The Era -- Day By Day

[Fading Fast]

The New Jersey-built USS Kearny, one of the Navy's newest destroyers, was torpedoed and damaged today in a submarine attack off the coast of Iceland, marking the first successful attack on an American naval vessel since the war began. The attack, according to a brief announcement by the Navy Department, occurred about 350 miles south and west of the American-occupied island nation, while the ship was on patrol duty prepared to carry out the President's shoot-on-sight policy concerning Axis submarines, surface raiders, or airplanes sighted with the U. S. defense zone encompassing the sea lanes to and from Iceland. The Navy did not immediately identify the submarine responsible for the attack, but indicated that it was "undoubtedly a German one." On September 4th, a German submarine attempted an attack on the USS Greer, in the same general area, but its torpedoes missed the target. Preliminary Navy reports indicated that no injuries were reported aboard the Kearny, which was constructed at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny, New Jersey, and commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on September 13, 1940

The torpedo that struck the Kearny today led to a Flatlands woman learning the whereabouts of her Navy lieutenant husband. Mrs. Ann Sarsfield of 3717 Avenue M had just received a heavily censored letter from her husband, Lieut. Eugene S. Sarsfield, stating only that he was "at sea," when she learned from an early edition of the Eagle that he was serving as the executive officer aboard the Kearny, and was uninjured in the attack. She had last seen her husband on August 23rd and stated that she "doesn't know" when she'll see him next. The captain of the Kearny is a Brooklyn man as well, Lieutenant Commander A. L. Danis of 8701 Shore Road.

BULLETIN -- The House of Representatives today, after less than two days of debate, passed the Roosevelt Administration's bill to repeal Section 6 of the Neutrality Act, and to authorize the arming of all American merchant vessels. The measure goes now to the Senate.

Headquarters of the 12th Naval District in San Francisco today ordered all U. S. merchant ships in Asiatic waters to make for friendly ports immediately. The order is believed to consider British, Dutch East Indian, and Phillipine ports "friendly," and is expected to effect the major portion of the U. S. merchant fleet in the Pacific now occupied with carrying oil to Russia via Vladivostok and war supplies to China by way of Malaysia.....

Even though I've read it in the history books, these day-by-day news reports emphasize how much more entangled in the war the US already was by the time Pearl Harbor happened. You feel a "slow walk" to war in these daily newspapers in a way not fully captured in many of the history books more focused on what happened once the US was officially in the war.

...
(Well isn't that interesting.)...

An "inside man" implies this was no spur-of-the-moment effort where things just went horribly wrong. Clearly there was planing, but still, it doesn't all fit into the "robbery gone wrong" box as there wasn't enough money involved (dance-ticket receipt, give me a break) and they didn't even take all the money. It's just too much effort for too little. The nightclub owner needs to be questioned 1940s style by the police.

... ("Now if you'd just hand me the license, I'll need to sign it." "License? Oh, wait...")...

It's not often the lead gets married. I'll bet Sue is not long for this world.

... ("Because, y'know what? I'm gonna just stand here and watch.")

Dan's complete panel four speech: "Irwin, if you are ever going to get yourself out of this mess, do it now - before it's too late - use that gun!! Hmm, did I load the gun? I remember taking it off the dresser and attaching it to my arm, but did I check to see if it was loaded? Well, too late to do anything about that now, we'll know soon enough."

...
Blue hair? Well, it's the Stork Club, whattaya expect?...

How did the News fact check this story to ensure they were only interviewing natural blondes. "I'm sorry miss, this is purely for journalistic ethics." "Hey, stop that! Now I've heard everything."

... "I learned my dialog from George Raft movies! Pretty good, huh?"...

The slang meaning of "knob" has clearly changed over the years.

.... All right, point of order -- we know that Veronica knew Harold in high school, and that Harold graduated about two and a half years ago. Just how old was Veronica when she got together with this guy? Was she still a minor? Who's this guy think he is, Georgie Jessel?...

Sure, sure, all good points, but did you catch this, "...the good name of Refakas."

... View attachment 370255
"Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world -- where I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night."

"Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened."

- Henry Scott-Holland

 

[Harp]

Raven's death reminds the fragility of human nature and how slight is our grip on life.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The U. S. Navy is engaged today in a gigantic sea and air hunt for the submarine which torpedoed and damaged the 1630-ton destroyer USS Kearny while it was on patrol 350 miles southwest of Iceland. While secrecy surrounded the operations to avenge the first American warship casualty of the war the Navy awaited a further report from the Kearny itself as the crippled ship makes its way to an undisclosed port.

Meanwhile the Nazi High Command asserted in a special communique today that it has sunk ten merchantmen, totalling 60,000 tons, and two accompanying destroyers in a convoy en route from America to England. Authorized Berlin quarters, commenting on the torpedoing of the American destroyer Kearny, stated that "the incident comes at an opportune time for Roosevelt and his warmongers." A German spokesman added that no report has been received at this time from any submarine concerning an attack on the Kearny, but added that it would be "completely unwarranted speculation" to suggest that the Kearny was acting as an escort for the convoy just attacked. It was stated that the ships were sunk after they entered the German blockade zone.

