History

by -
0 1683
Main Street in East Setauket looking east about 1935. Photo from Beverly C. Tyler

The appearance of Main Street in East Setauket has changed considerably over the years with the needs of the business community. Today, this small historic business area is seeing a revitalization. Old businesses are sprucing up and new businesses are moving in. The park along the waterway is a delightful and favorite addition. Businesses looking for a local historic flavor should take a closer look at available locations along this small area of Route 25A.

harles E. Smith and Sportin’ Bill in front of Smith’s general store in East Setauket. Photo from Beverly C. Tyler

In the 1800s, the business district of East Setauket was confined to an area between South Street, now Gnarled Hollow Road, and Baptist Avenue, now Shore Road. The village blacksmith shop, run by William Smith, stood where East Setauket Automotive is now and to the east were two wooden bridges that spanned the stream that still runs under 25A. The road was much lower then and the north side of the bridge was ideal for thirsty horses that were permitted to drink. The blacksmith shop was moved in the 1850s to a location on Gnarled Hollow Road where it was purchased in 1875 by Samuel West.

Over the years, the stores on the south side of Main Street changed with names such as Jones, Jayne, Smith, Bossey, Darling, Bellows and Rogers prominent among shop owners. Shops included a general store, meat market, shoe store, tailor, clothing shop and the usual combination of general store and post office. One of the shop owners in the late 1890s was Charles E. Smith. C.E., as he became known, was born in 1841 on his family’s farm in South Setauket. Before he was 20 years old, he was running a butcher wagon and had a large trade in the area. He established, according to the Port Jefferson Times, the first permanent meat market at East Setauket and later became the owner of the general store founded by his father-in-law, Carlton Jayne. His brother, Orlando Smith, ran a butcher shop in Stony Brook.

Charles E. Smith was very successful and eventually owned a great deal of property, including acreage where the Stony Brook University is now and other land across Route 25A from the old East Setauket schoolhouse. The house on the southwest corner of Coach Road and 25A became his home by the early years of the 20th century and his general store stood on the present empty lot west of what is now HSBC Bank.

All his life, he was a lover of good trotting horses and delighted in driving them. His last horse was a spirited one named Sporting Bill. He used to race Bill at the Hulse track in East Setauket and the story of the race between Irish Mag and Sporting Bill is detailed in the book, “Setauket, The First 300 Years.” Sporting Bill was stabled in the Hawkins barn that was later destroyed to make way for a housing development along Old Town Road.

East Setauket Mai Street looking west. Photo from Beverly C. Tyler

Charlie Bickford remembered working with the horse for C.E. “I was scared of him as a boy. The horse was skittish and even bit me on the shoulder once. One day, C.E. told one of the fellows to get Bill out of the barn and brush him down. They didn’t like that. When you went into the stall Bill would turn his head the other way and squeeze you against the stall. I worked a few summers for C.E. plowing his fields and spreading manure. One day, I was driving Bill to the fields behind the Stony Brook Railroad Station when he darted into the brush and nearly upset the wagon. He used to do that kind of thing quite often to brush the flies off his back.”

At the age of 82, Charles Smith was fatally injured when he was dragged under the teeth of a hay rake attached to his horse Sporting Bill. C.E. died on April 22, 1923, and was buried at Caroline Church in Setauket. The store of Charles Smith continued to operate as a general store through the 1950s.

Many other changes have taken place over the years. In 1926, the road was paved for the first time, and in 1928, the property on the southwest corner of 25A and Gnarled Hollow Road, called “Colonial Corners” by its owner Mr. LaRoche, was changed to its present appearance with the addition of a group of stores. The house on this site, which was at one time the home of blacksmith William Smith, remained behind the stores, but the entrance was changed so it faced Gnarled Hollow Road. When this writer was growing up it was the home of Sarah Ann Sells who worked as a laundress. I remember stopping there from time to time with school friend Larry Payne. Mrs. Sells always offered us a peanut butter sandwich.

Beverly C. Tyler is a Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730. or visit www.tvhs.org.

Above, Main Street in East Setauket looking east about 1935. Below, Charles E. Smith and Sportin’ Bill in front of Smith’s general store in East Setauket. Photos from Beverly C. Tyler

A scene from 'Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers.' Photo courtesy of CAC

The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington will present a free special online screening of Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers on Wednesday,  Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.

