Life in New York Continues - Without Carol
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The fall of 1933 found me still in New York. Carol had gone to Philadelphia, and I was again pressing my search for a job connected with the professional stage. As I had done so many times the previous June, I visited offices of theatrical producers, directors, and casting agents nearly every day.
I was sharing a small apartment on East 57th Street with Bob Thomson, one of the members of the Barter Theatre group at Abingdon while I was there. Others from that group were also back in New York, but Bob and I rarely saw them. I remember seeing Helen Wright, Bob Fogle, Emily Woodruff, and Storrs Haynes. Some of the Barter group had occasional employment there in the city but nothing regular. Others were walking the streets looking for jobs, just as Bob and I were.
When my money was about to run out late in September, I began to look for just any kind of job, not necessarily one connected with the theatre. In order to be able to buy food and pay my part of the rent, I was willing to wash dishes, wait on tables, or do any other kind of work which was legal and respectable. But jobs were still very scarce, with many applicants for every vacancy, and during my first few days of searching, I heard only, "no, sorry" -- and many times without the "sorry" added.
It was not long, however, before I got a break. About two years earlier, my brother had held jobs with the R. K. 0. entertainment chain in New York. First he was an usher in one of its movie theatres, then later, chief of its service division for the city. Acting on a hunch that I might capitalize on his previous connection, I went one day to the personnel office of the R. K. 0. syndicate and told the manager there that my brother, Gooch Travelstead, used to work with that chain in New York. The manager was polite but said he did not know my brother. After a moment, however, he added that perhaps his assistant manager, Joe Scallini, might have known Gooch. When I learned Mr. Scallini would be back in the office about two o'clock, I decided to wait. That meant more than two hours of waiting without any lunch, but since I did not have enough money to buy lunch there at Times Square, it really didn't make any difference where I spent the lunch hour. I would not be any hungrier in that office than I would be walking around on the streets. So I waited…and it did payoff.
Shortly after two, Mr. Scallini came in. When I identified myself, he said good naturedly, "of course I know Gooch. He was a fine worker. Where is he now?" After I told him my brother was in the restaurant business in Chase City, Virginia, he asked me what I was doing in New York and why I had come to the R.K.O. office. He did not seem surprised when I told him I was looking for a job -- any kind of job, I said.
Mr. Scallini was cordial but not very encouraging. He did say, however, that I might inquire at the R. K. 0. Jefferson Theatre on East 14th Street about an usher's job, adding he had heard just that morning of an opening there. He also offered to call the manager of that movie house and tell him I was coming. I thanked him, and as I was about to leave he said he believed the Jefferson manager also knew Gooch. With a friendly pat on my shoulder, he then suggested it might be helpful if I mentioned I was Gooch's brother. (Again, "angles" and connections seemed to make a difference -- how much, I don't know.)
The 5 ¢ subway ride from Times Square south to l4th Street was only a matter of minutes, and in less than half an hour, I was at the R. K. 0. Jefferson, talking first with the manager who did remember my brother and then with that theatre's chief usher. The details of these conversations are unimportant, but I did get the job as usher. When asked if I could report for work that same night at eleven o'clock, I quickly answered in the affirmative. I knew it was no time to hum and haw -- and certainly not wise to ask inconsequential questions.
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