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Speaker1: You ready? Um, well, I should say from there on in, I kept
buying lots for a song, so I made a few dollars on each one of them. And I
missed the number of terrific opportunities. We made a few good deals and
we missed more. In different ways. And that around 19 oh. And just about
that time I was doing I was posting a lot of bonds and I was doing it
through my mother, some through myself. And I think I asked my brother Roy.
Come back to Pittsburgh. He had gone to New York and he was composing
music. But it's hard to break through. He wrote some beautiful music. But.
Somehow they didn't click. And I guess maybe he didn't have the right
connections or something. And he came back and he went into the bonding
business. And they also well, he took care. As I said, he sold all those
houses. He sold every one of the houses. And I guess he got a taste for the
stuff. And then he became involved in real estate.
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Speaker2: So aside from your your job in Washington and. Working at the
store and your your job at Gimbels. All of those being a fairly short
duration. They were your main. Uh, occupation has been a real estate
entrepreneur.
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Speaker1: Well, I would say small time lawyer. Bonding business and real
estate. Oh, one other thing. Sheriff Sales. What were sheriff Sales? When I
get back from the army, I start going to sheriff sales once a month and
picking up real estate and trying to sell them. And then refinancing them
in order to recoup some of the cash. Why do you think of something? I'll go
to toilet for a second.
00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:38.000
Speaker2: Now. Mr. Magnum, I understand that there were various forms of
entertainment in Homestead. We read in the, uh, in our homestead book that
that Kennywood Park was enjoyed by many people, and that really, the the
entertainment of the mill workers were the bars. But, uh, I understand that
you can enlighten us on another form of another pastime, which some.
00:03:38.000 --> 00:08:11.000
Speaker1: Of us well, I believe I can. We lived in the second Ward above
our store, and that was known as the slum area of the borough of Homestead.
It was. Only a couple of blocks away from the steel mills. The. Second
Avenue was the street that fronted the mills. Third Avenue. Was one block
away and our store was. On Dixon Street at the corner of Cherry and Dixon,
and that was a half block away from Third and Dixon. About three doors from
Dixon Street was a notorious house of prostitution. Several. We used to see
the girls go by. On their different shifts. And I particularly noticed the
madam who used to go by, and she was a very beautiful woman. She was
Jewish, and she had a sister who was who was shorter and not nearly as
pretty, who apparently did the housekeeping. And I used to observe on
summer nights when myself and brothers would sleep on the porch. Facing
Dixon Street. How the. Cars would be lined up along Dixon. Uh. And which
would indicate that the place was doing a very thriving business.
Occasionally the madam would come into our store and buy. A flannel yard
goods. I believe my father was embarrassed when I hung around, but he said
nothing to me and I didn't say anything to him. They were raided from time
to time and eventually they moved and opened up a very elaborate place
somewhere along Hazel Street, which was several blocks away. And. Strange.
Ending to this all was. The fact that the madam purchased an apartment
building in Oakland. After she had retired. Marry the councilman who was
Slovak. His people had been in the had a bar at the corner of. Fifth
indexing. And I believe he died and at her death. She left her and all of
her possessions to her lawyer, who likewise was Jewish. But he has since
died. Well.
00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:22.000
Speaker2: What were your what were your parents reasons for coming to
Pittsburgh?
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Speaker1: I have no idea.
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Speaker2: I.
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Speaker1: I told you. My father, I understand, had a store on Centre
Avenue. And then he had a store in North Side. Somewhere near Brighton
Road. I can't think of the name of that street.
00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:59.000
Speaker2: But you can really think of no particular reason. I don't know
why they chose Pittsburgh over any other city. Do they have relatives here
or.
00:08:59.000 --> 00:11:40.000
Speaker1: I don't know how my father got to Pittsburgh. I really don't.
Yes, maybe I do. He had an uncle in Pittsburgh. His uncle's name was Shub.
