The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

Terry is "good and clean and pure." And the way Mr. Caniff lampshades it like that is, I imagine, his own way of eyerolling the situation.

This is a good point, as, in 1941, a young man who didn't have casual sex would have been seen as an exemplar ("good and clean and pure") in a way we wouldn't think of it today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A general strike by 8000 electricians in the citywas launched at 8AM today in a dispute between Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Consolidated Edison Company over jurisdiction and pay scales. Local 3 is demanding that the utility firm use union workers at $2 an hour for electrical installations on outside installations rather than its own, non-union workers at $1 an hour. Among the projects halted by the strike are the construction of six new buildings at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where 100 IBEW electricians declined to report for work this morning.

The Standard Oil Company ceased selling oil thruout Japan today as a result of the Japanese Government''s order freezing all American assets in that nation. Officials of the Standard-Vacuum Oil Company, a joint venture of the Standard Oil Companies of New Jersey and New York, indicated that the firm has halted operations in Japan due to the impossibility of depositing receipts and remitting profits under the freeze order. Although the resulting oil shortage in Japan may prove temporary, observers in Tokio reported a decrease today in taxicab traffic, with Japanese authorities having reduced the monthly fuel gallon for taxi operators to seven gallons per month per vehicle.

Meanwhile, Japan today began occupation of the great French naval base at Camranh Bay, up the Indo-China coast from Saigon. Foreign military quarters in Shanghai reported that the Japanese have already withdrawn 40,000 well-equipped troops from Canton and the Formosa area in order to supply garrisons to be established in Southern Indo-China, with 6000 troops already landed at Camranh.

Russian forces today wiped out a Nazi Panzer force attempting to cut thru Red Army lines, with nearly 500 Germans reported killed or wounded, and more than 100 trucks and large quantities of guns captured. Heavy fighting was reported in the Smolensk, Zhitomir, and Nevel sectors.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill predicted today that Germany will attempt its long-anticipated invasion of Great Britain within a month. The Prime Minister told the House of Commons today that British forces have been ordered to be in a state of "full readiness" by September 1st. Mr. Churchill added that, while the United States is "advancing in rising wrath and conviction to the very verge of war," he predicts that "neither Russia nor the United States will win the war for Britain."

The possibly of a British declaration of war against Finland is anticipated by London sources, following the severance of diplomatic relations by the Finnish Government as a "co-belligerent" with Germany.

An aged Flushing couple committed double suicide today, rigging a doorbell to detonate fumes from a gas stove. Mr. and Mrs. Bela Houser of 61-42 169th Street, aged 65 and 61, were found in the wreckage of their home after an insurance salesman rang the bell, emitting a spark that blew up the house. A note written in Hungarian was found in the wreckage, stating that "Capitalistic rule sent us to our death." Police believe the couple were already dead by asphyxiation before the explosion.

The body of a woman newly-married to a Brooklyn man was found today floating in muddy river waters near Groton, Connecticut, and while authorities have declared the death of Mrs. Mary Ellen Monks could not possibly have been a suicide, they are not yet ready to declare it a murder. Mrs. Monks' body, shoeless but otherwise fully clothed, was recovered as it drifted in Bartlett's Cove in the town of Waterford, and police later recovered her shoes in the living room of her brother, Maurice O'Connor, a laborer at the Groton submarine base. O'Connor is being questioned today by police, as is Mrs. Monks' newlywed husband, Richard H. Monks of 54 Fulton Street. Police say there were no marks of violence on Mrs. Monks' body.

Police are searching today for old-time minstrel show star Eddie Leonard, reported missing by his wife Mabel. It was stated that the retired blackface comedian, age unknown but believed to be in his mid-sixties, was last seen after leaving a package at his dentist's office in Manhattan yesterday afternoon, but he failed to return home to his rooms at the King Edward Hotel as expected by his wife. Leonard, a singer, dancer, and funnyman known for writing the popular song "Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider," retired from show business in 1935 after forty years on the stage, and opened a minstrel-themed bar in Bushwick that became a draw for celebrities visiting Brooklyn.

