The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

I had no idea Frankie Germano had a brother who went to football games in California.

 

[Fading Fast]

How did the Daily News Page Four miss this story?

It has everything Page Four loves: society night club singer (Leona?) married to a chairman of a railway bondholder's committee (not sure what that is, can guess, but still) who is in jail for mail fraud while the baby is born. Heck, if it could get the story by the code, Warners Brothers would be hiring a screenwriter as we speak.

 

[LizzieMaine]

An editorial in the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, one of Germany's most authoritative organs, today called on the United States and the Soviet Union to declare for one side or for the other in the present war. The article went on to predict that Russia will align with the Axis to create a "Euro-Asian power bloc" in opposition to Great Britain and "interventionist circles" seeking to expand the war, with the latter reference presumed to apply to the United States.

Women, children, and the aged are being evacuated from Berlin, according to reports in the Stockholm press. The reports come as Britain continued its air assaults on the German capital with the longest series of nighttime raids yet seen. Violent explosions rained down on Berlin, Mannheim, and elsewhere for more than four and a half hours last night, with the German press downplaying the severity of the attacks.

A St. John's University law student today identified Max "Little Larney" Ludkovich as the gunman responsible for the 1937 murder of underworld figure Harry "Knockout" Halperin. The student, identified as Jack Barnes of 24 Maple Street, stated that he was standing in a doorway waiting for a flat tire on his car to be repaired at a State Street garage when he heard a shot. He looked toward Boerum Place, where he saw a car about sixty feet away with a door open, moving in his direction with a man crouched on the running board. Barnes watched the man climb into the car, and stated that as the car passed him, the man looked in his direction. He then positively identified that man by pointing to Ludkovich, seated at the defendant's table. Barnes further testified that he had not been questioned at all by former District Attorney William Geoghan, nor by anyone else other than two detectives the night of the murder, until he was summoned by Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen after Amen took over the case.

Dodger President Larry MacPhail is refusing to comment on rumors swirling in Cincinnati that he will leave Brooklyn to take over as general manager of the Chicago Cubs. MacPhail would state only that the situation is "a matter I cannot discuss" when he checked in at World Series headquarters in Cincinnati today, and representatives of the Cubs insist that they know nothing about the story. It is known that MacPhail was approached by Cubs owner P. K. Wrigley before joining the Dodgers organization in 1938, but an agreement could not be reached at that time. MacPhail is in the second year of a three-year contract to operate the Dodgers, and is generally agreed to be responsible for the strong resurgence of the team during his tenure. In Chicago, the front office has been widely reported as being at odds with field manager Gabby Hartnett, with Wrigley, chewing gum king, himself acting as the executive head of the club with other departments within the front office acting independently of each other.

A glass jar containing photographic flash powder exploded in the basement of an apartment house in Prospect Heights today, leaving two employees of the building with serious burns. The blast at 159 Eastern Parkway occurred when one of a group of men working in the basement tossed a smoking match into a corner where the jar lay discarded. Police say the powder was probably abandoned in the basement by a tenant with a photography hobby.

Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie was greeted by boos and thrown eggs as he made a series of campaign stops in Michigan today. One of the eggs thrown from a building in Pontiac as Willkie's car passed by splattered Mrs. Willkie. The candidate accused persons who refuse to listen to opposition arguments of being "non-functioning members of society and a threat to our democratic way of life." Willkie was subsequently given a heavy police guard as he spoke to a crowd of five to seven thousand persons outside a Buick plant in Flint.

Additional detectives have been assigned to the Red Hook Houses project following a conference today between the head of the New York City Housing Authority and the Police Department's Chief Inspector in charge of uniformed patrols. The deployment follows an order by Mayor LaGuardia that steps must be taken to end a recent series of sex crimes that has left women and children in the two-year-old housing project afraid to leave their homes. Police have reportedly suggested that the suspect in the cases has already left the city.

(Took me a minute to realize that's supposed to be a jeweler's loupe in his eye and not a blacked-out monocle.)

(You get the sense from the movies that there are no happily married couples in 1940.)

A survey conducted by the New York Citizens Housing Council finds that Brooklyn residents are the most stable in the city, averaging 3.1 years in their current homes. Manhattan residents, by comparison, average only 2.8 years.

(Oh that Buggsy. What a wag. And as for Henny Youngman --

Yours for 35 cents down at Davega. Maybe he oughta hire Buggsy to write him some new material.)

The Eagle Editorialist is ready to renew his crusade to bring the latest first-run movies to Brooklyn before they go to the sticks. Focus of his renewed campaign is Charlie Chaplin's upcoming "The Great Dictator," booked to premiere in New York in two Manhattan theatres on October 15th. But it will not appear in Brooklyn, third largest metropolis in the nation for weeks or months. Our campaign worked for "Gone With The Wind," so why not for this new Chaplin picture?

(Revolving-credit cards in the modern form didn't exist in 1940, but "Easy Kredit Terms" were a way of life for nearly all major purchases. So was having your stuff taken away by the finance company when you missed a payment.)

(Ah, Charley Gehringer, "the Mechanical Man." He was actually seen to smile, once, in 1934, but it hurt so much he had to stop.)

The consensus among baseball experts gathering in Cincinnati for the start of the World Series tomorrow is that it will go the full seven games, with the Tigers and Reds pretty much evenly matched in their quest for the major league championship. But opinion leans toward the Reds capturing their first Series crown since the tainted year of 1919, and the first title for a National League club since the Cardinals beat the Tigers in 1934. As of last night, neither club has named its starting pitcher for the series opener at Crosley Field, with manager Bill McKechnie of the Reds stating only that he will use his aces, Bucky Walters and Paul Derringer, in the first two games without specifying who will start which. Likewise Del Baker of the Tigers is expected to go with Schoolboy Rowe and Buck Newsom in the first two contests, and there is a general belief that the opening start will go to Newsom. The Reds go into the series with injuries to two key men, catcher Ernie Lombardi and shortstop Lonnie Frey, but McKechnie is sure that Lombardi, with a weak ankle, will start at least the first game. Frey, recovering from a broken toe, is less sure.

Fibber McGee and Molly return to the air tonight at 9:30 pm over WEAF, beginning their sixth season for their wax-company sponsor. Don Quinn is still scripting, as he has since the program began, Billy Mills will again provide the music, and the supporting cast is still a good one.

(Would it kill ya, Sparky, to run down and pick up a new shoe for Slappy before you go back to the game?)

(Well, now, this isn't fair. George may be a jackass, a boob, an idiot, and a scheming, grasping, amoral self-absorbed jerk, but I don't think we've ever actually seen him do anything caddish.)

(Odds that Bill immediately punches the guy in the face now at 3-1.)

("We've been over this, Irwin. The dog is smarter than you. The dog is smarter than me. I can show you the figures again if you insist, but I'd rather you just shut up and follow the dog.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Funny food?" Aw, take the kid to the Automat, introduce him to one of those gabby pies.

Jeez, Carlisle, you had just three words left. Three words, yet. And you couldn't quite make it.

"100 Per Cent Americanism."

"Nothing really matters so much, I guess." And so as Mrs. Slagg slides inexorably into a chronic depression, Annie can only enable her.

Hmph. I bet Dan and Irwin would be *excited* to get a chance like this.

"Now, about that joke you were going to tell..."

You can tell Gus had a good time drawing this one.

Hey Dude, save a little for the encore.

Actually, I'd be up for "Harold Teen, Hardboiled Private Eye." Be an interesting twist for the strip to take now that our boy is all grown up.