The final program of its LI AgriCULTURE series, the event will include a discussion with the film’s director, Charlene Gilbert.

In 1920 there were hundreds of thousands of black farmers in America; in 1999 there were fewer than 18,000. Filmmaker Charlene Gilbert travelled to Georgia, the place she calls home, where her cousin still farms the family’s land. Gilbert recounts her family history while she investigates the social and political implications of the decline of black farming, and explores the bittersweet legacy of the land, a symbol of both struggle and survival.

Homecoming paints a picture of the courageous journey of black farmers who started as freed slaves after the Civil War. By 1910, there were 200,000 African American farmers who had bought land, a staggering number considering the poverty and discrimination they faced. However, the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Education polarized the whole country. Its impact in the South went far beyond the classroom; many farmers who needed credit found they suddenly couldn’t get it, a process known as “red-lining.”

Gilbert unearths footage of U.S. government farm bureaucrats paying lip service to black farmers. A 1964 study of the Department of Agriculture under the Johnson administration found that there had been discrimination against African Americans in every level of the agency. Homecoming explores the spiritual and symbolic meaning of land for black farmers in America.

This program is presented in partnership with Choose LI and the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, and made possible with support from the Long Island Community Foundation.

A link to view the film and an invitation to join the discussion and Q&A  will be provided in your email order confirmation after you RSVP at www.cinemaartscentre.org.

METRO photo

Each January, Americans honor the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January each year. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929, King would grow up to become one of the most influential people of the 21st century.

King’s tireless activism during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s improved the lives of millions of people, and his tragic assassination on April 4, 1968, marked one of the darkest days in American history. King’s oratory prowess is well-documented. Individuals across the globe are familiar with his “I Have a Dream” speech, which King delivered during the March on Washington less than a year before his death. Less familiar are some other notable facts about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• If he were alive today, Martin Luther King, Jr. would still be years away from his 100th birthday. King was assassinated in 1968, when he was not yet 40 years old. Born in Atlanta in 1929, King could very much still be alive today and would have celebrated his 93rd birthday on January 15, 2022.

• King was an extraordinarily gifted student. At an age when many students were preparing to enter their sophomore or junior year of high school, King began his freshman year of college at Morehouse College. King enrolled at Morehouse when he was 15 after the school opened enrollment to junior high students in an effort to overcome a dip in enrollment related to World War II. King passed the entrance exam and enrolled in the fall of 1944.

• King was ordained as a minister prior to graduating from Morehouse. The Baptist ministry was something of a family business for the Kings, as Martin Luther King Jr.’s father, grandfather and great grandfather were all Baptist ministers. However, King did not initially intend to follow that path. He ultimately changed course and entered the ministry at age 18, graduating from Morehouse with a degree in sociology a year later.

• King survived a knife attack years before his assassination. King was stabbed in the chest with a letter opener during a book signing event in Harlem in 1958. His assailant, Izola Curry, was ultimately deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. Though the attack did not kill him, King had to undergo intensive emergency surgery and was hospitalized for several weeks.

• Conspiracy theories surround King’s assassination. King’s assassin, James Earl Ray, was found guilty and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Authorities, including the United States Department of Justice, concluded Ray, a career criminal, acted alone. However, some, including surviving members of King’s family, believed his assassination was part of a conspiracy. Despite his tragic assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. left his mark on the world. That legacy is even more remarkable when considering the unique twists and turns King’s life took prior to his death.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a remarkable human being. Celebrations of his life can involve revisiting some of his more notable moments.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

“The present situation is to be regarded as one of opportunity for us and not of disaster. There will only be cheerful faces at this conference table.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme allied commander 

Approaching the middle of December 1944, the allied powers in Europe pushed back the German forces practically to their own border. The allies landed at Normandy in France on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, and this successful invasion established the beginning of the end of Hitler’s rule in Western Europe.  

While the fighting was brutal on the beaches and later through the dangerous terrain of the hedge groves, under the leadership of Eisenhower and the armored drive of Gen. George Patton, the Germans took extremely high losses. 

There was absolute joy on Aug. 19 when allied forces rolled through the streets of Paris, where they were greeted with loud cheers of freedom. 

The once victorious German army was reeling after several battlefield losses, and by December 1944 the allies were about to enter this Axis nation. The others were Italy and Japan.

