March 27, 1942

Guest Post by Mike Casey
Before 18,220 fans at Madison Square Garden on March 27, 1942, big Abe Simon stepped into the ring for the final fight of his career. Scaling 255 1/4lbs, he was a massive, bear of a man who had once used his considerable size and muscle on the gridiron. Abe outweighed Joe Louis by nearly 48 pounds, but already knew the dangers of duelling with the Brown Bomber. Just a year before at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Joe had decked Simon four times and stopped him in thirteen rounds.Coming back for seconds was never a good idea against the prime Louis. But Abe had heart, pluck and a big punch and everyone knew that anything could happen in heavyweight boxing. Simon had knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in six rounds, beaten Roscoe Toles and drawn with Turkey Thompson. Abe had also waged a thrilling battle of the giants with Buddy Baer, in which he had beaten Buddy severely in the opening round before being stopped in the third.......Louis finished the fight quickly in the sixth round, sending Abe down and out with a final left-right blast. Perhaps Joe had been riled after first snapping Simon to attention with a quick-fire combination in the second round. Big Abe had laughed at him....
copy courtesy of Mike Casey Archives
photograph(added by molovinsky): Abe Simon in corner after fight, with manager Jimmy Johnston

Comments on Blogging

I don't make Pawlowski's day. Probably, at most, I'm a minor thorn in his side. Being an equal opportunity basher, I have also alienated people at The Morning Call; Most of my criticism of Allentown is only read on this blog. Occasionally, Gunther Walsh is kind enough to voice one of my diatribes on WAEB radio. This brings us to the issue of blogging and comments. All bloggers, myself included, prefer more, than less readers. Advice articles on blogging emphasize the importance of comments for increased readership. Allow your readers to interact with your blog. Respond to all their comments. Last night I received the following comment on the Tea Leaves post.

Read the Sunday paper to see what kind of scum bag mayor and city council we are dealing with. With these unethical and amoral idiots at the helm there is little hope for Allentown.
And biblical principles. Pawlowski might think he is the Antichrist but too many people hate him. Wonder why.He and XXXX XXXXX can retire to XXXX and develop their spec properties. Maybe they will take XXXX XXXX XXXXX with them. Another one of their scams.

Even though I am opposed to the Mayor's plans concerning the sports palace complex, and many other programs, and often address City Council, I have never used or felt the above adjectives and adverbs. Although I do not believe that bloggers own, or are responsible for the words in the comments, they can undermine a mission. I see this blog as a tool to help effect some change in Allentown. Consequently, do not expect submitted comments, as above, to appear on this blog. I appreciate your readership, but will not compromise my community efforts for the sake of increased circulation of this blog.

The Great White Hunter

In my Newspaper Safari post I used the phrase Great White Hunter. Although I would not allow my readers go off on a racial dialogue, some explanation is in order. As a six year old boy watching Ramar of the Jungle, the hunters were white, and wore pith helmets. Africa was a tropical jungle, inhabited by blacks,living in huts. Despite the image I show here, the 1953 television show itself was black and white. As an impressionable boy, I do not believe I developed any racial attitudes from the program, but I certainly received some distorted geography. The Tarzan movies continued the myth that Africa was all jungle. Whether in Hollywood with Robert Redford, or in the local paper with some guy from Catasauqua, The Great White Hunter continues on in modern times.

Allentown's Tea Leaves

Some people read tea leaves, I read deed transfers. I can tell you that Pawlowski's Transformation includes 3 square blocks. In addition to the publicly stated 700 block of Hamilton Street, projects will also be built on blocks to the east and north. When completed, downtown will have two separate shopping districts; There will be the low income Hispanic Shopping District on 7th Street, and the hoped for middle class district on Hamilton, west of 8th Street. These two districts will be physically separated by the new projects; hockey arena, event center and hotel(s). In a recent Morning Call article The heart was torn out of the city, Easton's Mayor Sal Panto says that their 1966 renewal project was a total mistake. Panto won't apply the lesson to that city's new plans about a Lanta Terminal and High School Sports Museum. Here in Allentown, Pawlowski wasn't even here for our previous failures. The stark, former bank call center on the Lehigh Street hill, between Martin Luther Drive and Union Street, is testament to Allentown's previous failed attempt at transformation. Although the current Hamilton Street, shown above around 1950, is a shadow of it's former glory, the buildings remained for future renewal. That option will end come November. It is my fear that some mayor will say in 2050, that tearing down those buildings, was a total mistake.

