Idlewild Airport (JFK)

[Radiohead]

Idlewild Airport (later changed to JFK). From AvalonCM(Flickr)

1962
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1966
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[Radiohead]

1962
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1966:Notice the prominence of the ESB in the background.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/42/99939698_4df6496a7b_b.jpg

Some others

http://members.tripod.com/~psa188/photos/bill_09.jpg

Temporary terminal
http://members.tripod.com/~psa188/photos/bill_11.jpg

http://members.tripod.com/~psa188/photos/bill_13.jpg

http://members.tripod.com/~psa188/photos/ia11606.JPG

Saarinen's TWA Terminal
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[brianac]

Same again. Thank you.

Just look at those street lamps near the TWA Terminal.

[ablarc]

Wow, things sure looked modern then.

[alonzo-ny]

Seemed so, human. Back then at least it looked as though you could walk around a bit. Now it just seems like a maze that your not supposed to walk through.

[Radiohead]

Brian, you got.....younger:)

[brianac]

I'ts just a photograph of someone I used to be.

[macreator]

Looks like someone forgot to water the grass between 1962 and 1964. The airport looks so much more....sane. So much less cluttered, and infinitely more modern. I suppose it would help that the number of people flying back then was a fraction of a fraction of the number of people flying now.

[ablarc]

I'ts just a photograph of someone I used to be.
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young. --O. Wilde.

[Spielberg]

Wow, that's a great piece of history, thanks!

[GQ_Homme]

Eero Saarien's TWA Flight Center Building is a classic masterpiece. I am glad Jetblue is incorporating it into its future expansion.

[Luca]

One of my favorite modenist buildings, definitely.

I'm glad to have been in it when it was still used for its intended ourpose. Wasn't it threatened with demolition at one point??

[brianac]

July 30, 2008, 11:03 am

A Who’s Who of Jet-Setting J.F.K. Passengers

By The New York Times (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/nytimes/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/30/nyregion/jfk-533.jpg (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/30/nyregion/20080729JFK_index.html)
In the early years of the airport, about 3,500 youngsters gathered every week to watch departures and arrivals from the field’s observation deck. This Peruvian International Airways plane was on the tarmac on Nov. 21, 1948. (Photo: The New York Times) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/multimedia/icons/photo_icon.gif Slide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/30/nyregion/20080729JFK_index.html)


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/29/nyregion/jfk-4square.jpg
Clockwise from top left: can you name these passengers?

Nearly 48 million passengers flew in and out of J.F.K. last year, the country’s premier international gateway. The airport, celebrating its 60th anniversary this month, has long played host to the rich, famous and infamous. Above, a slide show chronicles the history of the inception, construction and opening of the airport.

To the right are some notables who have paid a visit. Can you name these mystery jet-setters? Please submit your answers in the comments box below, numbered 1 through 4, going clockwise from top left.

We will be accepting answers until 4 p.m. today and then we will publish the answers and the name of the first person to get them all right, along with all the guesses from readers.

Good luck!


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Six square miles of swampy sand, part of it the site of a once-fashionable golf course, were bought when the New York City officials decided plenty of space was needed for a new international aiport. Recalling that La Guardia Field was declared "obsolete as soon as it was opened," city planners in 1942 were determined to convert the huge area into an airport of the future.
Photo: Downer, Green & Carillo, Consulting Engineers

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Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia went over plans for the new airport, which cost the city about $150 million to build. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, has invested about $5.5 billion over the years.
Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

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The airport at Idlewild, looking southeast toward the Atlantic Ocean, on June 5, 1947. Construction began in April 1942 with the placing of hydraulic fill over the marshy tidelands. The original plans called for a 1,000-acre airport, which now covers 4,930 acres and includes more than 30 miles of roadway.
Photo: Fairchild Aerial Surveys

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In the early years of the airport, about 3,500 youngsters gathered every week. One of their favorite vantage points was the field's observation deck, where they could watch departures and arrivals. This one belongs to the fleet of Peruvian International Airways, on Nov. 21, 1948.
Photo: The New York Times

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Air traffic controllers in 1951 guided some of the planes of 11 foreign-flag airlines and four American carriers that flew in and out of the airport.
Photo: The New York Times

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The control tower built in the early 1950s was at center of the airport, known officially as the New York International Airport, but colloquially called Idlewild.
Photo: Nelson Stud Welding

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The curvilinear T.W.A. Flight Center under construction. Opened in 1962 and designed by the architect Eero Saarinen, the building was shut in 2001, when T.W.A. ended operations. The terminal has been declared a landmark, and it is being connected to a new JetBlue terminal being built behind it.
Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

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The T.W.A. terminal was planned by Mr. Saarinen in 1957. The central part of the building was a thin concrete shell formed by merging vaulted domes.
Photo: T.W.A.

