Allan L. Benson, 1916 Socialist Candidate for President
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Municipal Historian, recipient of the Key to the City of Yonkers, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Founder of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, March 9th
March 9, 1906: Mayor Nathan Warren urged the Common Council to build a Yonkers swimming pool, stating the Hudson River was “not fit to swim in.”
March 9, 1945: Following Yonkers Legal Department advice, School Superintendent William Ankenbrand refused to honor the Supreme Court injunction ordering Hazel Holmes to be reinstated as a telephone operator. Her attorney Thomas Sullivan sent a letter to the Board of Education notifying them refusal was a “willful disobedience and a contumacious disregard of a mandate of the court.” Another woman had replaced Holmes May 1, 1943.
Tuesday, March 10th
March 10, 1888: The first passenger train of the Yonkers branch of the New York and Northern Railroad ran from Manhattan into Getty Square.
March 10, 1925: Acting City Judge Gorfinkel notified school authorities young high school girls were smoking and loitering in City Hall Park during school hours.
March 10, 1938: Mrs. Arthur Flegenheimer, Dutch Schultz’s widow, asked the NY Supreme Court to allow her legal team to perform pre-trial examinations of the twelve Yonkers Colonial Brewery employees. She hurled new charges at Thomas Brogan, claiming he accepted $2500 weekly “protection payments” during Prohibition.
Wednesday, March 11th
March 11, 1888: One of the worst recorded blizzards in the history of the country descended upon Yonkers and much of the nation. Not only did it tie up traffic, it paralyzed the east coast from Chesapeake Bay to Maine, with recorded snowfalls from 20 to 60 inches. Sustained winds created snowdrifts beyond belief, sometimes covering entire houses.
March 11, 1932: Sixty ex-servicemen stormed City Hall to renew their unsuccessful and unheard objections to Mayor Loehr, protesting firing of war veterans from city employ. Percy Williams, commander of the Spanish-American War Veterans and leader of the delegation, charged Mayoral Secretary Benedict Shea refused to allow the men to see Loehr to lodge their objections.
Thursday, March 12th
March 12, 1930: Gray Place’s Robert Snody wrote and directed the new film just completed at RCA Gramercy Studio! “The Love Kiss” storyline centered around a wager two teens made about which one would kiss their handsome teacher first. Snody worked in NY studios as a director, editor and production manager.
He eventually left Yonkers and moved to California.
March 12, 1934: Principal George Bennett, who received a gold police whistle ten years earlier from the Shonnard Place station, pulled it out of its hiding place at the back of his desk drawer, and blew it long and hard. Forty minutes later, he once again gave a long and loud toot… and forty minutes after that! That day he blew the whistle several times; every time opening doors were heard along with the sounds of feet. Why? The batteries supplying power for the class period bell were dead, and Principal Bennett was blowing the changing of classes.
Friday, March 13th
March 13, 1916: After Socialist candidate for US President Allan Benson of Yonkers, speaking before the House Naval Committee, criticized Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy of preparedness, the ire of some Democratic committee members was raised.
Benson said the President was not dealing fairly with the people when Wilson’s speeches enflamed people’s fears, yet he did not taking any action to hurry work on the millions of dollars of new military ships and equipment, expenditures already approved by Congress. Committee Chairman Padgett expunged Benson’s remarks from the official record.
March 13, 1930: After being introduced by Nicholas Lasko, President of the Associate Hungarian Societies of Yonkers. Count Michael Karolyi, first president of Hungary, spoke in the Masonic Temple on Anti-Fascism. The Yonkers Committee of the Anti-Horty League sponsored his appearance. This was his second visit to Yonkers; his first trip here was in 1914.
Saturday, March 14th
March 14, 1944: Eighty-eight year old George Kittredge of North Broadway dispelled some myths about pigeons when speaking to Yonkers Rotarians about his pigeon-raising hobby. He told them it was not true that pigeons mate for life; he claimed it took them about 30 minutes before seeking a new mate. He also told them, pigeons were fighters, their coo was a “cuss word,” and that pigeons of both sexes flew equally well.
While introducing Kittredge, Rotarian Sam Hayward told the gathering that Kittredge’s home at 592 North Broadway had been in the family since it was built in 1784.
March 14, 1953: At a program at the Asbury Church Men’s Club, reporter Ed Reid, the main speaker, announced he knew the murderer of John Acropolis, and shared the man had received $1,500 for the hit on the crusading labor leader. The DA and police investigating Acropolis’ murder did not act on Reid’s information, denying Reid’s charges they were harboring clues they had not acted upon for “legalistic reasons.” At the time, there was a $37,000 reward for information on the murder.
Sunday, March 15th
March 15, 1930: Silent Screen heroine Anita Stewart attempted a comeback in Yonkers through vaudeville! She debuted at Loew’s theater as a “speaking stage actress” in a “musical diversion” created for her by playwright Edgar Allen Woolf. Woolf later coauthored the screenplay for “The Wizard of Oz!”
March 15, 1945: Former Yonkers resident Harry Stradling won Oscars for Cinematography for “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and later “My Fair Lady” on April 5, 1965. Stradling filmed than 130 films, including twelve other Oscar nominated films.
His wife was the former Ann Linsenbarth, daughter of Albert Linsenbarth who worked for forty years in the Yonkers Herald composing room.
If you have questions, please email yonkershistory1646@gmail.com. For information on Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and upcoming events, please visit their website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org
