The Era -- Day By Day

[Harp]

If ever a late-teenage boy needed a tumble with an experienced woman, it's Terry. None of this is about love.

Caniff has kept Terry within bounds and sewn the kid so tightly he's a problemo.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and the Patio gets a little bitty line in the "Visit Century's Air Cooled Theatres" ad at the lower right portion of the page. Century was a Flatbush-based circuit of neighborhood houses which found it tough competition against Loew's and RKO, but made a good fight of it nonetheless. Plus it's only two blocks from Sally's mother's house, AND they have goldfish in the lobby. They really need to advertise the goldfish.

 

[Fading Fast]

Oh, and the Patio gets a little bitty line in the "Visit Century's Air Cooled Theatres" ad at the lower right portion of the page. Century was a Flatbush-based circuit of neighborhood houses which found it tough competition against Loew's and RKO, but made a good fight of it nonetheless. Plus it's only two blocks from Sally's mother's house, AND they have goldfish in the lobby. They really need to advertise the goldfish.

Oh, there it is, thank you. I thought it was a more major theater than that, but I get it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pretty swank for a neighborhood house -- seats 2600, on a par with the Flatbush and the Ablemarle, but not quite up to the Loew's Kings or the RKO Kenmore. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE GOLDFISH!

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 352292
Pretty swank for a neighborhood house -- seats 2600, on a par with the Flatbush and the Ablemarle, but not quite up to the Loew's Kings or the RKO Kenmore. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE GOLDFISH!

Not as big (on the outside) as I expected, but pretty close to the image I had in my mind otherwise. Thank you for posting the pic. It's nice to see one of Joe and Sally's haunts.

Must hit "Post Reply" quickly before FL goes off-line again.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sixteen thousand men are off the job today in Kearny, New Jersey, where a strike by the Industrial Union of Maritime and Shipbuilding Workers CIO has halted work at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company following the collapse of contract negotiations with the company. Three thousand men walked off the job on the evening shift last night, and were joined on the picket lines by another 3000 reporting for the overnight shift. This morning, another ten thousand men reporting for the 8 AM shift refused to cross the picket lines and joined the strike. Although the walkout has halted work on two cruisers and six destroyers now being built for the Navy at the yard, union leaders have pledged that the strike will not interfere with the scheduled launching on Sunday of the 6000-ton cruiser Atlanta, with a skeleton crew of union workers to be assigned to work on that job. Union workers will also be delegated to do necessary maintenance at the yard, and to ensure that steam is kept up on vessels now in dock. A call for a closed shop and reclassification of certain workers is at the heart of the contract impasse, but a 13 percent pay increase is not being disputed by the company.

The second son of Italian premier Benito Mussolini was killed today in an airplane crash near Pisa. Twenty-three-year-old Bruno Mussolini, a captain in the Italian Air Force, died when a "new type of plane" he was testing went down. The Italian newspapers called his death "glorious." The young Mussolini had flown in Ethiopia and Spain in addition to his service in the present war, and in 1937 set several world speed records for planes carrying various heavy loads.

Germany today pronounced the "final victory" in Smolensk "already won," and declared that its forces are now driving down the broad highway toward Moscow for "a final drive" against the Soviet capital. A Nazi communique promised "the total annihilation of Soviet military power" and "the wiping out of the millions of Soviet defenders in the bloodiest and most devastating battles in the history of mankind."

Thousands of Japanese troops disembarked from transports anchored in Saigon Harbor today, streaming westward toward the Thailand border in truck convoys. "Thailand is undoubtedly endangered," state authoritative quarters in London. It is reported that the total strength of the Thai forces amounts to only 50,000 men.

It is also reported in London that a Japanese garrison of 350,000 men has massed in Manchukuo, across a border where a million Soviet troops stand guard.

Borough President John Cashmore today demanded action to speed the construction of 210 additional buses needed to replace trolley lines on Fulton Street, and declared that he has received no response from the Board of Transportation to the letter he sent them last week protesting the present delay. Although the Board yesterday announced that 40 buses will be rented and put into service on Fulton Street routes by the end of this week, Mr. Cashmore reiterated in a press statement this morning that the Board has not given him the courtesy of a formal reply to his letter of last week, and warned the Board of "a display of civic indignation of earthquake proportions" if further positive steps are not taken to address the problem.

