The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and...

If it's Goat Season, it must be almost Spring!

 

[Fading Fast]

("No, I ain' givin' ya ya ration books," insists Sally. "I'm keepin' alla ration books right heeh, an'nen'ey won' get lawst." "It wasn' los'," argues Joe. "It was right wheah I said it was, in my lockeh. What I wanna know is how you tawked y'way inn'eah wit'out a pass or a badge a'nut'n!" "It's easy," comments Sally, "when y'know how." "Whassat mean?" replies Joe. Sally raises a finger to her lips and shushes her husband's further inquiries. "Oh," she adds, "when ya go inta woik t'is aftehnoon, take t'is clipbo'ed I borra'd back wit'cha.")
...

Had the screw been turned just a bit more, Sally would be taking over the family business from Ma one day.

How perfect would it have been had the soldier been reading "Terry and the Pirates" instead of "Superman?"

Which makes you wonder, though, why neither the News nor Eagle carries "Superman," which I would think is one of the country's most popular comicstrips?

...the crowds were for the most part well-behaved, with only one ration-line arrest reported in Brooklyn yesterday. Forty-three year old Charles Williams of Brooklyn Heights was fined $5 on disorderly conduct charges in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court after he became belligerent when he was turned away from a distribution center at Henry and Middagh Streets because he had arrived after the posted closing hour of 7pm. Williams explained to Magistrate Nicholas Pinto that he had seen the large crowd at the school while returning home from work, and decided to come back for his ration book after taking time to stop at a bar for a cocktail. He told the Magistrate that he thought he "still had time" when he arrived to find the doors closed, and when confronted by a patrolman, "insisted he must get his ration book." When the patrolman told him to move on, Williams admitted, he "insisted upon being arrested."
...

Well, at least he told the judge the truth.

...

("Because *I* won't!")
...

And a business is born.

"I'm glad for Bo. He needs a backup plan for when his, eh-hem, 'acting career' tanks. Not everyone makes it to the big time."

...

"CUT! You looked at the camera again. Look, I'm sorry, pooch, this isn't working out. Somebody get Sandy's agent on the phone and get him back in here. I don't care what it costs!"
...

"Sandy, baby, that was brilliant the way you said you weren't able to film the next scene because your paws were slippery. That stunt dog messed up the entire shot. They are so desperate now to get you back that they offered to tear up your old contract and give you a big raise if you'll sign a new one for a few more years."

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure, yes, that , uh, paw 'gambit' worked out, didn't it." [Editor's note: Sandy smells lovely today, just like tea-tree oil.]

...

This from a kid who spent his high school science classes daydreaming about two-toned corduroy pants.
...

He really should and could pull off the switch. The old man would be upset, but he'd go along in the end since Harold is still marrying one of his daughters and, apparently and unbelievably, he needs Harold's brain.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Superman's" in the Mirror, which, along with Walter Winchell, is the only reason ever to read the Mirror. I wish I had access to it, I'd love to be posting daily releases of both. The Mirror is the New York outlet for several other comics that would be worth following, including "Li'l Abner" and "Joe Palooka."

I don't think that Sally really knows, or wants to know, what the family business is -- either that, or she's in deep denial about it. Ma Sweeney is a pragmatist -- she was left with two kids to raise when Mr. Sweeney didn't come home from the war, and her good friend Mr. Leary, whom she'd known ever since she got off the boat as a young greenhorn from Ireland, was very happy to help out. You do what you gotta do. But Sally, like any good Erasmus Class of '31 graduate, has a more idealistic view of life than Ma's pragmatism might permit.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Terrence looks as though he's being sandbagged by that panel.
Harold needs to straighten himself out and tell Joan the truth before it's too late.
Hugh is a lucky guy. I don't believe he realizes how lucky he truly is.

But that story about the GI making love to his girl inside the taxi seems normal Tommy Atkins.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Superman's" in the Mirror, which, along with Walter Winchell, is the only reason ever to read the Mirror. I wish I had access to it, I'd love to be posting daily releases of both. The Mirror is the New York outlet for several other comics that would be worth following, including "Li'l Abner" and "Joe Palooka."

