It had been a great week in New York city and just as soon as I had grown accustomed to the Big Apple and its ultra-convenient subway system, it was time to leave Manhattan behind and begin the second portion of the two-week trip – which would be continued on the road. I slept in as long as I possibly could before packing up, but was still able to meet Bob and his merry band of travelers down in the lobby by 10am. A shuttle picked us up shortly thereafter and we headed out of the city toward Newark, New Jersey and the Liberty International Airport. It was Friday, May 31, 2013, and it was time for Phase B of our New York trip.
Bob hauls his belongings through the airport
Ironically, New York wasn’t on the agenda for the day…at least once we had left it. We still had a few things to pick up in New Jersey, despite the fact that Bob and I had spent a good deal of time here back during our road trip in 2009. At least one of the locations was missed during that trip because it was under renovation. The others were all-new ‘finds’.
We got to the airport at around 11am, and Bob assisted in getting the tour folk to the right place and then we took the airport train to the rental car location, encountering a worker who liked to tell corny jokes along the way. I guessed the punchline to each of the three. We picked up our white Crown Victoria (are you sensing a pattern?) at Dollar Rent A Car and Bob said his traditional “off we go on another adventure!”
The first stop was not a location so to speak, but a meeting with a pair of brothers whom Bob had met through the Sons. They were Josh & Danny Bacher, comedians and stage performers who had come to a bit of ‘notoriety’ in the Sons for a published article in which it was claimed that they were the reincarnated Laurel and Hardy. Turns out that it wasn’t them pushing this story, but another party. In any case, they were very nice guys. We met at Danny’s apartment in North Bergan at around 1pm and checked out some of the items in his Laurel and Hardy collection. He had just moved into his apartment and unfortunately there wasn’t room to display the bulk of his collection, so he had less than a quarter of it out. There were lots of great pieces, including costumes worn in the film, original lobby cards, autgraphs, and one of Oliver Hardy’s personalized golf clubs. After we gawked at this stuff for a while, Josh showed up and we headed out for pizza at a place called Trattoria La Sorrentina.
Surrounded by Danny’s walls of Laurel and Hardy goodies
Out for pizza with the Bacher boys
After socializing whist stuffing our faces, we departed North Bergan at around 2:30 and headed over to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange. This was the spot that we had had to miss during our trip four years earlier. Fortunately, they were now open for visitors (and had been since the October after our visit).
The park consisted of Edison’s massive laboratory as well as his home and estate known as Glenmont. Bob and I started in the laboratory, which even walking at looking around at a brisk pace took a full 45 minutes. It was here that the motion picture camera, both sound and silent movies, sound recordings, and phonographs were developed and refined. The legendary short film The Great Train Robbery was actually filmed at the laboratory. Bob and I browsed the room after room of equipment used in for experimentation, finished products, and personal belongings, all of which still sits in its original location.
A return to the Edison Historical Park – no longer closed
Outside the laboratory
With a showing of The Great Train Robbery, at the studios where it was filmed
Various attempts at the phonograph
Chemicals and stuff in one of the lab rooms
The sign reads: Behind this wall in 1888, in a small room long since dismantled, Thomas Edison and W.K.L. Dickson created the first motion picture camera.
Impishness among the machinery
Edison’s library at the lab
Inscribed photos (obviously reproductions) from five Presidents to Edison: Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Wilson.
Punching out for the day before leaving the Edison labs
Overview of the grounds from across the street
After checking out the laboratory, we drove over to the nearby house for a tour. Edison bought the house in 1886 right after marrying his wife Mina, and remained in the house until his death in 1931. Somehow we were able to get through the 23-room mansion with our tour guide Greg in about 20 minutes. Unlike the laboratory, no photos were allowed in the mansion, so we had to settle for exterior shots only. Edison and his wife are buried on the grounds as well, so it made this location even more mandatory.
