The Era -- Day By Day

[David Conwill]

I keep getting unsubscribed from this thread and now I'm way behind. I'm reading The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester and just went through the neutrality debate and the Dies Committee and went "Hey, that's still going on!" So now I'm back, though I'll probably never catch up.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A lot's been going on. The Winter War came and went, Leona lost all her money and moved in with Mary Worth, Lt. Cuthbert Behan was acquitted, Ernie Haas got off with a manslaughter conviction, O'Dwyer stole Amen's thunder, Nick Gatt is in league with Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy went on a rampage and practiced medicine without a license, Harold Teen ran away from home and got mixed up with a gold digger, a psychotic knife-fetishist, and a guy who goes out in public in his pajama bottoms, Cheery Blaze was kidnapped by Singh-Singh, Dan Dunn is still Dan Dumb, and George Bungle has an elephant. Oh, and Camilli finally signed his contract.

I think that about covers everything.

 

[David Conwill]

Excellent! Thanks!

 

[EngProf]

I keep getting unsubscribed from this thread and now I'm way behind. I'm reading The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester and just went through the neutrality debate and the Dies Committee and went "Hey, that's still going on!" So now I'm back, though I'll probably never catch up.

Be cautious about believing what you read in "The Glory and the Dream". I used to use passages from that book as examples for my history students about how some "respected" references were dead wrong and could not be trusted.
My copy is locked away in my inaccessible office, but one mistake from memory is that his list of Japanese aircraft types that attacked Pearl Harbor is wrong for two of the four types mentioned. However, the best/worst one that ALL the students find is that he mentions the "Lexington" being sunk at the Coral Sea battle - which it was - but a page later he has it up and floating and fighting at Midway. (!!) (I think Manchester muddled the story of the "Yorktown" being severely damaged at the Coral Sea and being desperately repaired in time to get to the Midway battle.)
I have read the book and it is interesting in a certain way, but I wouldn't trust anything in it without finding multiple other-source(s) verification. (That was the point of the history class exercise - always cross-check "facts".)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Manchester used contemporary newspapers, especially the New York Times, for most of his sourcing, and did so deliberately -- he was writing popular history in the style of Frederick Lewis Allen, with a view toward recreating how the people of his generation who actually lived thru the Era experienced it, not a detailed military history for an audience of military experts. He wasn't writing "academic" history. And as readers of academic history well know, even the most scholarly and footnotey of historians are prone to transcription errors, faulty sources, or editorial mistakes. The matter of the Lexington is something an editor should have caught but didn't. It happens even to the most rigorous academics.

Genre is important. If you're reading a book focusing on military history you have a right to expect all the cited military facts to be vetted. But an error in, say, giving the score of the first game of the 1944 World Series isn't particularly important to the thrust of that book, and the author who made the error and the editors who let it pass aren't guilty, really, of all that much. And if your book is a forty-year social history of the "swing generation," a minor error in an order-of-battle isn't particularly important to the overall point of the work. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and Americans reacted to it. The public reaction to the attack was the important thing to Manchester. The precise technical details of the attack were of no particular consequence to the history he was writing. He went with the information that was published in the newspapers at the time, because that's the information the people he was writing about had.

Newspapers, of course, are "the first draft of history," but as we've seen repeatedly over the course of this thread, they have their own signficant flaws. But they're how the people of a period experience that period -- errors, sloppy fact-checking and all -- and if your purpose is to put your reader in the position of the ordinary average person of the time you're writing about, they *are* your primary source.

 

[LizzieMaine]

John L. Lewis, head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, arrived in New York this afternoon to meet with Mayor LaGuardia, leaders of the Transit Workers Union, and local CIO representatives in an effort to resolve a contract dispute that could paralyze the city's public transportation system. Prior to the conference, Lewis declared that he and the Mayor had reached a satisfactory agreement to continue the closed-shop provisions of the present TWU contracts with the BMT and the IRT once those two concerns are absorbed under municipal ownership, but that Board of Transportation chairman John Delaney has "overruled the Mayor." Lewis pledged as he entered City Hall to do all that he could to be "constructively useful" in resolving the dispute.

Prior to his arrival at City Hall, Lewis met behind closed doors with TWU President Michael Quill and other union executives in a conference that extended thru the morning and into the early afternoon. Meanwhile, BMT officials have applied in Brooklyn Supreme Court for an injunction to block any strike, and union officials have been summoned to appear tomorrow and give cause as to why an injunction should not be issued.

A writ of habeas corpus has been served on District Attorney William O'Dwyer demanding a reduction of the $100,000 bail set in last week for Charles "The Bug" Workman, ordered held by O'Dwyer as a material witness in the Brooklyn Murder-for-Hire Gang investigation. The writ is to be argued in Brooklyn Supreme Court this afternoon.

Two prominent Brooklyn gangsters who have floated in and out of the Murder For Hire investigation are now being sought in connection with the disappearance of Longshoremen's Union activist Peter Panto. Alberto Anastasia and Joseph Fiorino are wanted for questioning in what the District Attorney has deemed a probably case of murder. Anastasia and Fiorino have long been linked in connection with violent crimes, having been jointly convicted of a Brooklyn murder in 1921 and sent to the death house, only to see their conviction reversed. In 1930 the two were questioned in connection with the murder of Giuseppe "The Clutching Hand" Perino, who was believed to have been killed in connection with an Italian lottery racket along the Brooklyn waterfront.

The District Attorney is also looking into the activities of New Jersey racketeer Longy Zwillman, who is believed to be a suspect in the 1933 murder of bootlegger Albert Silverman. Zwillman, reputed to be a close associate of "Waxey" Gordon, was Silverman's number-one lieutenant. Zwillman is also connected to one-time Brooklyn Public Enemy Number One Joe Adonis, with whom he was associated in the "Big Seven" liquor syndicate in the waning days of Prohibition.

