The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, in today's Daily News, consider the plight of poor Dick Tracy --

Tracy has been suspended in the well and left to his fate by a fish-faced character named Stooge Viller, who is in league with a corrupt biologist who has come up with a way to use fresh tendons taken from butcher-shop pigs' feet to rig up guns so they fire without needing a hand to squeeze the trigger.

Dan Dunn, the schmuck, wouldn't have a chance.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The Football Dodgers went into yesterday's game never having beaten the Giants, and their record is intact.

Meanwhile, the Indoor Baseball Dodgers split its third doubleheader, this time against Boston. They play two more Wednesday night against Philadelphia....

Still not adjusting to all these fake Dodgers teams.

...Bill Biff will play the role of coachman for Cousin Cinderella Sue, promising to pull her out of the party right at midnight -- just as Leona and THMIAE arrive. Sue is frantic. I MUSTN'T LET HER SEE ME!



(Dream on, kid.)....

The Leonas of the world never miss a mean-girl opportunity - they have a special radar or something for spotting weakness in others.

Meanwhile, in today's Daily News, consider the plight of poor Dick Tracy --


Tracy has been suspended in the well and left to his fate by a fish-faced character named Stooge Viller, who is in league with a corrupt biologist who has come up with a way to use fresh tendons taken from butcher-shop pigs' feet to rig up guns so they fire without needing a hand to squeeze the trigger.

Dan Dunn, the schmuck, wouldn't have a chance.

That's a very Batman-1960s-TV-series type of situation Dick Tracy finds himself in (Adam West would be quite familiar with it a few decades later). As always, almost everything is derivative of something earlier.

 

[LizzieMaine]

All the Daily News adventure strips go in for extreme traps -- a couple weeks ago, Smilin' Jack was trapped in an aeronautical wind tunnel holding onto two women with his hands and to a sizzling heat pipe with his leg, trying to keep all of them from being sucked into a gigantic spinning fan blade. He escaped by tearing the clothes off one of the women and letting the garments get sucked into the blade so that the cloth fragments would alert the operators of the machine that there were people trapped inside it.

He survived with third-degree burns to his legs from the heat pipes, and received skin grafts from both of the women. He is now recuperating in the hospital making wisecracks to the nurses.

Good, clean wholesome fun.

 

[Fading Fast]

...He escaped by tearing the clothes off one of the women and letting the garments get sucked into the blade...

Well now, that must have been interesting to see illustrated. Kidding aside, the ability of men to come up with novel ways to get clothes off of women really is something.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Pre-Code" comics were full of surprises.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Soviet Union has withdrawn from its non-aggression pact with Finland in the wake of the border incident this week in which four Red Army soldiers were reported dead, and has rejected Finland's claim that the artillery that killed those soldiers was fired by the Soviets themselves. The Soviets are demanding that the Finns withdraw their troops from the border -- and the Finns insist the Soviets do likewise, a condition the Russians are unlikely to meet, since doing so would leave Leningrad unprotected. Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov insists that the call for Finnish withdrawal is not an ultimatum, since no timetable has been set for compliance.

Germany reports that a 10,000 ton British cruiser was sunk today by a U-Boat commanded by the same captain responsible for the attack on the Royal Oak last month at Scapa Flow. The British cruiser was not named, and could be one of three such vessels known to be operating east of the Shetland Islands.

A 27-year-old laborer at the Brooklyn Union Gas Company's Greenpoint works is recovering from his experiences in Poland, where a visit to his mother left him unexpectedly caught up in the outbreak of the war. Peter Lodzinsgi sailed from Brooklyn in June to see his mother in the Polish village of Zlotopole, and didn't take the war rumblings seriously -- until September 1st, when he was ordered to report to the American consulate in Warsaw. For the next two and a half months, Lodzinsgi found himself a refugee -- hiding in the woods to avoid German patrols, ducking shells, and seeing towns and villages burn around him. Back home, gas company officials alerted Secretary of State Cordell Hull that Lodzinsgi was missing -- and authorities finally located him in Denmark, among a group of refugees who had finally made their way to the border. He's back in Greenpoint now, at the gas works, wondering what happened to his mother.

The prosecution rested its case today in the trial of German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, with Assistant DA Herman J. McCarthy denouncing defense claims that the trial is "political persecution." McCarthy scored defense counsel Peter Sabbatino for insinuating that the prosecution of Kuhn is a "Jewish plot," and and dismissed defense testimony as "shabby lies." The case will go to the jury tomorrow in Manhattan General Sessions Court.

A woman magistrate criticized a group of eight women brought before her in Coney Island Court on disorderly conduct charges. Magistrate Jeanette G. Brill reprimanded the eight defendents, who were arrested as participants, along with three men, in a stud poker game at 3100 Brighton 7th Street, after neighbors complained that they were being loud and boisterous, and told them she was ashamed of them as women. "Go home and wash the dishes," she snapped from the bench.

