The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

I honestly can't believe Durocher said that with a straight face. I wonder if it'll come back to mind a few years hence when the whole Laraine Day-Ray Hendricks-BRAND LEO LOVE PIRATE story bursts upon the scene.

 

[Harp]

Leo hit a homer there, no doubt. Well, stole home. But all the way from first. Gorgeous gal, Lorraine.

And Leo appeared cameo as his very self same in Eddie Munster's mom show too. Thanks to Lorraine.
No, there were divorced by then. Wonder if Leo had her traded?

 

[LizzieMaine]

They actually remained friends for the rest of his life, and when Lippy was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame, it was Laraine who stood up at Cooperstown to accept the honor. I thought that was kind of sweet, but I wonder what Ray Hendricks thought about it...

 

[Harp]

They actually remained friends for the rest of his life, and when Lippy was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame, it was Laraine who stood up at Cooperstown to accept the honor. I thought that was kind of sweet, but I wonder what Ray Hendricks thought about it...

Cuckolded with horns. I imagine that takes some fortitude and forgiveness.
And, of course, whatever happened between a man and woman behind a closed door,
should remain private between themselves.

A sidebar of some relevance...before Covid upended everything, I was riding home on the Rock Island
with an acquaintance attorney who was relocating his law office out of downtown Chicago to a local
suburb to save capital expenditure. After this, he off handedly remarked that the day marked a failed
marriage anniversary date-his wife cheated etc-and he received a card from her. Apparently she missed
him, and he produced the momento itself and read her prose. He had a new woman in his life, turned
the corner so to speak. His former spouse seemed a solo act. Strange how things sometime resolve.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I'm not as flat out sympathetic to Lana's plight as I was a week ago. This two- fiancee dilemma seems to be open to a possible resolution.

Which would leave Harold with Lillums with a ring on her finger. I don't equate that with winning the PowerBall, for some reason.

 

[Harp]

Picked game up in fifth inning, made it through the sixth reasonable well, and now in the stretch
Lana, dear exquisite flower that she is, throws a monkey wrench in the mix.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm in Lizzie's camp, I think Paul is going to be a brother or cousin or something innocent like that.

Otherwise, we'll have to break open one side of the love triangle to form a square and whoever heard of a love square?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Neither Harold nor Lillums is mature enough to get married. I said that last year when Lil was about to become Mrs. McClusky, and there's no sign she's anymore ready for it now than she was then. She's spent most of her teenage years as a pawn/proxy for her striving mother, and she needs to know her own mind. Best thing she could do is leave Covina immediately and go back to staying with Aunt Pruny, who is a wise old lady who will teach her much about what it's really all about.

Both of these situation are the result of parental interference in the affairs of kids who ought to be left to figure out their own lives. Harold's mom is not as crass in her manipulations as Lena Lovewell, but she's just as culpable in pushing her kid into a situation he wouldn't have fallen into if left to his own devices. Harold's twenty years old. In another year or so, he can expect to receive his greeetings from Uncle. Why not let him enjoy the last dregs of his adolescence in peace? Forget about getting married, kid, and go have an Awful-Awful.

I have always had the feeling that Lana is a few years older than Harold, and infinitely wiser. As I said once before, the story of Lana is the origin story of Sally Snipe.

 

[Harp]

I'm in Lizzie's camp...
Otherwise, we'll have to break open one side of the love triangle to form a square and whoever heard of a love square?

A scalenus triangle res judicata, best left alone.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thirteen German planes were brought down last night over Liverpool, Glasgow, and other coastal areas by searchlight-equipped night fighters, anti-aircraft fire, and other unspecified devices, according to reports from the British Air Ministry. A total of thirty-two German raiders have been destroyed by British defenses over the past four nights. Meanwhile, British raids on German targets continue, with heavy attacks last night on the industrial center of Hamburg, where fires are reported raging. British bombers also struck targets along the mouth of the Elbe, and pounded oil storage depots at Rotterdam in continuing heavy assaults.