A secret government agent who got close to Silver Shirts leader William Dudley Pelley told the Dies Committee today that Pelley had confided to her that he planned to conspire with Army officers to mount a Fascist takeover of the United States, and to install himself as the "White King" of the nation. Miss Dorothy Waring of New York, a secret operative for an unspecified "House committee," testified that Pelley, under the impression that she had a lot of money, approached her to seek financial support for his organization, and outlined his plans for a military march on Washington, after which he would take over the country as dictator. New York Representative Samuel Dickstien followed Miss Waring with testimony charging that Pelley had the support of a number of Army officers in carrying out his plot, and that he possessed evidence implicating those officers in the scheme. He named now-retired General George Van Horn Moseley as one of those officers.

("Watch what ya say, Ma. I don't like th' looks of this mug!")

An effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to block the removal of Bertrand Russell from the CCNY faculty has been squelched by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice John E. McGeehan, who denied an application for a show-cause order filed by the organization. An ACLU attorney had sought to delay action in the case until Russell himself could respond in person to the charges made against him by Mrs. Jean Kay of Flatbush, who accused the British philosopher-mathematician of various moral offenses. In Los Angeles yesterday, where he is now on the faculty of UCLA, Professor Russell denounced Justice McGeehan as "obviously a very ignorant fellow," and declared that he is considering filing a libel action.

(Hey, Harold! Show this to Mr. Portwine!)

"Admirer" writes to Helen Worth for advice on how to restore the shine to an old patent-leather pocketbook. Helen, ever the fount of knowledge, tells her to wipe it down with olive oil. It'll smell good too!

Helen also has not one, not two, but three readers writing in today looking to place their dogs in new, loving homes. A, 8-year-old poodle, a 3-year-old Boston bulldog, and a 3-year-old police dog are available for adoption -- write to Helen for particulars.

Seventeen men accused of plotting the overthrow of the Government will go on trial beginning tomorrow in Brooklyn Federal Court. The suspects, associated with the "Christian Front" organization promoted by Father Charles E. Coughlin, were arrested in January and found to be in possession of bombs and bomb-making equiplment and an assortment of guns and ammunition. Security for the trial will be high, with spectators admitted by special invitation only, and Federal marshals guarding all approaches to the courtroom. The entire second and third floors of the Johnson Street half of the Washington Street General Post Office Building will be off limits to the public for the duration of the trial.

("Greetings, Gate!" brays Joe. "Let's palpitate!" And Sally just shakes her head, hoping the Colonna fad will soon fade away.)

(Mr. Lichty can expect an angry telegram from Harry M. Stevens at any moment.)

A 2 1/2 year old boy from Montauk is amazing his parents and their friends with his astonishing ability to identify the make of any passing automobile. Little Eugene Spiro, who cannot yet read, unfailingly identifies Fords, "P'muths," and "Toodabakers" with just a quick glance, and his parents are unable to explain how he learned the names of the various makes and how to identify them unless he somehow picked up the information from looking at advertisements in magazines. They say he has yet to make an error, although he did identify an old Essex as a "'udson," since the Essex was formerly manufactured by the Hudson company. He also failed to identify a mud-spattered antique seen rattling along his street, dismissing the vehicle with "I don' know dat."

The Dodgers made short work of the Atlanta Crackers in Lanett, Alabama yesterday, slaughtering the Southern Association club 19 to 2 before a crowd of 1500. Vito "Tomatoes" Tamulis went the distance for the Flock, the first Brooklyn pitcher to throw a complete game this spring, and held the Crackers to five hits.

The Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs open the Stanley Cup Finals tonight at the Garden. The Blueshirts beat the Leafs four times out of eight games played over the regular season, with two losses and two ties. Hear the game at 8:45 over WHN.

Federal Communications Commission chairman James L. Fly will deliver a talk to the Advertising Club of New York tonight on the current status of television. WEAF and WOR will broadcast the talk at 9 PM.

"He's very excited." You can't tell me that deep down, Jo isn't loving every minute of this chance to get even with those low neighbors.

"Oh Bill! Your 10:45 beating is here!"

And ever resourceful, Irwin comes up with a clever ---- oh, I can't even.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News....

The Westchester Country Club pool? Throw him back.

Kids Today.

Aw, I liked "Come In And Win!" better.

If John was on the ball, he'd have Poor Katerina in custody as a material witness before another sun sets.

"'Too much edge on the urge?' What's that mean, Ma?"

And when Tracy laughs like that, it sounds exactly like Mortimer Snerd.

Awwwww. And wait'll Mama finds out.

When danger is near, Skeezix's cowlick fluffs up like a cat's back.

It's nice that Willie has a strong philosophy to live by: "But baby, I don't want nothing better to do."

OK, Master Eugene Spiro of Montauk. Identify those cars!

 

[David Conwill]

View attachment 224396 OK, Master Eugene Spiro of Montauk. Identify those cars!

Harold is in a Lincoln-Zephyr. As for the other one, well, "I don' know dat."

 

[Fading Fast]

J...A writ of habeas corpus has been served on District Attorney William O'Dwyer demanding a reduction of the $100,000 bail set in last week for Charles "The Bug" Workman, ordered held by O'Dwyer as a material witness in the Brooklyn Murder-for-Hire Gang investigation. The writ is to be argued in Brooklyn Supreme Court this afternoon.

Two prominent Brooklyn gangsters who have floated in and out of the Murder For Hire investigation are now being sought in connection with the disappearance of Longshoremen's Union activist Peter Panto. Alberto Anastasia and Joseph Fiorino are wanted for questioning in what the District Attorney has deemed a probably case of murder. Anastasia and Fiorino have long been linked in connection with violent crimes, having been jointly convicted of a Brooklyn murder in 1921 and sent to the death house, only to see their conviction reversed. In 1930 the two were questioned in connection with the murder of Giuseppe "The Clutching Hand" Perino, who was believed to have been killed in connection with an Italian lottery racket along the Brooklyn waterfront.

