Sponsors include Fields Development, New Magazine, Jersey City Independent (JCI), Yelp, Sewbie and Code Square. Vendors include precious metal jewelers such as SamKa, baby-wear designer Lil†Fishy, House of Minerva (who was recently featured at Sundance & in the Oscar gift bags) accessories by Vaya Bags and Rocks & Salt, dessert by All Kinds of Whoopie, readings by the Intuitive Goddess and so much more! Our friends at Real Deal Women will be doing a webcast of the entire event and the day is not complete without raffling off prizes from Great Bowls Afire, Damaged Wear, The Underground Supper Club and tons, tons more stuff, but you gotta be in it to win!

LITM is a restaurant/lounge which houses an art gallery and has been a staple of the Downtown Jersey City art scene since 2003. LITM played host to the very first Not Yo Mamaâ€s Craft Fair in 2009.

A portion of the proceeds from the raffle will benefit the Liberty Humane Society (LHS), the partnering 501(c)(3) for the Not Yo Mamaâ€s Foolâ€s Fair.

 LHS is the only non-profit animal shelter in Hudson County, providing animal  sheltering services to the cities of Jersey City and Hoboken, as well as animal control/rescue to Hoboken, Jersey City and Union City. They take in over 5,000 animals per year and believe that every pet deserves a second chance at finding a lifelong, loving home. For 10 years theyâ€ve been ensuring that stray animals have a place to stay, that cruelty and neglect donâ€t go unnoticed, and that people who canâ€t keep their pets have a place to turn to. With the help of their 800+ active volunteers, they welcome over 10,000 unique visitors per year through their tiny facility.

Their committed staff and over 800 dedicated volunteers work hard every day to facilitate the best possible life for the animals in residence at LHS. Their dogs receive more than 75 hours a month with trainers and animal behaviorists, and their cats are kept together in family units to decrease stress. Their low-cost Wellness Clinics provide affordable health care to keep pets in their homes, and their trained adoption counselors place thousands of animals in forever homes annually.

For more information please contact Megan Gulick or Michelle Mumoli 862.414.0595 or 201.589.0588

The post Not Yo Mama’s Fair Organizers LLC., and LITM present Fool’s Fair Sunday April 1, 2012 11am-5pm 140 Newark Ave Jersey City, New Jersey first appeared on River View Observer.

Purchased in 2006
Included Desk- Originally Paid $1,779 Lateral File Cabinet- Originally Paid $1,493 Display Case with drawers and interior light- Originally paid $2,143 Oval Chair- Originally paid $510
Total Paid- $5,925
You pay- 3,000 Firm
Excellent condition, a few minor scratches and dings but set has a semi aged look anyhow so its not noticable.
Must pick up, not available until after 12/25/11.

Sad to see this set go, we received allot of compliments and the quaility is excellent.

Please email Chris if interested at cp1975@optonline.net

The post For Sale -Stanley Black (Basque) Portofino Office Desk Set first appeared on River View Observer.

 by Sally Deering

Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe lit up the silver screen with her simmering sexuality, bootyliscious bod and a killer smile that warmed film-lovers hearts.  Playing the bubble-headed blonde roles producers cast her in, Monroe delivered sex-appeal by the D-cupful with an added twist of vulnerability, like her character Sugar Kane in “Some Like it Hot.”  When Sugar tells “girl musicians” Josephine and Daphne, (played Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon,)  “I’m tired of getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop,” the chord strikes like an arrow threw the heart and although the line belongs to writer/director Billy Wilder and his co-writer I.A.L. Diamond, the delivery is all Marilyn.

We lost Marilyn Monroe in 1962 to a pill overdose, but her memory lives on in her films and the merchandizing of her image stamped on everything from pocketbooks to postage stamps. You can’t pass a souvenir shop without seeing Monroe’s heavy-lidded eyes and ruby red pucker plastered on T-shirts, pocketbooks, pens, lighters, even coffee mugs – ah, the price of fame.

