Claudette, from Paris to East Hills!
January 20, 2003
J. Glenn Eugster
Fontana Free Press
On January 20, fifty-one years ago in East Hills, New York, Josephine and Joseph Eugster had a baby at the Roslyn Hospital. It was the second child for the Eugster’s and it was the daughter they had hoped for. The baby arrived on time, without complications and thrilled the relatives living nearby in Greenvale and Westbury. Although both families had many children, the kids typically were born afar and the good news was celebrated at some distance. A new baby, born at home, was cause to celebrate!
The Eugster’s lived in an apartment, with their four year old son Joseph, a.k.a. Glenn, behind the East Hills Shopping Center off of Guinea Woods Road. Joseph, a.k.a. Joe, worked as a Grocery Clerk in the Bohack Food Store that was part of the shopping center, while Josephine, a.k.a. Jay, filled her time raising their son, working part-time, and caring for their home.
The Eugster’s abode was modest and included a living room, kitchen, one bedroom, bath and basement for storage--and a place where Joe made holiday Santa Claus displays for East Hillapolitans. Although it wasn’t a house, the apartment was the first separate residence of the Eugster’s that wasn’t a part of someone else’s house. Although space was limited the family found the residence accommodating and viewed the apartment as “one step away” from a real house.
The new baby’s arrival caused quite a stir in the Eugster home. Jay and Joe were excited about their daughter’s arrival and had been making plans for bringing the baby home in advance of Jay’s stay at Roslyn Hospital. With the help of Jay’s sisters the couple prepared a crib, dresser, blankets, toys, bottles, and other essential items needed to raise the new baby. Although Glenn wasn’t quite sure what was going on, he new changes were on their way.
Being an only child, and the “first-born”, Glenn had a good deal at the apartment. He slept in between Mom and Dad in the big bed, got plenty of attention from his parents and his four aunts, three uncles, two grandmothers and one grandfather. Life in East Hills was very good and Glenn had no reason to believe that growing older would be much different than it was when he started. Certainly a new sister living in a crib wouldn’t be any big deal, or would it?
Shortly after the birth of their daughter Jay and Joe brought the child home wrapped in soft white cotton and wool blankets. They advised Glenn and anyone else who would listen, that the baby’s name was Claudette. Joe passed out cigars to his co-workers and relatives, and drank shots of whiskey at Budney’s tavern while Jay gave attentive listeners highlights of what it was like to have a child at Roslyn Hospital.
Roslyn was a more historic community than East Hills and a very good place to be born. East Hills had a mixed history. In the 1800’s it was the home of a few wealthy families, including the Mackays who also owned Robin’s Island in the Great Peconic Bay—an island Jay and Joe would see later in their life after the family moved to Laurel. The Mackays wined and dined the best including the Prince of Wales and Charles Lindbergh after his solo flight to Paris—perhaps in search of Claudette Colbert. The Mackays lost their fortune and were bailed out by their spurned son-in-law Irving Berlin, but that’s another story.
Aunt Stella, Jay’s sister, came to the apartment, to watch over Glenn, when Jay and Joe went to the hospital. As they waited nervously for the new baby to arrive, Aunt Stella and Glenn watched television and ate bowls of popcorn. A day passed and the news came from Roslyn Hospital, courtesy of a phone call from Joe, that Jay had a baby girl without complications-except for hemorrhoids which were common with pregnant women. He indicated that they would be home soon and that Stella and Glenn should go easy on the popcorn and not watch too much television.
Not surprisingly, when Claudette arrived in East Hills, she was placed in crib in the bedroom. The crib was at the foot of the big bed and Glenn could see his sister from his spot between his parents. It was a good location in that it was close but not too close. The new baby had her own space and she seemed to fit in quite well.
Claudette made a great first impression. She was healthy, smiley, and had a baby-like, big round Eugster-Stazweski-head. She was obviously one of us and not someone else’s baby brought home by mistake. Claudette seemed to enjoy sleeping, gradually learned to roll-over onto her stomach, and seemed to like being there, often smiling and kicking her feet. Although she took lot’s of care and feeding, and drew attention away from Glenn, she seemed to be oh-so pleasant and reasonable in every way. She was cute, very photogenic and quickly made friends with our Kodak “Brownie” box camera. One might have thought the camera was alive and named “Goo-goo” after watching my sister and the plastic picture box.
