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envisioned a "big husky policeman leaning against a lamppost and twirling his club, an organ grinder playing nearby, and the east side kids with dirty faces, shoes unlaced, stockings down, torn clothes, dancing to the music, while from a tenement window an old Irish woman with a checkered cap and one of those old time checkered shawls around her shoulders, looking down and smiling at the children." The children's names in the lyrics were those of Blake's childhood friends. The song became popular right after it was published, and decades later had a huge renaissance when
180:, and had him repeat it several times. "You get the music on paper," he told Lawlor, "and I'll write the words for it." Lawlor returned to the store in about twenty minutes with the musical notes on paper, and Blake was halfway through the lyrics, having been interrupted by a customer. He finished the words in another half-hour. The tune and words became extremely familiar and well-known throughout New York City. It was first made famous by
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The rest of Blake's life was much tougher than his big hit suggested. He married a girl from
Brooklyn named Ida McBurney and they had two children, but both died in infancy and Ida died after only two years of marriage. He and Lawlor sold the rights to "The Sidewalks of New York" for $ 5,000 to the
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Over the years, Blake wrote the words to many songs, including some others with Lawlor, such as "Pretty Jenny
Slattery", "Every Boy Has Quarreled with His Sweetheart", "The Best in the House is None Too Good for Reilly", "I Did My Drinking When The Drinking Was Good", but none came even close to
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The words were a shared vision of Lawlor and Blake, and recall their childhood neighborhoods and those who grew up with them. It was a universal longing for youth, yesteryear, and place, although it was also idealized because both Lawlor and Blake had grown up quite poor. Lawlor said that he
246:, so he got in touch with her. When his story became known, Smith, who had by then retired from politics, arranged for the Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee to provide an apartment for the three Blakes at 407 West 22nd Street, and Max Mayer, who then owned the rights to
330:"Sidewalks' Bard Saved From Want — J.W. Blake, Who Wrote Words of Famous Song, Gets Relief as Smith Aids Him — Hesitated to Ask for Help — Destitute at 70, He is Assured of Pension to Care for an Aged Sister and Blind Brother"
416:"Smith Aids Author of 'Sidewalks,' Ill — He Orders Aged Writer of Song About New York Sent to Hospital for X-Rays — Lost 18 Pounds in 8 Days — But J.W. Blake Was Too Proud to Reveal Plight — Brother and Sister Penniless Too"
297:"Jas. W. Blake Dead — Wrote Famed Song — Author of 'Sidewalks of New York' Succumbs at 72 in St. Vincent's Hospital — Smith His Benefactor — In Later Days of Adversity the Former Governor Saw to It That He Was Provided For"
361:"Composer Tells of Sidewalks Song — Charles B. Lawlor, Now Blind, Wrote It 30 Years Ago and Got $ 5,000 for It — Linked With Gov. Smith — Not a Copy of It Available, Although It Was Sung at the Democratic Convention"
172:, a friend who was also a well-known vaudevillian and singer, walked into John Golden's hat store on Third Avenue between East 13th and East 14th Streets to visit Blake, humming the melody that became
141:. James Blake went to P.S. 40 in Manhattan, worked as a stock boy and office boy in various drapers' shops, then went to evening school and became a real estate agent. His oldest brother,
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to provide a $ 25 weekly pension even though Blake had never even been a member of the organization. When Blake became ill, Smith arranged for him to be hospitalized at
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389:"Story of "The Sidewalks of New York" — The Song That Charles Lawlor Wrote Thirty-four Years Ago Has Lived to Become a Smith Campaign Hymn"
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Blake became a hat salesman, and songwriting was only a hobby, which he turned to when sales were slow. One day in 1894,
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In 1932, Blake joined his two surviving siblings, Mary and John, in an apartment on Walton Avenue in
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117:(23 September 1862 – 24 May 1935) was a lyricist who is most famous for the words to the 1894 song, "
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used it as his theme during his three failed presidential campaigns in 1920, 1924, and 1928.
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just to keep warm. But he remembered being interviewed several years earlier by
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in New York City, where he died of stomach cancer several weeks later.
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Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous
Persons
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matching the popularity of "The
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American
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225:and at Shendell and Co.
243:New York Herald Tribune
441:Wilson, Scott (2016).
256:St. Vincent's Hospital
125:Early years and family
491:People from Manhattan
234:Pennsylvania Station
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115:James William Blake
496:American lyricists
188:and easy to sing.
39:September 23, 1862
454:978-0-7864-7992-4
209:music publishers
147:Charles F. Murphy
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105:c. 1885–1935
101:Years active
61:(1935-05-24)
59:May 24, 1935
486:1935 deaths
481:1862 births
460:27 November
426:27 November
400:30 November
371:27 November
340:27 November
307:27 November
238:Ishbel Ross
475:Categories
273:References
90:Occupation
35:1862-09-23
248:Sidewalks
230:the Bronx
215:residuals
163:Sidewalks
135:Manhattan
194:Al Smith
178:3/4 tune
94:lyricist
70:New York
46:New York
240:of the
219:velvets
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267:Queens
223:Macy's
186:catchy
80:Genres
462:2016
449:ISBN
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149:and
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