The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

(Better go get your collar cleaned, Reverend, the stains still show. And I imagine we'll see Amen going into the Army any day now, and how fortunate it is that there will never again be police corruption in Brooklyn.)

President Roosevelt today ordered all Government agencies in the capital and thruout the country to contribute "every possible ounce" of scrap rubber to the collection campaign which he has extended to July 10th. The President issued the order as drastic new rubber conservation measures, including the extension of gasoline rationing, loomed for American motorists unless the ten-day extension of the rubber drive produces results. In New York City, Eugene McCabe, chairman of the citywide salvage drive, stated that yesterday's figure of 492 tons collected was the largest yet in the campaign, and he predicted that still better results will be received in the final days of the drive.

There will be further firings in various city departments in order to meet pay raises ordered by a recent Court of Appeals decision, Mayor LaGuardia announced today. Calling the decision "unpleasant," the Mayor warned that "employees must realize there is only so much money and no more." Apparently the employees to be dismissed are those who would receive the mandated pay increases, starting at $120 per year, but the Mayor also stressed that there will "not be many firings," with economies, vacancies, retirements, and transfers expected to absorb most of the increase.

The Sperry Gyroscope Company, now employing 2100 workers at its new manufacturing plant at Lake Success, Nassau, indicated today that it intends to double that work force. It was also reported to the Public Service Commission that three new bus lines for Sperry workers have been granted operating permits by the New York War Authority, and await only authorization by the commission to begin operation.

("Aw, t'at's jus' swell," sighs Joe. "Buncha rookies need ta get broke in!" "Ain' it awrful," chuckles Sally. "An' 'fore ya know it, t'ey'll be bumpin' ya right off t' night shif'." "Ya t'ink?" replies Joe. "I dunno, seem t'me like t'ey'll need us ol' hans t'keep all 'ese fresh kids in line." "How long you been woikin'neah again? Six, seven mont's?" "Laaaaaaawnganuff.")

(Coming soon in "Smilin' Jack...")

For half a million boys and girls in Brooklyn and Queens, the ringing of the school bells today meant ten and a half weeks of freedom, as classes recessed until September 14th. The school system will continue in operation, however, for special classes for the training of war workers, with most teachers of vocational subjects remaining at work thru the summer to conduct these courses. However, five evening high schools have been officially terminated as a budget-cutting measure, and at Bushwick Evening High School, one of the schools that will not reopen in the fall, the entire faculty rose in protest, arguing that students will need to travel an additional hour to reach the nearest operating night school in New Lots.

New and more rigid restrictions on the issuance of supplemental gasoline rations will be imposed by the Office of Price Administration, with C cards issued only to fourteen specific classes, including those engaged in official Government business, newspaper photographers, public health workers, transportation workers engaged in the movement of food products, persons engaged in farm work, professional fishermen, repair and maintenance workers, salesmen for farm machinery, messengers, and those engaged in the movement of servicemen and war workers. Members of those classes will be required to prove their need for the supplemental ration, as will all those seeking the smaller supplemental B ration.

Motorists are reminded that tomorrow is the deadline to display the new Federal Use Tax Stamp on all autos. Violations will be punished by a $25 fine, 25 days in jail, or both.

(They're famous, but we're not going to tell you any of their names, because they're not THAT famous.)

($4 for a cheap suit of coveralls you can probably get for half that at Davega really is a bit much.)

The Eagle Editorialist notes word from London that the British are becoming "baseball conscious" after watching American soldier teams playing in city parks in their leisure time, and regrets that this constitutes the British introduction to the game, because "at least half of it is in the audience." "Comparing a game in London to a game at Ebbets Field is like comparing an English tart to an American apple pie!"

(Yeah, well, you're not fooling the draft board.)

(OK, I really need to see this picture. And Parrott may have a good point, but do they make movies about managers who sit quietly on the bench?)

(A prophet is not without honor save in his own country.)

(Hope your insurance is paid up.)

(Hmph. I've seen better moustaches drawn on political posters.)

(Yes, but there's *degrees* of stupid.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Odds that the Reverend reappears on Page Four within the next two years now running 1-1.

"It's a living," sighs Judge Leibowitz.

Oh come on, "Daddy" didn't teach you about breaking-and-entering?

War is Heck.

When you've played your last card, that's when it's time to kick over the table.

"Poof."

Y'know, Bimbo, I remember you thought the same thing about Millie. BEFORE YOU MARRIED HER.

Just be careful where you point that thing.

All right, that's hard boiled.

"Oh, and I almost forgot -- GIN."

