The Era -- Day By Day

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Between Mrs Jarvis and Ms Barrie there lies Terrence, our celibate heroic lad whose veracity is dared questioned by fender head brass elders. Dear Mr Caniff needs spice this strip to accord newscript salaciousness since Mrs Jarvis knifed Sir Lancelot to her Guinivere fourteen years her junior. Same date her son.
And Canniff stays script to celibacy while homefront women proceed to simultaneously rob cradle and coronate cuckold horns before adding dagger to stir witch cauldron.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Now, see, honey, t'is is how it's gotta be," wheedles Sally, as Leonora hunches bitterly in her lap, oblivious to the rattling as the train rolls on thru the Hudson Tube. "Ya gotta be nice t'awlese utteh kids, see -- an' don' yell at'm, don' call'm bums, an' don'..." Leonora interrupts this instructive moment with a loud SPPPPPPPPPPPPT, followed by a satisfied giggle. A pinch-faced man with a homburg perched atop his head like a wart on a pickle frowns over his folded copy of the Herald-Tribune, and harumphs at the scene before him. "In my day, young woman," he admonishes, "we knew how to deal with a misbehaving child! There was no need of any of this 'child psychology!' We lived by the simple motto, 'spare the rod..." "Ahhhhh, pull in ya face, gran'pa," retorts Sally. "Mine'ja own business why don'cha!" "SPPPPPPT!" reiterates Leonora, following up her statement with a pointed "YA BUM YA!" "Now, t'at ain' nice," admonishes Sally, as the homburg-wearer scowls his opprobrium. "Ya don't go cawlin' a guy like t'at a bum. He ain' no bum, now. He's a buttinski!" "Buminski!" attempts Leonora. "Close enough," nods Sally. "T'at's tell'n'm," grins Alice.)

Two little old ladies who wandered off a train at Pennsylvania Station and lost a wallet containing $1304.41 will get their money back today thanks to a bank clerk from Jamaica who found the money on the sidewalk. Eighty-seven-year-old Mrs. Emma Jane Lane of Kent Hill, Maine and her sister 77-year-old Mrs. Cora Lena Stevens of Tampa, Florida wandered off their Florida-bound train during a stop at Penn Station Thursday night, and were found by police sitting on a bench in Stuyvesant Park during the height of that evening's storm, and were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where Mrs. Lane discovered that in her confusion she had dropped the wallet containin her life savings. The billfold was noticed on the corner of 5th Avenue and 14th Street by Corn Exchange Bank clerk William J. Wright, who kicked it, suspecting it to be a practical joke -- but when no string was attached, he examined the contents and found the money. Wright turned in the wallet at the nearest station house, where police found Mrs. Lane's name inside and were able to reunite the grateful lady with her cash.

Authorities stated today that twice within the past two weeks someone has tampered with the radio transmitter serving the control tower at LaGuardia Field, and an investigation is underway. An airport official confirmed that one day last week, an unknown party broke into the building housing the transmitter and removed the fuses, causing a disruption in communications with planes coming into the field. Entry was gained by forcing a window. That incident, the official continued, followed an earlier incident in which airport security found an unauthorized ladder propped against the side of the transmitter building.

("A very saad case, Joseph," sighs Uncle Frank. "A veerrry saaad case." "I wouldn' min' havin' a dawg," replies Joe. "Not'nnat place we live in now, ain' no room, but maybe afteh t'wawr..." "A daaahg is a foine companion," nods Uncle Frank. "Twenty-two dahhgs, on the otharr haand, prove that tharr can indeed be too mooch of a good thing..." )

Magistrate Thomas A. Aurelio, accused of declaring his "undying loyalty" to Frank Costello, noted underworld character said to have engineered the jurist's nomination by Tammany Hall for a seat on the Supreme Court in the 1st Judicial District, today announced his resignation from the bench, and declared that his future will be "up to the voters." Aurelio's action forestalled an attempt by the City Bar Association to have the Appellate Division remove him from his Magistrates Court seat, a step which under a law adopted this year, could bar him from holding a high court position even if he is elected to it. In his resignation letter addressed to Mayor LaGuardia, Aurelio repeated his statements that he knew nothing of Costello's background when the alleged gangster helped him to obtain the Democratic Party nomination for the Supreme Court seat. He asserted that no one in his 21 years of service has ever influenced his official conduct, and pledged that "no one will be able to do so in the future." Aurelio's name will remain on the ballot on both the Democratic and Republican tickets, and he will be opposed by Matthew V. Levy, nominated by a fusion of the American Labor Party and breakaway Democratic groups, and by George Frankenthaler, an independent running with sponsorship by a Republican faction.