1940 race relations in a nutshell.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Women, children, and the aged are being evacuated from Berlin, according to reports in the Stockholm press. The reports come as Britain continued its air assaults on the German capital with the longest series of nighttime raids yet seen. Violent explosions rained down on Berlin, Mannheim, and elsewhere for more than four and a half hours last night, with the German press downplaying the severity of the attacks....

It really is amazing that, despite the pounding Britain was taking, it was able to conduct successful bombing raids on Berlin. It truly was the Empire's finest hour.

...A glass jar containing photographic flash powder exploded in the basement of an apartment house in Prospect Heights today, leaving two employees of the building with serious burns. The blast at 159 Eastern Parkway occurred when one of a group of men working in the basement tossed a smoking match into a corner where the jar lay discarded. Police say the powder was probably abandoned in the basement by a tenant with a photography hobby....

If you're younger than, I'm guessing, forty, you probably don't remember how careless some (not all) smokers were about tossing ashes, matches and the ends of their cigarettes anywhere. I remember in the '70 and early '80s, some smokers dumping ashes and extinguished (hopefully) matches right on the floors in offices for example. And outdoors, it was a free for all. One of the unmitigated improvements to society over the past fifty years has been the all but complete reversal on the acceptance of public smoking.

...

(Oh that Buggsy. What a wag. And as for Henny Youngman --...

While Buggsy didn't remember who said them, it says something about the educational system of that era that those quotes had left enough of an impression on him that he kinda remembered them. I learned them in the '70s in school. I wonder if those famous quotes are being taught in schools today?

... (Odds that Bill immediately punches the guy in the face now at 3-1.)...

Mystery and tension fully built, it's time to give us more info tomorrow.

... ("We've been over this, Irwin. The dog is smarter than you. The dog is smarter than me. I can show you the figures again if you insist, but I'd rather you just shut up and follow the dog.")

Yeah, that is all you can say. Or, if my father was in Dan's place, since he was a fan of the Ring Lardner school of explanation, he'd have simply said "shut up Irwin."

...
"100 Per Cent Americanism."....

You can see and feel the worst parts of modern-day social media in these "classifieds." The difference is the effort (and cost) of placing a classified ad to rant kept it from becoming what it has today (also the reach was smaller). What's so hard to tell, then and now, are the percentages. In a country, today, of 330 million, if just 1/10th of 1% hold horribly anti-semitic, or racist or sexist or...views, it's still 330,000 people able to scream it loudly on social media. My point is nothing more than that a classified ad in 1940 or a Tweet by itself today tells us nothing other than something we already knew, some percentage of people hold horrible thoughts.

... "Nothing really matters so much, I guess." And so as Mrs. Slagg slides inexorably into a chronic depression, Annie can only enable her....l.

I'm sure we all know examples of it from people in our lives, but some adult kids who have great parents treat those parents like garbage like La Plata (and, of course, vice versa). The reality is there is no answer. Good parents put their heart and soul into their children and have no where to turn if the child turns into a, truly, bad adult. It happens. Denial or defeatism (as in Mrs. Slagg's case) is one approach. It's very sad to see in a comic strip; even worse in real life.

.. Hmph. I bet Dan and Irwin would be *excited* to get a chance like this....

If I was Dan, and Irwin was first in line for the bullet, I might be willing to take the chance that the bullet never makes it out of Irwin's fat head. Just a thought.

...
You can tell Gus had a good time drawing this one.....

Agreed. Not one panel is mailed in and panel three it spectacular.

... View attachment 266361 Hey Dude, save a little for the encore.....

Nobody is having more fun than Caniff right now especially with Dude and his giant piece of timber. You know Caniff's really enjoying it and, heck, his story has been so well done that you can't fault him - he's earned his fun.

That's the thing so many writers miss - you have to earn the money moments with hard background story building. But do all that well, and your audience will give you a lot of latitude for indulgence - like having a young man use a giant piece of timber to pound in a door to a cell holding several young good-looking women.

... Actually, I'd be up for "Harold Teen, Hardboiled Private Eye." Be an interesting twist for the strip to take now that our boy is all grown up....

Harold doesn't have the brains for it. He could be the confused sidekick used for comic relief to the smart PI. Skeezix maybe, but not Harold.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Paul Derringer was routed in the second inning by a powerful Detroit attack as the World Series opened this afternoon at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Tigers scored five runs in their half of the second, after a bad throw by third baseman Bill Werber on an attempted sacrifice bunt by Soup Campbell pulled first baseman Frank McCormick off the bag and left the bases loaded. A single by Pinky Higgins drove home two runs, and Barney McCosky and Dick Bartell drove in three more before McKechnie took the ball away and gave it to Whitey Moore.

At press time, the Tigers hold a 7-1 lead over the Reds.

Royal Air Force bombers continued punishing attacks on Berlin overnight, striking the German capital and sixteen other towns and cities. Fires burning in the industrial areas along the Ruhr could be seen for sixty miles.

Brooklyn supporters of Republican Presidential nominee Wendell Willkie are calling for increased police protection for their candidate when he visits the borough this week after outbreaks of "hoodlumism" during appearances by Willkie in Michigan. Reports that the Willkie campaign train was stoned as it passed thru Michigan, and the candidate himself pelted with eggs during appearances in Pontiac and Detroit, led Kings County Republican chairman John R. Crews to denounce "guerilla tactics" against the GOP candidate, and local Willkie campaign chairman Nathaniel L. Goldstein declared that the attacks "show the character" of those opposing the Willkie candidacy. Willkie is scheduled to visit Brooklyn for a series of appearances on Saturday.

Former Kings County District Attorney William F. X. Geoghan denied a statement in yesterday's Eagle that he "ignored for two years" a St. John's University student who witnessed accused underworld killer Max Ludkowitz leaving the scene of the shooting of Harry "Knockout" Halperin. The Eagle apologizes for implying that Mr. Geoghan ignored that witness, and wishes to clear Mr. Geoghan of any suggestion that he neglected any aspect of the investigation.

More than six hundred persons who frequented the German-American Bund's Camp Nordland in New Jersey were employees of local factories working on vital defense contracts, according to Rep. Joseph Starns (D-Alabama), chairman of a Dies subcommittee investigating the situation. The employees, described as "aliens," were reported to have been positively identified by tracing of license plate numbers recorded outside the Bund camp.

New trials for the five Christian Front members for whom no verdict was reached in the seditious-conspiracy case in Brooklyn earlier this year will be put off until November 6th following a ruling today in Federal Court. The reputed mystery-man leader of the conspiracy, William T. Bishop, appeared in court today wearing a "swagger military overcoat, the lapel of which bore a Willkie button." Bishop is presently at liberty on a total of $7000 bail.

Two suspicious packages found on a stair landing at the 7th Avenue station of the 8th Avenue subway line were discovered by the Bomb Squad to contain empty wine bottles. A crowd of more than two hundred persons ignored warnings to stand back as detectives examined the packages, which had been soaked in a bucket of oil, with a portable fluoroscope.

Peter Salemi, husky 32-year-old longshoreman, will die in the electric chair for the brutal Dyker Beach murder of 19-year-old Frieda Olson. Salemi was convicted last night in Kings County Court of first-degree murder, with the blue-ribbon jury returning its verdict shortly after 10 PM. The conviction carries a mandatory death sentence, and Salemi will be formally sentenced by Judge George Martin on a date yet to be determined. The defense in the case called no witnesses and offered no testimony, claiming only that the killing was "not premeditated."