 

[Fading Fast]

(Better go get your collar cleaned, Reverend, the stains still show. And I imagine we'll see Amen going into the Army any day now, and how fortunate it is that there will never again be police corruption in Brooklyn.)
...

When the case started, I thought the jury would find against the Reverend because he was so obviously slimy, but the evidence presented showed no undo influence based on my limited understanding of that term. We all know what the Reverend did, but he did it legally.

...

The Sperry Gyroscope Company, now employing 2100 workers at its new manufacturing plant at Lake Success, Nassau, indicated today that it intends to double that work force. It was also reported to the Public Service Commission that three new bus lines for Sperry workers have been granted operating permits by the New York War Authority, and await only authorization by the commission to begin operation.

("Aw, t'at's jus' swell," sighs Joe. "Buncha rookies need ta get broke in!" "Ain' it awrful," chuckles Sally. "An' 'fore ya know it, t'ey'll be bumpin' ya right off t' night shif'." "Ya t'ink?" replies Joe. "I dunno, seem t'me like t'ey'll need us ol' hans t'keep all 'ese fresh kids in line." "How long you been woikin'neah again? Six, seven mont's?" "Laaaaaaawnganuff.")
...

So I assume Joe is now working at this new location? Is the commute longer?

...

(Coming soon in "Smilin' Jack...")
...

The Eagle missed the key unanswered question in the story, which is what cased a presumably healthy nineteen-year-old girl to faint for over an hour in the air and, then, again after she landed.

...

The Eagle Editorialist notes word from London that the British are becoming "baseball conscious" after watching American soldier teams playing in city parks in their leisure time, and regrets that this constitutes the British introduction to the game, because "at least half of it is in the audience." "Comparing a game in London to a game at Ebbets Field is like comparing an English tart to an American apple pie!"
...

"Comparing a game in London to a game at Ebbets Field is like comparing an English tart to an American apple pie!"

That's supposed to be a food metaphor, right?

...

(OK, I really need to see this picture. And Parrott may have a good point, but do they make movies about managers who sit quietly on the bench?)
...

I've never seen it either. It certainly isn't in TCM's regular rotation, but it is probably out there somewhere - it just depends on which platform and at what price.

...

"It's a living," sighs Judge Leibowitz.
...

[After loudly banging the gavel several times] "Did I say 10 to 20, I meant 20 to 30!" [sotto voce] "Who's the 'punk' now?"

...

Just be careful where you point that thing.
...

Because you don't want to catch anything. Also, be careful where you point your rifle, you could hurt someone.

...

All right, that's hard boiled.
...

Jesus.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(Do you get the sense that everybody in 1942 is in a really bad mood?)

(The whole story of Peter Panto's murder will probably never be known, but it doesn't take a whole lot of guesswork to assemble a reasonable picture.)

The time-tested issue of majority rule was injected into the struggle over the Democratic Party's nomination for Governor by state chairman James A. Farley today, after spiking an attempt to draft him, and virtually proclaiming the race won by Attorney General Harold J. Bennett of Brooklyn. In the first public declaration he has made since the beginning of a clash behind the scenes by Attorney General Bennett's opponents to block his nomination, Chairman Farley asserted that the Brooklyn candidate is now favored by counties which will have approximately two thirds of the delegates needed to secure the nomination at the State Democratic Convention. "As a firm believer in the two-party system of government," declared Chairman Farley, "I cannot conceive of any move by anybody in responsible positions of leadership within the party to interfere with the will of the majority."

An exiled Polish general plunged to his death today from the roof of his fashionable residence at 3 Riverside Drive in Manhattan. General Boleslaw Weiniava Diugszowski, aged 60, left behind no notes, and his family was unable to suggest a reason for his suicide, but the General's wife did tell police that earlier in the day he "received a telegram that upset him." Upon investigation it was learned that the telegram merely advised the General that he had been recognized by the government of Cuba as an official respresentative of the Polish government in exile. General Diugszowski, former Polish ambassador to Italy, escaped with his family to Detroit at the start of the present war, and moved to New York a year ago.

Even Santa Claus will feel the pinch of wartime priorities, with a War Production Board order halting all use of metal in the manufacture of toys and games. As the ban goes into effect, toy manufacturers report they have only reached 70 percent of their projected requirements for the 1942 holiday season. The order places no limit on the use of wood or wool in the manufacture of toys, but all use of iron, steel, zinc, and rayon is now prohibited, except in circumstances where the materials in question make up less than 7 percent by weight of the total article.

(DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON???)

