Having Fun in 1940's Philadelphia

                   Kids Could Have Fun in 1940’s Philadelphia

 

     

 

 

     Aside from walking the streets, there were lots of ways for kids to have fun in 1940’s Philadelphia. Listening to the radio was on the top of the list. We had an old brown table model that sat on the counter in the kitchen. I think it was a Philco. After dinner we kids would all gather around sitting as close to it as we possibly could. Some of our favorite shows were Sky King, The Thin Man, The Green Hornet, and Inner Sanctum, Sam Spade, The Cisco Kid, The FBI in Peace and War

    I can still remember how some of the shows started. The sheriff began with the line, “If in Trouble Call the Sheriff,” The Fat Man with, “He's stepping on the scales. Weight? 237 pounds. Fortune? Danger. Whoooooo is it? THE FAT MAAAAN!” The Shadow began with, “Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men. The Shadow knows.” The Lone Ranger started out with, “Hi ho Silver. The Lone Ranger rides again.”

      George Burns and Gracie Allen, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and Blondie and Dagwood were Saturday and Sunday night shows. My mother had her own soap operas that she listened to during week day mornings. One of them, I remember, was Portia Faces Life.

     Saturday mornings we had our set shows, Let’s Pretend, and Grand Central Station were two of them. I can still recall some of the commercials. “I’m Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. That’s my dog Ty. look for him in there in there too.”  And, “Cream of Wheat is so good to eat yet we have it every day. It’s good for growing children and grown ups to to eat. That’s why our favorite cereal is delicious Cream of Wheat.” My favorite radio commercial was “Pepsi Cola hits the spot. Twelve once bottle that’s a lot. Twice as much for a nickel too. Why take less when Pepsi’s best. Nickel nickel nickel nickel nickel…..” We would listen to the radio shows until around eleven thirty or so and then it was off to the movies.

    Most of the time we would go to the Liberty on Columbia Avenue. There was a mustard pretzel man with a cart in front of the box office. We’d buy mustard pretzels a penny apiece, and munch on them while we waited in line. When we first started going to the Liberty tickets were thirteen cents each. We received twenty-five cents a week allowance back then. That gave us two cents for mustard pretzels, thirteen cents for the ticket, a nickel for a coke from the coke machine, and a nickel for a five- cent candy bar. It was a catastrophe when the tickets went up to sixteen cents a year or two after we first started going.

    We got seated as close to the screen as possible. The lights would dim. And then came the high point of our whole week, the cartoon. It was usually Bugs Bunny, or Porky Pig. We would laugh and laugh and laugh. Then came the newsreel, “The News of the Day.” After that was a serial which continued week from week. Next was the first of a double feature. Usually there was a short intermission between features. If we had some extra money, we would use this time to hit the candy or coke machine, or else make a quick stop at the restroom. The second feature would end around five o’clock, and it was home for dinner playing out the roles that struck us most.

    Many of the feature films were Westerns. There was Roy Rogers, the king of the Cowboys with his wife, Dale Evans, his sidekick Gabby Hayes, and his horse Trigger. Gene Autry had Andy Devine as his sidekick and a horse named Champion. Other cowboys were The Cisco Kid, with his sidekick, Pauncho, Hopalong Cassidy, The Durango Kid, and The Lone Ranger. After a cowboy movie we would ride our pretend horses home and act out some of the best scenes.

    The War Movies had American heroes fighting the Japs and the Germans. It was all black and white. The Germans and Japs were the bad guys and the Americans were the goodies. Whether on the ground or in the air in the end the goodies always won the battle. We would make rifles out of old broomsticks and fight the most recent movie battle for the whole week.  “Alright, saddle up,” I’d tell Joey and we would put on a pretend backpack, and take off into the jungle.

    The Bowery Boys series was another favorite. It was easy to identify with the teenage delinquents who lived in the bad part of New York City. I was always the leader, Slip. Joey played Satch, the dumb guy. We also loved The Three Stooges and would imitate the antics for weeks at a time.

