The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

I have friends who keep kosher -- except when they come to Maine and head to the nearest lobster joint.

Harold Gray is perhaps the finest of all comic strip artists when it comes to creating moods -- dark, ominous, forbidding moods. But his action scenes are -- well, weird.

View attachment 216157

When I was a little girl poring over the Sunday comics Punjab scared me to death. I wouldn't even look at the page if he was on it.

A friend of ours in our building keeps strictly kosher in their home (two refrigerators - the whole megillah), but will eat anything when they go out. It works for them.

Appreciate the color on Gray - it’s how it appears to me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Massed squadrons of Nazi aircraft flew over Paris today, and six Parisians were wounded by an errant anti-aircraft shell that left a hole two feet deep in a Left Bank street. Meanwhile, British reconnaissance planes flew over Berlin and other German cities today, with German news reports stating that one British plane was shot down over Hegoland. British authorities report that one German plane was downed today off the coast of Firth of Forth and one was downed over Northumberland. The British Admiralty reports that the naval base at Scapa Flow has been abandoned, with the battleship Banham and the flagship Nelson now in port "for repairs" after sustaining damage.

Finnish authorities now admit that Russian forces have pushed Finnish troops out of Arctic territories, with the Finnish lines now withdrawn to new lines near Petsamo. The Finnish Government has ordered the evacuation of all towns within twenty-five miles of Viipuri Bay.

City Council Vice Chairman John Cashmore is emerging as the front-runner for the position of Interim Brooklyn Borough President, with Councilman Joseph Sharkey, heretofore considered a leading candidate, now believed willing to swing his support toward Cashmore. Sharkey would inherit the Vice Chairmanship of the Council and the position of Council Majority Leader if Cashmore is appointed to replace the late Borough President Raymond Ingersoll until the November election.

The Canadian-born wife of accused murderer Ernest Walter Kehler will testify in her husband's behalf as his trial gets underway before Judge Peter Brancato. Mrs. Barbara Kehler has not seen her husband since he was arrested in December for the beating death of German Consular Secretary Walter Engelberg. Mrs. Kehler is the mother of a four year old son, and expects another baby within a few months. Mrs. Kehler refused to smile for photographers, declaring "There is nothing to smile about."

Menawhile, Judge Brancato has ruled that women will not be permitted to sit in on the trial as spectators, due to the "unsavory nature" of the testimony. Only Mrs. Kehler, her mother, and a woman reporter were allowed to remain in the courtroom. In his opening statement to the jury, Assistant District Attorney Burton Turkus accused Kehler, also known as Ernie Haas, of "deliberately and premeditatedly beating out the brains" of the German official in the bedroom of his Flatbush home in early December.

A sixteen-year-old College Point boy is dead today after leaping from the roof of a YMCA building in Manhattan. Joseph Rinaldi of 11-27 128th Street checked into the Sloane House at 356 W 34th Street this morning, drank a mixture of iodine and coffee, and then jumped from the window of his tenth-floor room. The youth left behind an envelope containing a note and what he described as his "last nickel," and a school composition book containing a detailed history of his life. The boy stated that all had been well until "JC taught me about sex," and that he had met a girl at a party and later found she was going to have a baby. He urged the girl to show the baby to his mother "so she will have something to remember me by."

The extortion trial of Dr. Abraham Ditchick resumed today after skipping two sessions due to the absence of several witnesses, and in respect to the memory of the late Borough President Ingersoll. With the trial back in session, it is now not expected that Dr. Ditchick will take the stand in his own defense.

A Forest Hills man charges that a popular radio program featuring aspiring amateur opera singers is based on his idea -- and he demands $500,000 in damages from the program's sponsor. Charles H. Freeman Jr., a concert manager, claims he created and copyrighted the program concept in 1935, and tried unsuccessfully to sell it to an advertising agency. He further claims that the agency then sold the idea, without credit or payment to him, to the Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland, Ohio paint manufacturers, under the title "Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air," for broadcast beginning in December of 1936. The program has aired regularly for that sponsor since that time, and Freeman maintains that the sale by the agency prevented him from selling his idea to another sponsor. Sherwin-Williams has twenty days to file a response to the suit.

New York City detectives will be scouring pawn shops for missing loot from the robbery-murder of jewelry dealer Samuel Rappaport. Inspector H. R. King of the Nassau County Police Department says a quantity of jewelry and two pawn tickets were taken from Rappaport's person before his body was thrown into Reynolds Channel near Long Beach. Among the missing items are a rectangular-shaped wristwatch in a platinum case and a diamond-studded dial, and a women's size-6 wedding ring, made of platinum with forty-six diamonds. Meanwhile, Nassau County District Attorney Edward J. Neary will ask a grand jury today to return a first-degree murder indictment against nineteen-year-old Jack Clifford Homer, former Long Beach lifeguard, who is accused of beating Rappaport to death with a tire iron.

("See," says Joe. "Everything ya need. You got a tray to put the cake on, a scale to weigh yaself after ya eat it, an' one a' these things to use to sweep up the crumbs." And Sally says "you know I don't bake no more, everything that comes outa that oven tastes like your feet.")

An admitted bigamist, awaiting sentencing in Nassau County Court, told the judge in his case that he had a third wife to go along with the other two. Thirty-four year old William Dunn of Flushing pleaded guilty to bigamy charges filed by his second wife, a Long Island City woman, and admitted he'd married a third time after that, to a Flushing woman in 1937. Dunn married for the first time in 1925 to a Manhattan woman, and admitted that he had two children by his first wife, one by his second, and one by his third. He will be sentenced on March 1st.

Art dealer John Geery, who committed suicide last week at his home in Garden City after the near-fatal lead-pipe beating of his business partner, left his entire estate to his wife. In a will dated April 19,1939, Mrs. Evelyn R. Geery was also named executrix.

Big cities are "cathedrals of loneliness," says Helen Worth. She advises lonely Miss C. H. to keep watching her column and maybe someone will respond to her letter.

Only two more days to see "Gone With The Wind" at the Metropolitan!

(Leona is all aflutter over that cute man she met at work, but Mary and Bill are all "whatever.")

Did you know the cost of your dog's license is tax deductible? It is -- and so is the amusement tax you pay on movie tickets, as long as the admission price is over forty cents, and also the Federal tax you pay when you buy a bottle of beer or a pack of cigarettes. Those are just a few of the tax angles you can work as you prepare your return, but you'd better hurry -- you've only got a bit over two weeks to go before the March 15th deadline.

