A look back at some Rangers history from The Maven.
This I couldn't make up – but it happened.
When the Rangers arrived in New York City during the Autumn of 1926, they were living together with gangsters; and if that sounds weird, how do you think Blueshirts ace center Frank Boucher felt about it.
At the time, Madison Square Garden – third edition – was located on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. Just a block away was the new Forrest Hotel.
"What could be more convenient for me, my wife, Ag and our six-month-old son Earl than an elegant Hotel?" said Boucher. "What we didn't know when we moved in was who owned it."
In his wonderful autobiography, "When The Rangers Were Young," Boucher pointed out that – too late – he and Ag learned that the Forrest Hotel was owned by New York State's biggest bootlegger during that Prohibition Era – Big Bill Dwyer.
"It not only was a regular hotel," Boucher chuckled, "but it also was home to Dwyer's gangsters. They were a number of dark, attractive well-dressed men with wide-brimmed hats and gleaming shoes.
"They were very fond of our baby and always stopped in the elevators or the lobby to admire him, and were always friendly to Ag and me. Two of the kind and smiling men who so often stopped to admire the baby were Legs Diamond and Dutch Schultz."
Legs and Dutch happened to be a pair of the most notorious gangsters of "The Roarin' Twenties," which was another name for that wild, Prohibition Era.
Mind you, the Forrest also was home to famed author Damon ("Guys And Dolls") Runyon, the inventor of stage characters Nathan Detroit, Harry The Horse, and Nicely Nicely Johnson.
Boucher: "Dwyer, the bootlegger, had an entire floor at the Forrest, and any time day or night you could drop in and get any kind of drink you could name at no charge. That was provided you were known around the hotel and – thanks to our baby Earl – we were certainly known to every wide-brimmed hat in the building."
While drinks were on the house, Big Bill Dwyer wasn't paying Boucher's rent. After a while, Frank and Ag moved to cheaper quarters in Brooklyn with his linemates Bill and Bun Cook and their wives.
But before saying "au revoir," to Big Bill Dwyer and his henchmen, the Bouchers and Cooks had time for a laugh; which went like this.
The three hockey couples were walking by the corner of West 49th Street and Eighth Avenue where the new Eighth Avenue subway was being built.
"Suddenly," said Boucher, "a workman appeared carrying a pile of dinner pails in his arms, only to disappear into an opening leading to the work site.
"Bill Cook's wife said, 'Look, Ag, he's gone down to feed the underworld!'"