The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

C'mon, Dee, you can do better than this gink.

Wow. I never knew Uncle Willie was so well-informed.

WHO ASKED YOU?

"Save your cheers for Kiel!" **retch**

Oh oh, the kid's hep to the jive. Pete hasn't got a chance.

Thank gawd for the Phone Company.

Watch your back, kid.

And if you wanted to slip a little ground glass in the soup tonight, nobody would ask any questions.

And that's how your illusions shatter and your innocence ends.

And that's what happens to hereditary wealth.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A expected crowd of 30,000 persons will be on hand today for the opening of the new and expanded grandstand at Jamaica Race Track. The $1,000,000 renovation of the facility will provide seating for 16,000 spectators and standing room for up to 34,000 more....

Horse racing's and boxing's fall from top-tier Golden Era sports to their modest scale today is really amazing when you look back at how popular those sports were. It would be like the NFL being a marginal and, mainly, ignored sports league seventy years from now, which could easily happen

...There was, however, plenty on the good side from Joe Medwick, who went three for four, and young Alex Kampouris made an auspicious debut before the home folks by sliding into Yankee second sacker Gerry Priddy so forcefully that the game had to pause while inventory was taken on the youngster's body parts....

That's a darn good turn of phrase. I'm glad baseball has taken out a lot of the dangerous stuff for the players, but those plays were exciting to see.

...[
(John 2:10.)...

And, as we learned recently from Lizzie, is it really Coke or Pepsi in those Coke bottles?

...Incidentally, the Ranger will have a new sponsor next month, as the program begins selling breakfast cereal instead of sliced bread....

... ("Finally!" exults the Turtle. "Something to DO!")...

He knew something was coming or they wouldn't have been paying him all this time, but man was that easy money for months.

... (Funny how we never see Peggy smile.)...

"And you have a sorta stuffed look. You eat too much, especially sweets...."

If Peggy gets her hands on some money, by the '50s, some psychiatrist will be earning good money from her bi-weekly visits as they try to discover the root of her "food issues."

... C'mon, Dee, you can do better than this gink.....

And a mere two-and-a-half years later, Ms. Durbin would agree with you as her "one marriage that isn't going to end in a hurry" ended in divorce by then. To be fair, God knows what I was saying when I was nineteen.

...
And that's how your illusions shatter and your innocence ends.....

Well, did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love?
And is it over now, do you know how?
Pick up the pieces and go home

From "Gold Dust Woman" by Fleetwood Mac

 

[Haversack]

stated today that the President already has full authority to take that action under the Lend-Lease law,

Up until today the papers always referred to Lease-Lend. When/why did it change to Lend-Lease?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I get the sense it was a by-popular-demand thing. Lend-Lease flows off the tongue better than Lease-Lend.

The Eagle can be rather persnickety in how it uses certain phrases. It insists on saying, for example "Murder For Hire Gang" or "Murder For Money Gang" instead of the more famous "Murder, Inc." to refer to the Brownsville gangland assassination combine. I don't know if this is because Mr. Schroth doesn't want to offend advertisers who may happen themselves to be "Inc." or it's just because he's a bit of a provincial about his tabloid competitors and their colorful phrasing, but it comes across as rather fussy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sturdy Greek troops supported by British-Imperial mounted units today hurled a huge column of tanks, motorcyclists, and infantry back into broken retreat in a smashing counterattack north of the Greek town of Florina, it was announced officially last night by the Athens press ministry. The report stated that the German column has been completely dispersed as it moved upon the town from Yugoslavia's Monastir Gap in an effort to turn the western flank of the British-Greek defense line.

