From the Archives: The Last Voice Heard at Palisades Amusement Park Stilled – The Passing of Bob Boylan

One of the amazing things about working in a museum and with a historical society is how you slowly begin to understand that the most precious of artifacts are not ones you need to wear gloves to touch, nor photographs or rare items from the past.  The most important items any historical society / museum possess are the people who can document that history via their memories.  Bob Boylan was such a man.

I joined the Fort Lee Historical Society back in the late 1980’s when I was but a lad in my 20’s.  Bob Boylan at the time was the Fort Lee Historical President and had been an active member of the Fort Lee Historical Society going back to the 1960’s when he really revived the society and made it what it is today.  He literally took our society from a closet in the basement of Borough Hall to the old Judge Moore House, which today is restored, and the home to both the Fort Lee Historical Society and Fort Lee Museum with archive space shared by the Fort Lee Film Commission.

Bob was one of a handful of people in Fort Lee who encouraged a new generation to get involved in public service.  Though he was a quiet and humble  guy in public, he was one who was able to work behind the scenes with others and bring in new people to help along the way.  I recall when the Borough purchased the land where the museum sits today and we worked out an agreement with the Borough through then Mayor Jack Alter to have the Fort Lee Historical Society operate the Fort Lee Museum on the first floor of the building and locate its archive on the second floor.  This was almost 23 years ago.  Bob and I were the first members of the Fort Lee Historical Society to enter the old Judge Moore House.  We toured the house, then in very rough condition, along with Tony Lione of the Fort Lee Parks Department.  We laughed as we started to remove carpeting that was placed on the walls of the one time garage area of the house  - for what reason carpeting was placed on the walls I still do not know.  Most of the 1990’s were spent slowly  renovating the museum via the donation of in kind work by local contractors and via the great work of the Fort Lee General Services team of the borough as well as then Fort Lee Historic Site Committee Chair Bob Donohue.  Finally in April of 1999 we opened the Fort Lee Museum and for the past almost 15 years the Fort Lee Historical Society has operated this museum successfully and each year we enlarge the archive of the Fort Lee Historical Society based on people wanting to donate their Fort Lee artifacts to our museum.  Bob was an integral part of that move so many years ago from a closet in Borough Hall to our Fort Lee Museum today.

The gist of this article though must link Bob to his beloved Palisades Amusement Park.  For many years Bob worked part time at the park for its owner Irving Rosenthal.  Among his duties was making announcements over the PA system.  Bob also was the MC for some beauty pageants and we have the evidence to prove that in the form of a photo enlargement we have used in past exhibits that features a very natty Bob Boylan and a bevy of bathing beauties!  In fact, when Fort Lee Historical Society President Donna Brennan and myself went to visit Bob at his home about a week ago we kidded him about that photo.  Though he was in a coma at the time I am confident he heard us as there appeared,  to my eyes anyway, a slight grin on his lips.

When the park closed in 1971 Bob was able to acquire through Irving Rosenthal thousands of B&W photos of the park over the years.  This collection became the bedrock of the Fort Lee Historical Society archive of Palisades Amusement Park and that is why we dedicated the Palisades Amusement Park room in our museum to Bob a few years ago.

The Palisades Amusement Park closed forever on September 12, 1971.  The last voice heard over the park’s PA system belonged to none other than Bob Boylan.  For many of us Bob was a link to that legendary place and kept the park to us alive in so many ways.  Though his voice is stilled the legacy he left all of us will live on forever and I would like to think that he is back in Palisades Amusement Park on a warm summers day working for Mr. Rosenthal and waiting for all of his Fort Lee friends and family to join him…..