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The preacher and the Garden

Posted: Saturday, May 12, 2001

Carl McIntyre, a fiery New Jersey evangelist, campaigned against Jersey track from beginning

No matter how explosive and climactic the eventual destruction of Garden State Park becomes, it will be only a fraction as dramatic as its beginning. In 1939, proponents of pari-mutuel horse racing finally convinced the New Jersey Legislature to authorize a referendum on the issue. The timing was somewhat unfortunate because World War II was about to erupt, but that was in faraway Europe and most Americans didn't want any part of it.

The vote was 457,255 in favor, 301,128 opposed. As events would prove, one man among the 301,128 was more opposed than all the others.

It was not until 1941 that the newly formed New Jersey Racing Commission, having rejected several previous applicants, gave Eugene Mori, a 43-year-old Vineland, New Jersey, businessman, the green light to build a track near Camden, a 20-minute ride from Philadelphia. Mori, an ambitious entrepreneur with interests in banking and movie theaters as well as ownership of a General Motors franchise, put up a certified check for $1,250,000, the estimated cost of building a track.

With building materials ordered, ground was broken for the track on November 6, 1941. On December 8, the day after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mori and his associates appeared before the War Production Board and somehow received approval to proceed with construction of the track. But their order for 300 tons of steel was slashed to 80 tons. Some additional steel was obtained when New York City's Third Avenue El was dismantled, but extensive use was to be made of nonessential materials, chiefly wood.

The original deadline for completing the track was July 1, but on May 23 the War Production Board issued a ban on construction of large amusement projects after June 6. Mori and his partners came up with another $300,000 to pay for extra labor costs and hired every available worker they could find.

Pastor calls for rain

Opposition to the new track was led by the Rev. Carl McIntyre, a 36-year-old pastor of the Bible Presbyterian Church in nearby Collingswood. He called upon his congregation to pray for rain to prevent completion of the track's construction before the June 6 deadline. He predicted that the Almighty God would intervene to block the completion, but he was wrong. There was no significant rainfall in the area over the next two weeks, and on June 6 Mori announced that 700 laborers working overtime had completed construction. McIntyre did not give up. On July 13, he appealed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to block the July 18 opening because the federal government had illegally provided help in the building of the "abominable track." It turned out that the pastor had damaging evidence, including photographs showing that Works Progress Administration laborers had built nine wooden privies for the men working on the track.

Not a lot of money was involved, the Philadelphia Record commented, but taxpayer money had indeed been used to build the outhouses. The newspaper suggested that Mori was so talented in obtaining help for building his track that the government should use his services in more important projects, such as building army camps. But FDR did not intervene to halt the track's opening. Red Smith, then covering sports for the Record, observed that all public entertainment should be encouraged as long as it did not hamper the war effort.

But he added, "I like horse racing and I'll be glad to have a track handy, but I don't believe there was a crying necessity for a new gambling joint at this time."

Although transportation to the track was a major problem, a crowd of 31,682 found its way to Garden State Park for the July 18 opening. When the telephone company refused to provide extra phones to the track, the publicity department used carrier pigeons, which fluttered above the crowd at intervals, producing widespread publicity.

By car, ferry, bus, buggy

Despite gasoline rationing, most of the crowd arrived by automobile, but ferries crossing the Delaware River from Philadelphia were jammed and so were buses from Camden, although the bus stop was nearly two miles from the track.

Mori provided horse-drawn carriages for the patrons who did not want to walk the distance.

Still, McIntyre did not abandon his cause. In his first sermon after the opening, he criticized the local mayor for making an appearance at the track. He labeled the track "a mammoth machine for violation of the Eighth Commandment," and said it would be a breeding place for crime.

However, the new Garden State Park thrived in wartime while tracks in Southern California and other areas were closed, usually because they lacked public transportation. In January 1945, all tracks were closed by "request" of the federal government, but the ban was lifted in May after Germany surrendered.

In the 1950s, Garden State became one of the nation's top ten tracks, with major races such as the Garden State Stakes, Gardenia Stakes, and Trenton Handicap often deciding national championships.

McIntyre, who in the postwar years became a vehement anti-Communist, also gained greater influence. His congregation increased to 1,800 members, and his weekly bulletin gained a circulation of 115,000.

But it was on the radio that he became known from coast to coast. His "20th Century Reformation Hour" was carried five days a week on 600 stations. He denounced all forms of gambling, even clashing with Catholics over charity bingo. The six-foot, 190-pound preacher also ventured into politics, once leading a "March for Victory" up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington demanding an immediate U.S. victory in Vietnam.

Mori later built the Cherry Hill Inn near the track, providing an elegant place to stay for visiting horse owners and trainers, and it was followed by the ultra-swank Cherry Hill Lodge. Mori also played an important role in building the Cherry Hill Mall, one of the first huge shopping centers in the U.S.

Renamed Cherry Hill

The name Cherry Hill became so popular that residents of what had been Delaware Township voted to change the name to Cherry Hill Township. When Mori died on October 8, 1975, Philadelphia Daily News racing columnist Steve Klessel wrote that Mori was "the father of the township that became the symbol of suburbia in this area." From a population of 5,811 in 1940, Cherry Hill has grown to 70,508, according to the community's Web site.

However, as racing fans know too well, New Jersey racing was dealt two major blows, first the opening of racing in Pennsylvania at Liberty Bell Park in 1968, and then the much more devastating legalization of casinos in Atlantic City in 1978.

Mori was succeeded at the helm of Garden State Park by his son, Eugene Ewan Mori, who lacked his father's business acumen and whose career as track president ended on the afternoon of April 14, 1977, when the mostly wooden grandstand was destroyed by fire.

Despite all signs that the casinos had doomed the Garden State area to second-class racing, New Jersey entrepreneur Robert Brennan acquired the track's land and erected a $160-million plant, which opened in April 1985.

McIntyre predicted the new track would fail, and this time his forecast was accurate. Now retired and approaching his 95th birthday, the pastor still lives in Collingswood with his wife. His views on morality have not changed, but he does seem to have mellowed. He is polite and pleasant to callers. "I have some friends who gamble," McIntyre revealed. "They say it's a form of pleasure, but I tell them it's wrong."

The demise of Garden State Park saddens fans who remember seeing Citation, Nashua, Bold Ruler, *Gallant Man, Round Table, Carry Back, Riva Ridge, and Secretariat performing there.

McIntyre is not gloating, but he is pleased to have outlived Garden State Park. "I feel vindicated," he said.

In the pastor's mind, he lost a battle but won the war.