Selective Service authorities in Salt Lake City, Utah are investigating a wave of suspicious dental extractions in the mouths of men believed to be attempting to evade the draft. Regulations require that selectees have at least sixteen teeth to qualify for induction, and it is believed that men scheming to avoid conscription are having teeth pulled in order to fail that requirement.

("Schroth? O'Dwyer here. About that story you ran yesterday. It may interest you to know... No, this has nothing to do with the election. I just thought you'd like to... No, I don't care at all about LaGuardia. Let him ride fire engines all he... Look, I just want to make sure you've got the whole...All right, you'll run it? Fine. Oh, and tell Amen the next time you see him that I send my regards.")

("Look, Dottie, you're a movie star, right? You're a celebrity! You can do anything ya want! A cat, a monkey -- it doesn't hafta be an either/or, ya get what I'm sayin'? You can even have a lion if ya want -- ask Bankhead!")

"Ann" writes in to Helen Worth to complain about inconsiderate smokers who insist on lighting up as they head down the subway stairs, filling the stations and the cars with their noxious fumes." "It's revolting!" Helen agrees, and insists that smokers need to learn to "live and let live," since non-smokers are equally entitled to the "right of existence."

The Eagle Editorialst warns American women that they won't like the next casualty of the aluminum shortage: manufacture of permanent-waving machines is expected to be restricted soon. "Feminine hair will be worn straighter, unless science finds a way to wave hair without aluminum."

(You clearly haven't sensed the trend, Mr. Schroth -- the new cold-wave method, using an ammonia solution, is the coming thing. Don't you ever read your own ads?)

(Look sharp, Officer -- it's a cunning infiltration plot!)

("YA SEE?" bellows Sally. "'AT HOIMAN! HE AIN' HITTIN'! PUT PETEY IN!" "I bought a new radio," says Joe. "Downa Davega. Five nine'y five. Maybe don' lissen t'no more ball games, OK?"

(You could buy a television set in 1941 for as little as $199, on convenient monthly terms. But would you want to?)

(Sparky doesn't really know a whole lot about aerodynamics.)

(Yep, no question about it now. Peggy did it.)

("That's right, Mr. Newspaper Sap. Come closer. Close enough for me to crack your head wide open with this tire iron. They'll never know who did it!")

(Yeah, fat boy. Don'cha read Helen Worth?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News....

"Dashing young tennis players." Yeah, I bet.

It's been my observation that the easiest way to attract a throng of the Social Elite to an event is to lay out some free nosh.

Well, toots, the first thing you got to do is hire a better press agent.

You've got to give Annie credit. Nothing creeps her out, not even things that should creep her out.

I think Andy should bathe in that stew, and Min should turn the burner on "high."

"Of course, she led."

Well then. I look forward to seeing what Little Face will do when he captures Tracy.

Grilling on a gasoline stove? How suburban.

Y'know, you could put a lock on the door.

Three-dimensional chess.

 

[Harp]

Hepcat Terry was taught by sultry Sue to dance? Dragon Gal's a regular rugcutter?

 

[Fading Fast]

...An aged Flushing couple committed double suicide today, rigging a doorbell to detonate fumes from a gas stove. Mr. and Mrs. Bela Houser of 61-42 169th Street, aged 65 and 61, were found in the wreckage of their home after an insurance salesman rang the bell, emitting a spark that blew up the house. A note written in Hungarian was found in the wreckage, stating that "Capitalistic rule sent us to our death." Police believe the couple were already dead by asphyxiation before the explosion....

It feels like there is more to this story. Not making light of it at all, but the rigged doorbell has an echo of a recent "Dick Tracy" story.

...
("Schroth? O'Dwyer here. About that story you ran yesterday. It may interest you to know... No, this has nothing to do with the election. I just thought you'd like to... No, I don't care at all about LaGuardia. Let him ride fire engines all he... Look, I just want to make sure you've got the whole...All right, you'll run it? Fine. Oh, and tell Amen the next time you see him that I send my regards.")...