The name that Jay and Joe chose broke with family traditions and reflected a tendency that first generation Americans had to strive to fit in to their new country. Where previously everyone in the family was named after their parents—either directly or nearly so, this child would have a new identity. The baby girl wouldn’t be named Josephine or Johanna, as her mother and grandmothers had been, she would be named after a movie star named Claudette Lily Colbert. Claudette, mouthed constantly by Jay and Joe, brought a regular smile to the baby’s face as well as those who stopped in to see her.
It took Glenn, who was actually named Joseph after his father, grandfathers, and uncles, as well as the others—he even had a dog named Jose’, to get used to someone that wasn’t named Joe-something. For many years, starting the day his sister arrived, Glenn pondered the name Claudette. Where did it come from? What did it mean? Whose name was it before they gave it to my sister? What, oh what, was going on? Before long, in 1957, pop-singer Roy Orbison even wrote a song made famous by the Everly Brothers called “Claudette”. This new baby was proving to be more of a big deal than Glenn imagined.
The explanation for the baby’s name was clear and easy to understand. Jay and Joe had this thing about famous and wealthy people. They wanted to be them! Although they were of modest means they enjoyed the glitter and the glamour of the movies, had worked for wealthy people and they aspired to do great things with their life. Jay believed that she could have married a big name baseball star and Joe believed that if he had gotten a break or two he could have been a successful artist. Logically, they believed, that great names could help their kids become great people. Glenn, although named Joseph, was also sub-named after Glenn Ford the actor and Claudette was named after Claudette Colbert. Movie-stars would make our kids better!
Claudette Colbert’s past was exciting and immediately cloaked my sister in a new, exciting and mysterious light. Claudette Colbert was really Claudette Lily Chauchion who was born in Paris, France in 1905. She came to the US when she was three and made her film debut in silent films in 1927. She wore a “Betty Boop” hairdo, scarves, and behaved with style and haughty sensuality. Glenn could only imagine with excitement and intimidation that this child in the crib would one day become a big face on the movie screen and a star in California.
Perhaps it was a coincidence but Claudette Colbert’s resume, in retrospect, seems to have had hints of the Claudette Eugster’s past and future. Claudette of Paris had her first big acting success in a movie called “The Sign of the Cross” which seems to be linked to Jay’s hope that her daughter would someday become a nun. Unfortunately for Jay’s vision of Sister Mary Claudette, this film featured Claudette Colbert in a now famous nude milk bath scene that placed the movie on the Catholic Church’s restricted movie list.
Claudette Colbert also starred in Cleopatra as well as a series of screwball comedies such as “It Happened One Night” (dedicated to Mattituck Bowling Lanes in Mattituck, New York) and Boomtown (dedicated to Birmingham, Alabama).
All totaled Claudette of Paris made 65 films, including “The Egg and I” (dedicated to the LI Ducks), “Since You Went Away” (dedicated to her husband and other sport announcers everywhere), and “Three Came Home” (dedicated to her daughter Elise Gold). Her roles included teaming with Clarke Gable and Fred Mac Murray, acting as the mother of Shirley Temple, co-staring with Ann Margaret in the “Two Mrs. Greenville’s”( dedicated to the women of Mongalousa Lane), “Sleep, My Love” (dedicated to her daughter Elise), and cast opposite of Troy Donahue(dedicated to Steve Nostrum). Little did most of the family realize what a standard Jay and Joe had set for the child they brought home from Roslyn hospital.
As the first year of Claudette’s time in Casa del East Hills unfolded everyone found her to be cute, quick to smile, easy-going, somewhat gullible, and always loveable. Much to Glenn’s surprise, Claudette’s ability to attract attention created a distraction for him and his childhood pal Alan Darnell of the “Darnell’s Hardware Store” family to form the notorious “East Hills Gang”. The pre-teen gang would later terrorize merchants, arrange for child marriages, scare shoppers, and harass the “Dolly Madison” ice cream lady. Over time Claudette would learn that Glenn’s behavior would make her seem even more reasonable in her parent’s eyes. It would also cause her to believe that Glenn’s name was really “Jesus Christ Glenn”, a name that Jay and Joe frequently used.