President Roosevelt goes on the air tomorrow night to deliver a Fireside Chat on the topic of the new Lease-Lend program, in which he is expected to deliver an outline of the objectives and progress so far of the $7,000,000,000 plan to provide aid to Great Britain in its war against Germany. The broadcast will be heard over all networks tomorrow night at 9:30.

The American League's Most Valuable Player for 1940 will receive a draft deferral due to flat feet. Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers will be placed in draft classification 1-B, meaning that while he is available for "limited military service," he will not immediately be taken into the Army. Greenberg holds draft number 621, and was expected to receive his formal notice to report for induction next month, but Dr. Grover C. Freeman, physician assigned by Greenberg's local draft board in Detroit to examine the slugger at the Tigers' training camp in Lakeland, Florida, has declared him to be "unfit" for military service due to the condition of his feet. Greenberg batted .340 last summer in sparking the Tigers to a World Championship, and led the American League with 41 home runs. It is also reported from Lakeland that Greenberg has signed a new contract for 1941 with Tigers owner Walter O. Briggs, and will receive $50,000 for the 1941 season, a raise of $5000 over his salary for 1940.

After 24 hours of negotiations between representatives of striking bus drivers and officials of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company and the New York City Omnibus Corporation, the walkout continued into its fifth day today, with another bargaining session having convened at 11 AM under the supervision of Arthur S. Meyer, chairman of the State Mediation Board. Prior to commencement of today's talks, Mr. Meyer told reporters that, while he wouldn't call the situation a "deadlock," it is nevertheless "a tough proposition."

Convicted card shark Hyman Caplin today claimed the traditional card-shark's defense in attempting to secure release from jail pending appeal of his recent conviction. Attorney David Malbin sought bail for his client, contending that he could not in fact legally be charged with any crime, since the purported victims of the rigged games chose to gamble, and gave up their money of their own free will. Malbin argued before Justice Percy B. Stoddard in Brooklyn Supreme Court this morning that the most severe charge his client could legally face is one under Section 986 of the Penal Code, which makes "cheating at cards by trick or device" a simple misdemeanor.

District Attorney William O'Dwyer is reviewing and checking stories that mobsters attempted to intimidate a key witness in the second trial of Murder for Hire figures Harry "Happy" Maione and Frank "The Dasher" Abbadando, but he denies that the witness in question was in any way "spirited away" by his office. Mr. O'Dwyer notes that he had witness Frank Trucchio taken out of the Raymond Street Jail and put in protective custody at the Queens County Jail, but emphasized that Trucchio has at all times been immediately available to the defense. Defense attorney Sidney Rosenthal dismissed claims by Mrs. Lillian Trucchio that she had been threatened as a ploy to keep her husband from testifying. Meanwhile, as the trial continues today in Kings County Court, the prosecution expects to present testimony from its star witness, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, Murder For Hire gunman who has turned states' evidence against his former colleagues in the Brownsville assassination combine.

In Kansas City, Missouri, Chief of Police Lear B. Reed today disclosed that the murderer of 24-year-old Miss Leila Welch wrote an initial on the murdered woman's thigh in her own blood. Chief Reed declined to reveal what that initial was, or whether investigators believe it to be the murderer's own initial. The marking was about four inches high, made with strokes approximately 5/8ths of an inch high.

Film star Ann Sheridan has ended her six-month walkout, returning to work at Warner Brothers' Hollywood studio after a lengthy dispute over salary. The "Oomph Girl" had demanded $2000 a week last August, and when Warners offered her half that, she called them "slave drivers" and walked out. It is now reported that Miss Sheridan will be working for $600 a week.

Film star Jimmy Stewart will be inducted into the Army on March 22nd. The lanky screen favorite, realizing he was likely to be called up soon, went to his draft board and requested to volunteer for immediate service, but was told that he was ten pounds underweight. After a fattening-up campaign built around milk shakes and rich foods, Stewart reached the minimum acceptable weight and was accepted for service.

(Having grown up a practicing Methodist, if there's one thing I know, I know that "Cup of Salvation," Welch's Grape Juice. And I know that if you drink too much of it, not only will you not lose weight, you will spend the rest of the day with a whopping case of heartburn. I learned this one unfortunate Sunday morning in the vestry at the age of nine.)

