Cecil Middleton- In front of Shelley in greenish car

Sal Laudicina- Standing on divider in middle of street

Joannie Page- Daughter of artist talking to Katz family

When I met Audrey Katz on Houston Street, she was just leaving New York City and we struck up a conversation. I was standing on the sidewalk near Katz’s Delicatessen, and doing a painting of it and the area around it. A few months later, Audrey, her husband Shelley, and their children, came back to meet me at Houston Street and we planned the canvas.I remember the pleasure of that morning. The sun was shining and we sat on the benches on the opposite side of Katz’s and decided that this would be the ideal site to work from.On the upper left of the painting is Katz’s Delicatessen and on the upper right is Orchard Street. This was to be my second painting of that area and I knew by now when the best lights appeared and how the buildings looked in them. I knew the people and the parking spaces, the owners of the stores and who worked in them.People come here from all over the world. They come for the food of Houston Street and the bargains of Orchard Street. The parking lots and the streets are packed with their cars, and the streets are packed with their bodies. This is especially true on Sundays when Orchard Street becomes a mall. With the advent of refrigeration and because of the ease of air travel, people who come to New York City for business or pleasure often take the lox from Gourmet Appetizers and salami from Katz’s Delicatessen back with them. A popular slogan at Katz’s is “Send a salami to your boy in the army”, and they do just that. For six days of the week, the stores are full, but on Sundays they are jammed. Most of the businesses are family owned. Katz’s is owned by relatives of the original founders, William and Benjamin Katz, and Harry Tarowsky. Gourmet Appetizers belongs to Joseph Haber and the drugstore is owned by a gentle, friendly man whose mother is there with him. The delicatessen toward the end of the block, next to the pizza shop, is one of the few completely kosher delicatessens in the area. It has been there for 32 years and is owned and run by Fay Bank.The yellow sign on Orchard Street saying 1and 2 belongs to Ida and Felix Zychimski. It is a small store, but it sells beautiful leather and sheepskin coats, and an article mentioning it in the New York Times is pinned next to its door.The Bowery is nearby and just a few blocks away is the area in which I used to sketch when I came to New York City in 1949. It has not changed for the better. Since many of the people from the Bowery wander in to this area, I placed one about to cross the street on the right hand side.