“It’s about time,” Christina says.
As they lock arms, starting back to the car, Miri begins to sing. “Somewhere there’s music, how faint the tune…”
Christina joins in. “Somewhere there’s heaven, how high the moon…”
“Or maybe we can put together a sister act,” Christina says. “I know a guy who knows a guy who owns a hotel with a lounge in Vegas.”
Author’s Notes
Although this book is a work of fiction, and the characters and events are products of my imagination, the three airplane crashes are real. I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was in eighth grade during the winter of 1951–1952, a student at Hamilton Junior High, so I have firsthand memories of that time and place.
I have tried to depict the crashes as accurately as possible and for that I have depended on reports in two now-defunct local newspapers, the Elizabeth Daily Journal and the Newark Evening News, to supplement the official investigative reports of the Civil Aeronautics Board. I have drawn heavily on the colorful writings of the reporters for these newspapers, freely adapting some of their descriptive phrases—a plane that falls “like an angry, wounded bird” and another that has “broken cleanly in half like a swollen cream puff.”
My thanks to Irvin M. Horowitz, Melville D. Shapiro, Earl K. Way of the Elizabeth Daily Journal, and to that newspaper’s editorial writers. Also, to Angelo Baglivo, Joseph Gale, Joseph Katz, Albert M. Skea, Arthur Swanson, Frank Eakin, Alfred G. Aronowitz, Armand Rotonda, and Cortlandt Parker, Jr., of the Newark Evening News.
I feel as if I know these reporters and am ever grateful for their stories. I like to think their combined DNA has seeped into my hero, Henry Ammerman. At a time when television was still new it was up to print journalists and photographers to paint a picture for us, to tell the stories not only of the crashes, but of those who were on the planes, and those who were left behind.
Thank you to Mary Faith Chmiel, director of the Elizabeth Public Library, and to Nancy Smith, senior reference librarian. Thanks also to the Newark Public Library and its interlibrary loan staff. To Robin Henderson, reference librarian, and Christine Bell, assistant, at the Monroe County Public Library in Key West, all of them helpful and resourceful. Thank you to Tom Hambright, who runs the history room at the Key West library. He set me up at a microfilm reader and warned me to take cover whenever he opened the door to the dusty closet where he kept his treasures.
Thank you to Tom Meyers, Fort Lee Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs for information on the Riviera nightclub, including the New Year’s Eve, 1951, dinner menu, and Pupi Campo’s Riviera Latin band.
I worked on this book from January 2009 to November 2014. During that time I was inspired by books, articles, and blogs.
Replacement Child by Judy L. Mandel is a book I recommend to anyone curious about the true story of one family who was caught up in the tragedy of the second plane crash.
But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters by Robert Rockaway.
Notorious New Jersey: 100 True Tales of Murders and Mobsters, Scandals and Scoundrels by Jon Blackwell.
Viva Las Vegas: After-Hours Architecture by Alan Hess.
Thanks to The Mob Museum in Las Vegas for a fascinating tour, and to Steve Franklin, our guide to the neighborhoods of ’50s Las Vegas.
Diane Norek Harrison for her blog post: “Elizabeth Memories: Elmora Avenue in the 1950s.”
Nat Bodian for “Looking Back at The Tavern: A Great Newark Restaurant” in Old Newark Memories.
Stu Beitler for his submissions to the GenDisasters website.
Thank you to the friends and family members who listened and shared memories while I went on and on about my story. I didn’t keep a running list, so forgive me if I’ve left out any of your names:
Pamela Chais for coming up with the title (before she ever read the book).
Corky Irick for bringing me a Speed Graphic camera like those used by news photographers of the time.
Jim Ackerman for sharing a family story that inspired the character of Mrs. Barnes.
Myrna Blume, who reminded me about the La Reine Hotel in Bradley Beach.
Joanne Tischler Stern, who has the best memory of all my school friends and who enthusiastically answered my questions.
Myrna Seidband Watkins, Mary Weaver, Roz Halberstadter, Ronne Jacobs, Robert Silverman, David Hofmann, ReLeah Lent.
Bob Kallio, who lived at Janet Memorial Home during that time, for the scrapbooks he donated to the Elizabeth Public Library.