The High Line is an elevated linear park on the West Side of Manhattan not far from the Hudson River. It was created along what was once a New York Central Railroad line. The old rail tracks are visible through much of the park. The first segment of the High Line was opened in 2009. It is maintained by New York City Parks and Recreation.
The photos below start at the southern end of the High Line on Gansevoort Street, near the Whitney Museum, and proceed north to 33rd Street in Hudson Yards. Along the route are several art installations.
Car-grass screen 2 and car-body screen 2, Tisha Hsu
Soft Power, Alex Da CorteThe Creation of the Creatures of Day and Night, Rosana PaulinhoThe Sun is a Flame that Haunts the Night, Tai Shani
Just in case you don’t recognize the name, here’s a little reminder.
Exene Cervenka and John Doe formed the Los Angeles punk rock band X in 1977. In 1980 they released their first album ‘Los Angeles.’ They would become one of the most popular punk bands ever. While there have been various hiatuses, the four original band members have continued, however sporadically, to record and tour together for more than four decades.
In addition to being her partner in forming the band, Doe and Cervenka were married. It was the first of three failed marriages for Cervenka.
In addition to her work with X, Cervenka did some solo recording and was part of two other bands, the Knitters and the Original Sinners. She wrote some poetry, experimented with spoken word and produced some art.
This story, by Tom Latham in the East Bay Times (March 3, 2006), describes how Cervenka made collages out of found objects.
“Since she first started touring with Los Angeles firebrands X in the late ‘70s, Cervenka has kept one eye on the stage, one eye on the street for kooky collectibles. Whatever she stumbled across that appealed to her, she’d pick up. Any source was fair game — thrift stores, flea markets, truck stops.
“‘But mostly off the street,’ she says. ‘Gum, candy and snack wrappers. A white wooden sign stenciled with the word ‘God.’… I’ve gathered a million different things, and I still have’em,’ Cervenka says. ‘And then I put it all together and make art out of it.’
“Cervenka, who just turned 50, used to think of trash collecting as just a hobby. Until last year, that is, when the Santa Monica Museum of Art got wind of her found-art collages (plus mixed-media concepts she’d kept hidden in more than a hundred journals) and commissioned an exhibit dubbed ‘America the Beautiful.’”
In 2006, Cervenka left Los Angeles and headed for Missouri.
“…the queen of L.A. punk moved to Jefferson City in 2006 to create collage art in a large barn. She writes, and she is still making music. ‘When you live in a big city your whole adult life, it’s nice to get away,’ she explained, ‘and I didn’t grow up in a big city; I grew up in small towns.’ Cervenka now enjoys the luxuries of rural life, appreciating her limestone house and the Black Angus cows that dot her horizon.” (Columbia [Mo.] Daily Tribune, May 1, 2008)
It was an appreciation that wouldn’t last. Four years later she was back in California, this time settling in Orange County.
In 2009, Cervenka announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“Exene Cervenka, a founder and vocalist of the Los Angeles punk and rockabilly band X, said in a statement released Tuesday that she has multiple sclerosis. Ms. Cervenka, 53, said in the statement that she had not been feeling well for several months and that she probably had the condition for some time. She added that the diagnosis would not affect plans for an X tour or a solo record scheduled for the fall, and directed fans to Sweet Relief, a charity for uninsured musicians founded by Victoria Williams, who has also been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.” (Dave Itzkoff, New York Times, June 2, 2009)
She would later question that diagnosis.
“Fifteen years ago, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, can you believe that? And then another doctor said, ‘No, you don’t [have it],’ so I went with the doctor who said, ‘No you don’t.’ About six years went by and something else weird happened, so I went to this doctor who said, ‘You definitely have it and you’re going on this medication.’ I had to start giving myself shots everyday for a while, and then I ran out of money and had no insurance, and the shots are really expensive — $7,000 for three months. So I just said, ‘Well, I may have it, I may not,’ but I can’t take the medicine anymore because I cannot afford it.
