The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

(Wait, no more saddle shoes for the duration? HOW CAN YOU ASK SUCH A SACRIFICE?)

The Japanese were believed today to be preparing another powerful all-out task force for an all-out attempt to retake the Solomon Islands from American Marines. Naval observers made that prediction as the Navy brought its announcement of enemy ships damaged or destroyed during the past week to eighteen. The latest communique credited American submarines with torpedoing eight additional ships and sinking four. Some observers placed "considerable credence" in reports from Chungking that the Japanese have dispatched four battleships to augment naval forces already present in the South Pacific, crediting that information to "excellent Chinese espionage" agents who have provided accurate information in the past. The Japanese are also believed to be massing for a frontal battle with Allied forces with Port Moseby, New Guinea as the prize.

Presidential envoy Wendell Willkie is sharply reducing his social activities during his tour of the Soviet Union, reducing sightseeing to the minimum as he concentrates on study and conferences concerning Soviet industry, agriculture, and morale. Soviet authorities, said to be impressed with Mr. Willkie's simple, straightforward manner, are cooperating fully with his desire to speak with ordinary Soviet workers and peasants about their opinions on the war. Mr. Willkie also plans to interview several Soviet clergymen on the religious question.

Officer Candidate Clark Gable is said to be "an excellent student" as he continues his training at the U. S. Army Air Force Officer Candidate School at Miami Beach, Florida. The film star, who gave up his Hollywood career and his famous moustache to enter the service last month says that he's lost ten pounds since his enlistment, and is "feeling fine."

("Nobody knows I've got the handy six-bottle carton packed in with my parachute!")

Abe Stark, Brownsville businessman and secretary of the Brooklyn Million Dollar War Bond Show Committee, stepped up yesterday to buy ten loge seats for $10,000 in war bonds, as ticket sales mount for the monster variety show to be held at Loew's Metropolitan on Friday. In addition to loge seats for a $1000 bond purchase each, one box seat costs $500 in bonds, an orchestra seat costs $100 in bonds, and a balcony seat can be had for a $50 bond purchase. Ann Rutherford and Carmen Amaya were added yesterday to the already impressive roster of stage, screen, and radio talent signed up to appear in the one-time-only performance.

(If Senor Wences is good enough for the Rainbow Room, he ought to be good enough for Loew's Met!)

(Page Four is waiting to see how you resolve this.)

(Yeah, but --)

Dodger outfielder Fred "Dixie" Walker and catcher Arnold "Mickey" Owen face assault charges, and two Ebbets Field ushers were charged with disorderly conduct stemming from Wednesday's brawl in the stands behind the home dugout at the Flatbush ballpark. Magistrate Charles Solomon in Flatbush Court issued summonses yesterday for the four participants in the fracas, ordering them to appear in court on October 5th. The four fans involved in the exchange of fisticuffs were also charged with disorderly conduct and will face Magistrate Solomon on the same date.

An 86-year-old retired foreign correspondent is boiling mad today after learning of a fraud pulled upon him back in 1907 by the then-Emperor of Japan. Jimmy Hare was a correspondent for Collier's Magazine who was cited by the Mikado for his coverage of the Russo-Japanese War, and was presented with an impressive medal that he was told was made of solid gold. Yesterday, Hare donated that medal to the Overseas Press Club to be melted down and recast into a special decoration to be presented to the first American flier to bomb the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. But he was shocked to learn from the jeweler who was to melt the medal that the decoration was nothing more than brass.

A hoard of subway slugs bought by the IRT in 1928 in anticipation of a possible fare increase will not be turned over as scrap, according to the chairman of the Board of Transportation. The War Production Board had asked the city to consider donating the tokens to the present salvage campaign, but Chairman John H. Delaney says the 10,000,000 copper-nickel tokens cost $133,000 fourteen years ago, and if sold on the scrap market today would bring a return of only $12,000. Mr. Delaney said the tokens will be head, instead, "pending further developments."

("Wondeh if Larry MacPhail will show up at t' park, huh?" growls Joe. "I jus' bet." "He ain' even retoinin my cawls," grumbles Sally. "T'oity cents I spent tryin' t'get t'rough!" "BUM GON! BYE!" laughs Leonora.)

Baseball coach Austin Dugan takes over the Erasmus Hall High School football team this fall, replacing Lt. Paul J. Sullivan, now serving in the Navy, and is optimistic about the Buff and Blue's chances this year. "Sully left me with a pretty good backfield," Coach Dugan says. In addition to piloting the Erasmus baseball squad to the PSAL championship in 1941, he has served as coach for the Erasmus Junior Varsity squad for the past four years. While he favored the "T formation" in that role, he plans as varsity coach to continue his predecessor's preference for the single wingback and short kick formation.

(Oh yeah, Mr. Truman. Forgot all about him. Hey, how you doin' down there?)

(A cliffhanger? More like a "sidewalklayer.")

(Looks like when the Bungles left town, they sold their slipcovers to this hotel.)

("SHOULD I TELL HIM NOW OR STRING IT OUT ANOTHER WEEK? THIS IS REAL ACTING FOLKS!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

The Long Island Post of Junior Commandos is really falling down on the job.

YEAH! AND THEN I COULD GET SOME SLEEP!

"Cuthbert?" Just don't let him become a cop.

And no, you don't get a Purple Heart for poison ivy.

"Incidentially, how's Sparky Watts doing?"

"Maybe Hitler's got something, eh?" Suddenly, a wire whipped out of the shadows and tightened around Annie's throat.

Back you go!

"I sure wish I'd read that book Pat gave me. Then I'd know what to do."

My uncle used to go into these tents at the fair, and my cousin and I would sit outside wondering what it was all about. Now I know.

Real silverware at a neighborhood soda shop? No wonder Pop went broke.

