The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

British bombers pounded German targets today in reprisal for massive Nazi air raids on the industrial suburbs of London. RAF planes bombed locations in Munich, Weimar, and Leipzig, with German news sources reporting that "moderate damage" resulted and that two civilians were killed. German sourced denied British reports that the Munich railroad station was struck.

German bombers today began the seventh consecutive day of air assaults on Britain, with incendiary bombs reportedly dropped on a southeast coastal town this morning, and further reports of Nazi planes advancing up the Thames toward the heart of London. It is reported, however, that today's attack was "not as fierce" as those of recent days.

A "total blockade" of Britain has been announced by the German government, with warnings to all neutral shipping to avoid British territory. All neutrals with the exception of Argentina and the United States were served with formal notice of the blockade by German authorities.

The new Federal Food Stamp program was introduced to Brooklyn last night in a special presentation at the Academy of Music, featuring original sketches written by and starring Mayor LaGuardia. An audience of 2200 Brooklyn grocers and members of the general public as the Mayor was joined by Secretary of Agriculture and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace in demonstrating how the new program will operate at the retail level, and how it will benefit the more than 23,000 families now on relief in the borough. The sketches, in which the Mayor appeared successively in the guises of a neighborhood grocer and a butcher, were introduced to the theme song "Yes, We Have No Bananas," and portrayed various incidents of customers skeptical of the stamp program being shown how it will work and how it will benefit not just the recipents but also farmers who will have a reliable way to distribute surplus products. When one customer tried to illegally redeem his stamps for cash, Grocer LaGuardia sternly rebuked him. "Nobody will know?" he sputtered. "There isn't anything that little guy down at City Hall doesn't know!"

Queens detectives and police-laboratory experts are examining a bullet-riddled rowboat found afloat in Jamaica Bay. Two 38-caliber slugs were found embedded in the wood of the boat, with a third slug found flattened out on the floor near the bow. The mystery was deepened when a Long Island newspaper reported receiving a telephone call yesterday from an anonymous person claiming to have found two bodies in a rowboat. The caller began to describe the purported victims, but then abruptly hung up. The boat is believed to be the same rowboat rented about a week ago from the operator of a fishing dock on Hough Place in Arverne by an unidentified man and woman who were accompanied by a child. The boat was never returned.

A former New York gangster is in custody in Los Angeles charged with the murder of a Hollywood mobster with connections to the Brooklyn Murder-for-Hire gang. Benjamin "Buggsy" Siegal, once prominent in Broadway underworld circles, is charged in the slaying last November of Henry Greenberg, west coast gangster who "knew too much" about the activities of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Police are seeking Hollywood sporting figure Henry "Champ" Segal, and fight promoter Frankie Carbo as well, in connection with the Greenberg killing.

("EAGLE, GETCHA EAGLE!" Or, buy up all the comics and pulps and stuff them unread in your attic, and eighty years from now your grandkids will be able to buy a nice house.)

("Howzis guy Evans so chummy wit' jool thiefs?" wonders Joe. "I don' blame th' guy for not hangin' 'roun' wit' Whalen," adds Sally. "Whatta fat pill. Hope he gotta free drink at leas'.")

A 33-year-old panhandler who posed as a cripple in order to elicit sympathy from donors has drawn a 30 day sentence in the workhouse on a vagrancy charge. William Leffler of 317 Ellery Street admitted to Magistrate Charles Solomon in Coney Island Court that he found he could get more handouts by contorting himself to look crippled.

Reader G. P. Macmillan of Brooklyn writes in to denounce Col. Charles A. Lindbergh for relaying the views of none other than Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in his latest speech. "Was it for this that he was decorated by Goering?"

(Somewhere a meteorologist with a full and luxuriant head of curls scowls at his newspaper.)

("Here ya go, pal, we chipped in an' got ya this swell gun. Um, an' I jus' wanna say, I never meant nuttin' by them "fat" cracks I made. I'm ya pal, y'unnerstan'? Ya pal. Good ol' Fa... Good ol' Freddie, I'm ya pal, ain't I?")

The fans turned out in capacity numbers at Ebbets Field last night to honor Fred Fitzsimmons, but Casey Stengel and his Boston Bees spoiled the party, thumping the Dodgers down to defeat in the last night game of the season by a score of 4-1. Johnny Hudson proved the weak link for the Flock, playing at shortstop in place of the injured Pee Wee Reese and making three errors, although his defenders were quick to point out that none of his errors actually allowed a Boston run. Leo Durocher, who had earlier stated that he would be taking Reese's place in the lineup was "not quite ready to play" last night, but hopes to be ready within "a few days."

The Dodgers and Bees will take today off to recuperate from last night's game before playing a doubleheader tomorrow.

With Pee Wee Reese unable to make his attempt at breaking the speed record for circling the bases due to his injured heel, it fell to Cookie Lavagetto to make the run in his place. Cookie clocked in at a snappy 13.4 seconds in his circuit of the sacks -- fast, but not fast enough to eclipse the 13.3 second record set by Evar Swanson of the Reds in 1929.

(Never mind Superman -- Sparky is really Bugs Bunny.)

(Years from now, George will be hip-deep in some entirely unrelated enterprise, some Oakdale con game or something, and suddenly he'll look up and Original Tootsie will float gently down in front of him, her face in an enigmatic smirk.)

("Deepfake," 1940 style.)

(I dunno, is "Fazia" covered by the Neutrality Act?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

(In addition to everything else they were, the Nazis were adept swindlers. They came up with dozens of variations on this particular "after the war" con game to work on their own citizens, but this is the only one that reached into the United States.)

There's a new world coming.

Note the careful avoidance of gendered pronouns -- and get ready to welcome THE DRAGON LADY!

Hey, go fill the bathtub. I wanna see this guy walk on water.

Put her in with Mama Trohs! Now that's a storyline I'd follow!

I bet she actually does pick Wilmer, because they deserve each other.

They really ought to be putting this on Page Four.

Oh come on. Shadow could stake you to enough to get your suit pressed and you could shave on the train. I'm sure Shadow has plenty of that bankroll left ov---- Oh, wait, never mind.

Willie Mullins, odalisque.

 

[Fading Fast]

...When one customer tried to illegally redeem his stamps for cash, Grocer LaGuardia sternly rebuked him. "Nobody will know?" he sputtered. "There isn't anything that little guy down at City Hall doesn't know!"...

...A former New York gangster is in custody in Los Angeles charged with the murder of a Hollywood mobster with connections to the Brooklyn Murder-for-Hire gang. ...

Did anyone not have to read this sentence a second time, and more slowly, to follow it?

...
("EAGLE, GETCHA EAGLE!" Or, buy up all the comics and pulps and stuff them unread in your attic, and eighty years from now your grandkids will be able to buy a nice house.)...