“I did a picture collage for someone I didn’t know, and her friend’s brother is the head of neurology at a hospital near me. He agreed to see me for free — he’s trying to figure out what it is. It’s a very hard thing to diagnose and I’m finding, from being public with my diagnosis that many, many women are coming to me and saying the same thing happened to them. They were told they had this, that, or the other, but it’s some immune system thing that people can’t quite pin down. The systems are similar but nobody knows what it is. It’s weird. I’m just going along trying to be healthy.” (Melissa Fossum, Phoenix New Times, Dec. 6, 2011)
In January of 2009, she and John Doe were in Seattle performing at a party celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama. But Cervenka’s world views would later take on a darker tone. This came to a head in 2014 after a mass shooting near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Billboard reported this (Chris Payne, May 29, 2014):
“On Friday May 23, gunman Elliot Rodger killed six people and wounded 13 others during a rampage in Isla Vista, Calif., near the campus of University of California Santa Barbara. But Exene Cervenka, singer of the long-running punk band isn’t completely convinced.
“Over the past several days, Cervenka has taken to Twitter to share numerous conspiracy theories involving the tragedy, writing, ‘added a video to a YouTube playlist… Santa Barbara Shooting Staged For Gun Control.’ In another, she wrote, ‘So sick of these hoaxes.’
“The 58-year old’s Twitter page is covered with various bits of anti-establishment paranoia, White House conspiracies, UFO stories and the like.”
Mary Elizabeth Williams, a senior writer at Salon, was pretty blunt is her assessment (May 29, 2014):
“There are few letdowns in life quite like the one that comes when you realize one of your heroes is a total crackpot. And for a whole lot of music fans just like me, the mounting evidence that (a) legendary punk goddess has gone off the rails is a real blow.
“In recent months, Exene Cervenka — author, artist and, most notably, frontwoman of X — has taken to using social media as a means of expressing her support for various truther theories. Just two months ago, Dangerous Minds called her the worst thing you can call another human being: ‘the new Alex Jones.’
“So when Cervenka links to a video that calls Richard Martinez, whose son was gunned down by Elliot Rodger on Friday, an ‘actor,’ she is spreading hurt. She is using her fame and her platform to bring a savage amount of additional grief on people who’ve lost their children. It’s unconscionable that she’s making this a public spectacle. But then, that’s what truthers do. They harass and belittle already vulnerable people and make already terrible events exponentially worse. And Exene Cervenka is no longer a punk hero. She’s just a punk.”
(Photo by Charlie Llewellyn)
Better that she turn her attention back to music. In 2020, the full band released its first album in 30 years. Rolling Stone had this to say (Kory Grow, May 12, 2020):
“After a nearly 30-year gap between records, Los Angeles’ punk laureates X havedared to make a new album.
“Alphabetland, the band’s eighth album overall and first with virtuoso rockabilly guitarist Billy Zoom since 1985’s Ain’t Love Grand!, is a rare animal among comeback records — it both feels like a continuance of the band’s classic Eighties sound and it’s actually good.
“The only head scratcher is the album’s closing cut, ‘All the Time in the World,’ a jazzy, spoken-word track with Cervenka’s bummer verses about dying and atmospheric guitar courtesy of the Doors’ Robby Krieger; it’s a novelty you won’t want to hear more than once.”
Yet another record would be forthcoming last year in addition to a tour which they claim will be their last.
Daniel Kohn reviewed the album in the LA Times(July 30, 2024):
“The best thing that can be said about ‘Smoke & Fiction,’ which clocks in under 30 minutes, is that it has all of the traits of a late-era X album: the heavy punk mixed with elements of roots rock, contemplative lyrics and roaring riffs.”
In the Boston online magazine The Arts Fuse (Sept. 23, 2024), Paul Robicheau offers a look at Cervenka on this supposedly final tour.
“A signpost declares ‘The end is near’ in branding for X’s current tour, which the band warns will be their last — like the solid new Smoke & Fiction, billed as the final album that X will make. That’s not an unreasonable expectation given the punk-rock quartet’s age.
“X isn’t staggering to the finish line either way. The band’s bracing Sunday show at Tupelo Music Hall (allegedly X’s first-ever New Hampshire gig) displayed the group’s versatility, vitality and heart though a tight, engaged 80-minute show.
“The diminutive Cervenka, in embroidered jacket (including the symbols X, 77 and ?, and minidress that pictured dogs playing cards) remained the central wild card. She faded in and out of the spotlight at the mic, an impish enigma crossing and waving her arms, interlocking her fingers and mussing her hair. And she appeared to be having fun in the band’s cover of ‘Breathless,’ playing up her phrases in a moaning Elvis inflection with sighs around the chorus.”