Miss Belle Baker's still beloved of vaudeville fans, and she shows why in her act this week at the Flatbush. Miss Baker stopped the show, wrapped it up, and took it home -- wickedly funny, immensely corny, and still with a voice like a throbbing cello. She's still got everything she had when she wowed 'em at the Orpheum twenty-five years ago. If that wasn't enough, the show was stopped for a second time by Miss Cass Daley, whose wild clowning and wicked lyrics drew a full share of encores. Louis Prima's hot band is hotter than ever, although maybe he could stand to reduce the volume of the brass section just a bit.

(I used to work with a guy who always said he hated movies "where Errol Flynn writes with a feather." Well, here y'go, bud.)

("Yeah, well, I'll tellya one t'ing ya don't wanna buy f'm Sears'n'roebuck's!" grumbles Sally. "Ya don'wanna buy ORT'O-GYNOL f'm Sears'n'roebuck's!" "Huh?" huhs Joe. "Nuttin'," mumbles Sally. "I'm jus'sayin'.")

The Eagle Editorialist praises the Army for relaxing its regulations governing salutes. "Discipline in America," he declares, "never required such fulsome demonstration of rank and authority."

(In fact, Mr. Lichty had a very long and happy marriage, so what's he got to complain about?)

Half of the Dodgers are back in the good ol' Oo-Ess-Ay today, with coach Charley Dressen leading a Brooklyn delegation down the gangplank at Miami for the start of a series against the Giants. Chuck's half of the team will reunite with the unit led by Field Marshal Leo Durocher when that squad lands in Miami via air on Sunday night. From there, the reconstituted squad will embark for Clearwater, where they will spend the second portion of the Spring Training season. Despite the fact that Van Lingle Mungo was, in effect, chased off the island by a machete-wielding Cuban nightclub dancer, the Dodgers reckon their Havana idyll a success.

Durocher's squad yesterday took their revenge on the Cuban All Stars, defeating the locals 11 to 4, but not without marveling with amazement at All Star catcher Julio Rojos -- who admits to being 53 years old, and moves around behind the plate as if he were half that. Leo also had an armed detachment of Cuban soldiers to keep him company in the dugout yesterday, but it seems they are actually fans of his who wanted only to be near their hero.

The rhumba craze and the boogie-woogie fad finally seem to be receding up on W. 52nd Street, and Swing Alley seems finally to be getting back down to business. Maxine Sullivan, glorious sepia songstress, opened this week at Kelly's Stable, with accompaniment by Lester Young's Orchestra and the Clarence Profit Trio.

(Sublime.)

(Wait'll Toffenetti gets going.)

(We got a crisis here, Doc. This is no time to be going over material from your old act.)

(Well, this should certainly wind up on Page Four.)

(Meanwhile, in her comfortable bed in the Governors' Mansion, her thick-but-reliable husband snoring reassuringly by her side, Leona Stockpool Blackston suddenly awakens and exhales a deep sigh of relief.)

(Wait, where did this random flatfoot come from? Did I miss something? Or does Patrolman Friendly routinely pound a beat deep in the mysterious woods?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Hmmm. Does somebody at the News owe Mr. Mungo a favor?

Sighhhhhh. Breyer's Vanilla -- the ambrosia of my lost youth...

Every once in a while they make the right decision in these cases. Now cue the outrage from the "professional patriots..."

Uh-oh.

Somewhere in the Tracyverse, there's a contractor whose Yellow Pages ad says "SECRET UNDERGROUND BASES A SPECIALTY."

Get used to it, kid.

Psssst -- "mystery face at the window."

"Yeah, keep up with the smart mouth, an' you can find your own damn cigar."

Skeezix Wallet -- STRAIGHT EDGE.

Yep, it's Father Paul. But isn't Harold, I dunno, a Presbyterian?

