Happy New Year, a little belated.
I stayed home today because I have a very sore throat.
Sully’s Hat Shop
I took care of “Sully’s” hat shop while she was in N.Y. Aunt Henny kept me company a few hours there every day until she went to Florida. Henny was as sweet and nice as when I first came to Chicago. She finally left by bus for Florida.
C-R Hats
On the 24th, we had a nice party at C-R Millinery, which is named for its owners and was my main job. Every girl brought a 10¢ present, put on long strings, put it all in a big sack and each of us pulled a string and got a little gift package. Besides we each paid 25¢ for food: cold cuts, bread, salad, cucumbers, potato salad, coffee, cake and ice cream. The company donated a box of candies for each worker. One boy brought a radio, so we had music and danced a little. Mr. Roedelsheimer came for the 1st time since a severe operation and that added much to the fun of the party. Mr. Cohn always has a long, sad face.
The Grand Terrace
After the party, I stopped by Sully’s where everybody was drunk already. I went home, changed clothes and met Leonard at Bishops and received nice Xmas gifts.
New Year’s Eve and day we spent also with the Bishops. We went to a very different nightclub, called ‘Grand Terrace,’ the first time I was at a place like that where black and white people are together. I have to tell that the black people, including the wife of Joe Louis, behaved much better than the white folks. The orchestra, waiters and actors are black and very good, nice and clean.
I got a letter from Aunt Henny. Even in warm Florida she got a bad cold with back pain. Nothing special.
Trudel’s comments about the Grand Terrace, which was at 3955 South Parway and was reputedly one of Al Capone’s clubs, ring true. See the following notes from a website devoted to a woman named Audrey Vallette, a contemporary of Trudel’s whose path may have crossed with Trudel’s before Audrey’s tragic death.
Earl Hines Orchestra
“Swankiest of the Blackbelt night clubs, and one of the oldest. It is richly furnished and there is plenty of room for black, white, and intermediate shades. The floor show is elaborate and contains some of the most attractive colored chorines west of Harlem, as well as lively tap dancers and vaudeville teams. Music is furnished by Hines’ band, which is nothing if not “hot.” Saturday night is the big night at the Grand Terrace. Many of the patrons are white, this place being too expensive for the hordes of Negro nighthawks, but there are enough dusky damsels and high-brown gentlemen to give the place color.”
(Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 252-253.)
Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman at the Grand Terrace
“During 1936 at the Grand Terrace Ballroom, where Fletcher Henderson was appearing with his own band, Benny Goodman played in front of the band with Gene Krupa sitting in on drums. This is perhaps the first time that black and white jazz musicians played together before a paying audience.”
I hope this letter finds you all well. Trudel worries anxiously when she does not get word from you. Sometimes we do not feel we get all the news.
We have been very happy and she has been very brave this past year. Many millions of people are out of work in this country and those who are employed are paid so little. Trudel works very hard.
Three thousand lawyers in Chicago are starving with no work and no office. We have 10,000 lawyers in Chicago alone. Our dollar is worth only 59 cents. Under Roosevelt and Democrats food and everything costs more and the taxes are so heavy that business has not started again since the depression, which makes it VERY HARD for lawyers to keep their offices and place in the profession.
By working 18 hours a day I have done 20% better in 1935 than in 1934, but everything cost more this year than before. I write you because you should know if we could we would do something to help some of you come here. But this is impossible now. And it breaks Trudel’s heart that she can not help and the man who loves her can not. Everything is uncertain. Election year is 1936.
Would you make me happy? Write oftener to dear Trudel. Every day she asks – any mail from Germany? And she looks so sad waiting so long for letters, she gets so few.
Her throat bothers her. She has had a BAD cold and fever. She is so true and beautiful. She does not know what I am writing. She has written nothing to worry you since coming here, but everything is not easy for her and to get started in a strange country is lonesome work and very hard.
If I have made it easier and pleasanter for her, I am glad because I love her.
With love to you all,
Leonard
This letter was written by Leonard J. Grossman, Trudel’s fiance and my father, to Trudel’s sisters and her father in the midst of the depression, as dark clouds were gathering over Europe.
