Between Two Bridges

7/31/2019 Between Two Bridges

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It was sometime in the mid 1980s. I was having dinner at Forlinis Restaurant at 93 Baxter

Street in downtown Manhattan with my good friend Rudy Riska, who was the Athletic Director

of the Downtown Athletic Club, and was known as the King of the Heisman Trophy. I had

grown up across the street from Forlinis, in a tenement at 134 White Street, the corner of Baxter

Street in the Sixth Ward, across the street from the city prison called the Tombs. Rudy had

grown up on Madison Street, in the adjourning Fourth Ward, just a 10-minute walk away.

The Fourth and Sixth Ward people were friendly enemies, especially in sports. My first memory

of the Fourth Ward was in 1958 when I went to play Little League baseball at Coleman Oval,

under the Manhattan Bridge. By then the neighborhood had been completely transformed and

tens of thousands of people had been thrown out of their homes by of the cruel law of Eminent

Domain. This was done to make way for the construction of Al Smith low-income projects and

the Chatham Green middle-income co-ops. The same thing had happened in the Sixth Ward,

albeit on a smaller basis, to make way for the construction of Chatham Towers middle-income

co-ops.

During dinner at Forlinis, Rudy told me about the Fourth Ward of the 1940s and early 1950s.

He mentioned streets that no longer existed; like Roosevelt Street and Oak Street, and parts of

Williams Street. And he mentioned a Catholic church I never heard of named St. Joachims,

which was on Roosevelt Street. Then Rudy started talking about the guys he grew up with.

Do you remember Victor Star? Rudy asked me.

No, I didnt, but after reading the wonderful bookBetween Two Bridges by Victor Colaio

(Victor Star), even though I never met the man, I know Victor Star very well (we even went to

the same high schoolCardinal Hayes in the Bronx).

Both Victor and Rudy are about 10-12 years older than me. The Lower East Side they grew up in

was slightly different than the Lower East Side I grew up in. Sure, we played stickball, stoopball,

softball, hardball, basketball and football, like they did, but we had actual balls that we bought at

a sporting goods store on Nassau Street, the name of which escapes me (Spiegels?). In Victors

era, they bought pink Spaldeens, and the occasional Clincher softball, like we did, but their

footballs were made of wrapped up newspaper and tape. Talk about roughing it. (Im assuming

they used real basketballs, because ifthe ball wasnt perfectly round, how could they bounce it

properly?)

Also, in Rudy and Victors era, television was a new invention; basically only bars had them to

show sporting events like baseball and boxing. However, I dont remember not having a TV set

in my apartment, nor do I remember any of my friends not having TV sets in their apartments.

But this was the mid to late 1950s; not the mid to late 1940s, when Rudy and Victor grew up.

In Between Two Bridges, Victor talks about spending many wondrous afternoons at the

Venice Theatre, which was owned by a wonderful woman named Mazie, who let kids into the


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theater for free if they didnt have the money. Mazie also gave money to the bums on the

Bowery, so that they could buy something to eat, or most likely something to drink. I dont

remember the Venice Theater, but I do remember Mazie, but from the Chatham Theater on

Chatham Square, under the Third Avenue El, which was knocked down when I was about 9 or

10 years old. However, the Chatham Theater remained there for many years.

In Between Two Bridges, Victor regales the reader with stories of how kids played ball in

The Lots, a filthy strip of land under Manhattan Bridge. I dont remember The Lots, but I

do remember remember Coleman Oval, which was constructed on the former site ofThe Lots.

This is where the Two Bridges Little League Baseball Association played their games. In fact in

1960, my Transfiguration Little League team beat Victors St. James Little League team for the

Two Bridges Championship.

And then there were the nicknames, which almost everybody had.

Victor was Victor Star. My nickname in the Sixth Ward was Mooney; people still call meMooney. Victor mentions childhood friends like Pete the Lash, who was built like a safe and

wasnt afraid to throw his weight around. After I moved to the Fourth Wards Knickerbocker

Village in 1964, I met Pete the Lash, who was definitely an impressive physical specimen; only

by the mid 70s his brick-like body did have a bit of a beer belly. Even though Pete was basically

a friendly, jovial guy, woe to those who got on the wrong side of Pete the Lash.

Victor mentions other nicknames names like Richie Igor, Nonnie, Paulie Knock Knock , Junior,

Bunny and Butch, all men whom I knew in later years. But I dont recall Goo-Goo, Bobo the

Hippo, Hammerhead, Paulie Batman, Georgie Egg, Bopo, or Bimbo. But I wish I did.

Growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 30s through 60s was a uniqueexperience; an experience that no longer exist for the youngsters of New York City. In the LowerEast Side, we grew up with people of all denominations and faiths. The Two Bridges Little

Baseball League had teams from Transfiguration Churchalmost exclusively Italians and

Chinese. St James was mostly Irish with a few Italians. St. Joseph was mostly Italians with a few

Irish. Mariners Temples team was Puerto Rican. Educational Alliance and LMRC were Jewish.

And Sea and Land, sponsored by neighborhood people, were African-Americans. And there

were Polish, Spanish kids from Spain, and Czechoslovakian kids sprinkled throughout the teams.

We didnt have the time or energy to be racist or prejudiced. We all grew up together and we all

respectedeach other. It was the only way to survive.One thing that Victor points out in his book is very true. If you grew up on the Lower East Side,

you grew balls; you had to. You had to fight almost every day, and if you didnt; you got beat up

almost every day. Bullies invariably picked on the weaker kids, or the ones who didnt fightback. But if you did fight back, even if you caught a beating or two, the bullies moved on to

easier pray.


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It was just the law of the jungle.

The Lower East Side did produce mobsters of all nationalities. But it also produced doctors (Joe

Fiorito), lawyers (Mathew J. Mari from the Fourth Ward is a prominent criminal attorney),

politicians (Al Smith from James Street became Governor of New York and lost the Presidential

Election in 1928), several judges ( Judge Piccariello), professional singers (Johnny Maestro,Luther Vandross), and professional athletes. Rudy Riska was one professional athlete from the

Lower East Side (he played for the Triple A Yankees); his brother Steve was another (theCincinnati Reds farm system). There was also a guy named Vinnie Head (I never knew his real

name) from the Sixth Ward (NY Giants Farm system), and Charlie Vellotta, also from the Sixth

Ward (Dodgers farm system). Charlie lived on the same floor with me at 134 White Street.

My next door neighbor at 134 White Street was Mikey Black; real name Michael Corriero (we

shared a firescape, and Mikey used to frequently knock on my door because he forgot the key to

his apartment and had to use my bedroom window to get onto the firescape to get into hisapartment). Mikey, after being on the periphery of juvenile gangs when he was a teenager,

became a lawyer, then a judge in New York State Juvenile Court System. He is now theExecutive Director and Founder of the New York Center for JuvenileJustice.So there.

Growing up on the Lower East Side in the mid Twentieth Century cannot be described any betterthan Victor Colaio does in Between Two Bridges. I highly recommend this book to all NewYorkers - no matter what age group. And ifyou come from other parts of the country, you canthelp but enjoy this brilliant book too. If people not from New York City can flock to watch a

ridiculous program like Mob Wives, they should read a book that is true to life, not a

stereotype of the worst possible people in the New York City area.

One final thingif you dont buy Between Two Bridges, I might have to send Pete the Lash to

visit you.

And that can never be a very good thing.

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Between Two Bridges