An vacationer at Far Rockaway, Long Island was attacked by a giant bird this morning, but the victim's son killed the creature with a baseball bat. Daniel J. Degrasse Sr. was relaxing on the front porch of his family's cottage when the raptor swooped down from the sky, burst thru the screening, and attack him with its razor-like talons and pointed beak. Witnessing the attack, 8-year-old Daniel Jr. grabbed his nearby bat, and swung at the bird, killing it with a single blow. Police disposed of the remains before it could be identified by ornithologists, but it is believed that it may have been a falcon or some kind of a hawk. "It might have been an eagle," snorted its intended victim, "for all I know or care."

(Aww. You can't possibly move to Philadelphia now!)

(There won't be official Federal nutritional guidelines for another thirty years or so, but it's a start...)

(If you've ever wondered what would happen if Smilin' Jack met Raven Sherman, this is the picture for you.)

(Just leave the poor puppy out of it.)

(Mr. Durocher and Mr. Walker don't like each other very much, and they will never like each other very much. But Mr. Durocher has rather grudgingly come to like Mr. Walker's bat. And how about Mr. O'Dwyer? Such a politician.)

("Hah!" says Joe. "Vinnie Valentinetti downa plant oughta sign up for t'at. I seen him ta lift a whole barrel a' Number 10 Dills wit' one ahm!" "Whydeedo t'tat?" eyerolls Sally. "He wanned t' t'row it at t'is mouse he seed inna warehouse. He's scairt'a t'em t'ings. Won' even set in a moompitcha if onna t'em Mickey Mouses comes on." "Ah," nods Sally. "I bet Sheridan can' wait t'meet 'im.")

("At least there's no sharks? Right? No sharks?")

("Motherrrrrrrr! That was eighteen years ago! I'm, why, I'm TWICE as mature now as I was then!")

(Pitchforks, you guys. Pitchforks and torches. I can see you haven't done this before.)

(Now it's Kay who's got amnesia. What kind of sleazy hospital is this?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ahhh, Dr. William Moulton Marston! Inventor of the polygraph, noted celebrity pop-psychologist, and above all, bondage fetishist deluxe. What'll he come up with next? A new comic-magazine character who fights Nazis by tying them up in a magic rope, while wearing high heeled boots and a bathing suit? Don't be ridiculous.

"Well, how was I to know the insurance policy doesn't cover riot damage?"

Wait, you drove to Yankee Stadium? "Fifty cents to watch your car?"

"We have been over this before, little princess. *I* am a *true* Indian, from the Indian subcontinent, although for some reason I usually dress as if I were a member of the Shrine Arab Patrol. Ugh."

You know, a spin off strip dealing with LOMA, CIRCUS SECRETARY, might be just what the world needs right now.

Poor Min, she hasn't seen the inside of a beauty salon since 1922.

Now, now.

Long distance isn't cheap, son. Next time, better reverse the charges.

I dunno, he seems more your mother's type.

Never mind the movies, Moonshine -- get in on the ground floor of this "Hula Hut" deal. Novelty fast food is the coming thing!

 

[Fading Fast]

...Germany today pronounced the "final victory" in Smolensk "already won," and declared that its forces are now driving down the broad highway toward Moscow for "a final drive" against the Soviet capital. A Nazi communique promised "the total annihilation of Soviet military power" and "the wiping out of the millions of Soviet defenders in the bloodiest and most devastating battles in the history of mankind."...

The reporting on the German-Russian war anticipated the internet as you just have to choose your source for news - Germany or Russia (think our competing cable news networks or whom you choose to follow on Twitter) - and then you can get the "facts" that you want. Choose German news and the Germans are winning. Choose Russian news and the Soviets are. Nothing is new.

...replace trolley lines on Fulton Street, and declared that he has received no response from the Board of Transportation to the letter he sent them last week protesting the present delay. Although the Board yesterday announced that 40 buses will be rented and put into service on Fulton Street routes by the end of this week, Mr. Cashmore reiterated in a press statement this morning that the Board has not given him the courtesy of a formal reply to his letter of last week, and warned the Board of "a display of civic indignation of earthquake proportions" if further positive steps are not taken to address the problem....