The District Attorney is also looking into the activities of New Jersey racketeer Longy Zwillman, who is believed to be a suspect in the 1933 murder of bootlegger Albert Silverman. Zwillman, reputed to be a close associate of "Waxey" Gordon, was Silverman's number-one lieutenant. Zwillman is also connected to one-time Brooklyn Public Enemy Number One Joe Adonis, with whom he was associated in the "Big Seven" liquor syndicate in the waning days of Prohibition.....

Scorecard comments aside, what I expect to see soon, at least from the Daily News, is one of those flowcharts where each mob guy gets his face and colorful name in a circle with lines showing the connections within / power structure of the mob and, of course, a separate section with circles for the main DAs, etc., trying to bring them down (I can see some dotted lines connecting the two groups). The tabloids I grew up with in the '70s loved doing those type of charts.

...A secret government agent who got close to Silver Shirts leader William Dudley Pelley told the Dies Committee today that Pelley had confided to her that he planned to conspire with Army officers to mount a Fascist takeover of the United States, and to install himself as the "White King" of the nation. Miss Dorothy Waring of New York, a secret operative for an unspecified "House committee," testified that Pelley, under the impression that she had a lot of money, approached her to seek financial support for his organization, and outlined his plans for a military march on Washington, after which he would take over the country as dictator. New York Representative Samuel Dickstien followed Miss Waring with testimony charging that Pelley had the support of a number of Army officers in carrying out his plot, and that he possessed evidence implicating those officers in the scheme. He named now-retired General George Van Horn Moseley as one of those officers.....

Clearly, this is the story Dan Dunn is "riffing" on. I have more confidence in Miss Dorothy Waring than Dan Dunn. Though, they kinda killed her ability to continue being a "secret operative" by printing her name in the paper; it's the "secret-famous" problem you noted with Dan Dunn the other day. Also, while I'm sure it was all about the money, there is more than one way to interpret the "got close" part in "A secret government agent who got close to Silver Shirts leader William Dudley Pelley -" just sayin', a secret operative's gotta do, what a secret operative's gotta do.

...An effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to block the removal of Bertrand Russell from the CCNY faculty has been squelched by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice John E. McGeehan, who denied an application for a show-cause order filed by the organization. An ACLU attorney had sought to delay action in the case until Russell himself could respond in person to the charges made against him by Mrs. Jean Kay of Flatbush, who accused the British philosopher-mathematician of various moral offenses. In Los Angeles yesterday, where he is now on the faculty of UCLA, Professor Russell denounced Justice McGeehan as "obviously a very ignorant fellow," and declared that he is considering filing a libel action.....

Laws are laws, but the "acceptable cultural norm" / the zeitgeist or whatever we call it can be seen in this as, today, my guess is the ruling would go the other way as our culture has shifted that much. My point is not to argue the right or wrong of the ruling, but noting that you do see a time period (the stuff we talk about at FL) reflected in the "lean" of its legal interpretations. To be sure, there is always the one-off-judge issue, but based on so many other things we know, this seems like a ruling consistent with the time (but also, the fight shows it was a time when you can see the beginning of the changes that were to come.)

... View attachment 224376
(Hey, Harold! Show this to Mr. Portwine!)....

...
("Greetings, Gate!" brays Joe. "Let's palpitate!" And Sally just shakes her head, hoping the Colonna fad will soon fade away.)....

Joe will say whatever Joe has to say to Sally, but Joe wants to see Miss Lamour:

Not sure I've seen them all, but it's my favorite of the "Road Show" movies that I have seen.

...
(Mr. Lichty can expect an angry telegram from Harry M. Stevens at any moment.)....

I would pay extra to get my ballpark peanuts (a must for me at a game) in the old paper bag with a serrated edge versus today's awkwardly hard plastic bag.

... "Oh Bill! Your 10:45 beating is here!"....

If only they had invented a devise where you could send your voice from your home to the police station for emergencies just like this. If not in their apartment / a neighbor / a communal hall phone - I bet there's one in the building.

... And ever resourceful, Irwin comes up with a clever ---- oh, I can't even.

"Three men stand on a wind-swept cliff - far away below angry water swirls around black jagged rocks."

Once again, Marsh tries to channel his inner Dashiell Hammett.

... View attachment 224386
The Westchester Country Club pool? Throw him back....

People don't have secret marriages anymore.

... "'Too much edge on the urge?' What's that mean, Ma?"...

'40s Comic Strips = '30s Pre-code Movies

 

[David Conwill]

People don't have secret marriages anymore.

That you know of!

 

[Fading Fast]

That you know of!

Touche'.

But it did seem like a secret marriage was a thing back then and not now - to your point, to the extent that they would, at some point, become not secret. Possibly, since everything is acceptable today, there's no point to them, but that's just a wild guess.

 

[LizzieMaine]

At least four members of the "Murder For Money" gang will be indicted by the end of this week for a 1938 murder in which the victim was set on fire in a Marine Park vacant lot and left to burn. District Attorney William O'Dwyer says he will ask a Kings County Grand Jury to name the killers of mobster Irving "Puggy" Feinstein, whose charred body was discovered in a lot at the intersection of Fillmore Avenue and East 52nd Street on September 3, 1938. Police said Feinstein had been trussed up with sash cord, doused with kerosene, and set ablaze. O'Dwyer indicates that one of the gang's "Big Four" will be among those indicted for the Feinstein slaying.

Meanwhile, Harry "Happy" Malone, who is expected to go on trial next week for the 1937 icepick murder of George Rudnick, and who is believed to be a "big shot" in the gang has sent word from his jail cell that he is willing to talk to the District Attorney in exchange for concessions in his case. The DA says he will listen to what Malone has to say, but he won't accept promises delivered via jailhouse intermediaries. O'Dwyer insists that if Malone is ready to "sing," he will have to tell O'Dwyer so to his face. In his "indirect promise to squeal," Malone indicated that he knows far more about the gang's operations than Abe Reles, and that he will tell all he knows about the gang's higher-ups. "I don't want to burn," he is reported to have said. "I don't care how long a time I spend in prison, but I want to live."

