The Historians

Amsterdam goes to war By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History for Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder      The movie "South of Tahiti" was playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam, when interrupted as the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building. A soldier from

Two Amsterdam cowboys By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder      Amsterdam country music performer and radio host Dusty Miller, whose real name was Elmer Rossi, Sr, had a band called the Colorado Wranglers. Miller's brother-in-law Barry Frank performed with Miller's band. Frank was a radio engineer well known in the Capital District.

Amsterdam in 1941By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette     Photographer John Collier, Jr., spent one day in Amsterdam but his pictures provided a lasting portrait of a specific mill town just two months before the nation was thrust into World War II.    A traveling photographer for the federal government's Farm Securities Administration, Col

Mayor Carter makes friends with FDR By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History     From time to time in the 1930s and 1940s Amsterdam Mayor Arthur Carter would get in a police car for a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Lionel Fallows, son of Carter’s sister Nellie, said Roosevelt came through for the Amsterdam mayor. It was a triumvirate, Fa

Editor remembered for his work at The Recorder  By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History for Daily Gazette and Recorder          Silvernail, the last name of an important and  long-tenured Amsterdam Recorder editor during the 20th century, seems to invoke a possible Native American origin. The family says though that Silvernail was not a Native

More than a waitress By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, Amsterdam Recorder    When Orsini’s Royal Restaurant at East Main and Liberty Streets in Amsterdam opened in the 1920s, there were curtains on the booths. Customers who were not Italian didn’t quite know how to eat spaghetti, according to a family member. Patrons embarrassed to be seen eatin

Lonely hearts killing case linked to Amsterdam By Bob Cudmore Focus on History, Daily Gazette, Amsterdam Recorder        An Amsterdam woman was the step-daughter of a 1949 victim of a notorious murderous couple. Mary C. Fay was listed in the 1930 census as a hospital nurse living in Albany with her father, Matthew Fay, and step-mother, Janet J. Fay (nee Flinn).

Weather prophet Cousin George  By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History for Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder    Weather prophet George Henry Casabonne was once described in a newspaper story as "cocky as a blue jay and scrappy as a bantam rooster." Casabonne, five foot two, worked as a stonemason, farmer and General Electric factory hand. His 1974 obituary stated he was

Perth, Amsterdam and the Moon By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder.The name of the class of 1938 valedictorian at Perth High School may be inscribed on a plaque left on the Moon during an American lunar landing.. Stanley J. Jevitt, Sr., was born in Avoca, Pennsylvania, the son of Antoni and Julia Dziewit. The spelling later was changed to Jevitt. S

Dinner at Isabel’s in 1944By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, Amsterdam Recorder   The prices on a 1944 menu from Isabel’s Tavern at 280 West Main Street in Amsterdam are eye-opening. If you and companion (as food writers say) dined at Isabel’s in 1944, you could have had shrimp cocktail as an appetizer for 35 cents each. Fancy filet mignon with