The Red Army has reportedly thrown back the Nazi front beyond Orel, south of Moscow, and has also fought back German invasion forces in the wintry west and north sectors of the central front. "The weather has changed now, hasn't it?" taunted a broadcast from the Soviet capital today. "You call it Winter. You know your soldiers are freezing. To us Russians, winter is really coming later. We are used to this sort of weather. You thought you were going to have an easy walk into Moscow, didn't you? Far from it! We are going to stay!"

A concentration camp for enemy aliens is nearing completion at Camp Upton, ten miles southeast of Patchogue, Long Island. The purpose of the huge stockade now under construction was disclosed last night in a guarded statement by Brig. Gen. Irving J. Phillipson, commanding general of the Second Corps Area. While giving a minimum of details, Gen. Phillipson described the camp as "an enclosure for the safeguarding of such aliens as the War Department may deem necessary to hold." No statement was made as to exactly when the camp will be put to use, but it was indicated that construction will be completed in about a week. The camp, built to hold approximately 700 occupants, occupies a space about 600 feet by 800 feet, and will house internees in six-man tents originally used by selectees at Camp Upton a year ago. Each tent will be erected on a wooden platform about six inches above ground with wooden sides extending three feet up and will be equipped with a stove. The camp will be surrounded by two barbed-wire fences, one twelve feet inside the other, with a twelve-foot-high guard tower in each corner of the rectangle, equipped with searchlights and a communications system. The facility is the first concentration camp to be constructed in the United States since end of the First World War.

A 45-year-old self-appointed doctor from Williamsburg, who specialized in burglarizing his patients after encasing their feet in plaster-of-paris is in custody following a robbery last night in the Bronx. "Doctor" Edward Koch of 220 Roebling Street introduced himself to his victim as a "post office doctor" come to examine her and her husband in order to qualify him for postal employment. As part of this examination, "Dr." Koch explained, it would be necessary for him to take impressions in plaster of her feet. When she agreed to this procedure, the "doctor" mixed plaster in a soup kettle and placed her feet into it. When it hardened, he proceeded to rob the apartment of $1000 in jewelry and left his victim to be chipped out by police. Koch was arrested later in the evening after trying a different procedure with 21-year-old Mrs. Marie Scorza of 1899 Belmont Avenue, whom he left in a bathtub after giving her several pills that, he warned might make her "fingers swell," and offered to hold her rings and watch for "safekeeping." After Mrs. Scorza notified police, it was determined that Koch had operated a similar racket twelve years ago and he was quickly located and arrested. "I never thought you'd take me alive," commented the doctor as he was booked.

After five weeks of jury selection, the actual trial of gangland chieftain Louis "Lepke" Bucchalter and two accomplices begins Monday in Kings County Court. Lepke is charged along with Emannuel "Mendy" Weiss and Louis Capone for the 1936 murder of Brownsville candy-store man Joseph Rosen, who was at that time a key witness in Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey's investigation of racketeering.

("Hey!" says Sally. "What happen'anem snapshots you took atta Woil's Faieh las' yeeah? 'Membeh, you took t'Kodak t'at day? Diddem eveh get d'velop't?" "Nah," growls Joe. "'Membeh? 'At faieh cop tookoutta fillum an' t'rew it away. Outsid'a 'Twenny T'ousan' Legs Unna T' Sea.' I din'neev'n go inneah!" "Ah," says Sally, tossing a damp diaper over the clothesline extending out the kitchen window, and giving the pulley a sharp and squeaky turn. "Ah." "WELL I DITT'N!")

Mayor LaGuardia will confer with the publishers of eight Manhattan dailies today in an attempt to negotiate an end to a newsdealers' strike that has kept those papers off thousands of newsstands thruout the city. Yesterday, mediation efforts broke down over the insistence by publishers that resumption of sales must occur as a condition of further discussions, but not only did newsdealers refuse to comply with this edict, the Federation of Cigar and Stationery Store Operators also threatened a boycott if their own demands, similar to those of the newsdealers, were not met. Those demands include an end to the requirement that sellers absorb the cost of unsold papers, and a halt to the practice by newspaper circulation departments of coercing dealers into taking more papers each day than they can sell. The Brooklyn Eagle is not affected by the dispute, and its availability at all newsstands continues.

(Step by step, inch by inch...)

("Oh, and you're 4-F, so there's one less thing to worry about.")

("Kish, Kinard, and Schwartz." Is this a football team or a law firm?. And once again, gawdbless Mickey.)

("Casey?" snorts Sally. "GET OUT AN' WALK!")

(Entertainment choice of the evening? If you've got a car, head out to the Valley Stream Drive-In and see "Hell's Angels." It's eleven years old, but unless you've got a real clean windshield you won't notice. And keep your clothes on, it's getting chilly.)

(Didn't Slappy used to have that same dress?)

(If you're gonna go crazy, go FULL CRAZY.)

(There's a LOT of things Tom doesn't know about. Women, for example.)

("Oh oh," thinks Dan. "Did I pick up my GUN this morning -- or that novelty cigarette lighter Kay gave me last Christmas?")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

The Windsors? Who cares. Hey, let's go see that gorilla the Free French sent over.

I hope Chester Gould doesn't see this.

