Today in Transportation History: December 24, 1923 It was Christmas Eve, and many people in New York City spent the day trying their best to make that year’s holiday season the happiest in recent memory. “There will be Yuletide cheer aplenty everywhere,” asserted the New York Times in reporting on the activities. The efforts were helped in large part by the utilization of transportation options to dispense holiday joy. The Salvation Army, to cite only one example of the work done that year by charitable organizations on an unprecedented scale, relied on an armada of automobiles to deliver 5,000 baskets to families in need throughout the city. (The baskets each included a large chicken, crackers, vegetables, apples, coffee, a package of macaroni, and a can of milk.) Noted artist Neysa McMein, who was described by the Times as “Santa Claus’s traffic manager,” coordinated the widespread deployment of automobiles. That mode of transportation was used as well by the Third Avenue Railway System Choral Society in its own endeavor to increase merriment throughout New York City. Seventy-five members of the group – all attired in seasonal costumes – rode around the city in automobiles that night between 7:30 and 11:00 to sing carols at such locations as Times Square and Columbus Circle. Elsewhere that day in New York City, the Downtown Chamber of Commerce arranged to have buses transport more than 200 children to the Capitol Theatre for a holiday matinee performance. The mobile means for spreading Yuletide cheer in the region that day were not restricted to just surface transportation. In the skies above the U.S. Army air station at Mitchel Field on Long Island, Lieutenant Clyde V. Finter played the role of Santa Claus in his plane by dropping candy, fruit, and toys for children on the ground below to eagerly retrieve. (Photos: #1 - Neysa McMein in 1917; #2 - Salvation Army distributing Christmas baskets; #3 - Lower Manhattan, 1923; #4 - Lt. Clyde V. Finter)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 16:11:24 +0000
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