Russia tonight delivered a threat of possible Soviet action in the Balkans against Nazi-influenced Hungary, along with a sharp Kremlin rebuke of the Hungarian government for having invaded Yugoslavia in the latter's hour of ordeal. Deputy Foreign Commissar Andrei Vishinsky formally notified the Hungarian foreign minister in Moscow that the USSR "disapproves of Hungary's war against Yugoslavia four months after signing a treaty of eternal friendship," and added that "it could easily be understood in what position Hungary might find herself should she be subjected, in turn, to an attack of this kind while she is in the midst of misfortune, since there are also substantial national minorities." The latter remark was interpreted as a reference to Russian minorities of Ukrainian and Ruthenian blood that still dwell in Hungarian territory seized from Czechoslovakia two years ago, and as a threat that the Soviet Union is prepared to act on behalf of those minorities if necessary.

Tests conducted in the Paerdegat Basin yesterday in the presence of city, military, and naval officials demonstrated a new device in which suspected bombs may be safely transported to isolated spots for detonation. The so-called "Bomb Bus" is an oven-shaped steel container lined with dynamite matter seven inches thick which can be safely transported on an ordinary truck chassis. Mayor LaGuardia hosted yesterday's secret demonstration which was discovered by newspapermen only by chance, and declined to comment on the results, but Deputy Police Commissioner John Seerey pronounced the tests highly successful. Mr. Seerey stated that the purpose of the tests were to determine the level of explosive that would reach the "breaking point" of the bus, but declined to specify what that level is.

The Easter Parade steps off today under balmy springtime skies, with the Weather Bureau predicting sunshine and mild temperatures as marchers along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway exhibit their seasonal finery. For the first time since 1918 there will be a spattering of olive-drab and Navy-blue uniforms among the top-hatted and morning-coated gentlemen, while the ladies are expected to appear in the season's predominant colors of red and violet.

("Whittlin'," snorts Sally. "Well, at least he don't eat animal crackas in bed." "I STOPPED DOIN'AT!" retorts Joe. "B'sides, it'uz jus' t'at one time. I WAS HUNGRY!")

A Chicago newspaper claims to have learned from a Dies Committee investigator that Communists are making a concerted effort to infiltrate Army camps by sending young women to meet soldiers at camp dances. According to the report in the Chicago Herald Examiner, the Dies Committee investigator declared that young women belonging to the Young Communist League have been observed at camp dances in the Chicago area, and that they are attempting to entice young enlisted men to learn the teachings of Marx and Lenin.

(In his townhouse at 76 Remsen Street, Dr. Samuel Ageloff storms into the living room. "Where's Sylvia! Who's seen Sylvia??" "Not me," says Hilda Ageloff, diffedently paging thru her copy of "The Nation." "Besides," she adds, "you know she's a Trot.")

All is forgiven so far as Van Lingle Mungo is concerned following his fine performance yesterday at Ebbets Field, even though the Yankees emerged triumphant 3-2. None of that had anything to do with the adventure-prone righthander with the rebuilt shoulder, who turned in an oustanding performance in his four-inning stint yesterday. A crowd of 18,834 spectators roared approval, and if Senor Gonzalo was among them, he gave no indication of his presence.

The Flock closes out the preseason set with the Yankees today, and will take tomorrow off in preparation for the formal Opening Day festivities on Tuesday. Borough President John Cashmore will throw out the traditional first ball, local Legionnaires will troop the colors, and there will be plenty of additional pomp before the Dodgers and Giants inaugurate the campaign. Dodger manager Leo Durocher can't wait to get started on the road to the 1941 pennant, while Bill Terry, no doubt, will be hoping to get a bad season over with as soon as possible.

Both Tommy Holmes and Harold Parrott, the Eagle's primary baseball writers, pick the Dodgers to win the National League pennant, but the split on who will oppose them in the World Series. Parrott expects the Yankees to furnish the opposition come the fall, while Holmes is looking forward to a rematch of 1920 against the resurgent Cleveland Indians.

A final decision on Hank Greenberg's draft status is expected on Friday, when the Tigers' slugger and American League Most Valuable Player for 1940 reports for a physical examination by a medical advisory board. Greenberg was classified I-B by an examiner in Florida last month on the basis of flat feet, but that classification was overturned and he was reassigned to I-A by his local board in Detroit. If that classification stands, Greenberg is expected to go into the service before the season is too far underway.

