The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

...
("Hah!" hahs Joe. "I wonneh if Solly is goin' t' Irelan'. Watch out, goils!" "Irish goils c'n take care a' t'emselfs," sniffs Sally. "Oh yeah," acknowledges Joe. "Gee, I hope he makes it back.")...

"They have found...the girls pretty and easy to get acquainted with."

...The death of a pony in an accident in Prospect Park yesterday led to the arrest of a riding academy operator on charges of possession of a pinball machine. ...

Tell me a sentence you never thought you'd read.

...The Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn has received a $2500 grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to carry out a year's research on methods of immunization against the crippling childhood disease. Dr. Ulrich Friedemann, once a laboratory assistant to the great Dr. Paul Ehrlich in his native Germany, will head the project. "Thus far we are remote from the final cure for infantile paralysis," stated Dr. Friedemann. "But it might be tomorrow or it might be next year that someone will find it. We have hopes." Dr. Friedemann fled Germany in 1933 after the rise of Adolf Hitler, and a month ago became a citizen of the United States....

$2500 in '42 is about $43,000 today. Exactly how much research can one do in a year with $43,000?

"We need to buy lab equipment."
"Too expensive."
"We need to rent lab space."
"Too expensive."
"We'll need an assistant or two."
"Too expensive."
"We'll need to run some studies."
"Too expensive."
"Well, we'll figure it out. Let's just order in some lunch."
"Too expensive."
"Candy bars?"
"Don't pay more than a nickel each."
"Sigh."

...[
(Furfural is also found in coffee. Yum!)...

Sounds like Postum.

...Yankee outfielder Tommy Henrich, who was, you will recall, at the plate when the ball got away from Mickey Owen, has been reclassified by his Massilon, Ohio draft board from 3-A to 1-A. He is expected to enter the Army soon, but will, he says, "still be a Yankee."...

At least they didn't show the picture with the stupid arrow pointing to the ball again.

...
(They should play Shirley's feature first, she's still too young to stay up late.)..

Gene Tierney was clearly having an exotic and sultry moment.

...
Senga dancing with Josie outside Pop's house? See, that's a storyline we missed.....

Senga, with her dime-store sexuality and obvious scheming, was a fun character. It would be neat to have her pop up in China in a "Terry and the Pirates" storyline.

...
Those courses Mr. King took in high school finally pay off.....

"I'll start right now."
"Great, we'll get you registered as soon as your check clears."
"Check?"

... "Whew," thinks Annie. "I guess we'll stick around after all."...

"G'mornin' Katie."
"G'mornin' Katie."
"Good morning doctor - Good morning Annie."

That would be four more "good mornings" than were said in the entire 17 years I lived at home.

.. Merrily knows. She just does.

Despite two good-looking parents, Merrily looks like Wendy from "The Addams Family."

 

[LizzieMaine]

And as a bonus today here's an excellent appreciation of Milton Caniff's work from 2011, which aside from the analysis offers a look at just how much we're missing by not getting the color in the Sunday pages. A few of the strips shown get ahead of where we are in the story, but other than revealing that Cheery Blaze and Singh-Singh are due one day to return there are no major spoilers.

https://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2011/09/caniff-momentum/

 

[Harp]

So do the two.

Eamon De Valera was a native born American, dedicated Irish nationalist, and a thoroughgoing ba***rd
complicit in the murder of Michael Collins. Winston Churchill hated him, but Dev reciprocated and kept
Ireland Southie adamantly neutral; shades of Mother India portent stired inside cauldron lit by war.

 

[Fading Fast]

And as a bonus today here's an excellent appreciation of Milton Caniff's work from 2011, which aside from the analysis offers a look at just how much we're missing by not getting the color in the Sunday pages. A few of the strips shown get ahead of where we are in the story, but other than revealing that Cheery Blaze and Singh-Singh are due one day to return there are no major spoilers.

https://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2011/09/caniff-momentum/

Enjoyable read even with the modern obsessive politics. Thank you for posting it.

This "...both text and art signify to the reader, both are “read.” Caniff was prodigiously talented at both and it is their interlocking orchestration that marks his mastery...." is so true.