A petition challenging the renaming of North Beach Field as "LaGuardia Field" has been dismissed in Manhattan Supreme Court. Joseph Goldsmith of the New York Taxpayer's Party had filed the document, claiming that the renaming was political and demanding that it be reversed. In dismissing the petition, Judge William T. Collins reprimanded Goldsmith for "captious carping."

THere will be no special "blue ribbon jury" in the upcoming trial of accused bail bond perjurer Max Lippe, according to a motion filed by an assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Amen. The Amen office is pushing for consolidation of the charges, and says that it would be satisfied with a jury drawn from the ordinary juror pool.

A 50-year-old East 93rd Street woman was beaten and robbed by thugs after she showed them a vacant house for rent. Mrs. Esther Simon, owner of the vacant house at 9313 Avenue K, met three men at her home this morning, expecting to rent the property, but was instead assaulted and robbed of $200 in cash. Neighbors told Canarsie police that Mrs. Simon was known as a wealthy woman who habitually carried large sums on her person.

Work is expected to begin December 6th on a $500,000 project at Floyd Bennett Field, which will add two large hangars capable of housing up to 24 large Navy airplanes. Mayor LaGuardia says the project marks a new direction for the airfield as an important Navy installation. The new base is expeted to be in operation by next spring.

In Cleveland, more than 16,000 people mobbed the city's two main relief offices to protest budget cuts and to demand food. The protests come in the face of a $700,000 shortage in relief funds for the city.

BEAUTY -- COMFORT -- SILENT SPEED! Take The HIAWATHA to Chicago -- Milwaukee -- Minneapolis -- St. Paul. Two A Day! THE MILWAUKEE ROAD.

Democratic presidential candidate Paul V. McNutt is confident that he'll sew up the Eastern states, expecting at least a hundred of the 350 votes on the first ballot at next summer's party convention. McNutt, the Federal Security Administrator, acknowledges that his candidacy is conditional on President Roosevelt choosing not to seek a third term.

A 31-year-old Erasmus Street man faces criminal negligence charges after an automobile accident that took the life of a prominent borough Jewish leader. 80-year-old David Greenberg, honorary president of Yeshiva Isaac Jacob Reines, was struck by a car driven by George Berry at the intersection of Troy Avenue and Empire Boulevard. Greenberg died of a fractured skull about an hour after the accident at Swedish Hospital. Berry, a garage attendant, was delivering the car to its owner on Montgomery Street.

The opening night of the Metropolitan Opera season included a note of discord, with the announcement that singing in German will be prohibited from the Met stage this season due to complaints from Czech groups. About a dozen Met stars, nine Italians and three Germans, will not appear this season due to the war.

Now Amazing Proved Hygenic Protection for Married Women! ZONITE douche kills germs on contact!

The NYPD's toy program is in full swing for the holiday season, with Brooklyn women's groups mounting a "Dollar A Doll" campaign to purchase new dolls for distribution by police officers to needy borough children.

A diet rich in Vitamin B-1 appears to have a positive effect on patients suffering from Amyothropic Lateral Sclerosis, the disease that cut down Lou Gehrig this year at the height of his baseball career. A Canadian patient displaying symptoms of the disease is showing improvement after undergoing vitamin treatment since March. There is also evidence that vitamin therapy may aid those suffering from the effects of polio.

The city Election Board has not found clear evidence of responsibility in the unauthorized disposal of thousands of Brooklyn voter registration slips, last held at the Bergen Street Police Station. The investigation will continue.

Paul Muni is the best of all possible Paul Munis in "Key Largo," new Maxwell Anderson play at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. So says Arthur Pollock, on hand for opening night, calling the show a triumph for all involved, and expressing pleasure that Muni was not spoiled as an actor -- as so many have been -- by his years in Hollywood.

Now showing at the Patio, Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert in "On Your Toes," paired with Randolph Scott and "20,000 Men A Day." (I already made the obvious joke once before, so I won't do it again.)

The Eagle editorialist observes with interest Connecticut auto registration records that show two 1904 Fords and a 1906 Locomobile are still actively registered in that state. Only 12 percents of accidents in that state involve vehicles manfactured before 1930.

The inventor of basketball has died in Kansas at the age of 78. James A. Naismith, who invented the sport in 1891, had suffered a heart attack and a stroke in recent weeks.

Philip K. Wrigley, Chicago Cubs owner, says he doesn't want Joe Medwick -- because even if you put him in a Cub uniform, people will still think of him as a Cardinal. Wrigley is funny that way. Larry MacPhail, on the other hand, has no such concerns. Meanwhile, Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey says he expects to make no major deals at the upcoming Winter Meetings, which of course means a deal for Medwick with somebody may very much be in the offing.

Warren Giles, general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, says MacPhail's plan for interleague play, expected to be discussed at the Winter Meetings, would be an enormous financial failure. He doesn't beleive the fans would have any taste for such competition, pointing out that an "All-Ohio" series mounted by the Reds and Cleveland Indians some years ago was a complete flop.

The Indoor Baseball Dodgers swept two from Boston at the Boston Garden yesterday. They return to the 14th Regiment Armory tomorrow for a pair against Philadelphia. The Indoor Giants host Boston at the Bronx Coliseum.

