Andy Entertains the Crowds on the Streets of New York at Madison Square Garden Open (1968)

Here is the actual photo and caption from the New York Times on October 24, 1968. Below the photo is the full text of the article.

 

Click photo to enlarge

Andy Varipapa demonstrates trick bowling to passers-by. Exhibition was part of Madison Square Garden’s “bowl-in” on Seventh Ave. near 32nd St.

 

From the New York Times – October 24, 1968

 

The site was the concrete, sun-drenched plaza in front of Madison Square Garden on Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street; the participants included Dick Weber of St. Louis and Dave Davis of Phoenix, Ariz., and the spectators were smartly dressed Manhattanites instead of the Dutch burghers of New Amsterdam who used to watch bowls during their lunch hour at Bowling Green. Weber and Davis, two of professional bowling’s outstanding competitors, put on a two-game exhibition at a regulation alley set up by AMF Pinspotters to publicize Bowling Week, proclaimed by Mayor Lindsay.

 

But the main purpose was to call attention to the $80,000 National Championship of the Professional Bowlers Association, which will run at the Garden Dec. 1 to 7. Davis, a 26-year-old southpaw, won the initial championship here last year.

 

Emile Francis, the New York Rangers’ general manager, and Dick Tiger, the former world middleweight and light-heavyweight boxing champion, also rolled a couple of balls. Andy Varipapa, one of bowling’s big names, titillated the onlookers with a few trick shots.

 

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