Awaiting the Barbarians
by Constantin P. Cavafy
Konstantinos Kavafis, a Jew of Alexandria
Composed in 1904
— Why are we come together in the market place?
Barbarians are expected here to-day.
— Why in the Senate-house this inactivity —
why sit the Senators and do not legislate?
Because barbarians are to come to-day
What laws should they make now — the Senators?
Presently the barbarians will make laws.
— Why has our Emperor risen close upon the sun —
why is he waiting there, by the main city-gates,
seated upon the throne, — august, wearing the crown?
Because barbarians are to come to-day
And so the Emperor in person waits
to greet their leader. He has even prepared
a title-deed, on skin of Pergamus,
in favour of this leader. It confers
high rank on the barbarian, many names.
— Why do our consuls and the praetors go about
in scarlet togas fretted with embroidery;
why are they wearing bracelets rife with amethysts,
and rings magnificent with glowing emeralds;
why are they holding those invaluable staffs
inlaid so cunningly with silver and with gold?
Because barbarians are to come to-day;
and the barbarians marvel at such things.
— Why come not, as they use, our able orators
to hold forth in their rhetoric, to have their say?
Because barbarians are to come to-day;
and the barbarians have no taste for words.
— Why this confusion all at once, and nervousness:
(how serious of a sudden the faces have become):
why are the streets and meeting-places emptying,
and all the people lost in thought as they turn home?
Because the daylight fails, and the night comes,
but the barbarians come not. And there be
who from the frontier have arrived and said
that there are barbarians now at all.
And now what shall become of us without barbarians?
These people were in sooth some sort of settlement.
Translated by John Cavafy
(Poems by C. P. Cavafy. Translated, from the Greek, by J. C. Cavafy. Ikaros, 2003)
http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=218&cat=1
http://www.beyond-the-pale.co.uk/cavafy.htm
AT APPROXIMATELY NINE PM MDS COMPOSED OF MOTOR CYCLISTS RIOTED AT WEIRS BEACH LOCATED ON LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE. TWO HUNDRED NATIONAL GUARDSMEN RESPONDED COUPLED WITH RIOT TRAINED DEPUTIES FROM BELKNAP COUNTY AND LACONIA…POLICE DEPT.
DAMAGE HAS INCLUDED BURING O BOARDWALK, OVERTURNING OF POLICE CRUISER AND ADDITIONAL FIRES. RIOTERS HAMPERED FIRE FIGHTERS AND THUS FAR TEN HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. MATTER BEING FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY BOSTON AND BUREAU WILL BE KEPT ADVISED. END
FBI WASHINGTON DC
JUNE 23 1965
LACONIA, NEW HAMPSHIRE
Riotous conditions developed at Weirs Beach located on Lake Winnipesaukee at Laconia, New Hampshire, on the night of June 19, 1965, when a crowd of 6,000 to 10,000 men and women who had congregated on Lakeside Avenue at the resort became disorderly and defined the local police.
NATURE OF THE CROWD
The crowd was composed primarily of motorcyclists from all parts of the United States who were in the area to attend the annual motorcycle races at nearby Loudon, New Hampshire. Most of the individuals were in their twenties or early thirties….REDACTED
INITIAL INCIDENTS:
Trouble first occurred at about 7:00 p.m. on June 19, 1965, when someone threw a smoke bomb and the crowd converged in that area. Several more smoke bombs were thrown in the next hour with similar results. The crowd became disorderly and noisy, taunted police officers with vulgar and profane remarks, and interfered with traffic.
RIOTING ERUPTS:
By 9:00 p.m. the crowd had become an unruly mob completely defiant of police orders. Members of the mob fought among themselves, threw firecrackers, rocks and over turned two automobiles, one of which caught fire. An unsuccessful attempt was made to burn a bowling alley by pouring gasoline into the air-conditioning system of the building and igniting it. At 9:30 p.m., traffic was completely stopped in the area and some of the motorcyclists were drag racing amid the mob.
POLICE ACTION:
The Riot Squad of the Laconia Police Department, consisting of thirty men, moved into the area at 10:10 p.m. equipped with shotguns and other riot gear. They were met with a barrage of flying objects from the mob which refused to move. At that time the local police were joined by sixty New Hampshire State Police troopers and by officials of the Belknap County Sheriff’s Office. Tear gas was used by the police with little effect, the mob still refusing to disperse. Shotguns were then brought into play by the police who fired birdshot at the feet of the rioters….REDACTED.
…….Approximately 200 members of the National Guard detail assisted the police in the clean-up operation. A rumor that the motorcyclists would attempt a similar riotous disturbance on the night of June 20th 1965 did not materialize. As of 12:45 a.m., June 21, all of the motorcyclists had left the area and conditions were quiet.
ARRESTS AND INJURIES
Thirty-three rioters were arrested and each is being held in custody in default of $500 cash bond. Fifty were charged with failure to dispurse under a new State anti-riot law, eleven were charged with participating in a riot and the remaining were held on charges of drunkenness or assaulting an officer. Thirty-one rioters were treated for birdshot wounds at the Laconia General Hospital. Two of the injured reportedly received eye injuries. Several police officers were victims of minor injuries. REDACTED……
CAUSE OF THE RIOT:
REDACTED…….
…..no evidence to indicate that any racial aspects were involved or that subversive, radical, or criminal influences were present.
