National Archives
LIKE SO MANY YOUNG AMERICANS, MARTY JACKSON WAS INSPIRED TO JOIN THE SERVICE FOLLOWING THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, DECEMBER 7, 1941.
to do something for a living besides sing because my voice had changed dramatically. I never knew it and that was a rude awakening.
I was taking college prep courses at the end of my third year and got a job as a bellhop in a big hotel in Chicago called the Morrison Hotel. At that time, the hotel served as the national headquarters for the Democratic Party. We had about 80 bellhops there and I had to work six days a week from 5 p. m. at night until 2 a. m. in the morning. I maintained this work schedule while finishing my fourth year of high school. With only one day off each week, it was real tough. Still, I knew I couldn’ t quit that job because I needed money to go to college, From the time I was a little kid, my mother and dad would always tell me that I was going to go to college. I know the Jewish families adopted the same mindset and I think it’ s a big reason why many of them are successful. They raised their kids from an early age to pursue college and careers as doctors and lawyers. That’ s the way my folks were and I think it was part of being raised in a Jewish-Italian neighborhood in Chicago.
I was really quite fortunate to have the job. I knew someone at that time working in a factory five and a half days a week making 18 dollars. If you made 20 dollars a week, you had a pretty good job. But as a bellhop, I was making about 35 dollars a week, mostly in tips. So it paid well and since it was a prestigious hotel, I got to engage with politicians and athletes. I knew heavyweight boxers Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. I waited on them, along with actor Pat O’ Brien, actress Martha Raye, and many others. There was also the Mafioso that gathered there because they wanted to be near the action. All these capos would hang around and we got to know them well. We called them the syndicate.
I graduated high school in June 1941 and Pearl Harbor came that December. When Pearl Harbor was hit, I was attending a community college. I joined about 40 other boys from the college and went down to the Navy recruiting office. We decided we wanted to join the Navy Air Corps. None of us had ever flown in an airplane but we wanted to be pilots and get into the glamour stuff. the Navy gave us consent forms. Since we weren’ t yet 21 years old, The Navy wouldn’ t talk to us without the consent of our parents. So I took it to my Dad.
24 AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY