Just one of those things that catches the eye: an article from the Sept. 14, 1927 Albany Evening News described a fight between bakers:
“Mixing fists and a rolling pin, instead of dough, brought John Novak, thirty-two, 26 Bassett street, a baker employed at the Star bakery, into police court today charged with assault, third degree. Against him appeared Moses Herman, thirty-five, Lancaster street, a fellow baker, who had a somewhat pummeled appearance. He said Novak attacked him with his fists and the implement of their trade during an argument last night.”
The article doesn’t say where the dust-up occurred, but 200 spectators were on the scene.
Moses Herman was a Russian immigrant, born about 1888, who reported his native tongue as Yiddish. He lived in Albany at least through 1935, but by 1940 was practicing the baker’s trade in New York City and living on Quincy Street in Brooklyn. He may have gone back and forth between New York and Albany, for in 1930 he can also be found in Queens. He doesn’t appear to have married.
I don’t find a John Novak that I’m satisfied is a good match, but the Novaks that were in Albany, mostly listed as laborers, were Polish, Lithuanian, and Czech.