Ask a New Yorker: I’m with the legendary Robert A. Kennedy, my uncle
Sid, hanging in Washington, DC.
Uncle Sid: We are at The Irish Times the most famous salon on Capitol Hill,
famous for what? The 1987 tax bill was written here.
Ask a New Yorker: How did you get the nickname Sid?
Uncle Sid: Actually it was a friend of the family’s, who always called
me Tike, and Tike ended up being Sid. It was gramp’s best friend who used
to call me Sid. That’s where it came from.
Ask a New Yorker: Your middle name is Archambault.
Uncle Sid: All of my brothers and sisters all have middle names which are French.
The French comes from my mother’s side, Adonia Louise Brown. We have an
Archambault, Merril, Haviland. You read the book I put together. I think that
gives you a good flavor of the Kennedy family going back to Ireland to County
Waterford where they’re from. By the way I spend a lot of time down there.
It’s something all the Kennedys should do in their life time. They ought
to get to Ireland. They’ll be well received in Bally Quinn, Ardmour, and
County Waterford. Just ask for the Kennedy estate. You’ll enjoy it. My
father was born in Yonkers, New York, but his father was born in the family
home in Ardmore , which today is about six acres right on the Atlantic Ocean.
Ask a New Yorker: Does the title to the property get passed down to the next
generation?
Uncle Sid: That’s what one of my nephews thinks but unfortunately they
changed the laws in Ireland and that no longer prevails and it can’t be
grand-fathered either. Magoo is never going to get the property. (chuckles).
Ask a New Yorker: And the Browns?
Uncle Sid: Your mother, if you recall or not, and is in my book, tried to trace
Mother’s heritage and as a matter of fact you ought to talk to your Dad
about it because I can remember he gave her money and she disappeared for a
couple of years going to Canada and France trying to trace the Brown’s
history. She went through Canada and got a lot of information but then when
she went to France she was stymied because all the records were ruined in WWII.
Ask a New Yorker: I don’t remember mother leaving on that sabbatical.
I do remember her leaving for other reasons. Anyways, back to D.C. Are you an
Obama fan?
Uncle Sid: No, no I’m not, not at all.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s it like living here?
Uncle Sid: You have to live in the district to understand it. If the people
in the United States of America had a notion of what goes on here and how these
politicians perform, and also the staff and the government workers…. It’s
a work ethic unbeknownst to anybody. At the moment the congress are at home
trying to get re-elected again. As you can see, there’s nobody here. You
would think the staff would be around but there not here either. And where do
they go? Nobody knows. That’s one of the mysteries. Where do all these
people go when the congressman aren’t here? Like in the building I’m
living in, there are three members of Congress. They aren’t there. There
are six units and three of them are empty for four months running, strange city.
Ask a New Yorker: I know you spend time in Ireland?
Uncle Sid: We go over there and spend 6 months. When I think of what’s
going on in Ireland, poor Ireland. You think we got problems. Nobody knows what’s
going to happen over there.
Ask a New Yorker: At least it’s been peaceful for some time.
Uncle Sid: That’s maybe what you think. The IRA is very alive and well.
Ask a New Yorker: Are you for a United Ireland?
Uncle Sid: In my life time and in your life time there’s never going to
be a United Ireland. For one reason, which a lot of people totally lose sight
of, is the crown receives something like 30 to 40 percent of its income from
properties it owns in Northern Ireland and the Queen is never going to give
up Northern Ireland. When you go to Ireland you got to go to the North, you
mentioned Belfast, the Brits have put in, during the last ten years, I’ve
heard anywhere from ten to twenty billion dollars into the redevelopment of
downtown Belfast. It’s fascinating.
Ask a New Yorker: You’ve spent time in Belfast?
Uncle Sid: Oh yea, I’ve been there three times. It’s very impressive.
The roads in the north are so far superior and transportation is so far superior.
From the stand point of schools and hospitals it’s night and day.
Ask a New Yorker: What is the relevance and purpose of the IRA today?
Uncle Sid: The IRA today probably, in the way you’re asking it, there
is the real IRA, another faction that’s a young group of aggressive people
who are going back to the old ways. Matter of fact two weeks ago in the Republic
they discovered, which you probably didn’t read about here, the biggest
cache of arms and rockets which the IRA were hiding for some type of movement
they were going to do. Their aim is to just cause hell in the Republic and stay
happy up in the north, they’re happy with the Brits. The Brits have left
so they have everything their way now. There’s no presence now of British
soldiers. Ten years ago you would have to go through check points with British
soldiers. There are no more British soldiers left in Northern Ireland to my
knowledge.
Ask a New Yorker: How long have you lived in Washington?
Uncle Sid: I’ve been here now 18 years. I went to school here.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s the difference between a Washingtonian and New
Yorker?
Uncle Sid: D.C is much more relaxed without the hassle. In New York you’re
running, running and at least around here they speak English. In New York they
don’t speak English any more, it’s like Miami Florida.
