My Summers at Catalina Island

Catalina Island is a great place to dive. The water is clear, calm, and not too cold. The giant kelp beds are as beautiful as any coral reef. When I was only 10 years old I dreamed of diving there. It was a different country as far as I was concerned. It was only 26 miles away, but totally out of reach for me.
I was at one of the family’s Easter gathering, (see an Easter to Remember), at my aunt Aggie’s house. My uncle Leo was a chef and worked at many high end places all over the country. I was talking about diving and how I would love to dive at Catalina, my uncle Leo was listening to me, (I was now 16 years old), and said, “Why don’t you work over there in the summer in Avalon, when you’re on vacation from school?”
I was shocked by the suggestion. I have never lived away from home and in fact, had never had a full-time job. My jobs had been mowing lawns in my neighborhood, and part-time work at the local photography shop.
I said, “That would be fantastic.”
Leo said, “I know the manager of a hotel in Avalon, called the Island Villas, I used to work for him; maybe he can find a slot there for you this summer.”
My uncle went to the phone, made a phone call, and came back and said, “Ollie said he will hire you, on my recommendation, as a yard boy in the hotel, if you can be there all summer. You had better not embarrass me”
It was my life dream come true and it all happened in about 15 minutes. That’s when I learned it wasn’t what you know, but rather who you knew.
I went to work there that summer and swept the grounds, cleaned the bathrooms, and carrying luggage for the visitors when they came in on the big white steamer.
After work I went skin diving every day. Soon I became known in town by the locals as the diver. My nickname the hotel staff gave me was Rusty. There was already a John on staff, and a red on staff. I had read hair at the time, so they came up with the name Rusty. I worked summers on the island for seven years, and the only name I was known by was Rusty. When I go back to Catalina now, 60 years later, and see the friends that I made there I’m still known only as Rusty.
I had many part-time jobs on the island. I would do anything I could find that I could get paid for. I was working my way through college. I learned how to clear the weeds in the vacant lots, clean the bathrooms in several different hotel at night, worked as a doorman/bouncer at several bars on weekends and even worked as a security officer for the hotel at night, several years after I got fired for lying to Ollie, my boss.
One of my security jobs was at the Casino Ballroom. I worked the dance floor and was in uniform. My boss, Dale, came to me and asked me if I could dance, I said “Yes I can.” I had taken a dance class at East LA College and at the request of the instructor, Eva Crum, stayed on for two more semesters as an aid. The classes were Ballroom and Round dancing.
He said, “Why don’t you come to work in plainclothes from now on instead of the uniform and dance with the ladies. You can still be our security guard, you’ll just be in plain clothes. There are so many more women here than men that many of them never get a dance. Dance with as many different ones as you can, and don’t just pick out the good looking young ones. Dance with their mothers too.” It was probably the best assignment I have ever had. I came every weekend and danced with 15 or 20 wonderful different ladies and had a great time, while I was working, and got paid for it too.
One of the funnier things that was involved with my casino job was the band. It was Les Brown and his ‘Band of Renown’. They were a famous band in the Big Band days of the1930s, 40s, and 50s, and played at the Casino every weekend for the whole summer. I of course got to know some of the members. When they found out that I was the cop on the floor dancing with all of the ladies every night, and I was doing it while I was getting paid, the first time I stepped out onto the floor each night, they would stop whatever they were playing and say, “We have a special request.” Then they would play ‘Just a Gigolo Everywhere I Go’. I never explained to the lady I happen to be dancing with at the time that it was a request for me, but not by me.
Bolg 8 Summers at Catalina dance