58 years ago in 1958 (1): DC-7 at Idlewild Airport

Start of a new mini-series over the next month, based on the travel diary of my father. He was working at that time in Canada and my grandparents joined him for travelling during a month from New York to San Francisco. It is now exactly 58 years ago, in 1958. I just received the travel diary a bit earlier this month, when I helped my mother to sort out her things for the planned move in June. It will be my treat over the comings week to follow the travel diary and to post here and there a picture on blip. It must have been really exciting then, to travel from a small Swiss village to NY and to discover the United States.
 
28th May 1958:
My father arrived well in time for the scheduled 9 am arrival of the Swissair DC-7 from Zürich, but then had to wait a bit, as the plane had a 3 hours delay (in the background you can detect a Lockheed Constellation, with its triple-tail design). Next delay on customs, when the luggage of my grandparents was thoroughly searched by customs and my father was able to follow that procedure through a glass window (see a picture here). They didn’t speak English and gesture language was the only way to communicate. In the diary it is written, that the attitude of the customs officer changed immediately after discovering the finger ring of my grandma.
 
They stayed in the Hotel Picadilly, West 45th Street. Seems it was a hot place then.