Buffalo in the ’70s: Surrounded by top Democrats, Dulski gives his final victory speech

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Flanked by State Sen. James D. Griffin, Erie County Democratic Chairman Joseph Crangle and County Legislator Dennis T. Gorski, Rep. Thaddeus Dulski made his final of eight victory speeches upon being elected to the House of Representatives for his eighth and final term in 1972.

Buffalo News archives

A UB-trained accountant, Dulski worked for the IRS until being elected to the Buffalo Common Council first as the Walden District member, then to an at-large seat. He went to Congress following the death of Rep. Edmund Radwan in 1959, and he spent the next 15 years representing Buffalo in Washington.

Dulski was a powerful figure in Washington as chairman of the Post Office Committee, and he was influential in crafting the laws deciding what could and what couldn’t be mailed legally.

Dulski bill defines ‘obscene’ in attack on smut mailings

Rep. Thaddeus Dulski (D., Buffalo) said today that trying to control obscene mail ‘is like trying to empty Lake Erie with a pail.’ 

As the chairman of the House Post Office & Civil Service Committee, Rep. Thaddeus J. Dulski (after whom Buffalo’s Dulski Federal Building was named) had a lot of power of deciding what you could and couldn’t receive in your mailbox.

He made railing against pornography and “continued unsolicited mailings to our young people” a priority and placed “a heavy accent on putting a ban on the mailing of smut into homes where minors reside.”

 

 

After he died in 1988, Buffalo’s federal office building — which Dulski was credited with gaining financial support in constructing — was renamed in his honor.

For more about the checkered and interesting history of that building, now known as the Avant, check out BN Chronicles’ look back at June 10, 1969.

 

Buffalo in the ’30s: Nearly a blizzard on Main Street

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Snow-covered streetcars, buses, cars and pedestrians share the 400 block of Main Street with Hengerer’s, Shea’s Century theater and Buffalo Savings Bank’s gold dome in this shot from 77 years ago.

Buffalo News archives

On Jan. 30, 1939, Buffalo was dealt a surprise 8.5 inches of snow. Two people died as a result of the storm — both as they drudged through the weather on downtown sidewalks. The fact that news accounts mention that the weather event was not an official blizzard, leads one to believe the storm was wicked enough to use the shorthand of “blizzard” whether it strictly fit the meteorological definition or not.

What It Looked Like Wednesday: Eduardo’s on Bailey Avenue

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Eduardo’s Restaurant on Bailey Avenue at LaSalle survived long enough to be remembered differently by different generations.

Buffalo News archives

The Tarquini family started what wound up being a chain of seven restaurants in 1953 on Bailey, and it quickly became one of Bailey’s most popular pizzerias.

Steve Cichon/Buffalo Stories archive

Before Eduardo and his wife, Alice, retired from the business in 1980, the original Eduardo’s had been a pizzeria, a 1960s-style nightclub with live music, and a 1970s-style club as well.

Steve Cichon/Buffalo Stories archive

The address that was Eduardo’s for a quarter century is now a mental health services clinic.

Torn-Down Tuesday: Signs of Bethlehem Steel along Route 5

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

For decades now, thick weeds have enveloped chain link fencing right up to the roadway along Route 5 in Lackawanna.

Buffalo News archives

Thirty-two years ago, even as Bethlehem Steel’s operations were winding down, there was no room for weeds. This photo shows the trappings of steel manufacturing, familiar for generations along that stretch of the lakeshore.

This photo was taken in 1983, as part of a story talking about traffic tie-ups on Route 5.

Buffalo in the ’50s: The suburban splendor of Hens & Kelly

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Today, the thought driving to the corner of Main and Transit might conjure up thoughts of sprawl for as far as the eye can see married with seemingly endless traffic. Sixty years ago that same view — as seen in the Transitown Plaza parking lot here — was more like the summit of suburban living and all the newness that Buffalo had to offer.

Buffalo News archives

This late ’50s H&K photo (above) is from the same time period as this ad (below) announcing Hens & Kelly’s 67thanniversary (and subsequent sale.)

Matthias Hens and Patrick Kelly opened Hens & Kelly in downtown Buffalo in 1892. The store remained in local hands until the late 1960s, when it was bought by Sperry & Hutchinson, the S&H Green Stamps people.