No kidding, but forget O'Dwyer, it is the chauffeur firing his gun while driving at high speed who deserve accolades.

And tell me that entire scene doesn't read like a Warner Bros. script. Heck, Cagney is already campaigning for the role of O'Dwyer, "Can I play and Irish politician, are you kidding? I can even play an Irish politician who speaks Yiddish, too - top that."

..."Ann" writes in to Helen Worth to complain about inconsiderate smokers who insist on lighting up as they head down the subway stairs, filling the stations and the cars with their noxious fumes." "It's revolting!" Helen agrees, and insists that smokers need to learn to "live and let live," since non-smokers are equally entitled to the "right of existence."...

Ann is right, but about forty years too early.

...
(You could buy a television set in 1941 for as little as $199, on convenient monthly terms. But would you want to?)...

Forget Manhattan Beach, you want to kick up sales of TV sets, take your cameras over to Valley Stream State Park.

... (Yeah, fat boy. Don'cha read Helen Worth?)

Cigarettes are awful enough, how smoking cigars indoors ever became acceptable is one of the mysteries of the past.

I'm sad that Dan is coming back; I wanted more of the Kay show.

...
"Dashing young tennis players." Yeah, I bet.....

I'd bet these scumbags are guilty as sin, but they'll get their day in court. On that day, the doctor's confidential report will be more important than whether the gun was a toy or not.

.. Three-dimensional chess.

Well played, Veronica .

 

[LizzieMaine]

May-June, 1939 -- Class is now in session. Terry is sixteen-going-on-seventeen here.

 

[Fading Fast]

May-June, 1939 -- Class is now in session. Terry is sixteen-going-on-seventeen here.

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That entire run was incredibly enjoyable. The second one's text reads pretty much as if Terry (for the first time in his life) had sex with the Dragon Lady (not for the first time in hers) - look at the last panel of that one.

Till now, I've only know the DL by reputation and a few scenes with her, but in the last one you posted, she has a good sense of humor. That's not what I expected.

Great stuff - thank you for posting them Lizzie. Based on your opening comment, I should have been reading them with this playing on in the background (Think of Terry as Liesl):

 

[LizzieMaine]

And that Crispin guy is creepier than ever. I hope he didn't catch cholera in the hospital.

 

[Fading Fast]

And that Crispin guy is creepier than ever. I hope he didn't catch cholera in the hospital.

Or gives April a different disease that also starts with the letters "CH."

 

[Harp]

That entire run was incredibly enjoyable. The second one's text reads pretty much as if Terry (for the first time in his life) had sex with the Dragon Lady (not for the first time in hers) - look at the last panel of that one.

Certainly seems so.
Which makes Terry's subequent chaste adolescent reserve all the more confusing. He made a move
on Dragon Gal, fourth gear stick shift floors it, no problemo then craps out Hu-Shee and Burma.
Reading between the lines, added background provided Lizzie, it looks pre-code and CODE.
So even the cartoonist wielded a confused pencil, or, at least seems to have initially thought the strip
and protagonist hero more sensual and seasoned. This indecisiveness is unfortunate in retrospect
as Caniff probably chaffed at the leash and downshifted the strip.

 

[LizzieMaine]

April, meanwhile, is the one who needs a serious talking-to from the DL. These schoolgirl infatuations are all well and good when you're a schoolgirl, but she isn't. And not all the men she's going to come into contact with will be as "pure" as Terry or as responsible as Pat.

 

[Harp]

Some additional thoughts while sipping coffee this morning....Terry is the only strip I follow
as its top tier marquee brand, and Caniff really nails it down tight but as I mentioned above
I believe he was editorially constrained to the point where the strip itself suffered. More's the pity.
Terry very impressively made play for the lady in red, whose tutelage she willingly gave-all without
explicit depict since we all get the pix, but less here is definitely more. No doubt, the restraint skewers
what might have been had the cartoonist been left solo.

