The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

(THEY FINALLY CAUGHT THE FIREBUG! About time, it was stretching out like Dan Dunn was in charge of the case.)
...

The firebug story always seemed to get less coverage than it deserved.

How about the Looney Tunes elevator going through the roof? I hope Bugs and Daffy weren't hurt.

...

Two men said to be bookmakers are being held as material witnesses in the death of Salvatore Maggio, who was shot and killed near the intersection of Wyona Street and Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville just before the blackout on the night of August 28th. According to a police affadavit, 26-year-old Castanzio "House" Calia and 26-year-old Americo "Armee" Dipietto were "in the vicinity" at the time of Maggio's murder, and were known to have been "out looking for him" on August 15th. While the two have not been charged with the shooting, the affadavit states that that they know why Maggio was killed and who did it.
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Today's winner of "The Most 1940s Story of the Day" award.

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("Slaughteh!" snarls Sally. "Why ainnat bum inna awrmy????" "BUM!" shouts Leonora, blowing a spit bubble and slamming her spoon on the high chair for emphasis. "BUM AWMY!" "Jeez," marvels Joe. "If I c'n get tickets, we gotta take her t't game t'is weeken'. She c'n sit wit' Hilda!")
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2022 Yankee lead 3.5 / 1942 Dodgers 3. I continue to hate baseball.

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Private Billy Conn, Pittsburgh heavyweight now in khaki, predicts he'll "box Joe Louis right off the heavyweight throne" when the two fighters clash in a benefit bout for Army relief on October 22nd, a bout expected to revive the "million dollar gate." Conn declared yesterday that "poor Joe is getting old, and I thought he looked awfully slow when he licked Abe Simon in March."
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Conn seems to be confusing Louis with his father-in-law.

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Guess who's about to get sucked into a water reclamation plant. Oh, and GOOD DOGGGGGG.
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It appears that the head crook believes in the Ring Lardner method of providing an explanation.

Yes, the dog is a good looking fella. Also, it was nice to see that the police released Bo after that malicious anonymous report.

...

Fish in a barrel.
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This is painful. I want Hu Shee to come and pull him out of there by his ear.

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I have a co-worker who lives, right now, in a boardinghouse, and he says it's actually a lot like this.
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There are a lot of reasons, but at a high level, regulation and economics have done away with most of NYC's boarding houses. My guess is that today they are much more common outside the city.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(IF IF IF --IF Reiser hadn't hit that wall. IF Higbe was still pitching like it was 1941. IF Camilli didn't keep slumping. IF Larry had held onto Roy Cullenbine. IF SLAUGHTER WENT INTO THE ARMY IN APRIL.)

Nationwide gasoline rationing is just "a number of weeks" away, following acceptance by President Roosevelt of the recommendations released this week by the Rubber Investigating Committee headed by Bernard M. Baruch. That report minced no words in declaring that "unless corrective measures are taken immediately, this country will face both a civilian and military collapse." The business manager of the Gasoline Merchants of Brooklyn and Queens Incorported, Louis Kimmel, endorsed the plan to expand rationing from its present East Coast territory to the entire United States, stating "it's the best thing that could have been suggested to conserve rubber. Six months ago I predicted this would have to come." The report calls for extension of rationing to cover all 27,000,000 American motorists, but also emphasized that by doing so, the Government would insure that "there probably would be enough rubber tires for essential use of automobiles." The report produced a mixed reaction in Congress. Representative Carl Hinshaw (D-Calif.) predicted that rationing will cause "great confusion" in California because public transportation systems in that state are insufficient to replace automobile use. But Representative Edith Nourse Rogers (R-Massachusetts) praised the recommendations, describing nationwide gasoline rationing as "only fair. The East is now being discriminated against, and promises don't fill our gasoline and fuel oil tanks."

The Senate Finance Committee today declared that it will ignore President Roosevelt's request for a $25,000 annual limit on the income any one individual may retain after taxation, but committee chairman Sen. Walter George (D-Georgia) indicated that even without action on that request the new tax rates will be such that "not many will be able to keep more than $25,000." According to new Treasury Department tax tables prepared to reflect the Committee's recommendations, a married man with two dependents and a gross income of $50,000 per year would, before personal deductions, pay $26,636 in Federal taxes.

Hearings are expected to start next week before the House Military Affairs Committee on a plan to draft 18 and 19 year olds. Committee Chairman Andrew J. May (D-Kentucky) predicted that the hearings will be lengthy, with the Committee hearing "everyone who wants to testify." The War Department yesterday further emphasized the critical manpower situation facing the Army by indicating that college students now in the enlisted reserve will likely be called to active duty when they reach the age of 20.

(Well imagine that.)

