3. There was a Madison Square Garden Bowl in Sunnyside
New York City has been home to five different Madison Square Gardens dating back to 1879. For a brief time, Queens had its own Madison Square Garden, an outdoor arena called Madison Square Garden Bowl. None of the original Madison Square Garden Bowl buildings stand today, and in the Queens location visitors can find a strip mall and a used-car dealership. The Madison Square Garden Bowl was located in Sunnyside and was built in 1932 as an arena for boxing matches. The arena housed 72,000 spectators on wood bleachers, and it cost a construction fee of $160,000. The Bowl was rarely used as a regular venue but rather utilized as a site for large summer events.
The arena hosted the World Heavyweight Championship in 1935, in which James J. Braddock defeated Max Baer. Other boxers like Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, Jack Sharkey, and Primo Carnera fought here, though the Bowl was dubbed the “Jinx Bowl” and “The Graveyard of Champions” because no titleholder ever successfully defended his title at the arena. Madison Square Garden Bowl also hosted automobile races for very small cars which polluted the neighboring residential area. The Bowl also served as an arena for Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus, and in one chilling incident, a tiger escaped from the venue. Just a decade after opening, the arena shut down in 1942.