Old Timer Alfred V. Stevenson of Prospect Place is such an old-time Dodger fan he goes back to the days when they were called the Bridegrooms, back in the late '80s and early '90s, when the Brooklyn franchise was new to the National League and played at the old Eastern Park. Remember Tommy Tucker and Dave Fouts, "Germany" Schimidt, and "Roarin' Bill" Kennedy? Those were the days when a ballplayer's salary was capped at $2500 a year, and they were a rough and hungry bunch.

On the front of TREND this week, so who else?

(So I guess the two-quart paper carton is going out of style?)

(I admit that I've never ready any of the original Tarzan novels, but did he ever have actual "super strength?" Or is he just trying to compete with Superman, Captain Marvel, and Sparky Watts?)

(I dunno, $10,000? He's a GOOD DOG, but is he THAT good?)

(Red's feeling a little inadequate today, which explains why he's wearing his twelve-gallon hat.)

(I think it's time for Grandpa to go live with Sue and Ted for a while. And the Skull isn't going to get anywhere loafing around in his pajamas, but he's got his rod under the covers and he doesn't care.)

(Give it up, Duchess, you're not fooling anybody.)

(The Turtle finally got a decent agent, and now you're going to be seeing him everywhere!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Poor Larry and Viv. As long as there's a Page Four, they'll have a home.

Whoa, what brought this on? Bit of trouble in the Hill homestead?

A pick and shovel vs. a brick-lined cistern? Say your prayers, Tracy.

Jeez, Bim, you've never done a real estate transaction before, have you? We'll see you next month at the closing.

"Lulu Belle" is in fact a very popular "hillbilly" vocalist on the National Barn Dance broadcast every Saturday night. Moon must've known her -- ah -- before that.

Boy, it's a good thing nobody on Kiel's ship has, I dunno, binoculars or a telescope or anything like that.

Well that was certainly an abrupt switch in tone...

Meanwhile, Lilacs is hunting for the no-good mooching little rat who swiped his sweater.

Awww. When I was Judy's age, riding the lift was about my favorite thing in the world.

See, even ANNIE's scared of Punjab!

 

[Fading Fast]

...Tests conducted in the Paerdegat Basin yesterday in the presence of city, military, and naval officials demonstrated a new device in which suspected bombs may be safely transported to isolated spots for detonation. The so-called "Bomb Bus" is an oven-shaped steel container lined with dynamite matter seven inches thick which can be safely transported on an ordinary truck chassis. Mayor LaGuardia hosted yesterday's secret demonstration which was discovered by newspapermen only by chance, and declined to comment on the results, but Deputy Police Commissioner John Seerey pronounced the tests highly successful. Mr. Seerey stated that the purpose of the tests were to determine the level of explosive that would reach the "breaking point" of the bus, but declined to specify what that level is....

Dick Tracy or Dan Dunn have to riff on the "Bomb Bus."

...
("Whittlin'," snorts Sally. "Well, at least he don't eat animal crackas in bed." "I STOPPED DOIN'AT!" retorts Joe. "B'sides, it'uz jus' t'at one time. I WAS HUNGRY!")...

...A Chicago newspaper claims to have learned from a Dies Committee investigator that Communists are making a concerted effort to infiltrate Army camps by sending young women to meet soldiers at camp dances. According to the report in the Chicago Herald Examiner, the Dies Committee investigator declared that young women belonging to the Young Communist League have been observed at camp dances in the Chicago area, and that they are attempting to entice young enlisted men to learn the teachings of Marx and Lenin....

Melvin Douglas flipped Greta Garbo from communism to capitalism in "Ninotchka." In matters of the heart, you never know which side is going to turn.