Whit Wyatt's knee and Van Mungo's arm are the big Dodger question marks so far as pitching is concerned this spring. Manager Leo Durocher has the two hurlers doing extra workouts and conditioning exercises with Professor Artie McGovern in hopes of whipping them into full shape for the coming season. Says President Larry MacPhail, "there on that mat are the answers to how good our pitching will be this year. Those two ginks."

Meanwhile, Mr. MacPhail has a new idea percolating -- a Dodger team airplane, to carry the club on road trips, cutting out on tiresome railroad journeys. All the players are on board with the idea -- with one very large exception. Catcher Babe Phelps is terrified of airplanes, and the Blimp unequivocally refuses to fly. MacPhail doesn't actually have a plane yet, nor is one meeting his specifications currently available for purchase, but he expects this may change by mid-season.

Mark down Saturday, March 9th for what figures to be one of the most compelling dramatic broadcasts of the current radio season. James Cagney will on that date star in Arch Oboler's long-awaited adaptation of Dalton Trumbo's antiwar novel "Johnny Got His Gun." The film star heard Oboler was working on the story, and insisted that he be cast to play the title -- and only significant -- role in the production. Word from the Coast is that Cagney had been told that nobody could ever play such a part, and immediately rose to the challenge.

Meanwhile, there will soon be a third FM radio station on the air in New York. W2XOR, the frequency-modulation affiliate of standard-broadcast station WOR, will go on the air "in a few days," joining Major Edward Armstrong's W2XMN and W2QXR, affiliated with standard-broadcast station WQXR. Applications for eight other FM stations in the New York area are pending before the Federal Communications Commission.

Peggy's too small a fry for That Bold Oakdale Faker. He's angling for bigger fish.

MEET CUTE!

Wait, Lazy Dad's actual name is "Mr. Snooker?" And Mom calls her son "Snooker?" Must get confusing around the house, no wonder the kid wants out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And alas, today's Daily News is missing from the archives. The file copies are bound in volumes covering three days at a time, and the volume for February 27-28-29 appears to have walked away before it could be scanned. (I'll have to check and see if it's one of the ones I have stored under my bed.) But we do have the comics courtesy of Colonel McCormick's Chicago Tribune, a paper I ordinary wouldn't touch without rubber gloves. But that sacrifice I will make for the next three days so we don't lose any story threads. And here we go...

See what happens, Cap'n, when you take naps?

AXEL!!! You can tell he's evil because he has an Evil Goatee.

If "quackery" was a charge, half the ads in this paper would be illegal.

Tsk, tsk. What would Nina back home have to say about this?

Aw, Senga's got a heart after all. Sort of.

Everybody's all chummy now, but...

Put Moon and Senga together and you've got the recipe for a great Netflix sitcom.

 

[Fading Fast]

Massed squadrons of Nazi aircraft flew over Paris today, and six Parisians were wounded by an errant anti-aircraft shell that left a hole two feet deep in a Left Bank street. Meanwhile, British reconnaissance planes flew over Berlin and other German cities today, with German news reports stating that one British plane was shot down over Hegoland. British authorities report that one German plane was downed today off the coast of Firth of Forth and one was downed over Northumberland. The British Admiralty reports that the naval base at Scapa Flow has been abandoned, with the battleship Banham and the flagship Nelson now in port "for repairs" after sustaining damage.....

What the heck is a "masked" squadron of Nazi aircraft, what does that mean!? (Rereads sentence) Oh, "massed," squadrons - well now, that makes sense - carry on.

....

The Canadian-born wife of accused murderer Ernest Walter Kehler will testify in her husband's behalf as his trial gets underway before Judge Peter Brancato. Mrs. Barbara Kehler has not seen her husband since he was arrested in December for the beating death of German Consular Secretary Walter Engelberg. Mrs. Kehler is the mother of a four year old son, and expects another baby within a few months. Mrs. Kehler refused to smile for photographers, declaring "There is nothing to smile about."

Menawhile, Judge Brancato has ruled that women will not be permitted to sit in on the trial as spectators, due to the "unsavory nature" of the testimony. Only Mrs. Kehler, her mother, and a woman reporter were allowed to remain in the courtroom. In his opening statement to the jury, Assistant District Attorney Burton Turkus accused Kehler, also known as Ernie Haas, of "deliberately and premeditatedly beating out the brains" of the German official in the bedroom of his Flatbush home in early December.....

A pretty wife, a four-year-old son and a child on the way is the Hail Mary Kehler needs; it also argues (in that day) that he hadn't encouraged the homosexual advances of the victim. Otherwise, his odds are not looking good at this trial.

...A sixteen-year-old College Point boy is dead today after leaping from the roof of a YMCA building in Manhattan. Joseph Rinaldi of 11-27 128th Street checked into the Sloane House at 356 W 34th Street this morning, drank a mixture of iodine and coffee, and then jumped from the window of his tenth-floor room. The youth left behind an envelope containing a note and what he described as his "last nickel," and a school composition book containing a detailed history of his life. The boy stated that all had been well until "JC taught me about sex," and that he had met a girl at a party and later found she was going to have a baby. He urged the girl to show the baby to his mother "so she will have something to remember me by."....

JC's private "challenge" just became quite public.

...A Forest Hills man charges that a popular radio program featuring aspiring amateur opera singers is based on his idea -- and he demands $500,000 in damages from the program's sponsor. Charles H. Freeman Jr., a concert manager, claims he created and copyrighted the program concept in 1935, and tried unsuccessfully to sell it to an advertising agency. He further claims that the agency then sold the idea, without credit or payment to him, to the Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland, Ohio paint manufacturers, under the title "Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air," for broadcast beginning in December of 1936. The program has aired regularly for that sponsor since that time, and Freeman maintains that the sale by the agency prevented him from selling his idea to another sponsor. Sherwin-Williams has twenty days to file a response to the suit.....

Vic Norman would never have cheated Freeman out of his copyright.

...An admitted bigamist, awaiting sentencing in Nassau County Court, told the judge in his case that he had a third wife to go along with the other two. Thirty-four year old William Dunn of Flushing pleaded guilty to bigamy charges filed by his second wife, a Long Island City woman, and admitted he'd married a third time after that, to a Flushing woman in 1937. Dunn married for the first time in 1925 to a Manhattan woman, and admitted that he had two children by his first wife, one by his second, and one by his third. He will be sentenced on March 1st.....

I went back and checked, this is not the Navy Yard worker - Floyd Trimble - we read about a week ago who adamantly denied his bigamy/marriage to three wives. Luckily for us, there's another man out there with three wives.