Alan and Glenn’s behavior offered Claudette the “comparative cover” that she would use and need later in life to create her own identity in the family. Next to Glenn and Alan Claudette looked even better behaved than she was. Unfortunately, this brotherly influence was not without a price for the younger child. Fake deaths on the living room floor, an arranged marriage to Yo-Lin the son of the East Hills Chinese Laundry, mandatory waffle-ball games, farm pond ice skating until 1:00 a.m., and implications in shopping center vandalism added frequent suspense, drama, exercise, and romance to the girl named after the famous actress.
Over more than one-half a century, Claudette of East Hills has lived a life in the tradition of her namesake. She has appeared in theater productions singing at the Cutchogue Theater and Mattituck’s Annual Minstrel Show. For many years she stood in the spotlight playing the outfield and hitting nearly .500 and catching anything hit in her direction for various town teams in the Mattituck and New Suffolk Summer Softball Leagues.
She has regularly been seen on camera at various auto-racing and ice hockey sporting events hurling accolades and insults with great passion and articulation. She regularly represents her family’s interests in matters of domestic, scholastic, environmental, behavioral and civic importance.
More recently she has taught at Summer Bible School and has signed a long-term agreement to sing as part of the “Out East Karaoke Lounge Act”. Even today, close friends swear, she will take a nude milk bath when the situation is appropriate!
The new kid in the crib fit in beautifully and has made her mark with a worldly and sophisticated yet down to earth style. Recently, on a Christmas visit to the White House in Washington, DC, Claudette of East Hills perhaps said it best, “I know what’s best for me, and after all I have been in the Claudette business longer than anybody”. The kid in the crib was a much, much bigger deal than Glenn, or any other of the family members realized. Over time she’s made us all forget good-old “what’s-her-name” from Paris.
January 20, 2003
J. Glenn Eugster
Fontana Free Press
On January 20, fifty-one years ago in East Hills, New York, Josephine and Joseph Eugster had a baby at the Roslyn Hospital. It was the second child for the Eugster’s and it was the daughter they had hoped for. The baby arrived on time, without complications and thrilled the relatives living nearby in Greenvale and Westbury. Although both families had many children, the kids typically were born afar and the good news was celebrated at some distance. A new baby, born at home, was cause to celebrate!
The Eugster’s lived in an apartment, with their four year old son Joseph, a.k.a. Glenn, behind the East Hills Shopping Center off of Guinea Woods Road. Joseph, a.k.a. Joe, worked as a Grocery Clerk in the Bohack Food Store that was part of the shopping center, while Josephine, a.k.a. Jay, filled her time raising their son, working part-time, and caring for their home.
The Eugster’s abode was modest and included a living room, kitchen, one bedroom, bath and basement for storage--and a place where Joe made holiday Santa Claus displays for East Hillapolitans. Although it wasn’t a house, the apartment was the first separate residence of the Eugster’s that wasn’t a part of someone else’s house. Although space was limited the family found the residence accommodating and viewed the apartment as “one step away” from a real house.
The new baby’s arrival caused quite a stir in the Eugster home. Jay and Joe were excited about their daughter’s arrival and had been making plans for bringing the baby home in advance of Jay’s stay at Roslyn Hospital. With the help of Jay’s sisters the couple prepared a crib, dresser, blankets, toys, bottles, and other essential items needed to raise the new baby. Although Glenn wasn’t quite sure what was going on, he new changes were on their way.
Being an only child, and the “first-born”, Glenn had a good deal at the apartment. He slept in between Mom and Dad in the big bed, got plenty of attention from his parents and his four aunts, three uncles, two grandmothers and one grandfather. Life in East Hills was very good and Glenn had no reason to believe that growing older would be much different than it was when he started. Certainly a new sister living in a crib wouldn’t be any big deal, or would it?
