The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Hollywood Casting Challenge -- come up with a picture idea using only these personalities.

"Cold decked?" Somebody knows their way around a casino.

Oh, please let's have a flashback.

Just a minute there, Ryan. I'll have to see your AFRA card before you can go on the air.

I dunno, in Chester Gould's Garden of Violence slapping the pince-nez off an old man's face is pretty mild stuff. The least you could do is use a blackjack.

Oh, and you guys ought to get those tremors looked at. Could be something serious.

You don't often come across a comic strip with a musical score, but this one, if you know the song, is very very effective. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick....

 

[David Conwill]

You don't often come across a comic strip with a musical score, but this one, if you know the song, is very very effective. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick....

Would that be this song?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. I always thought it had a very foreboding melody, which makes it an excellent choice for this scene. I don't know what tomorrow's strip will bring, but if I had to guess I'd suspect Lillums' wedding song will be "He's In The Jailhouse Now," leading her mother to develop Oakdale-level hatred for Truck. And Harold will find out about all this just as he is about to jump off a bridge.

 

[Fading Fast]

Police Lieutenant Cuthbert J. Behan, acquitted of theft charges in connection with the removal of more than 7000 arrest and bail documents from the Bergen Street police station in 1938, could yet face additional charges that could, if sustained, force him out of the police department. High police officials still have charges pending against the Lieutenant stemming from his arrest in November 1938, including failure to report in uniform to an inspector when ordered to do so, and failure to carry a service revolver on his person at all times, but comes now word that Behan may be charged with violating Section 903 of the City Charter, which section states that any city employee who fails to waive immunity from prosecution when asked to do so before testifying before a Grand Jury shall be dropped from his position and be held ineligible to ever again hold a municipal job. Behan did refuse, on multiple occasions, to waive immunity, but this section of the Charter has never been tried in court, and some experts believe it may be unconstitutional.



Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen, who brought the charges against Lieut. Behan had no comment following yesterday's verdict. But a vocal critic of the Amen Office accused the investigator of pursuing a "frame up" against Behan. In remarks before the 12:45 Club, a luncheon club in Flatbush, Judge Franklin Taylor charged that the Behan verdict is an example of Amen's investigations "promising much and delivering little," and contended that the long delay between Behan's arrest and his trial proved that Amen was afraid to take on a case "that had to smell of a frame-up." Taylor stated that the Amen investigations have cost the city nearly half a million dollars, while winning only two of five cases tried so far, and he questioned a $22,000 line in the office budget for "commissions," which he suggested were actually liquor and entertainment for Amen and his witnesses.....

One, this fight is bigger than Behan - he seems like a cat's paw between Amen and those in the bureaucracy (like Judge Taylor) opposed to Amen. Two, no proof, but I'll bet Behan stole those docs. Three, I'll let Harp give us an expert's opinion, but that "have to" waive immunity sounds unconstitutional to my layperson's ear.

...A scion of the duPont family has been identified as the mystery pilot who zoomed into LaGuardia Field and left again without regard for the control tower. Felix duPont Jr. of Wilmington, Delaware claims he was unable to contact the control tower on his approach, nor did he receive any response from the tower on his departure. Mr. duPont also states that he had no idea he was supposed to pay a landing fee, or that his activities caused a disruption in the flight plans of several transport plans. "If they send me a bill," the chemical heir declared, "I'll pay it."....

Sounds like a privileged *ss.

...
("Hey, lookit, Joe -- a dollar and a quarter to go to Asbury Park." "That's nice. How much not to go?"...

The Jersey boy in me will not be goaded into a fight .

Growing up in NJ in the '70s, Asbury Park was a perfect honky tonk seaside town for a date - throwback rides and games half falling apart, frozen custard, cotton candy, etc - retro fun and inexpensive. And when you have all but no money, something other that "lets' go to the movies" sounds creative and maybe gets a positive response from the girl a touch out of your league.

... Leave now, Leona, and do not look back....

Trying to be fair to Leona - which isn't easy - she grew up in a world where people treated here nicely because of her position (unfair but true), so she hasn't developed the skills and awareness to know when she's being used, cheated, is in danger, etc. She has no street smarts because she's never been on the streets - a small part of me feels for her. Also, she seems smart - my guess, she'll get kicked around a few times, but will quickly figure the game out and start leveraging it to her advantage.

