Thursday, October 20, 2011

JULIUS H. TEITELBAUM aka TITLE 1902-1974


Julius Herman Teitelbaum was the second child of Abraham and Rose Flox Teitelbaum. He was born in Chicago on November 14, 1902. He had a sister, Sarah, who was five years older than he was. His father was an insurance salesman and his mother a homemaker.

The earliest picture we have of him was taken for his Bar Mitzvah when he was thirteen. Shortly after this milestone he entered Harrison Technical High School, and with the scant information we have of him in those early years, there is nothing to indicate that he had settled on a career path yet. He graduated from High school in the spring of 1920.

By 1923 the family relocated to Los Angeles, leaving Sarah, now an adult with a job in Chicago. Julius, now called "Julie," enrolled in the USC School of Pharmacy, attending school at night and working as a clerk during the day. He received his license as a pharmacist on July 31, 1926.

The family lived in Boyle Heights, a part of the city of Los Angeles east of downtown. His first job was at W. J. Milmet Pharmacy on Brooklyn Avenue in Boyle Heights. In 1929 he was in a partnership with Lou Finklestine on Venice Boulevard (that is when he shortened his last name to Title, and his partner became Fink). He met his future wife, Bertha Mark, about that time, as she worked nearby at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. They married in 1928 and took their honeymoon on Catalina Island. Their son Jerry was born in 1929 and daughter Judy in 1933.



In 1932 or 1933, Julie leased a store on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills adjacent to the Fox Wilshire Theater and set up a pharmacy as a sole proprietor. He often had movie stars in his store, sitting at the soda fountain with a cup of coffee - or in the back room, where Julie let them "hide out" from their pesty fans, or occasionally to sober up!

His lease expired in 1936, and at that time he bought some property on Garey Avenue in Pomona. The family bought a house in Ontario, a small town near Pomona, and that is where the Title family lived until the children finished high school. Once the kids left high school, the family relocated to Pomona.

Although Julie was going by the name "Title" at the time his son was born in 1929, he did not legally change his name until 1940. During his prime working years, Julie participated in many community activities. At one time he was President of the Pomona Valley Pharmaceutical Association and the Elks Lodge. One of his Committee assignments for the Elks was to head the "Transit Committee." In those days there were many homeless men "riding the rails." The Transit Committee, in the person of Julie, made sure that every hobo who asked for a meal was given one, along with a bus ticket to his choice of either Los Angeles or San Bernardino. It was felt that the larger cities would have more opportunities for employment. It also appears that it was a way to get these men out of Pomona! Julie also belonged to the Ontario-Pomona B'nai B'rith, the Compass Masonic Lodge 590 and also served on the board of Temple Beth Israel in Pomona.

In the mid 1960s Julie was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, so he leased out the big pharmacy and opened Title's Prescription Pharmacy near Pomona Valley Hospital. He was known in all of Pomona as "Doc Title," and he was able to work for 9 years after his Parkinson's diagnosis. The last few years of his life were difficult and he died on April 28, 1974 at the age of 71.



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