The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Harold and Lillums haven't had any contact whatsoever in over a year now -- and the longer they put off settling past hash, the worse it's going to be for both of them when it finally does happen. And Lana, alas, will be caught right in the middle of it. Ma Teen ought to have at least talked to her about the situation and prepared her for it, but clearly she's blinded by her own agenda.

All that being so, my money is on little Josie being the one to set Lana straight. She couldn't stand Lillums, and I'd think she'd welcome a chance to slip the skids under her for good, especially since she seems to get along fine with Lana.

 

[Harp]

Slim Jim is about to get a Dear John certified return receipt request special delivery letter.
Hopefully. But a joker Ace Slimeball similar pinkslip sent to that other ba***rd might be shown instead....
This quagmire ménage a trois sans ménage needs some sorta FDR (F...ing Damn Right) New Deal.
And no acey-deucey wild Queens please. Not that I ever could figure out women, but since starting this
scan thread routine Era, errors day by daily date day. A real dayz. Dumb Jackasses, pretty Jills, and that
kid cherry Terry smoking a Camel unfiltered nail.

But, tell ya what. Lizzie was right about the Era. Hoots aplenty. And human nature seen objectively
is a constant invariable variable within Era equation. Time is rendered irrelevant in this integral calculus.
Gotta love Era thread. Cooped up covid mitigation, cataracts removed reading glasses issued, major
monster snowstorm enroute, can't get out of Dodge stuck in Oz cannot complain.
Bye-the-bye bits and bobs, Detour ed last evening. Saw the flick. Did some reading. A web site
all things noir psychoanalyzed Tom Neal character and protagonist mens rea germane actus reus
homicidal constituent elements sum murder one. And the actor was a Harvard Law alum who later faced
homicide prosecution for killing wife. As for Ann Savage, stunningly beautiful femme fatale possessing
looks that...well couldawouldashoulda rolled the dice with her, a Dorothy Malone bookshop Big Sleep
bespeckled clerical exponentially steroided laced hate sex kitty pickup. Wow.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A broken water main in Flatbush pumped a roaring river of water into side streets, cellars, and subway tunnels early this morning, closing the 7th Avenue BMT station and disrupting pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Pedestrians reported hearing a low rumble like thunder shortly before 5:40 AM, followed by a geyser-like explosion of water in front of 359 Flatbush Avenue, about a hundred feet west of Sterling Place. The billowing water buckled the sidewalk pavement and street surface around an area about sixty feet square and surged down the steep incline of Flatbush Avenue toward Atlantic Avenue. Storm drains quickly overflowed, with water rapidly building to depth of several inches above the pavement. Police from the Bergen Street station ran from house to house and store to store, rousing residents to warn them of the approaching flood, although there was believed to be no danger that any buildings faced imminent collapse. Automobile traffic was diverted off Flatbush Avenue at both ends of the flood, onto 4th Avenue in one direction and Vanderbilt Avenue in the other. Although BMT and IRT tunnels took on water, most subway trains continued to run, except at 7th Avenue, where water flooded into the station from grates and cracks in the walls. The water continued to surge for an hour and a half before a fourteen-man crew from the Water Department managed to shut off the the valves along Flatbush Avenue at St. Mark's Place and Park Place. Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the break.

A shovel found beneath the lime-caked body of Peter Panto may carry vital clues to confirm the identity of his murderers. The remains believed to be those of the vanished Longshoremen's Union activist were excavated from a pit near Lyndhurst, New Jersey, and while medical examiners continue to chip away at the clayey mass surrounding the body to positively identify it as that of Panto, detectives are examining the shovel, which bears marks
likely to aid in the investigation. Police believe the presence of the shovel indicates that Panto was forced to dig his own grave by his assassins before he was killed. Meanwhile, it was learned that underworld tips provided to District Attorney William O'Dwyer have named prominent waterfront racketeer Albert Anastasia as the mastermind of Panto's murder, with James "Dizzy" Ferraco and Emmanuel "Mendy" Weiss, henchmen of Louis "Lepke" Buchhalter, who are now fugitives, named as accomplices. It was stated by the District Attorney's informant that Panto "put up a valiant fight for life" before he was slain.

Disappointment over the awarding of a U. S. Navy super-drydock contract to Bayonne, New Jersey dissolved this morning at word from Mayor LaGuardia that the Navy will construct two additional such facilities on city-owned land near the Brooklyn Navy Yard at a cost to exceed $15,000,000. The drydocks are expected to prove a major economic boon to the Wallabout Market section, and Borough President John Cashmore declared today that the project will give "Brooklyn the finest Navy Yard in the world."