And his uncle. Was in the rag business and scrap iron. And he had a partner
by the name of Levinson. And I presume. That he died. And Levinson became
the Levinson Steel Company. Isn't that interesting? He had two sons. His
wife. Her maiden name was Minsky. I think it was Minsky. There was a boxer,
a boxing promoter by the name of Minsky. Do you remember that name or
mince? No. Mince? Yeah. And he. I don't know. But I assume that maybe his
uncle urged him to come to Pittsburgh and his uncle lived on the bluff,
which later became known as Allies Boulevard. He had two sons. He had a son
called Herman and a son called Tom. There's a sort of a scandal aspect to
it. Tom was going to medical school at Jefferson College. I don't know
whether he had graduated or not, but he had to go to the. He was apparently
drafted and was in the First World War and he had a girlfriend. And he told
I guess he asked his brother to take care of him until he comes back. And
when he came back, he found out that his brother fell in love with her and
Herman married her.
00:11:40.000 --> 00:13:43.000
Speaker1: Tom never became married. And he became and he became quite a
surgeon, a gynecologist. Did you ever hear of him? No. When you asked your
father, he was the I think one time the dean of the surgeons among the
Jewish people. He was an under study of a man who was almost a god in the
eyes of these women and this fella. I can't think of his name. Your father
would know. Anyhow, Tom never got married, and he died about ten years ago.
And all the doctors hated him because he only charged 3 to 4 or $5 for an
examination. Now, this fella. Before him had at least two nephews. One
nephew became an assistant district attorney. And the biggest mistake he
ever made was he didn't go to medical school because he had been right
there. There was another nephew by the name of Goldman. He practiced and
did surgery with Dr. Shue until he went to Florida. And I think, you know,
this fellow, Dr. Wolfe, that died here. What is it? How long ago did he
die? Was he a surgeon? I think he was. I think he used to work with Dr.
Sherman.
00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:48.000
Speaker2: So your parents reason for coming here was that your father had
an uncle here?
00:13:48.000 --> 00:14:27.000
Speaker1: I don't know. It just occurred to me because he had nobody else
here. Now, I don't know what the sequence was. He had two brothers. One
brother. Was in Detroit. He called himself Morgan. He had another brother
by the name of Tom. And he opened. He opened up a store in export, and that
was a mining town. But exports quite a city today. Isn't that where the
Westmoreland Country Club is today?
00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:34.000
Speaker2: Okay. What was the the nationality or the ethnic background of
most of the people in your neighborhood?
00:14:34.000 --> 00:15:26.000
Speaker1: Well, wait, let me see if I have something. I wanted to tell
you. Something else about my father. He had other relatives here. Oh, I
see. He had a. He had a cousin by the name of Shub who married a fellow by
the name of Baskin. And that Baskin fella lived on Preble Avenue. So I
don't know. When we came to Preble Avenue, we always stopped at Baskin's.
This Baskin son has a store and walnut. He has a men's clothing store. You
know that, Baskin. I know his son, Andy. Oh, he has a son, Andy. Oh, is
that so? Is he a nice boy?
00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:37.000
Speaker2: I went to school with him, uh, when I was young, white in
school, and he was always really slow. Was he slow? Yeah, a nice guy. But
he was always being put back.
00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:42.000
Speaker1: That's all. Well, you know, his father has a men's clothing
store in.
00:15:42.000 --> 00:16:05.000
Speaker2: Shady Side Village.
Speaker1: Yeah. So that might have been a reason. See, and actually, my
father's grocery store might have been a couple of miles away from that
Preble Avenue area where Baskin and my mother lived. I have no other
explanation. Okay. Now, go ahead.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:10.000
Speaker2: The what was the nationality or the ethnic background of most of
the people in your neighborhood?
