What a great story about Les' life as a "Burbank Pioneer", and his adventures during wartime and after!  Les really had a remarkable life!  Thank you for sharing it with us!

There's an old saying that claims "nice guys finish last." That's not true. It's not true in Burbank -- and it's definitely not true when it comes to one of Burbank's early pioneering families, the Rosenbergs.

Rudolf Rosenberg, known as Rudy, came here from Colorado in 1922. By 1924, he opened the "Photo Art Shop" that sold photographic and art supplies. In fact, Rudy was the first occupant of a three-story building on Olive just above San Fernando which also happened to be the first building in Burbank with an elevator. On New Year's Eve of that same year, Rudy married the girl from Security Bank across the street (and the girl of his dreams) Eleanor.

Rudy became an active member of the Burbank community. He served as a fireman with the Burbank Volunteer Fire Department. He was also active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. But even more importantly Rudy became the official photographer for the City of Burbank and during that period shot photos of major accidents, the big Burbank train wreck, police raids on stills during prohibition, and more.

During the Great Depression, Rudy took many pictures of Burbank and turned them into postcards which sold fairly briskly.  As a result, due to Rudy's resourcefulness and hard work, his family made it through those tough years pretty well.  Today Rudy Rosenberg's outstanding old Burbank postcards and photos dot the walls of the Gordon R. Howard Museum, thanks to Rudy's son, Les Rosenberg, who donated them.

You probably know Les Rosenberg.  And, you can tell that Les' father, Rudy really did do okay during the Depression because Les does not really remember it being too bad at all.  (A lot of people the same age as Les do remember the depression years as being very bad.)  In fact, Les loved growing up here.

When Les talks about his childhood in Burbank, he beams:  "It was a fun town to grow up in!"  As he explains, "You felt free.  No one ever worried about anyone hurting you.  I could ride my bike anywhere in town with my buddies.  My folks had a duplex across from where City Hall is now.  Back then it was an open area with a bandstand in the middle and they held concerts there.  A lot of us kids played on that bandstand.  That was one of my favorite things to do."
   
Another favorite activity for Les had to do with his closest friend.  Les told us,  "My buddy's
father was a preacher at the Methodist Church which was located where the Courthouse is now.  We'd go in there and slide down the banisters, go up into the alcoves...we did all kinds of bad things!  But it was fun."

Another way to have fun...and this is classic Depression-era "stuff"...was to walk down to the train station on Front Street and wave at the "tramps" on the trains.  According to Les, "Every freight train had guys "ridin' the rails" -- that's what we called it -- just going anywhere, looking for work.  We just waved!"  Les didn't even realize what a sad picture that is to us now.  It was just good ol' wholesome fun back then.

Les also loves to recount another tale when he was out playing just a little too late and a cop pulled up and shouted, "Les!  Your folks want you home;  you're late for dinner!"  Then the policeman took Les home. "That's how small the town was" said Les.  "Everyone knew everyone".  More innocent fun included spinning on chairs in the local barber shop and visiting the local dog biscuit factory and chewing on the canine treats.

World War II eventually came along.  One big change was no more playing.  As soon as school let out in the afternoon, Les now showed up at his father's store.  The store needed help.  Les recalls that his photographer father had the job of taking all the Lockheed employees' pictures to make their ID badges.  Since Lockheed employed more than 90,000 employees 24/7 in Burbank during the war, you can imagine how big a job that was!

World War II also meant dim-outs (also called black-outs) at night.  Lights could not be on as people feared the west coast might be bombed and the fear was not paranoia.  This was war.  With Lockheed right here building bombers to fight the enemy, people had to be prepared.  Les himself was trained as part of his work as a Boy Scout to be a messenger on bicycle.  His job would have been to deliver messages to the "bigwigs" in case of an emergency that caused all roads to be closed.  (Luckily, it didn't happen.)

Les also has memories of search lights in the hills, air raids if an unscheduled plane entered our airspace, the way Disney camouflaged Lockheed and, of course, rationing.  "Meat was VERY expensive," Les remembers.  "It took a LOT of coupons to buy a steak!"

When Les was in his senior year of high school, he had to fill his first period slot and couldn't decide what to take.  After all, he'd already taken all his required courses; what to choose?  In P.E. kids no longer played baseball or football.  The boys only ran obstacle courses to prepare them for the military.  But finally for first period, Les decided to take typing.  "Wonder why...Mmmm...we hear that most of the students in that class were female!)  To his own surprise, Les turned out to be an absolute whiz at typing.  Little did he know how valuable that skill would become later when he, too, went off to war!

