You might have thought the Academy Awards had moved into the chambers of the Hudson County Board of Freeholders on June 10 with movie stars, movie producers, local dignitaries of every sort, and even a pack of sheriff’s officers with guard dogs.
Film director Tom Balsamides jokingly said at the podium at one point that he was glad to accept an award from the Academy.
“I’m proud to have grown up in Hoboken, and I’m proud to have worked on the waterfront.” – Tom Hanley
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Lots of honorees
Past and present screen icons took center stage.
They included Tom Hanley, who as a youngster performed in the film “On the Waterfront” with Marlon Brando, and baker Buddy Valastro of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, which is the subject of a popular reality TV show. The bakery is celebrating its 100th year in Hoboken, so the freeholders voted to name the corner of Washington and Newark streets in Hoboken “Carlo’s Bakery Way.”
Hanley, who is finishing work in his first film since “On the Waterfront,” appeared before the freeholder board with cast members of the new indie movie “The Hunting Season,” which included actor Michael Sorvino, playwright John Bale, and others.
Hanley played the pivotal role of Tommy Collins in the classic film “On the Waterfront,” which starred Brando, Karl Malden, and Eva Marie Saint and was directed by Elia Kazan. The film won eight Academy Awards in 1954, including one for Best Picture.
Hanley grew up near the Hoboken waterfront during the 1940s and 1950s, living with his mother and brother on the third floor of a tenement at 105 Hudson St. In 1953, after Hanley just turned 14, a film company showed up at his building, built a rooftop pigeon coop, and paid him to feed the pigeons. Later, he was asked to play the boy who felt betrayed after Brando’s character, Terry Malloy, testified against corrupt waterfront officials.
Hanley’s line, “a pigeon for a pigeon,” was delivered after Brando’s character finds the pigeons dead, considered one of the most moving and memorable lines in the classic film.
Two years after the release of the film, Hanley became a longshoreman, working on the Hudson County waterfront as a member of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1588 in Bayonne. He eventually became shop steward for the local, representing longshoremen who worked for Global Terminal – the main cargo handler in the New Jersey Harbor – from which he retired in 2009. Over those 50 years, he said during an interview with the Bayonne Community News last month, he worked hard to keep corruption – like that depicted in “On the Waterfront” – out of the union.
DiDomenico said she was proud of Hanley and glad that he currently resides in Bayonne.
Romano said Hanley is a piece of Hoboken’s waterfront history, a part of the past that has since moved on, but remains essential to what Hoboken was and is. Thus, the freeholders decided to honor him.
“A lot of people have held on to the film as a symbol of what Hoboken was and what it meant to the people of Hoboken,” Romano said. “You are a piece of history, Mr. Hanley, and we are all proud of the film and those who participated in it like yourself.”
Hanley thanked the freeholders for what he called “this unexpected honor.”
“I’m proud to have grown up in Hoboken, and I’m proud to have worked on the waterfront,” he said “It was tough working on the waterfront when I first started. Now, it is easier.”
He said that when he grew up, he used to watch the saloon fights on his block, part of the waterfront culture that existed there at the time.
“We just looked out the window and watched all the action,” he said. “Never did I expect that working on the waterfront was going to be my career. It was a good job.”
He said he liked the job Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith is doing, but wishes Smith would build a container port operation at the Military Ocean Terminal.
“The place has been empty for 13 years, and that’s too long,” he said.
Gone to the dogs
The freeholders also paid tribute to the four sheriff’s officers and their K-9 companions, who just completed the Basic Specialty Scent Handler’s Course.
In addition, the freeholder acknowledged the retirement of Frank Crosby from his position as vice president of administration and finance at Hudson County Community College, where he was responsible for facilities, security, technology, human resources, budgets, accounting, real estate, and legal operations.
“Frank Crosby’s professional accomplishments include more than 30 years of experience as a fiscal and business manager in higher education,” a resolution said.
LSP shuttle restored
In other business, a divided freeholder board voted to restore a shuttle service that carries passengers from the Hudson Bergen Light Rail station at Liberty State Park into the park, a distance of almost a mile.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea said an agreement was worked out with N.J. Transit, allowing the county to pay only half of the $30,000 annual cost for the service. Freeholder Jose Munoz – who is attempting to reduce the budge increate this year from an expected 4.9 percent to 3 percent – said the county cannot afford to continue restoring programs, even if it can find off-setting revenue.