December 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 29, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1930, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Nathan L. Amster, chairman of the Manhattan ‘L’ stockholders protective committee, which recently obtained majority control of the corporation and elected him a director, today indorsed in principle Samuel Untermyer’s plan for transit unification, including purchase of the Manhattan properties as well as those of the I.R.T. and B.M.T., for inclusion in a city-owned consolidated system. In a statement to the Eagle, he said he proposed to cooperate with the public authorities in working out a final settlement along the lines and in general conformity with the financial prices laid down in Untermyer’s report to the State Transit Commission. ‘I believe,’ he declared, ‘that the properties to be included are worth many millions of dollars more than are represented in Mr. Untermyer’s tabulations, but under the circumstances I feel sure my committee, when it meets to consider this plan, will indorse it and cooperate with the city in making it effective. Mr. Untermyer and the Transit Commission have presented an unusual and able program, and although we as owners are not going to get all that we believe our property is worth, I am constrained to say that the city is fortunate in being in its present position to get these extremely valuable lines at prices which, in some cases, are at least less than the books show was actually expended in creating them.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1930, the Eagle reported, “As part of an elaborate holiday program which includes a grand interpretation of ‘Snow White and Rose Red,’ with the original music by Maurice Baron, and a delightful Yuletide ballet incident in which Harold Van Duzee romps about in the scarlet suit and snowy whiskers of Santa Claus, the feature picture ― ‘The Shepper-Newfounder’ ― isn’t the most interesting thing at the Roxy this week … In addition to the ‘Snow White and Rose Red’ and ‘Merry Christmas’ numbers, the surrounding program at the Roxy features ‘English Carols’ by the orchestra and a timely Walt Disney cartoon called ‘Midnight in a Toy Shop.’ There is, in fact, nothing on Mr. Rothafel’s current holiday bill that children shouldn’t find highly pleasing.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “PARIS (U.P.) — The American 1st and 3rd Armies drove deep into the northern and southern flanks of the German salient today and were within less than 15 miles of a juncture in a developing counteroffensive that threatened to turn the Ardennes into a gigantic death pocket for tens of thousands of crack Nazi troops. Fighting down from Grandmenil and up from Bastogne, the two American forces were converging along the Liege-Arlon highway in a bid to lop off the entire western half of the salient and engulf the panzer spearheads that only a few days ago were threatening to break across the Meuse and split the Allied armies. Checkmated at the center within four miles of the Meuse and reeling back under the new American flanking blows, the Germans had lost the initiative everywhere on the 150-mile perimeter of their Ardennes pocket. Field dispatches said the 200,000 Nazi infantrymen and hundreds of tanks that burst out of the Siegfried Line two weeks ago to rip 50 miles across Belgium and Luxembourg were struggling desperately to pull back their overextended western spearheads and form a tight defensive line.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “A ‘drastic’ solution to the city’s traffic problem, which Construction Coordinator Robert Moses thinks will be ‘sensational,’ was in the works today, with unveiling due soon after the beginning of the New Year. Moses disclosed that something was in the wind when he spoke yesterday at the annual holiday luncheon of the Alumni Federation of Columbia University at the Columbia University Club, 4 W. 43rd St., Manhattan. But he wouldn’t discuss details, saying further information would come from Mayor Impellitteri. Later the Mayor tossed the whole project right back at Moses, leaving the impression that Moses was now in the position of being the city’s No. 1 traffic expert, operating independently of the Traffic Department. There were indications that a minor feud over jurisdiction was impending between Moses and Traffic Commissioner Lloyd B. Reid when it was reported that the new plan called for construction of a score of above-ground parking garages in various areas controlled by the newly created Parking Authority, with revenue from a mass installation of parking meters helping to pay for their erection and operation. According to the reports, the plan calls for stripping the Traffic Department of its control over parking meters, giving the Authority power to install them and collect revenue from them, possibly even going so far as to police them, too.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “LEICESTER, ENGLAND (U.P.) ― Crockery salesman Percy Kelshaw’s sample-loaded station wagon overturned twice after a collision today, scattering a quarter ton of cups and saucers and Kelshaw’s book. The book was entitled ‘The Flying Saucers Have Landed.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, who was born in 1938; singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, who was born in 1946; “Cheers” star Ted Danson, who was born in 1947; “If I Can’t Have You” singer Yvonne Elliman, who was born in 1951; “Murder One” star Patricia Clarkson, who was born in 1959; former major league outfielder Devon White, who was born in 1962; “The Walking Dead” star Michael Cudlitz, who was born in 1964; The Offspring singer Dexter Holland, who was born in 1965; filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, who was born in 1967; “Cold Mountain” star Jude Law, who was born in 1972; baseball executive Theo Epstein, who was born in 1973; “ER” star Mekhi Phifer, who was born in 1974; “Rogue One” star Diego Luna, who was born in 1979; and “Community” star Alison Brie, who was born in 1982.

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RE-JOYCE: “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” was published on this day in 1916. The semiautobiographical novel by Irish modernist author James Joyce was originally serialized in the British literary journal The Egoist from 1914-15.

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SOMETHING ABOUT MARY: Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn Heights on this day in 1936. A seven-time Emmy winner, Moore broke new ground by wearing capris as the stylish, comedic housewife on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” (1961-66). As Mary Richards on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” she quietly revolutionized TV sitcoms, introducing a single, independent career woman. Her production company, MTM Enterprises, launched numerous hit shows, including “The Bob Newhart Show,” “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Hill Street Blues.” She also received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Ordinary People” (1980). She died in 2017.

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

Quotable:

“Take chances. Make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

— actress and producer Mary Tyler Moore, who was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1936