BusTalk

[W.B. Fishbowl]

While, when Brynner last appeared in the role in the 1980's before his death:
- The R-16's were the ones living on borrowed time, usually on the "J" but sometimes on the "M" or on occasion, "LL" (or as some subway buffs call them, the "Three Stooges Division").
- The "B" Division also had the old "Thunderboids" and R-27/30's - plus pre-GOH'd R-32 thru R-46 (the "Brighton Belle" R-68's were a few years off).
- In the "Isle of Staten," the "Fordy-Fours" - now 23% into their long "soivice" life - still held court between Tottenville and St. George.
- The R-21's were also on borrowed time, along with the R-17's, the rest of the "SMEE's" were a few years off from becoming re-christened as "Redboids," and the "Silverboids" were beginning to make their presence known on the "A" Division.
- Above ground, it was "all buses, all the time" - the last of the non-A/C Fishbowls (including the pre-'62 "Jetsons") and "Dangerfields" were put to pasture - as were the infamous Grumman "Borough Bombers"; everything was now A/C, and the aforesaid A/C's of the more iconic makes were now sharing the road with the "Are-Tee-Ess" (and, with some of the private companies, the Canadian-made "Gee-Em Classics").

In 1956, when the movie version came out (with Deborah Kerr as Anna), "Nye-Koh" had become "FAKL," and by year's end, swallowed up "Soiface." It was a year after the "Toid Aven-yah" el ceased to exist south of 149th Street, and it was also the year the last of the Brooklyn streetcars ran their routes.

["FIFTH AVENUE COACH LINES INC. OPERATOR"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

In the early 80s, when the iconic, larger-than-life Yul Brynner was performing his last performances as "King Monkut of Siam", PATH's newest cars were the now-retired "PA-3s"; the iconic "MP-52"/"K" cars were still in use (until 1989), mostly during the rush hours on the HOB-WTC line (where I rode them daily for years), and also, rush hour stints on the JSQ-33rd Street line.

There were still a handful of veteran "Kramdens" on the NHBL's #1, out of Journal Square.

The elderly, iconic ex-DL&W "Wickerliner" MUs would remain in service well into 1984.

On the "Eye-Are-Tee", you could still find the familiar old workhorse "R-12/14/15s" still on the job (on borrowed time, even then) on the 7th Avenue expresses.

The RTS was then the newesst bus in the MTA fleet, but there were still plenty of veteran Fishbowls and "Dangerfields" working the streets.

The "BARBERI" and the "NEWHOUSE" were then the "new kids on the block" in the SI fleet.

How much we;ve lost since then............

"NYO"

*How ironic, in 1956's "King", Yul proclaiming to "Mrs. Anna":

"Ah! Mrs. Anna! I say your Moses should have been a fool!"

In 1956's "THE 10 COMMANDMENTS", Yul (as "Ramses") spent the better part of the epic trying to EXTERMINATE Moses!

Ironic, indeed............

[W.B. Fishbowl]

Mr. Brynner also played his role as the Siamese monarch in a very short-lived TV sitcom, Anna and the King, with Samantha Eggar as Anna, in the 1972-73 season. This was while 20th Century-Fox was doing TV series adaptations of certain old movies. (The other - M*A*S*H - would ultimately run 11 years, and the story of rapid and "soiface" transit in "Noo Yawk" during its long run would make for a thread, or post, in and of itself.) While this non-musical program was on, we were on the cusp of the last vestiges of the "Toid Aven-yah" el about to follow its Manhattan cousin into the history books, the last of the "Tee-Yay" "Kramdens" (and FACL/ST "Jetsons") being retired, the last Fishbowls ever ordered by the "Em-Tee-Yay" for "soivice" on " 'stoa," the "Tee-Yay" and even "Em-Ess-Bee-Yay" first made their presence known, and the "Isle of Staten" getting shiny new R-44 cars to replace the hollowed-out, bare-bones roster of ME-1's that had been a staple in what was then the Borough of Richmond since 1925. Oh, and "The Little Red Bus That Could" still delivering passengers along lower Manhattan.