Or just a few copies of 1938's Superman's Action Comic Number One and, today, a few generations of your family should be in pretty good shape.

...
("Howzis guy Evans so chummy wit' jool thiefs?" wonders Joe. "I don' blame th' guy for not hangin' 'roun' wit' Whalen," adds Sally. "Whatta fat pill. Hope he gotta free drink at leas'.")...

Jewel theivery really was a "respected" profession back then. Kidding aside, the movies did often romanticized it. 1932's "Jewel Robbery" with William Powell is just one of many examples of the suave, urbane jewel thief portrayed almost as a hero.

N.B. Evans' closing joke was not worth the set up.

...With Pee Wee Reese unable to make his attempt at breaking the speed record for circling the bases due to his injured heel, it fell to Cookie Lavagetto to make the run in his place. Cookie clocked in at a snappy 13.4 seconds in his circuit of the sacks -- fast, but not fast enough to eclipse the 13.3 second record set by Evar Swanson of the Reds in 1929....

Impressively close.

... (Never mind Superman -- Sparky is really Bugs Bunny.)...

I believe that's trolling cubed. And, yes, very Bugs like.

... (Years from now, George will be hip-deep in some entirely unrelated enterprise, some Oakdale con game or something, and suddenly he'll look up and Original Tootsie will float gently down in front of him, her face in an enigmatic smirk.)...

That would be perfect, but would require Tuthill to remember that he floated Tootsie away in the first place.

George needs to return to prospecting for gold in his basement.

... ("Deepfake," 1940 style.)...)

Not a lawyer, but my layperson understanding is that this would be considered a signature obtained by fraudulent means and would not be valid. That said, we all know what happens once something gets out into the public - facts and nuance be damned.

...

(I dunno, is "Fazia" covered by the Neutrality Act?)

I thought we were still in "Rico," no?

... Hey, go fill the bathtub. I wanna see this guy walk on water.....

A back-alley game with loaded dice, make book on a horse, cut for high card, sell cigarettes without a tax stamp, heck, a game of Three-card Monte on a foldable table - something, anything but this nonstop cloying goodness.

... Put her in with Mama Trohs! Now that's a storyline I'd follow!...

She'd be dead in under three minutes.

...
I bet she actually does pick Wilmer, because they deserve each other.....

Bossman still has to throw his hat in the ring. Sadly, this kinda does happen in offices.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a lot of lost moments that come up in going thru these newspapers, things you really wish you could have seen, or see today, but Grocer LaGuardia has to be very high on my list of moments I wish somebody had had the presence of mind to film. Why wasn't Pathe News or somebody there to preserve it all for immortality?

I could see Koch doing something like that performance, or even Guiliani -- but Bloomberg? Neh.

"Buggsy" Siegal is sitting there in his LA jail cell wondering what the climate's like in Nevada.

I am getting a feeling about Kindly Sam, and Mr. Gray's emphasis on the word "SON" in today's strip brought it all into focus. I have a sneaking feeling that he is not some random Kindly Sam the Presser at all. I think he is more experienced in the building trades, and that he once trod the hills of Galilee. If I'm right -- and I'm not being sacrilegious here, Gray might actually have the audacity to go down that road -- maybe he could raise Nick from the dead?

I'm disappointed that nobody on the Eagle sports pages made mention of who won that relay race last night between the Brooklyn and Boston coaches. I really want to know if Stengel made it all the way -- he's only fifty years old in 1940, and he ought to have been quite amusing in a footrace.

 

[Fading Fast]

There's a lot of lost moments that come up in going thru these newspapers, things you really wish you could have seen, or see today, but Grocer LaGuardia has to be very high on my list of moments I wish somebody had had the presence of mind to film. Why wasn't Pathe News or somebody there to preserve it all for immortality?

I could see Koch doing something like that performance, or even Guiliani -- but Bloomberg? Neh.

"Buggsy" Siegal is sitting there in his LA jail cell wondering what the climate's like in Nevada.

I am getting a feeling about Kindly Sam, and Mr. Gray's emphasis on the word "SON" in today's strip brought it all into focus. I have a sneaking feeling that he is not some random Kindly Sam the Presser at all. I think he is more experienced in the building trades, and that he once trod the hills of Galilee. If I'm right -- and I'm not being sacrilegious here, Gray might actually have the audacity to go down that road -- maybe he could raise Nick from the dead?

I'm disappointed that nobody on the Eagle sports pages made mention of who won that relay race last night between the Brooklyn and Boston coaches. I really want to know if Stengel made it all the way -- he's only fifty years old in 1940, and he ought to have been quite amusing in a footrace.

LaGuardia had the perfect personality to be the mayor of NYC. Hadn't thought about it till you said it, but Koch had a lot of that same combination of grit, street smarts, man of the people and humor that Laguardia had. Giuliani would have done it, but not with the joy that LaGuardia or Koch had for it. Dinkens and Bloomberg were not those type of guys.

Interesting take on Sam. If he's going the good route, then by all means, go big and right to the Christ story. Otherwise, bring back the grifters and mob guys / the gun fights and hideouts / the kidnappings and creepy candy stores.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The US Government has announced it will hold all nations, including Germany, to prior assurances that they will not attack the Army transport American Legion, which is carrying nine hundred Americans home from Petsamo, Finland. The warning comes following a declaration by Germany that they have "washed their hands of responsibility" for whatever might happen to the ship after the US declined to keep the vessel out of waters heavily mined today in enforcement of the German blockade against Britain. Germany issued an official statement that if the ship follows its outlined course, it will do so entirely at its own responsibility.

The skies over Britain, black with German planes for nearly a week, cleared somewhat today as the Nazi air assault eased. But continued British counter-blows against Germany by air and sea confirmed that the British people remain in the fight. There has been no explanation from German sources as to why only a few scattered scouting planes flew over British territory today after nearly a week of relentless bombing.

Republican presidential nominee Wendell L. Willkie officially opened his campaign for the White House in his hometown of Elwood, Indiana last night by challenging President Roosevelt to meet him face to face in a series of public debates. The challenge to appear on "public platforms in various parts of the country to debate the fundamental issues of this campaign" followed a lengthy acceptance speech in which the candidate accused the President of having "courted a war for which this country is woefully unprepared." Mr. Willkie strongly endorsed the pending conscription bill, calling selective service "the only democratic way" to provide the manpower needed for national defense, but he rejected the New Deal as a path forward, arguing that "the course this Administration is following will lead us, like France, to the end of the road."

Supporters of a Federal housing project in Brownsville went on the air last night to demand action to replace slum tenements with housing that will "build a feeling of security and contentment." The broadcast over station WBBC was sponsored by the Brownsville Neighborhood Council and the Brooklyn Committee for Better Housing, and featured several speakers who warned that the squalid conditions that prevail in Brownsville are a blight on the borough, leading its residents into immorality and rowdyism.