A...
Hollywood Casting Challenge -- come up with a picture idea using only these personalities......

Push comes to shove, they could have made "Hollywood Canteen" with this group.

Wouldn't Mickey Rooney be happy to know that I used his "shortness" to get my bearings in the pic.

... "Cold decked?" Somebody knows their way around a casino......

No kidding, but what a great use of the phrase. As you say, the comics are not really for the kids. "Say, mom, what does 'cold deck' mean?" "Ask, your dad." "Dad?" "Did you do your homework yet!"

...ATTACH=full]209862[/ATTACH] Just a minute there, Ryan. I'll have to see your AFRA card before you can go on the air......

If they make it as a B-movie, Dennis Morgan could play Pat, but Flynn would be so much better.

... I dunno, in Chester Gould's Garden of Violence slapping the pince-nez off an old man's face is pretty mild stuff. The least you could do is use a blackjack......

Kudos though to Mr. Gould's drawing of the wealthy scion - panel three could be in the dictionary next to "1940's Wealthy Scion."

Pre-internet, remember how exciting it was when you were a kid and a dictionary had a picture along with the definition of the word?

... You don't often come across a comic strip with a musical score, but this one, if you know the song, is very very effective. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick....

Panel two - iconic '40s comic book imagery.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I will not at all be surprised if Lt. Behan gets transferred to some high-risk precinct in Brownsville or someplace, where after a safe interval of time, he will experience an "accident in the line of duty." He either did it himself -- at someone's direction -- and got off because he threatened to go to Amen and spill his guts if he didn't, or he didn't do it but he knows who did. Either way, he knows too much for his own good.

 

[David Conwill]

I will not at all be surprised if Lt. Behan gets transferred to some high-risk precinct in Brownsville or someplace, where after a safe interval of time, he will experience an "accident in the line of duty." He knows too much.

Actually, it appears he retired to Florida and lived to the ripe old age of 93.

 

[David Conwill]

He didn't get promoted any further than Lieutenant, though!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I bet he was looking over his shoulder the whole time. Florida was and is hardly a safe place for somebody with knowledge of Brooklyn corruption to hide out.

 

[Fading Fast]

I bet he was looking over his shoulder the whole time. Florida was and is hardly a safe place for somebody with knowledge of Brooklyn corruption to hide out.

And let's not forget that Florida resident and "retired businessman" Hyman Roth was just the roman à clef version of real-life gangster Meyer Lansky.

 

[vitanola]

I bet he was looking over his shoulder the whole time. Florida was and is hardly a safe place for somebody with knowledge of Brooklyn corruption to hide out.

According to a detailed account published in “East Side, West Side, Organizing Crime In New York, Behan was removed from the force as a result of the Amen investigation, which would certainly explain why he was never promoted from Lieutenant

It appears that this racket was not quite as petty as it might seem from the newspaper account. Eventually Lepke Burkhalter, “Kid Twist” Reles, and “Tiny” Benson, all well connected mobsters of the day.

“Kid Twist” Reles turned states evidence, and ended up sending a number of mobsters to the electric chair. He himself died in at the age of 35, in 1941. He was in police custody and he somehow accidentally flew out a fifth story window with such force that he landed thirty feet from the building. Even so, it was ruled an accident. He ostensibly was attempting to lower himself from the window with a bedsheet.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Reles is a name that came up in 1939 when the Amen Office was looking into activities centering around a dingy candy store in Brownsville run by a feeble old lady named Rose Gold -- it turns out that the store was actually a front for Reles' various racketeering operations, and its back room was no less than the headquarters of the hit-for-hire operation "Murder Inc."

In 1940, Mr. Amen knows all of this, and he also knows that these characters have connections to the bail bond racket and thru that racket to the police department itself. But he also knows he has to step very carefully to avoid being the target of a hit himself, which I'd imagine why he's biding his time with all this penny-ante stuff. He's trying to pick apart all the little pieces that are, together, supporting a very big piece of the puzzle, all this while the many paid-off members of the Brooklyn political establishment are trying to brush him off.

