 |
Our Little Town |
Early
History of
the
Roadside
Rest
An
Exclusive Interview with Morty
Shor (son of its co-founder, Leon
Shor)
By
Howard B. Levy
|
|
On
January 4, 2004, and again seven years later on December 12, 2010, I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of
interviewing by telephone
at his home in
 W. Palm Beach, Florida, the delightful Morty Shor
whose father, Leon, co-founded the famous Roadside Rest in 1921 together
with his brother-in-law (and Morty's uncle), Murray Hadfield. I found Morty still
vibrant and sharp both at age 81 and almost 88.
The
Roadside Rest was originally built in Oceanside, New York, as a fruit and vegetable stand
(building pictured below at left after expanding the fare to include 10¢
frankfurters on rolls, sandwiches and drinks). But by the late 1920s, Shor and
Hadfield had built the huge and beautiful, Spanish-style restaurant
known for its hot dogs and seafood pictured at the upper left and in the
color photo below at right.
As all Oceansiders should know (but
many today
probably do not), in the 1930s and very early 1940s, our magnificent Roadside Rest was also widely renowned and hugely popular
for its first class, live, big band entertainment and dancing,
and people came from miles around to enjoy it.
 Morty Shor told me that during its glory days, big band musicians and
songwriters frequently hung out there and that several swing era
classics were actually written
in our
little town on the Garden Terrace tables of the Roadside Rest. For example,
Morty said the lyrics to two songs made famous
in instrumental versions by such musical giants as Duke Ellington,
Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, "Moonglow"
and "(In My) Solitude," were written there in 1934 by
lyricist,
Eddie DeLange. (You should now be
listening to an excerpt from an Artie Shaw version of "Moonglow.") |
Morty
told me that
the most significant and precipitous factor in the decline of the Oceanside Roadside Rest's business, soon after the U.S. entered World War II at the end of 1941, was gasoline
rationing. He said that pleasure driving was virtually banned in the United
States and that, as a result, wooden barricades were set up that summer to block beach
traffic on Long Beach Road, the lifeline of the business.
Near the time the
Roadside Rest's business entered its abrupt decline during WWII, Leon
and his brother-in-law/partner had a falling out and decided to part ways. So sometime in
mid-late 1942, when Morty was 20 years old, Leon left the business, and Murray
Hadfield ended up
with the then sinking Oceanside Roadside Rest. According to Morty, neither he nor Leon ever went
back to it. Debt-ridden and struggling, Hadfield shut the decaying property down briefly in
1956 and soon sold out to
Murray Handwerker, which
led to its becoming, in June 1959, the spectacular
Nathan's Famous
that we all knew.
When I first talked to him in 2004, Morty
spoke joyfully of our Roadside Rest during its pre-1942 heyday as follows:
|
|
"It was a grand and glorious era,
a wondrous time that gave me many,
many fond memories. In fact, not a week goes by today when I
don't meet someone who speaks fondly of his or her memories of
that place." |
|
|
|
Click
here to read what Morty Shor said about our
Nathan's/Roadside Rest page. |
|
Food was served on this china
in the late 1930s and early '40s. |
 |
|
|
|
Below is a
supper menu (sold on eBay, November 30, 2010, for $51.00 to a member of
Morty's family) that was used at the Roadside Rest in May 1942 shortly before most
of us were born and just after it reached its peak and began to decline: |
 |
|
 |
| |
|
Note above the
wide variety of meals available in the evening, everything from cold or
hot sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers to shrimp and crabmeat cocktail
appetizers with full steak or seafood platters or Chinese dishes! And
look at those prices!! In case you can't read them, here is a
sample:
|
|
$ .20 |
|
|
$ .50 |
|
|
$1.25 |
|
|
$ .75 |
|
|
$ .75 |
|
|
$ .15 |
|
|
$ .60 |
|
|
$1.25 |
|
|
$2.00 |
|
|
$ .20 |
|
|
There was a
minimum charge in 1942 of $1 per person on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays and
$.50 on weekdays, but it included dancing every night to live music!
A
cover from an earlier menu (circa late 1930s-early 1940s) follows: |
|
|
|
 |
|
Although our Oceanside Roadside Rest is widely and fondly remembered as
"an institution on Long Island," very few people left today know that
during the famous Roadside Rest's prime, Leon Shor and Murray Hadfield also owned and operated two
branch locations, both of which were opened in the 1930s after the Oceanside
original; one was nearby on Sunrise Highway in Merrick, Long
Island (no connection to the bikers' restaurant/bar/nightclub called "Jugs & [N]
Strokers Roadside Rest" currently operated in Merrick at what could be
the same Sunrise Highway location), and the other was in Miami Beach, Florida (at Dade Blvd. and Alton). Both
closed in the early 1940s, and the Miami Beach location then became
a commissary to feed the U.S. military during WWII.
I have
been unable to find any photos of the original Merrick Roadside Rest, but
below are three views of the
art-deco style Miami
Beach branch (which Morty calls, "the prettiest") circa 1937:
|
|
|
 |
| |
 |
 |
|
The
promotional message on the back of these
postcards quite modestly proclaimed as
follows:
|
|
Fame Marches On
—
From Long Island to Miami
Beach
The ROADSIDE REST's gay,
romantic atmosphere fasci-
nating dance music and
delicious food well served,
constitute
it
as one of the outstanding
places for pleasure-lovers
—
Here you may
dine and dance
in the Garden
Patio, or in
the
Rainbow Dining Room, a
veritable paradise under the
stars
—
Free Parking space
—
Open all year
—
This bright spot caters to
the millions
—
BRANCHES:
OCEANSIDE, L. I. and
MERRICK, L. I. |
|
|
Morty
also informed me
that his father, Leon, was a second cousin to the very famous New York
City restaurateur,
Toots Shor.
Because of Leon Shor's close
friendship with
Robert Moses (the primary
architect of the parks, stadiums, highways, bridges and tunnels
of the New York metropolitan area), he was awarded the contract
to operate all of the concessions at Jones Beach from the
inception of that facility until 1943 when, following his
disassociation from the three Roadside Rests, in West Hempstead,
Leon opened the first of four Shor's restaurants you might
remember in Nassau County.
Copyright ©
2004-2011 by Howard B. Levy and
1960 Sailors Association Inc. All rights reserved.
|