With the Soviet Union liberating their own territory and pushing into Eastern Europe, there was no respite within any part of the German frontlines, and during the night and day allied air crews strategically bombed German factories, resources, transportation, weapons and troop movements.  

“Total war” brought the realization that the German military had no chance to win this war and that the end was near.  

Eisenhower’s “broad front” campaign moved allied armies from the English Channel to the Swiss border. It was the confident belief among western forces that the German war machine would surrender within the face of defeat.  

Operation Autumn Mist was the last major military offensive that Hitler waged against the allies, to attempt to drive a wedge between the western armies, with the goal of regaining the Belgian port of Antwerp. If the Germans could strike a powerful blow against the allies, Hitler mistakenly believed that the West would possibly agree to a peace, and Germany would turn its full attention to fighting the Soviet Union.  

As the Germans were attacked from every direction, they organized 250,000 soldiers from 14 infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions. This surprise assault was a dangerous breakdown of allied intelligence. The Germans broke through the Ardennes Forest in southeast Belgium and hit allied positions that were in Belgium, France and Luxembourg. 

There were only 80,000 allied soldiers who were shocked by this assault, and thousands were taken as prisoners of war. The Germans penetrated their armies against the American forces that still wore summer uniforms and had little ammunition.  

Eisenhower was just promoted to his fifth star as General of the Army, and expected to travel to Versailles, France, to attend the wedding of his orderly Mickey McKeogh. 

It was an attack that struck at the nerve of the broad front that was mostly held by American forces which faced shortages in reinforcements and resources. Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe was demanded by his German counterpart that he surrender the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne, Belgium. It did not help McAuliffe that the weather conditions were extremely poor, and American airplanes were briefly unable to provide air support and the ability to drop food and ammunition. As Bastogne was considered to be located at strategic crossroads, Eisenhower ordered that this town must be held at all costs by the 101st Airborne Division. 

A famous victory

On Dec. 19, Eisenhower held a vital meeting with his key generals to contain and destroy this attack. His longtime friend Patton stated that he was able to disengage from his own battle, and push in force to assault the German armies to relieve the pressure that was placed on Bastogne.  

Eisenhower counted on the battlefield drive of Patton and sought the general’s Third Army to relieve Bastogne and to make the Germans pay for this surprise attack. Both senior officers were old friends and Eisenhower looked at the irony of receiving the new senior rank and observed, “George, every time I get promoted, I get attacked.” Patton responded to his boss, “Yes, and every time you get attacked, I bail you out.” 

During a time of brief defeat, this battle showed the true spirit of the American soldier and officer to overcome the burdens of bad weather and surprise of the German assault to achieve a great victory.

The Battle of the Bulge posed the serious problem of German spies who landed behind American lines and were dressed as American military police officers. The enemy changed and destroyed road signs, and were believed to be searching for Eisenhower, Patton and Gen. Omar Bradley. 

American soldiers started using challenging passwords that focused on former World Series games, movie stars and political leaders to determine if an unknown soldier was possibly a spy. The German troops acted with total disregard toward the prisoners of war that had fallen into their hands.  

Near the Belgian town of Malmedy, SS Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper was the head of the “Adolph Hitler” Division and ordered his soldiers to brutally kill 84 Americans within an open field.  

Word quickly spread about these atrocities, and this motivated Americans to hold their ground against the unrelenting pressure of the German army.

At Verdun in northeast France, Eisenhower ordered Patton to take additional time to gain enough men and materials, and to make his first strike against the enemy a powerful one. With his soldiers and through the snow, Patton led the American Army through one of the largest battles ever fought by this nation. Although Patton previously warned about the possibility of an attack of this nature, he was determined to destroy the German army that was now in the open.  

American forces began their pursuit to relieve the beleaguered garrison at Bastogne and to inflict casualties on Hitler’s last-ditch attempt to gain a victory in the west. The German high command envisioned a successful plan that would see their forces reach the French Meuse River, but they did not count on the 500,000 American soldiers that destroyed this plan.

Through a blizzard that created awful weather conditions, there were a reported 15,000 cold weather injuries and ailments that were created pneumonia, frostbite and trench foot. 

New York Yankee Ralph Houk, rose from the rank of private to major during World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. This catcher was decorated with the Purple Heart, Silver Star and Bronze Star for valor in service.  

