Chevy Chase Street runs through the semi-ritzy Jamaica Estates neighborhood in eastern Queens between Union Turnpike and the Grand Central Parkway. Needless to say, it was named a few decades before comedian Chevy Chase gained fame by imitating President Gerald Ford’s legendary pratfalls on Saturday Night Live in 1975.
Chase, whose real name is Cornelius Crane Chase, likely took his stage name from the Washington DC suburb, Chevy Chase, Maryland, just north of town. That location, in turn, was probably named for a Scottish song, The Ballad of Chevy Chase, that recollects a 14th Century British hunting party in the Cheviot Hills, Scotland, that prompted the Scottish Earl of Douglas to attack the party, believing it to be an invasion.
10/7/13