Dewey gets all the "crusading DA" publicity, but Amen was the real deal -- because even the DAs were scared of him. Gehogan certainly was, and I imagine O'Dwyer is spending a lot of his free time burning papers too,

 

[Fading Fast]

According to a detailed account published in “East Side, West Side, Organizing Crime In New York, Behan was removed from the force as a result of the Amen investigation, which would certainly explain why he was never promoted from Lieutenant

It appears that this racket was not quite as petty as it might seem from the newspaper account. Eventually Lepke Burkhalter, “Kid Twist” Reles, and “Tiny” Benson, all well connected mobsters of the day.

“Kid Twist” Reles turned states evidence, and ended up sending a number of mobsters to the electric chair. He himself died in at the age of 35, in 1941. He was in police custody and he somehow accidentally flew out a fifth story window with such force that he landed thirty feet from the building. Even so, it was ruled an accident. He ostensibly was attempting to lower himself from the window with a bedsheet.

I wonder if that is the same jail where Jeffrey Epstein was held when he, umm, committed suicide.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Dewey gets all the "crusading DA" publicity, but Amen was the real deal -- because even the DAs were scared of him. Gehogan certainly was, and I imagine O'Dwyer is spending a lot of his free time burning papers too,

Just from your Eagle recaps, it's become pretty clear that very senior people in the city and state governments are trying to shut Amen down - which tells you how deep in and high up the corruption goes.

 

[Bolero]

"Motherless Brooklyn" 1950's Nostalgia, must see movie...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Judge Franklin Taylor will be summoned by Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen to explain to a grand jury just exactly what he knows about a "frame-up" in the matter of Police Lieutenant Cuthbert J. Behan, acquitted this week on larceny charges stemming from the disappearance of arrest and bail records from the Bergen Street police station in 1938. Judge Taylor, in remarks to a luncheon club in Flatbush following the Behan verdict, declared that Amen had delayed prosecuting the case for over a year because of the possibility that Behan had been framed, and Amen promises to give the Judge every opportunity to justify that remark. The Assistant Attorney General promises also to summon "everyone who knows anything about the Behan case" to appear before the grand jury, up to and including Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine. Former Assistant District Attorney Hyman Barshay, who represented Behan in his criminal trial, says he refuses to be drawn into any further discussion of the affair, noting that the jury gave its verdict and the case is over.

However, even though Lt. Behan has been acquitted in criminal court, he still faces department charges over the matter of the missing files, and Commissioner Valentine states that he expects the prosecution of that case to go forward immediately. Behan was suspended from all duties in the wake of his original arrest on October 21, 1938, and that suspension remains in effect.

The next case to be taken up by the Amen Office will be that of Dr. Abraham Ditchick, 43-year-old Manhattan dentist, who is accused of being a middleman collecting "fabulous sums" for public officials in connection with a city-wide abortion ring. Dr. Ditchick's trial is scheduled to begin next Monday.

Assessed valuation of Brooklyn real estate has been slashed by more thant $50,600,000 in a decision by the New York City Tax Commission, which cut a city-wide total of nearly $263,000,000 from real estate values thruout the city. But the President of the Brooklyn Real Estate Board sees even that level of reduction to be inadequate in attacking the problem of overassessment in the Borough. Charles D. Behrens tells the Eagle that if property owners believe their assessments to still be too high, they should file a protest blank with the city Tax Department before March 15th.

Former Tammany district leader James Hines will mount an appeal of his conviction on charges that he aided and abetted the late Dutch Schultz in the operation of a policy racket. Chief Judge Irving Lehman of the Court of Appeals granted permission for Hines to appeal his case, and continued the $35,000 bail under which Hines remains free.

The defense rested this afternoon in the murder trial of Long Beach Patrolman James Dooley, accused in the November 15th assassination of Mayor Louis Edwards. Psychaiatrist Dr. Thomas Cusack testified for the defense that Dooley was insane at the time of the shooting, and that he had been displaying symptoms of mental illness for over a year before the attack.

