Leonard Nimoy Remembers Boston's West End Neighborhood

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 พ.ย. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 115

  • @dumboxthomas6151
    @dumboxthomas6151 4 ปีที่แล้ว +70

    That story about the Grandma going down to the market, speaking in her own tongue is so nostalgic and beautiful. And people learning each others languages. This is real community, real family. Something I desperately long for, while I am living in these individualistic times. I think a lot has been taken away from America's soul, either taken away or covered up. But I suppose this is the lot of communities and families the world over. Communities come and go, and its not until they're gone that we realize what a beautiful treasure we had.
    It is wonderful to reminisce about those times, remember about the ways things were. Wonderful presentation, thank you!

    • @brittsc
      @brittsc 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Very, very tragic how money really destroys so much in America. We're left with merely an empty shell.

    • @MrBoudlaine
      @MrBoudlaine 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      👑
      💜
      ...
      🎨🖌️🧚‍♂️🌶️

  • @mariavincenzi8724
    @mariavincenzi8724 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Thank you for Mr. Nimoy's interview. I am a fan of his.😢

  • @adamgordon6435
    @adamgordon6435 4 ปีที่แล้ว +55

    From Boston, but was born in '64, so never saw the West End or Scollay Square. Think of how Boston is considered now one of the most historic cities in the US, and how cool it would be if it still had those neighborhoods, which would surely have gentrified by now.

    • @Southpaw128
      @Southpaw128 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      what was considered undesirable and "slums" are now some of the most expensive real estate in the country! Greenwich Village and Brooklyn Heights in NY and Boston's North End. It's sad that those neighborhoods changed but we can reconnect with the past in a way by walking down those streets and feeling the hustle and bustle made by those dense city blocks we don't build anymore. It makes me sad that I'll never walk down the North End and it's hard to quantify just how many more neighborhoods were destroyed in the name of urban renewal and freeway construction.

    • @tombeegeeeye5765
      @tombeegeeeye5765 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      can remember my father yan me and my brother to the street side of the sidewalk as we passed a theatre with pictures of strippers in outfits considered tame by more contemporary standards in Scollay Square. That was in the early 60's.

  • @BryanPike
    @BryanPike ปีที่แล้ว +10

    As a tenth generation Bostonian, I am quite happy to have this history captured.

  • @spockboy
    @spockboy 9 ปีที่แล้ว +38

    Thanks for making me smile for all those years Leonard.

  • @giadaverde3625
    @giadaverde3625 4 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    I love listen him talking...I must do this for hours. Thank you Leonard, I miss you so much...😢😢

  • @Liesl_Cigarboxguitar
    @Liesl_Cigarboxguitar 4 ปีที่แล้ว +25

    This reminds me of my own heritage only mine is from Glasgow Scotland..but it's the same as Boston. My grandparents came from central Glasgow where many Jewish families came from Russia and eastern Europe. Many continued on to the United States, many settled in Glasgow in the late 1800s and early 1900s, closely followed by Italian immigrants..
    I discovered my Jewish heritage as an adult. I am so proud of my heritage.

    • @colinmacdonald1869
      @colinmacdonald1869 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      It brought to mind Ralph Glasser's book "Growing up in the Gorbals", he of course was a son of Russian Jewish immigrants but his account was to me a pretty shocking one, I knew about the Gorbals but the shear poverty he documented was something else.

    • @theladymeed4157
      @theladymeed4157 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I am from Bristol in the UK and the area where I grew up has been gentrified. The people from the community could no longer afford to live there and as Leonard Nimoy said of the West End in Boston, they too have been scattered. So sad. Thanks for this, he was such an interesting man, it's so nice to hear his stories of his background and where he grew up.

  • @paulfmurphy617
    @paulfmurphy617 4 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    I LIVED IN THE LAST REMAINING RESIDENTIAL BUILDING FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD (42 LOMASNEY WAY) TILL FOUR YEARS AGO WHEN MY RENT WENT FROM $700/MONTH TO $2500. FOR 20 YEARS I WOULD WALK TO WORK. THE SUBURBS DON'T HAVE THE SAME FEELING OF BEING ALIVE; THAT THE CITY POSSESSES

    • @guywhousesapseudonymonyout4272
      @guywhousesapseudonymonyout4272 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_Lomasney_Way

    • @johnsilva9139
      @johnsilva9139 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Whenever I pass that building I wonder about how much the rent is now ( or if it's now condos ). I imagine a new owner came and tripled your rent. How does Boston let that happen? It's hard to believe citizens don't storm city hall or the state house to demand affordable housing. Millions of people have been displaced this way or have had to pay a much higher percentage of their income to stay.

