Have A Baby, My Wife Just Had A Cigar! – Title of a book written by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Stanley Melvin Berenstain was born in Philadelphia to Rose (Brander) and Harry Berenstain. His wife and co-writer Janice Marian Grant was also born and raised in Philadelphia.
This was a very difficult census to find. The Berenstains do not show up in the 1930 census. I looked under the most likely misspelling – Bernstein – but found nothing. I even researched their neighbors from the 1940 census to see if I could find them in 1930 living near the Berenstains. I finally found them listed under the name Binstein.
The family is renting at 4229 Frankford Avenue (now a car dealership) in Philadelphia. The property fronts on the Frankford El line which runs overhead in the middle of the street. The head of the household in 1930 is Harry Berenstain’s mother Ella, a 55-year-old widow born in Russia, whose native language is Yiddish. Her occupation is listed as the proprietor of an Army-Navy store. Living with her are her unmarried son Edward, 20, and her son Harry, 27. Both are salesmen at the Army-Navy store. Harry’s wife Rose (who is listed as Ella’s daughter) and young Stan make up the rest of the household.
Only about half the census page is filled out, as the census taker reached the end of the block. There are two immigrants from Russia, two from Italy, and one from Ireland. Several have an occupation of proprietor – of a shoe store, hardware store, restaurant, flower shop, etc.. It seems to be a commercial neighborhood. The rest are clerks, laborers, and repairmen. One homeowner, Nicholas Vitacolina, an immigrant from Italy, owns the shoe repair shop which supports his wife and 9 children aged 9-21. Two of his sons already work in the shop and his daughter has nabbed a clerical job with the government. My guess is that she works at the Frankford Arsenal.
Later life
Stan met his future wife, Jan, in 1941 on the first day of school at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. During the war, he served in the Army as a medical illustrator. Jan was a draft artist for the Army Corps of Engineers in addition to working in an aircraft factory. She used spare aluminum from the factory job to make wedding rings for their 1946 marriage.
The couple’s original writings were parental advice books, such as the Berenstain’s Baby Book on pregnancy and child-rearing, How to Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making a Complete Fool of Yourself and Have a Baby, My Wife Just Had a Cigar!.
They produced a magazine cartoon series about the life of a suburban family called It’s All in the Family and, then inspired by the Dr. Seuss books, began their own series of children’s books – The Berenstain Bears, with The Big Honey Hunt. Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) edited several of their books. They stated that bears were not chosen as the characters because of the Berenstain name but because “bears are furry and appealing.”
Stan died in 2005, Jan in 2012. She will be covered on this site when her birthday rolls around on July 26.
Other happenings on September 29, 1923:
- The British Mandate for Palestine went into effect for what would become the nation of Israel.
- The French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon went into effect by France’s agreement with the League of Nations.
- Italy’s Prime Minister Benito Mussolini ordered the return 10 million of the 50 million lire that Greece had paid over the Corfu incident and directed it to be spent on needy Greek and Armenian refugees.
- Bavarian State Commissioner Gustav von Kahr defied the federal government and refused to obey an order directing the suppression of publications by Adolf Hitler.
- The first U.S. Track & Field championships for women were held, at Weequahic Park in Newark, New Jersey, with 11 events, with four running events, two for jumping, and five for throwing various items, including basketballs and softballs.
- Born: Roland Gööck, prolific (230 books) German non-fiction author; in Felchta, Free State of Thuringia (d. 1991).
- Jenny Berthelius, Swedish writer of crime novels and children’s books; in Stockholm (d. 2019).
Tomorrow – Cold-Blooded
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Sources
- Wikipedia.org
- Ancestry.com
- Onthisday.com
- Picryl.com
- Youtube.com
Famous People and Their First Census 