Elevator

Once upon a time, there was a slice of Boston called the Combat Zone, and in that zone was a long block named LaGrange Street. LaGrange was the core of the Zone. What it was was a rodeo. On any given night from the ’60s into the ’80s, you’d find scores of prostitutes on parade on LaGrange. They leaned into open car windows, teetering on elevator platforms, talking to men inside while trying to steal their wallets. They worked the sidewalks like they owned them, which they did. “Scores of them?

CHICAGO - A speeding car hit a support beam of a Chicago elevated train track, crashing with enough force to split in two and killing four passengers inside, authorities said Sunday. The Cook County medical examiner's office said three women died at the scene. A fourth woman was pronounced dead at an area hospital Sunday. She was identified as Ieshia Nelson, 21, of Chicago. The names of the other women were not immediately available. Chicago Police Department spokesman Hector Alfaro said the car was traveling fast when it hit a support beam of a Chicago Transit Authority ‘L'...

Reader Peggy Groppo asks GlobeWatch why the elevators and escalators at a busy train station just off Route 128 in Westwood always seem to be having problems. "I take Amtrak from 128 Westwood station to NY and NJ about once every two months," she wrote in an e-mail. "For as long as I can remember, when you get off the eastbound train you have to go up 2 flights of stairs to get to the terminal building. The escalator has been broken and now the elevator is broken. I saw old ladies struggling to get their bags up, and healthy women with huge suitcases wondering what they would do to get the...

Local names danced into the night at the Party on the Harbor at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday. The museum fund-raiser drew a range of ICA supporters and trendsetters including Gilt City's Erica Corsano, Twin Focus Capital Partners exec Paul Karger, "Sex on the Moon" writer Ben Mezrich and wife Tonya, former "Apprentice" contestant Michael Tarshi, Avanti Salon's Alex Iacobacci, pianist Cameron Stowe, interior designer Duncan Hughes, Rafanelli...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Visitors on the observation deck of the world’s tallest tower heard a loud boom, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground. The 15 people inside were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors. Because the elevator was stuck between floors, rescuers dropped a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. On the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded.

NEW YORK - A woman was killed in a bizarre accident on an elevator yesterday at a Madison Avenue office building, police and fire officials said. The accident happened around 10 a.m. in a 26-story office tower near Grand Central Terminal. Officials said the woman was stepping onto the elevator on the first floor when either her foot or leg became caught in the closing doors. The car then rose abruptly, dragging her body into the shaft and killing her. The name of the victim has not been released.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — When the elevator in their home got stuck between floors, Sherwood and Caroline Wadsworth found themselves trapped with no way to call for help as temperatures rose into the 90s in the closet-sized lift until they finally died from heat exhaustion. Autopsies on the elderly couple — he was 90, she was 89 — on Thursday pointed to a tragic end to lives they shared for more than 60 years. Police estimated they had been dead at least four days before a newspaper carrier called 911 out of concern after papers had piled up by their garage.

A 5-year-old boy who was found sleeping inside an elevator in a Roxbury apartment building two days ago has been returned to his mother, state officials said yesterday. The boy, who had been transported to the pediatric unit at Boston Medical Center for evaluation Wednesday night, was released at the hospital to his mother early yesterday morning, said Cayenne Isaksen, spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, which is investigating the incident. A tenant at 225 Blue Hill Ave. found the boy sleeping on the floor of the elevator around 11 p.m. Wednesday...

To find a new movie with a tight, toned plot, you'd have to settle for an old one that happens to feel as good as new. Right now, you won't do better than "Elevator to the Gallows," the tasty 1957 noir thriller that introduced the world to French filmmaker Louis Malle, who at the time was a 24-year-old assistant director for Jacques Cousteau. The movie is cooler and more heartless than the films that would define him. But even as a preliminary exercise in suspense, the film suggests Malle could have made a name for himself as a Hitchcock copycat, though...

