The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, Harold started out at about sixteen, as a particularly feckless high school kid obsessed with clothes, "gedunk sundaes" and Lillums, not always in that order. He aged very slowly for about twenty years, until about 1939, when he graduated from high school and got a job as a butcher's apprentice. Lillums graduated a bit earlier than he did and was sent away to Junior College around the same time, leading into the whole botched-elopment story that led to the McClusky affair, that led to Harold running away from home for a year, and then to where we are now.

During the twenties and thirties, "Harold Teen" was the definitive window into contemporary teenage culture -- during the twenties, it was all "shieks and shebas," and Harold went around in ridiculous-looking Oxford Bags. Then in the thirties, the strip went in full for the swing craze, and that's when Harold picked up his traditional look of bow-tie, school sweater, bashed-up fedora, and loud pants. For a long while, he even had the stereotypical teenager's jalopy, an old touring car named "Leapin' Lena" with snappy slogans painted all over it. The poor kid lost Lena during a disastrous attempt to elope with Lillums while she was away at school -- it broke down on the way, and he had to sell it to a junk man for bus fare home. That was probably the specific moment when the strip turned from straight teen comedy to the more dramatic angle it follows now.

Harold also seems to be aging in real time since then, so he and Skeezix from "Gasoline Alley" -- who has, of course, *always* aged in real time -- are approximately the same age, giving an interesting parallel between their two experience. It's an interesting display of how well-written and well-thought-out these strips are that you have two similar characters who come across as two entirely different individuals. Skeez would probably get along with Harold OK, but would find him exasperating, while Harold would constant try to impress Skeezix while secretly being jealous of him.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fortunately, Sally hadn't used the Sunday Eagle to wrap the coffee grounds in yet, and I find that I must've missed seeing Miss O'Neill. And I'm glad we caught that, because she shows a distressing new side to her personality here...

"OUCH!"

 

[Fading Fast]

Not sure which is most surprising - that they're telling the truth, or that you made the effort to time it?

The second one is not surprising at all.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And for good measure, here's a few pages to illustrate our boy Harold's growth over the years --

March 13, 1927. Harold really was a twerp in those days, but his cousin Lilacs was even more of a twerp. Shadow hasn't appeared yet, and Pop is still pop. "Giggles" is Giggles Dewberry, Lillums' best friend, and Harold's such a twerp at this point he doesn't know any better than to mess around with her.

March 12, 1933. Harold is even more of a twerp, if that is possible, but this is the apex of the strip's success as a chronicler of contemporary teen slang -- to say nothing of the tendency of old folks who spend a lot of time around kids to absorb it. High school kids in 1933 really did talk like this.

March 14, 1937 -- Harold is now a high school junior, and he has a job. He's not quite as much of a twerp, and his naivete is coming into a late-adolescent focus. Lil, however, is not yet her adult self -- clearly she will learn a lot of things in Junior College.

March 12, 1939 -- Our boy is a high school senior now, and he is recognizably filling out. Shadow, however, will always be Shadow.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fortunately, Sally hadn't used the Sunday Eagle to wrap the coffee grounds in yet, and I find that I must've missed seeing Miss O'Neill. And I'm glad we caught that, because she shows a distressing new side to her personality here...


"OUCH!"

"Sometimes love don't feel like it should.
You make it hurt so good"
- John Mellencamp

And I don't know, based on the clarity of the copy, I think Sally might have been hastily brushing some coffee grinds off the paper after Joe asked from the other room if she knew where it was because he hadn't read the funny pages yet.

 

[Harp]

I never recall Archie living out a scenario as dark as the one Harold is experiencing.

Harold, adolescent interrupted, is confused. And all this calamity absent marital conveyance estate matters
is even more so....

All Archie had to do was pick Betty.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If "Harold Teen" were still being published today, it would be a hit series on the CW: "Covina!" With lots of murky photography, startling camera angles, and brooding intrigue. They'd probably have no trouble rounding up a suitable cast of good-looking kids to play the central roles, but I'd love to see who they'd come up with to play Shadow.

 

[LizzieMaine]

President Roosevelt today asked Congress for an immediate $7,000,000,000 appropriation to produce "every gun, plane, and munition of war that we possibly can" to aid the democracies of the world, declaring that it is the responsibility for the United States to do its full part in creating "an adequate arsenal of democracy" that will also serve as "a bulwark of our own defense." The President met today with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, and Acting Secretary of the Navy James M. Forestall, along with Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall and acting Chief of Naval Operations Rear Adm. R. E. Ingersoll, to discuss implementation of the Lease-Lend program.

