“How could I not,” she said, “growing up at Palisades?”
They had reached her car, parked on the side of the road next to his.
“Minette says hi, by the way,” Eddie said. “She and her sister Mary are going great guns with that dress shop they opened in Point Pleasant. And they can still dance the rumba on a tabletop.”
“Send her my love.” She kissed her father on the cheek. “Jack too. Tell him I’ll see him on Sunday for dinner, and I want a copy of that Ellery Queen mystery magazine with his new story.”
“I will.”
Toni slid behind the wheel of her car, keyed the ignition. She took a last look at Bunty’s dock in the distance and thought: Goodbye, dear friend.
Traffic in New York was the usual nightmare and it took more than an hour to get to Coney Island. She and Arlan wolfed down a couple of Nathan’s hot dogs and French fries—they really couldn’t compare to her dad’s, though the franks were as good as Callahan’s—and then set about checking the rigging and other equipment for Toni’s eight o’clock show. At forty-three, her joints might be getting a little stiff, but she fully intended to keep doing this at least as long as Arthur Holden, if not Ella Carver, who had remained active almost up to her death last year at the age of eighty.
Toni changed into her woolen bodysuit and canvas jacket bearing what Jeffrey had once jokingly, if inaccurately, dubbed her “rocket pants.”
She liked Coney, it reminded her of Palisades—especially once she had begun her act and climbed to the top of the tower. She stood on the tiny platform, taking in the sights and sounds and smells all around her: the briny air blown in off the surf, the Wonder Wheel revolving majestically on one side of her, and on the other, the rattle of winches and screams of passengers plunging down the steep drops of the Cyclone—the original wooden coaster of that name, the one Jack and Irving Rosenthal had built here back in 1927.
And as she stood there, in those calm moments of silent expectation from the audience below, Toni realized:
Irving’s not gone. Bunty’s not gone. Palisades is not gone.
They’re all here, in me, a child of the park—one of millions of children who found joy, escape, thrills, and inspiration from Palisades Park. Every time she made her dive, Palisades lived in her wake of flames—written against the night as brightly as Irving’s million-watt marquee on the cliffs.
She smiled at the thought, igniting the gasoline packs on her back as, wrapping herself in fire, she leapt into the air.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This novel is a love letter to a cherished part of my childhood. I grew up in the towns of Cliffside Park, Palisades Park, and Edgewater, always living within a mile of Palisades Amusement Park. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of Palisades: swimming in the pool, riding the kiddie Cyclone with my dad, the night in 1961 when my Aunt Eleanor spent an hour (and untold numbers of coins) letting me pitch ball after ball at a concession stand so I could win a stuffed dog nearly bigger than I was. But I couldn’t have written this book on my memories alone, and I am indebted to a great many people who shared with me their own memories, work experience, and knowledge.
Foremost among them is Vince Gargiulo, author of the definitive nonfiction history Palisades Amusement Park: A Century of Fond Memories and writer/co-producer of the PBS documentary of the same name. Apart from the wealth of information in his book and film, Vince generously answered my every question about Palisades and even shared some of his still-unpublished research, which was key in helping me visualize the park at different points in its history. Thanks, Vin, for your expertise, your patience, and your unstinting support.
Vince also introduced me to John Rinaldi, whose father, John, and grandfather, Joe, both served as superintendent of the park. John drove me all over Cliffside Park and Fort Lee, pointing out locations relevant to Palisades history, showed me his collection of park memorabilia, spoke at length about park history and his family’s involvement with it, and gave me a great sense of the physical operation of the park. Thanks, John, for your invaluable assistance. (Yes, that’s him doing a walk-on in chapter 24.)
Norma Cuny Santanello actually grew up playing in wooden crates filled with straw, which once contained china given as prizes at one of her mom’s concession stands. In the course of two phone interviews, Norma offered a treasure trove of information about the park from the days of her mother’s involvement through her own years working at Palisades. She spoke knowledgeably and passionately about the people who made the park what it was—staff, concessionaires, ride operators—who came alive in her recollections, and who I have tried to make come alive for the reader. Norma, thank you for your time, humor, and fantastically good memory.