Two accused loan sharks were released on $1500 bail today after arraignment before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John McCrate. Louis "The Blimp" or "Tiny" Benson, and Sam "Dapper" Siegel were extradited to Brooklyn from Miami, Florida in connection with a million-dollar loansharking operation based in a Brownsville candy store. Benson and Siegel are accused of violating banking laws in conjunction with Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and Rose "Midnight Rose" Gold, Siegel's mother, in a shylocking operation that ran from late 1937 to December 1939.

The Chicago Cubs have joined the St. Louis Cardinals in agreeing to arrange for hotel accomodations in Brooklyn when they come to the borough to play the Dodgers in 1941. Cubs general manager James T. Gallagher stated that "the Cubs quite agree that some of our hotel business should go to Brooklyn," if satisfactory arrangements can be made. Friendly responses to team president Larry MacPhail's request that visiting clubs use local accommodations have also been received from the Philadelphia and Cincinnati clubs. There has been no response so far from Boston or Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, a civic campaign to ensure that broadcaster Red Barber remains at the Dodger microphone in 1941 was announced today by Borough President John Cashmore in view of contract developments that may force the popular Southerner off the broadcasts. Mr. Barber is under personal contract to General Mills, Inc., which sponsored the Dodger broadcasts over WOR in 1939 and 1940, but that firm has announced that it will not sponsor the Dodger games in 1941, with likely plans to shift Barber to another team. Lever Brothers Company, soap manufacturers, have agreed to a one-half sponsorship of the Brooklyn broadcasts for the coming season, with the other half of the contract, priced at $125,000, remaining to be purchased. A meeting of borough business leaders is underway this afternoon to consider possibilities, with officials of Howard Clothes Inc., Liebmann Breweries, Drake Baking Company, the F. &M. Schaefer Brewing Company, and the Quaker Maid Candy Company among those conferring. It has been reported that one of the breweries may be interested in purchasing half the contract -- which would cover the cost of buying out Mr. Barber's pact with the cereal firm -- but it is rumored that Lever Bros. is unwilling to share sponsorship with a beer company, believing that the two types of suds don't mix.

A 77-year-old woman filed for divorce yesterday in Supreme Court in Jamacia after fifty-four years of marriage to a "thrifty" man. Mrs. Lena Feltman accused her 80 year old husband William of "practicing thrift to an unreasonable degree" by skimping on food and coal, by refusing to buy a vacuum cleaner because "the rugs would last longer if swept by hand," and finally, by refusing to take her to the World's Fair. Mrs. Feltman locked Mr. Feltman out of their Flushing home last October 26th, four days before their fifty-fourth wedding anniversary. Mrs. Feltman argued that Mr. Feltman, who is retired from the bottling business, has an annual income of $5000.

("Yeah," says Joe. "An ovadue book." And Sally laughs out loud.)

(Mr. MacPhail could use a lesson in press relations.)

("The Good Neighbor Policy")

A once-prominent Brooklyn clubwoman now imprisoned in New Hampshire on arson charges has applied for a pardon. Miss Ellen Louise White, one-time regent of the Monitor Chapter of the Brooklyn Daughters of the Union 1861-1865, was convicted of setting fire to her summer home at Sandwich, N. H. in 1938, and has served a year in the State Penitentiary at Concord, but is seeking the pardon based on "declining health." Miss White's attorney also contends that his client, who has admitted no guilt, is suffering because her former associates in the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Society of the Wars of 1812, and other patriotic orders, now refer to her as "that convict."

Red Burman's name is expected to join those of Al McCoy, Johnny Paycheck, Arturo Godoy, Al Ettore, Tony Galento, Nathan Mann, Max Schmeling and others you may have forgotten on the list of challengers disposed of by heavyweight champion Joe Louis, when the two meet tonight at Madison Square Garden. The fight is scheduled for fifteen rounds, but no one expects Louis to take that long to dispatch Burman, and the Brown Bomber is expected to look sharper in the fight than he did against McCoy in Boston in December. It's Louis's thirteenth title defense since he took the crown from Jimmy Braddock in 1937.

Contracts have been received at the Dodger offices from five more pitchers, with Hugh Casey, Kemp Wicker, Steve Rachunock, Wes Flowers, and Al Scherer coming to terms. Only Casey, who was 11-8 on the year, and Flowers were with the Flock in 1940. Wicker is a 32-year-old minor-league veteran who has earned a look this spring after going 18-10 with the Montreal Royals last summer. Scherer and Rachunock are recent minor-league pickups.

