Jack Lane is the elder brother of Edward Lane. Their parents were John Mathias Lane (PopPop) and (Nana) Althea Elizabeth Bartling Lane.
Of John Mathias Lane, Jack writes:
"My father was born January 14, 1914 in either Philadelphia or South Jersey. He grew up in Laurel Springs, NJ. Edward, his brother, was one year younger and they were very close. His father was a union man employed as an electrotyper and must have earned a decent living as they owned their own home."
Electrotyping was a process by which printing plates were made. The firm he worked for was Potomac Electrotype, first in Camden and then in Philadelphia.
Healthwise... "He must have been a bit of a drinker because I was told my grandmother would go to the plant on payday to make sure he did not spend it all at the pub with his friends," Jack says.
"He died of a blood clot after an operation in 1934."
"As far as I know he was 100% Irish."
--Jack Lane
"Sports was of primary importance to both my father and his brother," Jack tells. "They were both good baseball players and my father was captain of the high school team. Apparently they played football also, as he told me of an incident when Jersey Joe Walcott who was on an opposing team stuck his finger in my father's eye. Years later Walcott became heavy weight boxing champion of the world."
John Mathias Lane attended Haddon Heights High School and apparently had no trouble with his studies despite spending lots of time at sports.
"Being from an Iriash Catholic family in rural South Jersey had some drawbacks during the 1920's and 30's. There was still quite a lot of prejudice. My father was personable and well-liked and had been asked to join a club. At the first meeting he attended comments were made about Catholics. They did not realize he was also a Catholic, so he told them and then withdrew from the club."
"At the time Dad graduated from high school the country was in the midst of the Great Depression," explains Jack. "There were no jobs available for young people. He played semi-pro baseball and filled his time as best he could. On a lark he and a friend went with some older boys to Washington to see FDR's inauguration. Turned out the older boys were a rowdy drinking group and my father and his friend were thankful when they got safely back to Laurel Springs."
"In 1934 my grandfather died suddenly and left the family with no bread winner. The firm he worked for offered Dad a job as shipping clerk/office boy. This was a fateful event for Potomac Electrotype would go on to support the Lane family for another sixty years."
"The company had started in Washington, DC and thus its name. Mr. Victor Burger had worked for International Business Machines Corporation as a buyer of Electrotype printing plates. The owners of the firm had offered him a partnership and he joined Potomac. The firm had expanded to Camden, NJ and Mr. Burger went there to run that division. By 1939 the firms had split apart with Mr. Burger becoming sole owner of the Camden plant. He purchased a similar small firm in New York and changed its name to Potomac Electrotype Company of New York."
Two years later, PopPop John Lane was sent to New York to run the plant.
Jack: "Burger....let Dad purchase a small interest in the firm as an inducement. Dad was a born salesman and soon the company had many new clients, mostly advertising agencies."
John's favorite restaurant in NYC became The Palm where they painted his caricature on the wall. Victor Burger would come to New York once a week and stayed overnight at his club, The Lotus. The firm did pretty well and Burger left the running of the New York company up to Lane.
Jack recalls moving to a rental apartment in Astoria with his mother and father where they lived until Jack was four years old.
