Vanderbilt Cup Races

Great photo Greg! Never seen this one before.

Huge thanks to Bill Cruickshank for yet another beautiful shot from his family collection!

As Bill’s grandfather Otto McCamish would call him, ‘Tommy the cop’ Zinzi and his grandmother Pernelle in front of their Meadowbrook lodge.

The bike is truly beautiful! A classic Harley Davidson. Most likely a 1928 model that these days could sell for 75k if pristine.

A glimpse of Zinzi’s Harley in the lower left corner at the scene of a severe Parkway wreck.

Likely Motor Parkway police officer Thomas J. Zinzi with wife Josephine as “passenger”, in front of their home at the Motor Parkway Massapequa Toll Lodge (1908-1967), one of the first six Motor Pkwy lodges designed by John Russell Pope. Admiring all the open land behind the lodge during early Bethpage. This snapshot of Arthur Mauriello’s grandparents was taken 1926-1938 during Zinzi’s service with the parkway. Photo is definitely looking north and confirms the lodge’s porto cochere on the left. Appears a single digit on Zinzi’s badge (likely #1).
Big bike, around 1100cc. A whopping 39 spoked wheels! Looks like a drum brake in the front. Below photo of a 1926 Harley Davidson with 1000cc JD engine has some similarities, particularly the small sign on the front fender. The JD at the time was preferred by police departments, with a high-performance engine capable of outrunning almost any other vehicle on the road during the 1920s.

Would’ve loved to take a “now” photo of the mystery but I’m too far away on the west coast. The mystery photo scene is unrecognizable today.

Mystery Foto #27…Photo high I taken at Massapequa Lodge Toll House. Driver and passenger are Officer Thomas Zinzi and wife Josephine Zinzi. Josephine was gate keeper at the lodge. The motorcycle was a 1926 Harley Davidson police special.

I’m late to this one, so here’s my guesses-  This really appears to be at the Meadowbrook Lodge, photographer facing west. Going by another photo, he doesn’t resemble Thomas Zinzi. He may be Eric Ericson, he and Thomas were police for the LIMP. I would assume that Eric would patrol Suffolk, Thomas in Nassau. Sure they crossed borders and helped each other out. Maybe the woman is Mrs McCamish and Otto took the photo.Just made out the make, Harley Davidson.

Part 2 - in my opinion, the passenger doesn’t resemble Mrs. McCamish. Perhaps she’s Mrs. Ericson.

So that is Otto’s wife. Below is a couple of photos of Thomas Zinzi from the site here, courtesy of Arthur Mauriello. On his motorcycle at Massapequa Lodge, the other is he at Eagles Nest as a security guard for Mr. Vanderbilt. I really didn’t realize that is Thomas in the mystery. Great Foto, Greg!

Brian - Thank you for sharing Sam III’s LIMP photo at Wheeler Rd; I agree, he would’ve shared it just the same. Also excellent observation on the Meadow Brook location! I sped too quickly through the photo assuming it was Zinzi’s home in Massapequa.

Greg - Are there any captions on Bill Cruickshank’s accident photo with Zinzi’s motorcycle? I enhanced the photo below in an attempt to home in on location. That car rolled over at least once due to its extensive damage, and likely caused by excessive speed. Looks like a bridge in the background but I’m unable to locate the photo.

Frank-
Unfortunately no. Bill sent that along with his family lodge photos last year. I too have been trying to discern the location myself for a while as well, but have come up empty handed. It appears Otto McCamish was very involved with many aspects of the LIMP aside from managing the lodge, from snow plowing, to bridge construction and possibly more. It could be anywhere, but my gut says this is somewhere in the vicinity of the MeadowBrook lodge.

Frank, Regarding your post mentioning the bridge in the background….  if the accident happened just east of the Meadowbrook Lodge,  the bridge in the distance could be the one at Old Westbury Rd.

Thanks Greg and Al. From what I’ve gathered, for one instance, Otto to call him Tommy the cop, it slowly appears the whole Motor Pkwy community was a tight knit family including Eric Ericson 20 miles away. Upon the Pkwy’s closing in 1938, Willie K transferred the lodge’s ownership to the gate keepers at an attractive price. The community seemed to care for each other during operation and for the Parkway cause.

Frank, All the lodge occupants knew Zinze well. Besides police duties, It was his job, especially on Monday mornings, to collect the toll fees from the various lodges and bring them to Kienzle. Your right about the closeness of the lodge occupants, especially after telephones were installed in the lodges. Whole families would get together, while the kids played outside, the parents were playing cards, usually pinochle.

Amazing details as always Al, much appreciated! I figure the Monday morning collections was due to the heavier toll activity during the weekends.

Frank, Exactly right, The lodges all had safes to hold the the monies collected until picked up. Prior to the Motorcycle force Kienzle himself would do the collecting. This way he could check out conditions of the ROW and other handle other issues.

Didn’t the LIMP promote itself with “no police”? Makes sense that they had some, but just wondering.

Mitch, Yes, at the beginning the Parkway had no speed limits, didn’t ask if you had a driver’s license, didn’t really care if the vehicle was properly registered. A speed limit of 40 MPH was first put in place in 1913.  Notices of such were placed on signs leading to Parkway entrances, on brochures and on flyers given to motorists on entering the Parkway. Problem was there wasn’t any way to enforce the speed limit, that is until 1924 when the Parkway established the Police Force, by the way, a year before Nassau County established theirs. No tickets were issued of course, speeders of less than 50 MPH were given warnings, those above that figure were escorted off the Parkway.

Talk about a private road, I recently was informed by a facebook commentator that an (or all) insurance company (ies) would not cover a motorist while driving the Motor Parkway in the event of an accident. The insurance company deemed the parkway as a raceway instead.