Midwestern and West Coast rage is building over John Steinbeck's best-selling "The Grapes of Wrath," with movements to burn and ban the book sweeping the regions. Midwesterners charge the book is offensive and objectionable due to its language and its portrayal of farmers. Californians, meanwhile, are burning and banning the book because it is offensive and objectionable to Western businessmen. Eagle book critic Arthur Rhodes believes the book should be read and understood specifically because it drags aside the curtains concealing the cancer of our economic life.

Homer from Upstairs decides he's had enough of the diamonds, leaving George to deal with Joie and his thugs himself. "Love Thy Neighbor."

Leona is dancing with THMIAE and hoping Ted is at the party to see her. But Ted is -- ah -- otherwise occupied.

(All those Cinderella plots the movies aren't using any more have found other employment...)

And while Dan and Irwin try to drag Kay out of the smouldering wreckage of the car, Dook, roams the rain-soaked woods, a wounded, hunted animal, torn between his desires for revenge and escape. Or something.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A 27-year-old laborer at the Brooklyn Union Gas Company's Greenpoint works is recovering from his experiences in Poland, where a visit to his mother left him unexpectedly caught up in the outbreak of the war. Peter Lodzinsgi sailed from Brooklyn in June to see his mother in the Polish village of Zlotopole, and didn't take the war rumblings seriously -- until September 1st, when he was ordered to report to the American consulate in Warsaw. For the next two and a half months, Lodzinsgi found himself a refugee -- hiding in the woods to avoid German patrols, ducking shells, and seeing towns and villages burn around him. Back home, gas company officials alerted Secretary of State Cordell Hull that Lodzinsgi was missing -- and authorities finally located him in Denmark, among a group of refugees who had finally made their way to the border. He's back in Greenpoint now, at the gas works, wondering what happened to his mother.....

At least he got out, as he could have wound up like Natalie Jastrow.

...The prosecution rested its case today in the trial of German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, with Assistant DA Herman J. McCarthy denouncing defense claims that the trial is "political persecution." McCarthy scored defense counsel Peter Sabbatino for insinuating that the prosecution of Kuhn is a "Jewish plot," and and dismissed defense testimony as "shabby lies." The case will go to the jury tomorrow in Manhattan General Sessions Court.....

I'm ready for the verdict already.

...A petition challenging the renaming of North Beach Field as "LaGuardia Field" has been dismissed in Manhattan Supreme Court. Joseph Goldsmith of the New York Taxpayer's Party had filed the document, claiming that the renaming was political and demanding that it be reversed. In dismissing the petition, Judge William T. Collins reprimanded Goldsmith for "captious carping....

Of course it was political, as that is the essence of naming public things after politicians.

...Paul Muni is the best of all possible Paul Munis in "Key Largo," new Maxwell Anderson play at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. So says Arthur Pollock, on hand for opening night, calling the show a triumph for all involved, and expressing pleasure that Muni was not spoiled as an actor -- as so many have been -- by his years in Hollywood.....

There's an echo or parallel to how, in the '30s, "The Theater" and theater actors were seen as superior / having greater artistic value than crass Hollywood and how, in the '70s when I was growing up, movies and movie actors were seen as superior / having greater artistic value than crass TV.

...Leona is dancing with THMIAE and hoping Ted is at the party to see her. But Ted is -- ah -- otherwise occupied.

View attachment 197977

(All those Cinderella plots the movies aren't using any more have found other employment...)....

If this is heading where it looks like it's heading, Leona is going to be viciously angry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Secretary of State Cordell Hull says the United States stands ready to extend its "good offices" toward a settlement of the dispute between Finland and the Soviet Union, even as the Russian press reports that Soviet naval positions in the Gulf of Finland have been reinforced. Meanwhile, the Moscow radio reports that "a spy" has been seized in the Leningrad district, near the Finnish frontier.

Diving airplanes and the sharp flash of gunfire off the coast of Norway indicated a sea battle was underway today in the North Sea. It is suspected that British air patrols may be in pursuit of the German pocket battleship Deutschland, as the sea raider makes for a German port.

After a two-hour charge from Manhattan General Sessions Court Judge James Wallace, the case of German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, charged with forgery and grand larceny, is in the hands of the jury. The Judge warned that Kuhn's political beliefs are not on trial, and that the jury must focus its attention on the matter of missing Bund funds, and on Kuhn's alleged concealment of the payment of personal legal funds thru a false entry in the organization's ledgers. The defense has argued that under the Bund's own "leadership principle," Kuhn, as leader, is entitled to use Bund money at his own discretion.

The disbarment trial of Assistant District Attorney Alexander Baldwin closed today with Official Referee Isaac M. Kapper reserving judgement pending the receipt of further briefs from both the prosecution and defense. Baldwin was previously acquitted on bribery charges.

