The 1947 video clip below shows the interior of the old “Central Fire Station”, with the church across the street. The station was directly next door to the present day “Central Fire Station”, commonly referred to today as “Headquarters.” The clip comes to us by way of the 1947 hit movie “Boomerang”.
The movie stars Dana Andres, Jane Wyatt and Lee J. Cobb in a fictionalized account of a 1920s case involving Stamford’s fifth mayor, Homer S. Cummings, who became U.S. Attorney General under President Roosevelt. At the time, Cummings was a state attorney prosecuting a drifter charged in the 1924 slaying of a Bridgeport priest, the Rev. Hubert Dahme. While walking near the Lyric Theater in downtown Bridgeport, Dahme was fatally shot behind the left ear at close range.
The movie was shot largely in Stamford after the Director was denied permission to film in Bridgeport, where the actual events occurred. This semidocumentary also contains voice-overs by Reed Hadley. The film was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.
According to Dan Burke of the Stamford Historical Society, the fireman, 2nd from the right, is Larry Hogan. “I screened this at the Stamford Historical Society several years ago and his son was there. If you lf you listen to the audio of this clip , Hogan has a thick Irish accent, which his son tells me was pure BS put on, just for the movie.” Now that is funny!
Can you help us identify the other firefighters in the clip?
