1964-The Polo Grounds, Requiem For An Arena (WABC)
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- Опубликовано: 20 мар 2021
- -On April 16, 1964 WABC-TV aired this documentary on the end of the Polo Grounds in New York, which was about to be demolished. Hosted and narrated by actor Horace McMahon (from the TV series "Naked City") it was filmed several months earlier at the now abandoned stadium and looked back at its history from its opening in the 19th century to its glory years as the home of the New York Giants and its final two years as the home of the New York Mets (other famous events that took place there in football and boxing were also noted). Howard Cosell produced the special.
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*Damn... talk about a classic mix of New York sports history and old-fashioned film noir.*
The Polo Grounds really feels gone forever now with the death of the great Willie Mays..........This era of NY sports has truly now faded into the pages of history.
This is amazing. Glad it's survived all these years. Always been fascinated by the Polo Grounds.
Roger Angell's brief essay "Farewell," which appeared in his book "The Summer Game," is an excellent companion piece to this documentary.
I have been wanting to see this again for 50 years plus. Fantastic!
I watched this when it originally aired back in 1964. I recorded the audio on the Webcor reel to reel tape recorder I had. No home video recording back then. I still have that tape and this is the first time I've watched the original film of the show since 1964. What memories!!
"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17, KJV).
I watched the original (and only) broadcast of this special at age 13 in April 1964. Thanks very much for posting on RUclips. Fans wanting to learn more should purchase " Land of the Giants: New York's Polo Grounds" by Stew Thornley. Published in 2000 by Temple University Press. Great book.
Wow !!! What a gem. Thank you for unearthing and posting this. I've been fascinated with this park since I was a kid, but never got to see it. So many little nuggets here besides the usual Bobby Thompson HR and Willie catch. Got to see a little inside the concourses and those dressing rooms way out in CF. Durocher, Hubbell's interview, Bill Shea at the end, so much boxing and football. Truly hallowed ground. And even the faded film and obsolete tech are fascinating. A local station produced this and used film, the dominant but soon-to-be doomed media. The sync countdown into the reel is something probably only people my age and older would even remember. Finally...produced by Howard Cosell. Certainly a polarizing figure. But tip your hat, Howard was talented. His verbiage and prose are all over this.
So sad, but wonderful at the same time. I’m glad I found this.
The interviews of Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca are simply priceless. Amazing that we got to hear their refections at the place where everything happened. Incredible and what a unique piece of history.
Branch Rickey scalded the move to bring in Branca at that time. He knew the HR stats of Branca by memory and lambasted the move.
@@winconsinsportsnutrw2666Zip it pinhead.
the great Horace McMahon, played hard boiled cops from late 40`s through the 60`s. great voice, great actor.
Horace McMahon was perfect for this! All the sadness of a great noir film, with a moody soundtrack as well. What a fine tribute and presentation.
Thanks a million for this wonderful 1964 documentary, Requiem for an Arena, on the history of the storied Polo Grounds in Manhattan, and, lo and behold, a bridge away from the Bronx and Yankee Stadium, which meant whenever the Giants and Yankees met in a World Series, it wasn't just a subway series, it was, apparently, a "bridge" series with both ball parks 10 minutes away from one another. Didn't know that. Nice narration by actor Horace McMahon (Naked City), interesting interviews with athletes and others involved with the history of the stadium in Coogan's Bluff, as well as the construction of Shea Stadium near the program's end. Produced by Howard Cosell for WABC-TV in New York.
Really classy of Ralph Branca to participate in this.
Always been so fascinated about the early days of NY baseball.
Never thought I would ever see what polo grounds really looked like 🤯🤯🤯🤯
What a find!!!
It is a sad look back at a baseball era that should never have ended. Curses to O’Malley for leading the charge of these grand franchises to California! They tore a hole into the heart of this City that will never be repaired!
Horace Stoneham was an idiot. Instead of allowing himself to be talked into moving to SF, he should have said, "Now the Dodgers are moving, I'll have New York all to myself, as far as National League baseball is concerned." I know the Giants were having trouble drawing fans (so were the Dodgers, which is why they moved), but with a clear field, and a new stadium in the offing in Flushing Meadows, his smart move would have been to let the Dodgers go and stay put. Another team (probably the Reds or Phillies) would have ended up moving to SF.