 

[Fading Fast]

...The American League's Most Valuable Player for 1940 will receive a draft deferral due to flat feet. Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers will be placed in draft classification 1-B, meaning that while he is available for "limited military service," he will not immediately be taken into the Army. Greenberg holds draft number 621, and was expected to receive his formal notice to report for induction next month, but Dr. Grover C. Freeman, physician assigned by Greenberg's local draft board in Detroit to examine the slugger at the Tigers' training camp in Lakeland, Florida, has declared him to be "unfit" for military service due to the condition of his feet. Greenberg batted .340 last summer in sparking the Tigers to a World Championship, and led the American League with 41 home runs. It is also reported from Lakeland that Greenberg has signed a new contract for 1941 with Tigers owner Walter O. Briggs, and will receive $50,000 for the 1941 season, a raise of $5000 over his salary for 1940....

Well now, even noting that Greenberg was the American League's MVP, his $50,000 salary is stunning in comparison to Dodger salaries which seem to be in the sub $10,000 range for most, with (purely from memory) one or two players maybe approaching $15,000.

...Film star Ann Sheridan has ended her six-month walkout, returning to work at Warner Brothers' Hollywood studio after a lengthy dispute over salary. The "Oomph Girl" had demanded $2000 a week last August, and when Warners offered her half that, she called them "slave drivers" and walked out. It is now reported that Miss Sheridan will be working for $600 a week....

If accurate, that didn't work out well at all for Ann. Still, she's a heck of a lot better off than if she played for the Dodgers.

"Ann, can you tell us what went wrong in the negotiations?"

...[
(I used to work with a guy who always said he hated movies "where Errol Flynn writes with a feather." Well, here y'go, bud.)...

"Footsteps..." is nothing more than another off-the-shelf entry in the "society sleuth" genre that was big back then, but Flynn is outstanding in it as he was a natural at comedy even though (as Lizzie's friend implies) he's most famous for his swashbucklers (and banging everything in a skirt in Hollywood).

...Half of the Dodgers are back in the good ol' Oo-Ess-Ay today, with coach Charley Dressen leading a Brooklyn delegation down the gangplank at Miami for the start of a series against the Giants. Chuck's half of the team will reunite with the unit led by Field Marshal Leo Durocher when that squad lands in Miami via air on Sunday night. From there, the reconstituted squad will embark for Clearwater, where they will spend the second portion of the Spring Training season. Despite the fact that Van Lingle Mungo was, in effect, chased off the island by a machete-wielding Cuban nightclub dancer, the Dodgers reckon their Havana idyll a success....

"Despite the fact that Van Lingle Mungo was, in effect, chased off the island by a machete-wielding Cuban nightclub dancer, the Dodgers reckon their Havana idyll a success."

Now that's how Page Four should be doing it. Also, just realized I confused the Daily News and Eagle yesterday in my rant about Page Four - oops and sorry.

... Hmmm. Does somebody at the News owe Mr. Mungo a favor?...

Seriously.

..
Psssst -- "mystery face at the window."..

Very odd the way that just dropped out.

... Yep, it's Father Paul. But isn't Harold, I dunno, a Presbyterian?

Kudos Lizzie, you were spot on.

"Do you Harold take Lana, and, um, er, Lillums to be your lawfully wedded wives..."

 

[ChiTownScion]

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

"You owe a debt to the Witnesses that you'll NEVER be able to repay!" My undergrad Con Law professor and pre- law advisor, Charles A. Hollister.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And in the Daily News...


Yep, it's Father Paul. But isn't Harold, I dunno, a Presbyterian?

He could become an Episcopalian. That's a Presbyterian* who has learned to live off his investments.

* A Presbyterian being defined as, "A Methodist with a bank account," of course.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Why hasn't there ever been a movie about the adventures of Van Lingle Mungo, I ask you? Dizzy Dean got a movie, Lou Gehrig got a movie, Babe Ruth got a movie, Grover Cleveland Alexander got a movie -- but did any of those guys get chased out of Cuba by a machete-wielding nightclub dancer? I ASK YOU.

Sure, there's a great jazz song about Van Lingle Mungo, but there really does need to be a movie.