No, and sorry Leo, but it was bad managing. What the hell were you thinking pitching Davis in that first game? And why did you leave Casey in in Game Three when he was clearly hung over or otherwise not taking the situation seriously? And ditto Game Four, when he tried to get cute with Henrich? He should've come out right then, and you could put in, I dunno, Newt Kimball -- anybody who wouldn't get rattled and throw the rest of the game away? What were you THINKING, anyway -- about what you were gonna say next time you're on the Fred Allen show?

"Gum Girls" were a real thing, most often used by Beech-Nut. But their uniforms weren't usually so abbreviated.

CURLY HAIRED SISSY! CURLY HAIRED SISSY! CURLY HAIRED SISSY!

Really? Better be a freight elevator.

Well, he's imaginative, you gotta give him that.

Kayo's nonchalance in panel three says it all.

Oh, do let's get together and have a nice family chat.

Dude Hennick may live a long life, but no matter how long he lives, he'll never leave this place.

 

[Harp]

When I die and hopefully arrive in Heaven and St Peter asks me what I want,
I will say "I play lead Sax in Glenn Miller's band, and Linda Darnell is my girlfriend."

 

[Fading Fast]

...he Red Army has reportedly thrown back the Nazi front beyond Orel, south of Moscow, and has also fought back German invasion forces in the wintry west and north sectors of the central front. "The weather has changed now, hasn't it?" taunted a broadcast from the Soviet capital today. "You call it Winter. You know your soldiers are freezing. To us Russians, winter is really coming later. We are used to this sort of weather. You thought you were going to have an easy walk into Moscow, didn't you? Far from it! We are going to stay!"...

That is a complete change in tone from the prior few days. Clearly, the battle just shifted the Soviet's way.

...A 45-year-old self-appointed doctor from Williamsburg, who specialized in burglarizing his patients after encasing their feet in plaster-of-paris is in custody following a robbery last night in the Bronx. "Doctor" Edward Koch of 220 Roebling Street introduced himself to his victim as a "post office doctor" come to examine her and her husband in order to qualify him for postal employment. As part of this examination, "Dr." Koch explained, it would be necessary for him to take impressions in plaster of her feet. When she agreed to this procedure, the "doctor" mixed plaster in a soup kettle and placed her feet into it. When it hardened, he proceeded to rob the apartment of $1000 in jewelry and left his victim to be chipped out by police. Koch was arrested later in the evening after trying a different procedure with 21-year-old Mrs. Marie Scorza of 1899 Belmont Avenue, whom he left in a bathtub after giving her several pills that, he warned might make her "fingers swell," and offered to hold her rings and watch for "safekeeping." After Mrs. Scorza notified police, it was determined that Koch had operated a similar racket twelve years ago and he was quickly located and arrested. "I never thought you'd take me alive," commented the doctor as he was booked....

And a germ of an idea forms in Chester Gould's mind.

...Mayor LaGuardia will confer with the publishers of eight Manhattan dailies today in an attempt to negotiate an end to a newsdealers' strike that has kept those papers off thousands of newsstands thruout the city. Yesterday, mediation efforts broke down over the insistence by publishers that resumption of sales must occur as a condition of further discussions, but not only did newsdealers refuse to comply with this edict, the Federation of Cigar and Stationery Store Operators also threatened a boycott if their own demands, similar to those of the newsdealers, were not met. Those demands include an end to the requirement that sellers absorb the cost of unsold papers, and a halt to the practice by newspaper circulation departments of coercing dealers into taking more papers each day than they can sell. The Brooklyn Eagle is not affected by the dispute, and its availability at all newsstands continues....

The newsstands are losing revenue, but so are the papers. I would assume the advertisers are also asking for refunds from the papers. The pressure is growing as the costs mount up on both sides. Again, only from what I've seen in the movies from the '30s, it seems the papers did force the newsstands to take more copies than they could sell (which I'm sure the papers counted toward the circulation numbers they used to sell advertising).

...("Kish, Kinard, and Schwartz." Is this a football team or a law firm?. And once again, gawdbless Mickey.)...

I was thinking more along the lines of a merger between three seltzer water companies, but a law firm works too.

... ("Casey?" snorts Sally. "GET OUT AN' WALK!")...

I hear ya Sally. To the Eagle, no more backward looking Dodger stories. Either write about the 1942 season or cover football.

... (Entertainment choice of the evening? If you've got a car, head out to the Valley Stream Drive-In and see "Hell's Angels." It's eleven years old, but unless you've got a real clean windshield you won't notice. And keep your clothes on, it's getting chilly.)...

Good one, Lizzie.

Interesting little tidbit about United Artists.

.... (There's a LOT of things Tom doesn't know about. Women, for example.)...

Connie's no prize right now, but she could mature into a good person a la Leona. Either way, she's too smart to marry dumb Tom - nothing worse than having to go through life with an idiot as a partner.

... The Windsors? Who cares. Hey, let's go see that gorilla the Free French sent over.....

Anderson is the interesting one here - he doesn't fit and they don't tell us much about him, yet he's been indicted.

...[
Really? Better be a freight elevator.....

Don't worry, you'll all be getting uniforms soon enough.

...[
Well, he's imaginative, you gotta give him that.....

