"Last night I took a walk after dark..."

As anyone over 50 knows, the next line by Freddy "Boom-Boom" Cannon was a swingin' place called Palisades Park.  
Palisades Park enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the town of Fort Lee - mostly hate.  

The Park was certainly the most popular destination in Ft. Lee New Jersey for most of the 20th century (it's no bother, it's no fuss, take the Public Service bus.)

Cannon, a native of Lynn, Massachusetts, had his career launched at the Park.  Several other 60's bubblegumers  were also there discovered including Bobby Rydell (Wild One), Leslie Gore (It's my Party), and Little Anthony & the Imperials (Goin' out of my Head). 


There were a number of serious fires over the years in addition to the obvious problems inherent in having such a neighbor.  (We lived nearby, but our parents never made it a destination for the McLean children.)

The Park was built  in the early 1900's by the Bergen County Traction Company which ran trolleys in the area.  As their electricity charges were on a flat rate for seven days a week, they created the Park to help generate otherwise limited weekend revenue.   

The trolly company (and thereby the Park) was eventually bought by Public Service Electric & Gas in the early 1970's which, noting decreased attendance and soaring real estate prices along the Palisades, sold it.  

Its fate became that of other local attractions of the time (Ebbits Field and the Polo Grounds) - high rise apartment buildings.

If you are still reading, you either have an abiding interest in me (thank you) or Fort Lee. If the latter, here is another fun fact.  

Fort Lee was America's original movie capital. The dense woods and the spectacular cliffs of the Palisades were considered to be dramatic backdrops for the burgeoning silent film business.  It is also the birthplace of the term "cliffhanger".

The phrase comes from the classical end-of-episode situation in silent film days in which the protagonist (usually a woman in distress) is left hanging from the edge of a cliff.

An episode of the Perils of Pauline, filmed in 1914, ended with Pearl White, the title character, literally hanging off the cliffs of Fort Lee’s Palisades.  Her eminent demise would somehow be resolved at the beginning of the next episode.  

And thank you for visiting.

Jack