  • @tomking1890
    @tomking1890 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

  • @Wulfdane
    @Wulfdane 5 ปีที่แล้ว +28

    Fascinating, such a wonderful man with a great story to tell.

    • @marthadwyer2856
      @marthadwyer2856 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Wulfdane A friend of mine grew up in the West End with Lenny and said he was always a nice, sweet and gentle person.

  • @ivorytower99
    @ivorytower99 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Wow! That's amazing: I never knew Leonard Nemoy grew-up in the West End, where I live. In fact, the very first old photo shown--where you can see Bunker Hill Monument.... That is taken exactly at the viewpoint of my balcony. And at 6:19 St. Joseph's Church--it's directly below my dining room window.
    Amazing to see these pics.
    Funny thing: the building I live in recently had a coffee table book on the West End in a sitting area in the lobby. In the book, it talks about the particular building that I live in, and how it was considered at the time of it's erection, to be known as, "A scar on the skyline of Boston".

  • @mattygee79
    @mattygee79 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This was so fascinating. Mr. Nimoy is truly a great storyteller. Rest in peace 🖖

  • @antonellisa
    @antonellisa 9 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    RIP Mr Nimoy

  • @alexcarter8807
    @alexcarter8807 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    What a lovely person he was.

  • @jcortese3300
    @jcortese3300 5 ปีที่แล้ว +23

    New York did the same thing with Little Italy -- it's gone now, and has been "renewed" to the point where the only people who can afford to live there have no interest at all in the history and zero connection to it.
    This interview is amazing -- it's like listening to a Yiddish version of my mom's memories of South Philadelphia as a daughter of southern Italian immigrants in a neighborhood that had the exact same mix: two-thirds Italian, the rest Russian Jews with a sprinkling of Lebanese and Syrians.

    • @Southpaw128
      @Southpaw128 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      The sad truth about New York's little Italy is that the youth simply moved on and there wasn't a steady flow of Italian immigrants to fill their place. The neighborhood was not razed like the West End. Nearby Chinatown is still very true to its identity because new Chinese immigrants come and fill the places of those who have achieved more means and moved on. You can however find strong Italian enclaves in south Brooklyn, Bergen and Hudson counties in NJ, and throughout Long Island. These are more second and third generation Italian American communities unlike the Little Italy's of the past.

  • @Nunofurdambiznez
    @Nunofurdambiznez 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    what a great human being and marvelous story teller! God rest his soul.

  • @RonnieD1970
    @RonnieD1970 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    I am from Brockton and love these old neighborhood stories.

  • @gesco
    @gesco 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    My dad and my 3 uncles were born in the West End. My Grandparents lived on Parkman St.

  • @beantownie1
    @beantownie1 8 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    very sad about the west end. it's sad to see the old photo's after walking around there today

  • @gusterulsanatatii1151
    @gusterulsanatatii1151 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    love the great Leonard Nimoy!

  • @davef.2811
    @davef.2811 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Such a wise man. We could use more like him now.

  • @InformationIsTheEdge
    @InformationIsTheEdge 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Leonard, such a compelling story teller.

  • @mikestone6527
    @mikestone6527 5 ปีที่แล้ว +48

    Boston lost so much by tearing down the west end, the history and culture wiped away. We could have another beacon hill or north end style neighborhood instead of the ugly boxy concrete buildings that are their now.

    • @marthadwyer2856
      @marthadwyer2856 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      mike stone exactly. I remember the West End of Boston but a lot was already changed,still I so enjoyed walking over the Washington Bridge from Charlestown and hitting the show (10 cents ) going to the Hotel Madison to see actors and durning the summer going to the West End pool. The little shops were great, could buy penny candy of ever sort. You name it the stores sold it. Miss the buildings and the family’s sitting on the stoop or hanging out the window. Everyone knew everyone and watched out for each other, great memories.

    • @MrJoeybabe25
      @MrJoeybabe25 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      The city fathers of many towns throughout the United States brought Urban Renewal to wonderful ethnic districts all around the country.
      In my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia nearly 90% of the downtown area was destroyed.
      Urban Renewal was an unmitigated disaster for so many reasons.

