Neighborhood Guides Buyers Resource Renter Resource Mortgage Calculator Glossary of Terms Click here to sign-up Neighborhood Guides > Hoboken > Trivia Trivia Hoboken Firsts First brewery in the United States, north of Castle Point The zipper, invented at Hoboken's Automatic Hook & Eye Co. The site of the first known baseball game between two different teams, at Elysian Fields The first steam-powered ferry, in 1811, with service to Manhattan First demonstration of a steam locomotive in the United States at 56 Newark Street. The first departure of an electrified train, in 1931, driven by Thomas A. Edison from Lackawanna Terminal to Dover, New Jersey. The home of the accidental invention of soft ice-cream, 726 Washington Street. The nation's first automated parking garage at 916 Garden Street. The first Blimpie restaurant, opened in 1964 at the corner of Sixth and Washington Streets. A free goldfish in a colored bowl of water was given to all customers who purchased a sandwich during the opening week. The first central air-conditioning unit, at Hoboken Terminal. The first wireless phone system, at Hoboken Terminal. The Oreo cookie, first sold in Hoboken. On the Street Hoboken limits by law the number of liquor licenses to the number of blocks and the limit is usually reached. Additionally, no license can be moved to within 200 feet of another bar or 500 feet from a church, which makes it nearly impossible to open a new bar (except in newly renovated perimeter regions of the city). There is an average of one church for every block. Hoboken was once known as the city with "a bar on every corner" and in fact was once listed in Guinness Book of Records as the city with "Most bars in a square mile". There were well over 200 bars in town in the first half of the 20th century. There are still well over 100 now. Hoboken is home to many floats of the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which are stored in the warehouse that acts as a staging area. Film, Television and Music The title characters in the 2004 film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle hailed from Hoboken. This could possibly be due to director Danny Leiner's own pre-Hollywood life spent here, as his earlier blockbuster film, Dude, Where's My Car?, also included a reference to the city (an alien character swears to banish another alien menace to Hoboken, New Jersey). On the animated series Megas XLR, which is set in New Jersey, in the episode "All I Wanted Was A Slushie", after Coop bemoans the fact that his city is now devoid of slushie machines, and an alien robot is poised to wipe the town off the map as well, Jamie suggests that they go to Hoboken to find a Mega Slush machine, which Coop summarily dismisses by saying "Yeah, but...that's Hoboken." A post-apocalyptic Hoboken is the setting of the off-beat computer RPG The Superhero League of Hoboken, by Legend Entertainment. In the 1950 Bugs Bunny cartoon 8 Ball Bunny, the performing penguin reveals he needs to go to Hoboken, after Bugs slaved the entire episode to get him to the South Pole. Hoboken High School graduate Siglinda Sanchez became the first Puerto Rican Capitol Page, when in the summer of 1973, she served as House Speaker Carl Albert's personal page. She appeared on What's My Line? and Jeopardy! and was featured on Josie and the Pussycats and In the News. Creators of the Broadway Musical Hair James Rado and Jerome Ragne lived in Hoboken at 64 10th Street in 1968 when they wrote the play and its classic songs such as "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, Hair and How Can I be Sure to name a few. Maxwell's, once dubbed New York's best rock club, was the first venue to bring prominence to The Bongos, who were based in Hoboken, signed to RCA Records and gained national recognition. Springsteen's "Glory Days" video was shot there. The now-defunct band, Operation Ivy penned and recorded the song "Hoboken" about the town. Hoboken Public Library has so many Frank Sinatra CDs that they count him as a separate genre. The film Lianna by John Sayles was shot in Hoboken in 1983. Scottish band Franz Ferdinand named a remake of their song 'Jacqueline' as 'Better in Hoboken' The Twilight Zone episode "The Mighty Casey" features a robot named Casey pitching for a team called the Hoboken Zephyrs (apparently modeled on the Brooklyn Dodgers, especially since the Zephyrs are said to have moved to Southern California...just like the Dodgers did.)[11] Hoboken Saturday Night is the name of the 1970s album produced by The Insect Trust, a band based in the city at the time. What's in a name? Though the first Europeans in town were Dutch settlers, Hoboken was not named after the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) town in Belgium, annexed to Antwerp in 1983. The term "hobo" (i.e., a railroad journeyman) is incorrectly believed to have stemmed from the groups of hobos travelling by railroad from Hoboken. The "Mile Square City", as Hoboken is known, actually covers an area of two square miles. Many streets in town were named for US presidents (Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe), but Clinton Street is not one of them. The name likely honors 19th century politician DeWitt Clinton. Hoboken Cemetery is actually located in North Bergen. Composer Joseph Haydn works are often referred to by their Hoboken number (usually abbreviated to "Hob" or just "H"), taken from catalogue written by Dutch musicologist Anthony van Hoboken.