What, no Andy-missing day counter?

... Oh, do let's get together and have a nice family chat.....

Oakdale thinks he has family troubles.

.. Dude Hennick may live a long life, but no matter how long he lives, he'll never leave this place.

Caniff has taken his comicstrip - more broadly, the comicstrip as a art-form - to an incredible level.

 

[ChiTownScion]

No love lost for Veronica from me, pal, but I'm gonna be honest. The only one who can make you into a bum is you. Get a grip, man: don't just get angry. Get smart AND angry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Germany claims that the battle for Moscow is now in its final phase, asserting that Nazi forces have "annihilated" eight Soviet defending armies, killing 1,200,000 men, and have captured another 650,000 prisoners, in the "double encirclement" of Vyazma and Bryansk. A German communique claimed that all of the forces under the command of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko "have been destroyed."

Reports from Moscow monitored in London last night stated that Soviet troops have fought off fierce Nazi attacks on three fronts, and that Kenilen and Orel, two key northern and southern hinges of the Moscow defense system, have been recaptured from German occupation. The nightly official Soviet communique broadcast from Radio Moscow stated that fighting has been particularly heavy in the western sector, and that Soviet units have pushed back several Nazi thrusts in that area. The communique acknowledged, however, that Red Army units continue to "fall back" in the Vyazma sector and in the south, where German forces continue to push into the Donets Basin.

The German radio broadcast a denial today of charges that the USS Kearny was attacked by a German U-Boat. While acknowledging that German submarines attacked and sank twelve ships, including two destroyers, in an America-to-Britain convoy in the North Atlantic, the broadcast went on to claim that "there is not a word of truth in the report that the United States destroyer Kearny has been torpedoed by a German submarine." The Berlin radio charged that "the entire incident was engineered as a new swindle" by President Roosevelt, in an effort to "stir up Congress" and support his proposal to amend the Neutrality Act to allow the arming of US merchant ships. A statement broadcast over the Nazi-controlled Paris radio, monitored in New York by NBC, further claimed that the damage to the Kearny was self-inflicted, or that the ship may have been fired upon by a British submarine or surface vessel. Aside from these statements, however, there has been no official comment by the Nazi High Command on the Kearny incident.

Senator Claude Pepper (D-Fla.) declared today that he will seek full repeal of the Neutrality Act when the Administration's bill to repeal Section 6 of the act in order to allow the arming of merchant ships comes to the Senate floor, possibly within the next ten days. Senator Pepper stated that if the Foreign Relations Committee does not come forward with such a recommendation, he will introduce it himself. Isolationist leader Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D-Montana) stated today in response to Sen. Pepper's comment that he would welcome such a challenge. "It would," asserted Sen. Wheeler, "bring into the open the entire issue of war and peace."

Democratic mayoral candidate William O'Dwyer launched the heaviest attack in his campaign yet against Mayor LaGuardia's administration in a radio speech last night. The Brooklyn District Attorney accused the Mayor of conducting the affairs of city government not, as he claims, "in a non-partisan manner," but in a manner "highly partisan and super-political," and specifically accused the Mayor of using the Sanitation Department for political purposes to where "he has turned into his private political club." Mr. O'Dwyer also denounced the Mayor's fiscal policy, charging that rather than living up to his 1937 promise to reduce the municipal budget, "he has increased it by $1,000,000 a week for every 52 weeks of the year," and criticized the Mayor for "indulging in volcanic outbursts and intemperate speech" to such an extent that "some of his newspaper supporters had reproved him."

Mayor LaGuardia yesterday cited improvement in public health conditions as a key accomplishment of his administration. In the third of his "Lessons on Good Municipal Government," the Mayor noted the accomplishments of the Public Works Department in improving sewage disposal in recent years, and also the accomplishments of the Health Department and the Docks Department in cleaning filth from the city's rivers and New York Bay, a job which he asserted was ignored by Tammany administrations dating back to 1903. The Mayor further stated that these tasks have been accomplished under a "non-partisan, non-political, scientific municipal administration."

A campaign to bring about Brooklyn's secession from New York City has begun under the sponsorship of the Brooklyn Council of Veterans of Foreign Wars. A resolution passed by the Council yesterday charged that, since its absorption into Greater New York in 1898, Kings County has been relegated to the status of "a suburban community," and "denied a fair and proper share of public improvements," and that therefore a "every civic group" should cooperate in a drive to "restore this thriving center of 3,000,000 homes the title of 'City of Brooklyn.'"

A final hurdle in negotiations between the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the National Broadcasting Company, and the Columbia Broadcasting System has been cleared, more than ten months after ASCAP music disappeared from the leading radio chains. An accord between ASCAP and the Independent Broadcasters was announced following a discussion in Manhattan yesterday during which final points of contention were resolved.

("Frankie 'The Fireball' Sinkwitch." "Fireball?" With hips like that?)

("SEZ YOU!" bellows Sally. "Huh?" says Joe. "Did I tell ya today," she replies, "Leonora smiled! I seen 'er do it. I was singin' t' Hut Sut Song, an' she smiled! Ain'nat sumpin'!" "'At's pretty good. Make'eh do it again!" "AN' BESIDES ANY IDIOT COULD SEE IT'UZ A SPIT BALL!" "Aw, now she's cryin'!" "'Hut-sut rawson in a rillara an' a brawla-brawla soo-it...")