Appointment of a military commission to try eight German saboteurs arrested by G-men last week is said to be under consideration this week by President Roosevelt as a possible solution to the legal technicalities of the case. Spokesmen for the War and Justice Departments refused to comment on the reports, but it is believed that formation of a military tribunal rather than courts-martial is "being given strong consideration." Conviction of the spies by a military commission would almost certainly result in the execution of the saboteurs by firing squad.

("Hey, Riff!" snorts Sally. "Whatcha say we go outta Sans' Pernt t'is weeken'!" "I'm witcha, Raff," chortles Joe. "Just leemee get out me Davega bate'n suit. Onna utta han', neveh min' -- less go Valley Stream style!")

The war is opening new doors to employment for the crippled and disabled, with the Federation for the Crippled and Disabled reporting that it has placed more than 100 handicapped persons in important war jobs in the city, and demand is increasing. These men and women now work on lathes, drills, valves, at drafting tables, in packing departments, on switchboards and teletype machines, and at other duties vital to war production and administration. The Federation was founded in 1938 by three men who have but two legs and three hands between them, and at present more than forty percent of its total membership comes from Brooklyn. The organization is opening a clearing office at 47 S. Oxford Street, where handicapped persons may apply for aid and preliminary interviews for employment in war industries.

Two thousand Brooklyn orphans, boys and girls alike, cheered on their Dodgers at Ebbets Field yesterday as District Tax Supervisor David F. Soden hosted his twelfth annual baseball outing, and despite the Brooklyn loss to the Boston Braves, no child left the ballpark without a smile. The orphans were personally greeted on their arrival by Dodger president Larry MacPhail, who introduced them to Pee Wee Reese, Pete Reiser, and others of their favorites who signed autographs as Mrs. James Mulvey, daughter of late Dodger co-owner Stephen W. McKeever, distributed cookies, candy, and ice cream.

Hollywood actor Lionel Atwill faces perjury charges for statements made during a hush-hush year-long investigation of "wild parties" at his home in the isolated Pacific Palisades. Atwill has denied charges by actress Virginia Lopez that the parties featured "wild revels by nude guests," that "lewd films" were shown, and that the 57-year-old actor himself served liquor to a sixteen-year-old girl who was then seen "in a compromising position" with film producer Eugene Frenke, husband of former silent-picture star Anna Sten. Because Atwill made these denials under oath, he is now being held on $1000 bail on the basis of a thirty-page complaint.

The Eagle Editorialist praises Assistant Attorney General John H. Amen for "raising the tone of criminal investigation" during his now-concluding probe of police and political corruption in the borough. "It is our feeling that the most important accomplishment of Mr. Amen and his associates has been to change the attitude of Brooklyn toward the prosecution of rackets, and other crimes, bringing home the attitude that such conditions can be eradicated if the proper methods are used."

("And the draft is faring poorly as well -- look at the Dodgers!)

(Is the Eagle getting paid to promote this movie? If it turns out to be a lemon, never mind Durocher, Mr. Schroth will go on a rampage.)

There's a reason why "It Happened In Flatbush" is called that and not its original title, "Dem Lovely Bums." When Twentieth Century Fox announced the picture late last year, Larry MacPhail fired off a potent missive to Hollywood threatening to sue if the film was released under that title, arguing that "Bums" is "hardly a flattering title for a championship team, and it will be misunderstood out of town." The film opens tomorrow night, and rabid Dodger fans will not like how they are portrayed in it.

(Really? You're only catching onto him now? What took so long?)

("Well, at least we're insured. You did mail that check, Bill? Didn't you???")

(Ah, this must be the same guy who did Mama DeStross's work.)

(Guess who!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

"Now Charity, don't lose your temper. The wattles under your neck turn bright blue, and it's a very unflattering look."

The News, to its credit, minces no words.

Careful who you do business with.

To say nothing of that non-regulation cowlick. Where's the Army barber?

"Hey, I know someone who can raise the dead. Wish Sam the Presser was here!"

"You deuce-spot romeo!" Oh, Bimbo.

Good thing she's got one of those slow-burning fuses.

They can't help it, they've got an A card.

And kids everywhere wonder again why there's a piece torn out of the paper.

Point of order: Kayo was at that wedding, and yet he hasn't aged a day. I guess that's what happens when you live in a boardinghouse built on top of a cursed Indian burial mound.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

Even Santa Claus will feel the pinch of wartime priorities, with a War Production Board order halting all use of metal in the manufacture of toys and games. As the ban goes into effect, toy manufacturers report they have only reached 70 percent of their projected requirements for the 1942 holiday season. The order places no limit on the use of wood or wool in the manufacture of toys, but all use of iron, steel, zinc, and rayon is now prohibited, except in circumstances where the materials in question make up less than 7 percent by weight of the total article.
...