During this fight, Houk’s leadership prevented a major attack from over 200 enemy soldiers and five Tiger tanks. He was later ordered to take a jeep and a letter with vital intelligence to the beleaguered town of Bastogne. During his way through enemy lines, Houk was wounded in the leg. After this battle, he was almost killed when a German bullet traveled through his helmet. 

Houk was later manager of the Yankees which won the 1961 World Series with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and D-Day World War II veteran Yogi Berra. Houk’s Yankees won the World Series again in 1962. He always said he was fortunate to survive the Battle of the Bulge. 

The fighting lasted until Jan. 25, 1945, with the heavy cost of 19,000 Americans killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 captured or missing in action.  

British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery took credit for rescuing the American military during the height of the Battle of the Bulge. Monty. as he was known, was one of the most difficult leaders that Eisenhower had to manage as supreme commander of allied forces.  

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fully realized that the United States provided the vast majority of soldiers and weaponry into the war in Northwestern Europe. About this failed German offensive, he said, “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.” 

Rich Acritelli is a history teacher at Rocky Point High School and adjunct professor at Suffolk County Community College. Sean Hamilton, president of the high school history honor society, contributed to this article.

The Huntington Historical Society continues its Lunch & Learn series on Thursday, Jan. 13 with a virtual lecture by Ron Seifried, Chairman of Trustees of the Jephtha Masonic Lodge in Huntington, who will discuss his book, Long Island Freemasons, at noon.

Ron Seifried

The first Masonic lodge in what is today Nassau and Suffolk Counties was constituted in 1793. For over 200 years, more than 70 lodges were founded and flourished in various locations from Amagansett to Great Neck. For the first time, some of the secrets of the Masonic fraternity are revealed in this book. Recovered from dusty lodge attics and closets, this selection of long-forgotten photographs and artifacts gives the readers a brief glimpse of what was taking place behind the closed doors of their local lodge. Long Island was the Masonic home of Theodore Roosevelt of Oyster Bay and, 30 years later, was honored by a visit to the Huntington Masonic lodge by his fifth cousin and fellow Mason Franklin D. Roosevelt. Masons continue to support the community through charitable endeavors, including the Masonic Medical Research Institute, Masonic Safety Identification Programs, Shriners Hospitals, and many more.

Presentation will last 45 minutes with time for commentary and Q&A from participants. Suggested donation is $10. Your donations will help us continue to preserve and share the history of Huntington! To register, visit www.huntingtonhistoricalsociety.org or call 631-427-7045 Ext. 401.

Pexels photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

He was a part of my wife’s family’s inner circle for years. He appeared at summer gatherings and at significant family events and celebrations.

With his white hair, his signature smile and a Polish accent that seemed as fresh in each conversation as it likely was the first time he arrived in the United States, Carl wandered in and out of conversations and rooms, often smiling and always listening.

He seemed as comfortable in his own skin as anyone I’d ever met, paying close attention to his wife, interacting with his children and grandchildren and soaking up life the way everyone around him soaked up the warm rays of the sun.

Carl watched one day almost 20 years ago when my daughter got too close to the pool’s edge, falling in before she could swim. I immediately jumped off the diving board and brought her back up, where, as I dried her off, she protested that it took too long for me to get her.

When my daughter felt comfortable and confident enough to walk away from me, Carl waited for me to make eye contact.

“That’s what you do when you’re a father,” he smiled.

I nodded and sighed while my blood pressure and pulse returned to normal.

Several times over the years, Carl and I sat next to each other, sharing buffet-style meals of chicken kebobs, pasta, and filets.

Carl didn’t have the numbers tattooed on his arm, but I knew some of the story of his life. I didn’t want to bother him or upset him with a discussion of what was a painful and difficult period.

Once, when we were alone inside a screened-in area, I raised the topic.

“Hey, Carl, I understand you survived the holocaust,” I said.

When he looked me in the eyes, he narrowed his lids slightly, processing what I said and, likely, trying to figure out whether he wanted to talk.

“It’s okay,” I said, immediately backing off. As a journalist, I have a tendency to ask questions. I recognize, however, the boundaries that exist during social interactions and with family and friends. I wanted to speak with him to hear about what had been an unspoken part of his life.

“Yes, I survived,” I said.

“How? Where?”

“In the woods,” he said. “I lived in the woods when the Nazis came.”

