Woody Guthrie, Kingsborough-This Land Is Your Land.

Famed American Folk singer Woody Guthrie who wrote  the legendary song ,“This Land Is Your Land” in 1940 began his training at the Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Base for the Merchant Marine in 1943 at the place now known as Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. There he re-worked his most famous song until it became the song we now know today.

The book details much of Woody Guthrie’s time at the Sheepshead Bay Training Base just three years after writing his most famous song “This Land Is Your Land” and details his re-working the song while doing his training at the maritime base.

“This Land Is Your Land”.is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940, based on an existing melody, a Carter family tune called “When the World’s on Fire”, in critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” on the radio in the late 1930s, he  wrote “God Blessed America for Me” before renaming it “This Land Is Your Land.”

The story is outlined in the book “Woody, Cisco and Me: Seamen Three in the Merchant Marine” by Jim Longhi.

The book details Woody writing and re-writing the Lyrics to his song ” This Land Is Your Land” while looking out over the Atlantic Ocean as a Merchant Marine trainee at the Sheepshead Bay Base.

Most fans know that Woody and Cisco made a few voyages as merchant seamen during WW II. One ship was torpedoed and another struck a mine. Woody would often pull out his guitar and sing to the men aboard the ship especially in times of danger.

Following are the original lyrics as composed on February 23, 1940, in Guthrie’s room at the Hanover House hotel at 43rd St. and 6th Ave. (101 West 43rd St.) in New York, showing his strikeouts. The line “This land was made for you and me” does not literally appear in the manuscript at the end of each verse, but is implied by Guthrie’s writing of those words at the top of the page and by his subsequent singing of the line with those words.

The original title was “God Blessed America”, but it was struck out and replaced by “This Land Was Made For You & Me“. It appears therefore that the original 1940 title was “This Land”.

This land is your land, this land is my land

From the California to the Staten New York Island,

From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

As I went walking that ribbon of highway

And saw above me that endless skyway,

And saw below me the golden valley, I said:

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,

And all around me, a voice was sounding:

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

Was a high wall there that tried to stop me

A sign was painted said: Private Property,

But on the back side it didn’t say nothing —

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling

In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;

The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple

By the Relief Office I saw my people —

As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if

God blessed America for me.

[This land was made for you and me.]

According to Joe Klein, after Guthrie composed it “he completely forgot about the song, and didn’t do anything with it for another three years. When he began re-working it while training for the United States Merchant Marines” (This is a March, 1944, recording of the song.)

 

Between 1943 and 1945, Woody Guthrie’s life was a rather erratic batch of activity. He entered the Merchant Marines three times with his friend and sometime singing partner, Cisco Houston. It seemed the best way to avoid being drafted by the Army. He escaped death by torpedo more than once.

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway

I saw above me that endless skyway

I saw below me that golden valley

This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

While all around me a voice was sounding

This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling

And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling

A voice was chanting, As the fog was lifting,

This land was made for you and me.

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me.

Note that this version drops the two political verses from the original: Verse four, about private property, and verse six, about hunger.

 

“Talking Merchant Marine” a song written by Woody Guthrie during his time at the Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Base along with the new verses for “This Land Is Your Land”.

The March 1944 recording in the possession of the Smithsonian, the earliest known recording of the song, has the “private property” verse included. This version was recorded the same day as 75 other songs. This was confirmed by several archivists for Smithsonian who were interviewed as part of the History Channel program Save Our History – Save our Sounds. The 1944 recording with this fourth verse can be found on Woody Guthrie: This Land is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Volume 1, where it is track 14.

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;

Sign was painted, it said private property;

But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;

This land was made for you and me.

Woodyguthrie.org has a variant:

As I went walking I saw a sign there

And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”

But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,

That side was made for you and me.

It also has a verse:

Nobody living can ever stop me,

As I go walking that freedom highway;

Nobody living can ever make me turn back

This land was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;

By the relief office, I’d seen my people.

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,

Is this land made for you and me?

A 1945 pamphlet which omitted the last two verses has caused some question as to whether the original song did in fact contain the full text. The original manuscript confirms both of these verses.

As with other folk songs, it was sung with different words at various times although the motives for this particular change of lyrics may involve the possible political interpretations of the verses. Recordings of Guthrie have him singing the verses with different words.

The radical verses are not often performed in schools or official functions. They can be best interpreted as a protest against the vast income inequalities that exist in the United States, and against the sufferings of millions during the Great Depression America, Guthrie insists, was made—and could still be made—for you and me. This interpretation is consistent with such other Guthrie songs as “Pretty Boy Floyd”and Guthrie’s lifelong struggle for social justice.

The song was revived in the 1960s, when several artists of the new folk movement, including Bob Dylan, the Kingston Trio, trini Lopez Jay and the Americans , and the New Christy Minstrels all recorded versions, inspired by its political message. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded the song in 1962 for their Moving  album. The Seekers recorded the song for their 1965 album, A world of Our Own It was performed many times by the cyclist choir, accompanied by guitarists and a wash-tub bassist, during the Wandering Wheels historic 1966 U.S. coast-to-coast bicycle trip.

Bruce Springsteen first began performing it live on the River Tour in 1980, and released one such performance of it on Live 1975-1985, in which he called it “about one of the most beautiful songs ever written.”

The song was performed by Springsteen and Pete Seeger, accompanied by Seeger’s grandsonTao Rodriguez Seeger, at the Obama Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.