I was doing my job without any real problems, just sayin'

...An vacationer at Far Rockaway, Long Island was attacked by a giant bird this morning, but the victim's son killed the creature with a baseball bat. Daniel J. Degrasse Sr. was relaxing on the front porch of his family's cottage when the raptor swooped down from the sky, burst thru the screening, and attack him with its razor-like talons and pointed beak. Witnessing the attack, 8-year-old Daniel Jr. grabbed his nearby bat, and swung at the bird, killing it with a single blow. Police disposed of the remains before it could be identified by ornithologists, but it is believed that it may have been a falcon or some kind of a hawk. "It might have been an eagle," snorted its intended victim, "for all I know or care."...

Meanwhile, a man calls out to his wife, "Alma, where's our copy of the Eagle? Oh, thank you. Hey, there's an interesting story about a bird here, hmm," says Alma's husband Alfred Hitchcock.

...
(Aww. You can't possibly move to Philadelphia now!)...

So when your 13 and 14 year old girls weren't home at 10pm, then 11p, then 12am, then 1am you hadn't yet called the cops? You're right about the move, Lizzie, after all, a cheesesteak can't compete with "a slice."

...
(If you've ever wondered what would happen if Smilin' Jack met Raven Sherman, this is the picture for you.)...

This was, basically, Hollywood's fiftieth riff on "It Happened One Night." The reviewer kinda has it right - Davis and Cagney carry the pic, but he sees more fun and originality in a plot and pratfalls that were pretty stale by this time.

... View attachment 352374 ("Hah!" says Joe. "Vinnie Valentinetti downa plant oughta sign up for t'at. I seen him ta lift a whole barrel a' Number 10 Dills wit' one ahm!" "Whydeedo t'tat?" eyerolls Sally. "He wanned t' t'row it at t'is mouse he seed inna warehouse. He's scairt'a t'em t'ings. Won' even set in a moompitcha if onna t'em Mickey Mouses comes on." "Ah," nods Sally. "I bet Sheridan can' wait t'meet 'im.")...

"moompitcha" Don't remember that humdinger before, but can't imagine Joe or Sally haven't used that word previously in all the exchanges of theirs that we've read.

... ("At least there's no sharks? Right? No sharks?")...

Neither compasses nor oceans nor storms work that way.

[ Ahhh, Dr. William Moulton Marston! Inventor of the polygraph, noted celebrity pop-psychologist, and above all, bondage fetishist deluxe. What'll he come up with next? A new comic-magazine character who fights Nazis by tying them up in a magic rope, while wearing high heeled boots and a bathing suit? Don't be ridiculous....

"One leg in a hundred looks good without stockings..." Tough crowd.

...

Wait, you drove to Yankee Stadium? "Fifty cents to watch your car?"...!

Mr. Strauss wins our clueless-person-of-the-day award.

...
You know, a spin off strip dealing with LOMA, CIRCUS SECRETARY, might be just what the world needs right now....

She should partner up with Kay and open their own private detective agency.

View attachment 352377 ...[
I dunno, he seems more your mother's type....

I have to believe Veronica is going to see the crazy good opportunity this presents for her. If she really wants Tim, all she has to do is act truly interested in Hugh and Tim will become insane with jealousy. Let's not forget, if she blows it, she's Senga in less than five years.


FL was down less this morning than the last two. I guess that's progress.

 

[Harp]

I would venture opinion that Terry has a flicker of flame deep down inside his heart for Burma somewhere
but such conjectus is mere assumption writ large since Caniff swirls diaglogue like Oklahoma windstorms
swirl dirt, clouding the picture. When it appears Burma's hot to trot, she's really not.
And for an experienced gal, her fix on Sky King is sexually skewered shirtfront poker. She can play
the cat with Raven all she wants but it leads nowhere. And Dude acts as though his head is stuck up his ass
so far he can't see daylight much less grapple with himself over a woman he loves. Ranch is an emotional
cripple and Raven lost in her Sky King swoon.

But back to Burma and Terry. Donno, but sure thinks Caniff's pencil needs some lead.

 

[Fading Fast]

I would venture opinion that Terry has a flicker of flame deep down inside his heart for Burma somewhere
but such conjectus is mere assumption writ large since Caniff swirls diaglogue like Oklahoma windstorms
swirl dirt, clouding the picture. When it appears Burma's hot to trot, she's really not.
And for an experienced gal, her fix on Sky King is sexually skewered shirtfront poker. She can play
the cat with Raven all she wants but it leads nowhere. And Dude acts as though his head is stuck up his ass
so far he can't see daylight much less grapple with himself over a woman he loves. Ranch is an emotional
cripple and Raven lost in her Sky King swoon.

