There were many ways for Bronxites of all ages to be entertained back in the 1920s
and 1930s. Back then, fun was really fun! The most dramatic way was, without a doubt, reading.
There was always time for reading. A simple library card opened up a whole new world. Reading was
very enjoyable.
When someone received a library card, it was used over and over again.
What a concept! All one had to do was walk into a branch of a library choose the books one wanted to read and
present the card to the librarian at the front desk. Books could be taken home to read and returned at a
certain date.
Libraries were very impressive places. The one on Alexander Avenue and
the one on 169th Street, near Mckinley Square, looked very much like mansions. The one on Morris Avenue and 162nd
Street, the Melrose Branch, was three full stories high. The Highbridge Branch on Shakespeare Avenue and 168th
Street was much smaller but its white facade and brick trim with high arched windows, made it a very impressive cheery little
place.
The most unusual library in The Bronx was, without a doubt, the one on the southside
of Westchester Square. The small Huntington Free Library. People would enter through a small
square tower, which proclaimed its beginning in the year 1890. The reader was escorted into a wood-paneled room
which was lined with all kinds of books. The ceiling extended to the high point of the roof. It was
supported by wooden struts carved in the Victorian Gothic fashion.
The librarian was always available to help the reader find whatever was needed.
This collection of books was not part of the public library system, therefore, books were not allowed to be taken home.
Books had to be read inside the library at all times.
The park was another wonderful form of entertainment for Bronxites of all ages.
Many people would sit under a shady tree and read their favorite book for hours. Others found diversion on the
park swings, see-saws, slides and monkey bars. Not every park had these great attractions though.
One that did have them was St. Mary's Park.
In some parks, it was also possible to go boating. At Indian Lake in Crotona
Park, boats could be rented. The chief center for boating and sailing was City Island. Here, boats
were berthed and constructed too.
Swimming was also a favorite way for Bronxites to have fun. It was fun
to sneak down to the less frequented spots along the Harlem River and Bronx River and dip into the water, often without the
benefit of a bathing suit, to cool off on a hot and muggy summer day. The Bronx had many places where swimming
was encouraged. Places like Harding Park, Silver Beach and Edgewater Park, just to name a few.
If natural shorelines wasn't someone's cup-of-tea, there were several swimming pools
both public and private to use. The best known public pool was built in Crotona Park in the 1930s, right alongside
Fulton Avenue. Then you had Cascades on 168th Street and Jerome Avenue and the Metropolitan Pool near Whitlock
Avenue, close to the subway station. Other pools disappeared by the 1930s. The Starlight Amusement
Park, near West Farms Square, had a huge swimming pool. Hundreds of people could be in it at one time.
The Clason Point Amusement Park, at the end of Soundview Avenue, featured a pool whose
water was taken right from the East River. It had no filtration system in place, therefore, it was not very clean
water. People would call this pool "The Inkwell".
Other places were off-limits to swimming, but people would do it anyway.
Places like the little reservoir close to Bainbridge Avenue and 208th Street was a very nice place until it was drained and
turned into Williamsbridge Oval Park. If you headed farther south, to Hunts Point, the rotting Tiffany Street
Pier was a wonderful jumping off spot. It was later refurbished to be used in WWII.
People went bowling and ice skating. Others played chess, checkers and
other board games. On Sundays a band would also be playing free on the bandshell in Poe Park. Stickball
was a great way to have fun for others. A rubber ball called a "spaldeen" which was made by the Spalding Rubber
Company, was bounced once or twice on the street and whacked with a slim stick, just like a baseball bat.
Even the home was a very enjoyable place for Bronxites. Many loved
listening to the radio. In the 1920s and 1930s, most of what was heard over the static-filled airwaves was Hawaiian
music. As more stations got on the air, the variety of programs increased. It didn't matter what radio
station you tuned in to, whether it was WWJZ, WABC, WEAF or WOR, each had comedy, music, news and drama in its schedule.
The Bronx had its own radio station, it was WBNX. It broadcasted out of
Starlight Park until it was forced to move when the depression hit and the amusement park closed its doors forever.
A favorite program of almost every Bronxite was "The Goldbergs". It featured
Gertrude Berg as Molly Goldberg. She was the warm Jewish mom of a growing household in an apartment house on Tremont
Avenue. In a way, she symbolized the borough.
Just in case the radio was not working, there was always the phonograph.
As long as you had someone who could crank up the mechanism whenever the turntable needed winding up, people would invite
friends over, put on some records and dance in their homes to their favorite artists.
Another way for Bronxites to have fun was to go to the movies. They first
loved the silent movies then the regular movies with sound.
After WWII, people in The Bronx sought entertainment in neighborhood movie theaters.
These usually belonged to the Loew's or RKO chains. Every Bronx neighborhood had its very own movie house.
There was The Ogden in Highbridge, The Park Plaza in Morris Heights, The Fordham in Fordham Road and The Interboro in Throgs
Neck just to mention a few.
A very special theater was The Loew's Paradise on Grand Concourse near 188th Street.
It was a fantasy come true. Patrons would gather here to watch double-feature presentations. In the
1930s and 1940s, if you had a date, you would come to The Loew's Paradise and it would become a special date.
