Remember When: Sewickley Herald headlines from 1954
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In the news this week 69 years ago:
• Santa Claus arrived by helicopter to greet a crowd of 2,000 people gathered outside the Sewickley YMCA. “The helicopter flew over the Valley for twenty minutes, with Santa in the co-pilot’s seat, giving St. Nick a good look at the community and giving residents a good, close-up view of the helicopter,” the Herald wrote. Santa then rode in a convertible from the YMCA to Beaver and Broad Streets, where he visited with local children.
• A local musical group, the Four Larks, were set to perform with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey of the famed Dorsey Brothers band at Aliquippa High School. The Four Larks included Jim Drake and Alvin Ludovici of Leetsdale, Don Baron of Edgeworth, and Buddy Polizotto of Sewickley. The group had been singing on local radio station WJAS and had also appeared at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan.
• Local road and bridge projects were nearing completion. Part of the new Fleming Park Bridge, from the upper end of Neville Island to Island Avenue in Stowe Township, was expected to be ready for traffic in a few weeks. When fully completed, the bridge was to have four traffic lanes.
• State highway officials expected work on Ohio River Boulevard through Glenfield to be completed in May 1955. “The 2.6 mile relocation and widening project has been underway for a year,” the Herald wrote. One-half of the four lane highway was opened to two-way traffic from the top of Agnew Hill to Emsworth just before Thanksgiving.