My Moynahan Genealogy Blog: Moynahan Bowling Stories

One of my favourite parts of family history research is collecting stories from family members.

Recently I came across a newspaper clipping about my grandmother Rhea (Coughlin) Moynahan (1902-1992) bowling in 1952. (The newspaper refers to her as Mrs. Ernest Moynahan as was the practice in the 1950s)

The next time I spoke with my father on the phone, I said, "I didn't know Grandma Moynahan was bowling when she was fifty years old, and that she won trophies and was the Vice-President of her bowling League!" (In the final paragraph, it is reported that she was elected President at the banquet!)

CLIPPED FROM The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 06 Jun 1952, Fri • Page 35

My father said, "Yes, she was very involved in the Catholic Women's League at Immaculate Conception parish and they organized a 5-pin women's bowling league at the Wyandotte Bowling Alley."

He added, "And I bet you didn't know that my brother John and I worked as pin-boys at the St Angela Merici bowling alley that was in the basement of the church and that John organized a pin-boy strike there for higher wages."

I wanted to learn more about the Moynahans and bowling in Windsor, Ontario in the 1940s and 1950s.

I learned that bowling was really popular in Windsor in this time period. According to a Windsor Star newspaper article in 1944 (23 Dec 1944, P. 25), "All things considered then, a fair estimate is that 10,004 bowlers roll an average of three games per week in this city of Windsor - and if that doesn't make Windsor the bowling capital of Canada, we'll eat the rubber bands off a set of fivepins."

The alley that my grandmother bowled at was located at 1318 Wyandotte St East (at the corner of Hall Ave.) a short 14 minute walk for my grandmother from her Marentette Ave. home.

Grandma Moynahan bowled 5-pin at the Wyandotte Bowling Academy (formerly Wyandotte Recreation Hall 1204 Wyandotte East opened Oct. 1935).

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 25 Nov 1939, Sat • Page 27

I was surprised to learn that 5-pin bowling was a Canadian invention in 1909 by Torontonian Thomas F. Ryan in response to complaints about difficulties knocking down 10-pins and the weight of the 10-pin ball. This "downsizing" of the 10-pin bowling game resulted in increased participation for leagues women and children. (Some women preferred to bowl 10-pin in the 1940s - see advertisement below)

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 07 Feb 1941, Fri • Page 18

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 31 Jan 1940, Wed • Page 40

"Alert Pin Boys"

Two things I love about the advertisement above is that it provides a peak inside the Wyandotte Bowling Academy in 1940 where my grandmother bowled and it references "Alert Pin Boys" as a selling feature along with "health, fun and courteous service". Pin boys were essential to bowling in this time period.

"Before automated machines took over, human beings had to reset the pins at bowling alleys. Below is a photo of an old-fashioned pinsetter bidding farewell to the lanes on his last day of work on Dec. 22, 1957." (Source: Gordon Peters/The Chronicle)

(Image Source: Gordon Peters/The Chronicle)

Imagining my father and his brother John as teenager pin boys in the 1940s fills me with happiness.

The St Angela Merici bowling alley opened in 1949. John would have been 15 and Ernie 13 years old.

P10468 - St. Angela Merici Original Structure Courtesy of St. Angela Merici Chruch

P10462 - St. Angela Merici Bowling Alley in the Youth Centre, Courtesy of St. Angela Merici Church

My father reported that they were paid four cents a line and each game consisted of four players so they earned 16 cents a game. It is not clear what St Angela Merici charged their bowlers in the late 1940s but we do know that the Wyandotte Bowling Academy was charging twenty-five cents for two lines.

My father said that there would be only two pin boys for four lanes and each pin boy (assigned two lanes) would have to jump from lane to lane to set the pins all the while avoiding getting hit by bouncing balls or flying pins.

He added, “If a pin did fly up in the air where the bowler couldn’t see it, the pin boys would fake an injury with a howl or a limp and the bowlers would throw quarters down the lane to us.” This made me laugh. Imagining my father and uncle performing in such a way.

New York Times; "Strikes, Spares and Bruised Shins" (2014)

Pinsetting work could be dangerous ... inattentive bowlers frequently injured unsuspecting pin boys necessitating a newspaper request for bowlers to "Observe Safety Rule"s urging "Don't bowl before the pin boy is clear .... and when you do bowl; roll the ball .... don't bounce it..."

The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada Fri, Nov 28, 1947 · Page 18

Was it just the wages that needed raising that inspired John Moynahan (1934-1987) to organize a strike with his fellow pin boys? Or were there significant, multiple health and safety issues as well? John Moynahan would go on to become a prominent labour leader and a champion for improving health and safety for workers.

And the pin boy strike wasn't the first time that John organized a strike in his youth. A couple years after the 1945 Ford walkout, John Moynahan led his first strike in Grade 9 at St. Joseph secondary school (Windsor) to lend support to a student demand for additional gym equipment.

The outcome of the bowling alley strike is unknown.

Conclusions

When Bowling League Vice-President (later President), my grandmother Moynahan, won her trophy in 1952, pinsetter automation would eventually eliminate the need for pin boys .... it was the end of an era. By the 1960s, most bowling alleys would be fully automated.

Evelyn Slobasky said that in all her fifty years operating the Crescent Lanes Bowling Lanes on Ottawa St., (Windsor, Ontario) her only bad memory was in 1957. "We were the first to have automatic pin setters" she said. The move put a dozen kids out of work. "More than anything that's the part that bothered me." she said.