The Brooklyn National League Baseball Club has been fined a total of $1500 by Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis after an investigation determined that the team and its minor league club in Dayton, Ohio were guilty of irregularities in the filing of player contracts, and of attempting to hold players to agreements which had never been legally filed with his office. The Detroit Tigers were fined $500 for similar violations, as was the Columbus club of the American Association, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Broooklyn College, often scored as a hotbed of radicalism, seemed positively Republican today when it appeared to line up with anti-Franksgiving forces in choosing to observe its traditional "Interfaith Day of Thanksgiving" today. College officials noted that no political significance should be read into the event, since it was originally meant to be held last week only to be rescheduled due to class scheduling conflicts. The college was closed last Thursday for Thanksgiving, and will be open for classes tomorrow.

Theodore Orenstein has been appointed to succeed the assassinated Louis F. Edwards as Mayor of the town of Long Beach. The appointment made by Governor Lehman will continue until the next scheduled election.

The "Two Gun Girl" from Texas has been cleared of murder charges. Miss Corinne Maddox shot and killed Dallas attorney Brooks Coffman with two pistols on a busy downtown street last week, but a Dallas County grand jury reviewing the case returned a "no-bill" dismissing the charges.

The Chrysler Corporation and the CIO United Auto Workers have settled, bringing a close to the longest and costliest labor dispute in automotive history. Union locals are expected to ratify an agreement to end the 54-day strike, after Chrysler came to terms on a 3 percent across-the-board wage increase, and a binding mechanism established to handle worker grievances. The union did not receive a closed shop, but the UAW was recognized and acknowledged by Chrysler as the sole bargaining agent for the workers.

Crowds thronging outside relief offices in Cleveland threatened to turn into riots today as thousands stormed the offices demanding food. Rocks were thrown thru windows at one station, and at least one woman was trampled in the crowd. The city has made sweeping cuts in relief programs in an effort to reduce budgets.

A self-declared former Communist today identified eight organizations as Communist before the Dies Committee. William G. Ryan told the panel that the American Negro Congress, the American Youth Congress, the American Workers' Order, and several other groups connected to the Spanish war and peace movements are Red-controlled.

There are conflicting reports on the fate of German Communist Party leader Ernst Thaelmann. The London Daily Herald, citing sources within the German Foreign Office, report that Thaelmann has been executed, but an official German source stated today that Thaelmann is still alive. The German source did not elaborate, but the Communist leader is believed to be a prisoner in a concentration camp.

A 51-year-old oil company executive from Richmond Hill was found today in his office, crumpled on the floor beside a gun. Thomas A. Wallace, assistant treasurer and manager of the transfer department of the Cities Service Corporation was rushed to Broad Street Hospital in Manhattan, where he is reported to be in critical condition. He has been employed by Cities Service since 1908.

Over a thousand people turned out at Yale University's Strathcona Hall to hear Communist Party secretary Earl Browder. A mixed chorus of boos and cheers greeted Browder's lecture, punctuated by good-natured smiles when portions of his speech brought derisive laughter. Browder also addressed the passport fraud charges pending against him, stating that he will show at his trial that "highly placed businessmen, jurists, and statesmen" have been similarly guilty without facing prosecution. The meeting was sponsored by the Yale Peace Council. Browder had earlier been barred from speaking at Harvard, Princeton, and Dartmouth, but will speak at CCNY next week under the auspices of the student newspaper.

JUST 350 RAYON AND COTTON DINNER SETS -- 3.98 Grade -- $1.98 in the Linens Department, 3rd Floor, at Loeser's.

ENTIRE BROOKLYN STORE OPEN TOMORROW NIGHT TILL 9PM! Miss Swank Lingerie -- for the Leading Lady In Your Life! $2.98 in the street floor Lingerie Department at Loeser's!

95 percent of the people who visit Rockefeller Center are from out of town. So reports a study by the Rockefeller Center Public Relations Department.

Helen Worth advises a 43 year old woman from the South who is having trouble making friends in Brooklyn to get over her preconceived notions about Northerners. "People are pretty much the same everywhere," she says.

MARRIAGE *CAN* STAY ROMANTIC -- When You Guard Against Dry, Lifeless Middle Aged Skin with PALMOLIVE.

"Shopping With Susan" adds that Renken's Milk will also do wonders for your complexion. (Try it with a bar of Palmolive some morning. A delightful breakfast combination.)

Loretta Young and David Niven in "Eternally Yours," opening tomorrow at Loew's Metropolitan, with co-feature "Dancing Co-Ed," starring Lana Turner and Artie Shaw.

The Eagle editorialist gives the back of his hand to that lady who complained about Rockwell Kent's depiction of an angel on this year's Christmas Seals. "Man pictures all celestial beings by his own image," he notes. "There is nothing else to go by."

Abraham & Straus will be open tomorrow night till 9! Broadloom rug savings! Watercolor wool dresses! Cashmere sweaters!

Radio daytime serial writer Elaine Carrington tells Jane Corby that marriage will work for everyone, but some people give up too easily. Mrs. Carrington's husband is a Manhattan lawyer, while she turns out 20,000 words a week for such programs as "Pepper Young's Family" and "When A Girl Marries" from their Brooklyn home. They share their Jerelmon Street residence with an 18 year old daughter, an 11 year old son and a 200 pound German Shepherd.

