It was Thursday July 20, 2017 and my photographer’s wife was very excited. No, not because it was the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing; it was the day one of her longtime wishes would come true. Since 1992, when Vicki first saw The Phantom of the Opera at Toronto’s Pantages Theater, she had dreamed of seeing ‘The Phantom’ on Broadway. Not only did my photographer and his wife have tickets for the 2:00pm matinee at the Majestic Theater, but their seats were also in the front row of the historic theater.
We boarded the ‘F’ train at the Carroll Street Station for the final time during our three-day stay at Cassie’s Brooklyn brownstone. After just two stops, we switched to the ‘R’ train that dropped us off at the Rector Street Station in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan near Trinity Church. It was only a short two-block walk to 39 Broadway Street where we saw the site where the Alexander Macomb House once stood. The original four-story home that was built by Alexander Macomb served as the second Presidential residence and George Washington lived there from February 23 to August 30, 1790.
As I was held alongside of the Harriman Building that was built where the Macomb House once stood, I envisioned George Washington as he walked out of the building and into the street to board a carriage or to ride his horse; or maybe he strolled down to Trinity Church to say a prayer for the new country. Even though the Father of our Country had resided there for only six months, I thought it was a shame that the historic Macomb House had been destroyed.
I was carried along Broadway until we reached Trinity Church where we turned right onto Wall Street. For ‘National Treasure’ movie fans such as my photographer and I, we were at the corner of “Heere at the Wall”. The three of us went through a myriad of scaffolding that covered the sidewalk along that entire section of Wall Street until we arrived at our next Presidential site – Federal Hall. The Federal Hall National Memorial was constructed on the site of the original Federal Hall in 1842; and although the current building looked cool, it was the original historic building that brought the three of us to the area. There was one important artifact that my photographer had planned on having me pose alongside – the George Washington Inaugural Bible that was on display inside the memorial.
The original Federal Hall was built in 1700 and served as New York City’s City Hall. When New York City became the Capital of the United States in 1789, Federal Hall served as the first United States Capitol Building and was where George Washington took the first Presidential Oath of Office on April 30, 1789. A little over a year later, the Capital City moved to Philadelphia and Federal Hall returned to being the City Hall until a new building was erected in 1812, which was the year Federal Hall was demolished. As I stood in front of the memorial building, I just shook my head in astonishment and wondered in my mind why in the hell New York City would destroy such a historic building. I was carried up the steps of Federal Hall and I posed near the famous statue of George Washington that was erected in 1882. The larger-than-life bronze statue of our first President was situated near the exact location where Washington took the Oath of Office on a second-floor balcony of the original Capitol Building.
Before I was carried inside the building, I posed for a photo behind the statue that looked out from Federal Hall and down Broad Street. Although the New York Stock Exchange building dominated the view, I envisioned thousands of people in 1789 who had congregated on Broad Street to witness the first inauguration of a United States President. It was as though I could hear Chancellor of New York Robert Livingston, after administering the oath to General Washington, yell out to the crowd below: “Long live George Washington, President of the United States.”
As we walked through the entrance doors to Federal Hall, I couldn’t wait to see the Washington Inaugural Bible that was on display inside the museum. But after a ten-minute search that left us empty-handed, we were informed that the Bible was out on loan and not in the museum. While that news left us with an empty feeling because we knew at some point, we’d have to return to that museum to see the historic Bible, we did find two other authentic artifacts that were associated with the first inauguration inside the building. The first artifact that I posed alongside was a slab of the stone balcony flooring where Washington took the Presidential Oath of Office on April 30, 1789. That slab, which appeared to have been cracked over the years, was preserved when the original Federal building was demolished in 1812. The second artifact that I found fascinating was a section of the iron railing that adorned the front of the balcony during Washington’s inauguration. Once my photographer placed me onto a section of the railing, it was almost as though I could see Washington as he recited the famous oath.
There were a lot of items on display throughout the Federal Hall building, but most of them were either replicas or didn’t have anything to do with the first inauguration. When we were finished inside Federal Hall, we had about an hour to make the eight-block walk to New York City Hall where we had a 10:00am reservation for a tour. After a little difficulty getting through security, we met up with our contact person and she took us through the historic City Hall.
Right out of the gate Tom mentioned to our guide that his main focus was to photograph me on the exact spot where Lincoln had laid in state in 1865. Saving that memorable location for last, we visited the rest of City Hall. One of the unexpected highlights was the Governor’s Room where President-elect Lincoln was hosted in 1861. Two other historic figures were also known to have been entertained inside the Governor’s Room – Marquis de Lafayette and Albert Einstein. But the piece de resistance in the room was a desk used by George Washington while he was President living in New York City. Much to the angst of his wife, my photographer set me on the historic piece of furniture when the tour guide had moved to another section of the room. Just after I heard Vicki say: “Don’t you dare set that bobble head on that desk”, I found myself standing proudly on the desk. To my cameraman’s defense, however, I wasn’t technically on the desk – there was a paper sheet covering the wood and I stood on the paper.
