Late 1930's- Romance in St. Louis - The Movies

Elgin "Gary" Garrison

When it came to places to go on a date, there was no end of opportunities; but we know that Gary and Pauline enjoyed going to the movies.

                            
Delmar Blvd. was in a fashionable residential district of St. Louis known as the "Central West End." The "Delmar Loop" had electrified street cars in the 1930's as well as double decker buses. Mass transportation around Saint Louis was easily accessible. Still, with the automobile craze in full swing, some residents preferred to drive about town.

Delmar and Grand 1925

 Like Houston, St. Louis offered a number of opportunities for residents to enjoy movies at lavishly decorated theatres. One of these, the Tivoli Theatre, was right on the Delmar Loop. However, most  were located in the theatre district on Grand Boulevard-  still only two or three miles from Gary and Pauline's apartments on Delmar Blvd. Long before the time of home television, movies were a huge draw for entertainment.  Gary and Pauline likely saw some popular movies at these theatres...

“The Grand Boulevard theatrical district attained the pinnacle of its popularity during the 1930's and after World War II, when, in addition to the theatres, popular restaurants, night clubs and dance ballrooms all contributed to its "bright white way."

Midtown Theatre District 1935 (notice the corner Walgreens!)

 The Missouri Theatre (see above) seated 3700 people, and featured a chorus line called the "Missouri Rockettes." The RKO St. Louis Theatre was modeled after the opera house in Versailles.

RKO St. Louis

 But the most lavish was the Fox Theatre (see theare district photo) which seated 6,000- it was at the time the second largest theatre in the world. "Bob Hope, "St. Louis's enemy of depression" brought Jerry Colonna and his whole radio troupe to the Fox (1940) and sold 80,000 tickets in one week.

 

The Big Bands of Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Glen Miller drew record crowds in the 1940s. Both Mae West and Sally Rand "did their thing" at the Fox." ( http://www.fabulousfox.com/history.aspx)

The ornate red and gold interior at Fox Theatre

 
1939 was known as "the greatest year in the history of Hollywood."

Here are some of the 1939 movies that Gary and Pauline might have gone to see-  

Gone with the Wind trailer

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Trailer

One of Gary's favorites may have been in 1938- "Alexander's Ragtime Band" written by Irving Berlin and starring Tyrone Power and Ethel Merman told the history of jazz, from ragtime to swing. Classic songs such as "Heat Wave," Blue Skies," Easter Parade," and "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" came from this movie.  Alexander's Ragtime Band (link to Trailer)

 Other famous movies in 1938 included "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn and Olivia deHaviland, and "Boys Town" with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.

Robin Hood Trailer

In 1940, there were award winning movies that related to Gary's background in Oklahoma and Texas- "The Grapes of Wrath" about an Oklahoma family during the Great Depression, starring Henry Fonda, and "Boomtown" about Texas wildcat oil drillers.

Boomtown Trailer

Other movies in 1940 included "Rebecca," "Northwest Passage," and "The Philadelphia Story." The Philadelphia Story trailer 

Many of these classics are available online to watch!

Late 1930's - the Girl Next Door- Pauline Allen

"Gary" had fallen in love with the girl next door.

Pauline Garrison 1935

Pauline came from Jerseyville, Illinois, a farming community about 20 miles north of Alton.

She was the youngest of 7 children, with 3 older brothers and 3 older sisters. Her mother, Nellie Quinn Allen, was a 60 year old widow in 1940; Pauline's father, Thomas Allen had died in 1933, when Pauine was still in high school. Her brothers Hugh and Kin were now working the family farm.  

Pauline had grown up surrounded by a large and close-knit family.  Her grandparents had been immigrants from Ireland and Pauline grew up among numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins who owned adjoining farms. The farms were prosperous; my mother said she never really knew there was a depression; they always had plenty of food and she was never aware of any hardships. 

One of her favorite stories was that one Christmas morning before going to church they were allowed to open a present and hers was "galoshes" (rubber boots.) She was mad all through church, and then found out afterward it was a joke; she had plenty of other presents waiting when they returned home.

Pauline and high school friends

Pauline may have had an occasional bout of Irish temper but she had a sunny disposition- she was bright, cheerful, and full of fun.  She was popular in school and was vice president of her high school class as a junior.

