“And the Home of the Brave… PLAY BALL!”

Sixty-four years ago this week, another piece of history was made in Nyack.  On August 23, 1946 George Raetz of the Nyack Rocklands pitched the league’s first nine inning no-hitter. It was a 9-0 gem over the Walden Hummingbirds in professional baseball’s North Atlantic League, and it was pitched at McCallman Field in Nyack (Otherwise known as the Old Nyack High School Field, constructed in 1937).  The no-hitter was pitched in front of hundreds of screaming Nyack Rockland’s fans, at night.  Under the lights. In 1946. In contrast, the first night game for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field was in… 1988. Nyack beat the Cubs by 42 years. 

The Nyack Rocklands were a farm team for the Major League team the Philadelphia Athletics (now the American League’s Oakland Athletics) and played in the post-war ’40’s until they were moved to Pennsylvania for the last year of the North Atlantic League’s existence and had their honorable – if awkward – name changed to the somewhat silly “Hazelton Mountaineers” (why do I hear them singing “The Lonely Goatherd” on the bench?).  The league stretched from Maine to D.C. and was considered Class D ball. 

Bill Kalfass of the Nyack Rocklanders would move up to the Philadelphia Athletics as a major league lefty pitcher; shortstop Alex Garbowski would head to the Detroit Tigers. Unlike the current Yankees and Mets, the Nyack Rocklanders did not seem to lack for pitching, except that the pitchers kept moving up to the majors just like Garbowski. Fred Hahn, another southpaw, would move to the St. Louis Cardinals, along with perhaps the most famous Nyack Rocklander, Charlie Fuchs. Fuchs actually played several years for Nyack after his time in the majors, where he was a switch-hitting, right-handed pitcher for “dem bums” the Brooklyn Dodgers; the Detroit Tigers; the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles); and the Philadelphia BLUEJAYS (it appears that for a brief few years in the late ’40s the city of Philadelphia collectively lost its’ mind and renamed the Phillies after a rather annoying if pretty songbird – by 1950 the real name was back). 

Sadly, the era of minor league ball in Nyack was less than a decade, nor does it look likely to return.  The closest we will get is a minor league team that is due to begin playing ball at a new stadium in Pomona.  Though Ramapo voters rejected a Bond proposal to pay for the project, the highly controversial plan is still going forward without the Bond according to the Supervisor of Ramapo and 50 games are scheduled to be played in the 2011 season.  I will not comment on whether or not this rejection of the outcome of the vote is a wise decision for Ramapo in the current economy (might be, might not be) but if they build it, I will come. Currently they are deciding on a name (which will begin with “Rockland”), and there are ten names being considered.  Of that list, the “Rockland Palisaders” seems to me to be the one that would please most people… but my emotional favorite?  The “Rockland Red Glare“… now there’s a name (and a song) I’d proudly stand up for!  I hope they remember to call me about singing the National Anthem at one of the games! 

Charlie Fuchs photo Baseball-Reference.com

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There Oughtta’ Be A Law!

As a matter of fact there IS a law – lots of ’em, along with ordinances, building codes and zoning regulations.  A total of 59 Chapters and Sub-Chapters comprise the “Nyack Village Code” – and a fascinating 59 Chapters it is! 

For instance, did you realize Nyack has a curfew after 10 PM for those under the age of 17? Owning a Rooster is illegal? Are you aware that property owners who have not cleared the sidewalks abutting their property of snow by 11 AM (or salted, if the storm is continuing) are liable for a substantial fine? How about the restriction of ALL pets from attending the streetfairs – not just dogs as many seem to think, but kitties, birdies and SNAKES too (Remember the guy with the python wrapped around his neck at all the streetfairs? Obviously, he freaked out one too many people!) 