...Art dealer John Geery, who committed suicide last week at his home in Garden City after the near-fatal lead-pipe beating of his business partner, left his entire estate to his wife. In a will dated April 19,1939, Mrs. Evelyn R. Geery was also named executrix....

This is going to be quite a complicated estate to settle. What, with the business corruption, insurance fraud, possible hiring of a hitman and the suicide - methinks this will take some time to sort out. Widow Geery might be waiting quite a long time for her settlement - and that's assuming anything will be left in the end.

...
(Leona is all aflutter over that cute man she met at work, but Mary and Bill are all "whatever.")....

This joke's been around for awhile as a key scene in 1935's movie "Alice Adams" has a young girl's modest-of-means family trying to "put on the dog" by eating fancy food in the dining room when she brings home for dinner a society boy she's dating. Hepburn plays the (irritating) social-climbing daughter; Fred MacMurray the society boy - probably ran at the Patio five years ago.

...Mark down Saturday, March 9th for what figures to be one of the most compelling dramatic broadcasts of the current radio season. James Cagney will on that date star in Arch Oboler's long-awaited adaptation of Dalton Trumbo's antiwar novel "Johnny Got His Gun." The film star heard Oboler was working on the story, and insisted that he be cast to play the title -- and only significant -- role in the production. Word from the Coast is that Cagney had been told that nobody could ever play such a part, and immediately rose to the challenge.....

My money's on Cagney killing it.

... Peggy's too small a fry for That Bold Oakdale Faker. He's angling for bigger fish. ..

Throughout time, including present day, many young men and women have had their lives ruined by unrequited love and rarely if ever is it worth it; I think we see Peggy's sad fate.

...
MEET CUTE!...

And an early example of a plot turn used in most rom-coms to this day. But, yeh, it's a cliche cause it is kinda cute when it works. That said, Ms. Leona, pipe ash doesn't excuse the dirty spoon. And why did the lights go out in the diner in the third panel?

... Wait, Lazy Dad's actual name is "Mr. Snooker?" And Mom calls her son "Snooker?" Must get confusing around the house, no wonder the kid wants out.

Seriously.

...
See what happens, Cap'n, when you take naps?...

I think we need to add Terry and the Pirates to our list of "needs a scorecard."

... AXEL!!! You can tell he's evil because he has an Evil Goatee.....

Annie's only alive because Alex violated the rule we spoke of earlier in the week of kill your enemies quickly, in your presence and absolutely verify their death - period full stop.

... If "quackery" was a charge, half the ads in this paper would be illegal....

At the risk of excommunication from Fedora Lounge - and noting that I have all but no knowledge of the politics of these 1940s papers - I will comment (as I run for cover) that the print quality of the strips coming from the Tribune is superior to the Daily News. So, where do I turn in my FL membership card?

... View attachment 216292
Tsk, tsk. What would Nina back home have to say about this?....

Who's Nina? It's still winter, but spring love seems to be in the air as Leona meets John and Skeezix meets Tula on the same cold day in February.

... View attachment 216293
Aw, Senga's got a heart after all. Sort of....

I get it's not a balance sheet, but still, she's got a way to go. That said, my first thought was that we'd see here trying to return it without a receipt, so, to your point, it's something.

...
Everybody's all chummy now, but.......

What happened, yesterday, Mazie was buying none of mama's nonsense?

...
Put Moon and Senga together and you've got the recipe for a great Netflix sitcom.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And someday Mr. William Dunn of Flushing will write a best-selling book, which will be turned into a movie and a TV series, called "I Wed Three Wives." Or at least he should.

There were a lot of cases like Mr. Freeman's during the radio era, which eventually led to the current television-industry practice of only accepting series ideas, story premises, outlines, and scripts from accredited agents and not over-the-transom freelancers. I don't believe his case will succeed, since "Metropolitan Opera Auditions Of The Air" will continue to sell paint well into the 1950s, but at least he tried.

I wonder what Mrs. Geery will do when Chiang Kai-Shek shows up looking for his cut?

The Cagney "Johnny Got His Gun" is one of the most searing radio broadcasts I ever heard. Judge for yourself here:

The Tribune, specific politics aside, was the epitome of a "fake news" operation under Col. McCormick -- if stories didn't jibe with his preferred point of view, reporters and editors were required to out-and-out fabricate "facts" to make them fit. George Seldes, who worked for McCormick as an overseas correspondent in the 1920s until he couldn't stomach it anymore, wrote witheringly about the experience in "Lords Of The Press." Any historian presuming to cite the Tribune as a source during McCormick's lifetime forfeits all credibility.

That said, though, I think the reason the scans look better is because whoever did the scanning job for the Tribune was much more careful about it. The News scans show every indication of having been rushed by someone who was working under a daily page quota without much concern over the quality of the work -- some days it's necessary to go thru multiple editions of a given day's paper to find images that aren't blurred or overexposed. The quality of a scan really does make a difference -- note the linework in today's "Annie," looking like some kind of woodcut or steel engraving.

Nina is Skeezix's high-school sweetheart. When he left last summer for The Big City, they reached an Understanding. They aren't exactly engaged -- and it certainly isn't the drama-filled codependency like you have with Harold and Lillums -- but they fully expect to be one day, and it's a bit unexpected to see Skeez so blithely swanking around with this Tula. Watch it kid, you never know what kind of trouble you might get in.

 

[Fading Fast]

...I wonder what Mrs. Geery will do when Chiang Kai-Shek shows up looking for his cut?....

...The Cagney "Johnny Got His Gun" is one of the most searing radio broadcasts I ever heard. Judge for yourself here:

....

Really looking forward to it and will report back after time permits a good listen.

...That said, though, I think the reason the scans look better is because whoever did the scanning job for the Tribune was much more careful about it. The News scans show every indication of having been rushed by someone who was working under a daily page quota without much concern over the quality of the work -- some days it's necessary to go thru multiple editions of a given day's paper to find images that aren't blurred or overexposed. The quality of a scan really does make a difference -- note the linework in today's "Annie," looking like some kind of woodcut or steel engraving.....

It is amazing how much better these scans look - Annie and Tracy in particular. It's encouraging me to consider looking into books, but the last thing I need is another "project" related to book buying.

A...Nina is Skeezix's high-school sweetheart. When he left last summer for The Big City, they reached an Understanding. They aren't exactly engaged -- and it certainly isn't the drama-filled codependency like you have with Harold and Lillums -- but they fully expect to be one day, and it's a bit unexpected to see Skeez so blithely swanking around with this Tula. Watch it kid, you never know what kind of trouble you might get in.

