Gertrude Reisberg
Gertrude Reisberg's parents came to Dallas in 1912. Her father was born in Poland and had been in business in Toronto, Canada, before arriving in the city, while her mother was born in Austria and came to the United States as a young child by way of New York. Gertrude grew up on Hughes Circle, right beside City Park, which served as her playground, and she attended City Park School before entering Forest Avenue High School in January 1924. She recalled catching the Irby streetcar down Forest Avenue when she did not feel like making the long walk to school.
At Forest Avenue High School, Gertrude embraced the new world of high school life, football games with 25-cent tickets, and a drill team for which students sewed their own green dresses with white collars and cuffs. She studied speech and expression, training at the Cox School of Expression in Oak Cliff and later with a teacher named Westbrook, learning to project her voice throughout an auditorium. She gave readings and performances, once represented her school in a declamation contest in Fort Worth reciting The Man Without a Country, and delivered an extemporaneous speech, A Good Name Is Better Than Riches, that was later included in a textbook on speech by her teacher.
After school, Gertrude worked in the family men's clothing business, Turner's Men's Store, alongside her parents and brothers, handling the advertising. She remained active in the arts and community, organizing a theater group at Shearith Israel, entertaining at children's homes through the Girl Scouts, and performing at venues including the Scottish Rite and Sanger Brothers. Her father was involved in an organization now known as the Hebrew Free Loan. Following a heart attack in 1972, she compiled her poems into her first book, Life Is an Autobiography in Poetic Form, published in 1975, and went on to publish two more.
Full Transcript
Okay, you went to Forest High. I entered in 1924, in January of 1924. That's a long time ago. And of course I was in a little grammar school, you know City Park School. You went to City Park? City Park School. Yeah. What street did you live on? On Hughes Circle. On what? It was called Hughes Circle then. Near City Park? Right at the City Park. We just had to walk down the block and cross over Irving Street and we were in the City Park. That was our playground. But when I entered the school, you know, it was an altogether different life and we had the football team and of course we didn't have anything like that in grammar school.
So when I wrote some poetry and I wrote this one, oh, How I Was Married on That Cold Day in January When I Entered Forest High. You wrote this poem? This poem. And this poem is in a book? It is in the first book that I published. Oh, in the first book, the book is called Life is an Autobiography in Poetic Form by Gertrude. I had kept a bunch of things in a little book, and so when I had my first heart attack, I compiled a bunch of it and published my first book of poetry. I published two since then. Really? Uh-huh. What year was this book published?
Well, I think that... Well I had my heart attack in 72 and this was published in um let see if it says it here 75 So while you were recuperating from your heart attack, you... I just compiled. Hello, hello. That's my husband, Ms. Bender. I'm Doris Bergman. I'm in Bergman. Hi, hi. I put them all in the first book and it turned out to be sort of an autobiography in poetic form. Do you have another copy of this? Yeah, I'll give this one to you. Oh, for the historical society. I think that they have one there, but anyway, I have this is an extra one, so I can give it to you.
So I wrote that about the football. Yes, it's Poor Frost. Oh, it says, Poor Frost. Oh, how I was married on that cold day in January when I entered Forest High. There was joy in my heart as I thought what a start I was going to make it for his time. I will sweep all before me. I'll make the teachers adore me for I'll work so hard and make such a good card. And honors with all that devour me. Poor frosh that I was. That is wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah. And then I wrote another one. They had a drill team and we made our own costumes.
Really? It was a green dress with a white collar and white cuffs. Do you have any pictures of that? No. Don't you wish you did? No, I wish I did. And so this was about the football game and we performed at the football game. Tickets were 25 cents. Tickets to the football game for 25 cents and where did they play? At the different high schools? They played at the different high schools. How many high schools were there then Well there was a Forest there was Oak Cliff there was North Dallas I think that was the main three Was there a Crozier, what became Crozier Tech, was there a high school there?
Yeah, Crozier Tech, yeah that was downtown. That was called, probably called? Bryan, Bryan High School. Right. Yeah. So this was... This poem is called Fresh Fish. Yeah. What's all this talking about the game, this little fishy ass? What's this they're saying about football, shall I take a chance? They're selling tickets, 25 cents each, and ask you where's your spirit, and in assembly how they screech, forest fight them forest. Tell me what do they mean, who is going to fight? Oh won't you tell me please and set my mind awry. No price of tickets. That's wonderful. Wonderful. What a wonderful book. What a wonderful book. And so you've had three books.
