Golden Jubilee: Brothers of the Brush, Sisters of the Swish

Brothers of the Brush pin
Ambridge Golden Jubilee
courtesy of Bob Mikush

All men who lived or worked in Ambridge were required to become "Brothers of the Brush" and grow beards for the Golden Jubilee celebration, June 26 through July 4, 1955. "Shaving permits" were available to men who wouldn't, or couldn't, grow a beard. I didn't find (yet) a mention of how much those permits cost. Woe to the men who were caught without a beard or shaving permit. The scofflaws faced an assortment of penalties, including arrest by the Keystone Kops and trial in Kangaroo Kourt. Punishment was usually swift and silly.

Shaving permit pin
Ambridge Golden Jubilee
courtesy of Ron Strauss

Some of the Brothers of the Brush chapters included: Pastafazola, UWA Pyrohy's, and the Knight of the Hot Salami. The Brother with the longest beard won a silver loving cup at the American Slovak Association Picnic at Firemen's Park on June 26, one of the Golden Jubilee's first scheduled events. A beard judging contest also was held during the Jubilee celebration.

Women had their own Jubilee group and became "Sisters of the Swish" by wearing old-fashioned dresses. I don't know if women had anything similar to the men's "shaving permit." The women's costumes also were judged during the celebration.

Hijinks ensued even before the Jubilee celebration officially began on June 26.

Pirate Coach John Fitzpatrick was made an honorary member of the Patafazola Chapter at a Pirate's game.

Pastafazola Chapter with Pirate Coach John Fitzpatrick
Daily Citizen
June 14, 1955

Original text:

HONORARY MEMBER -- Pirate Coach John Fitzpatrick, center, was made honorary member of the Pastafazola Chapter of the Brothers of the Brush in between the Bucs-Braves doubleheader at Forbes Field Sunday afternoon. The other players in the photo are Dick Groat and George Freeze while the Keystone Kops in the front row are: Steve Powell and Al Russo.

Looks like the Kops made a raid at Wyckoff Steel and Kourt was held.

Painted worker at Wyckoff
Daily Citizen
June 22, 1955

Original text:

KANGAROO KOURT was held by the Woolly Whoopers of Wyckoff Chapter late yesterday afternoon following the day shift. Regis Roll, left, was made honorary member after being painted by the president of the chapter.

Man in a barrel
Daily Citizen
June 22, 1955

Original text:

SEVERE PUNISHMENT--Another Wyckoff employe gets his punishment following a Kangaroo Kourt late Tuesday afternoon. 

John J. Kotarski in dress and bonnet
Daily Citizen
June 22, 1955

Original text:

ANOTHER FORM OF PUNISHMENT was meted a worker at Wyckoff Steel plant late Tuesday afternoon. The unidentified worker is being held by two Kops as sentence is pronounced.

There was the cooking of the "Human Pirohy."

Cooking of the human pirohy,
Daily Citizen,
June 24, 1955

Original text:

COOK HUMAN PIROHY--A "human pirohy" was "cooked" last evening at the Ukrainian Workingmen's Association Branch 5 lodge, Melrose Ave., following sentencing at Kangaroo Kourt by the Brothers of the Brush. Held inside a six foot replica of a rolling pin, and a four by six flour sack was used in making the human pirohy. The victim is pictured in the center, shortly before the "cooking" job.

Being a news photographer has its dangers.

Daily Citizen Photographer in stocks
Daily Citizen
June 27?, 1955

Original text:

PHOTOGRAPHER PUNISHED -- Norm Hanevich, a Daily Citizen Photographer, failed to have a "Brother of the Brush" pin Friday evening when he was given an assignment to cover the Kangaroo Kourt at Eighth St. Cafe. As a result, his punishment was a "paint" job.

According to the June 24 Daily Citizen, the Sisters of the Swish Pirohettes and Piroghy Brothers of the Brush made a woman who wasn't wearing a costume wash down a parking meter. The Sisters supervised the job by holding a rolling pin over the offender's head.

And on June 27, the Daily Citizen reported that an unlucky visitor from Ohio ended up with a pie in his face. So apparently, even men who didn't live or work in Ambridge might be penalized for being beardless in Ambridge.

Joseph Bartolo, who was six at the time of the Jubilee, remembers beardless men being thrown in clawfooted bathtubs full of water which had been placed around town.

