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Flashback Friday Archive 2021-22: Flashback Friday: Week of September 3

September 2, 1871 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

DARING AND SUCCESSFUL BURGLARIES
       On last Saturday morning our citizens were somewhat startled by the report that the large store of Messrs. Smiths & Blauvelt had been broken into during the night, their safe burst open and the sum of $51.63 taken therefrom. On inquiring at the store we found the facts to be as above stated, and on examination we learned to our satisfaction how the entrance had been effected.
       The rear windows of the store are closed by heavy shutters covered with zinc. These shutters when drawn to latch into a heavy cross-bar . . . cannot be opened except by force from the outside. The burglars in effecting an entrance pulled these shutters as far out as they could, and then by the aid of an instrument pushed up the latch and made their ingress.
       The safe, which is one of Patrick’s and considered strong, had been burst open by pryes [sic] without any apparent difficulty, and the contents, except the money, scattered in confusion over the floor. Several pairs of kid gloves were taken, and the burglars had helped themselves quite freely to champagne cider which they found in the cellar.
       James R. Floyd, Esq., who knows all about the construction of safes, is of the opinion that none but experts were engaged in the transaction.

September 2, 1921 – 100 YEARS AGO
Rockland News

ALASKA
       Grandpa will recall the great public protest that rose when Uncle Sam bought Alaska from Russia in 1867.
       Alaska cost us $7,200,000. That was less than two cents an acre. But Alaska hadn’t been explored in those days. Now comes a government report that Alaska last year yielded $23,307,757 in minerals. More than three times as much as the whole thing cost us originally!
       Alaska has paid for itself twenty-five times in fish alone. As often happens, it has taken time to prove that what seemed bad judgment at the moment was really good judgment coupled with far-sighted vision.
       Have you an Alaska in your life—something you are banking on despite the sneers and jibes of your neighbors?

CONGERS
       A large touring car was forced off the bank just below Brinkerhoff’s in Rockland Lake while another car attempted to pass it. There were ten Boy Scouts crowding in the unlucky car as it catapulted down the embankment and over end. The falling car struck a tree, and its course was stopped before it had gone far, and none of the occupants were seriously injured. One of the lads was pinned, under the car, but not badly hurt by his experience.

COUNTY NEWS
       The Board of Trustees held a special meeting Tuesday night for the purpose of adopting a resolution favoring the construction of the proposed pontoon bridge across the Hudson River between Yonkers and Alpine.

September 1, 1971 – 50 YEARS AGO
Rockland Independent/Leader

CANDYSTRIPERS’ TV DEBUT—IN BASEMENT
[Image: Producer Allen Potter checks the script with Jo Ann Lutter and Patricia Kreill. Dr. Matt Powers, played by James Pritchett, looks over the candystripers’ part.]
       The two 16-year-old Pearl River girls couldn’t wait to reach their destination—the basement of a Manhattan hotel. As the hotel elevator whirred to a halt, the girls stepped out into a dimly lit cellar and entered the world of television soap operas.
       There, the two were met with stares and then, “You must have the wrong place. Sorry.” But the teenagers protested until another someone said, “You’re the candystripers! Come on in!”
       On this uncertain note, Jo Ann Lutter and Patricia Kreill joined the cast of The Doctors, an NBC-TV daytime serial, for rehearsal and taping of its July 16 segment on which they would appear three weeks later.
       Awarded this honor after being named “Candystripers of the Year” by Good Samaritan Hospital, the girls were both excited and nervous about their television debut. But the location of the makeshift rehearsal hall put a small damper on the occasion.
       “In the basement, chairs were elevators and doors. They would say, ‘Okay, here’s the elevator.’ But it was hard to remember that,” said Patricia.
       Jo Ann, too, was stunned by the basement rehearsal. “When they told us, ‘Sorry, you’ve got the wrong place,’ I thought we’d come all that way for nothing. But then everything worked out.”
       Rehearsal lasted just a few hours, followed by the actual taping at the studio. There, the two young starlets discovered that all that glitters is not gold in the acting profession.
       “On television, the set looks so big, and just like a real hospital. But it’s really so small and each set is set up in a corner of the studio. We brought our own uniforms and did our own hair and makeup.”
       It wasn’t too glamorous a beginning for the budding actresses, but the lack of star treatment did not disappoint the girls as much as a scene when they entered an elevator.
       “We went into the elevator. which was really just a box,” Patricia said. “Then we couldn’t come out until the commercial, because otherwise we would have walked out in the middle of taping, so we just stood there in the box until they told us it was okay to come out.”
       Aside from these little revelations on the workings of daytime serials, Patricia and Jo Ann found the taping uneventful—until someone decided to ad lib the final scene.
       “During the taping, they changed the ending just a little bit. We weren’t too sure what they were doing then, and I got sort of panicky,” Jo Ann said.
       But in the tradition of television greats, the girls managed to stumble through with little upset.
       After five hours of working with the “wonderful warm and friendly cast,” the girls returned home, satisfied that they had given it their all. But neither of them will really know the thrill of seeing themselves on national television. They both missed their July 16 debut.
       With thoughts of school pushing more and more into their minds Jo Ann Lutter and Patricia Kreill said they find their unique experience fading in importance. But one lasting impression remains with them. For it, they both have one word: “Weird!”

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This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan on behalf of the Historical Society of Rockland County. To learn about the HSRC’s mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.

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