Jury selection began today in Brooklyn Federal Court in the trial of seventeen men accused of seditious conspiracy in an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Reuben Hewitt of 155 Montague Street, "a Negro," was the first juror selected for the trial and if he is confirmed will serve as jury foreman. Following Hewitt's selection, Justice Marcus B. Campbell admonished him to avoid reading newspaper accounts of the case or listening to radio bulletins concerning it, and ordered him to return to the courtroom at 10:30 tomorrow morning for further examination.

The meager possessions of Christopher and Stella Manzo, and their twelve children, were put on the sidewalk by city marshals today after the family was evicted from their home at 4720 Avenue D. The eviction came just as word arrived that their youngest child, four-month-old George, had died of pneumonia at Kings County Hospital. Christopher Manzo had formerly operated a bar and grill which failed, and the family went on home relief about two years ago -- until city officials learned that one of the Manzo children had taken a job as a servant girl at a salary of $6 a week, and because of that "income" the entire family was dropped from the relief rolls. Unable to pay the rent on their house, the family was given until 11:30 this morning to pay, and when that time came and went, the marshals moved in. The home had formerly been owned by Mrs. Manzo, but had been lost thru foreclosure to a mortgagor. Only one grim ray of hope appeared for this tragic situation -- undertaker Edwin Dawley of Avenue D offered to conduct funeral arrangements and secure burial in Holy Cross Cemetery for the child at no charge.

There won't be a transit strike after all, with a ten-minute conference between CIO chief John L. Lewis, Mayor LaGuardia, officials of the Transit Workers Union, and Transportation Board chairman John Delaney resulting in an agreement to carry forward all provisions of present BMT and IRT contracts with the TWU under municipal transit unification. The agreement forestalls a threatened stoppage by more than 27,000 workers that would have paralyzed the entire subway and bus systems.

A 66-year-old Holbrook, Long Island woman killed herself this morning out of shame over her three sons, who had been arrested for juvenile delinquency. Mrs. Bertha Dome drowned herself in a cistern after learning that the boys had been arrested along with several other neighborhood youths on suspicion of burglary.

President Roosevelt and Thomas E. Dewey swept to victory in the Wisconsin primaries yesterday, with Dewey topping his nearest rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Senator Arthur Vandenburg, by more than 66,000 votes to take control of the twenty-four convention delegates at stake, while the President led Vice President John Garner by a comfortable margin of more than three to one.

A St. Louis newspaper editor and an editorial cartoonist were jailed today by a circuit judge who took offense at the paper's criticism of one of his recent rulings. The chief editorial writer of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Ralph Coghlan was ordered held for twenty days and fined $200, while cartoonist Daniel Fitzpatrick was jailed for ten days and fined $100, after Judge Thomas J. Rowe ruled that their published attacks on his ruling dismissing an extortion charge against a state legislator constituted contempt-of-court. Justice Rowe declared that the editorial and an associated cartoon were "grossly contemptuous."

A thirty-one-year-old Williamsburg woman got more than she bargained for last night when she went to the Alba Theatre to see James Cagney and Pat O'Brien in "The Fighting 69th." Mrs. Lillian Kessler went into labor during the feature picture, and theatre staff delivered her six-pound-eight-ounce baby girl in the manager's office without disturbing the rest of the audience. No word on whether Mrs. Kessler plans a show-business career for her newborn daughter.

One thousand CCNY students and faculty members are organizing a campaign to demand an appeal of the recent court ruling dismissing British philosopher-mathematician Bertrand Russell from the City College faculty. The campaign has already presented a petition to Mayor LaGuardia and the Board of Higher Education seeking to overturn the ruling by Judge John McGeehan. The petition affirms the school's commitment to academic freedom and denounces "ecclesiastical meddling in our public school system."

A nineteen-year-old junior at UCLA handcuffed himself to film star Ann Sheridan yesterday and then swallowed the handcuff key. Dick Brunnenkamp spotted the red-headed actress as she entered the Hollywood Theatre for a premiere showing of her first starring picture, ran up to her, snapped on the cuffs, and before anyone could respond to his act, he had already popped the key in his mouth and swallowed it. "I ought to slap you down," snarled Miss Sheridan as Brunnenkamp stood beaming at her in the theatre lobby. Reporters disdained the incident as a press-agent stunt, but if it was, no one connected to Warner Bros. Pictures would admit it. Brunnenkamp told Miss Sheridan that he committed the act on a bet, stating that "the boys at Phi Delta Gamma house bet me a dollar I couldn't do it." "Only a dollar," growled Miss Sheridan. "That's an insult." A locksmith soon arrived to separate the pair, and Miss Sheridan declared she wouldn't press charges, going so far as to invite the young man to dinner after the show.

(Most ill-fitting double feature ever.)

Three-and-a-half-year-old Elisabeth Smathers is well on her way to musical stardom, as the youngest soloist in the choir at the Church of the Good Shepard in Bay Ridge. Little Elisabeth comes by her talents naturally -- her father is the music minister at the church, and her mother the organist -- and her mother thinks her voice is actually "too big for her little body." The child showed her first inkling of musical aptitude at the age of seven months when, instead of random gurgles she began to precisely imitate the NBC chimes as she heard them on the radio.

Whit Wyatt won't be in the starting rotation for the Dodgers when the season opens. Such was the reluctant decision of Manager Leo Durocher after Wyatt went eight innings yesterday in an exhibition game against the Atlanta Crackers in Rome, Georgia. The Dodgers won the game, 10 to 9, but Wyatt's performance was spotty, and he was clearly unable to field bunts properly due to favoring the knee that put him out of commission late in the 1939 season and required surgery during the off-season.

The Rangers are off to an early lead in the Stanley Cup Finals, beating Toronto in overtime last night by a score of 2 to 1. They meet again tonight at the Garden. Hear the game at 8:45 on WHN.