PRECAUTIONARY POLICE MEASURES:
REDACTED
NOTE: See memorandum W.C. Sullivan to A. H. Belmont….original to White House,…copies to General Counsel, President’s Counsel on Equal Opportunity, the AG, the Deputy AG and Assistant AG Doar.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
When the Hell's Angels Came to Town
When the Hell’s Angels Came to Town
It was Labor Day, 1965, and Word was Out;
The Angels Were Coming to Ocean City
The SandPaper/Ocean City, Friday, September 15, 1995
“The farther the Angels roam from their own turf, the more likely they are to cause panic.” – Hunter S. Thompson
By Bill Kelly
The day the Hell’s Angels didn’t come to Ocean City was even more spectacular than the day that they actually did.
Three decades ago their arrival was greatly anticipated by many and dreaded by others, especially city officials and the undermanned summer police force.
A run was on and the Hell’s Angels were on the way to Ocean City on Labor Day Weekend, 1965.
Lyndon Johnson was president, the war in Vietnam was raging, protesters sang songs, “Mr. Tambourine Man” was the number one song on the radio and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels were the main attraction at Tony Marts. It was the ‘60s.
Former Ocean City Mayor Thomas Waldman remembers it well. Although the storm of ’62 was the most significant thing that occurred during his tenure in office, which ran four terms from 1959 to 1978, it’s hard to forget going eyeball to eyeball with the leader of the most feared gang of criminals to cross the state line.
The Ocean City encounter was like a scene out of “The Wild One,” starring Marlon Brando, which was based on a real incident that took place at Hollister, California in 1947, when a wild motorcycle gang took over a small town.
“There really were two entirely different and unrelated incidents,” recalls Waldman, who is now retired in Ocean City. “The Hells Angels did come to town, but the two incidents were not really connected, and that’s a different story.”
When the Hells Angels did come to town – sometime in the late summer of ’64 or early spring of ’65, they were met at the causeway by a police officer in a patrol car.
“What happened was a black police officer ordered them to pull over and they ignored him,” said Waldman. Probably the first black police officer on the Ocean City, New Jersey police force.
As they cruised down 9th Street into town they were met by a police roadblock at West Avenue where they were corralled into a vacant lot at what is now McDonald’s.
“They would only talk to the mayor,” said Waldman, who was summoned out of his 8th street travel agency office, and went over to talk with their leader, who a the time was probably Ralph “Sonny” Barger, the baddest Hell’s Angel.
“Barger’s word goes unquestioned,” writer Hunter S. Thompson, father of gonzo journalism, wrote of the gang leader. “The Maximum Leader, is a 6-foot, 170 pound warehouseman from East Oakland, the coolest head in the lot, and a tough, quick-thinking dealer when any action starts. By turn he is a fanatic, a philosopher, a brawler, a shrewd compromiser and final arbitrator.”
He met Mayor Waldman, a suit and tie travel agent and leader of Ocean City.
“We talked, and I introduced them to the black officer,” remembers Waldman, “but they were very racist and weren’t going to take any orders from him. I told them he was only doing his job and trying to earn a living for his family. They were very polite, and eventually we all shook hands in the end. But we didn’t go out and have cocktails together.”
“Whenever you have a transient population like we do, you will have exposure to all types, including these violent motorcycle gangs. But you can’t condone it, and you can’t ignore it,” the former mayor said.
It was with that incident still fresh in their minds, when word on the street was that the Hells Angels were coming to Ocean City for their annual Labor Day run.
“The State Police had gotten word that Ocean City was one of two places this violent motorcycle club were going to try to take over,” Waldman said. He isn’t even sure it was the Hells Angels, and it may have been the Pagans or Warlocks, other clubs that have given the local authorities trouble in the past.
If there was even a shred of truth to the rumor, Ocean City authorities had reason to be concerned.
The attorney general of California filed the following report on a “run” that occurred in that state.
“On July Fourth, 1965, the Oakland Hell’s Angels made a “run” to Willits, California. An advance group of 30 entered the city the previous day and by the afternoon of the Fourth there were some 120 motorcyclists and their female companions congregating at a local bar. Periodic fighting between the motorcyclists and the local citizens broke out with beer bottles, belts made from motorcycle chains, and metal beer can openers being used as weapons…Assistance was obtained from the California Highway Patrol….and the group was instructed by the chief of police to move out of town to the city limits.”
Journalist Hunter S. Thompson described another Labor Day encounter with the Angles this way when he rode with them for a few months in the early ‘60s.
“California, early Labor Day weekend…with the ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi’s roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads….”
“The Menace is loose, the Hell’s Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and 90 miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by incuse….like Genghis Khan on an iron horse…flat out through the eye of a beer can…tense for action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandannas flapping, earrings, armpits, chain whips, swastikas and stripped-down Harleys flashing chrome as traffic moves over, nervous, to let the formation pass like a burst of dirty thunder.”
A similar experience was expected by Ocean City authorities.
Waldman said there were lengthy meetings with the State Police and representatives from other communities, “and they said we were targeted because we had cracked down on a motorcycle gang in the past and this was to be in retaliation.”
The New Jersey State Police Intelligence Unit was receiving reports from police in other states and they were tracking the bikers as they headed towards the Jersey Shore.