 

[Harp]

Dragon Lady seems a shamrock thrice, Chiang, Mao, and herself. A divisive pitch as to assimilating
allies, patriotism being the last refuge of scoundrels for piratical purpose.

Poker wise she's playing the percentages-neither Chiang K nor Mao own cojones nor brains sufficient to
contest or countenance her; which Dragon Gal knows; toss in Tokyo and Gal holds an inside straight,
Uncle Samuel kibbitzer for now.

And that blouse and pants outfit sez it all.

Pat, typical confirmed Irish bachelor cannot see the shamrocks for the pasture.

 

[ChiTownScion]

So do the two.

Eamon De Valera was a native born American, dedicated Irish nationalist, and a thoroughgoing ba***rd
complicit in the murder of Michael Collins. Winston Churchill hated him, but Dev reciprocated and kept
Ireland Southie adamantly neutral; shades of Mother India portent stired inside cauldron lit by war.

He also- according to some reports- blew up any chance of a united 32 county Republic of Ireland in the 20th Century. The price was an agreement to Churchill to allow the UK to use Irish ports for the duration of the war. The sticking point was De Valera having to deal with Ulster Protestants in a unified national government, which would have precluded any preferential treatment for his own church.

I'll also noted that his "neutrality" allowed for the extension of condolences to the German government upon the death of Hitler. When Roosevelt died earlier in April '45, no such condolences were extended to the United States.

A number of reasons to dislike the guy.

 

[Harp]

He also- according to some reports- blew up any chance of a united 32 county Republic of Ireland in the 20th Century. The price was an agreement to Churchill to allow the UK to use Irish ports for the duration of the war. The sticking point was De Valera having to deal with Ulster Protestants in a unified national government, which would have precluded any preferential treatment for his own church.

I'll also noted that his "neutrality" allowed for the extension of condolences to the German government upon the death of Hitler. When Roosevelt died earlier in April '45, no such condolences were extended to the United States.

A number of reasons to dislike the guy.

Dev correctly read the tea leaves regarding Orange sunshine and reconcile to be objective, a marriage made
in Hell; and, the Roman Catholic Church would never have temporal preference in any case.
Hitlerian condolences to Berlin would require telegrahic receipt beneath Soviet signature, and Churchill
passed FDR funeral. As William Manchester commented in his magnum opus The Last Lion his absence
did not hurt Churchill but it certainly neither helped him.

 

[Harp]

Fade, PI, Lizzie: take care and hunker down tonite and this weekend.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Not looking forward to this. Lost a bunch of shingles off my roof the last storm, and I hope this one doesn't take the rest of it!

 

[ChiTownScion]

The Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn has received a $2500 grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to carry out a year's research on methods of immunization against the crippling childhood disease. Dr. Ulrich Friedemann, once a laboratory assistant to the great Dr. Paul Ehrlich in his native Germany, will head the project. "Thus far we are remote from the final cure for infantile paralysis," stated Dr. Friedemann. "But it might be tomorrow or it might be next year that someone will find it. We have hopes." Dr. Friedemann fled Germany in 1933 after the rise of Adolf Hitler, and a month ago became a citizen of the United States.

Meanwhile, over at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, a young resident, the son and grandson of Ashkenazi immigrants, is dutifully making rounds. His name: Jonas Edward Salk. You'll hear a lot about him in about 13 years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

General Douglas MacArthur's new men have hurled back "headlong Japanese attacks" and US ships have raised their score to 16 Japanese vessels sunk or damaged in the battle for the Macassar Straits, it was reported today by the War Department. American Army Flying Fortresses, carrying out their third attack on the Japanese invasion fleet in the Macassar waters sank one Japanese transport yesterday and set another ablaze. Meanwhile, Japanese infantry sent headlong attacks against both the right and left flanks of MacArthur's lines, but these thrusts were said to have been broken up "with heavy enemy losses."

