CastleRock

CastleRock took place in the cavernous Dorney Park dance-hall, Castle Garden. The "Garden" was built in the early 20's and hosted all the famous big bands of that era. By the late fifties it was called CastleRock. The Philadelphia recording stars, such as Frankie Avalon and Freddy Cannon would routinely perform. By my teenage era, in the early mid 60's, it was mostly disc jockeys. The Park was free, no admission. Pay to park, and maybe a buck or so for the dance-hall.







By then the nightclub tables shown in the photograph were gone, and sitting was around the sides. There were no shootings, and rowdiness was restricted to sneaking on a ride without buying a ticket. The dance-hall overlooked the lake, it was destroyed by a fire on Thanksgiving in 1985.

Above Reprinted from Sept. 10, 2008

ADDENDUM JUNE 15, 2023: In 2008, when I wrote that there were no shootings at the dance hall, little did I know that in 2023 there would multiple homicides before June ends. Forget a hormone filled dance club,  shootings now occur even on playgrounds. Rather than beefing up our police force, we look to social workers and mentor organizations to reduce the violence?  I would feel much safer if our police departments received the funding, rather than organizations that promise to make a difference.

Simon Fearless Against Bomber

The 1941 June edition of Ring Magazine featured the Abe Simon vs Joe Louis fight in March. Editor-writer Nat Fleischer was in awe of Simon's courage against the unbeatable Brown Bomber. Fleischer wrote "They (fans) saw Abe Simon give the Bomber the greatest battle he has had since he won the crown..." Although Simon Lost by TKO in the 13th, this image of Simon grinning at Louis while taking the 8 count in round 7, is one of my favorite photographs of that fight.

reprinted from December 2012

NIZ Rain

For the last decade I have been documenting the NIZ storm which has destroyed Allentown's former mercantile district, just like a tornado in Kansas wipes out buildings.  In addition to photographing the demolition,  I attended city hall meetings with the former merchants, where they were bullied into relinquishing their dreams. I'm sorry to report that none now remain in business, not even on 7th Street.

Yesterday, in regard to the imminent sale of the PPL Tower,  fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare recapped the 2012 Business Matters debate covered by the Morning Call's Bill White.  White dismissed the possibility of the PPL leaving the tower as hysteria.  Myself and another critic, Steve Thode, were accused of making wild claims.  As critical as we were then, it never occurred to me that almost all of the NIZ, with only a few exceptions, would be owned by one man. That man even came to own the Morning Call building itself, which now warehouses cigarettes. His NIZ allows him to collect the state taxes on cigarettes, which formerly went to CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program.

While photographing the demolition of the former Rialto property,  I took shelter from yesterday's rain under the overhang of the former Park & Shop deck on 10th Street, which is now the police garage. I remembered that when I was a boy my mother would park there while shopping.  In Hess's she would have to go up to the 5th floor to get her parking ticket stamped.  There was a lot of merchandise to view on the way up for that free parking validation. There were a lot of stores to pass on the way back to the garage.

shown above demolition of former Rialto property

$100 A Week

In 1935, a Jewish boy earning $35 a week carrying 300 pound blocks of ice, was offered three times more to fight; win, lose or draw. For one hundred dollars a week, Jock Whitney, British aristocrat and sportsman, owned Abe Simon. Abe won his first 14 fights, 12 by knockout. On his climb to fight Louis in 1941 he would knock out 27 opponents, including Jersey Joe Walcott.
reprinted from December 2012 

This blog has produced numerous posts chronicling the Joe Louis boxing era, many featuring Abe Simon, a Jewish heavyweight of the era; Simon and my mother were cousins. Lately, Allentown political shenanigans have allowed me little time and space to visit Madison Square Garden in the early 1940's. During the next couple of weeks I will reprint some of the Simon posts, while still assigning staff to City Hall. One of my attractions to the boxing world is the black and white photography produced during that era. The public would listen to the fights on the radio, and then see the photographs in the newspapers the following day.  I refer fight fans to December of 2012,  which can be found on the archive list on the right sidebar. 

reprinted from December 2014

Allentown Officially Becomes Reillyville

Yesterday the PPL Corporation announced that they are moving into a Reilly NIZ office building and putting the tower for sale.  The tower is more than  just an iconic building, it is the symbol of Allentown, and has been since 1928. 

The first question of course is what will become of the tower?  I suspect that J.B. Reilly has some insight in regard to that question.  With a glut of new office space available,  no commercial entity besides the PPL would have any use for it.  Its future is certainly residential, and its new owner I suspect has already been determined.

The second question is --what is really going on with our diverted taxes and the NIZ? If Reilly's first building at 7th and Hamilton has the room to accommodate the PPL, how much empty space is there in the subsequent buildings? 

Although this post is heavy on the questions and light on the answers, one thing is for certain...the Allentown of pre NIZ no longer exists.

shown above PPL Tower from the era of classic postcards

Weekly Reader

When I was growing up my parents would receive both The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle.* This was their main source of news. Television in the late 40's and early 50's had national and world news, but there was no local programing in Allentown. The antenna on our roof would receive the three network (ABC, NBC, and CBS) stations from Philadelphia, and that was it. The morning and evening papers provided the local news, in addition to national and world stories. Hess Brothers and Leh's would compete with multiple full page Ads. We children also had our own little paper, Weekly Reader, handed out in the classroom every Friday. I think of it when I get the thin Morning Call on Mondays.

* The Morning Call and Evening Chronicle were both published by same company, Call-Chronicle Newspapers. 

reprinted from March 1, 2010

ADDENDUM JUNE 8, 2023: When my parents received the Call newspapers, and later when I had my own subscription, I never imaged that down the line that I would be writing my own local newsletter. I have been subscribing to the Morning Call for over 50 years, and writing this blog every weekday for 16 years. Unfortunately over these years I have offended some  elected officials and members of the press. Offending people is never the intention, my mission is to examine those things which would otherwise escape scrutiny.