And that's it for model trains for the duration.

...

(Is the Eagle getting paid to promote this movie? If it turns out to be a lemon, never mind Durocher, Mr. Schroth will go on a rampage.) There's a reason why "It Happened In Flatbush" is called that and not its original title, "Dem Lovely Bums." When Twentieth Century Fox announced the picture late last year, Larry MacPhail fired off a potent missive to Hollywood threatening to sue if the film was released under that title, arguing that "Bums" is "hardly a flattering title for a championship team, and it will be misunderstood out of town." The film opens tomorrow night, and rabid Dodger fans will not like how they are portrayed in it....

The long history of the Yanks-Sox rivalry is something no modern one can replicate.

Good or bad, we gotta try to find a way to see that movie.

...

(Really? You're only catching onto him now? What took so long?)
....

"That's nothing, did I ever tell you about my floating elephant?"

...

(Ah, this must be the same guy who did Mama DeStross's work.)
...

Considering how many messed-up plastic surgeries we see, even on stars, today, I can't imagine what it must have been like back in the 1940s.

And in the Daily News...

"Now Charity, don't lose your temper. The wattles under your neck turn bright blue, and it's a very unflattering look."
...

It's not up there with "let them eat cake," but a pronouncement on the "riff-raff" at an informal town-board meeting is wonderful public snobbery on display.

After all that, the Reverend will get $2000/yr or about $36,000 in 2022 dollars. Hardly a small sum, but not champagne-and-caviar riches either. (Although, I'd pay money not to eat fish eggs.)

...


The News, to its credit, minces no words.
...

Just based on IMDB's listing of his movies, this, surprisingly, didn't seem to cause a ripple in Atwill's career. It's odd how much-less-bad publicity killed some other careers back then. Yet his and Mary Astor's survive publicity that you would have thought would have ended theirs.

...

And kids everywhere wonder again why there's a piece torn out of the paper.
...

Between this and the last two days of "Harold Teen," kids would be better off reading Page Four. I'd rather answer, "Dad, why did the nice old lady leave the Revered so much money," than "Dad, why is she sitting a box full of dynamite with a lit fuse," or have to explain "Dad, what's that man going to do to Normandie after Merrily goes to bed?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

(My my. O'Dwyer leaves town and everythng goes to hell. Can we at least chip in and get Mr. Spencer a pair of earmuffs?)

A Brooklyn man and a Queens woman are dead after being struck by lightning during yesterday's two-and-a-half-hour thunderstorm. Thirty-six-year-old Joseph Barachi of 147 Prospect Park South was bathing at the foot of Ocean Parkway, while his wife and daughter were walking on the Boardwalk nearby, when he was hit by a lightning bolt. Police Emergency Squad 11 and an ambulance surgeon from Harbor Hospital worked Barachi over for an hour before he was pronounced dead. In Kew Gardens, thirty-four-year old Mrs. Sophie Handel of 83-19 116th Street was walking along 116th Street with her fourteen-year-old son when the storm erupted. The two sought shelter under a tree, which was hit by lightning, and a large branch fell on Mrs. Handel. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Along with those fatalities, several houses in Brooklyn and Queens were struck during the storm, and passengers aboard an Ocean Avenue trolley between Neck Road and Avenue W were thrown into a panic when a bolt struck the car. As acrid smoke from the burning control box filled the trolley, passengers smashed out six windows in an effort to escape, and seven persons were treated for shock and minor injuries.

Efforts to draft Wendell Willkie as the Republican candidate for New York governor continued today despite his repeated assertions that he "has no intention of becoming a candidate." Stanley M. Rhinehart, Manhattan publisher, and head of the Draft Willkie Committee, discontinued planned newspaper advertisements today in view of Mr. Willkie's statement, but indicated that the campaign will, nevertheless, continue. The Willkie movement also received an endorsement from the Greater New York Industrial Union Council, which today urged President Roosevelt, Governor Lehman, and Mayor LaGuardia to combine forces now to back a candidate who "can win the support of progressive and labor forces." The Council voiced its objections to District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, seen as the leading Republican candidate, as well as Attorney General Harold Kennedy, favored by Democratic Party regulars, and put forward U. S. Senator James Mead, and Lt. Gov. Charles Poletti, both Democrats, along with Willkie, the 1940 Republican presidential nominee, as "the only acceptable candidates."