 

[Fading Fast]

(Wait, no more saddle shoes for the duration? HOW CAN YOU ASK SUCH A SACRIFICE?)
...

I don't agree with him, Lizzie, but one friend of mine says you only know you are giving if it truly hurts.

"1942 Rumor Clinic" = "2022 Fact Checking" Very little is truly new.

...

(Oh yeah, Mr. Truman. Forgot all about him. Hey, how you doin' down there?)
...

So many comicstrip heroes and villains wind up trapped or imprisoned in basements, underground lairs or (oddly) adrift on water, that you can't be expected to remember them all.

...

(Looks like when the Bungles left town, they sold their slipcovers to this hotel.)
...

"Also, Irwin, I stayed awake in high school science class and, as our fan Lizzie would say, 'making synthetic rubber from sea water, I ask you!'"

...

("SHOULD I TELL HIM NOW OR STRING IT OUT ANOTHER WEEK? THIS IS REAL ACTING FOLKS!")

"Hamming it up is more like it. I see a great future for him in the new medium of television."

And in the Daily News...

The Long Island Post of Junior Commandos is really falling down on the job.
...

I don't have it recorded, but I believe we've seen an age-gap in a marriage on Page Four that was even greater than 40 years.

...

"I sure wish I'd read that book Pat gave me. Then I'd know what to do."
...

Forget the book, Kid, it's part of your original operating system - it's just there, you don't need to download an ap. BTW, perfume on the pillow, this gal knows her stuff.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Is there no such thing as a thread adapter? You can get thread adapters for microphone stands, but you can't get a thread adapter for fire hoses? I ASK YOU!)

Adhering to the tradition of discharging old obligations, reconciling old grudges, and performing similar acts demonstrating the spirit of repentance, Brooklyn's Jews today are completing preparations for the most solemn of the High Holy Days -- Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which begins at sunset tomorrow. After sunset tomorrow, not a law-abiding Jew in the world, regardless of differing schools of thought among the faith, will touch food, drink, or money until the sounding of the shofar horn signals the end of fasting at sunset on Monday. A particularly impressive part of synagogue services will be the chanting of the Kol Nidre, followed toward the end of the holiday period by memorial services for the dead. Services will be held in all temples, and special broadcasts will be heard over the radio networks of NBC and CBS tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 pm.

Employees of E. R. Squibb & Sons were credited last night with heroism no less valiant than that displayed at the battlefront, as the Brooklyn drug manufacturing firm was presented yesterday with the coveted Army-Navy E pennant for excellence in war production in ceremonies held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. In addition to the formal presentation of the pennant to Squibb chairman of the board Carleton E. Palmer by Rear Admiral Harold W. Smith, four Squibb workers involved in especially hazardous pharmaceutical research received E buttons as representatives of their divisions. Among those recipients was Anna Masterson of New Brunswick, New Jersey, who daily braves infection with typhus to manufacture anti-typhus vaccine. "Not one member of her department has escaped the dreaded disease," stated Brig, Gen. Larry A. McAfee in presenting the award. "To some degree, each becomes ill, distressingly ill -- and some may die. They face this distress, this peril, to protect others. A soldier can do no more."

A Long Island Railroad lighter captain strongly protested the charge that he lit a cigarette on the deck of his boat at night while in the restricted waterfront zone. "I never smoked a cigarette," declared 65-year-old Captain Ole Annevik in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court. "I never bought a cigarette. I never had a cigarette in my life!" Annevik was accused by a Coast Guard seaman of, first, smoking his pipe on the deck of the boat, and when the violation was brought to his attention, of knocking the contents of the pipe into the water and defiantly lighting a cigarette. Annevik suggested a member of his crew may have done so, in a case of mistaken identity, but he was nevertheless fined $25 by Magistrate Thomas H. Cullen, and sent back to his boat.

(Clip and save.)

The Assistant City Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle leaves for the Army next week, and received a send-off yesterday from his friends and colleagues at the paper. Edwin W. Williams was sworn into the Army last week, and will depart for active duty next Thursday, carrying along a wrist watch presented at the surpise party held at Sonsires, 308 Fulton Street. Among the well-wishers were City Editor Howard Swain, News Editor Robert Granis, and I. Kaufman, chairman of the Brooklyn Eagle unit of the Newspaper Guild of New York.

Frivolous antics are not on the program in Kansas City this week, as the American Legion gathers for a "streamlined" three-day national convention. Parades, pranks, jokes, silly hats, and other past hallmarks of Legion gatherings were abolished this year, with Legionnaires in full agreement that the only priority at present for any American is winning the war. Approximately 5000 Legionnaires, all veterans of the First World War, have gathered in Kansas City to hear leaders of the military and from civilian life report on tasks facing soldiers in the present conflict.

("Slacker Flesh?" I resent that! C'mon, Brady, let's see YOU in a bathing suit.)

("HAH!" hahs Joe. "It'll neveh happen! Allem swells inna Heights ain' gonna stan' f'no 'Spressway, 'special onennat goes ta' QUEENS!" "Ahhhh, you wait," disagrees Sally. "Soonsa wawr's oveh, t'ey'll get right goin' wittit. It's PRAWRGRESS!" "If t'ey eveh build a 'Spressway t'ru t' Heights goin' inta Queens, I'll -- I'll do a strip tease right onna stepsa Borrah Hawll!" "Ha!" laughs Leonora. "Da boo boo!")

Reader Theodore B. Goeller of Manhattan writes in to suggest that the reason the Dodgers are slumping as badly as they are is that the manager, the coaches, and the players "squabble too much with the umpires." Mr. Goeller points out that very rarely do such arguments ever lead an umpire to change a decision. "What the Dodgers should do," he maintains, "is to play baseball, fight for everything possible, but be reasonable about everything and not try to win games on that basis." He urges the Dodgers to be more like the Yankees, who have "rarely been called down, or their manager, for not accepting the decisions of the umpire."