Shows have continued to be booked this year, the last listing being in August.
(Note on sources. No links are provided for stories from the New York Times and Rolling Stone since these stories are behind a paywall. Other newspaper stories cited without a link were accessed through newspapers.com.)
Tommy John is the popular name for Ulmar Collateral Ligament reconstructive surgery, an operation most commonly performed on the elbows of major league pitchers. Tommy John is also the name of a brand of men’s underwear that may or may not be popular but is heavily advertised.
1981
But the real Tommy John was a major league pitcher. And a good one at that. He pitched for six different teams including the Dodgers and the Yankees and was a four-time all-star. John’s career spanned 26 seasons, from 1963 to 1989, a feat made all the more remarkable when you consider what he is most famous for: being the first person to have a surgery in 1974 that according to estimates has now been performed on more than one-third of major league pitchers.
He was, in the words of Todd Civin of Bleacher Report (May 31, 2018) “a fair-haired guy from Terre Haute, Indiana. A guy who nearly had his dream snatched from his very grip after 13 years playing the game he loved. A guy who opted to be the Guinea Pig for a revolutionary surgery that would save the careers of hundreds of his baseball brothers over the next thirty years.”
Following his lengthy career, John did what many former ballplayers do. He tried his hand at broadcasting and at coaching. He was manager of the now defunct Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League of Professional baseball for 2-½ years from 2007 to 2009. Under his tenure the team had a record of 159-176.
He also has done some motivational speaking. He is still listed on the web site of the All American Entertainment speakers bureau. He can be booked as a keynote speaker for a fee ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.
John had four children with his first wife Sally Simmons. The youngest of his children, Taylor, committed suicide in 2010 at the age of 28.
“John uses his celebrity and his ‘Let’s Do It’ Foundation to raise funds for and create awareness of a topic close to his heart, suicide prevention.
“As a child, Taylor acted in the Broadway play, ‘Les Miserables.’ He was an illusionist and singer who loved the arts.
“But he also had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and took several medications.
“Through the ‘Let’s Do It’ Foundation, John raises money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at its Chicago location, the city in which Taylor resided when he died.” (Sue Loughlin, AP, March 15, 2014)
2008
One thing John has done throughout his adult life is play golf. A story in the Desert Sun (July 20, 2019) by Andrew I. John offered a glimpse of Tommy John’s lifestyle in the Palm Springs area where he makes his home.
“Three or four times a week, when the temperatures are manageable, he and girlfriend Cheryl Zeldin (now his wife) hit the links and together swing their way through nine holes. They’re usually done in about an hour and a half, and often return home as bighorn sheep from the surrounding mountains feed on the grassy 11th hole fairway in their backyard at the PGA West’s Arnold Palmer Private Course. At 76, his balance isn’t what it once was, and he’s had a couple of painful falls. Over the years, he’s endured procedures to his knees, hips and, of course, the left elbow that put his name in the dictionary and revolutionized the game of baseball.”
For a man whose fame is tied to a surgical procedure, John has in recent years experienced a number of health issues. He contracted a case of COVID that was life threatening.
“COVID had stricken John and his wife, Cheryl, said he could barely walk when they returned from Nashville to their La Quinta, Calif., home on December 12, 2020.
“They took him to Eisenhower Health Center in La Quinta.
“‘They sent him home the next day,’ Cheryl said.’He couldn’t stand up, he couldn’t go to the bathroom. Five times they sent him home.’
“John would be in and out of Eisenhower for five weeks. He is thankful it wasn’t five weeks and one day.
“‘I had two huge blood clots in my upper and lower lobes of my lung,’ he said.
“Finally, Cheryl texted Dr. Dan Oakes, an orthopedic surgeon friend who would send all the necessary information to Dr. Antreas Hindoyan at Keck Medical Center of USC.
“‘And at 3:30 in the morning,’ Cheryl said, ‘Dr. Hindoyan said, ‘Get him out of that hospital! I have an ambulance downstairs, he’s going to die.’ So they transported him to Keck Medical. They had him in surgery at 6 and broke up two massive blood clots in his lung.