(The Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation's first job is to come up with a better name than The Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation. Start drafting the Boys!)

(You can be sure that the Old Timers will rally behind the VFW secession campaign. Some of them will even wear their Spanish-American War uniforms!)

(Point of order -- wouldn't having just one eye compromise your ability to accurately aim a gun?)

(OH YEAH? WHO APPOINTED YOU THE UNSEEN ARBITER OF MORALITY?)

(Actually, I have it on good authority that Premier Stalin prefers Mozart to Chopin, but you know, that's not politically viable just now.)

("We can be VERY good -- for 25 cents worth of chocolates!" Hey Scarlet, when you finish with that other kid, do something about these two, huh? And IRWIN'S BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS FOR A CHANCE LIKE THIS. "Even a worm will turn, huh SKINNY? Feel that rod in your back SKINNY? HOWYA LIKE THAT -- SKINNY! HA HA HA HA HAH!")

("Why don't you threaten him once more?")

("A band of hotheads?" This king-of-the-jungle racket isn't all it's cracked up to be.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"A watch! I say!" exults the Duke. "A Bulova or a Gruen? Perhaps a Hamilton!" "Be quiet. They're all looking at you," hushes the Duchess. "When they should be looking at me."

You haven't lived until you've had the chesse fondue at Woolworth's.

You'll sing a different tune, sister, when you run out of knees to skin. Oh, and Chief -- don't be so judgemental!

Before Gus took over "The Gumps" he was the News' sports cartoonist. Which explains the sheer athleticism of this Tyrannosaurus.

Willie paid extra for the reinforced seat in those pants, but look what it got him.

And thus we leave the Dude Hennick we knew, forever on the other side of that hill.

Gee, Gramps is in a bad mood. Wonder why?

Ha ha, Walt is old. And he's also fat, just look what he did to that poor basket.

Yeah, Jack seems the type who only reads the paper once a week.

The Asp is not a curly-haired lollypop.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
("SEZ YOU!" bellows Sally. "Huh?" says Joe. "Did I tell ya today," she replies, "Leonora smiled! I seen 'er do it. I was singin' t' Hut Sut Song, an' she smiled! Ain'nat sumpin'!" "'At's pretty good. Make'eh do it again!" "AN' BESIDES ANY IDIOT COULD SEE IT'UZ A SPIT BALL!" "Aw, now she's cryin'!" "'Hut-sut rawson in a rillara an' a brawla-brawla soo-it...")...

That's one take on it. It's still painful to read about it though.

....[ ("We can be VERY good -- for 25 cents worth of chocolates!" Hey Scarlet, when you finish with that other kid, do something about these two, huh? And IRWIN'S BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS FOR A CHANCE LIKE THIS. "Even a worm will turn, huh SKINNY? Feel that rod in your back SKINNY? HOWYA LIKE THAT -- SKINNY! HA HA HA HA HAH!")...

Irwin needed a new wardrobe for his moment of glory.

Fitz, rubbing his knee, quietly cheers Irwin on from his sofa.

... "A watch! I say!" exults the Duke. "A Bulova or a Gruen? Perhaps a Hamilton!" "Be quiet. They're all looking at you," hushes the Duchess. "When they should be looking at me."...

Oh for God sakes, take the train into Penn. He's not the King of England, but the guy who gave up the throne to marry a spiffed-up Senga.

The women newsdealers slapping the newsboy sounds like a Dick Tracy story.

... You haven't lived until you've had the chesse fondue at Woolworth's.....

It's different today as lunch counters are much less of a thing, but when I got to NYC in the '80s, the jockeying for a seat at a lunch counter, during the noon hour, in the financial district, was a (contact) sport unto itself.

...
And thus we leave the Dude Hennick we knew, forever on the other side of that hill....

I just continue to be moved by and marvel at what Caniff is doing. It's a shame his work isn't more appreciated today.

... Gee, Gramps is in a bad mood. Wonder why?...

At least this is a new variation of the usual Sunday "Harold Teen" joke.

... The Asp is not a curly-haired lollypop.

Scuttle really doesn't like curly hair.

It's time for Punjab & Co to get a wiggle on it before the water comes in.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's sad how far comics have fallen from what they were. Granted there are outstanding graphic novels being done today, but you can't really call comics a mass medium anymore in the way that they were eighty years ago, when everybody in every walk of life followed the daily strips. The fragmentation of popular culture ensures there'll never be another true mass medium again -- everything going forward will be designed to appeal to niche audiences, and I think we've really lost something as a society because of that.

Caniff will have a long career as a newspaper cartoonist, right up to his death in 1988. But we are seeing him now, here, in 1941, at the absolute peak of that career -- both in terms of the quality and the scope of the work he's doing, and in terms of his influence on the art and the size of his audience. Savor it, because as we've just seen with Raven herself, nothing lasts forever.

As a historical aside, Raven's death wasn't the first of a major character in comics. In 1929, Mary Gold, a supporting figure in "The Gumps," died of a long illness with her fiance arriving just moments too late to be at her side...

