The nightclub El Morocco first opened as a midtown New York speakeasy in 1931 during Prohibition. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the club became one of the city’s most popular and glamourous locales. It was frequented by international luminaries, New York City socialites, movie and stage stars (Rudy Vallee, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Gloria Swanson, and Fred Astaire among them), directors, celebrated journalists, sports champions, and other dignitaries such Franklin D. Roosevelt, and, later, John F. Kennedy.

The club was located at 154 East 54th Street until 1960, when its proprietor, John Perona, moved it to 307 East 54th Street. Its interior was nearly as famous as its clientele. The club’s ceiling was painted a deep, “glittering” blue, and its furnishings and tableware sported a bold blue and white zebra pattern. After Perona died in 1961, El Morocco closed and reopened several times under different owners into the 1990s.

The iPod Shuffle personal audio player was introduced by the California-based Apple Computer, Inc. in 2005. Part of Apple’s iPod family of consumer audio devices, the Shuffle's introduction marked the firm’s entry into the growing market of light, inexpensive digital music players. This example is from the first generation of these devices released in 2005. It weighs under an ounce, is smaller than a key chain, has no screen, and is loaded with 512 MB (megabytes) of flash memory that can hold approximately 240 songs. Designed for limited short-term use, the Shuffle was so named because it randomly “shuffled” the playing order of songs. Apple Inc. reportedly sold 28 million Shuffles in 2005, and from this time assumed dominance of the inexpensive personal listening device market.

This pair of 1940s women’s roller skates was donated by Chester Fried for use in the WWII & NYC exhibition (October 5, 2012 – May 27, 2013). The exhibit displayed the skates with an advertisement for the Empire Roller Rink, an important Crown Heights, Brooklyn rink that lasted from the mid 1930s through 2007. Fried, who began skating at the Empire in the 1950s, is an inveterate skater and advocate for NYC skating as well as a private collector of skating equipment and ephemera.