...(In his townhouse at 76 Remsen Street, Dr. Samuel Ageloff storms into the living room. "Where's Sylvia! Who's seen Sylvia??" "Not me," says Hilda Ageloff, diffedently paging thru her copy of "The Nation." "Besides," she adds, "you know she's a Trot.")...

... (I admit that I've never ready any of the original Tarzan novels, but did he ever have actual "super strength?" Or is he just trying to compete with Superman, Captain Marvel, and Sparky Watts?)...

Don't know as I never read any either, but the artwork here is impressive.

...... (Give it up, Duchess, you're not fooling anybody.)...

I'm still snickering about her stupid pink sheets.

... A pick and shovel vs. a brick-lined cistern? Say your prayers, Tracy....

"Ye Gods! I'd forgotten all about Dick."

He really is still p*ssed off about the luggage.

... Boy, it's a good thing nobody on Kiel's ship has, I dunno, binoculars or a telescope or anything like that....

Silk does wrap tightly, but still, those are an awful lot of decent-sized flags to fit in that very small cylinder. Lovin' the story, but that is a bit of a stretch.

... Well that was certainly an abrupt switch in tone......

No kidding. Also, Mosley lost control of scale in panel four today.

 

[vitanola]

I think that Hoagy was playing in the lounge durning their wedding supper:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Two Manhattan convicts who shot their way out of Sing Sing Prison were captured on a Rockland County mountainside today and returned to custody after seven hours on the run, liberty purchased at the cost of four lives. Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Riordan and forty-two-year-old Charles McGale broke out of the Sing Sing hospital shortly after 2 AM and fled into the woods along the rocky west side of the Hudson River in a commandeered fisherman's boat. The two convicts shot a prison guard and a police patrolman during their escape. A third convict, 30 year old John Waters, was killed by another patrolman, a friend of the slain officer. Bloodhounds from the Hawthorne State Police barracks were set on the trail of the two fleeing prisoners, and followed their scent for more than a quarter of a mile into the woods. A patrol of fifty police officers began scaling the mountainside, and finding themselves trapped, the convicts emerged from the woods with their hands up. The escape is the most spectacular recorded at the prison since Lewis E. Lawes became Warden in 1920, and investigators are questioning the men today to determine how they got the .38 pistols they used in the escape and who on the outside aided them in their plan.

A Greenpoint man, infuriated by his 26-year-old son's refusal to attend Easter church services, stabbed the son to death and then turned himself in to police. Fifty year old Frank Rock, an unemployed laborer, led police to his home at 143 Freeman Street where the body of Adam Rock lay dead on the dining room floor, his throat slashed and stabbed with a long knife or a pair of scissors. The young man's mother, 48-year-old Mrs. Mary Rock, told police there had been a family quarrel the previous night over the matter of church. Rock was arriagned on a homicide charge in Brooklyn Felony Court and remanded to the Raymond Street Jail pending further hearing.

A movement to defend Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush from charges that it is infested with Communists is underway, with community leaders appointed by the Flatbush Chamber of Commerce to "counteract" the statements recently made by the Rapp-Coudert Committee. Chamber Secretary Benjamin King says there are no more than 25 or 30 Communists "or persons inclined that way" at the school, out of a total student body of more than 6000.

Two "Murder For Hire" gunmen will die in the electric chair during the week of May 18th, with Harry "Happy" Maione and Frank "The Dasher" Abbadando sentenced for the second time for their role in the brutal 1937 murder of gangland stool pigeon George Rudnick. The original conviction was set aside due to a technical error, but the two were convicted again by a Kings County jury on April 4th.

(Watch it, gals. If there's one things we've learned from the comics, it's "never trust a man wearing spats.")

The dispossessed Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Norway attended Easter services yesterday in Bay Ridge. Prince Olaf and Princess Martha, who have chosen Brooklyn as their place of exile since the Nazis overran their homeland last year, worshiped on Easter morning at Trinity Lutheran Church, in the heart of the third-largest Norwegian community in the world.

(Do they really think it's a good idea to run this ad in BROOKLYN? At least they didn't use Bucky Walters.)