Shortly after the birth of their daughter Jay and Joe brought the child home wrapped in soft white cotton and wool blankets. They advised Glenn and anyone else who would listen, that the baby’s name was Claudette. Joe passed out cigars to his co-workers and relatives, and drank shots of whiskey at Budney’s tavern while Jay gave attentive listeners highlights of what it was like to have a child at Roslyn Hospital.
Roslyn was a more historic community than East Hills and a very good place to be born. East Hills had a mixed history. In the 1800’s it was the home of a few wealthy families, including the Mackays who also owned Robin’s Island in the Great Peconic Bay—an island Jay and Joe would see later in their life after the family moved to Laurel. The Mackays wined and dined the best including the Prince of Wales and Charles Lindbergh after his solo flight to Paris—perhaps in search of Claudette Colbert. The Mackays lost their fortune and were bailed out by their spurned son-in-law Irving Berlin, but that’s another story.
Aunt Stella, Jay’s sister, came to the apartment, to watch over Glenn, when Jay and Joe went to the hospital. As they waited nervously for the new baby to arrive, Aunt Stella and Glenn watched television and ate bowls of popcorn. A day passed and the news came from Roslyn Hospital, courtesy of a phone call from Joe, that Jay had a baby girl without complications-except for hemorrhoids which were common with pregnant women. He indicated that they would be home soon and that Stella and Glenn should go easy on the popcorn and not watch too much television.
Not surprisingly, when Claudette arrived in East Hills, she was placed in crib in the bedroom. The crib was at the foot of the big bed and Glenn could see his sister from his spot between his parents. It was a good location in that it was close but not too close. The new baby had her own space and she seemed to fit in quite well.
Claudette made a great first impression. She was healthy, smiley, and had a baby-like, big round Eugster-Stazweski-head. She was obviously one of us and not someone else’s baby brought home by mistake. Claudette seemed to enjoy sleeping, gradually learned to roll-over onto her stomach, and seemed to like being there, often smiling and kicking her feet. Although she took lot’s of care and feeding, and drew attention away from Glenn, she seemed to be oh-so pleasant and reasonable in every way. She was cute, very photogenic and quickly made friends with our Kodak “Brownie” box camera. One might have thought the camera was alive and named “Goo-goo” after watching my sister and the plastic picture box.
The name that Jay and Joe chose broke with family traditions and reflected a tendency that first generation Americans had to strive to fit in to their new country. Where previously everyone in the family was named after their parents—either directly or nearly so, this child would have a new identity. The baby girl wouldn’t be named Josephine or Johanna, as her mother and grandmothers had been, she would be named after a movie star named Claudette Lily Colbert. Claudette, mouthed constantly by Jay and Joe, brought a regular smile to the baby’s face as well as those who stopped in to see her.
It took Glenn, who was actually named Joseph after his father, grandfathers, and uncles, as well as the others—he even had a dog named Jose’, to get used to someone that wasn’t named Joe-something. For many years, starting the day his sister arrived, Glenn pondered the name Claudette. Where did it come from? What did it mean? Whose name was it before they gave it to my sister? What, oh what, was going on? Before long, in 1957, pop-singer Roy Orbison even wrote a song made famous by the Everly Brothers called “Claudette”. This new baby was proving to be more of a big deal than Glenn imagined.
The explanation for the baby’s name was clear and easy to understand. Jay and Joe had this thing about famous and wealthy people. They wanted to be them! Although they were of modest means they enjoyed the glitter and the glamour of the movies, had worked for wealthy people and they aspired to do great things with their life. Jay believed that she could have married a big name baseball star and Joe believed that if he had gotten a break or two he could have been a successful artist. Logically, they believed, that great names could help their kids become great people. Glenn, although named Joseph, was also sub-named after Glenn Ford the actor and Claudette was named after Claudette Colbert. Movie-stars would make our kids better!
Claudette Colbert’s past was exciting and immediately cloaked my sister in a new, exciting and mysterious light. Claudette Colbert was really Claudette Lily Chauchion who was born in Paris, France in 1905. She came to the US when she was three and made her film debut in silent films in 1927. She wore a “Betty Boop” hairdo, scarves, and behaved with style and haughty sensuality. Glenn could only imagine with excitement and intimidation that this child in the crib would one day become a big face on the movie screen and a star in California.