    Sundays we would go to Church and Sunday school at the Baptist Temple up on Broad. Church and Sunday school was kind of fun too. We met with a small group in a little room downstairs. The Sunday school teacher was an old maid who was really found of kids and would always tell us how smart we were when we answered her questions. She would walk Joey and I home once in awhile and read the Sunday Comics to us. That’s how I learned to read, reading along with her and eventually reading the comics on my own. Church was fun too. We got to sit in the soft cushioned seats and listen to the huge organ. Some times we’d even go to the Wednesday night service. That was so we could get the free coffee and doughnuts. We could only have a little sip of coffee with lots of milk in it. But, I can still taste those jelly doughnuts even today.

    We were not into sports very much.  Joey and I did do some boxing before my dad pawned and lost our gloves, but we never did join one of the police athletic leagues that were all over town. I don’t remember seeing any basketball hops anywhere, and there were no little league ballparks in our neighborhood. Some of the neighbor kids were heavy into stickball. And if there were room on a team they would ask us to play from time to time.

    For stickball you only need a cut off broomstick and half a tennis ball. The team at bat stands at the curb and hits toward the street. If your half ball crosses the street it’s a single, if it hits the building across the street it’s a double. If it hits the first story it’s a triple. The second story is a homerun. There’s no base running. If the ball is caught it’s an out. And you can strike out too, but there are no walks. Of course, the rules can change according to what the players want and where you are playing. I was pretty good at stickball, but not all that interested in it.

    Another variation of baseball was stoopball. For stoopball, you used a full tennis ball. You throw it into the edge of the step and let it bounce across the street. Again, if it was caught by an opposing player you were out. Singles, doubles, triples, and home runs were scored pretty much the same way as in stickball. We couldn’t play stoopball on our street because we didn’t have the right kind of steps. We would play stoopball on Park Avenue where there were three or four concrete steps with sharp edges at each house. Our friend Bobby Hamilton was crazy about stoopball and wanted to play it all the time.

    Bobby was crazy about marbles too. He wanted to shot marbles all the time. We would even play in his house on the living room floor. His mom would play with us sometimes. She would always say, ”Shiver in your dippers, baby. Dead Eye Dick is coming.” Most of the time we would play marbles in the front yard, drawing a large circle in the dirt. Sometimes, we would dig a hole and you would have to knock the opponents marble into it. Marbles were fun until some sharp shooter came along and won all your marbles and then you’d have to wait until you got some money to buy some new ones.

    Winter was fun whenever it snowed. We had snowball fights that would last all day. Sometimes we would build snow forts and team up behind them. We would stack up our snowballs and rush each other’s forts. Most of the time we wouldn’t pack the snowballs too hard and no one would get hurt. But, some times one of the meaner kids would make what we called ice balls and they would really hurt. Once they started hurling ice balls the game would be over.

    Nobody in our neighborhood had a sled, but we would run and slide on the ice. We would pretend that we were ice-skating. We did a lot of pretending in the 1940’s Philadelphia. Pretending was a key way to have fun whatever the time or the weather.

    We kids were not into music too much before we started school. But, my dad and mom were both into music some. My mother had an old up right piano that she would play for us some times. She played the harmonica also. Mostly it was Southern hymns that she played, The Old Rugged Cross, I Come to the Garden Alone, Holy Holy, Holy. She taught us to sing Jesus Wants Me for a Sun Beam. The old piano went out of tune, but mom continued to play the harmonica and sing for us.

    Dad had an old wind up Victoria down in the cellar. He had a collection of records that he was very proud of and tried to keep from us kids. Al Jolson was his favorite. He just loved “Climb Upon my Knee Sonny Boy,”

And “Mammy.” He use to sing “You Can’t be True Dear” to my mom whenever he got mad at her.

   Joey and I would sneak down into the basement when dad was off to work. We would wind up the handle on the old Victoria and put a record on. I remember on song went something like this, “You push the first bell down. The music goes round and round whoa oh oh oh oh and it comes out here. You push the next bell down. The music goes round and round whoa oh oh oh oh oh. Listen to the jazz come out.” Every once in awhile we get caught when we left a record out of the jacket or something and get a real lecture.

   Yea, there were many ways to have fun in the city. And most of our life was looking for fun things to do. But, that was before we started school.