In the first move to break the deadlock in the Manhattan-Queens bus strike, Mayor LaGuardia and Transport Workers Union president Michael J. Quill are meeting this afternoon along with other union officials and leaders of the affected bus companies. Mr. Quill agreed to confer with the Mayor today after a brief discussion between the Mayor and Allan S. Heywood, national organization director of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It was revealed during this meeting that Mr. Heywood has been trying to meet with the Mayor since last December to discuss increasing friction between the Transport Workers Union and the Board of Transportation in the wake of transit unification, in which contracts between the union and private transit companies were assumed by the city, and which contracts are due to expire soon. The Mayor finally agreed to that meeting today, but only if the bus strike was also placed on the agenda.

A key state witness in the retrial of Murder-For-Hire Gang figures Harry "Happy" Maione and Frank "The Dasher" Abbadando stated today that he had served as a "death car chauffeur" on multiple occasions. Anthony "The Duke" Maffatore was on the witness stand this morning in Kings County Court in the second trial of the two underworld figures for the 1937 murder of George Rudnick. Abbadando specifically admitted under cross-examination that he was the driver of the car that carried the body of Irving "Puggy" Feinstein to the Brownsville vacant lot where it was incinerated in 1939, and added that he had also taken several other men "for rides."

("Who letsa kid run loose inna street?" thunders Sally. "Who letsa????" "I awways run loose inna street when I wassa kid," counters Joe. "Din' hoit me none." "Yeah, buttat's diff'nt. You ain'a goil! T'ere's sick people inna woild! Sick people! Ain'no little goil'a mine gonna run inno street! Goes out'na street ta jump rope or play potsy, annen some sick poisson grabsa? No kidda mine!" "Cheez," says Joe. "You neva usta be like t'is." "Well," growls Sally, "I neva usta be a lotta t'ings!")

Anna Uhllmann was an experienced secretarial worker, and refused to accept that her age might prove a barrier to employment. But today Anna Uhlmann leaped to her death from a fifteenth-floor fire escape platform at the Corn Exchange Building in Manhattan. She was forty-seven, and left behind a note reading simply "office girls are no longer wanted when they get older."

Street-corner evangelists who "preach hatred in the name of High Heaven" will be forced from the streets of Brooklyn, promised District Attorney William O'Dwyer last night in a speech before directors of the Grand Street Boys Club in Manhattan. Mr. O'Dwyer, speaking in a dinner at the club given in his honor, delcared that America was founded by persons seeking to escape religious persecution, and that "we have an obligation to keep this nation as it was made by our Founding Fathers."

(Yes indeed, when nosy visitors peek in your medicine cabinet and see LOESER'S toothpaste in there, they'll know you're SOMEBODY. None of that cheap discount stuff from Namm's.)

(Cashmore sure does like to send letters, doesn't he? Nonetheless, my own forsythia bows its branches in salute to its Brooklyn brethren.)

The 17-year-old Flatbush girl who set fire to her family's house in hopes of improving the decor has been sent to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric observation. Miss Mildred Godfrey was committed to the hospital late yesterday in Felony Court, after her father testified that she "has been very ill and nervous lately."

("Thanks, but what I really wanted was a cracker. Didn't you hear me?")

Radio serial author Elaine Carrington lives in a lovely six-floor high-stooped brownstone house at 89 Joralemon Street, and when she isn't working to create the adventures of Pepper Young's Family that you enjoy very afternoon, she presides over a residence furnished with tasteful antiques and modern art, and provided with the most up-to-the-minute conveniences. Latest addition to the family equipment is a sit-down elevator that rides you comfortably up and down the main stairway, a convenience that amazed and enthralled all the neighborhood children who Mrs. Carrington's youngsters brought in to see it. The Carrington household is one in which the word "inhibition" is prohibited -- every member of the family is encouraged to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it, and it's no secret that the results often lead Mrs. Carrington toward new and clever script ideas. The Carringtons also enjoy being across-the-street neighbors from Mr. and Mrs. H. V. Kaltenborn, and actress Helen Hayes has been a frequent guest at the home, often participating in amateur plays put on in the top-floor theatre established, complete with stage, props, and costumes, by the Carrington children. An enormous German Shepherd dog named Flash also enjoys the run of the house.