But back to Burma and Terry. Donno, but sure thinks Caniff's pencil needs some lead.

Terry's play should be to have fun with Burma (or Raven) knowing that Hu Shee is the long-term plan for him. He might have to find her after the war, but so be it, life is a long time. The Burmas and Ravens of the world are always out there; a gem like Hu Shee is worth searching for.

 

[Harp]

Terry's play should be to have fun with Burma (or Raven) knowing that Hu Shee is the long-term plan for him. He might have to find her after the war, but so be it... The Burmas and Ravens of the world are always out there; a gem like Hu Shee is worth searching for.

As Jewish Sabbath custom states: "A woman of valor, she is worth a price above rubies."

The flip side of the coin of Fate is that this is wartime China.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Administration today renewed its appeal for lower individual exemptions and new surtaxes on personal income, beginning at a rate of 11 percent on the first taxable dollar. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury John L. Sullivan this morning urged the Senate Finance Committee to rewrite the House-approved $3,206,200 tax bill to provide for the higher surtaxes. In its present state the bill calls for a rate of 5 percent on the first taxable dollar. The surtaxes would be imposed in addition to the present 4 percent tax rate on personal income, with the special 10 percent overriding defense tax computed from the total of the normal tax and the surtax. The total taxes on an income between $1000 and $3000 per year would amount to more than 15 percent under the proposed Treasury plan. The surtax alone on the second $2000 of taxable income would start at 14 percent, with gradual increases in subsequent brackets.

House anti-interventionist leader Rep. Hamilton Fish today denounced the proposed Administration plan to extend obligatory active service time for selectees and reservists by eighteen months, for a total of two and one-half years as "part and parcel of a gigantic conspiracy to involve America in European, Asiatic, and African wars without the consent of the American people. The New York Republican's attack on the measure opened six hours of general debate on the measure, approved in the Senate yesterday by a vote of 45 to 30. Amendments are expected to be offered in the House on Monday, and a final vote is not anticipated until next week.

A Nazi drive into the rich Soviet Ukraine appeared to be gaining momentum today with British observers expressing concern that the Black Sea port of Odessa may fall soon to the Germans. The Nazi High Command reported the capture of a force of 30,000 Red Army troops, along with the commander and staff officers of the 6th Soviet Army southeast of Uman, the key communications center between Kiev and Odessa.

A Soviet communique today reported that a Red Army counteroffensive at an unspecified sector has "virtually wiped out" the 20th German Panzer Division. It is reported that Soviet infantry and armored forces participated in the thrust.

Four hundred drivers and mechanics of the Triboro Coach Company walked off the job at 4 AM today in Queens, halting service on thirteen bus lines serving Astoria, Jackson Heights, Woodside, Winfield, Maspeth, Corona, East Elmhurst and LaGuardia Airport. The Transport Workers Union CIO, which called the strike, stated early today that only nine Triboro buses are in operation, serving only two lines. The strike is the result of an ongoing conflict between the TWU and the rival Amalgamated Association of Street Electric Railway and Motor Coach Operators of America, an AFL union with which the company signed an agreement in 1936. That contract was renewed in 1939 but the results were disputed by the TWU, and the State Labor Relations Board overturned the agreement, awarding the contract instead to the CIO union. The dispute continued, with the AFL union filing an appeal of its own, and the State Supreme Court in April of this year upheld the original contract. A strike vote by TWU members was taken "some time ago," but has been held in abeyance until now. The TWU is seeking a new contract with the company and the reinstatement of 24 TWU men fired by the company due to their affliliation.

A proposal by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses to tear down the Raymond Street Jail and build a playground on its site has been sent to Mayor LaGuardia for review, with the support of the Brooklyn Hill Association. The plan further states that there is no need to replace the decrepit Raymond Street facility with a new jail elsewhere in the borough, because, it concludes, Brooklyn prisoners can easily be accommodated in Manhattan's new skyscraper jail in the newly-constructed Criminal Courts Building, which is to replace the Tombs this year.

