I ask you to look around, notice the little things. Appreciate them. Make friends with a senior – one who’s really lived or one who’s dreamed big. They will enrich your life. Perhaps your own grandparents or someone alone. My friend Frances passed today, in her sleep, at 95, peacefully. She was my friend for 17 long years. She enriched my life. I see New York through her eyes. Imagine that – someone born in 1918 – all the things she’d seen. The lady walked faster than me up until she was near 90, I’d say. It was hard to keep up with that old gal. At 85 she broke her hip, recovered, and was up and down her building stairs weeks after her surgery. Frances Ones lived at the Longacre from the 1950s till 2011, in the heart of Times Square. Through all of it’s incarnates, she stayed on in her single-room occupancy, bathroom down the hall. Frances was my buddy. We met there when it was a Euro-tourist hotel. The manager had rented me a room in the corner of the 4th floor while I was in film school. I was there to shoot my junior years 360 film. She loved to chat up all the tourists and she was the star of the place surely. Frances Ones (pronounced Owns). She got by modestly. I adopted her as she did with me. Seniors are often ignored, but what a waste. They have seen and lived and know so much in a big city like New York. She had been “Minx Bradley” after-all. Originally from Boston, she married a man and lived in Port Washington, in a posh home on the North Shore of Long Island – not too far from where I live now. In the 1950’s he became abusive and she fled to the Women’s hotel at the Longacre with nothing. Divorced him – unheard of at the time. She was afraid she was a bit of a black sheep in her family so she had little contact with them – no kids of her own, she immersed herself in all New York City had to offer, shows, clubs, music – lot and lots of music, landing a job as a traveling showgirl, she called herself “Minx” – “Minx Bradley” – something she didn’t reveal to just anyone. She kept it all very hush-hush. She danced in supper clubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard. She landed a job with the Musicians Union where she worked up until 1997. I found a couple of archived newspaper clipping about her from 1951 much to her surprise – hard to find, but I did it. I just adored Frances. Such a character. She brought New York City to life. She was a native of Boston – loved it but oh what a New Yorker she was. She’d seen damn near everything. Told me on camera of many of her adventures. I called her to check in and she gave advice on everything in her dry, witty, direct way like only a curmudgeon of New York past and present could. She showed me a side of the city it would take me a lifetime to otherwise learn. She knew my uncle Milton Lesser’s Brass Rail – a multi-story restaurant famous with all the show people. She told me it was across from the Howard Johnsons in Times Square. I’d been there in 1977 myself for the fried clams – famous at Ho-Jo’s. My friend was a fun lady, a loner who likely saw the same in me. I will miss her so. Everytime I look at New York City, I think of all of those who have walked before me. Imagine the history of this grand city – the grandest really. Thank you Frances, I already warned God you’d be bossing him around shortly. ;) Your pal, Dianne Carter 9/23/14 Frances Ones passed peacefully in her sleep, one day before, and 13 years after the passing of my Mother who passed on September 24th, 2001. Frances just wanted to be noticed -- and for people to know shed been here. P.S. If you have iTunes Radio, for the feel, go to “Add Station” and try “Big Band Christmas” as a radio station. It’s beautiful music – not just Christmas, but it has the era just right. It really sets the tone.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 18:24:48 +0000
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