The founder-treasurer and two solicitors of a "patriotic society" which obtained funds from Queens shopkeepers of foreign extraction to carry on "an educational promotion of Americanism" face a sixteen-count indictment on charges of petty larceny, false advertising, and conspiracy to defraud the public. Defendents Jacob Cash of Manhattan, the society's founder, and his agents Victor Bellevue of Forest Hills and Harry Bramble of Flushing are free on $500 bail pending trial on October 16th. The three men are accused of threatening shopkeepers of German, Italian, and Hungarian ancestry with intimations that they might be linked to Nazi or Fascist organizations if they failed to contribute to the "patriotic society." The solicitors are also accused of displaying forged letters of endorsement "signed" by President Roosevelt, Governor Lehman, Mayor LaGuardia, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and other prominent persons. Those contributing were presented with certificates signed by "John R. Davies, Chairman," with the claim that Mr. Davies, former president of the National Republican Club, was a former president of the "patriotic society" who had resigned in 1940.

When the sun sets today it will usher in the Jewish year 5703, marking the beginning of the High Holy Days with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. In all of Brooklyn's synagogues the ancient ceremony of blowing the shofar to commemorate the binding of Isaac as a divine protest of the practice of human sacrifice, and in countless sermons reference will be made to the suffering and persecution of Jews in the modern world. A special broadcast last night over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees began the nationwide observance of the season, and locally the Rosh Hashanah services at Temple Israel in Manhattan will be broadcast over station WMCA beginning at 6:15 pm. At Brooklyn's Hebrew Home for the Aged, 107-year-old resident Max Weisenfeld will lead his 649 fellow residents in a prayer for victory and for President Roosevelt -- a prayer written by resident Isaac Lieberman, who has been a paralytic for 71 of his 73 years.

(Comedian Phil Foster will enjoy a long and fruitful career on the stage and screen, and eventually on television, always as a loud New York character. Fifteen years from now, he'll make a permanent impression with a recording of a plaintively desperate song: "Let's Keep The Dodgers In Brooklyn.")

(If only.)

(You know, I never thought of it that way.)

Recruiting for the first quota of 240 enlisted women for the WAVES begins today in Manhattan at the Office of Naval Officer Procurement, 33 Pine Street. Women must be between the ages of 20 and 36, and must apply in writing. The enlistment period closes on October 6th.

("It's inna bag," says Joe. "I got tickets f'Sat'day f'you an' ya ma an' Leonora. I wisht I din' hafta woik, but wawr is wawr." "Oh," affirms Sally. "It'll be wawr awright. An' If I eveh run intat'at bum Higbe, he'll be a casualty!!! "Bummmmm Higee," agrees Leonora. "Booooo!")

Despite his injuries this summer, Pete Reiser is expected to be reclassified soon as 1-A, in keeping the new draft procedures. Should that occur, Reiser intends to enlist in the Navy instead of waiting to be called to the Army, and will try for an ensign's commission.

Big Al Blozis, towering shot putter and former tackle for Georgetown University, will start for the Football Giants when they meet the Eastern Army All-Stars at the Polo Grounds tomorrow in a joint benefit for the Army Emergency Relief and the Tribune Fresh Air Fund. The six-feet-six-inch 245 pound Blozis joined the Giants only last week, and the leviathan youth from Jersey City reported to the team in "superb physical shape." Good seats for the game are still available at the Herald-Tribune office and at the Football Giants office at 11 W. 42nd Street in Manhattan.

Comedian Tommy Riggs, who possesses both the rich baritone voice of a grown man and the high piping tones of a six-year-old girl, will be back on the air beginning October 9th, with an all-new "Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou" series over the NBC hookup. Riggs and his child alter ego recently completed a well-received engagement as summer replacements for Burns and Allen.

(WILL HE GET THE MESSAGE? Oh wait, it's Bill. Sorry, toots, you're sunk.)

(If you get out of this, consider a new career as a movie stuntwoman.)

(Well, it isn't from Kay. She's done being Dan's "friend.")

(YOU CAN'T NOBODY ESCAPES FROM AMERICA'S #1 HERO DOG)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Ew ew ew. The Cochran case, you may recall, was particularly gruesome, and I hope that justice will finally follow.

Where I live I see a lot of sailors, but very few with wasp waists.

Hey Driftwood, got a job for ya....

C'mon, paint some funny sayings on the sides.

But the truth is, ALL babies look like that.

"Snip, I'd like you to meet my new assistant -- she's just out from the city to take over as farm overseer. Meet Mamie Mullins."

Oh Dam!

Yeah, and I don't think she'll be giving Terry dancing lessons.

Never would've figured him for the literary type.

Hey Goof, checked your draft status lately?

 

[Fading Fast]

...

The founder-treasurer and two solicitors of a "patriotic society" which obtained funds from Queens shopkeepers of foreign extraction to carry on "an educational promotion of Americanism" face a sixteen-count indictment on charges of petty larceny, false advertising, and conspiracy to defraud the public. Defendents Jacob Cash of Manhattan, the society's founder, and his agents Victor Bellevue of Forest Hills and Harry Bramble of Flushing are free on $500 bail pending trial on October 16th. The three men are accused of threatening shopkeepers of German, Italian, and Hungarian ancestry with intimations that they might be linked to Nazi or Fascist organizations if they failed to contribute to the "patriotic society." The solicitors are also accused of displaying forged letters of endorsement "signed" by President Roosevelt, Governor Lehman, Mayor LaGuardia, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and other prominent persons. Those contributing were presented with certificates signed by "John R. Davies, Chairman," with the claim that Mr. Davies, former president of the National Republican Club, was a former president of the "patriotic society" who had resigned in 1940.
...

