New Rochelle, New York

New Rochelle is a city located in Westchester County in the US state of New York. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 72,182. A July 1, 2002 Census estimate put the city's population at 72,472. The city is named after the city of La Rochelle in France, which was a stronghold of the Huguenots.

Additional facts about New Rochelle

New Rochelle as a birthplace

• George Oppen, poet
• Bob Denver, actor
• Leslie H. Gelb, President of the Council on Foreign Relations
• Don McLean, singer

New Rochelle as a home

• Thomas Paine, philosopher, writer, politician
• Norman Rockwell, artist
• Carrie Chapman Catt, first international leader of the political phase of the feminist movement

New Rochelle in Fiction, Film, Television and Theater

• Edwin Thanhouser establishes Thanhouser Film Corporation on the corner of Warren and Grove Street. Thanhouser's "Million Dollar Mystery" was one of the first serial motion pictures. After a devestating fire in 1913, the studio moved to Main Street near Echo Avenue.
• Parts of the film Catch Me If You Can take place in New Rochelle.
• 1941- The cartoon charatcter Mighty Mouse is created at the Terrytoons Studio in New Rochelle. Terrytoons, which was created by Paul Terry in 1929, produced cartoons for 10,000 movie theatres across the country during the 1940's and 1950's.
• The early 1960's TV hit The Dick Van Dyke Show starring Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore was set in New Rochelle.
• 1976- Ragtime, a novel written by New Rochelle resident E. L. Doctorow was released and later became a major motion picture of the same name. Other celebrated works include Welcome to Hard Times, Loon Lake and Worlds Fair
• The Broadway show Ragtime is set in New Rochelle.
• The Broadway show (and George M. Cohan song) "45 Minutes from Broadway" was about life in New Rochelle in the late 1890's.