Moses Says Queens Parking 'Exaggerated' In Summer 1944

Get into a conversation with a long-time Queens resident and you're likely to

Library of Congress. New York World- Telegram & Sun Collection. Robert Moses with model of the Battery Bridge. 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 the summer of 1944!

Robert Moses claimed the parking problem in Flushing, Jamaica, and Long Island City was "exaggerated by impatient

people" and it should be solved by private

enterprise. Although installing parking meters in more congested areas was one solution, he scoffed at suggestions that the city set up a parking authority to run garages. Merchants disagreed. Although tire and gas rationing had been in place since World War II started and traffic had not been a problem in recent years, that was expected to change once the war was over. Merchants did not believe private garages were the solution.

On July 20, 1944 the Journal's sports section featured a photograph with the caption "Big Hitters in Kiwanis League"which pictured Donald Derle, Eddie Ford, Johnny Martin and Joseph Burges. Herman Schneider, president of the Steinway Street Merchants Association, and Emil Spivak of the Flushing Merchants Association, were indignant that Moses should dismiss their problems. "I should like to take him on a tour of Flushing. I am sure he will change his mind," said Spivak.

On July 10, a war bond auction was to take place from the stage of the RKO Keiths Theatre. Abramson's donated many of the prizes: a pressure cooker, alarm clocks, mattresses, irons, a carving set and blankets. A special guest, Joe Shuster, creator of Superman was on hand to auction off original comic strip drawings. Captain Tim Healy of radio station WJZ was the auctioneer.

Copyright © National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. In 1961, Ford won the Cy Young Award based on his 25-4 record, 3.21 ERA, and career-best 209 strikeouts. The Brewster Building, built in 1910 when the firm moved from its old carriage factory at Broadway and 46th Street to larger quarters in Queens, was sold by the Brewster heirs to a Brooklyn builder in the largest real estate transaction of the year. The firm was started in 1810 when James Brewster opened his horse carriage factory at New Haven, Connecticut and moved to New York in 1907 to start an automobile coach business. The Brewster Company also occupied a number of buildings in the area.

An unusual, custom-built (1939) Norman manor at 125 Malba Dr. was offered for sale. The house had a slate roof, eight rooms, four baths, a sundeck, a terrace, Bohemian glass tiled baths, and a double garage. The property sat on several acres of tall trees and gardens. It was only 120 feet from the waterfront. The asking price? $40,000.

On July 20, 1944 the sports section featured a photograph with the caption "Big Hitters in Kiwanis League". Donald Derle, Eddie Ford, Johnny Martin and Joseph Burges, who played with the 34th Avenue Varsity in the New York State Kiwanis League, were hard hitters and "are belting the apple for well over .300", according to Director John Flood. The boys were scheduled for their game at Queens Park as part of the weekly "quintripleheader".

The photo shows a smiling 16-year-old Eddie Ford, who would go on to sign a contract three years later with the New York Yankees and would soon be given the nickname "Whitey" Ford.

A full plate of sports activities was offered across the borough. The Empire City was running at the Jamaica Race Track (first post at 1:30 p.m.) and for the more genteel, the New York state junior tennis championships were being held at the Bayside Tennis Club (11 a.m.)

In the Baseball Industrial League, Edo Aircraft was at the Queens Oval, General Aircraft at Airlines Field, Pan-American Airways at Victory Field, and Pepsi Bottling at Project Field. Elsewhere, the Woodside Incas pounded out a victory over the Vagabonds at Farm Oval.

The Hunterspoint A.A. and the Brotherhood of Consolidated Edison Employees jointly sponsored an amateur boxing show at the Queensboro Arena for the benefit of the Edison Welfare Fund. The bill of topnotch boxers was headed by Frank Perrone, Republic Thunderbolt ace, and current 128-pounder National and Golden Gloves champion.

On July 19, plans for a proposed Queens World War II Memorial were unveiled for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The striking building featured a beacon atop a bell tower, a court of honor and included a chapel and smaller meeting rooms for groups that did not have their own quarters.

Clearing up the casualties on the Normandy beachhead under a rain of 88- millimeter shells, Astoria Medical Corps Private Richard Connors waded into heavy seas and pulled ashore heavily burdened men who were drowning.

"I guess those candles you've been lighting for me came in mighty handy," he wrote to his wife, Mrs. Teresa Connor of 30-50 36th St. He wrote his experiences from "a nice location" after the worst was over. "I'll try to give you an idea of what we went through" his letters began, "but there is a lot of things that we can't men- tion, so you will have to figure them out for yourself."

"The day we hit the beach the water was worse than it ever was [at] Rockaway and that made it hard to start off with. Then we started right to work getting the casualties patched up and back to the ships. We can do to keep ducking the German 88-millimeters, and let me tell you they came real close. It's lucky we had to keep busy. It didn't give me time to think of all the danger that was involved. After we cleared up most of the casualties, we moved to a German pillbox and set up our evacuation station. We were on the go until the wee hours of the morning.

"The next day we had to go down to the beach again and see if we couldn't find any more casualties. It happened that the water was rougher the day before.

"The men were coming in on Navy Ducks and one of them got badly swamped. The men were shouting for help, as they had all the equipment on and it was almost impossible to swim. I couldn't stand there and watch them, so I asked the fellow with me if he could swim. He said yes. So we went out and pulled a couple of them in. I wanted to go again, but the water was too rough.

"The next day was very good because our boys got that 88 that was giving us all the trouble. From then on things have been going nice and smooth. We are set up in a nice location now and the work is just routine.

"By the way, we came in off an LCT, and as the last man got off, three 88 shells tore it apart. I found that out only yesterday. I guess those candles you've been lighting for me came in mighty handy."

The Greater Astoria Historical Society is open to the public on Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m., at Quinn's Gallery, 4th Floor, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City. Opening in the fall: 'Hunters Point Through The Eyes of a Native Son: The Photographs of Frank Carrado.' Details to be announced. For more information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278-0700 or visit www.astorialic.org.