SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Mickey Rose (far left) at his wedding to his wife Judith. Woody Allen and actress Louise Lasser pictured on the right. Source: nytimes.com

Mickey Rose and Woody Allen met in an art class at Midwood High School more than 60 years ago, starting a lifelong friendship and collaboration that included some of Woody’s most hilarious films. Rose died over the weekend at the age of 77 from colon cancer, according to a report by The New York Times.

Rose, along with Allen, was one of America’s preeminent comedy writers. For years he wrote jokes for Johnny Carson during his Tonight Show run. Michael Barrie, who worked on Carson’s venerable talk show, which ran for 30 years from 1962 to 1992, said that Rose was “a comedy writer’s comedy writer.”

With Allen, Rose helped write “What’s Up Tiger Lily?” (1966), “Take the Money and Run” (1969) and “Bananas” (1971); all early classics from the era when Allen wasn’t yet known for more cerebral films.

Former NYC Mayor, Edward I. Koch, 1924-2013. Source: adam.luis.amengual / Flickr

Of all the elected officials I have known personally — with the exception of former Congressman Stephen Solarz for whom I once performed an internship during his first term as assemblyman for the 45th Assembly District — I’ve had the most personal contact with our former mayor, Ed Koch.

My First Encounter

It was 1969. One year before my college internship with Solarz. Unsurprisingly, I chose transportation as my topic for a political science school paper at Hunter College, where I did my undergraduate work. I wanted to write about what the federal government was doing to improve mass transit and someone suggested I see the local congressman whose office was located on Second Avenue, in the upper seventies. I was skeptical of obtaining any information because I did not reside in the “silk stocking” district, as the Upper East Side was then called. I was told that the congressman’s name was Ed Koch, a name I had never heard before. I was told he was active in introducing legislation to help mass transit and that’s why I should see him.

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Source: papertiger.org

Famed Brooklyn author Sol Yurick passed away at the age of 87 this past Saturday according to the New York Daily News. Yurick is most famous for writing The Warriors, a 1965 novel – and, later, cult move – about a Brooklyn gang viciously battling their way through the borough on their way home to Coney Island.

The movie grew into a huge cult success in years subsequent to its release. earning a 94 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yurick, born to working class Jewish immigrants in the Bronx in 1925, made Brooklyn his home when he moved to Park Slope in 1958. He worked as a social investigator for the Department of Welfare, observing the rhythms of the streets and underclasses that informed the vibrancy of his writing.

Yurick moved to Prospect-Lefferts Gardens in 1985 where he lived for the rest of his life. He is survived by his wife Adrienne and his daughter Susanna.

Stella Angel with her daughter (center) and neighborhood girls in front of their Sheepshead Bay Road storefront.

Click to enlarge.

When Arielle Angel’s grandmother, Stella, passed away, she wrote the obituary. Angel, a Brooklyn-based writer, didn’t plan for a home for the obituary. It was written for family and close friends. When the obituary landed in our inbox, it found a home.

Stella Angel lived in Sheepshead Bay. She owned and operated a local grocery with her husband, David Angel here. She raised a family at East 6th Street and Avenue Z because her own extended family, the Rosas, all lived within walking distance.

Their store, Bay Food Market, was bought from a guy named Mario. No one seems to recall his last name now.

It stood across the street from Dan’s Supreme, a larger supermarket that could have put the mom-and-pop bodega out of business. Instead, the two groceries competed for customers. For years, the Angels engaged in price wars and forewent but little profit. They almost always set their closing time an hour later than Dan’s.

My grandmother, Stella Angel, who lived and worked in Sheepshead Bay from the time of her immigration to the United States in 1952 until her retirement in the early 1980s, died in her sleep last Saturday morning. She was 93-years-old.

She was born Stella Rosa in Salonika, Greece, in 1920, the middle child of five in a middle-class family. Like all of the Rosa men, her father was a butcher. Salonika was a unique Jewish community; its members were descendants of those who had fled the Spanish Inquisition, and they still kept a medieval dialect of Spanish called Ladino as their language.

Keep reading Arielle’s touching obituary

Source: Brooklyn Cyclones

Warner Fusselle, the only man to have ever called the play-by-plays for the Brooklyn Cyclones (1904 Surf Avenue), passed away a week shy of what would have been his 12th Opening Day since the inception of the team.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of Warner’s passing,” said Cyclones General Manager Steve Cohen. “There is no one who knew more – or cared more – about baseball in Brooklyn than Warner. His distinctive voice, knowledge and endless passion for the game enriched Brooklyn Cyclones baseball for our players, staff, and fans from day one and his presence will be sorely missed.”

