The Era -- Day By Day

[PrivateEye]

(Dramatic musical sting!)

I can't take the tension...when do I finally get to meet this Dragon Lady!?

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's she, right there in panel three, getting ready to spot Patrick thru her glasses. And then the fur, as they say, will fly.

(Unless this is her sorta-lookalike stand-in Hu Shee, in which case she'll say WHERE IS TERRY! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE GOLDEN ONE?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Dodgers usually do draw well as the visiting club -- they were the biggest road attraction in either league last year. exceeding even the Yankees, who are the top road draw in the AL -- but this is Philadelphia, in April. It'll take a while to get into the mood.

It really is a wonder the Phillies survived this period of their existence. Mr. Nugent is a former shoe salesman who came into his ownership of the club by marrying the secretary of the late previous owner. He has no money, and had to abandon his ballpark in 1938 because it was falling apart, and move in as tenants of the A's, where he has found that Mr. Mack can be a most exacting landlord. That money he made selling Camilli and Higbe to the Dodgers is long gone, and he's literally one step ahead of the bill collectors as he tries to meet payroll with a club that no one, but no one, wants to see. Mr. Nugent makes poor Mr. Barnes out in St. Louis look like Larry MacPhail.

Out in Milwaukee, meanwhile, a minor league operator named William Veeck Jr. is observing Mr. Nugent's predicament and wondering what might happen if, say, someone were to buy the Phillies, release or sell off all their players, and restock the club with, say, the cream of the Negro Leagues. Just an idle thought, of course, no one would ever consider putting such a plan into motion. Would they?

 

[Fading Fast]

That's she, right there in panel three, getting ready to spot Patrick thru her glasses. And then the fur, as they say, will fly.

(Unless this is her sorta-lookalike stand-in Hu Shee, in which case she'll say WHERE IS TERRY! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE GOLDEN ONE?)

Oh my God, how great would it be if Hu Shee is doing advanced scouting for the DL. I told my girlfriend of 20+ years that the only woman I'd ever leave her for is Hu Shee. After I explained to her all about Hu Shee, she agreed with me.

 

[PrivateEye]

That's she, right there in panel three, getting ready to spot Patrick thru her glasses. And then the fur, as they say, will fly.

(Unless this is her sorta-lookalike stand-in Hu Shee, in which case she'll say WHERE IS TERRY! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE GOLDEN ONE?)

Silly me, I assumed her third-person reference to "The Dragon Lady" was to another woman, not herself.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(C'mon, Lieutenant, you've got a better arm than that. ***BOOM*** Well, at least you *did*...)

The Red Army reported last night that Nazi defenses on the North, Central, and Leningrad fronts have been pierced in severe fighting and that enemy attacks with flamethrowers have been repulsed on the Central front. More than 2000 enemy soldiers were listed as killed in "scattered battles," in addition to heavy losses suffered by the Germans when Soviet artillery and infantry smashed "repeated counterattacks" led by Nazi airplanes and flamethrowers.

Price Administrator Leon Henderson, apparently paving the way for the promulgation of overall price ceilings for all consumer goods next week, last night established ceiling prices on all commodities and products produced for export. OPA officials stated that "the export price of any commodity shall be the cost of acquisition by the exporter plus the average premium charge in the export trade on a similar item between July 1 and December 31, 1940 or March 1-April 15, 1942, whichever period yields the larger premium. The ceilings will go into force on Tuesday.

A ten minute public hearing yesterday in Mayor LaGuardia's office on City Councilman Walter R. Hart's antidiscrimination bill, recently passed by the City Council and the Board of Estimate was a preliminary to the expected final approval of the new law by the Mayor. Under that law, employment agencies in the city will be prohibited from placing advertisements indicating discrimination in any job offered on the basis of race, color, or religion -- unless the prospective employer states in writing that he desires to impose a color line in hiring. In such cases, the law requires that the full name of the prospective employer must appear in the advertisement. The bill was supported at the hearing by Victor Gettner of the National Lawyers' Guild, and opposed by William J. Kelly of the Commerce and Industry Association of New York and William E. Vogel of the Association of Private Office Personnel Agencies.

A petition from the Kings County American Legion to the Brooklyn Public Library Board of Trustees calling for the display of the American Flag at the Library's Central branch at Grand Army Plaza is under consideration, with action depending on the adoption of a plan for preventing the flag from being soiled by pigeons. Chester Harris, former Americanism chairman of the Flatlands Legion post, proposed arming a detachment of Legionnaires -- or Sons of the Legion -- with air rifles, and requiring them to patrol the Plaza and shoot pigeons attempting to roost on the flagpole. It was also noted that residents of the nearby Lefferts Manor neighborhood have for years installed papier-mache snakes on their rooftops to keep the pigeons away.