The Dodgers are not in very good financial shape, even though they're a strong club with a passionate fanbase -- thanks to the fact that the Ebbets family and the McKeever family, which owns the club 50-50, can't stand each other. The Brooklyn Trust Company controls the Ebbets shares, and was responsible for bringing in MacPhail to run the club, but they keep him on a tight financial leash compared to what some of the wealthier teams are able to do. They have no income other than the gate, what they can get renting out Ebbets Field to the Football Dodgers and other miscellaneous tenants, and a small amount for radio rights -- which haven't yet ballooned into what broadcasting rights will bring Walter F. O'Malley in the 1950s. For all intents and purposes, they're basically a small mom-and-pop neighborhood business, unlike teams like the Yankees, fueled by the Ruppert beer fortune, or the Red Sox, fueled by Yawkey lumber money, or the Reds, which are Powell Crosley's hobby, or the Tigers, backed by the wealth of Briggs Manufacturing. So Camilli can kick all he wants, $15,000 is about as high as it's going to get.

 

[Fading Fast]

Why hasn't there ever been a movie about the adventures of Van Lingle Mungo, I ask you? Dizzy Dean got a movie, Lou Gehrig got a movie, Babe Ruth got a movie, Grover Cleveland Alexander got a movie -- but did any of those guys get chased out of Cuba by a machete-wielding nightclub dancer? I ASK YOU....

Sounds like a riff on the Red Buttons' "Never Had a Dinner" routine.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If Van Lingle Mungo ever got a dinner, he'd be under the table.

 

[Harp]

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

"You owe a debt to the Witnesses that you'll NEVER be able to repay!" My undergrad Con Law professor and pre- law advisor, Charles A. Hollister.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment tales-never-fails always provokes my personal pique,
whether goes dollar or denomination alliterative stance, idolatrous concern, or whatever issue relevant.
Recent SCOTUS opinion in Espinoza and Trinity Lutheran; seemingly guided by Lemon and its triple hit,
still reveals the inherent doctrinal conflict seized upon by dissident bench adherence Jeffersonian stricture.
Justice Sotomayor; whom is quite capable of seeing the curtilage when said attachment is non existent
in police investigative search privilege, nevertheless stumbles about blindsided by that which is within
Lemon.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A Brooklyn man employed as a member of the Berlin staff of the United Press was arrested early today by the Gestapo "on suspicion of espionage on behalf of a foreign power." Richard C. Hottelet, whose Brooklyn address is 1926 Bath Avenue in the Bath Beach section, was taken into custody by the Nazi secret police this morning, on a charge that German authorities declared "had nothing to do with his journalistic activities." According to fellow UP correspondent Joseph W. Griggs, who shares a Berlin apartment with Hottelet, the two were awakened by the arrival of six Gestapo agents who commanded Mr. Hottelet to dress and accompany them to the Alexanderplatz Police Headquarters for interrogation. As the reporter followed their instructions, the agents began to search the apartment. Mr. Griggs stated that he himself was held incommunicado by the Gestapo for three hours, but was not arrested or charged.

Mr. Hottelet has been in Berlin since 1937, when he arrived in the German capital to pursue post-graduate studies in psychology at the University of Berlin. Born in Brooklyn in 1917, he is a graduate of New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst, and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1937. He joined the staff of the United Press in May 1938, and was one of several UP men who covered the entry of German troops into the Sudeten that autumn, as well as the expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany. He covered a portion of the Dunkirk campaign last year while accompanying the German Army. He is also a member of the U. S. Naval Reserve.

President Roosevelt ordered a full and detailed State Department investigation of the arrest of Mr. Hottelet, after being informed early this morning of the incident by White House press secretary Stephen Early. German authorities maintain that the arrest is not a reprisal for the recent arrest in New York of Manfred Zapp, American manager of the German Transocean News Agency and his assistant Guenther Tonn on charges that they had failed to register as foreign agents.

The bus strike which has tied up surface transportation in Manhattan and Queens moved into its sixth day today following the collapse of negotiations between the Fifth Avenue Coach Company and the New York City Omnibus Corporation, and the Transport Workers Union CIO. Arthur S. Meyer, chairman of the Board of Mediation, would state only that it appeared "the strike will continue until settled by power instead of by reason." The union's final offer before negotiations broke off last night was a reduction in demands for additional wages to $1,000,000 annually, from the original demand of raises totalling $3,250,000 per year, but this concession was rejected by the bus companies.