He described how he was so hungry that he ate leaves, bugs and bark. That, however, was far preferable to being caught by the Nazis, who had murdered the rest of his family. Carl had been a teenager when he escaped to the woods, avoiding Nazi guards who were always searching for people they deemed enemies and who they readily killed.

Surrounded by a collection of other people who might, at any given time, vanish forever, Carl survived for several years, emerging at the end of the war to try to restart a life shattered by violence and cruelty.

After a brief description of his experience, he told me how important he felt it was that people study the specifics of World War II and understand what really happened to him, his family and people in so many other countries. It angered him that people tried to ignore a history that took so much from him.

All those years later, Carl seemed so easy going and relaxed, so prepared to laugh and smile and to enjoy another bite of lunch or dinner.

Carl recently died. I’m sorry for the loss to his family. I’m glad to have known him and to have shared a few meals, a few smiles and a few stories. All those days, months and years of life, like initials carved into a tree, showed that he was, indeed, here and, having seen his family react and interact with him, that his life had meaning.

From left: Dave Bush; trustees Elizabeth Cambria and James Kelly; Christine Berardi of National Grid Foundation; trustees Laura Gerde, Gretchen Oldrin Mones, and Jack DeMasi; and Elizabeth-Wayland Morgan. Photo from Vanderbilt Museum
Century-old estate trail reclaimed, enhanced

William K. Vanderbilt II built a hiking trail in the 1920s on his Eagle’s Nest waterfront estate in Centerport that became overgrown and disappeared into the forest. The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, located at Eagle’s Nest, has reclaimed the trail, and held a grand opening in November. Major project donors and museum trustees attended the event in the Rose Garden, which is also the trailhead.

Now called the Solar System Hiking Trail, the course includes a scale model of the Solar System, which complements STEM and astronomy-education programs offered by the Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium.

“This is a long-awaited day. We are grateful to Christine Berardi and the National Grid Foundation for 10 years of outstanding, unwavering support and to Vanderbilt trustee Laura Gerde and her husband, Eric Gerde. Their ongoing contributions to our STEM programming include the exhibits in the Planetarium lobby. Their steadfast support makes it possible for the Museum to expand its work as a leader in astronomy and science education,” said Elizabeth Wayland-Morgan, executive director of the Vanderbilt Museum.

Other project donors are Marilyn and Russell Albanese, BAE Systems, Farrell Fritz Attorneys, Northwell Health, People’s United Bank, and PFM Asset Management.

Wayland-Morgan said Dave Bush, the director of the Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium, “single-handedly created the Solar System trail — I don’t think there’s a program like this anywhere else.” She also thanked Jim Munson, the museum’s operations supervisor. “Jim noticed portions of the original trail and saw its potential. He said let’s do this.” 

Bush said that scale models of the solar system have been created before at museums, science centers, and universities. “But the Vanderbilt’s trail is likely the only one that traverses a one-mile hiking trail with hundreds of feet in elevation changes,” he said. “It is an opportunity for visitors to learn about the bodies in our solar system and its vast scale, and to see and experience parts of the museum property that have never been seen before by the public.”

Tanaquil Le Clercq, backstage at City Center, ca. 1954, © Anton Alterman/Harold Roth Photography

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

“Ballet is an ephemeral art, embedded in the mortal human body.”

Author Orel Protopopescu

Principal ballerina Tanaquil Le Clercq (1929-2000) was the fourth and final wife of choreographer and founder of the New York City Ballet, George Balanchine. Tanaquil—known as “Tanny”—was a muse to Balanchine as well as the genre-crossing Jerome Robbins. Both legendary artists created immortal works for Le Clercq. At twenty-seven, she contracted polio, ending her career as a dancer but not her connection to the art of dance. 

Illustrated by 100 photos, Dancing Past the Light (University Press of Florida) is a fascinating account of Le Clercq—her vocation, her challenges, and the underlying strength and humanity that allowed her to triumph in the face of a devastating illness. Author Orel Protopopescu provides almost a dual biography of Le Clercq and Balanchine, two lives that remained inseparable even after their divorce. 

Le Clercq descended from affluent, educated people: “On both sides, Tammy’s immediate ancestors were adventurous, artistic, worldly, and liberal-minded for their times.” However, her parent’s fiscal situation was tenuous. Her St. Louis debutante mother, Edith, was the driving force behind her early dancing, enrolling her at New York City’s King-Coit School. As a scholarship student in theatre and art, she performed for the first time at five years old. By age seven, she was studying at Mikhail Mordkin’s ballet school. She entered Balanchine’s School of American Ballet at age eleven, awarded one of the school’s first full scholarships. 

