Hey,
As the fire service mourns the sudden loss of fire service
icon, friend and Brother, Chief Harvey Eisner, I thought you would find comfort
and a bit of enjoyment (as I have) learning how “it” all
started-meaning Firehouse Magazine…and so much that followed that.
At the risk of thinking that some of our younger Secret
List members don’t know who Dennis Smith is, I’ll give you a very quick
briefing.
Dennis is a retired firefighter from FDNY. He is best known
for writing the best selling memoir Report from Engine Co. 82, a
chronicle of his career as a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department
in a South Bronx firehouse – the worlds busiest – during the late 1960s and
into the 1970s. (Note-if you don’t have “Report from Eng Co 82” in
your personal library-get it. Seriously. Get it. $14.00 Here is a link ) http://www.fire-police-ems.com/books/br1001.shtml
Dennis also founded Firehouse magazine in 1976. While the
editor and publisher of Firehouse, Smith also created the Firehouse Muster and
Convention in Baltimore.
Immediately following 9/11, Dennis also wrote:
Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts
at the World Trade Center
The above is merely the tip of the iceberg about Dennis-you
can learn more HERE: http://www.dennissmith.com/
I’m fortunate to be friends with Dennis for many years-and
we were emailing this weekend about our deep sadness in Harvey’s passing. We
also spoke of Bruce Bowling who also died last week. So instead of me writing
anything else, take a moment to enjoy Dennis’s thoughts related to how he got
Harvey started at FIREHOUSE, and how Bruce Bowling played a role as well.
TO: The Members of The Secret List
FROM: Dennis Smith-Brother
Firefighter (an original TSL member)
SUBJECT: BRUCE BOWLING, HARVEY EISNER, RIP
I have always liked fire buffs. Jack Lerch, (FDNY Hon. Chief
of Department) whom I think of as the leading fire buff in NYC, has become an
invaluable friend over the years, and I still call upon him whenever I need a
particular piece of history or folklore in the fire service. Fire buffs will go
anywhere, and read anything that brings them closer to the actual firefighting
experience. Indeed, there was a wealthy fire buff in New York, Bob Russell, who
along with the one-time owner of Macy’s Department Store, Ken Strauss, came to
visit me several times in the firehouse. They had more radios and lights in
their car than the fire commissioner! I became a close friend of Bob’s, who had
the honor and distinction of being the first investor in Firehouse Magazine
when I invented that journal written exclusively for firefighters. Even some of
our NYC firefighters and fire officers were dedicated buffs – I, for instance,
worked as a volunteer at the Waldbaum Drug Store fire in Brooklyn, the
23rd Street fire, and then the 9/11 World Trade Center alarm, three of our
greatest tragedies. And, so, it was no surprise for me to see a car of
four men sitting in a car outside of Engine Co. 82 on Intervale Avenue in the South
Bronx sometime in early 1973. They never got out of the car, respecting the
privacy of the firehouse, but they followed us to every alarm. During a pause
in our usual 40 alarms a day, I went over to speak with them. And, that
is when I first met Harvey Eisner. I met Bruce Bowing just a few years later.
They each had a similar impact on my personal life, much beyond the long
lasting success of Firehouse Magazine.
I am now in Manila, (The Philippines) writing my 16th book, and was collapsed
in sadness when I received word that the former publisher of Firehouse
Magazine-Bruce Bowling-has passed. He was such a good friend, and I am sure we
knew each other as well as anyone in the world. I talked to him regularly at
his retirement home in Florida. My first thought was with his wife Phyllis, who
was his strength during his various illnesses, and his son David, who himself
grew to be a magazine executive and of whom Bruce was so proud. Being a good
father and a good husband were two things that Bruce cared about, and also got
right.
Bruce always told people I hired him because I thought he was Irish – he
happened to have red hair at the time. I enjoyed that informality with him. I
actually brought Bruce into the Firehouse family when we were in the Crown
Building on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was a penthouse office given to
us for one year as a courtesy of the late Jeff Byers, who owned the building –
and an early investor in the magazine. I am sure no one remembers that office
where the company struggled through its start-up difficulties. It had a
millionaire’s view overlooking Central Park, and I know Bruce remembered how
impressive it was. He later told me he thought the company was well financed,
and did things with flair. He did not know we had free rent, and that free rent
could not last forever. But, he also saw that he got along well with me in his
several interviews, and he took the job when I offered it to him. I had a
partner then who owned The Village Voice, Bartle Bull, who said we had to hire
Bruce, not because he wore Hermes ties, but because he was so good at what he
did. He sold advertising for us – and nobody could do it better than Bruce. He
fit right into the Madison Avenue mold, always perfectly dressed with the
perfect tie, pocket handkerchief, and his red comb-over perfectly in place.
Subscription income was not enough to sustain Firehouse magazine in the start
up period, and we would have folded without his work and the income he brought
to us. I confess we had long discussions about the question of taking cigarette
advertising. Can you imagine, cigarettes advertised in a journal for
firefighters? Well, we did take those ads for awhile, with a sort of rob Peter
to Pay Paul, sink or swim rationalization. But, just for awhile. As soon as we
had a positive cash flow we were able to get out of that alliance with Dr.