And on a relevant if not related note: some of the news print is horrifically tragic, but excellently covered
by on scene reporters in the truest sense of journalism. Nostalgia for the era is fine but constant human
nature just makes one cringe sometime. And that girl having to jump three stories to escape further
assault, and the nightclub singer who shot her daughter before suicide, leaving her ex-husband a letter.
And the crimes against women by predatory males who do not always receive just sentences....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Japanese bombers today attacked a U. S. gunboat during a raid on Chungking, and another bomb exploded near the American embassy in that city. The U. S. Government made immediate representations with Japanese authorities over the attack on the U. S. S. Tutulia, which was moored within the so-called "safety zone" in the Yangtze River. The gunboat serves as part of the American river patrol. One bomb exploded just eight yards from the Tutulia, caving in part of the ship's stern and blowing loose equipment off its deck. Another bomb struck and destroyed a small motorboat belonging to the ship. A report monitored from Vichy, France stated that the Soviet Embassy in Chungking was destroyed in the raid, and the British Embassy was damaged by the bombs.

The damage to the Tutulia marks the second incident in which that specific ship has been damaged by Japanese bombs. After the initial incident in June 1940, the vessel was equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

President Roosevelt today asked Congress to enact nationwide rent and price controls during the present emergency, in order to ward off inflation that might damage national defense efforts. In a special message to lawmakers, the President stated his belief that such controls would best be achieved by cooperation between business and labor rather than by direct legislative fiat, but noted that efforts to accomplish this goal over the past year have been compromised by "evasion and bootlegging," and by open defiance of the Administration's expressed wishes.

Sidney Hillman, director of the Office of Production Management, today arrived in New York in an attempt to resolve the general strike by electricians which has halted construction projects all over the city. Yesterday three leaders of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers AFL met with Hillman at his office in Washington, a meeting which, it is rumored, was initiated by Hillman himself, possibly along with OPM director William S. Knudsen. The strike by Local 3 of the IBEW against Consolidated Edison Company charges that the utility is undermining its contract by illegally establishing a "company union" at a wage scale half that required under the IBEW agreement.

The 1941 election picture has been thrown into a turmoil today by the announcement from Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey that he will not seek re-election to that office this fall. Although Mr. Dewey did not announce his future political plans, leaders of the City Fusion Party see the decision as a serious blow to their campaign for the re-election of Mayor LaGuardia, with Dewey's presence on the Republican ticket for another term as DA seen as an opportunity to draw Fusion and the GOP together in a united front. Mr. Dewey, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination last year, was narrowly defeated in the 1938 gubernatorial race, and there seems little doubt that his retirement as Manhattan's top prosecutor is the prelude for another run for the governorship in 1942. It is also noted that Mr. Dewey's candidacy for Governor in 1938 received no support from Mayor LaGuardia, who, while not directly endorsing Democratic incumbent Herbert H. Lehman for re-election, conducted himself in a friendly manner toward the Governor during that campaign. Fusion leaders now fear that the Mayor's attitude toward Mr. Dewey in 1938 will rebound against the Mayor in this year's election and against any Fusion-Republican alliance against Democratic candidate William O'Dwyer. But it is also noted that Mr. Dewey himself required coalition support for election to his present office -- in that case, an alliance between the Republican and American Labor parties -- and present conflicts between the Republicans and the ALP over the status of left-leaning Manhattan Borough President Stanley Isaacs make it unlikely that he could be reelected this year if he chose to run.

(You might as well settle. The comedians ran out of Stephen Foster jokes months ago.)