The First Lady spent a busy two hours at the World's Fair yesterday. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt addressed a crowd of 1000 persons as the culmination of Farm Week celebrations at the Fair, unveiled a war relief poster at the Finnish Pavilion, and toured the Federal Works Administration exhibit. "Democracies have to prove themselves these days," commented Mrs. Roosevelt. "Working for each other, not for ourselves alone -- that is the basic principle of democracy."

An Albany insurance salesman is suing a barber who clipped off the ends of his waxed moustache for $1500 in damages, claiming that unwanted trim job has caused him to suffer embarrasment and public ridicule. The barber argues that the man was asleep in his chair during the shave, and when he twitched, that caused him to accidentally cut off one tip of the moustache. "I had to trim the other end to even it up," he argued.

Brooklyn's Model Mailman for 1940 follows a letter-carrying route in Park Slope, where he's very popular with the householders he serves. Forty-nine-year-old Fred Weston has served the neighborhood almost since the opening of Station V, and topped his closest competitor in the Eagle's annual ranking of borough mailmen by more than 2000 votes. Mr. Weston and his wife will enjoy a glamorous seven day vacation at the President Hotel on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, and will be honored at a formal banquet next month where Brooklyn Postmaster Frank J. Quayle will present him with an award plaque.

Old Timer Stanley Hughes of 175 Underhill Avenue remembers the good old vaudeville acts that trod the Brooklyn boards in days gone by, especially the song and dance team of Brady and Mahoney. He remembers them as kids in Williamsburg who went on to big success back around the turn of the century. They had to break up the act in 1930 when vaude "went amateur," and where are they now? Well, Mahoney is out in Valley Stream somehwere, but Joe Brady is still living in Flatbush and he needs a job. Can someone help an old trouper out?

The Eagle Editorialist praises Wendell Willkie's "good judgement" in supporting the draft, and found his speech last night to have "the ring of frankness and sincerity about it."

"Jeanie" writes in to Helen Worth to say that she's 38 and the "quiet and retiring type," and can't find a man "with good principles" to suit her. She's been engaged twice, but it hasn't panned out. Helen says that sometimes "virtues when overdone often pall on bystanders," and suggests that maybe Jeanie needs to learn to loosen up and live a little. "The world is so full of a number of things," says Helen. "Why not learn about some of them?"

Tommy Holmes officially throws in the towel on the 1940 pennant race, declaring that Pee Wee Reese's season-ending injury this week pretty much writes finis to the Dodgers' flag hopes. "It was a good one while it lasted," he says, but adds that the challenge for the Flock from here on is to hold onto second place. The Dodgers and Bees clash in a doubleheader at Ebbets Field this afternoon, with Brooklyn still sore from the twelve-inning 2-1 stinging they got Friday night, and nothing less than a sweep today will ease that pain. Tomorrow they head out from Floyd Bennett Field for an 11-game western swing that will tell the story of whether or not the Dodgers will hold onto the runner-up spot for the duration.

Leo Durocher will start at shortstop for the Dodgers today, having spent all day yesterday working out the kinks, and expects to be Pee Wee's regular replacement for the balance of the campaign. Reese meanwhile is recuperating comfortably from his injury, and the prognosis is that the bone will knit fine, with no loss to the rookie's fiery speed. He will, however, spend the next month with his foot in a cast.

Another fast runner suffered a season-ending injury this week. Bimilech was scratched from the seventeenth running of the Travers Stake, and owner Col. E. R. Bradley issued a statement that the horse injured a heel stepping on a rock, and "will not run again this season." Col. Bradley declined to elaborate further on the injury, or on whether the horse will return to the track next year.

Tennis queen Alice Marble continues her reign atop the racket world, winning her twenty-sixth consecutive tournament by taking the Essex County singles title with a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory over unseeded Pauline Betz of Beverly Hills.

The Army Chief of Staff makes the front of Trend this week, and is ready to make the most of what he's got.

If you missed your chance to see "Tobacco Road" on Broadway over the past seven years, the touring company will play a week at the Flatbush Theatre starting tomorrow night. James Barton, the last of the Broadway Jeeter Lesters, will perform the lead.

At the AIR COOLED Patio this week, it's Spencer Tracy as "Edison The Man," and Carole Landis, Victor Mature, and Lon Chaney Jr. in "One Million B. C."

(Poor Red. EVERY TIME he sits down to a meal...)

(Nobody likes you, Wally. NOBODY.)

(Genuinely laughed out loud here. Well done, Dale and Allen.)

(Meanwhile, I think Evil Spymaster here could use a nice shave. In Albany.)

(SERVES YOU RIGHT)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Poor tabloid technique. You don't tell us that "many examples were given" of Emily's "ungovernable temper" and then don't tell us what they were.

I wonder how many of these guys went and never came back?

Mr. Hill is one of the great unsung documentarians of his time.

Never mind all this weird-science junk, I want to know how the Professor goes to the bathroom. Is that what those kegs are for?

Raven, meet your match. Or your new best friend.

Hmph. Another candidate for an Albany shave. And never mind what's Klek, why does Mrs. Whoozis here have a hand that floats disembodied in space? Must be pretty powerful soap.

This parrot makes me very happy. I hope she sticks around forever.

Somebody in Covina just had a end-of-summer sale on loud pants.

While Walt goes out steppin' in his snazzy Davega leisure suit.

No wonder Andy and Min send Chester off on these trips. They're scared to have the little thug in the house.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Brooklyn's Model Mailman for 1940 follows a letter-carrying route in Park Slope, where he's very popular with the householders he serves. Forty-nine-year-old Fred Weston has served the neighborhood almost since the opening of Station V, and topped his closest competitor in the Eagle's annual ranking of borough mailmen by more than 2000 votes. Mr. Weston and his wife will enjoy a glamorous seven day vacation at the President Hotel on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, and will be honored at a formal banquet next month where Brooklyn Postmaster Frank J. Quayle will present him with an award plaque....

Looks like a nice place from back when Atlantic City was still a hot vacation spot:

..."Jeanie" writes in to Helen Worth to say that she's 38 and the "quiet and retiring type," and can't find a man "with good principles" to suit her. She's been engaged twice, but it hasn't panned out. Helen says that sometimes "virtues when overdone often pall on bystanders," and suggests that maybe Jeanie needs to learn to loosen up and live a little. "The world is so full of a number of things," says Helen. "Why not learn about some of them?"...

Today, all she'd have to do is swipe left or right on a few dating aps and she'd have plenty of dates. However, if my girlfriend and my single, middle-aged female friends are an accurate sample, it's no easier today than in 1940 to find someone who's a fit, but they do seem to have more dates than they did back then.