Awfully cold for weeks. 20˚ below 0 Fahrenheit = about 30˚ below Celsius. And we are making straw and light felt hats.
A Spring Hat in Winter
I may have to have my tonsils removed anyhow in Spring. The doctors here are all money hungry and so far I have not found one I would trust. A school friend of Leonard’s has an apothecary, not a drugstore, and we go to him for advice instead of a doctor.
We recently saw “Anna Karenina” with Greta Garbo and Fredric March!! I did like the book much better.
Had a bad cold but I am OK again.
We saw “Mutiny on the Bounty”
http://youtu.be/OtmV2tpbnjA
and laughed a lot seeing Eddy Cantor in “Strike me Pink.”
Trudel continued to translate her letters in an elliptical diary fashion, leaving us to wonder about the delicious (and mundane) details she omitted. But these were not uneventful times. Although there was time for movies, there were also worries about her family about what was happening in Europe as she mentions, cryptically, in the reference to “Mr. Warburg” and as her fiance Leonard mentioned in his letter to Trudel’s family earlier in the year.
Leonard J. Grossman on the Stump.
Leonard’s petition to become a judge in order to be on the ballot he has to have a certain amount of signatures from people who want him. He is running on the Republican Party. Everybody has to declare if they are going to vote Republican or Democratic. That will also be for the general election in November.
Candidate Grossman
Received a very unkind letter from Mr. Warburg. I had asked for advice how to bring Doddo here.
Trudel, Erna and Lotte – 1932
Trudel at Rose La Marque’s
Rose La Marque
I may move to [share an apartment with] Mrs. LaMarque in the Seneca Hotel where I work evenings and weekends. She is that wonderful dressmaker and the lady who got me the job in her hotel. We are having dinner together every night now.
Saw Charlie Chaplin in a very funny movie that took 5 years to make, Modern Times.
Modern Times
The reference to an “unkind” letter from “Mr. Warburg” is unexplained. Trudel must have written to a member of the famous Warburg family, also of Frankfurt, in hope of getting some assistance for her sister Lotte (Doddo). This letter from Leonard to Trudel’s family hints at the problem. Lotte eventually made it to the United States in 1941.
See this review of the book The Warburgs for more information.
Charlie Chaplain hadn’t produced a movie in five years at the time Modern Times was released.
Sitting on the roof of the hotel and it is very hot. Leonard will go to Cleveland next week as a delegate of the “Townsend Party.”*
A birthday letter for Leonard arrived by Zeppelin punctually the day before the 4th.**
From Rose Marie
We saw a very good movie, “Rose Marie,” with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
We have seen several other movies because the theatres are air conditioned, usually 72˚ Fahrenheit which is a blessing in this heat. We always go early before the admission price goes up. Sometimes I go with Trudel Batzner,*** Claire Samuels, or Rose La Marque and of course Leonard, if he can take the time.
Two Trudels
Wings over Everest
We saw “Wings over Everest.” Very interesting pictures from the first flight over Mount Everest.
Also “Love me Forever” with Grace Moore, and “Public Hero #1.” I dreamt all night about it. Next “Page Miss Glory” – nothing special. Then “Escape me Never” with Elisabeth Bergner. Next “Don’t Bet on Blondes.” Nice. Also “Dante’s Inferno” excellent, but I saw ghosts all night. Next “Frisco Kid” very exciting, but funny in 1 scene (for me) which played in the office of a stock broker. [Frisco Kid was funny to Trudel because her father was a stockbroker.] Then “Broadway Melody” very nice.
Love Me Forever
Page Miss Glory
Dante’s Inferno
Broadway Melody of 1936
Frisco Kid
Scroll down for clips from some of these movies.
Sometimes we also go to the free excellent concerts in the park right by the lake.