(Coughlin had a strong base of support in Brooklyn, as we have seen with the Christian Front affair, and given that, Mr. Schroth no doubt fully expects to lose readers over his stand. He might also be advised to keep his shutters closed at night.)

("A hot start doesn't always mean much," shouts the ghost of 1940.)

Attention youngsters -- if you've ever wanted to be a real life movie critic, attend a showing of Walt Disney's "Fantasia" at the RKO Albee beginning next Wednesday, and send in your review in 150 words or less to Amateur Reviewers Contest Editor, care of the Brooklyn Eagle. All high school, junior high school, and elementary school students in any public or parochial school in Brooklyn are eligible to enter, with prizes of $5, $3, and $2 in war savings stamps awarded to the three best entries in each age group, along with passes to the Albee. Judges will be Eagle movie critic Herb Cohen, radio editor Jo Ranson, and music editor Miles Kastendieck.

("Dear Eagle," scrawls Joe on a Big Chief tablet, "That picture was some punk. It didn't have no story or plot to it or nothing and that scene with the hippaput -- hipotam -- hippos in it was like the DTs. Not that I ever had the DTs, but I seen a guy once coming out of a bar that was asking why there was a hippo in the street, but it was just the Stillwell Ave Trolly." "C'mon," says Sally. "You ain' gonna enteh'at contes'! Ya too old!" "It don' say nut'n bout how old," sniffs Joe. "It says high school studen's. An' I'm still signed up at New Utreck!" "You ain' been goin', t'ough," notes Sally, "since ya been woikin' t'night shif'." "Geez," replies Joe. "'At's right. I do'wan no truant officeh comin' afteh me!")

(Never mind Mountbatten, I wanna see a picture of the Kolozys.)

(Don't be robbing crows, kid. They can make your life a living hell.)

(Queen Wilhemina my foot. That's Mary Worth.)

(What Hat Are You Wearing Today?)

(All the kids are into trolling today, but Babs wins the prize. BLAAAAAA WOOF!)

(Jo doesn't like those Irish jokes either.)

(And when a smelt's been sitting for a while it smells like sauerkraut.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Cleaning off the Page Four desk...

Of course, you wouldn't actually be able to see any of these people with all the smoke in the arena.

I wish I'd known *this* was how you get good parts.

Sigh, and I was hoping "Butcher Knife Liz" would take over the strip.

Sea chest? Don't you mean "sea steamer-trunk?"

C'mon, tickle him some more!

"Boom dust" indeed.

C'mon now. When Harold worked for Mr. Mengel, he only got $11 a week!

I hate word problems.

"What's one more skeleton, more or less?"

 

[Fading Fast]

(C'mon, Lieutenant, you've got a better arm than that. ***BOOM*** Well, at least you *did*...)
...

One assumes the sewing machine companies got war contracts and just didn't go out of business when they were forced to stop making sewing machines.

...

("A hot start doesn't always mean much," shouts the ghost of 1940.)
...

No kidding. The horror of baseball is that if after 162 games and the pennant series, you make it to the World Series, your entire fate can pivot on a few plays like, oh I don't know, a dropped third strike.

...

("Dear Eagle," scrawls Joe on a Big Chief tablet, "That picture was some punk. It didn't have no story or plot to it or nothing and that scene with the hippaput -- hipotam -- hippos in it was like the DTs. Not that I ever had the DTs, but I seen a guy once coming out of a bar that was asking why there was a hippo in the street, but it was just the Stillwell Ave Trolly." "C'mon," says Sally. "You ain' gonna enteh'at contes'! Ya too old!" "It don' say nut'n bout how old," sniffs Joe. "It says high school studen's. An' I'm still signed up at New Utreck!" "You ain' been goin', t'ough," notes Sally, "since ya been woikin' t'night shif'." "Geez," replies Joe. "'At's right. I do'wan no truant officeh comin' afteh me!")
...

...

(And when a smelt's been sitting for a while it smells like sauerkraut.)

The subway air as an early form of air-conditioning is pretty neat. If it is true about the block of houses being moved without water, gas, electric or sewage service interruption, that had to take some pretty intensive upfront planing.

Of course, you wouldn't actually be able to see any of these people with all the smoke in the arena.
..