Human ingenuity is imprsesive and agnostic, which is why we need laws against fraud.

...

When the sun sets today it will usher in the Jewish year 5703, marking the beginning of the High Holy Days with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. In all of Brooklyn's synagogues the ancient ceremony of blowing the shofar to commemorate the binding of Isaac as a divine protest of the practice of human sacrifice, and in countless sermons reference will be made to the suffering and persecution of Jews in the modern world. A special broadcast last night over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees began the nationwide observance of the season, and locally the Rosh Hashanah services at Temple Israel in Manhattan will be broadcast over station WMCA beginning at 6:15 pm. At Brooklyn's Hebrew Home for the Aged, 107-year-old resident Max Weisenfeld will lead his 649 fellow residents in a prayer for victory and for President Roosevelt -- a prayer written by resident Isaac Lieberman, who has been a paralytic for 71 of his 73 years.
...

Max was born in 1835 and there are people alive today who knew Max. That's a pretty amazing 187-year touch across three centuries.

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("It's inna bag," says Joe. "I got tickets f'Sat'day f'you an' ya ma an' Leonora. I wisht I din' hafta woik, but wawr is wawr." "Oh," affirms Sally. "It'll be wawr awright. An' If I eveh run intat'at bum Higbe, he'll be a casualty!!! "Bummmmm Higee," agrees Leonora. "Booooo!")
...

Down to 2 games. I hate baseball even more.

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Big Al Blozis, towering shot putter and former tackle for Georgetown University, will start for the Football Giants when they meet the Eastern Army All-Stars at the Polo Grounds tomorrow in a joint benefit for the Army Emergency Relief and the Tribune Fresh Air Fund. The six-feet-six-inch 245 pound Blozis joined the Giants only last week, and the leviathan youth from Jersey City reported to the team in "superb physical shape." Good seats for the game are still available at the Herald-Tribune office and at the Football Giants office at 11 W. 42nd Street in Manhattan.
...

How is this guy not in the army; he could be his own tank.

...

(If you get out of this, consider a new career as a movie stuntwoman.)
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She could team up with Hu Shee and corner the market after the war.

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(YOU CAN'T NOBODY ESCAPES FROM AMERICA'S #1 HERO DOG)

"Officer, it's me again, just an anonymous concerned citizen. That dog 'Bo' is now menacing the neighborhood with a cart. I hate to think what will happen if he's on the loose with it in an air raid. Separately, can you do anything about all the squirrels who run free, they think they own the place?"

And in the Daily News...

Ew ew ew. The Cochran case, you may recall, was particularly gruesome, and I hope that justice will finally follow.
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Amazing if it's the shoe that does him in.

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Hey Driftwood, got a job for ya....
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Just try that at Sperry, my money's on the Joes of the world. (Do Joe and Sally have a last name?)

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Yeah, and I don't think she'll be giving Terry dancing lessons.
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Caniff, like any breathing person in 1942 (or at any time in history, including today) has his prejudices, but he creates physically strong and weak and morally good and bad women and men characters - he doesn't stereotype sexes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mr. Al Blozis has the greatest football player name in all recorded history. More power to Mr. Al Blozis in all that he chooses to accomplish.

Speaking of names, I can't remember if it's ever come up before, but Joe and Sally's last name is "Petrauskas." Joe's parents came to the US from Lithuania in 1908, settling in Williamsburg, where Joe himself was born four years later, the fourth of five children, two of whom died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Joe's mother died of tuberculosis in 1916, and his father, a fur cutter, of pneumonia in 1920. Joe and his younger sister Mona were largely raised by his older sister Lina, who worked, and still works, at the Pilgrim Laundry. Mona, incidentially, married a silk dyer from Paterson, New Jersey, where they now live. Joe left school in the eighth grade to go to work, selling papers, driving a vegetable cart, pumping gas, and spending two years on the WPA, before he landed his job at the Crown Pickle Works thru his friend Solly Pincus in 1936. He remained there until he left to go to work at Sperry Gyroscope after Pearl Harbor, and he is doing well there as a machinist.

Sally was born a Sweeney, of the East Flatbush Sweeneys. NOT PIGTOWN. Her father, never came back from the World War -- he wasn't killed, he just never came back, and has had no contact with the family since. Her mother is, understandably, resentful of this and of the shame and humiliation that it caused her family. Her older brother, who goes by Mickey, was a boy of the streets, but there are hopes that the Army will straighten him out. Sally takes great pride in the fact that she qualified to go to Erasmus Hall High School, from which she graduated in 1931. She had hopes of going on to Brooklyn College, which had just recently opened, but these hopes were dashed by the Depression. She worked after high school at a dime store downtown, She met Joe in 1936 at a dance hall, and was impressed with his deft footwork, and they were married the following year over the objections of Sally's ma, who didn't like that Joe was not Irish, and that when she first met him, she thought he smelled like brine. The couple settled in Bensonhurst to try and allow some distance to cool these resentments, although Sally retains the hope of returning to Flatbush at some future time. Her mother's dislike of Joe has, indeed, moderated somewhat since the birth last year of Leonora -- who is named half after Durocher and half after Mrs. Nora Sweeney.