("Pink blanket picnics?" Is that what they call it now?)

A 28-year-old Brooklyn housewife, acquitted of first-degree murder charges in the "mercy shooting" last December of her mentally-deranged brother now faces a court judgement on the question of her own sanity. Mrs. Edith Reichert admitted to shooting George Horne in the head with a sawed-off shotgun as he lay in a bed at Kings Park Hospital, but insisted that she did so "to put him out of his misery." She was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, and it will now be up to the court to determine if she is now sane, or if she must be committed to a hospital for the insane.

("Jackass Mail" is what you call a movie when you're behind on a deadline, you're hungry, the commissary's closed, and you've got a date waiting for you at the racetrack.)

(Anything's better when it's encased in Jell-O.)

(Sally splats a handful of diaper back into the pail and sighs. "Don' rush it, kid.")

(Mr. Nolan is, I'd say, an excellent visual choice to play Leo. Except he has a better toupee. Up there in Boston, Terrible Tempered Ted has never been known as a hustling Pete Reiser type of player. I mean, he'd miss fly balls because he was standing the outfield practicing his swing. And note Mr. Roberto "Nick" Estallela in the photo. He is one of the many fine Cuban players signed by the Senators in the 1930s and 40s, but unlike most of them he has significant African ancestry. In much of the US, if this were known, he would be considered "a Negro." He isn't the first player to sneak past the color line, but he will be, in the years before Mr. Robinson, the most successful.)

("Ponies" = an obsolete term for crib notes. You're showing your age, Tuthill.)

("Well, that's awful, isn't it. Of course, we'll all be leaving town soon.")

(Mr. Moses really needs to do something about these water fountains.)

(Well, if she can snap a heavy gauge telephone cord with just a flick of the wrist like that, Dan, I'd suggest a look of mild annoyance really isn't the right reaction.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

I am not Mrs. Edith Reichert. I'm not.

Happy Anniversary! Let's all eat pie!

There are a lot of things a woman in this situation could do with broken glass, but let's hope they're just planning to climb out the window.

Just like a drama critic, thinks everybody admires him, blah blah blah.

"Did I mention she's also got guns? A lotta lotta guns?"

Yeah! Let somebody else get a word in!

"And I'm learning all kinds of new things. There's this keen game they play with dice..."

Well, she's not wrong!

And to make matters worse, your REAL anniversary isn't until October 6th! I looked it up. (And incidentially, that strip also revealed that Plushie's first name is, alas, "Joe." Joe Plushbottom. Why, I bet he isn't even a real lord.)

Hey, what's that smell? Something burning?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh, and let's all join Joe and Sally at the RKO Palace tonight!

 

[Fading Fast]

...


(Sally splats a handful of diaper back into the pail and sighs. "Don' rush it, kid.")
...

At 58 and having lived in several different households - growing up and, later, with a few live-in girlfriends (only one at at time though ) - I've never lived in a house where people had breakfast together. In fact, most of the time, no one even ate breakfast. I've seen it done on TV and in the movies, so I know what it looks like, but still, the idea of everyone sitting down and sharing a meal together in the morning feels foreign to me.

...

("Ponies" = an obsolete term for crib notes. You're showing your age, Tuthill.)
...

Wow, it's cool that you knew that as I had no idea what it meant even in that context.

Tuthill is wonderful at showing how a married couple just talks past each other. Jo and George don't even need to be in the same room since they basically have separate conversation anyway.

And in the Daily News...

I am not Mrs. Edith Reichert. I'm not.
...

The amazing thing is that "On the Waterfront" was tame versus reality.

She's no Madeline Webb, but I'm still going to miss the Zipper Girl.

...

There are a lot of things a woman in this situation could do with broken glass, but let's hope they're just planning to climb out the window.
...

Once again, life is surprisingly safer on Page Four.

...

"And I'm learning all kinds of new things. There's this keen game they play with dice..."
...

"...and I don't understand why, but a bunch of the guys queue up outside one house in town when we have a day pass. Seems like a waste of time to spend the little free time we have waiting in line. I'll have to ask somebody about that place."

Oh, and let's all join Joe and Sally at the RKO Palace tonight!

Very cool, I'm going to try to get to it this weekend. Thank you.

Did you watch it yet?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm planning to after work tonight, and am looking forward to seeing what Herb Cohn has to say about it tomorrow. Because you know he's already bought his ticket and is even now sitting on the sidewalk in front of the theatre waiting for the doors to open.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm planning to after work tonight, and am looking forward to seeing what Herb Cohn has to say about it tomorrow. Because you know he's already bought his ticket and is even now sitting on the sidewalk in front of the theatre waiting for the doors to open.