(Too bad Dan Dunn's closing down, this would be a perfect case for him.)

The Eagle Editorialist shrugs over the coming World Series, acknowledging that no Brooklynite, with the Dodgers 21 games out of the running, can really put their heart into a Cardinals-Yankees matchup. But hopefully the Series will offer a welcome diversion for the boys overseas, who "await sports news with almost as much interest as they await the arrival of letters from home."

A Sea Gate woman, convinced her 2 year old daughter was suffering from syphilis, slashed the child's throat and wrists. The child, Enid Schenk, is in critical condition today at Coney Island Hospital. Her mother, Mrs. Katherine Schenk, is being held at Bellevue Hospital on a charge of felonious assault. The child's father, Frederick Schenck of 4405 Atlantic Avenue, told police he heard his daughter's cries yesterday and broke into the locked bathroom to find his wife running water over bleeding wounds on the child's wrists and kneck made with a safety razor blade. It was indicated that what Mrs. Schenk thought was syphilis was actually "a harmless milk rash."

(WAIT TILL THE YEAR AFTER NEXT YEAR! Well, maybe if Reiser avoids tripping over a kettle of peeled potatoes and separating his shoulder...)

With the Dodgers one victory away from clinching third place, Leo Durocher is reported to be making plane reservations to be back in Brooklyn on Monday, bright and early, to confer with Branch Rickey over the matter of his employment in 1944. If any.

(I don't know as I'd call the 1930s a disappointment for Miss Grable. How many other 13-year-old chorines got to make a Technicolor picture with Eddie Cantor?)

(Yeah, but you gotta admit "Waxey Gloss" is one of the best gangster names ever. I wonder what his other names are. "Yellow Buildup?" "Glo Coat?" "Norubbin Nobuffin?")

(As I think I pointed out the last time he showed up, this is truly a non-Euclidean robot.)

(And we end not with a bang but with one last lame anti-Irwin joke. I hope Norman Marsh comes back from the war and punches Alfred Andriola in the face.)

(SORRY KID YOUR TRANSPARENT SCHEME TO ESCAPE THE BONDS OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION HAS FAILED)

(I'm surprised "Stiletta" hasn't caught on as a baby name.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Upstairs over the store, Ma Sweeney ponders the news of the draft, recalls the fate of her own husband, and considers what might possibly be done...

Just be sure they won't fit in a subway turnstile.

Never trust a happy doctor.

There are no strangers, only friends you haven't met.

Careful, Mr. Gray. We don't want a story about building permits.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. We just can't get the material for veils this season -- it's all going to the Army for mosquito nets!"

Better hurry before she puts it our for scrap!

Willie's in a better mood today, he got rid of the funeral suit!

Child Protective Services will see you now.

And wait'll you try my scungilli!

 

[LizzieMaine]

And also...

Well, let's think this thru...

 

[PrivateEye]

You're supposed to wait till the season's over before you light the Hot Stove..

OK, It's official now. What a disaster.

Unfortunately I don't see any hope for next season either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's a hell of a thing to root for two different teams in two different eras, and have your heart broken by both. Branch Rickey and Chaim Bloom must be related.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's a hell of a thing to root for two different teams in two different eras, and have your heart broken by both. Branch Rickey and Chaim Bloom must be related.

Yup. Rationally, I knew my 1943 Dodgers season and 2023 Yankees season were both over in August. At least 2023 had all those new rule changes that truly made the game so much better (now, get rid of the ghost runner). I know it will never happen - the playoff money is too good - but I wish they'd go back to just two pennants races and a World Series formant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And, I must point out, we never did get that Dolph Camilli Day we were promised. WHAT ABOUT IT MR RICKEY?