Radio playwright Norman Corwin loves his medium -- and he says as much in "Mind You, I Love Radio," appearing in this month's issue of Stage Magazine -- but he doesn't love all of it. He especially doesn't love "Cavalcade of America," which he scores in the article for its overdone self-congratulatory tone which, he maintains, is the height of bad taste. He also doesn't think much of actors being wheeled out after a performance to deliver pointless benedictions like "I hope you fine ladies and gentelmen enjoyed our little show" and milk the studio audience for bows. Worst of all he doesn't like announcers who are so slick and polished on the air that they don't seem quite human. But Mr. Corwin praises "that announcer on WNYC" who says "er-uhh" in the middle of his announcements. Investigation reveals that there are several announcers at WNYC who say "er-uhh" in the middle of their announcements.

("I've already tried it on myself! You love me, don't you Sparky?")

(Thirty years of marriage it took, but Jo has finally lost her mind.)

(Somewhere, Downwind Jaxon's ears are burning.)

(WHOA! WHOA! DAN DUNN VS SCARY SKELETON-HEAD MAN! AND HIS HENCHMAN -- ah -- Bert Lahr. "Ngyahh! Ngyahh! Ngyahh!")

 

[Harp]

Scary Skeleton in profile kinds looks like Rudy G---ah ah better not say.
Crump needs to sweep up all the dust and pile out across factory floor and use short and time
fused dynamite alternately with C-4 plastic, blasting caps, dual ignition off fuse ignitors, to electrify
ions for complete take down building. Gotta do a full nelson demo.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

The courtroom drama here is palpable.

I would have figured La Merman more as the peanut brittle type.

Well, he'd probably last longer than Burman will.

Ask Sam -- He Knows.

Point of order -- a car radio in 1941 is housed in a heavy shielded metal box, and you have to dismantle much of the dashboard and take out the front seat cushion to be able to get at it.

So much for that.

"Izzy Haley" = Gus Edson

"Stick with me kid, and you'll go places. Hey, ever play poker?"

If we don't see some celebrity guest stars before this is over, I'll be very disappointed.

Flirting on the clock? Tsk.

 

[Harp]

Elsa moves gracefully to more worthwhile pursuit.
Terry apparently succeeding in warning guerillas, camel got smoked.
Lana dear heart, ruby beyond price Harold is a cold coal and not a rough diamond as in engagement ring.

 

[Fading Fast]

... View attachment 305811
Two accused loan sharks were released on $1500 bail today after arraignment before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John McCrate. Louis "The Blimp" or "Tiny" Benson, and Sam "Dapper" Siegel were extradited to Brooklyn from Miami, Florida in connection with a million-dollar loansharking operation based in a Brownsville candy store. Benson and Siegel are accused of violating banking laws in conjunction with Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and Rose "Midnight Rose" Gold, Siegel's mother, in a shylocking operation that ran from late 1937 to December 1939....

Once again, we see that the surprise answer to the question, "What is the most interesting place in the Golden Era?" is, "the local candy store."

...A 77-year-old woman filed for divorce yesterday in Supreme Court in Jamacia after fifty-four years of marriage to a "thrifty" man. Mrs. Lena Feltman accused her 80 year old husband William of "practicing thrift to an unreasonable degree" by skimping on food and coal, by refusing to buy a vacuum cleaner because "the rugs would last longer if swept by hand," and finally, by refusing to take her to the World's Fair. Mrs. Feltman locked Mr. Feltman out of their Flushing home last October 26th, four days before their fifty-fourth wedding anniversary. Mrs. Feltman argued that Mr. Feltman, who is retired from the bottling business, has an annual income of $5000....

All bad stuff, but I'd have definitely left him when he refused to take me to the World's Fair.

...Red Burman's name is expected to join those of Al McCoy, Johnny Paycheck, Arturo Godoy, Al Ettore, Tony Galento, Nathan Mann, Max Schmeling and others you may have forgotten on the list of challengers disposed of by heavyweight champion Joe Louis, when the two meet tonight at Madison Square Garden. The fight is scheduled for fifteen rounds, but no one expects Louis to take that long to dispatch Burman, and the Brown Bomber is expected to look sharper in the fight than he did against McCoy in Boston in December. It's Louis's thirteenth title defense since he took the crown from Jimmy Braddock in 1937....

Max Schmeling's name does not belong on that list. One could argue that his two bouts with Louis - with their Nazi overtones - where a minor, but notable, cultural moment in the 20th century.

... ("I've already tried it on myself! You love me, don't you Sparky?")...

I believe we encouraged the turtle to get the heck out of that crazy house weeks ago when he still had the chance.

... (Somewhere, Downwind Jaxon's ears are burning.)...

Agreed. In the list of chaste careers, stewardess is meaningfully below nursing.

...
The courtroom drama here is palpable....

How cool is the actress cum sock king. That's a neat story.

... I would have figured La Merman more as the peanut brittle type....

Good one Lizzie. To be honest, I've never recovered from learning that Ethel Merman and Sherman Billingsley (owner of the Stork Club) had a long-running affair. It's a mental image that, despite my best efforts, still pops up in my head from time to time.

