King Kong

                                                                          Lambs

  

Our family moved to the south side of Chicago in 1951. To supplement his printers wages at Cuneo press,  Dad took a job as a carpenter contractor for an old 

real estate guy on 51st Street. His name was B.F.Dombro. Part of the deal was an old rickety      house on 61st Pl, near the railroad tracks, and across from Englewood High School. Rich was 10, I was 5 and Chuck was 4. Having moved from a beautiful mountainside  small town nestled in the foothills of the Alleghenies to a racially changing neighborhood was no big deal. We took it all in stride. We had never even heard of a black person, and now we were classmates. Just to the east they would be finishing the new Dan Ryan Expressway.  

                                     Richard Pace Sr Cuneo Press 1940


 Goodbye Corning New York...

Next stop Chicago Illinois


 
 
I was the lucky one.
I got to fly there in Pops old Piper CubJ3

We left from Joe Costa's Painted Post new york airport. He was the guy who gave Dad his flying lessons. Joe was famous for an attempted transatlantic flight in 1936.




 
Here  is the Wiki link:


                             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Costa_%28aviator%29
 

                                                Midway 1951

                                                                   Gas Receipt  
We landed in Midway Airport in  Illinois after numerous fill ups on the way. 

 

My Mom had to drive the car with Rich and Chuck. 

We found out later that the neighborhood of their youth was only a few blocks away. A construction boom was underway in Chicago.

Pops wanted to be a part of it.

We had also moved near  to the busiest shopping district on the south side. 63rd & Halsted. 

The area was also known for it's old theaters. We could see the castle like tower of one from our back yard. 

We got the up close view about a week after we moved in. Our folks decided to send us on our 1st trip to "see a 

show".  It was the first time we saw a movie. We didn't have a TV yet, and we didn't have one in Corning. 

The only thing we knew was radio. This was going to be a major adventure.

Dad drove us over in the old Ford and dropped us off in front of the Southtown Theater.

. It reminded us of the pictures of Egypt from one the National Geographics that was always around the 

house. Up on the marquee,

In big..big...big..letters was ..............


                                                   ............."KING KONG"

 

                                Forgive the French version of this poster, that's kind of  the way I remembered it.



We had no clue, although brother Rich knew about it from the folks. It was an old movie then! I remember 

the gilded doors and being hit by the smell of buttered popcorn. 

Then Wow! There was a huge lagoon filled with giant gold fish. There were gilded statues  everywhere.  

Winding staircases to someplace way up there. We were in Aladdin's Castle.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Rich found us some seats and we sat there mesmerized.What a grand and lavish place. 

The huge curtains opened and show began. I know we were all hypnotized by it all. Six glassy eyes staring in disbelief at this epic of an event. I supposed if you have to see your 1st movie


 it should be one of a giant gorilla 
climbing a tall building in the state you just left.

 Like everyone at the time, King Kong was scary at first and then we liked him. We were sad when he fell. 

They took the him out of the jungle and he got killed. 

And here we were...three little monkeys away from the farm. 

What was going to happen to us?



 


 Me...I'm the kid with his zipper open. The gal just over me wound up being my classmate in the next grammar school, as well as through high school.

 My friend Thomas (on my left) reacted to the teacher saying "OK Boys..stand up straight!"

 It wasn't the last time I heard that!