CONMEN AND KARMA

            Once upon a time there was a Lady with millions of dollars.  She was not always rich.  She and her husband were hard workers.  Her husband died.  Lady discovered her husband’s best friend had been conning him out of substantial money.  The only ability Lady had to recover any money was through a mortgage Husband gave Conman to buy a house.  Lady sued Conman for all the money he owed, including foreclosure.

            Lady received a judgment that said Husband was defrauded.  Lady also recovered the house.  It was a spectacular house, until you got inside.  It was rotten.  The roof leaked for a long time, rotting the structure.  This was how Conman maintained his beautiful home for which he had not paid a dime of his own money.

            While going through the house Lady found a letter from a clergyman.  Conman volunteered at church.  It was a To-Whom-It-May-Concern letter recommending Conman for his character, virtue and integrity.  Clergyman was sent a copy of the judgment.  Lady sold the house as a tear down.

            Conman filed for bankruptcy to get rid of Lady’s judgment.  Lady’s attorney told Lady to hire a bankruptcy attorney to pass the judgment through bankruptcy intact because it was procured by fraud.  Lady declined to spend any more money, though she had multiple millions.

            Lady lived for years and prospered.  One day her attorney was in her house and noticed Lady had a framed magazine cover in the living room.  Lady and her Husband were on the cover.  It said how brilliant they were.  The magazine was published years earlier by Conman.  Attorney commented it was odd Conman’s handiwork was on the wall.  Lady liked it, reminded her of the good old days.

            Lady and her attorney were close.  Lady had all manner of business concerns.  Attorney helped her.  As Lady came to the end of her life a distant relative came into town to take care of her.  Attorney was troubled by a meeting with Lady and her relative.  Attorney went back to her office and asked another attorney, the one who introduced her to Lady, to go out to the house with her next time.  Attorney thought the relative was stealing from Lady.  Both attorneys went to the house. Both believed relative was conning Lady.  Both attorneys called Lady’s niece imploring her to come down and help Lady.  Niece did not come.  She trusted her relative. 

            Lady died.  Her estate plan was changed just prior to her death.  Attorney was no longer involved.  Two years later Niece called Attorney, said she had important news, “You were right.  He stole all the money.”  Attorney responded, “When you said it was important I thought you were going to tell me your relative was dead.”  Niece said no, he wasn’t dead.  Attorney said she already knew the man stole the money.  She tried warn Niece.

Hillmann 58 1940

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 58

1940

Marian skates into the next phase of her life.

On the left is Will, and on the right is Dave. These two men were part of a group that purchased a tennis court in the Bronx, so they could always play. By 1940 Marian was an entrenched part of this group, as we can see from the last two albums. Dave was the group's tennis pro, and best player. For awhile he was also Marian's boyfriend, but then she cast her eye on Will.

This is Will with his parents. His father, Elias, was born in Finland, but was of Swedish descent. His mother, Martha, was born in Sweden. Will was born in Manhattan. This picture was taken on a visit to Sweden

Tennis and swimming were among Marian's favorite things.  They were also among Will's favorite things.

Like Marian's father, Herman, who worked for a boiler company his entire life, Will also worked for one company his entire life, the Bradley Mahoney Coal Corporation in the Bronx.  Will's job was just across the Harlem River from his parents' home in Manhattan, which is where Will lived.

Will's family lived in a rent-controlled apartment at 51st and First in an area of Manhattan called Beakman's Place. Marian lived with her parents in Port Washington.  Both of them worked in the Bronx.

Hillmanns albums come out every Tuesday and yes, next week, Marian and Will get married, be sure to check it out.

Hillmanns 57 1939

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 57

1939

It's 1939.  Marian turned 30 in November.  She got divorced in 1937.  We are no longer seeing the lovely albums of Marian and her parents and gone are the great family trips.  Marian's biological clock is ticking.

Jim and Marian

Jim

Jim, Dave and Unknown

Jim and Nakos

Marian hugging someone.

Fishing trip with Suzy

Unknown man on the fishing trip

Catch of the day

Is that Marian?  Looks like it could be.

These pictures are so small because this is their actual size.

Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesdays. Next week it's 1940 and we are meeting Marian's new boyfriend.

