Malverne resident shares a piece of Jones Beach’s history

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Malvernite Ed Hawkins, 84, who has lived in the village for over 40 years, has several boxes filled with DVDs, videos and 16-mm film versions of home movies — which were originally shot on 8-mm — stacked in his home. All the footage from the home movies was shot by his uncle, Charles Hawkins, which mostly featured videos of Jones Beach from the 1930s and 1940s.

“He was a pain in the butt,” said Ed, who grew up in Brooklyn. “He brought his camera everywhere. If I told you there were 40 reels of 8-mm, I wouldn’t be exaggerating. I had seen some of the footage, but a lot of it was just waves and sunset and sundown.”

Hawkins decided to purchase a DVD player about three years ago, and that’s when he started digging through the boxes to organize the films. As he watched hours of summer vacations at his family’s summer home in West Gilgo and holiday parties, he stumbled upon footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt hanging out with Robert Moses. Although the film is silent, it was evident that the two enjoyed each other’s company.

“The two of them were smiling and they weren’t even good friends,” Hawkins said. “But Jones Beach was such a success so they had something to smile about.”

In the film, which was shot in August of 1930, Roosevelt, who was left paralyzed from the waist down by polio in 1921, can also be seen walking stiffly on braces. Ed said that off camera was his father Crawford Hawkins, then a state assemblyman who knew both Moses and Roosevelt.

Ed’s father worked as an attorney and was facing Moses in the legal fight between the state and the residents of High Hill Beach, the summer community at Jones Beach. Moses was planning to use that area as the new state park. Despite their different views, Ed said that the two eventually became friends.

Ed added that after watching the footage, he was amazed by some of the cultural changes. “It was amazing for me to see the difference in how people dressed just to go to the beach,” said Ed, who oversaw the construction at the Boardwalk Restaurant and Jones Beach concession stands in 1965. “Back then, when people went to the beach, they wore full outfits with hats.”

Through his job, he met Moses, who was 76 at the time. Ed said he plans to donate his uncle’s film to the Roosevelt Presidential Library in New Hyde Park.

“It’s just amazing to me that all of this history was sitting in one box for 80 years,” Hawkins said.