Thomas Edison’s beautiful home
Plaque on the front stoop
The rear of the home
The graves of Thomas and Mina Edison in the backyard of their home
About five miles due north of West Orange in the city of North Caldwell, and the home that was used as the residence of Tony Soprano in the famous TV gangster series The Sopranos. This is a show that is definitely on my radar to watch, and in fact I own all of the seasons on DVD, but have yet to see an episode. Still I posed for a photo outside the house with the anticipation of appreciating it more in the future. In a bizarre twist, less than three weeks later, fans would be holding vigil outside this house after the unexpected death of James Gandolfini, who played the role of Tony Soprano. This in itself isn’t all that bizarre until you hear about the location Bob and I would visit the next day…
The Tony Soprano house
From the Sopranos house location, we circled back to Cliffside Park, which is right next to North Bergan where we had already been that day. This was just one example of some of our poor planning on this road trip. There would be plenty of others, some much, much worse. But in Cliffside Park was a home that had been recently ‘discovered’: the house used in establishing shots in one of my favorite sitcoms The King of Queens. There is an interesting story as to how this house was found by a fan, as it had become a mystery even to the show’s producers when they tried to re-locate it to film further footage there. So bascially during the run of the entire nine seasons, you pretty much see the same shot over and over again and no location footage was ever filmed here, because the footage had been culled from stock footage originally used in a short-lived sitcom called Sibs seven years earlier, and no one could find the location again. But there we were, standing right in front of it!
After all this searching, my eyes are gettin’ weary, my back is gettin’ tight
The house as seen in The King of Queens
The king of TV locations
The last historical location that Bob and I aimed for in New Jersey was the site of the Alexander Hamilton / Aaron Burr duel that would lead to Hamilton’s death. This is one of the most fascinating footnotes in the history books and involved the sitting Vice-President shooting the former Secretary of the Treasury (whom you can still see on the ten-dollar bill) in a duel on July 11, 1804.
Burr and Hamilton took the duel across the Hudson River to Weehawken, New Jersey, where laws against dueling were more loosely enforced. Regardless of either party’s intention to ‘throw away’ the shot, Hamilton was shot in the abdomen and died the next day (see my visit to his grave here, Burr’s here). Three had been various memorials on the actual site, including a boulder that it is said that Hamilton rested against after the fatal shot. However, the area of the actual duel was the site of a road and then train tracks, so the memorial stone was moved up the palisade and new memorials were erected. It took Bob and I a while to find the spot, as it wasn’t actually in Hamilton Park as we had assumed. Incidentally, there were great views from this area overlooking the Hudson River and Manhattan. Similar views can be seen in the opening of Diff’rent Strokes if you’re interested in the sitcom connection.
Manhattan across the Hudson – from Weehawken, New Jersey
The Hamilton-Burr Duel location or bust!
Inscription on the rock thought to have been the one that Hamilton rested upon after being shot. Note that holes that originally held up a plaque, stolen by vandals.
Me and the rock
Bob and I have a duel of our own
Indicating the spot of the actual duel, somewhere…down there
A final view of Manhattan as the sun begins to set
It was about 7:30pm when we finished up at the duel site, and we were ready to end our day with a nice meal at one of the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives restaurants. I probably didn’t choose the most convenient restaurant in the area – again, poor planning – so Bob and I ended up driving well over 45 minutes to the Skylark Diner in Edison, New Jersey, about 30 miles southwest of where we were. This was yet another restaurant that was featured on The New Jersey Diner Tour episode. This episode showcased Guy Fieri eating different meals at different diners. This diner had been visited for an orange martini nightcap. Since I wasn’t in the mood for alcohol, I safely stuck with the Sky Blue Burger, with chipotle mayo, crumbled bleu cheese, and crispy onion straws. We also shared some of the Coconut Chicken in the orange chili sauce. Our waiter had claimed that Guy ate this, even if it wasn’t featured on the show. Overall, I was pretty happy with the food and atmosphere here.
DD&D #64: Skylark Diner in Edison, New Jersey
The Skylark knew how to handle their bleu cheese burgers, that’s for sure
A hearty meal after a long day of traveling in New Jersey
Bob and I then headed back to Newark and stayed at the Howard Johnson. We didn’t get there until after 10pm, but I spent quite a bit of time outside chatting with Carolyn as she prepared to leave to meet up with me that weekend. Bob and I would have one more day on our own and then she’d be joining up with us. I had been missing that girl.
The New York road trip will continue…
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