Pistoia, Italy. 1996. By Paul Goldfinger. Click once to enlarge.
MARIA CHIARA. From the opera La Wally by Alfredo Catalina
Archive for the ‘Blogfinger News’ Category
Tuscan Shadows
Posted in Blogfinger News, tagged Tuscan shadows on April 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Modern OG history—2015. Grovers attend showdown in Trenton. Neptune Township: no show!
Posted in Blogfinger News, Blogfinger Presents, RISS standards in Ocean Grove, tagged Neptune Township fails to testify at SIAB meeting on April 22, 2026| 28 Comments »
Are we having fun yet? Paul Goldfinger photo. Long Beach Island. Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net. December 17, 2015. Trenton, NJ, USA
The stage was set in a conference room at the Broad Street headquarters of the NJ Department of Community Affairs in Trenton. This was to be an important session of the Parking and Streets Committee which was to consider Neptune Township’s application for a Special Area designation in Ocean Grove.
Joseph E. Doyle, Jr. , Chairman of the Site Improvement Advisory Board (SIAB) was seated around a rectangular table with his colleagues. They began the meeting with some brief business.
Kevin Chambers, Jack Bredin and I were in our seats after having taken a walking tour of historic downtown Trenton as we made our way to the big white building.
Jack Bredin (left) and Kevin Chambers in Trenton, waiting for the SIAB meeting to begin. Dec. 17, 2015. Paul Goldfinger photo. Breaking news.
Sitting with us was Dr. Carol Livingston, the only other Grover to show up.
We noticed that no one from Neptune Township was present, especially the Planner who, we expected, would present the Township’s application for a special RSIS parking area standard.
As the Chairman announced that he was ready to begin the Ocean Grove application, two men entered the room.
One was Vito Gadaleta, the Neptune Twp business manager. The other man was not identified. Gadaleta did not look happy; it seemed clear that he really didn’t want to be there. “Mr. Chairman,” he said, ” We cannot go forward today because our town attorney had to be at another case.”
The Committee looked startled at this revelation. After all, there were other incidences in the past where the Township began this process but each time failed to finish. This time they had jumped through enough DCA hoops to get to this point. This meeting of the Parking and Streets Sub-committee wouldn’t have resolved the matter, but it would have created the groundwork to have Neptune’s request decided upon by the big dog—-ie the SIAB.
Chairman Doyle is a calm, experienced and cheerful Board chairman, and he is very professional—-so he did not react emotionally. After all, the Township was wasting everybody’s time including not only his people’s, but the OG contingent as well. He merely looked at Gadaleta and said, “Your application will not be considered now. You are being denied without prejudice. If you want to continue applying for the special standard, you have to start the process all over again.”
Chairman Doyle struck me as being in the same mold as George Washington who spent time in Trenton. You can’t help but have some 18th century thoughts as you walk around Trenton.
Mr. Gadaleta stood there and heard that the Township must resubmit the application, make changes if they wish, again obtain a Township resolution, explain again why they want the exception, and finally they must have public hearings and publicize the hearings so that we can bring a crowd there if we wish. Then he turned and vanished into the gloom (It was a gloomy day outside, matching Gadaleta’s mood.)
Team OG did not despair, because Chairman Doyle and his committee were gracious enough to let us speak to them as they do care what the Ocean Grove citizens have to say. He did not permit any detailed technical discussions about the matter, but we were thrilled to go on the record, in general, about the topics of the day.
Each of us spoke briefly and we also had the chance after the meeting to talk with some members of the Board. We found them to sympathetic and interested. We even got to have coffee and some outrageous baked goods including, gulp, chocolate eclairs.
This is a summary of what the 4 members of Team OG got to say to the Board:
Neptune was secretive when they submitted their application last summer. None of us were given the chance to tell the Neptunites about our concerns, and we want that to change if there is a next time. We want to bring a big crowd to that meeting in Neptune if it occurs.
No one seems to know why Neptune wanted to push their application and then why they failed to show up today. None of us on Team Grove believed Gadaleta’s excuse.
I told the Board that Neptune is “playing them” and “disrespecting” them and our fellow citizens back in the Grove.