Members of the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association are demanding to be considered on an equal basis with men for service as government appeal agents under the Selective Service Act. Members of the mostly-male Brooklyn Bar Association have already been requested to make themselves available for such service under the new conscription law, but members of the Women's Bar Association say they have not been approached.

The blast of the traditional ram's horn in synagogues and temples the world over will announce the start of the Jewish year 5701, with the observance of Rosh ha-Shanah beginning at sundown today, and commencing the High Holy Days that will culminate in the observation of Yom Kippur, holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

(Point of order: the Quints speak French. Shouldn't that say "homogeneisation?")

Ed Wynn's new show at the Broadhurst is the Ed Wynnest show to come along in years. Arthur Pollock was on hand for the opening of "Boys And Girls Together," and says that from the moment Mr. Wynn pops out of a theatrical trunk full of mothballs at the start of the show until the final curtain comes down, he is scarcely ever off the stage. Wynn serves as stage manager as well as star comedian in the spry and sprightly revue, and ushers the various acts on and off with the promise of everything "from Shakespeare to vaudeville." Wynn doesn't just tell jokes, he also assists with costuming the chorus girls, crawls down a carpeted staircase while making jokes about Katherine Cornell, joins in an acrobatic club-swinging act, and at one point rides around the stage on a bicycle while playing a piano mounted on the handlebars. It's quite a show.

("Ramparts" was a strange hybrid of documentary, docu-drama, agitprop, and exploitation film designed to compare American attitudes in the years before WWI with the present attitudes of 1940. To make it seem even more realistic, it uses no professional actors, just ordinary people acting the roles of ordinary people. And then to reflect the present-day situation, it cuts in a large chunk of a grisly German documentary about the invasion of Poland. Nobody had ever seen anything quite like it, and it was banned as "war propaganda" in several cities. "Dance Girl Dance," on the other hand, is a perfectly wholesome picture for all the family.)

(And that's how Ma and Pa got hooked on paregoric.)

Big Ernie Lombardi was conspicuous by his absence when the Reds took the field for today's opening game of the World Series, with the hard-hitting catcher still gimpy from the ankle injury he suffered at Ebbets Field last month. Manager Bill McKechnie is resigned to the fact that forty-year-old Jimmy Wilson will have to do most of the catching for his club thru the Series, and if the grey-haired old timer isn't the oldest man ever to appear in a Series, he's close to it. Wilson last appeared in the Fall Classic with the Cardinals back in 1931, and he began this season as a Cincinnati coach before the suicide of Willard Hershberger in August forced him back into active duty.

Dodger pitcher Tot Presnell, optioned to the Louisville Colonels of the American Association in September, will pitch the starting game of the Little World Series today as the Colonels take on the Newark Bears, International League champions, at Louisville. The Colonels won the AA pennant by defeating the Kansas City Blues in the league playoff, while the Bears made short work of the Baltimore Orioles to take their league flag.

You have your choice of comedians tonight at 9pm, when Fred Allen begins his new oil-company series on CBS opposite Eddie Cantor, who has taken over for Allen's former drug-company sponsor on NBC. Allen's new arrangement is the result of his insistence on doing an hour show, while the drug firm wanted to cut him to half an hour. The Allen show will be much the same as the old NBC version, with Portland Hoffa and the Mighty Allen Art Players still in evidence, and Jack Benny's former tenor Kenny Baker joining the cast. But Cantor's former announcer Jimmy Wallington will replace Allen's former announcer Harry Von Zell -- who will continue to sell toothpaste and laxative on the new Cantor show. Cantor has been off the air for a year and a half, since his last sponsor dropped him for making remarks critical of Father Coughlin.

(I love to see a good-hitting pitcher in action.)

(It's your poor daughter. Nearing middle age, alone, stuck with a couple of nut-case parents. I'd go crazy too.)

(Dennie's the smartest kid in comics. His expression in panel two says it all.)

(Wait, what? You're undercover, remember? You're some fat oil tycoon and his flunky-pilot. Why would the army listen to you?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

In these times of National Defense, shouldn't there be a tax imposed on marrying hokey counts and marquises and junk? And poor Wini Shaw -- five years ago she was a movie star, and now she's getting fingerprinted like a common chorine.

(Mr. Pew pulls some heavy strings in the media too. Sunoco sponsors Lowell Thomas's nightly news program on NBC, and Mr. Thomas knows what kind of stories Mr. Pew doesn't want to hear and he soft-pedals or ignores them.)

"The more things change...."

No matter who Peggy is, if she doesn't put on a hairnet or a boudoir cap she's gonna be a tangled mess.

OK, Gould, come clean. Are you drawing your in-laws into this story?

Dude is based on Mr. Caniff's actual college roommate, and I suspect that he himself was told at least once to "go sit on a fish."

Never mind the Old Timer, I'm pretty sure you could take Andy.

It's time for Wump to accidentally fall out the window, and Snipe takes over the company.

Imagine the savings on laundry.

Don't get too many ideas there, Fontaine. Our boy is a trained butcher's apprentice.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Peter Salemi, husky 32-year-old longshoreman, will die in the electric chair for the brutal Dyker Beach murder of 19-year-old Frieda Olson. Salemi was convicted last night in Kings County Court of first-degree murder, with the blue-ribbon jury returning its verdict shortly after 10 PM. The conviction carries a mandatory death sentence, and Salemi will be formally sentenced by Judge George Martin on a date yet to be determined. The defense in the case called no witnesses and offered no testimony, claiming only that the killing was "not premeditated."...

There can be no good outcome in this one, but this is something.

... (I love to see a good-hitting pitcher in action.)...

Echoes the scene in "The Natural" when Roy Hobbes knocks the cover off the ball and the inside starts unspooling. The defenders didn't know what part of the ball to go after.

... (Dennie's the smartest kid in comics. His expression in panel two says it all.)...

Since we were given no new information today, it's now T+One Day for when we were due an explanation about who he is and what he has on Mary.

... View attachment 266743
In these times of National Defense, shouldn't there be a tax imposed on marrying hokey counts and marquises and junk? And poor Wini Shaw -- five years ago she was a movie star, and now she's getting fingerprinted like a common chorine....

You know my views on counts, society types, scions, heiresses and anyone in Hollywood being allowed to make their own decisions about marriage. That said, the marquis must have had something to bag to big stars at/near the height of their fame.

You know all 6'2" of Mary Dowell had to be the show stopper at the police staton that day. I'm picturing a stocky, balding 5'6" tall policeman rolling Mary's fingers in ink. Comic-strip land could milk a week or more out of this story. And think of the possibilities if Leona was still back at the Club Buccaneer.

... OK, Gould, come clean. Are you drawing your in-laws into this story?...

Which one of these items does not belong in the list: bald head, cigar, beret, hairy chest, bushy eyebrows?

... Dude is based on Mr. Caniff's actual college roommate, and I suspect that he himself was told at least once to "go sit on a fish."...

With his hair growing in nicely and with him getting to do all the action-hero stuff in front of the women, Dude's gotta be making Pat jealous, especially as Raven's eye wanders.

... It's time for Wump to accidentally fall out the window, and Snipe takes over the company....

I know we're in comic-strip land, but usually someone moving up to salesperson is teamed up with a veteran for awhile: does Wump & Co have any salespeople now? How does it sell its widgets today? Do we know what its widgets are? And, my God, Wilmer - really!

 

[LizzieMaine]

A two-run homer by former Dodger Jimmy Ripple off Detroit starter Schoolboy Rowe contributed to Cincinnati's margin of victory as the Reds beat the Tigers 5-3 in game two of the World Series. The third inning shot into the deep right field corner with Ival Goodman on base was part of a steady Reds attack on the Detroit righthander that sent him to the showers in the fourth inning. Rookie John Gorsica held the Reds scoreless for the rest of the game, but the damage had been done. Settling down after a rough first inning, Bucky Walters went the distance for Cincinnati.