The family also includes Stella the Cat, who is named after an elderly retired Erasmus Hall teacher whom Sally had liked, and who died in poverty in 1940, leaving behind a large number of cats, one of whom Joe adopted and brought home after reading about the situation in the Eagle. Stella holds no particular views other than a mild irritation at Lenora's presence.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Hey," says Joe. "What happened t't'radio? Oh, you did'n..." "While you was at woik, Leonora took her fois' steps," sighs Sally. "We had t'game on. An' when it was oveh, an' Barbeh was givin'a final scoeh, Leonora stood up off t'floeh, an' wawked oveh to t'windeh sill, an' pushed t'radio out." "Oh," exhales Joe. "An'nen she looked at me an' said BUM BYE!" "Oh," nods Joe. "Um -- you still goin' to t'game t'day?" "I s'pose," Sally shrugs. "Well, look," says Joe. "Don' let t'kid run out onna field." "We might go t'getteh," mutters Sally.)

A substantial drop in the number of holders of gasoline ration books allowing supplemental supplies was shown today with the release by Director Lee S. Buckingham of the State Office of Price Administration of official figures on additional rations. According to those figures, only 39 percent of the 639,831 passenger car owners registered in the city have been given any supplemental ration beyond the basic A book, and only nine percent hold C books, which permit up to 470 miles of driving a month. Under the card rationing program that ended in August, Buckingham's figures indicated that 69 percent of car owners held extra rations beyond the A card, with 76,932 X cards, comparable to the current 56,500 C books now issued. The greatest number of C books in the city can be found in Queens, where many war workers commute by car to plants in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

(I bet Dr. Brady's receptionist hates him.)

Reader Sylvia Cheyette writes in to complain that the air raid sirens aren't loud enough. She says she lives five blocks from Coast Guard headquarters, and she and her friend "slept thru the excitement of the air raid alarm" the other night. She advises Mayor LaGuardia to look into this.

(Careful, Mr. Schroth -- writing stuff like this is enough to get you red-baited.)

(Wait'll you get those new overalls.)

Having failed to win a release on a writ of habeas corpus, Americo DiPietto is back in the Raymond Street Jail today, where he is being held on $25,000 bail as a material witness in the fatal shooting of Salvatore Maggio in Brownsville just before the suprise blackout on August 25th. DiPietto's counsel argued for the writ, stating that he knows nothing about the shooting, but the writ was denied after the prosecution argued that DiPietto does, in fact, know the motive for the shooting and is essential to the prosecution of the case.

In Belvedere, New Jersey, a draft dodger was rescued by police from an angry mob of neighbors outside his house. 44-year-old Clarence WIlliams is in the Warren County Jail where he awaits transfer to military authorities. Williams had been inducted into the Army two weeks ago at Newark and was given a furlough to settle his civilian affairs, but when the furlough was up, he refused to return to camp, declaring that he is "against the war." Neighbors "demonstrated outside his house" yesterday, and police intervened out of a fear that they intended to harm Williams. The prisoner's wife also asked to be taken into protective custody, stating that she is "afraid to stay home alone."

("What about *me,* Leo?" pleads Fred Fitzsimmons. "Put me on th' active list. I can do it." "It's Macon," sighs Leo. "It's Macon." "Five innings, Leo. That's all I ask. Then you can put in Casey or Allen. Or even Newsom! That's managin'! That's keepin' 'em guessin'! You know I'm right!" "It's Macon," insists Leo, his mouth a thin hard line. "It's Macon.")

Football Dodgers games will be broadcast this season over station WOR by Connie Desmond, who also works with Mel Allen on the Yankee and Giant baseball broadcasts, under the sponsorship of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Both home and road games will be broadcast, beginning in Detroit against the Lions on October 4th. The arrangement is part of a national contract signed by the Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee with the National Football League, covering broadcasts for all clubs.

(And I bet if you go see "Scorched Earth," you might just meet Milton Caniff sitting quietly in the audience taking notes.)

(Mary shows the truth of the "kindly old grandmother" routine.)

("What Hat Are You Wearing Today?")

(I really didn't need to know that Irwin sleeps in a polka-dotted nightgown.)

(And Bo raises his tail in greeting to his good friend Sandy.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Ahhh, who doesn't love a good sister act.

"Pop is third." I bet Uncle Walt wouldn't go THAT far.

Dr Ping! Blaze! The DL! Connie! Burma! April! Pat! RAVEN SHERMAN (snif!)! Dude! Big Stoop! Taffy! Corkin! But what about Hu Shee????????

That's what you get for letting your subscription to the Journal of the State Hydrological Services Department lapse.

"SSSSSH! I thought that u-boat thing was on the QT! Has that dumb dog of mine been talking again?"

Well, back to "Jack Armstrong..."