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Y'don' hafteh get t'san'wiches, Ma," declares Sally, as the family gathers in the apartment above the store for a Sunday lunch. "I c'n do it." "Oi c'n get me own san'wiches, daughter," huffs Ma. "Oi'm not a complete invalid. You sit right thaar now. Come along, Francis, Oi'll load the tray an' you c'n carry it out." "Anyways," resumes Sally, "you wouln' b'lieve what t'is woman said, t'is dame f'm Hempstead. She says to me, she says, 'that child of yehs is a reg'leh juvenile d'linquent.' An' do you t'ink I stood f't'at? I soitenly did not. I sez to heh, I sez..." She is interrupted, however, by a loud clatter from the kitchen. Joe and Sally leap up and race to the kitchen, afraid that Ma may have fallen ill again, only to find Uncle Frank, red-faced, gathering shards of broken china, from the kitchen floor. "You awright, Ma?" blurts Sally, as Joe kneels to help Uncle Frank with the mess. "Oi'm fine," chuckles Ma. "But thaat old fool, he wallked roit into the edge of the taable!" "It's not my faalt, Nora," protests Uncle Frank. "I must'a poot on youuur glaaases this marrnin' boi mistake!" "'Magine'at," snickers Joe. "SAAAANNA CLAUS!" comes a piercing yelp from the parlor. Joe and Sally exchanged puzzled glances and race out of the kitchen to find Leonora staring at the Eagle, spread out on the table before her, and gesticulating wildly at the photograph of George Bernard Shaw. "SAAAAAANNA CLAUS!" she repeats. "FUN!" she adds, pointing to the headline. "She ain' no juvenile d'linquen'," declares Sally, grinning with pride. "She's a genius!")

Disastrous wartime inflation has been prevented thus far, but the battle has not been won, directors of three economic stabilization agencies agreed yesterday. Observing the first anniversary of the passage of the stabilization act of October 2, 1942, Economic Stabilization Director Fred M. Vinson, War Labor Board chairman William H. Davis, and Price Administrator Prentiss M. Brown praised the American public for cooperating with the various Government control measures. All warned that "unremitting efforts are necessary to prevent damage done by the many inflationary factors which will continue thru the war period." It was revealed yesterday that a proposed program to roll back the prices of apples, oranges, onions, potatoes, peanut butter, and vegetable oils would reduce the overall cost of living by 2.3 percent. In addition to those reductions, the prices of fresh vegetables would be reduced approximately 15 percent from last winter's costs.

Food Administrator Marvin Jones last night sent special crews of food production officials to farm meetings in all 48 states to outline a tentative farm program for 1944 calling for a record-breaking 380,000,000 acres of crops, with high production quotas set for meat, dairy products, and eggs. The goals, if approved, would give the nation a slightly higher food supply than in 1943, providing weather conditions are favorable, but with a projected reduction in the meat supply. An increase in the beef quota would be offset by a decline in production, due to a reduction in feed supplies , of pork, lamb, and mutton.

Operators of 102 gasoline stations in the metropolitan area have had their gasoline supplies revoked by the Office of Price Administration for periods ranging from a week to six months. The investigation by the Office of Price Administration into the operation of black-market gasoline dealings found a wide range of violations of rationing regulations, including the sale of fuel without collecting the required coupons, accepting loose coupons and coupons without proper written endorsement, and restricting sales only to regular customers. Twenty-one of the suspended stations are located in Brooklyn, with 31 in Queens and one in Nassau County. Several dealers were suspended for violating ceiling price regulations during the summer gasoline shortage, with some violators selling gasoline for prices as high as $1 per gallon. Chief OPA District Enforcement Attorney Mitchell Jelline warned service station operators that all coupons turned in are carefully examined, and that "it is impossible for any dealer to continue black-market operations without having his transactions uncovered."

("Hymie Caplin!" snorts Alice, seated on the stoop while Krause the super swabs down the garbage cans on the sidewalk. "Good ol' Hymie! Didn' we uset'a have fun!" Krause emits an indecipherable sound, and applies his scrub brush with greater vigor. ""S'matter," chuckles Alice. "Y'jealous? Aw, don' be, it wasn' nut'n serious. We jus' wen' out t' Leon 'n Eddie's now'n'nen, had a few laughs. He was a real spawrt, Hymie was. Awrways wen' fois' class, y'know? Hey, we otta go up't Leon 'n Eddie's sometime, y'know t'at? See'f any'a t'ol' bunch is still aroun'." "Neh," shrugs Krause. "What?" questions Alice. "You know a betteh place t'have fun?" "Yeh," nods Krause, shooting Alice a meaningful glance. "Oh," replies Alice, a slow grin creeping across her features. "Yeh," chuckles Krause, applying his brush with a satisfied flourish.)

(Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick...)

In Hollywood, red-haired Joan Barry entered a hospital delivery room last night, prepared to give birth to a child she claims was fathered by Charlie Chaplin. Already christened "John (or Jane) Doe Chaplin" in the eyes of the law, the child was expected by this morning, with physicians for both Miss Barry and the white-thatched Chaplin standing by. Four months from now, those two doctors and a third appointed by the court, will conduct a blood test on the baby intended to determine whether the film star could or could not possibly be the infant's father. Should the former finding prevail, the actor is expected to face a paternity suit which will have many movieland bigwigs waiting nervously to testify. Chaplin, meanwhile, married 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, last June.

Police say "high school students who didn't know any better" were responsible for anti-Semitic vandalism in Jamaica, Queens yesterday. Anti-Jewish slogans were crudely daubed in yellow paint on the windows of at least four stores along two blocks of Jamacia Avenue.

(Woo hoo, let's clinch third place today. Whoopeee.)

A record crowd is expected Tuesday at Yankee Stadium for the opening of the World Series, as the McCarthymen set out to take revenge on the high-flying Redbirds for last year's defeat. The Yankee management has made arrangements to handle a predicted crowd of 75,000 fans daily at the big stone house in the Bronx, but in St. Louis, where Sportsman's Park is only half the size of the Stadium, fans are expected to be even boisterous in their efforts to gain seats or the games to be played there. The clever gentlemen who run the nation's betting books have laid on the Yankees as 7 to 5 favorites, but a $5 bet on the Cardinals to win would only get you $6. Yankee pitching and home-run punch are said to be the factors leaning the oddsmakers to the New York side, since the bookies, as bettors well know, always play the percentages.

Several Dodgers will not be present for today's season-ending game in Cincinnati. Kirby Higbe has already left the club for a rendezvous with his draft board in Columbia, South Carolina, where he is marked for early induction. Luis "Chico" Olmo is bound for Miami, where he will catch a plane back to his native Puerto Rico. And Coonskin Curt Davis, Frenchy Bordagaray, and Les Webber are preparing to join a barnstorming team that will perform in various cities and towns out West as part of a war bond tour. How many of these fellows will we see again next year?

(Don't worry, Strand stagehands. Trigger travels with his own cleanup crew.)

(I bet Roy Rogers wouldn't let him just run off like that.)

(I bet the neighbors just love Rear Adm. Howard L. Vickery. And we all know the Duke's real profile faces to the right.)

(Next week: Scarlet O'Neil meets Not Li'l Abner!)

(Somebody skinned a perfectly good Sears & Roebuck couch to make that suit. And you can imagine that Mr. Davis was thoroughly fed up by the end of that game.)

(So I guess this really is the end of the line for "Dan Dunn." It hasn't been the same since Mr. Marsh left, and I haven't much cared for the efforts to slick it up since then, but like any long-standing habit, it'll be hard to break. We'll see what we pick up tomorrow to take its place, and in the meantime, I hope Irwin finds whatever it is that he's looking for, that Kay and Harrington are happily going on with their lives, that Babs will grow up despite an abandonment complex, and that Wolf will join a K-9 unit where he may happily go on eating faces in the service of democracy. And Dan, well, keep 'em flying, and if you run into Sparky Watts, tell him we miss him...)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And also...

(America's Biggest Small Town is not going to stand for any nonsense from you kids.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Jack Topping is the dissolute playboy brother of Dan -- Football Dodgers owner, Mr. Sonja Heine, and marginally less dissolute playboy -- Topping, so you see how it runs in the family.

Careful with that space heater, or you'll answer to the fire watchers!

"Hmmm! A MALPRACTICE INVESTIGATION!"