Tomorrow the Series shifts to Briggs Stadium in Detroit. There is as yet no word on starting pitchers.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are reported to be preparing to meet tomorrow at the Brenner Pass for "important discussion of Axis war plans." It is reported that German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop has already left Berlin to make preparations for the conference.

Former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in ailing health, has been ousted from the British Cabinet in a reshuffling intended to give Labour a greater voice in the government. Chamberlain, the man well-known for his rolled umbrella and his role in the Munich Agreement, today resigned his positions as Lord President of the Council and in the Inner War Cabinet, as well as his post as leader of Britain's Conservative Party. It is anticipated that Prime Minister Winston Churchill will succeed Chamberlain in that office.

Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen has ordered a nine-state police alarm signaling a manhunt for fugitive underworld king Albert Anastasia, strongman of the Brooklyn rackets and the reputed head of the Brooklyn Murder For Hire gang. Mr. Amen stated that Anastasia is wanted on Federal kidnapping charges connected to the abduction of the late Isaac Rapinsky and Isaac "I Paid Plenty" Juffre, for which Joe Adonis and Samuel Gasberg have already been charged. Anastasia has been named by Abe "Kid Twist" Reles as the man who ordered the execution of bookmaker Irving "Puggy" Feinstein, and is also reported to be one of three men responsible for the disappearance and presumed murder of crusading longshoremen's union activist Peter Panto. Anastasia, whose activities were based in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, is believed to also be a front man for Vincent Magnano, former chairman of the board of the City Democratic Club and a longtime power in Red Hook politics. It is believed that Magnano is the man "crossed" by Feinstein, leading to the bookmaker's murder. Anastasia served eighteen months in the Sing Sing death house for the murder of Giuseppe "The Clutching Hand" Morello before that conviction was reversed on appeal.

Leaders of the Willkie presidential campaign in Brooklyn expect a total turnout of 100,000 persons when their candidate visits the borough Saturday night. Mr. Willkie will speak in succession at William Gaynor Junior High School, Arcadia Hall, Manual Training High School, Erasmus Hall High School, and Edward B. Shallow Junior High School. Tickets are available for the appearances on a first-come first-served basis. Local Republican Committee chairman James Crews states that there will be "ample police protection" at each location.

A presentment calling for the establishment in Brooklyn of a special asylum for the confinement of sex offenders was issued today by the holdover September grand jury to Judge George Martin in Kings County Court. Judge Martin declared that the presentment echoes his own views, stating that he has called for a similar institution for the past twenty years. The presentment follows a series of violent sex crimes against women and girls at the Red Hook Houses project, and states that the present method of dealing with "sexual degenerates" is "ineffective and chaotic," while observing that ordinary mental asylums do not have the facilities or training necessary for the treatment of such cases. The presentment warns that "sexual degeneracy is prevalent in every level of society," and that "there is no section of any community, from its slums to its most exclusive residential neighborhoods where parents can be sure of their children's safety."

President Roosevelt's mother today condemned "hoodlums" who pelted Republican Presidential nominee Wendell L. Willkie with rocks, eggs, and tomatoes as he traveled thru Michigan this week. The statement from Mrs. Sarah Delano Roosevelt also included words of support for anti-Nazi motion pictures now being shown in the United States, and criticism for those who have attacked her grandson Elliot Roosevelt, recently commissioned as a captain in the Army Air Corps.

Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh has given birth to her fourth child, a baby girl, at Doctor's Hospital in Manhattan, nearly coinciding with the publication of her latest book, "The Wave of the Future." Meanwhile, Mrs. Lindbergh's mother, Mrs. Dwight Morrow, whose political views differ sharply from those of her famous son-in-law, was presiding over a meeting of the Bergen County Committee to Defend America By Aiding The Allies, at which she urged the United States to provide all possible aid to Great Britain in its war against Germany.

("The Wave Of The Future" is a book that will cause Mrs. Lindbergh a great deal of embarrassment over the course of her long life, because the "wave" that she talks about in it, and that we must all be prepared to accept, is the wave of Fascism.)

Mayor LaGuardia has announced the end of the strike by Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers against three cable and wire plants in Brooklyn and Queens, with 1000 employees having already gone back to work with the understanding that any agreement brokered by the Mayor as arbitrator would be made retroactive. Among the gains made by the union for its workers is a guarantee of one week's paid vacation per year per employee. The settlement, however, does not include the Triangle Conduit and Cable Company of Glendale, which has rejected the Mayor's intervention and which has been the target of violence over its use of strikebreakers.

(Frank Morgan gets his agent on the phone and demands to know exactly why he doesn't rate better billing. "I'm the WIZARD OF OZ, man! I'm the MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN." "Yeah, bubaleh," says the Agent. "I know, I know. But you ain't no Hedy Lamarr.")

(Somewhere there's a Boy From Marketing who thought "Klek" was a better name than "Super Suds." But the public will disagree, the product will soon resume its former name, and "Klek" will never be spoken of again.)

The Eagle Editorialist agrees with President Roosevelt's call for state laws to be brought to bear against hoodlums who throw things at political candidates. "Unless authorities deal promptly and severely," the EE declares, "this sort of thing may lead to a situation where it will be unsafe for a candidate to venture into unfriendly fields. If that point is reached something clean and decent will have left America and something foul will have taken its place."

(Ya gets what ya vote for -- and even if ya don't.)

Three elderly men, including one claiming to be a 98-year-old Egyptian, were sentenced in the Court of Special Sessions for practicing medicine without a licnense. The oldest of the defendants gave his name as Saibi Suden of Egypt, but was also identified as Mosha Byron of 879-A Greene Avenue, and was sentenced to a year in prison and a $1000 fine for illegally treating patients and prescribing "herbal remedies" in April and May of this year.

An explosive argument between Dodger manager Leo Durocher and team president Larry MacPhail at the World Series in Cincinnati has caused Lippy to depart in a rage for his home in St. Louis, leaving his future as Brooklyn manager in doubt. MacPhail had ordered Durocher to attend a meeting in his hotel room to discuss the upcoming minor-league draft with the Brooklyn scouting staff, and when Durocher failed to appear at the appointed time, MacPhail reacted with anger. When he met Durocher later in the day, he denounced him as a "social lion" who was more concerned with his personal activities than the needs of the ball club, and the conversation quickly grew heated. It is the second such confrontation between the two volcanic personalities this season, the first having occured when MacPhail accused Durocher of malingering by not immediately putting himself into the lineup after Pee Wee Reese was injured in August.

Reports out of Cleveland suggest that Washington Senators manager Bucky Harris may be ready to replace Oscar Vitt as Indians manager for 1941. The reports state that Harris is interested in the job because Alva Bradley would pay him more money than he could get out of Clark Griffith, and that he believes the Tribe has a real chance to win the pennant next year. If Harris does make the shift, it is believed that Buddy Myer, Ossie Bluege, or Rogers Hornsby will have the inside track to take over in Washington.

Dodger favorite Dixie Walker, coming off a fine season in the Brooklyn outfield, will join a team of Major League barnstormers at Dexter Park this weekend for a doubleheader against the Bushwicks. Bill Jurges of the Giants will manage the barnstorming All Star squad.

(It's kind of sweet that The Shark has a portrait of his dad on his office wall.)

(Across the alley, George's neighbor snickers. That mail-order ventriloquism course was the best dime he ever spent.)