Fire raged thru a Stuyvesant candy store this morning, but two quick-thinking passers-by managed to raise the alarm and then raced into the three-story building rousing sleeping tenants to ensure that all escaped safely. 36-year-old Henry Slattery of 212 Lewis Avenue and 22-year-old Elijah Melow, "a Negro," of 608 Gates Avenue, spotted smoke in the shop owned by Max Edelstein at 208 Lewis Avenue at 3:40 this morning and, after pulling an alarm box, the two men ran into the building to raise the sleepers. After rousing second-floor residents, they were unable to reach the third floor due to the heavy smoke, but firemen were able to rescue 52-year-old Mrs. Gertrude Kelly, who lived alone on that floor, and take her to St. John's Hospital, where her condition was pronounced "not serious." Firemen confined the fire itself to the ground-floor shop and extinguished it in about an hour.

(In addition to being perhaps the greatest eccentric dancer of his generation, Hal LeRoy played our boy Harold Teen in the 1934 Warner Bros. movie adaptation of the strip. "Hot pups!" And if you go to McGinnis's, get the roast beef. After all it says "THE ROAST BEEF KING" right on the front of the menu.)

Author John R. Tunis will join Rex Stout on the "Speaking of Liberty" program next Thursday at 6:30 PM over WEAF. The author of the current book "Democracy and Sport" will discuss the perversion of sports by the totalitarian nations into an instrument of racial and political propaganda, and a means of conditioning young people for war.

(Imagine the excitement of some young Columbia graduate who's landed their first newspaper job as a cub on the Eagle when news comes of their appointment to the lofty position of "Tom Dick and Harry Editor.")

The Eagle Editorialst commends the two Queens girls who started a near-panic the other night when they stayed out till all hours assisting at the delivery of a litter of puppies. "They handled themselves well, even if they worried their parents," he notes. "We're sorry they moved away."

("Is that so? All right, shavetail -- fade me!")

(Never mind the Eagle, this one belongs in the New Yorker.)

("Hah!" hahs Sally. "T'em pushy dames! No betta at Ma'tin's an' Loesa's t'en t'ey was when I was woikin' atta five'n dime!" "How'd ya ma make out?" asks Joe. "Ahhh, t'ey let her out onna condition she not go upta Gimbel's no more. She sez 'well, I C'N TAKE MY BIZNESS ELSEWHEAH!" "Cept Namm's," notes Joe. "Unless t'ey lifted 'at..." "ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT," growls Sally.)

(If they don't bring Mungo back up for the September pennant drive, I'll be very disappointed. C'mon, Leo -- he's been up there for almost five months now and he hasn't been involved in a single, as the French say, menage-a-trois. Doesn't that count for anything?)

Several Dodgers took advantage of their day off by heading out to Breezy Point, L. I. yesterday for a day of water sports and good eating at the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Mulvey. Mrs. Dearie McKeever Mulvey owns a 25 percent share of the ball club, and the boys were on their best behavior, with Pee Wee Reese, Billy Herman, Cookie Lavagetto, Joe Medwick, Lew Riggs, Herman Franks, and Fred Fitzsimmons spending the afternoon throwing around a rubber ball and cavorting in the surf, when they weren't signing autographs for other bathers.

(I'd pay good money for a photo of Fitz throwing around a rubber ball and cavorting in the surf.)

Dodger prexy Larry MacPhail will demonstrate that he is a man of erudition tonight at 8:30 over WJZ, when he fills the fourth chair on "Information Please" alongside John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, and Oscar Levant. Moderator Clifton Fadiman will no doubt be swept away by the Red Headed One's mastery of repartee.

(In 1941, Gordon "Boody" Rogers is approaching his 37th birthday. He is married, and living an outwardly quiet, respectable life out in Great Neck. And if I were Mrs. Gordon "Boody" Rogers, I'd be really worried.)

(The line between the courtroom and the stage is exceedingly fine.)

(Whoa, Mary can really move when she wants to.)

(I'm so looking forward to seeing the Skull on trial. "Aw gee whiz, your honor, I didn't mean to, the Countess made me do it. Aw, I never get to do anything I want to do...")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Ah! Now we're getting back to real Page Four business!

Some discipline *is* necessary. How about ten years in prison?

If you look up "pot stirrer" in the dictionary...

"Yeah, I said 'fake.' I never see you at any of the casting calls! What pictures have you even been in?"

"And remember to do a triple somersault before you land! That knocked 'em dead last week in Massapequa!"

Burma hates school because she doesn't "play well with others."

Andy with hair and a turn-down collar? Min with makeup and a peplum waist? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT STRIP THIS IS ANYMORE!