The President of the New York State Economic Council today testified before a secret session of the Dies Committee. Merwin K. Hart is believed to have offered a response to charges by Representative Frank D. Hook of Michigan that he is a collaborator with the Christian Front, and that he was a frequent associate of committee chairman Rep. Martin Dies. Committee members stated after the session that Hart denied collaboration with the Front, and that he claimed never to have heard of it until Dies spoke to a meeting of the Economic Council on December 8, 1938, a meeting also attended by Fritz Kuhn of the German-American Bund and the Bund's secretary, James Wheeler-Hill. Committee members say that Hart stated that the two Nazi officials bought tickets to the meeting, and that Hart stated he did not know the two men.

The President of Finland told the Finnish Parliament today that Finland is ready to "negotiate an honorable peace" with the Soviet Union. Censorship was clamped down tightly just before the speech by President Kyosti Kallio, but it is not known if the tightening came in anticipation of his announcement.

A Brooklyn man fulfilled a life-long ambition last night by sharing the stage with John Barrymore. 27-year-old Bert Freeman of 249 98th Street in Bay Ridge attended last night's opening performance of Barrymore's new play "My Dear Children" at the Belasco Theatre, and without warning leaped onto the stage, costumed as Hamlet, while Barrymore was taking a curtain call. To the astonished incredulity of actors and audience, Freeman then began to recite one of Hamlet's soliloquies before police removed him from the stage.

Freeman, who gave his occupation in court as "unemployed actor," insisted he was merely fulfilling a lifelong ambition to appear on stage with the greatest actor of our generation, and that the incident was not meant to be a publicity stunt.

Freeman's performance was only the beginning of the evening's excitement for Mr. Barrymore. Following the play, the actor was accosted by his estranged wife Elaine Barrie, who dodged Blythe Diana Barrymore, the actor's daughter from a prior marriage, who was guarding her father, who finally was able to turn Miss Barrie away. The Barrymores then adjourned to Fefe's Monte Carlo, popular Manhattan night club, where Miss Barrie again appeared, grabbed Barrymore, kissed him, and begged in a loud voice for a reconciliation. Said Barrymore, "Well, well, this is like the gentle rains from heaven..." To the annoyance of his daughter, the actor left the club arm in arm with Miss Barrie with a wish of "pleasant dreams" their final benediction to the astonished crowd.

("You oughta go, Joe. Get a new suit." "Ahhh," sez Joe, "whatta I need a new suit for." "Remember that time you got your pitcha in the paper?" replies Sally. "Standin' by the side of the road when that trolley turned over? You looked like a bum." "I'd just crawled out the window! Of course I looked like a bum!" "Yeah, well, you don't hafta brag about it."

"Here, try some 'a this stuff, Joe. Might help ya mood."

A&P is still trying to move out those turkeys at 25 cents a pound. Good luck with that.

"Gone With The Wind" is coming to Brooklyn and bringing a "graceful fashion note" along with it. Abraham & Straus will celebrate its 75th Anniversary with a display featuring a replica of Scarlett O'Hara herself, reclining on a horsehair sofa dressed in a genuine 1865 gown loaned by the Brooklyn Museum, and surrounded by stacked copies of "Gone With The Wind" itself.

If you're not going to the "Gone With The Wind" premiere tonight, go to the Patio and see Paul Muni in "We Are Not Alone" and Richard Dix in "Reno."

Oh, by the way, did I mention "Gone With The Wind" is finally here?

If Rhett and Scarlett aren't enough to keep you entertained, Russ Morgan and his Music In The Morgan Manner headline the new vaudeville bill at the Flatbush. Also appearing are saucy naughty swingy Fifi D'Orsay, child impersonator Terry Howard, who appeared as the little girl "Punkin'" with Amos 'n' Andy on radio a few years ago, the dance team of Tip, Tap, and Toe, and silk-hatted comedian Jack Durant. On the screen, another package of selected short subjects.

Dominic DiMaggio hasn't even played a single major league game yet, but he's already making like his big brother Joe. The bespectacled San Francisco outfielder sent his first contract with the Boston Red Sox back unsigned, stating that while the amount offered was greater than he earned on the coast with the Seals last year, it isn't enough.

The Americans hope Eddie Shore will continue his aggressive defense work tonight at the Garden as the Amerks take on the Chicago Blackhawks.