Poker with The Ambassador and The Room Service Waiter

I met Mrs. S. at an organization. She is old enough to be my mom.  We sat together and became friends.  We both left the organization, but would sometimes, say annually, meet for lunch.  Then I was invited to her home, where I met Mr. S.  He was on his way out the door to the casino.  That’s where he likes to spend his days, playing poker.

Years later I was at their home when I asked Mrs. S. if her husband still played poker.  He did.  He was at the casino as we spoke.  I asked if I could go with him sometime.  I had been playing online.  I wanted to go to a casino, but I didn’t want to go by myself.  It struck me as scary.  Mr. and Mrs. S. both had home health aides.  Mr. S.’s home health aide took him to the casino.  Mrs. S. said certainly I could take Mr. S. to the casino, on the weekend, when I wasn’t working. 

Mr. S. is sharp as a tack.  He has a great sense of humor.  He is very intelligent, charming, polite and so witty  He was approaching 90 and had difficulty with his arms and legs, which prevented him from driving, other than that, he was fine.  We went to the casino, which turned out not to be scary. 

At 10:30 AM the casino is a playground for retirees.  The same people go daily.  They form friendships.  Sometimes they eat dinner together and go on cruises.  They are in the casino for social time.  They enjoy talking to each other and cards.  The endless combinations of cards are enthralling. 

You might think they spend a lot of money at the casino, not so much when you are playing for $1. The money migrates around the table.  The house gets $1 a hand.  There is no bluffing in $1 poker, no one cares if they lose a hand. 

I tired of playing $1 poker long before I stopped playing with Mr. S.  I got to hear his fascinating stories.  It turned out Mr. S. was a US Ambassador to two different countries. 

Once, on the way to the casino, during a lull in conversation, I asked if he drove a car when he was Ambassador.  He did not.  He had a driver and a car that traveled in front of him and another behind him.  We were on 95 heading to the casino.  I thought of him sitting in a snazzy, pristine, immaculate car, all Ambassador-like, with a driver and a car ahead of him and another behind him, all for him, and now here he was, with me, in my jalopy, what a contrast.

He told me there were only ever three important things in his life: family, church and the United States of America.  His parents were immigrants.  He grew up in a tiny apartment in New York City. He and his brother shared a tiny bedroom.  He graduated from City College.  It was free for New York City residents.  He met his business partners in college.  He prospered. 

His mother died.  His father’s health quickly deteriorated, and he ended up in the hospital.  Mr. S. went to the hospital at lunch time.  The doctors told him that his father lost the will to live and if he didn’t get it back he would die.  Mr. S. told his father that he would not continue coming to the hospital to watch him die.  Mr. S. offered to move his father into his home.  Papa S. accepted.  Mr. S. took him on a week-long cruise.  He watched his father improve so much when the ship docked at New York Harbor he re-booked.  They repeated the trip and vacationed another week.

When Mr. S. married he told Mrs. S. there were two rules:  his father was part of the package and he gets to smoke in the house.  She consented.  They were blessed with children and they prospered.

The children became adults.  Mr. S. was very active in the Republican Party and got an ambassadorship.  When he got the ambassadorship he owned a large house on Fifth Avenue, which they sold, because it was too much to maintain with their new life.  Mr. S. also had to divest himself of his business interests.

Mr. S.’s second ambassadorship was to the country from which his parents immigrated.  I asked if his father was still alive when he got that position.  He was not.  His parents would have been so proud.  I said I was sure his parents knew and he nodded.  Going from that tiny apartment to U.S. Ambassador of the country from which his parents immigrated was one of the greatest days of his life. 

I asked if he was sorry when it ended.  He was not.  By then he had been an Ambassador for a long time.  There are always threats to the lives of U.S. Ambassadors.  As wonderful as it was when it started, it was a relief when it ended. 

He commented what a great country this is where the son of a poor immigrant who never spoke a word of English could become a United States Ambassador.  “Your father never spoke English?”  I asked.  “No, he was a room service waiter.  He was given trays with room numbers.  He delivered them.”

It has been several years since Mr. S. and I played poker together.  He attended college for free.  He divested himself of his business interests so he could serve his country.  He had an immigrant father who never spoke English.  How times have changed.