Japanese troops are now only thirty miles from Singapore, although Australian forces in slashing bayonet attacks are reported to have killed another 450 Japanese soldiers on the Malaya front. American and British planes are reported to have destroyed from nine to sixteen Japanese fighters over the Rangoon area today, losing only one Tomahawk fighter in the battle. One American pilot, a Texan, was slightly injured.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill won an overwhelming vote of confidence today in the House of Commons, after declaring that the A. E. F.'s readiness for early and close contact with the enemy has dimmed "Adolf Hitler's last remaining hope of total victory." The confidence vote came down in Mr. Churchill's favor by a margin of 462 to 1, with the only dissenting vote coming from Independent Laborite James Maxton of Glasgow.

Twenty agents of the U. S. Treasury Department face Federal bribery charges in connection with a bootlegging swindle reported to have cost U. S. taxpayers some $5,000,000 in uncollected revenues. The indictments charge that the agents, including two from Brooklyn and one from Queens, accepted cash bribes from manufacturers to allow diversion of supplies of denatured alcohol intended for use in hair tonic, lotions, and cosmetics, to bootleggers. The exact amount of industrial alcohol diverted and "washed" for the manufacture of bootleg whisky has not been determined, but Assistant Attorney General Harold M. Kennedy, in citing the estimated lost revenue at $5,000,000, stated that the racket has been going on since the day Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

A $200 cash bounty has been offered by a Manhattan manufacturer to any Naval crew sinking an Axis U-Boat off the North Atlantic Coast. Ralph M. Levey of International Looms, Inc. has sent a check for $1000 to the commandant of the Third Naval District to cover the awards, and will also offer an additional $100 donation to the Naval Relief Society if a sub is destroyed within a month of this announcement.

President Roosevelt today summoned FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to discuss ways and means by which the powers of the Bureau might be broadened in wartime. White House Press Secretary Stephen Early stated that "the President feels that the handcuffs ought to be taken off the FBI and put somewhere else," and indicated that expanded authority for FBI wiretapping against suspected spies and saboteurs may be expected.

("Aw," says Joe. "Solly's gonna be disappern'ed. Y'know, he won t' King Jittabug contes' downa pickle woiks t'ree yeeahs runnin'. Remembeh how he useta do aerials?" "Yeah," eyerolls Sally. "I remembeh 'at time he awmos' slung Mildred Hesselman right inna brine vat." "I aways said," ruminates Joe, "it wunna good idear t'have t' contes' right t'ere inna plant...")

A Howard Beach couple will appear in Queens Felony Court on February 11th on grand larceny charges, after they kept a lost purse containing $35 in cash and $1600 in jewelry. Fifty-six year old Peter Schwaberow and his 47 year old wife Clara 115-14 159th Street told Magistrate Peter Horn that the cash, and the money received from the sale of a ring found in the purse, supplemented the $12 iweekly ncome brought in by their son Harold in supplying the needs of the family of four. Schwaberow, who is unemployed, found the purse on Queens Boulevard just before Christmas, and upon examining its contents also found a drivers' license in the name of Mrs. Peary Kinnett of Kew Gardens. Mrs. Schwaberow told the Magistrate she had urged her husband to return the purse to its owner but he placed it on a shelf and left it there until food in the household became scarce and he took a small amount of the cash to buy groceries. This continued for several days until the cash was depeleted, and Mrs. Schwaberow then sold a ring from the purse to a Richmond Hill jeweler for $70. "We needed warm clothing," she explained. Police traced the family thru the jeweler's sales report. Mr. Schwaberow told the Magistrate that since finding the purse he has secured a $13 a week job in a rubber heel factory.

(The Plot Thickens.)

("Sorry, no sugar. You'll have to settle for corn syrup. Or Bosco.")

("Oh yeah? What about Rendering Unto Caesar?")

The head of the Brooklyn Public Library urges borough residents sending books to men in camp to make them the kind of books they want to read. "The boys aren't waiting for 'Little Women' or the Elsie Dinsmore books," commented Dr. Milton J. Ferguson, as he took charge of the Brooklyn Victory Book Campaign. "Soldiers won't find much satisfaction in a Modern Geography book printed in 1908, nor thrill to the 14th Annual Report of the Board of Underwriters." His remarks came as Army trucks picked up a load of 5000 donated volumes at the library's Ingersoll Branch at Grand Army Plaza. Eleven thousand books had been donated to the campaign, but Dr. Ferguson noted that over half had to be discarded because they were in poor condition, were outdated, or were simply inappropriate. Brooklyn's quota in the drive is a quarter of a million volumes.

(BILL TERRY? IS HE STILL IN THE LEAGUE???????)

The survival of schoolboy baseball in New York City is in doubt unless financial help is forthcoming. Such is the verdict of athletic administrators at the city's leading high schools, who warn that unless that help is provided, baseball programs are likely to be discontinued city wide within the next two years. A request to Mayor LaGuardia to free up frozen cafeteria funding for use by athletic departments to cover the costs of operating baseball programs has been proposed, and it is expected that a committee of athletic directors will also approach Larry MacPhail, Horace Stoneham, and Ed Barrow to urge the city's three big league clubs to help fund high school diamond programs. The administrators note that baseball is a very expensive sport to run at the high school level, but it brings in no cash returns on the investment, and in fact, is funded at most schools by surplus revenues from football. Abraham Lincoln High School at Coney Island has already indicated that unless financial aid is received, it will drop baseball as of next season.

Coach Abe Plaut of Lincoln High has a couple of additional suggests for Larry MacPhail. He notes that the Dodger Knot-Hole Gang program does not serve high school students over the age of 15, nor does it admit girls at all -- and he calls these rules "silly," noting that they serve only to turn away large numbers of potential fans. Plaut proposes that the Dodgers agree to admit holders of Lincoln High season baseball tickets free to selected Ebbets Field games, along with 150 teachers who would be assigned to "keep order." Plaut also suggests that once this program proves a success it could be extended to other Brooklyn high schools, thus building interest both in the Dodgers and in the high school game.

(Herb hits it right on the head. "Sullivan's" is one of my favorite films.)

(I wonder what Boody eats before going to bed.)

(Sometimes it's better just not to know.)

(C'mon, Tom, tuck your press card in your hat like Lee Tracy does.)

(I was wondering what Dimmler would have to say about all this.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Tall Bold Slugger Set Vivid Against The Little Soft Cities...

Usually when Jack shows up in these, he's getting punched in the face. His agent must've complained.

"Well," says Peggy Bungle Oakdale, "let me tell you..."

Marines need more teeth so they can smile big for the recruiting posters.

Zebra skin? So you're going for a classy, understated look?

"Tough day at the office?" You know you work in the mailroom.

Annnnnd it'll keep you out of trouble.

Well, to be fair, he *is* a Lord. I mean, what are the job prospects?

Please don't get a face lift.

The good doctor is clearly no psychiatrist.

Actually, she knows right down to the second how long it's been.

 

[Harp]

A film featuring David Niven that opens with narrative personification of a house captures
this embroglio splendor: life is capricious; and time waits neither man or woman. Still, male and female
both possess free will, while choice incurs consequence. Niven advises his niece, I believe, '...a door closes,
a train departs, and lives are forever changed...' Or words to this effect.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Twenty agents of the U. S. Treasury Department face Federal bribery charges in connection with a bootlegging swindle reported to have cost U. S. taxpayers some $5,000,000 in uncollected revenues. The indictments charge that the agents, including two from Brooklyn and one from Queens, accepted cash bribes from manufacturers to allow diversion of supplies of denatured alcohol intended for use in hair tonic, lotions, and cosmetics, to bootleggers. The exact amount of industrial alcohol diverted and "washed" for the manufacture of bootleg whisky has not been determined, but Assistant Attorney General Harold M. Kennedy, in citing the estimated lost revenue at $5,000,000, stated that the racket has been going on since the day Prohibition was repealed in 1933....

"Mine doesn't taste right, the gin is of an inferior quality. How's yours Bette?"
"Tastes fine, I'll have another."
"Why do you spell your first name that stupid way?"
"Shut up and drink your adulterated gin or I'll tell Eve to sleep with your too-handsome-for-you husband."

...A Howard Beach couple will appear in Queens Felony Court on February 11th on grand larceny charges, after they kept a lost purse containing $35 in cash and $1600 in jewelry. Fifty-six year old Peter Schwaberow and his 47 year old wife Clara 115-14 159th Street told Magistrate Peter Horn that the cash, and the money received from the sale of a ring found in the purse, supplemented the $12 iweekly ncome brought in by their son Harold in supplying the needs of the family of four. Schwaberow, who is unemployed, found the purse on Queens Boulevard just before Christmas, and upon examining its contents also found a drivers' license in the name of Mrs. Peary Kinnett of Kew Gardens. Mrs. Schwaberow told the Magistrate she had urged her husband to return the purse to its owner but he placed it on a shelf and left it there until food in the household became scarce and he took a small amount of the cash to buy groceries. This continued for several days until the cash was depeleted, and Mrs. Schwaberow then sold a ring from the purse to a Richmond Hill jeweler for $70. "We needed warm clothing," she explained. Police traced the family thru the jeweler's sales report. Mr. Schwaberow told the Magistrate that since finding the purse he has secured a $13 a week job in a rubber heel factory....

"Police traced the family thru the jeweler's sales report."

That's some good police work. (A similar thing happens in the 1948 movie "The Naked City.")

...The survival of schoolboy baseball in New York City is in doubt unless financial help is forthcoming. Such is the verdict of athletic administrators at the city's leading high schools, who warn that unless that help is provided, baseball programs are likely to be discontinued city wide within the next two years. A request to Mayor LaGuardia to free up frozen cafeteria funding for use by athletic departments to cover the costs of operating baseball programs has been proposed, and it is expected that a committee of athletic directors will also approach Larry MacPhail, Horace Stoneham, and Ed Barrow to urge the city's three big league clubs to help fund high school diamond programs. The administrators note that baseball is a very expensive sport to run at the high school level, but it brings in no cash returns on the investment, and in fact, is funded at most schools by surplus revenues from football. Abraham Lincoln High School at Coney Island has already indicated that unless financial aid is received, it will drop baseball as of next season...

It's odd that, as far back as '42, football was profitable at the high school level, but much-more-popular-in-general baseball wasn't.

...

O'Dwyer and LaGuardia working together, will wonders never cease.

...
(Herb hits it right on the head. "Sullivan's" is one of my favorite films.)...

For those who only know Ms. Lake from her noir performances opposite Alan Ladd, she really shows her range in this one. From what I read, she sabotaged her own career in several ways (drinking, being difficult on the set, contract fights), because otherwise, she should have had a longer and more successful one.

...
(C'mon, Tom, tuck your press card in your hat like Lee Tracy does.)...

Connie, Connie, Connie, that's not a hat a female reporter wears, you're not going to tea. Didn't you see "His Girl Friday."

...
(I was wondering what Dimmler would have to say about all this.)

LOL

... ually when Jack shows up in these, he's getting punched in the face. His agent must've complained.....

Funny you noticed that as Sandy, a good friend of Jack's, so likes his new agent, a few weeks back, Sandy talked Jack into replacing his old agent with Sandy's new one. Good move, apparently.

.... Zebra skin? So you're going for a classy, understated look?

"Tough day at the office?" You know you work in the mailroom.....

Some men don't want it; some men want it too often - what is a girl to do?

Ahem, as someone who worked one summer in a mailroom, I take umbrage. It's basically a job where you get yelled at for things you usually can't control. "I'm sorry, but that's all the mail you received today. No, you didn't get a large envelope. I understand it is important, but it didn't come it. Yes, I'll check again. No, I don't think we lost it. Yes, I'll call you the minute I see it."

... The good doctor is clearly no psychiatrist.....

Loretta, in panel four, is every kid, everywhere, at some time, thinking about their parents.

A film featuring David Niven that opens with narrative personification of a house captures
this embroglio splendor: life is capricious; and time waits neither man or woman. Still, male and female
both possess free will, while choice incurs consequence. Niven advises his niece, I believe, '...a door closes,
a train departs, and lives are forever changed...' Or words to this effect.

Are you thinking of "Enchantment?" mediaindex (from the very good Rumer Godden book "Take Three Tenses")

Comments on the movie here: #28348

 

[Harp]

Are you thinking of "Enchantment?" mediaindex (from te very good Rumer Godden book "Take Three Tenses")

Comments on the movie here: #28348

Read said, disagree lesson #1. Minors held legal guardianship until majority do not always suffer serious
consequences said; emancipation prior to majority can also occur whether by action-military induction-
or mutual consent-marriage- other examples. In cases rare, when a minor demonstratively mature
pursues emancipation valid reasons can occur to court's satisfaction.

