The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Aw. Margie was one of my favorite singers of the mid-thirties when she was with Johnny Green's band at the St. Regis. That'll teach ya to stay away from golfers.

Ever notice how a lot of the same faces keep showing up on the Hill Page? That stocky guy with the glasses, the haughty blonde, the skinny young man with the cheesy moustache? Mr. Hill's relatives and neighbors must just love him.

Nobody can make a snowstorm more intimidating than Chester Gould.

Ah!! AHHH! I knew it! Daddy was in league with Nick Gatt all along! WHERE IS NICK NOW, DADDY? WHERE IS NICK NOW?

Emmy and Margery Logan would probably have a lot to talk about.

Growing up, I never cared for war comics. I can see now that's because I never saw them done right.

We return you now to our regular Sunday storyline, "Shadow Smart -- Sex God." Notice how he suddenly grew a foot taller.

It's a hard job being Comedy Relief, and I hope it pays well.

These little yippity dogs are always the most manipulative.

Victorian, you say? We'll give you Victorian.

 

[Harp]

Scary Skeleton demo team seems to have done a full Nelson takedown on factory.
But a good dust down needs dust and quick time alternate charges, enough men for job, and a little recondo.
Under two hours? Naw, this must be a funny pages hit.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch the F4s arrive wharf side. All of a sudden flyboy Terry the cherry starts
talkin grunt and never considered enemy air cover, nor did ace quarterback Lucky Bucky. And the ? looms
overhead: is Bucky lucky? Is Terry stayin cherry? Whose Win, Place in the Hu Shee show?

 

[Fading Fast]

... View attachment 306524 (Jinx Falkenburg sews her own clothes? I guess being Miss Rheingold of 1940 doesn't get you much.)...

As noted before, Jinx Falkenburg might be the best name for a model ever and it's definitely the best name for a model in the Golden Era. Now, if she could sing and dance, she could join the cast of "Hellzapoppin'," just so that the Eagle could publish the headline, " Jinx Falkenburg in Hellzapoppin'!" (Although, not being able to sing and dance, didn't hold Lizabeth Scott back from being in "Hellzapoppin'." )

Until about the '80s, and definitely back in the '40s and '50s, most models, even the reasonably successful ones, weren't making big money. The "supermodel" hadn't been invented yet.

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

Oddly, the best line in the article was the dig at actress Billie Burke, "Mrs. Power-Waters is a soft-spoken woman with a striking resemblance to the Billie Burke of the quieter, non-fluttery moments..."

...The Brown Bomber yesterday picked up a check for $21,023.26 ....

How much do you want to tell 1941 Joe Louis to pay his taxes as it will save him so much grief later in life.

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

Good plot twist. It sets up some nice political-power issues or, as we'd say today, "a conflict of interest" for the Governor.

... Aw. Margie was one of my favorite singers of the mid-thirties when she was with Johnny Green's band at the St. Regis. That'll teach ya to stay away from golfers.....

Ms. Bottone should have just gone to Reno and been done with it in 42 days if she was in such a hurry.

... Ah!! AHHH! I knew it! Daddy was in league with Nick Gatt all along! WHERE IS NICK NOW, DADDY? WHERE IS NICK NOW?....

Don't play with us like this Mr. Gray, is Nick really coming back?

...
Growing up, I never cared for war comics. I can see now that's because I never saw them done right.....

This strip and Milton Caniff deserve to be better known today. His illustration and story-telling talents are incredible; he's head-and-shoulders above all the other strips at that time.

I love panel two where we see Hu Shee firing away while contributing reconnaissance to Terry and Tang's chat. That's real girl power - neither of the men are multi-tasking.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Caniff left "Terry" in 1946. At the time it seemed like the right career move -- he was tired of being a hired man for the News syndicate, and wanted more editorial control and a bigger share of merch revenue. It was a big deal when he joined the Field syndicate and started his new strip "Steve Canyon," about a demobilized aviator finding a role in the postwar world. My local paper carried this strip, and it was one I paid very little attention to -- it seemed to be full of men in uniforms standing around talking to each other, with none of the outre wildness of "Tracy" or the dark creepiness of "Annie." By the sixties, Caniff could draw as well as he ever did, but his storylines had terribly stagnated.