The Giants will be looking for a new first baseman when the Winter Meetings convene next week. Bill Terry has his eyes on Buddy Hassett of the Bees or Elbie Fletcher of the Pirates. The incumbent first sacker at the Polo Grounds, powerful but erratic Zeke Bonura, is likely headed for the bushes.

The Rangers had their first home-ice win last night when they topped Detroit 4 to 1 at the Garden.

George Bungle has had enough of thugs threatening him over the diamonds and beats the snot out of the next person to knock at his door. Who turns out to be a lawyer representing Uncle Zooie. See you in court.

MEET CUTE!

And it sure stinks to be J. B. Dook, who is stumbling thru the rain screaming with rage as the Story Book Detective closes in. Meanwhile, Irwin can figure out how to keep a cigar butt lit in the rain but can't figure out how to get Kay to the hospital. Priorities.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The "Two Gun Girl" from Texas has been cleared of murder charges. Miss Corinne Maddox shot and killed Dallas attorney Brooks Coffman with two pistols on a busy downtown street last week, but a Dallas County grand jury reviewing the case returned a "no-bill" dismissing the charges.....

Well, that was quick. At minimum, I expected a big trial with lots of salacious details. I genuinely have no idea if she is guilty in a legal sense, but since the facts of her shooting him dead don't seem in dispute, I assumed that the state would have put up more of a fight for her conviction.

...There are conflicting reports on the fate of German Communist Party leader Ernst Thaelmann. The London Daily Herald, citing sources within the German Foreign Office, report that Thaelmann has been executed, but an official German source stated today that Thaelmann is still alive. The German source did not elaborate, but the Communist leader is believed to be a prisoner in a concentration camp.....

As a betting man, my money says Thaelmann ain't leaving Germany alive.

...95 percent of the people who visit Rockefeller Center are from out of town. So reports a study by the Rockefeller Center Public Relations Department.....

I doubt the number is much different today. It's a variation on the Yogi Berra quip - it's so crowded with tourist that New Yorkers don't go there anymore, if they don't have too. I love its architecture, but the crowds make it tough to enjoy.

...

MEET CUTE!....

Very much so, but wait 'till Leona finds out! I'm scared.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cousin Sue does seem to have a survival instinct, but she seems unlikely to follow it here. If I was writing this strip, the Handsomest Man in All Europe would whack him across the face with a glove and challenge him to a duel, and Ted would lure THMIAE out to the back yard where George Bungle is waiting in the shadows with a baseball bat. But alas, I am not writing this strip, so we shall indeed have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, over in the Daily News, Dick Tracy does a good job of talking to himself, even though he's got tape over his mouth.

MAYBE YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING THERE, DICK!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Soviet air, sea, and land forces today attacked eight Finnish cities, including the capital city of Helsingfors and Vigord, just across the border from Leningrad, with at least 200 reported dead, and two Soviet planes brought down by Finnish anti-aircraft fire. The attack followed by nine hours an announcement from Russian Foreign Minister Molotov that diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Finland were being broken off. Sources in the Finnish government are reported to be uncertain as to whether the attack was intended to seize territories previously demanded by the Russians for use as bases, or if the Soviets intend to push deeper into Finnish territory. Fighting was reported all along a 600-mile stretch of border between the two nations, extending into Arctic territory. Finnish sources report damage from bombing was light in all sections.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain denounced the Soviet attack on Finland as "indefensible," and stated that the British Government has received no explanation from Moscow of the reasons for the attack. Chamberlain expressed the belief that the differences between the two nations are not such as to warrant military action, and when the sole Communist in Parliament attempted to ask the Prime Minister a question, he was shouted down.

President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull are meeting today to discuss the outbreak of the Russo-Finnish war, after the failure of the Secretary's last-minute offer to mediate the territorial dispute between the two nations. Among the issues likely to be discussed is the question of how the new Neutrality Act will apply to the situation of an undeclared war.

Fritz Kuhn has been convicted on five counts of forgery and grand larceny, with the Manhattan General Sessions Court jury returning its verdict at 10 pm last night. The German-American Bund leader received the verdict impassively, his only betrayal of emotion a twitching finger. Kuhn could face up to thirty years in prison, with sentence due to be pronounced next Tuesday. Seven counts in the original twelve-count indictment were dismissed, leaving Kuhn liable for the theft of a total of $1216 in Bund funds.

As Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey now prepares to begin his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, his office announces that eight officials of American Federation of Labor unions have been indicted on charges connected to a shakedown racket in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Westchester. The officials, connected to locals of the AFL-affiliated Retail Clerks International Protective Association and the Teamsters, are accused of shaking down a number of market chains and neighborhood grocery stores in the four communities. The suspects are believed to have connections to mobster Lucky Luciano thru his chief lieutenant, Lorenzo "Chappy" Brescia, who is already under indictment in the taxi racket.

