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issue of federal court jurisdiction in the 1893 criminal case was ultimately decided without ruling on the boundary issue, since neither state was a litigant. Neither was the issue resolved in 1903–4, when New Jersey sued the U.S. Immigration Commission on behalf of the descendants of the colonial proprietors of Ellis Island. In this instance, the claim was based on a deed issued by the Duke of York, whose ownership was based on a deed issued by his brother, King Charles II. The government opted to sidestep this head-scratching challenge by simply buying Ellis Island from New Jersey. The deed for this purchase was therefore issued by New Jersey, but that fact did not constitute a definitive decision on the boundary, since such a ruling could only be issued by the U.S. Supreme Court.

These were the historical reasons why Bernard Berry and his merry men temporarily occupied Ellis Island, but a more contemporary issue further motivated them. In the 1950s Americans had begun moving from densely populated cities to suburbs. Shopping centers, some with branches of downtown department stores, were cropping up in the suburbs as well. Not far behind were office buildings. If the trend continued—and it did—urban centers would find themselves increasingly depleted. Berry’s raid was part of a larger effort to attract commerce to New Jersey’s older urban areas.

In 1954, for example, Berry had sought and received commitments from Jersey City businesses to contribute to the renovation of nearby Newark’s old Center Market as part of an effort to lure the New York Stock Exchange to relocate in New Jersey. The following year, Berry commenced a major effort to lure the Brooklyn Dodgers to Jersey City. In 1956 the Dodgers played seven league games and one exhibition game at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium. Mayor Berry again displayed his quirky publicity skills when Time magazine wrote that the Dodgers had “crossed the Hudson to Jersey City for a second ‘opening game,’ the first of seven regular-season ‘home’ games they will play there this year,” and went on to note that “somebody gave Jersey City Mayor Bernard J. Berry a ball to throw out. Came time for the historic throw. ‘Mr. Mayor, the ball,’ an aide prompted. ‘The ball?’ echoed His Honor with surprise. ‘I gave it to some kid.’ ”

The Dodgers left Brooklyn after the following year’s season, but not for Jersey City. Team owner Walter O’Malley opted for the nation’s burgeoning “suburbanopolis,” Los Angeles, where the population had doubled since the beginning of World War II and was still expanding without end in sight. Undaunted, Berry unsuccessfully offered the stadium the following year to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Cincinnati Reds.

Berry’s efforts to keep Jersey City and its neighboring urban centers economically viable were coupled with efforts to prevent them from becoming what he did not want them to be. Toward this end, he ordered the confiscation of the film The Moon Is Blue and the arrest of a movie theater manager, who was charged with violating state and city obscenity laws. Berry’s act in October 1953 drew national attention because The Moon Is Blue was not some low-budget porn film but a comedy directed by Otto Preminger, with a cast that included William Holden and David Niven. Critic Bosley Crowther, in his New York Times review, wryly noted the film’s prerelease hype regarding its “decency” and observed that several thousand people had jammed the two Manhattan theaters showing the film, which dealt with “such things as whether a nice young lady who has let herself be lured to a pleasant young bachelor’s apartment should frankly inquire of him as to his romantic intentions, whether she should ask him about mistresses and such, and whether she should candidly acknowledge a healthy but cautious interest in sex.” After a grand jury refused to issue an indictment, the Jersey City theater manager again scheduled the film. Again the theater was raided—this time during the film’s first show. The squadron of police, not wanting to disturb (or confront)