by Lawrence Bush on September 7, 2010
Joshua Lionel Cowen (Cohen), who invented and marketed the most successful model electric trains in the world, died on this date in 1965. He built his first toy train at age 7, with a small steam engine that exploded in his parents’ kitchen. He sold his first electric train at age 24 in 1901, as a store window display; it proved so popular that by the following year, the Lionel Corporation was in business as a toy manufacturer. By the early 1950s, Lionel was the largest toy company in the world. Soon after, Cowen sold it to his great-nephew, Roy Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s right-hand man. (In 1995, rock musician Neil Young was part of an investment group that took over Lionel; Young has designed innovative soundscapes, landscapes and a wireless control system for electric trains, motivated in part by his desire to share the hobby with kids who are developmentally disabled. Young has two sons with cerebral palsy.) In 2006, the Lionel electric train was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, and in 2007, Cowen was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
“America’s railroads were at the zenith of their importance in the early years of the twentieth century, and Cowen’s miniature locomotives and cars showed a fascination with the machinery that made America work.” —National Inventors Hall of Fame
by Lawrence Bush on September 6, 2010
The captain of the ship that brought the first sizeable group of Jews to North America petitioned for payment of their fare on this date in 1654. These “23 souls, big and little” were passengers in a convoy of sixteen ships carrying Dutch colonists from Recife, Brazil back to Holland in the wake of Portugal’s reconquest of Recife. Captain Jacques de la Motthe of the St. Catrine had rescued them from a pirate attack and conveyed them to New Amsterdam (other accounts state that the Jews were simply forced by bad winds to switch to the St. Catrine in Spanish-held Jamaica). Governor Peter Stuyvesant responded to the captain’s petition by seizing the refugees’ few possessions and selling them at auction, then jailing two as debtors. A notable struggle for sanctuary and equal rights thus began — see Jewdayo for April 20th, http://jewishcurrents.org/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1587/.
“We pray that the deceitful race — such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ — be not allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony.” —Peter Stuyvesant
by Lawrence Bush on September 5, 2010
The author of Bambi: A Life in the Woods, Felix Salten, was born in Budapest on this date in 1869. He grew up in Vienna and became a prolific writer of books, plays, short stories, operetta librettos, and essays, as well as an anonymously published erotic novel, Josephine Mutzenbacher. Salten became the president of Austrian P.E.N. in 1927, four years after the publication of his most famous work. In 1928, Bambi was translated into English and became a bestseller, but in 1933 Salten sold the rights to a film director for $1,000; when the Disney studios produced its famous movie in 1942, Salten saw no royalties. By then he had other problems to contend with: the Nazis had banned his writings in 1936 and taken over Austria in 1938, forcing Salten to move to Switzerland, where he died in 1945.
“Young Bambi: What happened mother? Why did we all run?
Bambi’s Mother: Man was in the forest.” —Bambi (Disney, 1942)
by Lawrence Bush on September 4, 2010
Palestinian guerillas of the Black September Organization (BSO) raided the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany on this date in 1972 and killed or captured Israeli Olympic athletes. The BSO demanded release and safe passage for 234 men jailed in Israel as well as for Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof of the Red Army Faction, who were imprisoned in Germany. By the day’s end, eleven athletes and coaches, five of eight terrorists, and one German police officer would be killed, mostly during an ineffectual airport rescue raid mounted by the West German military. Three captured terrorists would be released a month later when hijackers of a German Lufthansa jet demanded it. One of them would be hunted down and killed by Israel in 1973. Abu Daoud, who claimed to mastermind the Olympics attack, died of natural causes in Syria in July of this year. According to Daoud’s autobiography, Mahmoud Abbas, current head of the Palestinian Authority, was responsible for financing the Black September raid.
“Between 1972 and 1979 more than a dozen Palestinians were assassinated, ensuring the total eradication of Black September.” —Noam Shalev
Joshua Lionel Cowen (Cohen), who invented and marketed the most successful model electric trains in the world, died on this date in 1965. He built his first toy train at age 7, with a small steam engine that exploded in his parents’ kitchen. He sold his first electric train at age 24 in 1901, as a store window display; it proved so popular that by the following year, the Lionel Corporation was in business as a toy manufacturer. By the early 1950s, Lionel was the largest toy company in the world. Soon after, Cowen sold it to his great-nephew, Roy Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s right-hand man. (In 1995, rock musician Neil Young was part of an investment group that took over Lionel; Young has designed innovative soundscapes, landscapes and a wireless control system for electric trains, motivated in part by his desire to share the hobby with kids who are developmentally disabled. Young has two sons with cerebral palsy.) In 2006, the Lionel electric train was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, and in 2007, Cowen was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