And the guy who took over "Terry" for the News, an AP bullpen artist named George Wunder, took it down that same road -- boring-looking middle-aged men in uniforms standing around talking to each other. Terry as a colonel in the Air Force in the sixties and seventies was nothing like Terry as a kid roaming wartime China with his ragtag guerilla friends.

Those things in combination snuffed the reputation of both Caniff and his strips, because when the Boomer generation got into the funnies, neither strips nor artist were up to the level of the 1940s stuff, and Boomer kids never really bonded with them. If Caniff had retired in 1946 instead of moving on to his own strip, he'd probably be better known today than he is. He was still a working cartoonist right up to his death in 1988, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who was reading him then.

(And if you really want something to make your head spin, Milton Caniff's career overlapped with those of Berke Breathed and Bill Watterson. It would have been possible for a short spell of the late '80s, to find all three of them on the same comic page.)

 

[Harp]

I love panel two where we see Hu Shee firing away while contributing reconnaissance to Terry and Tang's chat. That's real girl power - neither of the men are multi-tasking.

Combat is loud, sound is f.....g surreal, unbelievably loud. And ordinance dropping with explosion,
the earth bounces. Not just an earth tremor, f.....g wild bounce shock.

...I always get a kick out of TV/movie depiction normal converse. And the earth level as a pancake.

 

[Harp]

I am amazed at all legalembroglio stories herein.

Mrs Ruth E Steadman is a classic love struck defendant. Love struck but evidenced depraved heart
indifference spliced to deliberate intent premeditated homicide. And she talked without invoking right
to counsel, even scribbled evidentiary testament. What more does the DA need? Bag and tag.

A retired US Navy captain and former submarine commander once killed a man in cold blood,
reloaded his Colt .45 automatic pistol with a second magazine, and pumped another eight rounds
into his victim, dead as a doornail lying sprawled spread eagle on a public street.
Then, the captain retained counsel who informed the former sub skipper that his best bet would
be to cop a plea with the DA in return for life imprisonment over capital punishment.
The skipper assumed he could plead temporary insanity and go home. His lawyer informed him
that unless he agreed to a cop, the DA would charge Murder One.
The skipper wanted nothing to do with a smart cop. And the DA accordingly charged Murder One,
for which the Captain was duly tried and found guilty. The Captain sought different counsel,
appealed his conviction, and faulted his former lawyer for malpractice.
A typical defendant who watched too much television before committing homicide.

It is so refreshing to read about a murderer who freely admits to being guilty.

 

[Harp]

Caniff left "Terry" in 1946. At the time it seemed like the right career move -- he was tired of being a hired man for the News syndicate, and wanted more editorial control and a bigger share of merch revenue. It was a big deal when he joined the Field syndicate and started his new strip "Steve Canyon," about a demobilized aviator finding a role in the postwar world. My local paper carried this strip, and it was one I paid very little attention to -- it seemed to be full of men in uniforms standing around talking to each other, with none of the outre wildness of "Tracy" or the dark creepiness of "Annie." By the sixties, Caniff could draw as well as he ever did, but his storylines had terribly stagnated.

And the guy who took over "Terry" for the News, an AP bullpen artist named George Wunder, took it down that same road -- boring-looking middle-aged men in uniforms standing around talking to each other. Terry as a colonel in the Air Force in the sixties and seventies was nothing like Terry as a kid roaming wartime China with his ragtag guerilla friends.

Those things in combination snuffed the reputation of both Caniff and his strips, because when the Boomer generation got into the funnies, neither strips nor artist were up to the level of the 1940s stuff, and Boomer kids never really bonded with them. If Caniff had retired in 1946 instead of moving on to his own strip, he'd probably be better known today than he is. He was still a working cartoonist right up to his death in 1988, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who was reading him then.

(And if you really want something to make your head spin, Milton Caniff's career overlapped with those of Berke Breathed and Bill Watterson. It would have been possible for a short spell of the late '80s, to find all three of them on the same comic page.)