00:16:10.000 --> 00:18:19.000
Speaker1: Well, it changed. Originally, it was the Slovakian people. And
among the Slovaks were Russians, Slavs and Hungarians. Then. It started to
turn colored and we started in 1925. No. Yeah, 24 or 25. We started to get
a migration of Mexicans or who were being brought here to work on the
Pennsylvania Railroad. And they had worked on different railroads in the
West, and most of them worked on the railroad ties and stones. But these
Mexicans, it seems, first of all, almost all of them were single. They
brought no Mexican women with them here and there you'd see a Mexican
woman. So some of them got married. To whatever they could pick up. Some
some people they married were one that I know, married an Italian girl and
another one married. Others married. Colored people and still others
married Slovak people. So whatever they could get, they married. But they
didn't seem to have much in the way of longevity and. In later years. Some
of them went back to Mexico and a goodly number of them died.
00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:30.000
Speaker2: Were there any Scots or British or Italian or any other
nationalities or ethnic groups you mentioned? The blacks came in.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:19:08.000
Speaker1: The blacks came in and the Mexicans came in. There were a couple
Spaniards, or at least they claimed to be Spanish. The majority were one
fella I know was his name was Paris. And he was proud of the fact that he
was Spanish. But he died. He married a Slovak gal. Now. What was the
question again? Other ethnic groups. No, we had no. You're talking about
where I live.
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.000
Speaker2: In your neighborhood.
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:25.000
Speaker1: There were there were here and there. There was a an American, a
Irishman, Scotchman, but very, very rarely. Now, the.
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:27.000
Speaker2: Majority were.
00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:37.000
Speaker1: There. And no Italians, no Italians. There were Italians in the
town, but very few and not in my neighborhood.
00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:53.000
Speaker2: Um, this is kind of a vague question, but, uh, what were some of
the hardest problems faced in life in Pittsburgh while you were growing up?
For me? Yeah.
00:19:53.000 --> 00:22:49.000
Speaker1: Well, I personally never suffered any. Economic problems. It was
never a case of starvation and not having money to live on. My personal
problems were I always had a very severe inferiority complex. I always felt
I was always concerned about my size. I always wished I were head taller.
And I didn't it didn't bother me much until I went to college. The first
thing I know, I get a call. Somebody from the Phi Epsilon Pi. Probably been
just registered at school. So a couple of guys came to see me. At the
store. And I want to tell you something. They never came back. So
apparently, I never made much of an impression. If I did make an
impression, it was a negative impression that hit me. Then I have to tell
you, Maurice Berger, that I tell you he wanted me to. Have an office for
him in Homestead so that he would have a feeder. Whatever business I picked
up of any consequence, he would handle it. He and I, I used to think, were
bosom pals when he went to high school. He graduated number one in his
class in his knee pains. I was probably a freshman or sophomore when he
graduated. There were three of us me, Maurice Berger and Harry. Walk. Harry
Walk and I were in the same class. Maurice Berger was always a leader. When
he got to college, the first thing he did was formed a Jewish fraternity.
The strange thing is, he never invited me to the fraternity. I can't figure
it out. Then he went to law school. By the way, he graduated number one in
college. He's a real smart guy.
00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:54.000
Speaker2: What? What sort of activities did the Jewish fraternity engage
in?
00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:20.000
Speaker1: I was never a member of it. I wouldn't be able to tell you. He
he graduated college and he went to law school. And he formed another
fraternity there. A Jewish fraternity. He never invited me to that
fraternity. When those things hit me, I never said anything to him. But
they made their mark.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000
Speaker2: Did he know you were Jewish?
00:23:22.000 --> 00:24:37.000
Speaker1: Maurice Berger. Well, sure. He was Jewish. I knew him. I knew
his father. His mother. His sister and his brother. And you don't know, do
you? It became an extremely successful lawyer. He was in the coal business,
the gas business, the real estate business. And he's a multi-millionaire.
And I his wife just died of cancer. And I hear that they just put the stone
there a couple of weeks ago and that an application for marriage was. A
report in the newspaper this past week. So some gal that I saw the other
day, she's mad as hell. What? Because she claims because she knew his wife
and the body is still warm and she thinks it's just terrible.