We asked that they get a clear answer next time as to the real reason for the application since historical preservation is a ridiculous excuse.
We told them about our Blogfinger poll where 300 people took part, and 86% did not trust the Neptune Committee to do what is “fair and right for Ocean Grove.” I got to explain that Ocean Grove is a special place with our own culture, demographics and concerns. Both Mr. John Lago of the DCA and Chairman Boyle told me that have been following Blogfinger regarding this matter.
Jack Bredin got to review some of our unique history which makes OG a very special case with regards to zoning and RISS standards. He also presented his unique recommendation to exempt the standards for single family homes but not for multi -family buildings such as condominiums. More on this idea later.
Carol Livingston gave a short but powerful description of what she, a grandmother in the Grove, has to go through to deal with parking problems in season. After the meeting we got to tell Mr. Doyle that our “season” now lasts about 6 months. He said that he visits OG often, and he did experience parking trouble when attending a summer event at the Great Auditorium.
Kevin Chambers got to tell the Board about some of his ideas regarding illegal activities involving the Township in relation to zoning and RSIS regulations. He told them about his Main Avenue law suit.
We asked the Chairman to explain how Neptune could ignore State laws about required parking and that such disdain has resulted in the rise of a number of condominiums built without parking. He said that his Board deals with RSIS standards, but they are not an enforcement body. If we in Ocean Grove want something done, we need to go through the courts or to go to other State agencies to complain.
My comments were read by me and then handed to the secretary to make part of the minutes. Jack and Kevin put away their written comments for another day.
Team OG left feeling that we had a successful day despite the no-show crowd from Neptune.
We thanked the SIAB members who were so kind, hospitable and caring. As Jack said, “Democracy in action, even though there wasn’t much action.”
I felt proud to be there, as we actually got to experience representative transparent government, unlike what we get in Neptune.
Cast of Hamilton: “History has its eyes on you.”
OG modern history—2013. Ocean Grove landmark appears in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”
Posted in Blogfinger Movie Review, Blogfinger Music Department, Blogfinger News, Music from TV, tagged Albatross Hotel appears in Boardwalk Empire, Ocean Grove appears in "Boardwalk Empire." on April 21, 2026| 7 Comments »
Boardwalk Empire: A 1920’s Atlantic City nightclub. HBO photo. This series debuted on September 19, 2010.
Boardwalk Empire. A young Al Capone (center) and his two brothers are busy creating the family business, out of Chicago. It’s good I spell his name correctly, because in this episode, Capone makes a personal visit to a newsman who got the spelling wrong. HBO photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor, Blogfinger.net
Ocean Grove and its buildings have appeared in a number of movies including Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories” (1980) and “According to Greta” with Hillary Duff (filmed in 2007). Except for Greta, Ocean Grove has appeared because of it’s unique seaside appearance rather than because it is Ocean Grove.
In Stardust Memories, the town was presented as a generic seaside resort, and the Great Auditorium became the Stardust Hotel. In Greta, the town actually was portrayed as OG.
Which brings me to the opening episode of Boardwalk Empire’s 4th hit season on HBO. This multi-award winning series is film-making at its best. Set in 1920’s Atlantic City, during Prohibition, it is about Nucky Thompson, a gangster who struggles to maintain his hold on the booze trafficking into New Jersey. As many of you know, we at BF are big fans of the production including its music, and we often post songs by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, the Grammy winning group that provides much of the music.
Last Sunday it began again with its usual precise and georgeous portrayal of an era and a place. The costumes and the settings are magnificent. The plots are fascinating.
Now it is 1924, and Nucky has carved out his territory which is from Cape May up to Asbury Park and west to Trenton. He is having trouble with rival gangsters from New York City and Chicago, and his marriage has failed. Now he is living in a fancy suite in an Atlantic City hotel.
Late in the episode he steps onto the porch to get some sea air, and this is what we see:
HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, season 4, episode 1. Sept. 8, 2013. This scene is set in Atlantic City. On the porch is Nucky Thompson (foreground) and his personal assistant. Paul Goldfinger still photo from the TV series.The setting is Atlantic City, but that sure looks like our Albatross Hotel. So I went over to Ocean Pathway to compare, and, as you see, the look is very close—too close to deny. Inside, owner Bill Reilly decided to let the cat out of the bag.