You've written three books. Yeah, well this was the first. But this had something in it about forest. Yeah. And that's the reason I wanted to read it too. Yes, thank you. Then I used to, I took speech at school. Well I really went to the Cox School of, was called the Cox School of Expression. Right, they used to call it expression. which was out in Old Cliff and I used to give readings and different things like that. Really? It was an assembly and we didn't have microphones in those days. You had to project all the way up in the balcony, which people can't do today.
They don't know how to project their voices. So I used to do that quite a bit. And then also later on the teacher that I had was Wilhelmina Hetty And she one day someone asked me was I the Gertrude Turner that went to Forrest Avenue High School I said, yes. They said, well do you know that a speech that you gave is this, she wrote a, Miss Hedy wrote a book, and your speech is in that book. and so I went around to different stores until I found it and here I am in the back with Mark Twain. Oh my. And so this is on...
Page 165. Yeah. The book is, the name of the book is Speech? Uh-huh. This speech. Was it used as a textbook, do you think? It was used as a textbook, right. And this speech was given as a perfect format for a speech. Oh, my. And so it was in this... That's quite an honor to be quoted in a textbook. in this book. May I look at this? This is the speech. This name of the speech is a good name is better than riches. It begins, have you a good name? I do not mean is your name pretty, but can it get you a loan of money?
Can it gain you a position of honor and trust? Is it well spoken of or is it slandered? Can people say of you, there goes Tom Jones, or do they say, there goes that Jones fella? And it goes on. That's wonderful. Wonderful. A speech has to have an introduction, a body, and an ending. and I didn't know that she must have taken Shardin because it was an extemporaneous speech. It was. Oh, my word. And you didn't know it was going to be a part Isn't it wonderful that you found out? Yes. And then I represented this school one time in a declamation contest in Fort Worth.
I didn't win the representation for the school. I came out second best. But the girl that was supposed to, that won the day before she got sick, and so I had to go. And I had to memorize this 15-minute declaration overnight. Oh, my. In those days, it wasn't hard to do. Were you nervous? Can you remember? No. Were you nervous? It was the man without a country. Really? And so I went to Fort Worth and of course I had a chaperone and so I represented the school. That's wonderful. Who was principal of the school then? Wiley Parker. He was principal when I was there. I graduated in 43.
Yeah, this is Wiley. Oh, I didn't realize he was there from the... when did the school open? I've forgotten. When did the school open? I should know that. Well, let's see. I went in in 24. I think it was, and I had an aunt who graduated, I think it's 17, 1917 or 18. Really? So I think that was one of the, was right along at that time, right after the, right around the end of the... But you were there certainly close to the beginning and I guess Wiley Parker, I don't, I should know when he came and what year the school started, but I don't recall that.
And this is your annual. And this is the annual. You see, they had two graduating classes in those days. Right. You graduated in January and you graduated in June. Right. And so this was the June 27th and this was the January class Now why would there be this baby picture Well that was in June. No, but why would they have a baby picture? There was no other picture? I guess, uh, there, this is, uh, these are photographs of the students. Yes, I don't know. And there's a baby picture there. I don't know. I don't know what does it say about them. Oh, Robert F. Eccles, baby brother of Kathleen Carter, president of June 27th class, future Forrester also.
I wonder, instead of her picture, I guess she preferred to put... No, this is the picture. Here's Sylvia Stein. I don't know. I don't know. And this is the president. Do you remember, were there several Jewish students at Forest High? At Forest High? In those days? In the holidays, you could close up the school. Even in those days? When we had to have a note to get back in after the holidays, the line was way out in the hallway. to get a pass to get back into class. Who were some of the people you remember that were Jewish friends who were at Forest? Well, a lot of them were gone, unfortunately.
There's one there, Francis Jacobs, Rosalyn Goldsmith, she's gone. She was the artist. She was an artist. What street did you live on Gertrude On Hughes Circle Going to school And you stayed there your family stayed there the whole time you were going to Forrest The whole time I was going to Forrest. I used to have to catch the Irby streetcar when I didn't feel like walking and that was a long walk. A very long walk. And I used to catch the Irby streetcar and go up and get off on Colonial and a lot of times there would be some girls and boys on Colonial and we would walk the rest from Colonial to the school and if the weather was bad I'd wait and catch another streetcar.