(Three more days!)

A Cuban All Star team made up of "three white boys and six Negro stars" put the Dodgers in their place today in Havana, sending the Flock down to a thumping 9-1 defeat at La Nacional Stadium. The Cubans went to town on Hugh Casey in the second inning, racking up a fast six runs, and then added three more off Curt Davis in the 7th, while the Dodgers only got lucky once, when Dolph Camilli managed to swing into the path of a snapping Gilberto Torres inside curve and send the pitch over the circus fence in right field. Mr. Torres, who had a brief trial with the Washington Senators in 1940, was the best pitcher in Cuban ball during the recently-completed Cuban Winter League season, combining a whistling overhand fast ball with a sidearm curve, an underhand sinker, and a three-quarter screwball to completely baffle the Brooklyn batters. The rest of the Cuban lineup offered World Series-level competition, which came as a jolt to the Dodgers after having an easy time with the Giants and almost-as-easy-a-time with the Indians.

Mickey Owen is finally in camp and in the lineup, having settled his contract dispute with Larry MacPhail, and his former manager in St. Louis is saying "good riddance." Redbird manager Billy Southworth says Owen "learned very little in his four years behind the bat with the Cardinals. He improved his technique very little and found out almost nothing about hitters." Southworth says he's glad to have the catching spot opened up for Don Padgett, whom he considers a superior player in every way, and criticizes Owen for failing to work with Padgett last year. "He could have helped him," says Billy, "but he didn't."

Remember Roy Cullenbine? The former Tiger outfielder signed as a free agent last year by MacPhail for a lavish $25,000 bonus fizzled out early in the season and was dealt to the St. Louis Browns for tubby Joe Gallagher. Cullenbine, a fine golfer, said when he joined the Dodgers that his poor performance with Detroit in 1939 was the result of money worries, and with all that MacPhail loot jingling in his pocket, he'd be bound to have a fine season. Now he's telling the Browns he had a poor season in 1940 because having all that money made him complacent. What next, Roy?

Remember Henry Burbig, who convulsed radio audiences a decade ago with humorous Jewish dialect characterizations? The market for that particular style of humor isn't what it used to be due to rising sensitivities, but Mr. Burbig is still very much active in radio as a production supervisor at CBS. His present assignment is about as far from comedy as you can get -- he helms the daytime "Big Sister" serial.

(What poor Slappy really needs to do is get away from these crazy people who have clearly expressed no interest in helping him or understanding his particular needs in any way. "It's always SPARKY SPARKY SPARKY!" he wails.)

(Y'know, it's funny that we've never heard Jo criticize Oakdale for wearing too much mascara.)

(In case you haven't noticed, Ted is Harold Teen in ten years. They've even got the same overcoat.)

(Now if Tracy was on this case, he'd have his gun drawn and ready for instant use instead of just ambling along with his dog. I'm surprised Dan isn't whistling.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Ah, nostalgic memories of the Greatest Generation -- wholesome smiling clean-cut GIs, proudly marching in columns straight and true, right to the Chippy Wagon.

Poor Joe. If you can't even beat Chico Marx at cards, maybe you shouldn't be playing cards at all.

Look, just no. When bock beer season rolls around every year I look forward to seeing goats. Great big goats being as goaty as all hell as they burst out of beer barrels or hold up big foaming glasses or kick over wagons or whatever other goaty thing that guzzling a high-alcohol brew might make them do. What I do *not* want to see is a bunch of stock photos and just a little bitty clip art goat stuck in there somewhere at the last minute. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?

Sam's not waiting to be drafted, he's going down right now and enlist.

"You like it dear? I hope so. Certainly better than that awkward wispy mop of yours."

Hmmmm. I can't speak of all eighteen-year-old boys, but judging from those I do know, I can't imagine that any of them would be, if held by the throat by a Nazi a foot and a half taller than they, thinking about 19th Century Gothic literature.

Is Tennessee Williams writing this strip now?

I can't wait till Wilmer is old enough to be drafted.

It's been a while since Mr. Ed has given in to his taste for cheesecake, but at least this time we get a plot twist dished up along with it.

Good thing Moon is wearing one of those Larry MacPhail skull protectors inside his derby.

 

[Harp]

And in the Daily News...