Away from that horror, though, I do love chocolate cordials.

... So much for that....

At least Terry finally earned his top billing.

 

[Harp]

Judge Foster's jury commentary in Spell may prove sufficient recourse mistrial/appellate verdict.

Case for defense tenuous save for judicial error.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A gang of rob-and-run gunmen went on a rampage across Brooklyn last night, sending police cars screaming from Greenpoint to Flatbush as the thugs held up one poolroom and gas station after another in a string of robberies that netted them an aggregate total of less than $200. Two of the four suspects were in custody this morning, as police continue to search for their accomplices. The spree began at three poolrooms in Greenpoint and Williamsburg between 9 and 10 PM, with the group of thugs escaping with about $100, traveling in a car with New Jersey plates. They were reported next in Flatbush where they struck another poolroom on Atlantic Avenue, where they netted only $3, hit two gas stations on Empire Boulevard for $18, a stationary store on Clarkson Street for a negligible sum, a filling station on Utica Avenue for another small amount, and finally a poolroom on Bedford Avenue for $12. A police radio car spotted the getaway vehicle on Avenue S, and when the thugs refused to stop, police opened fire, forcing the car off the road. The four men fled on foot, and Patrolman John Fitzgerald of the Vanderveer Park station captured one of them, 20-year-old Charles Tomalio of 2369 83rd Street, who stated that he had never been in trouble with the law before, and that three of his friends had persuaded him to come along on the spree after stealing the car from a residence on 43rd Street. A second suspect was seized shortly after, but his identity has not yet been released.

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, Joseph Spell was acquitted last night of rape charges, but prosecutor Loris Willis convinced Judge Carl Foster to keep the 31-year-old Negro chauffeur and butler in jail until he decides whether to appeal the acquittal. Under Connecticut law, an acquitted person may be kept in jail for up to forty-eight hours before a decision on appeal may be made. A six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for nearly thirteen hours yesterday before finding Spell innocent of charges that he raped his employer, 31-year-old society matron Mrs. Joseph K. Strubing Jr, who had claimed that he assaulted her four times in her bedroom before binding and gagging her, throwing her off a bridge and attempting to sink her with stones. Spell admitted to a connection with Mrs. Strubing, but stated that it was strictly voluntary on her part, and that it had occured in his car in the Strubing garage.

Relatives of slain Longshoremen's Union activist Peter Panto will today examine remains excavated from a pit in Lyndhurst, New Jersey in an attempt to positively identify the body as that of Panto. The teeth of the skeleton will be given close examination to determine if they are broken in the same manner as Panto's were known to be. The teeth have been cleaned and whitened as an aid to identification.

(Hey Downwind, make yourself useful.)

After more than forty years of planning, construction, replanning, demolition, and reconstruction, the new Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library opens to the public today. In ceremonies yesterday, the new branch was dedicated to the memory of the late Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll by his successor, John Cashmore, who noted Mr. Ingersoll's determination over the years to see the long-delayed project finally brought to completion. Mr. Cashmore predicted that the new branch will be "the number one public library in the country by 1951."

Wendell Willkie is expected to conclude his fact-finding tour of London after four more days, and will fly home next week. Yesterday, Mr. Willkie nearly got himself thrown off a London bus for not understanding how the fare system worked. Mr. Willkie tried to give his fare to the conductor, a crisp young woman, but in London, passengers pay as they exit the bus. After holding up the line for several moments trying to pay, the conductor told the 1940 Republican Presidental nominee to either "get on or get off," and an impatient Londoner behind him gave him a shove into a seat.

The civic campaign to ensure that Walter "Red" Barber remains the Dodgers' radio voice in 1941 is picking up momentum, with a group of local business leaders under the supervision of Borough President John Cashmore announcing a community survey to determine the extent of the broadcaster's popularity in the borough. Mr. Cashmore declared yesterday that Barber's broadcasts of Dodger games over station WOR over the past two years have done more to advertise Brooklyn than any other form of advertising, and he encouraged local firms to get behind the effort by picking up the $125,000 necessary to buy out Mr. Barber's contract with General Mills, Inc., which has already announced it will discontinue its sponsorship of the Dodgers this season. The Lever Brothers soap concern of Cambridge, Massachusetts has purchased a half-interest in the Dodger broadcasts for 1941 and will have the right of refusal over any co-sponsor. That firm has already indicated it will not support sharing the rights with a brewery.

The Eagle Editorialist flexes with pride in praising the new Brooklyn Public Library central branch, with tributes to all the generations of borough officials who finally brought the project completion, and declares that "the ancient ruins which for nearly two decades made this spot a disgrace and a byword thruout the city have been replaced by a monumental structure well worthy of one of the most central and prominent spots in the entire borough.