Waldman said the local police worked very closely with the State Police to come up with a strategy and tactics that would save the city from the dreaded bikers.
“In those days we had a very large influx of day trippers and college kids,” recalls Waldman, “and the fear was that these college kids, being young, restless and out for a good time, would misinterpret the actions of the motorcycle gang, who were very violent types, and the college kids would end up in the middle and get hurt. You can’t tell them to stay away.”
The Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger newspaper reported, “There were widespread rumors that young rowdies were planning a hot weekend fling here and they were geared to meet them.”
“It was to (then Governor Richard J.) Hughes to whom we turned,” Waldman explained, when rumors reached city hall of impending rowdyism by hundreds of out of town youths over the Labor Day weekend.
“Governor Hughes was quick to see the problem we faced if our small summer police force were outnumbered by gangs,” said Waldman. Hughes put the National Guard on alert New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. David B. Kelly assigned a task force to town that included his top intelligence officer, a drunkmeter expert and a large contingent that included the entire student body of the State Police Academy, who arrived by bus.
“We put all our people on 24-hour duty,” recalls Waldman, “and we worked closely with the State Police. They told us what to do and we did it. They did a very fine job, and kept them out.”
Benjamin Dungan was the acting Ocean City police chief at the time who coordinated the local police action with the State Police. When the gang arrived, they planned on raising the drawbridge into tow, but they didn’t have to because the bikers never showed, and sent no regrets.
“Business Good (Not Bustling) on Holiday Weekend,” the Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger headline read, “Rumble Rumor Blamed” and “Big Blowoff Averted on College Beach.”
But there was a minor riot on Monday, Labor Day, when it was apparent that the Hell’s Angels weren’t coming after all. According to the news reports, “People packed the beach solid, guitars were strummed, songs were sung and boys and girls were basking in the sun.”
The trouble, according to Waldman, was stirred up by a TV news team out of Philadelphia that was anticipating the arrival of the Hell’s Angels.
“That’s one of the reasons I look at news reporters with a jaundiced eye,” said Waldman, “because they tried to stage something for the cameras.”
The young, rookie reporters for KYW-TV that summer are said to have been Tom Snyder, David Brenner and Gary Shenfield. Covering the Jersey Shore was their seasonal assignment that summer and they had already raised the wrath of locals y calling attention to the underage drinking, the bar scene in Somers Point and for breaking into Somers Point City Hall to get the goods on Judge Ed Helfant, who was later killed in a mob hit.
After telling their bosses back in Philly that the Hell’s Angels were coming to town, and facing the prospect of coming up empty, Snyder and Brenner allegedly egged on the large contingent of college kids until a minor riot did orrur.
“There was an incident on the Boardwalk,” said Waldman, “but it was this TV crew from Philly that provoked a lot of it to get film footage.”
The Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger later reported, “There was minor trouble on the 9th Street Beach, where people converged on the pavilion, the police broke up a hootenanny and a fight ensued….Monday night things got out of hand. A city aide was punched in the eye and the ring leaders were apprehended after a chase by automobile through city streets. Four youths were arrested for various disorderly conduct charges. But mostly things were orderly.”
By Tuesday morning things were back to normal. The State Police contingent pulled out and the Hell’s Angeles never came back.
Ah, the ‘60s.
“Those were good days, but they’re gone,” said Waldman. “Ocean City was what it was, but it’s changed, though sometimes not for the better.”
It was Labor Day, 1965, and Word was Out;
The Angels Were Coming to Ocean City
The SandPaper/Ocean City, Friday, September 15, 1995
“The farther the Angels roam from their own turf, the more likely they are to cause panic.” – Hunter S. Thompson
By Bill Kelly
The day the Hell’s Angels didn’t come to Ocean City was even more spectacular than the day that they actually did.
Three decades ago their arrival was greatly anticipated by many and dreaded by others, especially city officials and the undermanned summer police force.
A run was on and the Hell’s Angels were on the way to Ocean City on Labor Day Weekend, 1965.
Lyndon Johnson was president, the war in Vietnam was raging, protesters sang songs, “Mr. Tambourine Man” was the number one song on the radio and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels were the main attraction at Tony Marts. It was the ‘60s.
Former Ocean City Mayor Thomas Waldman remembers it well. Although the storm of ’62 was the most significant thing that occurred during his tenure in office, which ran four terms from 1959 to 1978, it’s hard to forget going eyeball to eyeball with the leader of the most feared gang of criminals to cross the state line.
The Ocean City encounter was like a scene out of “The Wild One,” starring Marlon Brando, which was based on a real incident that took place at Hollister, California in 1947, when a wild motorcycle gang took over a small town.
“There really were two entirely different and unrelated incidents,” recalls Waldman, who is now retired in Ocean City. “The Hells Angels did come to town, but the two incidents were not really connected, and that’s a different story.”
When the Hells Angels did come to town – sometime in the late summer of ’64 or early spring of ’65, they were met at the causeway by a police officer in a patrol car.
“What happened was a black police officer ordered them to pull over and they ignored him,” said Waldman. Probably the first black police officer on the Ocean City, New Jersey police force.
As they cruised down 9th Street into town they were met by a police roadblock at West Avenue where they were corralled into a vacant lot at what is now McDonald’s.