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:45.000
Speaker2: How were you treated as a Jew in Homestead? Was there any
prejudice shown? Any bad feeling?
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:55.000
Speaker1: Well, yes. As a youngster, there was quite a bit of bigotry
shown. These kids.
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:56.000
Speaker2: They were making.
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Speaker1: Fun of. They were always calling me a Christ killer. And and it
was a rough area. And we were always fighting somebody. We not only I not
only fought non-Jewish boys, but we had a gang of Jewish boys and I was
fighting among them. So it was always fighting.
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:30.000
Speaker2: What? Was there any particular ethnic group or nationality that
taunted you.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:27:25.000
Speaker1: More than the others? No, I think they were all more or less
Slovaks. But as I grew up, there was less and less of it. I don't I don't
think there was any of it. Except when I was really a youngster, maybe six,
seven, eight, nine years or ten years old. But as I grew older and went,
let's say the second war, there was none of it. I have no recollection of
any of it. Uh, I do remember this. There was a Jewish woman from North Side
who lived near my relatives that moved to Homestead, and she married a
non-Jewish fella. Gentile. And they had a grocery and meat market just a
few doors away. And they the Jews were very hateful towards her. And he and
I remember the son he got to big. Sort of peculiar in that got to be a big
bullshitter. It must have been some kind of a defense mechanism. He must
have suffered because of that. Strange. At that time, intermarriage was
something terrible and he must have felt the effect of it. And as a result,
he had to become a he had to make up for it by being a o some kind of a
bully. But I don't know what ever happened to him.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:27.000
Speaker3: Um.
00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:38.000
Speaker2: Did being Jewish ever cause any problems as far as finding
housing or work or getting into school?
00:27:38.000 --> 00:30:28.000
Speaker1: Well, as I say. I don't think they ever posed any problem
except. A Jewish boy could not get into medical school. That's all there is
to it. I didn't try, but I knew many, many boys that just couldn't get into
medical school. And they were smart boys. And on the contrary, the strange
thing is I know for dullards, dumb yokels that got into medical school, two
of them I know got in through politics. The other two. Two got in by trying
everything under the sun. I think they both got into that college in Saint
Louis and they were kicked out and because they had so much money.
Incidentally, his father had been a wholesale liquor. He was in the
wholesale liquor business. One went to England and one went to Scotland.
And for years and years we lost track of them. And finally they came back
to Homestead. There in Homestead. Now, I don't think they have any brains.
Of course, when you're exposed to anything for many, many, many years,
you're bound to acquire certain ability. One is an eye, ear, nose and
throat, man. And I forget what the I think the other is a guy gynecologist.
Then there's a fifth one. He's a very ordinary fella. I don't think he was
so dull. There was a lot of scandal in his family. Not in his immediate
family, but he got into medical school. He was a rather handsome fellow.
And. He became a skin man and has been living in New York. But all the
smart guys that I know of that wanted to get into medical school, none of
them got in. So just because I think primarily because they were Jewish, I
didn't affect me personally to that extent, at least I think the their
Jewishness posed a problem.
00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:38.000
Speaker2: What was the first organization of Jewish people you remember,
being organized or existing when you were young?
00:30:38.000 --> 00:31:38.000
Speaker1: Well, with the Homestead Hebrew congregation, Be one. The school
Hebrew school would be to the Sunday school would be three. And we had
quite a popular Boy Scout troop. Troop number two. We had a fellow by the
name of Ed Haupt, who was an engineer. His sister was a teacher at
Homestead High School. She taught mathematics. Okay. And I was always
fighting and fighting. I wanted to get on top. I did become. I know what
you call it. Personal became the senior patrol leader. And then by virtue
of the fact that I had so damn many merit badges, I didn't mean a damn
thing, but I accumulated them so that more or less automatically made me
the number one scout.