(TAKE THAT, NBC and CBS! Lichty's on your case now, and none of your fat bald-headed executives are safe!)

("NEXT!")

Paul Waner will be a Dodger in 1941, at least if he can make the grade in spring training. Larry MacPhail agreed yesterday to offer the 38-year-old former Pirate a contract contingent on his spring performance, and Big Poison will travel to Havana with the Flock with a place on the 40-man pre-season roster. Waner, who was released last fall by the Bucs after sixteen seasons, missed a chunk of the 1940 campaign with a knee injury, and batted only .290 in 89 games, but declares that he is fully recovered and expects to be the Brooklyn starting right fielder in 1941. Manager Leo Durocher says Waner's so confident he'll make the cut that he's almost got him convinced.

("Typical American Boy Ezra Stone" always used to get a laugh out of the reaction of the studio audience at his broadcasts when they discovered that Henry Aldrich was actually "a short fat Jewish guy smoking a pipe.")

Comic Danny Kaye, now appearing at the Alvin Theatre in "Lady In The Dark" is a pretty funny fellow -- but he's the first to admit that the real brains of the act is his wife, Sylvia Fine -- who writes all his special material and carefully supervises his performances. Sylvia's the daughter of a Flatbush dentist, who married Danny last summer after they met while doing the "Straw Hat Revue," for which Sylvia wrote the music and lyrics, and Danny was engaged to play the feature comedy role. Sylvia then put together a nightclub act for her new husband that shot him to popularity at the Club Martinique, and from there, Broadway beckoned.

Hasn't the ASCAP boycott by the networks gone on long enough? Radio editor Jo Ransom says the height-of-something-or-other was reached last week when a "famous orchestra on a Sunday night program" played a "special arrangement" of "London Bridge Is Falling Down."

("Of course, there is one possible side effect. You might turn into Ann Sheridan.")

(Manipulating the Fourth Dimension? George Bungle a hidden incarnation of Doctor Who CONFIRMED.)

(Yeah, and we all know that we'll never see or hear from Elsa ever again. But Mary doesn't care, now that her Irish Sweepstakes ticket has come in.)

(Never mind all this detective junk, we want more of SCARY SKELETON HEAD MAN!)

 

[Harp]

Elsa is slipped out of strip. Not plausible but will do.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Conspicously absent in the News' coverage of this trial has been the role of Thurgood Marshall, who, while not as prominent in the case as the "Marshall" biopic of a few years back depicted him to be, didn't merely "sit in the back of the courtroom observing," as the News reported the other day, either.

In 1954, Walter F. O'Malley will claim to be the first to suggest the idea of a domed sports stadium for his abortive "Brooklyn Sports Center" proposal. Like so much of what Walter F. O'Malley will state over the course of his career, this statement will have a rather casual relationship with the truth. (The News' edtiorial referenced above supports the project, but predicts "the Yankee Stadium and Polo Grounds boys" will oppose it because of the revenue they'd stand to lose.)

Um, Terry, kid, you did think to bring a gun, right?

"An' he hasn't even asked me if I had a good swim!"

Yeah, most radio engineers I knew would do just this.

Pretty crowded boardinghouse there, Nina. You could probably get a cheaper room over at the Plushbottoms'.

C'mon, we wanna see Andy wrestle the bear.

The real fleabag hotels make you check your empty baggage at the desk so you can't pull a stunt like this.

"Well, see, we went to high school together and I chased after her for years, even though that dumb Beezie and my cousin Lilacs liked her too, and then she got tired of all of us and went off to college, and I cracked up and drove up there to elope with her but I ran out of gas and my car broke down and I had to sell it to a guy for enough to buy a bus ticket home, and then she came home, and I was working in a butcher shop, and we tried to elope again in the butcher's van, and I forgot to buy a license, and she got mad and her ma fixed her up with this 40 year old man with spats and a big cigar and they were gonna get married and I cracked up again and ran away to New York, not knowing that the 40 year old man with the spats and the big cigar got killed in a car accident, so I got mixed up with this woman named Senga who conned me out of $200 I made working for this crazy author-type guy, and then my friend Shadow came to New York to find me but I was embarassed to be a bum and wouldn't come home, so I ended up getting a job working for Mr. Pipdyke, and helped his daughters get out of a blackmail plot and he offered me a job so I came back home with my grandfather and met you and then you took your glasses off. Does that make sense?"

"Take me home, Harold. I think I'm getting a headache."

 

[Harp]

Terry has a gun, just not armed with a weapon. And now the F4 Phantoms are aloft to strike.
Maybe a Japanese second lieutenant will call in the strike and get all the Japanese killed....
________

Lana dearest, flee.