Fred Allen gets up in the world tonight at 9 PM on WEAF when he interviews Richard Hart, chief window washer at the Empire State Building, as his "Person You Didn't Expect To Meet." Mr. Hart will not attempt to wash the control-room window.

That's what you get for living in a building with no elevator.

Hahahahahahahahaha! Called it!

Ah! Irwin's cunning plan leads to...oh, wait...

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Just another day in 1940.

Chef Oscar Levant is back with a meal I can get behind -- used to eat breaded veal cutlets all the time. Get those onions out of the sauce, though.

Kids Today.

Oh my.

Aw, c'mon you guys. This is the swellest party ever.

Mason erased Mary's memory with scientific rays from his weird glasses. They can also see the lead inside a pencil!

Give her a week, and April will be running this whole operation.

Mickey Rooney vs. Warren William.

Years ago, before His Lordship entered the picture, Emmy had a deep and unrequited crush on "that fascinating Mr. Mullins." And it appears that it has not wholly disappeared.

Harold channels my mother during driver education.

 

[Fading Fast]

At least four members of the "Murder For Money" gang will be indicted by the end of this week for a 1938 murder in which the victim was set on fire in a Marine Park vacant lot and left to burn. District Attorney William O'Dwyer says he will ask a Kings County Grand Jury to name the killers of mobster Irving "Puggy" Feinstein, whose charred body was discovered in a lot at the intersection of Fillmore Avenue and East 52nd Street on September 3, 1938. Police said Feinstein had been trussed up with sash cord, doused with kerosene, and set ablaze. O'Dwyer indicates that one of the gang's "Big Four" will be among those indicted for the Feinstein slaying.

Meanwhile, Harry "Happy" Malone, who is expected to go on trial next week for the 1937 icepick murder of George Rudnick, and who is believed to be a "big shot" in the gang has sent word from his jail cell that he is willing to talk to the District Attorney in exchange for concessions in his case. The DA says he will listen to what Malone has to say, but he won't accept promises delivered via jailhouse intermediaries. O'Dwyer insists that if Malone is ready to "sing," he will have to tell O'Dwyer so to his face. In his "indirect promise to squeal," Malone indicated that he knows far more about the gang's operations than Abe Reles, and that he will tell all he knows about the gang's higher-ups. "I don't want to burn," he is reported to have said. "I don't care how long a time I spend in prison, but I want to live."...

The crowd is getting restless, it wants its Murder-for-Hire flowchart.

....The meager possessions of Christopher and Stella Manzo, and their twelve children, were put on the sidewalk by city marshals today after the family was evicted from their home at 4720 Avenue D. The eviction came just as word arrived that their youngest child, four-month-old George, had died of pneumonia at Kings County Hospital. Christopher Manzo had formerly operated a bar and grill which failed, and the family went on home relief about two years ago -- until city officials learned that one of the Manzo children had taken a job as a servant girl at a salary of $6 a week, and because of that "income" the entire family was dropped from the relief rolls. Unable to pay the rent on their house, the family was given until 11:30 this morning to pay, and when that time came and went, the marshals moved in. The home had formerly been owned by Mrs. Manzo, but had been lost thru foreclosure to a mortgagor. Only one grim ray of hope appeared for this tragic situation -- undertaker Edwin Dawley of Avenue D offered to conduct funeral arrangements and secure burial in Holy Cross Cemetery for the child at no charge....

The very good news is that NYC eviction laws are very tenant friendly today and, of course, the social services that are coordinated with an eviction almost always prevent a family from winding up on the street. The flip side is that landlords know they will have many apartments that people don't pay rent for months (sometimes years - it can take that long to evict someone not paying rent in NYC) owing to these laws (some are genuine hardship situations, some are people who know how to play the system); hence, building managers have to raise the rents of all the other hard-working, rent-paying tenants' rents to cover these costs, which leads to the lack of affordable housing (including rental apartments) issue in NYC. It's also why no one wants to build low-cost housing because these eviction situations are much more common in the lower-cost apartment houses. So, both the rental rates of all apartments go up and the construction of, in particular, affordable apartment buildings goes down owing to a very well-intentioned law.

...A 66-year-old Holbrook, Long Island woman killed herself this morning out of shame over her three sons, who had been arrested for juvenile delinquency. Mrs. Bertha Dome drowned herself in a cistern after learning that the boys had been arrested along with several other neighborhood youths on suspicion of burglary......

Exactly how old are her "boys," as, at 66, if she had her last child at, say 42 (remember, we didn't have the science we have today for this), he, the youngerst, would be 24 by now. At what age does someone stop being a "juvenile" and becomes an adult?

...A St. Louis newspaper editor and an editorial cartoonist were jailed today by a circuit judge who took offense at the paper's criticism of one of his recent rulings. The chief editorial writer of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Ralph Coghlan was ordered held for twenty days and fined $200, while cartoonist Daniel Fitzpatrick was jailed for ten days and fined $100, after Judge Thomas J. Rowe ruled that their published attacks on his ruling dismissing an extortion charge against a state legislator constituted contempt-of-court. Justice Rowe declared that the editorial and an associated cartoon were "grossly contemptuous.".t...

Hopefully, we'll hear more about this in the coming weeks as this seems like an abridgment of both the freedom of speech and of the press.

...A thirty-one-year-old Williamsburg woman got more than she bargained for last night when she went to the Alba Theatre to see James Cagney and Pat O'Brien in "The Fighting 69th." Mrs. Lillian Kessler went into labor during the feature picture, and theatre staff delivered her six-pound-eight-ounce baby girl in the manager's office without disturbing the rest of the audience. No word on whether Mrs. Kessler plans a show-business career for her newborn daughter.....

I wonder if Fedora Lounge's favorite theater manager has any similar stories?