(Ooh, I wanna hear how this comes out.)

Safes have been issued to all local ration boards in the city for the storage of gasoline ration books, following burglaries of large numbers of books in various Eastern cities. State OPA Administrator Lee S. Buckingham notes that special checking procedures have been instituted at each local board to track the movement of all shipments of books among various employees. So far,Buckingham stated, only 208 gasoline ration books have gone missing in the entire city, with 28 of those since recovered.

(One of Baseball's Unwritten Laws is that if your team goes into a vital series against the most pathetic team in the league, that pathetic team will play like pennant winners to beat you. Good luck.)

(If the Bushwick Firebug smoked Pall Malls, he'd still be walking free.)

(Is something like this even LEGAL?)

(Poor Irwin's face in Panel One is the face of a man who knows, but doesn't want to accept, that his life as he knew it has ended, and that everything he has ever loved is being taken away from him. Poor Irwin.)

(AW COME ON FELLA, IT"S JUST A MOUSTACHE! I'M AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE HERO DOG! SCRATCH MY BELLY!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Poor Kate. Marrying a guy named "Ogden Ludlow" is the worst kind of typecasting.

Well, you could urge the broadcasting industry and the record companies to work out a royalty plan to pay musicians for the use of their records on the air. That's all it'll take to settle this. Songwriters already get those types of royalties. Why not the musicians? Hmm?

"Oh, an' if I catch yuh slackin' off again, why, I'm gonna kill yuh. Don't forget!"

"Did you say something? I can't hear you over the sound of how incredible I am."

Wiggle-Worker? She'll cut your throat for that.

With apologies to Sam'l Clemens.

We Shall See -- Bim filling in the birth certificate.

Actually, a Red Ryder Carbine would be the envy of the whole unit.

Join the Red Army, kid -- they need snipers!

A FAMILY OWNED COMPANY.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and...

Tallulah playing Gypsy? Oh, please let it happen.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Reader Theodore B. Goeller of Manhattan writes in to suggest that the reason the Dodgers are slumping as badly as they are is that the manager, the coaches, and the players "squabble too much with the umpires." Mr. Goeller points out that very rarely do such arguments ever lead an umpire to change a decision. "What the Dodgers should do," he maintains, "is to play baseball, fight for everything possible, but be reasonable about everything and not try to win games on that basis." He urges the Dodgers to be more like the Yankees, who have "rarely been called down, or their manager, for not accepting the decisions of the umpire."
...

This is not why the Dodgers are slumping and I get the argument that a manager fighting a bad call "fires" up the team, but it does seem like an awful lot of wasted energy as calls back then were never overturned because someone yelled louder (at least I don't think they were). At least today, replay makes challenging a call an appropriate part of the game.

...

(If the Bushwick Firebug smoked Pall Malls, he'd still be walking free.)
...

The Fedora Lounge Rulebook for Killing a TV, Movie or Comic-Strip Enemy, which states: "Always kill your enemy as fast as you can and, then, check carefully to make sure he or she is dead."

And in the Daily News...

Poor Kate. Marrying a guy named "Ogden Ludlow" is the worst kind of typecasting.
...

Ms. Hepburn was, IMO, one of the great actresses of the Golden Era, but if I was divorced from her, I too, would want to make sure it was legal everywhere on earth.

"Did you say something? I can't hear you over the sound of how incredible I am."
...

"I'll kick open the door, toss Junior here in as a diversion so then, when Baggo is pumping him full of lead, I'll snap a rubber band in his eye and slap the cuffs on him. Darn good plan, right?"

Oh, and...

Tallulah playing Gypsy? Oh, please let it happen.

Why not have Gypsy play the strip tease queen? As much as I appreciate that Tallulah would bring all her wonderful Tallulahness to the role, nothing would pack them in more than Gypsy, effectively, playing herself. It would be meta social media 1942 style.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Wendell Willkie, you romantic devil!)

An intensive drive to balk draft evaders who deliberately commit crimes and get caught in an effort to escape induction has been announced by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Cradock Hughes and James A. McGough, assistant DA in charge of court calendars. Attempts will be made to expedite the cases of accused persons who are eligible for the draft, and it is indicated that pleas of guilty to lesser crimes than the ones charged will be accepted. Where cases warrant, the District Attorney's office will recommend that sentences be suspended without parole, thus clearing the way for the defendants to go into the Army. It was also noted that the DA's office has received a number of letters from inmates of various penal institutions asking that office to bring its influence to bear on parole boards to obtain the release of those inmates so that they may enlist in the armed forces. Those requests are being studied.

Congress begins debate next week on new anti-inflation legislation that would give the President broad powers to stabilize industrial wages and control the price of farm products. That proposal faces strong opposition from the farm bloc, which is demanding that additional safeguards to maintain farm product prices be added into the pending legislation. Senator John D. Bankhead (D-Alabama) following a discussion with farm group leaders announced that he would press for adoption of an amendment -- already rejected by the Senate Banking Committee -- that would include the cost of hired labor in the calculation of farm parity prices. A compromise that would allow the upward adjustment of price ceilings if the cost of farm labor results in "gross inequities" is reportedly acceptable to the Administration, but it is indicated that the Administration is prepared to fight against any proposal that would alter the basic method for calculating parity prices.

The Office of Price Administration announced last night that all owners of homes and apartment buildings with furnaces capable of being converted from oil to coal firing who fail to implement such a conversion at once will be denied a fuel oil ration for the coming winter. In no event, added the OPA order, will any fuel oil ration be issued for any furnace that has been converted to burn oil from any other fuel since June 1, 1942. Paul M. O'Leary, deputy OPA director in charge of rationing, says that the majority of oil burning furnaces can easily be converted to burn coal, and notes that the Government has taken every step to expedite the availability of the necessary grates, lugs, shaker bars, and ashpit doors needed to implement such conversions.

