FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 20, 2020 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 33
Bowling alleys live on in local fi lmmaker’s documentary
BY TAMMY SCILEPPI
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
With New York’s bowling alleys recently
opening, avid bowlers have been celebrating
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision
that allows them to again enjoy their
favorite pastime.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a
young fi lmmaker from Brooklyn — with
a passion for the beloved game-turnedsport
— set his sights on Queens’ everpopular
Astoria Bowl, and captured its
unique vibe in a just-released indie creation
titled “A Place to Bowl.”
While the fi lm centers around the community
of older people who used to frequent
Astoria Bowl every week to play
and hang out with their bowling buddies,
the fi lm’s message is about much more.
“I like to think my movie shows us the
value of in-person communities, and is
a lesson for younger people, like myself,”
Gabe Jacobs told QNS. “Fast forward to
July and August, with the pandemic still
raging through the U.S., and with Astoria
Bowl still closed. Th e fi lm started to feel
like it had a new purpose.”
For many bowling fans, Astoria Bowl
was the coolest place in town. Teams competed
there and folks of every age and
profi ciency could show off their bowling
skills — while praying for a lucky
strike. But for the senior league, the best
part was the camaraderie; the guys loved
to schmooze over a cup of joe or a soda
with fries.
Jacobs, 26, saw the beauty in bowling.
He understood that for the members of
this special group, it was all about having
somewhere to go when there was nothing
much to do.
“As a silent observer at the bowling
alley, I would watch the senior club, and in
a way, actually be very jealous,” he shared.
“I grew up in the internet age. Finding
friends and socializing on the internet
is no longer an unusual story. But here,
at the bowling alley, I witnessed something
I didn’t have much of in my own
life: An in-person community where lots
of friends would get together and for little
to no money, just have fun. It sounds
so simple, but I really missed those kinds
of experiences.”
Jacobs continued: “With the fi lm, I
wanted to show the community at Astoria
Bowl the way I saw it … fun and ridiculous,
but most of all, loving.”
Th e rising fi lmmaker said he bowled at
the alley “at least a hundred times,” and
that it was really the only place he was
willing to bowl that wasn’t more than
an hour away from where he lives in
Greenpoint. “I’m picky, but for good reasons,”
he added.
“A Place to Bowl” actually came out of
Jacobs’ very personal obsession with the
sport of bowling.
“I started bowling a few years ago with
my brother. As we got more and more
into the game, we began searching for
good bowling alleys, ones that treated
their lanes well and catered to the sports
enthusiast, rather than the partygoer,” he
recalled. “Most places in NYC were either
too expensive or functioned more as a bar
or arcade with bowling on the side. Th en
we discovered Astoria Bowl. You could
tell it was diff erent from the moment you
walked in. Th ere were some good bowlers
there. Really good. Some were so good, I
had fun just watching them.”
Growing up on the Upper East Side of
Manhattan, young Gabe could see Astoria
whenever he played baseball on Randall’s
Island.
“My weekends used to be fi lled with
tennis and baseball tournaments, but that
all went away by college, as I got more
involved with technology and art,” he said.
“As an adult though, I’ve come back to
sports with a renewed respect.”
Th at’s when his bowling addiction really
took fl ight. Jacobs would play in his free
time, spending hours alone in the alley
trying to get a perfect game. He said his
highest was 248. Like the other regulars at
Astoria Bowl, he would show up when the
alley was at its quietest, typically Tuesday
mornings.
“It was around that time when I met
some of the other regulars, people like
Gene and Nick, who were part of the
senior league. As I was practicing, I would
watch them (and admittedly eavesdrop),”
he remembered. “Th ey were trying out
new balls, working on diff erent oil patterns,
and always had some new theory
about the Yankees.”
In the doc, Nick, who’s 86 years young,
says, “Th is is more than a bowling alley
for us. You have a problem outside, you
come in, you forget all about it. You sit
down with the guys, you have a cup of
coff ee, you bullshit here and there … and
it’s great!”
And Gene (the newbie), remarks: “If
bowling stopped tomorrow, I guess you
might as well look for my pine box …
there’s really not that much to do.”