“‘They saved his life.’” (Steve Serby, New York Post, May 29, 2022)
Curiously John’s oldest son, Tommy John III, is a chiropractor who has made statements claiming that the coronavirus pandemic didn’t exist.
Just last month a story on the MLB app by Bill Ladson (March 22, 2024) reported on John’s latest health challenge, a bladder cancer diagnosis.
One thing John does not do in his spare time is watch baseball, which he now claims is “unrecognizable.”
“Though he rarely watches any part of a game, he has strong opinIons of today’s ML.B. He doesn’t care much for the robot umpire introduced this summer in the minor leagues ‘An umpire is a part of baseball,’ he says, and he scoffs at instant replay.
“Don’t get him started on bat flips. ‘They would‘ve (been) hit the next time up with the ball in their ear,’ he says.” (Palm Springs Desert Sun, July 20, 2019)
One question that has always followed John is why he wasn’t elected to the Hall of Fame. He recorded more wins than any non-drug using pitcher (see Whatever Happened To? Roger Clemens) who is not already in the hall.
He told Damon Amendola of CBS Radio (May 17, 2024) “I should’ve been [in Cooperstown] years ago. For whatever reason — well, I know the reason… There was one player who was voting against me all the time and [helping get] in other players.”
More recently he came up with the curious explanation that he was not voted into the hall because he voted for Donald Trump. Curious because John was on the ballot for Cooperstown between 1995 and 2009. Trump was first elected in 2016. Only Trump himself could follow that logic.
Oh, and one more thing. About the underwear.
“John and his rep would like readers to know that he has no relationship to Tommy John Underwear. John said he considered a lawsuit but abandoned it after attorneys he approached for representation wanted $250,000. People ask him about the underwear, he says, ‘all the time.’
“‘My girlfriend called the company and said she was representing me and that they should think about using me as a spokesperson,’ John said. ‘Their reply was they don’t have it in their budget.’” Graham Womack, Sporting News, Feb. 23, 2016)
(Note on sources: Newspaper articles that do not include links were accessed on newspapers.com)
In 1941 Ernest Evans was born in Spring Gully, S.C. In 1960, he performed at the Rainbow Club in Wildwood, N.J., where he sang a cover of a Hank Ballard song. By then he was Chubby Checker and that song was ”The Twist.” While it is “The Twist” that he is best remembered for, Checker had a string of other hit songs, usually associated with some type of dance, including “Pony Time,” “The Fly,” “Limbo Rock,” and “Let’s Twist Again.”
Whatever happened to Chubby Checker? He’s 83, alive and well, still making music and still performing. In fact, you can go to chubbychecker.com and book a show that the site promises will bring “an energetic, articulate entertainer. His concerts are filled with people of all generations. He is current…he is amazing and he explodes on stage getting everyone involved.”
His stage name came from his high school employer, with some help from Dick Clark’s wife Barbara.
While attending high school in South Philadelphia where he was raised, “Ernest took on after-school jobs at the Produce Market and at Fresh Farm Poultry on 9th Street. His boss at the Produce Market gave him the nickname ‘Chubby’ and his boss at Fresh Farm Poultry gave him much more – an introduction to Dick Clark.” (Ann McGill, WCSC Live 5 News, Dec. 16, 2022)
Barbara Clark made the connection between the young singer and Fats Domino and that led to his stage name. As Checker tells it “Mrs. Clark said, ‘His name is Chubby, like Fats? Well, then, his last name should be Checker, like Domino.’” (Gabrielle Moss, Remind Magazine, Oct. 3, 2024)
One thing that has been as long-lasting as Checker’s music career is his marriage. In 1963 he married Dutch model Catharine Lodders. They’re still together and have had three children.
“The couple, who live in Paoli, have been together for nearly six decades and are the proud grandparents of seven.
“The singer, made famous by his reimagining of Hank Ballard’s ‘The Twist,’ met his wife while performing in the Philippines in January 1962. The lady in her polka dot bathing suit that took his breath away was a literal beauty queen: the Netherlands native held the crown of Miss World in 1962.
“They fell in love and Checker proposed the following year. They were married in 1964, three years before the ban on interracial marriages was finally lifted in the United States.
