It ain't over till it's over and Astro Bowl was over for keeps when it finally shuttered its doors in the spring of '99. I was offered a ride out to Jersey to roll some games a few weeks before the business went south and I jumped at the chance. Astro Bowl was located about 15 minutes outside of the Lincoln Tunnel in the bustling Allwood section of Clifton, New Jersey. Laid out 1960s style, with the exception of the cheesy computer scoring system (the one with the little animated pins going up to heaven), Astro Bowl was once the pride of the Styertowne Shopping Center. By the time I got there the intoxicating sparkle of the lanes had long since vanished. Creaky and dank, redolent with overflowing ashtrays, the lobby stank of foot spray and sticky soda syrup. Dusty glass cabinets boasted blue ball point pen championship stat sheets and the faded league night photos of triumphs gone by. An inescapable finality overshadowed the din and clatter of the automatic pinsetters. As I laced my size nines, I could sense that a great deal of sordid and raucous business had transpired in this joint. A lot of kiddie parties went down in those lanes over the decades and more than likely many an ill-shaven face was abruptly slapped in the cocktail lounge.
Astro Bowl was opened in 1959 with great fanfare by Lawrence "Yogi" Berra and Phil "The Scooter" Rizzuto--two Yankees buddies who were probably looking for a legit hangout to greet the huckleberries while they could sock away a little something-something for the chilly post-season years. Luxuriating in one of mankind's finest follies, they brought in their
brothers to keep the lanes waxed and the counters polished just so. Sometimes Yogi would tend bar and bowl with the customers while Scooter would chat with fans over a cannoli. Sure, the malaprop spouting geniuses hedged their bets by hawking Yoo Hoo and the Money Store, but they always found their way back to the bowling alley (which was initially called the "Rizzuto-Berra Bowling Lanes" before they sold the ownership). Hard to believe that a 40-lane paradise that kicked off to such frenzied hoopla would struggle to stay open, and ignominiously shut down, not even giving the Brunswick 2000 ball return machines a chance to greet the new millennium.
I enjoyed this post. It was redolent of the past and stank of nostalgia.
Posted by: Listener Zelmo | November 26, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Nostalgia you say? Behind Rizzuto-Berra was a teenage hangout extraordinaire. Just where the railroad tracks crossed under route 3. There was path leading up the hill to what was then the Red Chimney and if you were really intent on getting arrested you could climb the access ladder leading up to the deck of a highway billboard. The nascent naturalist could find a swampy pit which was apparently inhabited by a snapping turtle, who's remains I found after she (pregnant, turtle eggs everywhere) attempted to climb over or was placed on the rails. My first actual job was at the bookstore in Styretown, soon thereafter at the Allwood twin followed by a nearby denture lab. I was a terrible, terrible bowler but for a while would stop in Rizzuto-Berra for the videogames.
Posted by: bartleby | November 26, 2008 at 12:32 PM
last week before an arena rawk show, after the Tick-Tock Diner (Eat Heavy) meal, we had a little more time to kill, so i drove to Styretowne & we got coffees at what was once Bond's (Awful-Awful). across the parking lot in the corner there it is, the Rizzuto-Berra - it's like a Linens n' Things or some crap now. both of my kids had parties there & i sometimes subbed in a phone company league, my erratic bowling ( sometimes 60 sometimes 200 )for some reason made me an asset to the team. we drank to bowl better & people smoked like chimneys in the place. we limped into work the next day. those kids' parties were heinous & loud, i limped out of those, too. i haven't lived in North Jersey in decades, but often have to go back or into the city ( newsflash:the tunnel's not a dollar anymore ), so even with all the change, i see these places through a nostalgic prism. thanks for the post!
Posted by: j | November 26, 2008 at 12:51 PM