I don't think that Sally really knows, or wants to know, what the family business is -- either that, or she's in deep denial about it. Ma Sweeney is a pragmatist -- she was left with two kids to raise when Mr. Sweeney didn't come home from the war, and her good friend Mr. Leary, whom she'd known ever since she got off the boat as a young greenhorn from Ireland, was very happy to help out. You do what you gotta do. But Sally, like any good Erasmus Class of '31 graduate, has a more idealistic view of life than Ma's pragmatism might permit.

I agree with every word you wrote. I knew Ma Sweeneys and Sallys in the neighborhood I grew up in - they were older, then, but they were all part of my father and Grandmother's world - who were about Sally's and Ma Sweeney's ages respectively. I often think about how all subsequent generations, mine included, didn't always realize that some of their "ideals" were a luxury early generations couldn't afford.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Anybody ever read or see the book/film Brooklyn? No spoilers, of course, xcept say that it truly fits in here, just 1950s.
New York City is the gemstone set inside the dream of America and Fast you're so right. We on both sides of the pond
take far too much for granted. We owe a lot to immediate and generation before the Second World War.

 

[Fading Fast]

Anybody ever read or see the book/film Brooklyn? No spoilers, of course, xcept say that it truly fits in here, just 1950s.
New York City is the gemstone set inside the dream of America and Fast you're so right. We on both sides of the pond
take far too much for granted. We owe a lot to immediate and generation before the Second World War.

Good recommendation. I remember when the book came out, but I didn't get it. So I just put a cheap used copy in my Amazon cart, which I'll order soon.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We ran that film when it came out. A real crowd pleaser -- the kind of small, likable picture that's increasingly hard to find.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Hey," says Joe, gazing at Stella the Cat, soaking up heat under the stove. "Howcum *you* don't rolleh skate?" "She don't *need* to," replies Sally, as Stella rolls on her back for a luxurious stretch.)

Eight hundred building lots left vacant by the war have been turned over to the Brooklyn Civilian Defense Volunteers Organization for use as Victory Gardens this year. The largest individual parcel offered to the CDVO by prominent builder Fred C. Trump consists of 500 lots adjoining Bensonhurst City Park, bounded by Cropsey Road, Shore Road, Bay 19th Street and Bay 25th Street. The remaining lots are scattered across Flatbush, East New York, and Brighton Beach. Trump's ambitious war housing program in Brooklyn, modeled after the mass construction methods of shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser, which would have included 750 new houses in Bensonhurst, was stalled when construction priorities were denied to local homebuilders. All of Trump's completed defense homes in Bensonhurst have already been sold. Since entering the field of war housing a year ago, Trump has accounted for nearly a thousand homes completed or nearing completion.

The Office of Civilian Supply has warned War Manpower Commissioner Paul V. McNutt that any attempt to shift 2,800,000 workers from jobs deemed "less essential" to essential industries is treading "dangerously close to the bedrock of the civilian economy." In a memo to McNutt, OCS director Joseph L. Weiner asserted that this shift could be accomplished only by adding 4,000,000 persons not presently employed to the labor force, increasing the standard workweek in so-called "essential industries" to 64 hours, and only after these goals are accomplished making "a careful and most scientific withdrawal" of workers from less-essential to essential work. Weiner's estimated clashed with figures presented by McNutt last month before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee investigating the manpower situation, in which he declared that at least 3,000,000 workers will need to be shifted to meet war production quotas. Weiner refused, in his memo, to agree that any industry now in operation can be deemed "less essential."

("Miss Parrott, who is 40, and in the process of divorcing her fourth husband..." Meow.)

Dick Gilbert of station WHN has been presented with a citation by the Society For The Prevention of Disparaging Remarks About Brooklyn naming the spieler the organization's favorite disk-jockey. SFTPODRAB President Sid Ascher visited Gilbert at the Manhattan hospital where he is undergoing a minor operation to personally present him with the award, recognizing his refusal to make fun of Brooklyn during his broadcasts.