Ask a New Yorker: Uncle Sid, you say that but you’re a New Yorker at heart.
Uncle: I lived 25-30 years in the city. I lived on the Upper East Side in three
or four different apartments. Family all went to school there. I think it was
a great place in the old days to bring up kids because they got a lot of street
smarts. There was nobody that had street smarts like the kid born in the streets
of New York – in Manhattan, not in Brooklyn or Queens. So they knew their way
around the subways, the buses. You have all the museums, you have everything
on the Upper East Side you need. Today who can afford it?
Ask a New Yorker: Jay-Z may not agree. He’s from Bed Stuy. What did you
do in New York?
Uncle Sid: In New York I was in the banking side, commercial banking. I worked
on Wall Street for about ten years. My office was up around Rockefeller Center
for 25 years. I was very fortuitous when I finished service, I was ROTC from
school. When I got out of the service I went to NYU graduate school which is
Sterns school today. I worked for Manufacturers Trust Company. At that time
I was the assistant to a fellow by the name of John McGillicuddy who coincidentally
became the chairmen of the board of Manufacturers Handover Trust Company, a
very well-known name in the banking circles. After being with that bank I joined
Franklin National which was a young bank and we did extremely well until the
ownership sold out to an Italian by the name of Sindona which is another whole
history. Sindona eventually ended up being murdered in a jail in Bologna. There
have been books written about him
Michele Sindona. He was the banker to The Vatican. He bought the Franklin
National Bank from a group of farmers on Long Island who originally owned it.
It just grew too big for them. I was there all this time. I ended up as the
senior vice president. In 1972 I was worth over a million dollars in paper.
I had options, stock and then the government took the bank over. It ended up
that Sindona had sent some of his men down with a million dollars in cash to
give to Nixon as part of a payoff. That was one of the famous episodes that
put Nixon under.
Ask a New Yorker: What was it like partying in NYC in your day?
Uncle Sid: The social life in the 60’s and 70’s! I must say that
watching Mad Men on television, I just have to laugh because even in the banking
business there was nothing like having three martinis at lunch and many drinks
after business. The 21 Club was the best bar in New York and probably still
is. The Stork
Club was great, great hang out.
On Friday nights the Stork Club when Sherman Billingsly was there, he liked
young Irish boys and girls liked the girls better than the guys, he was some
character. As I reflect back, The Cotton Club was up in Harlem, about 128th
Street. That was usually just the guys would go up there. You would leave the
wives at home when you went to the Cotton Club. That was another world up there.
In New York in the 60’s and 70’s I was a Big Dixieland fan. There
was the Central Plaza down on 2nd Ave at about 7th street. The Central Plaza
was an old movie theater converted into a jazz hall. I can remember some of
the names Zutty Singleton, Conrad Janis, Turk Murphy, and Wild Bill Davidson.
These are people who used to play. Pee Wee Russell. These were all big names
in Dixieland
Jazz. We use to go to the Central Plaza every Friday and Saturday night
with dates. You would bring your own booze. They didn’t sell booze so
you had to bring it in. Those were real, real party days.
I was married at that time in the 60’s and 70’s to a lady. Her name
was Patricia Flattery Rafferty. Her parents were really Irish. My wife Patricia
worked for a man by the name David
Merrick. David Merrick in the 60’s and 70’s was the premier
producer of Broadway shows in New York City. He was Mr. Theater. I can tell
you that I probably saw on opening night every key Broadway show in the 60’s
and 70’s sitting in the best seats in the house for free.
Ask a New Yorker: Cool. How about your very first Broadway show?
Uncle Sid: The first Broadway show I ever saw before I got married with my uncle
was the opening night, my birthday when I was 12 years old on Oct. 30, 1947.
I saw the first night of South Pacific with Mary Martin and Izio Pinza.
Ask a New Yorker: You must have hung out at Elaine’s?
Uncle Sid: My wife Patricia and Elaine were very, very close. Elaine didn’t
like me but that’s another whole story.
Ask a New Yorker: This is a cool pub, Kelly’s. What was your favorite
in NYC?
Uncle: My favorite pub, and I opened it the first night that it was ever in
business, is Neary’s Pub on 358 East 57th Street and First Ave. It’s
still there today. What is interesting is Mayor Bloomberg eats there about three
times a week. The last time I was in New York in June I was in there with Jimmy
Neary who is the proprietor and is still there every day 7 days a week who is
my age. I was chatting with him around 10 o’clock and all of a sudden
these four big guys came in. “Who are these guys Jimmy?” He said
that’s the mayor’s body guards there coming in to clean the place
out (chuckles) but as you can see there’s nobody here right now.
Ask a New Yorker: Last Question – have you ever kissed the Blarney Stone?
Uncle Sid: No, no, my back! I’m never going to get down own my knees and
try to kiss some stupid stone.
Ask a New Yorker: Happy Birthday Uncle Sid. You’re the best!