Our tour guide led us back to the rotunda where we saw the interior of the ornate dome and the intricate marble staircases that were surrounded by ten Corinthian columns. Following his death in 1885, the body of Ulysses S. Grant laid in state beneath the dome of New York City Hall before it was taken to Riverside Park for interment. Twenty years prior to that, on April 24, 1865, the body of Abraham Lincoln was viewed by 120,000 people as his casket had been placed on a marble staircase landing in the rotunda where mourners filed past in silence. Jeremiah Gurney, Jr., a local photographer, was permitted to capture images of the slain President, only to have all of his photo plates destroyed after Mrs. Lincoln objected. Secretary of War Stanton had secretly kept one plate, which was discovered years later hidden away in a file cabinet. To me, that last image of Abraham Lincoln, as he peacefully laid in his coffin, belonged to the ages. As I stood on the precise place on the staircase landing where Lincoln’s coffin stood, I envisioned the historic photo in my mind’s eye. There had been many images captured of President Lincoln in life, but the one photo of him in death brought to life the reality of his assassination.
We had no time to waste after our tour of New York City Hall. It was lunch time and my photographer had wanted the three of us to eat at P.J. Clarke’s on the corner of Third Avenue and 55th Street in Mid-town Manhattan. We jumped on the ‘6’ train and headed north, arriving at the 51 Street Station at around 11:20am. When we walked into the front door of the upscale restaurant, Tom asked the receptionist if we could have the “Buddy Holly table”. She said that someone was seated at it, but she would seat us at the table next to the famous one. On June 28, 1958, Buddy Holly brought Maria Elena Santiago to P.J. Clarke’s and he proposed to her on their first date. From our seats, we could see photographs of Buddy and Maria Elena that were affixed to the brick wall. On April 29, 2011, Buddy Holly’s widow came back to the spot of her first date and unveiled a photo called ‘True Love Ways’ that portrayed her and her late husband embraced in a kiss. When the server came to our table, I had to laugh to myself when my photographer ordered his hamburger. He wanted “The Cadillac” burger, made famous by Nat King Cole in the late ’50s when he said that their bacon cheeseburger was “the Cadillac of burgers”.
Once my photographer had his belly full of ‘The Cadillac’, it was time to make our two-mile walk to the Majestic Theater on West 44th Street. Our route took us past Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios where we saw Seth Meyers the day before, and of course Times Square. Luckily for my camera guy, we didn’t have time to see if the two body-paint artists were lurking around or not. When we arrived at the Majestic Theater, we had roughly 50 minutes before the show started. I was impressed by Tom’s agenda as everything went pretty much according to plan; eerily almost down to the minute.
We were escorted to our seats, which were on the center aisle at stage left and in the front row. The last time my photographer saw the Phantom of the Opera, Paul Stanley of KISS played the lead role at Toronto’s Pantages Theater on July 1, 1999. Even though Vicki had wanted to see The Phantom on Broadway for years, Tom knew that the New York version would have a hard time topping The Starchild’s performance. Roughly 15 minutes before the curtain rose, Vicki mentioned that she was thirsty after the long walk from P.J. Clarke’s and she could use an ice-cold beer. When my photographer ordered two 20-ounce Coors Lites and a pop from the concession stand, he nearly collapsed from shock. The total came to $35.00 – each can of beer was $14.00 apiece. I laughed to myself when my cheap-skate photo-taker arrived back at his seat and told his wife: “You better drink these nice and slow because they were fourteen bucks each. Hell, even the small glass of pop was seven bucks.”
When the curtain went up at precisely 2:00pm, I was able to see the stage from an opening in my camera-bag lair. The first act featured incredible songs that were highlights of the entire two-and-one-half- hour play. Passionate music and lyrics from Andrew Lloyd Webber filled the Majestic Theater; from ‘Angel of Music’ and ‘The Music of the Night’ to ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ theme song. Act Two didn’t have as many classic hits as the first act, but we still heard ‘Masquerade’; ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’; and the cemetery scene that featured ‘Wandering Child’. Vicki’s wish had come true; Tom’s wallet was $35 lighter; and I was looking forward to our next site – The World Trade Center. I thought James Barbour’s performance as The Phantom was very good. But then, as the cast took their curtain call, I heard my photographer say to his wife: “No one can play the Phantom better or put more passion into that character than what Paul Stanley did in Toronto; not even Michael Crawford himself.”
