I say that as though one just hopped over to Los Angeles from Pasadena but it wasn't quite that simple. This was before two things: a car and a freeway. I didn't have access to either. One reason was that there was no freeway. The Arroyo Freeway from Pasadena to Los Angeles was the first in Southern California but it didn't open until several years later. In 1937 the pilgrims made their tortuous way through the metropolises of Eagle Rock and Glendale by car or took The Red Car, an interurban trolley to downtown LA. Then there was another trolley to Vermont and First streets where the combined facilities KFI and KEHE were located. Later, but before we were married, Bev and I did form a partnership. She provided the purchase funds and I managed the upkeep on the car we bought for $75. It was a 1930 Model A Ford touring car we naturally named The Bathtub. There was no top. It worked fine until the rains came. Then, discretion became the better part of valor and we traded it in for a 1931 Model A Ford coupe. It cost $150 but we got our original $75 for the Bathtub in the trade-in. When I went to New York we sold the coupe to a friend for $75 because Bev didn't drive. For the next 63+ years if we went anywhere by car I did the driving. I was used to it. When I grew up in Houston, Texas didn't require a driving license and I started driving at age 13.

It was still trolley time when I first went to see Jack Gross. Jack was very kind. He introduced me to a man named Howard Esary who was one of the associates at Allied Advertising Agency, a local outfit which had offices about a block away from the station. At this stage of my life I was still possessed of a marked Texas accent. Falling back on it years later on Gunsmoke was quite an asset but at the time stage directors kept insisting that the word was not "keeyow" it was "cow" and things like that. At the moment it was a handy tool. I was hired (a wonderful word) to do spot announcements for a furniture outfit called‹and you have to believe this‹The Dixie Hospitality Store. I was paid $2.00 a session and I was now a professional actor. Needless to say, this was before AFRA.

And there was more. Howard was also involved in making electrical transcriptions of dramatic programs. They were recorded at the Macgregor studio and the process was really something. So was Mr. Macgregor. He had a certain reticence about paying actors who worked there. The recording turntable was big. The recordings themselves were done by a stylus head cutting grooves in a big plate of wax at the speed (if I remember correctly) of 33 1/3 rpm. Each wax plate was about an inch or so thick and polished absolutely smooth. After the sound was recorded on wax it was transferred to a metal negative and pressings were made from that for distribution. The first show that I did had a large cast. There must have been about ten of us including at least two names I remember: Jack Mather and Bob Lemond. The reading went smoothly and the recording went smoothly with one small exception. It ran 14 minutes and 45 seconds. We had 15 seconds more show than we were supposed to have. That meant hauling out a new wax and starting over again . We were going great guns until one of the actors blooped. New wax. Next time we went perfectly for 14minutes and 15 seconds before a different actor fouled up. There was a little harsh language from the director, Mr. Esary, and we started again. By now a sort of hysteria had attacked the cast. Different actors made mistakes and everybody got a little tense. It took fourteen tries before we finally got a clean recording. Through it all the recorder, Paul Quan, was wonderful. We ran out of clean waxes and had to stop while they were resurfaced. He never made a complaint. At the end of the day we had each earned $2.50 including rehearsal time. That was very good because with a large cast like that the budget sometimes offered only $2.00 per head.

Electrical transcriptions had an important place in my life. Years later, when I was on staff at KWKW an ET was involved in a big decision. During the time I had been with the station I had some differences of opinion with the owner. I think he was a candy manufacturer and the radio station was either a hobby or a tax deduction. This was 1943, right smack in the middle of World War II and there were warnings all over about loose lips and other dangerous statements. It was my job to open the station at 6 or 6:30 in the morning and after making a station identification, connect to Radio Central. That was a broadcasting center that could simultaneously release programs by wire to the small local stations in the Los Angles area. We certainly qualified under the small heading. I don't know the exact wattage of our signal but the studios were in the basement of the Pasadena Athletic Club and I think we could be heard all the way to the top floor. Radio Central was very big on "religious" programs most of which featured frequent requests for funds to keep their great mission moving forward. One morning the speaker lumped Russia with Germany and Japan as beastly enemies of the US of A which was all right except for the fact that Russia was our ally. I put a disclaimer on the program: Opinions expressed on the preceding program are not necessarily those of the management.

I didn't think anybody listened to those broadcasts but at least one person did. I had hardly switched programs when the phone rang and some madman was screaming about the idiot who had said that bit about "not necessarily." I allowed as how it was station policy and he should speak to the manager later. Which he did. Apparently at some length. Which involved a conference with the manager. It has been so long ago that I don't recall the owner's name but I do remember that he gave me the impression of being politically somewhere right of Genghis Khan. I retained my job by pointing out that even if he agreed with the "pastor" that it wasn't expedient to put station sponsors in that camp.

It was some weeks later that I was on an afternoon shift, sitting in the small announce booth. I was almost listening to the electrical transcription I had started but was essentially just sitting. As I mentioned, the studios were in the basement. The announce booth was placed directly in front of the parking lot. This also made the air conditioner strategically located to access exhaust fumes. Before the end of the ET I had gone into the owner's office and given two weeks notice.

It was all very exhilarating to have taken advantage of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Act but on the way home it occurred to me that my three-year job as a DJ had ended; I had terminated my connection with an advertising agency and actually I was without a source of income. This was in July and our baby was due in November. Great planning! How do I tell Bev?

When I got home, I kissed my wife and then in a very bright, cheerful voice said, "Guess what!" And she said, "You quit your job." Aren't women wonderful?