(Well, that didn't take long.)

(Even in a life or death struggle, there's always time to make fun of Irwin. Tracy doesn't treat Pat that way.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

A Baron yet. You notice there are never any Earls in these divorce stories. I'd love for there to be a story about an Earl who marries and divorces the White Rock heiress, because then the News could run a headline, "Earl and Water Don't Mix."

It's estimated in 1940 that 80 percent of all homes in Greater New York read The News, either by buying it or getting a copy passed on from somebody else. Which just goes to show what a great comic strip lineup will do.

Nice to see that Carlisle is back in form.

Now we're getting somewhere.

"Right you are, Tracy! Heh! Heh! We're going to die!"

"You want action?" thinks Pat. "I'll give ya ACTION!" (loosens tie.)

Fortunately for Andy, his tapeworm keeps him from gaining weight. And spare a thought here for poor Min, who has no friends at all.

"Getting by on a smile and a shoeshine..."

Oh, so it's going to be the subtle approach...

Poor Mamie. Like so many comic strip women she's starved for even the slightest bit of affection.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh has given birth to her fourth child, a baby girl, at Doctor's Hospital in Manhattan, nearly coinciding with the publication of her latest book, "The Wave of the Future." Meanwhile, Mrs. Lindbergh's mother, Mrs. Dwight Morrow, whose political views differ sharply from those of her famous son-in-law, was presiding over a meeting of the Bergen County Committee to Defend America By Aiding The Allies, at which she urged the United States to provide all possible aid to Great Britain in its war against Germany.

("The Wave Of The Future" is a book that will cause Mrs. Lindbergh a great deal of embarrassment over the course of her long life, because the "wave" that she talks about in it, and that we must all be prepared to accept, is the wave of Fascism.)
...

Thanksgiving dinner had to be a hoot at the Lindberghs.

...
(Frank Morgan gets his agent on the phone and demands to know exactly why he doesn't rate better billing. "I'm the WIZARD OF OZ, man! I'm the MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN." "Yeah, bubaleh," says the Agent. "I know, I know. But you ain't no Hedy Lamarr.")...

No question Morgan doesn't have the star-drawing power of a Tracy or Lamarr (I never spell her first or last name right without checking, "Hedy Lamarr," really!), but the guy was in an insane number of movies. Once you get over hearing the Wizard of Oz's voice coming out of another character, you realize the man was a talented and versatile actor. I love when he pops up in an old movie.

Oh, and "bubaleh." LOL

... (It's kind of sweet that The Shark has a portrait of his dad on his office wall.)...

Also, "Egnog," I'd understand "Egghead," but why is one of his gang named after a Christmas drink? But if it has to be, I'm calling dibs on "Whiskey."

... (Well, that didn't take long.)...

T+Two Days

That said, really good artwork on this storyline.

... (Even in a life or death struggle, there's always time to make fun of Irwin. Tracy doesn't treat Pat that way.)

When this Fazian adventure is over, Irwin needs to take stock of his life and make some hard choices.

... A Baron yet. You notice there are never any Earls in these divorce stories. I'd love for there to be a story about an Earl who marries and divorces the White Rock heiress, because then the News could run a headline, "Earl and Water Don't Mix."....

Good one Lizzie.

Professor Schumpeter is most famous today for popularizing the phrase "Creative Destruction."

From Wikipedia:
Creative destruction (German: schöpferische Zerstörung), sometimes known as Schumpeter's gale, is a concept in economics which since the 1950s has become most readily identified with the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter[1] who derived it from the work of Karl Marx and popularized it as a theory of economic innovation and the business cycle.

According to Schumpeter, the "gale of creative destruction" describes the "process of industrial mutation that continuously revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one".[2] In Marxian economic theory the concept refers more broadly to the linked processes of the accumulation and annihilation of wealth under capitalism.[3][4][5]

The German sociologist Werner Sombart has been credited[1] with the first use of these terms in his work Krieg und Kapitalismus (War and Capitalism, 1913).[6] In the earlier work of Marx, however, the idea of creative destruction or annihilation (German: Vernichtung) implies not only that capitalism destroys and reconfigures previous economic orders, but also that it must ceaselessly devalue existing wealth (whether through war, dereliction, or regular and periodic economic crises) in order to clear the ground for the creation of new wealth.[3][4][5]

Link to full entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction

... It's estimated in 1940 that 80 percent of all homes in Greater New York read The News, either by buying it or getting a copy passed on from somebody else. Which just goes to show what a great comic strip lineup will do....

Do you know what is included in "Net Paid" circulation? I assume that includes newsstand sales. If it doesn't, then the total circulation would be much higher.

... "Right you are, Tracy! Heh! Heh! We're going to die!"...

You would think that a man who owns a beret would also own a shirt.

...
"You want action?" thinks Pat. "I'll give ya ACTION!" (loosens tie.)....

Very James Bond before James Bond. Heck, this scene foreshadows a similar one in "From Russia with Love."

Caniff is having a ball with everything "Raven vs. The Dragon Lady" right down to their outfits and anatomically impossibly thin waists.

... Fortunately for Andy, his tapeworm keeps him from gaining weight. And spare a thought here for poor Min, who has no friends at all....

Min's no shrinking violet, though; that's quite a line she fires at Andy.

... "Getting by on a smile and a shoeshine..."...

This is basically a lesson in how not to sell, but how to develop the worst traits of a salesperson. That said, if it didn't work on some, it wouldn't be a cliche.

... View attachment 267047 Oh, so it's going to be the subtle approach....

This strip, "Mary Worth" and "Little Orphan Annie" have pushed their storylines past where they should be without giving us more clues as to the core conflict driving all the action. It's time for all three to justify our investment in the story.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think you'd have to dig deep and far to find a family more screwed up than the Lindberghs. Anne often gets a pass because of her husband's various reprehensibilities and her gifts as a writer, but she has plenty of moments all her own. The kids, however -- at least the American ones, you never seem to hear much about the Germans -- seem to be reasonably well adjusted considering the circumstances.

Net Paid Circulation is actually a legally-defined term meaning copies sold from all sources -- home delivery, newsstand sales, and mail subscriptions -- but not copies distributed gratis. Two million is pretty extraordinary for any paper at any time, but when you consider that there were eleven major daily papers in metropolitan New York in 1940, and many more smaller ones, all competing for the straphanger's pennies, it's really breathtaking, especially when you consider that most News readers also regularly bought one or more of the other papers on a daily basis. The sheer bulk of newsprint involved is incomprehensible.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think you'd have to dig deep and far to find a family more screwed up than the Lindberghs. Anne often gets a pass because of her husband's various reprehensibilities and her gifts as a writer, but she has plenty of moments all her own. The kids, however -- at least the American ones, you never seem to hear much about the Germans -- seem to be reasonably well adjusted considering the circumstances.

Net Paid Circulation is actually a legally-defined term meaning copies sold from all sources -- home delivery, newsstand sales, and mail subscriptions -- but not copies distributed gratis. Two million is pretty extraordinary for any paper at any time, but when you consider that there were eleven major daily papers in metropolitan New York in 1940, and many more smaller ones, all competing for the straphanger's pennies, it's really breathtaking, especially when you consider that most News readers also regularly bought one or more of the other papers on a daily basis. The sheer bulk of newsprint involved is incomprehensible.

We've talked about this before, but you and I (born in '64) just caught the tail end of that era when there where still several papers sold with, at least in NYC, a few editions put out daily for the major ones. The Post had a morning, afternoon and "final" (with closing 4pm stock prices that, often, I could buy, literally, on Wall Street after 5pm - think about the logistics of that) with, if some big news story hit, an "extra" addition coming out too.