With midnight tonight the deadline for filing U. S. income tax returns, millions are racing today to get their forms completed and in the mail. Returns filed after the deadline are subject to a penalty amounting to fifty percent of the tax due, along with 6 percent interest until the full amount is paid.

A 44-year-old Park Slope woman is dead and her 13-year-old daughter is in critical condition after a naphtha explosion in their 2nd Street kitchen turned them into human torches. Mrs. Josephine Cerrillo died today at Methodist Hospital, and her daughter Mary is being treated for severe burns after fumes from the flammable liquid they were using to dry-clean dresses were detonated by the pilot light on a gas range. A second daughter, 8-year-old Blanche, was in an adjoining room recovering from a case of the measles, and was slightly burned by the fireball that consumed the kitchen.

Chief Black Jack, wooden Indian mascot of St. John's University, is back home after a prisoner exchange that released from custody a star basketball player from rival St. Francis University. St. Johns students abducted Terriers star Tony Braginetz Thursday night, and held him as a hostage until the St. Francis students responsible for the abduction of the cigar-store statue agreed to an exchange.

The actress wife of former Mayor Jimmy Walker charged today that he had forced her to entertain his "repulsive friends." Mrs. Walker, who has reverted to her pre-marriage name of Betty Compton, filed another divorce complaint today in Key West, Florida, containing statements of specific examples of cruelty on the part of her estranged husband. Miss Compton accused the ex-Mayor of being a "tormenter and pickerer, who damned me in front of my friends," and who on one occasion forced her to flee a moving automobile in an effort to escape his "screaming." An earlier divorce complaint was dismissed for lack of evidence.

(And what's more, if Greenberg gets off, they better leave Cookie alone!)

(Got mine done yesterday, no thanks to the cat, who knocked an entire shoebox full of receipts off the table...)

As the Dodgers prepare to wrap up the Cuban phase of their spring training season this weekend, half the team is already in Miami, preparing to face the Giants -- and as always whenever the Flock and the Jints coincide, trade talk brews again. Larry MacPhail still has his eye on Harry The Horse Danning, Giant catcher whom Bill Terry is attempting this spring to convert into an outfielder. As an outfielder Harry is a pretty good backstop, as he demonstrated yesterday during a game in Miami between the Giants and Phillies. Joe Marty of the Phils rapped a low liner right at Harry in left field, and the ball hit Danning in the knee and richocheted all the way back to the infield. By the time the excitement had subsided, Marty was standing on second with a triple, and Danning was yearning for the safety afforded by a pair of shin guards.

El Loco Mungo is reported to be at his home in Macon, Georgia -- although he is due to report to the Montreal training camp today -- but no matter where he goes, the rollicking righthander can't seem to avoid trouble. Today he learned that Senor Gonzalo, the Cuban nightclub dancer and former matador whose wife Mungo entertained in his room at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, intends to sue him for $100,000 for injuries sustained in the ensuing brawl. Gonzalo will also seek damages against Mungo for breaking up both his marriage to the lovely Senora Cristina Gonzalo, alias Miriam Morgan of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and his nightclub act. The Gonzalos and Miss Lady Vine, nightclub mistress-of-ceremonies were all dismissed by the hotel following the incident.

Jack Benny will sell that popular gelatin dessert with the six delicious flavors for another year, after the Sunday night comedian signed a new contract with General Foods this week. Benny will continue in his usual Sundays-at-7 spot over WEAF for another fifty-two weeks, with time off for summer vacation.

Fred Allen will appear in a legitimate acting role courtesy of the Columbia Workshop on April 11th, in a revival of the Norman Corwin-Lucille Fletcher hit of 1940, "My Client Curley." Mr. Allen will be right at home in the role of a sharp-talking theatrical manager who ends up representing a dancing caterpillar.

(Doc is worried that the Invisible Scarlett O'Neil is planning to break into the dailies, and wants to head her off.)

(Look, at least read the manual first.)

(Never go "Full Harold.")

("He would hardly abandon his car." Boy, that's some real Batman-level detective work there, Dan.)

 

[Harp]

Greenberg, correctly recall or not, did serve. Or so I thought.