Brooklyn in the 1950s - Essay Example

Brooklyn in 1950s: Introduction: Brooklyn is a famous and the most populous area of New York which is known as the of churches from a longtime, in every festive part of the year like Christmas, the neighborhoods of this area lit with fantastic display of enchanting lights. Among these displays, some of the very best include those on 83rd and 84th streets. For the tourists nowadays a 3.5 hours tour shuttle is also offered whose name is “Tony Muia” This is what Brooklyn looks like at present times but in this article we’ll try to have a look about the outlook of Brooklyn as it was in 1950s. The main reference to the history of Brooklyn is a beautiful book by Colm Toibin named “Brooklyn”, it is basically a novel based on the life of Brooklyn in 50s. This novel basically depicts a sad life and gives an overview about the pattern of life in Brooklyn at that time. Geographical Location: In 1950s, Brooklyn had the same boundaries as of the Kings County which is now the 2nd most densely populated county of United States after the Manhattan County, if we go far behind in the past then Brooklyn was an independent city until it was included in New York in 1898, but still in 1950s, despite of the merger into New York, Brooklyn maintained its individuality in culture, art and its architecture and it has harbor different cultures in different areas. Downfall of Brooklyn: In the post war years, Brooklyn was the main supplier of the industrial goods to the whole of the country but by 1950 these industrial supplies began to diminish pertaining to the fact that the major industrial manufacturers started to move to other cities which appeared cheaper to them as well as the Brooklyn port also started to decline as larger ships came into scene which required larger ports having deep harbors which was deficient factor in the port of Brooklyn, at that time, economy was unstable and banks were providing loans for building houses on easy conditions so a large number of white middle class community left their native homes in Brooklyn and moved to other localities which appeared to have more prosperous future for them such as Staten Island and New Jersey. Whole of the Jewish community left their homes in Brooklyn and moved to other places such as Flatbush, Borough Park, Eastern Parkway and Brighton Beach. Most of the Italians also moved from Brooklyn and what could be regarded as a major blow was the incidence of Brooklyn Dodgers moving to Los Angeles in 1957. This was quite significant as Dodgers symbolized Brooklyn for a very long time so it was a big setback for the residents of Brooklyn and the dodgers wee the unifying factor for the whole diverse ethnic groups residing in the Brooklyn. So everyone in Brooklyn in some way or the other was related to each other through the Dodgers. One such incidence which showed the significance of Dodgers was the defeat of New York Yankees by the Dodgers in 1955 which made their loyal fans felt proud and when this team suddenly became the Los Angeles Dodgers then it was also taken as a sign of the decline of the golden era of Brooklyn. Once all the colors of Brooklyn faded, the manufacturing power of Brooklyn also declined drastically and this can be shown by the fact that the Brooklyn Navy yard was closed in 1966. The Brighter Side: Despite of a large number of people migrating to other areas from Brooklyn, in 1950s there was an influx of a large number of Italians to this area resulting in the predominance of Italians in these neighborhoods and this dominance of Italians still persists in some areas of Brooklyn such as Bensonhurst which is also known as the “Little Italy” of Brooklyn. In 1950, one major event was the arrival of New York aquarium into the Coney Island. Though the abrupt voting of the Dodgers to join Los Angeles was the significant dilemma for the Brooklyn residents but event after that there were some leaders in Brooklyn like Galamison and Reverend Milton who continued the traditions of the activists to raise their voices against any injustice or any decision at the Government level which could be detrimental to the image of USA in the outer world. Brewing Industry: Among different industries in that time, brewing was one of the largest industries operating in the Brooklyn and when in 1950s all industries faced a decline the brewing industry suffered the same consequences but still managed to retain its legacy, though in following times, giants such as Anheuser-Busch and Miller captured the market but before and in early 1950s, Brooklyn was the major stake holder in the brewing industry. Memories of Residents: According to the people who lived there are so many wonderful memories of the fascinating places, restaurants, historic places as well as the sports event which took place regularly in the Brooklyn from time to time. The people used to walk on around in the localities in the hot and humid weather for their day to day activities. There were lots of bakeries who deserts