...Tommy Holmes officially throws in the towel on the 1940 pennant race, declaring that Pee Wee Reese's season-ending injury this week pretty much writes finis to the Dodgers' flag hopes. "It was a good one while it lasted," he says, but adds that the challenge for the Flock from here on is to hold onto second place. The Dodgers and Bees clash in a doubleheader at Ebbets Field this afternoon, with Brooklyn still sore from the twelve-inning 2-1 stinging they got Friday night, and nothing less than a sweep today will ease that pain. Tomorrow they head out from Floyd Bennett Field for an 11-game western swing that will tell the story of whether or not the Dodgers will hold onto the runner-up spot for the duration....

A long shot, yes, but I haven't given up complete hope on the season yet.

...Tennis queen Alice Marble continues her reign atop the racket world, winning her twenty-sixth consecutive tournament by taking the Essex County singles title with a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory over unseeded Pauline Betz of Beverly Hills....

And between now and the last time Ms. Marble appeared in these Day by Days, Lizzie and I discovered that a bio on her life was just published:

...At the AIR COOLED Patio this week, it's Spencer Tracy as "Edison The Man," and Carole Landis, Victor Mature, and Lon Chaney Jr. in "One Million B. C."...

I'm guessing all those teenage boys watching Ms. Landis in "One Million B. C." will appreciate the Patio's air-conditioning.

...
(Nobody likes you, Wally. NOBODY.)...

And I'll bet you she doesn't make her own bed either.


News Flash: The public, demanding a Sunday "Sparky Watts" strip, marches on the Eagle's offices with, used possibly for the first time ever, the protest chant, "What do we want? / Spark Watts! / When do we want it? / Now!"

... (Meanwhile, I think Evil Spymaster here could use a nice shave. In Albany.)...

I'm glad the two geniuses that cracked the dress-stealing ring are our last hope for freedom in the Western Hemisphere.

... Poor tabloid technique. You don't tell us that "many examples were given" of Emily's "ungovernable temper" and then don't tell us what they were....

You'd be hard pressed to find a better example of what an individual with guts and determination can accomplish, despite all odds stacked against him, than the legless pilot.

Re the lawyer and his lover: he couldn't have at least gotten a dog for her to take care of to make it look a bit more plausible?

I wonder if our postman will be eligible for a raincheck if it rains during his stay at the President Hotel?

...
Mr. Hill is one of the great unsung documentarians of his time....

That same Main-Street Romeo trying to look "race tracky" in 1940 will become that 1970s' racetrack staple of the old man in the loud rumpled sport coat with "The Racing Form" spilling out of one of its side pockets.

And a kerchief somehow gives a girl "that sophisticated collegiate air that a girl has to have nowadays."

...
Never mind all this weird-science junk, I want to know how the Professor goes to the bathroom. Is that what those kegs are for?....

It's a big upgrade from the usual nondescript-house basement laboratory with the obligatory adjacent escape tunnel.

... Raven, meet your match. Or your new best friend.....

Spot on call Lizzie.

I doubt Raven can handle the Dragon Lady since Hu Shee manipulated Raven at every turn (and Pat too).

...
Hmph. Another candidate for an Albany shave. And never mind what's Klek, why does Mrs. Whoozis here have a hand that floats disembodied in space? Must be pretty powerful soap....

This call of yours, too, Lizzie looks to be working out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thirty-four "lurid magazines" have been banned from the city's newsstands as of today by order of Mayor LaGuardia, and Sanitation Commissioner William F. Carey has been ordered to immediately dispatch garbage trucks to "collect the filth and smut." The order followed a conference at the Mayor's office this morning in which the publishers and distributors of the magazines were instructed to "comply with the rules of good taste and decency," in remarks characterized as "frank and free." "After reading your pamphlets," declared the Mayor, "I am going to talk to you in the language you understand." The Mayor insisted that he is within his rights to ban the publications, and will invoke the city penal code to back up his order. "I am counting on the right of free speech and free expression," said the Mayor, "not to tolerate plain smut and filth." The Mayor also warned officials of distribution companies not to try any "monkey business," warning that any attempt at "strong arm tactics" to force newsdealers to carry lewd magazines will be shut down immediately. Said the Mayor, "I'll put you out of business so damned fast you won't know what happened."

After a two-year absence, General Foods Corporation will return to Brooklyn, with the firm announcing plans to reopen its five-story plant at 40th Street and 2nd Avenue. The company will spend $35,000 to renovate the building, which will serve as headquarters for the company's tea division, as well as its New York sales and recordkeeping departments. About 200 employees will be transferred from General Foods facilities in Manhattan and New Jersey to staff the Brooklyn factory. The plant had operated as part of the company's Maxwell House Coffee division until 1938, when its operations were transferred to the main coffee plant in Hoboken.

British night raiders which caused air raid warnings all over Switzerland last night struck one of Germany's largest aluminum factories, located just over the Rhine River from the Swiss town of Rheinfelden. Reports indicate the factory was set ablaze by incendiary bombs during the attack. It is also reported that bombs struck German armaments plans along Lake Constance and the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshaven.

An 18-year-old former CCC worker whose 15-year-old sister had pleaded for leniency on his behalf last year following a theft charge will get another break after pleading guilty to a new charge of breaking and entering. Patrick Lynch admitted burglarizing a shoe repair shop in Park Slope last month, and helping himself to a pair of mended shoes. His sister Nora had tried unsuccessfuly to again plead on his behalf to District Attorney William O'Dwyer, but Kings County Judge Edwin J. Garvin agreed to "go easy" on the boy in imposing sentence. Nora Lynch again appeared in court to ask leniency, noting that after the previous incident, Pat had joined the CCC, serving in Oregon and earning an excellent rating from his captain. But, said his sister, when he returned to Brooklyn he found that he couldn't get a job, with every place he looked telling him he was too young or too thin. Nora told the Judge that the family is now hoping Patrick can get into the Army.

Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie may make a campaign appearance at Coney Island, with the Brooklyn GOP high command reported to be negotiating for an appearance by the candidate at the annual Mardi Gras, to be held September 9th thru 14th. Mr. Willkie is reported to be planning a "nationwide stump swing" following his first formal campaign appearance early next month in Coffeyville, Kansas.

In France, the Vichy government has revoked the right to practice medicine or law from anyone whose father is not of French birth. The only exceptions granted are to those who have been "scientifically honored" by France, have served in the French military, or who gained French citizenship in the reversion of Alsace-Lorraine to French control.

In Andover, New Jersey, a thousand members of the Ku Klux Klan and the German-American Bund gathered at the Bund's Camp Nordland to rally joint opposition to the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Government in general. Only about fifty of those attending appeared in the uniforms of the Klan or the Bund, making it impossible to determine how many of those at the rally belonged to which organization. A cross was burned as part of the meeting.