...A nineteen-year-old junior at UCLA handcuffed himself to film star Ann Sheridan yesterday and then swallowed the handcuff key. Dick Brunnenkamp spotted the red-headed actress as she entered the Hollywood Theatre for a premiere showing of her first starring picture, ran up to her, snapped on the cuffs, and before anyone could respond to his act, he had already popped the key in his mouth and swallowed it. "I ought to slap you down," snarled Miss Sheridan as Brunnenkamp stood beaming at her in the theatre lobby. Reporters disdained the incident as a press-agent stunt, but if it was, no one connected to Warner Bros. Pictures would admit it. Brunnenkamp told Miss Sheridan that he committed the act on a bet, stating that "the boys at Phi Delta Gamma house bet me a dollar I couldn't do it." "Only a dollar," growled Miss Sheridan. "That's an insult." A locksmith soon arrived to separate the pair, and Miss Sheridan declared she wouldn't press charges, going so far as to invite the young man to dinner after the show.....

Sheridan sans handcuffs:

...Three-and-a-half-year-old Elisabeth Smathers is well on her way to musical stardom, as the youngest soloist in the choir at the Church of the Good Shepard in Bay Ridge. Little Elisabeth comes by her talents naturally -- her father is the music minister at the church, and her mother the organist -- and her mother thinks her voice is actually "too big for her little body." The child showed her first inkling of musical aptitude at the age of seven months when, instead of random gurgles she began to precisely imitate the NBC chimes as she heard them on the radio.....

Petite Christina Aguilera disabused me of any notion that body size and the power of one's voice is related.

... Hahahahahahahahaha! Called it!....

Kudos, you did indeed. Also, it's a very 1940-NYC version of a Hunchback-of-Notre-Dame solution.

...
Just another day in 1940.....

From the role of religion in eduction to euthanasia to crimes of passion, we fight about all the same stuff today.

... Oh my.....

The illustration work here is not up to Gray's usual standards.

... Give her a week, and April will be running this whole operation.....

Quite the comic-strip argot today:

"Now you're flipping' at me."

"You have Raven Sherman backing up like she'd gone down a dead-end street."

"I declare, I don't understand Yankee girls." (Thank you Scarlett O'Hara)

"But I can deliver a witherin' glance - an' speak axe-edge sharp to anyone who runs down folks I'm fond of!"

Okay then.

... Mickey Rooney vs. Warren William.....

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've never had to deliver a baby, but we've had two heart attacks, a stroke, and two diabetic comas (the same guy on different occasions) to deal with. I think a birth here is unlikely since most of our patrons tend to be somewhat past childbearing age.

This is the cartoon that landed Mr. Fitzpatrick in the jug --

The accompanying editorial, "A Burlesque On Justice," took the form of the script for a comedy sketch based on a $10,000 extortion scheme involving a Missouri state Representative named Edward "Putty Nose" Brady and a racketeer named John P. Nick, who conspired to shake down movie-theatre operators in a plot that supposedly would break the projectionists' union, and the paper strongly intimated that Judge Rowe was somehow in on the deal, leading him to dismiss the case.

It will be very interesting to see how this unfolds, if it continues to attract national notice.

Missouri was a remarkably corrupt state in the early 1940s, but you've got to really be way out there to elect a guy called "Putty Nose" to your legislature.

And I dunno what "Puggy" Feinstein did to get the mob so worked up, but setting a guy on fire and leaving him to burn has to be the most brutal murder technique they've ever come up with.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've never had to deliver a baby, but we've had two heart attacks, a stroke, and two diabetic comas (the same guy on different occasions) to deal with. I think a birth here is unlikely since most of our patrons tend to be somewhat past childbearing age.

This is the cartoon that landed Mr. Fitzpatrick in the jug --

View attachment 224699
The accompanying editorial, "A Burlesque On Justice," took the form of the script for a comedy sketch based on a $10,000 extortion scheme involving a Missouri state Representative named Edward "Putty Nose" Brady and a racketeer named John P. Nick, who conspired to shake down movie-theatre operators in a plot that supposedly would break the projectionists' union, and the paper strongly intimated that Judge Rowe was somehow in on the deal, leading him to dismiss the case.

It will be very interesting to see how this unfolds, if it continues to attract national notice.

Missouri was a remarkably corrupt state in the early 1940s, but you've got to really be way out there to elect a guy called "Putty Nose" to your legislature.

And I dunno what "Puggy" Feinstein did to get the mob so worked up, but setting a guy on fire and leaving him to burn has to be the most brutal murder technique they've ever come up with.

I, too, noticed that, even for the mob, that seemed like quite a vicious way to kill someone. Message clearly sent to someone.

Re a mother's age to give birth, perhaps you might have to worry if the 66-year-old mother with three "juvenile" children is any example.

Not the simplest cartoon, as it took me a few times to understand it, but perhaps it was easier when the story was fresh in the news. As we've both said - it will be interesting to see where this story goes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Accused "Murder For Hire" big shot Abe Reles tried to go straight -- but the gang wouldn't let him. So states "Kid Twist" to District Attorney William O'Dwyer. The accused gunman claimed in testimony to the DA that the birth of his son four years ago caused him to reconsider his life, and left him determined to give up murder as a profession -- but, he claimed, his efforts to break free of mobster life were foiled by the real kingpin of the operation, Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss. Reles claims that Strauss "loved murder for its own sake," and kept him under tight supervision to prevent him from breaking away from the gang.

The District Attorney reports that, according to Reles, Strauss and Harry "Happy" Malone "sought opportunities to commit murders. No murder was too cruel for them," and states that, according to Reles, the two had interfered with efforts of other gang members to take on legitimate jobs. In the case of one hoodlum who had taken a job as an assistant on an ash cart, Reles told O'Dwyer that Strauss physically pulled the man off the cart and forced him to return to his murderous duties.

A plea for a mistrial in the case of seventeen "Christian Front" members accused of seditious conspiracy against the Government has been rejected by Judge Marcus B. Campbell in Brooklyn Federal Court, clearing the way for the continuation of the trial. The motion was based on claims that reports on the case published yesterday in certain Manhattan newspapers stated that an "all-Protestant jury" would be sought by the prosecution. Federal Attorney Harold Kennedy flatly denied ever making such a statement. Reporter Harry Bates of the Associated Press, who wrote the story, and Harry Greene, the rewrite man who processed it, were summoned to appear before the court to explain the statements attributed to Kennedy in the article. They will be questioned tomorrow morning at 10 AM.

