The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

...The Amen Office will continue its operations for another six months, following a conference between Assistant Attorney General John T. Amen and Mayor LaGuardia yesterday. With funding secured, Mr. Amen announced that trials of two police lieutenants accused of complicity in the bail bond racket will take place within the next two weeks.....

Good

...The city's economy campaign has forced the cancellation of one of Brooklyn's most popular traditions, with the annual Washington's Birthday parade of old-time volunteer fireman of the City of Brooklyn having been called off for the first time since the tradition began forty-eight years ago. In the past, the Kings County Volunteer Firemen's Association, which sponsors the parade, has received a $1500 appropriation from the city to hire bands for the event and to cover the cost of transporting equipment, but this year, the Board of Estimate declined to authorize the funds, and an appeal to Mayor LaGuardia was unsuccessful....

Budgets always have limits, glad he spent the money on the Amen Office first.

...The Mayor is calling on New York housewives to buy Grade B milk, noting that such a move away from Grade A milk could save city consumers a total of $4,000,000 a year. In a broadcast over WNYC, the Mayor argued that the Board of Health ensures that Grade B milk is as healthy and as wholesome as Grade A, and there is no reason why consumers should pay a five-cent-a-quart premium for a label he denounced as "a deluxe moneymaker established by high-pressure propaganda."....

What is the actual difference between the two grades?

...A Manhattan realtor is calling for a ten percent across-the-board pay cut for all teachers in the city, arguing that the average teacher salary is higher than it was in 1929, and that more than 75 percent of teachers are earning over $3000 a year. J. Newman Carey, vice president of the Midtown Real Estate Association, made his recommendation in a letter to H. C. Turner, chairman of the finance committee of the Board of Education.....

$3000 = ~$55,000 in 2020 dollars, but the real question is benefits as, at least in the NYC area, teachers have very good healthcare and retirement benefits that greatly exceed what most in the private sector have. Hence, salary-to-salary comparisons don't tell the full story on teacher pay. But I'm guessing most of those very good benefit gains for teachers came well after 1940.

...

(Just the thing to go with your broiled grapefruit.)...

Having, as noted, had it, it's not at all that bad. But I'll bet some of those greasy spoon meals from the day are a different story and might have called for some Phillips'.

... "Bow down lower, you oily man, so I can kick you in the teeth." That looks like a military coat Hartford is wearing -- either that or he has a job as a doorman.....

I've been bumming since seeing yesterday how much better the larger '20s comics illustrations were - we wouldn't be trying to figure out what HO's coat is if we had '20s-level comic illustration quality.

... "See, my dear? That's what we call a 'pratfall.' Before we put you on the stage, Bill will teach you how to do that yourself. Won't that be grand?"....

I know you're going Vaudeville while my call is the oldest profession, but in truth, she'd be revisiting that list of wealthy society boys she snubbed as potential husbands when she thought she was the apotheosis of society debs. Several movies of the era had that as a plot or sub plot - it's a good humbling moment in a movie.

...
Prince Frederic is at it again.....

And her husband Count Oleg Cassini is one and the same with the famous fashion designer. Oh, and in checking that out, I also stumbled on this little fact: Our Merry Fahrney had a total of eight husbands before it was all over (Oleg was #4 - she was only half way there with him). Hope her fortune held up through all those divorces.

... The formidable lady in the fourth panel is none other than Mama DeStross, Uncle Bim's mother-in-law. Y'see, in 1933, Bim fell in love with and married one Millie DeStross, a fluffy round-eyed innocent half his age, and Mama immediately realized that her ship had at last come in. She moved in with the newlyweds, to ensure that fortune hunters kept far far away from her, uh, Bim and Millie's money -- and suspects poor Cousin Baby of being exactly such a manipulator, out for a big slice of the family purse. Despite efforts by Bim to keep the facts from her, she has now learned of the shoplifting case, and she is ready to move in for the kill. She hates Andy Gump as well, seeing him as her primary rival for the Gump fortune, and is always glad to see him sizzling on the fire....

As you've noted, it's the comics kiddies.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And in the Daily News...

View attachment 205727
Prince Frederic is at it again.

View attachment 205728 The formidable lady in the fourth panel is none other than Mama DeStross, Uncle Bim's mother-in-law. Y'see, in 1933, Bim fell in love with and married one Millie DeStross, a fluffy round-eyed innocent half his age, and Mama immediately realized that her ship had at last come in. She moved in with the newlyweds, to ensure that fortune hunters kept far far away from her, uh, Bim and Millie's money -- and suspects poor Cousin Baby of being exactly such a manipulator, out for a big slice of the family purse. Despite efforts by Bim to keep the facts from her, she has now learned of the shoplifting case, and she is ready to move in for the kill. She hates Andy Gump as well, seeing him as her primary rival for the Gump fortune, and is always glad to see him sizzling on the fire.

Andy still stands vigil over Lake Geneva WI.

This is actually the third statue. The first was erected by the Chicago Tribune company as a tribute to the artist in his home town- that one was taken out by a car. The second statue was destroyed during a drunken riot/ rampage in the Sixties, and this one was built as a replacement for the second.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Andy looks very very disturbing in three dimensions.

With newspaper comics today in their last days, it's hard to fathom just how popular "The Gumps" was in its heyday. When Uncle Bim was sued for breach of promise in 1923, the story is that trading was interrupted on the floor of the Stock Exchange to to announce the outcome of the case. Sidney Smith, the original artist, was one of the highest paid men in America, and in 1935 signed a new ten-year contract worth $1.5 million. Driving home that night in his Rolls-Royce he was killed in a head-on collision.

Gus Edson, who's drawing the strip in 1940, had been the sports cartoonist for the Daily News when they gave him the job, and was a pretty fair replacement -- but his art style started to drift during the war years to a more glamour-soap opera kind of style, which made Andy and Uncle Bim look like freakish monstrosities, and the stories lost their punch when space reductions meant there was no longer any room for long, character-delineating speeches. Edson continued with the Gumps until the strip was cancelled in 1959, but he is better known today as the co-creator of the most treacly of all treacly kid strips, "Dondi."