East Coast petroleum marketers have agreed in principle to begin "some sort of rationing" of gasoline and oil, from Maine to Florida, as of September 2nd. A special committee headed by John A. Brown of the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company has agreed on one of two steps to achieve the 30 percent reduction in oil consumption ordered by Oil Administrator Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior. Under the plan, either all gasoline stations within the affected zone will be required to close from 7 PM Saturdays until the following Monday morning, or some sort of official scrip will be issued by state motor vehicle bureaus for automobile owners to restrict quantities of gasoline which may be purchased. It is expected, if the scrip plan is adopted, purchases would be limited to five gallons per week per automobile owner, with larger quantities allotted to those who use their vehicles for business purposes. It was hoped that a strictly voluntary plan might reduce fuel consumption over the summer, but in any event it was anticipated that drastic steps would be required after Labor Day to achieve the 30-percent goal.

(I can't wait till Larry starts speaking at rallies.)

(Joanie was one of the first soap-opera actresses to get up-front billing -- or any kind of billing, for that matter. And in 1941, when Frank Hummert signs your paycheck, that gets you a nice little three-room apartment.)

(Music To Search Desperately For A Lost Ticket By.)

"A Sanitation Man's Wife" writes in to say that it's all well and good to talk about raising the wages of policemen, but what about the sanitation workers? How about the men who run the incinerators all summer in 150-degree temperatures? Did you know sanitation workers have gotten exactly $1 in pay raises over the past eleven years? "By the way," she adds, "I hope and pray that our own District Attorney O'Dwyer gets elected."

("I Don't Want No More Of Army Life...")

Old-time minstrel man Eddie Leonard was found dead yesterday afternoon in a $3 a day room at the Hotel Imperial. The retired blackface comedian, whose age was estimated at 70, was reported missing on Monday by his wife Mabel when he failed to return to their apartment at the King Edward Hotel after keeping an appointment with his dentist. There was no money on Leonard's body when it was found by an ambulance crew from Bellevue Hospital, but in his suit coat pocket was a found a silver lifetime pass to the Polo Grounds, membership cards for the American Guild of Variety Artists and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, and a ticket stub from the Lyric Theatre, where Mr. Leonard had once starred during his heyday in the 1910s. The comedian's body was found half-dressed sprawled across the bed, and doctors believe that he died of a heart attack.

("A TIE?" growls Sally. "A TIE???" "Well," says Joe, picking the radio up off the floor, "at least ya di'nt t'row it outta winda.")

(Boody salutes his old boss Zack Mosley -- sort of.)

(Do lawyers really accept clients who show up on their doorsteps at midnight? Or is that, in fact, where they get their best cases?)

(HIT HIM WITH THE TIRE IRON! HIT HIM WITH THE TIRE IRON! HIT HIM WITH THE TIRE IRON!)

("Why, everybody keeps books nowadays!" Yeah, Chief, that's why you got turned down for that job with the Amen Office.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Why would Mr. Leonard go to the dentist and then check into a hotel room 12 blocks from his home, and then "die of natural causes?" Will we ever know?

A big part of the reason silent pictures have a reputation for being hokey, hammy, and ridiculous is the way they were packaged as "camp" before anyone understood what "camp" was.

I'm sure Mr. Rittoff and his unusual faculty for reasoning are a real scream at parties.

Actually, Warbucks with those whiskers looks a lot like the time-traveling professor in "Alley Oop." Does this mean we'll be meeting DINOSAURS?

YEAH, IT'S ONNNNNNN!

Little Face is looking a bit Edward Arnold there. Who knew?

"Oh, and you've got a caterpillar on your head."

"Now which way is that haystack?"

An ascot with a polo shirt. Be sure to see the rest of Moon's photo spread in this month's "Apparel Arts."