The very first plane I saw in the sky after the post-9/11 air ban was lifted was a B-17 Flying Fortress on its way to the local transportation museum. It was, to say the least, unsettling.

Nurse, please sedate Mr. Gump.

"Well I don't blame it!"

Sure you want that 3-A status, kid?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and....

STOP RUBBING IT IN! I'm glad Powers joined the Navy so I don't have to read him gloating.

I said STOP rubbing it in!!!!!!!!!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Why is Ebbets Field such a mystic place for Americans? Has it got a special atmosphere?

 

[Fading Fast]

("Hey," says Joe. "What happened t't'radio? Oh, you did'n..." "While you was at woik, Leonora took her fois' steps," sighs Sally. "We had t'game on. An' when it was oveh, an' Barbeh was givin'a final scoeh, Leonora stood up off t'floeh, an' wawked oveh to t'windeh sill, an' pushed t'radio out." "Oh," exhales Joe. "An'nen she looked at me an' said BUM BYE!" "Oh," nods Joe. "Um -- you still goin' to t'game t'day?" "I s'pose," Sally shrugs. "Well, look," says Joe. "Don' let t'kid run out onna field." "We might go t'getteh," mutters Sally.)
...

For all concerned, it is best to completely accept Sally's explanation and just check out Davega's ads for a "new" radio.

The firehose procurement error happens in some form or another every few years in NYC government, usually owing to a combination of stupidity and corruption.

...

In Belvedere, New Jersey, a draft dodger was rescued by police from an angry mob of neighbors outside his house. 44-year-old Clarence WIlliams is in the Warren County Jail where he awaits transfer to military authorities. Williams had been inducted into the Army two weeks ago at Newark and was given a furlough to settle his civilian affairs, but when the furlough was up, he refused to return to camp, declaring that he is "against the war." Neighbors "demonstrated outside his house" yesterday, and police intervened out of a fear that they intended to harm Williams. The prisoner's wife also asked to be taken into protective custody, stating that she is "afraid to stay home alone."
...

I know they could draft men up to the age of 45, but were they really doing that? It always seems like it's the men in their twenties who were getting drafted.

...

("What about *me,* Leo?" pleads Fred Fitzsimmons. "Put me on th' active list. I can do it." "It's Macon," sighs Leo. "It's Macon." "Five innings, Leo. That's all I ask. Then you can put in Casey or Allen. Or even Newsom! That's managin'! That's keepin' 'em guessin'! You know I'm right!" "It's Macon," insists Leo, his mouth a thin hard line. "It's Macon.")
...

The sport is intolerable. Draft every one of them and send them to reinforce the Eastern front. It's a "two birds with one stone" move: it ends this miserable season and mollifies Stalin for the moment.

...

Football Dodgers games will be broadcast this season over station WOR by Connie Desmond, who also works with Mel Allen on the Yankee and Giant baseball broadcasts, under the sponsorship of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Both home and road games will be broadcast, beginning in Detroit against the Lions on October 4th. The arrangement is part of a national contract signed by the Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee with the National Football League, covering broadcasts for all clubs.
...

In related news, the Football Dodgers have announced that the team's name this year will be the Football Not-Dodgers and that a completely new name will be chosen for the '43 season.

And in the Daily News...

Ahhh, who doesn't love a good sister act.
...

Tell me that divorce laws in 1942 are a mess without telling me they are a mess: "...prominent University of Chicago sociologist believes that a husband may have grounds for divorce on a charge of cruelty if his wife refuses to divorce him."

...

Dr Ping! Blaze! The DL! Connie! Burma! April! Pat! RAVEN SHERMAN (snif!)! Dude! Big Stoop! Taffy! Corkin! But what about Hu Shee????????
...

Raven still warrants a "sniff."

...

"SSSSSH! I thought that u-boat thing was on the QT! Has that dumb dog of mine been talking again?"
...

"Dumb! Maybe a dumb dog will have an 'accident' on your bedroom rug tonight."

Oh, and....

STOP RUBBING IT IN! I'm glad Powers joined the Navy so I don't have to read him gloating.


I said STOP rubbing it in!!!!!!!!!

"Is that [he can barely spit the word out] 'baseball' or something like that they are playing? I don't have time to follow such nonsense." [Muttering] "Hateful, stupid game."

Why is Ebbets Field such a mystic place for Americans? Has it got a special atmosphere?

I defer to our in-house expert, over to you Lizzie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was considered the quintessential baseball park -- it was small, but not too small, it had a distinctive layout, with tall stands and a wall with a high screen on it overlooking a major street. It was integrated fully into its neighborhood -- the Prospect Park subway station is just a short walk away, and it wasn't uncommon to encounter actual players riding the trains before and after the games. Baseball in general was fundamental to the identity of Brooklyn -- it was a hotbed of the game going back to the 1840s, and an entire culture had already built up around the game in the borough by the time Ebbets Field was built in 1912.