A crew from HBO showed up a couple of months ago. They thought that our Albatross looked like a 1924 seaside hotel. So they took photos and measurements inside and out, and then, somehow, with some modifications, re-created our Albatross in Atlantic City.
The Albatross in Ocean Grove, Sept. 13, 2013. Paul Goldfinger photo.So once again, OG is shown in a successful film production, but this portrayal is unique because the hotel exterior scene in this episode was not actually filmed in the Grove.
Considering the sex scenes, the booze, the violence and the chorus girls (and the current absence of a boardwalk in the Grove) it is amazing that a part of OG has actually found its way into this production, especially one ironically called “Boardwalk Empire.” But that did happen, and maybe more scenes of the Albatross will show up later.
VINCE GIORDANO AND THE NIGHTHAWKS, From the original soundtrack of Boardwalk Empire: “Margie” Their soundtrack recording won a Grammy. Vince appears regularly in New York City. We met him there. A group of OG citizens were fans, and we joined them one night.
STEPHEN DeROSA as Eddie Cantor with a tune from Boardwalk Empire:
A Civil War of Words, in Asbury Park and Ocean Grove
Posted in Blogfinger News, Charles Layton, Feature article on April 21, 2026| 15 Comments »
By Charles Layton, Blogfinger.net. Original post 2012.
Could the dividing line between North Jersey and South Jersey be Wesley Lake?
The thought occurred to me the other day during a stroll past Asbury Park’s Civil War memorial on Cookman Avenue. The plaque at the foot of the memorial reads as follows:
That’s pretty bellicose language – or used to be. “The war of rebellion” is a name the North imposed on the conflict, reflecting its own perception of events.
Asbury Park’s memorial to those who fought defending the Union. Photos by Mary Walton
Even though, after the war, Southerners continued to refer to themselves as “rebels,” the Yankee phrase “war of rebellion” rankled them. They also, for obvious reasons, disliked calling the conflict “the war to save the Union” or “the war of Southern aggression.” Another name appearing on Northern war memorials and in Northern textbooks, but not Southern ones, was “the great rebellion.”
Although it never really caught on, “the war for Southern independence” came closer to reflecting the South’s point of view — the white South’s, anyway. Those Southerners who saw the North as the belligerent party also favored the term “war of northern aggression.” Confederate General Joseph Johnston called it the “war against the states,” another sore-loser title that sounds like it could be accompanied by a one-finger salute.
And so it was that, after the war itself was decided, there began a much longer conflict over what the history books ought to call it.
The name Southerners lobbied for was “the war between the states.” Confederate officials and veterans used the term in their memoirs. In the early 20th century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (as die-hard a group as you’ll ever find) tried unsuccessfully to have that name enacted into federal law, their argument being that the conflict wasn’t really a civil war, but rather a war between two well-defined, separate governments, the word “states” in this case meaning sovereign nations. After all, the Daughters argued, the Confederacy had its own currency, its own army and navy, its own commerce – everything you could ask for in a legitimate nation.
Although the United Daughters didn’t get their way, Southern politicians tried for many decades to sneak that language into law and common parlance. In the 1940s and 1950s, when Southerners held great sway in Congress, the term “war between the states” found its way into at least two federal laws, as well as various Congressional reports. As a schoolboy in Texas, I heard at least one high school teacher argue in favor of the phrase. It was kind of a Southern talking point.
Ocean Grove’s cannon
It even gained currency in parts of the North. Paul Goldfinger, who grew up in North Jersey, says he frequently heard the Civil War referred to as the “war between the states.” But Paul wasn’t aware of the underlying political spin the term carries in the South. Most Northerners probably aren’t, at least not these days.
But now, here’s something interesting: Ocean Grove has its own Civil War memorial — the cannon in Founders Park — and its plaque contains that Southern-friendly phrase “war between the states.” Furthermore, the Ocean Grove memorial is friendlier to the South in another way. While Asbury’s memorial only pays tribute to those on the Union side, Ocean Grove’s honors all of the combatants, no matter which side they fought on.