A Federal Loan Administrator will take up the proposed $70,000,000 Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel next week, with Mayor LaGuardia continuing to insist that the tunnel will be built, despite questions being raised over who would actually administer it. A current New York State law could prohibit the city from owning and operating such a tunnel.

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt "dropped in" today during a session of the Dies Committee, just to sit and listen to the proceedings. The President's wife heard testimony by officials of the American Youth Congress, recently branded a Communist organization by a self-declared former Communist appearing before the panel.

Three men face charges of oyster piracy after they were captured off the coast of Greenport by a Connecticut state patrol boat. The oyster boat defied an order to stand by to be boarded, and one of the suspects was wounded in the arm by a shot fired from the patrol craft. The three are accused of stealing seed oysters from beds in Long Island Sound owned by the Mansfield Oyster Company of New Haven.

GET ON THE ROAD TO A DEBT FREE HOME with our new Amortized Mortgage Plan! Save 40 percent on interest charges -- loans at 5 percent in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau Counties. THE DIME SAVINGS BANK OF BROOKLYN -- 79 Years of Successful Mortgage Lending!

20 SHOPPING DAYS LEFT -- BUY CHRISTMAS SEALS!

Facts about Finland -- the nation has existed as an independent country since December 6, 1917. From 1809 until that date it was a Grand Duchy of Russia. Baron Carl Mannerheim, with aid from Germany, formed a "White Army" that drove the Bolsheviks out of Finland. Mannerheim later served as regent for Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, brother-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm, who had accepted the offer of the Finnish crown, but the Prince never came to Finland before the Finnish Republic was proclaimed in 1919.

Opening Of The BROOKLYN LIFE ADJUSTMENT CENTER -- Non-Sectarian -- at the Central Congregational Church Parish House -- Every Monday Evening beginning December 8th, with prominent Doctors, Psychiatrists, Lawyers, Clergymen. BRING YOUR PROBLEM HERE. Telephone STerling 3-1771.

Meat Prices Are Lower This Week. If you're tired of turkey, good buys now on lamb, pork, beef and veal.

At your neighborhood A&P Self Service Super Market, pork loins 15 cents/lb. Genuine spring Legs of Lamb, 21 cents/lb. Prime Ribs of Beef, 23 cents/lb. Smoked calas short cut pork shoulders, 15 cents/lb. Broadcast Corned Beef Hash, two 1 lb. cans 29 cents.

(...until she went to the Brooklyn Life Adjustment Center?)

Clothes Do Make The Man After 6 PM! Take a tip from immaculate Raymond Twyeffort, who was seen recently in a night spot wearing a twilight blue dinner jacket and a twilight blue tie, with a twilight blue topcoat to match. Onlookers say he didn't appear a bit sissy or overdressed.

Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, and Maxine Sullivan opened last night at the Center Theatre in "Swingin' The Dream," a hot-jazz musical version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and Arthur Pollock was on hand for the festivities. "All nice and crazy, and if Shakespeare turned over in his grave, that was his affair." He also notes that "the stage full of whites and blacks is exceedingly agreeable to look at."

Why is Brooklyn being slighted by the Board of Estimate? The borough's request for $1,600,000 to replace the Raymond Street Jail, unfit for human habitation, has been slashed to a mere $20,000 for "a study of the Raymond Street Jail problem." City Councilman Joseph T. Sharkey says that's a waste of money -- there is no need to "study" the jail, well known as "a pestilential blot on Kings County."

The Indoor Baseball Dodgers lead the National Indoor Baseball League's Eastern Division, with a solid 7-3 record after sweeping Philadelphia in a twinbill last night. The I. B. Giants are in second place at 4 and 3 on the young season.

As Zooie's lawyer recovers from his beating, the noise attracts the attention of Homer from upstairs, who's ready for another round. All this could be avoided if the Bungles would simply move to a new building, but George is not the type to take the easy solution.

Well, that's one way of putting it. (Incidentally, Dale "Allen" Connor really is a fine comic artist -- note her expressive faces, very much the best work on the Eagle comic page.)

And Dook continues to bumble thru the woods and finally settles under a tree. "Gee! This is Restful!" Spoken like a true murderous blood-crazed killer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Daily News -- which, between the Kuhn verdict and the invasion of Finland, had quite a bit of recomposing to do over the course of the day -- we have the last word on Miss Corinne Maddox of Dallas...

And Dick Tracy is very thankful for that cheap, chintzy watch he bought off that guy in the alley before shooting him dead.

 

[Fading Fast]

...GET ON THE ROAD TO A DEBT FREE HOME with our new Amortized Mortgage Plan! Save 40 percent on interest charges -- loans at 5 percent in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau Counties. THE DIME SAVINGS BANK OF BROOKLYN -- 79 Years of Successful Mortgage Lending!....

Now long gone, but growing up in the '70s, The Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn was a regular advertiser on TV and radio. And this was its stunning headquarters, inside and out:

...At your neighborhood A&P Self Service Super Market, pork loins 15 cents/lb. Genuine spring Legs of Lamb, 21 cents/lb. Prime Ribs of Beef, 23 cents/lb. Smoked calas short cut pork shoulders, 15 cents/lb. Broadcast Corned Beef Hash, two 1 lb. cans 29 cents....