If you're gonna go full soap-opera, you gotta have a hospital storyline.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The 1941 election picture has been thrown into a turmoil today by the announcement from Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey that he will not seek re-election to that office this fall. Although Mr. Dewey did not announce his future political plans, leaders of the City Fusion Party see the decision as a serious blow to their campaign for the re-election of Mayor LaGuardia, with Dewey's presence on the Republican ticket for another term as DA seen as an opportunity to draw Fusion and the GOP together in a united front. Mr. Dewey, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination last year, was narrowly defeated in the 1938 gubernatorial race, and there seems little doubt that his retirement as Manhattan's top prosecutor is the prelude for another run for the governorship in 1942. It is also noted that Mr. Dewey's candidacy for Governor in 1938 received no support from Mayor LaGuardia, who, while not directly endorsing Democratic incumbent Herbert H. Lehman for re-election, conducted himself in a friendly manner toward the Governor during that campaign. Fusion leaders now fear that the Mayor's attitude toward Mr. Dewey in 1938 will rebound against the Mayor in this year's election and against any Fusion-Republican alliance against Democratic candidate William O'Dwyer. But it is also noted that Mr. Dewey himself required coalition support for election to his present office -- in that case, an alliance between the Republican and American Labor parties -- and present conflicts between the Republicans and the ALP over the status of left-leaning Manhattan Borough President Stanley Isaacs make it unlikely that he could be reelected this year if he chose to run....

New York City politics is ridiculously complicated and confusing in 1941 - we need a diagram. Today, it's simple, "which democrat gets elected," but back '41, my God, the machinations are crazy.

...
("A TIE?" growls Sally. "A TIE???" "Well," says Joe, picking the radio up off the floor, "at least ya di'nt t'row it outta winda.")...

The top or one of the top two or three players in baseball, Dimaggio, asking for $80,000 in '41 is like asking for about $1,500,000 today. To be fair, baseball did not have television revenue or even much radio revenue yet. Still, Larry's having a heart attack just reading the article.

... (HIT HIM WITH THE TIRE IRON! HIT HIM WITH THE TIRE IRON! HIT HIM WITH THE TIRE IRON!)...

Lizzie, if you want the sessions with the school's counselor to end, it is probably wise to not start a new, umm, campaign chant about hitting somebody with a tire iron as we are just getting him to understand the "FACE-EATING DOG" obsession.

A...
Why would Mr. Leonard go to the dentist and then check into a hotel room 12 blocks from his home, and then "die of natural causes?" Will we ever know?....

When I read the Eagle's account of Mr. Leonard's death, I thought maybe he was having an affair (yes at 70, it happens), but the News makes me think it might have been nostalgia or confusions or something more like that.

Re the milk price increase, how 'bout that, inflation in 1941 works the same way in 2021.

The case is awful, so no joking, but Claire Beringer does not look blonde. It seems that happens a lot in Page Four reporting.

...
A big part of the reason silent pictures have a reputation for being hokey, hammy, and ridiculous is the way they were packaged as "camp" before anyone understood what "camp" was...

It would be interesting to know the economics behind this - how he gets his pictures, from whom, how much he pays, etc? Old movie "libraries" were already worth something in '41 it appears.

...[ YEAH, IT'S ONNNNNNN!....

And Raven's strong opening move is the WASP waist. Your move Burma (and we've all seen the unbutton-blouse front a hundred times).

... "Now which way is that haystack?"....

"What, no promise ring? No trip to the haystack till I get the promise ring."

...
If you're gonna go full soap-opera, you gotta have a hospital storyline.

Mom never had any real cards to play.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were quite a few sources you could tap if you wanted to show a silent film in 1941 -- there were always a few prints lying around independent film exchanges, so if you wanted to go thru legitimate sources it was a simple matter of filling in the paperwork. You couldn't book a Garbo film this way, but there were plenty of smalltime silent pictures available if you really wanted to show one. Valentino was still popular enough that United Artists actually did a national re-release of The Shiek and The Son Of The Shiek in the late thirties that played well even at first-run houses, and those prints would also be reasonably easy to get.

If you didn't care about legalities, there was a vast underground of sources you could tap -- film bootlegging was always a profitable sideline among the various shady things you could do to make a buck in the Era. And if you were running 16mm equipment, hundreds of features and shorts were available from Universal Show-at-Home, the Kodascope Library, or local camera-store film rental services. You weren't supposed to show these for money, but the MPPDA didn't get around much to Coney Island, so you could probably get away with it. I wonder, though, if this bit of notoriety will cause Mr. Stern to receive a visit?