Taxicab drivers will be forced to cruise in quiet after a new city ruling that radios in cabs may be played only when there is a passenger in the vehicle. Following extensive complaints of cabs cruising with loud-playing radios that annoy the public, the Hack Bureau of the Police Department, which licenses all cabs in the city, has ordered that all taxicab radios be wired thru the meters, so that they cannot be used unless the driver is carrying a fare.

A continuing domestic battle between Brooklyn magistrate Charles Solomon and his wife bubbled to the surface in Supreme Court today, when Mrs. Laura Solomon demanded a weekly alimony payment of $75 on grounds of abandonment, along with payment of $1000 in legal fees connected to her separation suit. Mrs. Solomon lost a separation suit in 1938 on grounds of cruel and abusive treatment, and Magistrate Solomon lost a separation suit of his own in 1939 charging that Mrs. Solomon had abandoned him. Mrs. Solomon now charges that the Magistrate has refused her offer of reconciliation and that this constitutes legal abandonment. She points out that she is trying to survive on $25 a week in wages from her job at the Emergency Relieif Bureau, while her husband pulls down $10,000 a year. The Magistriate, in his response, accuses Mrs. Solomon of defaming his character and that he would "have to forego all self-respect" by again living with her. He further claims that Mrs. Solomon has offered to settle the case for $10,000 cash, but that he is unable to raise such a sum.

("I hate soap operas," grumbles Joe. "'John's Other Wife' is much better," replies Sally.)

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain says that he is now "ten times as confident of victory" as he was when the war began. The Prime Minister addressed the Conservative Party council today a day after shaking up his government to provide a "tighter organization," with chief responsibility for the prosecution of the war laid upon First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill. Britain is still building up her strength, argues Chamberlain, while he believes that Germany is close to the limits of its strength.

In Los Angeles, a 43-year-old mother of three beat her children to death with a claw hammer, and then set her own hair on fire. Mrs. Lolita Davis died on a flaming mattress after the fire spread to her bedding. A fourth child was beaten into unconsciousness, but survived, telling police "Mommy thought demons were after her."

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, a woman took poison out of fear that she'd given a wrong answer to a census taker. Mrs. Mamie Rousseau is now in "fairly good condition" in a Bridgeport hospital, where she told police she was frightened because she had told the census taker that her son worked seven days a week when in reality he only works six.

A leading member of the Communist Party in New England is being held on contempt charges after he attempted to read "a declaration" before answering questions put to him by the Dies Committee. Phil Frankfield of Boston, executive secretary for the Communists in that territory, appeared before the panel in Washiington, and "with eyes snapping," began to read a prepared statement condemning the commitee. Chairman Martin Dies began pounding his gavel, shouting "You are in contempt of this committee!" Frankfield responded by shouting "you are in contempt of the American people," as Dies "sledgehammered" his gavel on the committee desk and spectators shouted "Throw the dirty rat out!" As Frankfield was led away by police, he tossed newspapermen a copy of his statement denouncing a Dies Committee raid on Boston Communist headquarters, which he said had been endorsed by 10,000 Massachusetts citizens.

(Imagine! Any chance of those creme-filled wafer-cookie things? I had an aunt who always had these types of cookies sitting on the table when we went to visit.)

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt will broadcast twice a week over an NBC network under the sponsorship of a soap manufacturer. The First Lady's program, dealing with topics of interest to women, will air on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:15 to 1:30 pm for the Manhattan Soap Company, makers of Sweetheart Soap. Mrs. Roosevelt's contract for the broadcast will run for thirteen weeks. She has broadcast before, but the new series will mark her first regular commercial feature. Mrs. Roosevelt states that her salary for the program will be donated to charity.

(Why is the A&P the only grocery chain that ever advertises in the Eagle? Does Mr. Schroth have a beef with Bohack's? Does he have issues with King Kullen? Did he make an enemy of Daniel Reaves?)

(To make a go of it in comedy, you must constantly freshen your material to reflect changing times and shifting attitudes, adapting and evolving with the demands of your audience. Unless you're Henny Youngman.)

(It's funny because it's true.)

The Dodgers slapped the Atlanta Crackers around again, beating the minor leaguers 6 to 1 in Rome, Georgia. They arrive today in Gadsen, Alabama, where they'll renew their bitter spring feud with the Detroit Tigers for a series of four contests. Along the way the Flock has added a new member to the coaching staff, hiring former pitcher Ben Tincup as an extra instructor to the Dodger hurlers. Tincup, a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, pitched for the Phillies some 25 years ago, and spent last year managing the Brooklyn farm club at Paducah, Kentucky in the Class D Kitty League.

The Rangers hold a strong 2-0 edge as the Stanley Cup finals move on to Toronto. Last night at the Garden, the Blueshirts trimmed the Leafs 6-2 with right wing Bryan Hextall contributing a hat trick to the winning effort, the first of his National Hockey League career.

Actress Virginia Bruce, opera star Anne Jameson and tennis great Don Budge join Bing Crosby and company on the Kraft Music Hall, tonight at 10PM on WEAF.

The phone call you dread receiving: "Your half of that elephant is stuck in the hall."

"An insurance salesman? At this hour?"

Irwin Higgs, realizing he has a knack, considers a new career with the "Murder For Hire Gang."

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I grew up in this neighborhood.

Ohhh, I'm dyin' here. And nice to see that Slim Summerville is finding work as Chef Oscar's assistant. Never knew he could juggle.

When editorial cartoons had teeth.

Poisoned candy? That's a bit prosaic by Mr. Gray's usual standards. But I look forward to seeing someone say "GAAAAAGH!" as they swallow it.

