A Blimp Lands In Flushing (early 60's)

When I was little my grandfather told me about a "Goodyear Blimp" that floated over his house on weekends. As I had not heard the word "blimp" before, and knew from TV commercials that Goodyear made automobile tires, I could only comprehend that he was describing some kind of a giant automobile tire floating above his house. Oh, that Grandpa - he was always pulling my leg.

Goodyear at that time had started using nearby Flushing Airport to dock it's aerial-broadcasting blimp during the weekend games at Shea Stadium. For many local residents the big balloon was a new major attraction, and they'd visit the airport just to watch it come and go in it's amusingly lumbering manner. Grandpa, of course, filmed it for posterity, and his movie cleared up any confusion I had over Goodyear blimps and tires.

Flushing Airport has been out of business since the 1980's. Half of it is now a swampy mess, while the other half has been developed into - what else? - a shopping complex.

The soundtrack is from a record I found in a thrift store called "Let's Twist to the Oldies" featuring such chestnuts as Ja Da, Camptown Races, Jeannie With the Light Bown Hair, and The Merry Month of May. All of them are given the twist treatment by "Fats and the Chessmen" (not to be confused with Pudgey and the Poker Chips, Tubby and the Tiddly Winks, Dumpy and the Dominoes, etc.). Yeah, I know it's junk, but it's FUN junk.

I don't know who those people are in my grandparents' backyard. Don't they look like they could have been filmed yesterday? The bridge table they're using now resides in my basement.

Robert Martens
April, 2011

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Goodyear Blimp
• Zeppelin
• Flushing
• Airport
• College Point
• Shea Stadium

[cookiesandpuding098]

Was that guy your grandpa?

[robertwmartens]

@cookiesandpuding098 No, my Grandpa does not appear in this one. I still don't know who that guy was. But you'll see plenty of Grandpa in many of the other home movies I've put on my channel - ESPECIALLY "Our Gang Follies of 1940" and "Summer of 1941". He was a real comedian!

[fayeteville]

good quality video!

thanks