In Lenoir, North Carolina, a 20-year-old man attempting to evade the draft by assuming the identity of a woman was arrested at his mother's home by local sheriff's deputies last week, and will soon be on his way to the Army. Arley Coffey's disguise was marred, noted the arresting deputy, by the fact that the youth displayed a dark growth of beard.

(Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before....)

("503 Rogers Avenue. Knock four times.")

(Ever notice that Mr. Rickey has an astonishing gift for talking for half a column and saying absolutely nothing?)

(Lionel is really earning his pay this week. HARUMPH!)

(That's not exhaustion, that's hypothermia!)

("Wasser?" Some Bacchus you are!)

(HEY DID YOU SEE ME IN THE PATHE NEWS THIS WEEK FOLKS, ANN SHERIDAN GAVE AMERICAS NUMBER ONE HERO DOG A COOKIE!)

(I'LL SAY THERE IS!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Have you ever met that funny reefer man? REEFER MAN!"

Live Alone and Like It!

Other than a late grandfather, who was the McGuffin that brought Terry to China in the first place, he has never so much as mentioned having any family, and Pat was his guardian only in the most casual sense. So yeah, not much paperwork sorry.

And to think Ursula Parrott would put all this at risk.

"Reading? Heck no, a dumb little gal like me reading? I've been -- ah -- nightclubbing, that's it. In fact, I'm gonna marry Tommy Manville!"

"Oh look -- frozen solid over by the side of the road! Isn't that Krome? I thought they'd picked him up by now!"

It's gonna be a long war.

"So -- girls' night out?"

"Nonsense, boy -- I'm married to my art." (does fancy Eddy Duchin piano riffs and falls off the stool.)

The manpower situation really is this desperate.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine

"Don't buy a news - Borrow one

Save paper!"

If THAT will not have a come back!!

 

[Fading Fast]

...

("Miss Parrott, who is 40, and in the process of divorcing her fourth husband..." Meow.)
...

Definitely a catty remark, but when you are wrapping up marriage number four, those comments are going to come.

I don't think we've been given enough information to really know what happened here. My feeling is she's guilty of something minor, but not some great conspiracy. Yet again, the stories have been scattershot, so it's hard to really know.

...

In Lenoir, North Carolina, a 20-year-old man attempting to evade the draft by assuming the identity of a woman was arrested at his mother's home by local sheriff's deputies last week, and will soon be on his way to the Army. Arley Coffey's disguise was marred, noted the arresting deputy, by the fact that the youth displayed a dark growth of beard.
...

The irony is if he tried that today and we had a call up, the Army would be fine with him deciding to be a woman, but she'd then be drafted.

...

(HEY DID YOU SEE ME IN THE PATHE NEWS THIS WEEK FOLKS, ANN SHERIDAN GAVE AMERICAS NUMBER ONE HERO DOG A COOKIE!)
...

"I've met the Oomph Girl and that is not her."

"Name dropper, because she briefly petted you on the head while passing by is not 'meeting' her."
"It was a meaningful head pet, our eyes met."
"Good grief."

And in the Daily News...

"Have you ever met that funny reefer man? REEFER MAN!"
...

It's taken all my resolve not to Google Parrott and find out what happened.

...

Other than a late grandfather, who was the McGuffin that brought Terry to China in the first place, he has never so much as mentioned having any family, and Pat was his guardian only in the most casual sense. So yeah, not much paperwork sorry.
...

Learning through an interpreter is going to be crazy hard.

...

The manpower situation really is this desperate.

This is why you have senior vice presidents son.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

The Yvonne Siegel divorce would make a movie actress blush.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Yvonne Siegel divorce would make a movie actress blush.

Agreed. The friend sitting for two hour bored in the next room had a raw rudeness that highlighted Ms. Siegel's selfish sexual passion. That was a moment that said a lot.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Incidentially, we just passed an annversary worth marking here. One hundred years ago Saturday, the Daily News introduced its Sunday comic section, featuring several strips that will still be favorites in 1943.