And not only were the newsstands chockablock with papers, the stands themselves were everywhere. And in the morning and late afternoon, for the commuter crowds, ad-hoc stands with stacks of papers on milk cartons or just the ground, with one guy (99+% were boys or men) hawking them, popped up everywhere, even intra-block.

And the volume was so great in NYC (especially in the financial district in the '80s) that many of the sellers would have a large pile of change sitting on top of one stack that you could make yourself as he couldn't keep up with the volume. You'd hand the guy a dollar or quarters, take your paper yourself and take your change from the pile - oddly, the honor system worked. You couldn't go more than twenty or thirty feet in the financial district without hitting one. And the funny thing is, you became loyal to "your" guy and you and he'd usually exchanged a very quick nod of recognition amidst the chaos each day.

And, yes, when necessary, the hawkers were really hawking, screaming headlines or that they had closing prices at you (and telling you that the other guy didn't - I love grass-roots competition). I read, usually, four papers in those day - WSJ, NYT, News and Post. Not only that, you and others would keep the papers handy as office conversation would often require a quick reference of a headline, fact, weather or sports item (and, always, the betting line). It was a less-effective Google. As you said, the newsprint involved - heck, just in the Wall Street district alone - had to be massive.

The world moves on, but I'm really glad I caught enough of that era to appreciate what it was. Also, having seen the end of its heyday, I can better appreciate those '30s and '40s newspaper movie where you can feel how it was one of the "it" businesses of its day.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have always loved newspapers on a fundamental level -- the sense of anticipation when you first unfold a new copy, the first skim and the second in-depth read, and finally the sense of satisfaction when you fold up the finished copy. You don't get that with the internet.

I also love the smell of a fresh newspaper. Nothing like it in the world.

 

[Fading Fast]

I have always loved newspapers on a fundamental level -- the sense of anticipation when you first unfold a new copy, the first skim and the second in-depth read, and finally the sense of satisfaction when you fold up the finished copy. You don't get that with the internet.

I also love the smell of a fresh newspaper. Nothing like it in the world.

There used to be no happier way to start a day off in NYC than to wake up, walk outside, buy breakfast (an egg sammie from a diner or similar such offering), pick up four newspapers, come home, sit down, unwrap the sammie (to be eaten over its, now, unfolded wax or foil wrapper) while starting to look at all the headlines.

Many a Sunday, with the expanded papers, was spent, basically, reading them with the occasional break to watch a baseball game on TV. And, yes, the the smell of the ink (different for each paper if you knew them well), the, sometimes, almost serrated edges of the pages and the different ways you'd fold them to maximize reading comfort was all part of an enjoyably haptic and olfactory experience.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Governor Herbert H. Lehman today gave Attorney General John G. Bennett Jr. "unlimited authority" to investigate fifth columnists and other subversive elements, and ordered him to investigate "all matters concerning public peace, safety, and justice." The Governor's authority was exercised under Section 62, Subdivision 8 of the state executive law, a wartime measure giving the Attorney General's office the "broadest possible power" to hire investigators, issue subpoenas, and otherwise further inquiries. That measure was passed in 1917, and was aimed generally at subversive activities of the World War period.

Meanwhile, a former leader of the German American Bund told the Dies Committee today that the Nazi organization trained in marksmanship and military drill "for the day" when a Nazi putsch would be mounted against the United States. Thirty-six-year-old Richard Werner of New York City, a chef by profession, told the committee that New York storm troopers were told by their leaders that the time was coming when "blood would flow in the streets of the United States."

The directorate of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis met today at Brennero, Italy for what is being characterized as a "three hour council of war." Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini "discussed all problems confronting their countries" according to an official communique issued at the conclusion of the meeting. The German press hinted at "cataclysmic" results for Great Britain following the meeting, but no details were released concerning the substance of what was discussed. Informed persons in Germany state that much of the discussion focused on the situation in the Balkans.

A United Press bulletin states that King George VI narrowly escaped a German "whistle bomb" today as Nazi air raiders dived thru steady clouds to target many British objectives, including London. The specifics of the near-miss of the King have not yet been disclosed.

58,000 persons will fill Briggs Stadium in Detroit this afternoon for Game 3 of the World Series, with tens of thousands of Tiger rooters lining up overnight in the rain to get into the ballpark. Tommy Bridges is slated to start for Detroit today, with Milkman Jim Turner or Junior Thompson likely to get the start for the Reds. There has been some speculation, however, that Paul Derringer, who was knocked out of the box in the first game by the Tigers, could get a surprise nod to start game 3. There is also a possibility that Bill McKechnie could take a chance on Ernie Lombardi's shaky ankle and put the Schnoz in at catcher in place of elderly backup backstop Jimmy Wilson. The series is knotted at one game each.

The bodies of a German immigrant man and his wife washed ashore at Coney Island Beach this morning, and police are investigating the circumstances. US citizenship papers and Social Security cards found in the clothing of the man and woman identified them as Henry and Martha Leiber, aged about thirty-five and thirty respectively. The documents stated that Mr. Leiber came to the US in 1930, and his wife followed five years later. They had lived in Palisades Park, New Jersey, and formerly in Woodside, Queens. Examination indicated that the bodies had not been in the water long, and there was no sign of any overturned boat or any other explanation for why the couple had been in the water.

("Hey!" says Joe. "We otta go -- lookit, gonna be fireworks!" "Yeah," says Sally. "I bet there will.")

With the World's Fair now just three weeks from closing, plans have been completed for its razing. Just as it was divided into zones during its planning and construction, so it has been divided into eight zones to facilitate the demolition of its 385 doomed buildings. Wreckers are scheduled to move in on the Fair on October 28, the day after closing. But not everything will be destroyed -- certain features of the Fair grounds will be retained as part of the new Flushing Meadow Park. Constitution Mall will remain in place, although the Trylon and Perisphere and the various statues will be demolished. Sewer, gas, electrical, and water lines will also be retained, along with roads and bridges built for the Fair.

Ray Bolger, king of the dancing comedians, heads the bill this week at the Flatbush Theatre, and as you might expect he completely dominates the show. Not only does he perform his own act, he joins in with several others, and even takes a turn conducting the band. Bolger's parody of the tango and his famous prizefighting routine are highlights of the program. It's not often the Flatbush hosts a show this good!

At the Patio, it's Allan Jones, Martha Raye, and Joe Penner in "The Boys From Syracuse," along with Jack Oakie and Shirley Temple in "Young People."

(Yeah, I bet they're "fast girls." Mr. Schroth must still be on vacation.)

(They'll be using the famous "fifth column" strategy this season.)

One of Brooklyn's pioneer moving-picture operators has died at the age of fifty. Anthony M. Ten Broeck had been projecting films since the early days of nickelodeons in the borough, when every show had long pauses for threading up a new reel. He had most recently been employed by Loews Theatres, and was a charter member of Local 306 of the Motion Picture Operators Union. He was taken ill Wednesday night at his post in the projection booth at Loew's Warwick in Cypress Hills.

The Reds' win in Game Two of the World Series was the first Series game won by a Cincinnati club since 1919 -- and the first Series game won by any National League team since 1937 -- and helped wash away the lingering bitter taste of last year's four-game sweep of the Reds by the Yankees. But Bill McKechnie's boys aren't celebrating yet -- the Tigers are a strong club that triumphed in one of the wildest pennant races in recent memory, and the Series still has a long way to go. Even American League President Will Harridge acknowledges that, stating "we know National League clubs cannot possibly be as inferior as ten straight Series defeats could indicate."