Her acceptance to the school coincided with the final dissolution of her parent’s marriage, strained by her father’s excessive drinking. The couple separated in 1946. Her father would remarry; her mother would remain single and a constant if sometimes unwanted presence in Le Clercq’s life. “The umbilical cord had stretched a bit further over the years but was never severed.”

The author provides detailed accounts of the demanding training, the rehearsals, and especially the performances. She conveys Le Clercq as an artist-in-motion, and the descriptions are exceptional. Additionally, Protopopescu traces her rise in the company, balancing the personal and professional particulars with dozens of interviews with friends and colleagues. 

Tanaquil Le Clercq, backstage at City Center, ca. 1954, © Anton Alterman/Harold Roth Photography

At the center is her connection with Balanchine whom she saw as “an old fogey” until she began receiving more personal instruction. Balanchine was a demanding director, influencing every area of his dancers’ lives, particularly the female dancers. 

Balanchine preferred “thin, tall female dancers with long necks and limbs.” Le Clercq epitomized this. While there were hints of Balanchine’s interest, by the time she was twenty, he was no longer hiding it. There were strong possibilities that he sabotaged or at least manipulated elements of her personal and romantic life.

The Le Clercq-Balanchine courtship and marriage are explored with great insight, including the complications rooted in the age difference and Balanchine’s need to seek a younger muse. Balanchine proposed Christmas 1952. She was twenty-three to his forty-eight. Without hesitation, she excepted, and they were married on New Year’s Eve. But, true to form, the work came first. They premiered the ballet Concertino the night before.

Le Clercq worked well and often with the mercurial and demanding Jerome Robbins. As with Balanchine, the complicated professional-personal relationship is surveyed with respect and candor and the complex triangle that existed between the three.

Protopopescu provides a visceral report of the European tour of 1956, during which Le Clercq contracted polio. At that time, her marriage to Balanchine was waning, and she had no desire to go. Following her contraction of the disease, Le Clercq faced a long recovery and the harsh reality of knowing that she would never dance again. “I’m not a dancer anymore. Who am I?” This was the question she faced after over two decades of dancing. 

A brutal, vivid picture of a polio victim follows, showing both the physical and psychological pains and the life limitations. But it also shows Le Clercq transforming by fearlessly facing the problems. As her friend Pat McBride explained: “Her wit and strength never left her nor did she indulge in self-pity. It was always a treat to be in her vivacious company.”

Eventually, she coached and taught at Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem using hand gestures—“a sort of balletic sign language”—to convey the choreography while seated in her wheelchair. The author touches upon the issue of race in the dance world and the lack of diversity and underrepresentation of African-Americans in Balanchine’s company. While not an activist, Le Clercq’s work with the DTH spoke volumes.

Dancing Past the Light will be of particular interest to ballet fans; it is an extraordinary celebration of a life in dance, with its highs and lows, challenges and rewards. It is an honest study of the people with whom one makes art. It is also a beautiful, authentic portrait of an exceptionally strong individual who faced a cataclysmic shift and rose above it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

A resident of Miller Place, Orel Protopopescu is an award-winning author, poet, and translator. Dancing Past the Light: The Life of Tanaquil Le Clercq is her first biography. Pick up a copy of the book at Amazon.com, or BarnesandNoble.com. For more information on the author, visit www.orelprotopopescu.com.

 

by -
0 1155
A veteran saluting the Pearl Harbor memorial. Photo from Pixabay

On Dec. 6, 1941, Americans watched the extent of German military actions under Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, as it conquered much of Europe, North Africa and major parts of the Soviet Union. 

Within the Pacific and Asia, the imperial government of Japan competed against the United States for sole control of this region of the world. While tensions were high, most Americans went about their life, as if it was any other weekend.

Some 80 years ago, the unthinkable occurred against the American army and naval strength that sat idle on a quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii. As the residents and military of this state were still sleeping, Japanese aircraft carriers sat two hundred miles off the coast of these islands and began its unyielding assaults against Pearl Harbor. 

