VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore, Vol. 34: 1-2

Volume 34
Spring-Summer
2008

President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Daniel Gallery

The 69th New York regimental band on a troopship in World War I.

Gusle, a one-string instrument used to accompany epic singing.

Spring–Summer 2008, Volume 34:1–2

Acquisitions Editor Felicia Faye McMahon
Managing Editor Sheryl A. Englund
Design Mary Beth Malmsheimer
Printer Eastwood Litho

Editorial Board: Varick Chittenden, Lydia Fish, Nancy Groce, Lee Haring, Libby Tucker, Kay Turner, Dan Ward, Steve Zeitlin

Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is published twice a year by the New York Folklore Society, Inc.

New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org


3	Wise Fools, Foolish Virgins, and Dirty Tricksters: Gershon Legman and American Folk Humor by Susan Davis
12	Forty-Seven Years at 47 Phila Street: America’s Oldest Continuously Running Folk Coffeehouse by Jocelyn Arem
20	Words of Steel: Pete Seeger and the U.S. Navy Steel Band by Andrew Martin
28	Frontier New York: A Personal Experience by Les Cleveland
36	An Internet Tour of Bosnian Music by Rick March

9	Artist Profile: Pauline Yarema
10	Upstate: When the Flamingos Return to Canton by Varick A. Chittenden
11	Downstate: Talking Points by Steve Zeitlin
19	Reading Culture: A Problem of National Folklore by Tom van Buren

26	Good Spirits: Ghosts of Abandoned Hospitals by Libby Tucker
27	Play: Ah, Fib by John Thorn
34	Still Going Strong: NYPD Farrier by Paul Margolis
35	In Praise of Women: Lydia Fish by Eileen Condon
42	Foodways: Bravo Italiano! by Lynn Case Ekfelt
43	Books to Note

Cover: An interlude in the Korean War. Photo: National Archives

FROM THE EDITOR
From the Spring-Summer 2008 issue of Voices:
This issue collects articles spanning time and place, representing local and global folklore. We begin with Susan Davis’s “Wise Fools, Foolish Virgins, and Dirty Tricksters: Gershon Legman and American Folk Humor,” presented as a Bruce Buckley Memorial Lecture in Cooperstown on April 19, 2007. Profiling another famous figure, Andrew Martin writes of Pete Seeger’s important—and unlikely— contribution to the steel drum movement as consultant to Admiral Daniel Gallery, founder of the U.S. Navy Steel Band. Jocelyn Arem researches Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs, which has played a central role in the politics and music of American folk culture since 1960, while Rick March guides readers through an Internet tour of Bosnian music to demonstrate how music continues to shape Bosnian communities in the United States. Finally, Les Cleveland—a young New Zealand soldier in 1943—shares his Pacific encounter with Lil Ol’ New York.

Also in this issue, Voices welcomes photographer Paul Margolis, whose new column, “Still Going Strong,” focuses on skills, crafts, and trades from earlier times that are still going strong in hectic, cutting-edge New York City. As always, I remind you, our readers, that our publication is only as strong as your contributions. Please keep your articles, reviews, and ideas coming our way.

Felicia Faye McMahon, Ph.D.
Acquisitions Editor
New York Folklore Society