Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1962. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• A captain of a volunteer fire department was burned and three other firefighters were overcome by smoke as flames ripped through a San Jose Boulevard nightclub. The blaze caused an estimated $65,000 in damage.
Lakewood-San Jose Fire Chief Marvin Smith said Saki Shop Liquors at 4725 San Jose Blvd. was virtually destroyed by the fire as only outside portions of the two-story wood and concrete block building were undamaged.
The man injured was 39-year-old Willie Ivey. He was released following treatment at Baptist Medical Center for third-degree burns on his neck and wrist.
Smith said when the fire started about 7:30 p.m., two men were working inside a downstairs room in the center of the building. He said one of the men was spraying a highly flammable lacquer on the walls when he turned suddenly and shattered an overhead light bulb.
When the bulb broke, a spark ignited the fumes in the room.
Smith said Tom Sayres, one of the men working in the building, told him flames followed Sayres and the other man to the door as they raced out of the building. The other man was unidentified because when the man got out of the building, he kept running, Smith said.
The bar, decorated in an Oriental motif, had been under new ownership since November 1961. Since its purchase, it had been undergoing remodeling.
• The oldest pending case on the docket in federal court in Jacksonville was disposed of when U.S. District Judge Bryan Simpson granted a motion by the U.S. Attorney to dismiss the case.
The story began when an indictment was returned Feb. 19, 1954, charging seven Baker County men with conspiring to violate the federal liquor laws.
They were charged with an illicit whiskey operation which included running a still in Baker County, transporting moonshine into Georgia and buying materials to be used in the manufacture of illicit whiskey.
Among the acts cited in the indictment were an allegation that one of the men attempted to wreck the vehicle of an Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit agent during a whiskey-transporting episode in Georgia and that among purchases of materials alleged to be used in the manufacture of the illegal whiskey was one of more than 1 million pounds of sugar, obtained in Jacksonville at a price of more than $88,000.
The case, which had gone to trial three times, had gained national attention not only because of the dramatic events detailed in the charges, but because two indictments returned after the second trial alleged attempts had been made to tamper with the federal court jury.
The first trial lasted from May 10 to May 20, 1955, when a jury found all of the defendants guilty. U.S. District Judge George Whithurst, who heard the case and had since retired, granted a motion for a new trial based on grounds that he had erroneously permitted the introduction of evidence of sugar sales to the defendants.
The second trial lasted from Nov. 14 to Nov. 28, 1955, a mistrial was declared on a motion by the government when it was learned that some of the jurors had been contacted by friends of the defendants in an apparent effort to influence the jury’s decision.
A federal grand jury subsequently indicted three men for jury tampering, including one of the original defendants.
One of the defendants indicted in the tampering case was convicted and sentenced to three months in federal prison. Another defendant’s conviction was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals and was later dismissed.
The conspiracy case against the seven defendants went to trial for the third time in November 1959 and on Nov. 18, a mistrial was ordered when the jury could not agree on a verdict.
In the government’s motion to dismiss the old case, it was stated that four of the government’s principal witnesses had died and it was believed impossible to obtain convictions if the case were tried again.
• Mayor Haydon Burns named a Jacksonville Miss America Committee to guide 19-year-old Gloria Brody in her quest for the nation’s top beauty crown.
Brody, who had been crowned Miss Duval County, won the Miss Florida title July 7 in Sarasota. She would represent Jacksonville and the state in the Miss America pageant in September in Atlantic City, N.J.
“We are convinced that Miss Brody has a terrific potential to become Miss America. If ever an event deserved all-out, enthusiastic home town support, it is this project,” Burns said when he announced the committee.
Burns chaired the committee, which also included Robert Feagin of Florida Publishing Co., publicity; Don Martin of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co., special promotions; Richard Lewison of Purcell’s, wardrobe; Carolina Walls, coach of Gator Bowl Queen contestants, coach and tutor; and Beatrice Owens, Brody’s former English teacher, chaperone.
Al McFadyen, director and manager of the Florida pageant, said it was the first time in the history of the state contest that a mayor had taken the lead in assisting a Miss America contestant.
Brody’s win in the state pageant was marked by her winning every competition category: beauty, swimsuit and talent.
“Gloria made a better showing at Sarasota this year, by topping all three categories, than any contestant in our memory – possibly in the history of the pageant. It stands to reason, with this outstanding talent and appearance, she is going to Atlantic City as the strongest contender ever to represent Florida,” said McFadyen.
• A bromine gas leak at the Glidden Paint Co. manufacturing plant on West 51st Street caused the evacuation of more than 1,000 people in northern Duval and Nassau counties. More than 30 people, including four firefighters who were on the scene to control the leak, had to be admitted to hospitals for treatment.
The bromine was being transferred from a tank car to a storage tank when a leak occurred.
Most of the injured reported burning eyes and sore throats, but were not severely affected by the gas.
• State Rep. George Stallings Jr. appeared before the Duval County Budget Commission to endorse educational television as a “prime means” of teaching a course in Americanism versus communism, which was required in Florida public high schools.
Stallings, who authored the legislation that made the course mandatory, said using educational television would permit top-level instruction not only to students but also to adults, who were as much in need (of the course) as students.
He had been asked to address the commission to aid its study of a proposed budget increase for educational television included by the Board of Public Instruction in its budget for 1962-63.
Educational television budget requests were $13,000 for 1960-61, $25,000 for 1961-62 and $60,000 for 1962-63.
Commissioner Joseph Kennelly Jr. asked Stallings why he favored use of educational television rather than the traditional teacher-student system in presentation of the course.
“The anti-communism battle isn’t one in which you can get by cheaply. We must not gamble. It must succeed and I don’t feel that second best is good enough in this field,” Stallings said.