I don't know why they don't call it "the Chigger Principle."

Here now! None of that! The Hula Hut is a classy joint!

A few years back, Shadow taught Pruny how to jitterbug. This, therefore, should be good.

 

[Harp]

Sparky. Lucky guy. I don't follow this strip. Mebbe I should.

 

[Harp]

Burma is St Louis street schooled and experienced to the whims of chance but perhaps a bit
too self conscious. I never tire of the inside baseball Caniff sprinkles about this strip such as how
a seemingly quiet dinner converse erupts to sow discord, with Burma a convenient chip tossed in
the plot pot card game. And docile Terry, innocuously redrawn almost to the point of a castrated
eunuch, nevertheless is the cartoonist's real wild card.

 

[Fading Fast]

...A proposal by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses to tear down the Raymond Street Jail and build a playground on its site has been sent to Mayor LaGuardia for review, with the support of the Brooklyn Hill Association. The plan further states that there is no need to replace the decrepit Raymond Street facility with a new jail elsewhere in the borough, because, it concludes, Brooklyn prisoners can easily be accommodated in Manhattan's new skyscraper jail in the newly-constructed Criminal Courts Building, which is to replace the Tombs this year....

I've been to jury duty several times in the Criminal Court Building (or the complex of buildings it's part of, not sure of the distinction). It's odd, somewhat creepy, but also fascinating to have a major prison facility adjacent to the court house itself as you see the massive police presence, the bars, the razor wire, prisoners being escorted in and out and other obvious jail activity as you are going to and from the courthouse. It's a palpable connect between the courtrooms and the decisions made in them.

...Fire raged thru a Stuyvesant candy store this morning, but two quick-thinking passers-by managed to raise the alarm and then raced into the three-story building rousing sleeping tenants to ensure that all escaped safely. 36-year-old Henry Slattery of 212 Lewis Avenue and 22-year-old Elijah Melow, "a Negro," of 608 Gates Avenue, spotted smoke in the shop owned by Max Edelstein at 208 Lewis Avenue at 3:40 this morning and, after pulling an alarm box, the two men ran into the building to raise the sleepers. After rousing second-floor residents, they were unable to reach the third floor due to the heavy smoke, but firemen were able to rescue 52-year-old Mrs. Gertrude Kelly, who lived alone on that floor, and take her to St. John's Hospital, where her condition was pronounced "not serious." Firemen confined the fire itself to the ground-floor shop and extinguished it in about an hour....

While it could just be an accident, knowing all the extra-curricular activity that went on in candy stores back then, any fire in one has to be a bit suspect. Nick?

... View attachment 352604
(In addition to being perhaps the greatest eccentric dancer of his generation, Hal LeRoy played our boy Harold Teen in the 1934 Warner Bros. movie adaptation of the strip. "Hot pups!" And if you go to McGinnis's, get the roast beef. After all it says "THE ROAST BEEF KING" right on the front of the menu.)...

I believe we've noted it before, but Ray Heatherton is the father of Joey Heatherton - minor actress/celebrity/sex symbol of the 1960s/1970s

...
(Never mind the Eagle, this one belongs in the New Yorker.)...

Heck, I thought we were getting an advance look at a "Harold Teen" storyline after Veronica marries Tim and the marriage begins to fail.

...
(If they don't bring Mungo back up for the September pennant drive, I'll be very disappointed. C'mon, Leo -- he's been up there for almost five months now and he hasn't been involved in a single, as the French say, menage-a-trois. Doesn't that count for anything?)...

I'm with you, bring him back. It's New York City, no one is really that incensed about the sex in Cuba business anyway. Heck, a good sex scandal with your ball club now and then is like what Jefferson said about rebellion and politics.

Nice to see Whirlaway coming back off his recent defeat - love the photo-finish pic.

...(I'd pay good money for a photo of Fitz throwing around a rubber ball and cavorting in the surf.)..

I'll match you. Say what you will about the internet, today we'd have that pic; heck, we'd have the video.

...Dodger prexy Larry MacPhail will demonstrate that he is a man of erudition tonight at 8:30 over WJZ, when he fills the fourth chair on "Information Please" alongside John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, and Oscar Levant. Moderator Clifton Fadiman will no doubt be swept away by the Red Headed One's mastery of repartee....

Levant must be a hoot on this show.