New Football Dodgers coach Jock Sutherland expects to stress a passing game in 1940, even though he wasn't much for the aerial attack during his years at Pitt. Sutherland, who signed his contract for next season with owner Dan Topping this week, says he'll fall in line with the current trend in pro grid technique.

The Baseball Dodgers will broadcast their games again in 1940 over WOR, with Red Barber and Al Helfer back at the microphone. The broadcasts will begin with an exhibition game from Clearwater, Florida on March 8th.

Y'know, in the old days Hartford would have had a glib, slick story all ready to go in the event of a situation such as this. It's a pity, dear fellow, how the years have dimmed your edge.

Oh, Leona....

I'm confused. When you shadow somebody, does that mean you stand six feet behind them? Like the way Ted Lewis used to do that "Me and My Shadow" bit on stage? That kind of shadowing? But if that's what's going on here, shouldn't one of them be wearing a top hat and carrying a clarinet?

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Ever wonder what the Andrews' Sisters' family life was like? Now you know.

It was a gentler time...

Imagine the look on Nick's face when John's first order of business is to haul him up before a grand jury...

Buzzard? Naw, I actually never noticed it till now, but Mama actually looks very much like an angry chicken about to peck.

That's an awful lot of work to accomplish in one day, kid. Why not pace yourself?

Dad Kroywen set all this up. You know he did.

Mr. Zambolis's slack-faced droop in panel four indicates he's heard this joke before. Many, many times before.

Whoa.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Behan was suspended from all duties in the wake of his original arrest on October 21, 1938, and that suspension remains in effect....

With our without pay?

J...Following the play, the actor was accosted by his estranged wife Elaine Barrie, who dodged Blythe Diana Barrymore, the actor's daughter from a prior marriage, who was guarding her father, who finally was able to turn Miss Barrie away. The Barrymores then adjourned to Fefe's Monte Carlo, popular Manhattan night club, where Miss Barrie again appeared, grabbed Barrymore, kissed him, and begged in a loud voice for a reconciliation. Said Barrymore, "Well, well, this is like the gentle rains from heaven..." To the annoyance of his daughter, the actor left the club arm in arm with Miss Barrie with a wish of "pleasant dreams" their final benediction to the astonished crowd....

All this real-life drama was turned into movie scripts in the '30s and '40s - "The Rich are Always With Us," "In Name Only," "The Animal Kingdom" and so many more incorporate versions of these kind of marital / extra-marital contretemps into their stories. They can seem fake in a movie, but as we all know, this stuff happens in real life as, as we see here, the authors were just taking it from the headlines.

...
"Here, try some 'a this stuff, Joe. Might help ya mood."...

While orange juice is losing market share right now, prune juice seems to have all but disappeared. It was already on the way out (and the butt of many jokes) when I was growing up in the '70s, but you never even hear the jokes anymore today.

... Y'know, in the old days Hartford would have had a glib, slick story all ready to go in the event of a situation such as this. It's a pity, dear fellow, how the years have dimmed your edge....?

Based on your prior comments, HO does seem off his game. And can't you just hear the disdain in Jo's voice when she says "Where, Mr. Oakdale, do you suppose..." The "Mr. Oakdale" is the tip off.

... Oh, Leona.....

No street sense yet, but she'll learn - apparently - the hard way (the only way to really learn). Also, $2000 is ~$36,000 in 2020 dollars - that's some meaningful "protection" money.

... I'm confused. When you shadow somebody, does that mean you stand six feet behind them? Like the way Ted Lewis used to do that "Me and My Shadow" bit on stage? That kind of shadowing? But if that's what's going on here, shouldn't one of them be wearing a top hat and carrying a clarinet?

What we've learned this week from Dan Dunn and The Bungle Family is that shadowing people had not been perfected as a skill by 1940.

...
Ever wonder what the Andrews' Sisters' family life was like? Now you know.....

One, "Meanwhile Broadway buzzed with reports, as conflicting as any from the Finnish front." Thank you.

Two, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" - no relation to Victor Schoen suitor. Good on you Daily News.

Three, another example of real-life stories being perfect script fodder; although, the Andrews' mother and father seem like model parents compared to Mary Astor's or Jean Harlow's.

...
It was a gentler time.......