Back in Washington, the American government negotiated with representatives from the Japanese embassy that were delayed, as they were waiting for several parts of a declaration of war to be decoded and delivered to our leadership.  

As a younger man, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the Japanese leader that planned this assault, traveled extensively across America, where he saw the economic potential of this superpower. He stressed the importance of declaring war as an honorable action before his planes bombed Pearl Harbor and firmly stressed that the only chance that Japan had to win this war was to destroy the American aircraft carriers at this base.   

But the delays in the transmission of a lengthy message from Tokyo prevented the Japanese representatives in Washington D.C. from formerly presenting a declaring war to Secretary of State Cordell Hull who was speaking with these figures at the start of this attack.  

Hull’s meeting was interrupted for him to be told about the deadly swarms of Japanese fighter planes that bombed and strafed American ships, planes and troops that were struggling to survive. Never did the U.S. government and military leaders ever estimate that the Japanese had this capability to push their own carriers some 5,000 miles undetected towards the coast of Hawaii.  

When the smoke cleared, there were over 2,400 members of the armed forces that were killed; 1,000 wounded, 20 ships and 300 planes that were destroyed. This enemy also disabled General Douglas MacArthur’s fighter planes and bombers that sat on the ground in the Philippines.  

Other American territories were targeted in the Pacific, and those military forces were also caught off-guard against this ferocious onslaught that was well planned by the Japanese military.

Before this attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, firmly believed that it was only a matter of time before this country was pushed into the conflicts in Europe and possibly the Pacific.  

Now America was at war, and it was totally unprepared for the modern warfare that was waged by the Germans and Japanese. During the 1930s, the Japanese military fought a brutal war against the Chinese and expanded into French Indo-China before Pearl Harbor. And for two years, the German forces were a hardened force that “Blitzkrieg” much of Europe through a tenacious war that easily defeated most of the Europeans, except the British and Soviets that barely held onto their own survival.

Immediately after the noted “Day of Infamy” speech of Roosevelt, the process quickly began to put this country on a war time footing. Americans were drafted into every branch of the armed forces, women quickly became known as “Rosie the Riveter” for their industrial positions, and “Victory Gardens” were planted from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 

Eighty years ago, this week, Americans from all walks of life entered the service to defend the survival of this country.

By 1942, the Department of War established the future American military leaders that ran the war over-seas to gain victory.  General Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the finest staff officers in the army and he quickly rose from the rank of colonel to lieutenant general. Eisenhower had no combat experience during World War I, but he continually impressed Marshall through his problem-solving ability to handle complicated situations through a commonsense approach. This general was a popular officer, that worked well with others, and he was sent by Marshall to England to discuss the earliest military operations with our British allies. 

A longtime friend to both Marshall and Eisenhower was General George S. Patton. He was a talented, but a controversial figure, that was highly decorated leading the first tanks during World War I. He led the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Benning and later the Indio/Mojave Desert Tank Training Center in California to train our forces to oppose Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Africa Korps in Tunisia.  

Marshall always stated that if he was in a major position of authority, that he would rely on the strength of Patton to push soldiers against a foreign enemy. In the Philippines, MacArthur was ordered out of Corregidor as the Bataan Campaign was defeated by the Japanese. Through the aid of a PT boat, MacArthur, his wife and son, and aides escaped across the Pacific Ocean to set up his new operations in Australia. Now thousands of miles away from Japan, MacArthur scraped together enough forces to begin training for the Guadalcanal invasion that was planned for early August 1942.

Roosevelt was determined to attack the expansionist drive of the Japanese and Germans. While Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in April 1942, led the first bombers to hit the Japanese mainland, this limited assault had done little to hurt the war effort of this enemy. The President demanded that his military leaders successfully wage war against both enemies in the European and Pacific Theaters of Operations. Within an extremely brief period, Marshall and his chief subordinates in Eisenhower and MacArthur quickly planned to halt the progress of the enemies that they would incessantly fight for the next three years.

But the United States still did not have enough trained soldiers, nor did the military have enough combat officers to oppose the strength of these powerful nations.  

From 1942-43, Roosevelt wanted action from his military, but the primary goal was to slow down the advances of the Japanese and the Germans, and land forces against the vulnerable areas of their empires. While both Marshall and Eisenhower sought the invasion of France, as the quickest way to win the war in Europe, England was totally opposed to this idea.  

