Big Memories Linger From '40s Band Gig

ST. PETERSBURG - When I was 22, I worked at radio station WTAM in downtown Cleveland, across the square from the Terminal Tower. I started in March of 1941 as a switchboard operator and later was the head of the stenographic department.

At that time, one of the big bands, Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights, came into town to entertain the servicemen stationed nearby. They had to use our station to broadcast their "Tum's Treasure Chest" show. I did some work for Horace at the station, and he offered me a job as the band's secretary. Of course, I said "Yes!" The orchestra at that time included Frankie Carle at the piano and blind whistler Fred Lowery.

We left Cleveland on June 25, 1943, and went to Akron, Youngstown, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and Hartford, Conn., and then spent seven weeks in New York City. The band played at the Palace there, and in between shows, visited the servicemen. After a week off, we headed for Hollywood. It was a beautiful train trip out West on the Super Chief, and upon our arrival, I got a room in the Christie Hotel, right across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Every day, I would take the streetcar out to Horace Heidt's place in Van Nuys. In one of my many letters to my parents, I said that I felt like I was intruding, working in someone's home. I asked in that letter if they had heard the Oct. 5 show because at the studio, I saw Ginny Simms, Bob Burns, Red Skelton and Eddie Cantor - "not bad for one day."

Once a week on Tuesday evenings, we went to the NBC Studios to do the radio show. In the course of events, I was able to meet such people as Lucille Ball and Dinah Shore, and I have to admit that sometimes they didn't look nearly as polished in person as they did on the big screen. In fact, I also met Victor Mature, who asked me out on a date, but I passed on the opportunity.

Back then, people didn't travel as easily as they do now, so I was pleasantly surprised one day when I went to Grauman's and had my ticket taken by the same young man who used to work for me back at WTAM in Cleveland.

One weekend I took the bus with some friends to El Centro, and we crossed over into Mexicali in Baja California. I picked up some silk stockings, which were hard to find. We had to use ration coupons for the war effort, and my parents and I would trade. I would send them gas and food coupons, and they would send me some for shoes.

My mother wanted to make sure that I was still attending church services in California. So I would send home the church bulletins with my letters. I even went once or twice with a cousin of mine, Bob Leetch, who happened to also be in Los Angeles and was about to be deployed.

My girlfriend and I once double-dated a couple of lieutenants in the Navy Air Corps. And even though my date had a nice Lincoln Zephyr convertible, we went for a walk instead of a drive (not enough gas coupons). Just my luck, though, I meet a real gentleman, and they both got sent out right after New Year's Eve.

I had worked for Horace Heidt for about a year when a friend made me an offer to go to Las Vegas with her family. I took her up on it and moved to Las Vegas, where I went to work as secretary to the flight surgeon at Tyndall Air Force Base. After about six months, I relocated to Daytona Beach along with the same family, where I was switchboard operator at the Daytona Naval Base.

I met a Marine sergeant there who was also from Ohio, and we ended up getting married on Dec. 7, 1944. When he was later discharged, we returned to live in my hometown of Bay Village, Ohio, also the childhood home of George Steinbrenner.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eleanor Quinn, 87, lives in St. Petersburg. She moved to Florida in 1960 and worked as a secretary and toll booth manager for Pinellas County. Quinn grew up in Bay Village, Ohio, and has two sons.

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