I was hoping to find some really wacko laws still hanging around the books (I mean come on, Nyack has been around since the 1600s!) but alas, no. Our faithful mayors and boards of trustees have diligently removed most of the silly ordinances over time.  However, there is subtle humor to be found – it seems our 59 Chapters of Village Code are laid out ALPHABETICALLY which does create some really wonderfully juxtapositions of concepts. Therefore we find “Public Performances” followed immediately by “Refuse Disposal”; “Noise” prophetically proceeding “Notice Prior to Civil Action”; “Assessments” leading to “Bankrupt Goods License” and “Streets and Sidewalks” linked to “Solicitation” caused me to wonder if there’s a side to Nyack I am missing.  The combination that left me stuck between laughter and outrage was my discovery that “Domestic Partnerships” are wedged between “Disorderly Conduct” and “Animals”. (Leading me to think Chapter 17 was once simply “Dogs”, which does not really improve the consequences of this unintended bit of humor!) 

Reading through any Municipality’s Code is like taking a walk through history – the earliest resolutions (Drinking in Public, Animals, Property Maintenance) go back to 1935.  If you know any Nyack history you might guess when certain chapters were added? Curfew laws were strengthened during the period of Youth unrest in 1968, Hawking and Peddling regulations at the apex of door-to-door salesmen in the 1950s. When I was a kid in the 1970s, downtown began to be littered with abandoned shopping carts – everywhere – sure enough Chapter 2 was adopted in 1973. Filming Permits began in earnest in the 1980s when everyone seemed to want to use Nyack as a setting for their film or TV show, and the regs were strengthened back in the early 2000s when “Ed” was filming and taking our village just a bit too much for granted. 

So why not take a look at Nyack’s Village Code, at this nifty site: http://nyack-ny.gov/village-code and see what laws YOU don’t know about. My fellow realtors might want to direct their buyers this way so that they are aware that, yep, the sidewalks and their complete maintenance , repair and replacement are their responsibility!  Now, if SOMEBODY would just enforce that regulation about keeping your privet hedges from blocking the sidewalks! 

Photo from Flickr.com

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“Well Done, Sister Suffragettes!”

On the 90th Birthday of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified August 18, 1920) – “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” – I thought a visit to some of the courageous Nyack Women who helped make a dream into reality  was in order.  

After the passage of the 14th Amendment which extended citizenship to freed slaves, many constitutional lawyers thought the way the amendment was worded meant it could be interpreted as extending the same rights to women. So, in 1871 a group of four Nyack women marched into the polls, accompanied by a man – Mr. Mansfield, head of the Nyack Female Institute (College) who would not allow the women to be bullied. The four women presented their ballots to the Elections Inspector who accepted them – oddly two voted Democratic, two Republican, effectively cancelling each other, but that was NOT the point. Unfortunately, the federal government did not consider women yet “worthy” of the vote, and women were kept from the polls in the future.  

One of Nyack’s great activists, Caroline Lexow (Lexow Avenue, anyone?) rose to national attention after her graduation from Columbia (she was kept behind a screen so no one would see that a woman was getting a diploma from what at the time was an all male institution) and a post-graduate degree from Barnard (there WERE women there) and forming one of the most important groups for women’s rights in the early twentieth century. Though women’s right to vote failed to pass in New York in 1915, in Rockland County the legislation lost by only a few hundred votes, and Nyack and South Nyack both carried FOR universal suffrage.  New York State would pass women’s suffrage in 1917 (and Rockland County passed it by a large margin) a full two years prior to the federal passage.  (Don’t be too impressed with New York – Wyoming had it since 1869, and women in New Jersey had the right to vote from the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 through ’till 1807 when the rest of the states forced them to rescind women’s voting rights).  

By June of 1919 Congress approved the amendment and sent it to the states for ratification – Tennessee finally pushed the amendment over the top by becoming the 36th State to ratify, thus making it the law of the land. The Tennessee Constitutional Convention had been deadlocked 48 – 48, until one dissenting delegate – a Harry T. Burn – received a very long, very terse letter from his Mommy, (I picture a “Howler” like the ones Ron Weasley gets from his mother in “Harry Potter”) resulting in a vote of 49 – 47.  

