A Century of Service to local readers

In 1904, local printer Charles F. Delano and his wife Lida Hawkins Delano opened the Record newspaper, covering local news in the bustling bayside communities of Amityville and surrounding areas. The earliest editions noted the births and deaths of local residents, governmental meetings and social notes, all supplemented by the latest information about farming, gardening, livestock and fishing, provided by government agencies.

The family owned a home at 22 Greene Avenue; a house separated from the Record office by only the firehouse and police station. The location of both the family’s Greene Avenue residence and their newspaper office, was at the heart of Village news, and quickly became a hub for local people to drop by, gossip, drink coffee and find out the latest political and social goings on.

The Delano’s had three daughters, Florence, Susan and Jessie. It was Jessie, who graduated from Amityville High School as class valedictorian, who early on showed an interest in the newspaper business.

As a young reporter for the paper, she overcame the skepticism of the men she encountered and eventually won their respect with her tenacious personality. She took over as publisher of the newspaper from her father.

Walter and Jessie Gunnison

The newspaper was established as an Independent Democratic newspaper in a community run by Republicans. But the emphasis was on independent.

As part of her responsibilities, Jessie Delano covered the Babylon Town Board meetings where she met her husband, Walter Gunnison, a reporter for the Brooklyn Times Union and the Brooklyn Eagle, both daily newspapers. The couple were married in 1939.

Several years later, Walter joined the Record. He covered the village board, school board, police and sports, while Jessie wrote much of the rest of the paper and ran the business; billing, purchasing and often driving at night to Sayville and Babylon where pictures were processed for printing—an enormously time-consuming effort.

It was under the Gunnison’s that the technology of print changed dramatically. What was once a three-day printing operation became something that could be done in an afternoon. Computerized typesetting equipment replaced the molten lead of the ancient Intertype that clanked in the composing room. Handset type virtually vanished.

The Gunnison’s lived in a red house at 81 Union Avenue, where Jessie Gunnison loved working in the swampy stream next to her home taking away trash that kids left behind. The land was donated to the Village in the name of her father, who died in 1964, and is now known as the Delano Trail. Lida Hawkins Delano died in 1971.

In 1972, the newspaper changed hands when Jessie and Walter Gunnison sold it to Lou Howard Sr. of Amityville. Howard owned the newspaper for a short time and then sold it to Ira Cahn, the owner of the Massapequa Post. Ira Cahn opened the Massapequa Post in November, 1951 and made his presence, and the Massapequa Post’s, a mainstay within that community. Ira Cahn was a member of several local organizations and was a voice for the people of the Massapequas. He and his wife eventually sold the two newspapers and retired an move to Florida. Mr. Cahn has since died; his wife still resides there.

Jessie Gunnison and her husband Walter retired to St. Lawrence County in Northern, New York and then moved to Sacramento in 1978. Jessie Gunnison died in February, 1996 and Walter Gunnison died in August, 1997.

In August, 1984 when Ira Cahn sold the newspapers, for the first time, The Record and Post were in a corporation’s hands, Chanry Communications. That company was owned by Stan Henry, the publisher of This Week Newspapers, a free distribution shopper that between 1983 and 1990 was changed into a newspaper with 72 local editions covering Long Island from Queens to Montauk Point.

Eventually, Chanry Communications sold its interests in both This Week and the Record and Post to British publisher Ralph Ingersoll who during that period attempted an unsuccessful run at opening a daily newspaper in St. Louis, the St. Louis Sun. Bogged down by debt caused in part by a downturn in the economy and in part by the collapse of the junk bond market into which Ingersoll had heavily invested, he sold This Week publications back to Henry. This Week reverted back into a free distribution shopper and Henry sold his interests in the subscription-based Post and Record newspapers..

Those newspapers were purchased by Carolyn and Alfred James of Lindenhurst in 1991.

Prior to purchasing the Record and Post, Carolyn James was first full-time reporter for This Week during its newspaper era. Prior to that, she was a reporter for the Babylon Beacon and a freelance news writer contributing to Suffolk Life newspapers and the New York Times’ Long Island Section. She is a past president of the Press Club of Long Island, a chapter of the National Society of Professional Journalists, and a member of that chapter’s executive board.

Alfred James was a Suffolk County Police officer and retired in March, 1995, after serving for 25 years. He handles the day-to- day business operations of the newspapers and its advertising department.

The couple grew up in Brooklyn, where they met, and have lived in Lindenhurst since 1969. They have five children; two boys and three girls, and five grandchildren.

By the time the James’ purchased the Record and Post, the age of desktop publishing had arrived. It was being used on a limited basis, however, and the newspaper continued to be produced under a cut-and- paste method at the printing plant of This Week newspapers in Farmingdale.

The James’ made numerous changes to the style and production of the Record and Post over the years. Since purchasing it, they have fully computerized both the business and production of the papers, and now fully utilize the techniques of desk top printing, which includes computerized lay out and design, scanning and laser printing.

Since the time the Record office was located on Greene Avenue, it has moved twice, first to a storefront at 197 Broadway and then to 85 Broadway, its current location within the Village’s Historical district.

Among its other changes, the Record now publishes an annual sports calendar and a quarterly supplement that is mailed to every home in the Villages of Amityville and Massapequa Park. In addition, the James purchased the Babylon Beacon and its free distribution shopper in September, 1999, expanding the role and papers’ voices from Sayville to Seafod

While the newspaper maintains the original phone number it had when telephones were first installed in the community—AM 4-0077—today’s readers have other options. They can fax the newspaper at 264-5310 or send letters, opinion pieces, suggestions and complaints over the internet at the e-mail address: acjnews1@aol.com.

Finally, the Record has a website at amityvillerecord.com where the hottest news stories of the week are posted.

And the deadlines go on.......

That’s a -30-.

Amityville Record, March, 1994