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This
is what Rockaway's Playland looked like when the Geist Family bought it
from the Thompson people back at the end of the 1920s. In this colorized
postcard shot taken facing the beach, we see the large Olympic-sized pool
which was later on filled in because the space was being used for rides
and concessions by the time I first visited the park back in the early
1950s. Of course when this photograph was taken, the Shore Front Parkway
had yet to be built so the playland extended right out onto the boardwalk.
After the 1938 season, the amusement park lost over 200 feet of its property
due to the building of the new roadway. |
This
is the actual poster (cleaned up a with a bit of photo-editing) that hung
in the showroom of Melvin Wides' Chrysler Plymouth Dealership in 1957.
They don't make cars like they used to! |
This
is Philomena Mary Santora, the office manager of Wides Chrysler-Plymouth
Pontiac from 1948 through 1963. She is sitting in a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere
convertible on the showroom floor. |
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An
actual photograph taken about 1909 shows a real clear shot of the commercial
district of Far Rockaway. Here we are looking northbound towards Mott
Avenue and the train station. The street the caption refers to as Carnegie
Avenue we now know as Cornaga. Interesting that the R.K.O. Columbia movie
house replaced a house furnishings store. There sure were a lot of furniture
stores in Far Rockaway back at the turn of the century - and it seems
there were drug stores on almost every important corner. |
One
of the most intriguing offerings at Rockaway's Playland was the "Hell
n''Back''ride - where, for a quarter, you could sit in a tiny cart and
be "wheeled around" in a darkened room - while things suddenly
lit up and jumped out at you - in order to facilitate a coronary. Great
fun if you had a date! Your girl would hold on to your arm for dear life!
How exciting! How silly! How dated!! |
Many
thanks to Doug Aikenhead for sending us this remarkable, rare and detailed
photo-postcard of the Shad Creek House, circa 1910. Operated
by Otto J. Sporck, this hotel was located on the Shad Creek Flats at
Broad Channel, NY. In the photo dozens of people pose with several powerboats
along the shoreline. Signs advertise Ulmer Beer, and there
are kegs and cases of glass bottles piled high on the dock at right.
The
Shad Creek House was the successor to James S. Williamson's Hotel.
In 1922 the establishment became Johnston's and McLoughlin's New
Boulevard Café, and in 1934 it became Moran's Boulevard
Cabaret, Hotel, and Fishing Station.
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