But Marilyn Monroe was more than just an icon of sexuality. Underneath her platinum-blonde persona, she was a thinker, a smart sugar cookie who took the craft of acting seriously, moving to New York to study “The Method” with Lee Strasberg and challenging herself in complicated film roles. She was intelligent and curious and according to several biographers, Monroe was an avid reader and nourished her mind with good literature.  Writer Joyce Carol Oates even penned a piece about a chance encounter with Marilyn Monroe in the Strand bookstore in New York City back in the 1950s.  In her short-story collection, “I Am No One You Know,” Oates – a college-student at NYU at the time – observed the star poring over book stacks and aware of her fear of being noticed as Marilyn Monroe, Oates’ character offers to handle Monroe’s cash transaction at the register and hands the star her book purchases outside the store.
 
Just recently, Monroe’s love of books and the merchandizing of her image have melded together for a good cause thanks to Tony Lambiase of Jersey City, who recently donated his collection of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia to the Jersey City free Public Library at a time when New Jersey libraries face budget cuts and capital improvement projects need funding.  Lambiase’s donation includes a life-sized statue of Monroe picked up in a store in Pennsylvania – a gift to him from friends; a sign discovered on a deserted building;  and a framed grouping of  Marilyn Monroe postage stamps circa 1995 issued by the U.S. Post Office. 
 
“I’ve been collecting Marilyn Monroe items since 1990,” Lambiase says. “It started when my sister-in-law bought me a cigarette lighter with Marilyn Monroe’s picture on it.”

The Jersey City Library, like libraries across the state, has been facing budget cuts in a measure to reduce New Jersey’s deficit.  Employees may be laid-off or given work furloughs – unpaid days off – and if the state does any more downsizing in its effort to slim down spending, some branches may even close.

A recent grassroots effort led by state librarians, library workers and supporters helped restore $4.2 million to the New Jersey budget for library programs. According to a post on savemynjlibrary.org, “delivery of materials between libraries will continue for this budget year.  Also, access to the EBSCO databases that many residents and students rely on will continue. In the proposed New Jersey FY 2011 Budget, state aid for municipalities is being reduced in a time when tax revenues are also decreasing.   Although municipal library funding is a small percentage of a municipality’s budget, typically less than 3%, many towns are feeling pressures with shrinking tax revenues and are looking to reduce library funding to find relief.”

With foresight and sound-decision making, Jersey City Library Director Priscilla Gardner started the Jersey City Library Foundation in 2004 as a safety-net to fund capital improvement projects for the library. The Foundation’s last fundraising campaign brought in $222,000 for a bookmobile and their latest project is the installation of security cameras in all Jersey City library branches for employee and patron safety. The money raised from the Marilyn Monroe memorabilia will help support this project.
 
“Along with Cynthia Harris of the New Jersey Room, we are working on determining the best way to market the material,” Gardner, who also serves as the Library Foundation’s executive director says. “In that way, the Lambiase Marilyn Monroe Collection is properly presented and his interest in helping the Jersey City Free Public Library is full executed.”

Cynthia Harris, manager of the New Jersey Room – a repository of papers and photographs documenting the history of Jersey City and all the towns in Hudson County – is curator of the Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, researching its value, which at this point is at the early stage.
 “I wouldn’t begin to guess on the value,” Harris says, “but anyone who’s a fan of Marilyn will find something to catch their heart. I’m intrigued by that life-sized statue of Marilyn in her white dress from ‘The Seven Year Itch.’ I think it’s very cool and some of the pictures are really nice. There’s enough variety that anybody who’s a fan will find something to tickle their fancy or something that will add to their collection.”
 
Lambiase’s Marilyn Monroe collection – 20 pieces in all — will be featured at the Library Foundation’s annual Fall fundraiser where guests will be able to bid on the items in a silent auction with all proceeds going to the capital improvements project.
 
And one can just imagine somewhere in the universe, where stars burn their brightest, Marilyn Monroe – the sexy, dazzling and bubbly-blonde who indeed had a brain – smiles that killer smile,  thrilled that her image will help nourish people’s minds and not just hold their coffee.

The post Saving the Stacks with a Stacked Hollywood Blonde first appeared on River View Observer.