I love seeing and reading about our parents, grandparents, and other Ambridge adults acting so silly and having such a good time. And being good sports.

More blog posts on the Golden Jubilee celebration coming soon.

Golden Jubilee: The Big Train Robbery

Sixty years ago, Ambridge celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Most of the official activities, which ranged from solemn to silly, were held Sunday, June 26 though Monday, July 4, 1955. But the shenanigans started earlier and included a rootin'-tootin' train robbery on the morning of June 14, when a passenger train headed to Cleveland was held up at French Point by a gang of masked--and bearded--cowboys armed with pistols and rifles, and two women were kidnapped.

Luckily, photographers were present to capture the entire crime. And the only loot the outlaws got was wooden nickels which could be spent only in Ambridge during the Golden Jubilee celebration.

Newspapers later reporting on the event made clear the "robbery" was staged, as was the "kidnapping." The June 14, 1955, Daily Citizen assured readers that the railroad had approved the stunt, and the appropriate government agencies had been notified in advance.

The train's crew and passengers had also been forewarned, and the June 15, 1955, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the stunt "threw passengers into a state of shock manifested by uncontrollable laughter."

Big Train Robbery
Daily Citizen
June 14, 1955

Original text: 

TRAIN ROBBERY -- Two pistol packing gunmen boarded the Pittsburgh Steeler passenger train at French Point this morning and staged a "hoax" robbery in conjunction with the Ambridge Golden Jubilee celebration. Holding the train engineer at gun point are Bob Gaona, Pittsburgh Steeler tackle, and George Kisiday, former Buffalo Bills lineman.

"Gladys Zallenich is kidnaped by robbers Kisiday, Deiter and Szafaryn"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 15, 1955

Armed bandits holding up train
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 15, 1955

Original text:

Bandits Sam Gaona, Chester Starr, Len Szafaryn, Bob Gaona, Sam Gagliardi, Charles Deiter and Joe Rodio are shown in the act of forcing Janice Hatt and Gladys Zallenick from train at Economy. They escaped in a buckboard toward Ambridge after the "robbery."

Given that the bandits were identified as men well-known in the Ambridge area, including Borough Council member Charles Deiter, Borough Secretary Joe Rodio, and Ambridge policeman Ed Gagliardi, their arrest by the Ambridge police was swift--even though the desperados had switched their choice of get-away vehicle from the original buckboard to a Jaguar.

Arrest of the train robbers
Beaver Valley Times
June 15, 1955

Original text:

ARRESTS MADE -- Ambridge Policeman Charles Bruich catches two culprits, Len Szafaryn, Green Bay Packer football player, and Bob Gaona, a lineman of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both footballers played on the same "team" yesterday in the "robbery" of the Pennsylvania Railroad train "Morning Steeler." Gaona has the loot--wooden nickels--Ambridge Golden Jubilee money which will go on sale at the end of this week. The "robbery" was staged as part of the jubilee celebration.

Train robbers nabbed
Daily Citizen
June 15, 1955

Original text:

ROBBERS NABBED -- Three bearded men who took part in the big train robbery early Tuesday morning were apprehended by Ambridge police a short time later as they attempted to get away in a Jaguar auto. Pictured left to right are: Sam Gaona, George Kisiday, Charles Deiter and arresting officer Walter Knafelc. 

What do cowboys and a train robbery have to do with Ambridge or its history? I have no idea. I suspect the men just wanted to play Western bandits. And they did show off their mandated Brothers of the Brush beards and highlighted the wooden nickels. 

I will grant that coming up with a fun, more-representative-of-Ambridge event is hard. The best I could come up with is a "throw pierogies at duckpins while an accordion band plays polkas tournament." Not real pierogies of course! Actual pierogies should always be eaten, never tossed. So beanbag "pierogies" would be used for the event.

More on the Golden Jubilee celebration, including the huge parade, will be posted soon.

The Ambridge Pool slide

Remember those hot summer days when you just couldn't wait to get to the Ambridge Borough Pool and zip down the metal water slide into the wonderfully cool water?

And on crowded days how awful it was to have to wait in a line that stretched along the pool deck where you stood on concrete that burned the soles of your feet?

And then you had to wait on the ladder before you could take your turn?