The song was restored to the original lyrics (including the ‘There was a big high wall there’ and ‘Nobody living can ever stop me’ verses) for this performance (as per Pete Seeger’s request) with the exception of a change in the end of the ‘Relief Office’ verse to “As they stood hungry, I stood there whistling, This land was made for you and me.” The original lyrics are “As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking, Is this land made for you and me?”

Arlo Gutherie who has played at Kingsborough’s Summer Music Festivals in honor of his father, tells a story in concerts on occasion, of his mother returning from a dance tour of China, and reporting around the Guthrie family dinner table that at one point in the tour she was serenaded by Chinese children singing the song. Arlo says Woody was incredulous: “The Chinese? Singing “This land is your land, this land is my land? From California to the New York island?”

Woody would ride the subways of Brooklyn while he was doing his training as a Merchant Mariner and below is his address in Coney Island on Mermaid Avenue.

 

 

 

 

 

The Women SPARS Who Trained For War – A Rarely Told Story In History-Where Kingsborough Now Stands

I was watching the great film “Hidden Figures” with my children about the African-American women who provided much of the mathematics and physics for the first space flights and moon landings for NASA.

My thoughts drifted to the often untold story of the women SPARS who supported the war effort  during World War ll and did their training right here-where Kingsborough Community College now stands.

Many of them later served as the main operators of the top secret LORAN- long range navigation system throughout the European and Pacific theaters of naval operations.

During World War II The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women’s Reserve, better known by the acronym SPARS trained hundreds of  these women at the Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Facility right where we today educate thousands of women for careers each and every day.

Yet I bet if we asked any one of them the history of the SPARS and who they were and what they did, none of them would know anything about these brave and courageous women or the sacrifices they made in order to join the military.

SPARS which stood for “Semper Paratus – Always Ready,” based on the Coast Guard’s motto.

The women’s branch of the USCG Reserve. It was established by the U.S. Congress  and signed into law by the President Franklin D Roosevelt on 23 November 1942. This authorized the acceptance of women into the reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months.

Captain Dorothy C. Stratton, Director of the SPARS during World War II

The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for sea duty and to replace them with women at shore stations. Dorothy C Stratton was appointed director of the Women’s Reserve (SPARS), with the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was later promoted to Captain. She had been the Dean of Women on leave from Purdue University, and an officer in The United States Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve), better known under the acronym WAVES for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. Stratton is credited with creating the nautical name of SPARS.

SPAR Aileen Anita Cooke, apprentice seamen, is receiving her “boot” course at a United States Training Station, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York, 1941-1945.

The age for officer candidates was between 20 and 50; they had to have a college degree, or two years of college and two years of professional or business experience. The enlisted age requirements were between 20 and 36; candidates had to have completed at least two years of high school. For the most part, SPARS were white, but five African Americans were eventually allowed to serve. Most SPAR officers were general duty officers, but some officers received specialized training.

“To expedite the war effort by providing for releasing officers and men for duty at sea and their replacement by women in the shore establishment of the Coast Guard”.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt threw her support behind the women who volunteered to serve. The media used advertising to promote images of  women in uniform and Hollywood made movies depicting beautiful starlets serving in the various branches of the armed forces. Thousands of women answered the call.

At first, according to agreement, the SPARS enlisted personnel received their indoctrination training on college campuses operated for such by the U.S. Navy. In March 1943, the USCG decided to establish its own training center for the indoctrination of enlisted recruits.

The site selected was the Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel,in Palm Beach Florida. Beginning in late June, all enlisted personnel received their indoctrination and specialized training there. Some 70 percent of the enlisted women who received recruit training also received some specialized training.

Yeoman and storekeepers represented the largest share, but many SPARS were given the opportunity to train in other fields. In January 1943, the training of enlisted personnel was transferred from Palm Beach to Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn New York where Kingsborough now stand

Two of the 5 African-American SPARS that were finally allowed to serve -pause on the ladder of the dry-land ship U.S.S. Neversail during their boot training at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Station, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, NY, during WWII.

The SPARS were assigned to every USCG district except Puerto Rico and served in Hawaii and Alaska as well. Most officers held general duty billets, which included administrative and supervisory assignments. Other officers served as communication officers, supply officers, barracks, and recruiting officers. The bulk of the enlisted women performed clerical and stenographic duties.

Enlisted SPAR Dolores Denfield, a parachute rigger during World War II

Mary Mills Weinmann in SPAR uniform, 1943-45

USCG SPARS in Training at Manhattan Beach Training Facility -November 1944

In smaller numbers, the enlisted personnel were found in practically every other billet, from baking pies to rigging parachutes and driving jeeps. A select group of SPAR officers and enlisted personnel were also assigned to work with the Long Range Aid to Navigation at monitoring stations in the Continental United States. Better known under the acronym LORAN it was a top-secret radio navigation system developed for ships at sea and long-range aircraft.

The first monitoring station staffed by SPARS was at Chatham Massachusets. Chatham is believed to have been (at the time) the only all female-staffed station of its kind in the world. The SPARS peak strength was approximately 11,000 officers and enlisted personnel. Commodore J. A. Hirschfield, USCG, said the SPARS volunteered for duty when their country needed them, and they did their jobs with enthusiasm, efficiency, and with a minimum of fanfare. To honor the SPARS, two USCG cutters were given their name.

 

Women were not to serve outside the continental United States, and no woman, officer or enlisted, could issue orders to any male serviceman.

Thanksgiving Dinner for the SPARS at the Manhattan Beach Training Facility.

