W.C. Fields on the Long Island Motor Parkway in 1925

This film clip documents W.C. Fields driving on the Queens and Lake Success section of the Long Island Motor Parkway in 1925. The clip is from the D.W.Griffith film "Sally of the Sawdust" filmed in Connecticut, Queens and Long Island.

[@robertmcglinchey3347]

My grandfather had a gas station that WC Fields frequented in Bayside, Queens NYC.

[@ThomasMcGlinchey]

"Bob's Service Station" included a small restaurant with an inn above it, at 35th Ave and Bell Blvd (Northwest corner) which in the 60s and 70s became the last stop on the bar crawl up Bell Blvd at the end of the night, the Old Forge Tavern.

[@LenHummelChannel]

A great and old classic clip. amazing. Fields was a young man then. WHAT A LIFE !

[@chrislee1096]

Every time I see W.C. Fields I smile

[@rogerdodger5415]

That was THE BUMPIEST car ride I ever saw!

[@mickconnor7929]

Parts are still open in Alley Pond Park in Queens. I ride my bike there.

[@Cola64]

First recorded incident of road rage

[@Deutschie]

The shock absorbers on these cars left much to be desired.

[@colinbryan8903]

Deutschie If only we had those cars now. What would they be worth?

[@leifvejby8023]

No shock absorbers, but I bet they had oiled the leaf springs!

[@thenov1944]

Didn' t have any !

[@sandershousehold2056]

Back then If I were Howard Hughes id of bought the whole western part of long island and saved it from what it is today.

[@nigelcarren]

Policeman: "Why are you driving like that?"
Driver: "Well officer, I have to take a spoonful of medicine in the morning... and I was in such a rush to leave the house I forgot to shake the bottle!"

[@dfc99nyc]

That area of Queens is all large apartment buildings now.

[@jamesvickers9476]

Everything is apartment buildings now in Queens

[@azul8811]

@@jamesvickers9476Not in Rockapulco.

[@georgeb.wolffsohn30]

It has always amazed me how residents of queens and Brooklyn don't a knowledge that they live on Long Island too.

[@azul8811]

And a lot of residents of Nassau and Suffolk Counties don’t consider Kings and Queens County part of L.I. either.

[@rlathbury]

Interesting to me less for its broad and not very funny physical humor or for its brief shots of W. C. Fields, one of America's funniest men (though not here), than for the fact that this film and these cars are roughly contemporaneous with The Great Gatsby, which is set in 1922 but was published in 1925. These autos are like those the characters would have seen going into and out of New York as they travel by the Valley of Ashes (based on the Corona Dump) close to New York City. The primitive state of Long Island 100 years ago is an eye opener.

[@davidg4595]

Past Roosevelt, they were mostly growing Potatoes 65 years ago and like NJ they still have Pine Barrens out there.

[@Pro1er]

They don't build 'em like that anymore!

[@keithduff9344]

A modern car couldn't do that.

[@Chrisamos412]

They say he blew out nine discs doing that scene 🤥

[@Hobosmalls]

I do say quite rambunctious feller indeed.

[@beegee22]

😲😲

[@williamstevens1001]

Ah yes

[@Robert-tj3qq]

Should have been driving a Model T 😉

[@JohnDoe-lc9yj]

Cars; they don't make 'em like they used to. Only 4WD vehicles could go across that field now days.

[@herbfellows6435]

Would love to see it, but all it does is buffer.