If you get up early some morning and go down to the Manhattan Fruit and Vegetable Market, where produce traders haggle furiously over their daily wares, you'll find Mrs. Martha Dennis of Brooklyn right in the middle of it all. She's the only female produce broker in the city, and she strikes as hard a bargain as the men -- she has to, if she wants to keep her job. She started out with a mercantile agency dealing in fruit and vegetables in Chicago -- a city she visited with her family and decided to stay in on a whim -- and after receiving promotion after promotion, she came home to Brooklyn, where she found and thrived in a position with a local firm. Finally, about ten years ago, she opened her own produce brokerage, and has been up every morning at 2 AM ever since, competing for the best prices on fruits and vegetables by the carload.

(The Canada Lee-at-Sardi's incident was just one of the many petty indignities this fine actor had to endure, but actors at the time being notably less prejudiced in their beliefs than the general run of restaurant operators, the profession rallied around him, and Sardi's was forced to reconsider its policies. There's a new world coming.)

The preseason series at Ebbets Field against the Yankees finished with a 3-0 Yankee win today, giving the McCarthymen the victory for the series, 2 games to 1. With that, spring training is officially over, and the start of the 1941 regular season looms. Today the Yankees are in Washington for the traditional Presidential opener against the Senators at Griffith Stadium, while the Dodgers and Giants make their final preparations for the opening festivities at Ebbets Field tomorrow afternoon.

Leo Durocher still isn't sure what his lineup will look like for tomorrow's game. The statuses of Pee Wee Reese and Pete Reiser remain in doubt as the two wunderkinder recuperate from recent injuries, and while Leo is hopeful that both boys will be able to perform in tomorrow's contest, he has a contingency plan in place -- if Reiser can't play, Dixie Walker will start in center field and bat third, and if Reese is scratched, Leo himself will play shortstop and bat seventh. He is certain of various other lineup matters, though -- Whit Wyatt will most definitely be the starting pitcher, with Mickey Owen behind the plate, and he has decided after much deliberation that Alex Kampouris will start tomorrow at second base. But he is quick to stress that this doesn't mean that the feisty young Greek has pushed Pete Coscarart off the bag for good. "I want to get our best current lineup out there against the Giants," Leo explains, "and Pete seems to be in some sort of a fog this spring. I think he'll snap out of it, but we do want to get a running start."

("Hey," says Joe, "Solly sezzee's gottacoupla tickets fa' tamarra -- whatsay we take it in?" "Hmph," hmphs Sally. "HMPH.")

Remember Frenchy Bordagaray, one-time Dodger who tried to out-clown Casey Stengel by showing up for spring training one year with a trick moustache and a Van Dyke beard? Well, Frenchy, believe it or not, is a Yankee now, having landed a utility job with the McCarthymen after they purchased his contract outright from Kansas City in the American Association. Frenchy sports a clean-shaven face these days, and says his clowning days are well behind him. He doesn't expect to play much for the Yanks this year, but figures on delivering a key pinch hit or two when called upon.

Out in Woodhaven, the weather finally cooperated and allowed the Bushwicks to open their season at Dexter Park, as the local boys trimmed the Mount Vernon Scarlets 5-1.

Fibber McGee and Molly celebrate their sixth anniversary for their present sponsor tonight. Jim and Marian Jordan have sold floor and car wax with real polish, and have risen to become one of the top acts on the air by avoiding "salacious" humor and directing their appeal to what Fibber calls "the ideal American family."

(Don't you ever watch any "shrinking man" movies? Grab a blade of grass and tickle his nose!)

(Well it certainly couldn't belong to "Lord Bungle," that's for sure.)

(Slim tried to fry an egg, didn't he? Hope Blackston's got insurance.)

