125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, August 24
We are pleased to say a fine oil painting of Stephen Talkhouse, or Pharaoh, executed by C.D. Hunt of Brooklyn, and first shown at the Montauk Club’s art reception in February, has been placed on free exhibition by the owner, Dr. A. Huntington, of Islip, at the East Hampton Library. It will remain for a number of weeks so that all who wish, can see it.
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G.A. Eldredge has the new two story office building of the East Hampton Lumber and Coal Co. about completed. He has also just completed a small addition to Thomas B. Clarke’s cottage, “The Lanterns,” on Ocean avenue.
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Miss W.E. Stone, of New York, was in town on Thursday of last week, on a short visit, from Quogue, to her mother, Mrs. H. Harwood Key, who is a guest at Mrs. Tomlinson’s. Mrs. Stone is a great-granddaughter of Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, August 21
The Jitney Players will arrive in town on Friday, August 29, and will give a performance on Robert Appleton’s lawn under the auspices of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, with their celebrated automobile stage, known as the most unusual theatre in the United States. This group of actors has been gathered together by Bushnell Cheney, who designed the traveling theatre in which they appear, and for their third successive summer they are wandering up and down the highways of New England, bringing the joy of the theatre to all sorts of places and people. Each year they have widened their route and their repertory, their personnel and their outlook.
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According to the calendar in the 1925-26 school book, which is now in process of printing, school will open here on Monday, September 14.
New pupils will be required to register their names with Principal Gilbert A. Lyon on Saturday, September 12, at 9 a.m., in the kindergarten room.
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Due to the excessive torrents of rain which fell last Thursday evening and Friday morning, over 300 telephone lines were put out of commission. The manholes and conduit near Buell lane corner were flooded, causing temporary damage to the 400 wire cables which had been recently laid. Telephone repair men were placed on the job at once and, working in day and night shifts throughout Friday, by Saturday had the trouble practically all cleared up.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, August 24
The Devon Yacht Club looked very festive last Friday night for Amagansett’s first “Village Party” for benefit of the Amagansett Village Improvement Society. Four hundred and fifty people, both summer and year-round residents, gathered for dinner, dancing, and entertainment and became better acquainted with one another.
The great success of the evening must be attributed not only to Mrs. Kenneth Chorley and Mrs. John Sheppard and their splendid committee, but to the entire community which threw itself enthusiastically into the spirit of the event. About $2,500 was raised for the A.V.I.S.
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Artists of this vicinity are invited to show up to 10 paintings or sketches each in the Outdoor Clothesline Art Exhibition to take place in front of Guild Hall for one day only, Sat., Sept. 2, from 10 to 5 p.m. Artists need not necessarily be members of Guild Hall to show in this exhibition.
Mrs. E. Hollingsworth Siter is chairman of arrangements for the exhibition, which will benefit Guild Hall. She will be assisted by members of the Guild Hall Art Class.
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Finals in the annual Maidstone Bowl Golf Tournament at the Maidstone Club were played on Sunday in spite of the driving rain. It also rained on Saturday. William Y. Dear Jr. of Westhampton Beach, who was runner-up last year, made a 3 over par 75, defeating Joseph A. McBride of Arcola in New Jersey, 2 up.
Earlier in the day, the Westhampton golfer scored a 3 and 2 decision over Lee Peterson of Indian Creek, while McBride was eliminating Charles Shelden of Miami Beach, 3 and 1.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, August 21
Montauk
The next concert at Gosman’s Dock will feature Toots Thielemans and his quintet. His harmonica virtuosity was featured in the movie “Midnight Cowboy.” The concert will take place Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission is free and guests have been asked to bring their own pillow or chair.
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East Hampton Town Supervisor Judith Hope has scheduled a special public executive session of the Town Board for Wednesday, Sept. 3, which the heads of two New York firms threatened with disqualification from the senior citizens’ housing project, and the project’s former consultant have asked to attend.
The requests for a meeting with the Board were received last Friday, after the second of two articles appeared in the Star (Aug. 7 and 14) dealing with the proposed 100-unit, public-assisted project.
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Elizabeth Patches, a mezzo-soprano who received unanimous critical acclaim last season for her program of Polish songs in Alice Tully Hall, will inaugurate the Mary Gordon Ledgerwood Scholarship Fund with a recital 8 p.m. Wednesday at Southampton College’s Fine Arts Theatre.
Miss Patches, who next spring will undertake her fourth concert tour of Poland under the auspices of the Polish Ministry of Culture, will sing works of Pergolesi, Handel, Ives and from the songs of the Hebrides.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, August 24
The beauty of the Hamptons is its selling point, enticing thousands to bask on its beaches, play its golf courses, stroll down its Main Streets, and generally spend their money here. Could that beauty also sell swimwear or inspire teenagers not to smoke? Fashion photographers, advertising executives, and mail-order catalogs are banking on it.
In increasing numbers, men and women with fancy cameras and five-member crews monitoring light, touching up lip gloss, and running for coffee are using scenes from Montauk Point to Sagg Main Beach as a backdrop.
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“It is our intention to prevent all recreational driving on our beach property, and we are considering steps to achieve this objective.”
That statement was at the heart of a letter received by East Hampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and members of the town board last week from Daniel Neidich, president of the Georgica Association.
“This will bring the whole thing to a head,” said John Jilnicki, a deputy town attorney, “the whole thing” being an extraordinarily complex legal knot containing old deeds, public and private rights to an eroding beach, and access to blue-claw crabs.
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They say one man’s garbage is another man’s gold, but these days, East Hampton Town officials have been learning that in many cases, one man’s garbage is, well, just another man’s garbage.
The point was recently illustrated by David Paolelli, the director of the Town Sanitation Department. During an interview last month, Mr. Paolelli said that the price of baled cardboard, which had reached upward of $110 a ton in the late spring, had fallen to $75 a ton. Make that $70 a ton, called in an assistant, who had just retrieved a faxed price update from a buyer.