In late 1942, recruiting requirements were such that both enlisted and officer candidates had to be American Citizens: have no children under 18 years of age; present three character references; pass a physical examination; and submit a record of occupation after leaving school. Enlisted applicants were also required to have completed at least two years of high school and be between the ages of 20 and 36 years.

Women SPARS at Manhattan Beach Training Camp are trained in Small Arms and Marksmanship.

Officer candidates were expected to be college graduates, or to have completed two years of college, and have at least two years of acceptable business or professional experience, and be between the ages of 20 and 50 years. Certain regulations with respect to marriage applied to both enlisted and officer candidates. Married women could enlist provided their husbands were not in the USCG. Unmarried women had to agree not to marry until they had finished their training period. After training, they could marry a civilian or service man who was not in the USCG.

In August 1943, recruiting policies were changed to permit SPARS to marry men of the USCG without having to resign. The USCG would continue to accept applicants who were married to men in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps, but would not accept a woman who was already married to an enlisted man or an officer serving in the USCG. However, women could join the SPARS if their husbands were enrolled as temporary members of the reserve.

In November 1943, the marriage policy with respect to recruits was changed further to permit women who were wives of cadets, warrant officers, or enlisted men of the USCG to enlist or be commissioned in the SPARs. The ban remained on women whose husbands were commissioned officers in the USCG with the rank of ensign or above.

Although the USCG officially opened its doors to African-American women in October 1944, it was not until March 1945 that the first five women were accepted; they were the only African-American women to serve in the SPARS. Although the Women’s Army Corp(WAC) accepted African-American women from its inception, the U.S. Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) only began accepting African-American women in October 1944, with fewer than 100 of them serving in the WAVES, and the US Marine Corp Reserve never opened its ranks to African-American women. The five African-American women who served in the SPARS were: Olivia Hooker, D. Winifred Byrd, Julia Mosley, Yvonne Cumberbatch, and Aileen Cooke.

“Our duties as SPARs were to fill jobs men had done to allow them to go overseas to fight,”

The average SPAR officer was 29 years old, single, a college graduate, and had worked seven years in a professional or managerial position (in education or government) before entering the service. The average enlisted SPAR was 24 years old, single, a high school graduate, and had worked for over three years in a clerical or sales job before joining the service. The likelihood was that she came from the state of New York  Pennsylvania, Ohio or California. The reasons for becoming a SPAR differed, but most likely it was patriotism, self-advancement, desire for travel and adventure, or the loss of a loved one in the war.

In their off-duty hours, SPARS contributed time and effort to many community and wartime causes. Some became active nurse’s aides, some rolled bandages for the Red Cross others donated blood to blood banks, some visited service men in convalescent hospitals, and others collected gifts for the men overseas. Many of them were also involved in the March of Dimes campaigns, and war chest and war bond drives.Both officers and enlisted were awarded ribbons and medals based on their service, and some were acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to the SPARS and the country.In general, SPARS looked upon their service favorably, and many of them found a form of kinship in having been a part of the nation’s military forces during wartime.

With the surrender of in August 1945, the USCG demobilization effort began, and the SPARS were gradually discharged. They were separated from the service on a point system, and on the basis of their jobs. However, many SPARS were reassigned to the personnel separation centers to help with demobilization (women and men reservists) and they were not separated until it was completed. The Women’s Reserve of the USCG (SPARS) was inactivated on 25 July 1947.

An adjustment came when the SPARs were issued blue slacks and jeans. “That was the first pair of pants I had ever worn,” she said. “We wore them during KP (kitchen patrol/cleanup) and when it was uniform of the day.”

SPAR Olivia J. Hooker, of Columbus, Ohio, at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Station, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York, 1945

In his foreword to Three Years Behind the Mast, Commodore J. A. Hirschfield, USCG, observed that the SPARS asked no favors and no privileges. They did their jobs with enthusiasm, with efficiency, and a minimum of fanfare. The USCG was fortunate in having the help of the SPARS who volunteered for duty when their country needed them, and carried the job through to a successful finish. The USCG named two cutters in honor of the SPARS:  USCGC Spar was 180-foot (55 m) sea going buoy tender commissioned in June 1944 and decommissioned in 1997, and USCGC Spar a 225-foot (69 m) seagoing buoy tender that was commissioned in 2001.

Although the SPARS no longer exist as a separate organization, the term is sometimes informally used for a female Coast Guardsman; however, it is not an officially sanctioned term.

 

Lundys of Sheepshead Bay by Kingsborough Community College

Lundy’s Restaurant in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn has seen its fair share of good and bad times since it opened in 1935. In its heyday, the restaurant reportedly seated over 2,000 patrons. Opened by Irving Lundy, the historic seafood restaurant operated from 1935-1977, and then again from 1997-2007. This photograph depicts the restaurant in 1961 at 1901 Emmons Avenue.

Irving Lundy was born in 1895, the oldest of seven children. Lundy came from a long line of fish sellers, his grandfather and great-uncles owned several fish stores and by the turn of the century, the family had an established reputation as renowned fish sellers. Within a three year span (1917-1920), Lundy’s parents died from illness, and then his brothers, Clayton and Stanley, died tragically in a boating accident.

