Wednesday, July 9, 1969

In a year when the Mets would ultimately overtake the Chicago Cubs for first place and go on to win an improbable World Series, one July day involved a meeting between the two teams at Shea Stadium which will live in memories forever.

The Mets, who had never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter (and still haven’t to this day), sent ace pitcher Tom Seaver to the mound.  Seaver retired the first 25 Cubs to face him in the game.  With one out in the top of the ninth inning at Shea Stadium, a little-known rookie named Jim Qualls would hit a lazy fly ball to the outfield which would fall in untouched for Chicago’s only hit of the game.  Seaver would get the next two men out, completing what is now referrred to as the “near-perfect” game.

Major Bob Smith in Aeronautics Class

Today we offer two interviews in one:  Joe Rossini and Joe Donofrio, both Class of 1970, both from Queens, and both born to fly. In these excerpts from longer oral histories archived at the Dowling Library, you’ll hear how they took different paths but both wound up as members of Dowling’s new Aeronautics Program that started in 1968.

You’ll follow their early solo flights at Flushing airport, their tour of colleges looking for the right program and finally their experiences at Adelphi Suffolk/Dowling.

Joe Rossini spent his first few years after Dowling learning to fly jets for the Navy in Meridian, Mississippi and then stayed on to instruct other pilots. He went on to a 29-year career flying with Southern Airways before retiring in 2007.

Joe Donofrio opted for the Air Force and after his training became an instructor pilot at Williams Air Force Base near Phoeniz, Arizona. A retired Lt. Colonel and former FAA air traffic control manager, Joe now teaches in Dowling’s School of Aviation.

Bust of Robert Dowling

Morosco - from NYPL Digital Gallery

As president of the City Investing Company, Robert Dowling somehow found his way into the theatre. The company, founded by his father Robert E. Dowling in 1904,  began as a real estate firm. Over time, City Investing owned blocks upon blocks of Manhattan property, including a number of Broadway theatres (among them the Morosco, Bijou, and Fulton theatres as well as the Gaiety and Astor movie houses). Up until 1943, the company had always leased the operation of the theatres to others – until Dowling took a closer look:

I was dismayed at how miserable they were – how dirty and badly run. I lifted out whole hunks of rotten fabric from the curtains, and when I went backstage I was even more shocked. Why in the world, I asked myself, should our great stars, who are used to living in fine apartments and good hotels, be made to work in outright dumps – places where truck drivers wouldn’t hang out?

“Profiles: Useful on the Grand Scale”
The New Yorker
Robert Shaplen
November 5, 1960

Bijou - from NYPL Digital Gallery

Thus was born City Playhouses, a company subsidiary designed to bring the theatre operations in-house and up to snuff. Dowling hired theatre veteran  Louis Anthony Lotito to usher in changes and manage the properties. Major renovations followed, upgrading and improving everything from the seats to the dressing rooms to the plumbing. In a 1948 article in the Times, Lotito noted of Dowling: “He has a genuine love and respect for the drama. I may dream up the ideas but he goes along with me. It’s like having Santa Claus by your side.”

“The Customer is Always Right”
Maurice Zolotwo
New York Times, Oct. 10, 1948

Street with Gaiety Theatre - from NYPL Digital Gallery

Dowling went on to become a producer of Broadway shows and chairman of the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA). He also co-produced a number of movies, including Summertime and Richard the Third.

The bust of Dowling at the top of this post, by the way, is the same bust that can be seen in this post. Sarah Chin, then a fine arts instructor, created the piece back in 1968.  It’s been sitting in my office the last few months, keeping an eye over this project.

Dowling 1969 Summer Courses

Not much to say about this image other than it adds a much-needed bit of color to our collection of scanned black and white images.

Have a great 4th of July!

Saturday, June 28, 1969

In the early morning hours, police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. The closing of this well-known gay bar set off several nights of protest in the area in what has widely become known as a turning point in the growth of the gay pride movement.

Interestingly, a number of previously unknown and unpublished documents from these events have surfaced, including  information culled from the official police reports as well as news photos from riots later in the week.

For more information, see Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution by David Carter.