MUSIC from The London Philharmonic Choir:
THE AUDACITY OF MUSIC: PAUL ROBESON IN OCEAN GROVE, 1925. ( The 95th anniversary of that concert)
Posted in Blogfinger News, Music: The Power to Enchant, Ocean Grove history, tagged Black History month, NJ, Paul Robeson in Ocean Grove, The Audacity of Music on April 3, 2026| 8 Comments »
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger on Martin Luther King’s birthday—-Re-posted 2022. It was first presented on Blogfinger in July, 2014.
It was Saturday night, July 18, 1925, at 8:15 p.m., when vocalist Paul Robeson and his accompanist Lawrence Brown strode onto the stage of the Great Auditorium to present a concert of “Soul Stirring Negro Spirituals” (1) to an integrated audience of three thousand people. Mr. Robeson, an imposing black man, was twenty seven years old. He was already famous as a screen and stage actor as well as a singer. He was a true Renaissance man who would become one of the most popular performing artists of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Robeson, who was born (1898) and raised in New Jersey, was an All-American football player and Phi Beta Kappa at Rutgers University and an honors graduate of the Columbia University Law School. As a college student, Robeson was friends with the Day family who owned Day’s Ice Cream “Gardens” in Asbury Park and Ocean Grove. He had a summer job as a singing waiter at Day’s. (3) When he came to Ocean Grove for his 1925 concert, he had just completed a triumphant run at The Provincetown Theater in New York, where he performed the lead role in Eugene O’Neill’s “All God’s Children Got Wings.”
He had friends at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City, and it was there, with the encouragement of his colleagues, that he decided to do a concert tour with an entire program of “Negro” spirituals and secular songs also known as “slave or plantation music.”
This would be the first time that this music would be performed in concert, and he would appear with his close friend Lawrence Brown, also an African-American, who was a gifted composer, pianist and singer. The two would work together for thirty years. The first stop on the tour was The Greenwich Village Theater in New York City, and then, three months later, he appeared in Ocean Grove.
The concert was reviewed by the Asbury Park Press, which said, “Robeson showed an intelligent appreciation of his task and a splendid voice.” They called him “a talented son of this state” and they described “great applause” in the Auditorium. Among the songs which he and Lawrence Brown sang were “Go Down Moses,” “Weepin’ Mary” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”
The following month he performed his concert in Spring Lake. They would tour for five years, all over the world, with this program. Later, Robeson would become the third most popular radio artist in the USA in the 20’s and 30’s. In the 1940’s he was the highest paid concert performer in the country and he was also successful as a recording artist. He would sing in the first production of “Showboat” and he would play Othello on Broadway and in England. He would star in eleven movies.
But his visit to OG that night was not only about music; it was also about recognition of African-American culture and the elevation of that folk music to high art. In addition, Robeson always was about hope for African-Americans, and performing that music was his way to offer pride and encouragement to his people. In 2004, when Barack Obama gave his “Audacity of Hope” speech at the Democratic convention, the first example he cited was, “…the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs.”
Robeson would accomplish much in his life, but his greatest contribution would be his tireless and life-long advocacy for civil rights. In 1925, Martin Luther King wasn’t born yet, and the “civil rights movement” would not begin until the 1950’s. Imagine how much courage was required for a black man to step forward publicly on behalf of racial justice at a time when lynchings were still occurring in this country. In 1921 a race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma resulted in the deaths of 20 whites and 60 blacks. In 1922, an anti-lynching bill was defeated by filibuster in the US Senate. In 1925, the year of the concert, there were 17 reported lynchings in the US. Jim Crow laws could be found in many states, but Paul Robeson pressed for racial justice wherever he went and for his entire life.
Robeson had been “eagerly” (1) looking forward to his concert in The Great Auditorium. It is likely that he was aware that many “extraordinary African Americans” (2) had appeared there in the past, including the famous Marian Anderson (1921), Booker T Washington (1908), the singing evangelist Amanda Berry Smith (late 1800’s) and many renowned black preachers. The Ocean Grove Historical Society has documented the African-American History Trail in our town. (2)
In 1998, the Ocean Grove Historical Society celebrated the 100th anniversary of Robeson’s birth by a day-long commemoration featuring lectures, dance, a book signing and an exhibition. The centerpiece of the program was a re-creation of the 1925 concert in the Auditorium. They brought the noted African-American bass Kevin Maynor, who used the original program and reproduced the concert from 73 years earlier. This remarkable event was made possible by a committee of Ocean Grovers led by Rhoda Newman (chairman), Kevin Chambers, Phillip May, Jr., and others.
