A10B| Monday, October 28, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
The show also dispels the
common misconception that Mr.
Springsteen hails from Asbury
Park, rather than from Freehold.
(He was born in a hospital in
nearby Long Branch in 1949.)
Other highlights are a letter
he wrote to a landlady in Long
Branch whom he addresses as
“Dear Landlordess,” and re-
veals his grasp of his pending
fame. It is signed with a P.S.S.:
“I’m practicing my autograph
whadya think?”
Some of the exhibit’s most
unexpected associations are
found in the museum’s Free-
hold Gallery. Historical objects
shed light on Mr. Springsteen’s
deep American roots, includ-
ing the arrival of Joost Spring-
steen in New Amsterdam in
the mid-1600s, through Revo-
lutionary ancestor-warriors to
Thomas J. Fallon, a forebear
who received the Medal of
Honor in the Civil War.
From Joost Springsteen’s
first boot on U.S. soil to the
boots Mr. Springsteen wore on
stage in the 1980s, the rocker’s
fans can trace the complex lin-
eage distilled in the songs
they listen to today.
His “ties to his hometown
are deeper than many of his
fans may realize,” Mr. Coyne
said.“Hissoulisrootedhere,
and the stories he absorbed
here have been the raw mate-
rial for his work.”is signposted with song titles
such as “American Land,” “My
Hometown” and “Glory Days.”
Concert photographs, sou-
venir buttons, magazine cov-
ers, guitars, handwritten lyr-
ics, clothing from photo
sessions and the Teac 4-track
recorder used for the 1982 al-
bum “Nebraska” are displayed.
Adele Springsteen’s scrap-
book of her son’s life filled
with articles, fliers, photo-
graphs and other mementos
also are on view.
Mr. Springsteen’s father,
Douglas, worked in Freehold
at the Karagheusian Rug Mill,
which in its heyday made car-
pets for Radio City Music Hall
and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The economic shock of its 1961
closing formed the basis for
the song “My Hometown.”
The exhibit examines mis-
conceptions. Asbury Park’s
famed Stone Pony wasn’t Mr.
Springsteen’s formative venue.
While it is one of the few re-
maining spaces on the Jersey
Shore where Mr. Springsteen
played in his early years, he al-
ready had three records out
when it opened. Rather it was
the now-demolished Upstage
Club where the ambitious singer
met some of the musicians who
would form the E Street Band.
The exhibit has posters, wall
cutouts and a spray-painted
window as relics of that period.Sullivan Show” in 1956. From
the same period, there is a sign
for the Freehold Migrant Fam-
ily Center, where the young
Bruce went with his paternal
grandfather to visit the houses
of impoverished workers, many
African-American, laboring in
the agricultural sector.
The exhibit, covering two
floors in the museum’s 1931
Georgian building, features a
Main Street shopfront mock-
up; a video room looping the
documentary; and an area
about the fans, some known as
the Spring Nuts. Outside, un-
der a canopy, is early manager
Carl West’s antique truck that
gotthemfromgigtogig.
A timeline of Mr. Spring-
steen’s life and musical careerthe Vietnam War. Mr. Haynes’s
Purple Heart is on display at
the exhibit.
His death and Mr. Spring-
steen’s feelings about it co-
alesced in “Born in the U.S.A.,”
the anthem on his eponymous
1984 album and one of his most
misunderstood songs. The lyr-
ics are critical of both U.S. in-
volvement in Vietnam and the
country’s treatment of return-
ing veterans. But the chorus
and its references to being a
native-born American mean the
criticism is often overlooked,
especially at political rallies.
Ms. Rogoff included a 1950s
TV in the exhibit to illustrate a
moment the singer has said
was part of his musical awak-
ening—seeing Elvis on “The EdGREATER
NEW YORK
WATCH
TRANSPORTATIONSubway Marks Its
115th AnniversaryThe Metropolitan Transporta-
tion Authority is marking the
115th anniversary of the opening
of the first rapid-transit subway.
The subway line running
along Manhattan’s east side con-
necting City Hall with Harlem
opened on Oct. 27, 1904.
That line was owned by a pri-
vate company. In following years,
another private firm and a city-
owned company opened subway
lines. The lines came together in
what is now the city subway
systemin1940.
—Associated PressBROOKLYNWegmans Opens
First Store in CityNew Yorkers are flocking to
greet a new arrival to the city—
Wegmans grocery store.
The popular regional chain of-
ficially opened its first New York
City outpost Sunday, a 74,000-
square-foot store at the Brook-
lyn Navy Yard with more than
500 employees.
The new Brooklyn outpost is
the 101st store for Wegmans,
which was founded more than a
century ago in Rochester.
—Associated PressCONNECTICUTBuilding Sites to Halt
Work to Fight AbuseWork at dozens of construc-
tions sites across Connecticut
will be suspended in the coming
days to draw attention to the
problem of opioid abuse in the
construction industry.
State officials are set to appear
Monday with construction-indus-
try leaders outside the State Of-
fice Building in Hartford, where a
massive renovation project is un-
der way. It will be one of dozens
of “stand downs” statewide that
week. The general theme of the
campaign is called “You Are Not
Alone: There Is Help.” The events
are designed to create awareness
and provide resources to workers.
—Associated PressBYMICHAELT.LUONGO
Bruce Springsteen in 1975. The
Purple Heart awarded to Bart
Haynes, an early bandmate of
the singer’s, who was killed in
Vietnam. A window from the
formative Upstage Club.Big things often come from
small towns. That’s certainly the
case for Freehold, N.J., the
hometown of Bruce Springsteen.
“Bruce Springsteen: His
Hometown,” an exhibit at the
Monmouth County Historical
Association in Freehold, about
an hour south of New York
City, explores how a town best
known for its role in colonial
history gave rise to one of the
most authentically American
voices in rock and roll.
The show also details cen-
turies of the town’s past, said
Freehold historian Kevin
Coyne. Freehold is a micro-
cosm of the nation, Mr. Coyne
said in an interview.
“A little piece of everything
that has happened in America
has happened here—colonial
settlers, the Revolution, the Civil
War, agricultural prosperity, the
rise and fall of manufacturing,
racial tensions, creeping subur-
banization—all of it played out
here,” he noted. “And Spring-
steen and his ancestors have
been part of it at every stage.”
The exhibit, which runs
through September 2020, fea-
tures more than 150 objects,
some from the historical associ-
ation’s own collection, others
from the Bruce Springsteen Ar-
chives and Center for American
Music at Monmouth University,
and a few from the Boss himself.
Bernadette Rogoff, the Mon-
mouth County Historical Asso-
ciation’s director of collections,
who co-curated the exhibit,
used Bruce Springsteen’s own
words as a guide in picking ar-
tifacts. “I started by reading
his autobiography, ‘Born to
Run,’ because I always feel like
the best thing to do is to go to
the source,” she said.
She learned about the death
of Bart Haynes, a friend of
Bruce Springsteen’s, who
played with him in the band
the Castiles and was killed in
These guitars are part of the Bruce Springsteen show in Freehold.MARK KRAJNAK FOR MCHA (3); MONTY FRESCO/EVENING STANDARD/GETTY IMAGES (SPRINGSTEEN)Womenofcolorareofteninterestedinpavingthewayforothers
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Springsteen Exhibit Rocks Town
A show at a Freehold,
N.J., museum traces
the legend’s life from
his roots to stardom
NY