Socialism, the critics said, that was what it was—“a gigantic exercise in recreational socialism,” in the words of the New York Herald Tribune. Al Smith, the man behind the exercise, agreed, and he said as much 78 years ago tomorrow, August 4, 1929. That afternoon, the former governor of New York rose to speak before a crowd of 3,000 assembled under an enormous tent, as ocean waves broke behind them. Smith, who less than a year earlier had been defeated by Herbert Hoover in his bid for the Presidency, could use this occasion to celebrate a victory, as he saw it, over private and parochial interests, a victory for good government and for the health of the citizenry. It was the birth of Jones Beach.