 

[Fading Fast]

...After more than forty years of planning, construction, replanning, demolition, and reconstruction, the new Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library opens to the public today. In ceremonies yesterday, the new branch was dedicated to the memory of the late Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll by his successor, John Cashmore, who noted Mr. Ingersoll's determination over the years to see the long-delayed project finally brought to completion. Mr. Cashmore predicted that the new branch will be "the number one public library in the country by 1951."...The Eagle Editorialist flexes with pride in praising the new Brooklyn Public Library central branch, with tributes to all the generations of borough officials who finally brought the project completion, and declares that "the ancient ruins which for nearly two decades made this spot a disgrace and a byword thruout the city have been replaced by a monumental structure well worthy of one of the most central and prominent spots in the entire borough....

It is an impressive piece of architecture. Not my favorite, but still, impressive.

... View attachment 306203
(TAKE THAT, NBC and CBS! Lichty's on your case now, and none of your fat bald-headed executives are safe!)...

Not really sure "bald headed" is an insult in Lichty's world as every man in it is bald headed. It would be like calling a man two legged.

...ATTACH=full]306215[/ATTACH]
Comic Danny Kaye, now appearing at the Alvin Theatre in "Lady In The Dark" is a pretty funny fellow -- but he's the first to admit that the real brains of the act is his wife, Sylvia Fine -- who writes all his special material and carefully supervises his performances. Sylvia's the daughter of a Flatbush dentist, who married Danny last summer after they met while doing the "Straw Hat Revue," for which Sylvia wrote the music and lyrics, and Danny was engaged to play the feature comedy role. Sylvia then put together a nightclub act for her new husband that shot him to popularity at the Club Martinique, and from there, Broadway beckoned....

Here's something nice: Danny and Sylvia were married for 47 years until his death in 1987. Sometimes it does work out, even in Hollywood. Unless of course, there was serial cheating ignored - you never know.

... ("Of course, there is one possible side effect. You might turn into Ann Sheridan.")..

It's really cool to see how much cultural currency "oomph" had back then. It's popped up a lot in all sorts of stories in these day-by-days. I've also seen it used in movies of that time to refer to sex, even in movies without Ann Sheridan in them.

...
Conspicously absent in the News' coverage of this trial has been the role of Thurgood Marshall, who, while not as prominent in the case as the "Marshall" biopic of a few years back depicted him to be, didn't merely "sit in the back of the courtroom observing," as the News reported the other day, either....

Re the Thompson divorce, I'm not convinced it'a all his fault as I think she was hoping that more of his old man's money was going to sluice her way in the marriage.

... Um, Terry, kid, you did think to bring a gun, right?...

Hu Shee is just so cool, look at her working the rifle. The feminist angle in 1941 for Hu Shee is fantastic. If she and Terry make it out of this alive and don't have oomph, I'm going to be very disappointed.

... "Well, see, we went to high school together and I chased after her for years, even though that dumb Beezie and my cousin Lilacs liked her too, and then she got tired of all of us and went off to college, and I cracked up and drove up there to elope with her but I ran out of gas and my car broke down and I had to sell it to a guy for enough to buy a bus ticket home, and then she came home, and I was working in a butcher shop, and we tried to elope again in the butcher's van, and I forgot to buy a license, and she got mad and her ma fixed her up with this 40 year old man with spats and a big cigar and they were gonna get married and I cracked up again and ran away to New York, not knowing that the 40 year old man with the spats and the big cigar got killed in a car accident, so I got mixed up with this woman named Senga who conned me out of $200 I made working for this crazy author-type guy, and then my friend Shadow came to New York to find me but I was embarassed to be a bum and wouldn't come home, so I ended up getting a job working for Mr. Pipdyke, and helped his daughters get out of a blackmail plot and he offered me a job so I came back home with my grandfather and met you and then you took your glasses off. Does that make sense?"

"Take me home, Harold. I think I'm getting a headache."

Yes, "A simple, 'old friend' would have sufficed Harold."

 

[Harp]

Reminded of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Wonderful, spellbindingly spectacular.
Revisited a few years back and still cry at end. Same thing happens with Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
There is much nobility and wisdom therein.
______________

Aside from impending F4 strike, a non consummate scenario platonic ideal bittersweet memory.... Yeah.
The couldawouldashoulda stuff doesn't always happen even when it couldawouldashoulda.
Hu Shee as bittersweet coulda.

And I only hope that Lana runs away.

 

[Fading Fast]

Reminded of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Wonderful, spellbindingly spectacular.
Revisited a few years back and still cry at end. Same thing happens with Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
There is much nobility and wisdom therein.
______________

Aside from impending F4 strike, a non consummate scenario platonic ideal bittersweet memory.... Yeah.
The couldawouldashoulda stuff doesn't always happen even when it couldawouldashoulda.
Hu Shee as bittersweet coulda.