(The Junior Commandos Are On The March!! )

The Eagle Editorialist advises against "stirring up a row with Britain" over the status of India, warning that such a diversion might lose the war. While recognizing that "many high minded groups" in the United States are in favor of the "just aspirations of the people of India for national independence," the clamor in the press resulting from such agitation "must make Berlin, Tokio, and Rome rejoice." We must, he asserts, cease "preaching at our friends and allies," and buckle down to the first necessity of our desperate situation -- "the fighting and the winning of the war on the terms presented by facts, not fancies."

Officials of the Dodgers baseball club were among the mourners at funeral services for Mrs. Jennie McKeever, widow of the late Dodger stockholder, and builder of Ebbets Field, Edward McKeever. Mr. and Mrs. James Mulvey, owners of a 25 percent interest in the ball club,along with their children Stephen and Ann, assistant road secretary Joseph Hamburger, and business manager John McDonald represented the team at the solemn mass of requiem held at St. Francis of Assisi R. C. Church on Nostrand Avenue. Also present was District Tax Supervisor David F. Soden, and Mrs. Soden, and Mrs. Steven McKeever, widow of Edward McKeever's late brother.

(HOW DO YOU GIVE UP 14 HITS TO THE PHILLIES? HOW HOW HOW??? AND HOW DO YOU LEAVE THE OLD MAN IN FOR ALL THAT TIME FOR THE PHILLIES TO GET 14 HITS OFF OF???)

Tommy Holmes predicts that pitching sensation Mort Cooper of the Cardinals will be the National League's Most Valuable Player for 1942. Mort is the first 20-game winner in baseball this year, and will probably lead the major leagues in wins when the season reaches its finish. He pitched against Brooklyn six times this year, so far, and beat the Dodgers five times. He's won head-to-head pitching duels with Whit Wyatt for four of those five wins. And his 14-inning win over the Flock in St. Louis last month may have been the turning point of the pennant race. He'll win MVP -- even if the Dodgers turn things around and win the pennant.

The kids in the old 10th Ward liked their games rough-and-tumble, recalls Old Timer John P. Pfalzgraff, who recollects his childhood gang specialzing the game of "Paw," which involved one boy stooping down while another leaped over his back. If the jump was unsuccessful, the first boy would take his turn leaping over the second -- and would, as he passed, be entitled to apply a sideswiped kick in the stooping boy's pants. Mr. Pfalzgraff has not seen a game of "Paw" played in 40 years.

("Lungs of leat'eh, a t'roat a' brass, an' a vivid an' vicious vocabbalary," reads Joe. "Izzat awl?" "Nah," adds Sally. "Ya need a bell ta ring, too. Uttawise, ya jus' disappeah inta t' crowd.")

Designer Lily Dache has offered her fashionable contribution to the headwear needs of the busy woman war-worker. Her new red plastic helmet with ornamental stitching prepares the wearer for any eventuality from a shift on the welding line, a run thru the rain, or a night on the town. The headpiece is guaranteed non-inflammable, and comes equipped with its own built-in snood.

Monty Woolley wants to emphasize that he is not British. Not that he has anything against our allies from across the sea, but the Woolleys have been in America, he declares, for 310 years. "I'm starting a campaign," says the bearded actor, whose precise diction has contributed to the rumors of his Britishness, "to propagandize myself as an American!"

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, appearing in the "all Negro program" this week at the Brooklyn Fox, says that she owes her start in music to a friend of her family, who left a guitar at their home one day when she was seven years old, and never came back to get it. She took over the instrument and quickly mastered it -- and when her skill became apparent, her mother encouraged her to sing and play during the intermission between services at the family's Pentecostal church. After gaining fame touring the South to capacity crowds, the family came East, where Cab Calloway signed them up for a spot in his Cotton Club Revue. Rosetta moved on for an engagement with Benny Goodman's band, and then to increasing popularity on the radio. She would like someday to lead a band of her own, but she's presently happy working with Lucky Millender's band and the Ink Spots as the Fox's big stage attraction.

(BUT NOTHING! You tell'em, kid!)

(There is disagreement on exactly what Lady Randolph Churchill's tattoo actually was -- some say a snake eating its own tail, some say a garland of rosebuds -- and some say, with photographic evidence, there was no tattoo at all. But hey, print the legend and let it go at that.)

(It's HAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUNTED -- by Nazi spies!)

(Miss Ritz can expect a letter any day now from the Homeowner's Association.)

(If the war goes on another year, there's a place for Bill in the NFL in 1943. AND EVERY DAMN FOOL KNOWS YOU DON'T GIVE CHOCOLATE TO A DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

(Ah, Tootsie. Happy at last!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in case you didn't get the message:

 

[LizzieMaine]

ANd in the Daily News...

"Who is currently arguing with the Army about his lack of height." Well, jeez, son, don't they have elevator boots?

And not a one of 'em using V-Mail. DONCHA KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON?

REMEMBER KIDS DON'T PLAY WITH MATCHES.

You can learn all kinds of neat tricks in the funnies!

On mine, I use a baseball bat.

Fish in a barrel.

Anyway, shouldn't you be at work?

Well, at least he didn't say "*INTO* the Army."

Truth be known, Atlas Maidenswoon finds Downwind dashedly attractive.

Well now. "Shanghai Peg" is a tough one-legged drifter with a mysterious international past, last encountered by Annie during the leadup to the story that led to her being pitched into the sea by Axel. So obviously there's some catching-up to do.

 

[Fading Fast]

(Wendell Willkie, you romantic devil!)
...

I wonder if Annie is feeling a bit bad about the example she set as she read about the transom burglar.