You basically couldn't see anything anywhere in the '40s because of all the smoking. Doctors used to smoke in their offices. Smoking cars on trains looked like they were on fire. Based on what I saw as a kid in the '70s at the tail end of the smoking era, it was utterly ridiculous.

I wish I'd known *this* was how you get good parts.
...

Since Van Dyke is already getting better reviews than Yollman, wouldn't it have made more sense for him to have gone on stage as as himself as the understudy replacing the missing Yollman? Mr. Van Dyke, meet Occam's Razor.

...

"Boom dust" indeed.
...

Effectively, Caniff snuck "Don't you have a daughter we can rape" right past the censors.

...

I hate word problems.
...

It was all good until the pigs started walking on their hind legs.

...

"What's one more skeleton, more or less?"

They might want to wait a day to make sure he's dead and then dig out the money.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("What's he doing out there?" growls Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen, as he glares out the window into Borough Hall Plaza. "He's been out there all morning, wearing that uniform, walking back and forth, back and forth." "He's looking for enlisted men," replies an Amen Office secretary, with a roll of the eyes. "So they can salute him." Mr. Amen's gaze narrows. "He's a major, is he? And me a lieutenant in the last war. Hmmm." "Shall I have lunch delivered today?" "Yes. And -- um -- every other day until -- um -- May 9th.")

Adolf Hitler's speech to the Reichstag yesterday, the strangest speech of the Fuehrer's strange career, was greeted in Great Britain and in Russia as sounding the death knell for Germany's hopes of victory, and implying the approach of another Nazi blood purge that will make Hitler's campaign against party leaders in 1934 seem like a rehearsal. The most encouraging portion of Hitler's speech from an Allied point of view was his statement that he expects Germany to still be fighting in Russia next winter, remarks which seemed to foreclose the possibility of a German victory this summer and an acknowledgement that during the winter just past the Nazi forces escaped complete defeat by only the narrowest of margins. It had been predicted in newspaper reports from Stockholm that the speech would include a declaration that "the Latin bloc" of France, Spain and Portugal would fully join the Axis, but no such comments were made by Hitler, and it was suggested in some quarters that some unrevealed circumstance forced a last-minute alteration of the speech. The address also include an unprecedented statement from Hitler that he, and he alone, must have complete life-and-death control over the lives of every individual German citizen, compelling them to "do their duty" for the sake of the war, "no matter who they are or what rights they might have acquired."

Over two hundred thousand Brooklyn men between the ages of 45 and 64 signed up for the draft by yesterday afternoon, with the pace of enrollment peaking at nearly 1000 men a minute city-wide. A total of 201,063 men in the specified age group signed up by late yesterday, and the pace of enrollment has slowed moving into today. Enrollment, which is compulsory for all men in the designated group, will continue until 9 tonight.

Rationing of gasoline, expected to be imposed on the East Coast as of May 15th, may be regulated on a needed-mileage basis, it was indicated today by the Office of Price Administration. Under that system, the amount of fuel alloted to each specific motorist would be determined by how far he must drive for necessary purposes. Each motorist would be issued a classification of ration card allowing only that amount of gasoline, and no more. Authorities would be empowered to check every motorist's odometer on a regular basis to ensure that there is no use of any car for non-essential purposes, and ration cards would be revoked in the event of any violation. It was also confirmed by the OPA that wholesale deliveries to gasoline stations on the East Coast will be cut by 50 percent as of May 1st.

("Waistlinitis?" laughs J. Whitlow Wyatt. "Not me!")

"Elizabeth" writes to Helen Worth wondering if it would be all right to send a couple of bottles of good whiskey to her boyfriend in the service. "He is in a Southern camp," she explains, "and always likes good whiskey." Helen advises that she send him a small radio instead. Or a good detective story. "But keep the liquor here."

(Mr. Conrad sure does like to talk about "sissies." Makes you wonder. Anyway, in New York's gay subculture of the Era, the wearing of a red tie was widely known as a symbol of membership therein.)

(Ripped from the headlines!)

The wife of Winston Burdett, formerly editor of the Eagle's Sunday Trend section and now with the Columbia Broadcasting System, was killed last Friday in Persia by a band of Kurds. The State Department confirmed today that Mrs. Lea Burdett was making a tour of northern Kurdistan, accompanied by an interpreter, a policeman, and two Kurds, when her automobile was held up, and she was taken away and shot. Mrs. Burdett met her husband in Bucharest when she was stationed there as a writer for an Italian newspaper. She was expelled from Bucharest in 1940 because of her anti-Fascist beliefs.

