Famous Visitors

Notable and well known people who have visited or worked in Union if you have any stories or sightings please share them.

Baseball Hall of Fame's Jackie Robinson helps Mayor Biertuempfel at the grand opening of Chock Full O' Nuts just east of The Flagship on Route 22.
Tom Dennis- The man who ran around the world. Tom only graced Union with his presence for about 15 minutes or so but we should be proud that he chose our town to run through along his 16,000 mile journey. It took 622 days to run the equivalent of 622 marathons (26,232 km). This was the fastest ever circumnavigation of the Earth on foot and Tom holds the Guiness Book record. http://www.tomsnextstep.com/ blog entry http://www.tomsnextstep.com/oct-18-2012/ Ironically Tom ran down Walker Ave on his route. Tom's GPS map entry: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/234755899
Not actual Unionites, but actors Ned Beatty and Liev Schreiber shot this scene from the film Spring Forward at the Union Municipal Building. Playing a couple of DPW guys they walked out of town hall and down the Library Steps. They are also seen driving down Morris Ave. Mayor Biertuempfel's replicated head makes a very quick cameo but sadly is uncredited in the film. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Forward
William Bendix worked at a grocery store in Union Center during his younger days.
Roy Schieder's father owned a gas station on the corner of Stuyvesant and Stecher and Roy himself worked there in his younger days.
Yankee Phil Rizzuto lived in Hillside and visited Union quite frequently.
As the story goes Keith Emerson was touring and stopped at the Hammond Organ repair shop on Morris ave. across from George's Restaurant. While at the Knights of Columbus club pool, a few of the hipper kids heard through the fence someone playing an Emerson, Lake and Palmer song on the organ so they went over there to discover Keith himself. Keith was very friendly and even bought the kids lunch at George's. True story.
Jerry Lewis (center), who grew up in Irvington likely visited Union on occasion.
This house on corner of Van Ness Terrace and Myrtle St. was used in the Talking Heads video " Burning Down the House" in 1983. David Byrne said that he used it because it had a space in between the windows that could be used for projecting an image of his singing head. He probably noticed it while driving in traffic on Route 78. The projections of his face on the roadway toward the end of the video were also supposedly shot in Union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Down_the_House
This house on corner of Van Ness Terrace and Myrtle St. was used in the Talking Heads video " Burning Down the House" in 1983. David Byrne said that he used it because it had a space in between the windows that could be used for projecting an image of his singing head. He probably noticed it while driving in traffic on Route 78. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Down_the_House

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