Revisiting Long Beach Boardwalk Memories

With all the buzz surrounding the new boardwalk under construction in Long Beach, city historian Roberta Fiore figured now was a good time to revive her talk on the iconic South Shore walkway.

Follow Long Beach Patch on Facebook.

Fiore, a founder and past president of the Long Beach Historical & Preservation Society, will once again speak on the history of the original, century-old boardwalk at the organization’s museum, at 226 W. Penn St., at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

“I’m prepared to get technical,” Fiore told Patch about her talk. “… And I will try to glean construction memories from old-timers.”

She is also plans to present second-hand stories about the boardwalk through youngsters and press coverage of the day. Among her guests will be Chris Murdy, an eighth-grade student at Long Catholic Regional School, whose great grandfather the Long Beach City Council president when the Works Progress Administration provided funds to rebuild the 2.2-mile boardwalk during the 1930s.

“Chris has newspaper articles and remembers stories his grandmother recounted about her father,” Fiore said.

Since the historical society’s founding in 1980, Fiore has given many courses and tours on Long Beach history, in which she likes to note that the community had developed from “a sandbar to a city” in just a 15-year span. In January, she was invited to speak at a boardwalk farewell ceremony that the city held at Grand Boulevard beach, before a crew demolished the original walkway that was crippled by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy last October.

During that event, Fiore told various stories surrounding the original boardwalk, such as the two elephants, Roger and Alice, that were walked to the barrier island from Coney Island as part of publicity stunt to promote the wooden walkway as it under construction in 1907. She also recalled the names of celebrities from decades past who either visited or performed at the boardwalk, including Rudolph Valentino, Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, Isadora Duncan and Clyde Ziegfeld.

“When you look at this boardwalk, let these memories and this history talk to you,” she told the crowd that day. “We have a proud future but we had a very colorful and interesting past.” 

MORE NEWS

City Announces Neighborhood Emergency Program

Tips for Tackling a Flooded Basement

LBHS Valedictorian Wants to Talk Politics