Rapid transit service to the communities east of Flushing, a popular
home sector, is a top transportation need, urges civic organizations. The should link the Flushing 'L' with the Long Island Rail Road and send rapid transit lines over the rail tracks.
Businessmen in Bayside/Flushing raise funds to engage engineers and lawyers to advise them on the construction problems involved, feasibility of dual operation, and legal questions that might arise in the operation of a city owned service over the facilities of a private company.
February 1950
Congressman James Delaney of Astoria raised eyebrows in February 1950 when he announced, somewhat tongue in cheek, that he wanted to make the State of Long Island.
A member of the House Rules Committee investigating admitting Hawaii and Alaska as states, he claimed that Long Island would make a much better case for statehood, and “if you throw in New York City, there is no comparison.”
He continued, “Alaska, with 90,000, has 1/4 the members of my district.”
The proposed state, with 26 members in Congress, would have about the same sized congressional delegation as California or Illinois. Jamaica would be the proposed capital of the state of 9 million.
March 1950
The Queensboro Arena, located at 29-49 Northern Blvd. near Queens Plaza, was demolished. The 4,000 seat outdoor venue had been home to many famous boxing matches, but by mid-century, a general decline of interest in boxing led to its demise.
Built on the site of Schalenberg’s Park, a picnic ground, the old dance hall became a moving picture theatre, and in 1911, a fight area. Old timers would talk of watching fights on the Ditmars bound el as it slowly made its turn onto Northern Blvd. Kids climbing the elevated structure to watch fights for free were a constant problem.
Famous boxers who practiced the “sweet science” there read like a who’s who in boxing: Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, Maxie Rosenbloom, and of course, Paul Berlenbach, the “Astoria Assassin.”
March 09, 1950
Notorious bank robber Willie Sutton robs the Manufacturer’s Trust Co. Bank at 47-11 Queens Boulevard of $64,000. During his trial at the Long Island City Courthouse he was asked why he robbed banks.
Sutton allegedly replies, “Because that's where the money is.”
In his 1976 autobiography, he confesses never saying it and credits the line to an imaginative reporter.
May 1950
Queens Post Offices prepares for new schedules under the recent economy edict from Washington.
Postmaster Moses Symington said after June 1 there will be only one delivery of mail per day. Business districts, with three deliveries per day, remain unchanged.
November 25, 1950
An extreme weather event, the “great Appalachian wind storm” smashed Queens and the metropolitan area.
The severity of the winds saw a 24-hour wind speed average of 26.6 miles per hour. One sustained wind hit 70 mph, and Idlewild (now JFK International) Airport was socked by a 90-mph gust.
LaGuardia Airport in northern Queens was closed due to high tides caused by the heavy winds.
The location of the two Queens airports at water's edge makes them susceptible to such severe weather.
July 1951
During “operation marijuana,” Sanitation Department crewmen descended on Maspeth to wipe out the biggest marijuana farm found anywhere in the city.
It was estimated that enough plants to make 2,000,000 “reefers” were destroyed. About 2,000 pounds of the “dope weed” were yanked out and carted away to an incinerator. Some of the plants were as much as eight feet high.
Even without the Maspeth farm, Queens’ marijuana crop was the largest of any borough. It was estimated at 11,000 pounds, enough to make 11,000,000 “reefers”, worth at least $5,500,000 on the drug market.
June 15, 1953
The New York State Legislature created the massive New York City Transit Authority (now MTA-New York City Transit) as a separate public corporation to manage and operate all city-owned bus, trolley and subway routes. Fifty years later, it is remains a part of one of the most extensive and complex public transportation systems in the world.
The agency not only boasts of operating a 24-hour-a-day bus and subway service throughout the five boroughs, but has more buses than any public agency in North America, and runs the largest subway car fleet anywhere.
Daily more that six million people use New York City Transit -- almost 2 billion customers annually.
August 1953
The first ‘Walk-Don't Walk’ traffic lights were installed at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street in Flushing. First displayed in green and red, then about 1980 changed to white and red, these ubiquitous signals on every corner lasted unchanged until the summer of 2001.
With astonishing speed, every traffic light in the borough was updated and pedestrian signals were replaced with the international symbols of a red hand (‘Don't Walk’) and a white outline of a walking man (‘Walk’).
Authorities felt symbols were easier to understand and cheaper to operate.
January 12, 1954
Howard Allan Stern was born on January 12, 1954, in Jackson Heights. He got his start in radio while at Boston University, and worked in various cities before landing a spot on a morning talk show in New York. A spot on the Letterman show was his real break, and his unique style of off–color banter soon found him a wide audience via national syndication.
Although his successes led to his self-proclaimed nickname of “King of All Media,” he had multiple run–ins with the Federal Communications Commission, which has fined Stern and his corporate parents on several occasions.
Although many found his low brow humor and explicit subject matter distasteful, as a testament to Stern's huge following, his autobiography Private Parts was the fastest-selling book in Simon and Schuster publishing history.
In 2004 he announced that he had signed a five-year, $500 million contract to take his radio show to Sirius Satellite Radio, a subscription-only network where he would be unaffected by FCC regulations. That five-year, $100 million annual deal, at more than $41.9 million a week, or nearly $275,000 a day, made him the highest-paid radio personality in America.
In 2006, Howard Stern was selected as Time Magazine’s “Time 100: The People who shape our world.” That same year, Forbes Magazine ranked him seventh in the annual “Celebrity 100.”
Notable quote, “Standards have gone to an all-time low and I'm here to represent them.”