Evil. But Bruce always throughout his long career with Firehouse produced
sufficiently to generate not only our success but our future growth. He was a
better businessman than I, and always saw opportunity where it existed. And so
we built a going concern. It was Bruce who decided finally on Baltimore when we
decided to finance a convention business, which gave us an opportunity to
develop very long term and satisfying friendships with that city and with its
fire department. Bruce produced so much for the Magazine that I invited him
into a partnership stake in the company. Literally, I could not do without him.
Indeed, when we decided after the first fifteen years to sell the magazine to a
man named Stanley Sills, I began to get anticipation fears – a little like
being on the nozzle waiting for the water at a working fire. I then decided
that I would back out of the deal, the way a firefighter at the nozzle never
can. But, Bruce was determined to go forward. I admired Bruce so much that I
allowed him to talk me into rethinking my position. His needs were very
different from mine, and I felt it was my duty to respect that. It was that
decision that brought Firehouse from being a family business into the cold
realities of the corporate world, bringing the calculating hard decisions that
considered only the bottom line. Bruce went on to work for Stanley Sills, and
he continued to like his position and his ability to keep Firehouse at the top
of the field.
I now am very sad that he is gone. He contributed much to
the fire service, though his contributions are mostly unsung. He understood
that a magazine can find its success in direct proportion to its ability to
finance new projects. That is the part of the business I miss, but there are a
million more reasons to miss Bruce Bowling. For Bruce also understood what the
value was in having a good friend.
I do not count the funerals I have gone to for firefighters, dozens and dozens
certainly, but at every Mass or Service I always realize the sadness, sometimes
hopelessness, that our heroes leave behind. They leave a new and empty space in
the lives of so many – family members and friends. I will never get used to the
death of a firefighter, even though in the heart of my experience I know that
another one will come. And it will come soon. I was the Chairman of the
original National Near-Miss Reporting System Committee, and the main thing we
learned, which is something we have known for a long time, that especial
attention to safety issues is the only thing that will bring, and has brought,
the number of those awful Line of Duty Deaths down. This is why we have the
national NFFF memorial in Maryland and the IAFF memorial in Colorado The
inevitability each year comes with the profession, and we pray that the
firefighters in our firehouse are safe and healthy always. If you studied the
hundreds of editorials that Harvey wrote over the years you will find that his
fundamental responsibility, as he saw it, was to bring these issues to the
fore. But even with great concentration, we all know a tragedy will soon
strike, and this is what I felt when I received word of Harvey’s death while
still in his fifties. There was so much more that Harvey would have accomplished
if he had been given the normal life span. But there is no determined equality
in nature, and neither in the physiology of life. And so Harvey has left a big
and empty space for so many in the fire service.
I had introduced myself to Harvey that night during the early war years of the
South Bronx. He was a nice enough guy, just about to start as a crime scene
photographer for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, and the firefighters in
what was called “The Big House” eventually invited him and the other buffs into
the firehouse for the coffee that was usually reheated thirty or so
times.
Harvey, modestly and quietly, subsequently became a friend
to many in Engine Co.82 and Ladder Co.31. He was easy to like, for his modesty
drew you in. It impressed you. To say that Harvey was low-key is like saying
that a combination lock requires a combination. He was quietly spoken then, as
he remained quietly spoken throughout his lifetime, but he was able to
communicate his views as forcefully as the loudest voice.
Harvey’s passing followed by just days the death of our dear friend Bruce, who
was 77. My family, especially my son Sean and daughters Deirdre and Aislinn,
knew both of these men well and thought of them, along with the late Hal Bruno,
another celebrated Firehouse personage, as personal friends. I know I can speak
for everyone when I send condolences to the Bowling family, and to the
Eisner’s. And also we send out our respect to the Tenafly, New Jersey Fire
Department where Harvey had served at every rank – up through Chief of
Department.
I asked Harvey if he had some time to help out at the Firehouse offices very
early in our history – odd jobs of writing and editing, and also the more
mundane jobs like hanging photos or moving desks around. He was always willing
to help, and finally Harvey just simply found a desk at the office that he
could call his, and he became attached to it. I cannot remember anyone actually
offering Harvey a job at Firehouse, but he most definitely became associated with
one. Most people did not know that for most of his life he kept is job as a
highly respected full time Bronx DA Office crime scene photographer while he
was working for the magazine. And, it says something about him that he was able
to do two jobs without ever complaining that he was tired. And he did
everything so well. He was reliable. He gave important assistance to everyone,
and so his magazine competence increased every years, and so did our evaluation
and the respect that came with it. When we started the “Great Firehouse
Exposition and Muster” (yes, that is the original name of the Firehouse Expo’s)
in Baltimore, Harvey excelled in putting people together with things to do, and
it was usually a flawless performance. It was during this period that Harvey
kept acquiring friends who were growing in importance in fire departments from
coast to coast, the contacts who would add significantly to the substance of
the magazine’s articles. Harvey would see an issue that he thought important to
the fire service, and he knew immediately who to call to write the story.
And, so, in one week we have lost two important thinkers and doers in the
American fire service. I have lost two good friends. I already feel the burden
of that loss. I wish I would have called them more. I wish I would have made
more of an effort to meet with them. There peregrinations of life always keep
getting in the way. It reinforces what I came to believe decades ago, and that
is there is no substitution for friendship.
Bruce, Harvey……rest in peace…..Dennis Smith
Our sincere thanks to Dennis for this wonderful piece about
two wonderful men who made such a positive and measurable difference to the
Fire service. RIP.
Take Care. Be Careful. Pass It On.
BillyG
The Secret List 10/27/2014-1918 Hours
www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com