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