View attachment 317469 Ah, nostalgic memories of the Greatest Generation -- wholesome smiling clean-cut GIs, proudly marching in columns straight and true, right to the Chippy Wagon.

View attachment 317482 Hmmmm. I can't speak of all eighteen-year-old boys, but judging from those I do know, I can't imagine that any of them would be, if held by the throat by a Nazi a foot and a half taller than they, thinking about 19th Century Gothic literature.

View attachment 317488
It's been a while since Mr. Ed has given in to his taste for cheesecake, but at least this time we get a plot twist dished up along with it.

Battalion Sergeant Major will order a five mile dawn clap trap run. Any guy drops out gets put on the shit list.
Usually the gonorrhea syphilis whore chasers learn of it earlier and start screaming in the barracks when the penile
chancres and purple pus discharges start. Honey wagons and houses of joy and bordello bastards.
______________

A literate teen. Terry should deliver a mae geri to the groin, which can kill when properly applied.
A Cask of Amontillado brick up the fun hun Terry.

_______________

Lana, quite the rose enchantress. She puts the strip in Comic Strip.

 

[PrivateEye]

It's been a while since Mr. Ed has given in to his taste for cheesecake, but at least this time we get a plot twist dished up along with it.

It never ceases to amaze me how often they include scantily clad women in the comics. Perhaps my grandparents weren't the prudes I imagined...

 

[Fading Fast]

...Street-corner evangelists who "preach hatred in the name of High Heaven" will be forced from the streets of Brooklyn, promised District Attorney William O'Dwyer last night in a speech before directors of the Grand Street Boys Club in Manhattan. Mr. O'Dwyer, speaking in a dinner at the club given in his honor, delcared that America was founded by persons seeking to escape religious persecution, and that "we have an obligation to keep this nation as it was made by our Founding Fathers."...

In the '80s and '90s in the Wall Street district, I heard the most vile, anti-semitic, anti-white (it was almost always against those two groups) soapbox speaking ever. Some of it was by men (always men) who presented themselves as preachers other by just regular men speaking.

Some were affiliated with known groups, others were not. It was incredibly stunningly hate filled and ugly. I'd listen briefly occasionally (sometimes you had no choice as you'd be stuck in people traffic) and to this day, can still feel their visceral anger, but I also remember thinking - that's freedom of speech at work. While some of that was still there in the '00s (I haven't been down there in years), the number of people speaking went down significantly. Perhaps they moved online.

...Radio serial author Elaine Carrington lives in a lovely six-floor high-stooped brownstone house at 89 Joralemon Street, and when she isn't working to create the adventures of Pepper Young's Family that you enjoy very afternoon, she presides over a residence furnished with tasteful antiques and modern art, and provided with the most up-to-the-minute conveniences. Latest addition to the family equipment is a sit-down elevator that rides you comfortably up and down the main stairway, a convenience that amazed and enthralled all the neighborhood children who Mrs. Carrington's youngsters brought in to see it. The Carrington household is one in which the word "inhibition" is prohibited -- every member of the family is encouraged to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it, and it's no secret that the results often lead Mrs. Carrington toward new and clever script ideas. The Carringtons also enjoy being across-the-street neighbors from Mr. and Mrs. H. V. Kaltenborn, and actress Helen Hayes has been a frequent guest at the home, often participating in amateur plays put on in the top-floor theatre established, complete with stage, props, and costumes, by the Carrington children. An enormous German Shepherd dog named Flash also enjoys the run of the house....

Sounds like a real-life version of the house in "You Can't Take it with You."

...[ (In case you haven't noticed, Ted is Harold Teen in ten years. They've even got the same overcoat.)...

Good call on Ted/Harold Lizzie.

Separately, how nicely drawn is this panel (which, I'm, sure looked even better not scanned, etc.):

... Hmmmm. I can't speak of all eighteen-year-old boys, but judging from those I do know, I can't imagine that any of them would be, if held by the throat by a Nazi a foot and a half taller than they, thinking about 19th Century Gothic literature....

I was impressed by that too. What I can say is that my high school in the '70s taught the basic Western Civ literary canon at the time and books by Faulkner, Hawthorne, Poe, etc., were jumbled up in my head with the '70s culture I lived day to day.

Some of those stories - "Ethan Frome" made me very nervous about marrying the wrong woman / "The Red Badge of Courage" had me very concerned about going to war and, well, courage - did stay with me and impacted my thinking about life (and I'd bet other kids in my school) at that time. Heck, I avoided any real sales job most of my life because of "Death of a Salesman."