I remember Terry and The Pirates from the Chicago Tribune and this dual billing confused plot line,
never saw any pirates, just Terry. And it seemed a bit complex. I liked Peanuts, Gasoline Alley,
Rick O'Shay Town Marshall, among others-Dondi somewhat vaguely recall my mom reading that strip
to me. I would bring the Sunday colored sheets to her to be read. And later I spent time at the corner
drug reading Archie, Superman, Classics. Back then, comics like television were well written and
educational. I fondly cite a Have Gun Will Travel episode in which Paladin explains to a potential
client that he preferred resolution without gun violence, so he charged more. Made an impression.
And comics were indispensable to childhood curiosity. But Terry never lit any flame for me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to follow "Dondi" on the back page of the Sunday News and wondered what the point of it was -- the whole "displaced war orphan" backstory had long since been forgotten and all you had left was this weird schmaltzy kid with the big eyes who everybody picked on. That strip was co-created by Gus Edson, who in 1941 brings us "The Gumps," and you can see the same streak of sentimentality that Gus so often features there bubbling around in "Dondi." But without the is-it-sarcastic/ironic-humor-or-not overt Victorianism that's baked into the Gumps' DNA, "Dondi" just came across as unnecessarily weepy.

The adult Terry of later years really does seem like a different character. Nobody's the same at 46 as they are at 16, but that he grew up to be so grim and square-jawed all the time -- especially when he had such a reckless troublemaker as Pat Ryan as his teenage role model -- is actually both disappointing and sad.

One thing that becomes extremely obvious as we continue to wend our way thru the Era here is that there were a lot of extremely ruthless people around -- murderers, con artists, corrupt cops, violent thugs of every sort. All these vicious characters that show up in "Dick Tracy" and "Little Orphan Annie" weren't just pulled out of thin air -- as with any medium, the funnies are a reflection of the time in which they were created.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
One thing that becomes extremely obvious as we continue to wend our way thru the Era here is that there were a lot of extremely ruthless people around -- murderers, con artists, corrupt cops, violent thugs of every sort. All these vicious characters that show up in "Dick Tracy" and "Little Orphan Annie" weren't just pulled out of thin air -- as with any medium, the funnies are a reflection of the time in which they were created.

Most of the time, we'll be reading or have read in the Eagle or News about a criminal similar to the comic-strip version we, then, read about in the strips. Often, you can all but tick and tie the comic-strip bad guy/girl back to their real-life inspiration from the news pages.

 

[Harp]

I used to follow "Dondi" on the back page of the Sunday News and wondered what the point of it was -- the whole "displaced war orphan" backstory had long since been forgotten and all you had left was this weird schmaltzy kid with the big eyes who everybody picked on.

One thing that becomes extremely obvious as we continue to wend our way thru the Era here is that there were a lot of extremely ruthless people around -- murderers, con artists, corrupt cops, violent thugs of every sort. All these vicious characters that show up in "Dick Tracy" and "Little Orphan Annie" weren't just pulled out of thin air -- as with any medium, the funnies are a reflection of the time in which they were created.

The neighborhood that I remember as a young child was filled with wonder, curiosity, somewhat reflective
of Dondi.... The Second World War saw refugee families from China, Germany, Italy, Japan swept to Chicago
and I noted facial, racial dissimilarities. I heard dialects I did not understand, numerical arm tattooing
seen on the bus, horribly disfigured souls who had endured tremendous suffering. Another era entirely.
I loved the milk delivery wagon pulled by a horse. The Chinese laundry, Jewish deli, German hardware
shop, playing with the different foreign kids. And the language music background. The comics I took
to my mother to read. Magical times wrapped in comics.