 

[LizzieMaine]

The main difference between A and B milk, by 1940 New York City Board of Health standards, was largely a matter of butterfat and milk-solids content. A had more butterfat and lower milk solids, and B had less butterfat and more milk solids. Both were equally wholesome, with a negiigible difference in bacteriological content, but some might have noticed a slight difference in mouthfeel. Grade A milk also had to be sold within 36 hours of pasteurization, while Grade B could be sold within 54 hours. Grade B was usually sold for manufacturing purposes at a lower price than Grade A, which was sold exclusively for beverage use at a higher price.

This is the start of a long battle over milk grading in New York, which will lead to a long and complicated report in 1941. The Mayor does not like Big Dairy, and he's going after them with all he's got.

I've seen some of Harry Tuthill's original Bungle Family art -- a surprising amount of which survives -- and the originals from this period of the strip look much nicer than they come across here. Unfortunately we're looking at digital scans of microfilm shot in the 1960s off old bound volumes of printed papers, so there's been a bit of generational loss. If the digital scans had come direct from the actual newspapers, I think we'd see better quality.

But that said, I also miss the fine detail from the older strips -- one thing that disappeared after the 1935 change in original size was George's glasses. He had always worn a fussy-looking pince-nez, but apparently Mr. Tuthill found it impossible to draw the glasses and add the pupils with the wider pen without the lines bleeding together. So either George got contacts or Jo told him he looked so much sexier without the specs that he just threw them away...

I imagine Leona has burned most of her bridges with her ex-boyfriends over the years. But after all, Mary and Bill are living in kind of a free-and-easy state of unwed companionship, so she's at least seeing that other options are possible.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mayor LaGuardia is promising to crack down on "a ring of ambulance-chasing lawyers" he accuses of working to block the proposed $22,000,000 slum clearance and low-rent housing development in the Navy Yard district. The Mayor last night announced the start of a formal inquiry into the activities of these lawyers with the goal of criminal prosecution, charging that the lawyers are misrepresenting to property owners whose lots are sought for the project the value of their holdings, and awards which would be made to them under condemnation proceedings. Brooklyn District Attorney William O'Dwyer pledged his full cooperation with the inquiry, and stated that he would extend the fullest prosecution authority of his office in support of the probe.

Meanwhile, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses today released a tentative plan for the boundaries of the Navy Yard project, placing five major units containing from four to twenty apartments each within an area bounded on the north by Flushing Avenue, on the south by Myrtle Avenue, on the east by Gold Street, and on the west by North Oxford Street. The boundaries encompass nearly double the area first considered when the plans for Navy Yard district redevelopment were announced in November 1938. Officials stress that these boundaries are not final, and in fact the final shape of the project will not be determined until all of the required land has been acquired. Boundaries have been kept confidential until now in an effort to prevent uncontrolled real estate speculation in the district.

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce yesterday climaxed a borough campaign against overassessment of property values by presenting a trenchant demand to Governor Herbert Lehman for an official state investigation of assessment practices in the city. The 45-page letter to the Governor charges that in some cases, properties are valued for tax purposes in excess of 300 percent of their true market value.

A 22-year-old Hunter College senior from Brooklyn will study abroad under a scholarship awarded by the League of Nations. Alice Fleming, daughter of a waitress in the restaurant at Loeser's department store, will study international relations in Geneva, Switzerland, war conditions permitting, and if the European conflict rules out the trip, Miss Fleming will study under League auspices at a designated American university. Miss Fleming was a volunteer worker all last summer at the League of Nations Pavillion at the World's Fair.

The president of Sheffield Farms is lashing back at Mayor LaGuardia's call on the city's consumers to buy Grade B milk instead of Grade A. L. A. Van Bomel argued in his response to the Mayor's radio broadcast last week that the current milk grading system was not invented by milk distributors -- it was put in place by the New York City Department of Health in 1914, and that the additional retail cost for Grade A is justified by the extra investment in processing equipment required to yield milk that meets the specification.

Official communiques from Moscow declare that Red Army troops have penetrated Finnish territory at five fronts, and denounce as fabrications claims by Finland that Finnish troops wiped out over 20,000 men from the 44th Red Army Division. The Moscow communique estimates deaths from the 44th Division as approximately 900 men, and claims that Finnish casualties exceeded 2000 men. The report also denies that German officers have come to Russia to help with Red Army organization, or that service has been interrupted on the Leningrad-Murmansk Railroad due to Finnish attacks.

In Japan, the cabinet of Premier General Nobiyuki Abe resigned today in a move seen as linked to deteriorating trade relations between the US and the Japanese Government. Prince Fumimaro Konoye is seen as the leading candidate to succeed Abe.

In Germany, new food rationing regulations have denied meat and all podded vegetables to Jews for the period between January 15th thru February 11th. Jews are also restricted to the hours of 12 noon to 2pm for shopping, and their ration cards must be marked with a conspicuous letter J, to aid shopkeepers in enforcing discriminatory regulations against them.

The Kings County American Legion is offering to provide music for the annual Washington's Birthday Volunteer Firemen's Parade, a move which may allow the 49th annual march to take place after all. Organizers of the parade had announced its cancellation after the city declined a $1500 appropriation for bands and transportation costs, and upon seeing the story in yesterday's Eagle, local Legion leaders volunteered the bands of the 70 posts in the borough for the event. Legion officials are encouraging other civic organizations to encourage their own bands to take part as well.

World's Fair officials are offering to contribute $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross if the Dionne Quintuplets sign on as a Fair attraction for 1940. The Quints' board of guardians is now considering a plan to exhibit the Quints at the fair for a five-week run starting May 11th, in a special building to be constructed on the former site of the Soviet Pavilion.

(Designed by none other than Walter Dorwin Teague, the man behind the Texaco station. With that much of a markdown, it doesn't seem to be a big seller.)

The Brooklyn Civic Council will hold a mass meeting on Wednesday to discuss the problem of widespread vandalism in the borough's parks. Repairing vandal damage is said to cost several hundred thousand dollars per year. A film will be shown revealing some of the worst recent damage done by vandals to park and playground properties in the borough.