Of all the strips we follow and of all the strips that have ever appeared in the Sunday News comic section, only one has spanned the entire century, appearing in every single edition -- and that's "Gasoline Alley." It's on its fourth artist since Frank King died in 1969, and it's barely recognizable as the textured, well-written work it once was. Uncle Walt is over 130 years old now, and Skeezix is 102, but Phyllis and all the old Alley gang, Avery, Bill, and Doc, have long since passed away. So have most of Skeezix's own contemporaries. But somehow, Uncle Walt and his baby boy are still lingering on, so here's a salute. Nothing lasts forever, but maybe they will, at that.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Agreed. The friend sitting for two hour bored in the next room had a raw rudeness that highlighted Ms. Siegel's selfish sexual passion. That was a moment that said a lot.

Ana de Armas is cast as Yvonne Siegel. Have you seen her in Deep Water?
An exquisite Cuban rose whose beauty strikes lightning; its thunder echoes inside my heart, and another cold shower.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("A 48 hour week," sighs Joe. "T'at ain' so bad, really, consid'rin. But I guess I won't get to see too many bawl games t'is summeh..." "Neit'eh will Meyeh Levin," comments Sally.)

Adolf Hitler's "rule by hangman's rope" in Europe has so far cost the lives of more than 3,000,000 persons, according to figures released today by the Inter-Allied Committee in London. It is stressed, however, that the figures are based on German sources, so that they may, at best, be only a partial reckoning of the Nazi death toll so far. Full documentation of deaths linked to the Gestapo has never been revealed, and accurate information is difficult to obtain. It is estimated that approximately 2,000,000 have died or have been executed thus far in Nazi concentration camps in Poland, and that 740,000 have been executed in Yugoslavia. In France, 24,460 have been killed by Nazi occupation forces, 15,000 in Greece, 3000 in Crete, 200 in the Netherlands, 152 in Belgium -- with an additional 1290 Belgians held in concentration camps, and 140 in Norway.

The third-largest city in the Soviet Union holds its dignity despite its reduction to an empty shell of ruins by 16 months of Nazi occuption culminated by a final wave of spiteful vandalism as the Red Army closed in to liberate the city. The population of Kharkov has been reduced from its pre-war figure of around 1,000,000 persons to no more than 350,000, and approximately 40 percent of its buildings have been destroyed. That is the present picture of what was once one of the Soviet Union's showpiece cities, a city of skyscrapers and modern factories and advanced education. Even after Soviet troops regained control of Kharkov earlier this month, Nazi bombers returned to dive-bomb the city's heart, devastating the best buildings still standing. But even so, the architectural outline of the city center remains. Reporter M. S. Handler of the United Press reports that the city's remaining population "walk as if they are emerging from a bad dream, their pallor reflecting 16 months of starvation and endless fear of the Gestapo, whose firing squads and hangmen were said to have taken an awful toll."

The New York State Food Merchants' Association today called upon OPA Food Administrator Claud R. Wickard to excercise his authority now to "readjust" the entire ceiling price structure, which the grocers claim is causing the widespread development of a black market in food. "Please help us give them -- the public -- butter, meat, and vegetables," pleaded Association president Patsy D'Agostino in a telegram to Wickard, "without the necessity of paying off graduates of the Prohibition era." The grocers argue that the present structure of ceiling prices ignores the middlemen, the small jobbers who distribute supplies from the big primary receivers to the retail markets, and D'Agostino suggests that the OPA establish ceiling prices allowing a fixed percentage for the primary receiver, the jobber, and the retailer. Spokesmen for the grocers' association asserted that farmers have raised their prices for fresh vegetables, as a result of the announcement of canned food rationing, with the result that wholesalers, unable to meet their markups under the present ceiling prices, have instead turned to the black market to make a profit.

