My dad, Alfred Carreiro (1918–2017), with his dad, José Carreiro (1880–1952). (c.1938)
This post is the second part of of a three–part tribute to my father.1 He lived for almost a century. A lot of living, experience and adventures fell to him. He had an amazing journey. I have tried to be as historically accurate as I can be in recalling his life. I have interspersed historical information within my narrative about him in this reflection. Any errors of fact are my fault. It is my hope that I have been able to recreate my father’s life in such a way as to share with readers the impact he had upon my life. He was the first storyteller I knew.
1930s Kellogg’s Corn Flakes advertisement (Pinterest).
Front Row [left to right]: Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Gian Galeazzo Ciano signed the Munich Agreement. (Photo in public domain: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R69173 / CC-BY-SA 3.0)
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On Tuesday, March 15 , 1938, Hitler announces the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany that occurred on Saturday, 12 March 1938 from the ramp of Vienna’s Hofburg Palace looking out at Hero’s Square. (German Federal Archives Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst – Zentralbild [Bild 183].)
“You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”
Home movie from Vienna likely taken just after Kristallnacht in 1938.
Please check out PBS' “The Fight”, a documentary focused on the iconic adversaries of America’s Joe Louis and Nazi Germany’s Max Schemeling.
Time magazine’s “Man of 1938”.
• “Commercial quantities” of oil were discovered in Saudi Arabia by geologists and drillers of the Arabian American Oil Company [Aramco]. Aramco was a partnership between Standard Oil and Abdel Aziz,5 the first monarch of Saudi Arabia.
United States $1 Banknote, Legal Tender, Series of 1928 (Fr. Ref#1500). Part of the National Numismatic Collection, NMAH, Smithsonian Institution. Serial #1 of a printing of 1,872,012 notes. (The Bureau of Engraving and Printing & Smithsonian Institution. Image by Godot13.)
Regarding oil and its derivative products, Dad often would remark about how expensive everything cost today in comparison to his economic experience stretching back in time over ninety years. He would give examples, such as the price of gasoline. He would recall that when he was a boy one could buy 10 gallons of gasoline for $1.00.
The Height of the 1938 Hurricane in Providence RI (photo Wm. H Foley Providence Journal). It was the greatest weather disaster to hit New England in its recorded history.
When he finally arrived home at the farm on Locust Street, he had witnessed unprecedented damage to the buildings and homes of his neighbors. Many trees were down in the main yard. The edge of the fields were littered with trees fallen onto crops about to be picked as well as being storm–draped over an extensive system of stone walls that had been rebuilt and repaired over the years by my grandfather. They lost almost everything still standing in the fields awaiting harvest.
Bijou Theatre. (See Footnote for more information and attribution of this source.)
North Main Street in Fall River, Massachusetts c. 1928. The Bijou Theater is located on the left side of the street, towards the middle of the block pictured above. (Courtesy & permission of Shorpy.com.)
The price of a movie ticket went up as he grew older, but that happened when the new Durfee Theatre11 was built. A fire destroying the majority of the city’s business district occurred in 1928 when Dad turned ten. The Savoy Theatre was burned. The Durfee Theatre opened on August 31, 1929 and it was considered palatial by all. As the Bijou was eclipsed by the new theater, the Durfee became a premier spot for folks to be entertained.
Durfee Theate marquee showing the 1941 movie They Died with Their Boots On, starring Errol Flynn & Olivia de Havilland (Flickr).
Trolleys on Fall River’s North Main Street (Pinterest).
Photo of Orson Welles meeting with reporters in an effort to explain that no one connected with the War of the Worlds radio broadcast had any idea the show would cause panic.
On October 30th, Orson Welles’ radio program featuring “War of the Worlds” created much consternation nationwide when it aired. Welles presented the program more as a breaking feature news story than a play.14 Dad and his siblings grew quite alarmed when they heard it. My grandmother told them in Portuguese, Não o escute. Ele é somente uma mentira. In other words, “Don’t listen to it. It’s just a lie.”
# |
Artist | Title | Year | Country |
1 | Artie Shaw | Begin the Beguine | 1938 | USA |
2 | Bob Hope & Shirley Ross | Thanks For the Memory | 1938 | USA |
3 | Seven Dwarfs | Whistle While You Work | 1938 | USA |
4 | The Andrews Sisters | Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen | 1938 | USA To Me You’re Beautiful |
5 | Fred Astaire | Nice Work If You Can Get It | 1938 | USA |
In a family replete with great storytellers, my father was able to help me grapple with a terrible situation. Unlike the lack of visual clarity in the photo at the head of this post, the memory of my father talking with me has provided me with an incredible legacy. It allows me to see not just the period of 1958, but to twenty years prior to that time, perhaps even a multitude of years stretching from Vavu’s, Dad’s and to my time simultaneously.
In sharing a loss that he experienced he told me a story of the pain he endured that was very similar to my own. He did not make it all go away, he just helped make it more endurable . . .
Footnotes & Related Links:
1For more information about my father’s side of the family, please see my 16 February 2016 weblog, “The Storytellers (Part I)”.
2Please refer to the following links for more information about the Munich Agreement:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Munich-Agreement
3Please refer to the links listed below:
http://www.history.com/topics/kristallnacht
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-of-kristallnacht
4Please refer to the link below. It provides the article accompanying the feature story on Hitler:
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauMemorial/TimeCover.html
“The cover picture featured Hitler playing ‘his hymn of hate in a desecrated cathedral while victims dangle on a St. Catherine’s wheel and the Nazi hierarchy looks on.’ This picture was drawn by Baron Rudolph Charles von Ripper, a German Catholic who had fled Hitler’s Germany.”
5The monarch was formally named Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman ibn Faisal Al Saud. He was also referred to as Ibn Saud.
6Kindly refer to the links below:
https://worldhistoryproject.org/1938/11/1/seabiscuit-beats-war-admiral-in-the-match-of-the-century
7Kindly refer to the two links below for more information about this incredibly devastating storm:
http://www.weather.gov/box/1938hurricane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b21g-5YBLs
8For a more complete listing, please see the link below:
http://www.filmsite.org/1938.html
9More information on the Bijou Theatre can be found at the following links:
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/12221
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/12221/comments
10This broadcast can be listened to at the link below:
11Information about the Durfee Theatre can be found at the link shown below:
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6448/photos
12More information about the Fall River trolley system can be found at the link shown below. It is from an article in South Coast Today, written by William A. Moniz (Posted Jul 5, 2012 at 12:01 AM), Fall River Spirit Correspondent, “Horses, trolleys kept Fall River moving in early days”.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20120705/PUB03/207050389
13Some excellent sources of specific programs can be reviewed on the following links:
https://www.otrcat.com/p/bob-hope
https://archive.org/details/The_Bob_Hope_Program
https://www.otrcat.com/p/dick-tracy
https://www.otrcat.com/p/kraft-music-hall
https://archive.org/details/otr_abbottandcostello
http://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Benny_Goodman.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mercury_Theatre_on_the_Air
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Rogers_in_the_25th_Century_(radio_series)
14The episode of “War of the Worlds” can be heard at this link shown below:
A brief synopsis using video clips of the time can be seen at the following link:
15For more information about Fado and cantigas ao desafio, please see my February 4, 2016 blog listed below:
16You can read this first edition of Superman for free at the link below:
https://www.cgccomics.com/1134755001/#features/
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
© 3 June 2017 by A. Keith Carreiro
For information about my series, The Immortality Wars, please go to my home page: https://immortalitywars.com/
1 comment. Leave new
Amazing story Keith!!!