The Era -- Day By Day

[Harp]

Hu Shee. A lustrous pearl whom I suspect loves our boy.

Somebody call Skull and place a contract on Harold Teen. With the hit easy, done yesterday.

Hu Shee, Burma. Ter needs to get with the program here.

 

[Harp]

....Burma should get some Chinese delivery kid within the next ten seconds.

 

[Harp]

It's Now or Never being sung in the background. And ain't no dim sum karaoke either baby. It's Elvis.

 

[Harp]

P.S. Worthwhile

That sweet lovely Ann, such a wonderful lass married to that ba***rd scum what's his face.
Lotza slimeballs slitherin round.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Rapp Coudert Committee today claimed to have in its possession "Communist literature" which outlines plans to "revolutionize the United States Army." The pamphlets were allegedly distributed by "Communist students" at City College, enrolled in the Army R. O. T. C. program, and are expected to be introduced into evidence during Committee testimony today at the Manhattan Supreme Court House. Yesterday, Charles H. Tuttle, chairman of the Board of Education's administrative committee for City College called for the lodging of charges of "conduct unbecoming a teacher" be lodged against a total of 34 teachers and clerks named as Communists or cited as being associated with persons known to be Communists, in testimony yesterday.

Fulton Street may need to be widened to allow the full use of buses intended as replacements for the trolley lines now running along that street. So argues Herbert Carpenter, chairman of the Mayor's Committee for the Removal of Elevated Structures in a letter today to Mayor LaGuardia. Mr. Carpenter contends that the widening of the street between Lafayette and Rockaway Avenues could be successfully accomplished "inexpensively" if undertaken in conjunction with the razing of the L.

(Maybe I'm growing old gracelessly, but I couldn't force down a quart of milk a day if you stuck a funnel in my mouth and poured it in. I like milk OK, but not that much.)

Yankee rookie Phil Rizzuto has been granted an exemption from the draft on the basis of his being the principal support of his parents. The 22-year-old Glendale resident, who is expected to take over for Frankie Crosetti as the Yanks' regular shortstop this season, received his call-up papers this week, and underwent a physical examination yesterday in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he is attending spring training with his club.

(Kids Today!)

("Hey," says Joe. "Whatcha say we go out steppin' tamarra night?" "Yeah," says Sally. "We ain't donnat innawhile. Jus' -- um -- no aerials, OK? Because -- ah -- you know...")

Simone Simon, French screen sensation of a few years back, headlines the bill at the Flatbush this week, and her singing act is only moderate. Mary Ann Mercer, young thrust with the Mitchell Ayers orchestra, also in the bill, could teach La Simon a few things about how to put a song across.

(At this rate, GWTW should hit the nabes by the end of the summer -- if there's anything left of it...)

(I wonder what "The Neighbors" downstairs think of this?)

One of the Dodgers' most ardent fans died at Kings County Hospital last night at the age of 64. Charles Baer of Ridgewood, by occupation an elevator operator, had as his sole interest away from his work the ups and downs of the Brooklyn club, and could be counted on to regale his passengers with his extensive and detailed opinions on the details of the Flock.

(If you want to know just how deeply a ballclub is held to the hearts of its followers, check how often it's mentioned in obituaries.)

The mother of a Coney Island patrolman shot to death last month while trying to foil a theatre holdup is attempting block payment by the Board of Estimate of the usual cash award for a police officer killed in the line of duty to his widow. Mrs. Mollie Fox, mother of the late Patrolman Leon Fox, says that his son and Mrs. Lillian Fox had been estranged for at least five years, and that she should not receive the payment of a year's salary amounting to approximately $3000.

A possible preview of this fall's World Series begins today in Havana, as the Cleveland Indians, expected to figure in this year's American League pennant chase arrive for three games against the Dodgers, who of course, are cinches to win the National League flag this year. Bob Feller is expected to face Whit Wyatt in the first game of the set. Games against the Tribe are always eagerly anticipated in the springtime, a relic of passions generated by the highly-charged 1920 World Series, in which Cleveland sent the Flock down to defeat.

Arch Oboler's famous stream-of-consciousness play "The Ugliest Man In The World" will be reprised a week from tonight over WEAF as part of the "Everyman's Theatre" series. As in all previous productions, the Ugliest Man In The World will again be portrayed by Raymond Edward Johnson. The success of the unusual drama, taking place inside the mind of one man, on the old "Lights Out" series in 1938 earned Oboler his own "Arch Oboler's Plays" series over NBC.