Newspaper Safari

People occasionally contact me when they're exasperated with the city, but a gentleman I spoke with yesterday was fuming at the newspaper. A column on the front page of the sports section glorified shooting a lioness on an African Safari. If that didn't offend this guy enough, the hunter planned to return to Africa, to shoot an elephant. The hunter's only concern was that killing deer in Pennsylvania just wouldn't do it for him any longer. He says that in Africa, if your check book is big enough, you can kill anything. Hope that doesn't include bloggers, but back to the upset newspaper reader. I think he can accept the misguided hunter, but he wonders what processed the columnist and his editor. I should mention that the paper included a photograph of the Great White Hunter and the dead lioness. Perhaps to the reporter, who covers both sports and outdoors, bagging a lion hunter is a bigger catch than the usual teenage boy shoots first deer story. Anyway, for us Babar fans, it was offensive.

I have purposely not linked to the article, nor will I host comments mentioning the hunter by name

Connecting the Neglect

Although this blog has documented the deterioration of the iconic WPA Structures throughout the park system, the City goes forward with new park projects without addressing problems with existing features; We will now connect the neglect. The Morning Call this past weekend distributed the Fall and Winter Directory to Parks and Recreation. The cost of the slick magazine could have in itself repaired one set of steps at Irving Park. The City is going ahead with it's plans and paid consultants for the Network of Bicycle and Pedestrian Trails. The next meeting for that project will be October 26, at the Library. I attended the previous meeting last April. The theme is Connecting our Community. Park Director Weitzel and the paid consultant spoke about connecting the children of Allentown with the park system. Although they had a professionally produced large illustration of the Fountain Park area, the Lawrence Street WPA Steps were not included. In reality, that magnificent structure was built exactly for that purpose in 1936. It now stands neglected, with numerous missing steps, as a monument to this Park Department's misplaced priorities.

This evening the WPA Support Group will meet once again at the Library. Park Director Weitzel has asked to attend to present the achievements of his department. I told him he was welcome to make a short presentation. A few members of our group will also make short presentations on the current condition of the iconic WPA structures, which had made our park system famous. The meeting is this evening, in the lower level of the Allentown Library, at 7:00p.m. Members of the public, press and Trexler Trust are invited to attend.

Korean on Mayor's Menu

Last week blogger Bernie O'Hare reported on the Lehigh Valley Mayor's Dinner. Although he presented a glimpse of statements made, he neglected to report on the food served, Korean. I don't mean Asian style rice and pork, but they ate actual Koreans, former Allentown merchants. These unusual victuals were arranged by Sara Hailstone, Allentown's Community Development Director.

Although the above is satire, now some ugly truths. Although Hailstone promised the merchants assistance in relocating, in reality, obstacles were put in their place. In one instance, a long standing displaced merchant was told by a landlord in another location that he wouldn't rent to him, because of his merchandize and clientele. The landlord said that the City wanted a new look, and he didn't want to jeopardize his hopes for a future grant. Another merchant was denied relocation funds previously promised. Although I attended the meeting between Hailstone and the merchants, and heard the promises, I will provide no details about the identity of the merchants. These unfortunate victims of Allentown's progress still hope to make a living here, despite the city.

Holmes vs. Panto

Sal Panto does pretty good in the local blogosphere. He's in Bernie O'Hare's Walk on Water Club. The ReNew Yuppies like him because of the his position on trains, planes, and buses. About the only blogger not impressed is me. I've seen him back things to a fault, like the parking deck behind the Wolfe School. Although his supporters keep saying that Easton is different than Allentown, I know that the Lanta Terminal and the Al Bundy Museum of High School Jocks are canned mediocrity. Apparently, Larry Holmes is also less than impressed with Panto's plans. The Morning Call reported that Holmes will move his nightclub rather than pay more taxes for the Improvement District . Reinforcing my opinion of Panto, his best argument to Holmes is that his proposals, (Panto's) haven't passed yet. While other mayor's made light of themselves, Panto hurt his arm patting himself on his own back at the Mayor's dinner. Panto may well induce Holmes to stay put with one incentive or another, but it sure won't be because of enthusiasm for Panto's plans.

Holmes tutors Ray Mercer, 1992