I just finished it. It's fun in a Hallmark/Disney way that does have little bits of real Brooklyn in it like the Irish mother making her son kosher corn beef (my dad grew up in that exact type of world) or the line about "the bankrolls and hopes" of Brooklyn resting on the outcome of a game.

It's a shame they couldn't use the name Dodgers.

The best parts were the real street scenes and scenes from Ebbets Field; whereas, the Hollywood-set locker room was painful. Lloyd Nolan was fine as the skipper, but his character was written too inconsistent to really be more than a caricature.

It's silly entertainment done in a very light '40s way.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Agreed. If anything they didn't go far enough, based on some of the stuff we've seen here over the years, in depicting the obsessiveness of the fandom -- I mean, where was Hilda? Where were the balloons? Where were the housewives glued every day to the radio? Where were the characters in Section 37 betting on the outcome of every pitch?

And it's also a pity they couldn't have found a way to work in the genuine insanity of Mr. MacPhail, but I imagine they figured getting one threatening letter from him was enough. I also kept hoping to see Mr. Nolan pop out with some Yiddish, a la Cagney, but that particular bit of lightning only strikes once. And if I were writing the picture, William Frawley would've been in uniform as a Fitz-type veteran pitcher-coach who runs a bowling alley on the side.

Still, an enjoyable bit of fluff that captures a very specific place and time quite nicely.

 

[Fading Fast]

Agreed. If anything they didn't go far enough, based on some of the stuff we've seen here over the years, in depicting the obsessiveness of the fandom -- I mean, where was Hilda? Where were the balloons? Where were the housewives glued every day to the radio? Where were the characters in Section 37 betting on the outcome of every pitch?

And it's also a pity they couldn't have found a way to work in the genuine insanity of Mr. MacPhail, but I imagine they figured getting one threatening letter from him was enough. I also kept hoping to see Mr. Nolan pop out with some Yiddish, a la Cagney, but that particular bit of lightning only strikes once. And if I were writing the picture, William Frawley would've been in uniform as a Fitz-type veteran pitcher-coach who runs a bowling alley on the side.

Still, an enjoyable bit of fluff that captures a very specific place and time quite nicely.

I love your idea for the Frawley character as he felt incredibly natural in the movie, but in the role he had, he was underutilized.

The movie could have been so much more, as you note, but Hollywood decided to make a non-controversial "feel good" movie that had no chance of offending anyone.

And what was with Nolan's "kid" (Squid), did I miss the explanation of how he ended up with Nolan?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I wondered about that, too -- maybe they just figured he needed someone to talk to, like Batman and Robin, and they didn't want to have it be a George Raft analogue.

Took me a minute to realize that Squid was played by Scotty Beckett, six years removed from his days as Spanky's sidekick with the baggy sweater and the sideways baseball cap in the Our Gang comedies.

It's written right into the Production Code that every baseball movie has to feature William Frawley.

 

[Fading Fast]

I wondered about that, too -- maybe they just figured he needed someone to talk to, like Batman and Robin, and they didn't want to have it be a George Raft analogue.

Took me a minute to realize that Squid was played by Scotty Beckett, six years removed from his days as Spanky's sidekick with the baggy sweater and the sideways baseball cap in the Our Gang comedies.

It's written right into the Production Code that every baseball movie has to feature William Frawley.

I only recognized him because, by chance, I had recently seen 1948's "A Date with Judy" where he plays a typical (fake Hollywood version of a) teenage boy.

I was enjoying the Sara Allgood character as the old-lady-with-spirit owner of the team and wish they didn't kill her off so soon, but I get that created the story's conflict.

 

[LizzieMaine]

(If you think the father's relieved, imagine how the mother feels.)

In Detroit, the first person to be convicted under Federal law of treason in more than 150 years faces a maximum penalty of death on the gallows after his conviction yesterday. Forty-nine-year-old tavern operator Max Stephan, a German-born naturalized citizen, was proclaimed a traitor to the United States after being found guilty of charges that he knowingly harbored, entertained, and gave money to a lieutenant in the German air force who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Canada. The conviction for high treason is the first in the United States since the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791.