Only nineteen years old, and already the smartest guy in any room. Hey Skeez, you oughta become a cop. Tracy could use your help.

"The Gumps" has always had more in common with melodrama than with rollicking screwball comedy, but if this is a sign of a new direction, then I for one applaud it.

Hah! The day never dawned when Dick Tracy even knew what a blank was.

Wait, did Blaze in fact and in truth just yowl like a cat? It'd be even better if he made that "owrrrrr" claw-swiping hand gesture to go with it.

Pssst, Bungles. The Plushbottoms are stealing your schtick.

Just when you think Harold has finally gotten over his weird hallucinations, along comes a talking skunk.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A plea for a mistrial in the case of seventeen "Christian Front" members accused of seditious conspiracy against the Government has been rejected by Judge Marcus B. Campbell in Brooklyn Federal Court, clearing the way for the continuation of the trial. The motion was based on claims that reports on the case published yesterday in certain Manhattan newspapers stated that an "all-Protestant jury" would be sought by the prosecution. Federal Attorney Harold Kennedy flatly denied ever making such a statement. Reporter Harry Bates of the Associated Press, who wrote the story, and Harry Greene, the rewrite man who processed it, were summoned to appear before the court to explain the statements attributed to Kennedy in the article. They will be questioned tomorrow morning at 10 AM....

This could quickly become a "The Press protecting its sources" story.

...Taxicab drivers will be forced to cruise in quiet after a new city ruling that radios in cabs may be played only when there is a passenger in the vehicle. Following extensive complaints of cabs cruising with loud-playing radios that annoy the public, the Hack Bureau of the Police Department, which licenses all cabs in the city, has ordered that all taxicab radios be wired thru the meters, so that they cannot be used unless the driver is carrying a fare....

I wonder if that "through the meter" thing ever happened. I can report that no such governor exists on NYC taxi-cab radios today.

...Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain says that he is now "ten times as confident of victory" as he was when the war began. The Prime Minister addressed the Conservative Party council today a day after shaking up his government to provide a "tighter organization," with chief responsibility for the prosecution of the war laid upon First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill. Britain is still building up her strength, argues Chamberlain, while he believes that Germany is close to the limits of its strength....

I'm currently reading "The Splendid and the Vile" by Erik Larson, which is a Churchill biography covering the time period from just about now, April '40 - when the Chamberlain government was exhausted - until right after America entered the war (so about a year and a half that includes England's bleakest moments of the war, e.g., the Blitz). It will be fun to see how it was covered in real time with these day-by-days while also reading how history (or one historian, anyway) looks at it today. I'm really enjoying the book - it's solid "popular" history - and recommend it for those interested in this period/Churchill:

...A leading member of the Communist Party in New England is being held on contempt charges after he attempted to read "a declaration" before answering questions put to him by the Dies Committee. Phil Frankfield of Boston, executive secretary for the Communists in that territory, appeared before the panel in Washiington, and "with eyes snapping," began to read a prepared statement condemning the commitee. Chairman Martin Dies began pounding his gavel, shouting "You are in contempt of this committee!" Frankfield responded by shouting "you are in contempt of the American people," as Dies "sledgehammered" his gavel on the committee desk and spectators shouted "Throw the dirty rat out!" As Frankfield was led away by police, he tossed newspapermen a copy of his statement denouncing a Dies Committee raid on Boston Communist headquarters, which he said had been endorsed by 10,000 Massachusetts citizens...."

Replace Organized Crime Committee hearings for Dies Committee and Michael Corleone for Phil Frankfield and it looks like Mario Puzo borrowed from this episode for his "The Godfather" novel. To be sure, Puzo was playing off of the real Kefauver Organized Crime Committee, but what happened with Dies/Frankfield today also sounded right out of "The Godfather."

...

(Imagine! Any chance of those creme-filled wafer-cookie things? I had an aunt who always had these types of cookies sitting on the table when we went to visit.)...

Okay, that sounded cheap (even converted to today's dollars) so I checked: 89 cents = ~$16 today. Thus, these cost about $3.2/lb in today's dollars. Since they look similar to those fancy Pepperidge Farm collections, I checked PF's prices and they cost ~$9/lb today. Hence, we need to time travel back to 1940 to save some real money on cookies (I know it would help the regular-cookie-buyers Fading Fast's budget). And Lizzie, IMHO, there is no such thing as a bad creme-filled cookie - did your aunt buy or bake hers?

...Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt will broadcast twice a week over an NBC network under the sponsorship of a soap manufacturer. The First Lady's program, dealing with topics of interest to women, will air on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:15 to 1:30 pm for the Manhattan Soap Company, makers of Sweetheart Soap. Mrs. Roosevelt's contract for the broadcast will run for thirteen weeks. She has broadcast before, but the new series will mark her first regular commercial feature. Mrs. Roosevelt states that her salary for the program will be donated to charity....

I bet Victor Norman will charm Mrs. Roosevelt, but Evan Llewellyn Evans will be mad that she's not sponsoring Beautee Soap.

... "An insurance salesman? At this hour?"...

This is exactly why her first move should have been to phone the police - well before fiddling with the furniture. Heck, the police would have already been on the way when Mary was going all Quasimodo on the mobsters.

...
When editorial cartoons had teeth.....

I get it, but that's taking something pretty far. I have no issue with the point of the editorial, just saying the editorialist might have had such a passion for his opinion that he stretched a quirky Hollywood contretemps to fit his ideology. And poor Ann Sheridan has to be thinking, WTF.

... Poisoned candy? That's a bit prosaic by Mr. Gray's usual standards. But I look forward to seeing someone say "GAAAAAGH!" as they swallow it.....

Gray is still rushing his illustrations, not up to his usual standards.

... Only nineteen years old, and already the smartest guy in any room. Hey Skeez, you oughta become a cop. Tracy could use your help.....

Mr. Wumple oddly went from completely dismissing Skeez in panel one and two, to full capitulation in panel three.

 

[Fading Fast]