The original downtown location is now known as “The Mohawk Building.” The Transitown Plaza location is now home to TJ Maxx. When the Abbott Road location opened in 1951, Lackawanna’s LB Smith Plaza was the largest shopping plaza in Western New York. Today, it is anchored by Save-A-Lot. The Bailey Avenue location was next to the Kensington Expressway.

In the 1970s, the chain was purchased by Twin Fair. All Hens & Kelly location closed their doors when Twin Fair disappeared in 1982.

What It Looked Like Wednesday: Allen and Franklin, 1981

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

When Buffalonians talk about neighborhoods in danger of being lost to freefalling divestment, Allen Street has not been a part of that conversation for a very long time.

Buffalo News archive

Thirty-five years ago, the story was a bit different. “Boarded Up Dreams” was the title of this photo as it appeared in The News in 1981.

The “burned and boarded up” buildings on that corner had been in the sights of developers Stanley Collesano and Dennis Insalaco, but plans for all four corners fizzled when three banks pulled $3.1 million in promised cash — which in turn led to $1.6 in federal urban development grants going away.

The building, minus the boarded windows, still stands a block from Main Street and the hope of the new Children’s Hospital and Medical School, visible from the building’s stoop.

Torn-down Tuesday: St. Brigid’s Hall in the First Ward

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church was the center of the Irish immigrant community in Buffalo’s First Ward neighborhood for more than a century.

Buffalo News archive

More than just the home of spiritual life, St. Brigid’s — and specifically St. Brigid’s Hall — was a center for union meetings, political rallies, parties, sporting events and theatrical performances.

Through the 1920s, it was also the place where thousands came together to organize the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade through the streets of the Ward.

The hall, pictured above in 1938, stood on the corner of Fulton and Louisiana streets.

The hall was across Fulton Street from the church, as shown on this 1894 city ward map. Buffalo Stories archives.

Ten years without the I-190 tolls

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Ah Black Rock and Ogden, we hardly knew ye. The new year will mark a decade since the City of Buffalo had toll booths at its northern (Black Rock) and southern (Ogden) borders along the I-190.

For generations of Buffalonians, it was a bit of a sport to toss the quarter, and later two quarters, into the EXACT CHANGE baskets at the now demolished 190 toll booths.

The tolls were supposed to come down in when the highway was paid for in the late 80’s– but to the outrage of WNYers, you had to pay a toll to get to downtown Buffalo. The outrage built to a crescendo in 2006 when the toll booths were removed.

For some tollbooth memories we dip into the Buffalo Stories archives for these shots.

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Its WKBW-TV Channel 7’s zany weatherman Danny Neaverth standing at the Ogden Tolls sometime in the early to mid 80’s.

dannythruway(2)

This story was all about how fast people could drive through the “Exact Change” booths, and still get the coins into the basket.

dannythruway(3)

Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com
Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com

Buffalo in the ’50s: Gorgeous George brings showmanship to the Aud

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Gorgeous George was wrestling’s first bad guy. He invented the persona after he married his real-life wife in the ring, and then over and over again, seeing the potential for showmanship in the sport, which had little of it before his silk robes and atomizer.

Buffalo News archives

This photo comes from a 1949 match at the Aud, with GG (as the papers of the day referred to him) against Ray Villmer, “The Mighty Yankee.”

You can be sure the crowd was erupting as it looked like “The Human Orchid” might finally lose. From a clipping on another match:

Gorgeous hardly is gaining in favor with the populace. Mincing down the aisle in a cream robe, cape style, he was the target for assorted paper cartons and one entire beer. He was thrown out of the ring early in the mill, and his well-being appeared endangered until he escaped.

GG is well-remembered for rebuffing any touch with a boisterous “Get your filthy paws off of me,” but two events remained etched into the psyches of Buffalo wrestling fans. One, the night Stormy Bob Wagner “gave Gorgeous an authentic beating” at Memorial Auditorium, complete with a real head wound created by GG’s perfume bottle.

The other press event involved Gorgeous George driving to the Aud down Main Street in a convertible, waving around handfuls of dollar bills. When he began to throw them out to “the peasants” in Lafayette Square, a riot almost ensued.

The stories are emblematic of a showman whose curly locks and silky robes helped make wrestling into a popular attraction that became the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.

