© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
© Frank H. Jump
Online resources:
Diversified Foods (CLICK FOR Gail Borden HISTORY)
Benson Burgers – Atlantic Avenue – East New York, Brooklyn
More Old East New York: ENY Terminal Buildings & Images from Our Lady of Loreto
East New York Terminal Buildings (2002)
East New York Terminal Buildings before becoming a shelter in October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
East New York Terminal Buildings before becoming a shelter in October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
East New York Terminal Buildings before becoming a shelter in October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
East New York Terminal Buildings before becoming a shelter in October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
East New York Terminal Buildings before becoming a shelter in October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
Our Lady of Loreto – 124 Sackman Street
Our Lady of the Loreto – East NY – October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
October 2002 © Frank H. Jump
Yesterday, I was doing a search for Diana Coal Oil since I recently reposted it, and I found my image on the Our Lady of Loreto’s Photo’s of Old East New York page (Dominick Mondelli, Webmaster). Here are some highlights from Donny’s page of old East New York filled with great fading ads and other glimpses of Brooklyn’s past.
OLL seen from Atlantic Ave & Sackman – Fletcher’s Castoria sign on bldg – Our Lady of Loreto website
Atlantic Avenue & Eastern Parkway circa 1940 before construction of the Altantic Avenue viaduct – Our Lady of Loreto website
Atlantic Ave & Eastern Pkwy west toward Rockaway Ave circa 1954 – Our Lady of Loreto website
Atlantic Avenue & Eastern Parkway today – Our Lady of Loreto website
Pietro LaBarbera Grocery mid 1930’s – 177 Rockaway Ave. – Our Lady of Loreto website
Giorgianni Pharmacy circa 1942 – 2272 Pacific St. off Easterm Pkwy – Our Lady of Loreto website
Fulton & Rockaway – Our Lady of Loreto website
The Kishke King 1711 Pitkin Ave. – Our Lady of Loreto website
Piel’s Brewery Delivery Truck – 315 Liberty Ave – Founded in 1883 by the Piel brothers – Our Lady of Loreto website
East New York Ave. & Stone Ave. 1954 before the construction of the Howard Houses – Our Lady of Loreto website
Stone Ave. & Sumpter St. 1941 – Our Lady of Loreto website
Stone Ave. & Sumpter St. 1941 – Our Lady of Loreto website
H. Fox & Co. Inc. – 416 Thatford Ave. – Makers of U-bet syrup – Our Lady of Loreto website
1930 Photo of Atlantic Ave. looking East from Williams Avenue – Our Lady of Loreto website
Cropped 1930 Photo of Atlantic Ave. looking East from Wiliams Ave. – Our Lady of Loreto website
Yellow Auto Supplies 2533 Atlantic Ave. off Williams Avenue – Our Lady of Loreto website
Matchbook from Tex’s Pizza – Our Lady of Loreto website
Brooklyn Bottling Co of New York Inc – East New York, Brooklyn
Linden Blvd © Frank H. Jump
Linden Blvd © Frank H. Jump
According to Wikipedia:
The Brooklyn Bottling Group is one of the largest independently owned beverage and food company in the United States. Founded by Jack Miller in 1936, the company started out by selling seltzers and syrups door to door in Brooklyn neighborhoods. The second generation, Arnold Miller, acquired the first bottling facility and the company began to produce soft drinks in 1947. In its third generation, Eric Miller has expanded the company’s line up to include fruit juices.
The Brooklyn Bottling Group bottling facility is based in Milton, New York and has warehouses and distribution centers in Brooklyn, Miami, Orlando and Atlanta. The company manufactures, distributes, imports and sell over 50 brands of soft drinks, juices, food and household items. Its products ship to 23 states across the country, primarily in the east coast.
The company was once involved in a controversy with its soft-drink line “Tropical Fantasy” in the early 1990s. A rumor spread throughout with flyers claimed that the Ku Klux Klan secretly owned the company and its line of Tropical Fantasy soft drinks would sterilize black men. The rumors were later found to be false and the company continued to grow. – Wikipedia
Bevnet.com
A senior member on the Bevnet users group warned:
I want all members to be aware of Brooklyn Bottling. I used these people to fill for me one time and one time was enough. We had to throw away thousands of improperly filled cans. Their response has been … Oh well sorry. Do business with these people at your own risk !!! Beware ! – SumPoosieCat – Bevnet.com (Complaints & Rants)
There'll Be No Kow-Towing to Jesus in the Year of the Tiger
© Frank H. Jump
In this country if you are just trying to say what you think people want you to say, you have to kow-tow to Jesus – Max Kellerman (HBO) on the Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
Tiger Woods’ apology brings new attention to Buddhism By Dan Gilgoff, CNN
Samuel Rubel – The Fabulous Career of a Not-So-Nice Coal & Ice Mogul – Rubel Coal & Ice Corp – Rubel Bros Inc – Brownsville, Brooklyn
© Vincenzo Aiosa
© Vincenzo Aiosa
Samuel Rubel (1881-1949) was an immigrant from Riga, Latvia in 1904. – Wikipedia Commons
Samuel Rubel was a celebrated entrepreneur and a man obscured by controversy. In 1912, he pressed charges against his then fiancée, Dora Nachumowitz, whom he later married and fathered two daughters. Here is an excerpt of the New York Times article (February 4, 1912, Sunday).