Thanks to Caroline Lexow, and the other courageous activist women (and men!) from the Nyacks, another step for equal rights for all was taken in these United States of America. In fact, there  is a “Caroline Lexow Babcock” award given out by NOW, and our own Ellen Jaffe has been awarded that honor.  

Now, could I please get married?  

photo from Brooklyn Museum Collection

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Why Is It Called That? Part 2

More on some of our quirky names:

Tweed Boulevard: Yep, it’s true, the road that runs north/south along the top of Clausland Mountain from Piermont through Upper Grandview and South Nyack into Nyack is indeed named after Boss Tweed of the infamous New York City institution “Tammany Hall”. For those who may have forgotten High School History, Tammany Hall was the Democratic Political machine in New York City from the late 1700s until as recently as the 1930s. Though the political group was responsible for a number of very good things (ask any Irish Catholic with long roots in New York and they’ll tell you how much positive influence Tammany Hall had on the very persecuted New York Irish community of the 1800s) it was also responsible for Graft, Vice and a number of fixed elections.  William “Boss” Tweed was the leader of Tammany Hall from 1858 to 1871 and the most extreme abuses came under his watch. He kept an estate out-of-town on the top of Clausland Mountain… thus, Tweed Boulevard. 

photo from AmericanHeritage.Com collection

Voorhis Point & Voorhis Avenue:  One of the early Dutch families that settled the Nyack area all the way back in the 1600s, by the 1800s the family was quite influential – along with the Onderdonks, the Voorhis family controlled two quarries in Nyack by the early 1800s and would be largely responsible for what would become the Nyack Water Company, setting up three small water reservoirs in Nyack by the late 1880s.  Voorhis Hall, on the corner of Main and Broadway was a venue for meetings and performances, and the Voorhis family was involved in the Nyack Opera House (yep, Nyack had an OPERA HOUSE along with a minor league baseball team, ah, those were the days!). The long involvement of the Voorhis family in the Nyacks is recognized in two streets and several buildings named for them.

Depot Place:  Yes, the South Nyack street called Depot Place which runs north/south from the Nyack Border on Cedar Hill Avenue to Brookside Avenue is where the Nyack Spur of the Erie Lackawanna (later the West Shore Railroad) ended. From the middle of the 1800s until the 1960s one could take the “Banker’s Special” from Nyack at 8:10 AM and be at one’s desk in Manhattan by 9:00 AM. Calling it progress, the rail line was removed in the 1960s because of the installation of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the idea that somehow commuting by car was a better idea… I still remember my Dad taking that train, and the train from the railroad station in Blauvelt on the once passenger, now freight-only main spur of the West Shore Railroad.  Just my opinion, but the loss of our rail service was a political blunder of the highest magnitude!

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First Lady of Nyack

Theater-goers in the USA and England knew her as The First Lady of The American Theatre (though she would often say her friend Katharine Cornell deserved the title); Charities, especially those dealing with Asthma or Literacy or Wildflowers knew her as a great philanthropist; Nyackers, especially those of us at St. Ann’s, knew her as simply “Mrs. MacArthur”. She was of course, our most beloved resident, Helen Hayes MacArthur.

photo courtesy of Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater

She was the first woman EVER to achieve the Show Business Grand Slam – an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy – and one of only five performers to do so (a total of ten people have won competitive Grand Slam – two additional, Liza Minelli and Barbra Streisand have a Grand Slam due to non-competitive special awards).  Richard Rogers was the first to get a Grand Slam, making Hayes the first performer, male or female to reach that stratified level of arts achievement. She was also the recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Vatican would send a Papal Representative to her funeral at St. Ann’s.  Throughout her long and storied career she was always, first and foremost, a Lady with a capital L. It was said of the two great American Theater actresses that Katherine Cornell could play a queen and make her into a woman, while Helen Hayes could play any woman and make her into a queen.