The sports announcer was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Gainsville, Georgia. He has had a long career in sports radio as well as television. He voiced the show “This Week In Baseball,” and called the plays for the Seton Hall Pirates; the Richmond Braves; the Spartanburg Phillies; and the ABA’s Virgina Squires.

Besides sports, his great passion was music.

The “Fuse,” as he was nicknamed, died on Sunday night from an apparent heart attack at just 68-years-old.

Borough President Marty Markowitz issued the following statement after news broke of Fusselle’s death:

For fans of our beloved Brooklyn Cyclones, the voice of Warner Fusselle has been silenced after 11 years of passionate and knowledgeable play-by-play from the ‘Catbird Seat’ at MCU Park and, before that, Keyspan Park on Coney Island. Fusselle was a native Kentuckian raised in Georgia, but Brooklynites embraced him as one of their own after he became the voice of the Cyclones at their very beginning in 2001. They call me Mr. Brooklyn, but Warner Fusselle was Mr. Baseball here in Brooklyn, and our prayers and condolences go out to the entire Cyclones organization as well as Fusselle’s sister, two nephews and all of his friends and colleagues who are mourning the passing of “The Fuse.”

As the only voice Cyclones’ fans ever knew, his will be a tough act to follow.

The Manhattan Beach Community Group notified the community of the death of Emanuel “Manny” Kahn, a community activist involved in the group. They wrote on their website:

The MBCG was notified of the passing of Emanuel “Manny” Kahn this past Saturday. He was a member of our group for many many years before he and his wife moved to Florida a few years ago.

Manny was committed to our community and to our group in many ways. His dedication to helping his neighbors and the many visitors to our Beach and Parks is unparalleled. Manny was chair of the Parks Committee and dedicated to making our neighborhood a welcoming experience to all who visited. He was also the first to develop a website for our group. He was involved with countles activities and always ready to get involved.

Manny was missed when he moved and now he will be missed forever. His many good deeds are an inspiration to his family and to all of us.

Courtesy of NewNewYork2010 via Flickr

Neal Lauro, the last remaining member of the six brother team that founded Sheepshead Bay-staple Stella Maris Fishing Station, passed away in his sleep early Sunday. He was 86 years old.

Lauro, along with brothers Mike, Salvatore, Anthony, Tony and Joseph, partnered to found Stella Maris Fishing Station in 1947, expanding on an earlier business named Mike’s Rowboats, based in Coney Island. In addition to bait and tackle, Stella Maris once rented out rowboats handmade by the brothers, as well as crafting their own supplies like nets.

When they purchased the property 64 years ago, the brothers took on a very frugal approach.

“They put all their money into the purchase of the land and had no additional funds to renovate the property,” Tom Lauro, the son of Salvatore Lauro, recounted in a 2007 Astella Development Newsletter. “They rowed their boats from the bay to the Hudson River Narrows. They waited during storms to collect the driftwood that had loosened from the docks and had dropped into the river. The brothers then towed the wood back with the rowboats to Sheepshead Bay where they used it to build their own docks, piers, bulkheads, and buildings.”

Little did they know that their ramshackle docks and rough-hewn storefront at 2702 Emmons Avenue wouldn’t just last the next six decades, it would end up being one of two remaining bait and tackle shops on a boulevard once lined with them.

The Lauro family was not available to speak on the death by the time of our publication.

The viewing is today only at Cusimano & Russo Funeral Home (2005 West 6th Street), from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Call (718) 372-1348 for more information. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 am, Ss. Simon & Jude Parish, 185 Van Sicklen St, Brooklyn NY 11223.

Feel free to share your memories of Neal Lauro in our comments section.

Avid Sheepshead Bay fisherman Robert "Bobby" Norris. Source: Staten Island Advance

“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.”

~Herbert Hoover

It always makes me sad when another piece of our history — the history of Sheepshead Bay — is gone to The Ages.

I was dismayed to learn, while reading through the Facebook group “You know you’re from Sheepshead Bay when……,” that Robert “Bobby” Norris, a former resident of Sheepshead Bay and an avid fisherman, passed away on Friday, according to his daughter Tara Norris Mino.

Norris was 65.

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