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NOVEMBER 1932

FDR ELECTED PRESIDENT
THE DEPRESSION

Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal - The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to November 1932!

The month began with the last week of the presidential campaign. On November 1, Democratic candidate and Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigned in Boston, where he spoke of a new unemployment relief program and charged the Hoover administration with "cracking the whip of fear" in the Republican effort to win election. His opponent, Republican candidate and President Herbert Hoover, spoke at the Garden in New York, where he warned that the Democratic proposal of a "new deal" would "undermine and destroy our American system."

On November 7, campaigning ceased and Roosevelt returned to his home at Hyde Park to vote the following day. Hoover boarded a special train, which would eventually take him to vote in Palo Alto, California. On the way, three miles west of Palisades, Nevada, a watchman found 22 sticks of dynamite near the trestle the train would pass over a few minutes before Hoover’s arrival. Two men skirmished with the watchman and fled, and the plot to kill the President was thwarted.

On Tuesday, November 8, FDR was elected President in a landslide. At the same time, New York voters chose Herbert H. Lehman as Governor and Robert F. Wagner as Senator. All were Democratic candidates, who Queens gave sizeable majorities.

The Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee launched the largest relief effort to date. Queens’ quota was $500,000 out of a total for the City of $15,000,000. It was also reported that representatives of the Emergency Work and Relief Bureau made 30,189 visits to the homes of Queens’ unemployed the previous year.

It was the Depression. You could buy a woman’s fur coat for $45 and a man’s suit for $16.50. The huge City Food Market in Elmhurst opened on November 18, and advertised: grapes, 5c a lb.; spinach, 10c for 4 lbs.; sirloin and round steak, 25c a lb.; and hams, 12 1/2c a lb. At the Astoria Live Poultry Market, prices were: chickens, 20c a lb.; ducks or geese, 20c a lb.; and turkeys, 28c a lb. The birds were of course killed and cleaned while you waited at no charge. As a matter of fact, the entire fixings for Thanksgiving dinner for a family of five or six could be had for as little as $4.98. For holiday joy, Queens speakeasies and cordial shops held their regular prices: rye whiskey, $2 a pint; gin, $1 a quart; scotch, $1.50 a pint; port and sherry wines, $1.50 a bottle; and Italian and French vermouth, $3 and $4 a bottle.

On November 10, a driving rain and wind storm left widespread damage throughout Queens and Long Island, disrupting traffic and train service, swamping waterfront communities and flooding practically all principal highways. Several deaths were attributed to the storm. Flushing River and Flushing Bay overflowed onto Northern Boulevard in Flushing and Corona and on College Point causeway, completely halting trolley service. Water on these highways was more than four feet deep. Roosevelt Avenue became the only entrance and exit to Flushing. Special police were on duty there to direct traffic. Thousands of Long Island Railroad commuters were delayed on their way to work when rain washed out tracks and Jamaica Bay backed up, inundating trestles and low-lying sections of track. Twenty-eight buildings were declared unsafe after the storm.

On November 10, the retrial of opera singer Madame Lydia Lindgren’s $500,000 breach of contract suit brought against Otto H. Kahn, millionaire music patron, opened in Queens Supreme Court, Long Island City. Madame Lindgren, who in private life was Mrs. Raoul Querze of Flushing, contended that the defendant failed to live up to a promise to pay her $160,000 for dropping a slander suit in which his name was linked with hers. She further contended that she was due the rest of the $500,000, because withdrawal of Mr. Kahn’s patronage had hindered her career. On the 11^th, it was reported that Mme. Lindgren had sobbed in court, fought with defense counsel, repeatedly interrupted discussions between the court and counsel and criticized the Judge. She was informed that this behavior would not be tolerated. But in spite of this, by the end of the day, she was willing to accept $160,000 to settle the case. On the 12^th, Mme. Lindgren received $20,000 in cash from Kahn, and signed a document releasing him from all claims, past, present or future. None of the litigants would discuss how the agreement which took four hours of negotiation was reached.

On November 3, Fredrick Eckert of Astoria committed suicide by jumping off the 103^rd floor of the Empire State Building. He crashed to his death on the promenade of the 86^th floor. As the Astorian rode up the elevator from the 86^th floor to the top observatory, his nervousness attracted the attention of his fellow passengers. As the elevator stopped at the glass enclosed 103^rd floor, Eckert darted out and vaulted an iron gate in front of a stairway leading to an open landing, which was intended for the use of passengers disembarking from airships. One elevator passenger tried to stop Eckert but was unable to catch him.

The mantle of world-champion blood donor draped the rugged shoulders of Tom Kane. Kane was born in Long Island City, but currently lived in Manhattan and was employed as a deck hand on the ferry running to Welfare Island. He could document having participated in 157 transfusions, 87 of them done for free. He had been called to be ready to give blood to Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso and Jack Dempsey, among other celebrities.

Kane broke into the news several years before when he accepted an offer of $10,000 for one of his ears, which was to be grafted on a wealthy South-American, who had been injured in an automobile accident. He was ready to submit to the operation, when he was underbid by a fellow countryman of the patient, who surrendered an ear for only $3,000.

Playing at the movies were "Horse Feathers," starring the Marx Brothers; "Tiger Shark," starring Edward G. Robinson and Zita Johann (Ms. Johann was from Astoria); "Love Me Tonight," starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; and "Virtue," starring Carole Lombard and Pat O’Brien.

That's the way it was November 1932!