And I only hope that Lana runs away.

Read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" about five or six years ago - enjoyable, interesting and sad.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is one of my favorite books of all times. The scene where she brings him water is one of the most moving acts of kindness in literature. And when he, then, saves her and continues popping his head out as he ascends the cathedral screaming "sanctuary" is one of the greatest rescue and FU-to-authority scenes ever in in literature.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a copy of "Tree" sitting in the back seat of my car right now. I never travel without books in case I break down somewhere in the snow and don't have a radio engineer along.

The Kaye-Fine marriage was an interesting one. Danny had a long and rather intense affair with Eve Arden, whom he had met in a Broadway show, and then hired her to be in the supporting cast of his radio show -- which Sylvia was writing and producing. Miss Arden thought Danny was going to leave Sylvia and marry her, but he never had any intention of doing so, having realized that "Danny Kaye" was as much Sylvia's creation as his, and it all ended unhappily. But the marriage survived, and so did the act, and in show business it's often a tossup as to which is most important.

Sally observes that she's the same age as Miss Fine, but never knew her. "She wenna Jeffason, not Erasmus, an' you know how'tem Jeffason goils c'n be."

 

[Harp]

Read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" about five or six years ago - enjoyable, interesting and sad.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is one of my favorite books of all times. The scene where she brings him water is one of the most moving acts of kindness in literature. And when he, then, saves her and continues popping his head out as he ascends the cathedral screaming "sanctuary" is one of the greatest rescue and FU-to-authority scenes ever in in literature.

The girl reader in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn reminds me of meself, and the end where she sees
the younger girl reading, reminding her of herself, just tears me up.

Hunchback I recommend for its wisdom of love. The scene where Quasimodo tells the knight
that he is "lucky to have someone who loves you" and, of course, the final page absolutely is a must read.

 

[Harp]

There's a copy of "Tree" sitting in the back seat of my car right now. I never travel without books in case I break down somewhere in the snow and don't have a radio engineer along.

Aww, that is sweet. But to heat things amidst a break down Grace Metalious' Peyton Place is the place to be.
------------------

Spell acquittal surprised. But Conn statute referred story is double jeopardy plainly stated.
A judge can overturn a jury gulty verdict if he believes sufficient cause warrants but he cannot simply
overturn a not guilty verdict. The state should adhere jury.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I am wiling to bet hard cash that a white guy so acquited in 1941 would have been let go on the spot, and I suspect that Mr. Spell's legal counsel would bet that too. There will be repercussions.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The colonial military leader of the Vichy Government has urged his French African army of 500,000 men to pay no heed to calls for them to join the war against the Italians. In a broadcast from Algiers, General Maxime Weyand commanded his men to join the "national revolution of Marshal Phillipe Petain," and to "stay out of a fight which was ended for France with the armistice with Germany and Italy." The statement from Gen. Weyand followed a broadcast from occupied Paris noting the formation of a radical pro-Nazi group of Frenchmen opposed to Petain's "National Union Committee" and "the men in Vichy," a group which warned that France must cooperate "fully and completely" with Germany before the Nazi "victory over England."

Meanwhile, the resumption of long-range shelling of the Dover area this morning heightened speculation on the future of Nazi invasion plans. A dispatch from Vichy citing "French military experts" declared that Germany is preparing to launch "a massive offensive" against Great Britain possibly before spring.

Senator Burton K. Wheeler yesterday denied that he is a Nazi sympathizer, as the conflict between the leader of the Senate's isolationist bloc and President Roosevelt continued to escalate. The Montana Democrat asserted that the President is making "an attempt to discredit" him due to his past opposition to New Deal foreign policy and his present opposition to the Lease-Lend bill. Even as Senator Wheeler was delivering his statement, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was testifying in support of Lease-Lend before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he stated that "the odds will be against" the United States if this country is forced to face the Axis alone.

The United States Conference of Mayors yesterday urged the formation of a federal Civil Defense agency to oversee preparation of the nation's cities for possible air attack. The proposal was sent on to President Roosevelt by Mayor LaGuardia, who serves as president of the conference.

A crudely painted sign with letters a foot and a half high appeared early this morning on the walls of the Montague Street ramp leading to the Brooklyn docks, demanding to know "WHO PAID FOR THE MURDER OF PETER PANTO?" A mystery caller alerted the Eagle to the sign this morning, but declined to give his name. Other messages concerning the fate of the slain Longshormen's Union activist, whose body was unearthed last week from a quicklime pit in New Jersey, have appeared in recent weeks on the same wall.