Paul Robeson’s contributions have been recognized many times in the form of tributes at Carnegie Hall and NJPAC, plus many articles, books, exhibits and documentaries. He is a part of Ocean Grove’s musical heritage which includes Enrico Caruso, Duke Ellington, John Phillip Sousa, and Pearl Bailey (2). Paul Robeson died in 1976 at age 77. Five thousand people attended the funeral in Harlem.
Paul Robeson sings “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” from The Complete EMI Sessions 1928-1939, remastered 2008.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
1. Asbury Park Press Archives (Asbury Park Library)
2. Ocean Grove Historical Society Archives (Ms. Rhoda Newman)
3. Mr. Kevin Chambers, Ocean Grove Historian
4. Ocean Grove Times Archives (Neptune Township Library: Mrs. Marian R. Bauman, Director)
Current comments are welcome; Just write me at Blogfinger@verizon.net. 4/02/2026
Kevin Chambers still lives in the Grove and he sometimes has something to say for Blogfinger.net. He is a true hero of this town.
Modern OG history—2013: Gathering crowd in the Great Auditorium. “Sh-boom, Sh-boom” 13 years ago.
Posted in Blogfinger News, Great Auditorium Musical Event, tagged Sh-boom, The Chords, Wide angle photo of the Great Auditorium on March 6, 2026| 1 Comment »
The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove. September 7, 2013. Doo Wops concert. CLICK IMAGE for a thrill. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
Paul Goldfinger Editor. Blogfinger.net. May, 2013.
In 1954, an R & B group called the Chords wrote this song and were the first to record it. “Sh-Boom” became the first Doo Wop song to make it to the top rung of the “pop chart.” That same year, the “Crew Cuts” made a more sanitized version which became a hit.
This song and “Earth Angel” were the first rock and roll songs I ever heard. This music changed my life and that of all my friends at Rutherford High School where we all had crew cuts and thought about sex every 20 seconds.
We did, however, find time to see “Blackboard Jungle” (1955) and to hear the soundtrack by Bill Haley and the Comets who performed “Rock Around the Clock” (first recorded in 1954). It became a massive hit with the arrival of that film.
At the Doo Wops concert on Sept. 7, 2013, in the Great Auditorium, the Duprees performed “Sh-Boom.” It was the only actual Doo-Wop selection in their set. Mostly they offered a Vegas style show. —-
Here is a re-mastered (2007) recording of the Chords’ version, from an album called “Atlantic Top 60:”
Modern OG history—-2015. Anonymous source weighs in with long term perspective on Ocean Grove’s current troubles. An important re-post 11 years later to now.
Posted in Blogfinger interviews, Blogfinger News, Blogfinger Presents, Ocean Grove North End Redevelopment Plan, tagged Anonymous source regarding Ocean Grove, Ocean Grove is deteriorating on February 17, 2026| 3 Comments »
Ocean Grove boardwalk. North End. 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo. ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Woodward and Bernstein are not available to Blogfinger, so we rely on local sources of information. Yesterday we interviewed our own “Deep Throat”–a homeowner from Ocean Grove with a long history in this town. Since the Washington Post won a Pulitzer while using anonymous sources, I guess it’s OK for Blogfinger.
In an interview yesterday, a Grover offered his/her opinions about a number of town issues including the suspicious mess at the North End. Let’s call this Grover “Deep Coat” (or “DC” for short. Let’s assume that “DC” is a him)
Deep Coat has lived in this town for nearly 40 years. He has seen it go from “deterioration” during the 1980’s and then a bright “rise” in the 1990’s and finally downhill trends in recent years. DC recalls when the town was being improved in the ’90’s by investors, especially “gay men” who came here from New York and who invested in homes in the Grove. He says that many early investors have left or are thinking about it.