Hillmanns 56 - 1938 - Bronx School Teacher

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 57

1938

It's our heroine, the newly-divorced Marian Hillmann. Marian was living in her parents beautiful new colonial house, built just for them in Port Washington.  Marian was teaching at an elementary school in the Bronx, just across the Whitestone Bridge from her parents' home. Top Songs of 1938 included Begin the Beguine and Thanks for the Memories.

None of the pictures you are looking at in this album or the next were to be found in the Hillmanns albums. They came from a friend's album.

Here we see the Brothers Goldner: Jim and George enjoying their lives in New York.  In 1938 Hitler built the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Five days after Hitler assured the Czechs he had no demands on their territory he declared his decision to destroy Czechoslovakia by military force.

On July 6, 1938 at the Evian Conference on Refugees no country was prepared to accept Jews fleeing persecution. Their prospects were bleak.

I do not know who the older ladies are.  During her teaching career Marian taught fourth and fifth grades.

Aside from the Goldner brothers, Marian's group included the Nakos brothers, this is one of them. As these albums were being put together, one-by-one, it was pointed out to me there is a picture of Marian playing tennis in Album 26 that looks like it does not belong in the year. It may not belong in the year. The original pictures were not categorized by year, I had to guess at some of them. The same person identified one of the men in the Album 26 tennis picture as John Nakos, which would show that he was part of Marian's group for a long time. While Nakos worked on his engine Howard Hughes set a new record for speed, completing a round the world trip in 91 hours.

Here's the picture from Album 26, 1926, what do you think? Does Marian's partner look like Jim Nakos? I think so. He looks the same, but it looks like we're dealing with a much younger Marian.

This is either the other Nakos brother, or the same one as was in the last picture. In September of 1938 President Roosevelt said it was 100% wrong that the US would join a stop-Hitler bloc under any circumstances. He said in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia the U.S. would remain neutral.

One of the major hang-outs for Marian and her gang was a tennis court in the Bronx, near the school where she taught. On September 10, 1938 Herman Goring called the Czechs a miserable pygmy race harassing the human race. The Czech President called for calm.

Back row - Paul Busher, Unknown, Lou - Front row - Jim and Nakos. Major european countries agree to the annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovia. Neville Chamberlain returns to England from his meeting with Hitler calling for peace in our time.

Winston Churchill calls upon the US and western Europe to prepare for armed resistance to Hilter. Germany expels 12,000 Polish jews, sending them back to Poland, but Poland will only take 4,000 of them. Hitler then calls for the liquidation of Czechoslovakia.

In 1938 the first minimum wage law was passed in the US and Orson Welles's radio adaptation of the War of the Worlds was broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.

I don't know who these people are. In 1938 Adolf Hitler was named Time magazine's Man of the Year. Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesdays, next week it's 1939.

Hillmanns 55 Port Washington

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 55

1937

Port Washington

In 1937 was a momentous year for the Hillmanns.  Marian spent the summer in Reno getting divorced.  Herman and Rose were building a new house, in Port Washington, New York. Herman is in the garage.

This house took the Hillmanns, who were all born in Brooklyn, out of Brooklyn for the rest of their lives.

The house was also a major change from the Brooklyn house with its small yard, so close to the street.  If you look at pictures of the Hillmann's Brooklyn house taken in the early 1900s compared to the same house viewed on Google Earth today you see the street became wider at the expense of the yard.  .

Herman worked for one company his entire life. He started as a clerk and ended up as a credit manager. In 1940, according to the census, he was earning $5,000 a year.

This newspaper clipping, was saved in Rose's album. It tells us the house was in Montford Hills. My research leads me to believe it was/is on St. John Place in Port Washington. It's 1940 value was $12,500.

My father tells me the Hillmanns left Brooklyn because the neighborhood was changing.

It appears to me Herman and Rose had been living in the same house in which Herman was raised.  Herman's mother moved to New Jersey.  I have not researched to see if I can determine if Herman owned the house and, if so, when did he receive it, or did his mother own the house?

Rose at the door of her new home.

The decorating theme in Rose's dining room was oriental. Marian drew this picture which hung in the dining room. It hangs in my dining room today.

Marian came back from her divorce in Reno and moved into her parents' new house to start her new life. Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesday, next week we're hanging out with Marian and her friends.