The human constant is at play here but the detail spilled out does surprise, judicial comments which
possibly might lay subsequent mistrial claim by defense counsel cite and salacious stuffing between
the lines-Spell a case that mirrors Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. And the injudicious misuse
by Prosecution of statutory double jeopardy inflict without sufficient cause. My grandmother had
met Elliot Ness and several Untouchables, my mom had gone to school with Al Capone's niece.
Crime was a Chicago staple but it kept within certain limits. I remember when our landlady shot
her knife wielding husband, killing him mid afternoon. A rare exception to what was facetiously
organized crime. My grandmother remarked to me once that on a particular Valentine's Day
she saw Al Capone at Mass. He needed an alibi that day. After he died and was buried in
Mount Olivet Cemetery, my pals and I would occasionally bring immigrant kids-mainly newly
arrived Irish and German buddies to see his grave. A different time but similar too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

British raiders bombed the Italian island of Sardinia today. A brief Admiralty communique confirmed the attack, stating that naval Swordfish aircraft struck one of the island's primary power stations, and that one of the planes was lost in the raid. The attack was confirmed this morning by the Italian high command.

Meanwhile, British Empire forces are threatening Italy's entire East African army with annihilation in a merciless drive from the north and south aided by "increasing thousands of Ethiopian warriors." The remaining Italian forces are said to number approximately 200,000 men, half of them cornered in Eritrea. Newspapers are predicting the "beginning of the end of Mussolini's shaky African empire."

Followers of crusading Longshoremen's Union activist Peter Panto will conduct a monster rally on Saturday at the Elite Hall in Park Slope, intending to push forward on all fronts the investigation into their leader's murder. A group of about thirty International Longshormen's Association rank-and-filers turned out at a meeting of the Peter Panto Educational Club, 255 Columbia Street, to plan for the rally, marking a new and more aggressive attitude for that organization, which has heretofore avoided scheduled meetings due to the risk of disruption by criminal elements. The question WHO PAID FOR THE MURDER OF PETER PANTO? remained scrawled today in huge gray letters on two Montague Street walls, the same location where previous messages reading WHERE IS PETE PANTO? had appeared, been erased, and appeared again.

(Why has there been no Peter Panto movie? Not an "On The Waterfront" pastiche, but a film about the actual events? Just look at the guy. Movie material, I'm tellin' ya.)

A nightclub photographer's assistant was stabbed four times last night at the Hurricane Club, at 1619 Broadway in Manhattan, while patrons went on dancing. William "Smiling Bill" Astrov was knifed by unidentified men near the 49th Street entrance to the club, suffering stab wounds to the chest, just above the heart, to the back, and to his left hand. Astrov, who works for a photographer who operates a concession at the club, told police that he did not know the men who attacked him, and assumed that they mistook him for someone else. Astrov is in critical condition this morning at Polytechnic Hospital.

The case of diminuitive boxing manager Hyman Caplin, accused of conspiring with nine other people to swindle a traveling businessman out of $9000 in a rigged card game, comes to trial today before a blue-ribbon jury in Kings County Court. Caplin and his fellow defendants are accused of operating a crooked gambling ring that netted more than $4,000,000 from various pigeons since 1931.

The attorney for the former Welfare Department worker who claims she was fired from her job because she wasn't a Communist says he will present proof of that claim today in testimony by a "former Communist," although that witness failed to appear in court yesterday. Attorney Leopold V. Rossi, representing Miss Doris Stahl, claimed that his witness, bearing "startling evidence," had been intimidated into not appearing. Miss Stahl has charged that the Welfare Department is dominated by "600 Communists" who fired her because she declined to cooperate with them.

("Hey," says Joe. "I might lookinna t'is. 'At Hitla runnin' wil', an' I should spen' my life makin' pickles?" Sally gives him a long look, and says "You *otta* look inna t'is.")

In Hollywood, police have questioned a millionaire, a dancer, and a young movie actor in connection with the unexplained death of a showgirl, who plunged nearly-nude from a 60-foot yacht and drowned in the filthy, oil-slicked waters of Wilmington Harbor. Miss Dolores Delmar plunged into the icy, greasy water, wearing nothing but a brassiere and a pair of filmy panties, from the deck the "El-Com-A-Dee," a yacht owned by 35-year-old businessman Arthur Hamburger, and quickly drowned. It took a crew of firemen half an hour to recover her body from the muck at the bottom of the harbor, and her body was taken to the Coroner's Office for examination, where it could only be concluded that "she had been drinking." According to Mr. Hamburger, Miss Delmar had joined him, dancer Alice Dere, and film actor Robert Tracy in making the rounds of Hollywood night spots before adjourning to his yacht for the evening. Both Hamburger and Tracy told police they were asleep when Miss Dere woke them to tell them that Miss Delmar had stripped off her clothes and declared that "she was going in for a swim" before jumping off the yacht.