“They often experienced racial discrimination and criticism for being in a relationship. They had trouble buying a home in Philadelphia, but persevered and finally purchased a home in Paoli in 1965, where they still live.” (Leah Mikulich, VISTA Today, Sept. 29, 2023)
In 2016, Checker and his wife drove to Sarasota to help celebrate the 100th birthday of Rev. George Garver, the man who married them.
“In 1964, Garver officiated at the Evanses’ wedding at the church where Garver served in New Jersey. Interracial marriage was legal in the state and within the Lutheran Church, but Garver became the target of racist protests and threats and eventually resigned from the pastorate of that church. Garver retired to Florida in 1981 after a career as a pastor who also developed coaching programs for clergy.” (Sarasota Herald Tribune, Jan. 16, 2016)
Checker has never been one to underestimate his influence. He had frequently expressed his frustration over not being elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He once (2004) protested outside the Waldorf Astoria in New York where the Hall of Fame induction ceremony was taking place. Another time he made his view known with a full-page ad in Billboard magazine.
“In a curious full-page ad in Billboard Magazine addressed to the music industry, the media, the general public and nominators for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Nobel Prize, Checker is making an elaborate case for himself as a cultural innovator of the highest order.
“‘Before Alexander Graham Bell, no telephone’ begins one part of the ad, which ran in the music industry weekly’s July 28 issue. ‘Before Thomas Edison, no electric light. Before Walt Disney, no animated cartoons. Before Chubby Checker, no ‘Dancing Apart to the Beat.’
“The seven-paragraph open letter ends with this proclamation: ‘Chubby Checker is King of the way we dance worldwide since 1959.’” (Tom Moon, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Oct. 2, 2001)
It took awhile, but tonight (April 27, 2025) it was announced that Checker has been selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No word yet from the Nobel Prize committee.
Checker’s contributions have hardly gone unnoticed. He was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2014. The following year, a mural was unveiled in Wildwood as part of the beach town’s Icon Wall Mural series.
“Checker’s 40’ x 12’ mural — which features six images of him doing ‘The Twist,’ plus the words, ‘Let’s Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer’ — is on the south-facing side of Romeo’s Famous Pizzeria, at 3707 Pacific Ave., a block from the site where the Rainbow Club, at which he sang ‘The Twist,’ in 1960, once existed. The artist was Susan Daly, who also created the (Bill) Haley mural.” (Jay Lustig, NJArts, Sept. 9, 2015)
Back in his birth home of Spring Gulley, S.C., an honorary marker was placed in 2022 on Highway 521. And he was the subject of another mural painted in 2022 in Leicester, N.Y., on the wall of the Leicester Casino, where Checker performed in 1973.
What was not a tribute to Chubby Checker was an app by that name developed by Hewlett-Packard.
“The Chubby Checker app allowed users to input the shoe size of a man (UK, US and European shoe sizes were accepted) to return a measurement of his penis.
“The app was withdrawn from the WebOS App Catalog in 2012 after a cease and desist order from Checker’s lawyers.” (Hannah Jane Parkinson, The Guardian, July 25, 2014)
That same story in the Guardian announced settlement of Checker’s suit.
“Rock’n’roll star Chubby Checker… has settled the 2013 lawsuit he brought against Hewlett-Packard over a “penis-measuring” app.
“Checker, real name Ernest Evans, had been seeking half a billion dollars from Hewlett-Packard for ‘irreparable damage and harm’ caused by the Chubby Checker, an app for Hewlett-Packard’s Palm OS platform.
“The settlement agreement has not been disclosed, and neither side has accepted liability, but Hewlett-Packard has apparently agreed not to use the singer’s stage name, related trademarks, or likeness on their products.
“This lawsuit is about preserving the integrity and legacy of a man who has spent years working hard at his musical craft and has earned the position of one of the greatest musical entertainers of all time,’ explained Checker’s coincidentally named lawyer, Willie Gary, at the time.”
One thing that Checker has always taken pride in is his ability to perform, even at an advanced age. This review, written by Geoff Herbert, appeared on Syracuse.com after a 2013 show at the New York State Fair.
“For an hour Tuesday afternoon at the 2013 New York State Fair, Chubby Checker proved he can still twist at 71 years young. Just in case there was any doubt.
