The Sunnyside Garden Arena was a popular boxing venue. [1] The old red brick arena, at the southwest corner of 45th Street and Queens Boulevard, in Sunnyside, Queens, New York City, seated about 2,500. [2] It consisted of two parallel gables perpendicular to the street fronted by a lower, flat-roofed entry. [3] Across the entry was a large neon sign and below that, just above the main entrance, was a large clock. [4]
Built in the 1920s, the building is variously reported to have been either a private tennis club and/or the personal tennis court and carriage house of millionaire Jay Gould II. [5]
In the mid forties, the building was sold to Harry Jordan Lee of Long Beach, New York, who partnered with Manny Heicklen to open it as a boxing and wrestling venue in 1947. [6] Heicklen eventually bought out Lee and remained in charge until his death in 1969. [6] The reins then passed to promoter Mike Rosenberg until the arena was sold to Mike Prudenti of Astoria in 1973. [6] This apparently didn't work out and the arena was closed for two years until late 1975. [7] Under promoters Nick Anesi and Vic Manni, it lasted until 1977, [8] when it was replaced by a Wendy’s which still stands on the site. [9]
In its heyday, the Sunnyside Garden Arena played host to such boxing greats as Floyd Patterson, Anthony Pugliese, Tony Canzoneri, Al Singer, Ruby Goldstein, and Billy Petrolle. [10] For some years it was home to the Golden Gloves tournaments. [11] Famous wrestlers battled there too, notably Jim Londos (the Golden Greek), Stan Zybysko, Strangler Lewis, Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, Haystacks Calhoun, and Bruno Sammartino. [10] The DuMont Television Network aired Boxing From Sunnyside Gardens from September 1949 to 1950.
Sunnyside Garden was also the site of political rallies, including a 1960 visit by then-senator John F. Kennedy on his presidential campaign tour. [11] Robert F. Kennedy is reported to have stumped there in his 1964 senatorial campaign. [10]
The Sunnyside Garden was one of a few boxing arenas in New York City to survive into the television era, with most others being closed and demolished in the 1950s. While generally considered the last operational boxing club in New York, St. Nicholas Arena (which ceased hosting boxing matches in 1962) remained standing as a building longer. [1] The Sunnyside Garden Arena managed to profit and its fights were shown on Channel 5 on Friday nights. [12] The television exposure that channel 5 had given arenas such as St. Nicholas and the Sunnyside Garden kept the arenas in operation in an era when many of their contemporaries were losing spectators to televised boxing matches. [13] In time, the viewing public lost its appetite for both televised and in-person boxing in the early 1960s with high-profile deaths and the concurrent rise of pro football as a spectator sport.
The last show at Sunnyside took place on June 24, 1977, and the building was demolished in December of the same year. [10] The Daily News reported on December 6, that the payloader at the demolition site, having fallen partly into the basement after collapsing a basement was vandalized, as was a second payloader sent to rescue the first. [14]
Felt Forum, now the Hulu Theater, opened along with the current Madison Square Garden in 1968, absorbing most of the remaining major boxing bouts in the city from the older, outdated boxing arenas. [15]
Elmont is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in northwestern Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, United States, along its border with the borough of Queens in New York City. The population was 35,265 as of the 2020 census.
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, east of New York City. The Long Island venue is approximately 7 miles (11 km) east of the eastern limits of the New York City Borough of Queens, and is also next to the Meadowbrook Parkway.
The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928, as "Boston Madison Square Garden" and outlived its original namesake by 30 years. It was above North Station, a train station which was originally a hub for the Boston and Maine Railroad and is now a hub for MBTA Commuter Rail and Amtrak trains.
The Archer Avenue lines are two rapid transit lines of the New York City Subway, mostly running under Archer Avenue in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens. The two lines are built on separate levels: trains from the IND Queens Boulevard Line serve the upper level, and trains from the BMT Jamaica Line serve the lower.
The Long Island Daily Press was a daily newspaper that was published in Jamaica, Queens. It was founded in 1821 as the Long Island Farmer. The paper’s founder, Henry C. Sleight, was born in New York City in 1792, and raised in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Sleight got his start as a newspaperman when he worked on the staff of the Suffolk County Gazette, a weekly newspaper published in Sag Harbor. During the War of 1812 Sleight enlisted in the army and saw action on the Kentucky frontier. After the war he remained in Kentucky for a few years, during which time he published another weekly newspaper, the Messenger, and later went into the mercantile business. After suffering heavy business losses due to a fire, Sleight returned to New York and settled in Jamaica, where he established the Long Island Farmer.
Herbert "Herbie" Kronowitz, originally Theodore "Ted" Kronowitz, was an American middleweight boxer who fought in the ring from 1941 to 1950. In 1947, Kronowitz was ranked among the top ten boxers in the world. Due to his height, his boxing style favored long range attacks, using his left jab and fast feet to outmaneuver his opponents, but he could box at close range as well. After his boxing career ended, Kronowitz was a highly regarded referee for nearly thirty years from 1955 to 1984. He resided in Bensonhurst, in his native Brooklyn, New York.