Conspicuously absent from the Series so far has been Reds owner Powel Crosley Jr., who took off on a fishing trip last week and hasn't been heard from since.

The Football Dodgers open their home season at Ebbets Field tonight against the Philadelphia Eagles, giving the hometown fans their first look at new coach Jock Sutherland and his club. The Football Flock is 1-1 on the National Football League season so far. Owner Dan Topping has engaged a fifty-piece marching band in red, white, and blue uniforms to entertain at halftime, and a group of jitterbug dancers will also cavort on the field during the show.

There has been no increase in football ticket prices at Ebbets Field this season, but all upper deck seats will be sold on a reserved basis only. The only general admission seating will be in certain sections of the lower deck.

The creator of "Superman," writer Jerry Siegel, will be the Person You Didn't Expect To Meet on Fred Allen's program next Wednesday. The young author from Cleveland will be making his radio debut on the broadcast.

(There's a moral here somewhere.)

(Poor Tootsie's been reincarnated, and is back for revenge.)

(Jeez, Bill. After shacking up with Mary for five years, you'd think he'd come to expect this kind of stuff.)

(Dan is just a little too manic here. And I bet there's only one parachute on the plane.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Hey, now, Wynn Murray is one of my favorite singers in 1940, and I don't take kindly to jerk-face phony agents trying to screw her over. Knock the bum in the head with a mic stand for me, will ya?

The sad thing here is that Carlisle almost makes very valid and very important point about the South, but he's not about to say what the real issue there is, because, you know, he doesn't dare to confront it any more than the Democrats do. But not everybody in 1940 is so fast asleep -- and the alarm clock is ticking.

(Yeah, I lived in a building like that once. Still have the blanket.)

He couldn't help it, he was transfixed by your magnificent hairdo.

"Just gotta tie the fox tail to the antenna, and we'll be ready to roll!"

Mr. Caniff sure is reading a lot of Freud these days.

Tilda's expression in Panel Two needs to win some kind of award.

In about two seconds, Moon is going to come jumping up off that bumper with a sudden burning pain.

Ah, so Wumple & Co. sells briefcases -- luggage, leather goods, stuff like that? Hey Wilmer, I know a prospect you might visit....

Is that a peek of blonde hair I see behind the palm fronds?

 

[Fading Fast]

Governor Herbert H. Lehman today gave Attorney General John G. Bennett Jr. "unlimited authority" to investigate fifth columnists and other subversive elements, and ordered him to investigate "all matters concerning public peace, safety, and justice." The Governor's authority was exercised under Section 62, Subdivision 8 of the state executive law, a wartime measure giving the Attorney General's office the "broadest possible power" to hire investigators, issue subpoenas, and otherwise further inquiries. That measure was passed in 1917, and was aimed generally at subversive activities of the World War period...

Today, Lehman's use of that power would be immediately challenged in court as the country is not at war. Not saying it's right or wrong, just pointing out how almost everything like this winds up in court today.

...
(They'll be using the famous "fifth column" strategy this season.)...

A really good one from Lichty.

...Conspicuously absent from the Series so far has been Reds owner Powel Crosley Jr., who took off on a fishing trip last week and hasn't been heard from since....

It would seem that one of the best moments for owning a baseball team would be when they go to the World Series. Odd that he's not there.

...[ (There's a moral here somewhere.)...

Yes, power in the wrong hands or something.

Also, aren't these guys suppose to be shrinking away to nothing by now?

... (Jeez, Bill. After shacking up with Mary for five years, you'd think he'd come to expect this kind of stuff.) ...

T + Three Days.

Also, are Bill and Mary truly "shacking up," i.e., a romantic couple sleeping together or are they just good friends and roommates?

... (Dan is just a little too manic here. And I bet there's only one parachute on the plane.)

Irwin's just lucky Dan didn't do the pre-takeoff "what unimportant things can we toss out to lighten the load" check or Irwin might be watching the plane take off from he ground.

[Dan muttering to himself] "Hmm, let's see, Wolf in, fat stupid sidekick, um, er, well, [louder now] hey Irwin, while I get the engines started, could you take one more walk around the plane just to see that everything is a go?"

...
Hey, now, Wynn Murray is one of my favorite singers in 1940, and I don't take kindly to jerk-face phony agents trying to screw her over. Knock the bum in the head with a mic stand for me, will ya?...

The runaway-sisters story is pretty interesting as the reason they give doesn't seem horrible (not good for Prom though). Are they afraid to say they were abused? It doesn't feel that way, but who knows. They truly seem unhappy to have been found. To be sure, having a source of money and a place to sleep makes running away a lot easier, but still, something doesn't feel right here.

...
(Yeah, I lived in a building like that once. Still have the blanket.)...

"ColdBlooded Citizen" got his wish as "heat season" now starts October 1." Usually, in NYC, once the heat is turned on in a building (especially in the pre-war or just-post-war ones I've mainly lived in), the apartments are too hot all winter. That said, I've lived in a few where the landlord tries to squeeze a few days out of each end and, if a cold front comes in just at that moment, it can make for some unpleasant, multi-blanket nights.

... "Just gotta tie the fox tail to the antenna, and we'll be ready to roll!"...

Umm, is anyone going to comment on the fact that our helmet-hair head lady's henchmen are all burly guys who wear berets but no shirts. I'm not sayin' fetish, but maybe I'm sayin' fetish, but I'm not sayin' fetish.

... Mr. Caniff sure is reading a lot of Freud these days....

Point of order: two days ago (hours in the comic strip), Dude's hair was growing in (see below) and I doubt, with all that has been going on, he's had time to shave it. I think Pat's just mad that Dude's moved in on Raven.

... Tilda's expression in Panel Two needs to win some kind of award....

"...bid them adieu" Really!?

... View attachment 267448 Ah, so Wumple & Co. sells briefcases -- luggage, leather goods, stuff like that? Hey Wilmer, I know a prospect you might visit.....

Lizzieeeeee, we've talked about this.

... View attachment 267449 Is that a peek of blonde hair I see behind the palm fronds?

I've already forgotten the sisters' names, but the blonde one is the bad one, right?

 

[LizzieMaine]

They've always conspicuously avoided showing Mary and Bill's sleeping arrangements, which is perhaps a bit telling. Common-law marriage was a pretty common thing in the Era, but I guess leaving the ambiguity gives plausible deniability.

I think Pat is just being catty. Not everyone has luxurious wavy Black Irish locks like he has.

Cynthia is the blonde one and Anne is the brunette, switching the usual Lane Sisters protocol for good and evil in screwball comedy-melodrama.

I have to admit that having a private army of bare-chested, beret-wearing, bald-headed bullyboys is beyond anything Edna St. Vincent Millay might have done. But only barely.

