The Wanamaker Diary

The Wanamaker Diary

The transcription of a historical diary in original spelling and syntax -- Edited and transcribed by James Steeber, January 1995

One day, some time in 1984 I think, I was perusing the ends and odds available for purchase at a rummage sale in a synagogue basement in Dayton. On one of the tables, crowded in with shmatehs and toasters, I spied a red covered book bearing the title The Wanamaker Diary. Being a fan of all things New York and MGM musicals, I remembered the line (and I'm paraphrasing) "I wanna see Wanamaker's Store!" from the 1949-50 film On the Town, where one of the sailors on leave, played by Frank Sinatra, rants to a lady cab driver about all the great New York landmarks he must see before his one day leave is up.

I wondered if this Wanamaker could be related to the great, mythical and long departed store in New York. And examining the book, I found that it was. What was more amazing is that this diary, a souvenir and ad for the store, as well as a practical one year diary, had been kept, studiously, for want of a better word, by someone, for nearly the entire calendar year of 1932.

Mind you, the diarist, a New Yorker, likely from Dayton, was writing in her diary at the height of America's Great Depression, but as the clues indicate, she lived quite well and comfortably in Midtown Manhattan, probably on West 56th Street and somewhere in the vicinity of Carnegie Hall. The house she lived in, with her daughter, was at least four stories high. It is apparent the author was a Republican -- a Hoover supporter.

She seemed to do everything she could to expose her school age daughter to the cultural amenities available to big city dwellers, including orchestra concerts, lectures on history and travel, recitals, plays, shows, and movies -- among them "City Lights", starring "Charlie Chatiman" as the author notated.

It is important to stress that the woman who wrote in this diary was not highly literate. Her spelling is often erratic and erroneous, and her sentences are often devoid of punctuation, making her narrative sound slightly crude and unintelligent. It's quite possible that the author was intelligent but poorly educated, and it is heartening that she felt it was important to keep a diary of her day to day existence -- often involving the great care and attention she lavished on her daughter.

Who ever she was, and I have not yet found out, she left a record which amazingly captures a period of time in this country when things had become nearly impossible for the have-nots, while the haves seemed to experience very few setbacks in the way they lived their lives. It is apparent that the author was at one time married, but what became of the man is unknown; no mention of him is included here.

Here then is the Wanamaker Diary -- an amazing souvenier of a long gone New York landmark and a great record of a year out of an American woman's life in Manhattan in 1932.

THE TEXT

THE DIARY

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