City Boy's Back @ Ryan's Daughter next Friday. Nov 5!

 

City Boy's Back @ Ryan's Daughter Next Friday, Nov 5th @ 7pm

Thomas Pryor's Yorkville Stoops to Nuts
"City Boy"
18 months at sea, we are back! LIVE!
@ Ryans Daughter
Fri., November 5th @ 7pm
Neighborhood Storytelling & Song
@ 350 E. 85th St.
our talented guests:
Joe Dettmore, Fred Caruso, Jeff Rose, Eric Vetter & Courtney Harrison.
Admission: $10 bucks

Yorkville 1896-2019

1405 Ave A @ 75 St. @ June 1906

"City Boy: Yorkville, My Hometown"

My family's been on York Avenue since 1896. 

On Saturday, January 26th @ 2pm 

& Wednesday, January 30th 5:30pm 

@ The Yorkville Library @ 222 East 79 Street

One hundred and twenty-three years of our neighborhood history through the voices and lives of my certifiable relatives that called Yorkville home.

looking east from west side of 75 St & Ave A

334 E. 79 St. @ 1962

1582 York Ave @1955

Tavern On The Green @ 1995

1932

84th & York @ Nov 1942

Hunter 1972- 2019 DMV

Pot Belly Rory Wins Contest!

Rory wins race!

At the lake in summer of 61, Rory snuck many cans of Hoffman soda out of the giant Coca Cola cooler, and bet me he could drink more soda than me in fifteen minutes. Rory won.

Seeing my brother's belly, Uncle Mickey shouted, "let's use Rory as a float." Mom swung, Mickey ducked safely and all Mom did was muss up his carefully groomed hair. His comb flew out like a switch blade in a knife fight.

Uncle Mommy

Wise Guy Mickey

"City Boy" my solo show,
This Saturday, November 19 @7pm
@ Ryan's Daughter.
Come on down to 350 E. 85th Street.
FREE SHOW

Thomas Pryor's "City Boy" is a love letter to street life in the 1960s working class Manhattan neighborhood, Yorkville. Devil Dogs were a nickel, Spaldeens flew, and the capture game, Ringalario, let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball’s beer jingles in class. And, like other fathers, Tommy’s took him to saloons, all day, and no one thought it was strange. In this funny and bittersweet portrait of family and life, Pryor echoes TV’s “The Wonder Years” - just add in taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

Thomas Pryor's work has appeared in The New York Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and other periodicals. His memoir, “I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood,” was published in 2014 (YBK). His short stories are found in Thomas Beller's, "Lost and Found: Stories from New York," Three Rooms Press, “Have A NYC 2,” and Larry Canale's, "Mickey Mantle - Memories and Memorabilia." Pryor’s blog: "Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts," was chosen by The New York Times for their Blog Roll in 2008. Thomas appeared on PBS's "Baseball: A New York Love Story," NBC’s "New York Nonstop,” “This American Life,” and TV’s “Impractical Jokers.” His newspaper column ran in Our Town and The West Side Spirit and his weekly radio show was featured on the Centanni Broadcasting Network. For five years, Thomas curated a monthly storytelling show, “City Stories: Stoops to Nuts,” at the Cornelia Street Café that Time Out Magazine, The New York Daily News and CBS News praised. His photography portfolio, "River to River - New York Scenes From a Bicycle," was published in 2012 (YBK). Cornelia Street Cafe hosted an exhibition of his photography. NBC TV, New York Press/Our Town Downtown and NY 1 TV highly recommended the exhibit and his portfolio. His passion is preserving the history of Yorkville and the Upper East Side through storytelling, writing and photography. His multi-media show about the neighborhood, “City Boy” in preview tonight. You can view and purchase his New York City prints online at Thomas R. Pryor Photography.