That went all the way down what, Forest? Went down Forest Avenue to the school. That's right. Got off in front of the school. Yeah, Oakland. Here she's still living. Francis Shore. Oh yes, yes. That's Francis Bernstein. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's me. Oh, you look very pretty. And this is Helen Nathan. That's Helen Friedman. Oh, I know. She's out in Brighton Gardens. Is that right? Is that right? And this is Kimmel. Do you know Kimmel? I don't know what her name is. Sure. That's Francis Sue Schneider's mother, isn't it? I don't know. I don't know. Bernstein, her name was Bernstein, Alfred Karchmer. How many, I wonder how many people were in this graduating class?
I don't remember a good number. It was my own theater group at Sheriff Israel at one time and got one of the got Louis Leda Quince who was the director of the Oak Cliff Little Theater, to come in and direct a play for us. But then it was my senior year at school and I couldn't keep up with it. Nobody else wanted to take it over. and it fell apart. So the Dallas, but the Dallas Little Theater was a very, a citywide theater group. Oh yes, oh yes. It was the beginning of the theater in Dallas. I mean, was it on Greenville? Mostly social. Mostly social.
Really? Most of the people who performed there were socialites. Was it on Knox Street? No, it was on, across from Stoneleigh, out there on Maple Avenue. Now what do you mean by social? People who just got together for social? I mean society. Society. Okay. And the opening night they used to have, oh my, with the evening gowns and the tuxedo. It was a big event. Huh? It was a big event. It was a big event, yeah. Oliver, oh gosh, what was his name? Hendel was the director and he finally went to Hollywood to direct Hollywood. I think Aaron Spelling at one time belonged to the, acted at the Dallas Little Theater at one time.
No. No. No. It would have been in the 1940s I guess when he would have been there. But anyway, so being at Forest and having this background in speech, and it was very important in your life, wasn't it? It was. It was very important. I mean it was like you found a great talent there. Well, I used to go out and entertain at Orphan's home and Buckner Orphan's home. And there used to be another one out at Bachman's Lake. There used to be a children's home out there. Did you do that on your own or you did it? No, it was Girl Scouts. We used to do it for the Girl Scouts.
But that's not Forest Avenue High School. I took expression, they used to call it expression, it became elocution didn't it? But I took from a woman named Westbrook. Did you ever know her? And we used to give plays, we used to give, we performed her students at, we used to be sometimes downtown at Sanger Brothers. They had an auditorium upstairs. and we performed at the Scottish Rite at Temple. We performed there, did plays and readings. That was a different era wasn it Yeah well my dad belonged to an organization which today is called the Hebrew Free Law But in those days it was called something else, I forget.
Anyway, they had this program once a year and he always volunteered my services at the program. program so I was always, always gave either a monologue or a dialogue in one of the programs. And I was on radio one time. We did a play with another girl on radio, but that was after I was in business and because I was able to do it through my association with advertising because I did advertising for our place of business. What year did your parents come here Did your parents come to Dallas Oh my parents came here in 1912 From where From Canada Really My dad had been in business in Canada and my mother was a New York girl She was born in this country Were they both born No she wasn born no Neither one of them were born in the Americas My dad was born in Poland, my mother was born in Austria, and my dad came to Toronto, I think he was 18 years old.
My mother came with her mother and father as a little girl, I think she was 7 or 8 years old. She went to school all week. So you've had an interesting life. Yeah I think so I think it has been I was in business with my brothers after my dad I worked with my mom and my dad What kind of business Men clothing Oh. I remember that. Turner's Men's Store Works. I remember that. I remember that. I did the advertising for them. We lived on, by that time we lived on Boulevard. South Florida? South Florida. Well, it's really nice, Forrest and New High School was a special place, was an institution.
I'm going to get you a copy for you to see. They took a video of that program that night, and they've got it on tape, on videotape. Ginger told me. Yeah, and we'll just have to bring you a copy of that. We'll have to bring you a copy. I'm sorry you missed that. Yeah.