Melodrama at its most Victorian? Sure -- but it worked. And it created such an uproar that no one dared to do it again until what you've just seen unfold over the past week.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's sad how far comics have fallen from what they were. Granted there are outstanding graphic novels being done today, but you can't really call comics a mass medium anymore in the way that they were eighty years ago, when everybody in every walk of life followed the daily strips. The fragmentation of popular culture ensures there'll never be another true mass medium again -- everything going forward will be designed to appeal to niche audiences, and I think we've really lost something as a society because of that.

Caniff will have a long career as a newspaper cartoonist, right up to his death in 1988. But we are seeing him now, here, in 1941, at the absolute peak of that career -- both in terms of the quality and the scope of the work he's doing, and in terms of his influence on the art and the size of his audience. Savor it, because as we've just seen with Raven herself, nothing lasts forever.

As a historical aside, Raven's death wasn't the first of a major character in comics. In 1929, Mary Gold, a supporting figure in "The Gumps," died of a long illness with her fiance arriving just moments too late to be at her side...

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Melodrama at its most Victorian? Sure -- but it worked. And it created such an uproar that no one dared to do it again until what you've just seen unfold over the past week.

I think about this, "The fragmentation of popular culture ensures there'll never be another true mass medium again -- everything going forward will be designed to appeal to niche audiences, and I think we've really lost something as a society because of that." often as it is something we truly lost.

It's something that bound us together. You'd go into work the next day and talk about "the ballgame," or "Cheers," or "the Olympics" and pretty much everyone had watched the same thing. Heck, we all watched stuff we weren't that into because, one, you had few options and, two, you knew everyone else would be watching it so it was fun to participate even if you didn't care that much about, say, downhill skiing. Even with a movie, it if was a big hit, most people saw it and in some way, it joined us all together. Now, we all get to watch what we want, but we no longer have those shared moments.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Demands for vengeance rang thru the Senate today following the Navy's announcement that eleven crew members are missing and presumed lost, and ten were injured, following the submarine attack last week on the destroyer USS Kearny. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Tom Connolly (D-Texas) demanded today that American vessels must "shoot and shoot to kill" to avenge "the murderous and foul crime" against the destroyer. Senator Connolly predicted that the attack by a submarine "undoubtedly German" will quicken Senate action on the bill to repeal Section 6 of the Neutrality Act to permit the arming of US-flagged merchant ships. "Our vessels ought to sink every submarine in our defensive waters," declared Sen. Connolly. "It is revelation of the utter contempt of Hitler and his Nazi terrorism for all law, human and divine. We shall not tolerate the assassination of our sailors and the destruction of our ships. We must shoot -- and shoot to kill!"

Meanwhile, non-interventionist leader Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D-Montana) called for a "thorough investigation" of the Kearny incident by the Senate Naval Affairs Committee. "If the Germans are shooting at our ships that is a very serious matter," stated Sen. Wheeler. "If the Kearny was chasing a German submarine, as was the case in the Greer attack, the Senate should know about it." In that remark, Sen. Wheeler referred to a Navy report released last week that indicated the USS Greer had followed a submarine in the North Atlantic for several hours before the submarine launched a torpedo attack on the ship -- firing twelve torpedoes, all of which missed their target.

It was acknowledged today by the Navy that the eleven missing men from the Kearny have "less than a one in a million chance of survival."

Red Army forces and Soviet Home Guards are holding firm in the most ferocious fighting of the war so far, as German invasion forces spearheaded by thousands of tanks massed in wedges press forward toward Moscow from four sectors. Premier Josef Stalin decreed a state of siege today for the Soviet capital, and announced the mobilization of the city's entire population to hold the city "to the last drop of blood." A report in the Communist Party newspaper Pravda described columns of armed women marching out of the city to fight alongside their husbands and brothers at the front, as the entire Moscow population of 4,000,000 prepares for a siege which may pale any in history.

("Hmph," snorts Sally. "I wanna see a floozy, I can go lookit any street co'nah in Red Hook." "Hah," hahs Joe. "T'Dook don' look like no saileh!")

Booklets appeared today in the city praising the accomplishments of Mayor LaGuardia's administration since 1934, and were denounced by the O'Dwyer campaign as having cost in excess of $355,000. Terming the pamphlets "the most elaborate political campaign ever turned out in the city," O'Dwyer campaign manager Charles Murphy pointed to them as evidence that "some political Midas has opened his purse strings" in an effort to secure a third term for the Mayor. Mr. Murphy noted the elaborate presentation of the campaign literature, including a "multi-colored campaign book with the Mayor's photograph on the cover" which, asserted Mr. Murphy, "is evidently designed to capture the children's vote." The O'Dwyer campaign chief further speculated that all together, the Mayor's reelection drive has spent over $1,000,000 in the weeks leading up to the vote.

A 28 year old woman identified only as Mary Rogers is in critical condition today at Kings County Hospital after she hurled herself off a BMT subway platform into the path of an oncoming train. The incident occurred last night on the Brighton Line at the Prospect Park station, and before the motorman could bring the Manhattan-bound train to a stop, the forward truck of the lead car had passed over the woman's body. The woman's skull was fractured and her left arm severed at the shoulder. Police found a note in her handbag declaring her intention to commit suicide because she was "unhappy and disgusted with life," that she had no money or life insurance, and that she desired to be buried in Potter's Field.