...
It's been a while since Mr. Ed has given in to his taste for cheesecake, but at least this time we get a plot twist dished up along with it...

There was dialogue today? Kidding aside, I noticed Lana didn't jump at the opportunity to tell Paul she was engaged. Maybe Lana isn't quite who we thought she is.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Carrington residence still stands, and is, still, with the exception of a hokey modern kitchen, utterly gorgeous:

https://streeteasy.com/building/89-joralemon-street-brooklyn

It last sold for $5.5 million. Mrs. Carrington was doing pretty well in 1941, as the creator of two successful soap operas ("When A Girl Marries" was her other one), but she wasn't doing *that* well.

Pity the present owners didn't keep the stairway-seat elevator. And don't people today believe in window curtains?

 

[Fading Fast]

The Carrington residence still stands, and is, still, with the exception of a hokey modern kitchen, utterly gorgeous:

https://streeteasy.com/building/89-joralemon-street-brooklyn

It last sold for $5.5 million. Mrs. Carrington was doing pretty well in 1941, as the creator of two successful soap operas ("When A Girl Marries" was her other one), but she wasn't doing *that* well.

Pity the present owners didn't keep the stairway-seat elevator. And don't people today believe in window curtains?

That's one beautiful place.

It is amazing how many of those type of brownstones still exist in Brooklyn and Manhattan. A lot were "chopped up" into smaller apartments decades ago when the economy was bad, but with the booming real estate market of the last, well, nearly three decades, many were converted back to single-family residences.

It looks as if, in the Carrington one, they incorporated some of the original sanitary movement tile into the bathroom renovation - very cool.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sigh. If I had to pick a "dream house" it would look a lot like that. Oh for the days when a radio writer could make a very good living.

There are two possibilities that would lead to Lana not being a disappointment to me -- either Paul is her brother in the Army, or he's this guy she knew from the neighborhood who grew up to become a priest. Oh, and Lana -- word of advice. If you really want to get a good look at yourself in the mirror, you really need to wear your glasses.

 

[Harp]

There are two possibilities that would lead to Lana not being a disappointment to me -- either Paul is her brother in the Army, or he's this guy she knew from the neighborhood who grew up to become a priest. Oh, and Lana -- word of advice. If you really want to get a good look at yourself in the mirror, you really need to wear your glasses.

Lana is a pearl fate or misfortune threw at a swinish immature brat. And, if her weakness is too apparent to us,
it also endears her all the more. The poor dear really needs to get a real good look at that slouch.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Police have spread a dragnet today for a group of killers who, according to District Attorney William O'Dwyer, threatened a woman and her three children and tortured a man in a deserted section of Canarsie in an effort to block possible damning evidence in the retrial of accused Murder For Hire killers Harry "Happy" Maione and Frank "The Dasher" Abbadando. The dragnet followed the arrest last night of 32-year-old Sam Mazzi, an ex-convict now out on parole, outside the home of Mrs. Lillian Trucchio, who lives with her three children at 1829 Pitkin Avenue, and is the husband of a star prosecution witness brought to Brooklyn from Comstock Prison to testify in the current trial. Mazzi told police he was at Mrs. Trucchio's home on orders from thugs who had kidnapped and tortured him by stripping him nude, throwing him in a frozen snowbank, and stomping and kicking him until he agreed to do their bidding by going to Mrs. Trucchio's home and warning her to tell her husband not to testify in the trial -- or else. Mr. Trucchio had already tipped police off that his wife and children were in danger, following a confrontation of his own with "four hard-looking strangers" who had visited him Sunday night. It was Trucchio who signed a false affadavit during the previous trial of Maione and Abbadando for the murder of George Rudnick testifying that he had not been present for a card game in a gas station near the garage where Rudnick was murdered, but later repudiated that affadavit and told police he was in fact present at that location at the time of the killing.

Great Britain today launched a new air offensive against Germany, pounding targets in Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and making a sweeping air assault on targets along the French invasion coast. Authorities describe the attack as the greatest assault by the British of the war. The raids on Berlin marked the first British bombing of the Nazi capital since December.

Representatives of both sides in New York's four-day-old bus strike are meeting this afternoon in the office of Arthur S. Mayer, chairman of the State Mediation Board, in an effort to make progress toward resolving the walkout that has idled most buses serving Manhattan and Queens. The conference marks the first substantive negotiations between the rival parties since the strike began early Monday.