With ice skating season in full swing in Prospect Park, two police patrolmen having laced on the skates to ensure the safety of participants. Patrolmen Edward Jorgensen and Joseph Vogelbach of the 74th Precinct each do eight-hour daily shifts on the ice, enforcing safety rules, stopping whipcrackers, and checking for thin spots, and they find the assignment vigorous fun.

On today's Pursuit of Happiness program, Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr. will perform a scene from John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," and Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr will perform a selection from "DuBarry Was A Lady," at 4:30 pm on WABC.

("Five years old," laments Joe, "an' he's better'n me." Sally says nothing, because she knows that sometimes the best response is silence.)

Brooklyn's "Portias" are criticizing the Brooklyn Bar Association's decision to maintain the organization's ban against women. "I doubt the Brooklyn Bar Association is entitled to call itself a bar association," declared Jane Smith, former president of the Women's Federal Juror's Association, "when it closes its doors to a large group of members of the bar." Prominent Court Street attorney Lena Bigman added, "Men fear women, fear domination by women, fear influence of women. Are *we* the weaker sex?" Assistant Attorney General Ruth Warters was equally caustic: "So conscious a resistance to so-called 'feminine influence' is the old but happily passing reactionary tendency against change and progress."

President Kyosti Kallio of Finland, and his astonishing moustache, are on the cover of the Trend section this week. (I wonder if he likes candy canes?)

("They say it's gonna be super full dress," says Joe. "Boiled shirts an' tails, an' all 'at." Sally looks over and says "Pull up ya suspenders, while you're at it.")

At the Patio, it's Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in "The Cat and the Canary," with co-feature "Rulers of the Sea" with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Spring Training is six weeks away, and 26 teams will be part of the "Grapefruit League" in Florida this year -- 11 of the 16 major league teams, and 15 minor league clubs will repair to the land of the orange and the palm to get in shape for 1940. The Dodgers will again train in Clearwater, with the Yankees back in St. Petersburg.

Old-Timer James J. Riley remembers how fun it used to be back in the old days at St. Vincent de Paul's Academy, with all the gang pretending to be Lutherans and crashing their church picnics down by Baby Hollow.

"But first, will somebody please tie up that wild hoss?"

Yes indeed, Leona. Mary's gonna have a lot of fun with you.

Calling it now -- Reverend Dr. Father Goodwill here is actually "Boris."

When you wonder why Josephine Bungle is so bitter, consider her husband.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Unsolved Mysteries, 1940 style.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Chief Brandon is very disappointed. He was really looking forward to that new suitcase.

Maybe he needs to lay off the candy canes and roast pigs and start drinking Dari-Rich.

Harold just projectile vomited in an alley. Truck McClusky may be an old creeper, but at least he can hold his drinks.

 

[Fading Fast]

...The president of Sheffield Farms is lashing back at Mayor LaGuardia's call on the city's consumers to buy Grade B milk instead of Grade A. L. A. Van Bomel argued in his response to the Mayor's radio broadcast last week that the current milk grading system was not invented by milk distributors -- it was put in place by the New York City Department of Health in 1914, and that the additional retail cost for Grade A is justified by the extra investment in processing equipment required to yield milk that meets the specification.....

The dairy wars of this era are quite interesting.

...In Germany, new food rationing regulations have denied meat and all podded vegetables to Jews for the period between January 15th thru February 11th. Jews are also restricted to the hours of 12 noon to 2pm for shopping, and their ration cards must be marked with a conspicuous letter J, to aid shopkeepers in enforcing discriminatory regulations against them.....

But no one in Germany knew what was going on.

...
President Kyosti Kallio of Finland, and his astonishing moustache, are on the cover of the Trend section this week. (I wonder if he likes candy canes?)....

There's a reasonable echo of actor Frank Morgan here.

...
("They say it's gonna be super full dress," says Joe. "Boiled shirts an' tails, an' all 'at." Sally looks over and says "Pull up ya suspenders, while you're at it.")....

A quick internet search (so accuracy questionable) says that the average price of a movie ticket in 1940 was 25 cents; hence, this is over four times the average price. $1.10 in 1940 is ~$20 in 2020 dollars.

...Spring Training is six weeks away, and 26 teams will be part of the "Grapefruit League" in Florida this year -- 11 of the 16 major league teams, and 15 minor league clubs will repair to the land of the orange and the palm to get in shape for 1940. The Dodgers will again train in Clearwater, with the Yankees back in St. Petersburg.....

Any idea why the five other pro teams did not participate?

...

Chief Brandon is very disappointed. He was really looking forward to that new suitcase.....

No kidding, Tracy just let that cat out of the bag (no commission for the salesman / no bag for the Chief).


N.B., Dari-Rich is an awful name

 

[LizzieMaine]

The other teams trained in Arizona or California -- the Cubs even had their own island, the Wrigley-owned compound on Catalina. The Dodgers were in Louisiana for a while, and next year they'll train in Cuba, where Hugh Casey and Ernest Hemingway will get blind drunk and Casey will beat the snot out of Hemingway. But all that lies in the future....

Dari Rich is that sour-tempered middle-aged woman down at the DMV who sends you to the back of the line because you filled in the yellow form instead of the blue one.

 

[Fading Fast]

The other teams trained in Arizona or California -- the Cubs even had their own island, the Wrigley-owned compound on Catalina. The Dodgers were in Louisiana for a while, and next year they'll train in Cuba, where Hugh Casey and Ernest Hemingway will get blind drunk and Casey will beat the snot out of Hemingway. But all that lies in the future....

Dari Rich is that sour-tempered middle-aged woman down at the DMV who sends you to the back of the line because you filled in the yellow form instead of the blue one.