A 56-year-old laborer is in Kings County Hospital with an axe wound to the head, following an argument with a fellow roomer. Hugo Carson, who lives in a furnished room at 18 St. Andrew's Place, suffered a deep scalp laceration when he was hit with an axe by 45-year-old Harry Edsaw of the same address. Edsaw told police that Carson began to chase him around the room with the axe during their argument and that he took the axe away from him and in the course of the struggle Carson was struck in the head.

A 20-year-old Manhattan man is in Bellevue Hospital after terrifying a Times Square crowd last night with a threat to jump off the ninth-floor fire escape of the New Amsterdam Theatre. John Conyers of 942 3rd Avenue, spent "a considerable time" yesterday shouting insults at the crowd assembled below, and struck an employee of radio station WOR, which maintains a studio in the theatre, who tried to pull him off the fire escape. Patrolman John Sheehan of the 54th Precinct, his uniform concealed by a civilian topcoat, sneaked onto the fire escape behind him, and the two engaged in a dramatic struggle in which they both nearly fell off the platform before a sergeant from W. 54th Street came to Sheehan's aid and subdued Conyers. The would-be suicide had to be trussed up while an ambulance was summoned, and he disconsolately informed his rescuers that "unrequited love" had driven his actions.

(I'm impressed that Gracie Allen reads the Eagle. I bet she really likes "Dan Dunn.")

(Ah, a new Olsen and Johnson show. No doubt a searing Odets-like social-conscience drama taking an uncompromising look at the problems of our times.)

(Mr. Robinson's ads have long been a staple in the back pages of pulp magazines, but I think this is the first time we've met him in the distinguished columns of the Eagle. Hey Frank, does God still talk to you if you call collect?)

The Eagle Editorialist proudly endorses John Cashmore for reelection to the office of Borough President. In the year and eight months since he replaced the late Raymond V. Ingersoll, Mr. Cashmore has "provided genuine civic leadership," even when dealing with "politically hostile officials at City Hall."

("Besides, he's much balder than Cordell Hull.")

(A Dodger football game at Ebbets Field with Glenn Miller's band playing the halftime show? You can't get much more 1941 than that.)

It's "Lieutenant Commander Arthur Godfrey, USN," if you please, early mornings on WABC. The sunrise spieler never fails to promote the Navy, in which he is an actual commissioned officer, with the same zeal he displays in razzing his many sponsors -- his Washington show is sponsored by a furrier whose shop is marked by, in Godfrey's words, "the sign of the dirty polar bear," and his comments on other sponsors can be equally piquant. Arthur, who broadcasts into New York by direct wire from his farm in Virginia, was recently cited by students at NYU as the owner of "the perfect radio voice."

("Oh, Sparky, do let's fly to our honeymoon on the new plane I bought at Joy Beaverduck's estate sale!")

(Haunted by a legion of demons of his own making.)

(Today's strip is brought to you by the FHA's Homes For Defense program. For more information contact your local office!)

("Beaten by a fat guy! THE SHAME OF IT!")

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Under Tone's guidance..." Well, at least it wasn't Lionel Atwill's guidance.

This is why I always keep the doors closed during rehearsals.

Uh oh.

Yeah, you guys, they don't call him "the Asp" because his name is Alexander Sidney Perlman.

If only my brother had hypnotic powers, he wouldn't be sleeping on a cot in a cellar.

BIG STOOP????!!!! WHERE WERE YOU A WEEK AGO?????

Gum Girls! Hmph! Never around when you need one.

"On the other hand, he's got a defense job, and if we get married, that's an easy 3-B!"

Would it kill anyone to put a lock on that bathroom door?

So Gramps, how'd the football game go?

 

[Harp]

So, Caniff received hate mail from Raven fans. That lead Bronx bomb, yeah, kinda expect that pitch
from the Bronx, Yankee fans don't pull punches.

 

[Fading Fast]

...
("Hmph," snorts Sally. "I wanna see a floozy, I can go lookit any street co'nah in Red Hook." "Hah," hahs Joe. "T'Dook don' look like no saileh!")...

"T'Dook"

...A 20-year-old Manhattan man is in Bellevue Hospital after terrifying a Times Square crowd last night with a threat to jump off the ninth-floor fire escape of the New Amsterdam Theatre. John Conyers of 942 3rd Avenue, spent "a considerable time" yesterday shouting insults at the crowd assembled below, and struck an employee of radio station WOR, which maintains a studio in the theatre, who tried to pull him off the fire escape. Patrolman John Sheehan of the 54th Precinct, his uniform concealed by a civilian topcoat, sneaked onto the fire escape behind him, and the two engaged in a dramatic struggle in which they both nearly fell off the platform before a sergeant from W. 54th Street came to Sheehan's aid and subdued Conyers. The would-be suicide had to be trussed up while an ambulance was summoned, and he disconsolately informed his rescuers that "unrequited love" had driven his actions....

"Patrolman John Sheehan of the 54th Precinct, his uniform concealed by a civilian topcoat, sneaked onto the fire escape behind him, and the two engaged in a dramatic struggle in which they both nearly fell off the platform..."

