Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324         Page 67686970717273747576777879808182838485868788899091 of 592

Well, cautious about the communists being involved in it, the new anti-Hitler, anti-fascist, see.

When you say political operatives?

I mean the newspapers, the Times. Also socialists, you know, any liberal left kind of thing, a rather complex kind of thing. But on the other hand, there was this enormous outpouring of support, particularly as they went right through the Soviet Union and you got reports of the number of casualties and that kind of thing, and the Soviets standing up. This was a period where you're getting visitors from the Soviet Union to win support here too, and the government itself was becoming sympathetic.

See, when we were knocked out, the first question was jobs, among other things. We had the band, we could manage a little bit, summertime.

Let me ask you one question. Was the band now called “Suspended Swing”?

Right after the suspension, we got the name “Suspended Swing.” We got it into Leonard Lyon's column, the item that a group of teachers from City College, who have been suspended have formed an orchestra, and they're called “Suspended Swing.” And we started again trying to get jobs as “Suspended Swing.” And remember, the left still had influence with unions, etc., and we could get jobs. I was in charge of getting jobs.

So it was an orchestra, just the four of you?

No, it was more than the four of us. The numbers increased depending upon the kind of affair that was involved. It could be as many as twelve people, which was a lot of people for us, but I think I remember we got the job playing at Manhattan Center as the relief band. It was UOPWA, their annual event, that's their big shindig. You know, dances were popular at that time.

The UOPWA?

United Office and Professional Workers of America. It's a big union. They hired our band and also Louie Prima. Or they hired Louie Prima and also our band. We were the relief band. That is, we were the second band. Louie Prima was there.

So it's you and Louie Prima with the office workers.