Seriously. I've ridden the subway for over three decades and, while I've seen some crazy and some insanely rude one-offs, men "rushing wildly for subway seats" is not a regular problem. Again, there are some bad one-offs, but overall, for all the crowding and rushing, the behavior is mainly very civil.

... Imagine the look on Nick's face when John's first order of business is to haul him up before a grand jury.....

Even more importantly, is there a hanger on earth wide enough to hold Gatt's thug's overcoat?

...
That's an awful lot of work to accomplish in one day, kid. Why not pace yourself?....

Yes it is and a great example of how having an all-consuming anger punishes the angry person the most. Justified or not (and who among us hasn't been wronged egregiously in life), it usually ruins the angry person's life more than anyone else's.

As to our point the other day about comic soft-porn, I submit today's completely-unnecessary-to-the-story drawing in panel number two.

... Whoa.

Double whoa.

Also, excellent art work overall, in particular, in the third panel.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I would guess that Lt. Behan was suspended with pay, given his rank and seniority. However, googling around it seems that he was suspended from the force once before, back in 1920 for some unmentioned offense. There is more to this fellow's story than has been told.

As Mr. Worf has so often pointed out, prune juice is a warrior's drink.

Cheery is someone who could have benefitted immeasurably by therapy. Self-loathing is clearly the root of all her issues, and it goes very deep -- she wants revenge on her father for the fact of her existance? That's dark.

That fellow on the train with the paper -- take a good look. That nose, that hairline, that build -- that cigar. Is that Truck with glasses and a different hat? Did he finally have enough of Ma Lovewell and decide to Pull An Oakdale on the wedding? Hmmmmm....

 

[Fading Fast]

...Cheery is someone who could have benefitted immeasurably by therapy. Self-loathing is clearly the root of all her issues, and it goes very deep -- she wants revenge on her father for the fact of her existance? That's dark......

Yes it is.

...That fellow on the train with the paper -- take a good look. That nose, that hairline, that build -- that cigar. Is that Truck with glasses and a different hat? Did he finally have enough of Ma Lovewell and decide to Pull An Oakdale on the wedding? Hmmmmm....

If so, awesome plot layering.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Kings County Judge Franklin Taylor says he'll appear before Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen's grand jury only if he is subpoenaed to do so. In a bitter letter to Amen, the Judge all but admitted that he had no evidence to support his statement before a Flatbush luncheon club that the "smell of a frame-up" hung over the case of Lt. Cuthbert Behan, but he also declared that he fully stands by that statement, noting that he "followed the Behan case in the press," and that in his opinion, "it has that characteristic odor." Judge Taylor further stated that if he does receive any evidence to support his claim, he will present it to District Attorney William O'Dwyer, as the "only proper official" to receive such information, and not to the Amen Office. The Judge also dismissed Amen's invitation for him to appear before the grand jury as "an abortive publicity attempt," and declared his belief that such an inquiry "shouldn't be stifled within the secrecy of the grand jury chamber," and that it should not be conducted by "the inquisitor whose failure to obtain conviction stares in the face of the public."

There is no response yet to Judge Taylor's letter from Mr. Amen, who was reported to be conferring to a late hour with his associates.

Communist Party secretary Earl Browder, free on bail pending appeal of his conviction on passport conviction charges, cannot be legally barred from the ballot in the coming election for a Manhattan Congressional seat. So ruled both the City Board of Elections and the Manhattan Supreme Court in dismissing complaints about Browder's candidacy from former Democratic/anti-New-Deal Congressman John O'Connor and former Republican alderman Lambert Fairchild. The Court and the Board, in rejecting the petition to strike Browder's name from the ballot found no Constitutional basis for such an action. Browder will be opposed in the election in the 14th Congressional District by Democratic and American Labor Party candidate Michael Edelstein and Republican Louis J. Lefokowitz.