Former Treasury Secretary and U. S. Senator from California William Gibbs McAdoo died yesterday of a heart attack at the age of 71. President Roosevelt expressed shock at Mr. McAdoo's passing, calling him "one of my closest friends." Mr. McAdoo was at the time of his death the chairman of the American President Lines.

(Jinx Falkenburg sews her own clothes? I guess being Miss Rheingold of 1940 doesn't get you much.)

The sixteen-year old wife of comedian George Jessel has been banned from appearing in Boston nightclubs, after authorities in that city confirmed her true birthdate. Mrs. Lois Andrews Jessel had tried to convince Massachusetts child labor officials that she was in fact twenty-one years of age, and that the story of her being sixteen had only been cooked up "for publicity purposes," but a check of her birth certificate by the State Department of Labor proved otherwise. Massachusetts laws prohibit any girl under the age of eighteen from working in any establishment where liquor is sold, and bar any girl under twenty-one from working anywhere after the hour of 10 PM.

(Why, oh why, have I not read this? And what, oh what, does he say about Elaine?)

"Could there be any enduring negotiated peace that throws all conditions of international morality to the winds?" The Eagle Editorialist doesn't think so. Such a peace would, in fact, be another Munich, and we know where that ended up. "If the world has not learned in these years of agony that there can be no peace until Hitlerism is crushed, it has missed the great lesson its travail has had to teach."

The Blimp will float again at Ebbets Field in 1941, with stylishly-stout catcher Babe Phelps having sent in his signed contract for the new season. Babe usually waits till the last possible minute before sending in his papers, suggesting that he will arrive at training camp this spring with a new attitude, no doubt spurred by the arrival of Mickey Owen, who has been pencilled in as the Dodgers' new regular catcher. But Mr. Owen has not yet signed, and is said to be sorely disappointed at the offer he has received from Mr. MacPhail, and the ever-tubby Blimp sees the possibility of an Owens holdout as his chance to reclaim the job he's held since 1936. Mr. Phelps does expect to see a reasonable amount of action in 1941, given that he is a proven success with the bat, and Mr. Owen, however superior his glovework may be, does not exactly throw terror into the hearts of opposing pitchers.

(Clip and save!)

With Red Burman all wrapped up in a neat five-round package, Champion Joe Louis now turns his attention to Gus Dorazio, whom he will fight in St. Louis on February 17th. The Brown Bomber yesterday picked up a check for $21,023.26 as his payment for putting Mr. Burman away at the Garden on Friday, and will begin training next week for the Dorazio fight, even as his many ring critics wonder why he took as many as five rounds to dispatch his last opponent.

In Boston, European refugee children will have a chance to learn the great American game thanks to President Bob Quinn of the Bees, who announced yesterday that all refugee youngsters will be admitted free to the Beehive in 1941. Classes in the fine points of baseball will also be offered by the team to interested refugee kids.

If you think the number one baseball rookie in 1941 will be a big, strong, lippy, wisecracking tough guy, think again. Odds are that he'll be a little, mousy, church-going, non-drinking, non-smoking YMCA boy named Phil Rizzuto. He's only five-feet-six, and barely weighs 160 pounds, and was once turned away from an Ebbets Field tryout camp by none other than then-Dodger manager Casey Stengel who took one look at him, laughed, and advised him to "get a shoeshine box." And he also hit .347 for the Kansas City Blues last year, good for third place in the American Association batting race, while pacing that circuit's shortstops in defense. Little Phil is expected to break into the Yankee lineup this spring, but he still doesn't have the hang of the big-league publicity machine. Asked about his girlfriend, the lad blushed, stuttered, and said he didn't have one, except maybe that one girl he knew in Kansas City. Asked to find some girl, any girl, to pose with by a press photographer, the youngster flushed again and admitted he didn't know any New York girls. "Except," he shrugged, "some little ones." That is expected to change once his picture starts getting in the papers, with his big brown eyes and wavy brown hair likely to gain a lot of feminine notice.

("Hah," says Sally. "He ain'no Petey, attsfasure." As Joe rolls his eyes, but tries not to roll them too loudly, because she can hear the squishy sound they make when he does.)

Old Timer John H. Hausemann Jr., from good old Vanderveer Park, remembers when Flatbush was all potato farms, and he remembers the day the potato bugs were so thick they piled up on the Long Island Rail Road tracks and blocked the trains from running. Honest, you can look it up.

Headling in TREND this week, we present The Invader...

Awwww, here kitty kitty kitty...

(See what happens when Blackston isn't your governor?)

(I bet he loved "Ninotchka.")

(Bill is willing to get down on his hands and knees to scrub the floor? Hey, come work for me.)

(Sheesh. Even a SCARY SKELETON HEAD MAN can't get decent help.)

(Mr. Tuthill gives us here a profound rumination on the interdependent relationship of the troll and the trolled.)