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Hanna, John (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This interview was conducted in Hanna's home. 4/26/1983
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- 2020-10-27
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- SUBJECT BIO - John Hanna spent most of his career in the personnel department at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. He also served on the Long Beach Harbor Commission. Hannna's family came to Long Beach in 1918 and when he graduated from Poly High School, he went to UC Berkeley. When he graduated, he went to work for the US government. After working in other places, he returned to live in Long Beach and work at the shipyard where he helped to negotiate labor contracts. Eventually he contracted asbestosis and retired. In this single interview, Hanna talks about growing up in Long Beach, playing table tennis and singing in the boy' choir at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, of which he is still an active member. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include: family background; childhood; education; table tennis; 1933 earthquake; St; Luke's Episcopal church and YMCATopics on this side of tape include: employment; Long Beach Naval Shipyard and Long Beach City Council
- *** File: cbjhanna1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:37)... Hanna was born in Portland, Oregon in 1918 and 6 weeks later his family moved to Long Beach. He doesn't know why they came to Long Beach. His father was from Canada and his mother from England. His father worked as a wheat farmer in Manitoba and his mother worked in a department store in Portland. After they came to Long Beach, his father leased the whole block on Long Beach Boulevard north of the YMCA. He ran the drug store there and leased out the rest of the property. He made investments in Long Beach and lost practically all of his money. Eventually he bought a little liquor store at 424 Pacific and he and his wife ran it until he died in 1942 at age 73. His mother continued to run the store for several more years until she sold it. (3:37-5:30)... His father wanted to buy land on Signal Hill but his mother didn't want to live among the chicken coops. He invested in some oil wells and only one of them ever paid off. (5:30-6:26)... While he was growing up, Hanna's family moved around quite a bit. Their first home was on Tenth and Cherry. Then they moved to Twelfth and Cedar. When the 1933 earthquake hit, they were living just of Seventh and Atlantic. They lived in Midway City for 3 years where he father owned some lots and a house. It was named because it was midway between Long Beach and Santa Ana. (6:26-7:06)... Hanna attended Washington, which was both an elementary and junior high, and Poly High School and graduated in 1937. He never took a class from Kathleen Harnett, but his wife did. (7:06-12:10)... When Hanna was 12, in 1930, he joined the choir at St. Luke's Episcopal church. He was the 17th boy that Mr. Dorr signed up for the choir. Mr. Dorr brought a few boys from Palos Verdes where he lived to form the nucleus of the choir as he recruited local boys. His brother had choir certificate No. 18. Hanna stayed in the choir, called the Choristers, until he graduated from high school and went away to college at UC Berkeley. Dr. Austin, the rector at St. Luke's, helped him get a college scholarship. He remembers singing in motion picture while he was in the choir. Mr. Dorr was a great promoter. They also made records. There were no women or girls in the choir; it was a tradition in the old Anglican communion to have boy choirs. (12:10-15:35)... Hanna doesn't know how Dr. Perry Austin met William Ripley Dorr. Dorr was selling organs before they met and got acquainted. Austin recruited Dorr to start the choir and be the organist at St. Luke's. Local radio station KFOX broadcast the morning service at St. Luke's and he remembers people from the radio station being at the services when he sang in the choir. Dr. Austin was a good preacher who always had a worthwhile message. When his health began to suffer, after the 1933 earthquake, his sermons lost some of their effectiveness. Before that Dr. Austin was responsible for establishing some valuable program at the church. (15:35-18:13)... Hanna had been playing basketball at the YMCA and walked home right before the 1933 earthquake struck. That night, his family got in their car and went to Signal Hill. They slept in their car there because there were rumors of a tidal wave heading for Long Beach. When they were reassured that no tidal wave was coming, they moved to Recreation Park where they stayed for a few days before they moved back into their apartment. The building where they lived wasn't damaged, but the house next to it lost its chimney. His father was lying on the sofa when the earthquake struck. It knocked him off and a bookcase fell over