(The Lichtys just had another argument about money.)

Walter P. Chrysler died late yesterday of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Great Neck. The founder and Chairman of the Board of the Chrysler Corporation was 65 years old. Chrysler has been ill since May of 1938, and had taken no active hand in the affairs of his company since that time. Chrysler entered the automotive industry as a plant manager for the Buick Motor Company in 1911, and went on to head the Maxwell Motors Company, which he reorganized under his own name in 1925.

Leo Durocher hadn't played shortstop since July 13th before taking the field for yesterday's doubleheader against the Bees, but it was as if he'd never been away as the Dodgers swept Boston 7-2 and 3-1 to close out their homestand at Ebbets Field. Lippy was forced into action by the injury last week to Pee Wee Reese, and admitted to being out of shape. But you wouldn't know it from his adept performance in the field yesterday, as he ranged far and wide with all of his old speed and accuracy. He did make one error, booting a ground ball off the bat of Eddie Miller that led to the sole Boston run off Luke Hamlin in the second game, but he more than made up for it with the sort of play that made him one of the league's outstanding shortstops of the 1930s. Whit Wyatt earned his 13th win of the season in the opener, and Hamlin his seventh -- and his first in over a month -- in the nightcap. The sweep -- and a doubleheader loss for the Reds to the Cardinals -- put the Flock four and a half games out of first place.

The Dodgers will make their entire western swing by air this time, having flown out of Floyd Bennet Field for St. Louis, where they'll meet the Cardinals in a doubleheader tomorrow. Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons -- who is now an Admiral in the American Airlines flying corps -- will start the opener, and Lee Grissom is expected to go in game two.

(I imagine for some reason that Sparky speaks with -- or is cultivating for the occasion -- a rather nasal New England accent , and his supercilious expression in panel two suggests that the hoods will not find his voice pleasant.)

("To save your family the expense of an embalming..." Actually, I think Estelle would just toss him out in the alley with the orange peelings and the coffee grounds.)

("Lesser Of Two Evils voting" -- as much a thing in 1940 as it is today.)

(You guys shouldn't sit so close to the windshield. What if we had to come to a sudden stop?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

New Jersey, it is often forgotten today, was a significant stronghold of the northern Klan, especially during the '20s. It had diminished significantly in overt membership by 1940, but, as they say, the melody lingered on.

"OK, so we overbought on this fruit, and it's starting to go bad. What do we do?"

Aaaaaaaand they're off! Behold the News Battle Page. We'll follow this for a while and see how dignified campaigning is 1940.

Well, we could be going in two directions here. Maybe Kindly Sam is Jesus, or he's an avatar for Isolationism. Or, given Mr. Gray's admittedly-complex worldview, he might be both.

Point of order -- just how much actual filtering capacity can those little widgets have? It always annoyed me when Batman used "nose filters" and it annoys me again here.

"Jeeves???" Oh, please tell me Gus is about to give us a full-on crossover with the Wodehouse universe. I want to see what Mama does when she meets Bertie Wooster, Bingo Little, and Gussie Fink-Nottle -- before Aunt Agatha shows up and grinds her to a powder.

"What?" says Raven. "Who's this floozie?"

Everything Wilmer knows about women he picked up from looking at pictures in the Sears catalog.

Poor old Willie. I wonder why he never smiles.

Come on, at least eat the cake first.

 

[Fading Fast]

Thirty-four "lurid magazines" have been banned from the city's newsstands as of today by order of Mayor LaGuardia, and Sanitation Commissioner William F. Carey has been ordered to immediately dispatch garbage trucks to "collect the filth and smut." The order followed a conference at the Mayor's office this morning in which the publishers and distributors of the magazines were instructed to "comply with the rules of good taste and decency," in remarks characterized as "frank and free." "After reading your pamphlets," declared the Mayor, "I am going to talk to you in the language you understand." The Mayor insisted that he is within his rights to ban the publications, and will invoke the city penal code to back up his order. "I am counting on the right of free speech and free expression," said the Mayor, "not to tolerate plain smut and filth." The Mayor also warned officials of distribution companies not to try any "monkey business," warning that any attempt at "strong arm tactics" to force newsdealers to carry lewd magazines will be shut down immediately. Said the Mayor, "I'll put you out of business so damned fast you won't know what happened."...

I'm guessing our prudish mayor doesn't read the comic strips or the Eagle and the News would be banned as well.


And let's not forget April falling out of her dress or the newly hired Ms. Contortionist in "Gasoline Alley."

...Leo Durocher hadn't played shortstop since July 13th before taking the field for yesterday's doubleheader against the Bees, but it was as if he'd never been away as the Dodgers swept Boston 7-2 and 3-1 to close out their homestand at Ebbets Field. Lippy was forced into action by the injury last week to Pee Wee Reese, and admitted to being out of shape. But you wouldn't know it from his adept performance in the field yesterday, as he ranged far and wide with all of his old speed and accuracy. He did make one error, booting a ground ball off the bat of Eddie Miller that led to the sole Boston run off Luke Hamlin in the second game, but he more than made up for it with the sort of play that made him one of the league's outstanding shortstops of the 1930s. Whit Wyatt earned his 13th win of the season in the opener, and Hamlin his seventh -- and his first in over a month -- in the nightcap. The sweep -- and a doubleheader loss for the Reds to the Cardinals -- put the Flock four and a half games out of first place.

View attachment 254808
The Dodgers will make their entire western swing by air this time, having flown out of Floyd Bennet Field for St. Louis, where they'll meet the Cardinals in a doubleheader tomorrow. Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons -- who is now an Admiral in the American Airlines flying corps -- will start the opener, and Lee Grissom is expected to go in game two....

Picking up two games in one day is huge.

Hopefully, Fat Freddie's new spiritualism is still working for him. Any idea what FFF is "now an Admiral in the American Airlines flying corps" is all about?

... (I imagine for some reason that Sparky speaks with -- or is cultivating for the occasion -- a rather nasal New England accent , and his supercilious expression in panel two suggests that the hoods will not find his voice pleasant.)...

He's gone from trolling to goading. He's dying to show them and us how bullets bounce off his cosmic-ray body.

... ("To save your family the expense of an embalming..." Actually, I think Estelle would just toss him out in the alley with the orange peelings and the coffee grounds.)...)

He also has to somehow unwind that "I only like thin ladies" comment. Good luck with that.

... New Jersey, it is often forgotten today, was a significant stronghold of the northern Klan, especially during the '20s. It had diminished significantly in overt membership by 1940, but, as they say, the melody lingered on.....