And how some kids would lose their nerve at the top, and everyone standing on the ladder would have to climb back down to let them off?

Slide at the Ambridge pool
"baby pool" in background
Daily Citizen
July 21, 1955

And then finally, how the speedy slide from the top to your big splash into sometimes really cold water was over in a slippy* second? And then you had to get in line again? And again. And again.

Text under the photo:

BEATING THE HEAT--The Ambridge Municipal swimming pool at Borough Park is doing a landslide business during these hot humid days as the youngsters along with many grownups take dips in order to cool off from the heat wave.

_____

* Pittsburgese for "slippery."

You can read more about the Ambridge pool in these posts:

Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 1

Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 2: Getting there--the trek to the pool

Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 3: The bathhouse--the girls' dressing room

Pool, Part 3: The Bathhouse -- The Boys' Dressing Room

Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool expansion: the solons' inspection

Ambridge today: Pool steps

Ambridge today: the pool bathhouse once stood here

Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, Part 4: hot summer fun in the three pools

The happy beginning and the sad end of the Ambridge Pool with the unfortunate series of events that led to its closing and razing

American Bridge Duckpins Bowling Team 1952

If American Bridge once had a tennis team, you just know they would have had duckpin bowling teams.

In honor of Father's Day, I'm posting this photo of one of the American Bridge duckpin teams since my dad, Paul (Rusty) Bohinsky, is in it. It's from the May 7, 1952, Beaver Valley Times.

American Bridge Duckpin Bowling Team
Beaver Valley Times
May 7, 1952

Text below photo:

CHECKING DUX TOURNEY SCORES--Five Ambridge bowlers examine the score sheets after rolling in the TIMES-sponsored Beaver Valley Singles Elimination Tournament at the Beaver Valley Bowl Tuesday evening. They are: kneeling, Paul Bohinsky, standing (left to right), Bob Heaton, Roger Canonge, George Meehan, and Rudy Svegel. They were members of the first of two American Bridge Company squads to bowl last night.

We were a bowling family, duckpins and tenpins. My maternal grandparents, with whom I lived, bowled. My mom still bowls almost weekly at age 88 with one of my cousins! I joke that she bowls on a two person team in a one team league, as the rest of her former bowling buddies are no longer bowling...for one reason or another.

Most of my family were good bowlers. I remember the many trophies lined up on a variety of flat surfaces in our house.

I bowled tenpins at Economy Lanes in the Divine Redeemer CYO league. I was not good.

You can read about bowling dux at the Ambridge Alleys by clicking here.

The girl in the tub in Marshall Alley

Residents of Marshall Alley
Photographer: Arthur Rothstein
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
July 1938

One of the more widely-known photos taken in the summer of 1938 for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) by acclaimed photojournalist Arthur Rothstein is of a girl sitting in a large galvanized tub in Ambridge's Marshall Alley. I know people have wondered who the girl is, and why she was sitting in the tub in an alley.

The girl in the tub is Rose DeGennaro who lived at 285 Marshall Alley. I think it's a good bet that Rose was sitting in the tub to try to cool off. It was summer, and it was hot. At best, the families who lived in Marshall Alley might have owned a fan. The only pool in the area was the short-lived Dead-End Pool the neighborhood kids had built in Big Sewickley Creek. So a tub in the alley was relief from the heat.

The woman behind Rose is her mother, Sylvia DeGennaro. The taller of the two children behind Rose is her brother John.

The girl in the plaid dress is Irene Mantzaris. Her family lived at 293 Marshall Alley.

So far, I haven't been able to confirm the identity of the man, although someone told me it might have been Rose's father, Anthony, or to identify the small children smaller child in the background.

Here are two more of Rothstein's photos featuring Rose that he took for the FSA during his Ambridge visit. These are unprinted "killed" negatives. The black circles in them are actually holes that were punched in negatives that the FSA considered unsuitable for publication.

Rose DeGennaro
Marshall Alley
Photographer: Arthur Rothstein
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
July 1938

Rose DeGennaro
Marshall Alley
Photographer: Arthur Rothstein
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
July 1938

Similar tubs also served as a bathtubs for Marshall Alley families, as the houses there didn't have one.

You can read more about Marshall Alley and the people who lived there here.

If you know who the unidentified people in the photos are, please leave a comment.