New York Coliseum Groundbreaking Ceremonies

City officials handle of trowels during cornerstone laying ceremonies of the $35,000,000 Coliseum at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York, Oct. 21, 1954.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Coliseum at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Speakers include Mayor Robert Wagner; Manhattan Borough President Hulan Jack; Robert Moses, Chairman of Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority, and Bernard Gimbel, Chairman of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. They discuss the project and the various impediments they had come across in attempting to get the project off the ground.




A WNYC announcer describes the forthcoming episode. The Coliseum was to be completed by March 1, 1956. He describes the many attendees.

Robert Moses is the emcee. He describes the start of the project 5 or 6 years ago with a slum clearance title 1 program. He discusses the interest involved in drawing private funds into slum clearance. Senators Taft and Wagner wanted to bring those funds in for housing and business.

He talks about a signed contract that must be carried out. He discusses the "malicious and ignorant opposition" to the Coliseum. The Triborough and Slum Clearance Committee did not seek the project out, they agreed to do it out of citizenship. It was Bernard Gimbel and others who requested it.

Gimbel speaks about the project. There was no adequate place to show wares from all over the world. Moses will be able to bring the project to fruition.

Moses presents Hulan Jack. Jack salutes commissioner Moses and the Triborough Authority.

Moses introduces Bob Wagner, who inherited the problem from his father, Robert Wagner Sr. He discusses the Taft-Ellender-Wagner 1949 Housing Bill. He talks about providing middle class housing for Manhattan Island. He discusses a court battle over the Coliseum spot. He and others will testify before the subcommittee on banking and currency in the senate in the near future.

A WNYC announcer describes the groundbreaking by Moses, Wagner, Gimbel, and Jack.


Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection


WNYC archives id: 150407
Municipal archives id: LT2791