Your opinion: is Skeez cheating on Nina by "swanking around" with Tula? I've never gone that route, but my experience watching friends is "unclear understandings" rarely end well.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think Skeezix doesn't think he's cheating, he's just palling around and it's all innocent to his mind. But I wonder what he'd think if he got a letter from home from Nina saying how much fun she's having hanging around with his old pal Tops.

The Library of American Comics series from IDW Publishing has some very fine collected editions of both Annie and Tracy -- really high-quality reproductions of the art taken from original syndicate proofs, and each volume holding two years of strips. The Annie series is up to 1952-53, and the Tracy books are up to 1974-76, so you need a lot of shelf space to cover them all. They also have Terry, from the beginning until Caniff gave up the strip at the end of 1946, so that one, with only six volumes to collect, is more manageable.

I wish when they get done with these they'd do similar collections for "The Gumps" and "Harold Teen," but if they did I'd have to take all the furniture out of my house to make room for more shelves.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think Skeezix doesn't think he's cheating, he's just palling around and it's all innocent to his mind. But I wonder what he'd think if he got a letter from home from Nina saying how much fun she's having hanging around with his old pal Tops.

The Library of American Comics series from IDW Publishing has some very fine collected editions of both Annie and Tracy -- really high-quality reproductions of the art taken from original syndicate proofs, and each volume holding two years of strips. The Annie series is up to 1952-53, and the Tracy books are up to 1974-76, so you need a lot of shelf space to cover them all. They also have Terry, from the beginning until Caniff gave up the strip at the end of 1946, so that one, with only six volumes to collect, is more manageable.

I wish when they get done with these they'd do similar collections for "The Gumps" and "Harold Teen," but if they did I'd have to take all the furniture out of my house to make room for more shelves.

Great information and I'm enticed, but I can't, I just can't (he tells himself anyway).

 

[Fading Fast]

...
The Cagney "Johnny Got His Gun" is one of the most searing radio broadcasts I ever heard. Judge for yourself here:

....

Very, very impressive performance by Mr. Cagney - he was a singular talent.

 

[Fading Fast]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Removal of the Fulton Street L and other elevated lines will cost the city an estimated total of $2,550,000 according to a plan prepared by city controller Joseph McGoldrick. The plan, submitted to the Board of Estimate, proposes a two-fold plan that allocates $2,000,000 for the Fulton Street demolition project, and an additional $500,000 to remove most of the 5th Avenue line, with $50,000 more to demolish an idle section of the Broadway spur running along the Williamsburg Bridge. In addition to the money alloted for L removal in Brooklyn, McGoldrick proposes $8,000,000 worth of work to eliminate the 9th and 2nd Avenue Elevated lines in Manhattan. A prolonged and bitterly-contested hearing is expected on these projects, with Bronx residents claiming that removal of the Manhattan lines will leave them with insufficient public transportation options, and the Transport Workers Union oppose demolitions that will eliminate jobs.

Great Britain has opened talks with Canada toward the opening of contraband control bases on the Canadian west coast to halt US trade vessels bound for the Soviet port of Vladivostok. The British government is also in the process of opening talks with the United States to request curtailment of US shipments of rubber, tin, and copper to Vladivostok. The moves come as the House of Commons considers tightening the economic blockade on Germany by preventing the import of goods entering the country via Russia.

For the second consecutive night, RAF scout planes flew over Berlin and other German cities and naval bases. The flights were protested by the government of the Netherlands, arguing that the British violated Dutch neutrality en route to Germany, and Dutch anti-aircraft batteries were reported to have fired on the "trespassing planes."

Ernest Walter Kehler, on trial for the murder of German consular secretary Walter Engelberg, today asked his wife to leave the courtroom as testimony turned to the "unsavory details" of the case. Mrs. Barbara Muriel Kehler and her mother sat on a bench outside the courtroom as the doctor who first examined Engelberg's body described its condition and the bloodstains in the room. Dr. Ludwig Cibelli of 85 St. John's Street told the court how impressed he was at the neatly-folded condition of Engelberg's clothing, carefully placed on a bedroom chair. Dr. Cibelli, under cross examination by defense attorney Leo Healy, stated that he saw no perfume bottles or lace doilies on Dr. Engelberg's dresser, observing that the only item he noticed in the room that seemed unusual was a toy gun such as a child might play with.

Eight stores of the Hanscom Baking Company chain, including two in Queens, were struck by vandals overnight, who shot out the plate glass windows of the stores with metal pellets, likely fired from a high-powered air gun. Police are watching all fifty-seven of the chain's outlets around the city, after company president Maurice Gottfried described the incidents as "acts of sabotage." Robert Smith, general manager of the firm, denied that the company is experiencing any sort of labor troubles, and could not explain why anyone might seek to "sabotage" the stores.

A twenty-nine year old graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, despondent and unemployed, took his own life at his family's home on MacDonald Street, using an electric chair of his own construction to accomplish the act. Edward W. Talbert Jr, "a Negro," with training as an automobile mechanic and a refrigeration technician, constructed the chair using stripped lamp cord carefully attached to metal plates strapped to his head by rubber bands. He plugged the device into the power socket, and snapped on the light switch, instantly electrocuting himself. His last words before going into his room, according to his father, were "you would think it was a crime to want a job. A high crime."

C.T.H. writes to Helen Worth looking for advice on how to deal with feeding a family of six on a fluctuating income. She says some weeks the family has $40 a week to live on, some weeks $29, some weeks as little as $22, due to the uncertain nature of her husband's job, and with all the various demands of such a large family, the week's stipend is usually gone by Thursday, leaving two days without money until the next payday. Helen suggests trying to budget as though she received $25 every week, but she'd really rather C. T. H. get direct advice from readers who have experience dealing with similar situations.

Nothing says spring like a new boiler.

If you want to add twenty years to your life, chew your food slowly and carefully. So declared Dr. Joseph Montague, editor of Health Digest magazine, in a lecture delivered to the Brooklyn Heights Catholic Club. Dr. Montague's lecture was illustrated with motion pictures showing the ill effects of eating and drinking in haste.

(I know Mr. Miller has a reputation as a stern and humorless fellow, but jeez, can't Patty, Maxine, and Laverne try to look a little less unhappy about working with him?)

