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OCTOBER 1965

NEWS RETURNS, WORLD'S FAIR LEAVES

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 October 1965!

At the beginning of the month of October no news was bad news for Queens residents. A 25-day strike by more than 1,900 members of the AFL-CIO New York Newspaper Guild ended on October 10 with the return to work of striking employees of The New York Times.

The Star-Journal had a lot of news to catch up on after its hiatus. Some of the headlines sound rather similar to today's. The parking situation in Queens, where in 1965 an estimated 85% of the borough's apartment-dwellers owned cars, was succinctly described as "a mess.'' There was a water shortage on Long Island after the driest summer the metropolitan region had experienced in 96 years. Exterminators were waging war against plagues of rats in College Point and Astoria Park.

Then as now, people in Queens were ticked off at the Transit Authority. This time it was the storeowners protesting the IRT's "Shopper's Specials" -- express trains into the city that they believed would siphon off trade from Queens. Walter Krinsky , president of the Steinway Merchants Association, called it "discrimination." "I thought the public transit system was owned by the city, not Manhattan department stores," he said pointedly.

And as happens every four years, the mayor's race was heating up. In 1965, it was a three-cornered contest between Democrat Abe Beame, Republican John Lindsay, and Conservative William F. Buckley. Beame brought Democratic icon Robert F. Kennedy to Queens to campaign on his behalf, but would end up losing the race to the charismatic John Lindsay

The month of October 1965 had begun in Queens with the visit of an even better-known celebrity. Pope Paul VI, perhaps the world's most famous individual, was the first Pope ever to visit the United States. On October 4 the Pope said Mass at Yankee Stadium to 90,000 people. And to a country embroiled in the Vietnam War, Pope Paul preached a fifteen-minute homily on peace, telling the crowds that "Politics do not suffice to sustain a durable peace."

Another item on the pontiff's schedule was a visit to our borough. Crowds estimated at 600,000 lined the streets despite the icy winds to wave and cheer as the Pope's motorcade drove 11 miles through Queens to the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows. Pope Paul paid a visit to an old friend, Michelangelo's famous stautue the Pieta, in the Vatican Pavilion. The Pieta, on loan from Rome, was dramatically displayed in a darkened room with Gregorian chants playing softly in the background. It was one of the most popular attractions at the Fair.

The World's Fair was pulling in huge crowds over the Columbus Day weekend. The total for Saturday through Monday was a recordbreaking 1,011,725. Not everyone who visited the Fair just for the fun of it, though. On October 6 a man stole a priceless thousand-year-old copy of the Koran from the Jordan Pavilion. The following day, perhaps inspired to contrition by the Pope's visit, he telephoned police to tell them he had left the book in a mailbox in Springfield Gardens. The repentant thief told police he was drunk at the time of the incident and hadn't known what he was doing. At least he made no attempt to mail the bottle!

On October 17, when the 1964-1965 World's Fair closed, it had been visited by more than 51 million people. The final two days were the busiest ever, with many people standing on line for hours to say goodbye to their favorite attractions. General Motors "Futurama" exhibition was the most popular, playing host to an estimated 29 million people over the two-year period and beating its own record of 24.2 milllion visitors during the 1939-1940 World's Fair.

More than 23 million people visited the New York State Pavilion and its 226-foot observation tower, which Queens groups were campaigning to have retained for the post-Fair park. It was outstripped only by General Motors and the Vatican Pavilion. Ford's "Magic Skyway" attracted 15 million adventurous souls, and fairgoers quenched their thirst with seven million cups of Seven-Up.

Fair president Robert Moses was quoted as saying that the closing was really a commencement. "I have seen Flushing Meadow rise from ash dump to glory," he said, "and after this second fair we shall inaugurate what I am sure will eventually be the city's finest park." Moses noted that many were saddened by the closing of the Fair but added that "We have fostered enduring friendships and memories which will persist and draw the people of a troubled world closer together."

It all came to an end late on Sunday October 17th. Couples embraced as "Auld Lang Syne" was played through the loudspeakers just before midnight. In the press building through which so many stories of the world's greatest fair had passed, "the teletypes fell silent, the rows of new push-button phones were mute." People began to drift out the gates for the last time. "I wish it could have gone on forever," Tina Stone of Sunnyside sighed as the carousel in the Belgian Village slowed to a stop. But, in the words of the Star Journal's headline , "All the Tomorrows were Spent." The flags of many nations were lowered and the Tower of Light went dark.

On the morning of Monday October 18 the Unisphere stood alone and deserted as the garbage collectors moved in and the demolition crews readied their wrecking balls. Children were no doubt saddened to learn that Sinclair Oil's Dinoland would be the first pavilion to be razed. But they got some good news on October 21, when it was announced that a zoo would be built as part of the new park.

One temporary resident could hardly wait: the Star Journal announced that "Caesar, an eight-year-old leopard, got loose for 45 minutes yesterday during transfer to another cage at the closed World's Fair African Pavilion. Five animal company employees finally prodded Caesar back into his cage. The Queens Zoo is planned for the former Chrysler Pavilion Grounds, so we may yet see tigers in tanks. At any rate, a leopard marks the spot."

The owners of the Willets Point auto junkyards near the World's Fair Grounds were less enthusiastic about the city's attempt to condemn their 67 acres of land for an extension to the planned Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The junkmen's attorney, Mario M. Cuomo of Holliswood, said that his clients would raise objections when the proposal came before city planners. At least they could tell their children that they had been once represented by the future governor of New York

The Star Journal warned would-be looters that security forces would remain on duty round the clock at the Fair grounds. Anyone souvenir hunting in Flushing Meadows "will probably end up in jail--if they aren't shot.' Those were tough times!

As the Fair faded into memory, world peace still seemed to many like an unattainable dream. On October 27th it was announced that local draft boards would be calling up married childless men, age 19-26, in November and December to meet the demands of the Vietnam military buildup. On the same day the first person to be charged with the new federal crime of burning a draft card, David J. Miller, 22, of Syracuse, appeared in the U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan and affirmed his American right to dissent.

Queens veterans' associations protested against the protests -- or as the Star-Journal put it, "War Vets Burned Up At Draft Card Burners." Nathaniel Schneider, commander of the Queens American Legion, said that he had a son in the army and no sympathy for Miller. It was a sign of things to come. As the Sixties continued, the growing anti-war movement would divide the country

That's the way it was October 1965!

Compiled by Clare Doyle, Librarian, Greater Astoria Historical Society.