“They would only talk to the mayor,” said Waldman, who was summoned out of his 8th street travel agency office, and went over to talk with their leader, who a the time was probably Ralph “Sonny” Barger, the baddest Hell’s Angel.
“Barger’s word goes unquestioned,” writer Hunter S. Thompson, father of gonzo journalism, wrote of the gang leader. “The Maximum Leader, is a 6-foot, 170 pound warehouseman from East Oakland, the coolest head in the lot, and a tough, quick-thinking dealer when any action starts. By turn he is a fanatic, a philosopher, a brawler, a shrewd compromiser and final arbitrator.”
He met Mayor Waldman, a suit and tie travel agent and leader of Ocean City.
“We talked, and I introduced them to the black officer,” remembers Waldman, “but they were very racist and weren’t going to take any orders from him. I told them he was only doing his job and trying to earn a living for his family. They were very polite, and eventually we all shook hands in the end. But we didn’t go out and have cocktails together.”
“Whenever you have a transient population like we do, you will have exposure to all types, including these violent motorcycle gangs. But you can’t condone it, and you can’t ignore it,” the former mayor said.
It was with that incident still fresh in their minds, when word on the street was that the Hells Angels were coming to Ocean City for their annual Labor Day run.
“The State Police had gotten word that Ocean City was one of two places this violent motorcycle club were going to try to take over,” Waldman said. He isn’t even sure it was the Hells Angels, and it may have been the Pagans or Warlocks, other clubs that have given the local authorities trouble in the past.
If there was even a shred of truth to the rumor, Ocean City authorities had reason to be concerned.
The attorney general of California filed the following report on a “run” that occurred in that state.
“On July Fourth, 1965, the Oakland Hell’s Angels made a “run” to Willits, California. An advance group of 30 entered the city the previous day and by the afternoon of the Fourth there were some 120 motorcyclists and their female companions congregating at a local bar. Periodic fighting between the motorcyclists and the local citizens broke out with beer bottles, belts made from motorcycle chains, and metal beer can openers being used as weapons…Assistance was obtained from the California Highway Patrol….and the group was instructed by the chief of police to move out of town to the city limits.”
Journalist Hunter S. Thompson described another Labor Day encounter with the Angles this way when he rode with them for a few months in the early ‘60s.
“California, early Labor Day weekend…with the ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi’s roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads….”
“The Menace is loose, the Hell’s Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and 90 miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by incuse….like Genghis Khan on an iron horse…flat out through the eye of a beer can…tense for action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandannas flapping, earrings, armpits, chain whips, swastikas and stripped-down Harleys flashing chrome as traffic moves over, nervous, to let the formation pass like a burst of dirty thunder.”
A similar experience was expected by Ocean City authorities.
Waldman said there were lengthy meetings with the State Police and representatives from other communities, “and they said we were targeted because we had cracked down on a motorcycle gang in the past and this was to be in retaliation.”
The New Jersey State Police Intelligence Unit was receiving reports from police in other states and they were tracking the bikers as they headed towards the Jersey Shore.
Waldman said the local police worked very closely with the State Police to come up with a strategy and tactics that would save the city from the dreaded bikers.
“In those days we had a very large influx of day trippers and college kids,” recalls Waldman, “and the fear was that these college kids, being young, restless and out for a good time, would misinterpret the actions of the motorcycle gang, who were very violent types, and the college kids would end up in the middle and get hurt. You can’t tell them to stay away.”
The Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger newspaper reported, “There were widespread rumors that young rowdies were planning a hot weekend fling here and they were geared to meet them.”
“It was to (then Governor Richard J.) Hughes to whom we turned,” Waldman explained, when rumors reached city hall of impending rowdyism by hundreds of out of town youths over the Labor Day weekend.
“Governor Hughes was quick to see the problem we faced if our small summer police force were outnumbered by gangs,” said Waldman. Hughes put the National Guard on alert New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. David B. Kelly assigned a task force to town that included his top intelligence officer, a drunkmeter expert and a large contingent that included the entire student body of the State Police Academy, who arrived by bus.
“We put all our people on 24-hour duty,” recalls Waldman, “and we worked closely with the State Police. They told us what to do and we did it. They did a very fine job, and kept them out.”
Benjamin Dungan was the acting Ocean City police chief at the time who coordinated the local police action with the State Police. When the gang arrived, they planned on raising the drawbridge into tow, but they didn’t have to because the bikers never showed, and sent no regrets.
“Business Good (Not Bustling) on Holiday Weekend,” the Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger headline read, “Rumble Rumor Blamed” and “Big Blowoff Averted on College Beach.”
But there was a minor riot on Monday, Labor Day, when it was apparent that the Hell’s Angels weren’t coming after all. According to the news reports, “People packed the beach solid, guitars were strummed, songs were sung and boys and girls were basking in the sun.”
The trouble, according to Waldman, was stirred up by a TV news team out of Philadelphia that was anticipating the arrival of the Hell’s Angels.
“That’s one of the reasons I look at news reporters with a jaundiced eye,” said Waldman, “because they tried to stage something for the cameras.”
The young, rookie reporters for KYW-TV that summer are said to have been Tom Snyder, David Brenner and Gary Shenfield. Covering the Jersey Shore was their seasonal assignment that summer and they had already raised the wrath of locals y calling attention to the underage drinking, the bar scene in Somers Point and for breaking into Somers Point City Hall to get the goods on Judge Ed Helfant, who was later killed in a mob hit.