The Eagle Editorialist has his back up about an ad for Oscar Levant's current book "A Smattering of Ignorance." The ad, by publisher Doubleday Doran, includes a quote dismissing Brooklyn as "a banality." The Editorialist fumes that Brooklyn, with its population of more than 2,800,000 is not as banal as Manhattan, with only 1,662,000 inhabitants, and declares that the author of the ad displays more than a smattering of the product advertised in Mr. Levant's title.

A 92-year-old Civil War veteran who was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg died yesterday at his home on West 9th Street after a brief illness. Terence O'Neill enlisted in the Navy at the age of fourteen, and when that enlistment expired, he transferred to the Army with the 37th New York Infantry. Following the war, he worked for twenty-five years with the Department of Highways. Following his retirement, he enjoyed going to the movies, a practice he kept up until two years ago. He was one of the last surviving members of Winchester Post 197 of the G. A. R.

The state Court of Appeals has reversed the conviction of the operator of a nude attraction at the World's Fair. The court agreed with Harry R. Dash's contention that his operation of the "Congress of Nudes" at the Fair last summer did not constitute disorderly conduct.

Dodger third baseman Cookie Lavagetto has come to terms for 1940, signing a contract for $10,000 -- an estimated $2000 less than he wanted. The Lavagetto signing frees up Larry MacPhail to focus on his major holdout headache for the spring, first baseman Dolph Camilli, of whom MacPhail says "I don't care if he wants to come to Florida or stay in California with those eight children of his. He's had the club's final offer." As for as the other holdouts on the roster -- Dixie Walker, Mel Almada, and Lindsey Deal -- MacPhail says he doesn't care if they sign or not.

("See, ya hold that end of the bat. An' when he pitches inside on ya, ya take the other end and an' ya shove it up his...")

"The Rains Came" is the Worst Film of 1939 according to the Harvard Lampoon. The melodrama based on Lewis Bromfield's novel headed the Ten Worst Films list released by the editors of the undergraduate humor magazine at Harvard University. Also named for giving The Consistently Worst Performances of The Year were Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour, with newcomers Richard Greene and Ann Sheridan named "Least Likely To Succeed." MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" was named "Biggest Flop of 1939."

Former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Smedley Butler told the Port Washington Teachers Association last night that Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles "will not get a damn thing done" during his tour of European capitals. General Butler declared in his lecture that Welles will "go and call and look pompous, and eat a lot of rich food and drink a lot of good-healths, sit in a rowboat and go fishing" but will accomplish nothing else on his trip.

Comic-magazine hero Superman is on the air by electrical transcription three afternoons a week over WOR. The new children's adventure serial can be heard every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:15 pm.

Light dawns over Marblehead?

The post office wall maybe?

OK, Mister Secret Operative, this has gone on long enough. Let's see a badge here. Let's see some ID.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And even though we don't have the Daily News, we pop over to the Out of Town Newsstand to find...

+1 to today's title writer.

Don't look so innocent, kid. You haven't told all you know.

Does Tula have a couch?

"Counteess? What ees thees foolishment? I am a Ducheeess!"

Mixology, 1940 style.

Tracy's facade of cold rationality cracks to reveal the seething emotional turmoil within.

Some how I don't think "Igor" is her brother, cousin, or gay best friend.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Eight stores of the Hanscom Baking Company chain, including two in Queens, were struck by vandals overnight, who shot out the plate glass windows of the stores with metal pellets, likely fired from a high-powered air gun. Police are watching all fifty-seven of the chain's outlets around the city, after company president Maurice Gottfried described the incidents as "acts of sabotage." Robert Smith, general manager of the firm, denied that the company is experiencing any sort of labor troubles, and could not explain why anyone might seek to "sabotage" the stores.....

I don't want to live in a world where we accept random acts of violence against bakeries.

...A twenty-nine year old graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, despondent and unemployed, took his own life at his family's home on MacDonald Street, using an electric chair of his own construction to accomplish the act. Edward W. Talbert Jr, "a Negro," with training as an automobile mechanic and a refrigeration technician, constructed the chair using stripped lamp cord carefully attached to metal plates strapped to his head by rubber bands. He plugged the device into the power socket, and snapped on the light switch, instantly electrocuting himself. His last words before going into his room, according to his father, were "you would think it was a crime to want a job. A high crime."....

Very sad and disturbing.

...

(I know Mr. Miller has a reputation as a stern and humorless fellow, but jeez, can't Patty, Maxine, and Laverne try to look a little less unhappy about working with him?)....

...The state Court of Appeals has reversed the conviction of the operator of a nude attraction at the World's Fair. The court agreed with Harry R. Dash's contention that his operation of the "Congress of Nudes" at the Fair last summer did not constitute disorderly conduct....

Nils T. Granlund And His Colony Of Naked Sun Worshippers Star At New York’s World Fair (1939)
https://flashbak.com/nils-t-granlun...ers-star-at-new-yorks-world-fair-1939-362652/

This is a first for me for an FL 1939 World's Fair topic; I felt I couldn't post the pics in the article.

Today, it would be a snore, but in the day, I have to believe this was a minor sensation.

..."The Rains Came" is the Worst Film of 1939 according to the Harvard Lampoon. The melodrama based on Lewis Bromfield's novel headed the Ten Worst Films list released by the editors of the undergraduate humor magazine at Harvard University. Also named for giving The Consistently Worst Performances of The Year were Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour, with newcomers Richard Greene and Ann Sheridan named "Least Likely To Succeed." MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" was named "Biggest Flop of 1939."....

I like "The Rains Came -" plenty of star power with Myrna Loy, George Brent, Tyrone Power and a sexually sizzling performance by little-known Brenda Joyce. Brenda left and her leg right

...Comic-magazine hero Superman is on the air by electrical transcription three afternoons a week over WOR. The new children's adventure serial can be heard every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:15 pm....

Had to memorialize this event in some way:

... The post office wall maybe?...

Probably, but if not, could be an old society beau slumming it (they seemed to do that) - I've been waiting for her old and new worlds to meet.

... OK, Mister Secret Operative, this has gone on long enough. Let's see a badge here. Let's see some ID.

"I don't like to give advice" uh-huh.

...[
+1 to today's title writer.....

"Hi'll bust yer back wi th' flat o' me sword -" For a reasonably successful arms dealer in a dangerous part of the world, he seems not to recognize the parameters of his immediate situation.

"I am aware of the roundhead's treachery...you will be please to know that he will be shot - at the same time you are!"
- Uh, well, thanks, I guess.

...[
Does Tula have a couch?....