Powel Crosley was kind of an oddball -- he seems to have bought the Reds to keep them in Cincinnati as a sort of civic gesture, but he never seemed to care all that much about baseball except as programming fodder for his radio station. The very first thing he did when he bought the team was rename the ballpark after himself/his company, which suggests that he was always well aware of the advertising value before anything else. He also holds the distinction of being the first owner in baseball to be punched in the face by Larry MacPhail.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A thirty-five year old WPA worker and subway change clerk was arrested today on a charge of rape committed in the Red Hook housing project, after being tracked down by the victim of the crime. Anthony Gigante of 1452 81st Street was identified to police in the Hamilton Avenue subway station today by twenty-seven year old Mrs. Antoinette Finley of Manhattan, who was attacked in an elevator at the Red Hook project on September 27th by a swarthy, stocky man while on her way to visit her sister. Since the attack, Mrs. Finley has visited Red Hook nightly in search of the man, and last night spotted Gigante working in the change cage at the Hamilton IND subway station at the intersection of Smith and Carroll Streets. She took her train into Manhattan, and upon arrival at the Hoyt Street station, telephoned police. Two detectives and three policewomen accompanied Mrs. Finley back to the Hamilton Avenue station, where she positively identified Gigante as her assailant. He was arrested and questioned overnight, and insisted that "he didn't do nothing." Gigante was booked this morning shortly after 5 AM, and is to be arraigned today in Brooklyn Felony Court. Deputy Chief Inspector William Reynolds, head of Brooklyn police, congratulated and thanked Mrs. Finley for her courage in solving the crime.

A cheering crowd of three thousand admirers greeted Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie as he arrived at Pennsylvania Station today for a day-long series of campaign appearances in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Brooklyn Republican leader John Crews was the first to shake Mr. Willkie's hand as he alighted from his train, and will supervise the candidate's series of speeches tonight in the borough. Last night, Willkie spoke to a crowd of 35,000 persons at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, where he criticized the Roosevelt Administration's national defense policy as deficient, and dismissed the Negroes and textile workers who had booed him as he traveled thru their sections of the city as "poor, misled saps," Willkie blamed the protests on "ward heelers who think it smart and wise to organize little booing sections."

Leading the World Series 2-1 after yesterday's come-from-behind 7-4 victory at Briggs Stadium, the Detroit Tigers will send hard-throwing young righthander Paul "Dizzy" Trout to the mound today, while Bill McKechnie will stake his hopes for evening the series on Paul Derringer, who was knocked out of the box by powerful Bengal bats in the second inning of Game One. Detroit manager Del Baker had earlier suggested he might start Buck Newsom, the strapping South Carolinian who won the first game for the Tigers, even though Newsom is still shaken by the death of his father, who passed away due to a heart attack brought on by the excitement of that game. The twenty-five-year-old Trout was 3-7 for the Tigers during the regular season, and was not a part of the club's regular starting rotation.

The college football season kicks off in earnest today, with Tennessee vs. Duke expected to be the prime matchup of the day. Locally, the game of greatest interest will take place at Randall's Island Stadium, where the Fordham Rams will face the walloping West Virginia Mountaineers.

Navy Secretary Frank Knox declared today that the Japanese-German-Italian military alliance is the most serious challenge to the American "mode of life" in history. The Secretary's statement came as Tokyo newspapers published a series of remarks by prominent Japanese public men declaring that "Japan wants friendship with the United States," but if the United States challenges Japan or its allies, there will be war. The terms demanded for Japanese friendship with the United States, according to the statements, must allow Japan a "free hand to carry out its expansionist policy in the Far East."

A 34-year-old Island Park man is under arrest in Manhattan today for the heretofore unsolved 1932 murder of the son of a Bronx policeman. William Clegg of 315 Long Beach Road has been under indictment for the crime for nearly eight years, since 23-year-old John Arthur Daggett was shot down in front of 108 Leroy Street in Manhattan, less than a hundred feet from the home of then-Mayor James J. Walker. Daggett was the son of then-Patrolman George Daggett, who was subsequently promoted to Detective, and assigned the job of tracking down his son's killer. Detective Daggett died several years ago without solving the crime, but yesterday, motorcycle Patrolman Cornelius McGregor of the Grand Central Parkway precinct in Queens stopped to aid a man fixing a flat tire on the Sunrise Highway, and saw something familiar in his face. The man's license bore the unfamiliar name of "Walter Hart," but after sending the man on his way, Patrolman McGregor realized why he knew him -- he had gone to school with him, and knew him then by his true name of William Clegg, for whom a murder warrant was still outstanding. Patrolman McGregor observed that Clegg was driving toward Lynbrook and telephoned the police station there. Officers were waiting to arrest Clegg when he drove into town.

(Eddie Mayehoff -- not "Maychoff," jeez -- is a very funny guy and an excellent dialectician, who has a one-man act where he does different New York-type characters. I like his stuff a lot. I don't know Smiling Bear's act, but I imagine the two of them will make for an interesting combination.)

Reader Agnes Black writes in demanding to know just when they're going to do something about the blasting of car horns at the corners of Court, Montague, and Joralemon Streets. Don't we have an anti-noise ordinance for this kind of thing?? Remember how a few years ago they were handing out tickets to mothers picking up their kids at school and people blasting their radios out open windows? How about some enforcement now!

("Sure, Ma -- 'cause that worked out so swell for you!")

A thirteen-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant boy faces a juvenile delinquency charge after he was picked up for puncturing tires with an ice pick. Edward Sweeney of 678 DeKalb Avenue is being held at the Children's Society shelter on Schermerhorn Street after being captured yesterday by William Coyle, principal of Public School 34 at Vernon and Nostrand Avenues. The boy and two others were seen in the act of puncturing the tires of a parked car, and Coyle chased after them. Two of the youths escaped, but Coyle managed to grab Sweeney. Under questioning by police, the boy stated that he and the others -- whose names he said he did not know -- were just having fun. Sixty-five employees of the nearby Cascade Laundry and the Griffin Shoe Polish factory emerged from work to discover flat tires as a result of that "fun."

Lippy Leo Durocher and tempestuous Larry MacPhail are bosom chums again, two days after Leo stormed back to his St. Louis home in a rage following an argument with the Dodger president over his busy social calendar. Durocher and MacPhail sat together in a grandstand box at Briggs Stadium for yesterday's World Series game, with no hint of any animosity. It appears that reports that Tom Sheehan, lately manager of the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, was on his way to Brooklyn to be introduced as Leo's replacement, are unfounded. Sheehan and MacPhail are known to be friendly -- it was Sheehan who first called Whit Wyatt to the Red Headed One's attention -- but it is generally agreed that if Durocher does get the can, MacPhail will feel obligated to replace him with a "name" manager.

Debs Garms of the Pirates has been declared the National League's batting champion for 1940 with a lusty .355 mark. There had been controversy over whether Garms qualified for the title, since he had only 356 at-bats for the year, but National League president Ford Frick declared that the usual "at least 400 at bats" rule is actually just a tradition, not an actual written rule. Big Schnoz Ernie Lombardi of the Reds came in second at .319.

The Football Dodgers showed the Philadelphia Eagles what it's all about with a solid 30-17 win to kick off the local pro football season at Ebbets Field last night. The 24,008 spectators on hand for the premiere left the park very pleased with Jock Sutherland's work as coach, but Sutherland himself was not too happy about the game, since there was more passing than running -- and his primary credo as a coach is that the running game must not be subjugated to the pass.

Do you remember those twin girls who appeared on screen to announce the titles in all those Hal Roach two-reelers a decade ago? Their names were Beverly and Bettymae Crane -- and they're all grown up now and starring on Broadway as dancers in Olsen and Johnson's "Hellzapoppin'." The twenty-one year old twins have been professionals since they were eleven, but they began training for a show-business career as soon as they were old enough to walk. Their mother sternly patrols the dressing room during each performance to ensure that her daughters remain wholesome.

(And a light, satirical strip veers suddenly to grisly body horror. Hey Gould, he's pushing in on your racket.)

(George Bungle once traveled thru time to the year 7424 where a futuristic space queen tried to make him her thrall. At least with the talking fish, he probably doesn't have to worry about that.)

(Not only is he a bum, he's an accelerationist Trotskyite bum!)

(Will Irwin make it without an airsick bag?)