(Great White Way) Re: Erin McKean makes NY Times; I don't

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    Maybe the Book Review still remembers the Audrey Munson incident (when it
praised a book that was total plagiarism of my work, and prevented me from
writing in?).  The fact is, if they had to name 39 of the 40 people in the
book, I would be the one left out.  Leonard Lauder's postcard collection is
mentioned?  This already made the TIMES in reference to this book several
months ago!
   Boy, does this make me feel sad.  I sure don't deserve it.
   Anyway, to the "Great White Way."  This is not on ADS-L.  I solved it the
same day as "The Big Apple, in 1992.  I was, as usual, painfully reading the
small print of  the November-December 1926 microfilm reel of the NEW YORK
MORNING TELEGRAPH.  In late November, there was a story of how "the Great
White Way" came about in the pages of the TELEGRAPH.
   It was the product of a newspaper writer/editor named Shep Friedman.  He
had worked on TEXAS SIFTINGS (he was born in Fort Worth; I visited his grave
there in 1993) and other New York newspapers.  The 1901 NEW YORK MORNING
TELEGRAPH is a mangled mess with issues missing, but I did see the "Great Way
Way" as the title of a headline/column in the newspaper for that year.  Maybe
I'll post that later today if I can still find it in this mess of a room
here.
   David Shulman's theory is true.  THE GREAT WHITE WAY was the title of a
book about the arctic by Albert Paine Bigelow.  Then, it snowed heavily in
NYC in February 1901, and all Broadway was white.  Friedman transferred the
phrase from the arctic to Broadway.  LATER, it referred to Broadway's white
lights.
   Five newspaper days later on the same reel, I found "the Big Apple."
   So the first thing I did, ten years ago, was to make copies and send it in
to the New York Times and to WIlliam Safire.  People then still alive could
have made a difference.  Helen Hayes would have known Shep Friedman.  Cab
Calloway would have known John J. Fitz Gerald.
   No one at the TIMES responded, and now, of course, I'm on a lower plane of
existence than a purple lady (from the south) or a woman who collects marbles
(from the midwest).

Barry Popik