("Yes, yes, after I shoot him, you can EAT THE FACE. If there's any left.")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

No reflection intended upon their skill as diplomats, but that photo of Welles and Hull looks for all the world like a lobby photo for a mid-level vaudeville song-and-patter team making a half-hearted comeback by taking a split week at the Flatbush. I hope it works out, but it probably won't.

Cussssssssssstarrrrrrrrrd!

"How about a little more enthusiasm, Leo? Just one more shot? Ahh, the hell with it."

Aw, can the jungle jazz, Punjab, we know you're really from Philadelphia.

'K, Snipe -- your turn.

"Elastic Plastic?" Bet the dividend check bounces.

"Well," says Kiel, "at least I get to slap the boy around tonight."

This actually looks like a pleasant little joint. All it needs is a little "personality."

Lena puts the "mother" in "smother."

Special guest appearance today in panel three by noted actor Harry "Happy" Maione, soon to be starring in "HOT SEAT."

 

[ChiTownScion]

It may be a Hollywood stereotype, but if a battleax mother in law is part of the deal, you might be wise to choose another mate. That goes for men AND women. Reason alone why Harold should pick Lana over Lillums... but I fear that ship may have already sailed.

 

[Harp]

I am reading Kelly Schrum's excellent study of teenage girl culture 1920-45 and Harold Teen is mentioned
as something of a comic milestone, difficult to draw a bead on his immaturity but I second the notion that Lana
might have gotten wise to him-hopefully she has.

 

[Fading Fast]

Two Manhattan convicts who shot their way out of Sing Sing Prison were captured on a Rockland County mountainside today and returned to custody after seven hours on the run, liberty purchased at the cost of four lives. Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Riordan and forty-two-year-old Charles McGale broke out of the Sing Sing hospital shortly after 2 AM and fled into the woods along the rocky west side of the Hudson River in a commandeered fisherman's boat. The two convicts shot a prison guard and a police patrolman during their escape. A third convict, 30 year old John Waters, was killed by another patrolman, a friend of the slain officer. Bloodhounds from the Hawthorne State Police barracks were set on the trail of the two fleeing prisoners, and followed their scent for more than a quarter of a mile into the woods. A patrol of fifty police officers began scaling the mountainside, and finding themselves trapped, the convicts emerged from the woods with their hands up. The escape is the most spectacular recorded at the prison since Lewis E. Lawes became Warden in 1920, and investigators are questioning the men today to determine how they got the .38 pistols they used in the escape and who on the outside aided them in their plan....

Reads like a Warner Bros. movie. Who was the fourth person killed?

...If you get up early some morning and go down to the Manhattan Fruit and Vegetable Market, where produce traders haggle furiously over their daily wares, you'll find Mrs. Martha Dennis of Brooklyn right in the middle of it all. She's the only female produce broker in the city, and she strikes as hard a bargain as the men -- she has to, if she wants to keep her job. She started out with a mercantile agency dealing in fruit and vegetables in Chicago -- a city she visited with her family and decided to stay in on a whim -- and after receiving promotion after promotion, she came home to Brooklyn, where she found and thrived in a position with a local firm. Finally, about ten years ago, she opened her own produce brokerage, and has been up every morning at 2 AM ever since, competing for the best prices on fruits and vegetables by the carload....

I love these type of stories. I bet she was an impressive-as-heck woman.

... The preseason series at Ebbets Field against the Yankees finished with a 3-0 Yankee win today, giving the McCarthymen the victory for the series, 2 games to 1. With that, spring training is officially over, and the start of the 1941 regular season looms. Today the Yankees are in Washington for the traditional Presidential opener against the Senators at Griffith Stadium, while the Dodgers and Giants make their final preparations for the opening festivities at Ebbets Field tomorrow afternoon....

Outstanding picture.

...[ ("Yes, yes, after I shoot him, you can EAT THE FACE. If there's any left.")

This is a setup Quentin Tarantino would have created had he been a comicstrip writer. He loves multiple parties all but unknowingly about to face off with guns.

Umm, Lizzie, don't forget to note your "EAT THE FACE" comment in your journal for your Friday meeting with the school counselor.