(Boiled ham and potato salad, just the thing for an indoor picnic. Fortunately, ants are out of season.)

(I'm about the same dimensions as Mrs. Lamont these days, and find I can lose about six pounds just by going out and shoveling the snow off the sidewalk. Of course, it does come right back after lunch.)

("Killgallen!" spits Sally. "I wenna Erasmus wit' her! Thought she own'd t'place jus' cause her ol' man was onna Evenin' Joinal! One time she past me onna stairs an' said "Move! Ya inna way!" Like she OWN'D t'place! I ask ya!" "She wrote a pretty good book," says Joe. "Solly Pincus read it. Said she flew onna plane allaroun'a woil'. I otta read 'at myself." "Don't you bring nonna t'at mess in T'IS house," growls Sally, because she knows how to nurture a grudge. "Like she OWN'D t'place!')

("Mamie?" Wait'll Uncle Willie finds out.)

A last minute goal kept the Rangers' Dave "The Thin Man" Kerr from scoring his first shutout of the season, but still the Blueshirts beat the Montreal Canadiens at the Garden last night by a score of 2-1. The defending Stanley Cup champions are still mired in fifth place in the National Hockey League, just five points ahead of the Habs.

Joe Medwick is ready for everything and anything as he prepares to leave for Spring Training, with the Duck confident that not only will he regain the form he lost in the wake of his beaning last summer, but that he's feeling better than ever and ready to lead the Dodgers to a pennant. Muscles and Leo Durocher will board a plane for Florida tomorrow, where they plan to spend a few days in a rented cottage before hopping over to Cuba to play golf and unwind before training camp commences. Medwick promises that once camp opens, he'll put the golf sticks away and won't touch them for the duration -- even though he's gotten his game down to a respectable 72.

As controversy swirls around the possibility of Red Barber not doing the Dodger games in 1941, the titian-topped mikeman himself says he's heard nothing to confirm that. "If it has definitely been decided that I am not to broadcast from Ebbets Field," he insists, "I honestly don't know that."

The annual dinner of the Baseball Writers Association's New York chapter was full of the usual fun and frolic, some of it at the expense of Giants' manager Bill Terry, who was serenaded by writers Tom Meany and Lou Effrat, to the tune of "The Ferry Boat Serenade:"

"We Love to Ride Bill Terrrrrrry!
He's Never Mer-cen-arrrry!
Though He Wants That Pennant Badly,
He Goes Out And Buys Bump Hadley!
We Love To Ride Bill Terry
In The Terry-Goat Serreennnaaaaade!"

Leo Durocher also got a few licks, in a boxing skit in which the Dodger manager was confronted by none other than Mickey Owen, who still hasn't forgotten their exchange of fisticuffs during a Cardinal-Dodger brawl last summer. "Who ya tryin' to beat?" said Mickey. "St. Louis or Joe Louis?"

A husband-and-wife radio team from Brooklyn Heights has a new quarter hour Monday and Wednesday afternoons on WABC. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Morley, who were formerly in radio together out on the Coast, write and perform in "On Page Two," in which they give their own humorous slant on the news of the week -- omitting, of course, murder, war, and scandal.

(Maybe they told Boody to take the dress off Slappy, but that doesn't mean he isn't still gonna push the envelope.)

(Hey, you could get a few bucks for that calendar on eBay!)

(Sure, you remember Sue -- Leona's mousy cousin who stole bland-faced Ted away from Leona by the simple act of TAKING OFF HER GLASSES. I wonder if Lillums reads "Mary Worth?")

(Scary Skeleton Head Man was all set to win a medal in Synchronized Sabotage last year, but they had to go and cancel the Olympics...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Page Four spills over onto pages Three and Six today. Spell is still in jail, even though he's been found innocent, and "Socially Prominent Philadelphia Women" are petitioning the Governor of Connecticut. And the prosecutor is a real piece of legal work.