(Well, now, that's an unexpected twist. Hey Boody, don't you know Evil Twins are supposed to have an Evil Goatee?)

(Forgery? That's a new game for Oakdale, but I wouldn't put it past him.)

(She SMOKES! In the Worthiverse, that is a sure sign of a debauched soul.)

(Ah, so that wasn't Irwin that got punctured yesterday. I guess every cop must be issued a .38 and a fat dumb sidekick as a matter of course. And JEEZ KAY. Dick Tracy cosplay??? I dunno, maybe Dan's into that stuff. Whatever.)

 

[Harp]

Sue, ditch that ba***rd today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News,

To be perfectly fair, the life span of the average vaudeville dance team marriage is about as stable as the life span of pollywogs in a milk bottle. But the presence of a Manville, any Manville, in the mixture can't help much.

No celebrities? Lame.

So there.

PUN-KAH!!

Ten to one Mr. Gould's mother-in-law looks just like this.

Soup's on -- and guess who's in it!

Around the neighborhood they call her "Page Four."

Ah, there is no one thing that says "College Girl 1941" more than those knee socks.

Whew. If they'd bumped into each other, it would have meant the annihilation of the entire universe.

Mush can troll with the best of them when he wants to.

 

[Harp]

Terry: finish the freak with a mae geri to his groin, twist his head and force his skull down across your knee.
He'll be dead inside three seconds.
And then, well you know, Burma needs some tender-or perhaps not-so-tender-badly needed lovin.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
(At this rate, GWTW should hit the nabes by the end of the summer -- if there's anything left of it...)...

I think it's generally well regarded, but I find "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" an unenjoyable movie with unlikable characters (but great NYC location shots including a trip to the World's Fair). My comments here: #28078

... the Dodgers, who of course, are cinches to win the National League flag this year....

Of course I don't believe in jinxes, but please stop saying these things.

... (Well, now, that's an unexpected twist. Hey Boody, don't you know Evil Twins are supposed to have an Evil Goatee?)...

Did not see that coming, but we should know by now that anything can happen in crazy "Spark Watts" world.

...[ No celebrities? Lame....

Hey Lofts, how 'bout explaining to us how that stupid contest was supposed to work. If you do so, I promise to buy a box of the bittersweet chocolate cordial cherries (which, sadly, I'll buy even if you don't explain how the contest worked).

...
View attachment 316221 Ten to one Mr. Gould's mother-in-law looks just like this.....

Actress Lucile Watson stands ready to play her if asked.

... Ah, there is no one thing that says "College Girl 1941" more than those knee socks.....

Which held well into the fifties.

... Whew. If they'd bumped into each other, it would have meant the annihilation of the entire universe.....

Lillums would cheat and Lana would still win, but either way, like the rest of the male population, I'm always up for a good catfight. I say it's go time. And it would be a nice deus ex machina for Harold - he marries whoever is left standing.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Arch Oboler's famous stream-of-consciousness play "The Ugliest Man In The World" will be reprised a week from tonight over WEAF as part of the "Everyman's Theatre" series. As in all previous productions, the Ugliest Man In The World will again be portrayed by Raymond Edward Johnson. The success of the unusual drama, taking place inside the mind of one man, on the old "Lights Out" series in 1938 earned Oboler his own "Arch Oboler's Plays" series over NBC.

Perhaps I mentioned this before, but back when I was still in my later teens a local Chicago FM station would broadcast the "Lights Out" episodes under the title, "The Devil and Mr. O." I really enjoyed those shows. Bet that they'd still be popular if brought back.

About the same time CBS Radio had their Mystery Theater on the air as well.

One other thing I miss since moving from Chicago: Chuck Schaden's "Those Were the Days" radio rebroadcasts on a local community college station. My son was about nine when he was taking equestrian classes, and we'd listen to episodes of "Baby Snooks and Daddy." The kid would howl with laughter over the antics of Snooks.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to write for Chuck's magazine "Nostalgia Digest" back in the 90s.