I much prefer the Sunday Gooneyville election story to the daily hire-a-contractor story. That tussle with the syndicate really messed up Mr. Gray's routine. Meanwhile, Annie shares her page today with "Tiny Tim," by Stanley Link, and if Tim reminds you a little too much of Chester Gump, there's a reason. When Gumps creator Sidney Smith was killed in a car wreck in 1935, Link was his top assistant, and expected to take over the strip. But he lobbied Captain Patterson a bit too hard for the job, and the assignment went instead to sports cartoonist Gus Edson. Link was given "Tiny Tim" as a consolation prize, and out of spite, he made it as Sunday Gumps as he possibly could. Ah, cartooning, a savage business.

Leonora would agree that there is no beet like a dead beet.

AND OUR SPECIAL GUEST AS MOTHER HUBBARD, MR. J. EDGAR HOOVER. Meanwhile, "Sweeney & Son" is a Sunday filler strip that's run for years and years without making much of an impression, but Al Posen is well liked by his colleagues, and does a lot of charity work, so why should we criticize? And no, this Sweeney is no relation to Ma.

By order of General R. Echelon Chickens**t.

WILL YOU EVER BE AN ADULT? I mean, look at Herby there, he's almost thirty.

You know who the real juvenile delinquent is? JUDY WALLET is the real juvenile delinquent, OK?

Caniff compresses an enitre two hour movie into ten panels.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Mr Caniff has this celibate comic down cold as ice. Trust me, towheaded Terrence should have more on his mind than what is served here cold and should make a pass over some nurses or a sumptuous hot Peking duck. And speaking out loud that Mike from Dann Dunn is a comely lass sure.

 

[Fading Fast]

With comicstrips dropping out or being shrunk and new ones popping up, I'm just glad "Terry and the Pirates" continues as is and in reasonably large size. And great call, Lizzie, it was a condensed movie today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Caaaaaarful with that milk, Joseph," admonishes Ma, entering the store from the back stairway as her son-in-law mixes himself an egg cream. "Aw, do'worry, Ma," replies Joe, stirring the drink to a proper froth. "We got t'd'livery jus' like we was spos'ta. An'nit says right inna papeh t'shawrtage's on'y inna city." He pauses to take a sip. "Soives'm right," he adds, finding the beverage to his satisfaction. "You be sure'n pay f'that now," reminds Ma. "And wharr's Hops Gaffney? He was supooosta be in with the baaag boi now." "Don' worry 'bout nut'n," urges Joe. "You still awta be takin' it easy. Me 'n Uncle Frank got ev'y'ing unneh control down'eah. Whyn'cha go back upstaiehs an' lissen t'radio. Awmos' time f'Ma Poikins. T'at's a pretty good stawry, y'know t'at? Nice ol' lady runnin' a lumbeh yawrd." "Stuff 'n nonsense, Joseph," scoffs Ma. "Here, haand me that bag of nickels, I'll take 'em oopstairs an' coont'm." "If Frank Costella drops by," snickers Joe, "I'll tell 'im y'busy." "What?" "Nut'n." Ma hides a chuckle as she shuffles back up the stairs.)

The refugee Danish press service said today that Heinrich Himmler, Nazi Gestapo chief, has reportedly arrived in Copenhagen to oversee the deportation of Danish Jews to Germany and Poland. Gestapo agents and members of the pro-Nazi Danish Free Corps have already rounded up more than 1600 Jews in Denmark, according to the press service, but added that 500 to 1000 others have escaped across the narrow Oresund to Sweden. Those Jews forded that strait in all sizes of craft despite the risk of being sunk by German shore batteries or patrol boats. Some reportedly paid up to 3000 kronar ($500 to $600) for the passage, while others swam. A Stockholm newspaper reported bloody clashes when some Jews resisted Nazi arrest. Meanwhile, Swedish authorites aided the arriving refugees. Among those arriving at Malmo was Niels Henrik David Bohr, winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1922.

Allied forces were reported to be in full possession of Finschhafen and the entire Huon Peninsula after a 93 day campaign that has weakened Japan's hold on all New Guinea. A spokesman for General Douglas MacArthur indicated today that the General "would do more over the next year if they give us the means to do it."