And I am an incurable romantic despite my lifelong confirmed Irish bachelor status. So Niven's advice
to his niece to pursue true love rings truth, lights Diogenes' lamp, and past life experience proven.

#28357 right down the street.....Sarah Vaughn, Vic Damone, Billy Eckstein got it covered.

 

[Harp]

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Both Pat and Normandie pine away for yesterday and promised future happiness, which seem forever
within easy reach until reconcile when truth speaks a silent hidden truth. And, of course, the Second
World War is just outside the Sandhurst front door.

Mr Milton Caniff has boxed himself in with Raven's death. And now an illegitimate child, a loveless
arranged marriage, yet freely entered by Normandie, and World War II. Unless Caniff is willing to
erasure Anthony Sandhurst and thereby insinuate it's cartoonish wartime drivel some people are fated
to be irreparably hurt.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And Terry thinks *he's* got it rough...

 

[Harp]

Adolescence led Terry towards Quiotic errantry. A knight bereft Lord liege and set destiny,
chivilric though beholden to chance and fateful mercurial whim. His destiny set by the times
and turbulence of war torn China, a boy adrift within himself. Prince and pawn, cursed by Cupid,
lovelorn and in search of himself he drifts.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Not much of a birthday card, but in times like these you have to take what you can get...)

"To hell with the costs of getting war contracts thru to completion." That was the order today to American businessmen from War Production chief Donald L. Nelson. Pointing out that every weapon produced today will be worth two in 1943 and ten in 1944, Nelson told an audience of 250 business leaders of the National Association of Manufacturers in New York to "start turning out stuff and we can argue the terms at our leisure," even if this means resorting to "inefficient methods" to get the job done.

Adolf Hitler was reported today to be rushing airborne reinforcements to the northwest Moscow front as a Soviet war communique announced the recapture of 35 towns and villages in the Kalinin area, 100 miles from the capital, and further asserted that another 30 towns have been liberated in the south.

In Los Angeles, testimony in the murder trial of gangland figure Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel revealed today that film actor George Raft had interceded in Siegel's defense. In the testimony of film studio librarian Peggy Schwartz, the witness declared that Raft had telephoned her to arrange a conference with Siegel's attorney concerning her upcoming testimony on behalf of the State. Prosecution counsel acknowledged that Raft's actions were legal. Siegel, on trial for the murder of gangster Harry Greenberg to silence him as a potential witness against the Brooklyn Murder for Money Gang, grew up as a close friend of Raft in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.

(The war will mean a real boost for the already burgeoning consumers'-rights movement.)

(And the war will also mean a lot of people and institutions will be forced to discard or at least seriously question old prejudices and old beliefs.)

(And the war will also put a real crimp in the night life. But not yet.)

("It ain't whatcha know...")

("I'm very happy f' Mr. Hoiman," sniffs Sally. "When a man gets t'be his age, he's gotta worry 'bout his fyutcha security.")

(After a morning of shoveling-out, I wish someone would charge ME with cosmic rays.)

(Gaboraz? A Hungarian spy? Don't see too many of those.)

(Stonewalled!)

("But first -- would you care to join me in a sprig of parsley? It's part of my new vegetarian diet! Very cleansing!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the bareheaded land of shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, and rebuilding...

And so is born an early catchphrase of the war.

"Pinball? Hey, we'll get to it."

The last time Pat had dealings with the eminent Mr. Sandhurst, he almost ended up in prison. The stakes are higher now.

So I guess Gus has about a seven-week lead time.

"You don't understand, officer -- I HAVE TO act like this! It's part of my personal brand!"

Actually, Squint was hanging around a hotel bar in Phoenix when he got the message, but he's not gonna tell *you* that.

Adulting.

"But do you know how much I spent on that Charles Atlas course?"

You're in over your head, Doc.

Sometimes it's hard to figure who's trolling whom.