(Nothing so provincial as a Brooklyn fan -- unless it's a Brooklyn sportswriter. Isn't that so, Mr. Parrott?)

The Bushwicks opened their season against Negro National League competition by sweeping a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Stars at Dexter Park. A ferocious batting attack by the locals took the first game, and a balk by Stars hurler Terris McDuffie allowed in the winning run in the nightcap. The Bushwicks host the Cuban Stars in a twinbill next Sunday.

("Shavetail!")

(Crazy robot! Doesn't even signal turns!)

(I'm actually shocked that Jo doesn't know how to lip-read.)

("See these newspaper photos, John? See the dancer from the Club Buccaneer? Remember her? Did that affect your political career? Don't tear it out of the volume, John, you have plenty of copies at home.")

(Well, that's one way to get rid of Irwin.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Didn't Little Orphan Annie have something to say about hope and gas masks?

"And I don't even have a liquor license! Believe it -- or not!"

"Now let's see -- what would Punjab do?"

Please let this swami be Jerome Trohs' brother. And please let a big dog show up.

I mean, what are the odds?

"You know, now that I think of it, making can openers for a living wasn't really so bad."

And don't forget to get some cash for your trash!

And please welcome our special guest from the sports page, The Brooklyn Bum.

Solvent?

Only couple in the funnies to sleep in a double bed. Isn't it romantic?

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Adolf Hitler's speech to the Reichstag yesterday, the strangest speech of the Fuehrer's strange career, was greeted in Great Britain and in Russia as sounding the death knell for Germany's hopes of victory, and implying the approach of another Nazi blood purge that will make Hitler's campaign against party leaders in 1934 seem like a rehearsal. The most encouraging portion of Hitler's speech from an Allied point of view was his statement that he expects Germany to still be fighting in Russia next winter, remarks which seemed to foreclose the possibility of a German victory this summer and an acknowledgement that during the winter just past the Nazi forces escaped complete defeat by only the narrowest of margins. It had been predicted in newspaper reports from Stockholm that the speech would include a declaration that "the Latin bloc" of France, Spain and Portugal would fully join the Axis, but no such comments were made by Hitler, and it was suggested in some quarters that some unrevealed circumstance forced a last-minute alteration of the speech. The address also include an unprecedented statement from Hitler that he, and he alone, must have complete life-and-death control over the lives of every individual German citizen, compelling them to "do their duty" for the sake of the war, "no matter who they are or what rights they might have acquired."
...

"The address also include an unprecedented statement from Hitler that he, and he alone, must have complete life-and-death control over the lives of every individual German citizen, compelling them to 'do their duty"'for the sake of the war, 'no matter who they are or what rights they might have acquired'."

What does preparing for "total war" sound like?

...

("Waistlinitis?" laughs J. Whitlow Wyatt. "Not me!")
...

"Dear, there seems to be a page missing from today's Eagle?"

[Calling in from the kitchen where a crinkling of paper sound can be heard] "That's funny Freddie, must be war shortages and all."

...

"Elizabeth" writes to Helen Worth wondering if it would be all right to send a couple of bottles of good whiskey to her boyfriend in the service. "He is in a Southern camp," she explains, "and always likes good whiskey." Helen advises that she send him a small radio instead. Or a good detective story. "But keep the liquor here."
...

In all the stuff I've read and seen about WWII over the years, I don't ever remember this coming up before: could you send bottles of booze to enlisted men? I'm guessing no since I never saw any reference to it happening.

...

(Mr. Conrad sure does like to talk about "sissies." Makes you wonder. Anyway, in New York's gay subculture of the Era, the wearing of a red tie was widely known as a symbol of membership therein.)
...

Even into the '80s, the red-tie gay trope still had a little currency, at least in NYC.

...


(Nothing so provincial as a Brooklyn fan -- unless it's a Brooklyn sportswriter. Isn't that so, Mr. Parrott?)
...

"Dishing out the dishabille."

It might be a cliche, but writers continue to use alliteration because it works.

...

"Now let's see -- what would Punjab do?"
...

I'm with Claude (If that's his name), let's take it under advisement. Time should quickly solve this one for us. Then, we'll dig out the money.

...

Please let this swami be Jerome Trohs' brother. And please let a big dog show up.
...

Even Eve Harrington didn't employ a hypnotist.

...

I mean, what are the odds?
...

"Life is just one damn thing after another."

...

Solvent?
...