After telling their bosses back in Philly that the Hell’s Angels were coming to town, and facing the prospect of coming up empty, Snyder and Brenner allegedly egged on the large contingent of college kids until a minor riot did orrur.
“There was an incident on the Boardwalk,” said Waldman, “but it was this TV crew from Philly that provoked a lot of it to get film footage.”
The Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger later reported, “There was minor trouble on the 9th Street Beach, where people converged on the pavilion, the police broke up a hootenanny and a fight ensued….Monday night things got out of hand. A city aide was punched in the eye and the ring leaders were apprehended after a chase by automobile through city streets. Four youths were arrested for various disorderly conduct charges. But mostly things were orderly.”
By Tuesday morning things were back to normal. The State Police contingent pulled out and the Hell’s Angeles never came back.
Ah, the ‘60s.
“Those were good days, but they’re gone,” said Waldman. “Ocean City was what it was, but it’s changed, though sometimes not for the better.”
Last of the Kellys Checks Out
LAST OF THE KELLYS CHECKS OUT OF OC – By William Kelly
Ocean City’s image as a family resort was shaped in large measure by the family of a Philadelphia bricklayer John B. Kelly, who began to visit Ocean City in the 1920s and established a living local legacy with a family that included two Olympic rowing champions, a President and Steward of the Atlantic City Race Course, and Academy Award winning actress and princess and a Secretary of the Navy.
It all centered around the Kelly family home at 26th Street and Wesley Avenue beach, where the Kelly family maintained a residence from 1929 until the 2001, a 72 year run.
For Lizanne Kelly Levine, the last surviving daughter of John B. Kelly, the past few years were exceptionally hard, with the death of her daughter, Grace and husband, Donald Levine.
Her father built the original Kelly house on the North West side of 26th Street and Wesley Avenue in 1929, the year daughter Grace was born. It was the only house around. As the neighborhood grew up around them, with riparian rights to the sea, a brick duplex beach house was built across the street on the North East corner in 1960, the year John B. Kelly died.
While her mother, also an athlete, lived to be 90 after a debilitating stroke, her older sister Peggy passed away before her sister Grace died in a spectacular auto accident in Monaco in 1982, which captured the world’s attention.
Then in 1985 brother John “Kell” died of a heart attack while jogging along East River Drive (now Kelly Drive) near Boathouse Row along the Schuykill River in Philadelphia, within an hour of her brother-in-law’s equally sudden death in an office building a few blocks away.
Now, with the passing of her husband, Donald Levine, Lizanne sat back in the living room of her Ocean City home and reflected on her past and her future. She recently sold the house.
“We’ve had it tough, but we’ve always got thorugh it,” she said. “We got through almost everything. We’ve had a lot of good times too. But now my whole family is gone. It’s the end of an era and I’m the last of the Mohicans.”
And now she feels it’s time for her to move on, especially since the big brick beach house is too large for her to live there alone, and so she will leave at the end of the summer of 2001.
The Kelly family legend has been told and retold, passed on to all Ocean City lifeguards, surfers, crew rowers and little girls who dream of becoming a princess. Lizanne Levine remembers it all too well.
She remembers the early years in Ocean City when, although she was only a few years old, the family began to spend summers leasing an apartment near 8th street. After two years, in 1929, her father bought the beachfront lot at 26th street and Wesley Avenue and built the two story house that’s still there today.
“My brother and sister used to say my mother and father built it up in the ‘boonies’ – the boondocks, because 2nd street was the street and most popular bathing beach at the time, and they had to get a ride or hitch hike to get down there.”
“This was Old Ocean City,” she explained. “There weren’t any other houses around. The only other house was at 25th street on the beach, and I didn’t even know who lived there.”
“My mother selected that style,” Levine recalled, “because she saw similar buildings in Florida and told my father what she wanted.”
The Spanish Mission Revival design is similar to a number of other significant Ocean City buildings from the same period – the Music Pier, Chatterbox, Flanders Hotel and other private residences.
In the winter they lived in East Falls, a small, blue-collar, working class neighborhood on the river near center city Philadelphia, but every spring they would return to Ocean City at the Jersey Shore.
“We came down as soon as we got out of school,” Lizanne recalled, “I always had my birthday, the 25th of June, in Ocean City, so we were always there before then.”
“We always had beach parties and cookouts on the beach because my dad built a brick fireplace, but the Storm of ’44 washed that away. That was the worst storm.”
Although she was still a child, she remembers it distinctly. “The waves were breaking over the all there, and they said on the radio that Ocean City was being evacuated, and my father jumped in his car and drove down here and found us all save and sound. But it was really strong winds, I could hardly stand up. My mother wanted to take some candles over to the neighbors across the street but I couldn’t stand up against the wind. I was 11 years old at the time but it truly was an experience.
“Mother would send us down to the beach and never think anything of it because the lifeguards babysat for us, and there weren’t that many kids on the beach. So mother reciprocated with a few sandwiches for the lifeguards. The late John Carey was a lifeguard on this beach for several years, and I always had a crush on the lifeguards. I loved John Carey.”
The Kellys struck up a personal rapport with all of the lifeguards, which would eventually include her brother Kell, one of the most proficient rowers on the OCBP.