Ah, I see you've tried to obtain a NYC drivers license at some point.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And here, because I just thought of it, is a wonderful essay by Red Barber about the Hugh Casey-Ernest Hemingway incident. The Dodgers might have been bums, but they were literary bums.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Seventeen members of the Christian Front are being held on $850,000 bail in connection with a Brooklyn-based bomb-terror plot to overthrow the U. S. Government and install a dictator. Explosive devices, guns, and ammunition were seized at a residence in Flatbush where the plot is alleged to have been hatched. The owner of the house at 29 Hawthorne Street, Martin Boetteger, is reported to be "ready to talk to authorities" about his leading role in planning the attack. Boetteger is a twelve-year member of the National Guard, and authorities are investigating National Guard armories in the borough as a potential source thru which the plotters obtained their weapons.

Investigators believe the plotters intended to carry out armed attacks on several targets, including the homes of twelve local Congressmen, the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper, the Communist Daily Worker, and the Cameo Theatre in Manhattan, where Soviet-made films are exhibited, and to bomb Jewish neighborhoods in order to create panic and confusion while the real business of the intended coup moved ahead. The plotters hoped that the Army would be called in to "protect Jewish interests" as a result of the attacks, generating anti-Semitic feeling among the public that would lead to support for a putsch against the Federal Government, to be marked by bombings of bridges, power stations, post offices, the Federal Reserve Bank, and other Federal installations.

Among the weapons and bomb-making materials seized at Boetteger's home and several other residences were fifteen partially-completed bombs made from tin cans filled with explosives, eighteen cans of cordite powder, one pound of smokeless powder, a quantity of other chemicals used in the manufacture of explosives, three belts of machine gun ammunition containing 750 rounds, 3500 rounds of .30-06 ammunition, miscellaneous bomb-making materials including metal pipes, fuses, powdered sulphur, etc., and an assortment of smaller rifles and shotguns.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover announced that the Bureau has had the plotters under investigation for several months, with the formal charges stating that the operation began in July of last year. Some fifty-odd FBI agents participated in a series of raids across the borough today to arrest the plotters and seize evidence.

The plotters reportedly practiced for the planned coup under the guise of two sporting groups called "The Sportsmen's Club" and "The Country Gentlemen," conducting training exercises at a camp in Narrowburgh, New York, and at two other locations outside the city which authorities have not yet identified. Bomb-throwing, rifle training, and other drills were conducted by the plotters at these sites. Information received this week by the FBI indicated that members of the organization intended to "bomb a public target" in the near future, with the inner circle of the group planning special exercises between January 20th and 26th.

Crowds lined the Johnson Street approach to the Brooklyn Federal Building today as the plotters were led into the building for arraignment. Mostly boos and jeers of "Show your face!" were heard, although there was a burst of cheering from one small section of the crowd when local Christian Front leader Patrick J. Cassidy arrived.

Patrick J. Cassidy, leader of the Brooklyn branch of the Christian Front, and one of the seventeen defendants in the terror plot, wrote to the Eagle a year ago denying that he is anti-Semitic, and stated that Father Charles E. Coughlin, Royal Oak, Michigan radio priest, of whom he is a follower, is also not anti-Semitic. Although Coughlin has been widely linked to the Christian Front, and has promoted the organization on his radio broadcasts, the priest denies that he is the organizer of the Front, or its head. In a statement today, Coughlin declared that the organization involved in the plot is "of Communist or Bundist origin, intending to embarrass the Christian people of this nation." Last month, the Front was denounced by a coalition of Protestant churches in Brooklyn for "advocating the extermination of the Jews and establishing a fascist dictatorship in the United States." Catholic Archibishop Francis J. Spellman has also denounced the Front.

The New York Rangers saw their winning streak end at a record-tying eighteen last night, with the Chicago Blackhawks handing them their first defeat since November, 2 to 1.

Ninety-one major and minor leaguers have been declared free agents by Commissioner K. M. Landis on the basis of illegal contract irregularities, and the Dodgers are reported to be interested in outfielder Roy Cullenbine, to be liberated from the Detroit Tigers as of January 29th. Tiger pitcher Paul "Dizzy" Trout, considered the cream of the likely free agent crop, was surprised to find that he will remain Detroit property after all.

Dodger pitcher Whitlow Wyatt is said to be in good shape for the start of Spring Training next month. The hard-throwing right hander, whose 1939 campaign was cut short by a serious knee injury, underwent surgery last fall and has been building up strength in the repaired joint by riding a bicycle around his Georgia farm.

The Green Bay Packers beat a team of National Football League All-Stars, concluding the pro grid season with a 16-7 victory in an exhibition game at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles before a crowd of 18,000.

Bing Crosby, Ralph Bellamy, Jacqueline Wells, and Elizabeth Patterson star in a radio adaptation of "Sing You Sinners," on the Lux Radio Theatre, 9pm on WABC.

So Hartford -- you're an usher at the Roxy now?

"Forward to the nearest used car lot, where we'll see what we can raise on this station wagon..."

This is even better if you imagine Irwin speaking in the voice of Baby Huey.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Blowing up the damned Police Department!"

(These two stories, taken together, are pretty much 1940 in a nutshell. And it's only January!)

Besides, who needs a dictator when you've already got Nick Gatt?

Ah, yes, a Mysterious Woman In Black. Actually she's just looking for the rest room, but now she's going to report two suspicious characters trying to break into a locker.

And once again, Millie DeStross Gump, gentle wife of Uncle Bim, wonders how this woman could possibly be her mother.

"You see, Captain, my plot here is.... Hey, wait, what *is* my plot here, anyway?"

Yeah, imagine when they're teenagers and Mrs. Dionne tries to marry all five of them off to creepy middle-aged men. That'll kinda stink.

 

[Fading Fast]

Seventeen members of the Christian Front are being held on $850,000 bail in connection with a Brooklyn-based bomb-terror plot to overthrow the U. S. Government and install a dictator. Explosive devices, guns, and ammunition were seized at a residence in Flatbush where the plot is alleged to have been hatched. The owner of the house at 29 Hawthorne Street, Martin Boetteger, is reported to be "ready to talk to authorities" about his leading role in planning the attack. Boetteger is a twelve-year member of the National Guard, and authorities are investigating National Guard armories in the borough as a potential source thru which the plotters obtained their weapons.

