New York City has been home to four Madison Square Garden Arenas dating back to 1879, or so everyone thought. In fact, there were five Madison Square Gardens for a short while, one of them was in Queens. Yes, Queens had its own Madison Square Arena named Madison Square Garden Bowl, as per The U.S. Sun .
Situated in Long Island City, the Madison Square Garden Bowl was a roomy Depression-era spinoff of Tex Rickard, a boxing supporter and the owner of the actual Gardens, midtown Manhattan branch, built in 1932, at 45th Street and Northern Boulevard, an enormous outdoor arena that could place up to 72,000 people. It was not a standard platform but rather hosted big-ticket events during the summer. It only cost $160,000 for Garden to build the Bowl, developed for increased capacity if not longevity.
Although it may not have precisely been a famous spot among renowned boxing stars, it was occasionally referred to as the ‘Jinx Bowl’ or ‘The Graveyard of Champions’, as the reigning champions who boxed here often lost. “It was the arena where champions went to die,” according to author Jeremy Schaap, the author of Cinderella Man.
The World Heavyweight Championship in 1935, in which James J. Braddock defeated Max Baer also took place in the same arena and helped it earn its name as ‘Jinx Bowl.’ This fight was dramatized in the 2005 film Cinderella Man. Other boxers like Henry Armstrong, Joe Louis, Jack Sharkey and Primo Carnera, also fought at the Madison Square Garden Bowl, for which individuals volunteered to spend up to $25 for ringside chairs.
The place also offered more than boxing as it was famous for hosting many enthusiastic ‘midget auto races’. “They had these midget auto races there and a lot of times the fumes of whatever it was they used to keep ’em going would spill through the entire neighborhood,” remembered Yankees legend and neighbor Whitey Ford, reported Bowery Boy History. “If the wind was blowin’ the right way, we could get asphyxiated in our apartments if we didn’t keep the windows closed.”
During World War II, the arena witnessed very little usage, and Garden management shortly gave up on it. It was torn down to construct a path for US Army Mail Depot, and multiple of these boxing matches were transferred to baseball stadiums nearby, per Untapped Cities .
The establishment’s metal was repurposed into ammunition and different war materials, and no trace of the popular arena with 72,000 seating that once was in Queens remains at the site. Today, the establishment is residence to Major World, a car dealership complex marketing Chevrolet cars along Northern Boulevard in a space known for a strip of car dealerships and automobile restoration shops.