On May 31, 1959,
just a year before Dad died I sat down beside him with a pencil and paper to
get further details for a brief history.
The following are my notes:
Born March 5,
1888 in Salt Lake City in a house on 6th West. My playmates were Ray
Ashton, brother of Marvin and Clarence Jones. I attended Grade School at he
Franklin School on 8th West 2nd So. I played first base
on the baseball team. We organized the team without adult help. I gave notice
of the games and the winning team to the newspaper. One of our records was 22 won out of 24
games.
I attended prep school (age 13-16) at
the University of Utah. We traveled there on electric streetcars. I went right
into college. I worked in the summer on
the Parley Parrish farm in Centerville. Hoed corn, melons, picked fruit. I got
room and board for 50 cents a day. Later on I got $1.00 a day. I often brought
hay into Salt Lake to Summerhays Company - tanners of cowhide – to feed their
horses. Dave worked on Parleys threshing machine for a couple of years. Tom,
the oldest brother, worked for Uncle Hyrum and Aunt Emily Parrish, another
brother of my Mother.
In college I played
football on the class team. Played end. We played on Cummings Field, now on the
north of the field house. I did not go straight through, as it was necessary
for me to stay out to earn money in spring and fall. I worked on the farm or
where I could. I majored in arts and sciences. My major courses were Latin and
drama. While at college I participated in several plays, I was president of the
Junior class and President of the Student body.
On leaving
college I taught school. I was Principal for one year at each of the following
schools: the school on 9th east in Salt Lake City, Garfield, and
Magna. I taught 8th grade in all three.
I was invited
to New York to look after Dave’s motion picture brokerage. Dave had studied law
in San Francisco where he met many motion picture people. William Vogel, a
classmate and Dave got First National Pictures outside of the U.S. Dave made
the first trip to Australia to sell pictures. Vogel and Howells split. Howells
took First National, Vogel took Charlie Chaplin distributorship.
After I was
married and while working for Dave, I went to England to straighten out trouble
with a Jewish buyer who bought a picture which would not pass the censor. He
had paid $50,000 for the picture. I
rented a room, ran the picture, and cut out some of the killing and blood and
changed the titles (there were no talking pictures yet). The censor passed it. It
was accepted and the deal held. The exchange rate favored the pound Sterling,
which was specified in the contract. I deposited the money till rates adjusted
and then purchased dollars and had them deposited in a U.S. bank.
David P. Howells
Inc. put up money to produce a 15 reel, serial of the “Son of Tarzan”. Howells
bought the story and appointed a director. The picture cost about
$120,000. They sold it to distributors
in England.
Dave closed out
his business to come west. I with Sylvia, Ben and Tom arrived in the West May
6, 1926. We lived first at 17th
South & 9th E. Later I built a house at Gilmer Park. The
architect was our cousin Elmer Nelson, the builder was Jim Lund. We lived in
the new house for four years during which I was able to find very little
work. When the depression really hit in
1930, the family moved to Union, Utah.
Where we purchased the old Walker home with $2000.00 that Sylvia had
saved from the New York days. (This had been a present to her from Dad). I
worked for a time as a salesman for Wicks Real Estate and also sold furnaces
for Montgomery Wards.
TFH
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