It's nice, though, to see that Hero Cabbie will actually get the reward he was promised. I thought they'd forgotten all about that.

As for Wally getting her face lifted, I think they forgot to take the scaffolding down.

Whereas the actual Page Four has a strange balance of Page Four and Page Two. Who's laying out this paper today, anyway?

Daddy ought to watch his mouth there, or Red Ryder will come and smack him one. Meanwhile, in his secret lair, Axel snickers and says "think again, Baldy."

"Cafard?" A name meaning "chronic melancholia" is strangely appropriate, I think, given people I have known in the theatrical profession.

Now would be a good time for Pat and Dude and the DL to show up.

Well, first, turn that stupid radio off. You wanna run the battery flat?

Twenty years old. And on February 14, 2021, Skeez will turn 100. Our young go-getter will one day become a crotchety old man who gets into fights with store clerks about trivialities, and sits in his chair complaining about how old he is. It's really heartbreaking when you think about it.

Annnnnnnnnnnd guess who's probably sitting right this very moment on the train back to Covina.

Plushie dropping his drink in panel three is a nice little sight gag.

 

[Harp]

Manners Tool and Die hit. Betcha Scary Bones team did dynamite wrapped C-4 plastic with dual
ignition off fuse ignitors, a rail road track trick charge and not too imaginative.
Really was hopin for some serious dopin demo jazz but the same old notes playin the Blues.
Guys didn't even sweep the dust for a full Nelson takedown. Gezzz.

 

[Harp]

Spell case fascinates. Prosecution clearly improper jury address, compounded by racist appellate
motion, which Judge should have denied. And the Strubbing all too predictable victim moan and groan.
A salacious salad dressed to appeal societal excuse. Judicial mishandling, defense should have asked
for a direct verdict just to serve bench notice.

But Terry is a mess. Completely screwed this one up. Flyboys who do not appreciate enemy air.
What was the primary objective? Hit and run slash and burn stuff can be done any day or night.
A clear case of P.P.P.P. Piss poor prior planning.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Followers of crusading Longshoremen's Union activist Peter Panto will conduct a monster rally on Saturday at the Elite Hall in Park Slope, intending to push forward on all fronts the investigation into their leader's murder. A group of about thirty International Longshormen's Association rank-and-filers turned out at a meeting of the Peter Panto Educational Club, 255 Columbia Street, to plan for the rally, marking a new and more aggressive attitude for that organization, which has heretofore avoided scheduled meetings due to the risk of disruption by criminal elements. The question WHO PAID FOR THE MURDER OF PETER PANTO? remained scrawled today in huge gray letters on two Montague Street walls, the same location where previous messages reading WHERE IS PETE PANTO? had appeared, been erased, and appeared again.

(Why has there been no Peter Panto movie? Not an "On The Waterfront" pastiche, but a film about the actual events? Just look at the guy. Movie material, I'm tellin' ya.)...

Good question, Lizzie. Based on the picture I could find of Panto (left), I'm thinking Adolphe Menjou (right) would be perfect to play him.

... ("Hey," says Joe. "I might lookinna t'is. 'At Hitla runnin' wil', an' I should spen' my life makin' pickles?" Sally gives him a long look, and says "You *otta* look inna t'is.")...)

There is a lot of irony in that school's name.

...("Killgallen!" spits Sally. "I wenna Erasmus wit' her! Thought she own'd t'place jus' cause her ol' man was onna Evenin' Joinal! One time she past me onna stairs an' said "Move! Ya inna way!" Like she OWN'D t'place! I ask ya!" "She wrote a pretty good book," says Joe. "Solly Pincus read it. Said she flew onna plane allaroun'a woil'. I otta read 'at myself." "Don't you bring nonna t'at mess in T'IS house," growls Sally, because she knows how to nurture a grudge. "Like she OWN'D t'place!')...

... (Maybe they told Boody to take the dress off Slappy, but that doesn't mean he isn't still gonna push the envelope.)...