NEW YORK - Less than 12 hours after the horrific death of a woman who was burned alive in the elevator of her apartment building, a man who the police said was "reeking of gasoline" surrendered and implicated himself in the crime, the police said yesterday. The police said in a statement that the man, Jerome Isaac, 47, came into a transit police station about 2 ½ miles from the apartment building in Brooklyn, around 3 a.m. yesterday. "He confessed to the crime, claiming that the woman owed him money for work he had done in the last year," said Paul J. Browne,...

An education bill sought by Governor Peter Shumlin and at least two of his predecessors is now on his desk. The measure changes the title of Vermont's top education officer from commissioner to secretary and makes the job a Cabinet post. Also, rather than have the secretary appointed by the state Board of Education, he or she will be selected by the governor from three nominees suggested by the board. The appointee would then need confirmation by the Senate.

NEWTON - Unseasonably hot temperatures brought out fans in droves to Heartbreak Hill, cheering on runners of the 116th Boston Marathon as they battled their way through the most infamous portion of the 26.2-mile course. Heartbreak Hill, as it's been called since the Globe's Jerry Nason coined the term in 1936, is the largest of the Newton hills on the course. It comes approximately 20.5 miles into the course, beginning at the Center Street shops and ending at Hammond Street. As temperatures climbed into the mid-80s, Heartbreak Hill had many competitors wishing they had joined the more...

NEW YORK — Above the marquee of the Longacre Theatre, where "Magic/Bird" opened Wednesday night, looms a huge blowup of a photo taken of Larry Bird and Earvin (Magic) Johnson during their playing days. Hip to hip, their arms entangled, Larry in Celtic green and Magic in Laker gold, they gaze intently upward as they jostle for rebounding position. It is a portrait of superstars utterly focused on gaining even a fractional competitive edge over each other, but the image also suggests a kinship between a pair of very different men who view the world in fundamentally the...

State officials say dry and breezy conditions across Vermont are expected to continue through the weekend, which will likely continue the high to very high fire danger level. The forecast also calls for winds over 25 mph. The Department Forests, Parks and Recreation says this could lead to fire weather watches or red flag warnings issued by the National Weather Service. Residents are being urged to avoid burning materials on dry, windy days.

This is the story of a Boston icon, the Mugar Omni Theater. This is also the story of a family, the Rivers clan of Sharon. Both just turned 25. And both began, you might say, when a woman named Mary Jane Dodge stepped into a hot tub in Florida in the mid-1980s. Dodge was one of the early pioneers of a new type of large-format film called IMAX, and she was in Florida to watch the filming of a space shuttle launch. That night, she went for a dip in the hotel hot tub and found a surprise hidden among the bubbles.

Mitt Romney's California home renovation is back in the news. Politico has a story today saying plans for renovating the seaside house in La Jolla include an elevator for his cars. "There's also a planned outdoor shower and a 3,600-square foot basement — a room with more floor space than the existing home's entire living quarters," reports Reid Epstein. The "car lift" will transport vehicles between floors, making maximum use of space in the Romneys' tight neighborhood.

Mitt Romney's California home renovation is back in the news. Politico has a story today saying plans for renovating the seaside house in La Jolla include an elevator for his cars. "There's also a planned outdoor shower and a 3,600-square foot basement — a room with more floor space than the existing home's entire living quarters," reports Reid Epstein. The "car lift" will transport vehicles between floors, making maximum use of space in the Romneys' tight neighborhood.

HOWES CAVE, N.Y. - The call of 19th-century hucksters beckoning to tourists still echoes in these hills where Howe Caverns and Secret Caverns yawn below green pastures. But despite the trail of billboards and some hokey trappings, the caverns are natural wonders. Although not physically connected, they lie within a mile of each other in this pastoral region 44 miles west of Albany. Both have extraordinary water features. And both were discovered by cows. This is no coincidence.

Golda M. Edinburg was a young psychiatric social worker for underserved populations in Boston and Chelsea when she was recruited in 1956 to work at McLean Hospital in Belmont. Unwilling to be just a staff social worker, she told the hospital director she would accept the offer only if she could run a social work department at McLean. Such a department did not exist and was uncommon for hospitals at the time, but McLean agreed to allow Ms. Edinburg to guide its creation. Under her direction, McLean's social work department became an early model for hospitals around the...