Unless defense counsel succeeds today in obtaining a Supreme Court writ to stay the post-trial dictum of County Judge L. Barron Hill ordering her confined to the Mattawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, confessed mercy killer Mrs. Edith Reichert will be removed to that hospital today or tomorrow. The 29 year old Brooklyn housewife was found not guilty of first degree murder by reason of insanity in the shooting death of her incurable brother George Horne last December, but the judge ordered the decision on whether she should be freed should be left to the psychiatrists at Mattawan. Mrs. Reichert's attorney argued that confining her at the hospital might completely destroy her sanity, given that it was the contemplation of her brother's confinement at Kings Park State Hospital that led to her decision to "put him out of his misery."

Two thugs who held up the Hotel Bossert on May 27th to tak $73 from the night clerk today begin serving stiff sentences handed out yesterday by Kings County Judge Franklin Taylor. 27 year old Richard Kyler of Manhattan, one of the Bossert stickup men, will serve ten to thirty years in Sing Sing following a guilty plea, with his co-defendant, 19 year old John McGowan of Butztown, Pa., a second-time offender, drawing a 15 to 30 year term. A third participant in that robbery is still at large.

(Gee, and we had such high hopes.)

It's more difficult to read your paper while straphanging on the IRT and the BMT these days, with the Board of Transportation acting to conform with blackout regulations cutting the level of illumination on all cars by one-third. The florescent lighting tubes used on the trains have been sprayed with a masking paint to reduce the amount of light emitted. While subway officials acknowledged that the trains spend most of their time underground, it was pointed out there is no way to increase or reduce the illumination depending on whether the car is in a tunnel or on the surface.

Men with only one eye, or who are deaf in one ear, will now be eligible for limited military service in draft class 1-B, it was disclosed today by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Selectees inducted in class 1-B will be limited to those men who bring a specific needed skill from civilian life, and will be pooled under the Corps Area Service Command, to be assigned as needed to free up fully-qualified soldiers for task force duties.

An Army nurse from Ridgewood is back home after suffering thru the siege of Corregidor. Second Lt. Helen L. Summers of 50-35 Palmetto Street has had little to say about her experiences since returning to Ridgewood, but her father did tell reporters that Lt. Summers said "the horse hamburgers tasted good."

There will be no holiday tomorrow for workers at shipyards, aircraft factories, and other plants engaged in the manufacture of vital war materials. With this being the first wartime celebration of Independance Day in 24 years, nearly all defense plants intend to remain open, if not with full staffing than with at least skeleton crews. One exception is the Sperry Gyroscope Company, which will allow its workers the day off, since, a company official explained, Sperry workers receive no vacations.

(America's Biggest Small Town reminds you to "KEEP 'EM FLYING!")

("T'ey di'n show Ladies' Day," grumbles Sally, as she and Joe stand in front of the Mayflower Donut Shop after the movie, watching the sinkers bubbling and bobbing along in the grease. "T'ey was AFRAID t'show Ladies Day!" "Yeah," agrees Joe. "An'nat umpieh, a't onennat got slugged. He wan'nut'n like 'at Magehkoit'. F'one t'ing, HE COULD SEE!")

(War is Heck.)

In his first public remarks since he was released from prison, Communist Party chairman Earl Browder told a crowd at Madison Square Garden last night that House Un-American Activities Committee chairman Rep. Martin Dies (D-Texas) is "playing Hitler's game" in opposing the antI-Axis alliance of the United States with the Soviet Union. Mr. Browder praised labor leaders and industrialists alike for the cooperation in the interests of increased war production, but lambasted Rep. Dies and former President Herbert Hoover for their repeated attacks on the US-Soviet alliance. "Uncover the trail of Martin Dies," asserted the Communist leader to an audience of 20,000 cheering spectators, "and it will lead to most of the Axis agents in the United States, whose mission it is to break up national unity, throw the public into turmoil, sow suspicion and fear of our Allies, and block the way to an all out effort to win the war."

A Coney Island man seemed to repudiate the idea of a Neville Chamberlain-style umbrella as a symbol of appeasement last night, when he struck a fellow movie patron over the head with one during a show at a Mermaid Avenue theatre. 77-year-old Henry Samuel of 2926 W. 28th Street was arraigned in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court on an assault charge on a complaint that he hit 65-year-old Harris Pilkiun of 2869 W. 36th Street after Pilkiun refused to stop talking with his wife during a motion picture at the Mermaid Theatre. Samuel was paroled pending a hearing on Tuesday in Coney Island Court.

(Don't worry about Feller. Worry about the fact that you're playing .700 ball and only have a seven and a half game lead.)

