John Held, Jr.: Map of New York Night Clubs

In the Prohibition Era, researching John Held, Jr.'s, Map of New York Night Clubs must have been a labor of love. The map, we are told, resulted "from actual survey by and under the direction of Lip Stick." The New Yorker's nightlife reporter Lois Long, who wrote under the name Lipstick, therefore must greatly have assisted Held in this endeavor. She was married to New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno—no stranger himself to the speakeasy scene—from 1927 to 1931, the latter being the year in which this Manhattan map appeared in The Works of John Held, Jr.

https://oldmapgallery.com/products/nyc-ny-john-held-jrs-map-of-new-york-night-clubs

The above image is from the Old Map Gallery, which dates it c. 1930 and does not have a copy for sale. There is a copy on eBay which has been removed from Held's 1931 book.

John Held, Jr.
eBay listing accessed February 16, 2026

https://www.ebay.com/itm/296676830498?_skw=john+held+jr+Manhattan&itmmeta=01KHMQAY09T5W3CVTJXMPS0TCM&hash=item4513512d22:g:jAsAAOSwl-Fm2z44&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA0GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCbv2SXqTeqY%2Brwr%2FRAZ%2BHsSjtM2RJQ7x6%2F20atiH560vAn5i1SNQq6UJ0fGz8m%2Fh7j%2FQoZAtIOdVFteCzXrCWDiEzloWKCbhvlAy4T0Wme1lQGL2IRG4GUx8ZrbjPCPjLgP6mz4MiUkxXreYOn10BiiVO35fPXxfGuvfQOsz6skglK9GoL02VBj0LAk4OzBlhzvaR252DhBAkywYiLmr08br727w4yVAWJuPnV88VNe5Z84mTENVdGWoIoGe3eEH8%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6jgq5eNZw

John Held, Jr.
eBay item description

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Bad Day

A collision occurred in Manhattan this morning at 11:23 right in the intersection of 11th Avenue and 41st Street. Apparently, no one was injured as both drivers briefly got out of their cars. Still, they had a bad day. The camera don't lie.

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Where to Prepare for Halloween

If you must know, this is where I go to get my Dracula costume ready for Halloween.

Fang Cleaners

Note:  What's this?  Attempted Bloggery is making fun of someone's name? Say it isn't so! See more eerie Halloween posts to reassure yourself that this is a rarity.

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Vasco Mourão's New York Perceptions

This caught my eye in the current year-end double-issue of The New Yorker. It's by Vasco Mourão, a Portuguese artist based in Barcelona whom I had not previously noted. His page New York Perceptions resembles the Sketchbook page the magazine occasionally runs, not often enough for me. This is an incredibly detailed and textured rendering of some part of midtown. The boldly intruding negative space suggests this is adjacent to a park, although I don't recognize it. The vantage point is evidently extremely high, as if from an incongruously high tower. So, where exactly are we?

Vasco Mourão, New York  Perceptions
The New Yorker, December 24 and 31, 2012, Page 93

Below is another cityscape contributed by the artist and published in The New Yorker last April. Once again, it's dazzling, but where are we now exactly? Is that the Brooklyn Bridge entering midtown just north of the Chrysler Building? Here there is no possibility of this being a view from a tower. We are observing the City from over the East River, so this would have to be an aerial view.

What we're looking at is apparently a capriccio, a type of architectural fantasy popular in the 18th century, where buildings or ruins were juxtaposed in fantastic or impossible ways. We now have a 21st century version of this, where a reimagined midtown Manhattan is even more densely crowded than in reality.

But now what of the December image, above. It seems like a far more plausible aerial view, but is it truly based on reality, or is there some element of urban fantasy as well?

Vasco Mourão, New York  Perceptions
The New Yorker, April 23, 2012, Page 46

January 10, 2013 Update:  The New Yorker's online edition identifies the December 24 drawing as "About Central Park." That would make this a view of Central Park South with a dense array of buildings that are imported by the artist from other Manhattan locations.

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NYC 2009 Halloween Decorations

Here are a few Halloween decorations photographed by me on November 1, 2009 in Manhattan.

Witch at 100 United Nations Plaza

Decorations on York Avenue

G-g-ghost!

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Danse Macabre - 

Camille Saint-Saëns

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