Bigger Than Jumbo

P. T. Barnum and Tex Rickard would have stared in envy. They had staged many a flamboyant spectacle during Madison Square Garden's 70-year history. But last week, in his red-carpeted, walnut-paneled president's office, John Reed Kilpatrick, 58, beamed happily over the biggest thing yet to come the Garden's way.

For the fourth time in its life, the Garden was about to get a new home, this time a $25,000,000 one. It will be three times as big as the present Garden (built in 1925), and will cover two city blocks (between 58th and 60th Streets, at Columbus Circle). It will provide Manhattan with 1) the world's biggest convention hall, and 2) parking space for 2,000 cars. To finance the building, New York City's Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority will sell $25 million in bonds. Madison Square Garden Corp. will operate it under a 35-year lease which guarantees New York City $1,000,000 a year in rent.

Humbug & Hullabaloo. That was a far cry from the "Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome" which Barnum had christened the first Garden, an abandoned depot of the New York Central & Harlem River Steam Railroad at Madison Avenue. The Barnum spectacles and others went so well that in 1889, Garden Owner William H. Vanderbilt got together with Barnum, J. Pierpont Morgan, and other Manhattan tycoons, tore down the old building and built a new $3,000,000 one. On opening night, Edward Strauss played waltzes to the audience of "old dowagers, ancient bucks, fresh brides, dewy buds, young blades and sprigging braves."

Dewey's victory at Manila was re-enacted on the flooded Garden floor (small battleships were bombarded by men in the rafters). There the first U.S. automobile show was held. There John L. Sullivan and many another old-timer fought.

The Manly Art. Promoter Tex Rickard, the Barnum of boxing, came on the scene just when the Garden's owners were getting ready to raze it. They were so impressed by his money-making shows that, when the Garden was torn down, they raised $5,000,000 to build a new & bigger one on Eighth Avenue, later listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Rickard's death--and the depression--put the Garden into the red. Kilpatrick, a construction man, was picked to pull it out. Kilpatrick was fond of sports. At Yale ('11) he had been an All-America end as well as a Phi Beta Kappa. Kilpatrick cut out the mammoth free-ticket list, broke up the under-table deals with ticket speculators, put less stress on boxing, more on hockey (the Garden owns the cup-winning Rangers), the circus, ice shows and rodeos. By 1935 he hit the black with a profit of $179,568, has stayed there ever since.(The stock went from $1f to as high as $63 before it split 3 for 1.)

Last year, Kilpatrick boosted the gate to $7,800,000, eclipsing Rickard's alltime record ($7,600,000 in 1927) and turned in a net profit of $1,200,000. Said he: "I think business is good enough to support two Gardens. When the new one is ready, we'll keep the old one going, too."

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