For four years now I have been researching my father’s life. Basically before I began my research, the only information I had about my father, was that he married my mom in 1945, he had a little money (mom said he was one of the few people who had a refrigerator as opposed to an icebox), he had written a song that had become a hit, that he was a fanatic about short wave radio and that he had been an old time radio star. I only had one (1) picture of Eddie, a head shot, that my mother gave me when I turned 40 years old. And I had seen my father in a movie once when I was eight, he played the waiter in the movie which was also the part he played in the radio program “Duffy’s Tavern”.
What I have discovered in the past four years is that the more information I find, the more information I find. For instance, this past month I read two articles that mentioned Eddie Green being in the Army around 1942. Well, even though I had not found any information on Eddie being in the Service, I really did not think these articles were talking about my father, since Eddie was a bit old to be in the Army during WWII. But I wrote myself a little note and a few days later, I got on the net and looked up my father’s name in the WWII draft registration cards and his name was there on the screen.
Eddie had at some point and time decided to change his birth year from 1891 to 1896. The good thing about this discovery is that the birth date of the draft registration card matched the date on Eddie’s Social Security Card Application which I had just received in the mail. And the signatures matched. So now I know his real age. What I don’t know is why he would be signing up for the draft at 50 years of age. Being curious, I went on-line and queried WWII and that is how I found out about the “old man’s draft”. The government decided to have a registration in April of 1942 and to sign up all men of a certain age, not to fight, but to be available, just in case.
There was one other thing the draft registration card gave me,the address of Eddie’s place of business, which was the same address listed in a 1942 Pittsburgh newspaper article which stated “Eddie Green Opens Musicians’ School”. I had found the article about a year ago, but I needed verification and now I had it.
My research is paying off big-time. There is nothing I would rather be doing. I am getting another chance to meet my father, a man I only remember as a vague somebody who would sit me on his lap. Who are you thinking about researching?
Eddie was popular and became more so as the years went on.One reason that I am writing a book about my father is that even though Eddie was a well-known, highly visible, funny man who hung out with other well-known entertainers and business-men, today it is as though Eddie never existed. I picture my father in the company of some of the greats of his era and what I see is a an empty space where he should be standing. With my book, I would like to re-place my father into that empty space by bringing his accomplishments to light and by keeping the memory of his achievements fresh in the minds of those who have come after him, so that they may find inspiration to take that leap to a better life.
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