“A Rotten Trick!”
Clara Hansen was born in 1902 in Adrian, Michigan to Henry and Katherine Engelskirchen, the fifth of what would be nine children. Henry began his working life at age ten in a brickyard, later working his way up to being a superintendent in a piano factory in Mendota, Illinois. When that factory closed down, he moved the family to Steger, chasing another piano factory job and then yet another in Chicago.
Clara was nine when they moved to Chicago, and though they were poor, they managed to get by. Unlike her father, who had been forced to quit school at ten by his stepmother, Clara was excited at the prospect of going to high school. After only two weeks, however, her dreams were crushed when her mother died unexpectedly of typhoid. Oddly, the family had been walking in a funeral procession when they happened to pass a house with a well where they had once briefly lived. Katherine, overcome with thirst, went over to the well to get a drink despite Henry’s frantic warnings about drinking from a well that had sat for so long untouched. Katherine would not listen, however, and died soon after. Clara, then, was forced to abandon her happy days at school to stay home and care for the family, which she did for two years before Henry could afford to hire someone to come in and help.
Finally released from caring for children, Clara got a job at Carson’s Wholesale, which she enjoyed much more. She met a friend there, Florence, who was always begging her to come with her on a Saturday or a Sunday night to the nearby Mable Theatre on Elston and Irving Park Road (later becoming the Revue Theatre in 1934), which, in Florence’s opinion, anyway, had the best vaudeville acts around. After much refusing, Clara finally agreed to go with her one night and found herself laughing as much as Florence. They spent the walk home talking about which had been their favorite acts and laughing all over again. Eventually, however, they noticed that two young men were following behind them. When the girls finally reached Clara’s home, one of the boys, Arthur Phillip Hansen, asked if he could have Clara’s telephone number. Clara lied and said they didn’t have a telephone, but Florence spoke up and said that they did to have a telephone! and promptly gave Clara’s number to the hopeful Arthur.
It turns out that Clara rather liked Arthur, and they dated for two years before Arthur worked up the courage to propose. Clara was hesitant to accept him. Although she liked Arthur well enough, her real love in life was dancing. Arthur, for his part, didn’t dance, but he swore to her that if she married him he would drive her and her girlfriends to the dance halls every week. Clara agreed, then, and was married at eighteen, which she later said, “was too young!” and that it was “a rotten trick!” as no sooner was she married but she got pregnant, and that was the natural end of her dancing days.
Arthur and Clara seemed happy enough, however, and had three sons and lived in the same apartment on Kasson Avenue for 29 years. Her father, Henry, died at age 71 the night Pearl Harbor was bombed. Clara does not remember of what. When they met, Arthur was working as a roofer, but after three close calls, he took up carpentry and was able to earn a decent living at it. He died at age 91, and Clara eventually went into a nursing home in 1993, believing that it was only temporary.
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