"This
morning Bob Nave, John Howes, and I attended the St. Thomas Episcopal Church just
around the corner from here... Franklin D. Roosevelt belonged to this
church.... In peacetime FDR was a frequent attender but after 1941 the secret
service wouldn't allow it. Even when he
did attend, SS men surrounded him - in front, in back in the pew we occupied
and to the left in the Roosevelt pew.
Also they were scattered over the church. Roosevelt being a cripple, a truck brought a
special ramp to the side door at 10 A.M. to obviate the necessity of the
difficult trip up the front steps. Even so
he walked with the assistance of some one else and with a cane down the center
aisle to his pew....
"I
dropped over to the Joe Turner Arena to hear Duke Ellington in person. He
played for a negro dance (about 30 whites were scattered among the 2 or 3 thousand
colored spectators). It was the funniest
sight I've seen in years -- a sea of black faces -- everyone bouncing in rhythm
-- dudes in zoot like clothing shouting -- jitterbugging couples moved around
in very small openings in the crowd. The
men worked hard -- Ellington scarcely stopped for the 2 hours I was there --
with his piano chording between pieces on the old beatup upright job. Lawrence Brown, trombonist was the best part
for my money -- I stood beside him for 30 minutes. During that time he didn't bother to take out
any of the arranged music. Al Hibbler,
blind vocalist, was the crowd favorite."
--
Letter from my father, Washington, D.C., to his sister, Southwestern College,
Winfield, Kans., March 17, 1946. In a
letter my father wrote to his parents and brothers three days later, he
described many of the same events that Sunday, but left out the Ellington
concert.
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