Brooklyn Boro

March 16: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 16, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History
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ON THIS DAY IN 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Broadway and all New York began spending more freely today. Heartened by yesterday’s sensational stock market upswing, encouraged by the nationwide clearing of checks and confident because the end of the bank holiday finds a major portion of the country’s banks open on an unrestricted basis, New York loosened the purse strings. Nowhere was the changed attitude more evident than along the Great White Way. Theatrical owners and producers, harassed by union wage disputes, hailed a pickup in box office receipts. The sporting fraternity acclaimed the resumption of horse racing at New Orleans. Speakeasy bartenders had something else to do besides polish glasses. Department and specialty store clerks were kept busy. From Brooklyn and all other sections reports of what appeared to be a real business upturn poured in.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “The Academy Awards voting this year was accompanied by an unusual, as well as an unbecoming, assortment of gossip and rumors. The voting system was changed several months ago, giving all of the 9,000 Hollywood craftsmen — electricians, grips, make-up men, carpenters and publicity writers, as well as actors, writers, directors and producers — the right to make nominations, but reserving to the 1,600 filmmakers who are actually members of the Motion Picture Academy the exclusive right to cast ballots in the finals. The gossip was that the system was a throw-back to an old and impractical routine which had been abandoned because it was too easy for the voters to be singled out and be high-pressured into casting their ballots the way their respective studio bosses wanted. The rumors were that the Academy members would vote for the top entries of their own home lots. The only people who publicly discounted such reports were the discredited bookies who continued, through last Thursday, announcement day at the huge Los Angeles Shrine, to quote odds on pictures according to their merits. The bookies turned out to be right, the gossip mongers wrong. Sam Goldwyn’s ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ took nine Oscars, including those for the best male acting, best direction, the best producing, the best screen writing, the best male acting in a supporting role, the best film editing and the best musical score. And the Goldwyn Studio, though a center for big-budget films, is a small movie factory compared with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and the Warners.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Bay Ridge Home Reporter said, “Dope addiction, a subject which has not been openly discussed very much in this area until now, got an airing-out Monday night at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 59th St. and Fifth Ave. And a parish priest at OLPH spelled out the reason for this airing-out in the plainest possible English: ‘I asked myself a long time ago if I should wait until I knew of 100 narcotic cases before doing something about the problem or act while I knew of 13 or 14,’ said the Rev. Arthur Wyatt, moderator of the OLPH Holy Name Society. ‘These 13 or 14 cases are not in Philadelphia or over the river in Manhattan but they are within the shadow of our own church,’ Father Wyatt told a capacity audience in the parish hall. Father Wyatt had arranged for a showing of the TV film, ‘Assignment: Teenage Junkie,’ at the meeting of the OLPH Holy Name Society … The film deals with an expose of the dope problem by the New York Journal-American, which has been running an anti-narcotics crusade for about a year.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.I.) — President Kennedy got his annual gift of St. Patrick’s Day shamrocks from the Irish ambassador yesterday, along with a reminder that it was the British who burned the White House in 1814. Ambassador Thomas J. Kiernan, who had on a blue polka dot necktie and wasn’t sporting a bit of green, presented the shamrocks to Kennedy in an elegant 12-inch-high vase of Waterford glass. It bore engravings of the White House and its Irish architect, James Hoban.”

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Curtis Granderson
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Nancy Wilson
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include financier Sanford I. Weill, who was born in Brooklyn in 1933; original “Wheel of Fortune” host Chuck Woolery, who was born in 1941; “CHiPs” star Erik Estrada, who was born in 1949; “Alias” star Victor Garber, who was born in 1949; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Nancy Wilson (Heart), who was born in 1954; Pro Football Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome, who was born in 1956; “Ray” star Clifton Powell, who was born in 1956; comic book creator Todd McFarlane, who was born in 1961; “Mother Mother” singer Tracy Bonham, who was born in 1967; “Gilmore Girls” star Lauren Graham, who was born in 1967; former N.Y. Yankees and Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson, who was born in 1981; former Brooklyn Nets forward Blake Griffin, who was born in 1989; and Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was born in 1999.

Erik Estrada
Charles Sykes/AP

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FOUNDER’S DAY: James Madison was born on this day in 1751. Known as the “Father of the Constitution,” the Virginia native also co-wrote the Federalist Papers, served as Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of State (1801-09) and was the fourth president of the U.S. (1809-17). As president, he led the U.S. into war against Great Britain. During his years in office, his wife Dolley hosted many social functions that brought political rivals together in a spirit of cooperation. Madison died in 1836 at age 85.

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UP AND AWAY: Robert Goddard successfully launched the first liquid-fueled rocket on this day in 1926. The flight, which took place in Auburn, Mass., lasted only 2.5 seconds, but the rocket, traveling at 60 miles an hour, reached an altitude of 41 feet and landed 184 feet away.

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

 

Quotable:

“We didn’t want to be the girlfriends of the Beatles. We wanted to be the Beatles.”

— Heart co-founder Nancy Wilson, who was born on this day in 1954

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