Pennsylvania Six - Text
Subject is a Caucasian male, born in Philadelphia in 1943. Raised in South Philadelphia, he moved to New York City at age 25 and has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirty years, and has moderated his accent somewhat for his work as an actor. recorded and edited by Joel Goldes, 5.21.04. Running time 00:05.29.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
Philadelphia, South Philadelphia. It’s (uh) primarily an Italian community, but there are all different sections. There’s (uh) Irish, which is on Second Street, that they call Jew Street. There’s (uh, uh) some black, Polish, German, but, primarily Italian. South Philadel-- [slight interruption by interviewer] Yeah. (Uh) Anything Christian was Italian. It was predo-- (uh) predominantly Italian, all over, South Philly, except for, like, the-- the-- the lesser streets, like Third Street, ’n’ Second Street, ’n’ First Street, ’n’ Water, ’n Front Street. They were predomi-- (uh) predominantly Irish, an’ they used to fight a lot, fer territory. (Uh) What was-- 23, I moved to New York, Manhattan. Twenty-first an’ Third, yeah, it’s called Maryville. (Eh) Fourth floor walk-up. (Uh) My dentist’s wife got me the apartment. I told her I was getting married, an’ it was a rent-control. So, when we moved into the apartment-- You’re not gonna believe this: it was 43 dollars a month. This is three small rooms, I mean-- But the closet-- It was, like, a small bedroom, that was so small we used for a closet, a small kitchen, and a small living room, that was small that we slept on a sofabed. An’ it was a fourth floor walk-up an’ we-- It started at 43, an’ by the time we left, it was about 75 dollars. Up, please. So, listen, I went back to New York about (uh) two years ago, an’ I went to the old apartment. Y’know, I went back to all the old haunts. An’ I went back to the apartment, an’ (um) I knocked on the door, an’ this guy answered the door. And I told him-- Y’know, “I had lived in this apartment. This i-- Is it all right if I look around?” An’ I went, an’ I looked in. It looked worse than it did when I lived there. ’Cause we fixed it up. Y’know, I fixed it up for my wife. She came from South Philadelphia, Italian, an’ she expected-- She grew up in a house. She never lived in an apartment. So, (uh) it looked better when I-- when I lived there. An’ they raised their rent to fifteen hundred dollars a month. (Snicker) It looked exactly like it looked at-- when I was paying 43. So, fifteen hundred. Just (uh, uh) Philadelphia an’-- and (uh) New York an’ LA. And I moved to New York in 197-- I moved to New York in (uh) 1968, an’ then I moved to (uh) LA in 1974. [Overlap with interviewer] Yeah, (uh) [speaks in dialect] (Eh) Y’ wanna go for a walk? What a’ you talkin’ about? And (uh, uh) I do this because (uh) that’s the way I was taught. Atlantic, itlantic, yeah, we called it “the shore.” Yeah, I’m goin’-- y’ wanna go down to the shore? Y’ wanna take a ride down for a cuppa coffee?
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, July 2, 2008