City Boy ~ On The Road to Queens Sept 28 @ 11am

art work by Joe Dettmore

I'm bringing my "City Boy" show to Queens, next Wed, Sept 28 @ 11am @ Big Six Towers @ 60-10 Queens Blvd @ Woodside.  One block away from my dead relatives across the street in Calvary Cemetery. Our Host, the Big Six Short Story Group, is serving a light lunch and there will be a discussion after the show. The Public is welcome, suggested donation $10.

This show premiered at Cornelia Street Cafe July 21, 2016 to a packed house. This will be my second time performing City Boy.

"City Boy" 

Wed, Sept 28 @11am 

@ Big Six Towers @ 60-10 Queens Blvd

Directions: take the Q60 Bus to 60th street and Queens Blvd or #7 train to 61 St/ Woodside then walk across Roosevelt Ave towards Queens Blvd and keep walking in that direction until you cross Queens Blvd than. Go the entrance to 99 cent store/pharmacy (up the steps that are INSIDE the shopping center). When you get up the steps go through the hallway on the left to the first door on the right. (There is also an elevator) If lost, ask where are the NORC Offices. My phone number is 917-648-2414.

Poster for the "City Boy" premiere 7/21/16

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store and online.

The book has 121 Amazon five star reviews out of 121 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

I'll also sell copies of my book at the Sept 28th "City Boy" show 

City Boy Rocks!

Thank you, to a super audience for making City Boy's first tryout at Cornelia Street Cafe's Solofest as good as it gets. Thank you, Joshua Rebell & Robin Hirsch for inviting me. Thank you, Michael Pettey, for your professional support and great street life playlist. I loved it! Thank you, Leslie Goshko & Nicole Ferraro, for shooting spitballs at me, and for always covering my back. Thank you, Jeff Rose for filming the event and the shoutouts.
Thank you, Joe Dettmore, for helping me ready for the show. Hope to do it again early next year. If you like my work, check out my book. But first, check out Leslie Goshko tomorrow at An Old-Fashioned Piano Party with Leslie Goshko. I guarentee you'll leave the Cafe feeling silly and smiling.

I get home from my City Boy show about growing up in Yorkville in the 1960s and open up an email from Gerard Bakay's older brother, Steve. Sweet harmony. Robert Grundstrom please share with Richie and any of the Bodners you are in touch with. love, Tommy

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The book has 120 Amazon five star reviews out of 120 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

John Jay Pool ~ A Yorkville Gift & "City Boy" ~ This Thurs, July 21 @ Cornelia St. Cafe @ 6pm

City Boy

Cornelia Street Cafe

This Thursday, July 21 @ 6pm

John Jay Park was part of the original location for the Queensboro Bridge. They moved the bridge to 59th St giving Yorkville the freedom to use the city land to build PS 158, John Jay Park, Cherokee Place and The City & Suburban Housing project. Otherwise the neighborhood's single park would be CARL SCHURZ PARK nyc.

When James Cagney and my great-uncle Joe Cuccia played on the Yorkville Nut Baseball Club, their chief rivals were the John Jays. See photo below anid find Public Enemy Number One.

If you come to City Boy ~ my solo show @ Cornelia Street Cafe @ Thursday @ July 21st @ 6pm, you'll understand why I was lucky growing up in the old Yorkville neighborhood with my favorite stoops, stops and crazy cuckoo nuts. My old photos, the people in them and the scenes they present, are tied to the street life double feature in my head where I watch old Yorkville movies from my seat in the first row of RKO 86th Street's mezzanine.

City Boy ~ built into me over a lifetime, stories flew into my ears straight to my memory palace.
These events shook the area
1880 ~ Second & Third Ave Els reach Yorkville\Upper East Side
1918 ~ IRT comes to Yorkville
1955 ~ demolition of the Third Ave El,
2016 ~ Second Avenue Subway

Cornelia Street Cafe
Thurs, July 21 @ 6pm.
$10 admission includes a free drink

"City Boy"
my first solo play
Thursday, July 21 at 6 PM - 7:45 PM
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia St, New York, New York 10014

Thomas Pryor's "City Boy" is a love letter to street life in the 1960s working class Manhattan neighborhood, Yorkville. Devil Dogs were a nickel, Spaldeens flew, and the capture game, Ringalario, let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball’s beer jingles in class. And, like other fathers, Tommy’s took him to saloons, all day, and no one thought it was strange. In this funny and bittersweet portrait of family and life, Pryor echoes TV’s “The Wonder Years” - just add in taverns, subways and Checker cabs.