 

[LizzieMaine]

And as for NYC politics, I guess the best way to understand it is "Tammany machine Democrats vs. Everyone Else." Party labels in the sense we know them today, or for that matter as far as the rest of the country in 1941 are basically meaningless outside of that context. How else to understand the Republicans and the American Labor Party having any kind of a united front on anything?

The City Fusion Party, with which Mr. LaGuardia is most closely associated, was an early effort to unite all the anti-Tammany forces under one banner, but it's obviously impossible to do that. Nice try though.

 

[Harp]

And Raven's strong opening move is the WASP waist. Your move Burma (and we've all seen the unbutton-blouse front a hundred times).

Catfight Chess-at the highest level.

Raven has opened WASP Waist Queen's pawn 2; Burma has two strategies to counter her adversary,
either advance her Queen's pawn forward deuce or shift focus to flank and advance Bishop pawn two squares;
initiating the Sicilian defense and avoiding Raven's inevitable Queen's Gambit in the centre board.
Should Burma retain center focus and advance her Queen's pawn forward deuce she should decline
Raven's Queen's Gambit and opt for the Slav Defense by advancing her Sovereign's pawn forward one square.

Obviously, Burma's blouse will be decolletage irrespective of centre or flank tactical maneuver.

 

[LizzieMaine]

All 100,000 gasoline filling stations on the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida will be required to close every night at 7 PM beginning this coming Sunday, under a drive to cut oil consumption announced today by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes in his role as Federal oil co-ordinator. The order further stipulates that stations may open no earlier than 7 AM. Mr. Ickes stated that all oil companies have agreed to cut off gasoline supplies to any station refusing to comply with the order, intended as an emergency measure to head off a looming oil shortage on the East Coast.

In the New York metropolitan area, about ten thousand filling station attendants are expected to lose their jobs as an immediate consequence of the announced curtailment of operating hours, and it is anticipated that the price of gasoline will see an immediate increase of 1 cent per gallon to cover losses resulting from the reduction in sales. Approximately ten percent of all filling stations in the area covered by the closure order are in New York City, and the business director of the Gasoline Merchants Association of Brooklyn estimates that every station will likely have to lay off one man. Director Louis Kimmel further stated that local filling-station operators were shocked by the timing of Secretary Ickes' announcement, stating that the understanding had been that no restrictions would be announced until after Labor Day. "Apparently," said Mr. Kimmel, "Mr. Ickes believes the emergency is at hand."

The United States has refused to accept an apology from the Japanese Government for yesterday's attack on the U. S. gunboat Tutulia, moored in the Yangtze River during a Japanese air raid on Chungking, China. A representative of the Japanese Naval Ministry called on the U. S. Naval Attache in Tokio today to "express regrets," but Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles stated that this expression of regrets was "not satisfactory," and that a "fuller statement" is required from Japanese authorities.

Striking electricians at the Brooklyn Navy Yard were ordered back to work today by Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, following a conference between union officials and Director Sidney Hillman of the Office of Production Management. Picketing was halted outside the Yard at 2:10 this afternoon, and it was expected that all of the 286 Navy Yard men involved in the strike would immediately return to their jobs. Union officials stated that they took the step of recalling the strikers "purely for patriotic reasons," and that their dispute with Consolidated Edison Company over that firms' use of non-IBEW workers at half the wage rate paid under the present union contract remains unresolved.

A city-wide racket involving the illegal repossession of more than 20,000 automobiles a year has been bared by Attorney General John Bennett Jr, with a Kings County grand jury returning information against one corporation and sixteen individuals on charges of victimizing car owners. The Rex Adjustment Company of 58 Court Street and 16 persons connected to that firm are accused of acquiring chattel mortgages and conditional bills on automobiles for the sole purpose of collecting debts, an action prohibited under the State Penal Law. Five of the individuals are also charged with repossessing vehicles without the required state license or the posting of the required $10,000 bond. It is also charged that the firm charged excessive fees to owners attempting to redeem their cars, and that the cars were often returned in damaged condition.