He says that “greed” is mainly responsible for “destructive” happenings that began when old hotels morphed into “flop houses” and boarding houses in the 1980’s. The next such trend was more recent when those old buildings were turned into condos without parking. He calls that the “condoization” of our town and he sees that as dangerous to the Grove’s future. He blames the Camp Meeting Association and the the Township Committee for allowing ugly big box condo’s to be built without parking and without following the original Master Plan of 1990 to have the entire town zoned for single family homes.
Deep Coat traces the start of the condo trend to the first conversion of an old hotel near the ocean at Ocean Pathway—a precedent setting project that was done despite violating construction/zoning rules in town and over the objections of an Ocean Pathway citizens organization. He identifies the developer who did that, but we will not provide that name at this time without verification.
He also points to the current dramatic increase in property taxes which are occurring without concomitant improved services. DC says that this problem will be a major source of discontent that will contribute to a downward slide.
Deep Coat is a home owner who watches home values carefully. He says that there are over 60 properties for sale in the Grove and that more homeowners will be selling as they see the rising taxes and the developing downward trends including the “mess” that will occur if the North End plan is implemented as currently approved. He predicts horrible parking problems and congestion, especially near the beach if the NERP is built. This may cause him to sell and leave town.
Regarding the NERP, he says that WAVE consists of Ocean Grove residents—-especially investors from the Camp Meeting Association— and that is why they are not so eager to release their names. He thinks that they don’t care about the town, and he was harshly critical when Mary’s Place was mentioned. DC believes that a compromise could be reached to allow a significantly downsized NERP to be implemented.
Regarding the Ocean Grove Home Groaners Assoc, he says that they used to be strong advocates in this town 30 years ago, but the current version is weak-kneed and missing in action.
As for what to do about the OG prognosis, he echoes the Blogfinger position, that only a public outcry led by town groups such as the HOA joining together to fight these tendencies might be effective. He thinks that might stem the tide, but he, sadly, is deeply pessimistic.
We asked him who the good guys are in town, and he had trouble coming up with a few names. We need more names on that list.
Smashing Pumpkins:
BF Jazz Corner: Marian McPartland, Jazz Pianist.
Posted in Blogfinger Jazz Corner, Blogfinger News, tagged Marian McPartland--jazz pianist on February 9, 2026| 1 Comment »
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger. Re-post.
Marian McPartland, jazz pianist, died at the age of 95. She was born in Britain and came to New York in the 1940’s as a young musician. Critics said that she had three strikes against her: she was British, white, and a woman. Upon hearing her play, some said, “You sound just like a man.”
She eventually became known among the underground 1950’s jazz community in New York and she got to know all the greats in the jazz world. She married one of them— a jazz cornetist, Jimmy McPartland.
In the 1960’s, jazz lost ground as the rock and roll invasion began. In addition to teaching at the college level, she continued to perform and to work as a disc jockey . She soon developed the idea of an interview show coupled with live performances. In 1979 she began her famous NPR show “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz.” I listened to that show often. It was wonderful. She would bring on musicians—mostly piano players—discuss jazz theory and music–and then she and her guest would improvise solos and duets.
We heard her play live a few times, including once in a small theatre in Southhampton, New York. She was so warm and friendly, and her playing was melodic and interesting.
Below is an NPR link about her sent to us by Lee Morgan of Ocean Grove who emailed, ” Just read that you are going to do a piece on Marian. Curiously, I had recently bookmarked an NPR item on her. (See link below). I loved to listen to her on Piano Jazz.”
Birdland was a fabled jazz club in mid-town Manhattan where my friends and I often went. We didn’t see her there, but here is Marian McPartland playing that jazz favorite:” Lullaby of Birdland.” Following that is a beautiful ballad called “Blackberry Winter,” from her album “Twilight World.” Grab a tissue, it’s about a cold snap bringing spring to an unexpected halt.
St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Little Italy, NYC
Posted in Blogfinger News, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photos: New York City street series, tagged Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on February 4, 2026| 1 Comment »
Mulberry Street, near Chinatown. By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Blogfinger.net. Sept 2013. Click once to enlarge. ©
Little Italy has been fading away for years. Yet you can still take a food tour there and visit family businesses that exist after more than one hundred years.
