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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone. It is membership drive, New York area history quiz time. Do you know what's been happening around here over the many years? If you think you do, call right up, and if you get three New York area history quiz answers in a row right, we will send you that new Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap we've been talking about. Who wants to play? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. It's Membership Drive New York area history quiz time. Do you know what's been happening in New York and vicinity over a long, long time? Do you know a little bit of history? You can take a shot and you can't win it without being in it. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

While your calls are coming in, let me reset the context for this. We are in our annual spring membership drive and during this 11:00 AM hour of the show, every day during the drive, we're having a Brian Lehrer Show fundraising party. It's like the bake sale at your school. We don't actually have the PTA meeting at the bake sale. We have cake and cookies and games. That's the model for our 11:00 AM to noon spring fundraising parties after our more serious fair in the 10 o'clock hour. Hope you enjoy, and of course, that you will pitch in in the fundraiser.

What happens at this event? Well, we're doing three segments each day in the 11:00 AM to noon fundraising party. Segment one, it's a low-stakes pop quiz. We don't give grades, we do give prizes. That's what we're doing right now with this low-stakes pop quiz on New York area history. Who wants to try for three in a row, and that Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap? 212-433-9692. Segment two, a little later in the hour, we're bringing back our most fun or interesting call-ins of 2023 for a second round of participation.

All the good ones wind up with more listeners waiting their turn than we can take. It's our most fun or interesting call-ins of 2023 round two. Today, it will be on your personal stories of your personal 15 minutes of fame and how they affected you. We will end each of these hours with things to do this summer. Mostly things around here in our local Greater New York listening area.

It's a low-stakes pop quiz, grades no, prizes yes. Our most fun or interesting call-ins of 2023 round two, and things to do in the New York area this summer. Here we go with today's low-stakes pop quiz, New York City, and Vicinity history. We'll jump right in line one with Arnold in Brooklyn. Arnold, you're on WNYC. Ready to play?

Arnold: Yes. Good morning.

Brian: All right, and here we go. If we're going to talk about this area's history, let's start with the indigenous people who lived here when Europeans arrived. Can you name the group that inhabited this area?

Arnold: I'm thinking Algonquin.

Brian: Sorry Arnold. That is wrong. I'm going to give one more person a shot at it. Larry in Bayside, you're on WNYC. Larry, do you know the name of the group that inhabited this area?

Larry: The Dutch.

Brian: No, before the Europeans arrived. That's the question.

Larry: Oh, white.

Brian: No.

Larry: God no.

Brian: In three, in two, in one. Nope. The answer is the Lenape. We've talked about that on the show, and you've probably heard of New York by now being referred to in the old, old days as Lenapehoking covered all of New York City and on up both sides of the Hudson away and out to a little bit of Pennsylvania. The Canarsee could have been an acceptable answer.

It overlapped in Brooklyn and the Wappinger in parts of Northern Manhattan, but generally the Lenape, so there we go. All right, James in Los Angeles, you're on WNYC. Ready for a New York area history question?

James: Yes. Good morning.

Brian: Great. Hang on James, we're going to take you next. Hang on. I want to give a Jersey caller a shot at this next one. Angelo in Hackensack, you there?

Angelo: Yes. Hi. Good morning. I knew that answer because I think they covered [unintelligible 00:04:56] New Jersey as well.

Brian: That's absolutely right. Pretty much all of New Jersey, I think also the Lenape. All right. True or false, the Bergen Mall is the oldest mall in the United States.

Angelo: True. It used to be an outdoor mall and Richard Nixon was there and I actually saw Flipper, or who was supposed to be Flipper there back in the 1970s.

Brian: Flipper The Dolphin.

Angelo: Yes. Well, they said it was Flipper. We all got wet, we all enjoyed, and they even have a downstairs, a lower level there as well. That's still there. A bowling alley, et cetera, even a little church.

Brian: Well, you are absolutely right. It has the designation of oldest mall in the US because it was the first shopping center to use the word mall in its title in 1957 although there were other shopping centers, of course, but they didn't use the word mall. Then it was enclosed in 1973. There you go. That's one in a row. All right? Now you have to know something about New York City. As you know, perhaps--

Angelo: They've actually enlarged though also and most of their parking lot is now stores as well. They're huge now.

Brian: Yes. There's a park in Greenpoint on the site where WNYC's transmitter towers stood from the late 1930s until 1990. It's actually called WNYC Transmitter Park. Greenpoint is also home to many toxic waste sites due mostly to what industry that flourished there starting in the late 19th century.

Angelo: Wow. It's starting in the late 19th century. I'm not going to say coal but I'm going to say--

Brian: Not coal, but you're pretty close.

Angelo: Something to do with die casting. Like a [unintelligible 00:06:50] chemical?

Brian: Not die-casting chemical. I'll give you the one clue you said coal, in a certain respect, you were pretty close.

Angelo: How about they were storing trash there or hauling trash or something along those lines?

Brian: No. The answer is there was home to the world's first modern oil refinery. Not coal, but yes, another fossil fuel. Angelo, thanks for playing. Home to the world's first modern oil refinery, the local Astral Oil Works were eventually sold to Rockefeller's Standard Oil company there in Greenpoint. Now we'll go back to James in Los Angeles. James, thanks for being patient.

James: No worries.

Brian: Now, the census started collecting people's birthplaces in 1850 and the University of Washington has collected and ranked where people in New York said they came from every decade up through 2018. Can you name the top country of origin for New Yorkers when they started doing this in 1850, the number one country that New Yorkers said their families had come from in 1850? What country?

James: Since I'm still a bit sleepy, the first thing that pops into my head I'm going to say and I'll say Germany.