There were political issues at play as well. Brooklyn had been an independent city until 1898, when it became part of New York City, and there was very much a sense among the people in the decades immediately following that integration that Brooklyn got the short end of that deal. The New York baseball teams, the Giants and the Yankees, were generally far better clubs than the Dodgers were, and there was a sense among the Brooklyn fans that perhaps the types from The City tended to lord that over them a bit too much. Especially when Bill Terry made his "Is Brooklyn Still In The League?" crack. All that helped to make baseball as much an identity issue for Brooklyn as it was a game.

(Cartoon by Gene Mack of the Boston Globe, 1946.)

The other thing that gives the place its significance is that it's gone. The Dodgers left Brooklyn in 1957 for no good reason other than to fatten their owner's already fat bank account, and the park was torn down three years later. There's a monstrously-ugly apartment complex on the site now, but people still make pilgrimages there to pay their respects, and there are still reminders of how deeply the place had penetrated into the fabric of the neighborhood. There is a lot of idealization going on in the way people remember the place -- it was, like all the other ballparks of its generation, a dank and rusty structure, and it didn't always smell good -- but Americans need their own Shangri-La, and I suppose a dank and rusty little ballpark is as good as any.

The closest thing that still survives, structurally and culturally, to the Ebbets Field experience would be Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago, which were built around the same time and which have a similar "neighborhood" feel. You don't, however, see the players riding the subway anymore. Those days are gone forever.

 

[PrivateEye]

Down to 2 games. I hate baseball even more.

I trust you'll forgive my lack of sympathy...

 

[Fading Fast]

I trust you'll forgive my lack of sympathy...

Absolutely. My comments are kinda tongue-in-cheek anyway as years ago I learned to not take sports too seriously. I used to really get into it; now I watch and follow it, but to be honest, nowhere near as closely as I once did, nor does it impact my day the way it used to. Still, it is amazing to see both the '42 Dodgers and '22 Yankees close to blowing such big leads, but que sera, sera.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have never forgotten the mental anguish the 1974 Red Sox wrought upon my entire family. Never trust a two-digit lead in August. That collapse was eerily similar to what has happened to the Dodgers -- they just stopped hitting. The Dodgers had Reiser run into that stupid wall, the Red Sox had Carlton Fisk get his knee ripped in half by Leron Lee, a name as ill-remembered in New England as Bucky Dent.

I hate to say "rat deserting a sinking ship," but MacPhail going into the Army after the season does seem particularly suspicious. If the only game-changing deal you can make at the deadline is a 34-year-old fat guy with a bizarre personality, something tells me that you're not really trying.

 

[Fading Fast]

It was considered the quintessential baseball park -- it was small, but not too small, it had a distinctive layout, with tall stands and a wall with a high screen on it overlooking a major street. It was integrated fully into its neighborhood -- the Prospect Park subway station is just a short walk away, and it wasn't uncommon to encounter actual players riding the trains before and after the games. Baseball in general was fundamental to the identity of Brooklyn -- it was a hotbed of the game going back to the 1840s, and an entire culture had already built up around the game in the borough by the time Ebbets Field was built in 1912.

There were political issues at play as well. Brooklyn had been an independent city until 1898, when it became part of New York City, and there was very much a sense among the people in the decades immediately following that integration that Brooklyn got the short end of that deal. The New York baseball teams, the Giants and the Yankees, were generally far better clubs than the Dodgers were, and there was a sense among the Brooklyn fans that perhaps the types from The City tended to lord that over them a bit too much. Especially when Bill Terry made his "Is Brooklyn Still In The League?" crack. All that helped to make baseball as much an identity issue for Brooklyn as it was a game.

View attachment 450639
(Cartoon by Gene Mack of the Boston Globe, 1946.)

The other thing that gives the place its significance is that it's gone. The Dodgers left Brooklyn in 1957 for no good reason other than to fatten their owner's already fat bank account, and the park was torn down three years later. There's a monstrously-ugly apartment complex on the site now, but people still make pilgrimages there to pay their respects, and there are still reminders of how deeply the place had penetrated into the fabric of the neighborhood. There is a lot of idealization going on in the way people remember the place -- it was, like all the other ballparks of its generation, a dank and rusty structure, and it didn't always smell good -- but Americans need their own Shangri-La, and I suppose a dank and rusty little ballpark is as good as any.

The closest thing that still survives, structurally and culturally, to the Ebbets Field experience would be Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago, which were built around the same time and which have a similar "neighborhood" feel. You don't, however, see the players riding the subway anymore. Those days are gone forever.

This is really good, you describe it all very well.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Hall of Fame really should have been built in Brooklyn. The Cooperstown myth is just that, a hokey myth. Brooklyn was the true cradle of baseball as we know it, and it's a lingering shame that the only tangible link left to that history is a Class A minor league franchise. Nevertheless, go Cyclones.

The original cornerstone, now at the Cooperstown HOF. It's one of very few exhibits you're allowed to touch -- and many many people do. The pockmarks over the inscription were made by a young girl from the neighborhood who tried to chip the inscription out to keep for herself when the Dodgers left. Baseball's Holy of Holies.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Can'tcha do sump'n t'make her stop cryin'?" pleads Joe. "BUM!" replies Leonora. "BUM bad bum BYE! As Sally slumps at the table and sobs.)