Oh yeah. You know he really wanted Slappy in the dress for that shot.

.. Page Four spills over onto pages Three and Six today. Spell is still in jail, even though he's been found innocent, and "Socially Prominent Philadelphia Women" are petitioning the Governor of Connecticut. And the prosecutor is a real piece of legal work.

It's nice, though, to see that Hero Cabbie will actually get the reward he was promised. I thought they'd forgotten all about that.

As for Wally getting her face lifted, I think they forgot to take the scaffolding down.....

You have to feel good for cabbie Weisburg. Also, note the irony of a B. Altman's ad appearing right under the cabbie story.

And we have a new entry in the worst-name-for-a-product-ever category: Unguentine

Wally's doctor didn't have a lot to work with from the start. "I'm sorry, did you say 'lift' or 'fix', Duchess?"

... Now would be a good time for Pat and Dude and the DL to show up....

Heck, at this point, even seeing fat Captain Blaze show up would be a relief - that oddball guy had some real skills for a situation like this. And hey, this is serious, Hu Shee might be hurt.

... Twenty years old. And on February 14, 2021, Skeez will turn 100. Our young go-getter will one day become a crotchety old man who gets into fights with store clerks about trivialities, and sits in his chair complaining about how old he is. It's really heartbreaking when you think about it.....

"You got me down in your birthday book (whatever the heck that is)! I'm that unimportant to you that you can't remember my freakin' birthday. It's oomph time or I'm moving on."

...[
Plushie dropping his drink in panel three is a nice little sight gag.

Yes it was and it's part of an all-round very good "Moon Mullins" strip today.

...The adult Terry of later years really does seem like a different character. Nobody's the same at 46 as they are at 16, but that he grew up to be so grim and square-jawed all the time -- especially when he had such a reckless troublemaker as Pat Ryan as his teenage role model -- is actually both disappointing and sad....

Did any of the other characters - Pat, Raven, the DL, April, Cheery, etc. - make it to the later strip?

 

[Harp]

Terry turmoil. Hate to say it but if these guys get waxed they've got nobody but themselves to blame.
---------
Good call Faust Aviation School. Wonda wat kinda contract Dean Mephistopheles waves round lika flag.

 

[Fading Fast]

Terry turmoil. Hate to say it but if these guys get waxed they've got nobody but themselves to blame....

I agree, it's a rough-justice world for the resistance fighter - sorry, Terry and Tang, but darn it, I don't want to lose Hu Shee, fair or not.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I remember Pat and the DL -- who was affiliated with "Red China" at that point -- showing up. Pat was a big cheese in Naval Intelligence, and hadn't aged a day. Neither had the DL, and she seemed to be as interested in Terry as she was in Pat. But as for Hu Shee, Connie, Big Stoop, Raven, Dude, April, and the Blazes -- well, Fate must've had other things in store, I guess. The main supporting character I remember in the late years of the strip was "Hotshot Charlie," who was an annoying wise-guy type character Terry met during the war, and never managed to get rid of. He wasn't quite Wilmer to Terry's Skeezix, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

We know that Terry will survive, if only because "And The Pirates" would be a lame title for a comic, but everyone else is fair game. War is Hell, as they say.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And here's a New York Times piece on the end of "Terry:"

• 
  ‘Terry’ of the Comics Is Facing Taps at 38
  
  By Lawrence Van Gelder
  • Feb. 15, 1973
  
  Lieut. Col. Terry Lee. Born, Oct. 19, 1934. Scheduled to die, Feb. 25, 1973.
  
  Perhaps another victim of the war in Vietnam, perhaps a casualty of shifting tastes, Terry Lee has been handed his discharge from the army of heroes whose adventures enthrall devotees of the comic strips.
  
  After Feb. 25, having disrupted a plot by an aerial acrobatic team from Latin America to smuggle narcotics into the United States, Terry Lee—and all the cast of “Terry and the Pirates”—will be no more.
  
  “When I learned about this,” said Milton Caniff, who created the strip and abandoned it to begin Steve Canyon in 1947, “I felt as if my children—long since departed—were going to be executed.”
  
