Thanksgiving–and Evacuation Day
One hundred years ago today … It was Thanksgiving. Here are some newspaper items prompted the holiday.
The Daily News offered images of holiday charity and turkey.
The Daily News, 25 November 1920, p.1. Chronicling America.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle took the occasion to call out profiteers in a humorous verse, predict pleasant weather for the holiday, then announce that it would take the day off.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 24 November 1920, p.1. Chronicling America.
”The Gumps,” a cartoon strip written by Sidney Smith, lampooned family harmony at the Thanksgiving table.
The Daily News, 25 November 1920, p.20. Chronicling America.
Many New Yorkers dined in restaurants for Thanksgiving. One options: Child’s,one of the world’s first chain restaurants, which had locations in downtown and midtown Manhattan and Coney Island. (See contemporary images of these and other locations at Forgotten New York.)
New York Times, 25 November 1920, p.4. Chronicling America.
Plenty more options in Brooklyn …
Also, in Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Academy of Music served up a program of music, including Vincent Lopez, bandleader and Brooklyn native, the son of Portuguese immigrants.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 25 November 1920, p.7. Chronicling America.
Thanksgiving was not the only holiday New Yorkers celebrated that week. In those days, November 26 was Evacuation Day, the anniversary of the day the last British troops in the hemisphere decamped for home.
Times Union, 21 November 1920, p. 7. Chronicling America,
The Sons of the Revolution held a celebration on November 26, 1920, presided over by Robert Olyphant, who happened to also be one of the leaders of the “Cheese Club” that had organized NYC’s Overalls Parade of April 1920. (See our posts of April 24 and 26.)
— Jonathan Goldman, November 25, 2020
TAGS: holidays, celebrations, food, restaurants, music, family, charity, comics