The Giants had to move because they were bleeding money. The Dodgers, by contrast, were the second highest revenue drawing MLB team behind the Yankees. O’Malley left because of greed. Stoneham left because he had no choice. Even in their last year in Brooklyn when the fans knew they were leaving , the Dodgers drew more than a million fans and had the best TV deal in the game.
@@davidfenichel9024 It's true about the Giants losing money, but if I was Stoneham, once the Dodgers were leaving, I would have stayed because then he has the monopoly on National League baseball in NY, and a stadium for Flushing Meadows was already in the works. NY really didn't try very hard to keep either team, but tried harder to keep the Dodgers, conceding that the Giants were moving (originally to Minneapolis), and offering the Dodgers the stadium in Flushing, which O'Malley turned down, which turned out to be the smarter move.
It was a shit show and I put the blame more on the corrupt government of NYC than on O'Malley and Stoneham. The city tried to play hard ball with nothing but bluff to back them up when O'Malley had a cushy deal worked out with LA, and Stoneham was just a patsy for O'Malley. Well, NY got the Mets out of it. I don't know if that's bad or good.
The problem is that MLB was not going to allow the Dodgers to move to California without the Giants coming with them. It was not economical for the league to make the other teams travel all the out to the West Coast to play the Dodgers only.
Furthermore the entire blame belongs with O’Malley. Placing a stadium as O’Malley wanted it at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue would have been an absolute traffic nightmare and Bob Moses was right to say no. The Dodgers were making money hand over fist their last year in Brooklyn (1957). He was just a greedy SOB who broke the hearts of the fans of Brooklyn’s not because he had to leave but simply because he chose to. I hope he continues to rot in Hell!!!
You can thank Robert Moses for that. O'Malley had a spot in Brooklyn picked out for his stadium, but Moses insisted on Flushing. Why would the Brooklyn Dodgers move to Queens? I don't think Stoneham was ever offered the opportunity to move to Willets Point.
In fact, O'Malley didn't think about LA until he heard that a group from that city was courting the Washington Senators, but once O'Malley inquired about that, everything changed.
Honestly, O'Malley did the right thing, it took 60 years for Flushing to finally begin to clean up the area, a travesty.
Great Historic Scenes!
What an awesome upload. Thanks for sharing!
Great History of The Polo Grounds. The documentary was released when i was a month and a half old.
Great find!
Spectacular share...thank you!
I always wanted to see this. Thank you for posting. I only wish someone could upgrade the quality of the film. But thankfully you posted it.
THAT was terrific. Thanks for posting. Loved the Thomson & Branca reflections. And Horace McMahon was a perfect choice for narrator/host. Not sure, but some of the Fordham-Pitt highlights might've included Vince Lombardi playing for Fordham.
Saw it was Produced by Howard Cosell. While Citfield pays homage to Ebbetts Field, The Polo Grounds and I believe The Baseball Giants is being lost. I believe there was an offer to build a New Polo Grounds above the west side rail yards.
According to one story, Giants' owner Horace Stoneham told Dodger owner Walter O'Malley that he was mulling a move to Indianapolis. "Don't move to Indianapolis." O'Malley is said to have told him. "I'm working on a move to Los Angeles in which you would move to San Francisco." According to various sources the deal was done in 1954 and they agreed in principle to move once their Manhattan and Brooklyn leases expired.
Sadly for New York Giant and Brooklyn Dodger fans, Los Angeles and San Francisco could offer a better deal for those two teams than New York City was prepared to offer. The Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field were in declining neighborhoods. In 1958 in their interim ball parks, the Giants and Dodgers more or less doubled their 1957 attendance in Manhattan and Brooklyn respectively. For legal and political reasons, Candlestick Park was not ready for the Giants until 1960. Dodger Stadium wouldn't be ready for the Dodgers until 1962.
Brooklyn Dodger fans were more forgiving than New York Giant fans. This was partly because even in 1957 the Dodgers were more popular than the Giants. In addition, in 1962, the Dodgers still had 7 Brooklyn Dodgers and the Mets had 6, while the Giants had just 3 New York Giants left. I remember one sign in the Polo Grounds saying "Go Go Koo Foo, Moida The Mets." At the same time everyone loved Willie Mays but no one in the 1962 Polo Grounds ever seemed to root for the Giants to win.
