BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

I have attached an interesting picture of a bus pass issued on November 1st. 1936 for the 'Q38' line by the Affiliated Bus Transit Corporation with an office at 4620 108th. Street in Corona.

Anybody have an idea as to who Affiliated was, and could it have been a company absorbed by either Triboro or Queens Nassau?

Mr. Linsky
"The Green Hornet"

[Q65A]

According to the TCC history written by the late Alan Bromberger in MCA (7-9/98): "Corona-Middle Village (Q38) started in June 1934 and was operated by Affiliated Bus Transit Corp. It linked the Corona elevated line with the Metropolitan Ave. terminus of the Myrtle Ave. El through what was then largely undeveloped territory. Affiliated was organized in February 1934 by Nathaniel Schneider and William Cooper and used a garage on 108th Street in Corona." The same article goes on to say that sometime in 1936, Triboro offered to buy out various smaller subsidiaries/predecessor companies (i.e. Kings Coach, Municipal Motorbus, and National City Bus Lines) for a total of $94,500, but "balked at paying anything for Affiliated, pointing out that its buses were already eight years old when the Q38 was started."

[Mr. Linsky]

Bob,

Is this all the information you can give me on Affiliated? (only teasing).

Interestingly, the pass is signed by a 'Nathaniel' (last name too difficult to understand but obviously would be Schneider).

It would certainly appear that Mr. Cooper had his finger in many pies in those days!

Thanks for sharing.

BTW; the picture has been borrowed for educational purposes and is available for sale at e-Bay.

Mr. Linsky
"The Green Hornet"

[Mr. Linsky]

Bob,

How stupid of me! when you mentioned the Affiliated/Cooper/Schneider combination it dawned on me that I had read about it in Alan Bromberger's Green Lines history but had forgotten it.

The paragraph (page 19) reads as follows;

"In February 1934, Cooper and Nathaniel Schneider set up Affiliated Transit Corp. to start the Q38-Middle Village-Corona route, which went into Triboro's system in 1936. Green Bus Lines owned 75% of Affiliated, whose first listed address, 37-02 Queens Blvd. in Long Island City, became Green's office and probably shop location by 1936. According to his own much later account, Cooper gradually bought out most or all of Green's stockholders".

Mr. Cooper's gradual buyout of outstanding Green Line shares was carefully orchestrated, and specifically outlined as in the next paragraph;

A codicil in the Green Line corporate bylaws provided for the 'buy back' of the outstanding shares of any stockholder upon that stockholder's demise, and that such shares could not be passed on to an immediate member of the family unless that member was an employee of the company.

The purpose was by no means greed, but to ensure that there would be no 'hostile' takeover of the company at any time in the future (believe it or not, they worried about those things even back then!).

You may remember from my previous writings that my father was an investor in the company in addition to being it's compensation surgeon.

When he passed away in 1960, my mother was paid out by Green Line (and handsomely, if I must say so), for my father's certificates.

Unfortunately, my employment by the company at that time was not considered to be permanent so I did not qualify as heir to the investment.

Mr. Linsky
"The Green Hornet"
Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

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