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Fooling the ragman
Historinas Podcast on the Internet and Radio
Help keep The Historians on the RISE schedule
Tomorrow at 10 on WMHT89.1 Public Radio Albany RISE, the service for the blind in The Hudson Valley Episode 415-Violinist Ann-Marie Barker Schwarz explores the history of high quality music in the early days of radio. Edward Rice played the violin during WGY Schenectady’s first broadcast on February 20, 1922. Barker Schwarz is the founder of Musicians of Ma’alwyck and took part in WGY’s 100th anniversary broadcast.
$100.00 needed by the end of this week.
The Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $1675. That’s 27% of our $6,000 goal for the year. Please donate online here- https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022 Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.
...The girls would wait patiently for Demsky to resume his rag collection run with his horse and wagon and then sell him his own bag of rags, usually for twenty cents.
Fooling the ragman
By Bob Cudmore
In his day, ragman Harry Demsky was better known in Amsterdam than his son Isadore.
Isadore, whose nickname was Izzy, changed his name to Kirk Douglas and became a famous Hollywood actor and producer.
Harry Demsky was a legendary strong man, drinker and brawler. Kirk Douglas wrote in his 1988 autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son,” that his father was “the toughest, strongest Jew” in Amsterdam.
According to Douglas’s book, his father was born Herschel Danielovitch in Russia and came to America in 1908. His wife Bryna or Bertha Sanglel followed two years later. Their six daughters and one son all were born in America.
Douglas wrote that his father left their Eagle Street home every day with his horse-drawn wagon, traveling the streets of Amsterdam yelling “Rags, any rags!”
The rags and scrap metal he collected were sold to what we would call a recycling company.
Douglas wrote, “I’d help my father stuff the rags into burlap bags. I’d jab four holes in the top of the bag, lace a woman’s discarded stocking through the holes, knot it, and add it to the pile of bags.”
Schenectady resident Albert Roz, a native of Amsterdam, said his sister Clara used to scam Demsky when the ragman visited their grandfather, Albert Dzikowicz, on Crane Street at the top of Vrooman Avenue hill in the 1920s.
Demsky would leave his horse and wagon on the street and sit with Dzikowicz in his cool grape arbor behind the house, playing cards and checkers and enjoying home brewed alcohol.
Douglas wrote that his father always managed to find alcohol, even during Prohibition. Once he got in trouble for drinking the ceremonial wine stored at his synagogue.
Roz said that while his grandfather and Demsky were out of sight in the grape arbor, his sister and her friends would “carefully remove a bag of rags from old man Demsky’s buggy and drag it about 100 feet to the corner of Crane and Church Street.”
The girls would wait patiently for Demsky to resume his rag collection run with his horse and wagon and then sell him his own bag of rags, usually for twenty cents.
Roz wrote, “Wow, back in 1925, twenty cents would buy a lot of Mary Jane and other penny candy at Mruczek’s candy store on Crane Street.
“Occasionally, young Isadore (Kirk Douglas) would join his father on these trips and Clara, her friends and Isadore would play and the girls could not sell rags to the ragman that day.”
Harry and Bryna Demsky lived to see their son become world-famous. Harry and Bryna lived separately in their later years. At Douglas’s expense, Harry lived at Boggie’s Fourth Ward Hotel on Amsterdam’s East Main Street. Bryna resided with one of her daughters in the Capital District and then moved to the Jewish Home for the Aged in Troy.
Harry stayed at the home of one of his daughters in Troy late in his life and two days before he died in 1954, he was moved to the Jewish Home for the Aged. Douglas visited him that weekend but flew back to California early on a Sunday, believing his father was rallying. Harry Demsky, 70, died later that day and is buried at the Cranesville cemetery of Congregation Sons of Israel of Amsterdam.
Douglas named his Hollywood production company after his mother, Bryna. The actor was at her bedside in 1958 when she passed away at age 74 at an Albany hospital.
Clara Roz Spring, the girl who fooled the ragman, died in 2007 at age 93.
Kirk Douglas died at age 103 on February 5, 2020.
Historians schedule for Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Episode 205-Late film historian Rob Edelman discusses his book “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors.” Rob’s wife and retired film professor Audrey Kupferberg has stories of Jewish merchants in the thriving downtown of the 1950s in her native Amsterdam, New York. Rob Edelman died in 2019.