"Son, you have three choices. One, you can pay off your Sugar Bowl tab. Huh? Can't, okay. Two, I can fine you $500 and sentence you to two years. What's that? Not appealing either. Well then, we come to three, you can enlist. I'm sorry, please speak up? Yes, good luck soldier."

 

[LizzieMaine]

($500,000 bail? It's still not enough.)

Brooklyn today has 305,784 new draft registrants, men from 45 to 64, part of the fourth Selective Service registration which, over the weekend, added a total of 13,000,000 men to the draft rolls, 911,630 of them in New York City. The total number of men in all age groups now registered under the Selective Service law now stands just under 40,000,000, all of them subject to military service. The latest registration, however, covers men who are, under the law, not liable to be conscripted for combat service. They will be required to fill out an occupational questionnaire, giving the Government a huge inventory of occupational skills and experience.

Soviet forces drove the Germans from 11,000 inhabited points, including 60 cities, in the winter campaign now drawing to a bloody close on the lingering snow of Karelia, it was reported today by the Communist Party youth newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. With the exception of the far north, where the Red Army continues to pound the Finns, most of the front seems in the grip of mud and floods, which make large-scale action almost impossible. In the far north, where the snow is just beginning to melt, fighting is described as fierce.

Eight Queens residents are among 19 Treasury Department agents on trial today in Federal court on charges of accepting bribes from bootleggers. The charges allege that the nineteen agents were paid to look the other way as bootleg organizations diverted industrial alcohol to illicit channels.

An agreement among owners of private residential property not to sell, lease, or give their property to Negroes is enforceable, and is not in contravention of public policy or the Federal and State constitutions, according to a ruling today in Brooklyn Supreme Court, issued by Justice Thomas J. Cuff. The Justice thus enjoined Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Neely from selling to any Negro their one-family home on a 60 by 100 foot plot at 176th Street and 114th Avenue in the exclusive Addesleigh section of St. Albans. The Neelys, and neighboring property owners, signed the exclusion agreement last June, specifying that it would remain in force until 1975, but then decided that it violated the Constitution and the public policy of the state. A suit against the Neelys for abrogating the agreement was then filed by three owners of palatial properties along 176th Street, and Justice Cuff, in his ruling, concluded that private transactions and agreements are not limited by Constitutional limiting factors.

Parks Commissioner Robert Moses must show cause tomorrow why he should not be compelled to prohibit the sale of "Social Justice" magazine on all newsstands under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department, following the declaration of that publication as being "seditious and treasonable" by U. S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, and its prohibition from the U. S. mails. An order signed in Manhattan Supreme Court by Justice Peter Schmuck on application by Brooklyn attorney Joseph Goldstein followed the presentation of a petition by Mr. Goldstein alleging that Mr. Moses has failed to follow through on a duty imposed upon him under the law. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has taken up the cause of "Social Justice," a paper founded and controlled by Father Charles E. Coughlin, and has criticized the Post Office Department's action revoking the publication's mailing permit.

("The Brooklyn Eagle -- Still Three Cents!")

("Bazar?" I didn't know Mr. Lichty went in for Simplified Spelling.)

(ED HEAD! ED HEAD! ED HEAD!)

("Hahahaha!" snorts Joe. "Some guy from Bensonhoist! Hahahaha!" "It was you, wasn' it?" replies Sally. "NO! SOITENLY NOT!")

(Are those sock garters GI?)

(Well yeah, that is how it usually goes.)

(How UGH!)

(WELL THAT'S OKAY THEN. As long as he's not some low-born bogtrotter, right John?)

(Oh, and put out that cigar, stupid, you wanna blow us all up? Oh, the dynamite, that's fine, just leave it there next to these highly-reactive chemicals.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News..

Mr. Ronca may be a greengrocer, but he has the soul of a lawyer.

And a word to the wise for wise guys -- don't try to clip and save.

If this is true, then for as long as she lives, little Leonora will have a rudimentary memory of being held up by her father over the heads of a roiling crowd of a million people, as her mother screams "PEEEEEETEEEEEEY!"

Poor Doc Zee. He was planning to just sit around tonight listening to the radio.

"There's always good old Uncle Bim." It's reassuring to have a plan in life.

Walt was a sailor in the last war, but he could never go back. They don't make uniforms in his size.

Now whose convoy might this be?

Chekhov's Cigarette.

Annnnnnnnd we're off!

Moon doesn't work for the company, he's just there to hang around the water cooler.

 

[Fading Fast]

($500,000 bail? It's still not enough.)
...

