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Transcription: [00:03:50]
{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
going away because when you left for Paris you intended to stay three months, didn't you?

[00:03:56]
{Speaker="Lisa Chickering"}
Yes we did. mmm huh.
I was going over for a singing engagement in Paris, and we were very excited because Jeanne and I grew up in Chicago together and as children do we had always planned
[00:04:08]
far away places and trips and we had, I asked her if she could go with me and she said yes she could

{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Oh I was delighted with the opportunity to go to Europe because I had wanted to go all my life.

[00:04:17]
{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
So you two played together as children.

{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Yes we did.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
and thought about far away places when you were just little ones
[00:04:25]
{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
That's right, as a matter of fact when we were children our families sent us out to play as families do and we proceeded to dig a hole to China from Chicago.

[00:04:32]
{Speaker="Lisa Chickering"}
Yes they said, I guess to get us out, "you know, China happens to be right under Chicago." So we proceeded to tear up the nice flower
[00:04:37]
patch in the yard [[laughing]] that wasn't very good
[00:04:40]
{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
But finally three years ago you went to Paris for three months.

{Speaker="Lisa Chickering"}
That's right

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
So that you could sing.

[00:04:46]
{Speaker="Lisa Chickering"}
That's right. Yes.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
And, and Jeanne Porterfield just went along.
[00:04:50]

{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
I just went along to see the sights of Europe at the time.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
But now go on, then what happened? Why didn't you come back for three years?

{Speaker="Lisa Chickering"}
Well, of course that's a three year story but,
[00:04:59]
the job I really went to go, to have, that is, fell through. Upon arriving. And of course, you can imagine my discouragement.
[00:05:07]
I said "well, we've got to go back", and Jeanne is the optimistic type, and she said "well, no I think we can make out here, let's try to stay."
[00:05:15]
so she took over the, uh, well you'd call it the managerial side of it [[laughing]], if that's a new word, and she worked out a show
[00:05:23]
and we started one country after another.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
Didn't you have a great difficulty booking talent ahead in a foreign county?

{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield "}
[00:05:31]
Well, as a matter of fact in the beginning we did. We first did some Army shows in Eastern France
[00:05:37]
and Western Germany and we met other entertainers who
[00:05:41]
told us about writing to the various hotels that used entertainers. So I sat down and wrote letters
[00:05:47]
to the places I had heard of in Rome, over in Spain. Or I started first just one: Rome and they
[00:05:53]
said "come on", put Lisa to the work,

{SPEAKER name="Lisa Chickering"}
Yes

{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield "}
so at least we got then from Paris [[?]]

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
So how long... So how long did you stay in Paris then? Unemployed as you were.
[00:06:04]
{Speaker="Lisa Chickering"}
Well, about two months, really. Uh, cause we had gone with the intentions of staying about three
[00:06:09]
and naturally we had saved up enough for that and you can live reasonably once you get over to Europe.
[00:06:13]
It's not the most expensive place, on the contrary.

{SPEAKER name="Lisa Chickering"}
And we did.

{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield "}
Very reasonably.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
So you had money enough for Paris.

{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield "}
Yes, we managed.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
Well. What I really want to know is when you ran out of the money you had saved

{SPEAKER name="Lisa Chickering"}
Well then a job, fortunately was waiting in Rome at the Villa Rosa down there and that
[00:06:31]
was a two month engagement. It turned out it was only going to be for two weeks
[00:06:35]
and luckily they kept renewing the contract.

{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield "}
They liked Lisa very much. So they kept us down there for two months
[00:06:41]
{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
And during that job, I wrote on to a place in Spain and got another job [00:06:46] that took up after the one in Rome finished.

{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
Now how did you
[00:06:51]
live and what did you do in Rome when, when, Lisa wasn't actually working? What was it a night club?

{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Well yes it is, but, uh,
[00:06:58]
I knew a girl over there and she had worked for Powers when I did, here in New York
[00:07:03]
{Speaker="Martha Deane"}
You were a Powers model?

{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Yes, and she was doing
[00:07:06]
beautifully over in Rome, modeling and she had this darling little penthouse and she had to go and do some fashion shows off in Berlin and she said "Do you want our apartment?".
[00:07:14]
So we couldn't have been more delighted we got her apartment and a little maid and of course we couldn't communicate with the maid at all but we could, we learned
[00:07:21]
[[laughing]] to say
{SPEAKER name="Lisa Chickering"}
sign language
{Speaker="Jeanne Porterfield"}
and she went out and did the shopping and we lived up in this penthouse

Transcription Notes:
Not sure when Jeanne or Lisa is speaking, did best I could. Please review