By 1926, the first Lundy Brothers restaurant was built on stilts over a pier in Sheepshead Bay. The restaurant closed when the city made plans to revitalize the pier and build bulkheads. The restaurant on Emmons Avenue was built across the street and opened in 1935. They served heaping portions of fresh seafood—oysters, lobsters, and clams, as well as biscuits and fresh pies. Robert Cornfield, in his book Lundy’s: Reminiscences and Recipes from Brooklyn’s Legendary Restaurant, notes, “The resort feel of Lundy’s made it a weekend destination for those from other boroughs—there was the abundance of the Shore Dinner, the walk around the bay and across the wooden bridge to the beautifully landscaped streets of Manhattan Beach, the overarching sky over the narrows.”

Despite great success and notoriety, Lundy and his restaurant faced many tragedies over the years: Lundy was kidnapped and robbed on numerous occasions, the restaurant was robbed by gunmen, his sister and brother-in-law were murdered, there were labor protests, and legal issues. Lundy died of a heart attack in 1977 and the restaurant closed shortly after. Two decades later, the restaurant was re-opened under new management, and closed permanently in 2007. Today, Lundy’s Landing Shopping Plaza has replaced the restaurant.

Lundy’s in Sheepshead Bay was the favorite restaurant of Mimi Sheraton’s family. The huge California mission-style establishment on Emmons Avenue was probably the most popular restaurant in all of Brooklyn. Sheraton’s fondest memories, however, were of the place as it was in her childhood in the late 1920s and early ’30s, a listing dining room in a small white house, one of many seafood shacks on the piers jutting over the water. She remembers snowy white linen tablecloths, huge rolled napkins and white coats worn by courtly, courteous black waiters. Her father would table hop or go up to the clam bar to schmooze with friends who gathered there. According to a story on the restaurant and its founder that ran in Newsday in 1989, Lundy’s served alcohol despite Prohibition which might account in part for its great success in that decade.

Sheepshead Bay had been a place to fish, duck hunt or buy fresh seafood since the mid-19th century. It had a racetrack back then. Big spenders and their families stayed at resort hotels or in stately Victorians on Millionaires Row. Villepigue’s and Tappen’s both still around in 1946, were the reigning seafood palaces in the olden days. By the 1920s, the racetrack and the millionaires had gone and Sheepshead Bay was largely an Irish, Italian and Jewish residential neighborhood.

In the early 1930s all of the businesses on the piers, including Lundy’s, were forced to move when the WPA undertook a major renovation of the crumbling docks. In 1934 Irving Lundy reopened on the site of the old Bayside Hotel in a building that he intended to be the largest single structure restaurant in the world, . By then Lundy’s had become the place to go in Sheepshead Bay for a family Sunday dinner or to celebrate a special occasion. The new restaurant, inspired by the buildings Lundy had seen in California, occupied a city block, was two-stories high and sat 2,700 diners at a time.

The roof was red tile, the walls sand-colored stucco. Lundy put his initials. F.W.I. L for Frederick William Irving Lundy, and the family coat of arms over the doorway. Lundy had the builders embed crushed clam shells into the cement for luck. The interior had arched ceilings, stained glass windows and wrought-iron grillwork. There were two kitchens, multiple dining areas, a patio, a clam bar, and a liquor bar. Men in pinstripe suits and ladies with hats and furs would jam the place at peak hours.. Lundy’s drew an ethnic cross-section of Brooklynites: Irish, Germans and Italians as well as the upwardly mobile Jews of Midwood, Flatbush and Borough Park.

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There wasn’t much courtly or courteous about Lundy’s at its height of popularity. Elliot Willensky wrote of the roar of a thousand conversations and the sometimes interminable wait for service. Nick Viorst wrote that it was “an exercise in patience and intimidation.” The restaurant had no maitre d’s and took no reservations. People, who usually arrived in groups, elbowed their way through the crowded restaurant to find a table where the diners were eating dessert. They would hover and glare until the table was relinquished. Sometimes when a table was vacated, it would set off a mad scramble. At times fistfights broke out.

Getting a table was only half the battle. While Lundy instructed his waiters to develop a personal relationship with regulars like the Solomons, making them feel like big shots, it could be a different story for the occasional visitor, at least in later decades. After finally finding a table, the party might have a long wait before a waiter showed up with menus. When the waiter eventually got around to handing the diners the elaborate and somewhat unusual menu, he often would return before anyone had had a chance to study it.

If the patrons weren’t ready to shout your order over the din, it might be a long time before they saw the waiter again. Then it might be another long wait before the food arrived. But most felt it was worth it. The food was fresh and arrived steaming hot and by all accounts it was excellent. The portions were generous, the prices reasonable. For all the complaints, the place had the festive atmosphere of a communal event with a certain ritual aspect such as the lobster bib, said to be a Lundy’s invention, fingerbowls at the end of the meal and the visit to the oyster bar to swallow raw littlenecks.

Lundy hired only African-American waiters and busboys well into the poswar era. At peak time he had 200 employees working the floor. Many of them formerly had worked as grooms at the racetrack or as Pullman porters. In the summer he brought in college students from Black colleges down south. Viorst noted that working at Lundy’s was a tough job for the waiters who had to keep track of many tables while transporting steaming hot trays of food through the massive, non air-conditioned dining rooms.

They sweated so much they changed their crisp white jackets several times during the course of a workday. Irving Lundy was a perfectionist and eccentric with a short fuse, Occasionally physical altercations took place in the kitchen between Lundy family members and their employees. He kept the unions out of his restaurant but he paid his employees well.