Agreed. The only guess I can come up with is the judge is required to set bail, so he chose $500,000 (~$9,000,000 today), an amount that he knew, in '42, the defendant didn't have a chance of raising.

...

(ED HEAD! ED HEAD! ED HEAD!)
...

[Sigh] "Okay, tell me, what did she say this time?"

"She just keeps chanting 'Ed Head! Ed Head! Ed Head!'"

"The Dodgers pitcher? Well, that's not so bad, there's nothing violent about it. We have a tight budget. No counseling sessions for chanting 'Ed Head!' Just ask her to be quiet and go on teaching."

...

If this is true, then for as long as she lives, little Leonora will have a rudimentary memory of being held up by her father over the heads of a roiling crowd of a million people, as her mother screams "PEEEEEETEEEEEEY!"
...

Little Leonora will have some very interesting memories from her childhood. And since she could, easily, still be alive today, she would marvel at what Brooklyn's become.

...

"There's always good old Uncle Bim." It's reassuring to have a plan in life.
...

Quite so. For the rest of us without a "good old uncle Bim," there's good old uncle work.

...

Chekhov's Cigarette.
...

"Listen, don't remove any personal property from his person. I want this kept on the up-and-up..."

"Of course, I respect your integrity. But a small question, what about hypnotizing the man for days so that you can steal his career and wife?"

"Shut up."

...

Annnnnnnnd we're off!
...

Had a feeling good ole Pop Jenks sold his accounts receivable along with the business.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Speaking of things Leonora will remember, here's a real rarity -- an actual recording of the legendary Hilda Chester, being interviewed on NBC's "Monitor" radio program in 1960. Three years after the Dodgers abandoned Brooklyn, she doesn't want to talk about Walter F. O'Malley.

Her accent is fascinating. It's late-19th-century Brooklynese with a definite Yiddish inflection, very different from the Irish-inflected dialect that more commonly stands as "a Brooklyn accent" in pop culture. It's well known that Hilda was Jewish, but there are no accounts of her speaking Yiddish in public -- but hearing this I can imagine she might have uncorked a few choice epithets in that language when the umpires riled her.

 

[Fading Fast]

Speaking of things Leonora will remember, here's a real rarity -- an actual recording of the legendary Hilda Chester, being interviewed on NBC's "Monitor" radio program in 1960. Three years after the Dodgers abandoned Brooklyn, she doesn't want to talk about Walter F. O'Malley.

Her accent is fascinating. It's late-19th-century Brooklynese with a definite Yiddish inflection, very different from the Irish-inflected dialect that more commonly stands as "a Brooklyn accent" in pop culture. It's well known that Hilda was Jewish, but there are no accounts of her speaking Yiddish in public -- but hearing this I can imagine she might have uncorked a few choice epithets in that language when the umpires riled her.

That's fantastic. I remember some of the older men and women who worked in "the back office" on Wall Street when I stared in the '80s who sounded just like she does. Half or more of Wall Street's "back office" came from Brooklyn in those days.

She's not an easy interview.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Vintage Phrases That Have Disappeared -- "Cheerful Self-Denial.")

Executives in ten top industries in a war production report issued at the annual convention of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce said today that the United States has already marshalled sufficient industrial power to beat the Axis. Leading figures in the automotive, airplane, shipbuilding, and coal industries all declared in that report that production in all related fields is either on schedule or ahead of schedule, and it is noted that American steel production capacity is 50 percent greater than that of Germany, Italy, Japan, and all nations controlled by the Axis.

Army authorities today are preparing details to perfect the dimout of Manhattan's lights, which was put into effect for the first time last night. To reduce sky glow that silhouettes ships at sea into easy targets for Axis submarines, all lights above the fifteenth story in all buildings were ordered extinguished or shrouded for the duration, and all other lights that might be visible at sea were ordered put out. The order last night blacked out the tops of Manhattan's skyscrapers -- and Brooklyn's too, where the 32-story Williamsburgh Bank Building on Hanson Place was completely darkened, with even the four faces of its clock tower losing their illumination. The electric sign atop the 30-story St. George Hotel was also extinguished. The lights of Broadway, however, continued to glow -- and it was expected that an order will be issued dimming the Gay White Way for the duration of the war.