...
Cussssssssssstarrrrrrrrrd!...

Hands down, my favorite pie. This is how someone becomes unproductive at work. I read that ad and, then, all I can think about is getting out of work and over to H&H.

...[ "How about a little more enthusiasm, Leo? Just one more shot? Ahh, the hell with it."...

Any idea what kind of money these guys made hawking all this stuff back then? Since, in their day, they weren't making the insane amount of money they do now, you can understand why they did it.

... "Elastic Plastic?" Bet the dividend check bounces....

Just pointing out, our titan of Wall Street owns all of a hundred shares. Nothing wrong with that at all, but hardly an amount that's going let him move to Park Avenue even if it goes up hundred points, which it isn't going to do as it feels like we are still in, but toward the end of, the "pump" phase of this "pump and dump" scheme.

...[ This actually looks like a pleasant little joint. All it needs is a little "personality."...

It does look charming and cozy. Love this illustration of it:

It may be a Hollywood stereotype, but if a battleax mother in law is part of the deal, you might be wise to choose another mate. That goes for men AND women. Reason alone why Harold should pick Lana over Lillums... but I fear that ship may have already sailed.

I am reading Kelly Schrum's excellent study of teenage girl culture 1920-45 and Harold Teen is mentioned
as something of a comic milestone, difficult to draw a bead on his immaturity but I second the notion that Lana
might have gotten wise to him-hopefully she has.

I think you guys are correct and Lana is wising up just in time too. For her sake, I hope so.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The fourth fatality in the prison break story turned to be an inmate who was in the prison hospital when the shooting broke out -- the excitement triggered a heart attack and he died before anyone could help him. Yet another element for the movie.

With Maione and Abbandando headed back up there, I wonder if this was a dress-rehearsal for something yet to come?

Sports endorsements were big business by 1941, and while there were a lot of players who supplemented their income doing an ad for a few hundred bucks and a case of the product, the really big name players could easily double their salaries on endorsements. This was largely thru the efforts of Christy Walsh, an ex-sportswriter who became the first sports agent in America when he convinced Babe Ruth to let him rep him in Ruth's endorsement deals in the early 20s. He signed up a number of other stars, and other agents saw the money he was making and got into it for themselves. A player had to be a top-tier personality to catch on with one of these agents, but for those who did -- Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, and a few others of the period -- it was a real bonanza.

Leo will very soon have need for another kind of agent. Within the next few years he's going to become very much in demand as a show-business personality, doing comedy guest shots on radio shows, stage dates, and other appearances that will earn him more for half an hour's work than he'll get for an entire month of baseball. He'll be repped by MCA, just like the big stars, he'll hobnob with the Rat Pack, he'll host his own TV variety hour, and some say he could have been an agent himself if he hadn't kept going back to baseball.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And just show how show-biz Leo would become, he even got his own Dean Martin Celebrity Roast...

 

[Harp]

The fourth fatality in the prison break story turned to be an inmate who was in the prison hospital when the shooting broke out -- the excitement triggered a heart attack and he died before anyone could help him. Yet another element for the movie.

With Maione and Abbandando headed back up there, I wonder if this was a dress-rehearsal for something yet to come?

Today, Malone and Abbandando could be charged with felony murder, Murder One for the inmate heart attack fatality.

 

[Fading Fast]

And just show how show-biz Leo would become, he even got his own Dean Martin Celebrity Roast...

Watched the first twenty minutes so far - those were much funnier was I was ten years old and it was the 1970s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

To this day my mother thinks Foster Brooks was the funniest man who ever lived. Looking at those shows now, it strikes me that the real problem is that all the material is written by the same writers. If each guest had a personal writer, you'd get a much better variety.

Leo is presented to much better advantage in his radio work. The guest shot where he sings Gilbert & Sullivan with Fred Allen is genuinely inspired.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Prison breaks, Balkan invasions, politics, sure -- but there's only one real story in the Eagle today, and we all know what it is.)

