Charles C. Pettijohn Jr. - Diary of a Rich Mans Kid: Old Hollywood, World Leaders, Movers & Shakers, and One Boy at the Center of It All!

Diary of a Rich Mans Kid

Charles Pettijohn Jr.

Copyright 2014 by Charles C. Pettijohn

FIRST EDITION

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

All photos are Pettijohn Family photos unless otherwise noted.
Photo credits: p.88 Corbis

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pettijohn, Charles C., Jr.
Diary of a rich mans kid : old Hollywood, world leaders, movers &
shakers, and one boy at the center of it all! / Charles C. Pettijohn, Jr.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-8253-0731-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Pettijohn, Charles C., Jr. 2. Hollywood (Los Angeles,
Calif.)--History--Anecdotes. 3. Hollywood (Los
Angeles, Calif.)--History--Biography. 4. Motion picture
industry--California--Los Angeles. I. Title.
F869.H74P48 2014 384.80979494--dc23.................2013048135

For inquiries about volume orders, please contact:
Beaufort Books
27 West 20th Street, Suite 1102
New York, NY 10011

Published in the United States by Beaufort Books
www.beaufortbooks.com

Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books
www.midpointtrade.com

Printed in the United States of America

Book design by Jamie Kerry of Belle toile Studios
Cover design by Michael Short

Diary of a Rich Mans Kid

THE MARCH 25, 2011 edition of the entertainment publication, The Hollywood Reporter, featured an article entitled, 80 Years of The Hollywood Reporter. The article was about Hal Roach, producer of the Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang film series in the 1930s, creating a film studio partnership with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1937. The storys photo featured Hal Roach and Vittorio Mussolini, Benitos son, aboard a ship traveling from Italy to New York. There was a third person in the photo my grandfather, Charles Pettijohn. The photo looked awfully familiar because Id seen it many times in my fathers family photo album. But unlike the photo in The Hollywood Reporter, the one Id seen in my fathers album was autographed by Vittorio Mussolini.

This prompted me to resurrect the book manuscript my father had started after he retired from CBS Television Network in the mid-1970s. Titled, Diary of a Rich Mans Kid, Dad described his upbringing by parents who were involved in politics, sports, and the film industry.

My grandfather, part Cherokee Indian, was born in Indianapolis on May 5, 1881. A one-time baseball player, he worked his way through Indiana University Law School, graduating in 1903. In 1913, he became Deputy Prosecutor and City Attorney of Indianapolis, then head of the Democratic Party for the State of Indiana. Among his political associates was Joseph Kennedy, and their families were very close. Other close friends included the Roosevelt family, J. Edgar Hoover, President Herbert Hoover (no relation to J. Edgar), and some international government leaders who youll read about later. An article in New Rochelle, NYs the Standard-Star newspaper described him as:

A man to whom a collar means nothing; a man who has no extravagances, is temperate but not a teetotaler, likes to travel, welcomes foreign assignments (has about one a year) and above all, loves children. Every Saturday and Sunday you can find him surrounded by 300 to 500 children at Pettijohn Park which he built. Children flock around him because he talks to them, plays with them, and brings others to see them. When Vittorio Mussolini was here (in Westchester N.Y.) he and Mr. Pettijohn visited the park. How the youngsters of Italian parentage thrilled to that. On Decoration Day, Mr. Pettijohn pitched, and Jimmy Cagney, film star, caught in the softball game. It was a great day for the youngsters. Following the World War, he and ex-president Herbert Hoover raised more than 21 million dollars for the starving children of Europe.

My grandfathers involvement in the motion picture industry began in 1914 when he defended a group of motion picture exhibitors. Ultimately, he became General Counsel for the Motion Picture Association of America. Among his motion picture associates were Lewis J. Selznick, Louis B. Mayer, and Cecil B. DeMille. He married Helen Lynch. They had two children: my father, Charles, and his younger brother, Bruce. Bruce Pettijohn became the youngest law student to receive a PhD in that discipline. He grew up to become the Attorney General for the State of New York.

My father, Charles C. Pettijohn II, was born in New York in 1918. His mom taught him to play golf, and he hit his first hole-in-one by age ten. His golf talent was exhibited in competitions throughout his years at Rye Country Day School, Portsmouth Priory, and Georgetown University. The July 15, 1935 issue of the New York Sun featured an article about my father as a golf prodigy.

Charlie grew up here on the Westchester grounds David Selznick, the movie mogul, gave Charles a toy set of golf sticks on Christmas when he was just 4 years old Charlie was just born to be a golfer because he picked up the game instinctively and developed rapidly without ever taking a real lesson Charlie broke 100 when only 8 years old. At eleven he cracked 90 and at 14 he broke 80

Dads stories describe his experiences with political legends such as President Roosevelt and Joe Kennedy, foreign leaders such as Benito Mussolini and King Edward VIII of England, sports legends such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, historical legends such as J. Edgar Hoover and John Dillinger, and entertainment celebrities such as Clark Gable, Bob Hope, and Cher, just to name a few. My father became a bit of a celebrity himself. But Ill leave that for you to discover as you read his diary. If some of the stories seem rather unbelievable, I hope the photographs dispel any doubts.

Enjoy,

Adrienne Pettijohn

Charles Pettijohn Sr, Vittorio Mussolini and Hal Roach aboard the S.S. Rex

Me and Dad

WITH VERY FEW exceptions, kids are dumb. I was not an exception. I was also a rich mans kid, and rich mens kids are dumber than poor mens kids. Dont believe me? Look around you. Now by rich I dont mean like the Rockefellers or the Vanderbilts. But Dad had a very good position, a large salary, a home beside a golf course in Westchester County, New York, and a summer cottage on a lake in Connecticut, with a speed boat and a tennis court. But we never quite got into polo. I sometimes worried about what I wanted to eat, but never about from where the next meal was coming.

Dad also knew every important person in the world, or at least everyone I thought was important. And I got to meet them all, but was too dumb to know it at the time. Ill tell you about them in a while, but first I have to tell you about Dad because he was the most important. And, of course, being dumb, I didnt know that at the time either.