Only one of Wojcicki’s childhood chums had a bicycle but he let the other kids “ride around the block for five cents a trip.” Thursday, March 31, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—Fred Wojcicki’s memories of Amsterdam.
Friday, April 1, 2022
Episode 416
The fascinating story of how the three most influential American progressives of the early twentieth century split over America’s response to World War I.
Neil Lanctot is author of The Approaching Storm: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Addams and Their Clash Over America’s Future. The book recounts the debate over whether America should enter World War I.
Socialist Schenectady: Birthplace of the Hedge Fund?
Virtual Program this Friday, April 1, 2022 at Noon
Schenectady County Historical Society
https://schenectadyhistorical.org/product/socialistschenectady/
Alfred Winslow Jones (1900-1989) created the first hedge fund in 1949, but his motives may seem peculiar in retrospect. This “lifelong Democrat or (Norman Thomas) socialist” thought hedge funds — far from becoming bywords for inequality — might stabilize markets, produce conditions of common prosperity, and encourage socialist-style policies of wealth redistribution.
Mohawk Valley Weather and News Headlines
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Mostly sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values as low as zero. Breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.
Tonight
Mostly clear, with a low around 15. West wind 7 to 13 mph.
Wednesday
A chance of rain, mainly after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 42. Light and variable wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Daily Gazette
Trial begins in Rotterdam DWI murder case; Defendant drove with ‘depraved indifference’ to life, DA says
SCHENECTADY – Oscar Lopez drove with a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent, had cocaine and marijuana in his system…
SCHENECTADY – Oscar Lopez drove with a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent, had cocaine and marijuana in his system…
https://dailygazette.com/
Amsterdam Recorder
Blight, finances priorities of Amsterdam mayor in 2022
By Ashley Onyon
By Ashley Onyon
https://www.recordernews.com/
Leader Herald
Fulton County schools qualify for World Finals in creative problem-solving competition
by Andrew Waite
https://www.leaderherald.com/
View all episodes
By Bob CudmoreHistorinas Podcast on the Internet and Radio
Help keep The Historians on the RISE schedule
Tomorrow at 10 on WMHT89.1 Public Radio Albany RISE, the service for the blind in The Hudson Valley Episode 415-Violinist Ann-Marie Barker Schwarz explores the history of high quality music in the early days of radio. Edward Rice played the violin during WGY Schenectady’s first broadcast on February 20, 1922. Barker Schwarz is the founder of Musicians of Ma’alwyck and took part in WGY’s 100th anniversary broadcast.
$100.00 needed by the end of this week.
The Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $1675. That’s 27% of our $6,000 goal for the year. Please donate online here- https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022 Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.
...The girls would wait patiently for Demsky to resume his rag collection run with his horse and wagon and then sell him his own bag of rags, usually for twenty cents.
Fooling the ragman
By Bob Cudmore
In his day, ragman Harry Demsky was better known in Amsterdam than his son Isadore.
Isadore, whose nickname was Izzy, changed his name to Kirk Douglas and became a famous Hollywood actor and producer.
Harry Demsky was a legendary strong man, drinker and brawler. Kirk Douglas wrote in his 1988 autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son,” that his father was “the toughest, strongest Jew” in Amsterdam.
According to Douglas’s book, his father was born Herschel Danielovitch in Russia and came to America in 1908. His wife Bryna or Bertha Sanglel followed two years later. Their six daughters and one son all were born in America.
Douglas wrote that his father left their Eagle Street home every day with his horse-drawn wagon, traveling the streets of Amsterdam yelling “Rags, any rags!”
The rags and scrap metal he collected were sold to what we would call a recycling company.
Douglas wrote, “I’d help my father stuff the rags into burlap bags. I’d jab four holes in the top of the bag, lace a woman’s discarded stocking through the holes, knot it, and add it to the pile of bags.”
Schenectady resident Albert Roz, a native of Amsterdam, said his sister Clara used to scam Demsky when the ragman visited their grandfather, Albert Dzikowicz, on Crane Street at the top of Vrooman Avenue hill in the 1920s.