A 9 PM curfew will be enforced from now on at all public beaches in the city by order of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in the interest of eliminating nighttime glare. Coney Island will also be all but closed at 9, all game and concession booths under the control of the Parks Department to be shut down at that hour, and all lights on the Boardwalk either extinguished or blacked out on the sea front side. Jones Beach will also close its boardwalk, its parking fields, its game areas, restaurants, and pools at 9, although the causeways will remain open. All activities scheduled for the evening hours will be rescheduled for afternoons and early evening, with all nighttime water shows and dancing to be discontinued. Jacob Riis Park will close completely as of 9 PM, with no lights in service and all facilities inoperative. Rockaway Beach game areas will shut down at 9, with all boardwalk lights extinguished, and all other lights shielded on the sea-facing side.

(Or, to put it simply -- Is it in the Sears catalog? PRICE CONTROLLED.)

(James Gleason, Phil Silvers and Walter Catlett? What, you couldn't get Ned Sparks?)

(It's getting so a shady butcher can't make a living.)

A 46-year-old Flatbush man who served two years in Leavenworth Prison as a conscientious objector during the First World War is being held on $2500 bail after refusing to register for Selective Service in the present war. Julius Eichel, a chemist, of 742 Montgomery Street, wrote several days ago to Attorney General Harold M. Kennedy declaring that he had no intention of complying with the order to register, and when brought before Commissioner Edward T. Fay for arraignment yesterday, he refused to enter any plea, declaring "I will have no part in these proceedings." Eichel, a native of Austria who entered the United States as a boy, became a citizen automatically when his parents were naturalized. His case is to go before a Federal grand jury next week.

("Hmph!" hmphs Joe. "Wyatt, Walkeh, Galan, an' Camilli all hoit, an' April ain' even oveh yet!" "Reiseh should get busy," snorts Sally. "He c'n still get in on it if he tries.")

(Let's see him carry a bomb.)

(C'mon now, Harold Lloyd did this bit in 1920.)

(Oh, Magistrate Solomon! Have we got a case for you!)

(Better loosen that collar John, it's turning you into an insufferable bourgie snob.)

("And not only does he never get his clothes cleaned, he probably smells really bad.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Paging Ellery Queen.

You know, there's other kinds of sapdom.

"We're only gonna dig you out if you promise to stop saying 'Hark!'"

Wilmer's a born yardbird.

"I mean, I didn't have much chance as an actress otherwise, seeing as I have only this one expression."

Won't they be disappointed when they find the umbrella handle is only full of candy.

"Cousin of a weary tree toad!"

If you want shooting, go to the RKO Dyker.

"Da ol' man had to have a operation." That's what usually happens when you get a slug in your chest.

Again with the questionable theology.

 

[Fading Fast]

(Vintage Phrases That Have Disappeared -- "Cheerful Self-Denial.")
...

Even by 1942 standards, it's stunning how quickly Eugene Levine is coming to trial.

...

(James Gleason, Phil Silvers and Walter Catlett? What, you couldn't get Ned Sparks?)
...

It's hard today to appreciate how far Norma Shearer's star had faded by this time. She was huge in the early to mid-1930s.

"Moontide" is an okay, albeit odd movie, but the gem in it is a radiant twenty-four-year-old Ida Lupino.

Joe and Sally should check out "The Male Animal" (did it not show in Brooklyn until now?) as they'd have a fun take on its representation of a college community.

...

(Better loosen that collar John, it's turning you into an insufferable bourgie snob.)
...

"Perhaps you're right -- you usually are!" At least he's smart enough to know that.

...

("And not only does he never get his clothes cleaned, he probably smells really bad.")

From what we know, standing next to Irwin is no olfactory treat.

And in the Daily News...

Paging Ellery Queen.
...

No kidding, it's not easy to see how his body got over there. The route from his hotel to Grand Central would take him nowhere near there. Even if he got a bit lost, he still shouldn't have wound up there. Maybe they held him up, forced him in a car and drove him there knowing it would be secluded, but that seems complicated for a simple stickup.

John Dallett's lawyers might delay it a bit with legal machinations, but John better get out his check book as Ione will soon be collecting her $250 a month again. You have to love the "I thought my wife and kids were dead" bigamist.

Page Four was very Page Four today, so much so, I was hoping we'd get an update on Ms. Webb.

...

"I mean, I didn't have much chance as an actress otherwise, seeing as I have only this one expression."
...

At least she was honest about marrying to advance her career. Sure, she tossed in a "and I Ioved him." But we get it, she wanted to be a star.

...

"Cousin of a weary tree toad!"
...