***********************************************************


If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The book has 120 Amazon five star reviews out of 120 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

Aunt Lily's Rule

Aunt Lily and Aunt Vera

I'm 10, I walk into my 83rd Street apartment on a miserably hot afternoon. It's dark, the lights are out to pretend it's cool, and there's my mother's Aunt Lily sitting in her underwear at the kitchen table drinking coffee like she's dressed for tea. Nothing on, but a giant white bra and big fat pink panties. I circle the table, my mother's sisters, Joan and Barbara are there but they have clothes on.

I say hi to everybody, and give Mom the eye and a head tilt to join me in the next room.

"Mom, what's with Aunt Lily?"
"She's hot."
"No, she's nude."
"No she's not silly. She has her underwear on."

I walked away spinning circles on the side of my head with one finger.

Aunt Barbara, Aunt Joan and Mom

A week later, Mom throws a Tupperware Party on a record heat day for early June. There are strange faces on my couch and a few of Mom's friends. I was drenched with sweat from playing ball down Carl Schurz Park. I tore my clothes off, threw them in a pile, kicked them under my bed, and put on a fresh pair of Fruit of the Loom briefs and went to the refrigerator. The sweat on my back and belly returned, but I sighed when I felt the chilled air leaving the fridge as I pulled out the ice water. I took the old Mott's apple juice bottle to the kitchen table and plopped on a chair to catch a tiny backyard breeze coming in from the living room window. Where I sat gave the ladies on the couch a clear view of me and me of them.  My pot belly was pooling sweat. They stopped their gabbing. One had her mouth wide open. Mom facing them turned around, saw me, and came into the kitchen.

"What the hell are doing?"
"Drinking, cooling off."
"Why are you in your underwear?"
"I'm hot."

83rd Street backyard

She grabbed me by the neck and directed us towards my bedroom.  I didn't bother arguing. What was the point? Aunt Lily had her own set of rules.

If you come to City Boy ~ my solo show @ Cornelia Street Cafe @ Thursday @ July 21st @ 6pm, you'll understand why I was lucky growing up in the old Yorkville neighborhood with my favorite stoops, stops and crazy cuckoo nuts. My old photos, the people in them and the scenes they present, are tied to the street life double feature in my head where I watch old Yorkville movies from my seat in the first row of RKO 86th Street's mezzanine.

City Boy ~ built into me over a lifetime, stories flew into my ears straight to my memory palace.
These events shook the area
1880 ~ Second & Third Ave Els reach Yorkville\Upper East Side
1918 ~ IRT comes to Yorkville
1955 ~ demolition of the Third Ave El,
2016 ~ Second Avenue Subway

Cornelia Street Cafe
Thurs, July 21 @ 6pm.
$10 admission includes a free drink

"City Boy" 

my first solo play

Thursday, July 21 at 6 PM - 7:45 PM

Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia St, New York, New York 10014

Thomas Pryor's "City Boy" is a love letter to street life in the 1960s working class Manhattan neighborhood, Yorkville. Devil Dogs were a nickel, Spaldeens flew, and the capture game, Ringalario, let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball’s beer jingles in class. And, like other fathers, Tommy’s took him to saloons, all day, and no one thought it was strange. In this funny and bittersweet portrait of family and life, Pryor echoes TV’s “The Wonder Years” - just add in taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

***********************************************************

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The book has 119 Amazon five star reviews out of 119 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

