Thursday, March 19, 2009

More on Mr. Zero

[Update: The link to This Ain't the Summer of Love's Mr. Zero post/photo archives is currently down...we'll let you know when it's back up...]

In case you missed his comments yesterday on my Urbain Ledoux/The Tub post, NYCDreamin at Ain't the Summer of Love dug around for some more information on Urbain Ledoux, the man behind the former diner/greasy spoon The Tub on St. Mark's in the 1930s:

According to what NYCD found:

Urbain J. Ledoux -- better known as "Mr. Zero" -- introduced a novelty in the form of a 5-cent turkey dinner. He fed turkey dinners at "The Tub" in the basement of 33 St. Marks Place, on the basis of "All you can eat for a nickel," and said that he was able to break even financially. Dealers furnished the turkey and trimmings at cost, the cooks volunteered, the diners waited on themselves, there was no overhead and and at the end of the day the ledger showed no red ink marks, according to Zero, who claims credit for the world's greatest achievement with the 5-cent piece.


NYCD also found further Ledoux-related archival photos...as well as this video..."Near the end of this clip, you can see some of the men from the Bowery taking a meal at one of Mr. Zero's charity relief soup kitchens," NYCD wrote...

6 comments:

Mykola Dementiuk said...

When I found the Mr Zero photo a few weeks ago I didn't know it had such history behind it. Good work NYC Dreamin, keep it up

Mick

NYCDreamin said...

EVG - sorry to cause problems but the link to my "Ledoux Post" with the photo-links is DOWN now, you may want to remove your link. I posted that WAY prematurely last night and was not NEARLY finished with putting together the information I have found. I posted out of sheer excitement of wanting to share the info I guess. And when I checked in this AM, the Youtube link on MY page had expired also. It kept saying "This video is no longer available", so I removed that as well. I hope your link sticks! Sorry again for any hassle. I'll be putting up more complete info on Mr. Zero sometime in the next few days after I have time to sort out what I have found and write up a proper piece.

Thanks also to "Mick" for finding that photo and setting this discovery mission in motion!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update, NYCD...no worries! Look forward to the new post...

NYCDreamin said...

Hi Grieve...
New Mr. Zero post is up here:

http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/2009/03/mr-zero-real-life-story-of-urbain-j.html

Kristin said...

Hey EV Grieve, This is great stuff on Mr. Zero. I'm doing some research on the NYC Bowery during the 30s and 40s and would love to know where you found these photographs and videos, if you don't mind sharing. Thanks!

EV Grieve said...

Hi Kristin. Thanks for the note. I got everything from my friend's blog. Go to This Ain't the Summer of Love.

You can contact him there:

http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/