Like most patrons, the Solomons usually ordered the shore dinner, which was copied from Villepigues where it was said to have been first assembled for Diamond Jim Brady in the Gilded Age. It started with a choice of soup (usually the clam chowder), shrimp, clam, oyster or crab cocktail, followed by steamers that had been dunked in their own briny broth and then into melted butter, half a lobster with the meat picked from the shells, half a chicken, corn on the cob with more butter, and baskets of miniature, Southern-style flaky biscuits. Sheraton remembers the table holding bowls of slim French fries, relish dishes of cole slaw, and pitchers of iced tea. She insists that the well-remembered “blueberry pie” actually was huckleberry.

Sometimes the Solomons ordered watermelon instead of pie for dessert. If they were in the mood for “something different” the main course might be crab meat, lobster or shrimp au gratin under a golden brown cheese and cream sauce or a gold-pink sherry, egg and cream Newburg sauce. The Solomons loved Lundy’s so much that Joseph Solomon sometimes stopped in on his way home from work to pick up a basket of soft-shelled clams to bring home as a surprise for the family.

Frederick William Irving Lundy was an interesting transitional character in Brooklyn’s history who deserves a post of his own. By birth he was Old Brooklyn. His grandfather, also named Frederick, was brought to Brooklyn in 1838 as a 14-year-old orphan by the Van Nostrand family whose roots went back to New Amsterdam. While the Lundy family suspected they might be of Dutch and English origin, Frederick came to the US from Bremerhaven, Germany, which at the time of his birth was not yet a major port but an assemblage of small fishing villages scattered on the mudflats and islands near the mouth of the Weser River on the North Sea.

When the first Frederick Lundy started a fish business Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach were the summer resort towns for Manhattan’s elite, sort of the mid-19th century Hamptons. The original Lundy Brothers were his five sons, including Irving’s father, Frederick Jr. By then Sheepshead Bay Racetrack, Brighton Beach Race Course and Gravesend Racetrack had made South Brooklyn the horse-racing capital of the country, patronized by the millionaire sportsmen of the Gilded Age and Gay Nineties. Lundy Brothers supplied fish to the hotels and restaurants that catered to this crowd.

By 1880 they had three retail fish markets, their own clam beds, and a boat rental business in addition to their wholesale fish business. Frederick Jr. was active in the Democratic Party in Brooklyn and served as county registrar and tax commissioner. He married a judge’s daughter, bought up a lot of waterfront property in Sheepshead Bay and was recognized as one of Brooklyn’s leading citizens.

The affluent sporting crowd still frequented Sheepshead Bay in 1895 when Irving, as he preferred to be called, was born but with the closing of the racetracks the community went into decline. The red-haired, blue-eyed youngster started his first business, a chowder stand on the pier, when he was 9 years old. The business was booming when he went off to serve in the Navy during the First World War.

 

While he was away, his mother died in the great influenza pandemic of 1917. His father died a year later, making Irving the head of the family at 23. He opened a clam shack with his brothers who did much of the clamming while Irving oversaw the retail operation. In 1920 the rowboat carrying his three brothers and an employee back to their winter quarters on a mud flat in Jamaica Bay where they had an oyster bed was hit by an ice floe and sank.

 

The youngest brother, 17-year old Stanley, was separated from the others in the thick fog and drowned. Twenty-one year old Clayton died trying to save him. Allen Lundy and his employee made it to the beach. Irving was devastated and filled the Methodist church the family attended with memorials. It is said he never again got in a boat or swam.

By the time he opened his first restaurant in 1926, Irving was already a millionaire. According to an 1989 Newsday feature story on Irving and his family, the Lundys were also rum runners. Allen would take his speedboat out beyond the territorial waters to meet the supply boat and then bring the contraband ashore, sometimes with the Coast Guard in pursuit, He once took a bullet in his thigh. The two brothers and their three sisters manned barricades along the piers with shotguns to keep out any competitors. They were one tough crew of Methodists.

As a young man Irving was something of a man about town, palling around with Henry Ford and frequenting city nightclubs. He liked fine clothes and jewelry.  Although he had a few flings with women as a young man, his closest relationship was with Henry Linker, his steadfast companion for over thirty years. Linker helped manage the restaurant. They lived together. They drove around town in an aquamarine Lincoln Zephyr with brown leather seats and frequented the Cotton Club in the early days. Irving never fully recovered when Linker died in the late 1950s.

In 1926 a trio of thugs kidnapped Linker and Lundy as they were closing the restaurant. They were after the flashy diamond ring Irving often wore. He happened not to be wearing it that day and, when he refused to tell them where it was, they threatened to kill him. He stood his ground and the thieves satisfied themselves with his diamond stickpin and four thousand dollars from the restaurant safe. They left Linker and Lundy with enough money for cab fare home after telling them how much they enjoyed eating in their restaurant. They eventually were apprehended and sentenced to life in prison.

After the incident Lundy became more socially reclusive and suspicious of strangers. Allen was the brother who most often dealt with the restaurant customers after that although Irving was very much in charge. Later his nephews joined the business. Irving and Linker spent much of their free time at his estate in the Catskills, which eventually grew to 30,000 acres. Linker was a pilot and flew them up. Irving imagined himself a rancher often dressing in Stetson, cowboy boots and western clothes when he worked the land or oversaw his herd of Angus cattle. He also had two estates on Long Island, including one in Brookville that had belonged to a Vanderbilt. In town he now usually wore a threadbare camel hair coat and fedora.