Ann Meyers Picirillo generously shared her memories of her friend Bunty Hill, as did her brother Tom Meyers, who as a curator at the Fort Lee Museum also gave me access to Bunty’s personal scrapbooks, let me hold his old shillelagh in my hand, and took me to Hazard’s Dock, which still stands today in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge. Both Ann and Tom have written fine reminiscences of Bunty at www.fortlee.patch.com. I’ve drawn upon these for my portrayal of Bunty, as well as a profile/obituary by George Richards printed in the Bergen Record in 1974, and a long letter from one S. B. Schaffer, also from the Record. Lou Paolina spoke to me at length about his friendship with Bunty and I’ve used one of his anecdotes—about how Lou swam halfway across the Hudson, only to turn back to Bunty’s chagrin—as a crisis point in Toni’s life. And a shout-out to Tom Bennett and Chuck Griffin, who also related to me their encounters with Bunty.
My deep appreciation to Georgia L. Haneke and Gary Lesnevich, who shared stories, photos, and press clippings about their aunt, Minette Dobson, their father, Gus Lesnevich, and their mother, Frances Georgiana Warner. Susan Hutcherson provided biographical information about her grand-uncle, Peter “Peejay” Ringens. My uncle, Edgar Wittmer, shared details of his tour of duty during World War II on Espíritu Santo, on which I based Eddie Stopka’s wartime experiences, while my friend Richard Kyle’s combat service in the Korean War helped me shape Jack Stopka’s. George Kellinger Jr. shared memories and photos of his father. Roscoe Schwarz Jr. was kind enough to answer my questions about his father and his brother Laurent. Jim Tolomeo, a former Palisades lifeguard, advised me about the particulars of lifeguarding (as did the gracious and knowledgeable Mary Donahue of DeAnza College). Linden Clark told me everything I could possibly want to know about operating a Saratoga French fry stand and making those delicious fries. James Donnelly added to my knowledge of his grandmother, Anna (Halpin) Cook. Miriam Kotsonis revealed a side of her grandfather, Jack Pitkof, of which I was unaware back when she and I were in first grade, reading comic books from his candy store. My thanks also to Corinne Rinaldi, Guy Brennert, Mary Ederle Ward, Charles Freericks, and Marc Hartzman (author of the excellent book American Sideshow).
Special thanks to Carol Horn and Susan Luse, who shared memories of their aunt, Gladys Shelley, and graciously granted me permission to use lyrics from her song “Come On Over.”
Sally Sullivan spoke to me about her days on the picket line with CORE at Palisades Park. I only wish I could have spoken with the late Melba Valle Rosa, whose simple request to swim in the Palisades pool sparked the battle against segregation there. In a life of seventy-seven years Melba was a model, flamenco dancer, actress, and an artist who received her bachelor’s of fine arts at the age of seventy-one. To get a sense of her as a person I drew upon articles in The New York Daily News, Jet magazine, and a portion of Walter Dean Myers’s book Bad Boy: A Memoir. The details of CORE’s protest at Palisades is based in large part on the “Alabama in New Jersey” chapter from James Peck’s memoir Freedom Ride, with additional information from The New York Times, the Bergen Record, The Crisis, the CORE-lator, New York Amsterdam News, People’s Voice, and The Baltimore Afro-American.
Much of the dialogue in which Bee Kyle and Ella Carver talk about high diving and their lives is quoted from
articles in The Daily Northwestern, the Lethbridge Herald, the St. Petersburg Times, the Daily Inter Lake, the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the Montreal Gazette, and other newspapers.
I lack room to list all my reference sources, but most valuable were the “Palisades Notes” column that ran in The Billboard from the 1920s–1950s, as well as: Step Right Up! by Dan Mannix, Monster Midway by William Lindsay Gresham, Eyeing the Flash by Peter Fenton, On the Midway and Bally! by Wayne Keiser, Side Show: My Life with Geeks, Freaks & Vagabonds in the Carny Trade by Howard Bone, On the Road with Walt Hudson by Walt Hudson, Sh-Boom! The Explosion of Rock ’N’ Roll 1953–1968 by Clay Cole, Defying Gravity by Garrett Soden, Circus Dreams by Kathleen Cushman and Montana Miller, “High Dive” by Montana Miller (Radcliffe Quarterly, Spring 1998), “You Have to Hit the Dime” by Billy Outten as told to Don Dwiggins (For Men Only, October 1955), “The Thrill Hunters” (Popular Mechanics, March 1937), Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon, Riding the Rails by Errol Lincoln Uys, Hopping Freight Trains in America by Duffy Littlejohn.