I'm going to guess they served alcohol on that Eastern Airlines flight up from Richmond. Also, this story demands a pic of the "honey-haired blonde...with comely features." And the $500 she was tossing around like peanut shells is worth ~$9000 in 2020 dollars.

Ms. Willkie is a nice looking woman who - if she has some speaking skills - will be a campaign asset to her husband.

... Aaaaaaaand they're off! Behold the News Battle Page. We'll follow this for a while and see how dignified campaigning is 1940....

As you said, we'll see where it goes, but these two arguments are more thoughtful (and free of raw and rude insults) than a hundred Twitter threads today.

... "What?" says Raven. "Who's this floozie?"....

As good as it's been, you know T&TP is going to get a lot better starting right now. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Oh, and Terry, you can take your helmety thing off now, like Pat did.

... Come on, at least eat the cake first.

That cake has to be, one, mush, two, stale and, three, likely rancid by now. But kudos to Shadow for the effort.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was curious about exactly what titles Hizzoner is going after, and after some digging I found a Catholic paper with a bit more information -- most of them were "smoosh" pulps of the Spicy Detective/Spicy Adventure type, the sort of stuff Harry Donenfeld was known for before he went into the comic book business and Superman made him all wholesome, but there were also several confession magazines, inclduing both "True Story" and "True Confessions," each of which moved over 2 million copies a month in 1940. Also named were "Pic," a downmarket knock off of "Life" and "Look" that emphasized pneumatic cover subjects, and "Film Fun," which despite a few desultory articles about movie stars to give its title legitimacy, was actually a monthly built around sex-themed cartoons.

Magazine distribution in New York in 1940 is under the complete control of the mob, and LaGuardia knows this, and I suspect that's his real motive here, same as his crusade against burlesque.

I don't know why Clem Swiller's boys are wasting time on this Purple Shirt nonsense, when between Leona's past and the unorthodox living arrangements of Mary and Bill, there's more than enough in John's closet to fan up controversy.

Raven could ask Big Stoop what the deal is with the Dragon Lady, but he wouldn't have much to say since she's the one who cut his tongue out. Miss Sherman had better mind her words from here on.

Interesting that the Republican entry on today's battle page mentions Mr. Willkie not once. It appears they will run a "run against" campaign instead of a "run for" campaign.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Prime Minister Winston Churchill today announced a British naval blockade intended to prevent food from reaching "any country which has fallen to Hitler," and in doing so "regretfully refused" to allow American relief ships from delivering food to the people of France, Belgium, or Holland. At the same time, Mr. Churchill called on the United States to provide Britain with the warships "necessary to bridge the gap between the peace flotillas of 1939 and the war flotillas of 1941." In return, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons that Britain will offer America 99-year leases for naval and air defense positions within its Western Hemisphere possessions.

German planes today bombed British airfields, and reports from the official DNB news agency state that the latest wave of air attacks resulted in battles over southeast England. The raids at high noon struck airfields in Kent, including those at Southend and Eastchurch.

A German embassy spokesman today expressed "hope" that the U. S. transport American Legion, carrying 897 refugees from Finland, has passed safely thru the zone that Germany had warned was heavily mined and dangerous. U. S. naval officials could not confirm the whereabouts of the ship, but based on unofficial calculations, it was believed to have been passing thru the danger zone all last night.

A plan to train up to five thousand war veterans to replace New York policemen drafted into the Army in the event of war has been prepared by Mayor LaGuardia. Applications for the training program are now being circulated in Brooklyn by local American Legion leaders, with the Mayor specifying that veterans between the ages of 42 and 55 are eligible. Those veterans enrolled for police duty under the program would serve for one year at pay of $25 a week, but would serve only if the United States makes a formal declaration of war. The veterans would receive a three-week training program at the Police Academy, and would be issued regular police uniforms and service revolvers.

Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, prominent canary in District Attorney William O'Dwyer's investigation of the Brooklyn Murder For Hire Gang, has been flown to Los Angeles to testify in connection with the murder of Hollywood gangster Harry Schachter, alias Harry "Big Greeny" Greenberg, last Thanksgiving Day. Former Broadway figure Benjamin "Buggsy" Siegel, a henchman of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter is charged with that crime, and Reles will testify as a state's witness against Siegel. Los Angeles District Attorney Buron Fitts charges that Siegel rubbed out Greenberg, who had been ousted from the needle-trades racket by Buchalter, for "knowing too much," and that the execution was handled from Brooklyn by members of the Murder for Hire gang, who tailed Greenberg from Montreal to Detroit to Hollywood before catching up with him to carry out the job. A Murder-For-Hire agent who ran out on the assignment before arriving on the Coast, one Sholem Bernstein, was subsequently sentenced to death by a gangland "kangaroo court." Bernstein's whereabouts are presently unknown, but he is reported being held "in protective custody" by the O'Dwyer office for use as a material witness.

The New Deal is "nothing but an American form of Nazism," and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes is "Hitler in short pants." So claimed Republican Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire today, in an official GOP response to remarks made by Ickes in a radio speech last night criticizing Republican Presidential candidate Wendell L. Willkie as "a simple, barefoot Wall Street lawyer" whose characterization of the President as "leading the United States into war" was "contemptible." Ickes summed up his points by calling the Republican Party "the party of Nazi appeasement." Bridges sneered at Ickes as "the keeper of the White House umbrella who rushed to his master's aid," and demanded that the President himself respond to Willkie's challenge. Meanwhile, Willkie himself, in a telegram to Republican National Committee chairman Joe Martin, denied charges by Ickes that he had belonged to Tammany Hall, and that he had expressed admiration for disgraced utilities baron Samuel Insull. Willkie denied ever supporting Insull in any way, and further stated that he voted for Mayor LaGuardia.

(Twenty years from now, Oscar Levant will say that he "knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." This is the Doris Day that Oscar knew.)

The thirty-five-year old Coney Island woman known as Brooklyn's Gambling Girl is in custody on charges of maintaining an illegal gambling house. Mrs. Dora Zaretsky of 2509 Mermaid Avenue was arraigned before Magistrate Jeanine Brill in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court, and was held on $10 bail. Also held on disorderly conduct charges were fifteen other persons, eight of them women, who were found to be playing cards for money in Mrs. Zaretsky's apartment. The residence was raided last night after neighbors complained about the noise.

The birthplace of the Times Square theatrical district will soon host the world's largest men's clothing store, with the site of the former International Casino to be converted for retail use by this fall. The Bond Stores chain will open its new outlet at the corner of Broadway and 45th Street with a planned gala inaugural to be attended by as many actors who once performed at the address as can be found for the occasion. The site was once home to Oscar Hammerstein's Olympic Theatre, built in 1895 as the first legitimate theatre in the district, and the block-long building continued to house various types of performances until closing last year. Bond will occupy two full floors of the structure.