Brian: Germany, it would've been number two, so that was pretty close. James, thanks for giving it a shot. The answer to that one was Ireland in 1850 was the most cited country of origin. Let's go on to Joe in Greenwich Village. Joe, you're on WNYC. Hi, there.

Joe: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Brian: Continuing on that same line with the question of where New Yorkers told the census that they came from, it was Ireland as the number one country of origin in 1850. How about in 2018, the most recent time that the Census and the University of Washington collected and ranked this? The number one country that New Yorkers said they came from if they were immigrants in 2018?

Joe: Wow, that's tough. Is it China?

Brian: China, well, both of you got the number two place. He got Germany as number two in 1850, China was number two just recently. Number one is the Dominican Republic. Thanks for trying. That's been true for quite a number of years. The number one immigrant-sending country to New York in particular has been the Dominican Republic. Shannon in Sunset Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Shannon. Ready to play?

Shannon: Hi, Brian. Yes, I am.

Brian: All right. Piece of New York City history. New York City became the city as we know it meaning with all five boroughs in 1898 through a referendum vote in which some of the counties had to approve it for go ahead. Now, here's the question. Of Staten Island, Queens, and Brooklyn, which one came closest to defeating the proposition?

Shannon: Oh, God, I'm going to go with Queens.

Brian: Wasn't Queens. It was Brooklyn. Here's what happened in 1898. Brooklyn barely voted to enter New York City with 50.11%. According to Wikipedia, citing the New York Times, Queens voted 61% to join, Staten Island 78% to join. Brooklyn at the time was the fourth largest city in the US according to the 1890 census. I guess they had the most ambivalence about whether to be incorporated into another city. It's ironic Shannon, Staten Island, which had that overwhelming vote to join, ironically, Staten Island, which was the most eager then now has an active secession movement.

Shannon: They were going to be my choice. They were going to be my choice.

Brian: You almost got it, but not quite. Shannon, thank you very much. Oh, this is turning out to be hot today. We gave away a lot of baseball hats on our news quiz two days ago on our New York area geography quiz yesterday. This history quiz is turning out to be tough. David in Brooklyn, ready to take a shot?

David: I sure am. I need a baseball hat. I already have a cap.

Brian: [laughs] You'll be ready for hardball. True or false, New York City was the US Capitol before Washington, DC. New York City was the US Capitol before Washington DC, true or false?

David: Do you mean directly before or anytime before?

Brian: Anytime before?

David: True.

Brian: That is true. From 1788 to 1790. Then it moved temporarily to Philadelphia, maybe that's why you asked that follow-up question. Then DC, but not until 1800. George Washington was sworn in as the first President on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1789. True or false, President Ulysses S. Grant is not actually buried in Grant's tomb. Grant's tomb is-

David: True.

Brian: -in Manhattan. True or false that he is not actually buried. That's the question in the negative, right? You're saying he's not actually buried in Grant's tomb?

David: Right. I'm saying that.

Brian: That is false, David. Sorry. You'll have to get a baseball hat another way. Grant is indeed buried in the General Grant National Memorial, its official name, along with his wife, Julia Grant up on 122nd Street there on the west side. All right. Let's try at least one more contestant. Donna in Westfield, you're on WNYC. Hi, Donna.

Donna: Hi.

Brian: Which of these was not a mayor of New York? Peter Stuyvesant, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, DeWitt Clinton, Robert Van Wyck, or Fiorello La Guardia. One of them, only one of them was never the mayor.

Donna: Van Wyck.

Brian: Sorry. Oh, Van Wyck was a mayor. Boy, these questions are turning out to be hard today. Let's try Amanda in Manhattan. I don't want to give up too easily. I'm giving away a baseball cap. Amanda, you're on WNYC. Are you there ready to play?

Amanda: Yes. Hi.

Brian: What was the longest-running Broadway show, a musical?

Amanda: Phantom of the Opera.

Brian: That is correct. 13,981 performances when it closed in April, having opened in 1988. In what century did New York City hold the first Labor Day Parade in the country? New York held the first-ever Labor Day Parade in the US in what century did that occur?

Amanda: Oh my gosh. This would just be a complete guess on my part. Do you have any hints, Brian?

Brian: Let's see. This is an obscure hint, but if you know the amendment to the Constitution that gave you the right to vote, that might be a clue.

Amanda: I'm just going to guess the 19th century.

Brian: The 19th century is correct. Tuesday, September 5th, 1882. My clue is because the 19th Amendment is what gave women the right to vote. That's two in a row right. You are one question away from the WNYC baseball cap. The next one up, New York City has hosted the World's Fair two times, both times in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Can you name any of the years in which either of those two World Fairs took place?

Amanda: Just a guess. 19.

Brian: You have a century right.

Amanda: Okay. I actually remember, possibly a podcast I heard about this. 1939.

Brian: Yes. 1939 to 1940.

Amanda: Oh, my gosh.

Brian: The second one, which still has some of the pavilion standing 1964 to 1965. Amanda, congratulations. Hang on. We're going to take your address off the air and send you a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap. Listeners, that was tough but hopefully, you learned some stuff, which is of course the point. We have some fun with these quizzes and we learn things along the way. We'll do another quiz in our membership drive on Monday. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. A lot more to come this hour.

By the way, I have to pass along a small correction from the history quiz segment. A few people called up to point out and we checked it out that on the question is Grant buried in Grant's tomb, we said he was buried in Grant's tomb. He is buried in Grant's tomb, his remains. A few people called up to correct us by saying that he is entombed there, not buried. His remains are there but it's not buried. He's not underground.

[00:17:36] [END OF AUDIO]

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