Petrillo Band Shell
Letter from Leonard typewritten on his office letterhead
July 11, 1936
Dear Father Adler, Lottie and Erna:
Many thanks for your lovely birthday letters which arrived via Zeppelin July 3rd. Both Trudel dear and I enjoyed them. Soon after your letter arrived Trudel came into the office, and we read your letters together. At midnight, just as July 4th began, Trudel gave me the loveliest fountain pen. Said she was sorry she could not give me more. It was enough, with her beautiful love. Can you imagine my surprise on arriving home to find a whole table covered with presents from our “Goldkind”?
There was an Angel Food Cake, with 45 on it and 15 candles and 45 flags. It tasted as good as it looked. A lovely belt, handkerchiefs, cigar holder, pajamas, pipe tobacco, and just lots of other lovely gifts, all from darling “Drekbalch”**** But I don’t think that last name fits Trudelchen. Received a birthday card from Henny that was very clever, wires and letters from friends, and we had a lovely birthday dinner at L’Alglon. It is hot here, very hot. We jumped in the lake for a swim last night. Trudel looks stunning in her new and pretty dresses, but like the Goddess Venus in her bathing suit, and she swims like Neptune’s daughter. You know Neptune was the old God of the Sea.
Trudel and Leonard
Am leaving the city for one week, and before going wanted this letter to go on to you, thanking you from the bottom of my heart, not only for the letters you each so lovingly sent me, but also for the flower from your family garden, which is the flower of my heart and life, my future wife, Trudel. And this year we will be wed. There is much more to write, but Trudel dear tells me she has written you. She is coming down for the theater now, so I must get ready for her. The air is ice cooled on hot days in our theaters, so it is a good place to spend a hot night.
With a heart full of love and thanks to each of you, in which my precious Trudel joins,
Affectionately your son and brother
Leonard.
[Handwritten on reverse:]
Dear Sisters:
Trudel and I are in the Normandie Inn at 1 a.m. Sunday – a.m. is Sunday morning – that is a.m. means morning – after midnight from the Latin ante-meridians.
I just had to open our letter to you for 2 reasons. First each of you are one of the reasons each because your English letters to me were priceless and such letters in English deserve a special thank you. Then there were some wonderful presents Trudel gave me – too many to mention but I must not be silent about the 1) constitution of the United States, 2) the Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, the first birthday of our country, 3) President Lincoln’s great Gettysburg Address written in his own handwriting – all beautifully framed for 2 large panels on my office wall – a glorious set of gifts by themselves. And again – a hug and a kiss to each of you for your loving thoughtfulness in writing English.
Devotedly your brother,
Leonard
Notes
Scroll below these notes to find links to clips, trailers and complete movies of some of the films mentioned above.
*Dr. Francis Townsend, a soft-spoken doctor with a senior citizens following, preached the Depression could be ended by giving government pensions to people over 60, thus freeing up jobs for unemployed young people. Unfortunately he was eventually co-opted by the infamous Father Charles Coughlin and Gerlald M. K. Smith in their campaign against President Roosevelt’s reelection. See Francis Townsend – The Man with a Plan on the Pardon Power blog, and Where Left Meets Right, by Ron Grossman.
**Leonard’s Birthday was July 4.
***This is Trudel’s first reference to Trudel Nachman, who became her closest and lifelong friend. Sadly, there is no account of how they met.
****”Drekbalch” is what is typed in my father’s letter. Perhaps Trudel used the term to refer humorously to herself or it is a very odd typo. I can’t find a translation.
YouTubes and clips from some of the movies Trudel saw
Rose Marie with Janette MacDonald and and Nelson Eddy
YouTube of the full length film.
http://youtu.be/EPH9VA6MP0w
Wings over Everest
News clip about the 80th anniversary of Wings Over Everest, with scene from original film.
Trailer for Public Hero #1 Click image.
Public Hero #1
Escape Me Never 1935
Dante’s Inferno
scene from the 1935 film “Dante’s Inferno,” with Spencer Tracy and Claire Trevor. For more information, visit moviedavid.blogspot.com!
http://youtu.be/Hmud4IAdJQg
Frisco Kid1935
Broadway Melody 1936
Trailer from the 1936 installment in this series.
http://youtu.be/s9qpPmMnRSI