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On Dec. 24, 1963, the airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Aiport. The sister and brother of the late president, Jean Kennedy Smith and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, attended the dedication.
Photo: Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times

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Workmen on an elevated platform changed a sign hanging over the roadway leading into the airport in December 1963.
Photo: Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times

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The Beatles arrived at J.F.K. in February 1964, the first stop on their first trip to the United States.
Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

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Muhammed Ali, inside the airport, let a fan get in her best punch.
Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

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Gregory and Veronica Peck arrived after a flight.
Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

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Pope Paul VI at J.F.K. in 1965.
Photo: The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[neilr]

We had a big drought in NY around 1962 and 1963. Lawn watering wasn't a priority, and car washing could only be done on certain days. Restaurants only brought you water when you asked.

The celebrities shown. I am stumped by box #1. Looks like Walter Brennan, but it isn't. Box 2 is Jimmy Durante. Box 3 is Kim Novak. Box 4 is Sammy Davis Jr and Mai Britt.

I'll have to think about box 1 some more.

[195Broadway]

neilr,
welcome! I love to hear the perspective of more "experienced" folks.
(Being 44 years old, I was able to I.D. Jimmy and Sammy)
Steven

[DMAG]

Funny, but related. My father forwarded me an email that had been passed around numerous time over the past few months from airline retirees leading to where?

This thread.

Who would have thought my father, (not the most internet saavy person on earth) would direct me back to a forum I read multiple times daily?

:)

[195Broadway]

Who did your dad work for?

[DMAG]

Eastern right up until she went belly up. Then Continental up until this year.

[195Broadway]

I only have 21 more years to go at Continental. Started there just after Eastern went belly up. ;)

[ablarc]

So, brianac, who are the folks in picture no. 1?

[DMAG]

I only have 21 more years to go at Continental. Started there just after Eastern went belly up. ;)

You may know my dad then. He just retired last month from Continental.

[195Broadway]

If he worked at either Newark or IAH airports, there is a chance I know him.

[brianac]

So, brianac, who are the folks in picture no. 1?

End of Quiz: (Some) Answers Revealed

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/29/nyregion/jfk-4square.jpg
Clockwise from top left: can you name these passengers?

Final Update, Aug. 20 | After several weeks of research, City Room has concluded that the upper left of the four photographs, at right, depicts Marc Chagall and his second wife, Valentina Brodsky, known as Vava. Our research-intensive journey (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/photo-mystery-solved-cest-chagall/) involved our readers, historians, archivists, writers and curators in the United States and France — and even the former Rolling Stones bass guitarist (and accomplished photographer) Bill Wyman. Therefore, the winner of the Pop Quiz — and the recipient of our belated congratulations — is Joe (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/#comment-410442), who correctly named the people in all photographs at 11:46 a.m. on July 30, the day of the Pop Quiz.

Update and correction, July 31 | After this Pop Quiz ended, a sharp-eyed staff editor questioned whether the people in the undated, upper-left photograph were, in fact, David Ben-Gurion (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ben_gurion.html) and wife Paula, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Ben-Gurion) as they were identified in original source material (and as several readers, including the original named winner below, had guessed). Further research and reporting determined that while there is some resemblance, the two people are not the Ben-Gurions. Their identities could not be immediately determined (some readers are helping us play sleuth (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/jet-setting-couple-still-a-mystery/) here).

City Room asked the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs Kennedy International Airport and supplied the photographs, for the source of the photo attribution. Jen Friedberg, a spokeswoman, explained that most of the authority’s archives were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001.

She said that although no definitive caption information was available, officials had hoped readers could provide a conclusive identification. The officials believed the image was of the Ben-Gurions, based in part on a comparison of the image with publicly available images of the couple.

A similar review by editors at The Times raised doubts, so City Room contacted Howard M. Sachar (http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=37465), a historian at George Washington University and the author of many books, including “A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time,” first published in 1973 and reissued, in a third revised edition, in 2007.

Professor Sachar said he had met and spoken numerous times with Ben-Gurion, who was Israel’s first prime minister, from 1955 to 1963, and died in 1973. He said that the undated picture definitely did not show David or Paula Ben-Gurion.