I assume the self-service they are talking about was picking pre-cut-and-wrapped pieces of meat out of a case versus asking a butcher to cut a piece just for you? Or did it mean something else?

...Why is Brooklyn being slighted by the Board of Estimate? The borough's request for $1,600,000 to replace the Raymond Street Jail, unfit for human habitation, has been slashed to a mere $20,000 for "a study of the Raymond Street Jail problem." City Councilman Joseph T. Sharkey says that's a waste of money -- there is no need to "study" the jail, well known as "a pestilential blot on Kings County."...

That stall tactic is still used by NYC gov't today and, usually, with even more gusto - not much is really new.

...Well, that's one way of putting it. (Incidentally, Dale "Allen" Connor really is a fine comic artist -- note her expressive faces, very much the best work on the Eagle comic page.)...

The skill of many of the illustrators - comics, advertising, etc. - in The Era is incredible and, seemingly, under appreciated.

And from the Daily News -- which, between the Kuhn verdict and the invasion of Finland, had quite a bit of recomposing to do over the course of the day -- we have the last word on Miss Corinne Maddox of Dallas...

]

Basically, seems like the decision was that he was such a freakin' *ss he got what he deserved. The copywriters got it - the dual-pistol-packing murderess is the hook to the entire story.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a bank that looks like a bank, and not like a converted Pizza Hut.

"Self Service" in the grocery sense in 1939 means a store where you go in and pick everything off the shelves yourself, as opposed to going into a store and walking up to the counter and giving your list to Mr. Drucker and letting him pick the order for you. A&P was in the forefront of the "self service" movement in New York, rolling it out as a cost-reduction measure during the recession of the early 1920s, and by 1939 only a few of the old-fashioned non-self-service A&P's were left in backwater neighborhoods around the city. They'd be gone completely before much longer, as the company committed to the new "supermarket" format on the heels of "King Kullen," "Big Bear," and other warehouse-type grocery outlets that popped up around New York and New Jersey during the 1930s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

King Kullen's ads were spectacular. From today's Daily News: "HOW DOES HE DO IT?"

 

[Fading Fast]

That's a bank that looks like a bank, and not like a converted Pizza Hut.....

Oh yes. And that was the point - they were designed to say, "we are strong and stable and your money is safe here," an important message after all the bank failures of the '30s.

Having sat in on the meetings, you are spot on, on your fast-food comment as market research says Millennials see "old" banks as inconvenient, so designing them to look like fast-food restaurants (something Millennials grew up with) is not accidental.

Depression Era customers wanted safety; Millennials, ease of use.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As Soviet air raids continue over Finland, a new Finnish government has formed, dropping members who had taken the hardest line against the Russians during recent negotiations. Prime Minister of the new government is 50-year-old Risto Ryti, former head of the Bank of Finland, with Vaino Tanner, a Socialist who had served as finance minister under the previous government, named Foreign Minister.

Today's Russian attacks along the Finnish border extended from Arctic territory to the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. Finland reports sixteen Soviet tanks were wrecked as planes swooped low over the capital city. Police report sixteen women and children are among the casualties in the latest attacks.

With the rise of the new Finnish government comes a new name for the capital city -- Helsingfors is now officially Helsinki.

As the new government was taking shape in Helsinki, rebel soldiers and left-wing politicians have formed a government of their own, establishing their capital in the city of Terioki, and calling for the liquidation of the Helsinki government in favor of a Democratic Republic of Finland.

President Roosevelt today condemned the Soviet attack on Finland, calling it profound shock to the people of the United States, and condemning the use of force in settling matters which should have been resolved thru peaceful methods.
"It is tragic," the President declared, "to see the policy of force spreading and to realize that wanton disregard for law is still on the march."

Before the start of hostilities with Finland, the Soviet Government sent word that it will not participate in the 1940 World's Fair. The Soviet Pavillion was the second most popular foreign attraction at the Fair in 1939, and was the tallest structure on the grounds until Fair officials erected an American flag atop the Parachute Jump. The Pavillion will be dismantled and returned to Russia, and workers were in the building today crating up the exhibits for shipping.

Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey formally declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination with a slap at the New Deal, calling the Roosevelt Administration "incompetent and hostile."

Brooklyn's Finnish population is shrugging its shoulders and saying "what can be done?" in the face of the latest news from their homeland. Over five thousand Finns live in the "Little Finland" neighborhood extending from 39th to 46th Streets in Sunset Park. The Finns are an unemotional people, and there was no gathering on street corners nor any outward demonstrations as the news of the Soviet invasion of their homeland came in.

School building funds will be slashed by over $2,200,000 under the new $116 million capital budget approved by the Board of Estimate.

The course of true love doesn't run straight for George "Romeo" Lowther III, insurance broker, and Miss Eileen Herrick, lovelorn daughter of the former Parks Commissioner Walter Herrick. Lowther appeared at the Herrick home at Wainscott, Long Island in an attempt to romance Miss Herrick on the balcony, but was turned away by private detectives hired to keep the two apart. "G'wan, get out of here," insisted the detectives, to Lowther's disappointment. The Herricks have obtained a court injunction to keep the two lovers apart.