On Columbus Day, the Italian-American community is celebrated —-Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL BOYS AND GIRLS CHOIR “The Lord is my Shepherd”
Casino in Transition 2013
Posted in Asbury connection with Ocean Grove, Blogfinger News, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photography at The Jersey Shore, Photography in Asbury Park, tagged Asbury Park at night, Asbury Park Casino on January 30, 2026|
Casino photo by Paul Goldfinger. Photo shoot. Click once to enlarge.
The name Casino conjures up life in 1950’s Havana.
This song is from the Casino Life album featuring Don Azplazo and the Havana Casino Orchestra with “Amor Sincero” (True Love)
Suffragists active at the Jersey Shore.
Posted in Blogfinger News, Jersey Shore gallery, tagged Suffragists in Long Branch on January 22, 2026| 2 Comments »
Suffragists put up a poster in Long Branch, 1915. Photo from the Library of Congress in Remembering the Jersey Shore by Joe Czachowski, 2010.
Christabel Pankhurst. British protestor (for the vote.) From PBS doc. About 1905.
Riots and violence in London. Suffragists beaten and arrested. PBS.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor, Blogfinger.net. 2020
“Votes for women” activists were busy in the summer of 1915. These three were advertising a speech by activist Anna Howard Shaw whose biography The Story of a Pioneer”was published that year. Suffragists organized concerts, lectures, parades and even ball games from Keyport to Atlantic Highlands to Asbury Park.
Alice Paul, an American feminist, was born in Mt. Laurel, NJ (see Ocean Grover Mary Walton’s book about Alice Paul, available at the Comfort Zone).
If you watch the PBS special on the Suffragists, you will see Mary, former Blogfinger reporter, interviewed.
Alice Paul, a Jersey Girl and a feminist.
The Historical Society of Ocean Grove has a great deal of information about the women’s movements in OG.
SOUNDTRACK: COUNT BASIE AND TONY BENNETT—What is the world coming to?
Modern OG history—2012. A 19th century feminist haven…
Posted in Blogfinger News, Ocean Grove feature article, Ocean Grove Stories, tagged Ocean Grove Historical Society, Ocean Grove history on January 21, 2026| 1 Comment »
Historian Lyndell O’Hara explores women’s role in Ocean Grove from 1870 to 1900. Mary Walton photo, 2012.
By Mary Walton, Blogfinger.net reporter. 2012
The year is 1858. Margaret Coleman is awarded a medical degree, becoming one of the country’s tiny number of female physicians. But in Ocean Grove their numbers are swelling. By 1900 five of the town’s 10 doctors are women. Nationwide, the figure is just 5 percent.
And by 1880 one of those Ocean Grove doctors is Coleman, who has moved here after practicing 20 years in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She purchased what was known as “Block House” at 40 Pitman Avenue and turned it into a treatment center that offered “first class accommodations to patients.”
Block House likely featured the therapeutic salt baths spiked with electricity — sometimes too much electricity — that were popular in those days. “Occasionally they lost a few people,” Lyndell O’Hara tells a rapt audience of 29 people, who have signed up for her women’s history tour sponsored by the Historical Society of Ocean Grove. The group is standing in the shade of a stately sycamore across the street from 40 Pitman, now the Allenhurst apartments. O’Hara gleaned the news of salt bath casualties from the Ocean Grove Record for that period.
A history professor at the Manhattan campus of Nyack College and an Ocean Grove resident for the past decade, O’Hara has spent three years exploring the role of women in Ocean Grove from 1870 to 1900. From census records, newspapers, Camp Meeting Association yearbooks, biographies and other materials she has painstakingly assembled a surprising portrait of a feminist haven.
During those three decades the Grove was both a center of the Holiness movement, which allowed women to develop as religious leaders, and a stronghold of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. “Because of the Holiness movement and temperance, women gathered here every summer,” O’Hara said. By 1900, 64 percent of the Grove’s population was female. In Asbury Park it was 56 percent, in Long Branch 51 percent.
Among the boldface names who spent considerable time in Ocean Grove were Phoebe Palmer, known as “the Mother of Holiness;” Frances Willard, president of the WCTU, and Amanda Berry Smith, a world-famous African American evangelist.
