Witchcraft on the West Side

APRIL 11, 2014, 12:22 PM

METROPOLITAN DIARY

Dear Diary:

I had just learned the reason for the strange feelings and sounds in my prewar apartment on the Upper West Side: The previous resident, a young, handsome doctor, had committed suicide there. Lost in thought in the West 80s, I passed a small witchcraft shop in a brownstone near Broadway. Intrigued, I walked in and was immediately entranced by the smells and the colors, the candles, the jars full of mysterious-looking powders and the sign that read: “Spells and potions available on request.” The shop was run by two sisters, a redhead and a brunette, who were “witches.”

I blurted out: “I think my apartment might be haunted.” I explained about the former tenant’s suicide. “Is there a spell for this?” She smiled and said, “That’s easy.” She began mixing colored powders together, gave me a candle and instructed me to pour the mixture into a dish, light the candle, walk into all corners of my apartment with the burning incense and recite the words she wrote down for me.

I felt that perhaps she was getting ready to rip me off, but she rang up $2.87 — a bargain indeed!

I went home and did exactly as she said. In the days that followed, I felt as if the apartment had changed; it somehow felt happier.

One day I thought I should go back into the shop and thank the witch. I went back to where I thought the shop was, but nothing was there. So I strolled block by block through the entire neighborhood and nothing. I can only suppose it was like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement, perhaps? It was there when I needed it and then vanished into the subway steam.

Celebrities spotted on Tour by Jim Dykes, New York City private tour guide
www.JimDykesNYC.com

Since New York is a city of celebrities EVERYwhere, it’s undeniable that celebs pop up on our tours. Sometimes as a passenger on the bus, sometimes as a “sight” on the tour, sometimes they become PART of the tour! I recently put out a request to guides on the Facebook site for guides and people came forward with personal stories.

Marc Landman said that he saw both Katie Courie and Savannah Guthrie but years ago his most famous celebrity sighting was SPUDS MacKenzie, the bull terrier from the Bud Light commercials.

Guide Stan O’Connor contributed: “ I was in Midtown, standing in the stairwell of the double-decker bus, giving a tour. As we went past the Four Seasons Hotel, I told the people that I. M. Pei designed it. Continuing, I went on to say that "he'd also designed the Javits Convention Center, the big gold pyramid on the National Mall in Washington and a similar pyramid at the Louvre in Paris" and he..." I looked down to my right, where Pei happened to be standing right below me, and staring up at me, grinning from ear to ear "...and he's right here! Hi, Mr. Pei!" Everyone on the bus stood up and was delighted. A true “New York moment.”

Matt Baker recalls the time that Tony Bennett hitched a ride on his CitySights Bus from the Museum of the City of New York to Fifth Ave. & 53^rd St. The bus was nearly empty when he got on, but the 3 or 4 passengers who were there were THRILLED (especially the lady from…where else? San Francisco!)
Matt says he recently did a private tour for the Duke University basketball team. The famous Coach K is a West Point grad and his connections got the team a chance to visit otherwise restricted sections of the military school.
Guide Lee Michael Klein sent me quite a huge list of celebs he’s spotted or interacted with on tours such as: Billy Joel, John McEnroe, Vanessa Williams, Conan O’Brien and more. Robert E. Cruz has two specific times legendary singer Roberta Flack ended up interacting with his tour.
Gwen Anne Strum mentions Mercedes Ruhl on her bus (and not tipping!) even after Gwen recognized her and greeted her.
Andrea Janes remembers the time Parker Posey joined her “haunted” walking tour on W. 10^th St. and clapped. Lee Gelber remembers the time Al Roker rode along on his bus and tried his hand on the microphone for a special TODAY report, as did Richard Dreyfus on another day with guide Hans Von Rittern, contributing stories about his days in Greenwich Village.
Readers of this column know that I’ve had quite a few “celebrity” moments myself: A few years ago I was leading a group of professional women on Beekman Place and a bearded man tagged along as I talked about the famous residents on the block. Suddenly as he pointed to a brownstone, the man piped up: “Don’t forget to tell them that Steven Spielberg lives here…” Of course it was Mr. Spielberg himself who couldn’t have been nicer. He chatted with the people a bit and hopped up the steps into his rented house.
Just yesterday on the subway with a small group we were standing next to Good Morning America’s Sam Champion. Several years ago in the dead of winter I was doing a small walking tour in Chelsea…as we passed the movie theatre on 23^rd St. just as the matinee was letting out, Julia Roberts and her husband Danny Moder strolled out of the theatre, their eyes adjusting to the daylight and they walked right into the heart of my tour group!
I had many Ed Koch sightings in Greenwich Village over the years…so many that when Mayor Koch would spot me, he would say: “Hi Jim- where are they from today?” I also see Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick in their West Village neighborhood all the time. Once, I had a group of boy scouts who attended the TODAY Show and met Ann Curry. She still remembers me and smiles and says hello when I see her on the streets (unlike Katie Couric, who was decidedly un-friendly as soon as the cameras were turned off).
Years ago when I worked at Radio City Music Hall in the tour dept. it was Music Hall legend that movie star Gregory Peck had once worked there. One day while working an event, I met Mr. Peck so I asked him directly and he said “Yes of course I was a guide here while I was taking acting classes. I lived in a little walk-up apt. on W. 52^nd St. nearby.” This made me smile because I also was living, at the time, in a little walk-up apt. on W. 52^nd St.

My good friend Alison Arngrim played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie and after years of me telling her to write a book, she finally wrote a memoir: CONFESSIONS OF A PRAIRIE BITCH (she mentions me on page 299). When Alison is in New York from L.A., she stays with me and has tagged along with me on numerous group tours over the years. When she was here in June, she got a call to be on THE VIEW because Whoopi Goldberg had read her book and liked it. I had a small group that day and Whoopi was able to get us all into the audience to cheer Alison on and then met everybody afterward.

Years ago after my first or second appearance on Joan Rivers’ local show, Joan became momentarily fascinated with tours of New York and for a short time, was doing her own “Joan Rivers tour” on the Big Taxi tour bus!