(Pretty sure the "famous comedian" here is Ed Wynn, who has had a hard life over the past several years -- he tried to start a third radio network, which bankrupted him, then he had a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized, and then his wife left him. "Laugh, clown, laugh.")

The Eagle Editorialist raps Wendell Willkie for challenging President Roosevelt to a series of public debates, noting that Mr. Roosevelt has more than enough to do in Washington with the war crisis and it would be inappropriate for him to appear in a series of staged campaign events while that crisis is going on.

The EE also endorses Mayor LaGuardia's purge of smutty magazines from the city's newsstands. LaGuardia is no "pantaloons on the piano legs" prude, says the EE, but the cesspool products he sees on sale to the public have made him mad, and they ought to.

(I've always found Lichty kids to be kind of unsettling, and I just realized why. They all have the heads and faces of twenty-five year olds, on prepubescent bodies. At least the boy isn't bald.)

Two-Ton Tony Galento wants to take a punch or two at the city of Orange, New Jersey after the city council there approved a liquor license for a bar that will operate in direct competition to Tony's own establishment. "Dey can't do dis to me," protested the boxing bartender. "I spent $15,000 bucks on dis place. Dis ain't no joint! I want Orange to benefit by all de publicity I got, an' now look what dey went an' done to me!"

("Hah!" snickers Joe. "Them Joisey people. Somebuddy oughta loin' 'em ta talk right." "Watta mug," agrees Sally. "Soun's like he ain' benna school a day'n 'is life. Wouln'a lastiddaday at Erasmus.")

The Dodgers gained a half a game on the Reds yesterday thanks to their old friends the Giants, who crushed Cincinnati 9-2 to open a series at Crosley Field. And now it's up to the Flock to keep the momentum going as they kick off their own western tour against the Cardinals at St. Louis. The last time the Dodgers hit the western circuit, there were fireworks, with incidents erupting against each of the opposing clubs -- there was Jake Mooty's beaning of Pee Wee Reese in Chicago, Bob Bowman's skulling of Joe Medwick and Mickey Owen's fistfight with Leo Durocher in St. Louis, Lonny Frey's spike attack against Pete Coscarart, who responded with fists in Cincinnati, and then that bizarre dustup between Babe Phelps, Arky Vaughan, and Elbie Fletcher in Pittsburgh. As a result of these incidents, the Dodgers have racked up a total of $150 in fines from League President Ford Frick -- despite -- DESPITE -- the fact that the Dodgers have not beaned anyone and have not spiked anyone at any time this season. And the same stories in enemy towns that accuse the Dodgers of rowdyism also accuse them of umpire baiting -- despite the fact that the team has taken only four ejections the entire year.

The Dodgers arrived in St. Louis in high spirits after a rollicking flight from Brooklyn. The players enjoyed roast chicken with all the trimmings served high above the clouds, along with dinner music furnished by the inimitable Dodger Quartet of Cookie Lavagetto, Joe Vosmik, Van Mungo, and Vito Tamulis.

The Dodgers are 5-3 so far this year at Sportsman's Park, but they are 36-17 total on the road in 1940, compared to a 29-28 record at home.

(It's even better if you imagine that Sparky is now doing a Joe Besser voice.)

(Who needs a radio for entertainment?)

(Oh, John, you're so cute when you're naive.)

("Film? I thought you brought the film.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Professor of Personal Guidance?" What is that they say about "those who can, do and those who can't....")

The top row of photos shows Betty when her agent asked her to do this ad.

Well, that didn't take long. "The bully boy of the Wabash" vs. the slick "insufferable upstart." Still, at least they don't type it all out in capitals.

Poor Annie, unable to form lasting personal attachments to any other human being, and struggling to understand those who can.

"Psst, Pat -- shouldn't we...?" "Shut up, kid, I've been dreaming about this for months."

"Can I at least get a haircut first?"

"The Daily Planet???" Boy, when Gus teases crossovers, he doesn't fool around.

Tell her the rest of that story, Skeez, I dare ya.

Oh please. Go home, change your clothes, take a bath, and deal with the rest of it. And -1 for the minstrel show being back in town.

Mr. Willard just had a kidney stone and is trying to make the best of it.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The New Deal is "nothing but an American form of Nazism," and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes is "Hitler in short pants." So claimed Republican Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire today, in an official GOP response to remarks made by Ickes in a radio speech last night criticizing Republican Presidential candidate Wendell L. Willkie as "a simple, barefoot Wall Street lawyer" whose characterization of the President as "leading the United States into war" was "contemptible." Ickes summed up his points by calling the Republican Party "the party of Nazi appeasement." Bridges sneered at Ickes as "the keeper of the White House umbrella who rushed to his master's aid," and demanded that the President himself respond to Willkie's challenge. Meanwhile, Willkie himself, in a telegram to Republican National Committee chairman Joe Martin, denied charges by Ickes that he had belonged to Tammany Hall, and that he had expressed admiration for disgraced utilities baron Samuel Insull. Willkie denied ever supporting Insull in any way, and further stated that he voted for Mayor LaGuardia....

The Rs accuse the Ds of being Nazis while the Ds accuse the Rs of, effectively, the same thing. That sounds familiar.

... View attachment 255019
(Twenty years from now, Oscar Levant will say that he "knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." This is the Doris Day that Oscar knew.)...

That has to be in the top-five Hollywood lines of all times.

...The thirty-five-year old Coney Island woman known as Brooklyn's Gambling Girl is in custody on charges of maintaining an illegal gambling house. Mrs. Dora Zaretsky of 2509 Mermaid Avenue was arraigned before Magistrate Jeanine Brill in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court, and was held on $10 bail. Also held on disorderly conduct charges were fifteen other persons, eight of them women, who were found to be playing cards for money in Mrs. Zaretsky's apartment. The residence was raided last night after neighbors complained about the noise....

$10 bail. Really? Just $10 for the "Gambling Girl?"

...
(I've always found Lichty kids to be kind of unsettling, and I just realized why. They all have the heads and faces of twenty-five year olds, on prepubescent bodies. At least the boy isn't bald.)...

Also, these kids look to be, what, about 7-9 years old, maybe 10, yet the comment from the mother would be more appropriate to a mid-teenage girl seriously involved with a boy the mother doesn't like. This girl, apparently, is still playing with dolls; the comment from the mother is creepy in this case.