April 05, 1954
The U. S. Public Health Service assured the nation that the new Salk polio vaccine, which was to be tested on 1,000,000 school children nationwide, was “safer than safe.”
School children in first through third grades in Corona and Flushing were scheduled to participate in the test. These sections of Queens were selected because they met the test criterions of having a population of more than 50,000 and having a high polio incidence in the last five years.
September 1954
The Pulaski Bridge links Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Hunters Point, Queens.
January 17, 1955
On January 17, 1955, an ambitious new plan was proposed by Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority chairman Robert Moses. The overall program, whose scope was billed as unprecedented, revealed that for the next five years the city would both improve existing transportation routes and erecte new bridges and arterial highways.
The cost, from public funds, would be an impressive $379,000,000, or well over a billion dollars in today’s money. More than $93,000,000 of that figure was slated for a six-lane suspension bridge over the East River (today’s Throgs Neck Bridge), $204,000,000 for a 12-lane double deck suspension bridge over New York harbor (the future Verrazano-Narrows), and finally, $82,000,000 for a six-lane lower deck for the George Washington Bridge.
The initial plans were also drawn up for a proposed six-lane elevated expressway that would cross over Manhattan connecting the Queens Midtown Tunnel and the West Side highway.
In Queens, the future Clearview Expressway and Throgs Neck Bridge would connect with the existing Cross Island Parkway. At 35th Avenue in eastern Queens, the Clearview would meet Francis Lewis Boulevard and continue onto the Horace Harding Expressway (today the Long Island Expressway), then under construction.
Including anchorages, the Throgs Neck bridge would extend nearly a mile’s length and be completed in three and a half years.
July 1955
An ancient College Point landmark, the Eskotter Hotel, was demolished. The sprawling 68 year-old hotel at 14th Avenue and 110th Street had been a mecca for political clam bakes and organization picnics on its shady grounds. It was known far and wide as a beer hall.
One of its most famous guests was Charles Lindberg, who visited there some months after becoming the first person to fly the Atlantic solo.
The site was purchased early in the year by the Edo Aircraft Corporation for construction of an annex to its plant. Edo manufactured parts for airplanes and boats for the Navy, mostly under secret contract.
November 1955
The 60th Street tunnel, an eleven million dollar project which links the IND and BMT Lines in Long Island City, is completed. Marie Leonard, 20, of 30-02 Broadway, that month's Miss Subways, cuts the ribbon opening the line. She is the daughter of Frank Leonard, a road car inspector at the Queens Plaza Station.
November 01, 1955
Dale Carnegie of Forest Hills died of Hodgkin’s disease. Carnegie was a writer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.
His most famous work was How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book was first published in 1936, and has sold over 30 million copies through many editions and remains popular to this day. One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's reaction to them.
Noteable quote: “Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise, and people will cherish your words and treasure them and repeat them over a lifetime – repeat them years after you have forgotten them.”
December 01, 1955
On December 1, 1955, more than 300 Jackson Heights and Corona car owners awoke to the new world of alternate-side parking regulations.
A squad of 17 policemen swept through the area writing green summonses for a $15 fine. An additional $10 surcharge awaited those whose cars were towed away, as 72 “hopping mad” owners discovered when they reclaimed their cars at the pound at Maspeth. Within a few days, the number of summons had zoomed past 500.
March 1957
Over 12,000 signatures are collected on “Zoo-For-Queens” petitions. Newspaper editorials demand that Mayor Wagner gives Queens a zoo. The Parks Department has been petitioning the city for a such a facility since 1946. Borough President Lundy, after pointing out that Queens is the only borough without a zoo, promises to fight for one at the Board of Estimate.
January 16, 1958
Subway service extended to Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens. Now designated the "A" train, it is the MTA's longest line, stretching 31 miles from 207th Street in Inwood, northern Manhattan, to Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway or to Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, two stops at opposite ends of the Rockaway peninsula.
March 18, 1958
On March 18, 1958, residents near the East River off Cryder’s Point notice a new “man-made” island nearly 600 feet offshore.
Built under contract by the Triborourgh Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the 250-350 foot anchorage was designed to hold the south end of the suspension cable of the new Throgs Neck Bridge. Eighteen 50-foot pilings are driven in to the river to a depth of 135 feet below tide to form the foundation.
August 27, 1958
On August 27, 1958, Hebert Stempel, of Forest Hills, and former champion on the quiz show Twenty-One, walked into the office of Manhattan prosecutor Joe Stone and stated the show was rigged. He had been dethroned by Charles Van Doren, a Columbia University literature professor.
Stempel was angry that Van Doren, who got his picture on Time Magazine, was a national hero, while he was quickly forgotten. At first ignored, evidence supporting his claim began to slowly trickle in.
Thus began the quiz show scandal that rocked television.
October 28, 1958
On a rain-soaked evening at Queens’ Idlewild Airport, the Pan American “Clipper America” took off, inaugurating commercial jet travel by a U.S. airline. This scheduled jet flight to Paris, reaching the unheard of speed of 575 mph, greatly reduced travel time from 23 hours to only seven.
A BOAC Comet 4 aircraft, landing at Idlewild, completed the first transatlantic passenger jet flight 24 days earlier.
September 24, 1959
Governor Rockefeller and Mayor Wagner called on President Eisenhower to submit an application to the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris asking that the body consider Flushing Meadows as the site of the 1964 World’s Fair. Eisenhower was not asked to exclude other cities from the application, as groups in Washington and Los Angeles had been pushing their cities. The bureau was to meet in November to select the fair site.