My mother still talks about how traumatized she was as a kid to discover that Snooks was actually an old woman with a funny voice. I have done the "Snooks" character myself, or an approximation of it, on stage, when I was much closer to that character's age than I am now.

Those "Devil and Mr. O" reruns were popular up here too -- the one I always remember is the one about the poor schmo who invented a "universal solvent" but couldn't find any kind of a bottle to keep it in -- and ended up dissolving the entire world. Only on radio could you do that story and make it work.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
Those "Devil and Mr. O" reruns were popular up here too -- the one I always remember is the one about the poor schmo who invented a "universal solvent" but couldn't find any kind of a bottle to keep it in -- and ended up dissolving the entire world. Only on radio could you do that story and make it work.

Proving that sometimes a gag is but one step away from an existential crisis.

 

[PrivateEye]

I knew something would prevent them from finally marrying, but I was expecting something more original than an amnesia storyline.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The heaviest snowstorm to strike the borough in six years is swamping Brooklyn this afternoon, dropping nearly a foot of snow which quickly threatened to become an icy blanket as it mixed with sleet and freezing rain. Two persons have died so far as a result of of the storm. Sixty-five year old Oscar Schultz of 412 Meeker Avenue collapsed from heart failure last night in front of the building at 56 Townsend Avenue where he was employed a an engineer, and his body was discovered frozen in the snow early this morning by two co-workers. Sixty-nine-year-old Nicola Catiana of 389 Marcy Avenue collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack this morning while shoveling snow in front of his home. All airplanes flying out of Brooklyn and Queens are grounded today as a result of the storm, and over 6500 Sanitation Department workers are attempting to clear huge snowdrifts that have snarled traffic thruout the city.

A six-year-old Bushwick girl was killed this afternoon by a hit-and-run driver as she romped in the snow outside her home at 254 Cornelia Street. Carol Salg, a first grade pupil at Public School 106, was dragged to death under the wheels of a car speeding toward Wilson Avenue, a mere fifty feet from her parents. Those parents told police they did not actually see the accident because they had no idea their daughter was about to romp into the middle of the street. The girl was taken to Bushwick Hospital, where it was concluded that she had died instantly upon being struck by the car. Police are combing the borough for the driver.

(Sally slumps in her chair and sobs uncontrollably.)

Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley today predicted that the Lease-Lend bill for aid to Great Britain will pass in the Senate by a large majority today, and will be sent on to President Roosevelt for his signature by Monday. Senators are expected to remain in session for as long as required today to complete the vote before the weekend recess.

Informed sources state that Yugoslavia will sign a non-agression treaty with Germany following a conference at Berlin on Tuesday. Diplomatic sources in Greece, meanwhile, state they are ready at any time for an anticipated attack by German troops. In Turkey, sources state that nation is prepared to intervene in the war alongside British forces if a German attack on Greece is undertaken.

Fire swept thru the hold of a Greek freighter en route to Brooklyn this week, incinerating more than $1,125,000 of high quality tobacco. The cargo, jointly owned by the American Tobacco Company and the R. J. Reynolds Company, was reported to have been destroyed while the ship was off the coast of St. Lucia. The crew managed to extinguish the blaze, but the tobacco was a total loss. The vessel made it to port and is now moored at the foot of Columbia Street as the owners of the cargo prepare to take legal action against the shipping firm over the loss. Authorities say the blaze was kindled by the "friction" of the tobacco as the leaves rubbed against each other over the course of the voyage.

Former Postmaster General James A. Farley is being promoted as a possible Democratic candidate for the mayoralty this fall, as party leaders consider their options. Farley, who is now a sales executive for a leading soft-drink manufacturer, and who is still rumored to be negotiating to purchase the New York Yankees baseball club from the estate of Jacob Ruppert, is considered the front runner for the nomination, with only Brooklyn District Attorney William O'Dwyer seen likely to pose a serious challenge.

("Oh, and while you're at it, make sure he isn't also engaged to his high school girlfriend.")

Two Dodgers who spent much of last summer recovering from severe beanings came to the plate today against the Cleveland Indians wearing Larry MacPhail's latest brainstorm -- a U-shaped fiber headpiece that shields the wearer's temples from the impact of a hard-thrown pitch. The protective shields can be worn wrapped around the regular cloth cap, or inside that cap as a liner. Neither Pee Wee Reese nor Joe Medwick was struck by a pitch yesterday while wearing the skull protectors, but it wasn't for lack of trying by the wild and woolly Cleveland mound staff, who flung a total of eleven bases on balls over the course of the 15-0 Brooklyn victory.

