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Health & Fitness

From the Archives: A Living History Interview with Former Fort Lee Mayor Ross

The Fort Lee Historical Society over the last several years has initiated a series of living history interviews in our Fort Lee Museum.  Our first living history interviews date back to audio interviews former Fort Lee Historical Society President Bob Boylan recorded as early as the 1960's.  Since 2000 we have interviewed many Fort Lee residents including the former Fort Lee Mayor Mayor Henry Hoebel (a few weeks before his death) and more recently 1960's era Fort Lee Councilman Alex Mchelini who went on to become an award winning journalist with the New York Daily News for decades.

The Fort Lee Historical Society also interviews current and past residents about the history of our borough based on the exhibits in our museum.  During our 2012 Universal Studio centennial exhibit we interviewed Fort Lee VFW Commander James Viola who spent his entire working life in the film business.  He detailed his early days working in the Consolidated Republic Film Plant in West Fort Lee.

The interview we have posted on the Fort Lee Historical Society web site currently is timely re the current development on Main Street.  Former Fort Lee Mayor Burt Ross came to our museum a few years ago prior to his move to California.  Burt was kind enough to share his memories of his 1971 election as the youngest Mayor in Fort Lee history and of course his involvement in wearing a wire for the FBI as he went undercover after a gangster attempted to bribe him in return for cooperation in zoning matters re the development of the property on Main Street that today is under development as The Modern and Hudson Lights.  The night we interviewed Burt we had a packed house in our museum including current Fort Lee Councilman Armand Pohan who was the Fort Lee Borough Attorney during the years of Burt's mayoralty.

You can visit our web site at www.thefortleehistoricalsociety.org or hit this link to see the interview on that web site - http://www.thefortleehistoricalsociety.org/livinghistoryseries.html

Thanks to our current Fort Lee Historical Society President Donna Brennan for videotaping these series of interviews in the Fort Lee Museum.

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