... The last time the Dodgers hit the western circuit, there were fireworks, with incidents erupting against each of the opposing clubs -- there was Jake Mooty's beaning of Pee Wee Reese in Chicago, Bob Bowman's skulling of Joe Medwick and Mickey Owen's fistfight with Leo Durocher in St. Louis, Lonny Frey's spike attack against Pete Coscarart, who responded with fists in Cincinnati, and then that bizarre dustup between Babe Phelps, Arky Vaughan, and Elbie Fletcher in Pittsburgh. As a result of these incidents, the Dodgers have racked up a total of $150 in fines from League President Ford Frick -- despite -- DESPITE -- the fact that the Dodgers have not beaned anyone and have not spiked anyone at any time this season. And the same stories in enemy towns that accuse the Dodgers of rowdyism also accuse them of umpire baiting -- despite the fact that the team has taken only four ejections the entire year....

Narratives trump truth then as now.

... (It's even better if you imagine that Sparky is now doing a Joe Besser voice.)...

He's been all but begging them to shoot him so that he could show off. As you noted at the start of the strip Lizzie, there's an element of mockery of the superhero genre at work. It's not at "Mad Magazine's" level, but it's there.

...
(Oh, John, you're so cute when you're naive.)...

Narratives trump truth then as now.

... "Professor of Personal Guidance?" What is that they say about "those who can, do and those who can't....")....

A darn-good foreshadowing of the '60s in "The Neighbors" today.

... The top row of photos shows Betty when her agent asked her to do this ad....

"Many of Childs Restaurants are Air-Conditioned...all are comfortably cool." Challenge!

... "Psst, Pat -- shouldn't we...?" "Shut up, kid, I've been dreaming about this for months."...

Oh God yes, as long as he could stay in the room, Pat's best move would be to become invisible right now - this instant (and cloak Terry too, to get rid of all potential distractions). When the bell rings, you don't place yourself in-between Ali and Fraizer, you just get out of the way and watch.

...
"Can I at least get a haircut first?"...

As Don Draper would say, effectively, "That's what the money is for."

Oh, and by the way, there is no chance on God's green earth the professor will ever see a dime.

... Tell her the rest of that story, Skeez, I dare ya.....

He more than buried the lede, he killed it. There's nothing left to that story without it.

And just noting that Ms. Come Hither's name is Gwendolyn Glip. There's a lot of play that can happen with that name.

And I bet you Ms. Glip, on the weekend, dresses just like one of the young girls in today's "The Neighbors."

...
Oh please. Go home, change your clothes, take a bath, and deal with the rest of it. And -1 for the minstrel show being back in town.....

There's an argument to be made that this is one way to make a man. He's tried, failed, was ready to give up and remembered what he wanted to accomplish. Harold might just succeed this time and be a better person for it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always felt bad for Betty Hutton. She was a genuinely gifted comedienne who got typed in musicals, and was, except on one occasion, never really allowed to be as funny as she was capable of being. That one occasion is "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," which is without question one of the top five funniest pictures I've ever seen or ever will see -- and nobody but Betty Hutton could have played the unforgettable Trudy Kockenlocker. She had the presence, the sense of timing, and skill at doing physical business to be the greatest film comedienne of all time, but Hollywood wouldn't let her do it. What a wasted talent.

Mayor LaGuardia wants to have a talk with George Clark. To be fair, though, those romper outfits were everywhere in the late thirties-early forties, and they'll be even more popular during the war because they don't take much fabric to make.

While there's just as much political invective in 1940 as there is now, its literary quality, at least, is far superior to what you get today. But -1 to Sen. Bridges for building his "umbrella" line on a swipe from Father Coughlin's characterization of Gen. Hugh Johnson as "a cracked gramophone record squawking out his master's voice." If you're going to be original, be original.

I'm getting to feel kind of sorry for Miss Glip at this point. She's the kind of person who would drive me up the wall in real life, but in an office where the presence of Wilmer Bobble is tolerated, who are they to make fun of her?

This has the potential to be the turning point of Harold's life, one way or another, and we've seen what a complete chump he's capable of being. But at least Shadow gets to eat the whole cake.

Raven might think she's a tough customer, but honestly, she has no idea at all who she's up against or what she's capable of. Pat does, though, and beneath the frisson, she scares him to death.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've always felt bad for Betty Hutton. She was a genuinely gifted comedienne who got typed in musicals, and was, except on one occasion, never really allowed to be as funny as she was capable of being. That one occasion is "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," which is without question one of the top five funniest pictures I've ever seen or ever will see -- and nobody but Betty Hutton could have played the unforgettable Trudy Kockenlocker. She had the presence, the sense of timing, and skill at doing physical business to be the greatest film comedienne of all time, but Hollywood wouldn't let her do it. What a wasted talent.

Mayor LaGuardia wants to have a talk with George Clark. To be fair, though, those romper outfits were everywhere in the late thirties-early forties, and they'll be even more popular during the war because they don't take much fabric to make.

While there's just as much political invective in 1940 as there is now, its literary quality, at least, is far superior to what you get today. But -1 to Sen. Bridges for building his "umbrella" line on a swipe from Father Coughlin's characterization of Gen. Hugh Johnson as "a cracked gramophone record squawking out his master's voice." If you're going to be original, be original.

I'm getting to feel kind of sorry for Miss Glip at this point. She's the kind of person who would drive me up the wall in real life, but in an office where the presence of Wilmer Bobble is tolerated, who are they to make fun of her?

This has the potential to be the turning point of Harold's life, one way or another, and we've seen what a complete chump he's capable of being. But at least Shadow gets to eat the whole cake.

Raven might think she's a tough customer, but honestly, she has no idea at all who she's up against or what she's capable of. Pat does, though, and beneath the frisson, she scares him to death.

I don't think eating that cake, at this point, is any reward.

I love that TDL and Hu Shee swapped places - that's serious "we got a job to do" stuff. T&TP has the field to itself now that LOA is stuck in "The Walton's" world.

Yes, Ms.Glip has, what today we'd recognize as, some serious self-esteem issues. But at another level, she's playing the game to and adults are responsible for their actions.

We know from the pamphlets around the American Revolution (or Roman Times), politics has always been a nasty bloodsport. Unfortunately, social media today seems to be making it worse or, at least, much louder or, maybe, just putting it everywhere.

It's just funny how, by simply tweaking the outfits to short shorts or mini-skirts, today's "The Neighbors" could have come right out of the late '60s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And of course, it's even funnier when you realize that the middle-aged ladies doing the sneering in 1965 would actually *be* the young gals who were out stepping in 1940. For a lot of people, once you pass forty, the memory is the first thing to go.

 

[Haversack]

Betty Hutton first came to my notice in Star Spangled Rhythm when I was tracking down Preston Sturges films. (Yes, I saw this before TMOMC. Its because Sturges is in SSR playing himself. And his bit includes trains and a prat fall.) Besides Hutton's singing chops, what floored me was her physical comedy in her encounter with the human tar baby. That doubled when I got to see SSR in a theater with a full audience. Once the laughter started, it just kept going.