Divorce Scandal Rocks LIC In November 1933
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This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division under the digital ID cph.3c32498 Fiorello LaGuardia.

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 1933!

At the start of November 1933, the Star Journal reported on the doomed marriage of John and Cecilia Hanson, the latter a Woodside resident. In their divorce proceedings Hanson related how he caught his wife kissing another man in a room in a hotel where they were at a small party. According to the Star Journal, Hanson sent a third man to stop her (why he himself didn't remains a mystery) but was soon "astounded" to learn that she began kissing this man as well. Only then did Hanson himself step in to settle the matter (how he did so will also have to remain a mystery). "It was bad enough to have to watch his wife kissing another man but when she also kissed the man he had sent to break up the embrace, it was too much," was how the Star Journal first described their descent to marital oblivion.

This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, and its copyright was not renewed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In her defense, Mrs. Hanson testified how her estranged husband would, among other things, drive recklessly just to terrify her.

And speaking of reckless driving, who among us actually knows how many accidents really happened, especially when the art of driving was still in its formative years? The Star Journal reported that nearly 1,000,000 people were injured- and 29,000 actually killed- in automobile accidents in 1932. Surely there must be some mistake! Next to a chart showing auto deaths growing from 4,680 in 1914 to 34,000 in 1931, a sidebar headline screamed, "Auto accidents have increased 600% in 18 years."

Turning to a more blissful state of matrimony, the Star Journal was delighted to recount the upcoming wedding of Miss America 1932, Douglaston's own Helen Parke Cant. The Star Journal reported that Miss Cant set sail on the SS Pennland for Antwerp, where hotel owner and manager Ernest Bier awaited her. Besides being five foot six, blonde, and stunning, Miss Cant was also a graduate of Penn Hall in Pennsylvania. She represented the U.S. in a world beauty contest hosted in Belgium but was squeezed out of first place by Miss Turkey- yet not without the judges unanimously agreeing that Miss Cant had the most beautiful legs.

On November14, the Woodside Improvement Association complained to the Long Island Daily Star that during a five-day heat wave last summer, the upper floors of some homes in Woodside Terrace had no water for nearly a week. They had to lug every drop up the stairs from lower floors. The situation, the homeowners continued, was not only intolerable, but also inconvenient and a serious menace to public health.

A drive by police in Astoria to curb violation of the Sabbath law among storekeepers who dispense shoe shines and meat and groceries on Sundays was somewhat dampened for the court arraignment of the first ten defendants summoned in the Magistrates Court of Long Island City by the police. Philip Emma, 45, of 26-10 25th Avenue in Astoria stood accused of keeping open his shoeshine establishment at that address on Sunday. Patrolman Thomas Shortell said he saw several people getting shines while he had the place under observation.

The defendant had already pleaded guilty when the bench queried the policeman. "Why shouldn't the poor be able to get the same thing as the rich man?" the court asked. "I can go out to my club on Long Island at any time, on any Sunday, and get a shoe shine, a shave or haircut, or anything I want. But another man, who depends on street shops for a shine or shave, can't do the same. For many people, Sunday is the only day they have to get their shoes shined. They go to church and don't you think they ought to be allowed those privileges?"

Shortell explained that he was acting on orders from superiors and that he was only acting according to the law relating to establishments that are permitted to be open on Sundays. He added that police were forced to act because of complaints made by storekeepers who comply with the law against competitors who disregarded it. Emma withdrew his plea of guilty and changed it to not guilty. The others were given suspended sentences on charges ranging from the sale of dry goods, groceries and other merchandise.

"Happy Days Are Here Again!" This now historic refrain marked the welcomed end of Prohibition throughout the country. It was no different in Queens. To mark the occasion of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signing into law the repeal of the Volstead Act, the Star Journal noted that the city received nearly 2,200 applications for licenses to sell beer to be consumed on and off premises by beer gardens, hotels, clubs, groceries, and even drug stores throughout the borough.

In sports, the Star Journal gave a thrilling account of a foot race culminating in the final quarter mile, where Meyer Prince of Manhattan's 92nd Street YMHA, who had struggled to sixth place by the race's halfway mark, went on to seize victory in the ten-mile handicap walk from Frank Voutsinas by seventy yards. Dramatic and well deserved as this victory was, however, the Greeks could still be pleased with their own performance. Anthony Pappas of the Hermes Club AC was the first man from Queens to cross the finish line. Were it not for the rule barring athletes from claiming more than one prize in the event, the Star Journal noted that Pappas, though having come in fourth place and off the lead time by 25 minutes, would have been awarded a number of trophies. He chose to be recognized as borough novice, leaving contender George Sadio with one of the other accolades he was entitled to. In all, the Hermes Club took home five individual prizes, along with a team trophy. One could just see the club's namesake beaming with pride.

Election year 1933 marked a turning point for New York City. That certainly was the case in Queens, which helped sweep none other than Fusion candidate Fiorello LaGuardia into the Mayoralty with 153,426 votes from Queens. The Little Flower secured 13,325 more over opponent Joseph V. McKee and an impressive 62,076 votes over sitting Mayor John P. O'Brien. Significantly, the Star Journal observed that, in tandem, LaGuardia's rise and, "[t]he defeat of the regular Democratic city and county slates…spelled the doom of [local Tammany political boss] John Theofel's leadership of the wrecked Democratic county machine."

A day later the Star Journal reported on the opportunities awaiting worthy Queens residents (the Republican "faithful") that political patronage will bring. To the victor belonged the spoils, truly.

That's the way it was in November 1933!

The Greater Astoria Historical Society is open to the public on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. at Quinn's Gallery, 4th Floor, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City. A new exhibit, "Hunters Point through the eyes of a native son: The photographs of Frank Carrado", opened on Saturday, September 29 at 1 p.m.This program is supported in part by funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and Citiy Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr.

The Society's next meeting, December 10 at Quinn's Gallery, will include a book signing of the latest publication from the Greater Astoria Historical Society library of local histories, the first edition of Postcard History Series: Long Island City, featuring hundreds of postcards depicting the communities of old Long Island City, Astoria, Ravenswood, Dutch Kills, Hunters Point, Blissville and Sunnyside. Meet the authors and buy the book. It's the perfect holiday gift!

For more information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278-0700 or visit www.astorialic.org.