Walter Seeley was a professional American Super Featherweight boxer from Sayville, Long Island, New York, born in the June 11, 1941 on Lower East Side of Manhattan. Seeley turned pro on October 29, 1963 by fighting a four round draw with Mike Rosario at Sunnyside Garden Arena in Sunnyside, Queens.
The St. Nicholas Rink, also called the St. Nicholas Arena, was an indoor ice rink, and later a boxing arena in New York City from 1896 until 1962. The rink was one of the earliest indoor ice rinks made of mechanically frozen ice in North America, enabling a longer season for skating sports. It was demolished in the 1980s.
The Lighthouse Project, officially named The Lighthouse at Long Island, was a proposed transformation of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the area surrounding it into a modern suburban area. The project was first introduced by New York Islanders owner Charles Wang. The base of the project was a newly renovated Coliseum for the New York Islanders to play in. Surrounding the Coliseum would be houses, offices, restaurants, and various stores, as well as Long Island's first five-star hotel. There would also be an athletic complex, conference and exhibition facilities, and a minor league baseball ballpark.
Wyckoff Heights is an area within the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, straddling the border between Bushwick, Brooklyn, and southwest Ridgewood, Queens. Wyckoff Heights was urbanized starting in the late 19th century, and took its name from the Wyckoff family, who owned the land. The area was home first to many German immigrants, later followed by Italian and more recently Latino and Eastern-European residents.
Grace Episcopal Church Complex is a historic Episcopal church complex at 155-15 Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, in U.S. state of New York. The complex includes the church, parish house, and cemetery. The church was built between 1861 and 1862. It is constructed of rough-cut sandstone and features a steeply pitched roof and tall, sharp spire in the Gothic Revival style. A chancel, designed by Cady, Berg & See, was added at the rear of the church in 1901–1902. The parish house, known as Grace Memorial House, was built in 1912. It is three-story brick building in the Tudor Revival style. The surrounding cemetery includes burials dating to 1734, when the church located at this site. Notable interments include Rufus King (1755–1827), Charles King (1789–1867) and William Duer (1743–1799).
The Metropolitan PGA Championship is a golf tournament that is the section championship of the Metropolitan section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1926 at a variety of courses around the New York City metropolitan area. It was considered a PGA Tour event in the 1920s and 1930s. It is also known as simply the Metropolitan PGA or Met PGA.
Harry Hepcat is an American first-generation rock and roll artist, performing rock, blues, doo-wop and rockabilly over seven decades. He is noted as a singer, guitarist, band leader, songwriter, radio disc-jockey, writer, and media personality. A 1981 review stated, "His honest sense of fun distinguishes him from humorless idol-worshipers and from slapstick cretins..." He was a frequent guest on WCBS-FM in 'New York City' and, at the other end of the rock spectrum, was one of the first listed in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1998 and featured on the organization's first CD. Elvis Presley once said of him, to George Anderson, "Harry Hepcat is like a brother, not by blood, but by what he does."
Saturday Night at the Garden was an American sports series broadcast by the DuMont Television Network from October 7, 1950, to March 31, 1951. The program aired sports, primarily basketball, horse show, rodeo, and boxing live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The program aired Saturday nights at 9pm ET and was 120 to 150 minutes long. The series was hosted by sportscaster Curt Gowdy and long time boxing blow-by-blow announcer Don Dunphy.
Boxing from Jamaica Arena is a TV sports series broadcast by the DuMont Television Network from 1946 to 1949. The program aired boxing from Jamaica Arena in Queens, New York. The program aired on Monday and Wednesday nights at 9pm ET and was 90 to 120 minutes long. An earlier program of the same name had aired on NBC from July 8, 1940 until May 18, 1942.
Boxing From Sunnyside Gardens was a boxing program aired live from Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, New York on the DuMont Television Network beginning in September 1949 as part of DuMont's sports programming. Most of DuMont's boxing programs at this time were hosted by Dennis James. The program aired Thursdays at 9:30pm ET following The Morey Amsterdam Show. Sunnyside Gardens began hosting boxing in 1945, and was demolished in 1977.
The Long Island PGA Championship is a professional golf tournament played on Long Island, New York. It is sponsored by the Metropolitan section of the PGA of America. The current title of the event is the MasterCard Long Island PGA Championship.
Roy Wilkins Park, originally known as Southern Queens Park, is a 54-acre (22 ha) park in the St. Albans neighborhood of southeastern Queens in New York City. It is located on an irregular plot of land bounded by 115th and 116th Avenues to the north, 175th Street to the west, Merrick Boulevard to the southwest, Baisley Boulevard to the southeast, and the St. Albans Community Living Center to the east. Roy Wilkins Park contains the Roy Wilkins Recreation Center, a community center with an indoor swimming pool. It also includes various outdoor sporting facilities, a playground, and an artificial pond.
Vilomar Fernandez is a Dominican Republic former professional boxer who twice challenged for the world Lightweight championship. Known as a very capable, defensive-minded fighter, Fernandez is mostly known for his victory over International Boxing Hall of Fame member Alexis Arguello, in a contest that took place on July 26, 1978, and which was scored as a ten-rounds decision win for Fernandez.