Astoria Park Pool (Opening Night)
(Script)
INTRO
“The world’s largest and most beautiful swimming pool was dedicated in Astoria Park last night,” reporter Al Parks wrote in the Long Island Daily Star the morning after the opening ceremony for the Astoria Park Pool.
BEFORE THE POOL
The Astoria Park pool solved two problems: one, death by drowning; the other, unemployment.
Before the pool, locals would swim in the East River, often resulting in tragedy. In 1930, a shallow wading pool with a dirt bottom was dug.
NEW DEAL
But the Astoria Park Pool, like 10 other public city pools, is a product of the New Deal, when the federal government invested in jobs programs to put the massive unemployed population to work.
In 1935, the Civilian Works Administration broke ground on the pool. Ten months later, the Works Progress Administration finished it.
The pool cost $1,500,000 to build, which today would be about $36,000,000. The pool was 450 feet long and 150 feet wide with a diving area, a children’s wading pool, a bathhouse, bleachers and adjacent playgrounds.
OPENING NIGHT
On July 2, 1926, 20,000 people attended the opening ceremony. Early in the ceremony, a random dog ran past the police and dove into the pool, and the crowd cheered.
WPA head Harry Hopkins said: “I have seen swimming pools in all parts of the world, and this is the finest swimming pool in the world.”
A certain philosophical stream ran through the speeches. The local alderman, James Paretti, said, “I wish that all critics of the New Deal and of WPA could congregate here tonight…” He said, “It is needless to say that a single view of this pool would convert them immediately to boosters of the New Deal and WPA…”
Even the Republican borough president, who primarily praise Robert Moses, said, “Credit should go to Commissioner Moses, his architects, the foreman and workers. They have created the finest swimming pool in the world. This was not a waste of public money. This was not boondoggling. If this was the wrong way to spend public fundsl if this was boondoggling–well, I’d like to see more of it.”
The Daily Star only briefly paraphrased Robert Moses, who said he hoped the people would live up to the standards set by the Department of Parks for operation of the pools.
When Mayor LaGuardia spoke, another dog jumped into the pool, and the crowd cheered again.
La Guardia said, “I want to ask the skeptics of the WPA what they could have done with the unemployed. This swimming pool is a monument to progressive government which would not see unemployed men on breadlines. We could not have done this work without the sympathetic understanding of a federal administration and the help of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This pool is the last word in engineering, hygiene and architecture.”
Then, Julia Peters of the Metropolitan Opera sang the Star Spangled Banner, and the American flag was hiked up a high pole. At LaGuardia’s signal, all the lights went on.
There were eight races. The Jones Beach Water Circus put on a show of 30 swimmers doing ballet and other acts. The St. Catherine of Sienna Band of St. Albans and the Sunset Park Harmonica Band performed.
NEXT MORNING
At 8 a.m. the next morning, despite an overcast sky, a line of mostly children formed outside the pool. (The pool would be open daily from 10 in the morning to 10:30 at night. Kids under 14 would swim free on weekdays until 1pm., and pay 10 cents after that. Every else would pay 20 cents. There would be free swimming and diving lessons.)* At 10 a.m. the gates opened to the public.
*Cut for time