An historic piece of Old Queens will not be razed for expansion of the Belt Parkway. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses has agreed to spare Alley Pond, rustic site of an early Revolutionary War settlement, and incorporate it into the landscaping along the Parkway route.

For the first time in months, the Raymond Street Jail, unfit for human habitation, is below its listed capacity, with 465 inmates in the building, intended to hold 470. Meanwhile, a grand jury denounced the jail as "harmful to morality" and "a medieval dungeon" in a statement handed up to County Judge O'Dwyer.

An injured horse caused a one-hour delay on the Long Island Railroad this morning. The horse, pulling a Sheffield Farms milk delivery wagon, lodged its hoof in the tracks crossing Sneideker Avenue, and was struck by a train before it could be freed. The milkman, 49-year-old J. Mussler, unhitched his wagon from the horse and pushed it away from the tracks, and tried unsuccessfully to get his horse to safety. The animal was so badly injured by the train that it had to be shot by police.

MAGNIFICENT COATS AT MAGNIFICENT SAVINGS -- At Martin's!

Peggy and Ann, the Scotch Shoppers, solve your holiday problems at Oppenheim-Collins!

It took 27 years to build it, but the new Brooklyn Public Library branch at Grand Army Plaza is almost ready to open. Library staff are cataloguing books and preparing to greet the public.

(Because nothing says Ho Ho Ho like hospitalization insurance.)

Trouser Mode For Women? Some Designers Say Yes! War May Bring Utilitarian Garb!

TO RELIEVE MISERY OF COLDS TAKE 666 -- Liquid, tablets, salve, nose drops.

Eddie's planning to lay on a big spread for New Year's Eve at the Midwood Restaurant! CHILDREN HALF PRICE!

Teddy Powell and his Orchestra and show-stopping singing-dancing comedienne Betty Hutton head the bill at the Flatbush Theatre this week. Also appearing, old-time hoofer Pat Rooney -- who still has what it takes after fifty years in show business.

To nobody's surprise, Potsy Clark is out as coach of the Football Dodgers. He handed in his resignation to owner Dan Topping before Topping could give him the pink slip.

A note turns up on the Bungles' door reminding them that Joie wants his sparklers -- or else. When a note is tacked up with a dagger, you do tend to pay attention.

They really are going all in on this Cinderella bit. I hope Herbert Cohn doesn't read the funnies.

And Dan Dunn, rough and manly in the rain, says to nobody in particular that he better be careful because Dook might try to ambush him. BANG comes the response.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The course of true love doesn't run straight for George "Romeo" Lowther III, insurance broker, and Miss Eileen Herrick, lovelorn daughter of the former Parks Commissioner Walter Herrick. Lowther appeared at the Herrick home at Wainscott, Long Island in an attempt to romance Miss Herrick on the balcony, but was turned away by private detectives hired to keep the two apart. "G'wan, get out of here," insisted the detectives, to Lowther's disappointment. The Herricks have obtained a court injunction to keep the two lovers apart.....

A not uncommon movie plot in the '30s was wealthily parents hiring detectives to prevent their daughters from marrying "unacceptable" young men.

...An injured horse caused a one-hour delay on the Long Island Railroad this morning. The horse, pulling a Sheffield Farms milk delivery wagon, lodged its hoof in the tracks crossing Sneideker Avenue, and was struck by a train before it could be freed. The milkman, 49-year-old J. Mussler, unhitched his wagon from the horse and pushed it away from the tracks, and tried unsuccessfully to get his horse to safety. The animal was so badly injured by the train that it had to be shot by police.....

1939 and horses are still being used in some places to deliver milk...much to the horse's detriment.

...

(Because nothing says Ho Ho Ho like hospitalization insurance.)....

Any idea what a "portable garage" is?

Might not be Christmasy, but I'd be very happy if someone would gift me an Obamacare premium payment or two for next year.

...

....

...They really are going all in on this Cinderella bit. I hope Herbert Cohn doesn't read the funnies.....

 

[LizzieMaine]

We are in the closing days of the milk-wagon era in New York --

The idea was that milk wagons were quieter than trucks -- note the rubber tires -- but the cost of upkeep for horses, by the late thirties, was getting to be too much for the bean-counters. Sheffield, which had the largest stable of horses in the city, started to phase them out in 1938, in favor of small, low-geared, small-engined trucks, but they wouldn't complete the transition until 1942 -- by which time they were wishing they'd kept the horses a bit longer, since oats weren't rationed.

A portable garage was just that -- a cheap prefabricated shed made out of corrugated metal panels that could be bolted together and taken apart without a lot of fuss. These were popular in city neighborhoods with a lot of single-family houses crowded together on narrow lots -- permanent outbuildings were rare, but it was easy to throw up one of these portable things just big enough to shelter your car. You could buy them from hardware stores or even from Sears.