The strange story of Big Chief Blackjack, cigar-store Indian mascot of St. John's University took another twist today following the kidnapping of the figure from those who had originally kidnapped it during the St. John's-St. Francis basketball game earlier this week. The original group of kidnappers, who call themselves "The Six Terriers," today offered whoever took the Chief away from them a reward of $48.77 for his return, and in a message to the Eagle, the declared that this sum represents "all they could afford." No one has yet claimed responsibility for the sub-kidnapping of the figure.

Van Lingle Mungo's troubles have taken a new twist, following reports of a violent confrontation between the former Dodger pitcher and a Cuban stage dancer billed as Senor Gonzalo, an incident said to have occured before the veteran hurler was banished from the ballclub. Reports from Havana state that Sr. Gonzalo violently confronted Mungo in the ballplayer's room at the Hotel Nacional, while Mungo was "entertaining two ladies," identified as Senora Christina Gonzalo, the Senor's wife and his partner in his dance act, and Lady Vida, identified as the mistress of ceremonies in the hotel's nightclub. Miss Vida is not of the nobility -- "Lady" is, in fact, her given name. Senor Gonzalo is said to have immediately sized up the situation in the hotel room, and slugged Mungo in the face, but the pitcher is said to have stated, before his departure from Havana, that the incident "was nothing to get excited about." Mungo is now in Macon, Georgia, but is due to report to the training camp of the Montreal Royals of the International League on March 15th.

(What the Eagle has too much decorum to tell you is that, when Sr. Gonzalo burst into the room, Mr. Mungo and company were -- ah -- au naturel. You may follow his natural inferences from there.)

The former president of the Montrose Industrial Bank, 781 Eastern Parkway, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison following his conviction on charges of tax evasion. Stanley S. Storch was also fined $3000 for willfully evading a total of $103,000 on federal taxes due on his income for 1937, 1938, and 1939. Storch could have faced a Federal prison term of up to ten years, but consideration was given in his sentencing to testimony on his behalf received from "prominent priests, lawyers, bankers, and laymen," along with a personal plea by former state Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May.

A delegation from the Red Hook Equal School Rights Committee will call on Principal Benjamin M. Stiegman of the High School of Art and Music in Manhattan to demand a full explanation of why Red Hook student Angelina Faraone was denied admission to the school. Miss Faraone's mother charges that her daughter was turned away in an act of discrimination against a puplil "from a poor background," and the committee formed last week to take action in support of her application to attend the school. Committee chairman Philip Brown indicated today that even if the matter of Miss Faraone is satisfactorily resolved, the Committee intends to remain in place as a permanent body fighting such discrimination against Red Hook pupils in the future.

(There's actually a lot more Riskin in this picture than there is Capra, and their constant strife during the troubled production of the film over Capra's tendency to hog credit for their joint accomplishments -- at one point Riskin threw a sheaf of blank pages at Capra and yelled "PUT YOUR CAPRA TOUCH ON THAT!" -- spelled the end of their working relationship. Capra later refused to attend the funeral of the man who had as much to do with the success of "The Capra Touch" as he did.)

(Miss Daley was one of a number of loud and rowdy comediennes of the thirties and forties, and along with Martha Raye, Patsy Kelly, and Joan Davis proved conclusively that a woman didn't need to play a dizzy-dame Gracie Allen type of character in order to succeed in comedy. She was a groundbreaker and a pioneer who died terribly -- she tripped over a glass coffee table and bled to death after cutting herself on the fragments. She deserves to be remembered.)

(Plushbottom sure has a lot of cousins/brothers/doppelgangers, doesn't he?)

A Sunset Park woman won $100 recently for telling why she likes Super Suds more interestingly than her rivals. Mrs. B. Moskowitz of 5822 4th Avenue was a awarded a $100 Government bond by the Colgate Palmolive Peet Company after submitting the winning entry in a radio contest sponsored by the soap firm. Mrs. Moskowitz says this is her first experience winning a contest and that she likes that almost as much as she likes Super Suds.

Leo Durocher says Van Lingle Mungo is through as a Dodger. "He's too unreliable in his habits," said Lippy, "for a club that has a real chance at the pennant."