photo courtesy of Helen Hayes Hospital

For me, she was the woman I shared the altar with – many times – at St. Ann’s. She as lector and I as cantor – and can I tell you, the reading from 13 Corinthians “in the end there are three things that last: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love” never had a more ardent reader than Mrs. MacArthur. To hear her speak the readings for Christmas Midnight Mass was to be transported – pity the poor priest or deacon who had to follow her!  And I knew her as the Lady who had me sing at her Christmas Parties, and was always so kind and gentle.  Her best friend was actress Lillian Gish – and my own grandmother was Lillian Gish’s understudy a number of times during my Nana’s time in show business.  Ms. Gish was as lovely as Mrs. MacArthur and the two of them always referred to my grandmother as “Little Irene” and to me as (not surprisingly) “Little Irene’s Grandson”.  I will never forget the day when I was at Fordham and a friend of mine and I cut our “History of Cinema” class to go have Tea at the Plaza (we thought we were so “chic”) and sure enough who was at the next table – Mrs. MacArthur. How cool is it for a college theater student to have HELEN HAYES come over to YOU at your table to say “hello”? Let me tell you, after that, we always got the best table available in the place!  However, the next time I saw her at church, I told Mrs. MacArthur that she’d cut me cutting class one of the few times in my life.  Her response? “So maybe bumping into the old lady with two Oscars was a sign from someone upstairs that you should be taking your movies class and not larking about town, hmmm?” I never cut another class.

It was with much pain that I stood by while the theater named after her in her beloved Nyack had its name changed. Though I understood the legal ramifications that made it a necessity, I bemoaned the fact that there was no longer any tribute to her in the town she loved so well. Every time I pass her home walking to my friend Randy’s house, I still hear her laughter in my head and see that gentle smile of hers. What a gift to have known just a little bit of the inside story of one of the great figures in American Theatre and American Philanthropy. She was a great gift to Nyack, and a great loss.  I hope coming generations will find some way to memorialize this remarkable, gentle woman.

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Television Tid-bits

It is no surprise to most residents, and even most visitors that the number of celebrities living in and around Nyack is rather higher than the average small town. Broadway, TV, and Movie stars are ever-present, not to mention Film Directors, Radio Hosts, Composers, Rock Musicians, Jazz Musicians… and I can go on and on…

But sometimes, it’s actually the environs of Nyack that become “the star of the show”.  Fans of the television series “The Ghost Whisperer” may be constantly experiencing a sense of deja-vu NOT having to do with the current episode’s script. That’s because the series takes place in a Village called “Grandview” that’s “down by the river” and bears a suspicious resemblance in a number of aspects to our own little Village and its tony next-door neighbor Grandview-on-Hudson. In fact, in the show, the local university is “Rockland University” and the next village downriver is not surprisingly a place called “Piermont”!  It seems that John Gray, the Creator of “GW” grew up in the city and visited up here quite often. Obviously, he was enamored of the area if he chose to set his charming fictional village here – and of course, the Nyack area’s long association with the supernatural – from the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, visits from “The Flying Dutchman” on the Tappan Sea, and even the only legally haunted house in America does make the River Villages the proper setting for a ghost series, don’t you think? (For all you ghouls and boys out there, I’ll be chatting with Diane Smith of Rand Realty, the agent who sold the aforementioned legally haunted house when the leaves begin to turn!)

Nyack itself played the role of “Stuckeyville” in the NBC series “ED” a few years back. In fact every Monday, the Runcible Spoon was closed for filming. Let me tell you, for those of us who only had Mondays off – that was a burden! Eventually, as most TV series do, the location shoots stopped and a “mock-up” Runcible Spoon was created on an indoor stage set downtown, no longer allowing for glimpses of Nyack’s views or distinctive architecture!

Nyack’s also been used as a special location shoot for a number of New York based TV series – I hear that even the ladies from “Sex in the City” strutted through our streets in their Manolo Blahniks one sunny day!

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