It must be a poor translation. Hopefully, the new edition will have a better one.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Mr. Amen is going to keep picking at that Geoghan scab until it comes off. And the Dodgers get Schoolboy Rowe, who seems like a figure out of the remote past even though his days starring for the World Series Tigers of the mid-thirties are only seven years ago. Mr. Rowe's eternal fame, however, comes from a 1934 radio interview in which he blurted to his wife "How'm I doin', Edna?," to the eternal merriment of bench jockeys everywhere. I look forward to his first appearance at the Polo Grounds.)

Spring rumors of an Axis peace offensive which yesterday focused on Italy swung to Germany today amidst reports that Berlin has put out peace feelers to Great Britain and the United States by means of Turkey, Switzerland, and Sweden. As in the case of the Italian rumors the latest were received in London with skepticism on the ground that, while the Axis would no doubt prefer peace on its own terms, it must know that the Allies, now bringing their tremendous resources to the peak of striking power, are hardly likely to bite. An English language broadcast from Tokio recorded by the United Press listening post in New York stated today that Hitler and Mussolini intend to meet "within the next few days."

Prime Minister Winston Churchill's war government suffered defeats today in by-elections for two seats in the House of Commons. Conservative Party chieftains are said to be "urgently concerned" in the face of rank and file demands within the Labour Party demanding an end to the political truce now prevailing with the Tories. In both elections, Independent candidates defeated incumbent Conservatives, and with the results of several other elections still in doubt, the possibility of further Tory setbacks exists.

Action on former magistrate Joseph Goldstein's petition to ban the sale of Father Coughlin's "Social Justice" magazine from newsstands under the control of the Parks Department has been adjourned to May 6th, pending a final ruling on the status of the paper by the Post Office Department. If the publication is ruled seditious, it is expected that its publisher would face criminal prosecution and the magazine itself would be discontinued.

Thousands of worried retailers. wholesalers, and manufacturers are besieging the Manhattan headquarters of the Office of Price Administration with queries about the problems they now face with the promulgation of price-freezing orders. One major issue is the "time lag" between March retail prices and the wholesale prices for the same month, with retailers noting that March retail prices were based for the most part on wholesale prices prevalent during February, not March. In some industries, such confusion exists that retailers feel unable to place new orders and wholesalers are refusing to sell goods pending clarification of procedures. Many small, independent retailers, however, are praising the price freezes, declaring that it is high time something was done to curb rising wholesale costs.

("Bring 'im on," snorts Sally, banging an iron skillet on the edge of the sink. "I'm awrl ready f' t' bum!" "Leave some f'me," growls Joe.)

Good news for the 10,000,000 East Coast motorists who will face gasoline rationing as of May 15th, with the announcement from the Office of Price Administration and Petroleum Coordinator Harold Ickes that a base quota totalling between 42 and 49 gallons of gasoline per non-essential driver will cover the period between May 15th and July 1st, with motorists allowed to spread that quantity out over the entire period or purchase it all at once. That works out to an average of between six and seven gallons per driver per week, with an additional allocation to drivers who require their cars to get to work, and if they can convince their local rationing boards that no other transportation is available. The announcement comes as a relief to motorists who had heard previous reports suggesting the quota might be as low as two and a half gallons a week.

Mayor LaGuardia is appealing to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to operate municipal radio station WNYC on a 24-hour basis for the duration of the war. WNYC shares the 830 kilocycle channel with station WCCO in Minneapolis, and is required to go off the air during the nighttime hours when that station can be heard over much of the East. The Mayor, who has in recent months used WNYC as his primary point of contact with the public, argued before the Commission in Washington that the station should be entitled to "all the time in the world."

(1942 marks the point of flood tide in the Dodgers' impact on American popular culture, and a Broadway show is just a minor example of it. And "Gay Tahitian?" "Queer?" "Coy, and sheepish, and lusty?" Just what are you getting at, Mr. Cohn?)

(To say nothing of the betting windows.)

(C'mon, Parrott, you can't set us up with this Werber/Magerkurth story and not explain WHY Werber was arguing a call that went in his own favor. Did the Meathead step on Billy's foot? Did Werber stiff the Maje over a lunch check? WHAT HAPPENED??? And as for the question of night ball, it's astonishing to me that there hasn't already been an order issued to abolish it in the blackout zone at least until the questions raised have been settled.)

(I....can't. I just can't.)

(A startling prescient prediction of the impact of robotics on the working class.)

("Don't be a low cad!")

(Seems like Leona would know a little about that herself...)

("Gee, will there be ketchup trees too, Dan? I wanna see the ketchup trees!")