    • @treym1966
      @treym1966 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      I live in one of those apartments now lol

  • @voraciousreader3341
    @voraciousreader3341 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I love these interviews, and Monty Hall’s are wonderful, too! I’m not even Jewish, I’m Episcopalian! Anyway, I feel for Leonard Nimoy, bc there’s very little left of my life in the city where I was born. The house I grew up in, my church, my elementary and jr. high schools (which was the Summer White House for Calvin Coolidge, lol!), the hospital where I was born....there’s just nothing left of the most important times of my life except my high school to show my children. It leaves me feeling pretty empty when I go back, and we concentrate on my husband’s “landmarks.” This is such a great program, thank you!

    • @DissociatedWomenIncorporated
      @DissociatedWomenIncorporated ปีที่แล้ว

      I’m a spiritual-leaning agnostic who’s core value system literally comes from being exposed to (and very into) Star Trek as a little girl 😂 I love watching these interviews with Leonard Nimoy. He was such a remarkable man.

  • @mariavincenzi8724
    @mariavincenzi8724 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I'm a big Leonard Nimoy fan from my youth. This is a wonderful interview for years to come !!

  • @Thomas-yr9ln
    @Thomas-yr9ln 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The most precious memories you have are when you are growing up.

  • @arnaldosandoval453
    @arnaldosandoval453 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Leonard, thank you for sharing these memories, in the end, they become part of the 'West End' legacy

  • @esterherschkovich6499
    @esterherschkovich6499 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    So interesting how nationalities mixed well.

  • @D.N..
    @D.N.. 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Unfortunately, nearly every major city tore down these type neighborhoods to make room for high ways or open office plaza. Granted that most had fallen into step decline by the early 1960's and the idea of turning these areas into historical districts was not important at the time. Scollary in Boston was one such neighborhood!

  • @MichaelDavis-mw1vs
    @MichaelDavis-mw1vs 9 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    very touching and sad

  • @sciacca44
    @sciacca44 6 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    So interesting, I grew up in nearby North End and had an uncle who lived in West End. West End should never have been torn down for urban renewal. So many people were displaced, its destruction is one of the sore spots in Boston history.

    • @marthadwyer2856
      @marthadwyer2856 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Sal Arena Indeed. People will never forget what was done to them and now its history as it should be.

  • @MsSmitty9
    @MsSmitty9 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    An Older High School Teacher of Mine is a Former West Ender and when he speaks of him and his Family being forced out of there homes it’s sad to listen to him. ( I sense Justifiable Anger ). He doesn’t like to speak about that part of his life. One thing that I found extremely interesting was when he told Me Leonard Nimoy’s Father was his Barber in the West End. Very Very Cool.

  • @chickenwing111
    @chickenwing111 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Leonard Nimoy's father was my Dad's barber when he was a kid living in the West End.

  • @elinoractipis3759
    @elinoractipis3759 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Thank you for capturing this history. I sense the ghosts of the past when I am in that area, which is so diminished now. May it inspire us to hold on to other neighborhoods in Boston, like the North End.

  • @kennethconnors5316
    @kennethconnors5316 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Memories NOT to be forgotten

  • @astrogirl1usa
    @astrogirl1usa 10 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Thank you for sharing with us. Very interesting, to say the least. :)

  • @josephgello955
    @josephgello955 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    My mother's side of the family lived in the west end heard so many great stories. If anyone knew the yeatons let me know.

  • @whiteribbonman1
    @whiteribbonman1 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Yiddish Book Center I REALLY enjoy your presentations!

    • @YiddishBookCenter
      @YiddishBookCenter  4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Glad you like them! You can see our other short films at th-cam.com/play/PLiy76p74oWnuayDdneA8RKf5avVco0qpt.html or on our website: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/wexler-oral-history-project-presents

  • @dauntae24
    @dauntae24 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I lived on the north slope for three years in the late 2000s. I had no idea Mr. Nimoy was from the West End. Very interesting.

  • @Mitch_Feral
    @Mitch_Feral 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    It pains me that Leonard doesnt discuss, because I do think he knows, that there was nothing accidental or financial about destroying the West End, or any of the Black or immigrant communities around Boston - Boston has always wielded 'progress' as a weapon against everyone except the monied White people who imagine the city to be 'theirs'. Old buildings and brick work are venerated anywhere the wealthy White families sit - and everywhere else, well, it's time for progress!
    I miss Mr. Nimoy. I miss his balance.