Not only did women flock to the Grove, they put down roots and prospered in business. “Ninety percent of the tourist business was run by women,” O’Hara told the group. Many of them were single or widowed. They owned and operated boardinghouses and cottages, or they rented boardinghouses from owners and rented out rooms. The industrious Carolyn Sissom somehow managed to lease 14 lots from the Camp Meeting Association when two were the limit and turned herself into a real estate maven.
Women dominated the tourism business in the 19th century, O”Hara says. OG women were also active in important religious movements. Photos by Mary Walton
Forty Pitman was the first of nine stops on O’Hara’s recent tour. Another was the site of the Manchester on Ocean Pathway, which was destroyed by fire in 2010. It was owned in the 19th century by Kate Kellogg, who had lived in Pennsylvania with her husband and two daughters. After her husband’s death she moved to the Grove and supported herself by taking in boarders until she was in her early 90’s.
At 6 Atlantic (also 5 Surf), today’s four-story olive green Aurora is “exactly the same” as when the three Bull sisters ran it, O’Hara said. Raised in a family of 11 children in Bradford, Pennsylvania, the sisters later moved to Newark, where they did piecework in the textile industry. Around 1879, the eldest, Matilda, rented “Shadyside Cottage” in Ocean Grove. By 1884, she owned the Aurora. And some five years later the enterprising Matilda opened the first hotel in Dunedin on the west coast of Florida and ran it during the winters. One of her visitors was Camp Meeting Association president Ellwood H. Stokes, who was quoted in the Ocean Grove Record as saying that it was “a real joy to be greeted at our place of entertainment, the ‘Dunedin House,’ by the courteous proprietor Miss M. A. Bull and her sister Lydia.”
Throughout O’Hara’s tour, Esther Dajnowski of New York City took copious notes and photographs. “I knew this was a place where a lot of women movers and shakers were,” she said. “But I’m glad to get more information and specific examples.” She said she would “type it up and share it with people who have similar interests.”
Thus far this summer O’Hara has led two tours, with a third scheduled for 1 p.m. August 30. The cost is $8 and reservations are advised.
Gail Shaffer, president of the Historical Society, said O’Hara’s research will be the basis of an exhibit next year at the Society’s museum, and O’Hara says a book is in the works. She will continue to lead tours next summer to different addresses. Ocean Grove is so rich with stories of women’s accomplishments linked to various locations, she said, that “I can do it anywhere.”
The Bible journeys to Hollywood in “Jack Goes Boating”. It’s “The Rivers of Babylon.”
Posted in Blogfinger News, Music from the movies, tagged Bible goes to Hollywood, Jack Goes Boating soundtrack, Phillip Seymour Hoffman on January 9, 2026|
Paul Goldfinger, Editor.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman* was a great actor, although he sometimes made weird movies. In 2010 he directed his first film called “Jack Goes Boating.” It’s supposed to be a romantic comedy, but the four characters are depressing. I forced myself to watch it for the sake of the soundtrack, but I couldn’t get past the first half.
The music, on the other hand, is varied and interesting. We recently posted one of the songs on BF — a re-do of “Blue Moon,” which is quite wonderful. Here is the link:
The song which opens the film, however, is “The Rivers of Babylon” by a reggae style (“rock steady”) Jamaican group from the 1960’s and 1970’s called the Melodians who had embarked on some Rastafarian themes in their work, resulting in an international hit called “The Rivers of Babylon” recorded in 1969.
The song was chosen to open the movie, and I really liked it. Then I listened carefully to the lyrics (I’m always first attracted to the music — then the lyrics.)
It turns out that the Melodians were using parables taken from Psalm 137 which tells the story of the invasion of the ancient kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE. This Jewish nation was destroyed by the Babylonians who, after demolishing the first holy Temple, carted off most of the Israelites as slaves to Babylon (now Iraq).
The rivers in the song title refer to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. What does this Bible story have to do with the movie? — I ‘m not sure.
The middle east around 586 BCE.
But here is “The Rivers of Babylon” from Jack Goes Boating. — (*Phillip Seymour Hoffman passed in 2014.)