A Brownsville gang leader reputed to be "as bad as Dillinger" has been indicted on first-degree murder charges for a slaying six years ago. Abe Reles was arrested yesterday for the 1933 killing of 19-year-old Alex "Red" Alpert. Reles, a notorious Brownsville figure, has been arrested a total of 44 times in a long criminal career, and had been out on $1000 bail on a vagrancy charge when police picked him up early this morning. Also arrested and indicted in connection with the Alpert murder were two other suspects, Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein and Anthony "Duke" Maffetori. The three are charged with killing Alpert on the night of November 25, 1933, and dumping his body in the yard of a house on Van Silven Avenue. The killing is believed to have been in reprisal for Alpert's having squealed on four men caught in a holdup. In the six years since the murder, Alpert's mother has appeared almost daily at the Miller Street police station, beseeching police to catch the killers of her son.

The city's first "Negro Magistrate" is now a legal resident of Brooklyn, clearing the way to his elevation to a seat on the Special Sessions bench. Magistrate Myles A. Paige has moved with his family from Manhattan to 474 McDonough Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, qualifying him to fill the position as Special Sessions Court Judge made vacant by the retirement of Brooklyn Justice Alfred Van Blunt. Mayor LaGuardia is reported to have promised Magistrate Paige the position, conditional on his relocation to Brooklyn. Paige has served as a magistrate since September 1936, and is a graduate of Howard University and Columbia Law School.

John Barrymore's co-star in his current play "Too Many Children" expects to be fired any day now -- and replaced by Barrymore's on-again off-again on-again wife Elaine Barrie. Doris Dudley, who plays the daughter Barrymore's character spanks in the production now playing at Manhattan's Belasco Theatre, told reporters at the 21 Club that she anticipates being replaced by Miss Barrie within the week. Miss Dudley, a "Barrymore protege," was originally given the role during the play's Chicago tryout run, after Miss Barrie quit the cast because Barrymore spanked her "too realisitically." Miss Dudley called Miss Barrie "a very ambitious young lady," and when asked if she herself was also an ambitious young lady, admitted that she was. "But my name," she noted, "is not Elaine Barrie." Asked about her feelings about Barrymore himself, Miss Dudley noted that "he needs somebody so badly. He's a very lonely old -- no, I won't say old -- he's a very lonely man, and he has a spent mind."

The judge in the murder trial of Long Beach Patrolman Alvin J. Dooley ordered all women spectators and two high school boys out of the courtroom after someone giggled while an obscene statement from Dooley concerning the shooting of Mayor Louis F. Edwards was read aloud in court. Defense Attorney Samuel J. Leibowitz offered several expert witnesses to support his argument that Dooley was legally insane when he shot the mayor last November 15th,

Spring Hats Are More Hat -- and Less Nonsense!

(Just don't get that veil caught in any elevator doors.)

Looking for something new in nightclub entertainment? Enjoy the stylings of psychoanalyst Miss H. Van, appearing nightly at the Morillon, smartest restaurant and cocktail lounge in Brooklyn!

(Psychic readings too!)

The opening of "Gone With The Wind" at Loew's Metropolitan was everything that could have been hoped for, with thousands of the borough's great and near-great watching Civil War-garbed soldiers escorting hoop-skirted Brooklyn belles into the theatre while pickets protesting the film's "anti-Negro attitude" marched silently nearby. Herbert Cohn was of the company for opening night, and found that the picture hasn't gotten any shorter since he saw it on Broadway, but it seems even more overwritten on a second viewing. The performances are fine, however, with the standout performance belonging to Miss Olivia deHavilland, who gives the role real sincerity.

The New York Americans are putting distance between themselves and the National Hockey League cellar, with last night's win over the Chicago Blackhawks putting them five points above the last-place Montreal Canadiens.

Larry MacPhail says baseball better get its financial house in order, or it risks losing its place as America's preeminent sport to pro football or some other contender. The Dodger president, speaking to a baseball writers' dinner in Boston, cited potential dangers to the minor leagues posed by Commissioner Landis's recent ruling on farm system operations as a problem that must be resolved to ensure that the sport remains on a solid footing.

Fred Apostoli faces Mario Bettina in a 15-round non-title bout at Madison Square Garden tonight, to be broadcast by Sam Taub and Bill Stern at 10pm over WJZ.

"Bug-eyed fake adventure fans." Why, Josephine, of whomever might you be speaking?

Clearly the Club Buccaneer does not operate under an AGVA contract. Sorry, Leona, you'll have to do as they say.

"Within a week." Hah.