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For International Firefighters Day: The Story of Mose the Fireman
I don’t even know if children are introduced to the traditional American legendary folk heroes any more, so perhaps I can’t assume that some readers know the stories of Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, John Henry, and Pecos Bill, or the semi-legendary ones like Johnny Appleseed, Molly Pitcher, or (more recently) Robert Johnson. If I could take those for granted I might have used them to point out that New York City once had its OWN folk hero of a similar nature.
According to the myth, Mose the Fireman stood eight feet tall, had hands like hams, and could suck the water out of the Hudson or blow a hurricane force breath to put out a fire. If you like, the character was only semi-legendary, for he was based on a real guy named Mose Humphrey who ran with Fire Company No. 40 in the Lower East Side in the mid 19th-century. Mose was of a type known as the Bowery B’hoy: tough, Irish, plain-speaking, and fond of brawling. In those days the all-volunteer fire companies actually fought each other in the streets for the privilege of putting out fires. That’s the lamentable history of mankind in a nutshell.
In 1848, actor Frank Chanfau portrayed a fictionalized version of Mose in a play called A Glance at New York by Benjamin A. Baker. The premise of the play was that Mose acts as tourguide to a rube from Connecticut, showing him the notable sights of New York in his own humorous way. In his beaver fur top hat, red flannel shirt, and rolled up trousers, with his “dese” and “dose” accent, Chanfrau nailed the Bowery B’hoy type to a tee, and the locals loved him for it. They mobbed his theatre, and Chanfrau ended up playing the character through a whole number of sequels for about a decade, such as Mose in California, Mose in China, etc. The legend surrounding his character grew and grew.
Mose didn’t live on in the same way as Paul Bunyan, John Henry, et al, but lovers of the history of Old New York have always cherished the character as the poster boy for the Fire Laddies who used to own the streets back in the day. You’ll find him referenced in books like Herbert Asbury’s Gangs of New York (certainly in Daniel Day-Lewis’s Bill the Butcher performance in the Scorsese movie) as well as Lucy Sante’s Low Life, which might be the first place I encountered it. A kid’s book version came out in the ’90s, and two of my friends, Ian Hill of Gemini Collisionworks and Randy Sharp of the Axis Theatre, presented off-off Broadway adaptations of Baker’s original material in the late ’90s and early oughts. Mose was also featured prominently in my friend David Mulkins’ Windows on the Bowery project:
(Stay tuned for more real soon on Mulkins’ new Bowery book project!)
After September 11, I figured this kind of fireman hero could use a new day in the sun, and I began developing my own script, with intention to make a musical, or a screenplay for an animated feature, or both. America still loves firemen although the fever of worship that ran rampant about 20 years has cooled off somewhat. My script is still in the hopper awaiting some catalyst to bring it to life again. I pray it’s not a disaster that does it.
Anyway, Travalanche loves firemen too. For related reading see:
Support Your Local Firefighters!
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