“Checker jumped on the Chevy Court stage at 2 p.m. and immediately started the party with ‘Good, Good Lovin.’ He swiveled his legs, shimmied his hips and sang with a voice only partly diminished by time.”
Two years later he was interviewed by The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) before a show in Morristown.
“‘I’m a rock performer,’ he says. ‘If you’re coming to see an old man beaten up, stay home — you’re not going to see that. I am an old man, but I sure kick some good butt, boy. You’re looking at a 1960 Corvette with a 1967 engine, a 427, and 450 horsepower. We kick butt all day long. I’m coming to Morristown, I’m bringing the fire, we’re going to burn the theater down and go home…Anybody who misses my performance, I feel sorry for them.’”
And just two years ago he sent a similar message to Bruce Chadwick of New Jersey Stage (Oct. 6, 2023):
“I asked him, silly me, if there was anything he could not do at 82 that he could do earlier in his career.
“‘I sing, I dance, I bop out into the audience, I twist with a whole lot of people in the theater I am at. That answer to your question is a big ‘no,’ he said.
“One thing Checker definitely does NOT do is talk about retiring. NEVER.
“‘Hey, I started working out when I was 29, anticipating the day would come – and it is here – when I’d be in my 80s and still want to perform. I kept in shape all these years with that in mind,’ he said.”
(Note on sources: Newspaper articles that do not include links were accessed on newspapers.com)
Chuck Wepner was a career liquor salesman and a boxer of some note, at least in his home state of New Jersey. Then two things happened.
In 1975, he somehow ended up in the ring for a championship fight with Muhammad Ali. While everyone expected Ali to make short work of the lightly regarded Wepner, the man who would become known as the “Bayonne Bleeder” went almost the full 15 rounds and became something of a folk hero by doing so.
Then one other thing happened that would change Werner’s profile. “Among the observers on the closed-circuit television broadcast was Sylvester Stallone, a struggling 30-year-old actor who identified with the gutsy Wepner so much, he raced home and wrote the first ‘Rocky’ screenplay in just a few days.” (Robert Mladnich, March 8, 2025 nyfights.com)
Wepner would henceforth be known as ‘the real Rocky.’ As for the other nickname “What Chuck Wepner did best in the ring was bleed. Indeed, his nickname was a twin tribute to his New Jersey home town and his infinite capacity to leak crimson. He was known far and wide as ‘The Bayonne Bleeder.’” (Bill Lyon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb 11, 1990)
Wepner would resume his otherwise undistinguished boxing career until he retired in 1978. Undistinguished, that is, except for a couple of rather unusual spectacles. One of those was the 1976 ‘Showdown at Shea,’ a wrestling match between Wepner and Andre the Giant.
Before the match, Wepner told Bob Waters of Newsday Services (May 20, 1976):
“Say listen, I met the guy. He’s got a head this big. (Wepner holds his hands about two feet apart). How am I going to miss him. And he’s got a 56-inch waist. I’m going to look quick as lightning by comparison.”
Here’s one account of what happened to Wepner at Shea:
“Five years after the bout, in a profile on Andre for Sports Illustrated, Terry Todd wrote, ‘In the third round…Wepner really clocked the Giant as they broke from the ropes. Whereupon Andre, in a more than usually fell swoop, angrily snatched his smaller opponent into the air and pitched him forthwith over the topmost rope, ending the bout.’” (F4Wonline.com, Nov. 11, 2018)
One of his next opponents was even bigger. A bear. Twice.
“The first Victor that Wepner fought was defanged, declawed, muzzled and intoxicated. The bear weighed between 400 and 800 pounds, depending on how unreliable your source was.
“A nightclub czar called Artie Stock, who owned the Royal Manor club in New Jersey, offered Wepner the fight against Victor. It was a challenge; it was cash and Wepner accepted.
“‘I was told not to hit the bear,’ Wepner recalled. ‘What was I supposed to do? Tell the bear a story? The bear wanted to kill me.’
“The first fight with Victor was ugly.
“‘I was hitting the bear with jabs, hooks and the bear was starting to get crazy,’ added Wepner. ‘Then it got me and threw me 15-feet up in the air. People said I put on a great show and I said: ‘Are you out of your mind, this bear tried to kill me.’” (BoxingNewsOnline, Feb. 23, 2022)
Apparently both of those encounaters were pronounced draws.