But baby it's cold outside.

...
Tracy's facade of cold rationality cracks to reveal the seething emotional turmoil within.....

Obviously, the strip went on, but if the baby died and Tracy was convicted, it would have gone out in a blaze of Greek Tragedy hubris.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That bakery thing is suspiciously close to what happened to my car earlier this month. I wonder if they were actually aiming at the bakery next door?

That wasn't even the most notorious of the nudie shows at the Fair -- that honor probably goes to "Twenty Thousand Legs Under The Sea." Yes indeed, strictly high class, educational exhibits out there at Mad Meadow.

If Supes doesn't get his hand off the mike stand the director is going to come out of the booth and swat him. Bad, bad technique.

The dialogue in today's Terry is delightfully ripe. Caniff should've written B movies in his spare time.

I can't actually imagine any concurrence of circumstances that would cause Skeezix to do what is the obvious thing for him to do here -- he's that square. But Wilmer would be up there in a minute. Maybe he is already. Hey Skeez, better go check. Just to be sure.

If the baby doesn't die, why is Tracy wasting his time as a cop? The world clearly needs his medical genius.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Governor Herbert H. Lehman today denounced state budget cuts proposed by legislative Republicans as "dishonest" and "plain hocus-pocus," arguing that the plan to reduce his $396,700,000 spending plan by $5,600,000, to obtain about $10,000,000 more by withholding certain state-shared taxes, and to pass a new law allowing the state to annex unclaimed insurance funds would only serve to create a massive state deficit. The governor's strong words signaled an end to the political truce which has characterized the first two months of the current legislative session. The Governor promised to expand on his attack on the GOP in a special message to be delivered before the Legislature on Monday night.

Russian troops have cracked the Mannerheim Line at a second point, and full occupation by the Red Army of Viipuri is now considered only a matter of time. Reports from Finland acknowledge that the Finns have been forced to fall back to new positions on the western half of the line. Soviet military announcements declared that Red Army forces have consolidated their positions about four miles outside the city of Viipuri in preparation for a final onslaught. The announcements also declare that Russian forces are "mopping up" Finnish forces on the line's left flank along the Gulf of Finland.

Six men were injured today, two of them seriously, in an explosion in a dye-manufacturing plant in Greenpoint. The blast destroyed a 500-gallon vat at the Reichhold Chemical Company's factory at 105 Bedford Avenue, blowing out every window on the North 11th Street side of the block, and filling the air with heavy, acrid smoke. About two hundred employees safely escaped the factory as several hundred persons living in the surrounding residential neighborhood gathered to watch emergency police and fire crews respond at the scene. The explosion occured when workers tried to put out a small equipment fire in the manufacturing room by throwing water on it, causing the hot mixing vat to detonate. No estimate is yet available on the extent of the damage to the factory. Trolley traffic on Bedford Avenue was tied up for twenty minutes as a result of the incident.

A ten-year-old Uniondale boy got a free ride in a police radio car after spending a frightening night locked in a closed motion picture theatre. Robert Fortuna decided to play hookey from school yesterday and take in a movie at the Hempstead Theatre. At some point during that show, he fell asleep. When he awakened, the theatre was closed and he was trapped in the darkened auditorium. After a panic-stricken night of strange noises and mysterious sights, the self-declared "Junior G Man" was discovered by a passing police patrolman who heard his cries and let him out of the theatre. The boy's parents had reported him missing earlier in the day .

The last surviving Jewish veteran of the Civil War celebrated his 94th birthday today at his home in Bushwick. Daniel Harris, the last surviving of 9000 Jews who served in the war, observed the occasion with his two sons, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and between puffs on his pipe, declared his support for a third term for President Roosevelt. Harris also denounced Adolf Hitler as a contemptible dictator who must fall because "his doctrines are based on hatred for the weak." Mr. Harris joined the Navy in 1864, adding two years to his age in order to qualify, and used the name "George Irving of Ireland" on his enlistment papers. He served aboard the war sloop Saratoga, and later volunteered for infantry duty with General Sherman on his march thru Georgia. He later went into the cigar business, and attributed his long life to smoking seven or eight cigars a day. His favorite memory? "Shaking hands with President Lincoln on the White House lawn."

A 38-year-old Ocean Parkway woman who tried on a corset in a shop and then refused to take it off or pay for it found herself before Magistrate Nicholas H. Pinto in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court. Miss Lillian Yellin was charged with petty larceny by Aaron Goldstein, manager of the Famous Fashion Shop in Astoria after she found a corset she liked and announced that not only wasn't she going to take it off, but she did not intend to pay for it. A police patrolman summoned to deal with the situation found himself flummoxed: "What in hell am I supposed to do," wondered Patrolman William J. Flanagan,"if she won't take the corset off?" Arrested and booked, Miss Yellin told Magistrate Pinto that she felt entitled to the corset because she'd bought another one at the Brighton Beach branch of Famous Fashion, didn't like it, and the manager there refused to make an exchange. "I complained but they wouldn't do anything," she fumed, "so I took this one and I intend to keep it." At that point, Miss Yellin's brother stood up and offered to pay for the corset himself and make a present of it to his sister, just to keep the peace. Mr. Goldstein accepted the proffered $8.50 and dropped the charge, and Miss Yellin left the courtroom in a high dudgeon at her brother over his unwanted intervention.

(Oh, how I'd love to play the role of Miss Yellin in a comedy sketch based on this story. With Billy Gilbert as Mr. Goldstein, Edgar Kennedy as Patrolman Flanagan, Grady Sutton as the brother, and James Finlayson as Magistrate Pinto.)

The defense in the case of Dr. Abraham Ditchick presented an array of bank officials and financial experts today in an attempt to show that the Manhattan dentist's recent heavy expenditures of money were connected to his activities as an investor and not to funds received thru the extortion of abortion doctors. Balance sheets offered as evidence indicated that Dr Ditchick has invested heavily in mortgage certificates since 1924.

Variety Is Spice of Lenten Menus! Vegetable Dishes Prove Timely Aid!

There will be no price gouging on food at the World's Fair in 1940, with operators of restaurant concessions required to adhere to a contract clause stipulating that no price may be charged for any item in excess of the prices that prevailed during the final month of the 1939 season. More than eighty restaurants, snack bars, and food stands will operate at the 1940 Fair, at every price range, and officials promise radio comedians will find no grounds to claim that a hot dog and coffee cost a dollar apiece.

Opening today at the Patio see another Consistently Bad Performance by Don Ameche in "Swanee River," with co-feature "The Invisible Man Returns."