In Hollywood, Joan Barry declared that her baby daughter "is just perfect," and reiterated her assertion that Charles Chaplin is the child's father. Miss Barry revealed that she has named the baby Carol Ann. The famed screen comedian is paying all of Miss Barry's medical bills pending a paternity test to be conducted when the child is four months old. The baby has been placed in a private room with a padlock on the door, "to prevent any hocus pocus."

(Beeeeeeeeeefcake!)

Brooklyn law enforcement authorites are speculating today on the possibility that a crackdown on gambling houses in New Jersey has caused dice-game operators to transfer their activities here, as Magistrate J. Roland Sala prepared to prosecute thirty-one men arrested Friday night during what was described as "a professionally organized dice game." Named as principal defendant in the case is 31-year-old Salvatore Martorello of 29 Stryker Avenue, who is said to have operated the game at a house in the Coney Island district, and to have operated a "taxi service" transporting players to the house on West 16th Street from pickup points around the borough. Martorello furnished $5000 bail yeterday after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. Sala has ordered the Kings County District Attorney to appear in Coney Island Court on Wednesday to lead the prosecution against the defendants, and criticized the police for handling the case "in a piecemeal fashion" while failing to get "all the evidence." The arrests come as, in New Jersey, Attorney General David Wilentz opens an investigation into charges that gamblers in Bergen County have organized a transportation service carrying players across the George Washington Bridge , a charge made following investigations by New York authorites and the OPA.

("A $350 taffy-colored wig?" Somebody got swindled.)

The Eagle Editorialist praises President Roosevelt for his appointment of W. Averill Harriman as the new Ambassador to Russia. "We can think of no one better to represent the United States in Moscow," the EE declares, "and we feel sure that President Roosevelt's action will be as well received in Moscow as it has been here." Along with improving the United States' relations with the Soviet government, and with Mr. Stalin himself, the EE observes that the appontment, given Mr. Harriman's "big business" background, will also serve to widen the base of Roosevelt's political support in his expected campaign for a fourth term next year.

("Keep your eyes open, keep your mouth shut, and keep your fly buttoned.")

("Well'at's oveh," sighs Sally. "It's gonna be a long winteh." "Buncha bums," adds Leonora. "SPPPPPPPPPT!" "You said it, kid," sighs Alice. "Wait'll nex' yeeh, maybe?")

With the big league campaign over, Bushwicks owner Max Rosner will bring in a well-stocked team of Major League talent to take on the Woodhaven boys at Dexter Park next week. Al Campanis of the Dodgers, Buddy Kerr of the Giants, Frank McCormick of the Reds, Tony Cuccinello and Wally Moss of the White Sox, and Victor Rescigno of the Pirates will be among those suiting up against the Bushwicks next Sunday. Mr. Rosner expects to announce additional names as players are signed.

(With the retirement of Mr. Dunn, the Eagle rearranges its comic page. The Bungles move to the top of the main page instead of hiding out in the classified section, with, no doubt, the wedding of the season on the agenda.)

(Ask at any neighborhood drug store for "Knock Out" brand knock-out drops!")

(And we welcome to our daily postings the adventures of Jane Arden, Girl Reporter by Monte Barrett and Russell Ross. Jane is no fluttery sob-sister -- she's a tough-as-nails investigative reporter whose adventures carry her everywhere from the gutters of the underworld to the Russian front. Her current case has her working undercover for eccentric millionaire Philander Stun, who is determined to give away his entire fortune to deserving persons before he dies. Jane has been engaged to screen potential applicants for these bequests and weed out the con artists -- but one of those con artists is her assistant on the job, Flora, who, with her husband Flash, is determined to scam Mr. Stun out of his entire fortune. Incidentally, Jane usually works with an extremely Irwin-like sidekick named Tubby. You'll know him when he shows up.)

(You know, you'd think the word would get out that building a monster never works out well in the end. 21st century developers of A-I please copy.)

(Tomorrow: Junior runs away to join the Navy.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

In his autobiography "Witness To A Century," published in 1987, journalist George Seldes -- who was there -- relates an account of Mr. Flynn's escapade in Spain that -- ahh -- reflects rather badly on "Hollywood's Love Flower.

Nice to see Jimmy Gleason, always one of my favorite character actors, picking up some ad deals.

And that's what friends are for.

"Dick's Grill! A hive of scum and villainy!"