Some fame and some money, however, brought about a change in Wepner’s lifestyle.
“I was a big shot everywhere I went,” he said. “There was so much booze and broads. I was out of control, a crazy man. I had some heavy friends and was running with some crazy people. And everywhere I went, there was cocaine.” (Robert Mladrich, nyfights.com, March 8, 2025)
That eventually led to an arrest and conviction. This AP dispatch is from March 16, 1988:
“Former boxer Chuck Wepner, the ‘Bayonne Bleeder’ who once fought for the heavyweight title, was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison after admitting to cocaine charges. Wepner, a liquor salesman who lost a bid for the title in 1975 against champion Muhammad Ali, was arrested in Sayreville in November 1985 as part of an undercover police investigation, said Assistant Middlesex Prosecutor Ron Kercado. The former boxer admitted in December to conspiracy and possession of cocaine. He claimed in court he had become addicted to the drug but did not sell it for profit. Under a plea bargain agreement, Wepner faced up to 10 years in prison, and that was the sentence handed down Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Joseph F. Deegan Jr.”
How did Wepner make out in prison? He tells this story:
“Wepner said no one in the New Jersey penal system gave him trouble – with one exception. ‘One inmate tried the first day I got there,’ Wepner said. ‘He said that if I bought him cigarettes every week, I wouldn’t get hurt. So, by way of introduction, I slapped him across the face, jammed his head against the cell bars, and threw him around for a while. We became good friends after that.’” (Mark Czerwinski, The Record, June 4, 1991)
Wepner was released after serving a little less than three years.
In 2002, Elise Young, a reporter from The Record (Dec. 19, 2002) visited Wepner in his Bayonne home.
“The day starts at 10 in the bayside condo Wepner shares with his Linda, a glamorous former bartender he married 12 years ago. The place is floor-to-ceiling mirrors and teal wall-to-wall carpeting and bronze sculptures and green Astroturf on the balconies.
“The phone is ringing. The fax machine is on the fritz. Already he’s running late – he has errands and a bunch of liquor stores to visit, and he needs to drop by the sales office in Carlstadt. So it’s a quick kiss for Linda and he’s off.
“The DeVille, parked in the spot nearest the condo building’s rear door has a special white finish. It’s one of those options the dealer offers, and it makes the thing sparkle at night. The car really wasn’t complete, though, until Wepner added the red ragtop and the ‘CHAMP’ vanity plates. His wife just rolled her eyes.”
In 2003, Wepner filed a lawsuit against Stallone seeking $15 million. “The boxer had maintained that he never got paid as promised, while Stallone countered that Wepner made money out of his public appearances as the ‘real Rocky.’ Stallone never denied Wepner’s role in the creation of the lucrative character…” (The Guardian, Aug. 3 2006) The suit was eventually settled. No terms were disclosed.
Throughout it all, Wepner remained a hero in his hometown. In 2017 he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame with a ceremony at Convention Hall in Asbury Park.
More recently a statue of Wepner was dedicated in Bayonne.
“Chuck Wepner, the heavyweight slugger who inspired Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa character when he shockingly knocked down Muhammad Ali in the ninth round of their 1975 championship bout, was honored Saturday with a larger-than-life bronze statue in his hometown of Bayonne, N.J.
“It’s a fitting tribute for the popular brawler known as the Bayonne Bleeder for usually ending up battered and bloody, win or lose.
“‘Unfortunately the face looks exactly like me,’ Wepner, 83, joked about the monument unveiled at Dennis P. Collins Park just across the water from Staten Island. (Brian Niemietz, NY Daily News, Nov. 13, 2022)
Wepner had also been the subject of a mural in Bayonne.
“A mural of Chuck Wepner, the original inspiration for the ‘Rocky’ films, was unveiled this afternoon at the Bayonne Community Museum to a crowd of nearly 200 people.
“The mural depicts Wepner in his signature pose – a mean mug splayed across his face, Spartan boxing gloves at the ready, and championship belt wrapped around his waist.
“Wepner, 75, described the mural as ‘breathtaking.’
