I've got a bet riding on this one, so I hope I'm right. I say that One Shell Square is the tallest building in New Orleans. My friend insists it is the Bank One building. Who's right?

Jonathan

Dear Jonathan,

You are, of course! One Shell Square, completed in 1972, is the city's highest building at 697 feet. Bank One Center is a mere 645 feet tall. It was completed in 1984 and rests on the site of the former St. Charles Hotel.

From 1921 to 1967, however, the 355-foot Hibernia Bank Building, now dwarfed by many other skyscrapers, was the tallest building. For decades, the large lantern on top of the building served as a navigational light for ships along the Mississippi River.

It lost its rank as No. 1 when the World Trade Center at 407 feet tall was finished in 1967 at the foot of Canal Street.

Hey Blake,

Could you please tell us what you know about the notorious Gallatin Street? Where exactly was it located, and what of it remains today?

Chris McGinty

Dear Chris,

A short street, indeed, was Gallatin Street, but it was long on crime and vice. It only ran for four blocks. In the 1930s, farmers' market sheds replaced two of the blocks. The other two blocks from Ursuline to Barracks streets between Decatur Street and the river have been renamed French Market Place.

But in those short blocks you could find criminals of every sort. Gambling and prostitution were rampant. Said to be "the most noted cesspool of immorality, assassination, and crime ever known in New Orleans in ante-bellum times," it was frequently called "Louisiana's Barbary Coast." Some believe that Gallatin Street was the home of the infamous Black Hand Gang, which once preyed upon the Italian population of the city. Predating Storyville, it was one of the city's red-light districts from about 1840 to 1875. In fact, in 1861 the criminal sheriff of Orleans Parish told an English interviewer that his city was "a perfect hell on earth and Š nothing could ever put an end to the murders, manslaughters, and deadly assaults till it is made penal to carry arms."

Named after Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson and Madison, this rough street is also remembered in a tune written by Johnny Wigg entitled "Gallatin Street Grind."

Perhaps you are old enough to remember a 1958-59 television show -- "Yancy Derringer." It starred Jock Mahoney as a gentleman adventurer living in New Orleans after the Civil War. Widely respected, he was hired by the city administrator, John Colton, as a secret agent authorized to help maintain law and order and justice in the city by any means that may become necessary. In one episode, Yancy is asked to clean up the notorious area of Gallatin Street which is under the control of a dishonest character. In another episode, Yancy helps out a sea captain who was cheated out of his money on Gallatin Street.

Dear Blake,

I'm trying to mediate a disagreement and bet. One party claims that Mike Nichols and Elaine May did the audio for Dixie beer commercials. Can you help?

John V. Marsiglia

Dear John,

Mike Nichols and Elaine May provided the voices and plots for a series of animated cartoons that ran on television through the early '60s. The recordings were part of the advertising campaign not for Dixie Beer but for Jax Beer.