Pauline Allen, the girl in the center

 After graduating from high school she had attended secretarial college and then moved away from home to make a career in nearby St. Louis, rooming with her friend Edna.

Late 1930's- Saint Louis- The Wood River Refinery and Life on Delmar Blvd.

Shell Oil had three major refineries east of the rockies in 1929; Deer Park in Houston, NORCO in New Orleans, and Wood River in St. Louis. Sometime between April 1935 and 1938,  Shell transferred Elgin from Houston to Saint Louis.  

The Wood River Refinery was located on the east side of the Mississippi River just south of Alton, Illinois, and about 15 miles  north of St. Louis (which was on the west side of the river.)

Elgin was now working as a pipeline dispatcher.  A pipeline dispatcher's job would involve coordinating and controlling the flow of oil products through the pipeline and the distribution system. He had to work shift work, but it paid well. The 1940 census shows that he was 30 years old and making $2280 a year at this job. That would be nearly $40,000 in today's currency; in the midst of the depression, he was doing quite well.

Elgin at his teletype dispatch machine

He was living at the Broadmoor Apartments at 5414 Delmar Blvd. in St. Louis. This appears to have been a good sized apartment building with about 40 apartments in the complex.

While there were a few married couples who were older, the majority of the residents seem to have been single young people in their twenties and thirties, who shared an apartment with members of their own sex.  There was a common dining room for the residents. With groups of young singles living so closely together, it must have been a lively dating scene!

Most of the young men appear to have been in office jobs- accountants, lawyers, engineers, managers, and clerks. The young ladies tended to work as secretaries, stenographers and typists, salesladies, teachers, and caseworkers.

 
 
 Elgin (now nicknamed "Gary") shared apartment #114 with 3 other bachelors; 27 year old Richard Glover, who was an artist in commercial advertising, 26 year old Charles Trueblood, an engineer, and 25 year old William Lloyd, who sold electrical insulation. The rent for their apartment was $80 a month, so Elgin's share would have been $20.

In apartment #113,  right next door, were two young ladies; 24 year old Pauline Allen and 23 year old Edna Edwards. Both were from Illinois, and both were secretaries; Pauline in the gasoline industry, and Edna for a wholesale drug company. They split a $30 monthly rent for their small apartment which had a pull down murphy bed for sleeping. Secretaries were not so well paid; they each made $840 a year.

 Edna was being wooed by a 29 year old accountant in #139 named James Trihey.  

My sister Ellen tells me that she heard this story of our parents meeting....Elgin found out that Pauline's toaster was not working and offered to come by and fix it for her. He must have done a good job.

Soon Elgin and Pauline were sweethearts. 

Wood River Refinery Museum video:

Further reading:

https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/V5-N2-Priest-Shell-Oil-Strike.pdf

This article tells a little about the Wood River Refinery history, but goes on to focus on the unions at the Shell refineries in later years. If my father ever belonged to a union, I never heard about it.

Early 1930's Family living in Houston

Elgin was not alone in Houston in 1930- he had a grandmother and other family members- aunts, uncles, and cousins- who had also moved to the suburbs and lived within 5 miles of Elgin's home at 4322 Polk St.

His grandmother, Nancy Frances Womack, lived nearby. In 1930 she was 77 years old. For years after the death of her young husband, James C. Womack, she had continued to run the family plantation and live in Trinity County Texas with her sons, Edgar and Holly. 

 Now that she was getting older, she was living in the suburbs of Houston with her youngest daughter, Lillian, age 33, and Lillian's son, Jack Berry, who was 14 in 1930.  Nancy Frances took care of Jack while Lillian, who was divorced, worked in a beauty salon. They lived at 405 Welch Street in Houston. 

405 Welch St.- still standing today

A 1932 Houston directory shows another daughter, Leona, and her husband, Richard Oscar Kenley, living at 303 Welch Street.  Oscar and his son Richard Oscar Jr. had the "Kenley and Kenley" law firm at 1709-12 Sterling Bldg. Two other Sons- Bailey Kenley  and Gorman Kenley and his wife Catherine were also shown living at 303 Welch, and the sons were working with the firm. 