were amazing and one of the best in the whole region and people loved to eat deserts in their recreational time. The price of everything was so economical that you can afford everything in a nominal price whether it is the matter of taking a candy for children or taking a desert for yourself. It was the ideal place for the kids who remained playing in the streets all day long irrespective of the weather. Pizza may be thought as the fast food of present days but in Brooklyn the pizza restaurants were present even in 1950s and were full of customers at the mid day and it was really hard to find a stool in the pizza restaurants even. If we summarize all this than we can say easily that there was a lot to cheer about in Brooklyn and the examples include music, food, gossip among people of different ethnicity like Italians, Americans and others and the people were so gentle that respect each other and give proper place for everybody to live. The people used to go on day camps especially in the Coney Island where they had eating, singing as well as fishing and all sorts of amusement were present there. Cinemas in 1950s: Now we’ll have a look on the cinema trends at that time, everybody loved in that time to go to cinema on weekends and the people were all curious about the new movies being shown in the cinema. The ticket price was too nominal to be affordable for everybody and there were separate sitting places for adults and kids in the cinemas and the children area was under the control of uniformed persons, the cinemas were air conditioned even in that time which provided the excellent environment for the customers and the thoughts of being in the cinema were too attractive that people sometimes used to see two movies continuously or sometime saw the same movie twice. This was the time long before the era of multiplexes, the capacity of these cinemas were about 1500 people and there used to be a separate balcony for the smokers to smoke. Before the start of the movie, cinema administration used to plat a light and pleasant music for the customers and there were present number of counters who used to sell popcorns at very economical rates. The people of all ages used to go to the cinemas whether they were children, young, middle aged or old. Drugs Trends: In those days people were used to have long plants of marijuana in their backyards and the sanitation department was very curious about their existence and one of such example is that the department destroyed about 40,000 pounds of the marijuana in the year of 1951 and still they said that they could not wipe it all out as the major quantity of weed was grown in the backyards of the residential areas where they were not able to have the continuous monitoring. One other reason of the large extent of the growth of Marijuana is the spread of its seeds through air to distant areas which could not be stopped. Transportation in Brooklyn: In the earlier days like in 1950s, the mean mode of transportation was bicycle as it was economical as well as convenient and did not need any energy source. But in 1950s, the town planners were planning to introduce the motor vehicles in the city of Brooklyn and the main thought behind this was to speed up the things and to lessen the time of travel. As a consequence of this, there were built a number of expressways to facilitate the automobiles movement and in the construction of these routes, a large number of pre existing houses were demolished. The Brooklyn Bridge was the main link between the cities of New York and Brooklyn in that time since it was built in the mid of eighteenth century, In 1950s, the municipal engineers planned to reconstruct and expand the utilities of the bridge so that it can support both the motor vehicles as well as the train/ initially there were just four main cables but then in the fifties, further horizontal stays were added to the bridge to make it more durable. Conclusion: So in the end one has to say there are too many memories of Brooklyn in the mind of the people who resided there in that time and spending their childhood over there. These memories are a blend of gloomy ones like the civil war effects or the Dodgers going for Los Angeles and the cheerful thoughts like being the pry of the community sharing their joys and having good times in day camps or watching Cinema. Brooklyn was great place to live so be the people of Brooklyn who were always there to cheer you up. References: 1. Welcome to Brooklyn. Brooklyn: City of Churches. 26thMarch. 2011. 2. The Sunday Times. Colm Toibin’s Beautiful Brooklyn. 26th March.2011. 3. Brooklyn Online. Brooklyn NY History. 26th March. 2011. 4. New York Public Media. History of Brooklyn. 26th March. 2011. 5. History of Brooklyn. 26th March. 2011. 6. BNET. Brooklyn celebrates long brewing history. 26th March. 2011. 7. Care2. I Remember Brooklyn, Memories!! 26th March. 2011. 8. Brooklyn Memories. 26th March. 2011. 9. Newser. Marijuana Grew like Weeds in 1950s Brooklyn. 26th March. 2011. Read More