A lurid jungle melodrama, a wholesome teen comedy, and the Pope. "Something for everyone." Although I bet His Holiness would be miffed to learn that he only gets third billing.

Gossip columnist Clifford Evans is amazed to learn that the showers in the women's changing room at the St. George Hotel swimming pool dispense perfumed water. (And just how, Mr. Evans, would you know about that?)

Down in Clearwater the Dodgers will play their first intrasquad game today, a five-inning contest designed to help shake the boys out of their early-spring ennui. Leo Durocher, with his throwing arm still taped, won't be taking the field, and he hopes rookie shortstop "Peewee" Reese will give him something to look at in the contest. With Pete Coscarart still on the holdout list, rookie Pete Reiser is expected to see some action today at second base, pairing off with fellow rookie Boze Burger.

Cardinals elder statesman Pepper Martin, one of the last of the original Gas Housers, celebrates his ninth birthday today. Pepper's a Leap Year baby, born February 29, 1904.

Fred Allen observes that Jack Benny is so cheap, when he goes to a restaurant he doesn't even tip his hat. As for Mr. Benny, he'll host another Allen -- Gracie, to be specific -- on his program next Sunday. Miss Allen will promote her campaign for President on the "Surprise Party" ticket, recently announced on the Burns & Allen program.

"How dare that Bold Oakdale Faker think he's too high hat for my daughter! I'll show him! Come, Peggy, we have planning to do."

Slot machines! Mayor LaGuardia will hear of this!

Ah, so we're doing "Angels With Dirty Faces" now, are we? If this doesn't end with Dan being led to the chair while screaming about being "yella!" I shall be very disappointed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And from the Out of Town Newsstand as we wait for the News to get itself sorted out...

Annie, maybe you should just stop talking now, and take care of this whole thing yourself. You know how.

Skeezix always does the right thing, even if it rouses the wrath of the Witch Of Endor.

If Andy had a jaw, it would drop.

"Take the drooling one away -- I have seen enough of him." Twiddle might be a spy, but he does have a gift for le mot juste.

"How many gallons?" Kayo has no sympathy whatever for a recovering alcoholic. No wonder this family's so messed up.

You'd think Pat would have explained the situation to Tess instead of standing there like a stolid meathead. Oh, wait....

So what's the deal with this guy? Russian name, indeterminate European accent, and he dresses like an off-duty matador. No wonder Senga messes around with schoolboys.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A ten-year-old Uniondale boy got a free ride in a police radio car after spending a frightening night locked in a closed motion picture theatre. Robert Fortuna decided to play hookey from school yesterday and take in a movie at the Hempstead Theatre. At some point during that show, he fell asleep. When he awakened, the theatre was closed and he was trapped in the darkened auditorium. After a panic-stricken night of strange noises and mysterious sights, the self-declared "Junior G Man" was discovered by a passing police patrolman who heard his cries and let him out of the theatre. The boy's parents had reported him missing earlier in the day .....

What he needed was intrepid theater manger @LizzieMaine who, I'll bet, gives the place a good once-over look before locking up.

...The last surviving Jewish veteran of the Civil War celebrated his 94th birthday today at his home in Bushwick. Daniel Harris, the last surviving of 9000 Jews who served in the war, observed the occasion with his two sons, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and between puffs on his pipe, declared his support for a third term for President Roosevelt. Harris also denounced Adolf Hitler as a contemptible dictator who must fall because "his doctrines are based on hatred for the weak." Mr. Harris joined the Navy in 1864, adding two years to his age in order to qualify, and used the name "George Irving of Ireland" on his enlistment papers. He served aboard the war sloop Saratoga, and later volunteered for infantry duty with General Sherman on his march thru Georgia. He later went into the cigar business, and attributed his long life to smoking seven or eight cigars a day. His favorite memory? "Shaking hands with President Lincoln on the White House lawn."....

I'm betting he was a no-nonsense guy.

...A 38-year-old Ocean Parkway woman who tried on a corset in a shop and then refused to take it off or pay for it found herself before Magistrate Nicholas H. Pinto in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court. Miss Lillian Yellin was charged with petty larceny by Aaron Goldstein, manager of the Famous Fashion Shop in Astoria after she found a corset she liked and announced that not only wasn't she going to take it off, but she did not intend to pay for it. A police patrolman summoned to deal with the situation found himself flummoxed: "What in hell am I supposed to do," wondered Patrolman William J. Flanagan,"if she won't take the corset off?" Arrested and booked, Miss Yellin told Magistrate Pinto that she felt entitled to the corset because she'd bought another one at the Brighton Beach branch of Famous Fashion, didn't like it, and the manager there refused to make an exchange. "I complained but they wouldn't do anything," she fumed, "so I took this one and I intend to keep it." At that point, Miss Yellin's brother stood up and offered to pay for the corset himself and make a present of it to his sister, just to keep the peace. Mr. Goldstein accepted the proffered $8.50 and dropped the charge, and Miss Yellin left the courtroom in a high dudgeon at her brother over his unwanted intervention.

(Oh, how I'd love to play the role of Miss Yellin in a comedy sketch based on this story. With Billy Gilbert as Mr. Goldstein, Edgar Kennedy as Patrolman Flanagan, Grady Sutton as the brother, and James Finlayson as Magistrate Pinto.)....

Always nice to know crazy didn't start with our generation.

We've heard of Magistrate Pinto before - right? Good casting choices Lizzie. Harry Morgan would also have been a good magistrate as he played the weary, put-upon judge / police chief having to adjudicate silly-crazy often and well.

...The defense in the case of Dr. Abraham Ditchick presented an array of bank officials and financial experts today in an attempt to show that the Manhattan dentist's recent heavy expenditures of money were connected to his activities as an investor and not to funds received thru the extortion of abortion doctors. Balance sheets offered as evidence indicated that Dr Ditchick has invested heavily in mortgage certificates since 1924.....

Hopefully, the prosecution has done its homework on those same records and has a counter argument as, otherwise, I'll take a shot at going through Doctor Scumbag's financial records myself and I'll bet I can find the flow of extorted money. It's always there if you just look hard and smart enough.

...here will be no price gouging on food at the World's Fair in 1940, with operators of restaurant concessions required to adhere to a contract clause stipulating that no price may be charged for any item in excess of the prices that prevailed during the final month of the 1939 season. More than eighty restaurants, snack bars, and food stands will operate at the 1940 Fair, at every price range, and officials promise radio comedians will find no grounds to claim that a hot dog and coffee cost a dollar apiece.....