"Want to Keep WARM this winter? Learn How! Turn to Page 12A." Another entry in our "nothing is really new" category as headlines like this have become common in parts of Europe as we head into this winter amidst a fuel shortage.

(HOW DO YOU GIVE UP 14 HITS TO THE PHILLIES? HOW HOW HOW??? AND HOW DO YOU LEAVE THE OLD MAN IN FOR ALL THAT TIME FOR THE PHILLIES TO GET 14 HITS OFF OF???)
...

Having just watch "Eight Men Out," the movie about the 1919 "Black Sox scandal," one can't help but wondering if Durocher "associates" with known gamblers.

...

Designer Lily Dache has offered her fashionable contribution to the headwear needs of the busy woman war-worker. Her new red plastic helmet with ornamental stitching prepares the wearer for any eventuality from a shift on the welding line, a run thru the rain, or a night on the town. The headpiece is guaranteed non-inflammable, and comes equipped with its own built-in snood.
...

What is the Eagle thinking? This cries out for a picture.

...

(It's HAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUNTED -- by Nazi spies!)
...

Even before inheriting her haunted estate, our Ms. Scarlett must have been doing okay for herself as that looks like a Lincoln Continental convertible she's driving.

...

REMEMBER KIDS DON'T PLAY WITH MATCHES.
...

My plan was less convoluted and got to the same place, albeit it didn't work out too well for Junior.

...


Fish in a barrel.
...

Here's an interesting evolution of a phrase. Back in the 1940s, "making love" to a woman meant courting her, charming her or, maybe, even kissing her, but with the goal to get her romantically interested in the man. It was not at all dirty or a double entendre back then.

It pops up in movies of the era all the time where even innocent high school boys will talk about making love to a girl in front of her parents. Until you get used to it, it can be jarring as a girl will come home from a date and casually tell her parent that all the boy did was make love to her all night.

Ostensibly, Caniff has Taffy using the phrase in panel five in its 1942 meaning, but in truth, we all know what those two were going off to have sex, so by accident or not, the phrase, in this case, even in 1942, meant exactly what it means today.

...

Truth be known, Atlas Maidenswoon finds Downwind dashedly attractive.
...

Agreed, they had a way of sneaking stuff in, often as seen here, in a pretty obvious manner, but they got away with it because it was just not thought of that way. Movies, too, quite often had obviously gay characters who were just treated as "quirky" and that was that. Cleary, many got the code, but many, like my mother, never picked up on the subtext - they just didn't think that way.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Leo's best friend is George Raft, and he travels in some pretty high-flying circles away from the field. And Chuck Dressen is another Dodger authority figure who spends time around shady characters. One would expect Parrott or Holmes to at least raise eyebrows, given the present swoon and the odd managerial moves of the past month, but in 1942 to even hint at a baseball figure being tainted by gamblers would bring the instant wrath of Landis down on the club in question -- and I suspect Parrott and Holmes are too much the Brooklyn patriots to even dare to do that. But it is a question that, nevertheless, deserves to be raised.

 

[Fading Fast]

Leo's best friend is George Raft, and he travels in some pretty high-flying circles away from the field. And Chuck Dressen is another Dodger authority figure who spends time around shady characters. One would expect Parrott or Holmes to at least raise eyebrows, given the present swoon and the odd managerial moves of the past month, but in 1942 to even hint at a baseball figure being tainted by gamblers would bring the instant wrath of Landis down on the club in question -- and I suspect Parrott and Holmes are too much the Brooklyn patriots to even dare to do that. But it is a question that, nevertheless, deserves to be raised.

Those are smart comments. In fairness to Dorucher, without at least some evidence, it's wrong for a reporter to make that type of accusation or even innuendo in a newspaper, which is why good journalist do serious investigating before reporting. My comment, obviously based on no investigating, wasn't completely tongue-in-cheek, though, as some of his decisions make you really wonder.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(WELL WE MIGHT NOT GET THE WORLD SERIES BUT MAYBE GLADYS GOODDING CAN GIVE US A SEVEN-DAY ORGAN CONCERT)

"Don't give tinhorn gamblers a break," exhorted Mayor LaGuardia, as he presided over graduation exercises for 161 new police patrolmen yesterday. "If you see one," he added, "sock him in the jaw." The mayor also called on the rookie patrolmen to maintain abstemious personal habits, declaring "there is no room in the Police Department for a rummy or a gambler." Prior to the exercises, the Mayor stated in his weekly radio broadcast that next week he will discuss proposed amendments to the penal laws governing gambling.

The Mayor also took up during his broadcast the high price of stirrup pumps, and discussed plans for a homemade pump sent to him "anonymously from Shaker Heights, Ohio," which can be assembled from old curtain rods and miscellaneous pipe fittings. He urged listeners to write to him care of City Hall to receive a copy of the plans for the homemade pump which, he claimed, can shoot a stream of water up to 25 feet.

The Mayor further put landlords on warning that they had better not use the present fuel-oil shortage as an excuse to skimp on heating their buildings this winter. "We have departments of our city government," he stated, "which will watch these conditions and will decide whether there is any justification for denying or cutting down required heat. No such practices will be permitted. Not only are such practices unpatriotic at such a time, but unjustified, mean, inhuman, and I will not stand for it."

"Foreign propagandists, misguided pseudo-promoters of civil liberties, silly sentimentalists, and front men for subversive organizations" were critical of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the years before Pearl Harbor, asserted Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover today before the annual convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan, but nevertheless, the Director declared, the FBI had in its files the names and addresses of ten thousand "dangerous enemy aliens" who were arrested in a nationwide sweep in the wake of the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian naval base last December, "before they could move into action." Even today, warned Mr. Hoover, "there are those who would place the personal convenience of some Fascist-loving alien apprehended because of his un-American activities above the liberty and freedom of our citizens." He reminded his audience that less than 20 years ago, Adolf Hitler himself was imprisoned for plotting against the German government, only to be freed at the instance of "meddlers and panderers of justice." "The world," declared Mr. Hoover, "knows the consequences."

