The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
MARCH 19, 1938
[Original version of the column. Text in red are tagged with <sic> (needs correction); text in purple are tagged with <orig> (needs regularization); and text in blue are tagged names of persons or organizations. View emended version]
LOS ANGELES, Calif., Friday—Yesterday afternoon I visited a mammoth cutting room where, with the exception of one locality, the W.P.A. cuts out all the garments for the whole of southern California. This means a tremendous business organization and the people in the cutting rooms work as they would in a very large factory. They also have a big sewing room in the same building. The bookkeeping is extremely interesting, every garment is followed through from its beginning until it is packed and shipped out.
From there we went to a household training project. The practice house is well equppied and the women have every opportunity to gain experience for good domestic service. It has been difficult to persuade women to take the course, because many of them are unwilling to accept the conditions of domestic service as they have known them. The project gives the employer, as well as the employee, a little book on the standards for both. I think this book will be helpful in other places.
The Campfire Girls presented me with a very lovely basket of flowers just before my evening lecture. I was fascinated by their Indian costumes.
This morning, at 9:30, Mr. J.F.T. O'Connor, Mr. Joseph Schenck of the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, and Dr. Herman Lissauer, head of the research department of Warner Brothers, took us out to Hollywood. This was my first experience, as well as Mrs. Scheider's, and we had a very interesting time. To our surprise, flags were flying as we drove up. It seemed to me a flag was somewhere in sight at each place.
Our first visit was to Shirley Temple, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting before and who is, without exception, one of the most charming children I know. She is simple and unaffected and accepts the inevitable photographers and her as naturally as if this was the way every little girl lived her life.
She asked at once about "Sisty" and "Buzzie" and I went back to her auto-trailer to receive some police badges for them. Then she showed me where she took her lessons. I marvel at her mother's achievement in keeping her well and unspoiled. Shirley told me she was coming to Washington to see the President soon and I hope she will not delay her visit too long.
We visited many other sets and met many other people. Finally, after a visit to the Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, where Mr. Mayer was extremely cordial and kind, we went to the Warner Brothers studios. I was interested in seeing a street in New York City, a street in Paris and a number of buildings which, to be sure, were only fronts, but very excellent ones. It gave one the feeling of driving through various countries at different periods in history in a remarkably short time. We ended up by a visit to Warner Brothers research department and I wanted to sit down and delve into their books.
E.R.
(Copyright, 1938, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- Lissauer, Herman, 1892-1957? [ index ]
American, Head of research department at Warner Brothers
[ VIAF ] - Mayer, Louis B. (Louis Burt), 1885-1957 [ index ]
American film producer; co-founded MGM
[ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - O'Connor, J. F. T., 1884-1949 [ index ]
American jurist and lawyer; US District Judge for the Southern District of California
[ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - Schenck, Joseph M., 1877-1961 [ index ]
Russian American executive at the Fox Film Corporation
[ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - Temple, Shirley, 1928-2014 [ index ]
American actress and ambassador
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ]
Organizations
Geographic
- [ index ] Los Angeles (Calif., United States)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 19, 1938
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.
TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.
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