If I'm a vendor, I want my stand next to one of the nudie exhibits, ensuring a constant flow of customers.

...

A lurid jungle melodrama, a wholesome teen comedy, and the Pope. "Something for everyone." Although I bet His Holiness would be miffed to learn that he only gets third billing.....

Very internet of its day those movie theaters were. You can get a bit of the feel for the all-over-the-map content a day at the movies must have been like when TCM plays some of this stuff between movies. You watch Errol Flynn in "Robin Hood," then get a short about toupees, a travel short to Vienna and an "educational" short about teenage drug abuse all in twenty minutes and, then, on to "Boys Town" or something. TCM doesn't do it, but I assume, you also had newsreels in there as well.

... "How dare that Bold Oakdale Faker think he's too high hat for my daughter! I'll show him! Come, Peggy, we have planning to do."...

Jo came home praising the party? Didn't expect that. Peggy's getting dumped on: first the guy jilts her at the alter and now he's pursuing her cousin (who, if Jo concedes is "fairly good looking," must be pretty darn good looking). Surprised at Jo; feeling quite bad for Peggy.

... Slot machines! Mayor LaGuardia will hear of this!....

Slot machines were illegal - right?

... Ah, so we're doing "Angels With Dirty Faces" now, are we? If this doesn't end with Dan being led to the chair while screaming about being "yella!" I shall be very disappointed.

...
"Take the drooling one away -- I have seen enough of him." Twiddle might be a spy, but he does have a gift for le mot juste.....

That perfectly put Cue Ball and his aspirations in his place. I'm waiting for (1) Pat to appear and save the day and (2) Singh-Singh to open up his satchel expecting April only to find Cheery, won't that be fun for him?

General note, looking forward to getting the Daily News' stories back, but will miss the incredible quality of the Tribune's scans.

...
"How many gallons?" Kayo has no sympathy whatever for a recovering alcoholic. No wonder this family's so messed up.....

But, to be fair, "how many gallons" is a first-rate slam.

...
So what's the deal with this guy? Russian name, indeterminate European accent, and he dresses like an off-duty matador. No wonder Senga messes around with schoolboys.

And he looks like he's pushing 60.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I once found an older man completely inert when making the rounds after a show. He was slumped over in his seat completely without motion -- and he didn't respond when I said "Sir, it's time to go." I couldn't see him breathing, and I couldn't feel his breath on my hand when I put it in front of his face. I was about to feel his neck for a pulse when he JUMPED AWAKE looking like I'd just applied 220V to his spine. My heart didn't slow down until I'd been home for three hours.

(I also once encountered a dead homeless man spread out on a bench on the Mall in Washington DC, but that's another story...)

Magistrate Pinto has made a couple of appearances in recent months. He was the guy who tried to sing the "foreign language song" a defendant claimed was written on what were clearly policy betting slips, and he was also the magistrate who fined himself $2 for a parking violation and then gave himself a stern lecture on obeying the law. Somebody really ought to write a sitcom about him.

If Jo actually does intrigue to bring Oakdale and Peggy back together, I will, at long last, have Seen Everything.

Slot machines were highly illegal, at least in New York, where the racket was controlled by the notorious Frankie Costello. That's one reason Hizzoner was so militantly against them, smashing them up with sledgehammers for the newsreels and personally sailing a boat out into Long Island Sound to dump a load of them overboard. He thought Costello gave a bad name to Italians.

Cap'n Blaze does seem to be taking this turn of events suspiciously well. "Confucius say, man who laugh at death soon find joke is on him."

The creepy older man/younger woman trope seems to be a thing lately in "Harold Teen." I wonder if Igor is any relation to the late Mr. McCluskey? Maybe Senga should invite him to go for a drive.

 

[Fading Fast]

I once found an older man completely inert when making the rounds after a show. He was slumped over in his seat completely without motion -- and he didn't respond when I said "Sir, it's time to go." I couldn't see him breathing, and I couldn't feel his breath on my hand when I put it in front of his face. I was about to feel his neck for a pulse when he JUMPED AWAKE looking like I'd just applied 220V to his spine. My heart didn't slow down until I'd been home for three hours.

(I also once encountered a dead homeless man spread out on a bench on the Mall in Washington DC, but that's another story...)

Magistrate Pinto has made a couple of appearances in recent months. He was the guy who tried to sing the "foreign language song" a defendant claimed was written on what were clearly policy betting slips, and he was also the magistrate who fined himself $2 for a parking violation and then gave himself a stern lecture on obeying the law. Somebody really ought to write a sitcom about him.

If Jo actually does intrigue to bring Oakdale and Peggy back together, I will, at long last, have Seen Everything.

Slot machines were highly illegal, at least in New York, where the racket was controlled by the notorious Frankie Costello. That's one reason Hizzoner was so militantly against them, smashing them up with sledgehammers for the newsreels and personally sailing a boat out into Long Island Sound to dump a load of them overboard. He thought Costello gave a bad name to Italians.

Cap'n Blaze does seem to be taking this turn of events suspiciously well. "Confucius say, man who laugh at death soon find joke is on him."

The creepy older man/younger woman trope seems to be a thing lately in "Harold Teen." I wonder if Igor is any relation to the late Mr. McCluskey? Maybe Senga should invite him to go for a drive.

Jo might be so competitive - especially with her rich relatives - that the only thing she hates more than Oakdale is the thought of Peggy's richer cousin getting Oakdale when Peggy couldn't. I'm still new to this strip, but that strikes me as a possibility.

Since slot machines were illegal, were the rackets really able to put them in diners etc? Were the police paid to look the other way? Putting a slot machine in a diner is a pretty aggressive move. All the bookmaking, numbers biz, etc., I've ever seen shown or read about from the era was done in backrooms or "quietly" in small stores that had legitimate fronts - nothing as blatant as a slot machine out in the open in a diner would be.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We've already seen in the case of Lt. Behan that police corruption in New York was pretty much a given, and I'm sure slot machines were seen as a pretty easy extra payoff for the cop who wasn't in line for any pay raises anytime soon.

It wasn't just a big city thing either. My grandfather had a slot machine in the back room of our gas station for a while -- I don't know who put it there or what the consequences were for not having it there, but I do know my mother was terrified when she put in a nickel one day and a whole bunch of nickels came spilling out. She thought she'd broken it.

The only thing LaGuardia hated more than slot machines was pinball. And punchboards. And tattoo parlors. And artichokes.