@@Steveross2851 It was Minneapolis that Stoneham was considering a move to since the Giants had the AAA franchise there.
@@Steveross2851 My father was an old Giants fan, and when they came to NY to play the Mets (by that time it was at Shea), we'd always go to a game or two when the Giants came to town. By that time they had 2 old NY Giants left: Mays, of course, and Mike McCormick. Yeah, McCormick played for the Giants in NY, was traded away, and ended up coming back to the Giants. We saw him pitch 6 innings of no-hit ball against the Mets in a game in 1969, but Ron Swoboda broke it up with a 7th inning HR. The Mets ended up winning the game. I learned, much later on, that that game set an attendance record, at the time, for any Mets game. It didn't last long, because it was broken later that year. And McCormick later pitched for a short time for the other NY team (the Yankees).
Skipped right over the two years (1888-89) at Polo Grounds 2/Manhattan Field. I know it's only a minor footnote in the history of the Giants, but I'm fascinated by that weird little park
I find that history fascinating. The politics of Tammany Hall were ridiculous. Makes the mafia look virtuous.
Thanks for sharing this!
Bittersweet film.
A classic stadium still in use is Dennis J. Michie, at West Point. The East stands,alongside Lusk were till this season mostly,with the visiting locker room under the stands,but a huge renovation project got started and they are gone. Part of the South,West,and North stands are partly there.
Some years ago, I saw on AMC (when they actually showed classic movies) a newsreel about Ebbets Field. It was made in the 1950's and Red Barber was the narrator. They showed some game film, but it was mostly on how the stadium was operated, with all kinds of footage of facilities, locker rooms, offices, etc. I saw it that once and have never seen it anywhere since. Maybe someone can dig that up. However, unlike most people, I've always been more interested in the Polo Grounds. My father was an old NY Giants fan and saw many games there, so I heard a lot about it, and it's the one old time stadium I wish I got to see in person.
Went to Met's game in 1962 and 63 at the Polo Grounds. In 62 saw them get beat by the other expansion team the Houston Colt 45"s who became the Astro's. Deep center field.Deep.
with that monument in play...
@@hammondegger603 I did not see the monuments at Polo Grounds,we were at right field corner I do remember seeing them in the "Real "Yankee Stadium i deep center and the flag pole . My uncle told me everything happened at the Polo Grounds. Rockne's win one for the Gipper speech happened there.Army Notre dame Game.At the Grounds Deep center went all the way to where club hose was,over 500 feet in play.
@@hammondegger603 That was the Eddie Grant monument, but it's plaque that was affixed to it honoring Grant, a Giants player killed in World War I, went missing sometime after the last Giants game at the Polo Grounds in 1957 and no one ever confirmed what happened to it. The Giants commissioned a replacement plaque that hangs in whatever they call their park today.
Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me but I'm pretty sure there was a similar show that aired on TV around the same time as this one. It was voiced by Howard Cosell. It showed scenes of the empty Polo Grounds . As the camera panned around the stadium Howard waxed nostalgic about special moments and events in Polo Grounds history, I remember specifically the camera zoomed in on the upper left center field stands where a fan died in 1950 after taking a bullet fired from a nearby building.. I'm happy this particular tribute survives.
Cosell produced this particular special so I doubt he did anything on-camera. Unless he did some short feature on the WABC evening news, this would be the program you saw then.
Nice program. Produced by the one and only Howard Cosell.
I would say 'couldn't have said it better...'
But of course, I could.
I wish I would've grown up in the 50's when New York City had 3 baseball teams and I would've gotten to see Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds. I have seen the original Yankee Stadium live. Version 1. Still, it is a shame to see New York City let the Polo Grounds deteriorate after the Giants left in 1957, give it a $250,000 facelift to accommodate the Mets and the Jets and then after they both leave for Shea after their 1963 seasons, and then let it be a place for animals to live. So very sad. There could have been college and/or high schools use the facility and then if it needed to be demolished years later, give it a great send off.
I make a brief comment somewhat similar to what Bill Shea did in my babbling almost 20 minute tribute to Shea when I briefly mention the Polo Grounds but of course his is much more eloquent and better.