Two New York City legislators today asserted that tenants in the city's congested slum-area apartment buildings are pouring complaints into the OPA concerning landlords who are raising rents and curtailing services. Senator Richard A. DiCostanzio and Assemblyman Hamlet O. Catanaccio, both Manhattan Republicans, stated that the complaints accuse landlords of boosting rents by $2 to $5 a month while reducing heat and hot water service, and in some cases charging tenants extra for those services. The legislators made their statements while announcing that they have introduced three bills in the Legislature to curtail these practices by barring landlords against whom action has been taken from raising any rents during the present emergency period, and which would prohibit all rent increases, thru July 1, 1944, on any apartment renting for less than $50 a month. The proposed bills would also continue, for at least another year, present emergency restrictions on evictions.

(WELL WHY DONT WE JUST REQUIRE OFFICIAL ID TO BUY A UNIFORM AND INSIGNIA?? THE GIRL SCOUTS DO IT!)

The Eagle Editorialist reminds readers that "the Red Scare" is what enabled Hitler to cow the "timid industrialists of Germany" into backing his climb to power, and that "fear of Communism" is what also fueled some in the British leadership in their support for what was done at Munich. America, in view of efforts by "that little minister of propaganda," Dr. Goebbels to drive a wedge between America and its Soviet ally, must as a matter of self-interest and loyalty, judge Russia on the basis of its performance. The Soviet Union "has proven herself to be a gallant and a trustworthy ally, whose contribution to victory in blood and treasure has been incalculable. She must be respected and supported to the end."

While reader Theodore Belzner disagrees with Assemblyman Fred G. Morit's proposal to dissolve the incorporation of Brooklyn into New York City, calling such a divorce "indiscreet and inadvisible" at this time, he fully endorses Morit's call for "Brooklyn to cease being the tail tied to Manhattan's kite." He declares that Brooklyn, as the largest and most populous borough, should have the largest representation on the Board of Estimate, and should not be discriminated against when it comes to needed improvements. He also agrees with Assemblyman Morit in believing that "if our people took the same interest in the political, economical, and cultural conditions in Brooklyn as they display toward the Brooklyn Dodgers, we could guarantee a real 'pennant-winning' city."

(Conspicuously absent from that list of Durocher-boosters, however, are two significant names: Dixie Walker and Arky Vaughan. Those are a couple of significant lines to read between.)

Old Timer Walter G. Thornton offers fond memories of the old horse-cars which rolled across Brooklyn before the coming of the trolleys. They were all "gaily painted," in colors corresponding to each specific line, and they were all heated during the wintertime by coal stoves, sometimes in the center of the car and sometimes at either end, and it was common to find heaps of straw strewn on the floor to help slow the freezing of riders' feet. The cars were lit by old chandeliers hanging from the center of the roof, with smaller lamps in little compartments at each end of the car serving to illuminate the glass bullseye sign indicating to passengers the route.

(One thing you have to say for Rommel, he's got a good press agent.)

Olsen and Johnson's "Sons 'o Fun," sequel to the legendary "Hellzapoppin'," has passed its 500th performance at the Winter Garden, and it lives up to the tradition of its illustrious predecessor by refusing ever to be the same show twice. The boys are constantly adding new material to keep the show timely, and "no public foible escapes their barbs." But all good things must end, and so it is that "Sons O' Fun" will leave the Winter Garden on March 27th, so that its creators may fulfill a picture commitment on the Coast. But Olsen and Johnson promise they'll be back East in the fall with "fresh gals, gags, and gadgets."

("I'm gittin' too lame to work." You an' me both, toots.)

("Ha! Ha! I huff and puff and I blow the Reichskanzlei in! Ho! Ho!)

("Sploopnagle and Blitz?" Didn't they used to be on the radio? Oh, wait, that was Stoopnagle and Budd.)

(I imagine Shadow Smart also attended this school.)

(Don't get too high handed there, Aggie -- with the war on, jailbird butlers are getting hard to find. And "one goblet of cloud juice?" Shouldn't Burma be getting that line?)