It was her father, however, who made the stamp that was imprinted on the Kelly family.
Of course both houses Kelly built in Ocean City were made of brick. John B. Kelly started out as a brick layer and laborer, but eventually owned his owned company, whose slogan “KELLY FOR BRICKWORK” on signs and t-shirts were seen at the construction of many of the skyscrapers that make up Philadelphia’s skyline.
An Olympic gold medal rower, John B. Kelly went on to the Henley Regatta on the Thames in London, but because he was a laborer who worked with his hands, was not considered gentleman enough to qualify. It was a slight that he would remember and vow to revenge at the baptism of his son “Kell,” who also became an Olympic champion, and who returned to the river Thames and avenged his father’s slight by winning the Henley.
When Kell returned home, all of Philadelphia met him at the train station and gave him a parade to the Henry Avenue home in East Falls. Even when successful, John B., as he was called, refrained from moving to the more fashionable blueblood Main Line, and stayed in East Falls. For the same reason he shunned the prestigious Margate and Ventnor beach front neighborhoods for Ocean City.
Lizanne, like her mother Margaret Major, was an athlete, played most college sports, basketball, hockey and tennis. Margaret Major Kelly was the first women physical education teacher at the University of Pennsylvania, so sports and competition ran in the family.
“When I was a teenager,” Lizanne recalls, “14th street was the most popular beach, but everybody went swimming and diving at the Flander’s pool. That’s where I met Don, who became my husband. Grace and Peggy liked to dive, and Don was a great diver, and he taught swimming and diving at the Flanders. I was taking my nieces down and was waiting for them to finish their swimming lessons, sitting poolside, and Don was across the way teaching a lesson. He looked over to me and I looked at him, and he started to imitate me. If I crossed my legs, he crossed his legs, and well, after that, a mutual friend introduced me to him. And that was all, she wrote.”
After the sun went down, they strolled the boardwalk, or hit the Point – Somers Point, where the nightclub scene was in full swing.
“I can remember going over there a lot of times,” she said. “I’ll never forget one time, at Bay Shores, or was it Tony Marts? Grace and I were the youngest, and while we weren’t, we looked over 21, and didn’t have to lie, we just walked in. No one carded us. We didn’t have fake cards because mother wouldn’t have it. She said, ‘You can go in there if they let you in, but I don’t want you drinking with fake ID.’ Well anyway, we went over to see the band Mike Pedicin, Sr.. And while we were there my older sister Peggy came with her husband. She was 23, but they wouldn’t let her in without an ID. She looked in and sees Grace an I sitting there, and we waved and laughed at her, and she got so mad.”
“She said to the man at the door, ‘Look, you let my two younger sisters in, and you won’t let me in?’ And they wouldn’t let her in. We got the biggest kick out of that. The next morning she said, ‘Mother, can you believe they wouldn’t let me in and they let those to brats in!’”
The father, John B. Kelly was one of the founders and builder of the Atlantic City Race Course, which was also built out of brick in 1944. Horses and the race track was always a big part of their family life at the shore. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, before casino gambling came to Atlantic City, the race track would attract 30,000 people for the nightly races. Lizanne’s husband Don Levine worked at the track as a race steward.
In 1960, shortly after returning from his annual Kentucky Derby party, John B. Kelly died, and Lizanne’s mother decided to build the beach house across Wesley Avenue from the original house. “We needed more room for the grandchildren,” Lizanne explained. “Of course it’s a very sold building, I don’t know what they’re going to do, but they’ll have trouble tearing it down. We had a couple of hurricane parties and went upstairs to watch it, and it was fun.”
The most fun, Leveine recalls, were the Labor Day beach barbeques, a seasonal tradition that’s still maintained by the family. “We still do it,” she notes. “ We still have the King of the Surf competition up at the 47th street beach because we now have too many people on this beach. We have body surf competitions and a chicken bake off. I’m a judge, Grace was a judge, and one year Kell had Frank Purdue down here to judge the bake off.”
Things changed a little bit after Grace married Prince of Monaco and became Princess Grace.
“Those several years were really unbelievable,” she recalled, “because as soon as she came back here people were hanging over the wall and looking in the windows, but we got through it. We got through almost anything.”
The neighbors however, were always very supportive of their privacy. Levine’s cousin John Lehman, who became Secretary of the Navy under President Regan, helped keep the Labor Day beach barbeques going.
“We have surf contests, bake offs, and other competitions,” he said in an interview a few years ago. “Grace used to come back to officiate the competition…She never lost sight of or forgot the values of the ‘family first.’ And that is so rare, since you often find people who succeed…totally sacrifice their families, and she didn’t.”
Grace’s daughter Caroline was visiting Ocean City when her husband died in a sports race accident, and on September 14, 1982 – John Lehman’s birthday, Princess Grace Kelly Grimaldi died in an auto accident in Monaco. It was the first September season she didn’t make it home for the annual family reunion and beach party.
Lizanne Levine and John Lehman continued the family tradition however. “One year we’d have the Labor Day bash here and the next year we’d have it at 47th street,” said Lizanne. But this year, 2001 will be the last summer for the Kellys at 26th street.
Some nuns from her old school visited for a week last month, and a new generation of grandchildren are now spending summers in Ocean City, looking for work at Bob’s Grill and the Chatterbox, where Grace once worked as a waitress one summer.