Two outside helpers who aided two convicts in a lethal escape from Sing Sing Prison face murder charges today after it was learned that they had arranged to smuggle guns to the two escapees. Thirty-two-year-old William Wade and 33-year-old Walter Keenan, New York gangsters, arranged to tie a bundle containing two .38 pistols, a quantity of ammunition, and three pairs of handcuffs to the undercarriage of a milk truck, without the knowledge of the milk company or the driver, where they were retrieved by the would-be escapees and used to break out of the prison hospital. The escape attempt is reported to have been the result of nine months of careful plotting. Four more men believed to have been involved in the escape scheme are being questioned today and two others are being sought by investigators.

German SS troops are reported to have smashed both ends of the Greek defense line today and repulsed a British mechanized columns northwest of famed Mount Olympus in a sixty-mile thrust into the heart of Greece. The Greek High Command reports that fighting continues between German and British-Greek motorized columns in the region of Ptolemais, 30 miles south of Florina, which had been one of the key points in the Macedonian defense line.

Foreign diplomatic quarters reported today that the Yugoslav government has asked Germany and Italy for an armistice. Reports from Berlin stated that the Yugoslavian military situation is "disastrous," and in Budapest, German diplomatic sources indicated that a surrender is likely in a matter of hours.

A heat wave will sweep Brooklyn today, with temperatures expected to crest near ninety degrees, topping yesterday's high of 84.7. Thunder showers are expected to break the hot spell tomorrow, to be followed by a return to more seasonable springtime weather.

("What?" says Sally, perking up. "T'ey don' say nuttin' 'bout Petey's wife. Wondawhassat's allabout." "Hah!" hahs Joe. "Durocha t'MILK DRINKIN' CHAMP? Hah! I bettem Rheingold people gonna like t'at!")

Men say they don't like women to wear black stockings, despite the current fad. "Almost all men asked have turned thumbs down."

"Get in there and play, Dodgers!" exults the Eagle Editorialist. "This is your year!"

(Left to right, Reese, Medwick, Reiser, and Lavagetto. At least they didn't stick Kamphoozie in there.)

("Say kid, you know howta play Gin Rummy? No? Well, siddown an' lemme show ya...")

(Well, they certainly lead the league in penmanship.)

(There is no love like the love of a town for its ball club, and no town ever loved its ball club like Brooklyn loved its Dodgers.)

(BURIED ALIVE!)

(So we've got a lot of balls in the air right now. What's in Oakdale's briefcase, what will those spies do to get it, what will Sibyl Dardanella do to get Oakdale, and how many times will Jo's suitcase billow money all over the floor? Plus, remember, Tootsie's still floating around out there somewhere. THIS BETTER ALL FIT TOGETHER.)

(BARE BLACKSTON INSURANCE SWINDLE -- Governor Torches Own House To Collect -- House Demands Impeachment -- Mystery Woman En Route To Capitol -- Wife Resumes Showgirl Career)

("Wuf!" says Wolf, which translates to "He hasn't got much of a face, but what can you do?")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

There's a lot of hard boiled stuff in Page Four crime stories, but this Dallas thing is right out of Mickey Spillane. And this kid in the Neighbors hasn't sensed the trend -- broadcasts of ballgames on radio has created an entire new generation of female baseball fans.

Jimmy really had to work hard for a question today.

I dunno who Eddie is, but I love him for sticking Patsy Kelly in there.

Annie has many talents, and one of them is the ability to pronounce parenthesis out loud.

I bet he's a chump at poker too.

"Topping plan, eh what?"

Boy, the phone company sure has chintzy tunnels.

Get it thru your fat, ominously-shadowed head -- she ain't interested! And that's an ugly toupee, too.

Moon is right on top of the hipster trends.

There is a lot going on here -- note the disconnect between her facial expressions and what she's trying to convince herself of by saying it out loud. That's no accident.