Investigators believe the plotters intended to carry out armed attacks on several targets, including the homes of twelve local Congressmen, the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper, the Communist Daily Worker, and the Cameo Theatre in Manhattan, where Soviet-made films are exhibited, and to bomb Jewish neighborhoods in order to create panic and confusion while the real business of the intended coup moved ahead. The plotters hoped that the Army would be called in to "protect Jewish interests" as a result of the attacks, generating anti-Semitic feeling among the public that would lead to support for a putsch against the Federal Government, to be marked by bombings of bridges, power stations, post offices, the Federal Reserve Bank, and other Federal installations.

Among the weapons and bomb-making materials seized at Boetteger's home and several other residences were fifteen partially-completed bombs made from tin cans filled with explosives, eighteen cans of cordite powder, one pound of smokeless powder, a quantity of other chemicals used in the manufacture of explosives, three belts of machine gun ammunition containing 750 rounds, 3500 rounds of .30-06 ammunition, miscellaneous bomb-making materials including metal pipes, fuses, powdered sulphur, etc., and an assortment of smaller rifles and shotguns.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover announced that the Bureau has had the plotters under investigation for several months, with the formal charges stating that the operation began in July of last year. Some fifty-odd FBI agents participated in a series of raids across the borough today to arrest the plotters and seize evidence.

The plotters reportedly practiced for the planned coup under the guise of two sporting groups called "The Sportsmen's Club" and "The Country Gentlemen," conducting training exercises at a camp in Narrowburgh, New York, and at two other locations outside the city which authorities have not yet identified. Bomb-throwing, rifle training, and other drills were conducted by the plotters at these sites. Information received this week by the FBI indicated that members of the organization intended to "bomb a public target" in the near future, with the inner circle of the group planning special exercises between January 20th and 26th.

Crowds lined the Johnson Street approach to the Brooklyn Federal Building today as the plotters were led into the building for arraignment. Mostly boos and jeers of "Show your face!" were heard, although there was a burst of cheering from one small section of the crowd when local Christian Front leader Patrick J. Cassidy arrived.

View attachment 206175

View attachment 206178

Patrick J. Cassidy, leader of the Brooklyn branch of the Christian Front, and one of the seventeen defendants in the terror plot, wrote to the Eagle a year ago denying that he is anti-Semitic, and stated that Father Charles E. Coughlin, Royal Oak, Michigan radio priest, of whom he is a follower, is also not anti-Semitic. Although Coughlin has been widely linked to the Christian Front, and has promoted the organization on his radio broadcasts, the priest denies that he is the organizer of the Front, or its head. In a statement today, Coughlin declared that the organization involved in the plot is "of Communist or Bundist origin, intending to embarrass the Christian people of this nation." Last month, the Front was denounced by a coalition of Protestant churches in Brooklyn for "advocating the extermination of the Jews and establishing a fascist dictatorship in the United States." Catholic Archibishop Francis J. Spellman has also denounced the Front.

View attachment 206189

View attachment 206201

....

While reasonably well-armed for its size, the taking over the entire country - by inspiring a national uprising of likeminded people - seemed a bit unrealistic.

... So Hartford -- you're an usher at the Roxy now?....

Good call on the overcoat Lizzie. Also, as you've noted, shows how much the illustration quality suffered from the smaller size.

...

(These two stories, taken together, are pretty much 1940 in a nutshell. And it's only January!)....

He's described as a "sartorial eccentric," based on the pic of the Vicomtesse, I think he married his equal.

... Ah, yes, a Mysterious Woman In Black. Actually she's just looking for the rest room, but now she's going to report two suspicious characters trying to break into a locker.....

Unfortunately, the wonderful plot devise of lockers at train and bus stations were all but done away with after the 9/11 attacks. They show up in an incredible number of older movies.

... "You see, Captain, my plot here is.... Hey, wait, what *is* my plot here, anyway?"...

Seriously, what is the plan? Maybe Patrick just panicked at the last minute and decided to make nice out of fear, but I think he's playing another angle. Also, nice comment about Singh-Singh's neck.

... Yeah, imagine when they're teenagers and Mrs. Dionne tries to marry all five of them off to creepy middle-aged men. That'll kinda stink.

Plus, old pop in the basement will get to pay for all those weddings - won't that be fun.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's a glimpse at some original Tuthill artwork -- this one is from 1930, and the image is about 25 percent of the actual size --

And here's one from around 1942, in the smaller size.

Some of what I've read about Mr. Tuthill suggest he might have been having eye problems late in his career, which would also explain the decline in detail work -- but even so, right up to the end, his lettering work is exquisite.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here's a glimpse at some original Tuthill artwork -- this one is from 1930, and the image is about 25 percent of the actual size --

View attachment 206259

And here's one from around 1942, in the smaller size.

View attachment 206258

Some of what I've read about Mr. Tuthill suggest he might have been having eye problems late in his career, which would also explain the decline in detail work -- but even so, right up to the end, his lettering work is exquisite.

As you note, it could be for more than one reason, but the difference in the larger images is incredible. It gives the comic strip a much more realistic feel and allows the artist to do so much more with facial expressions and body English.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Federal authorities are today searching for the secret financial backers of the Christian Front bomb-terror plot uncovered yesterday in Brooklyn in which seventeen men were arrested. Authorities noted that none of the suspects are wealthy, holding menial jobs, and two of them are unemployed -- and pointed out that none could have afforded to even pay transportation to the training camp used by the plotters in Narrowsburg, let alone pay the costs of maintaining the camp. US Attorney Harold Kennedy anticipates presenting a case to the Federal Grand Jury on Tuesday. Attorney Kennedy today turned over to the FBI several letters he has received in connection with the case, but declined to elaborate on their contents. The suspects remain in custody in lieu of a combined cash bail of $850,000. None of the suspects have as yet obtained legal counsel.

Meanwhile, National Guard authorities are investigating whether rifles, ammunition, and explosives found in the possession of the plotters came from Guard armories. Several of the plotters are Guard members, and one of them, John T. Prout Jr, in civilian life a clerk for the Postal Telegraph Company, holds a commission as Captain on the surplus officer list of the 165th Infantry.

