2022 Memorial Day Issue

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34 HISTORY Lake Hopatcong’s Queen of the High Tower The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, forbade Germany from stationing armed forces in a demilitarized zone known as the Rhineland, a region in western Germany bordering France, Belgium and part of the Netherlands. Although the agreement stated that Allied forces would occupy the region, German troops reoccupied the zone on March 7, 1936, in a blatant violation of the treaty. Hitler gambled that the western powers would not intervene. His action brought condemnation from Great Britain and France, but neither nation intervened to enforce the treaty. At a point when German forces were still weak and could have been stopped, the world watched German aggression across eastern Europe until the invasion of Poland in 1939 shattered the idea that war could be avoided. Many parallels have been drawn recently between these events preceding World War II and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Another comparison between recent events and 1936 is the way news from Europe cast a foreboding shadow over an Olympic Games. Throughout the Winter Olympics in Beijing this past February, there were constant reports of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most people could not conceive of the world again witnessing a land war in Europe. Yet Got leakys? by MARTY KANE Photos courtesy of the LAKE HOPATCONG HISTORICAL MUSEUM ARCHIVES LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Memorial Day 2022 Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border just days after the Games ended. At Lake Hopatcong in the summer of 1936, many were focused on the upcoming Olympic Games in Berlin. Thousands of cheering, flag-waving spectators lined the New York and New Jersey shoreline on July 15 to see 359 members of the U.S. Olympic team off for their 10-day journey to Germany. Among the 46 female team members was Cornelia “Corky” Gilissen, a 20-year-old diver who had learned to swim at her family’s Lake Hopatcong cottage. In an Olympics that will forever be remembered for the dramatic politics being played out as a precursor to the devastating war ahead, the American team also featured the great Jesse Owens, who would win four gold medals in track and field, and a men’s rowing team made up of University of Washington college students who would manage an incredible David versus Goliath victory over a dominant German team in front of Hitler and Nazi officials. The Lake Hopatcong community eagerly followed the story of one of its own. Born on September 21, 1915, in Elmhurst, Queens, Gilissen began summering in the Northwood section of Hopatcong with her family around 1920. In a 1939 newspaper interview with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Gilissen explained she learned to swim at Lake Hopatcong at the age of 6. Though their 973-398-0875 We’ll never ask how it happened! Cornelia Gilissen competing in the 1934 Metropolitan AAU Swimming Meet at Jones Beach, Long Island. parents could not swim, Gilissen and her two younger sisters learned by daily practice in the lake. In July 1928, 12-year-old Gilissen caught the attention of the lake community by winning the girls’ “fancy diving” title (known today as springboard) at the Lake Hopatcong Association competition at Glasser’s Pavilion (now the location of Lola’s Mexican Restaurant). A year later the talented teen earned the interest of the entire American diving community when she competed in the annual Daily News Water Derby in New York City’s Central Park. A photograph in the August 2, 1929 Daily News of Gilissen in mid-flight during the Water Derby competition was captioned “as graceful and poised as a bird on the wing, Cornelia Gilissen, of Lake Hopatcong, N.J., goes through one of her dives from the fourfoot board. She won third place in the event for girls and helped to thrill the crowd of 60,000.” Just one day earlier, Gilissen had earned two first-prize trophies at the Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club’s annual competition. Younger sister Josephine, a competitive swimmer, also took home a first-place trophy. Competing nationally while still finding the time to participate in diving, swimming and canoeing competitions at Lake Hopatcong was the norm for Corky Gilissen. In 1930, Gilissen began training and competing with the Women’s Swimming Association of New York. She moved up to a second-place finish in the Water Derby that year and in 1931 won the competition, establishing her as one the East Coast’s strongest
Gilissen at the women’s Olympic swimming & diving tryouts at Astoria Pool, Queens, July 11, 1936. Cornelia Gilissen on the cover of the Lake Hopatcong Breeze, July 31, 1937. competitors for the 1932 Olympics. During this period Gilissen trained with Blanche Mandel, a noted American swimming instructor whose vaudevillian parents summered at the lake on Lookout Mountain (now Hudson Avenue). Although she missed the 1932 Olympics, over the next few years Gilissen won a plethora of competitions, including the 1934 National Junior Fancy Diving Championship. That year she began competing in platform diving (from a height of 10 meters, or 33 feet), which became her specialty in the years that followed. Two weeks after placing second in the 33’ platform diving contest at the Women’s National Championships in Detroit, the August 11, 1934 issue of the Lake Hopatcong Breeze carried congratulations to Gilissen from the Bon Air Lodge in River Styx, noting that “after never having dived off a 33 foot platform until one week and a half before the event, it is indeed a very noteworthy incident,” and adding that “we at the Lodge have so often watched Corky dive from our 10 foot board, and enjoyed it so much.” In 1936, a 20-year-old Gilissen faced what would likely be her last chance to make the Olympic team. Competing on July 12 in the newly christened Astoria Pool in New York, she was stacked against what newspapers of the day described as a very strong field in the 10-meter platform competition. The top three divers would qualify for the Olympics. Competing in her hometown, Gilissen did not disappoint, finishing in second place. The reigning women’s Amateur Athletic Union Babe Ruth, Cornelia Gilissen and Olympic diver Mickey Riley at Manhattan Beach, N.Y., August 3, 1935. (AAU) platform champion and other wellknown divers failed to qualify. It was unusual for a diver from the East to earn a spot on the Olympic team as the sport was dominated by Californians. The July 25, 1936 Breeze credited Gilissen’s success to the fact that she was “hardened by 15 years of swimming at the lake.” The 1936 Olympic platform diving competition was decided on August 13 at Berlin’s Olympic Pool when the 1932 champion, Dorothy Poynton Hill of Los Angeles, again took the gold medal. Velma Dunn, another Californian, won silver, and Kate Kohler of Germany took bronze. The American women competed well, with Gilissen finishing a very respectable fifth. Following her Olympic experience, Gilissen continued to train and perform. She toured with the Water Follies almost continually from 1937 to 1944 as a featured performer in a show that included such famed swimmers and divers as Eleanor Holm, Dorothy Poynton Hill and Buster Crabbe. Billed as “the world’s most daring diver,” Gilissen was known for stunt diving, her specialty. The July 31, 1937 edition of the Breeze noted that “Corky has recently completed a tour with the 1937 Water Follies in which she was featured as diver at many cities throughout the country.” Cornelia Gilissen, Camel cigarette advertisement, 1946. SAVE THE DATE LHYC Fireworks July 1, 2022 (Rain date July 9) Her sister, Josephine, was also on the tour and the Breeze noted that “both girls are spending the summer at Northwood where they will keep trim in preparation for further achievements.” The 1941 Water Follies program described the 5’1” Gilissen as being “on a par with the outstanding male divers of the world” and noted she had recently been proclaimed “the world’s professional female diving champion.” A 1946 Camel cigarette ad depicted Gilissen as the Queen of the Tower for her death-defying stunt dives. Following her affiliation with the Water Follies, Gilissen toured the country with the American Sportsmen’s Show in 1946 and 1947. Along the way came marriages and divorces, a son and three grandchildren. Gilissen made her home in Miami for most of her adult life and died there in 1994 at age 78. As war continues to rage in Ukraine, one must hope that no further parallels will be drawn to those events of over 85 years ago. As stated in the Olympic Charter, “the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” Let us work toward a time when the Olympics will reach this goal of highlighting a better world and look forward to an occasion when our entire focus will be on enjoying the achievements of individuals like Gilissen. For now, our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people. Please help sponsor this event! Email LHYCFireworks@gmail.com to learn how. lakehopatcongnews.com 35
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