"Hey, it was YOU that called him 'Old Pruneface!'"

Wait'll you get the bill for the office call.

"You don't-a know who we are?"

A marriage of inconvenience.

The more time you spend around the Gumps, the Gumpier you get.

If there's one thing the 21st Century fad for head-shaving has accomplished, it's gotten rid of toupee jokes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And also...

Most passive-aggressive ad ever.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Ms Elizabeth, I read your Mr Seldes comment about Flynn in Spain, so spill spoilers please.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, Mr. Seldes declares at the outset of the book that in all his long life --he was in his mid-90s when he wrote it -- that of all the celebrities and world leaders he'd met, everyone from Lenin on down, three stood out as genuine irredeemable SOBs. One of them was Flynn.

According to Seldes, who, again, was there at the time, Flynn's entire presence in Spain was never anything more than a sleazy publicity stunt cooked up by his studio, including the false reports that Flynn had been either killed or wounded under Francoist fire depending on which paper you read. Our own Daily News went with "killed" --

Seldes, however, asserted, that Flynn was actually cavorting in a Valencia "whorehouse" when he was allegedly taking Franco bullets, and that Flynn's companion thru all of this was a known Nazi agent named Hermann Erben. He recalls Flynn showing up several days after his reported "death," sporting a fake bandage and making grandiose claims to reporters explain where he had been, before flying out of Spain without offering any actual aid to the Loyalists.

"Witness To A Century" is a fascinating book. Seldes had a lot of scores to settle, and he did so, but when you live to be 104 that's only natural...

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Thanks, I'll make note for Seldes' book.

I'd heard snippets about Flynn in Spain; Ernest supposedly detested him, but one doesn't know what to make of that considering the importance of being earnest, a bit slip Wildean but since it fits the bit, well and good.
Flynn, while not admirable nor sympathetic by any account, in retrospect looks a rascal bounder who bit off more than he could chew in Spain. Hemingway availed that fight to gather source material for Whom The Bell Tolls, writing his epic and its film advertizement I saw in the papers earlier. So to each their own.

Anything Ingrid Bergman and I am all in.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Yeh," gloats the deliveryman from Renken's Dairy, "sawry we'eh late witcha milk t'day, but we'eh awrf'l busy wit' Sheffiel's an' Bawrden's onna bricks. Lotta d'livries backed up." "Yeh, yeh," nods Joe, fiddling with a cheap table radio on a little shelf behind the counter, crackling as the crisp voice of Red Barber gives the batting orders for Game One of the World Series. "Huh," huhs the milkman. "Whatcha wanna liss'n t't'at mess fawr? Yankees voises Cawrdn'ls? Who caiehs?" "Um, I got reasons," stammers Joe. "Gawtta bet down, huh?" grins the milkman. "Not 'zackly," mutters Joe. "DID HOPS PICK UP THAT ENV'LOPE?" shouts a voice from upstairs. "AWL SET, MA," yells back Joe. "Ah," ahs the milkman. "Yeh," nods Joe, raising his finger to his lips as commentator Bill Corum takes over the mic to lay out the pregame dope. And you can tune in too -- right here: https://archive.org/details/classicmlbbaseballradio/1943+10+05+-+World+Series+Game+1+-+Cardinals+at+Yankees+Radio+Broadcast+Fixed.mp3)

The chairman of the taxation committee of the New York Board of Trade today urged Congress to enact a 10 percent sales tax, with no exemptions, as a substitute for the Treasury's present tax program. Chairman M. L. Seidman , appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee, asserted that such a tax would raise $6,000,000.000 per year in revenue, with "many additional billions" possible from the sale of war bonds to income taxpayers under an incentive arrangement by which they would benefit in proportion to their bond purchases. Seidman argued against any compulsory savings plan, or any increase in withholding rates from salaries, and urged avoidance of any excess-profits tax because, he claimed, it would be "impossible to administer."

Danish patriots have blown up two ships Nazis had intended to use to deport thousands of Danish Jews to Germany and Poland. Another group of patriots is reported to have stopped a police car containing inmates of a Jewish almshouse in Copenhagen, killed the Nazi driver, and freed the Jews. Additional sabotage incidents reported against Nazi occupation authorities in Demark include the destruction of an electrical transformer near Jibe, Jutland by means of "one of the most powerful bombs ever detonated in Denmark." German military barracks at Loekken were also burned to the ground. Reliable sources in Sweden report that approximately 2000 Danish Jews have crossed the Swedish border, half of them in just the past two days.

