My Uncle Bill’s WWII Larry-sighting story!

My late uncle, Bill Meisburger, told me the following story:

Uncle Bill
William F. Meisburger

“During World War II I was in L.A. and Hollywood on a very few occasions. I went through basic glider school at Twenty-Nine Palms and a bit later through advanced glider school at Victorville. When I could slip into town I did so.

glider
A Douglas C-47 tows a CG-4 glider aloft to begin a training exercise at Victorville Army Air Field, on March 5, 1943. VAAF was one of the largest facilities in the U.S. for training glider pilots.
(From the collection of Mark Landis)

“I also had some relatives there on my father’s side, an aunt and uncle, Joe and Mary Waldron, who lived in a modest house in Hollywood, and their son, Porter Waldron, who owned a paint factory in Burbank and made a fortune during the war turning out one coat of paint for the Navy. It was known as ‘Battleship Gray.’

wwii
Waiting Room during WWII (from https://www.cruiselinehistory.com/75th-anniversary-of-los-angeles-union-station-in-the-1950s-kim-novak-arrived-aboard-the-southern-pacifics-golden-state-alan-ladd-and-virginia-leith-travelled-aboard-the-santa-fes-su/)

“On one of these trips I was in the railroad station (the main one still standing there in L.A.) [editor’s note: Union Station], and while seated waiting for a train, I heard a man and a woman engaged in a dispute immediately behind me. I turned around to behold “Larry”[Fine] and a woman, presumably his wife, and about eight kids. They were arguing about something. But even under those circumstances it was nice to see him.”

larry mabel phyllis
Larry Fine, with wife Mabel and daughter Phyllis