on top of him. He was not hurt and they all went down the stairs and out of the building. (18:13-19:59)... He remembers going to St. Luke's and seeing Mr. Dorr moving all of the organ pipes into the parish hall for safe keeping. He also remembers singing on the steps of the parish hall for services that were held there. Eventually the services were moved into the parish hall until the church was rebuilt. In the picture of the first service in the new church, he can be seen holding the cross. Apparently he was the crucifier at that time. (19:59-23:40)... Growing up in Long Beach, Hanna was active in intramural sports. He used to stay after school to play soccer. He also played basketball and softball at the YMCA. He played table tennis at the YMCA and got to be good enough to win city championships. He met Gordon Templeman who was the Pacific Coast champion and who showed him the first rubber paddle he'd ever seen. Templeman coached him and they became friends. Over the years, Hanna remained interested in the sport and became the first president of the California Table Tennis Association. (23:40-24:22)... At the time of the interview, Hanna believed he was a better tennis player than a table tennis player since he plays tennis more often. There were courts at the complex where he lived. (24:22-26:26)... While he was a student at Poly, Hanna was student body president, played on the tennis team and was assistant business manager for the annual, the Caerulea. His mother was also active in the Poly PTA. (26:26-29:25)... In 1937 Hanna went to UC Berkeley on a scholarship. He majored in General Curriculum but most of his classes were in political science and public administration. After that, he went to USC and worked on an MA but never finished. Later he went to UCLA at night and earned a certifiact in Industial Relations. Going to Berkeley was a strange experience. He came from a high school of 3200 students where he was kind of a big shot and when to Berkeley which had 16,000 students. He didn't know anyone and no one knew him. (29:25-30:21)... Hanna had met Sylvia while they were both students at Poly and she went to UC Berkeley when he did. That's where they started dating and they married in 1940. End of tape *** File: cbjhanna2.mp3 (0:00-2:48)... Sylvia McLean was the young woman Hanna married. They met in high school when he family lived on Signal Hill in a home on Walnut owned by General Petroleum. Her father was a Signal Hill city council representative and general foreman for General Petroleum. Their home had a beautiful view although it had oil wells all around it. It had been torn down by the time of the interview. Hanna didn't meet Sylvia until their senior year. She was active in school and civic activities and a musician. (2:48-4:31)... Hanna left UC Berkeley in 1941 and took a job with a government agency in Washington, D. C. During the year and half he was there, he worked for several agencies. Then he transferred to San Francisco where he worked by the US Civil Service Commission's 12th regional office as a position classifier. Six months after that, he was commissioned as an ensign in the Naval reserve and spend 3 years in the service during WWII. He was in the supply Corps in New Guinea and the Phillipines. (4:31-10:01)... Hanna's last duty station with the Navy at the Long Beach Naval Station. He stayed in the service after he had enough points to leave because there was a shortage of officers. When he left the Navy in 1946 he applied for a job in the Long Beach shipyard's personnel department. He went to work there in June of 1946 and stayed until the shipyard was closed in 1950 as a result of subsidence and an economic slowdown. Hanna negotiated a transfer to Hawaii and he worked at Pearl Harbor for 18 months before the Korean War began. Then the Long Beach shipyard was re-opened and he was transferred back in November, 1951. He worked there in 2 different jobs, as employment superintendent and employees relations superintendent. In October, 1969, he left the shipyard and was selected branch representative for the regional office of the Civilian Manpower Management. It was located in an office building in downtown Long Beach. He worked there until 1971 when the office closed and he transferred back to the shipyard where he became Director of Management Engineering. In 1975 he took a leave of absence to run for a seat on the Long Beach City Council but lost to Don Phillips who sold chicken pies and had the support of the local newspaper. Then he returned to the shipyard where he worked until he retired in January, 1979. (10:01-13:13)... Hanna hadn't planned to retire quite so early, but he had developed asbestosis from working at the shipyard. The medical director advised him to retire and keep away from breathing air at the shipyard. About 16 per cent of shipyard workers had this same disease. End of tape
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