(And you just know somebody in Rutland, Vermont is writing a letter to the paper to complain about the noise.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I imagine that will be a very interesting novel. Wonder if there's a reefer gang in it?

"Ha! Ha! Tripping! She still does that!" "SHUT UP HERSCHEL!"

"WHEEE! DO IT AGAIN!"

"Hey Mildred, is your dad home?"

"You're positively NOT getting my collection of beer bottles of all nations! So there!"

Poor old Walt, heading for a mid-life crisis.

Awwwwww.

The Army's no place for comedy relief sidekicks. Well, all right, it is.

Goofy's *got* to be moving up on the draft list.

Look, if there's one thing we should know from Sunday adventure continuities, it's that you DON'T go around prying gems out of the eyes of ancient idols.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Ursula's story climaxed with a happy ending. A snappy ending. And she was crying when it was over.
'It's elementary my dear Watson, Ms Parrott isn't a screamer in truest sense but a crier nonetheless.'

 

[Fading Fast]

...

(WELL WHY DONT WE JUST REQUIRE OFFICIAL ID TO BUY A UNIFORM AND INSIGNIA?? THE GIRL SCOUTS DO IT!)
...

Seriously, why don't we? We've been seeing this problem pop up in the papers, anecdotally, for two years now.

...

The Eagle Editorialist reminds readers that "the Red Scare" is what enabled Hitler to cow the "timid industrialists of Germany" into backing his climb to power, and that "fear of Communism" is what also fueled some in the British leadership in their support for what was done at Munich. America, in view of efforts by "that little minister of propaganda," Dr. Goebbels to drive a wedge between America and its Soviet ally, must as a matter of self-interest and loyalty, judge Russia on the basis of its performance. The Soviet Union "has proven herself to be a gallant and a trustworthy ally, whose contribution to victory in blood and treasure has been incalculable. She must be respected and supported to the end."
...

We saw this last week. These are not counter arguments, just timeline issues. Both points of view are correct.

...,

("Ha! Ha! I huff and puff and I blow the Reichskanzlei in! Ho! Ho!)
...

Welles would have continued as a "fortune teller," but he realized there was more money in the Hollywood version of make believe.

The swastika has rightfully become one of the most hated and despised symbols in history, but when the Nazis were riding high, they quite effectively marketed the h*ll out of it.

...

(I imagine Shadow Smart also attended this school.)
...

"I was an inch too short."
"Only an inch?"

Why is she in her underwear in panel seven? Not complaining, just pointing it out.

I'm not just saying it, Lizzie, I had the exact same thought about Shadow before I read your comment. Ed could work six months worth of Sunday jokes out of that one scenario.

And in the Daily News...

I imagine that will be a very interesting novel. Wonder if there's a reefer gang in it?
...

The description of the New Zealand patrol vessel's battle with the Japanese sub was as good as any Warner Bros. action scene. Heck, Warner Bros. will probably (or should) incorporate something like it into its next war picture.

The judge's instructions all but guaranteed Ms. Parrott's acquittal.

...

"WHEEE! DO IT AGAIN!"
...

Even Gould wouldn't have a baby freeze to death as part of a storyline.

...

The Army's no place for comedy relief sidekicks. Well, all right, it is.
..

A fully-clothed and only showing a little leg Cindy, what is "Smilin' Jack" coming to!

I bet no one thought "Fritzi Ritz" would have the most Sunday comicstrip porn today.

...

Awwwwww.
...

Even in these not-great scans, you can appreciate the detail Caniff puts into his drawing of clothes. It makes sense consider that we've learned that he is also a fashion designer. Just the other day, Foxtrot Lamont pointed out the bomber jacket. Caniff is ridiculously talented.

Ursula's story climaxed with a happy ending. A snappy ending. And she was crying when it was over.
'It's elementary my dear Watson, Ms Parrott isn't a screamer in truest sense but a crier nonetheless.'

My take is the judge realized she wasn't guilty of anything major and that neither justice nor military PR would have been served by finding her guilty of something minor, so he instructed the jury in a way that all but forced an acquittal.