Nazi attacks on Leningrad are making no progress, with Soviet anti-aircraft forces and fighter planes turning back three new German daylight raids against the city. The official German news agency reports that a new Soviet counterattack is underway south of Vyazma and east of Smolensk, with heavy fighting reported.

British planes attacked Finland today, bombing targets in the port of Petsamo in support of their Soviet allies, and damaging a German gunnery ship along with shipping and harbor works.

It is reported in St. Louis that the Dodgers have acquired pitcher Tom Davis and an outfielder named Tatum from the Nashville club of the Southern Association, in exchange for cash and players from the Dodger minor league club at Montreal. The player named Tatum is said to be hitting "about .350," and the two newly-acquired men are reportedly on their way to join the Dodgers in Chicago tomorrow. The Dodger office in Brooklyn tells the Eagle that it has no knowledge of any such deal. Team president Larry MacPhail is with the ballclub in St. Louis, and is known to have been "dickering" with the Nashville club over the purchase of "one or more players."

The Senate today will debate a proposal to pay a monthly bonus of $30 to selectees and National Guardsmen who agree to remain in uniform past their required one year of military training. The bill is opposed by Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, who argues that history shows that armies raised by the payment of bonuses are "unsatisfactory."

(DID YOU KNOW...? Tub butter is healthier for you than stick butter, because it's lower in fat. But since the whole point of butter is the fat, it seems kind of a weak trade.)

(Buster Keaton out for Chinese food with Lionel Stander and Tallulah Bankhead? Guess who doesn't get a word in edgewise.)

Radio columnist Jo Ranson has this item for us:

(Darn tootin'. But jeez, Mr. Ranson -- Dan Dunn, OK, but Hairbreadth Harry hasn't been in the Eagle for years. Try and keep up.)

(Mr. Benny will get years of "lace my corset, Rochester" jokes out of this role.)

(Come come, Mr. Lichty. This is 1941, and trailer jokes were passe in 1938.)

(So much on this page. The slump continues, Williams gunning for .400, Feller shooting for 20 and it isn't even August yet, famous wild man Johnny Allen on his way to Brooklyn -- and MacPhail is looking for a right-handed hitter. "HEY LARRY!" bellows Joe. "YA KNOW WHO CAN HIT RIGHT HANDED? ROY CULLENBINE! AN' LEF' HANDED TOO!" "Petey hits right handed," sniffs Sally, dunking a fresh pickle in the gravy. "Or at leas' he would IF YA GIVE HIM A CHANCE!")

The Cuban Stars are on their way to Dexter Park to face the Bushwicks under the lights tomorrow, and they arrive playing red-hot ball that has brought them to a close second behind the Homestead Grays in the Negro National League. The Cubans have split two doubleheaders so far this year against the locals, and were hot enough during spring training in Havana to whip the Dodgers three times.

(Come off it, Fran -- Leona would snap you back in your place without scuffing her shoe.)

("I've talked to her a hundred times. She has a very strong mind.")

(Please welcome today's guest writer, Mr. Robert Riskin.)

(Not to worry, nurse -- Irwin could not possibly excite any woman in any way.)

 

[Fading Fast]

...
(Darn tootin'. But jeez, Mr. Ranson -- Dan Dunn, OK, but Hairbreadth Harry hasn't been in the Eagle for years. Try and keep up.)...

That would be an interesting broadcast to listen to.

..
(Mr. Benny will get years of "lace my corset, Rochester" jokes out of this role.)...

To the best of my always-suspect memory, surprisingly, I've never seen "Charley's Aunt" pop up on TCM or any of the old movie stations I've watched over the years.

...[ (Come off it, Fran -- Leona would snap you back in your place without scuffing her shoe.)...

Meanwhile, every male head in the bar snaps to attention as the guy in the corner reading the paper screams "girl fight!"

... ("I've talked to her a hundred times. She has a very strong mind.")...

I didn't miss that line either - those words say a lot.