The lobby was beautiful! It was filled with all kinds of sculptures and paintings. The ceiling had
twinkling lights and it gave the impression that you were looking at the stars. It even had real clouds from a machine
that would disperse them. It had a huge clock. It had a fountain that was filled with goldfish.
The Loew's Paradise was a place to remember.
UPDATE: (On October
29th, 2005, The Loew's Paradise Theater reopened its doors after almost a decade).
Television then brought the people of The Bronx indoors. It was a wonderful
feeling knowing that people all over the country were watching the same thing at the same time. Yes, all over
the country, people were watching on the flickering set, black and white images of Sid Caesar, Your Show of Shows, Ed Sullivan,
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke and also The Bronx's very own "The Goldbergs".
As time passed into the 1950s and 1960s, other stars like Sammy Davis Jr.; Ed Wynn,
Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper, Ronald Reagan and many others, kept
Bronxites glued to their television sets. These T.V. sets were a huge, bulky, wooden cabinet with a 16 inch screen
and they were very heavy.
Television practically changed the arrangement of furniture in every living room.
Sofas, rocking chairs and other chairs were now positioned to face the large box. With fun and entertainment now
indoors, much of the life of The Bronx streets was affected. Almost every store began to close early.
Even newspapers were also affected by the new T.V. popularity. Because
of the explosion of entertainment and communication that television provided Bronxites, newspapers no longer provided the
primary source of information. However, Saturday night dates at the movie theaters continued to be a favorite
of many Bronxites and teenagers. There was nothing better after a movie to top the evening off with a visit to
Krum's on Grand Concourse and 188th Street, to enjoy a delicious ice cream soda.
Even after school, teenagers would often gather around one of the many local pizzerias
which were popping up in every Bronx neighborhood throughout the 1950s to enjoy a delicious, piping hot, wedge-shaped slice
of pizza with melted cheese, anchovies, sausages, pepperoni or peppers. Back then, when you asked for "extra" toppings,
extra meant extra.
Yummy!
Also, Chinese restaurants had begun opening up in many streets throughout The Bronx,
offering Bronxites another place to have dinner. Soon, it was very popular to order Chinese food and take it home
to enjoy with the family or even alone.
When shopping for clothes was necessary, all sorts of stores abounded in The Bronx.
If the local army and navy store or small dress shops didn't have what people wanted, for sure the department stores would
have it. The most popular department store was Alexander's on the northwest corner of Grand Concourse and Fordham
Road. Also at the original store on 153rd Street near The Hub. In both stores crowds would mob
the lobby looking for bargains. Moms would find shopping in these big department stores very enjoyable.
Another popular shoping place was Hearn's Department Store also in The Hub.
To top off the fun back in the 1950s perhaps the most single desired object by a Bronx
family was a car. A car was a different way to travel. It was personal and it was a status symbol.
Automatic transmissions made driving easier for everybody. Cars were no longer only black. Now they came
in a variety of colors to match the owner's personality. Even pink Cadillacs were hitting the streets.
Engines started faster and cars could now go faster than the legal speed limit.
On summer days families could now head out in their cars to Orchard Beach, Shorehaven
Beach Club at the end of Soundview Avenue or The Castle Hill Beach Club at the end of Castle Hill Avenue. Live
entertainment was featured in these places along with food counters. People had fun here and they had a sense
of security.
Some took their cars into the Whitestone Drive-in Theater for a movie near the Whitestone
Bridge.
In the early 1960s, Freedomland, the largest amusement park in the world opened on
a previously inaccessible site in the northeast Bronx. If you drove a car, you could make the trip to Freedomland
in a fraction of the time it took those traveling by bus. The theme of this park was the history of the United
States and all its activities related to it. The visitor would enter walking down "Old New York", which was a
replica of a shopping street in the early 19th century city. A small train pulled by a locomotive, circled
the grounds and a horsecar would drive people near the center of the park to watch the Chicago Fire.
The flames would burst through the windows of a cut-out building and spectators would
be invited to help put the fire out, only to have it restart 15 minutes later. Further to the left, visitors were
given the chance to go down into the Grand Canyon on a donkey.
To some, Freedomland was not so amusing after a few visits. Within two years
the place went bankrupt because of competition from the 1964 New York World's Fair across the river in Queens. A
couple of years later, Freedomland was torn down and today the Co-op City Apartments stand in its place.
Highways also provided Bronxites with fun. If you had a car you could
travel to the suburbs and to Rye's Playland or Jones Beach in less time.
Even though a car offered Bronxites the opportunity to travel far from home and have
more fun, to others, the greatest attraction was right here at home in The Bronx. It was on 161st Street
and River Avenue. The place was called Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees kept winning Pennants
and World Series. They just couldn't help it, considering the talent they had on the ball club.
The Bronx was and is still a wonderful place to have fun and really enjoy ourselves.
We have The Bronx Zoo, The New York Botanical Garden, lots of parks, Yankee Stadium and fine movie theaters and restaurants.
Do you want to have fun? Come visit The Bronx... You'll be glad you did!
Isn't this a wonderful place? Of course it is! It's
actually amazing!
It's The Amazing Bronx!