Also, Fort Lee: The Film Town by Richard Koszarski, Fort Lee, Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry by the Fort Lee Film Commission, A Chronological and Picturesque History of Cliffside Park by Lawrence Matthias, America, the Dream of My Life edited by David Steven Cohen, the transcript of Congress’s “Investigations of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce,” The Secret Rulers by Fred J. Cook, Home Front America: Popular Culture of the World War II Era by Robert Heide and John Gilman, Women at War With America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era by D’Ann Campbell, “Daddy’s Gone to War”: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children by William M. Tuttle Jr., The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii by Beth Bailey and David Farber, Hawai‘i Homefront: Life in the Islands During World War II by MacKinnon Simpson, Return to Paradise by James A. Michener, Desert Sailor: Growing Up in the Pacific Fleet 1941–1946, by James W. Fitch, FC 1/c USN, Waikīkī Tiki: Art, History and Photographs by Phillip S. Roberts, Tiki of Hawai‘i: A History of Gods and Dreams by Sophia V. Schweitzer, and the Discovery Channel documentary Our Time in Hell: The Korean War.
For their research assistance, my appreciation to Arlene Sahraie of the Cliffside Park (NJ) Public Library, Andrea Romano of the Cliffside Park High School Library, Susan Schwartz of the Oshkosh (WI) Public Library, as well as the staffs of the Edgewater (NJ) Public Library, the Fort Lee (NJ) Public Library, the Bergen County Historical Society, the New Jersey Historical Society, the New York Public Library (in particular the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, in Harlem), the Special Collections department at Rutgers University Library (NJ), and the UCLA Music Library.
For advice, criticism, suggestions, and support, I am grateful to my friends and fellow writers Carter Scholz, Amy Adelson, and Greg Bear; my editor, Hope Dellon; my agent, Molly Friedrich; and my wife, Paulette.
Singer Marian Mastrorilli has composed a lovely song, “At Palisades,” whose chorus is: “Oh, what I wouldn’t trade / for another day at Palisades…” Writing this book has given me another day at Palisades, and I hope it’s done the same for readers who were once park visitors. And for those who never were, I hope it provides a glimmer of what it was that made Palisades Amusement Park such a special place for those of us who knew and loved it.
ALSO BY ALAN BRENNERT
Honolulu
Moloka‘i
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alan Brennert wanted to use a photo of himself at Palisades Park, but the closest he could find is this picture of him enjoying himself at the Jersey Shore.
Alan Brennert grew up in Cliffside Park and Edgewater, New Jersey, always living within a mile of Palisades Amusement Park. He calls Palisades Park “a love letter to a cherished part of my childhood.” He won an Emmy Award for his work on the television series L.A. Law and a Nebula Award for his short story “Ma Qui.” His bestselling novel Moloka‘i is a reading-group favorite and was a 2012 One Book, One San Diego selection. His novel Honolulu was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Washington Post. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
PALISADES PARK. Copyright © 2013 by Alan Brennert. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
“Palisades Park”
Words and Music by Chuck Barris
© 1962 (Renewed) by CLARIDGE MUSIC COMPANY, A Division of MPL Music Publishing, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
“Come On Over”
Words and Music by Gladys Shelley
© 1963 (“Enter Laughing”) – 1998 Spiral Record Corporation.
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio
Cover photographs: woman © ClassicStock.com/SuperStock; Ferris wheel © SuperStock; sky © shutterstock.com; roller coaster © Postmark Press
ISBN 978-0-312-64372-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 9781250024336 (e-book)
First Edition: April 2013
Alan Brennert, Palisades Park
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