After a two-block hike to the Times Square – 42nd Street Station, we took the ‘1’ train south to the WTC Cortlandt Station that deposited us alongside the National September 11 Memorial and near the One World Trade Center skyscraper. Once we made our way to the One World Observatory, we secured our expensive 5:45pm tickets to ride the elevator to the top of the 1,776-foot tall World Trade Center building that was first called “Freedom Tower”. The high-speed elevator took us to the 102nd floor in less than a minute, but it was the ride up that was more impressive than the view from the top. When the elevator doors closed and we began our ascent to the observation deck, the high-definition screens on the four walls gave us the impression that we could see through the building. The cool part was the ride began in the year 1500 and we arrived at the observation level in 2017; during that entire 217-year timeframe we watched the city as it was being built up from the swamp to the current skyscrapers. Perhaps the heartbreaking part of the journey was when we reached 1970 and the South Tower of the original World Trade Center appeared to our right; only to suddenly vanish in the year 2001.
The view of New York City from the observation deck was spectacular, but within a few minutes I heard my photographer as he complained a bit. “In 1991, when Mongo and I were at the top of the original World Trade Center’s South Tower, it was a clearer view as we looked out at the city below. These windows seem to have more glare and that makes it harder to get good photos. What really sucks about this observation deck, compared to the Twin Towers, is we can’t go outside here.”
I did my best to look out of the windows from the opening in my camera case. The first thing I recognized as we looked westward was the Statue of Liberty as she held her lamp high above New York Harbor. When I looked out an eastern window, I saw the Brooklyn Bridge as it spanned the East River into Brooklyn. I tried to see if I could find our car, but that proved to be a ridiculous thought. As we went around to the left and looked towards the north, I had an amazing view of the Empire State Building that towered over the sunlit city below; however, an ominous dark storm loomed further to the north. As we stood there admiring the view, I thought I heard Vicki say to my photographer: “The city looks so peaceful from up here.” Right at that moment I thought of Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend Sloane Peterson and I had hoped Tom would reply: “Anything is peaceful from one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six feet”; but he didn’t. One of the final views we took was straight down; down to the square footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. It was difficult for my cameraman to capture an image of the North Tower’s footprint because it was so close to the current building, but he did manage to snap a photo of the memorial where the South Tower once stood.
Our entire stay on the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center lasted roughly 45 minutes. We may have stayed longer, but my photographer was concerned about the storm to the north. He had wanted to visit the 9-11 Memorial and get a few photos around the footprints of the original Twin Towers, and he didn’t want to chance lightning and rain putting a damper on his photoshoot.
I was carried into the 9-11 Memorial where we saw ‘Reflecting Absence’; the two 176-foot square waterfalls that represented where the original Twin Towers once stood. The memorial honors the victims of the September 11th attacks and the 1993 WTC bombing. While most people think the two memorials mark the precise footprint of the former towers, they are somewhat mistaken. The original World Trade Center buildings were 211-feet, 10-inches square; which makes the memorial outlines 31 percent smaller. However, the two square reflecting pools were constructed precisely in the center of the original footprints. At one point, when my photographer and I were near one side of the North Tower footprint, we saw a single rose that had been placed in the ‘H’ of Mark Hindy’s name. It turned out that Mark Hindy was a 28-year old employee of the Cantor Fitzgerald financial firm that was housed on the 101st to 105th floors of the North Tower in 2001. All 658 of that firm’s 960 employees who showed up for work on the morning of September 11, 2001 died, including Hindy. What had sparked my photographer’s interest in Mark Hindy was the fact that he was a baseball player; first in Little League and high school, then taking his talent to Vanderbilt University. After college, Hindy played one summer for the Class-A Ogden Raptors in Utah before returning to New York where he was hired by Cantor Fitzgerald. As we stood in awe of the reflecting pools that were in the shadow of One World Trade Center, all we could do was think about the nearly 3,000 people who died when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9-11. It was a day that my photographer and his wife will never forget.
We spent roughly 40 minutes admiring the Reflecting Absence at the National September 11 Memorial and just before 7:00pm we made our way to the subway station for our short ride back to Brooklyn. For my photographer and his wife, the train ride was bittersweet as it marked their final subway excursion in New York City for a while. It was 7:30pm when we finally arrived at the Carroll Street Station and once again Tom and Vicki wanted to find a place to eat before they took me home to Cassie’s place. Not knowing where they could find a new place to eat that served food that they might recognize, my photographer and his wife returned to Vinny’s where they ordered a pizza to take back to their brownstone.
When the lights were turned off for the night and I stood silently on the shelf, my mind was filled with the thoughts of the victims who died when the Twin Towers crashed to the ground in 2001. Every name that was etched onto the bronze wall that surrounded the North and South Pools in the National September 11 Memorial was a person who was loved by someone. Each of the nearly 3,000 people were living life and doing their job, and some were simply going on vacation or traveling to visit someone, only to have their lives snuffed out by selfish and crazed radicals with no appreciation for life; not even their own. Shame on them for attacking innocent people. Shame on us if we let it happen again.