Authorities are closely investigating the backgrounds of the plotters, particularly William Bishop, said to be a leader in the conspiracy. Bishop's true name has been identified as William Arneck, known to have entered the United States illegally, and may have been born in Vienna, Austria. Arneck was arrested in 1935 for a violation of the Sullivan Law, and is a known Nazi propagandist. Another leading figure in the plot, John F. Cassidy, head of the Brooklyn unit for the Christian Front, is well-known in the borough for his anti-Semitic speeches at street-corner rallies and in ultra-patriotic meetings. Cassidy, a clerk for the Brooklyn Edison Company, has been suspended from his job pending an investigation. When asked by reporters for a statement, Cassidy declared "Long live Christ the King, and Down With Communism!"

Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine is investigating reports that at least forty policemen are members of the Christian Front, and states that if confirmation is forthcoming there will be an official probe.

In response to the uncovering of the terror plot, the City Council is considering a formal ban on Christian Front street meetings and other meetings where anti-Semitism is preached. Brooklyn Councilman Walter Hart introduced a measure that would prohibit the holding up of any race or religion to public ridicule or contempt thru meetings, speeches, signs, or pictures, and would make violation of that ban a misdemeanor. The measure has been referred to the Committee on General Welfare for discussion.

Technicans from municipal radio station WNYC were expelled from the City Council chambers today prior to the start of the meeting. The Council has voted to discontinue the regular broadcasting of Council meetings, but the station's engineers arrived as usual and attempted to set up the equipment before they were put out of the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms.

Confessed bail-bond racketeer Abraham Frosch says it was customary to pay the lieutenant on the desk a $2 consideration for every prisoner released on bail. Frosch testified in the departmental trial of Lieutenant Frank P. Gleason of the Miller Avenue Precinct. Frosch stated before Special Deputy Commissioner Jeremiah T. Mahoney that he had made such payments to Gleason dating back as far as 1936.

Phonograph records bearing evidence of infidelity on the part of Mrs. Ethel Kiss will be played in Brooklyn Supreme Court, in documentation of claims that Mrs. Kiss engaged in a tryst with her husband's cousin. Irving Kiss of 1909 Avenue L is suing for divorce, and obtained the recordings by a hidden microphone in a garage room where the alleged tryst took place.

Tensions between Russia and the Scandanavian countries were heightened today by a claim over Radio Moscow that Sweden is sending its unemployed workers to fight in the Finnish Army. There is no response to the claim from Swedish authorities.

President Roosevelt sees no danger that a Federal loan to Finland would lead to US involvement in European wars, and in a letter to Speaker Bankhead and Vice President Garner, the President stated that approval of such a loan is wholly within the authority of Congress.

The British Admiralty today announced that three British submarines were destroyed while "engaged in particularly hazardous service" along the German coast.

The First Lady supports birth control, but does not desire to impose her beliefs on others. So stated Mrs. Roosevelt today in her first public utterance on the question since her husband took office as President. Mrs. Roosevelt stated in response to a reporter's question that she had made contributions to a birth control clinic on the East Side of New York years ago, and that family planning is not against her religious beliefs. "I am not opposed to anything which may be of some value to people," she declared, "but do not wish to impose my views on others."

Movie star Ann Sothern didn't get her fancy crescent-shaped appendectomy scar after all. Reports out of Hollywood state that the surgeon who performed the operation made the usual straight incision.

The Canadian Red Cross has rejected a proposal that they sponsor a Dionne Quintuplets exhibit at the 1940 World's Fair, but Fair officials remain determined to bring the Quints to Flushing, one way or another. The Quints' board of guardians, and their parents have also expressed opposition to the proposal.

A heavy snowstorm is expected to hit Brooklyn tomorrow, with plunging temperatures signaling the start of a three-day cold spell. Low temperatures tonight could drop to 12 degrees.

A 37-year-old Manhattan man was charged with grand larceny after he admitted keeping two $1000 bills given him by mistake for the purchase of an electric refrigerator. Ralph J. Buonocore accepted the bills from Mrs. Linda Scally of the Bronx in payment for the refrigerator, and assumed they were $100 bills. Mrs. Scally told police she had given Buonocore the notes by mistake, thinking they were $100s.

("Sez you!" says the Mayor. "Says me!" says Elsie the Cow.)

Helen Worth says promises to a dying spouse never to remarry should be ignored. "If any person who exacts such a promise were to return to earth, the probability is that they would desire to retract every word."

There's nothing lowbrow about liking such rowdy stage entertainment as "Hellzapoppin," "The Follies Bergere," and "Earl Carroll's Vanites." So states Arthur Pollock, and he stands by it even if Walter Winchell is the only other critic in the city who agrees with him.

The Eagle Editorialist says the World's Fair management needs to gracefully withdraw its plan to bring the Dionne Quintuplets to Flushing in 1940. They've been told definitively that the girls aren't coming, and they should now make a dignified retreat. The Eagle thinks it's obnoxious to put little children on sideshow exhibition anyway, and the fact that they'd be shown behind one-way glass doesn't make it any less reprehensible.

Swing singer Maxine Sullivan is a pretty fair drummer in the Gene Krupa manner, reports gossip columnist Clifford Evans. But CBS, which books her for live shows, won't let her do that part of her act at the Famous Door, because "it's too undignified."

"Coming events cast their shadows before..."

Errol Flynn put on an impromptu exhibition of fleet-footedness when he arrived at LaGuardia Field this week. A gust of wind blew his hat away as he talked with reporters, and the actor raced a hundred and fifty yards down the runway to retrieve it.

Comedian Fred Allen has been invited to appear soon as a guest expert on "Information Please," and all indications are that the lanky Yankee will accept. Meanwhile, Mr. Allen welcomes a professional laugh expert, Arthur Barret,renowned authority on the fine art of the chuckle and the guffaw, to his program tomorrow night at 9pm over WEAF.

By Jove, Hartford. It's good to see that your hand has never lost its skill.