  • @kathrynbellerose3925
    @kathrynbellerose3925 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    The West End was a wonderful neighborhood and can never be duplicated. It was my neighborhood and it was destroyed by the greed of the politicians.

    • @Proverbs3-
      @Proverbs3- ปีที่แล้ว

      Amen!

    • @tomfields3682
      @tomfields3682 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The West End was the most dense hood in the city but also had the lowest crime rate. So they bulldozed it 😢

  • @srich10732
    @srich10732 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I LIVED AND WAS BROUGHT UP IN THE WEST END ON 15 PITTS ST NEXT TO BOWDON SQ. IT WAS A GREAT PLACE

  • @trudigoodman4825
    @trudigoodman4825 10 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    My Dad was from the West End, too.

    • @troubledsole9104
      @troubledsole9104 8 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      When I was a kid I used to roam around that area not knowing anything about what was once there. However, I did see artifacts of the old West End without understanding much about it: old signs, buildings with old or defunct businesses with "West End" still marked on them. It is hard for me to comprehend that a whole neighborhood was extracted from the map of Boston, just like that - what a tragedy! And where did everyone go?

    • @catherinetouloukian2815
      @catherinetouloukian2815 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      My dad too

    • @theman2017inc
      @theman2017inc 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@troubledsole9104 Very good and poignant question!

  • @No8549
    @No8549 9 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Also,Massachusetts General Hospital expanded from the urban renewal.

    • @marthadwyer2856
      @marthadwyer2856 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      No8549 oh yes, they sure did probably the main reason for that demolition as it’s right on the Charles River, ugh

  • @AssinnippiJack
    @AssinnippiJack 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Very interesting! Walk through uninspiring Government Center & try to imagine the sights & sounds of Old Boston.

    • @marthadwyer2856
      @marthadwyer2856 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      AssinnippiJack It’s almost impossible as I knew it and find it hard as all the streets and buildings are dramatically changed

  • @DonMeaker
    @DonMeaker ปีที่แล้ว

    The Urban Planning course I took at RPI used Boston with its strong neighborhoods as one of its examples. Sad that the strong neighborhoods couldn't survive the urban planners.

  • @Braglemaster123
    @Braglemaster123 6 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Wonderful

  • @encellon
    @encellon 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I went looking for streets on that old map 0:42 -- and couldn't find any there today. Such was the utter destruction of the old West End.

  • @OldBiker54
    @OldBiker54 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    My Father grew up in West End Married my Mother in St Josephs..in 1947

  • @trexguy
    @trexguy 9 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    RIP sir.

  • @tammyking6506
    @tammyking6506 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I'm from Charlestown mass born and raised

    • @tomcooley3778
      @tomcooley3778 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Tammy King Waltham for me born 1944

    • @marthadwyer2856
      @marthadwyer2856 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Tammy King I am as well. Moved out twice but returned to a stranger town but never the less once a Townie always a Townie

  • @asteverino8569
    @asteverino8569 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for these Yiddish chronicles of history.
    I now find these cultural connections in African countries via the internet.
    It is and was beautiful, and also of necessity.

  • @TheRealStevieB
    @TheRealStevieB 9 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    #LLAP we will miss you Leonard.

  • @lienlawmaven7967
    @lienlawmaven7967 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    The West End was also the 'antique district' in Boston and many of the street level shops were occupied by antique dealers. My late uncle, Morris, was one of them until the middle '60's when the neighborhood began to be dismantled by urban renewal. Leonard talked about the Catholic church in the neighborhood but neglected to mention that the spiritual history of the Jewish community in the West End is enshrined in what is now The Boston Synagogue on Martha Road.

  • @ernestestrada2461
    @ernestestrada2461 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Sounds exactly like the same tragedy that has taken place in San Francisco where older affordable buildings were torn down and replaced with expensive high-rise condominiums.
    It exacerbated the homeless situation in San Francisco to this day. Our new

  • @cherokee16346
    @cherokee16346 9 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    So long Mr Spock!!!

  • @wingwalker27
    @wingwalker27 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Live long and prosper

  • @pinoassenza2970
    @pinoassenza2970 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    We lived on sprring st.

  • @kathrynbellerose6216
    @kathrynbellerose6216 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    It was disgusting what they did to us. Rest in peace Leonard Nimoy. He was always proud of his beginnings and we were proud of his accomplishments.