Perhaps it was a coincidence but Claudette Colbert’s resume, in retrospect, seems to have had hints of the Claudette Eugster’s past and future. Claudette of Paris had her first big acting success in a movie called “The Sign of the Cross” which seems to be linked to Jay’s hope that her daughter would someday become a nun. Unfortunately for Jay’s vision of Sister Mary Claudette, this film featured Claudette Colbert in a now famous nude milk bath scene that placed the movie on the Catholic Church’s restricted movie list.
Claudette Colbert also starred in Cleopatra as well as a series of screwball comedies such as “It Happened One Night” (dedicated to Mattituck Bowling Lanes in Mattituck, New York) and Boomtown (dedicated to Birmingham, Alabama).
All totaled Claudette of Paris made 65 films, including “The Egg and I” (dedicated to the LI Ducks), “Since You Went Away” (dedicated to her husband and other sport announcers everywhere), and “Three Came Home” (dedicated to her daughter Elise Gold). Her roles included teaming with Clarke Gable and Fred Mac Murray, acting as the mother of Shirley Temple, co-staring with Ann Margaret in the “Two Mrs. Greenville’s”( dedicated to the women of Mongalousa Lane), “Sleep, My Love” (dedicated to her daughter Elise), and cast opposite of Troy Donahue(dedicated to Steve Nostrum). Little did most of the family realize what a standard Jay and Joe had set for the child they brought home from Roslyn hospital.
As the first year of Claudette’s time in Casa del East Hills unfolded everyone found her to be cute, quick to smile, easy-going, somewhat gullible, and always loveable. Much to Glenn’s surprise, Claudette’s ability to attract attention created a distraction for him and his childhood pal Alan Darnell of the “Darnell’s Hardware Store” family to form the notorious “East Hills Gang”. The pre-teen gang would later terrorize merchants, arrange for child marriages, scare shoppers, and harass the “Dolly Madison” ice cream lady. Over time Claudette would learn that Glenn’s behavior would make her seem even more reasonable in her parent’s eyes. It would also cause her to believe that Glenn’s name was really “Jesus Christ Glenn”, a name that Jay and Joe frequently used.
Alan and Glenn’s behavior offered Claudette the “comparative cover” that she would use and need later in life to create her own identity in the family. Next to Glenn and Alan Claudette looked even better behaved than she was. Unfortunately, this brotherly influence was not without a price for the younger child. Fake deaths on the living room floor, an arranged marriage to Yo-Lin the son of the East Hills Chinese Laundry, mandatory waffle-ball games, farm pond ice skating until 1:00 a.m., and implications in shopping center vandalism added frequent suspense, drama, exercise, and romance to the girl named after the famous actress.
Over more than one-half a century, Claudette of East Hills has lived a life in the tradition of her namesake. She has appeared in theater productions singing at the Cutchogue Theater and Mattituck’s Annual Minstrel Show. For many years she stood in the spotlight playing the outfield and hitting nearly .500 and catching anything hit in her direction for various town teams in the Mattituck and New Suffolk Summer Softball Leagues.
She has regularly been seen on camera at various auto-racing and ice hockey sporting events hurling accolades and insults with great passion and articulation. She regularly represents her family’s interests in matters of domestic, scholastic, environmental, behavioral and civic importance.
More recently she has taught at Summer Bible School and has signed a long-term agreement to sing as part of the “Out East Karaoke Lounge Act”. Even today, close friends swear, she will take a nude milk bath when the situation is appropriate!
The new kid in the crib fit in beautifully and has made her mark with a worldly and sophisticated yet down to earth style. Recently, on a Christmas visit to the White House in Washington, DC, Claudette of East Hills perhaps said it best, “I know what’s best for me, and after all I have been in the Claudette business longer than anybody”. The kid in the crib was a much, much bigger deal than Glenn, or any other of the family members realized. Over time she’s made us all forget good-old “what’s-her-name” from Paris.
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