President Roosevelt died while Les was new to the Army and Harry S. Truman was sworn in as President.  After basic training, Les and his fellow young soldiers were all set to be shipped off to the Philippines, but then President Truman issued a directive.  Too many of the 18-year-old soldiers were dying in much higher proportions than the others.  It was felt this was because they were not trained fully enough.  So Truman called a halt to 18-year-olds being sent overseas.  Suddenly young Les was sent not to the Philippines, but to Wyoming.

It was there that Les, like all soldiers, was tested and due to his outstanding typing skills (and we think, his brain!) scored at the level of an MS405 - which was the very top score.  That typing class sure paid off...and it would continue to pay off throughout Les' years of service.

The war was coming to an end.  Victory in Europe (VE Day) occurred in the Spring of 1945.  A few months later, Japan surrendered.  That's when Les was sent to Japan to help with the occupying and rebuilding of the battered country.  AND it was Les' MS405 ranking (for which Les thanks his typing class) that led him to one of the best, most plum jobs in Japan:  to work in General Douglas MacArthur's inner circle.

After a series of promotions which took him from earning $21 per month to over $200, Les was soon based in Tokyo's elegant, opulent Imperial Hotel which had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Picture staying in a Ritz Carlton or a Four Seasons Hotel -- that's what it was like, if not better.  Remember, Les was an enlisted man, among his peers even if not by rank, surely by skill and smarts.  Les could even go into The Officers' Club!  Les lived in a posh hotel room.  His uniforms were cleaned by the hotel staff.  Since Les hired a French man living in Japan to stock the hotel bars, there was some of the best liquor in the world there!  (See how smart Les is?)

Les was even assigned his very own interpreter.  He was a young man about Les' age who spoke perfect English.  This interpreter had actually grown up in Southern California and he and Les even once had the same Photo Shop teacher!  But the interpreter's parents had renounced their US citizenship when they were all sent to a Japanese internment camp.  So after the war, their whole family was deported back to Japan.

At the Imperial Hotel, Les was in charge of supplies, money exchanges ("Everyone wanted dollars, not yen!") and the like.  He got to know General MacArthur some, and saw him in action often.  "He was stern," Les noted, "but he treated the Japanese with respect."  Every day at 2:00 exactly (you could set your watch by it) the General would leave his office.  Just before he'd take off in the chauffeur-driven limo, he'd stop outside the doors and strike a pose with his famous overcoat, hat and pipe.  He did that because crowds of Japanese citizens gathered daily to snap pictures of MacArthur (called "Gaijin Shogun") and he didn't let them down.

Eventually Les was able to come home to Burbank, but he recalls his military days with sweet nostalgia.  "It was a wonderful job," says Les, but we have found that Les seems to have a cup-half-full attitude about everything.  When he returned to the states, he was asked to lead his old Boy Scout Troop.  Les was well remembered back home for his enthusiasm for and belief in the Boy Scouts and thus became, at age 21, one of the youngest Scout leaders around.

Les was a popular, resourceful leader who figured out a way to raise enough money so that all his Scouts could go to Hawaii for two weeks!  Other Scout leaders and the BSA management were left with their mouths agape but very impressed.  It was a trip that those Scouts have never forgotten.  As the Scouts boarded the first nonstop flight from Burbank to Hawaii, the media even covered it.

When Les began leading his troop, there were 30 boys in it.  When Les finally "retired" from Scouting, it had 109!  Again, Scout leaders everywhere were in awe.  Les still hears from his long-ago Scouts.  Because Les started leading at just 21, there are retired men -- even men in their 70s -- who have kept in touch with their revered Scout leader, Les.  It thrills Les to this day.

Les tells us he devoted a lot of time to Scouting, but then Les is the devoted type.  He took over his father's camera store and ran it for years and years.  With his wife, Elaine, he has also been involved in the Autry Museum for the past 25 years.  And of course, Les and Elaine have been very active Board Members of the Burbank Historical Society virtually since its inception.  

The Rosenbergs have essentially traveled the world, to more countries than one can count.  Every place Les has visited he has enjoyed.  Les says that even in a place like France where some say they don't like Americans, Les says he's "Never met anyone who was bad -- everyone has been helpful.  Everyone is nice!"

Speaking of nice people -- it's Les.  Why does Les speak with such joy about his adventures?  Because he is a joy.  He is the common denominator.  Just like his father, Rudy, Les has always been an active member of the Burbank community and we are all better off for it.

Nice guys finish last?  Not the Rosenbergs!

                 Written by Susan Hodgson in 2015 for the Burbank Historical Society