(There's A New World Coming...)

A sixty-six-year-old merchant captain from Larchmont has gotten thru his first message home since he was taken prisoner by the Nazis after his ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic last July. The message, sent from a POW camp in Occupied France by Captain Henry Stephenson to his wife Josephine, was concise. "How," inquired the captain, "are the Dodgers making out?" "I'm afraid the news I must give him," commented Mrs. Stephenson, "will lower his morale."

A drastic change in the accepted American high school course designed to better prepare graduates to get and hold a job and manage a home was proposed today by a committee of the city Board of Education. A report presented by board member James Marshall stated that the traditional separation between academic and vocational courses has "greatly hampered American education," and called for the merging of the schools. "No boy or girl," the report admonished, "should grow up helpless in the presence of a burned out fuse, a nail to be hammered, a button to be sewn, or an egg to be scrambled." Book knowledge alone, concludes the report, "is no longer sufficient." The report also recommends that students be required to take special "job preparation courses" for an hour or two a day for at least a year to better prepare them for their future employment.

("Dear Sandy, I thought this clipping might interest you. Dog acts are very popular now. Signed Bo -- America's #1 Hero Dog. PS: If you work real hard maybe you could perform at Gypsy's next wedding.")

The Eagle Editorialist declares that it's time for Congress to forget about politics, regardless of the approaching election, and vote now on the question of drafting 18 and 19 year olds. "It is high time that Washington took its eye off the ballot box," he frowns, "and centered it on our war needs."

(Doesn't it grow *in* trees?)

A 34-year-old Bensonhurst man who tried to use a gas ration ticket issued for farm tractors to buy fuel for his car faces Federal charges of violating the rationing laws. Salvatore Bentivegna of 1556 78th Street pulled into a filling station operated by Tony Ruba of New Springfield, Staten Island, and, after Ruba filled his tank, presented an R-class coupon. Since Bentivegna's car in no way resembled a farm tractor, Ruba called the police, who placed the motorist under arrest. Bentivegna had no other R stamps in his possession, and refused to tell police where he got the one he presented at the service station. All the A-1 stamps in Bentivegna's ration book had been used, indicating that he was entitled to no more gasoline until the A-2 stamps become valid. Arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court, Bentivegna pleaded not guilty, and was released on $500 bail. If convicted he faces a fine of $10,000, ten years in prison, or both.

The world's Jews were described as "the Commandos of God," in a Yom Kippur Eve sermon by the Rev. Dr. Isaac Landman, rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim. "They are the task forces," he declared, "whose single duty is to declare Judaism's challenge of the ideal of one God and one humanity. They are the shock troops of the world, arousing the United Nations to an understanding of what awaits the world if we fail to emerge victorious from the present human agony."

("WHATINNAHELLIZZAMATTEH WIT' HIGSBY???" bellows Joe, his face white with rage and frustration. "HOWCUM WYATT WAS EVEN INN'EAH????" "Shouldn'a traded Hamlin," interjects Sally. "He aw'ays could beat t'em Phillies." "Bum bad," adds Leonora. "Bad bum bye." "Hey," grunts Joe, after gulping down his coffee. "You din' happen t'senda wieh to Chicageh, did ya?" "What wieh?" replies Sally, her face a blank mask. "I don'know nut'n 'bout no wieh." She chortles with satisfaction. "Says right t'eah. McDonal' done it. What a stooge.")

(Looks like Fitz finally joined the B. B. P. A.)

("Aw, and I only just got started with a good Clark Gable moustache!")

(Careful there, pops, don't bend her in the middle. The structure looks kinda weak.)

("But can't I bury poor Flopsy first?" "Never mind that, Irwin will do it. IRWIN! GET IN HERE!")

("Want some -- CHOCOLATE?")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Marry in haste, repent in more haste.

"It was the strangest thing. All of a sudden he stood up and saluted!"

And don't forget to turn in that rubber band! DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON?

Shanghai Peg loves Monday recaps, you get paid twice for lying down.

You know, you can go to jail for this.

"That's fine, dear, shaking the grates and emptying the ash pit will keep you plenty warm."

"Don't worry, I won't bomb Terry. That hair of his shines like a beacon."

"But I know this gal in the city who'd be a perfect replacement. Ask Meagher if he knows who I mean."

Poor Pop, he never did have any paying customers...

"The Duke of Happybottle?" Sounds like a character Ed Wynn might play in a flop revue in 1912.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

A sixty-six-year-old merchant captain from Larchmont has gotten thru his first message home since he was taken prisoner by the Nazis after his ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic last July. The message, sent from a POW camp in Occupied France by Captain Henry Stephenson to his wife Josephine, was concise. "How," inquired the captain, "are the Dodgers making out?" "I'm afraid the news I must give him," commented Mrs. Stephenson, "will lower his morale."
...

(Immediately after receiving his wife's latest letter, Captain Larchmont was called into the commandant's office.)
"Owing to a one-off prisoner exchange, you are free to go home, all the way back to Brooklyn, Captain Larchmont."
"Meh."

...

("Dear Sandy, I thought this clipping might interest you. Dog acts are very popular now. Signed Bo -- America's #1 Hero Dog. PS: If you work real hard maybe you could perform at Gypsy's next wedding.")
...

"The effrontery of that nobody flash-in-the-pan pooch from an obscure strip to troll me, the world's leading comicstrip dog, would be galling if I cared one bit what that scruffy mongrel with dog breath said."

"Imagine what you'd say if you cared."
"Shut up."

...