“’I know nobody who embodies a person from Bayonne like Wepner with everything in his life; his career, (and) his service to our country,’ said Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis. ‘This man has represented for Bayonne for 70 years. As a friend, as an ambassador for the town, thank you very much.’” (Steven Rodas, nj.com, March 21, 2015)
But there was one problem.
“The owner of a three-story building on Broadway who was shocked to find a towering mural of ‘real Rocky’ Chuck Wepner on the side of his property last month is saying he’ll put up with it for three years.
“Mr. Shi, 35, of Bayonne, who co-owns 737 Broadway with his family, told The Jersey Journal he wouldn’t have said ‘yes’ to having the mural on the side of his building, but now that it’s already up there, it can stay there for three years. “’Personally, I don’t like it,’” he said.” (Jonathan Lin, The Jersey Journal, July 18, 2015)
The building owner had the mural painted over in 2019.
Expressionism was a popular art movement in the early 20th century. It is characterized by a personal, and sometimes, distorted perception of reality. It originated in Germany. Some of the artists whose works are shown below were members of influential German Expressionist groups Die Brucke and Der Blaue Reiter. These artists include Emil Nolde, Otto Mueller, August Macke, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Many of the Expressionists would later have their works seized or banned by the Nazis who pronounced them “degenerate.”
All of these pieces are from the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
Glowing Sunflowers, Emil NoldeThe Lady in Mauve, Lionel FeiningerShips, Lyonel FeiningerTwo Female Nudes in a Landscape, Otto MuelerCircus, Auguste MackeKneeling Nude in Front of Red Screen, Ernst Ludwig KirchnerYoung Couple, Emil NoldePortrait of Max Schmidt, Oskar KakoschkaHouses on the River (The Old Town), Egon Schiele
Some Warhol paintings, prints and portraits that you may not have seen before. From the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
Statue of LibertyCrushed Campbell’s Soup CanNatalie
1947 White
Jimmy CarterAt left is a self portrait. At right, a portrait of his mother, Julia Warhola.Martha GrahamRyuichi Sakamoto (Japanese musician, composer and actor)Sonia Rykiel Cornelia GuestWilhelmina Ross (from Ladies and Gentleman)Lurdes (from Ladies and GentlemenDetails of Renaissance paintings, Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482Double $5/WeightlifterCrab, collaboration with Jean-Michel BasquiatHammer and Sickle
From Duquesne Works, a steel mill that dates back to 1886.Printers’s type cabinets
the proud former home to Negro League baseball
Crawford Recreation Center baseball team, 1926Greelee Field, home of the Pittsburgh Crawdads, opened in 1932. It was the first African-American owned stadium in the Negro Leagues.
Uniform of the Homestead Grays from the 1940’s.
a little quirky
Kennywood Racer roller coaster car from 1927.
Created by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette political cartoonist Tim Menees.
Lost Pittsburgh, Shirley Yee. Created in 2003 for DinoMite Days, an outdoor exhibit.
All images are from the collection of the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.
This is the second of two posts featuring images of the reproductions of Banksy’s are that are housed in the Banksy Museum in Madrid. You can see the first part here. This post includes Banksy creations from the U.K., France and Italy.
U.K.
Smiling Grim Reaper, BristolOn the wall of a private residence in SouthamptonKissing Coppers, near Prince Albert Pub, Trafalgar Street, BrightonOutside Cargo Club, Rivington Street, LondonHula-Hoop Girl, Rothesay Avenue, LondonHooded Youth, from Banksy’s Cans Festival in the Leake Street Tunnel, WaterlooQueen Ziggy Stardust, Upper Maudlin Street, BristolPeeping Boys, part of Banksy’s ‘Dismaland’ exhibitionWell hung lover, Frogmore Street, Bristol. Painted on the wall of a sexual health clinic.
Punk Mum. Created for the artist’s “Banksy versus Bristol Museum” exhibition
Choose Your Weapon (Keith Haring’s Dog), South East LondonVery Little Helps (Tesco Flag), Essex Road, north London
Mobile Phone Lovers, Broad Plains Boys Club, Bristol
Locestoft
France
Port de la Chapelle, Paris
Bataclan – in memory of the victims of the 2015 terrorists attacks, 50 Boulevard Voltaire, Paris
off the leash 