October 27: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 27, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “More than 500 pieces of street cleaning equipment, including newly purchased apparatus and devices dating back to the early history of the Sanitation Department, will be exhibited for the benefit of Brooklynites today when the department’s annual parade winds its way over the Williamsburg Bridge to Borough Hall. Mayor [Fiorello] LaGuardia, Borough President [Raymond] Ingersoll and Sanitation Commissioner [William] Carey, who will speak in a radio broadcast at the parade’s start in Manhattan, will be in the reviewing stand at Court and Joralemon Sts. The start will be made at 23rd St. and the East River, Manhattan, and after passing over the bridge, the parade will be routed through Roebling and Taylor Sts., to Kent Ave., over the Wallabout Bridge to Washington Ave., to Lafayette Ave., to Schermerhorn St., thence to Borough Hall, where it will disband. Among the equipment on view will be collection trucks, sweepers, flushers and snow loaders.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, Eagle columnist Harold Conrad wrote, “Last night we went out to do the town with Jackie Gleason, the young Brooklyn boy whose comic antics at the Queens Terrace and the 18 Club won him a contract with Warner’s. In the three spots we went to, the dance bands might just as well have been playing concert music, because there was no one there to dance. We finally wound up at the Brown Derby with Rags Raglund, Cesar Romero and Milton Berle and Gleason was willing to swap his contract in for just one whiff of the Gowanus.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “A total of 47,286 home-delivery readers of the Brooklyn Eagle returned their ballots in this newspaper’s Mayoralty Poll and gave Democratic candidate Robert Wagner Jr. a whopping victory with 19,346 votes. Second place in this secret poll of the 70,752 readers who have the Eagle delivered to them by carrier boy was taken by the Republican, Harold Riegelman, with 11,197 votes. The Liberal Party candidate, Rudolph Halley, who won a similar Brooklyn Eagle poll involving Mayoralty possibilities last June, was a weak third this time with 9,724 votes. Mayor [Vincent] Impellitteri, whose name was printed on the ballots before his Experience party was knocked out by the courts, came in fourth with a healthy 6,514 votes, despite the fact that the Eagle cautioned its readers that his name would not be listed on the official voting machines on Election Day, Nov. 3. It is estimated that most of the Impellitteri votes will actually be split between Wagner and Riegelman, thus strengthening their relative positions and worsening Halley’s. This is believed to be the largest political poll ever taken anywhere. While it is not a scientific cross-section of the city’s voters, it is regarded as a representative and particularly well-informed group of Brooklyn citizens. Only one ballot was delivered to each home of an Eagle reader, so this sampling may actually represent as many as 100,000 Brooklynites, counting an average of two voters per family.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “The first of this season’s 21-hour length ‘Disneyland’ programs premieres tonight over 114 stations of the ABC television network. Appropriately, program No. 1 is titled ‘The Disneyland Story’ and serves as a general introduction to the scope of the shows to come. As seen a few days ago in a special preview screening, there’s a fascinating peek behind the scenes of the Disney empire, with Walt on hand to conduct the tour. Disney shows a scale model of the still-under-construction Disneyland Park, from which all of next season’s 26 shows will originate. Following this, the four main subdivisions of the show are previewed. On subsequent telecasts, each will occupy the full hour spotlight on alternate weeks … ‘Disneyland’ is the only regularly scheduled hour-length film show on TV. Except for some of the spectaculars, it is probably the highest budgeted show on the networks. Each section has its own production staff. The overall show serves as a visual reminder of the comprehensive, creative genius of Disney.”

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Marla Maples
lukeford.net via Wikimedia Commons

John Cleese
Bruce Baker via Wikimedia Commons

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” star John Cleese, who was born in 1939; “God Bless the U.S.A.” singer Lee Greenwood, who was born in 1942; “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, who was born in 1946; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Garry Tallent (E Street Band), who was born in 1949; author and public speaker Fran Lebowitz, who was born in 1950; former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing, who was born in 1951; “Body and Soul” star Jayne Kennedy, who was born in 1951; Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni, who was born in 1952; “Star Trek: Voyager” star Robert Picardo, who was born in 1953; World Golf Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan, who was born in 1956; Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon, who was born in 1958; actress and model Marla Maples, who was born in 1963; TV personality Kelly Osbourne, who was born in 1984; and Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball, who was born in 1997.

Lee Greenwood
Yoland Hunter via Wikimedia Commons

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THE NATION’S FOUNDATIONS: The first of the 85 Federalist papers appeared in print on this day in 1787. The essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, argued in favor of adoption of the new Constitution and the new form of federal government. The last of the essays was completed April 4, 1788.

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BORN TO LEAD: Theodore Roosevelt was born on this day in 1858. The Manhattan native and war hero became the 26th president of the U.S. after the assassination of William McKinley and served from 1901-1909. The former governor of New York was the youngest man to assume the presidency, at the age of 42 years and 322 days. He was also the first president to ride in an automobile (1902), to submerge in a submarine (1905) and to fly in an airplane (1910). He died in Oyster Bay, N.Y. on Jan. 6, 1919.

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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

“The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, who was born on this day in 1858