WIth the Third War Loan campaign due to conclude at midnight Saturday, Brooklyn still has a chance to meet its quota of $325,000,000. The borough is 10.8 percent short of that quota, with sales as of this morning totalling $289,013,100.

A famous Coney Island bar and grill was gutted early today by a two-alarm fire that briefly threatened amusement rides two blocks from Steeplechase Park. Lane's Original Irish House, known for the Irish singing and dancing acts that constituted its entertainment program, was destroyed in the blaze, as was the Erin Furnished Room House on the second floor of the wooden-frame building. Slight damage was done to an adjacent one-story building housing an amusement ride, the Modern Streamlined Scooter operated by Mrs. Anna Singer. Firemen from South Flatbush and Sheepshead Bay joined Coney Island fire crews in battling the flames.

(Names Out Of The Past Dept.: Mr. Attell was a key figure in the "Black Sox" scandal, believed to have been the middleman between the eight corrupt White Sox players and gangland figure Arnold Rothstien in the conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series. Charges against Attell were dismissed, however, after he convinced jurors that "another Abe Attell" was Rothstien's henchman.)

"The only difference between some of our landlords and Jesse James," declared the clerk of Brooklyn's 2nd District Municipal Court in a letter to Governor Thomas E. Dewey, "is that Jesse used a horse." Clerk Harry Wolkof made that charge, accusing Brooklyn landlords of war profiteering, in calling on the Governor to summon a special legislative session at the State Capitol to enact an emergency statue banning landlords from evicting tenants in holdover proceedings. The courts, argued Mr. Wolkof, are currently clogged with such cases, judges are powerless to help, and unless action is taken, he maintained, conditions will soon approach the emergency that existed during the First World War, when thousands of families and their belongings were thrown summarily into the street. The current wave of evictions are being brought by landlords under a current legal provision allowing them to evict month-to-month tenants on thirty days notice. "Many of these Jesse Jameses," asserted Wolkof, "go so far as to evict the families of men actually fighting on our far-flung battle fronts," while the landlords go on to re-rent their apartments at twice the rental formerly paid.

Meat purchases made by the city under a custom slaughtering arrangement with the meatpacking firm of Wilson & Company were "perfectly legal," according to former OPA Price Administrator Leon Henderson, who dismissed as "absolutely absurd" charges by Brooklyn City Councilman Walter Hart that Mayor LaGuardia's administration was engaged in "black market operations." Mr. Henderson flew here from Washington yesterday to testify in hearings on the matter before Commissioner of Investigations William Herlands, where he declared that the arrangement was "entirely lawful as to price and quota."

In Hollywood, film star Henry Fonda, acting under the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act, is seeking today to postpone "for the duration" a paternity suit filed against him by Mrs. Barbara Thompson. The suit alleges that Fonda, now serving as a quartermaster in the Navy, is the father of three-month-old Sharon Thompson, and seeks payment of $2000 per month in child support. The actor denies he ever met Mrs. Thompson and "did not harbor her in his hotel room."

(Well, it's a step up from "Miss Tin Can.")

(ANYTHING TO GET MY BIKE BACK!)

A Bedford-Stuyvesant man described by police as "the controller of a big policy ring" was being held today on $1500 bail for hearing on October 14th following arraignment before Magistrate Charles Solomon in Bridge Plaza Court. 40-year-old Walter Hare was arrested at his home at 630-A Halsey Street after police discovered more than 2000 policy slips concealed in a food basket. Hare admitted to police that he had been a policy collector for the past six months.

(Say what you will about the mighty Yankees, but they've still got a man on their pitching staff named "Goober Zuber.")

(Stop gloating, George.)

("Well, THAT's not very refined! What kind of respectable businessman ARE you?")

(Headache? Come with me, I know where you can get a $5 bottle of aspirin.)

(ROBOTS -- ALWAYS OUR HELPFUL FRIENDS)

(Kitty is the most sympathetic figure in all the comics.)