The WPA renovation of the Sheepshead Bay waterfront was a disaster for most of the small businesses on the pier but an opportunity for Irving who made his mammoth new showplace the centerpiece of a reborn Sheepshead Bay reinvented as a place for Brooklyn’s emerging middle class. He and Linker lived in an adjacent house. During the ’30s and ’40s he bought up much of the property along the waterfront that he had not already inherited. But he missed the old “Clam Coast” destroyed by the renovation and was said to be a benevolent landlord to the businesses that remained and a frequent anonymous benefactor to individuals and families from the old days.

His political connections as well as those of his loyal patrons stopped the feds from permanently closing the new restaurant in 1935 for liquor violations. He was also one of the few to win a battle against Robert Moses who was ramming the Belt Parkway through the seaside communities in the 1930s.

Irving Lundy was not only a product of Old Brooklyn and the founder of a beloved institution of the New Brooklyn of the mid-twentieth century, but also a tragic victim of the borough’s disintegration in the 1970s. He had become almost a total recluse after Linker’s death, living in an apartment over the restaurant with a pack of Irish setters.

The almost unbelievably horrific and violent story of the final decade of his life and of his restaurant, including the murder of his sister and brother-in-law, his betrayal by his closest associate and the suspicious circumstances of his own death, is a tragic end to a great storied life.

From a reader:

Lundy’s
1901 Emmons Avenue, Sheepshead Bay — Lundy’s was the city’s most humongous — and one of the best — seafood restaurants. It could seat 2,800 patrons at once, making it the largest dining establishment in the country. Occupying an entire city block, the structure still stands today, a two-story building with unusual Spanish architectural flourishes, poised on the concrete lip of Sheepshead Bay. Favorite dishes included raw clams on the half shell, small buttered biscuits, tomato salads, corn on the cob, shore dinner, Manhattan clam chowder, and huckleberry pie served with Breyers ice cream.

The place evolved out of a clam bar that opened in 1907; the current premises dates to 1934. It closed in 1977, only to reopen in 1995, filling only half of its former floorspace, and persisted for an additional decade or so. Now an upscale food market occupies the space.

Lundy’s Angry Lobster
Recipe Ingredients
3 cloves roasted garlic
1/2 ounce chopped garlic
2 ounces white wine
1 rosemary sprig
1 pound lobster, cut into 6 pieces
3 ounces clam juice
1/2 teaspoon crushed pepper
1/4 ounce dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon butter
1/2 ounce chiffonade basil
8 ounces linguini
1/2 ounce chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Method
Place sauté pan in oven to heat. When hot, add lobster and put back in oven for 3 minutes. Add garlic, dried oregano and red pepper. When garlic is lightly caramelized, deglaze with white wine and clam juice. Season, then place back in oven.

Finish lobster sauce with butter.

Heat pasta in boiling water for 1 minute, strain and place in fresh sauté pan.

Arrange lobster putting body back together. Pour sauce over all and garnish with rosemary and chiffonade basil.

Chopped Parsley – 6 bunches = 12 ounces chopped

Soak parsley in ice water. Remove and shake off excess water. Gather leaves together and twist. Julienne from top until you reach edge of stems. Dice until fine. Put wet towel and rinse. Let dry slightly. Store in refrigerator.

Cook Pasta – 1 pound = 3 portions

Place pasta in salted boiling water for 7-9 minutes or until al dente. Shock in ice water to stop cooking. Toss with blended olive oil to coat and prevent sticking.

Sources dor this post and the next:
From My Mother’s Kitchen by Mimi Sheraton
Eating My Words by Mimi Sheraton
“The Once and Future Lundy’s” by Nick Viorst in Brooklyn A State of Mind, Michael Robbins & Wendy Palitz, editors.
When Brooklyn Was the World by Eliot Willensky
Wikipedia article
It Happened in Brooklyn: An Oral History of Growing Up in the Borough in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s by Myrna and Harvey Frommer
“Historically Speaking: Lundy’s a Fishy Tale” by John Manbeck, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 8, 2007
“Lundy’s Again Center of Attention: Restaurant a Focus of Controversy” by Alexis Jetter, Newsday, February 9, 1989
“A Mistrust of Strangers: The Haunted Days of Irving Lundy,” by Annelise Orleck and Alexis Jetter, Newsday,September 24, 1989
Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food: An Opinionated History and More Than 100 Legendary Recipes by Arthur Schwartz

Lundys of Sheepshead Bay

The Babe and the Iron Horse Visit Sheepshead Bay by Kingsborough

The ‘Iron Horse’ and ‘The Babe’ visit Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY – 1927

The year was 1927 and the New York Yankees had just completed a season where they set an American League record of 110 winning games with only 44 losses, and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs in 1927 set a single-season record, which would stand for the next 34 years. First baseman Lou Gehrig, ‘The Iron Horse’, had his first big season with a batting average of .373 and 47 home runs, and was the American League’s Most Valuable Player of the year.

After the historic baseball season concluded, both Gehrig and Ruth took advantage of the off-season to enjoy some of the fine codfishing offered by the Sheepshead Bay party boat fleet. These incredible and rare photos was taken on November 10, 1927 aboard the Sheepshead Bay party boat “ELMAR II”.

Standing from right to left are Lou Gherig, Captain Gus Rau of the “ELMAR II” and Babe Ruth. They spent the day fishing for cod at the Cholera Bank off of Kingsborough Community College and the Rockaways.,

 We are sure these two members of the Yankee’s ‘Murderer’s Row’ were true to their nickname and dropped a few fish on the deck.