Oscar Kenley giving a speech during prohibition

Just a few blocks away, at 488 Fairview Avenue, lived another daughter; Maude Womack Eaves.  Maude was 40 years old and her husband Herbert Eaves was 42. This couple  had  moved to Houston sometime before 1926. They had two daughters; Reveris 19, and Nelda 14. They owned a beauty shop where Herbert was a barber and Maude a beautician. They also kept a boarder, 24 year old Doris Lewis, who was a stenographer.

A little north of these relatives lived another of Elgin's aunts; Emma Womack Garrison. Emma was Nancy Frances' eldest daughter; she was 59 years old in 1930. She was newly widowed; her husband, Bud Garrison (no relation to Elgin's father Jim Garrison) had just died in February of 1930.

 They, too, had moved to Houston from Trinity County sometime after 1920.  Emma was living with four of her five children. James Alton Garrison was 33 and a telegrapher for an oil company. Ava was 28 and Ruby was 21 and working as an office clerk. The youngest, Lester, was 17 and an office boy at a stationary company. 

 

James Alton Garrison (I think he looks a lot like Elgin!)

(Emma's eldest son, William Garrison, had also lived in Houston in 1929, but recently moved back to Angelina County (next to Trinity) to live with his wife's parents.)

  1932

The picture below had a caption on the back, written by Mattie Womack. Although she had just been ill in the hospital, she looks pretty pleased to be in the center of this bunch! It was her mother's birthday.

"Celebrates Birthday with Daughters" 

"I had just been home from the hospital in Houston when this picture was taken by Alton Garrison in 1932 or near that."

 

Mattie Womack Garrison in center, then counter clockwise to her right- Nancy Francis Taylor Womack, Lillian Womack Wade, Maud Womack Eaves, Dona Womack Kenley,  Ora Womack Burke, Leona Womack Kenley, and Emma Womack Garrison

 1937

 In 1937, Nancy Francis Womack celebrated her 85th birthday in Woodlake, Texas.  A newspaper article tells about the party-it was a two day celebration with square dancing, barbecue, and barrels of lemonade. There were 100 guests- 51 of them relatives, with four generations represented- Womacks, Burkes, and Taylors. "Mrs. Womack gave her formula for longevity- be temperate in habits of eating and exercise."

 This newspaper article from her 90th birthday tells something of her life.

Mrs. Womack is feted today on 90^th Birthday- 

A family dinner in celebration of the ninetieth birthday of Mrs. Nancy Frances Womack will be held today at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Wade of 405 Welch, Mrs. Womack’s daughter and son in law.

Mrs. Womack, a descendant of the Taylor and Ainsworth families, two pioneer East Texas clans, was born in Clinton, Miss. and was brought to Texas by her parents when she was 1 year old. Her family settled in Trinity County in 1851, near Centralia, and she was married in 1866 to John Womack. For 50 years, Mrs. Womack lived on a plantation in Crockett County, continuing to manage it for several years after her husband’s death, and for the last 25 years she has lived in Houston with the Wades.

Among her recollections of early days in East Texas are the spinning of socks for Confederate soldiers during the civil war, and the trials of reconstruction days in the old South. She was an accomplished horsewoman, making three trips on horseback from her birthplace in Mississippi, and she continued to ride horseback even after she had reached her sixtieth year.

Seven daughters and one son of Mrs. Womack are now living, five of them in Houston. They are Mrs. Emma Garrison of Houston, Mrs. Dona Kenley of San Antonio, Mrs. Leona Kenley of Houston, Mrs. Mattie Garrison of Enid, Mrs. Ora Burke of Lufkin, Mrs. Maude Eaves of Houston, H.F. Womack of Houston, and Mrs. Wade.

Mrs. Womack has 29 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren living.

  My dad and his cousins must have been close friends during these days in Houston, and they all remained life-long friends. Here are some pictures of them together at my parents' house in Houston in the 1970's.

  

 The cousins in the 1970's- Elgin, Nelda, Aletheia, Reveris and Lester standing and Ruby and Aunt Lillian seated

The mens table! Elgin Garrison, Reveris' husband Clayton Meadows, a cousin from west Texas (and another oilman!) Raymond Kenley, Aletheia's husband Fred Hainfeld, Lester Garrison, Jack Berry, and Nelda's husband Joe Morris.