125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, May 31
The Misses Worthington, who are visiting the Pan-American exposition, were present at the formal opening of the fair and witnessed the flight of several hundred carrier pigeons which were liberated to carry messages to all parts of the country. They say the exposition surpasses the expectations of all visitors.
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We understand that Chief Barnes, of the Fire Department, will soon order the department out for night practice, the alarm to be sounded late in the evening and without previous warning to a single member of the department.
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Vernon’s Stock Company played “A Wife’s Peril” at Clinton Hall on Wednesday evening. The audience was small but the performance was just as good as ever. Several new people appeared in clever work between the acts. But for the dismal weather we believe the house would have been well filled. The company will play here on June 12, presenting “The Arabian Nights.”
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, May 28
Real estate brokers may be wearing crepe on their hatbands, but East Hampton hotel men certainly can’t complain this spring, and a very large proportion of their visitors are interested in real estate.
East Hampton is entertaining more visitors than ever before in her history, at this time. Hotel proprietors in neighboring towns complain of the cold weather; they expect full houses later on, but nothing doing at present. But the Arms and the Huntting are doing a land-office business, rooming guests outside over week-ends, and this has been true all spring.
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Tomorrow Manager Cleaves will take his strongest team to Southold, when the season of the East End League opens. He will have his strongest lineup. Wagner will do the twirling, while Barns will be at the receiving end. Three of Montauk’s best players will assist our boys. A large following will go from here by auto.
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John Drew was one of those who spoke over the radio from Station WEAF Monday evening. He appeared in the unexpected but authoritative role of dramatic historian, sketching the past career of Shakespeare’s “Henry the IV,” and casting anecdotal illumination on some few Falstaffs.
The address by the famous actor was designedly opportune, in view of the soon-to-be-seen “Henry the IV” production by the Players’ Club. In his closing remarks Mr. Drew rebuked current dramatic habit with the remark that “there are a few of us who remember the days when there was a classic drama. Come on.”
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, May 31
The 160th anniversary of John Howard Payne’s birth will be celebrated at Home, Sweet Home at three o’clock on Friday afternoon, June 8, with appropriate ceremonies arranged by Mrs. Ruth Sterling Benjamin, the curator. The actual birthday is June 9, but the date was changed because 45 members of the Girls Glee Club from East Hampton High School will participate.
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Although it looked like rain early in the morning and it did rain in the afternoon, the Memorial Day parade and celebration was a success. A large crowd gathered to witness the parade and the ceremony on the Village Green by Hook Mill.
In spite of the unpredictable weather, the crowd assembled about ten o’clock and soon the street was lined on both sides with cars and spectators. Near eleven o’clock, the parade, led by a platoon from Fort Hero, started up the street from the flagpole. Next came the East Hampton High School Band, which was led by two six-year-old baton twirling drum-majorettes, Carolyn and Carol Ann Brewer.
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The annual election day for the Incorporated Village of East Hampton will be Tuesday, June 19. Voters will go to the Village Building between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to elect two Trustees and vote on one appropriation.
To date, only two candidates are in the field for the two seats on the Village Board that come up this year; these are William C. Morgan and Edward Tillinghast, who are running for re-election for a two-year term.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, May 27
In a straight party-line vote, the Suffolk County Legislature on Tuesday voted to oppose the proposed construction of two nuclear electric generating plants at a Jamesport site owned by the Long Island Lighting Company.
The strongly-worded resolution, introduced by Legislator Joyce Burland of Sagaponack, maintains that there is a potential danger to the economy and the environment from the construction of either nuclear or fossil-fuel plants at the Jamesport site and from the proposed installation of a 9.8-mile, 240-foot-wide corridor through North Shore farmlands to accommodate transmission lines.
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Three years and five months after he first asked for it, the developer of “Port Royal” has been denied the State permit he needs to build a marina in Fort Pond Bay, Montauk. The State Department of Environmental Conservation ruled last week that the Argyle Land Company “did not meet the burden of proof” that the project would not be harmful — did not, indeed, even try.
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The East Hampton Town and Village Boards are planning to hold a joint public hearing at 7:30 p.m. on June 17 in the East Hampton Middle School on the proposed new franchises that Sammons Communications Inc. says it needs in order to improve and extend its cable television service. A day earlier, at 7:30 p.m. on June 16 in the Montauk Fire House, the town will hold an “informational meeting” on the franchise proposed for Montauk, which has no cable television service now.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, May 31
“Harassment at best,” was how Capt. Todd Sarris of the East Hampton Town Police Department summarized an incident in which a freelance photographer working for The Mail on Sunday, the London tabloid, said she was assaulted by the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, and a friend.
According to the photographer, Lisa Carpenter, who has filed a report with town police, the altercation came just after midnight on May 25 when she tried to photograph Mr. Jagger and his date, the 24-year-old English model Sophie Dahl, for the second time that evening. The British press has reported that Mr. Jagger and Ms. Dahl, granddaughter of the author Roald Dahl, began dating only recently and have tried to keep their relationship private.
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The influx of people into the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend began early, and the Long Island Rail Road’s 4:07 Cannonball marked the start of the vacation for many city commuters with their wheeled luggage in tow. The train, bursting at the seams, housed a unique combination of middle-aged commuting veterans, young first-time visitors, and high school students — anyone who could escape work by 4 p.m. on Friday.
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A woman recently stood at the bottom of three steps, making a quick scan of a patch of grass. Wearing the look of a wildebeest about to ford a crocodile-infested river in the Serengeti, she dangled one foot inches above the blades of grass before bounding across an open stretch and diving into her car. “Lyme disease,” she later explained.
