I went downtown to see the reenactment of the Al Brady gang shootout this afternoon. It made me realize how much I take the skill and devotion of event organizers for granted.
For those unfamiliar with Central Street in downtown Bangor, it’s a narrow street that directs one-way traffic from Harlow Street to the intersection of Main and Hammond around a pretty sharp curve. It’s lined with businesses in three- and four-story buildings, and the visibility isn’t all that great under normal conditions.
Now try packing a thousand people onto the sidewalks. Without any barricades or direction, they’ll naturally try to overflow into the closed street. When they did this, the people who had been “waiting all day”* would jeer, shout, and scream that they couldn’t see. This did, of course, result in entertaining cheers and applause as organizers and police cleared the street later on.
The big appeal of reenactments is the authenticity of the presentation. With signs and cars placed specially for this event, Central Street looked great – and the actors did a great job portraying an important piece of Bangor history seventy years after it happened. It wouldn’t have been as authentic without the true setting of the incident, but the natural configuration of the street made the presentation less than ideal. Combined with a less-than-authentic script and numerous delays due to movement of the spectators, it left something to be desired.
I hope that it’s done again under better conditions, and I hope that I can see the video of the presentation at some point. I was very impressed by the turnout, and I learned a lot about that fateful event seventy years ago. And, of course, I managed to take some pictures of my favorite part of the day Central Street went back to 1937.
* The “waiting all day” crowd was mysteriously absent when I was at Bagel Central three hours before the event. If they really want to know about “waiting all day”, they should talk to some of the people who waited for the iPhone.
UPDATE: The Bangor Daily has a recap and a highlight video. The video is a good compilation of what happened, and there are some interesting reader comments about whether the event was worth commemorating or not. BDN photojournalist Bridget Brown continues to deliver some great photos, too.