Without any big plans, Lizanne Levine is looking over some of the old photos of the good times in Ocean City.
“I just look around and one thing about this family is that they had not been camera shy. I have pictures that you wouldn’t believe,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of them.”
As for what she’s going to do, “Well, I have friends on the east coast and the west coast of Florida. We always went to the east coast, because of the race track, but I’m going to go up the east coast and back the west coast, visiting all my former friends. They all come to see and visit me in the summer, so I’m going to visit them in the winter, tit for tat.”
“It’s the end of an era,” Levine said, “and we’ve had our share of tragedy, but we’ve had some really good times, too. “
And while she may be checking out, there’s always a new generation of the Philadelphia Kellys coming to Ocean City, where the Kelly family legacy will always be remembered.
[Editor’s note: William Kelly is not related to the Philadelphia family. He’s from the Camden Kelly’s ]
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Ocean City Lifesaving Station
THE Life of the Station – Ocean City New Jersey’s 4th STREET LIFESAVING STATION - By William Kelly
It was there before anyone alive today was born; it has survived ‘noreaster storms, blizzards and hurricanes, and now it faces the sternest test – development money.
To save it, Ocean City Council voted to allocate $2.9 million to purchase it, but the 150 year long saga of Ocean City’s historic 4th Street Lifesaving Station is not over, as it drags on. It remains at a precarious crossroads, surrounded and besiged by development - the Alamo of Ocean City. It can be saved in the public trust for future generations or it can be lost to developmental pressures and be replaced by modern condominiums. And what happens will be the legacy we alive today leave behind.
Is it worth $2.9 million to the city and the community to save the station for the public? That’s ten times the value of the property was worth six years ago, when it was appraised for taxes at $250,000 as a single-family home.
As the cornerstone of Ocean City’s Historic District, that was the appraised value when the owner decided to sell her home to a prolific developer for $750,000 without bothering to place a sale sign on her lawn to let people know it was available and on the market.
Those active in attempting to preserve historic buildings and landmarks have learned that the only way to save historic buildings from deteriation or development is to buy them, own them and be restore them.
But in situations like Ocean City where the land value increases much more than the building, regardless of size, condition or historic stature, then there is little if no financial incentive to preserve any structure. Few realtors even bother placing a “For Sale” sign on a listed property when they personally know a dozen developers who will pay triple the home’s value to tear it down and condo it out for much larger profit. Therefore other factors must come into play to deter such money, because money wins over preservation every time.
They say property owner rights are at stake here, and the owner certainly has the right to sell to whomever they want for whatever they can get. But it is also un-American and against the open free market enterprise system to sell historic landmarks for demolition under the table and behind closed doors, without notifying the community that the property is available.
That’s the basis for the Historic District ordinance, which merely states, in one sentence, that such historic structures must be placed on the open market for six months so anyone who wants to buy and preserve it may have the opportunity to do so. That’s the American Way.
There were a number of qualified families and individuals who were interested in buying and living in the station and keeping it as a single-family home, for $290,00 seven years ago or $1 million last year. The increasing value of the property reflects the value of all the land around it, and the amount of money that can be made if each of the three lots can be developed to their fullest, the greed behind the idea to move it.
Some say moving the building to the boardwalk and developing the lots is a reasonable alternative, but moving an historic building is a last resort, not a first resort, as in this case. Moving it would eliminate state and federal funds to offset the purchase and attempts to move other historic Ocean City buildings were unsuccessful (i.e. the Parker Miller house and Journie Manor) failed. The house where Parker Miller was the first child born on the island was moved to the Tabernacle grounds, where a particularly cold winter made it attractive firewood. Moving the core structure of the Lifesaving Station to the boardwalk would only place it in the harms way of future storms.
In addition, it is not only the core building that is historic, but the entire building, complete with additions, the flora and fauna of the grounds, and the survey marker, that can never be built on because it is the marker that every survey of the island has used as a starting point for all city surveys – ground zero Ocean City.
A court decision that allows the owner to remove additions to the core structure is being appealed by CHiP because the additions themselves, some over 100 years old, are also historic. Photos of nearby Somers Mansion in Somers Point clearly make this point. When the State of N.J. took over ownership of the centuries old Somers Mansion they removed the spindle-laden wrap around second floor porch with its spectacular view of the bay. The removal of the porch took away part of the building’s history, just as the entire Lifesaving Station property is historic, and not just the core frame. CHiP will continue the court proceedings as long as the station remains in jeopardy and the historic preservation laws and ordinances are not followed and enforced.
The idea that the side yard garden is still much the same as it was over a century ago gives you an idea of what Ocean City looked like before it was over developed. Just looking at the grounds you can see many varieties of trees, plants and flowers, all of which would and will be bulldozed over if allowed to be developed. An interested local science class should conduct a survey of the types and numbers of flora and fauna, most of which are unique to this area and have dwindling space to grow.
A real alternative solution is for the city and the developer to agree to a land swap, at no cost to the taxpayer, or to decrease the amount of the transaction. The Central Ave. Park is of equal value for development, but apparently its current use by a few neighborhood dogs to relieve themselves takes precedence. Other city own land, like the beach front lot at the South End, and other city owned land could still be thrown in the deal to decrease the tax payer’s contribution, and placing new ratables on the tax map.