A $9,000,000,000 war revenue bill carrying $7,100,000,000 in direct new taxes, beginning its levy on those making just above the $500 a year level, was all but completed last night on its way to consideration by the full Senate on September 28th. The Senate Finance Committee held the measure open for a few more changes on Monday before turning it over to legislative draftsmen to be whipped into shape for the start of debate. Besides the $7,100,000,000 in permanent revenue, provisions for a partially refundable new "Victory" tax on individuals and a postwar credit for corporations will bring in additional Treasury receipts of $1,900,000,000 which will eventually be repaid to the taxpayers.

Nazi propaganda chief Dr. Joseph Paul Goebbels has changed his tune under the pounding of RAF bombs, according to broadcasts monitored by the United Press listening post in New York. A report from London stated that Goebbels and his propaganda mouthpieces have dropped their former favorite phrase "nuisance bombing" in the face of the heavy aerial raids over Germany in recent weeks. "The war has entered a more urgent phrase," Goebbels wrote in the publication "Das Reich." In calling for increased vigilance by the citizens of Cologne, Hamburg, and Dusseldorf, the propaganda minister added that "normal organization is upset by the scale of the Royal Air Force raids."

The possibility that local bus service may be cut as much as one-third to ease rubber and gasoline shortages was voiced yesterday by bus operators following a conference in Washington with officials of the Office of Defense Transportation. A 33 1/3 percent reduction in bus operations would include the elimination of all Sunday schedules, and it is expected there would be additional cuts during midday runs. The Fifth Avenue Coach Company has announced that it is already considering plans to curtail service "to outlying areas" where a scarcity of passengers is already causing the company to operate at a loss.

In Buffalo, twelve people are dead and 37 are critically injured in the flaming crash of an Army plane that plummeted thru the roof of a Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division plant. The plane, which caught fire in the air, blasted a ten-foot hole in the factory roof and began a destructive conflagration on the plant floor. Test pilot J. Bertrand Purnell, who is among the injured, told investigators that he had to bail out of the ship just minutes after taking it aloft. "The engine caught fire," he said. "I had to jump, the flames kept coming up and hitting me in the face." Agents of the FBI are investigating the possibility of sabotage.

A Long Island woman has filed a complaint charging that employees of the Long Island Railroad "abused" an injured man who had fallen from an eastbound LIRR train about one and a half miles from Hicksville. Mrs. Evelyn Ehrlich of Northport L. I. stated that she was a passenger on that train, and saw two conductors "dragging" the injured man back aboard the train, without regard for his injuries. "Two women and a man with a knowledge of first aid displayed their credentials and tried to make the man comfortable and treat him for shock," declared Mrs. Ehrlich, "but the conductor of the last car interfered with the treatment and was annoyed." Mrs. Erhlich accused that conductor of "protesting sarcastically" as the passengers tried to help the victim, and of "ripping off the coats and newspapers" that had been placed over him to keep him warm, and of "opening a door" to direct a draft over the injured man. That man, identified as David Gibney of Huntington Beach, was released from Huntington Hospital late yesterday after treatment for lacerations and abrasions. Railroad officials confirmed that Gibney was injured and brought back aboard the train, but denied knowledge that he was abused in any way by its employees. Gibney's physician refused to discuss the case.

(Nostalgia, 1942 Edition.)

The Eagle Editorialist expresses satisfaction that recent charges of "lax moral standards and drunkenness" made against members of the British women's uniformed services have been denied by an official investigation, and points out that just because you see one uniformed individual under the influence of liquor you should not conclude that all those in uniform are "tosspots." "Putting them in uniform will not make paragons of virtue out of loose characters," he acknowledges, "but neither will the uniform break down a character properly formed in civilian life."

(OH LOOK THE CARDNIALS PLAY TWO AGAINST THE PHILLIES TODAY I WONDER HOW THAT WILL WORK OUT. And I just bet Leo "broke his extreme silence" in the clubhouse.)

The Philadelphia Stars, "most improved club in the Negro National League," make their final appearance of the season at Dexter Park today in a twinbill against the Bushwicks. A record-breaking crowd is expected for the doubleheader, beginning at 2 PM.

The Chicago Cubs have purchased infielder Eddie Stanky from the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association in a $25,000 cash deal. Stanky, an "aggressive type player," has had multiple fights with prominent players in the AA, including several who have since made it to the major leagues, among them Phil Rizzuto and Gerry Priddy of the Yankees, with whom Stanky brawled when they were with the Kansas City Blues. While with the Macon Peaches of the Sally League in 1940, Stanky brawled with Connie Ryan, then with Savannah but now with the Giants, was placed under arrest, and jailed until Macon fans passed the hat to raise his $100 fine.

("Taxes and Bonds, Bonds and Taxes -- That's the Way to Beat the Axis!")