She Could Smell Who Was Closest

Nan singing and making a store list in her head at same time

My Dad's mother, Nan Rode had the hearing ability of a nocturnal animal. The four of us, Mom, Dad, Rory and I made a visit to her Collyer Brother styled full of crap railroad apartment - before we could say hello Nan lying on a couch yelled from the next room, "Bob, Tom, Rory, get my bag!"
The three of us moved as far away from her as possible shoving each other back towards the voice and knocking over things in our way. She'd never send Mom to a store. Mom would tell her to go to hell under her breath and ignore her.
"What's going on? Bob, you there?"
"Yes he is." Mom said and gave Dad an evil grin.
Dad's shoulders drooped and he mouthed, "I'll kill you," as he passed Mom on his way to the front room to get Nan's gang box.

I'm part of a great show Tomorrow night, July 12 - New York Story Exchange returns! It's a super-duper line-up of fine tellers, and I'm proud Ms. Ferraro invited me to join her crew. All info is below for a major NYC bang for a buck event.

Hear stories, tell stories! Tuesday, July 12th, 6:00 PM, downstairs at Cornelia Street Café. Admission: $9.00—includes one drink! Four featured tellers, followed by a 5 for 5 Open STORY Exchange: Up to five audience members will each get five minutes of stage time for stories, poems, spoken word, or music. Sign up: 5:45–6:10pm. This month’s host: Nicole Ferraro—with featured tellers Brad Lawrence, Kate Agustin, Thomas Pryor, and Nisse Greenberg.
*****

Collyer Brothers Reading Room

If you come to City Boy @ Cornelia Street Cafe @ Thursday @ July 21st @ 6pm, you'll understand why I was lucky growing up in the old Yorkville neighborhood with my favorite stoops, stops and countless crazy cuckoo nuts. These photos here, the people in them and the scenes they present, are part of the street life double feature in my head where I watch old Yorkville movies from the first row in the RKO 86th Street's mezzanine.

City Boy ~ built into me over a lifetime, stories flew into my ears straight to my memory palace.
These events shook the area
1880 Second & Third Ave Els reach Yorkville\Upper East Side
1918 IRT comes to Yorkville
1955 demolition of the Third Ave El,
2016, Second Avenue Subway
Cornelia Street Cafe
Thurs, July 21 @ 6pm.
$10 admission includes a free drink

"City Boy" 

my first solo play

Thursday, July 21 at 6 PM - 7:45 PM

Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia St, New York, New York 10014

Thomas Pryor's "City Boy" is a love letter to street life in the 1960s working class Manhattan neighborhood, Yorkville. Devil Dogs were a nickel, Spaldeens flew, and the capture game, Ringalario, let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball’s beer jingles in class. And, like other fathers, Tommy’s took him to saloons, all day, and no one thought it was strange. In this funny and bittersweet portrait of family and life, Pryor echoes TV’s “The Wonder Years” - just add in taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

***********************************************************

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The book has 119 Amazon five star reviews out of 119 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

Thankful to Live In a Free Country

Liberty is a gift. Respect it and share it with the less fortunate.

1932 photo below of my Uncle Tom, Dad (little guy) and a friend at Miss Liberty ~ top photo, The Lady stands tall in 2015.

City Boy, 

Thurs, July 21@6p 

@ Cornelia Street Cafe

Our Flag at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"Young Man Thorpe Strolls Governors Island"

"City Boy" 

my first solo play

Thursday, July 21 at 6 PM - 7:45 PM

Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia St, New York, New York 10014

Thomas Pryor's "City Boy" is a love letter to street life in the 1960s working class Manhattan neighborhood, Yorkville. Devil Dogs were a nickel, Spaldeens flew, and the capture game, Ringalario, let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball’s beer jingles in class. And, like other fathers, Tommy’s took him to saloons, all day, and no one thought it was strange. In this funny and bittersweet portrait of family and life, Pryor echoes TV’s “The Wonder Years” - just add in taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

***********************************************************

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The book has 119 Amazon five star reviews out of 119 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

A Little Dab Will Do Ya

Got into a sparkling new cab this morning. The seats, dashboard and windows shined. Riding my finger along the metal detail on the passenger door, I thought, the only time my brother Rory and I were ever this clean was for one lone hour at a photography studio on Third Avenue in spring 1960.