The occasion of the quiz was the 60th anniversary of Kennedy Airport, where nearly 48 million passengers flew in and out of J.F.K. last year, the country’s premier international gateway. A slide show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/30/nyregion/20080729JFK_index.html) chronicles the history of the inception, construction and opening of the airport. We invited readers to guess the identities of the jet-setters pictured in the four photographs above.

The originally named winner was Sharon (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/#comment-410581), who guessed the Ben-Gurions and the three other images correctly at 1:38 p.m., clockwise from left:
Jimmy Durante (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002051/), Sammy Davis Jr. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEED6143BF934A25756C0A9669582 60) and wife May Britt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Britt), and Kim Novak (http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa021603a.htm).

Alas, Sharon was not the first to guess three of the four correctly. Perley J. Thibodeau (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/#comment-410413), Joe (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/#comment-410442) and Chery (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/#comment-410460) were among those who had it first.

But that first picture seemed to have stumped almost everyone. The guesses were varied and ranged from the painter Marc Chagall and a companion, Norman Mailer and Adele Morales, Charlie and Oona Chaplin, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Far off the mark, however, was Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Thank you to all readers who participated.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/a-whos-who-of-jet-setting-jfk-passengers/?scp=1&sq=Who's%20Who%20at%20JFK%20Airport&st=cse

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[airport66]

It appears that this group enjoys old airport pictures. Members of my family have worked at idlewild since the 40's. I personally have been there since 1966. See if you like these.

[Radiohead]

Great pictures. Thanks for adding these.

[kz1000ps]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/42/99939698_4df6496a7b_b.jpg

What were those buildings? They immediately call to mind religious structures of the same vintage. And there was quite an extensive network of planned spaces going on back then, between the pool(s) you see here and the plaza connecting the old terminal four to the physical plant. Sad to see it all obliterated for more utilitarian purposes like parking lots, parking garages, highways, access ramps, toll booths...

[cabinfever]

I think the first photo is of Charlie Chaplin.........

[Radiohead]

What were those buildings? They immediately call to mind religious structures of the same vintage. And there was quite an extensive network of planned spaces going on back then, between the pool(s) you see here and the plaza connecting the old terminal four to the physical plant. Sad to see it all obliterated for more utilitarian purposes like parking lots, parking garages, highways, access ramps, toll booths...

Those were the tri-faith chapels, which were demolished in 1988-89. Newer chapels were later built inside one of the terminals (and a 4th for Muslims was added).

The red squares below show approximately where the 3 chapels sat on the JFK site. I agree, it's a shame they had to be demolished.

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THIS (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DD173DF932A15755C0A9619482 60) is a NYT article from 1987 about those 3 chapels.

Here is a pic of the current chapels located in terminal 4
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/38/76603502_181dcdbedc_b.jpg

[kz1000ps]

Thanks for the informative post! As ablarc world say, it's too bad those chapels couldn't have made it past the 40 year slump, for if they had they surely would've been landmarked as a classic modernist ensemble.

But I believe your location is off.. check out this picture:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/20/70703006_c32c8be1f0_b.jpg

^ The reflecting pool acts as a branch off that big plaza, which is on axis between the old terminal four and the physical plant building which is still standing. Also, the area where you put the chapels -- that circular tree grove -- can be seen in the above image at the far right. So I'd say the placement of the chapels is a bit further south than what you had, Radiohead:

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/175/jfk0poolchapelsfl3.jpg

[Radiohead]

You're right kz. Good diagrams.

[Dirty Ed]

I was born in the Idlewilde sections of Queens 1931, aka So. Jamaica.

There was a strip with dirt runways there. I had an aunt and uncle with the grass of a cow and a few apple trees. I would pedal over there and watch the biplanes etc. come and go.

God be with the days!

[stache]

We had a small regional airport not too far from our house. We used to take acid at night sometimes and go just beyond the fence/property line and lay on the ground at the foot of a runway. Whooooooooosh! ;)

[Dirty Ed]

NAS Floyd Bennett wasn't too far away either. They had Navy flying boats.

La Guardia had Pan American World Clippers. I remember Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. i.e. "The Little Flower" reading the comics to the kids from the Sunday Papers.

The German Dirigibles used to overfly our place every now and then on their way to NAS Lakehurst NJ. A very distinct sound from them and their many diesel engines.

I know The Hindenberg was one of them, and perhaps there were others.