Leo also says that Pete Coscarart still has the inside track at second base this year, although Alex Kampouris has been looking good so far in spring training. Leo suggests that Pete seems "a bit homesick" in Havana, but hopes that he will shake it off.

("OF COURSE HE'S HOMESICK!" bellows Sally. "HE'S AWAY F'M HIS KIDS!" And Joe just takes a deep breath.)

(What, Toffenetti's coming to Brooklyn? This year's Thanksgiving Dinner Derby just got interesting.)

(How has Doc never been charged with malpractice?)

(That "something" of course being that he was being blackmailed at the time by an ex-wife. I don't think Jo ever really found that out, because if she had, I'm certain that Mr. Oakdale would no longer be among the living.)

(Migawd, he's even *dumber* than Harold Teen.)

(SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE! SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Yeah, this Hollywood stuff is all well and good, but look, I know Page Four, and I know the Daily News, and I know this page today should be nothing but Van Lingle Mungo, two Cuban women, and an cuckolded nightclub dancer. Because if it isn't, I mean, what's even the point of HAVING Page Four?

Yeah? Well, I grew up eating puffy white bread, and while I did, in fact, actually make it to Hollywood, all I ever got there was overcharged in a Chinese restaurant.

The night edition of the News, which goes on sale at all newsstands and candy stores around 9pm the night before the date on the masthead, is printed on pink paper so that it's easily distinguished from later editions.

"Oh wait," says Sam. "My mistake. This article is about Bethlehem Steel."

SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE! SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE!

Oh come on, Gus. Slapstick antics? WHAT ABOUT THE MYSTERY FACE AT THE WINDOW?

"And don't forget the belt in the back!"

And the truth is, Skeez has had far more experience with a drill press than he has had with women.

Scriptwriters? That explains everything. All scriptwriters are desperate characters, at least until the check finally clears.

Jeeeez, string it out why doncha?

 

[Harp]

Cuffs on the pants, please. Geez, goshwillicurs. A Chinese custom suit, Hong Kong rush tailor job, izzit?

Lana, puppet on a string. Baby, you are one sweet gal. Ditch the slouch.

 

[Fading Fast]

... View attachment 317683
(There's actually a lot more Riskin in this picture than there is Capra, and their constant strife during the troubled production of the film over Capra's tendency to hog credit for their joint accomplishments -- at one point Riskin threw a sheaf of blank pages at Capra and yelled "PUT YOUR CAPRA TOUCH ON THAT!" -- spelled the end of their working relationship. Capra later refused to attend the funeral of the man who had as much to do with the success of "The Capra Touch" as he did.)...

I've read this quote before and you have to credit Riskin with delivering a world-class FU to Capra - Kudos.

...Leo Durocher says Van Lingle Mungo is through as a Dodger. "He's too unreliable in his habits," said Lippy, "for a club that has a real chance at the pennant."...

Shouldn't Senora Christina Gonzalo and Lady Vida get to weigh in on whether or not Mungo is "reliable in his habits?"

...(What, Toffenetti's coming to Brooklyn? This year's Thanksgiving Dinner Derby just got interesting.)...

... Yeah, this Hollywood stuff is all well and good, but look, I know Page Four, and I know the Daily News, and I know this page today should be nothing but Van Lingle Mungo, two Cuban women, and an cuckolded nightclub dancer. Because if it isn't, I mean, what's even the point of HAVING Page Four?...

Yes, the first thing in life is to know who you are and what your mission is. Page Four needs to take a hard look at itself after missing the most-Page-Four story of the year to date. A lot of heads should be handing in shame at today's Page-Four editors meeting:

"People, I'm only going to say this once, we are a Brooklyn paper, which means we are a Dodgers paper, which means when a Dodger player is in Cuba, gets drunk and is caught in a hotel room [pauses] Joe, close the door [waits till the door is closed to resume] banging two women and the husband of one of the women comes in and punches that player in the face, we, what's the phrase, 'cover the effin' story!' We just missed Page Four's Sacco and Vanzetti and Lindbergh kidnapping story in one. I expect a full Page Four effort on this one - pictures, quotes, everything or we might as well have merged with that other paper as we don't deserve to represent Brooklyn. Now, get out of here as I can't stand to even look at any of you right now, go!"

.. "Oh wait," says Sam. "My mistake. This article is about Bethlehem Steel."...

... SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE! SECRET UNDERGROUND BASE!...

Somebody ate her Wheaties this morning, didn't she Lizzie?