World Champions of Negro baseball the Homestead Grays invade Dexter Park on Sunday for a doubleheader against the Bushwicks, as Max Rosner's boys cap their busiest weekend of the season. The Black Yankees swarm in for a twilight doubleheader tonight, with the Bay Parkways on tap for Saturday. The twinbill against the Grays will feature the slugging of catcher Josh Gibson, powerful Homestead backstop who has impressed everyone who has ever seen him, and who may well engage in a contest for home-run supremacy with hard-hitting Bushwicks outfielder Eddie Boland. The Grays have beaten and tied the locals in their two meetings so far this season.

("Well...a number of times before." Self awareness is such a struggle.)

("It's all right, dear. Bill mailed the insurance check before we left. DIDN'T YOU BILL!!!!!")

(Scarlet "frolics." I wouldn't have guessed her for the type.)

(WHOA! Never mind the FBI, toots -- you'll answer to the BELL SYSTEM!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

C'mon, Vic -- show a little enthusiasm.

Wait, there was another feature? Guess I missed it. There was a long line at the ladies' lounge.

Better get out that window fast.

Careful what you wish for.

"Age? Say, I'm a lot older than I look."

Review THIS!

It's easy when you know how.

"Ohhhhh the privates in the Army, they make the dishes shine! They think it's soap and water but it's really tur-pen-tine! Ohhhhh I don't want no more of Ar-my life, gee Ma I wanna go home!"

Just how slow-burning IS this fuse?

"Yeah, I know, but the pay's really good."

 

[Fading Fast]

...

It's more difficult to read your paper while straphanging on the IRT and the BMT these days, with the Board of Transportation acting to conform with blackout regulations cutting the level of illumination on all cars by one-third. The florescent lighting tubes used on the trains have been sprayed with a masking paint to reduce the amount of light emitted. While subway officials acknowledged that the trains spend most of their time underground, it was pointed out there is no way to increase or reduce the illumination depending on whether the car is in a tunnel or on the surface.
...

The draft, rationing, blackouts, sure, but reading the paper (folded in quarters lengthwise) in one hand, while hanging on a strap in a crowded subway car is a God-given right to New Yorkers. It's how you survive the subway. Now this war is getting serious.

...

There will be no holiday tomorrow for workers at shipyards, aircraft factories, and other plants engaged in the manufacture of vital war materials. With this being the first wartime celebration of Independance Day in 24 years, nearly all defense plants intend to remain open, if not with full staffing than with at least skeleton crews. One exception is the Sperry Gyroscope Company, which will allow its workers the day off, since, a company official explained, Sperry workers receive no vacations.
...

At least Sally and Joe can celebrate the Fourth together.

...

("T'ey di'n show Ladies' Day," grumbles Sally, as she and Joe stand in front of the Mayflower Donut Shop after the movie, watching the sinkers bubbling and bobbing along in the grease. "T'ey was AFRAID t'show Ladies Day!" "Yeah," agrees Joe. "An'nat umpieh, a't onennat got slugged. He wan'nut'n like 'at Magehkoit'. F'one t'ing, HE COULD SEE!")
...

Cohn either really enjoyed it or decided his job was to go all in for a picture based on the Dodgers.

...

A Coney Island man seemed to repudiate the idea of a Neville Chamberlain-style umbrella as a symbol of appeasement last night, when he struck a fellow movie patron over the head with one during a show at a Mermaid Avenue theatre. 77-year-old Henry Samuel of 2926 W. 28th Street was arraigned in Brooklyn-Queens Night Court on an assault charge on a complaint that he hit 65-year-old Harris Pilkiun of 2869 W. 36th Street after Pilkiun refused to stop talking with his wife during a motion picture at the Mermaid Theatre. Samuel was paroled pending a hearing on Tuesday in Coney Island Court.
...

The only way this could have been a more-Brooklyn thing would have been if it had happened at a showing of "It Happened in Flatbush."

...

("Well...a number of times before." Self awareness is such a struggle.)
...

Maybe she was a bandleader in another life.

...

(Scarlet "frolics." I wouldn't have guessed her for the type.)
...

Scarlett better not try that today.

...

It's easy when you know how.
...

The same old scams keeping finding new targets - they just roll forward every generation.

 

[Farace]

Not exactly on point with the newspaper, other than the ads that sometimes appear, and the occasional mention in discussion, but I thought it might be enjoyed by the folks that frequent this thread. If it has been previously discussed, I missed it, but last night we were looking for something to watch and stumbled across a documentary from last year about the history of the Horn & Hardart Automats. Quite enjoyable. If you have the Kanopy streaming service (which many libraries offer to their patrons, just need a library card to sign up), it is available there for viewing.

The Automat (2021) ⭐ 7.8 | Documentary, History

1h 19m | TV-PG

www.imdb.com