectady." Here's some of the lyrics to the song:

Reading, writing and geography;
But when it comes to spelling, I'm confessin'
There's just one word that stumps me constantly.
I can spell Dakota, can handle Minnesota, but I can't spell Schenectady,
I can spell Havana and figure out Savannah, but I can't spell Schenectady.
Why, one time at a spelling bee
Said teacher all at once,
"Now, Willie, spell 'Schenectady',"
I felt just like a dunce!
I spelled Anaconda and even Tonawanda,
So what does she expect of me?
I just can't spell Schenectady.
I can spell Pomona, Seattle and Tacoma, but I can't spell Schenectady,
I mastered Ypsilanti and Agua Caliente, but I can't spell Schenectady.

The difficult-to-spell quality also shows up in a Schenectady joke (stop me if you've heard this one): A businessman was rapidly dictating a letter to his secretary, telling a business associate he would meet him in Schenectady. The secretary interrupted, "Excuse me, please. How do you spell Schenectady?" The businessman fumbled and struggled, red-faced, to spell the name of the city before sputtering angrily "Oh hell! Forget it! Tell him I'll meet him in Albany!"

Why does "Schenectady" work so well for a punch line? Humor and television writer Bill Scheft referred to Schenectady as "the Xanadu of funny-sounding places" in an interview with the Daily Gazette. "Four syllables, good rhythm and that hard comedy 'K' right in the middle. It scans perfectly. Of course, it's no Cohoes, but what is?" Like Rancho Cucamonga, Sheboygan, and Walla Walla, Schenectady can pop up in a reference just to sound kooky or comical. In one episode of the television show Everybody Loves Raymond, "Schenectady" was used as a near-rhyme with "vasectomy," and on The Dick Van Dyke Show, "Schenectady" slipped out of a character's mouth as part of a sneezing attack.

Aside from references that play on the sound of the city's name, Schenectady has also been used as a popular culture reference as a bit of a dig at how the city is conceived. Rob Edelman, a professor of film history at the University at Albany, was quoted in a 2004 as saying, "In the movies, Schenectady is like Brooklyn. It's been stereotyped as a place for losers, a place to be avoided by any forward-thinking person." Thus, the oafish nouveau riche couples in the 1934 movie Fashions of 1934 hailed from Schenectady. Likewise, a character in the 1955 film It's Always Fair Weather who aspired to owning a high-class restaurant in a sophisticated locale instead winds up running a diner in Schenectady.

In contrast to its being portrayed as a behind-the-times backwater burg, Schenectady was at the forefront of the development of radio and early television. The General Electric Company first started experimenting with radio in 1912, and radio station WGY first went on the air in 1922. WGY was an early leader in radio drama. The Masque theater troupe from Troy performed on the weekly show "WGY Players," with the WGY Orchestra performing music between acts of the plays. The dramatic performances also featured the first radio sound effect, when two pieces of lumber were slapped together to sound like a slamming door.  WRGB in Schenectady claims to be the world's first television station. It traces its roots to early in 1928, when Dr. Ernst F.W. Alexanderson, a General Electric scientist, made the first successful television broadcast from his home to the homes of four G.E. executives in Schenectady. Regular television broadcasts were de rigeur in Schenectady long before the popularization of television mushroomed in the 1950s. Schenectady was also home to the first independent commercial FM station, W47A, established in 1941.

Dr. Ernst Alexanderson with an early television set in 1928. The early TV is shown in this photograph – the screen is the small square near the top of the large console. General Electric began broadcasting occasional newscasts, musical performances, dramatic performances, and other programming in 1928.  Chuck Everson, who traced the history of WRGB writes that in the early days, “the signal that was broadcast [by WRGB] could be picked up all over the country . . . it would be blasted all over the world because there were no other stations to interfere with it.” Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Schenectady also has a brush with showbiz fame through the people in the film, television, and music industry who were born or raised in Schenectady, including: Ann B. Davis, best known as housekeeper Alice on the television show The Brady Bunch; film actor and screenwriter Mickey Rourke; director, screenwriter, and author John Sayles, for whom the John Sayles School of Fine Arts at Schenectady High School is named; and legendary disco record producer Tom Moulton. Schenectady is also the "birthplace" of a number of fictional characters in film, TV, and fiction, from comic book villain Dr. Octopus to the character of Grace Adler on television's Will and Grace.

John Sayles is a director, screenwriter, and author born in Schenectady in 1950. He has worked as a director for over 30 years, and has directed many movies, including Honeydripper, Sunshine State, and Matewan. This photograph of Sayles is his senior picture, which appears in the 1968 Mont Pleasant High School yearbook. 

Schenectady has also been the site of filming of Hollywood movies, including 1973's The Way We Were, 2009's Winter of Frozen Dreams, and most recently, The Place Beyond the Pines, which quite clearly features Schenectady as the setting for its gritty crime drama.

A Look Back at Brandywine Park

A man stands at the entrance to Brandywine Park around the turn of the century. The park's entrance was located across from the intersection of Albany Street and Elm Street in Schenectady. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

In the days before automobiles, public transit companies offered their patrons more than simply transportation from point A to point B. They also provided opportunities for entertainment and recreation. The Schenectady Railway Company, which ran the city's trolley lines, offered moonlight pleasure tours in open trolley cars, taking passengers on one-and-one-half-hour tours from downtown Schenectady, up through Latham, and back again. The Schenectady Railway Company also invested funds to establish parks along its trolley lines as an attraction. One of those parks was Brandywine Park. The trolley company opened the park in 1896. It was located south of State Street on what was then the city's western edge, with an entrance opposite the intersection of Albany Street and Elm Street.

Image from 1905 Schenectady city atlas showing the location of Brandywine Park. 

The one-acre park was to serve as "a family pleasure resort and picnic ground;" it was host to a variety of activities, including clambakes, shooting exhibitions, dog shows, picnics, music, dancing, moonlight cakewalks, political rallies, carnivals, bingo parties, garden parties, daredevil motorcyclist exhibitions, hot-air balloon launchings, and track meets. The Schenectady Elks put on an annual Independence Day celebration there for several years.

A 1910 issue of the Amsterdam Evening Recorder featured this advertisement for an Independence Day celebration at Brandywine Park. The Schenectady Elks Lodge put together 4th of July celebrations for several years at the park. Image obtained via www.fultonhistory.com.

The park also served as a place for ethnic communities and ethnic organizations to gather for celebrations. Members of Schenectady's African-American community used the park grounds in celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1912 and for John Brown's Day in 1913. German immigrants held their German Day there in 1905.  The Italian-American organization Società Unione Fratellanza held an annual picnic there. Political groups held open-air meetings, rallies, and speeches in the park. In 1906, labor activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn gave her first public speech in Brandywine Park.

The dance pavilion in Brandywine park, soon after it was built in 1896. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

As the years progressed and the city's growth intensified through the remainder of the 1890s and the early 1900s, the park was no longer on the outskirts of the city, but within it. As early as 1903, the Schenectady Railway Company expressed interest in selling the grounds, and eventually did sell the property to St. Luke's Church in the early 1920s. The church continued to operate the grounds as a park until it began to develop the property and build a school and other buildings there in 1928.

Portion of an advertisement for a boxing exhibition featuring Jack Dempsey at Brandywine Park in 1923, after it became the property of St. Luke's Church. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.