... (In 1941, Gordon "Boody" Rogers is approaching his 37th birthday. He is married, and living an outwardly quiet, respectable life out in Great Neck. And if I were Mrs. Gordon "Boody" Rogers, I'd be really worried.)...

If she's lucky, Rogers will buy a red sports car and it will stop there.

.. Ah! Now we're getting back to real Page Four business!...

Oh yeah.

And line of the day, "Detective Edward Houlihan, questioned them last night uncertain whether to arrest anybody or just chalk it up as one of those things that happen in the best of families."

...
Some discipline *is* necessary. How about ten years in prison?...

Yet the judge reduced the charges, unbelievable.

... "And remember to do a triple somersault before you land! That knocked 'em dead last week in Massapequa!"...

"A girl - a mere girl! She can't do it! I'm sunk!"

FU Tracy, she should have let you fall.

Kidding aside, quite an in-your-face girl-power message '41 style. The past is rarely as uniformly bad as it is portrayed nor is the present so perfect on the same issues as it wants to believe.

...
Burma hates school because she doesn't "play well with others."...

Burma is St Louis street schooled and experienced to the whims of chance but perhaps a bit
too self conscious. I never tire of the inside baseball Caniff sprinkles about this strip such as how
a seemingly quiet dinner converse erupts to sow discord, with Burma a convenient chip tossed in
the plot pot card game. And docile Terry, innocuously redrawn almost to the point of a castrated
eunuch, nevertheless is the cartoonist's real wild card.

Caniff is a skilled writer. While Burma definitely reacted poorly, ninety-plus percent of the time, those "quiz" games, etc. that couples or group of adult friends "play" are simply ways to start arguments and hurt feelings.

...
Andy with hair and a turn-down collar? Min with makeup and a peplum waist? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT STRIP THIS IS ANYMORE!...

"Launched on a re-armament program at the beauty parlor."

 

[ChiTownScion]

Beaten for running away to see the trains, eh? I do relate to that.

As I have said before, from ages ten to thirteen years I was a boy chorister in a choir on the near South Side of Chicago. Morning rehearsals would end about 11:45 AM-- and my mom would wonder why I wouldn't arrive by train at the suburb next to ours until 6 PM or later. I'd tell her, "The guys play softball in Grant Park after rehearsal." And that was no lie. I conveniently omitted the fact that I was not among the ball players.

I'd be out exploring the city. As a suburban kid I was absolutely mesmerized by the Loop during the mid- 1960's, and I was determined to learn my way around. Rode the entire lengths of every rapid transit line, and I also haunted the intercity train terminals that would be gone in a few short years once Amtrak came into being. Trains have always fascinated me. Even at age ten I realized that the passenger trains were, by then, a shadowy remnant of what had existed when my parents were my age. But it was still exciting to view the locomotives and the parlor and observation cars which I hoped to one day ride. A more exciting way to spend a childhood than Boy Scouts or Little League, at least for me.

In 1965 a ten year old kid from the burbs bumming around the city on his own would have raised concerns of many. I encountered it, and learned that the best way to quash such concern was to act with a maturity beyond my years. "Don't act like a little kid and people won't see you as a little kid," was my approach. A fifth grader reading the Chicago Tribune on a commuter train didn't seem odd to me at all: kids who didn't read the editorial page were the weirdos, as I saw it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You can tune in on Larry MacPhail's "Information Please" appearance here.

As for Mr. Levant, he had the unsettling habit of showing up when it suited him to do so, meaning the occasional last-minute scramble to fill his chair if he found some reason not to present himself for the broadcast on any given week. He fought constantly with the producer, Dan Golenpaul, about trifles, but when he was "on" he could be a very entertaining addition to the panel, especially when a question dealt with music. There was no such thing as a "ten second delay" for live radio in 1941, so either Mr. Golenpaul kept a sniper in the control room with a steady aim at Mr. Levant's head, or he was an unusually reckless man.

Incidentally, since all things in 1941 can be connected in some way to the Dodgers, the chief researcher for, and co-creator of, "Information Please," is Mr. Gordon Kahn of Flatbush, whose thirteen-year-old son Roger will grow up to become a sportswriter for the Herald Tribune, who will, in 1972, write "The Boys of Summer."

 

[Harp]

I'm still trying to get over Riz now being a Yankee.

 

[Harp]

P.S. Thanks for the Joey Heatherton pix.
She was the subject of considerable locker room conversation and extracurricular dialogue.