Occupations

[John in Covina]

I seem to recall there is a hearse car collector club!

 

[GOK]

I'd be a costumer for Hollywood films. A sweeter Edith Head, if you would.

Darn, you beat me to it, Dottie! Oh well, I suppose I shall have to stick with costuming present day art-house films!

Do you think she was the inspiration for Edna E. Mode in The Incredibles?

Heheh!

 

[lindylady]

I don't know how slim the chances were of women becoming lawyers in those days, but I'd shoot for that. If not, then I'd try to make my hobbies into a career: either a singer or a hoofer lol

 

[jkingrph]

Architect, of classic styling.

 

[Mr. Rover]

I'd probably have been one of many Chinese launderers in San Francisco...I probably would've liked to have been a tailor for WB or MGM.

 

[imoldfashioned]

The 1930s/40s would be a bit too late for my first choice of career which is postcard or music sheet illustrator so I would say a paper doll artist. What fun to draw and color those great fashions!

 

[Fletch]

Starting out early in the '30s as a tenor sax player and band singer, I would hopefully make my way into radio by later in the decade as an announcer. I'd have been the big double-breasted voice behind the RCA 44 mic telling you that "Life Down East, by Elizabeth McLeod, comes to you each week at this time through the courtesy of B&M Baked Beans, the original brick oven baked beans. Stay tuned for Leith Stevens' Instrumentalists, who follow over most of these stations. Fletch Lindemeyer speaking...THIS IS THE CO-LUM-BI-AAAA BROADCASTING SYSTEM.

-click-
NETWORK ====• LOCAL

"WABC, New York."

 

[max the cat]

that has possibilities-- heck I'll take bandleader/ conductor for Life Down East-- a tenor player that can sing-you are hired Fletch.......

max

 

[Fletch]

(from Who's Who in Broadcasting, 1939 ed.)
"Mr. Lindemeyer, a former musician, has played with leading dance orchestras including those of Max Katz, Joe Haymes, and Cato's Vagabonds...His singing talent, featured on the Socony Sketchbook with Johnny Green a few years ago, is seldom heard these days, as he fills in for many Columbia mikemen such as Dan Seymour and handles Bob Trout's news update when Bob is in the field."

 

[Fletch]

I don't know how slim the chances were of women becoming lawyers in those days, but I'd shoot for that.

My late neighbor, a maritime lawyer, was at Columbia Law School in the mid '30s. There was a gentleman's agreement at the time that a few exceptional women students would be tolerated, but that they were not to be encouraged in any way. The dean refused to have contact with any of them, and forbade his secretary from doing so either – all contact with the dean had to be through a woman who (get this) operated an elevator in the admin building!

 

[Nick Charles]

newstand operator or janitor.never out of work

 

[Hondo]

Probably a construction worker, Navy Seabees, then apply for flight school for B-17, if I got in

 

[SamReu]

Spokes Man

Big-city reporter on one of the metro dailies, perhaps working out of the news bureau at the police department. It wasn't unknown, back in those days, for reporters to carry a gun. I'm told that the Philadelphia police commissioner routinely issued sidearms to the gentlemen of the press. They swore proudly, drank prodigiously and cared profoundly for their craft. Who wouldn't want to say, "Hello, sweetheart, give me rewrite!"?

 

[IlsaLund]

A chorus girl in NYC.

 

[jspott]

chauffeur

I live in what used to be the chauffeur's home on a small estate. I think driving a big old packard twelve for a living wouldn't be to bad.

 

[Hammelby]

Maybe dancin' to Hammelby's big band swing?

Ha ha! Sure thing hepcat, ill be jammin together with you dancers and lovers all nite! And then well have a drink across the 47th. street

 

[Orgetorix]

Millionaire playboy/capitalist robber baron.

 

[Orgetorix]

Or, failing that, I'd be a "gentleman's personal gentleman"--a manservant, avalet--to the above-mentioned millionaire playboy/capitalist robber baron.

 

[Orgetorix]

Or, thirdly, a bespoke tailor.

(Sorry, they just keep coming to mind.)

 

[Big Man]

Considering it was the Depression, I'd just be glad to have a job - ANY job!