A 34-year-old Bensonhurst man who tried to use a gas ration ticket issued for farm tractors to buy fuel for his car faces Federal charges of violating the rationing laws. Salvatore Bentivegna of 1556 78th Street pulled into a filling station operated by Tony Ruba of New Springfield, Staten Island, and, after Ruba filled his tank, presented an R-class coupon. Since Bentivegna's car in no way resembled a farm tractor, Ruba called the police, who placed the motorist under arrest. Bentivegna had no other R stamps in his possession, and refused to tell police where he got the one he presented at the service station. All the A-1 stamps in Bentivegna's ration book had been used, indicating that he was entitled to no more gasoline until the A-2 stamps become valid. Arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court, Bentivegna pleaded not guilty, and was released on $500 bail. If convicted he faces a fine of $10,000, ten years in prison, or both.
...

Ask him if he knows anyone who goes by the name of "One Eye."

And in the Daily News...

Marry in haste, repent in more haste.
...

Most of that story was too fuzzy for me to read, but I did catch that they "shared clandestine romantic joys," which now enters the Page Four Euphemism Hall of Fame. I believe Flip and Taffy are presently sharing clandestine romantic joys.

...

"It was the strangest thing. All of a sudden he stood up and saluted!"
...

That's one way British womanhood can show its affection for Americans. My guess is that the other way will prove to be even less popular with the prim-and-proper set, but that flag marking won't show up for nine months.

...

Poor Pop, he never did have any paying customers...
...

"...Are you sure we have enough glasses and dishes, Mrs. Smart."
"For exactly how long did you say you ran the Sugar Bowl?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Dodgehs lookin' f'scrap i-ron?" growls Joe. "How 'bout toinin' in Leo's head?" "'At's tin," snorts Sally.)

Adolf Hitler has ordered the construction of defenses intended to hold his eastern gains, in apparent abandonment of his hope of crushing the Soviet Union, and in evident hope of freeing troops for for the threat of a second front from the west. So report "unusually well informed sources" today. Those same sources assert that Hitler may open a "peace offensive" this winter, and tell the German people that "a separate peace with Russia was necessary without the total victory he had promised them." Informants stated that the new German line in the east would not be a continuous front like the old Maginot Line or the West Wall, but would instead be a "chain of hedgehog-like citadels" designed to permit relatively-small garrisons to hold the Russians while the bulk of German forces moved to Western Europe. Informants further reported that construction of the first of these citadels has already begun in portions of Northern and Central Russia.

A long winter of continuous bombing by British and American planes lies ahead for Germany, according to the head of the bomber command for the U. S. Army Air Force in the European theatre. Major General Ira C. Eaker stated that the bulk of the precision daylight raids will be undertaken by American bombers, while blanket night bombing will be led by the RAF. "I believe it is possible to destroy an enemy from the air," stated Gen. Eaker in an interview with the London Daily Mail. "There is hardly a corner of Germany," he asserted, "that we cannot reach."

An absolute ceiling of 5 percent on war profits for industry was proposed today by Chairman Walter F. George (D-Georgia) of the Senate Finance Committee. The ceiling proposed by Sen. George would replace the current system of recapture of profits deemed excessive thru the renegotiation of Government contracts. Senator George argued today that the present renegotiation system has led to much confusion that has greatly reduced the nation's productive capacity. He intends to lay the full proposal before the Committee this afternoon, as the panel hears testimony from the Army, Navy, and Maritime Commission on the operation of the renegotiation law, adopted by Congress last April.

(Butch hates tinhorn gamblers, artichokes, and rummies -- not necessarily in that order.)

(OH IS THAT WHAT IT IS -- I THOUGHT IT WAS OUR PENNANT HOPES)

Radio and concert star Dave Rubinoff married a 28-year-old Wichita Falls, Texas woman yesterday at a synagogue in Bangor, Maine. The 45-year-old violinist wed Mertice Tashby during a pause in his present New England concert tour.

Hundreds of prospective shipbuilders swarmed the Manhattan offices of West Coast industrialist Henry J. Kaiser today in hopes of signing on for his cargo plane-ship project. Kaiser has indicated that he will hire 20,000 men for the contract to be fulfilled at his yards in Portland, Oregon. Prospective carpenters, laborers, and semi-skilled workers were given two-minute interviews and handed instructions and train tickets for the Coast. "If he knows one end of a monkey wrench for another," said Kaiser spokesman Thomas Murphy, "he goes as a helper at 95 cents an hour. If he doesn't know which end, we'll label the ends for him." The first 600-man train will leave New York on Friday, and Murphy indicated that those on board should expect to earn their first half-day's pay as soon as they arrive at the yard.

The 27-year-old wife of an heir to the Andrew Jergens hand-lotion fortune filed for divorce today in Los Angeles, charging that her wealthy husband spanked her because she refused to play poker with his friends. 36-year-old Irma Sommermeier, an Argentine dancer, married 27-year-old sportsman Thomas Sommermeier in Argentina three years ago, and charged that her husband also told her that she must learn to be "broad minded" about his displays of affection toward his "ex-girl friends."

("Orchestra Wives" is the last legacy of the Miller civilian band, and as band movies go, it's a pretty good one.)

The Eagle Editorialist strongly endorses the Board of Education report from member James Marshall recommending that high school education be placed "more into line with reality" than it has been, agreeing that the separation of academic and vocational high schools has "not worked out to the benefit of the students." The academic student, the EE argues, does not get a working knowledge of the machine civilization in which he lives, while the vocational student has not enough training in the broad requirements of citizenship. "The completely ideal education never will be evolved," the EE states, "but that should not keep us from striving for it."

Reader Louis M. Goren salutes the "incredible heroism of the Russians" in their valiant defense of Stalingrad, and expresses the hope that when the US and Britain finally begin their second front offensive, "they make take inspiration from these epic Volga city battlers."

(Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before...)

