June 28: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1881, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The general quiet and freedom from accidents which have characterized the Fourth of July observances since the new ordinances went into operation will be experienced again this year. The authorities propose to enforce the law to the letter, and the police commissioner has already issued his orders to the force under his direction. Under the ordinance, the use of firearms in the city is prohibited on the Fourth, as well as other days; also, fireworks, such as firecrackers, cannon crackers, Chinese rockets, Chinese bombs, double headers, squibs, serpents or chasers, spitdevils, grasshoppers, torbillons or table rockets, flying pigeons, colored tableau fire, containing sulphur as an ingredient, and Union torpedoes. The ordinances also provide that these fireworks named shall not be manufactured, stored or kept on sale. Other kinds of fireworks may be used.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1925, Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson wrote, “In Albany last Wednesday articles of incorporation were filed by the Federal Motion Picture Council in America, Inc. It was decided to incorporate this organization at the Third National Motion Picture Conference, held in Washington, D.C., on January 14, 15 and 16 this year. At that conference, delegates were present from 116 agencies, local, county, state, national and international. The organizations represented were from twenty-three states and four foreign countries. The purpose is to mobilize all forces for wholesome motion pictures. To accomplish this, some of the objectives aimed at are: To assist members of local organizations, both church and secular groups, in evaluating motion pictures, and thus enable them to intelligently commend or condemn the picture surveyed; to conduct an education campaign in order that parents and others in authority may be brought to a realization of the effects of unwholesome motion pictures upon children and youth; to work for the state regulation of motion pictures without unnecessary expense to the state or individual. (The methods of police and court procedure based upon ancient common law and more recent statutes are slow, expensive and inadequate); to have the appointment of state motion picture commissioners placed in the hands of the State Board of Education instead of being appointed by the governor, thus removing the danger that for partisan and improper reasons he might appoint persons without proper qualifications. (The New York State Commission is appointed by the governor); to secure federal regulation of motion pictures, because state regulation, at best, only removes the evil already in the film, whereas federal regulation will not only set proper standards for the whole country but will effectively direct at their source the production of morally clean films before the evil has been filmed.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.