Ruth at Gehrig’s Funeral

Brooklyn,Brooklyn,Brooklyn,Brooklyn-MC Lyte

The Kingsborough Beach-Brooklyn NY August 2016

“The Captain”-Tony DiLernia and Kingsborough

“The Captain”

Captain Tony DiLernia’s thirty-five years of chartering experience guiding some of New York’s finest fishermen guarantees your trip will be one of the most memorable you’ll ever have. The knowledge developed from a lifetime of fishing and fifteen years of operating a research vessel in New York Harbor are combined to insure your fishing success. A marine biologist by training and a member of the faculty of Kingsborough Captain DiLernia’s reputation as a charter captain and industry leader are well known and highly respected.
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Captain Anthony DiLernia ( Tony) is currently both the Director of Maritime Technology at Kingsborough Community College, a unit of The City University of New York, a charter boat operator with thirty five years experience in the Mid-Atlantic region, and an occasional outdoor writer.

His past positions have included Chairman of NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, membership on the New York Seafood Council and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, (1991-2002),  President of the New York State Marine Education Association and President of the United Boatmen of New York.  He has received awards for his work in fisheries management from, the Science Council of New York, the New York Fishing Tackle Trades Association, the Coastal Conservation Association of New York, and the Northeast region of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

As Maritime Technology Program Director and a charter boat operator with 35 years of experience in the Mid-Atlantic region, Prof. DiLernia—also an occasional outdoors writer—has directed one of the most successful community college Maritime Technology programs for more than a decade. Approximately 100 students are enrolled in KCC’s Maritime Technology program in a range of deck and engine classes on such topics as steamship piloting, marine electronics, welding, low-voltage electrical systems, safety and survival, marina operations, oceanography, and vessel repair.Kingsborough Community College – DiLernia

Born to a commercial fishing family from Brooklyn, in the 1950’s, Captain DiLernia  lived as a child a short while in southern Italy before returning to Queens, NY.

A graduate of Archbishop Molloy High School, Captain DiLernia earned his Bachelor’s, Masters and Professional Degrees from St. John’s University, specializing in Marine Science and School Administration.  He earned his Coast Guard Captain’s license in 1978.

Since high school, Captain DiLernia has been an active participant in New York’s charter-boat fishing industry and has been elected to a number of government panels designed to develop sustainable fishery practices.

He currently resides in Queens, New York, with his wife of thirty-nine years, LuAnn and has two adult children Michael and JoAnn.

 

 

Walter Winchell once referred to the Coast Guard’s Boot Camp at Manhattan Beach as the only legal “Concentration Camp” in the world. -some memories of what is now Kingsborough Community College.

On 24 April 1944, at the age of 17 years, one month, 11 days, I enlisted in the United States Coast Guard at the recruiting office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My father, Chief Boatswain Mate Earl J. Morris, officer in charge, said something about meeting his quota or shipping out.  I had graduated from high school January 1944 at the age of 16 and thought I could win the war all by myself.

At that time the Coast Guard was enlisting men only as Steward Mates Third Class (STM3/C) who would serve as permanent mess cooks wherever they were stationed.  Many went to the twenty-two AP transports and  nine APA assault transports which the Coast Guard manned for the U.S. Navy. My father, using   his 24 years of service, requested my enlistment as an Apprentice Seaman (A/S). It was approved, and off I went to Manhattan Beach Training Station, Brooklyn, New York.  I was assigned to Company “Y” as one of about forty other apprentice seamen who, for one reason or the other,  were able to stay out of the galley!

We didn’t get there all at the same time.  We sort of wandered in piece meal.  Boot camp started for me wherever everyone else was at the time. My second day there I took my physical and shots, collected my sea bag issue.  That night someone showed me how to stencil, “roll and stop” my gear.  The next morning I had a sea bag inspection from one of the Company  Y “bungalow boatswains”.

Before the war Manhattan Beach was a summer vacation spot with about sixty  duplex bungalows. When the Coast Guard took over, all the partitions were removed to make room for 30 double deck bunks, rifle racks, 4 commodes and 2 sinks.  It was crowded.  Among other facilities, barracks, training buildings, and the USCGC NEVERSAIL were built.  Included was  a  “head” with about 50 sinks and 100 shower heads and all the cold water you could use.  The hot water lasted for about the first ten people. We of course had to wear leggings, “boots”, have square hats, polished shoes.  And whatever the uniform of the day that was announced about five minutes before muster for breakfast at 0530.

Right across the street was a bungalow for the crew of Patrol Frigate 93 USS LORAIN (PF93) who were awaiting the ship’s commissioning.  To say the least, they were not a bunch of “boots”.  No one seemed to have anything for them to do, so they didn’t do anything but make fun of us “boots”. And go on liberty which we could not do.

At the time of my arrival, Company “Y”  was learning to launch pulling boats and row all over Sheepshead Bay. And do it over and over again.  The next week we  were sent “next door” to the U.S. Maritime Training Station to practice abandoning ship without the life boat.  You were  instructed how to put on the Kapok life jacket, hold your nose, grab  your family jewels, keep your feet together and jump 20 feet into a large tank with a pretty serious fire burning on top.  You had to swim out of the flames, splashing water about to keep your eyebrows from being singed or hair catching fire.  You got to do this three times the first day.

The next couple of days we practiced putting out fires above and below decks in a “training ship”.  We learned how to use a number of fire fighting rigs, how to close water tight doors, pump water from one compartment to another, wear oxygen breathing apparatuses and be able to live in a smoke filled environment.  Then rush top side, grab your family jewels, and jump into the flame filled tank, splash water everywhere, get hauled out, form up and march back to the bungalow.  You didn’t eat between  the 0530 breakfast and   1800 supper.  I recall we spent nearly the whole week doing that. My eyebrows eventually grew back.

