Open To All Mankind

by DAVID OATS Flushing Meadows Park was born on April 30, 1939 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped up to the podium at the New York World’s Fair’s Court of Peace and he declared the grounds "open to all mankind." As war clouds hovered over Europe, the nations of the world gathered peacefully in the meadows for two unforgettable seasons of perhaps the grandest international pageant ever staged.
That spring day in 1939 also had an even greater importance than the opening of the Fair itself. FDR’s speech became the very first television broadcast in history. Few at the time realized the revolutionary impact that this technological miracle would have on the world in the second half of the 20th century, bringing the earth closer to the concept of a "global village."
This week another international event unfolds on the lush fields of Flushing Meadows as the 1999 US Open begins at the USTA National Tennis Center in the park. The best players from all over the world come together in peaceful competition for a two-week festival of action, color, food and just plain New York excitement. Reporters from around the globe transmit the world images of this spectacle to every corner of earth in the communications miracle that few at Flushing Meadows back in 1939 could have ever dreamed of.
The Queens Courier is proud to welcome the US Open and all of the visitors who have come to our great Borough for this event.
This, our third annual Guide to the Open, offers not only a glimpse of this year’s US Open, but a guide to the cultural and gastronomical treats that can be found in the park and the Borough of Queens at large. You will learn that there is more to that red train on the No. 7 line that whirls you from Times Square to the Open. It provides a virtual trip around the world — passing through neighborhoods of nations that have made this train an official national landmark.
We offer our readers a look back at the venerable traditions of tennis in Queens that began in the ivy and tudor elegance of Forest Hills and has grown to the Gland Slam jazzy atmosphere of Flushing Meadows. And speaking of jazz, visitors may be surprised to learn in this issue of another amazing Queens tradition. It has been the home of the greatest jazz performers in world history. It is fitting that this year the remodeled Louis Armstrong Stadium at the Tennis Center will be rededicated to the memory of the jazz great who was also an international ambassador of Good Will and a neighbor who lived within walking distance of the Stadium that bears his name.
To our visitors, from around the nation and the world, Queens places the welcome mat out once again. To our regular readers, we welcome you to our own world and a new appreciation of our Borough as two Queens traditions — jazz and tennis — continue into the 21st century.
We welcome all of you with open arms.