British leaders that were in their third year of the war, believed that the United States was not yet battle tested, lacked men, materials and knowledge of the Germany army. If an attack failed in France, and if the Allies were pushed back into the English Channel, it would take too long to dislodge Hitler’s forces from Europe. The British stated that the best course of action was to assault the “Soft Under-Belly” of the German forces in the Mediterranean. While Marshall and Eisenhower were opposed to these plans, the British were correct that America was not yet prepared to wage war and that invading North Africa was a more realistic approach for an army that was being drafted into service. 

Eisenhower was named the overall commander of “Operation Torch” the invasion of North Africa.  While he was respected, Eisenhower was a novice in leading such a complicated plan, and his key subordinates were British. There was an early belief that Eisenhower was often swayed by the opinions of the British that had a tremendous amount of influence on this Supreme Commander.  

In the Pacific, the Japanese tried to choke off the American supply lines to Australia and New Zealand by building airfields in Guadalcanal. Few Americans ever heard of this small island that was located within the Solomon Islands. If the Japanese completed these airfields, they would constantly harass the numerous supplies that were needed to help rebuild MacArthur’s forces that expected to carry out the start of its “Island Hopping” campaign.  At this point in 1942, Japan had one of the largest empires ever taken over by a nation during a time of war and conquest.

Never in the history of this country did the United States ever prepare for war against forces that were thousands of miles away, and in an opposite global direction. Americans from places like Miller Place, Mount Sinai, Port Jefferson, Rocky Point and Sound Beach, trained in military bases, to be quickly deployed over-seas to fight the enemy. Always a source of positive feelings, Roosevelt was the architect of one of the most power armed forces that ever-waged war. 

Starting in August 1942, for several months, the United States fought the Japanese at Guadalcanal. The American forces had two difficult enemies, first was the Japanese soldier that was well dug in, that presented a stubborn resistance. Secondly, the American soldier had to battle the jungles of an unfamiliar territory that was ripe with malaria and dangerous creatures and insects. While it took almost five months to defeat the Japanese, they fully understood that the United States Marine Corps that spearhead the landings on South Pacific this island, would not be pushed back, and were only determined to gain victory.

During the early days of November 1942, Eisenhower was stationed at the Rock of Gibraltar, where he waited for the reports of the North African landings. Over 100,000 American and British soldiers landed on the beaches on Morocco, Oran, and Algeria. The problem for the Allies was that the French Vichy that collaborated with Hitler, militarily oversaw their colonial lands. 

While General Mark W. Clark attempted to negotiate an agreement for the French to not oppose these landings, there were no guarantees that resistance would be halted. On the evening of “Operation Torch” when American citizens learned about the start of the war in North Africa, Marshall was at a Washington Redskins football game with his wife, Katherine. The public announcer told the crowd about these landings, and she asked her husband, if this was the reason why he was quiet, due to his worrying about this opening start of the American war effort.  

In less than a year, the United States went from the terror of the disastrous Pearl Harbor losses to quickly utilizing the strength and spirit of our citizens to thwart the strength of these totalitarian powers.  

Although this 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor is at an incredibly divided political time in American history, no friend or foe alike, should ever doubt the resolve of our people to overcome every type of obstacle.  

Thank you to our members of the Greatest Generation, and to the current citizens of the armed forces that continue to make the United States proud of their efforts to protect this country.

Author Rich Acritelli is a social studies teacher at Rocky Point High School and an adjunct professor of American history at Suffolk County Community College. Rocky Point High School students Sean Hamilton, Zachary Gentile, Caroline Settapani, Madelynn Zarzycki and Quentin Palifka helped with this article.

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) presents a new seasonal walking tour titled “Winter Walks Through Time” that will feature stories passed down through the ages and new interpretations of Stony Brook Village from indigenous people to modern day marketing. 

Participants in the walking tour will enjoy new stories about Stony Brook Village and its former residents. This includes the history of winter whaling on Long Island, how Dorothy Melville saved Christmas, the design of Stony Brook Village by Ward Melville and Richard Haviland Smyth, and the history and magic of holiday window displays.

Tours will leave from the Stony Brook Post Office at 129 Main Street on Friday, Dec. 10 at 10:50 a.m. and 2:50 p.m. Tickets for this event are $15 per person, and includes hot chocolate from Stony Brook Chocolate. Reservations are required by calling the Ward Melville Heritage Organization at 631-751-2244.