To remember GG as merely a heel wrestler — even only as “The First Heel Wrestler” — belittles his memory. The Human Orchid was one of the great stars of early television. Wrestling was cheap, flashy and easy to televise — and Gorgeous George was the performer that people loved to hate. It was said that in TV’s earliest years, Gorgeous George’s appearance on TV sold as many televisions as Milton Berle’s.

Gorgeous George — his legal name after 1950 — died of a heart attack at age 48 in 1963, just as another boisterous, flamboyant, larger-than-life personality began his career in the ring — albeit the boxing ring.

In the same 1964 Associated Press story that asked if Cassius Clay was “a hoax … or the new golden boy,” his promotional style was offered up as patterned after Gorgeous George.

Buffalo’s Christmases Past: A look back

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

As the BN Chronicles staff celebrates Christmas, we’re taking a look back at some of the Christmas memories we’ve collected through the years.

Dec. 8, 1969: A Christmas full of masculine scents at Rite Aid

In the less-complicated world of 45 years ago, buying dad a gift from Rite Aid may have seemed far more appropriate than it may today.

With the choice of several distinct men’s fragrance sets by Aqua Velva, Skin Bracer, Hai Karate and Black Belt, the only reason to shop elsewhere for your dad would have been if he were an Old Spice guy.


Nov. 28, 1974: Buffalo’s great Christmas catalog stores

Shopping from home is easier than ever these days. You’re a web search, a few clicks and a credit card number from just about any product ever created.

That same searchability makes creating Christmas wishlists much easier, too. But remember when you had to write down the page number instead of emailing a weblink?

For decades, the wants, needs, hopes and desires of Buffalonians fit not into the vastness of the World Wide Web, but into the 180 pages of the Century and Brand Names catalogs.


Buffalo in the ’60s: Mom’s Christmas perfume at AM&A’s

Looking at the clip art and the premise behind this December 1962 ad for the AM&A’s toiletries department, one can quite easily picture, say, Ward Cleaver showing up in one of the six Adam, Meldrum and Anderson locations with this ad in hand.

Buffalo Stories archives

The perfume counter was on the main floor at the downtown location. Other locations were on Sheridan Drive, University Plaza, Thruway Plaza, Abbott Road and Airport.


Dec. 24, 1969: Fir boughs or fake? A look at Buffalo’s Christmas tree tastes

Christmas tree farmers in Amherst and Tonawanda were noting declines in sales of real trees 45 years ago this week, while the Sears store at Main and Jefferson noted robust sales of the fakes.

While the headline indicates some 1969 folks thought that real trees might go the way of lighting trees with real candles, the truth is, the farmers knew there would always be a place for a spruce or a fir in some Western New York living rooms come the end of December.

“The artificial tree: One day soon that’s all Yule see”

“The men who stand watch over Christmas tree lots in and around Buffalo concede that artificial trees are making inroads on their sales.

“But they steadfastly predict real trees, now known as ‘natural,’ will be around for countless Christmases to come.”


Dec. 25, 1969: Christmas in jail

The News didn’t print a Christmas Day paper in 1969, but on Christmas Eve, this photo of an inmate at the Erie County jail was at the top of the front page, just below the day’s headline.


Dec. 23, 1969: The Harlem Globetrotters play at the Aud on Christmas Day

“Abe Saperstein’s Fabulous Harlem Globetrotters” found their way to Buffalo 45 years ago this week, when they played Christmas night at Memorial Auditorium.

No word on how many of tickets were sold, but every seat was a good one. While the “Oranges” would be the cheap seats for more than two decades, in 1969, the roof had not yet raised and the steep, high orange seats had not yet been added.


Dec. 23, 1969: Buffalo’s AHL Bisons celebrate Christmas on ice

Buffalo Bisons Terry Crisp and Bill Plager join their families on the ice of the Fort Erie Arena for a holiday skating party.

Crisp later won two Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers, including in 1975 when the Flyers defeated the Sabres in the finals. He played for head coach Fred Shero in Philadelphia, the same man who coached him here with the Bisons.  Crisp became an assistant coach under Shero and eventually went on to be head coach of the Calgary Flames and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Plager played for the Minnesota North Stars, the St. Louis Blues and the Atlanta Flames before retiring from hockey in 1976.