Ten years after a change in policy at the Palace Theatre pronounced vaudeville dead and buried, the two-a-day returns to Broadway next Wednesday, when "Show Time" opens at the Broadhurst Theatre. The streamlined variety show headlined by George Jessel, Jack Haley, Ella Logan, and the Demarco Sisters will play twelve performances per week under the supervision of producer Fred F. Finklehoffe. It's a homecoming of sorts for Jessel and Haley, both of whom began their show business careers in vaudeville acts -- Jessel as a member, alongside Walter Winchell and Eddie Cantor, of Gus Edwards' Kid Kabaret, and Haley as "the more articulate member" of the team of Crafts and Haley.

Benny the Bulldog doesn't get billing alongside Gypsy Rose Lee and Bobby Clark on the marquee of "Star and Garter" at the Music Box, but that doesn't make him any less a star of the show. Featured player in Gil Maison's animal act, Benny outshines his colleagues Herman the Monkey and the Four Chihuauas by insisting on doing his act backwards. You may recall the Maison company played the Flatbush Theatre a few years back, and from there it was but a short leap to Broadway stardom.

(Definitely a relative of Raven's. Hey, be sure you don't go for a ride in the back of a wagon.)

(I wonder if a silver scale makes you feel any less bloated in the morning?)

(HAW! HAW!)

(Brenda? I didn't know Brenda Frazier was a redhead now.)

(Hey Bill, don't you mean Bobby Riggs? And watch out Dan, she's a DIVORCEE! You know, like on Page Four!)

(Why isn't Don Lurie of Brooklyn pitching for the Dodgers????)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Oh please. Claire Boothe Luce could take most of Congress apart and put it back together again. And all those Toppings are weasels. Jack's the one who isn't married to Sonja Heine.

Enjoy it while you can.

Frizz would wave, but, you know...

DAMMIT Warbucks -- WHINE WHINE WHINE. Give him the RUG, Punj, you know you want to.

Hey, at least that'll keep him out of the back rooms.

"I'll wait till your dad comes around, and then I'll cheat *him!*"

Uncle Hy sure has some super ideas.

"My mother in law parked with my brother, so that would make my brother my father, and it would make me -- I dunno, my own nephew? CAN'T I BE IN A LESS CONFUSING STRIP???"

Well that explains a LOT! No WONDER the Dodgers are blowing the pennant!

"Actually, uhh, my parents NEVER miss me. I've kind of gotten used to it."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and...

Ew.

 

[Fading Fast]

("Can'tcha do sump'n t'make her stop cryin'?" pleads Joe. "BUM!" replies Leonora. "BUM bad bum BYE! As Sally slumps at the table and sobs.)
...

Because I know how WWII turned out, but not how the 1942 baseball season did, the Dodgers news is the harder news to take today.

Now it's now done via balance-sheet machinations, but to this day, the government is still, effectively, "taking the nickel out of nickels" in the country's currency.

...

Nazi propaganda chief Dr. Joseph Paul Goebbels has changed his tune under the pounding of RAF bombs, according to broadcasts monitored by the United Press listening post in New York. A report from London stated that Goebbels and his propaganda mouthpieces have dropped their former favorite phrase "nuisance bombing" in the face of the heavy aerial raids over Germany in recent weeks. "The war has entered a more urgent phrase," Goebbels wrote in the publication "Das Reich." In calling for increased vigilance by the citizens of Cologne, Hamburg, and Dusseldorf, the propaganda minister added that "normal organization is upset by the scale of the Royal Air Force raids."
...

More's a comin'.

...

The Eagle Editorialist expresses satisfaction that recent charges of "lax moral standards and drunkenness" made against members of the British women's uniformed services have been denied by an official investigation, and points out that just because you see one uniformed individual under the influence of liquor you should not conclude that all those in uniform are "tosspots." "Putting them in uniform will not make paragons of virtue out of loose characters," he acknowledges, "but neither will the uniform break down a character properly formed in civilian life."
...

Drinkin' ain't the only thing of "lax moral standards" that British women in uniform can do. We all saw "The Americanization of Emily."

...
(Brenda? I didn't know Brenda Frazier was a redhead now.)

...

No sexual metaphors to see here, carry on.

...

(Hey Bill, don't you mean Bobby Riggs? And watch out Dan, she's a DIVORCEE! You know, like on Page Four!)
...

This new writer really hates Irwin; he takes pleasure in humiliating him.

There are few greater "run" signs to a sentient single man the a woman gleefully talking about her divorce-settlement money.

And in the Daily News...

Oh please. Claire Boothe Luce could take most of Congress apart and put it back together again. And all those Toppings are weasels. Jack's the one who isn't married to Sonja Heine.
...

The article was too fuzzy to read on my screen, so do we know if Jack's getting the dough or not?

...

Frizz would wave, but, you know...
...

The girl's got game and guts. She'd make a heck of a partner for Tracy; although, she'd have to do something about that hair as it would never do for undercover work.

...

DAMMIT Warbucks -- WHINE WHINE WHINE. Give him the RUG, Punj, you know you want to.
...

"The reason we issued you a helmet is so that you'd wear it in combat, it's not decorative."
"Sorry, next time."

Oh, and...

Ew.

"...began undressing and 'disporting' themselves on the bearskin rug before the fire..."