  A Vanishing Audience
  
  Terry, which once enjoyed an audience estimated at more than 30 million in more than 300 newspapers, was relegated from the drawing board to the chopping block after George Wunder, who succeeded Mr. Caniff, decided to resign.
  
  “It still had quite a few fans,” said Arthur Laro, the president and editor of The Chicago Tribune‐New York News Syndicate, which distributes Terry. But, he acknowledged, the number of newspapers carrying “Terry and the Pirates” has been declining for some time, although, he said, more than 100 still feature it.
  “We had a debate whether to continue the strip or not,” Mr. Laro said. “After talking with several artists, we decided not to go ahead with it.”
  
  The Daily News, which carried Terry in New York City, sent him packing in mid‐adventure on Feb. 3. The action prompted about 25 letters and postcards and a “substantially” higher number of telephone calls, a spokesman for The Daily News said.
  
  ‘Smilin’ Jack' Downed
  
  Several years ago, The Daily News also dropped another adventure‐flying strip, “Smilin' Jack.” Mr. Laro said “Smilin' Jack” was still being syndicated, but would end a 40‐year run on April 1 because Zack Mosley, its creator, was retiring.
  
  Mr. Mosley, like Mr. Wunder and Mr. Caniff, is in his 60's.
  
  Mr. Wunder confessed to mixed reactions about ending his association with “Terry and the Pirates” after 26 years. “It's a strip I've enjoyed doing,” he said, “but on the other hand it has been, oh, a chore. The sheer mechanics of producing that much work week in and week out ties you down.”
  
  Asked if he knew of anything to account for the decline in popularity of a strip whose Dragon Lady, Big Stoop, Hot‐Shot Charlie, Burma, Pat Ryan and Flip Corkin once captivated such fans as the Duke of Windsor, Margaret Truman and John Steinbeck, Mr. Wunder replied:
  
  “I really don't, other than the fact that taste in strips seems to be changing, People just don't seem to follow continuity strips any more the way they used to. They get an average of three to four complete stories a night off the boob tube. There's no reason why they should hang around anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks to find out just how one story came out.
  
  The war in Vietnam, he said, had a lot to do with the end of Terry, even though the hero was never a participant. He pointed out that the basic premise of Terry, who took up flying at the outbreak of World War II, was that of the fighter pilot, a breed that once had the image of square‐jawed young men on a new frontier. The image, he said, has changed to that of droppers of napalm on women and children.
  
  Tastes in 1934 were somewhat different. On a summer day, Mr. Caniff, who was working for The Associated Press Feature Service here and had created a strip called “Dicky Dare,” answered a summons to the office of Capt. Joseph Patterson, publisher of The Daily News, who offered him a chance to do a new comic strip.
  
  Captain Patterson suggested the Orient — a last outpost of adventure — as the locale, a youngster to attract a juvenile following, a handsome hero to create love interest and someone zany to provide comedy.
  
  During the next three days and nights, Mr. Caniff, who had never been to the Orient, prepared a sample. The youngster, 12 years old, was named Tommy Tucker. The hero was Pat Ryan. The comic figure was named George Webster Confucius. And Pat and Tommy were in China to find a secret mine.
  
  Mr. Caniff Called the strip “Tommy Tucker.” Captain Patterson liked everything, but the name. So Mr. Canif prepared a list of new names, and the publisher circled “Terry” and wrote next to it, “and the Pirates.”
  
  The strip bred not only avid fans, but also a radio program and even a television show.
  
  Mr. Caniff, whose Steve Canyon is running in 638 papers, said he had written to Mr. Wunder to compliment him on his work.
  
  Mr. Caniff said he had no plans to quit. “Oh, heavens no,” he said, “not as long as you can make a buck.”

 

[Harp]

Spoiler alert: Hu Shee

Innate curiosity prompted a little late night recondo. Hu Shee is sidetracked in story and leaves fair boy
Terry for other venue; becomes involved with a Chinese guerilla leader; dies with him when ship is struck
by Imperial Japanese Navy submarine. Exist, exit, erasure, rubbed out.