HAS GIRL WHO SUED JAILED.; Coal Dealer Accuses Employe to Whom He Had Been Engaged. – – – New York Times – February 4, 1912, Sunday
Hailed for Rubel’s business acumen, Arthur Brisbane of the Milwaukee Sentinel wrote in 1925:
Young gentlemen, it pays to save even a LITTLE.
On Monday, Apr. 11, 1927 – Time Magazine labeled Rubel as the Iceman and reported the following about his business practices:
An Iceman. Twenty-one years ago one Samuel Rubel, immigrant from Riga (Latvia), peddled ice in Brooklyn. Now he is president of Rubel Coal & Ice Co. and worth $25,000,000. But withal he is not a nice man, declared sundry petty ice peddlers, when Mr. Rubel tried to freeze them out of business the past year by giving free ice to their customers. For that, the Kings County grand jury last week indicted him, and 28 people sued him for damages. – Time Magazine
From a New York Times obituary (April 30, 1949):
The career of Samuel Rubel verged on the fabulous… His first route was the north side of Watkins Street, in the East New York section. He covered it with a horse and wagon… Up the tenement stoops Mr. Rubel personally carried his cakes of ice and bags of coal. His next move was to a coal platform, with an office on Pitkin Avenue. ‘That year I started selling to other peddlers,’ he said later… In 1925 he bought the majority stock of the Ice Service Corporation and also two other firms… Two years later his firm was merged with the Commonwealth Fuel Company and the Putnam Coal and Ice Company. The new concern, the Rubel Corporation, of which he became head, then had thirty-five coal pickets, forty ice factories and fifty coal and ice stations in the greater city. The same year Mr. Rubel bought the Ebling Brewery then in trouble with prohibition authorities for the manufacture and sale of beer. He planned to convert it into an ice-cream factory. – Wikipedia
According to Walter Grutchfield:
Rubel was still president of Ebling Brewery at the time of his death (undoubtedly it reverted to legal production of beer with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933) and his net worth was estimated at $8,000,000. A 32-room home in Roslyn, Long Island, was destroyed by fire in 1946. Rubel died at a later mansion called Sunset Hall in Ridgefield, Conn. The Rubel contents of Sunset Hall were sold at auction by the Parke-Bernet Galleries, 980 Madison Ave., Oct. 1950. An interesting history of Sunset Hall can be found at acorn-online.net. Apparently it was once considered as a site for the United Nations headquarters.
Sunset Hall Mansion – Ridgefield, CT – Site of Samuel Rubel’s Death – Acorn Online dot net
The life of Samuel Rubel is steeped in the mythology of the American Dream: a penniless immigrant comes to New York to find his fortune – but at what cost? Rubel’s unscrupulous business practices and conflicted and icy personal life is ripe for a torrid Hollywood screenplay. Although Rubel’s story has long been out of the public eye, his legacy continues through his progeny and property. Below is an example of how the quest for the American Dream can still inspire through art and an unwitting lens.
Very reminiscent of the Diana Coal & Oil photo © Ivan Koota
Fading Ad Campaign © Frank H. Jump
Topless Diana Coal Oil – © Frank H. Jump
Previous Rubel Coal & Ice postings:
- Rubel Coal & Ice Corp. – Rediscovering Jamaica – Jamaica Queens – October 22, 2007
- Behind Rubel Coal & Ice – Rediscovering Jamaica – Jamaica Queens – October 28, 2007
Other Rubel Internet postings:
- Read more at Walter Grutchfield’s NYC Signs – 14th To 42nd Street
- Forgotten NY – Street Scenes
- Samuel Rubel – Wikipedia
- Time Magazine Online – On Monday, Apr. 11, 1927
- The Milwaukee Sentinel – Google News Archive
- HAS GIRL WHO SUED JAILED.; Coal Dealer Accuses Employe to Whom He Had Been Engaged. – New York Times (February 4, 1912, Sunday)
- Brooklyn Places – Rubel Coal & Ice – Paintings of Brooklyn by Ivan Koota