 The pants, which will be auctioned on Thursday, May 20, are one of the last-know garments worn by Michael Jackson to be captured on film. Other Jackson garments and props have recently capture record-breaking prices at auction. White sequined gloves, a mainstay of Michael Jackson’s wardrobe, have sold recently for more than $400,000. On May 5, a diehard Jackson fan from Costa Rica paid a whopping $170,000 for the glove Jackson used during his 1983 classic “Motown 25” television performance of Billie Jean (where he debuted the “moon walk”). At another auction in New York City, one of Jackson’s flashy gloves captured a fetching $420,000 from a buyer in Hong Kong, China.

 
The winning bidder in the Sanders auction will get the Jackson-worn pants, photos of Jackson wearing the pants during the taping of “This Is It,” a letter from Jackson’s personal bodyguard (the former owner of the pants) who worked for Jackson until the day of his death on June 25, 2009, and a copy of the bodyguard’s paycheck confirming his employment and relationship with Michael Jackson.

 For more than 30 years, Nate D. Sanders has been one of the industry’s most respected experts and dealers.  A collector since the late 1970s, Sanders was already widely known in collectors’ circles when he opened his auction business in Los Angeles in 1990.  Today, he conducts twelve major auctions every year drawing bidders, collectors and investors from around the world.  In recent years, Sanders has been increasingly viewed as an expert on Hollywood memorabilia.

Sanders’ current auction, which closes on Thursday, May 20, 2010, includes the Michael Jackson pants and many other Michael Jackson items. Also in the extensive list of auction items is a handwritten letter by President George Washington, a huge collection of classic sports memorabilia, priceless literary items including letters from Ernest Hemingway and Marilyn Monroe’s personal address and phone book (written in Monroe’s own handwriting, the book is a who’s who of politics and entertainment from the 1950s and early 1960s) .  All of Sanders’ auctions include rare books, autographs, sports collectibles and Hollywood memorabilia.

Sanders’ Brentwood-based business charges “zero percent” consignment rates while most auction companies charge 10 to 20 percent rates for consigned items.  He is always interested in buying unique items and collections.  To learn more about Nate D. Sanders, Inc. and to see a complete listing of items from his current auction, go to www.NateDSanders.com or call (310) 440-2982.

The post Historic Michael Jackson Clothing Worn In “This Is It” Movie Goes on Auction Block This Week – Record Bids Expected first appeared on River View Observer.

The second annual fair was held yesterday On Saturday April 17 to entusiastic crowds  and  over 60 artists  selling  7500 or more items at Parlay Studio’s 161 2nd St., Downtown Jersey City.  Everything from  jewelry, leather goods, soaps, furniture, cakes, leather bags, paintings  and many other items were on display and being sold.

The doors opened at 11am and the event  ran until 6pm.

Besides the vendors, live entertainment was provided by  Kelly St. Patrick, Hezekiah Jones, Any Day Parade, Chrisitan Alessi, Land of the Look Behind

A portion of yesterday ‘s fair proceeds will go to Arts to Grow a non -profit organization which is dedicated to providing inner city children with a chance to explore the visual, literary and performing arts

Presenting sponsors of yesterday’s event was the Saffron, Boutique Realty and Michael Anthony’s.

Vendors looking to show their wares at next years fair or business looking to act as a sponosor should visit their website at notyomamasaffairs.com

More photos to come

The post Crowds come out for 2nd Annual Yo Mama’s Craft Fair in Downtown, Jersey City first appeared on River View Observer.

When Walt Disney wrote to a Minnesota man on November 29, 1935, he never dreamed what that letter would be worth one day. Typed on his “Silly Symphony” letterhead, with a large Mickey Mouse in orange and black, it is today something of a holy grail for Disney collectors.

For six years, Disney’s “Silly Symphony” cartoons won Academy Awards and brought about the birth of among many other characters, Donald Duck. Signed with his cartoonists’ pen, Walt Disney’s letter, with its Mickey Mouse envelope, is estimated to sell in the Nov. 12th
Yonkers auction of Cohasco, Inc., for $3,500-$5,000.