OK, so we can't sell the car. But I bet that mink'll bring a good fifty bucks from Moe the Pawnbroker.

Along with his many other accomplishments, Irwin is a master of the fine art of the playground gibe.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I do admire the News staff for their ability to write this stuff with a straight face.

You tell 'em kids. And here's Ella to kick the point home:

Feel the loving embrace of Nick Gatt, Judge. This is how it went down with Crater.

Bim's neck must be mounted on ball bearings to swing around like that.

If this is the plan, Pat will be lucky to get out of it alive.

I hope for Tracy's sake it's not a bag of dirty diapers.

Oh, and money to go Truck's bail. You'll need that.

Why is it I get the feeling that cartoonists don't tend to have happy marriages?

 

[Fading Fast]

...Phonograph records bearing evidence of infidelity on the part of Mrs. Ethel Kiss will be played in Brooklyn Supreme Court, in documentation of claims that Mrs. Kiss engaged in a tryst with her husband's cousin. Irving Kiss of 1909 Avenue L is suing for divorce, and obtained the recordings by a hidden microphone in a garage room where the alleged tryst took place.....

Sounds like something out of a film noir movie that you'd say would never work in real life as the mechanics of getting the hanky-panky recorded on a phonograph while not having it discovered would be too hard. Also, if they truly recorded, the, umm, throes of passion, there will be giggling by some and red faces on others in that courtroom.

...Movie star Ann Sothern didn't get her fancy crescent-shaped appendectomy scar after all. Reports out of Hollywood state that the surgeon who performed the operation made the usual straight incision.....

... View attachment 206466
("Sez you!" says the Mayor. "Says me!" says Elsie the Cow.)....

In a novel I just finished, written in 1951, "The Build-Up Boys," there's a long scene where the head of a dairy company is hauled before a Congressional committee, in part, to explain how much money the company makes per quart (the gov't accuses the company of making 5 cents, but the diary company claims it's a fraction of that). Clearly the "diary wars" were a big deal back then. Comments on the book here: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-417#post-2630695

...Helen Worth says promises to a dying spouse never to remarry should be ignored. "If any person who exacts such a promise were to return to earth, the probability is that they would desire to retract every word."....

The Henny Youngman joke practically writes itself for this one.

...Errol Flynn put on an impromptu exhibition of fleet-footedness when he arrived at LaGuardia Field this week. A gust of wind blew his hat away as he talked with reporters, and the actor raced a hundred and fifty yards down the runway to retrieve it....

Before booze, women and probably some other stuff wore him down, the man was a serious athlete - not just an actor who could play one.

... By Jove, Hartford. It's good to see that your hand has never lost its skill.....

It's just possible Jo will kill him...and if I was on the jury, I'd vote to acquit.

... OK, so we can't sell the car. But I bet that mink'll bring a good fifty bucks from Moe the Pawnbroker....

And you know that neighborhood has one. They'll never do it, but IRL, we know what Leona's new career is going to be.

...
I do admire the News staff for their ability to write this stuff with a straight face....

1. Why is he the "official referee" and not a "judge?" and 2. is he allowed to rule against both of them?

... Why is it I get the feeling that cartoonists don't tend to have happy marriages?

Agreed - we all know how Charles Schulz used his comic strip to parody his marriage. That said, it seems like it was a meme of the Era to show battling couples even, as in this strip and as shocking as it is to us today, domestic violence in a casual or even joking manner.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Bringing Up Father" was the most notorious example of such -- rarely would a week go by without Maggie beating Jiggs with a rolling pin, a frying pan, or a pile of crockery. Comics readers in the 1910s would have recognized this as playing off the vaudeville stereotype of the brawling, violent Irish, who weren't happy if they weren't pounding each other into the ground. "The Three Keatons" was a popular stage act around that same time, in which Joe Keaton, dressed in an stereotype-Irishman outfit, flung his six year old son Buster (yes, that Buster Keaton) around the stage in pantomime of a violent, drunken father beating his child.

In the 50s, Mad magazine did an absolutely lacerating parody of "Bringing Up Father" -- on one page, Bill Elder drew a dead-on reproduction of the original style of the strip, and on the opposite page, Bernie Krigstein, noted horror-comics artist, drew what it would really be like for Jiggs to be beaten to a pulp by his wife.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have traced eighteen cans of cordite powder seized from Brooklyn Christian Front members plotting terrorist attacks against the government to an Army facility in New Jersey. Lt. Colonel Edward Bowditch, Inspector General of the 27th Division revealed today that the FBI has positively tracked the cordite to the Edgewood Arsenal, a Regular Army installation in Edgewood, New Jersey, with officials at that installation stating that they have made no shipments of cordite to Brooklyn in "many years." Investigators have not yet positively identified the source of 3500 rounds of ammunition seized by the FBI in Brooklyn, but the specific powder content of each .30-06 cartridge and other identifying characteristics are consistent with a National Guard origin for this ammunition.

Brooklyn National Guard officials have not yet received from the FBI the serial numbers of Springfield rifles seized in the raids, but Col. Bowditch states that those numbers would be listed in Regular Army records, and could be traced by the FBI without the need for National Guard assistance.

Meanwhile, Federal authorities preparing charges against the seventeen conspirators to be presented to a Brooklyn Federal grand jury next week are considering whether the real purpose of the plot might have been sabotage of American supply lines should the United States become involved in the European War.

FBI investigators today confirmed that John F. Cassidy of 3015 Farragut Road, Brooklyn Christian Front leader, is an applicant for admission to the Bar. Cassidy, whose most recent employment as a clerk for the Brooklyn Edison Company was suspended following his arrest two days ago, was scheduled to appear tomorrow before the Brooklyn Bar Association to determine his "fitness of character" to practice law. Cassidy is reported to have studied at Fordham University and St. John's University, and to have passed the bar examination a year ago.

