Before the age of four years Tita had become a seasoned traveler. She had been born in Illinois and photographed in Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona, and California.
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| Photo 35a-40K: Tita in Echo Park, Los Angeles California; January 1935, age three years. Note shadow of the head and torso of the photographer to the left. | Photo 35g-36K: July 1935 at Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans. Ann Kushner, Pete (Abe Kushner's brother) holding Tita, Kitty Galante and Mrs Zion. Note how old Ann looks; she had turned just 30 years of age the previous 27 November! |
Since there was no commercial air travel in the 1930s, Tita had to go by automobile, bus, or train and so must have at least passed through many other states as well.
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| Photo 35b-28K: March 1935 Biloxi, Mississippi. The sign reads "Edgewater Gulf Hotel". Tita, Ann Kushner, Reuben Hoffman. Why had Uncle Rube left his work at Hoffman Brothers in South Bend to come a thousand miles to Biloxi? Were his sister and niece in trouble? | Photo 35c-32K: Tita (age 3 years & 2 months) in New Orleans, March 1935. |
We can look at a map and guess at: Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and New Mexico as a bare minimum with a lot of backtracking.
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| Photo 35e-24K: March 1935 in New Orleans; Tita and Ann. | Photo 35f-28K: 25 May 1935 in New Orleans; Tita and Kitty. This appears to be taken at the same place as Photo 35e but from a different angle and, of course, a different day. From the shadow the photographer might be Ann. |
But most tourists would want to use different routes, as would most fugitives, and so we might guess that Tita had been in perhaps 30 of the (then) 48 states by the time she turned four.
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| Photo 35h-24K: Tita and Ann at Coolidge Dam on the Gila River, about 100 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona; August 1935. | Photo 35i-20K: September 1935 in Los Angeles, California; Tita (age 3 years & 8 months) with unidentified (so far) companions (the address is possibly 1006 Echo Park Avenue). |
This is a remarkable accomplishment for one so young. She and Ann could just as well been employed by Barnum & Bailey -- at least they would have been building a nest egg and a future!
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| Photo 35j-40K: 21 October 1935 in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Tita, Ann and a man with "Chaney", a monkey he had brought from Siam (now Thailand). | Photo 35k-24K: 21 October 1935 in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Tita feeding a swan. |
Your mother married Abe. Did they stay within the house or did they--?
Oh, no. They were quick to leave. In the first place, his job took him [laughs] -- his way of living left him moving rapidly from place to place. Of course she soon realized what situation she was in, and that was the beginning of her disintegration as far as being emotionally disturbed. She had a couple of nervous breakdowns and was a very bright but very disturbed woman because it was so horrific to her.
So she found out about her husband fairly early on.
Yes, so by the time I was three, she left him finally.
Did that take you, then, to Chicago?
No, to my grandmother in South Bend. We lived with my grandmother.
I was born in Chicago during their various trips around the world, and
then when my mother left my father, my uncle had to send the money for
her to take the train to come home to my grandmother which was a terrible
thing for my mother in terms of their relationship. Also it was a terrible
stigma to be divorced in 1935, and certainly from a good family in those
days. I was the only girl in school who didn't have a father.
[OH-6]
Uploaded 16 July 2005; revised 20 December 2005, 10 October 2006.
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