COLUMN
Traveling back in time to the summer of 1955
In conjunction with the
Greater Astoria Historical
Society, the TimesLedger
newspaper presents noteworthy
events in the borough’s history.
Welcome to August 1955!
In Southampton, England,
the docks were alive with
history as craftsmen carefully
and painstakingly laid the
keel of the Mayflower II. The
replica of the ship that carried
the Pilgrims to America so
many years before bravely
transited the Atlantic Ocean
the following year. She
entered New York Harbor
under tug in July, 1957 before
finding a permanent home
close to where her namesake
dropped anchor in modernday
Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Later in the month, down
in Money, Mississippi, an
African-American boy from
Chicago casually whistled at
a white woman as he stood
in front of the local grocery
store. The following week, his
savagely beaten and disfigured
body was recovered from the
Tallahatchie River. Crying
“let the people see what they
have done to my boy,” his
mother laid out the remains
in an open casket in silent
witness to Jim Crow brutality.
The road to justice and racial
equality would be long and
rocky, but few would forget the
name Emmett Till.
That August, New Yorkers
bid a bittersweet farewell
to a city icon; a screeching,
wheezing, brash, greaseslicked
embodiment of the
city’s hustle and bustle and
industriousness. In August
1955, the 3rd Avenue El fell to
the blowtorch, thus marking
the end of an era in Manhattan.
Proclaiming August 1st “3rd
Avenue Day,” The Long Island
Star Journal paid the arching,
rumbling monstrous structure
a fitting tribute.
The day has been called not
so much to honor the avenue,
or the world famed saloons
along it, as to bewail officially
the passing of the Toonerville
trolley that ran for 77 years,
grunting and snorting high
above the avenue, a rickety
rickshaw in the sky. The
windows were stained glass.
The heat in winter was from
potbellied stoves.
It was a time for change
on a historic scale in New
York City, but August is also
a month for one of America’s
most time honored pastimes.
Two Queens boys, in fact, made
news in major league baseball
that summer. Long Island
City star Billy Loes, who went
on to win the World Series
with the Brooklyn Dodgers in
October, took time out to share
his hard-earned baseball
wisdom with the news media
in early August. Dubbed the
“Greek Philosopher” by the
sportswriter, Loes observed
that “the way the game is
today the team that outscores
the other wins.”
Meanwhile in Philadelphia,
18-year old Bryant High School
product Fred Van Dusen signed
a “bonus baby” contract with
the Phillies entitling him to a
spot on the 40-man roster for 2
seasons. The Jackson Heights
native was hit by a pitch in
his only at bat the following
month and never took the field
in a major league contest. To
this day he is the only player
in big league history to have
been hit by a pitch and never
play defensively.
That’s the way it was during
August 1955!
For more information, contact
the Greater Astoria Historical
Society at 718-728-0700 or visit our
website at www.astorialic.org.
A 1950 baseball card featuring
Long Island City resident Billy
Loes, a member of the 1955
World Champion Brooklyn
Dodgers
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