I repel wool. I can’t even look at someone wearing it without itching. That morning, Mom made us put on wool pants and red wool vests. Having a shirt under the vest was useless. In my mind, the wool was right on my skin just like the pants. Mom scrubbed our necks and washed our ears and put Brylcreem in our hair. I hate oil on me.
On the way over, Rory was in the stroller and I was about a half block behind them trying to walk in such a way that my legs centered in the pants so there was no wool making contact with my skin. To do so, every step was calculated. Since we were late for the appointment, Mom left Rory unattended a few times to come back and drag me. When she did, Rory climbed out of the stroller and ran back towards us. Part of the trip was uphill between Second and Third Avenue and when Rory left the stroller the brake slipped. Mom had to leave us alone to run after the stroller rolling down the hill towards 2nd Avenue, off the sidewalk and into the street. Reminded me of a Western movie I had recently seen on TV’s Channel 5.

When we got there 25 minutes late, Otto the photographer was livid. His baldhead was loaded with sweat and he was breathing heavy like Mr. Fields, the landlord in the “Abbott and Costello” TV show. This didn’t stop Rory and me from having a fight over who’d ride one of those horses with four springs that you go up and down on and also get a little bit of side to side action. Mom took me off the horse in a headlock. When he saw this happen to me Rory immediately cheered up. Otto and Mom quickly combed our hair and moved us into the position.

Mom said, “Smile nice, not stupid, or I’ll kill you.” Rory, always photogenic, nailed his pose. Somehow, I didn’t screw it up. After Otto snapped the picture, I saw Mom smile and look at us like the last hour never happened.

"City Boy" 

my first solo play

Thursday, July 21 at 6 PM - 7:45 PM

Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia St, New York, New York 10014

Thomas Pryor's "City Boy" is a love letter to street life in the 1960s working class Manhattan neighborhood, Yorkville. Devil Dogs were a nickel, Spaldeens flew, and the capture game, Ringalario, let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball’s beer jingles in class. And, like other fathers, Tommy’s took him to saloons, all day, and no one thought it was strange. In this funny and bittersweet portrait of family and life, Pryor echoes TV’s “The Wonder Years” - just add in taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

***********************************************************

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The book has 119 Amazon five star reviews out of 119 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

Pop's Perp Walk

Easter 1955, after visiting the Ryan grandparents at 1616 York Ave, Mom and I picked up my father in Loftus Tavern and walked two blocks to my Rode grandparents at 1582 York in their railroad apt, 2S, over Parker's Grocery.

Naturally, Dad had his camera with the 1000 watt flash bulb that every kid had to touch once after the burst. If you touched a used hot bulb twice, your Yorkville life expectancy shrunk by half.
Dad readied us by counting to one. 

Somehow, Mom smiles pretty.
I cry and plead with Italian hand signals, "Why Dad? Why?"
Pop Rode begins his perp walk in the background. Worried that Weegee is there with his camera. Pop should be in the other photo with the mobsters.

On the kitchen table are three 1955 Yorkville essentials, a can of Rheingold, an ashtray for everybody's butts and a milk bottle cooling in a styrofoam cup of water.

Mark your calendar! June 17!

"Stoops to Nuts Pre-Father's Day Show"
@Ryans Daughter, 350 E. 85 St.
@Friday, June 17th @ 7pm-11pm
special guests: Colin Dempsey, Joe Dettmore, Nicole Ferraro, Andy McGillicuddy; Tim McGillicuddy and Una McGillicuddy and mucho more.

If you enjoy my work, check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." It's available at Logos Bookstore, 1575 York Avenue, or buy it online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or other booksellers. The book has 116 five star reviews out of 116 total reviews on Amazon. If you do read it, please leave a few honest words about the book on Amazon and B&N. Thank you!