harold a. katz memoir volume 1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: Well now, you came to Chicago in 1942 or 1943 to stay, as it were - it turned out that
you stayed. What was life in Chicago like for you at that time? Where did you live?
A: I lived in a co-op in Chicago. This was another very interesting living experience. We
had an old house, it must have had thirty rooms in it, in Hyde Park. It was run on a basis
in which members had to be admitted into the co-op. In addition to paying some huge sum
of money like twenty-five dollars a month for room and board, we would have to work in
the co-op. Some cooked, some washed dishes, some cleaned up. There were at that time
several housing co-ops in the general area of the University of Chicago. I lived in the Con-
cord Co-op. It no longer is in existence. But again, it was a living experience for about
a year, living cooperatively with a wide variety of students.
Q: What type of work did you do?
A: I washed dishes.
Q: Oh, did you?
A: Now and then I mowed the lawn. They didn't have enough courage to let me do the
cooking, but sometimes I would bring my girl friend, Ethel Mae Lewison - now my wife
- to the co-op and she would pitch in and help me with the dishes for about thirty people. I
think that that was a tremendous inducement to marriage, seeing her in this role. In any
event whether she wanted to or not, she did it. She was a good sport about it. We have
been married for over forty years now, and I frequently help with the dishes. She is more
than even!
Q: Now were these mostly students at the University of Chicago?
A: They were mostly students. One of the people there was Carl Christ. I remember Carl
well because he worked in the metallurgy project. All we knew was that he was very secre-
tive about what he did. We sort of learned that you just didn't ask him what he did. Later
we discovered that he had been working on the Manhattan Project out of which came the
first chain reaction that produced the atomic bomb.
One time during this period I . . . was involved with some friends at the Democratic
national convention being held in Chicago. We were supporting Mr. Henry Wallace for
reelection to the vice-presidency. I knew people who were active in the labor movement and
I sort of got into the inner circle of the labor movement at the convention. They wanted
to do something dramatic in terms of staging a demonstration at the convention for Mr.
Wallace. Somebody wanted to get balloons that would float over the stadium with big Wal-
lace banners. But rubber was a product that was unattainable during that period. So I
spoke to my friend, Carl Christ, and he said, "Well, you know, I wouldn't have any trouble
in getting you a rubber balloon - whatever size you want, just name it." I remember the
fun of having Carl smuggle us out a huge balloon that could hardly fit in an automobile,
and Ethel Mae brought it to the convention in a cab, and we launched it in the Chicago
stadium at a very critical time. It didn't get Mr. Wallace renominated, but it did make Time
Magazine, including a picture of the balloon hanging over the stadium.
Q: Let's see now, that convention would have been 1944, was it?
A: Yes, that would have been the 1944 convention.
Q: You evidently attended that convention then.
A: Yes. I didn't attend as a delegate, and didn't go on the floor during sessions. But I sat
up in the galleries. We had plenty of tickets. There was a rather celebrated episode in
which Mr. Sidney Hillman arranged for labor people to get tickets to the gallery. Mayor