An examination of recent issues of "Social Justice" magazine, published by Father Charles E. Coughlin, Royal Oak, Michigan radio priest, reveals that Coughlin has written approvingly of John F. Cassidy's Christian Front activities in Brooklyn on at least two occasions. Father Coughlin on Monday denied any connection to the Christian Front and claimed to have disavowed the organization, but the July 31, 1939 issue of his paper carries a front-page banner headline praising the Christian Front's expansion across "many states", and cites Cassidy for specific endorsement for his work in New York City.

At least two persons were killed today in an explosion at a dynamite plant in Gibbstown, New Jersey. Two others were injured when six thousand pounds of nitroglycerin detonated at the plant operated by I. E. duPont de Nemours & Company. The plant was one of the duPont units at which additional guards were posted two weeks ago to prevent sabotage. The FBI is working with local police in an investigation of the explosion.

The State Mediation Board will bring together representative of major coal companies and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in an effort to resolve a dispute that halted most coal deliveries in the city today. A strike was called this week against the Central Coal Company, involving approximately 350 workers, and in retaliation members of the Fuel Merchants' Association and the Coal Merchants Association locked out their drivers. The Teamsters are seeking a wage increase of twenty cents an hour above the $1 per hour they are paid under their present contract.

A jury of eleven men and one woman was selected today in Manhattan Federal Court for the trial on passport charges of Communist Party secretary Earl Browder. Potential jurors were rigorously question for their views on communism and unionism, and whether they had belonged to any organization either sympathetic to or opposing communist beliefs. When the jury was seated, Browder's chief counsel George Gordon Battle moved for immediate dismissal on two grounds -- that the indictment did not set forth any false statements alleged to have been made by Browder, and that the statute of limitations has expired. Judge Alfred C. Coxe denied the first motion, but reserved decision on the second.

Confessed bail bond racketeer Abraham Frosch today estimated that he had paid Police Lieutenant Frank Gleason a total of $70 or $80 in recent years, at a rate of $2 per prisoner released on bail. Frosch further stated that he paid these "firing fees" to Gleason out of fear that if he did not, Gleason, via the "lieutenant's grapevine" to Police Commissioner Valentine, would ensure he never bailed another prisoner. Lieut. Gleason is the first of eleven police officers to face departmental charges as a result of the Amen Office's investigation into police complicity in the Brooklyn bail-bond racket.

Phonograph records of an alleged tryst between Mrs. Mabel Kiss and her husband's cousin produced little but scratches as noise today in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The recordings, made by a hidden microphone placed in a garage room by Irving Kiss, and played today for jurors in the Kiss divorce trial, were largely unintelligble, with few words audible to the jury. Technicians promised that subsequent records would be more clear.

Heavyweight champion Joe Louis and challenger Arturo Godoy today signed contracts for a championship bout at Madison Square Garden on February 9th. Under the terms of the agreement, Louis will receive 40 percent of the gate, with 17 1/2 percent going to Godoy.

Police today bagged "The Wolf," and recovered loot valued at $7000 from the notorious burglar who has been terrorizing homes in the Eastern Parkway/Park Slope area. "The Wolf" was identified as 25-year-old Frank Constantino of 1030 Bergen Street, who told police he did not steal the clothing, jewelry, and other articles found in his possession, but bought them from a man he did not name. He was charged with receiving stolen goods, illegal possession of a firearm, and felonious assault.

(Shoveling by hand in 20-degree weather, with a cold ocean wind whipping toward the shore. "It was a simpler time...")

"The Invisible Man Returns" opened this week in Manhattan at the Rialto, and the now-you-see-him-now-you-don't title character is now played by Vincent Price. Herbert Cohn says it's a good picture, even if you don't really see much of Mr. Price.

Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in "Destry Rides Again" gallops into Loew's Metropolitan tomorrow, with co-feature "Joe and Ethel Turp Call On the President." And Charles Laughton as Quasimodo opens tomorrow at the RKO Albee in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

The President Emeritus of Yale University denounced the low and vulgar morals of the current generation in a speech before the Parent Teacher Association of Packer College Institute. Dr. James Rowland Angell declared that "our social life gives abundant evidence of a serious collapse in ethical standards," and that excessive public drinking and use of profanity, the playing up as heroic figures of gunmen and criminals, the treating of divorce as a public amusement, and the presence behind prison walls of many "honored figures from the bench and our leading business concerns" are all examples of this severe moral decline, a decline which poses the "gravest danger to our social and cultural order."

Helen Worth, meanwhile, is happy to hear from a 24 year old man who is interested in fine ballroom dancing, and is looking for a partner. "Praise be," says Helen, "that there is at least one person left who is not a jitterbug." (Helen, you're an ickie.)

(Just out of curiosity, I wonder where the Mayor gets his milk? Sheffield? Borden? Some little independent? Nah, he probably goes out to the barn in muck boots and draws off a quart right from the tap.)

The much-hailed decision by Commissioner Landis releasing more than 90 players from control by the Detroit Tigers organization is just a big pop-gun, declares Tommy Holmes. Only one of the 92 free agents created by the ruling is a bona-fide big leaguer -- that's Benny McCoy -- and only one other -- outfielder Roy Cullenbine, in whom the Dodgers have expressed interest -- is even a marginal big-leaguer. The rest are obscure minor leaguers at the Class C and Class D level, most of whom will never be heard from again. The real impact of the Detroit case, Holmes predicts, is what it means for the continuation of the farm-system arrangement in baseball, with major league clubs now deprived of the ability to "hide" talented youngsters at low levels in the minor leagues to prevent their being drafted away by rival teams.

Young Eddie Arcaro is already on track to be the top jockey of 1940, if early season results from the Florida racetracks are an indication. Arcaro led all riders at Tropical Park with twelve winners, and in four days at Hialeah he won six races.

Fannie Brice celebrates her one hundredth performance as Baby Snooks on the Maxwell House Good News program, tomorrow night at 9 on WEAF.

In a moment, my dear, in a moment. But first, would either of you happen to have any moustache wax handy? I seem to be drooping a bit.

Leona, dear, you left out "articulate."

Okay, so "Boris" isn't Reverend Dr. Father Goodwill after all. But I have to admit that I never expected he'd turn out to be --
George Arliss.