The third week we were told to get our shaving kits, two pair of skivvies, two pair of dungarees.  We boarded a bus for Sea Girt, New Jersey to gunnery school six hours away.  The first day was spent in the classroom being instructed in 20mm, 40mm twin and quad mounts, the 3 inch 50-caliber, and the 5 inch 38-caliber open mount.  Four days were spent trying to shoot down the U.S. Navy plane towing targets back and forth. Some PF crews were there also, but we weren’t allowed to be contaminated by them.  We were given lunch.  A canteen cup of green pea soup and two pieces of dry bread separated by a slab of ham or spam.  Nothing to brag about.  Nor was breakfast or supper.

Then back to MBTS and our first liberty. Saturday 1200 to Sunday 1800. I slept most of mine at a USO in New York City!

Several of the “old” boots graduated and went on to better things, and several new ones arrived.  My fourth week was learning how to do close order drill and march endlessly all over the base.  Quite often I went around the drill field at double time with my rifle at high port. This was to teach me something, I’m sure.  We had to march everywhere.  And scrub our clothes in a bucket, use the clothes stops to tie them to some ratlines, haul them up a central mast.  Then post a guard  with about six others (STM3/C) to march around the clothes mast till the clothes were almost dry, lower them down, roll them up, “stop” them, put them in your sea bag in a specific order.  And hope they didn’t turn black from mildew before you used them again.

Around the fifth and sixth weeks we learned all about the USCGC NEVERSAIL.  How to tie knots, make rope fenders, splice both manila and wire rope till your fingers bled, especially if you bit your fingernails.  Do you realize how many nerve endings are in your fingertips?   We also learned how to stand various watches. How to semaphore.  How to salute; when to salute.  How to man the side; what the “bosun” blew on his pipe.  How to make the NEVERSAIL ready to sail.  How to approach a dock; how to tie it up.  How to anchor; how to rig a sea anchor.  How to rig a collision mat; how to make one.

At the end of the sixth week, about 12 of us were placed on orderly duty at MBTS headquarters running countless errands, making coffee, cleaning up after everyone and saluting everyone. During one of my errand runs I wound up in the classification branch of the personnel office and found a kind soul who took pity on me.  He had me make out the necessary paper work to get assigned to the next Quartermaster/Signalman School there at MBTS.  That class  began on 12 June 1944.  Suddenly the eight long weeks of my boot camp was over.  Without boot leave. I was rated Seaman Second Class (S2/C) and moved out of the bungalow into a large barracks building with an indoor “head” and hot water showers.  I had arrived!

I know I’ve left a lot out.  We had pretty good chow.  Got to see some first run movies after setting up the chairs in the base gym.  Had four liberties in New York City that I didn’t sleep through.

Boot Camp was eight weeks long, and I can only remember the names of about three people,

QM/SM school was 12 weeks long and although we learned a lot about Quartermaster tasks, were all rated as Signalman on graduation.  I later changed my rate to Quartermaster 3/C. And  after surviving the sinking of the USCGC MAGNOLIA and a brief hospital stay, the Japanese gave up, the war was over, and I got the opportunity to train as an Aviation Machinist Mate.

I left the Coast Guard in December 1948 after nearly 5 years, and joined the U.S. Air Force for another 25 years of service. –Ted A. Morris, LTC, USAF, RET.

 

View of the Manhattan Beach and Oriental Boulevard Hotels from Sheepshead Bay-Turn of the 20th Century-Where Kingsborough Stands Today

” I Didn’t Appreciate Brooklyn Until I Left It.” – Rosie Perez

The Changing Shape of the Point at the End of Brooklyn-The Manhattan Beach/Kingsborough Peninsula 1600-2017

Pre- 1600’s -Occupied by Canarsee Native Americans of Lenni Lenape Tribe- a hunting fishing area where Native Americans collected Oysters and Clams from Jamaica Bay.

1600’s Dutch -The Sedge Bank- a large swampy area at the eastern most point of Coney Island.

1600’s -Sedge Bank- a swampy area at eastern end of Coney Island used by smugglers and pirates.

1600’s- Coney Island named for the Dutch Word for Rabbit

1700’s- Township of Gravesend-deeded to Lady Deborah Moody

1700’s- Sheepshead Bay- named for the Fish, with the highly unusual human teeth.

1700’s -Sheepshead Bay

Late 1800’s Manhattan Beach Railroad Map to Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels at eastern point of Coney Island.

1879- Approximate Locations of Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels.

 

1890-Map of Manhattan beach and Oriental Hotels

1894- Photo of Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels

1880’s- Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels

1897- Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels

Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotel 1897

1897- Manhattan Beach and Oriental Hotels

1910 View of Coney Island from Balloon

1921- View of site where Kingsborough now stands.

1922 View of Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach

1932- Manhattan Beach Baths

 

1934- Manhattan Beach Baths

1934- Manhattan Beach Baths

1946 Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Facility

1946- Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Facility from Blimp.

1946- Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Facility

1947- United States Air Force Training Facility

1959 Occupied as Housing for  US Military

1967- Abandoned Military Base Occupied by Kingsborough Community College

1967- Kingsborough Community College

2015- Kingsborough Community College

2015- Kingsborough

2015- Kingsborough

2015- Kingsborough

2017- Kingsborough Community College