The $3 million being considered to save the property as it is will be offset by state, federal and private contributions, and will be worthwhile when the “Private Property – Keep Out” sign is taken down and it becomes public property that can be enjoyed and experienced by all the citizens of the community.
[William Kelly is co-founder of CHiP – Citizens for Historic Preservation. He can be reached at billykelly3@yahoo.com ]
It was there before anyone alive today was born; it has survived ‘noreaster storms, blizzards and hurricanes, and now it faces the sternest test – development money.
To save it, Ocean City Council voted to allocate $2.9 million to purchase it, but the 150 year long saga of Ocean City’s historic 4th Street Lifesaving Station is not over, as it drags on. It remains at a precarious crossroads, surrounded and besiged by development - the Alamo of Ocean City. It can be saved in the public trust for future generations or it can be lost to developmental pressures and be replaced by modern condominiums. And what happens will be the legacy we alive today leave behind.
Is it worth $2.9 million to the city and the community to save the station for the public? That’s ten times the value of the property was worth six years ago, when it was appraised for taxes at $250,000 as a single-family home.
As the cornerstone of Ocean City’s Historic District, that was the appraised value when the owner decided to sell her home to a prolific developer for $750,000 without bothering to place a sale sign on her lawn to let people know it was available and on the market.
Those active in attempting to preserve historic buildings and landmarks have learned that the only way to save historic buildings from deteriation or development is to buy them, own them and be restore them.
But in situations like Ocean City where the land value increases much more than the building, regardless of size, condition or historic stature, then there is little if no financial incentive to preserve any structure. Few realtors even bother placing a “For Sale” sign on a listed property when they personally know a dozen developers who will pay triple the home’s value to tear it down and condo it out for much larger profit. Therefore other factors must come into play to deter such money, because money wins over preservation every time.
They say property owner rights are at stake here, and the owner certainly has the right to sell to whomever they want for whatever they can get. But it is also un-American and against the open free market enterprise system to sell historic landmarks for demolition under the table and behind closed doors, without notifying the community that the property is available.
That’s the basis for the Historic District ordinance, which merely states, in one sentence, that such historic structures must be placed on the open market for six months so anyone who wants to buy and preserve it may have the opportunity to do so. That’s the American Way.
There were a number of qualified families and individuals who were interested in buying and living in the station and keeping it as a single-family home, for $290,00 seven years ago or $1 million last year. The increasing value of the property reflects the value of all the land around it, and the amount of money that can be made if each of the three lots can be developed to their fullest, the greed behind the idea to move it.
Some say moving the building to the boardwalk and developing the lots is a reasonable alternative, but moving an historic building is a last resort, not a first resort, as in this case. Moving it would eliminate state and federal funds to offset the purchase and attempts to move other historic Ocean City buildings were unsuccessful (i.e. the Parker Miller house and Journie Manor) failed. The house where Parker Miller was the first child born on the island was moved to the Tabernacle grounds, where a particularly cold winter made it attractive firewood. Moving the core structure of the Lifesaving Station to the boardwalk would only place it in the harms way of future storms.
In addition, it is not only the core building that is historic, but the entire building, complete with additions, the flora and fauna of the grounds, and the survey marker, that can never be built on because it is the marker that every survey of the island has used as a starting point for all city surveys – ground zero Ocean City.
A court decision that allows the owner to remove additions to the core structure is being appealed by CHiP because the additions themselves, some over 100 years old, are also historic. Photos of nearby Somers Mansion in Somers Point clearly make this point. When the State of N.J. took over ownership of the centuries old Somers Mansion they removed the spindle-laden wrap around second floor porch with its spectacular view of the bay. The removal of the porch took away part of the building’s history, just as the entire Lifesaving Station property is historic, and not just the core frame. CHiP will continue the court proceedings as long as the station remains in jeopardy and the historic preservation laws and ordinances are not followed and enforced.
The idea that the side yard garden is still much the same as it was over a century ago gives you an idea of what Ocean City looked like before it was over developed. Just looking at the grounds you can see many varieties of trees, plants and flowers, all of which would and will be bulldozed over if allowed to be developed. An interested local science class should conduct a survey of the types and numbers of flora and fauna, most of which are unique to this area and have dwindling space to grow.
A real alternative solution is for the city and the developer to agree to a land swap, at no cost to the taxpayer, or to decrease the amount of the transaction. The Central Ave. Park is of equal value for development, but apparently its current use by a few neighborhood dogs to relieve themselves takes precedence. Other city own land, like the beach front lot at the South End, and other city owned land could still be thrown in the deal to decrease the tax payer’s contribution, and placing new ratables on the tax map.
The $3 million being considered to save the property as it is will be offset by state, federal and private contributions, and will be worthwhile when the “Private Property – Keep Out” sign is taken down and it becomes public property that can be enjoyed and experienced by all the citizens of the community.
[William Kelly is co-founder of CHiP – Citizens for Historic Preservation. He can be reached at billykelly3@yahoo.com ]
Ernie Ernist of NFL Films at Work
Ernie Ernest of NFL Films at work filming a crab in the tide at Seaspray Beach, Ocean City, NJ (Circa 1976)
Marty & Barney at 819 circa 1976
Marty and Barney from Ireland at 819 Wesley Apartment (circa 1976), looking at piture book.
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