A Howard Cosell production.
When neighborhoods become unsafe to visit to go to a ballgame that is the beginning of the end.
6:40/ To know that less than a year after this documentary aired, that very hospital would find itself on the international news as the final building Malcolm X would enter before taking his last breath. Yes, he was gunned down barely 2 blocks away at the Audubon Ballroom. Yet, the story goes that his heart was just barely beating as he was rushed inside Columbia Presbyterian.
I'm over it.
🗣️💥🔫
Malcolm got X'd.
Malcolm X lost at tic tac toe to Malcolm O.
Um, so what?
How ironic....weeks after this program aired, Horace McMahon’s popular program, “Naked City”, was cancelled by ABC...
Actually, "Naked City" was cancelled the previous year. It's run ended in 1963.
You were WRONG, Willie!
Ironically.
8:20 should not have made me laugh that hard but it did
Broderick Crawford talked like Horace McMahon, only a lot faster. This video would've only been 10 minutes.
Citi field should have have more of the polo grounds feel instead of ebbets field but we know the cheapons were a Brooklyn dodgers fan.
The green colored seats at citifield are meant to resemble the seats at the polo grounds. So there was an attempt to honor the giants roots as well. The criticism of citifield is that there’s not enough homage to the team that plays there namely the Mets.
@@hamburg1306 The deep green, and the overhang in RF. But you are correct. Not enough Mets
These are the reasons why I enjoyed the Mets run with Black in their team colors. It seemed like they had perfectly merged the history of the New York Giants & Brooklyn Dodgers, while forming their own identity.
I get tired of these Dodger fans, even though there aren't many of them still alive. I heard an old interview with Lou Niss, who was sports editor of the old Brooklyn Eagle, and then became long time traveling secretary for the Mets (you'll see him in all the old Mets team pictures) and he said the Brooklyn didn't really support the Dodgers, that the reputation of being a great baseball town was a myth, and they had trouble drawing fans, except for the World Series, even though they had a pennant winning team almost every year. The fans they had were loyal and noisy, but there weren't enough of them. I still think their move was unjustified because they were making a profit in Brooklyn, but the city was jerking O'Malley around and you don't jerk a guy around when he has better options available.
@@RRaquello This sad story is about politics, greed and racism. In post WWII America the federal government invested more in suburbs. White people moved out, black and Latino families moved into neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and Brooklyn. In baseball, for the Dodgers, Jackie Robinson joining the team was a godsend for them on the field and in the box office. Black fans flocked to Ebbets Field. O'Malley got control of the Dodgers as a banker and ran from Brooklyn when he saw black and Latino faces in the stands. As for the Giants, yes the neighborhood changed too, but they had Willie Mays. But Horace Stoneham, who inherited the Giants, was a lousy businessman and a drunk. That's why when he visited Candlestick where they built the park in SF he never knew about the weather there and how windy it was. Oh... Robert Moses was a criminal boss who ran all NY State & NYC building projects for decades. He's to blame too, along with the empty suit Mayor Robert Wagner who could have done something. I was four when both left, was a Yankee fan and remember watching the Mets on B&W TV when the Yankees weren't on in the early '60s. Loved baseball. History now... anyone who really cared is gone. But it is a history lesson about America.
Shea never replaced the Polo Grounds.
😠👎
The biggest mistake tearing down that place the polo grounds should’ve been made a landmark with the historical landmark society, not housing projects..
Polo Grounds had cracked pipes. The apartments have crack pipes.
@@TheBatugan77 it could have been renovated for the football giants.
@@TheBatugan77That's a stereotype and you know it
@@arnelevans4803
Sorry, no.
Joe DiMag hit his first and last World Series HRs at the Polo Grounds.
Why is a chair hanging from a rope from upper deck?
Someone put it there.
Great video! 👍
Wow. Casey opened Ebbets Field, hit 2 HRs in the first WS at Yankee Stadium (1923), and closed the Polo Grounds. And of course, opened Shea.
NYC had Willie, Mickey and the Duke. And screwed it up. Dammit!
Branca looked just as mournful in the interview as he did in 1951.
The Giants mistake was kicking the Yankees out of the Polo Grounds over Babe Ruth's popularity. McGraw screwed up big time! Just RAISE THE RENT, John!