You can hear how passionate these
bowling buddies were about their favorite
hangout and sport. Says another: “I fell
in love with it immediately; I could never
get enough of it!”
For them, bowling was everything.
“It wasn’t really about the scoreboard
like it was for me; it was simply a place to
be together and that’s all it needed to be,”
Jacobs explained. “As Gene puts it, ‘What
else could you ask for?’ Th at was what
was so beautiful to me, and that’s what
inspired the fi lm.”
Here’s a fun fact: Th e sport became a
national pastime and got really popular
in the early ‘60s. Every week, fans would
tune in to watch professional bowling on
channel 7.
But sadly, those days are gone now.
Astoria Bowl’s owner Elaine Poulos,
tells Jacobs: “Back in the 80s, there were
about fi ve bowling centers in Astoria
alone. Now there are fi ve in all of Queens.
Th at’s crazy to think about!”
So, how did the senior leaguers react
when you were fi lming them?
“I think the guys were very happy that a
young person was interested in the sport
(and in them). We oft en talked about ways
in which we could get young people bowling
more, or ways I could get my friends
to come to the lanes,” Jacobs recalled. “I
think they were so open to making the
fi lm because I convinced them that it
could really be a good thing for the sport,
as a whole.
“Everyone at Astoria Bowl loves bowling
so much and would do anything to
make sure that the bowling alleys they
love stay in business (I’m one of them).
It’s also not every day that a bowler gets
to be fi lmed, so they were excited to be
involved.”
While most of the seniors live in
Astoria, some hail from other parts of
Queens. Bowlers traveled far to come to
the alley, since there weren’t that many
options. Some came in from Long Island
and Westchester. Some folks featured in
the fi lm had been coming to Astoria Bowl
for over 30 years.
Th e league guys would play for diff erent
reasons. “Some, like Butch, found
the physical act of bowling incredibly
rewarding. Just the feeling of throwing
a strike gets them to come back. It really
is one of the best feelings in the world,”
Jacobs said. “Th ese types of bowlers were
always trying to improve their game. For
others, it wasn’t about being competitive:
People loved to bowl because it was
something to do with their friends; a ritualized
way of meeting new people, and
discussing life.”
Jacobs’ fi lm career as a cinematographer
and director, is relatively new. He
formed a production company called
Turtle Down Films and began taking on
freelance jobs and making his own fi lms.
While there haven’t been many upsides
to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacobs found
one.
“I spent the fi rst two months editing.
It was the perfect time to edit because I
wasn’t getting any jobs fi lming, due to
COVID-19. One upside to being locked
in my apartment for all this time, is that
it has given me the time and space to
really focus on the fi lm,” Jacobs said.
“Financially though, it hasn’t been great.”
But when the fi lm was fi nally fi nished,
he knew it wasn’t the right time
to release it. “George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor had just been killed, and COVID-
19 was surging with no end in sight.
Th ose sort of things were on my mind,
and I knew they were on all of my
friends’ minds, as well,” he recalled. “It
just wasn’t appropriate to tell people to
pay attention to bowling at that time. So,
I sat on it for months, not knowing when
I would release it.”
Prior to the recent reopening, Jacobs
worried about the bowlers of the senior
league.
“I think about the league, and how
they must feel not having a place to
come together,” Jacobs told QNS. “Just
the other day, Astoria Bowl made a
social media post about four members
of the community (none in the fi lm) that
passed away from COVID-19. It’s truly
awful what is happening. All this makes
the fi lm feel even more relevant. It’s a
reminder to salvage what we have left of
these great community centers, when we
come back from all this.”
In a discarded clip from the fi lm, Nick
called Astoria Bowl a sanctuary. “Th at
sums it up well,” Jacobs added. “Th e
bowling alley was an oasis in the truest
sense of the word.”
buzz
Photo courtesy of Gabe Jacobs
Local fi lmmaker Gabe Jacobs just released his Queens-centric creation titled “A Place to Bowl” about
the community of older peoplewho go to Astoria Bowl every week to compete and hang out with
friends.
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