Six hundred other lots of collectibles in the auction include:

The world’s largest private collection of U.S. Capitol Building
memorabilia. Capturing the heart of a collector, 575 items every one
showing the famed structure, were gathered over decades. The one-of-
a-kind collection even includes a shoe, a miniature piano, and a bell,
all depicting the Capitol Building. This year marks the 150th
anniversary of the arrival of the model for the Statue of Freedom,
which sits atop the Capitol dome (pre-sale estimate, $2,000-$4,000).

A letter from New Orleans writing of the “dreadful gale of wind”,
certainly a hurricane, in 1837. Part of a 245-item archive of life in
New Orleans and the Old South, the original letters and documents
describe the lost world of steamboats, cotton trading, plantations,
great wealth, the early frontier, sugar, tobacco, and slavery
($48,000-$60,000).

“The Pamphlet That Shaped A Nation,” a 26-page booklet printed in
Spring 1776 by the same man, John Dunlap, who printed the Declaration
of Independence on the night of July 4th. Included in the Library of
Congress’ online presentation, “Creating the United States,” only
three other original examples of this pamphlet are known ($1,500-
$2,500).

Advertising booklet for one of the very first hybrid cars, the 1905
Gas-Au-Lec of Peabody, MA. Combining gas, steam, and electricity,
only four cars were ever built ($110-$140).

Description of the fabled, “Letter From Jesus,” in an English
schoolboy’s notebook of 1698-1702. According to tradition, King Abgar
wrote to Jesus, asking for help in curing his illness; he received a
reply, and was visited and cured by one of Jesus’ disciples ($400-$600).

An 1816 letter of a plantation overseer, ordering striped fabric for
slaves’ clothing ($90-$120).

And many other unusual historical items, in thirty-four categories.
Including the most valuable and unusual lot which is just that: an
empty lot, but with a secret. Hiding in plain sight in downtown
Yonkers, just behind the auction house, is one of the most ancient
African- American historical sites in the country. Forgotten for
years, it dates to 1682, surpassing even the Manhattan Burial Ground
by about eight years. While not in any auction, the Liberation Lawn
harbors over thirty specific points and periods of African-American
history, a high number for historical sites of any kind. These points
include: the formal entry tended by slaves of the richest couple in
old New York, George Washington’s 1776 encampment, land impacted by
the very first freedom law of its kind in America over 75 years before
the Emancipation Proclamation, rare written documentation of the
Underground Railroad on site, and much more.

City plans call for this Liberation Lawn, adjoining the Philipse Manor
Historic District, to be strip-excavated, then flooded with cement,
for a garage and condo. Efforts of local citizens to preserve
Liberation Lawn are ongoing. Its secrets were rediscovered by a
rather astonished Bob Snyder, Cohasco V.P., who published them in the
Yonkers Historical Society’s Quarterly. Snyder remarked, “That so
many key chapters in history occurred on one modest piece of land is
extraordinary. It’s highly likely that the number of historical
discoveries about Liberation Lawn’s role in slavery and freedom in
America will continue to grow. But we’re racing the clock.”

About Cohasco, Inc.: Established 63 years, Cohasco is a dealer in and
auctioneer of manuscripts, books, antiquarian materials and
collectibles. Over the years they have handled the sale of numerous
prominent collections, in a range of fields, from colonial to
Confederate, medieval to modern. Recent highlights included the
lamps that illuminated Lincoln’s wedding, an archive of the Duryea,
America’s first “mass-produced” automobile, and the Bible owned by
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother, setting a world record price for
a twentieth-century Bible.

For more information, please contact Bob Snyder at:

Cohasco, Inc.
ESTABLISHED 63 YEARS
P.O. Drawer 821
Yonkers, NY 10702

Phone: (914) 476-8500
Fax: (914) 476-8573
E-mail: info@cohascodpc.com
Website: http://cohascodpc.com

The post RARE LETTER OF WALT DISNEY’S “SILLY SYMPHONY” DISCOVERED first appeared on River View Observer.