  • @benjaminrush4443
    @benjaminrush4443 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Over by China Town they left another Catholic Church as they expanded the Urban Removals expansion towards Dover Street - off Washington St. 1960s.
    I 95 came to Boston. Tore-up everything into Jamaica Plain along the Railroad tracks out of the Back Bay Station. Also expanded displacement into Sommerville. Tragic.

  • @PrimeDirective101
    @PrimeDirective101 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Wow, love this.

  • @The_ZeroLine
    @The_ZeroLine ปีที่แล้ว

    As a Jew, I oddly never suspected Nimoy of being Jewish. I also grew up in Chicago in an area where Jews and Italians were intimately intertwined. Besides one having terrible food and the other having great food, it was often hard to tell where one community began and the other ended. Pretty much because so many Italians and Jews intermarried.

  • @alexcarter8807
    @alexcarter8807 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    That $10 or $12 was like taking home an extra $100 or $120 today. I trained in electronics and am lucky to have work at all, and make a bit over $40 a day here in "Silicon Valley". This guy was making huge, huge, money. Although in my case high-tech is a very low-paid sector of the economy and going into it was a very poor choice.

  • @cleavisbutkus9373
    @cleavisbutkus9373 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Very logical.

  • @islandpalm148
    @islandpalm148 9 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Leonard Nimoy and Stanley Kubrick. Simultaneous stuff.

  • @toyotahontas9296
    @toyotahontas9296 21 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Why did this happen? How was it legal?

  • @ohmeowzer1
    @ohmeowzer1 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Mazel Tov

  • @esterherschkovich6499
    @esterherschkovich6499 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Around the world big cities,communities destroyed..very sad...

  • @nottavictim5
    @nottavictim5 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Contrast this with Nat Hentoff’s Jewish memories of Old Boston. Anti Semitism was rife, came from the highest levels and was especially severe among the Irish. In fact, it was considered unsafe for identifiable Jews to be out at night.
    “As I wrote in my memoir, ‘Boston Boy’ (Paul Dry Books, 1986): ‘Senator Henry Cabot Lodge had proclaimed, without fear of political reprisal, that these immigrants and their progeny were ‘inferior.’
    ‘And Henry Brooks Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, had written of the ‘furtive Ysaac or Jacob still reeking of the Ghetto … snarling a weird Yiddish … The Jew makes me creep.”- Nat Hentoff, Boston Boy

  • @kjlemovitz
    @kjlemovitz หลายเดือนก่อน

    My mother was born in the West End.

  • @vassa1972
    @vassa1972 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Interesting

  • @thomasklugh4345
    @thomasklugh4345 ปีที่แล้ว

    My parents had an icebox the first few years of their marriage. That was in 1945 to around 1952.

  • @jaenmartens5697
    @jaenmartens5697 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Urban renewal gutted old Plymouth neighborhoods too... a stupid greedy terrible thing.... years later I discovered that most cities in Europe preserved their heritages

  • @ogeegonesoon8549
    @ogeegonesoon8549 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Sad
    Never been to Boston , but saw thru the years " progress" take down landmarks in my neighborhood,
    Was gone for 4 years, came back, confused - what are all these tall buildings here for? Oh I see ,had to find the street sign to see that what I grew up with for 50 years or more,,gone .

  • @francesworkout
    @francesworkout 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Love his story! Gentrification happening again now, displacing families and communities. I wonder what happened to the blacks he said lived there when they and Italians started moving in.

  • @COLETHORN10
    @COLETHORN10 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Leoanard, You were Star Trek.

  • @6atlantis
    @6atlantis ปีที่แล้ว

    ❤️

  • @psjasker
    @psjasker ปีที่แล้ว

    Correction … Black and IRISH neighborhood prior to the Italian & Jewish arrivals

  • @annymaytiedye2055
    @annymaytiedye2055 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Rub around in the neighborhood and find Schell and his sistwr

  • @Alanoffer
    @Alanoffer 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    It was obviously a hard life then , but are we really any better off today ? I don’t think so , how nice he kept his grandfathers wallet he made ..

  • @Gregory-kn2xx
    @Gregory-kn2xx 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Poor Leonard, you can tell he's sad.

  • @romeoromero9612
    @romeoromero9612 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Of course the chief science officer was a westsider

  • @Tinymoezzy
    @Tinymoezzy 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    עליו השלום

  • @marcuscornelius3521
    @marcuscornelius3521 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    the beautiful multicultural life that america gave up in favor of suburbs - so bizarre.