Editor: Bob Tyler Winter 2017 Today Is Tomorrow's History
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Editor: Bob Tyler Winter 2017 The Mission of the Historical Society of Palm Desert To collect, preserve and record the history of our city and communities and to provide access to the society’s archives and artifacts through exhibits, publications, programs and events. Interview with Gloria Petitto by Brett Romer Gloria - I was born in July of 1926, the youngest of 12 Children, my sister was the oldest, then there were ten boys, and then myself. We all joked about everybody in Harrison County knowing how old I was ‘cause everybody in town was excited about this little girl being born after ten boys. We lived in a small town called Mount Clare, West Virginia. Our town was a hub of about twelve or fifteen coal mines, we had a big hotel and a train station, and we had a company store that all the miners used. The miners didn’t have money, they had what they called “script,” which was like money. The company store was very well supplied, you could buy anything from food to furniture. There were several independent stores too. Mount Clare had a diverse population of people who had immigrated to America, we were Italian. My parents were married in Italy when they were teenagers, and then they came here about a year later. They went to West Virginia because my father was interested in mining, he was particularly interested in mining safety. Before I was born they had lived in different little mining towns, they moved to Mt. Clare when my brother Arthur was a baby. Six of us were born in our home in Mount Clare. My father became a citizen soon after he arrived here, and he was instrumental in many other people becoming U. S. citizens. During WWII I attended Lost Creek High School which was about three miles from our home, and since it was a farming town, and most of the fathers were in the service, the kids had to do the farming. We’d start school at 7:00 in the morning, so that by noon we were finished, and then they’d go home and work their farms until after dark. I went to college and became a teacher, and I taught for thirty six years all together. I taught in West Virginia and then I taught in Marietta Ohio, then I worked for the Department of Defense and taught in Germany for three years, and then I was in Japan for a year, after that, I went back home and then I came out to California in 1968. I don’t know why I moved to California, I just don’t handle sameness well, just palm trees, and just one season so to speak, and that bothered me for quite some time, but I was very busy Historical Society of Palm Desert Today is Tomorrow’s History Page 1 with my teaching, and I was the hostess at the restaurant that Pete and I had. My brother Ernie came out here in 1970, if he hadn’t been here I would have moved back home to West Virginia. Brett – When did your brother Pete come out here? Gloria - His last assignment in the service was in Los Angeles, he headed a special education program, and during furloughs he would come out here to the desert. In those years Palm Springs had the El Mirador Hotel and the Chi Chi Club, and there was very little in Palm Desert, just Highway 111, and a few stores here and there, but he fell in love with it. Pete told me; “When the war is over and I’m though with the service, I’m moving to the valley.” Pete stayed in L. A. until about 1947, and then moved here. Pete had met a lot of friends down here, one being Travis Rogers who had a dude ranch in the area we use to call “the back way to the airport.” He had big cabanas, the Hollywood set came there and the guys would take them out horseback riding, they had entertainment, and it was really country and western back then. It was a good place for celebrities to let their hair down and enjoy themselves without anybody bothering them or wanting an autograph. But since I’ve been here, most people don’t bother celebrities, whoever they are. Trav also had a nightclub at the Salton Sea that looked like a ship, it was at North Shore and it had big portholes, and I think it’s still there, but when I came it was the “in place” to go, we would go down there and Pete would help cook. Then when the Palm Springs Ariel Tramway was being built Trav and Pete took food up the mountain on horses to feed the men who were building the tram. Then when Travis became ill they closed up the club. About that time Pete, because of his close association with Bing Crosby, became the construction manager of Crosby’s Blue Skies trailer village in Rancho Mirage. Brett - What was your brother’s connection with Bing Crosby? Gloria - Well, Pete first met Bing through Bill Morrow the script writer, Bill was in Pete’s company during the war, and they liked to joke about Pete making Bill toe the line and wear his uniform all the time, and stuff like that. Then Bill introduced him to a lot of celebrities, and anybody who had any talent for the Command Performance Radio Program, and for some reason he and Crosby became very good friends, and Pete was very fond of Dixie, Bing’s first wife, and when he met the boys they were little and Lindsay, I think he was maybe four years old, had a basketball that was bigger than him and was trying to put it up into the hoop. That was the first time he met Lindsay, but he had met all the other boys and he spent a lot of time with them at their home. About that time he also met Jack Benny, and the Army had made Frank Capra a Colonel, and put him in charge of the Command Performance Program. Jack Benny and several other celebrities took Pete under their wing. Frank Capra hated the Command Performance Program, so they were looking for somebody to take it over. Pete had been sent to a Board of Directors Harry Quinn, President, Rob Pitchford, Vice President, Susan Marie Weber, Treasurer, Merilee Colton, Secretary Directors Jean Benson, Sid Burks, Gale Broeker, Buford Crites, Richard Folkers, Michael Lewis, Kay McCune, Louise Neeley, Nerl Porras, Pam Williams, Robert Tyler Historical Society of Palm Desert Today is Tomorrow’s History Page 2 special school in Fort Benning, Georgia, and then he was sent to Fort McClellan in Alabama and there he was chosen from a group of young men to be in charge of Command Performance. During that time he and Frank Capra became very good friends. Capra became like a father to Pete, but after that Pete became tired of the service and wanted out. My mother wanted him to stay in the service, and by that time he had become a lieutenant colonel, but he said no, he was finished with it. After that, Pete had a lot of different jobs, but he had always wanted a restaurant, because all of us were good cooks, we had all learned to cook as kids, we had learned to do everything in the kitchen, so he was several steps ahead of the game. Pete was very knowledgeable and artistic, and so he did very well. We had our restaurant for about four years, it was called “Pete Petitto’s,” but it was ahead it’s time, it was very elegant, very up scale, we designed the menu, and everything was handmade, and it had a gorgeous dining room. Brett – Where was that restaurant located? Gloria – It was next door to Erik’s Furniture in Rancho Mirage, we had bought that corner piece of property. It had an Italian porch on the street side, so it seemed as if it was right on the street, we had planted Italian Cyprus trees that separated it from the highway. But it was tough because it was just the wrong time, if it was in business today it would be fantastic. Pete was looking for something to do, so I dug around in his files and found his teaching certificate; he was certified in public speaking, journalism, drama and the arts, so I sent it in to Sacramento and it came back with a four year provisional. So I brought it home and handed it to him and I told him “I got you a job, you have a four year provisional to teach.” Then he told me that he couldn’t teach, and I said “Why can’t you teach? You couldn’t cook and you learned to cook, and you do all these other things.” So, I went down to Desert Sands School District office and a friend of mine was working in administration there, so I told him that Pete needed a job and that I hoped he could use him for substitute teaching, and so he did. Pete substituted at every level, and I was so proud of him, he did very well. Around that time the College of the Desert went into the Hotel and Restaurant Management, Pete had started substituting in Palm Springs and later he taught restaurant classes at Indio High School. He even had a café on campus for teaching students the restaurant trade.