(Pretty lax marriage-license laws in this state, I must say.)

(You don't often see a man going around in a white ankle-length duster in 1941, but if there's one man who can pull it off, it's an important man like Mr. Oakdale.)

(Yeah, this stinks, kid -- but hey, don't we remember that *you* innocently stole Ted away from Leona?)

(Every cartoonist draws from swipes once in a while, but it's kinda neat that when Mr. Marsh does, he swipes from "Field and Stream.")

 

[Fading Fast]

I knew something would prevent them from finally marrying, but I was expecting something more original than an amnesia storyline.

⇧ Agreed. Also, I don't feel particularly vested in either character nor their love, so I don't really care. Rogers hasn't done the work of building up their individual personalities nor their relationship to the point where it's important to me if they get together or not.

It's the opposite of how I feel about the Harold-Lilllums-Lana triangle. I care about the characters and what happens because Carl Ed did the hard job of making them feel real to us.

 

[PrivateEye]

⇧ Agreed. Also, I don't feel particularly vested in either character nor their love, so I don't really care. Rogers hasn't done the work of building up their individual personalities nor their relationship to the point where it's important to me if they get together or not.

It's the opposite of how I feel about the Harold-Lilllums-Lana triangle. I care about the characters and what happens because Carl Ed did the hard job of making them feel real to us.

Have to agree...and I find myself rooting way to hard for Lana...considering they're make believe...

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I'm not a real fan of capital punishment, but in Cvek's case I'd make an exception.

Joe sits on a bench at the Crown Pickle Works, eating his lunch and reading the News. "Whassonyamind, bud?" says Solly Pincus. Joe just sighs.

It's a sad commentary on the times that at the end of his life, Julian Eltinge was prohibited by law in many cities from performing his act. In such cases, he'd have his outfits displayed on stage on dressmakers' dummies and would give a talk on each one. It wasn't quite as impressive a performance.

We're straying a bit off the Bible here, Sam.

Meanwhile, Chief Brandon checks out the lady and thinks "hey, I should ask her out. We could go check out that new luggage shop downtown"

Uh oh. Watch your back, Snipe.

Who could ever have imagined chess would be so exciting?

And as soon as Bim leaves, Andy turns to Chester and says "gimme the fifty, kid."

Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick....

Mush thinks "if this cracker doesn't get his hand off my head, I'm gonna lay him out flat."

 

[Fading Fast]

...
("Oh, and while you're at it, make sure he isn't also engaged to his high school girlfriend.")...

Details, details.

... (You don't often see a man going around in a white ankle-length duster in 1941, but if there's one man who can pull it off, it's an important man like Mr. Oakdale.)...

Agreed, yet oddly, here it is eighty years later and you can buy one today from J.Peterman:

.. I'm not a real fan of capital punishment, but in Cvek's case I'd make an exception....

Of course there should be a high judicial threshold and checks, but with that, I suffer no such capital-punishment compunction. Hence, he should have a fair trial and, if found guilty and after a reasonable-but-not-endless period for appeal, be taken off to the gallows.

How has there not been a movie made about the French gold ship - what a neat and cinematic story?

... Who could ever have imagined chess would be so exciting?...

And kudos to Burma for pulling off the difficult three-metaphors-in-one-thought-bubble axel. Even the Russian judge scored her a 9.6.

 

[Harp]

Details, details.

Of course there should be a high judicial threshold and checks, but with that, I suffer no such capital-punishment compunction. Hence, he should have a fair trial and, if found guilty and after a reasonable-but-not-endless period for appeal, be taken off to the gallows.

And kudos to Burma for pulling off the difficult three-metaphors-in-one-thought-bubble axel. Even the Russian judge scored her a 9.6.

Cvek should have been assigned counsel instead of being ushered bum's rush to carnival barker stardom.
Both the magistrate and Brooklyn DA improperly managed this indictment sideshow.
Sing Sing chaired its guests I believe. The reporting on legal stories is rather excellent coverage.

Imagine Burma performing a double salchow on a frozen Rio Grande. Nude, of course.