{"id":7069384,"date":"2026-09-28T22:31:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/the-real-father-knickerbocker-nyc-department-of-records-information-services\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T22:31:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:31:50","slug":"the-real-father-knickerbocker-nyc-department-of-records-information-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7069384","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cReal\u201d Father Knickerbocker \u2014 NYC Department of Records &#038; Information Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-sqsp-text-block-content=\"\">\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">But soon a walking talking Father Knickerbocker appeared. His name was James J. O\u2019Brien, a professor of modern languages at Fordham University. O\u2019Brien started working for Mayor O\u2019Dwyer in 1947 as an assistant and then became secretary to the Department of Public Works. In 1949, he adopted the colonial garb of Father Knickerbocker and embarked on a 17-day global trip to promote \u201cWorld Trade Week,\u201d and New York City as a trading capital. His return was captured in an interview by the newly formed WNYC Film Unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Through the early 1950s he continued to make public appearances as Father Knickerbocker, including on February 1, 1953, when New York marked the 300th anniversary of the incorporation of New Amsterdam. O\u2019Brien went on to become the Deputy Chairman of the Mayor\u2019s Reception Committee (1954-1955), Manager &#8211; Business Government Liaison of the Department of Commerce and Public Events (1955-1961), and then Deputy Commissioner of Commerce and Public Events (1962-1968). He gave tours of City Hall, handed out \u201ckeys to the city\u201d and greeted distinguished guests under four mayors, William O\u2019Dwyer, Vincent R. Impellitteri, Robert F. Wagner and John V. Lindsay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But soon a walking talking Father Knickerbocker appeared. His name was James J. O\u2019Brien, a professor of modern languages at Fordham University. O\u2019Brien started working for Mayor O\u2019Dwyer in 1947 as an assistant and then became secretary to the Department of Public Works. In 1949, he adopted the colonial garb of Father Knickerbocker and embarked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7069385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[15936,3141,6594,34393,15935,482,13235,4834],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7069384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-history","tag-department","tag-father","tag-information","tag-knickerbocker","tag-nyc","tag-real","tag-records","tag-services"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The \u201cReal\u201d Father Knickerbocker \u2014 NYC Department of Records &amp; Information Services - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7069384\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The \u201cReal\u201d Father Knickerbocker \u2014 NYC Department of Records &amp; Information Services - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But soon a walking talking Father Knickerbocker appeared. His name was James J. O\u2019Brien, a professor of modern languages at Fordham University. O\u2019Brien started working for Mayor O\u2019Dwyer in 1947 as an assistant and then became secretary to the Department of Public Works. In 1949, he adopted the colonial garb of Father Knickerbocker and embarked [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7069384\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-28T22:31:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Father-Knick.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"444\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"352\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7069384#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7069384\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"The \u201cReal\u201d Father Knickerbocker \u2014 NYC Department of Records &#038; 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