CIty Health Commissioner Dr. Ernest L. Stebbins issued a warning today to restaurant operators to watch out for racketeers posing as food safety inspectors. Three proprietors have reportedly paid $10 each to these frauds, who claim that the payments are needed to renew inspection certificates. Dr. Stebbins reminds all restaurant owners that health inspectors do not renew permits, and are not permitted to accept money.

The U. S. Postal Inspector's Office has banned the National Police Gazette, favorite barbershop reading matter for nearly a century, from the mails on the grounds that it contains obscene matter. This comes as news to Brooklyn barber Philip J. Hollmuller, who has operated a shop in Red Hook for the past 57 years. Mr. Hollmuller admitted that he hasn't looked at the magazine recently, but "never remembered it as obscene."

(Well, at last there's no arrow pointing to the ball.)

TIckets for the Louis-Conn rematch at Madison Square Garden on October 21st went on sale today at the offices of promoter Mike Jacobs, 1619 Broadway, and at the Garden box office. Ringside and mezzanine box seats are $40, down to seats in the rear upper stands at $5.75. All proceeds will go to Army Relief.

("Really? That hokey trick never works!")

(POINT OF ORDER: The filling station operator is required to turn in the corresponding quantity of ration stamps in order to get a supply of fuel. DO YOUR RESEARCH, STAMM!)

(WELL ISN'T THIS A $WEET LITTLE $IDE RACKET DAN HAS GOING!)

("Like my new headshot, folks? Ask for my new line of printed sweatshirts at Davega!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Stick with me kid," says Jinx. "I'll show you how to get press."

"Herring tidbits? Yeah, we just threw that in."

You've been married for nine years now. If you haven't learned by now, you're not going to.

"All Stove In?" Hey, it's a Mainer!

Sorry, Doc -- no III-A for you!

"Did you take his milk money?" "Well, it just fell on the ground..."

"Wait, whattaya mean NO CREDIT?"

It runs in the family.

Bless Bess!

"All right you mutts -- scram! *I'M* workin' this side of the street!"

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Adolf Hitler has ordered the construction of defenses intended to hold his eastern gains, in apparent abandonment of his hope of crushing the Soviet Union, and in evident hope of freeing troops for for the threat of a second front from the west. So report "unusually well informed sources" today. Those same sources assert that Hitler may open a "peace offensive" this winter, and tell the German people that "a separate peace with Russia was necessary without the total victory he had promised them." Informants stated that the new German line in the east would not be a continuous front like the old Maginot Line or the West Wall, but would instead be a "chain of hedgehog-like citadels" designed to permit relatively-small garrisons to hold the Russians while the bulk of German forces moved to Western Europe. Informants further reported that construction of the first of these citadels has already begun in portions of Northern and Central Russia.
...

I believe Stalin is one of the top three monsters of the 20th century, but I've never thought he is stupid and there is no way he'd fall for this obvious gambit to let Germany buy time to attack him later when it could marshal all its resources in the East.

...

(Butch hates tinhorn gamblers, artichokes, and rummies -- not necessarily in that order.)
...

He definitely has a strong streak of Puritanism in him.

"...he warned he would have police crack down on saloons and taverns habitually patronized by gamblers, prostitutes and criminals."

Where are half of our comicstrip characters supposed to go to get a drink? Burma, Senga, Nick, One-Eye, etc., they all need to relax at the end of a hard day of whoring, bookmaking or stealing.

...

The 27-year-old wife of an heir to the Andrew Jergens hand-lotion fortune filed for divorce today in Los Angeles, charging that her wealthy husband spanked her because she refused to play poker with his friends. 36-year-old Irma Sommermeier, an Argentine dancer, married 27-year-old sportsman Thomas Sommermeier in Argentina three years ago, and charged that her husband also told her that she must learn to be "broad minded" about his displays of affection toward his "ex-girl friends."
...

Unfortunately, it's too late for Mr. Sommermeier to call Mr. Barrymore as a marriage expert at his trial.

...

(WELL ISN'T THIS A $WEET LITTLE $IDE RACKET DAN HAS GOING!)
...

So did world-renowned secret agent Dan Dunn get approval from above to pimp himself out as a private investigator? Does Marsh know about this?

...

("Like my new headshot, folks? Ask for my new line of printed sweatshirts at Davega!")

Oh look, it even applies to dogs, to quote: The Fedora Lounge Rulebook for Killing a TV, Movie or Comic-Strip Enemy, which states: "Always kill your enemy as fast as you can and, then, check carefully to make sure he or she is dead."

"Sure, go buy his tawdry merchandise from a cut-rate store, just remember that, in today's strip, he's selling out to the enemy for a meal, while, at great personal risk to myself, I single-handedly sank a Nazi submarine. I could have had a line of merchandise, too, I just think it's tacky."

"If memory serves, Annie, believing it was 'selling out,' turned down the merchandise-line offer, which was going to be about Annie, except for a 'Sandy" bandana, and you sulked for days after she made that decision."
"Shut up."
"And, again with the 'single-handed' sinking of the sub?"
"Shut up, again."
"I believe they had to, umm, 'clean out' the boat after they got back to shore after the sinking of the sub because someone got scared and 'made a mess'."
"What part of 'shut up' do you not understand?"

And in the Daily News...

"Stick with me kid," says Jinx. "I'll show you how to get press."

Forget the flags, the panties emblazoned with "No! No! A thousand times No!!!" seem to be a quite useful item that should cut down on arguments. Heck, if "The Americanization of Emily is accurate," the British military should be issuing them to its women's auxiliary branch.

One could see, though, a Burma walking by the shop, looking in the window and thinking, "not my kind of store."

...

Bless Bess!
...

"I'm sorry, Captain, could you repeat everything you said after 'The number one man?'"
"Sigh."

Even though we don't see what's up with Terry today, the one thing we can be sure of is he's not getting laid.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Actual Sandy merch, 1931:

ARF!