Densho Digital Archive - Mary Jean Spallino Interview (denshovh-smary

<Begin Segment 2>

RM: What are your first memories of Los Angeles?

MS: I guess going to, walking to school, the five blocks to grammar school, they called them grammar schools in those days.

RM: What grammar school did you go to?

MS: Grant.

RM: Oh, Grant.

MS: G-R-A-N-T. It was about five blocks from where we lived, and I'm not sure, it may still be there, but I doubt it.

RM: And was that... for somebody who's not as clear on the geography on the Los Angeles area, is that in Santa Monica?

MS: No, honey, the street was Santa Monica and Western. This isn't Santa Monica beach.

RM: Okay. Could you tell us where in L.A. that is, what neighborhood it is?

MS: Oh. Well, you know where Hollywood Boulevard is?

RM: I do, yes.

MS: Okay, then the next major street, Sunset Boulevard. And then the next major, Santa Monica, and going this way, Western Avenue. And Western Avenue used to go all the way to the ocean, because we didn't have freeways. So it's in the heart, it was right in the heart of Hollywood.

RM: Yeah, okay, got it. Thank you. What do you remember from your neighborhood, what it was like?

MS: Very homey, wonderful families. And different backgrounds. It was just a very nice... individual houses, and we all knew one another, the kids played together. We played out in the street, all of the houses in Hollywood then, at least where I lived, had, they had the curbs and then they had the grass and then they had the sidewalk. In the grass they used to have two palm trees, every house. That's why I love the palm trees here.

RM: Are there any families or friends that really stick out to you?

MS: Oh, honey, there'd be so many that it wouldn't be interesting to anybody.

RM: [Laughs] All right.

MS: No, really, there were so many, because I lived there. I lived in that house in Fernwood for thirty years, so they come and they go.

RM: What about... I'm interested in school. Do you remember your teacher as well?

MS: I do. There... a lot of them I remember, there's a little lady who lives here, she's one year younger than I, she was reared in Hollywood, she went to Grant, she went to La Conte junior high school, she went to Hollywood High School. And we get together and we reminisced, especially in our junior high school, Miss Heap, she was our PE teacher, and she wore bloomers. And in those days, that was quite unusual. [Laughs]

RM: She wore 'em in PE class?

MS: Well, in teaching, in the gym class. She was a funny little lady. But when Arfie and I get together, why, we keep mentioning Miss Heap. There were a lot of teachers, though, I had wonderful teachers, and a lot of them, I couldn't mention them.

RM: Do you think that they inspired the direction you took?

MS: Oh, absolutely. In my junior high, I can't recall her name, but she had been to China. That was terrific, you know, she would tell us about China. I always remembered her.

RM: Can you say the name of your junior high school again?

MS: La Conte. L-A., and then C-O-N-T-E junior high.

RM: And was that in the same part of town right there?

MS: Yeah, that was right close. All of these schools were within walking distance, Carol Burnett graduated, and there was somebody else that... I didn't know Carol Burnett because she's much younger than I. There was somebody who became rather well-known, I cannot think of her name, whom I did know, she was in my junior high. Because I was in the chorus, the glee club, we called it, in junior high, and I cannot think of her name, but she was rather well-known for a while. It wouldn't mean anything to you people, to us then.

RM: Could you tell me a little bit about glee club? We didn't have those by the time I got to school.

MS: It was a wonderful... quite a large number of us, maybe forty in the glee club. And we would sing at different places, maybe at some other school or something like that. It wouldn't be a big deal now, but it was wonderful musical background. And my mother was very musical; she played the piano beautifully. So it just tied in with my background with my mother and the chorus, you know. That's all I can tell you about the glee club.