Friday, August 27, 2010

We're Transferred

Hollywood Bowl

Postmarked 25 August 1945
Oxnard, CA

Message:
Dear Mom, / Bill came home at 6:30 Thurs. and said we're transferred leave at 8 AM - so we packed that night. Live in Oxnard - a little ways from Port Hueneme where Dee shipped out from. / Love Eleanor and Bill
I am very curious if Eleanor, the writer of this postcard, was the wife of Wilson Greatbatch, the man who invented the pacemaker. Greatbatch did marry a woman named Eleanor in 1945, and he was in the Naval Reserves during WWII. After the war, they returned to New York, and Wilson enrolled at Cornell University (with assistance from the G.I. Bill - a program still important to service men and women today). While an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Buffalo, he was trying to create a device to record heartbeats. As a result of a mistake he made, his prototype started emitting a regular pulse. He continued to research and has over 200 patents!

At the time this postcard was sent, the Hollywood Bowl had been operating for 23 years. It's one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, and currently can seat about 18,000 guests.

Greatbatch Biography

Hollywood Bowl History



Thanks to Beth at the Best Hearts are Crunchy for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday!



5 comments:

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

As far as I remember, I've never seen a picture of the Hollywood Bowl before, or if I did it didn't make as much of an impression as this card. It really gives a sense of how enormous it is.

Greatbatch is such an uncommon name, you would think there has to be some connection.

MuseSwings said...

I love delving into the history of the sender and receivers of PFF postcards. Looks like you have a great find there!

Postcardy said...

I didn't realize that the Hollywood Bowl was natural.

viridian said...

Happy PFF! and another lovely linen postcard.

Mary said...

The Hollywood Bowl is a phenomenol place to hear music, whether in the box seats with candles and a fancy picnic, or sitting on the benches far away from the stage. Besides the acoustics, it's never bad to be outside in the summer evenings in Southern California. Nice card!

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