There are a lot of quiet heroes in the world.

...
(I'm impressed that Gracie Allen reads the Eagle. I bet she really likes "Dan Dunn.")...

I don't know a lot about Gracie Allen, but from the humor in her skits with Burns, I could also see her very much enjoying "The Bungles"

... View attachment 371063 (Mr. Robinson's ads have long been a staple in the back pages of pulp magazines, but I think this is the first time we've met him in the distinguished columns of the Eagle. Hey Frank, does God still talk to you if you call collect?)...

"A dollar of advertising revenue is a dollar of advertising revue" would be a very 1940s editor's (or my dad's) response.

... ("Oh, Sparky, do let's fly to our honeymoon on the new plane I bought at Joy Beaverduck's estate sale!")...

That's cold, Lizzie.

... (Today's strip is brought to you by the FHA's Homes For Defense program. For more information contact your local office!)...

So Mary, where did you get the capital to upgrade the hotel (and pay off the city officials for the permits, certificate of occupancy, etc.)?

... ("Beaten by a fat guy! THE SHAME OF IT!")

Fitz, "hehehe."

...
"Under Tone's guidance..." Well, at least it wasn't Lionel Atwill's guidance....

Tone was in the middle of his marriage career as he would divorce Ms. Wallace in '49 and, then, go on to have two more divorces after that for a career total of four divorces. Putting him in the utility-infielder category of Hollywood divorcees.

... This is why I always keep the doors closed during rehearsals....

What the heck is a "Kre-Mel Dessert?"

I'd buy a box each of Loft's "Sweet of the Week."

...
Uh oh....

While in the minority, there clearly are some who understand and appreciate the artistic skill in what he did.

...[ Yeah, you guys, they don't call him "the Asp" because his name is Alexander Sidney Perlman....

"That officious prying young man." Your language, please, kids are reading this.

Again, time for Punjab and Co. to get a wiggle on it, the water's a commin'.

... So Gramps, how'd the football game go?

"Screw you 'Dale Allen,' I can draw a ridiculously skinny waist too." - Carl Ed

 

[LizzieMaine]

Delicious "Kre-Mel," another fine product of the Corn Products Refining Company, is a corn-starch based pudding dessert. Just mix, heat, chill, and serve, as you join the convenience-foods revolution. Of course, Royal Pudding and Jell-O pudding got there first, but whatever. There's always room down on the bottom shelf at Bohack's.

I look forward to the Asp liquidating all these lame thugs and going off to join Nick's secret campaign aiding the guerilla forces in the Ukraine.

The morning of the 17th, the day after Raven's death hit doorsteps across New York City, an enormous funeral wreath was delivered to the Daily News Building. Mr. Caniff was summoned at once to Captain Patterson's office, certain that he was about to be fired. Instead, he was congratulated and handed a sack full of mail -- and it was then he realized the full import of what he'd done.

The reaction was not confined to New York --

-- from the October 18th Chicago Tribune, where even old Colonel McCormick was said to have been moved to tears.

-- The Atlanta Constitution, October 17th.

Don't light a fuse, in other words, unless you're ready for an explosion.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Methinks that Grandpa Tim is about to involuntarily hear some hurtful stuff. Better now than later, obviously, but he still seems like a kind old guy who doesn't deserve the grief.

 

[Harp]

The morning of the 17th, the day after Raven's death hit doorsteps across New York City, an enormous funeral wreath was delivered to the Daily News Building. Mr. Caniff was summoned at once to Captain Patterson's office, certain that he was about to be fired. Instead, he was congratulated and handed a sack full of mail -- and it was then he realized the full import....

I must admit to a bit of surprise at the public reaction to Raven's death since I saw her in a favorable,
albeit different light than Burma, Hu Shee, or even Dragon Lady. Then too, I picked up the strip mid game
and missed the earlier scenes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Raven was a pretty tough, no-nonsense type when Pat, April, and Captain Blaze encountered her while escaping from the Invader. She immediately made them work for their keep, and got under Pat's skin by dismissing him as a frivolous adventuring bum who was doing nothing serious to deal with the situation facing China. She picked up a rifle to emphasize her point, and she wasn't kidding about using it. When they made their way back to Hong Kong, and Pat found out who she really was, the bickering got even more intense. Had Dude not entered the picture around this time, doubtless it would have been Mr. Ryan trying his luck on the window ledge, but Raven probably would have slammed the window in his face.

Raven was also one of the very few people to have been in no way intimidated by the Dragon Lady, which, it must be said, seemed to impress the DL very much, even as she was rubbing her past history with Pat in Raven's face.

The whole story, which was in full swing in the winter-spring of 1940 is well worth reviewing some afternoon. As for Pat, it will be very interesting to see his reaction to Raven's death, given their history. Despite concerns that he may be lying dead in a ditch somewhere, the appearance today of Big Stoop, a key member of his entourage, would suggest that his long-awaited reappearance is imminent.

(Stoop has a rather intense back-story of his own -- he was once a slave of the Dragon Lady, who, annoyed by his impertinence, cut out his tongue, leaving him mute. He is also, as we will see, immensely strong. I guess he'd have to be.)