Demsky would leave his horse and wagon on the street and sit with Dzikowicz in his cool grape arbor behind the house, playing cards and checkers and enjoying home brewed alcohol.
Douglas wrote that his father always managed to find alcohol, even during Prohibition. Once he got in trouble for drinking the ceremonial wine stored at his synagogue.
Roz said that while his grandfather and Demsky were out of sight in the grape arbor, his sister and her friends would “carefully remove a bag of rags from old man Demsky’s buggy and drag it about 100 feet to the corner of Crane and Church Street.”
The girls would wait patiently for Demsky to resume his rag collection run with his horse and wagon and then sell him his own bag of rags, usually for twenty cents.
Roz wrote, “Wow, back in 1925, twenty cents would buy a lot of Mary Jane and other penny candy at Mruczek’s candy store on Crane Street.
“Occasionally, young Isadore (Kirk Douglas) would join his father on these trips and Clara, her friends and Isadore would play and the girls could not sell rags to the ragman that day.”
Harry and Bryna Demsky lived to see their son become world-famous. Harry and Bryna lived separately in their later years. At Douglas’s expense, Harry lived at Boggie’s Fourth Ward Hotel on Amsterdam’s East Main Street. Bryna resided with one of her daughters in the Capital District and then moved to the Jewish Home for the Aged in Troy.
Harry stayed at the home of one of his daughters in Troy late in his life and two days before he died in 1954, he was moved to the Jewish Home for the Aged. Douglas visited him that weekend but flew back to California early on a Sunday, believing his father was rallying. Harry Demsky, 70, died later that day and is buried at the Cranesville cemetery of Congregation Sons of Israel of Amsterdam.
Douglas named his Hollywood production company after his mother, Bryna. The actor was at her bedside in 1958 when she passed away at age 74 at an Albany hospital.
Clara Roz Spring, the girl who fooled the ragman, died in 2007 at age 93.
Kirk Douglas died at age 103 on February 5, 2020.
Historians schedule for Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Episode 205-Late film historian Rob Edelman discusses his book “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors.” Rob’s wife and retired film professor Audrey Kupferberg has stories of Jewish merchants in the thriving downtown of the 1950s in her native Amsterdam, New York. Rob Edelman died in 2019.
Only one of Wojcicki’s childhood chums had a bicycle but he let the other kids “ride around the block for five cents a trip.” Thursday, March 31, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—Fred Wojcicki’s memories of Amsterdam.
Friday, April 1, 2022
Episode 416
The fascinating story of how the three most influential American progressives of the early twentieth century split over America’s response to World War I.
Neil Lanctot is author of The Approaching Storm: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Addams and Their Clash Over America’s Future. The book recounts the debate over whether America should enter World War I.
Socialist Schenectady: Birthplace of the Hedge Fund?
Virtual Program this Friday, April 1, 2022 at Noon
Schenectady County Historical Society
https://schenectadyhistorical.org/product/socialistschenectady/
Alfred Winslow Jones (1900-1989) created the first hedge fund in 1949, but his motives may seem peculiar in retrospect. This “lifelong Democrat or (Norman Thomas) socialist” thought hedge funds — far from becoming bywords for inequality — might stabilize markets, produce conditions of common prosperity, and encourage socialist-style policies of wealth redistribution.
Mohawk Valley Weather and News Headlines
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Mostly sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values as low as zero. Breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.
Tonight
Mostly clear, with a low around 15. West wind 7 to 13 mph.
Wednesday
A chance of rain, mainly after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 42. Light and variable wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Daily Gazette
Trial begins in Rotterdam DWI murder case; Defendant drove with ‘depraved indifference’ to life, DA says
SCHENECTADY – Oscar Lopez drove with a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent, had cocaine and marijuana in his system…
SCHENECTADY – Oscar Lopez drove with a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent, had cocaine and marijuana in his system…
https://dailygazette.com/
Amsterdam Recorder
Blight, finances priorities of Amsterdam mayor in 2022
By Ashley Onyon
By Ashley Onyon
https://www.recordernews.com/
Leader Herald
Fulton County schools qualify for World Finals in creative problem-solving competition
by Andrew Waite
https://www.leaderherald.com/