My dad was one of those serviceman. He did not use his GI loan for a bungalow and a picket fence. His vision was entertaining the serviceman and their families brininging sports and comedy and a show an unforgetable afternoon or evening to every town and city across the great USA.
The average ANNUAL salary was $2,992 for a 40 hour 52 weeks a year that is $56.19 a week. My dad charged one dollar to enjoy the ball game. A movie was a quarter 50 cents for a double header. So for a family living on $56.00 a week before Uncle Sam got his , going to a TexasCowGirl game was a big event. Men came in fedora's,women in Sunday's best dress and children in their good school clothes. Dempsey booked sold out shows/ games everytime 7 days a week .
The labor force in the fifties sent Rosie The Rivitor back to the kitchen to make room for the men on the assembly lines and factory shifts. The female workforce was reduced to a male/female: 5/2 workforce .
My dad did not fit into that status quo either. He hired all females to tour on the road as professional athletes playing basketball aginst men. Some of his female employees on the road were making more than their dad's and brothers back home.
My dad did not fit into that status quo either. He hired all females to tour on the road as professional athletes playing basketball aginst men. Some of his female employees on the road were making more than their dad's and brothers back home.
100 percent of his workforce Oct-May was female
The acception would be his traveling halftime acts 50/50.
Car sales boomed to 6,665,800- 1950's Travel was without communicative devices. A man his female ball team miles of roads no GPS no Cell phones no Wireless ANYTHING.
No one knows how many cars there are in America today Many are not registered and are stored, in salvage yards, and some just sitting idle. But, there are approximately 250 million registered vehicles on the road today. That figure includes all types of vehicles.
Approximately 16 million new cars are sold annually. That is a long way from 6 million in the fabulous fifties. When tires were changed and gas pumped, radiator tapped and windows washed all at the gas pump. There was no plastic credit or debit personal contact and conversation drove the economy.
The NBA games cost $1.00 -$3.50 depending on the seat you got.
13,000 plus spectators Dempsey's CowGirls Win 40-28
Then there was my mom in 1950 she was 16 ,an All American basketball player from Arkansas. Living in a rural town with 99 other folks. An outhouse for bathroom services, and a coal burning stove for cooking and warming water to bath in a rain catcher. were her amenities. One year later after graduating from HS she would meet my dad and her ammenities would become hotel rooms with hot showers, restaurant breakfasts, miles of highway travel, and sights across the country, Her daddy with her in the overalls gave her his blessing. She would leave all of her classmates behind. One year later her chilhood classmate Leona on the left in the snow would join her and my dad on the road.
