Feb. 9, 1944
Today we have:
— “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Adolphe Menjou and Irene Manning appear on “Mail Call” from Armed Forces Radio Service in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Archive.org.
— A 30-minute choral music program with operatic contralto Elizabeth Wyser performing “Adieu Foret” from “Jeanne d’Arc” by Tchaikovsky on “The Squibb Show.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
Feb. 9, 1944: Al Jolson is Jinx Falkenberg’s most constant visitor at her St. Luke’s Hospital bedside…. New Yorkers suspect that Wayne (wife-killer) Lonergan’s sudden coin (to hire a lawyer) came from men named in her diary … Betty Hutton is Capt. C. Gable’s morale builder this week … Rumor says more than 50 bars and grills in town may be refused their license renewals by March 1. Because of trading in the sepia market.
Hollywoodites are depressed over “where to move now?” because of rumors that the Air Force will take over a score of coast hotels, including the two top ones in Beverly Hills.
Warning: Some pressure outfits are plotting to foment race disturbances by causing a series of inflammatory incidents in nearly all the prominent New York hotels … The program may even be extended to a nationwide basis. Certain persons are being coached in what to say and do in lobbies and cafes.
Feb. 8, 1944
It’s Tuesday in 1944 and today we have:
— “Fibber Makes Ice Cream” on “Fibber McGee and Molly.” (Notice the gag about loansharking and recall that New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was calling for a crackdown on loan sharks). Courtesy of Archive.org.
Just when I thought I had seen every sort of lunacy that’s possible about the Black Dahlia case, I found this in my local paper yesterday. Did someone finally confess to the “grusome” murder? Look! It’s a saga of “explotation!” With cover art swiped from the James Ellroy novel.
Feb. 7, 1944: Karsh photographs George Bernard Shaw, 87, for the cover, with more Karsh portraits inside. Features include American prisoners who escaped from the Japanese in the Philippines, the radio show “Inner Sanctum” and the movie “Gung Ho.” Courtesy of Google.
February 7, 1944
It’s Monday in 1944 and today we have:
— Hop Harrigan refuses to leave Tank behind in escaping from Berlin with the secret plans in “Hop Harrigan.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “His Butler’s Sister” with Deanna Durbin, Pat O’Brien and Robert Paige on “Lux Radio Theater.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 7, 1944
The Magic Lantern: Danny Kaye, who knocked off B’way in his first start, put Hollywood in his pocket the same way. His starter, “Up in Arms,” makes him a Milquetoast in khaki and gives him a chance for his grand clowning and his jabber-jive. Constance Dowling and Dinah Shore breeze home with him…. “The Curse of the Cat People” is a floorer to the claim that you meet nicer people in your dreams.
Too many radio jesters really believe the studio audiences’ howls as legitimate. The result is that the comics are getting careless. What brings laughter in studios often brings yawns in the parlor.
The Love Letter of the Week: From Quentin Reynolds’ book “The Curtain Rises”: “Most of what I wrote in the diary is nothing but gossip. Still, I suppose if a thousand years from now someone were to dig up the Winchell columns of the 1920s, he would get a pretty clear picture of life here during those hectic days. You cannot dismiss gossip columns by saying they discuss only trivial things. To a great extent they reflect the age in which we live.”
Feb. 7, 1944: For many years Rachel Field worked in Paramount’s New York office as a script reader, examining the merit of all submitted material … She once remarked: “Hmf, I can do better than some of this stuff. Some day I’m going to write one and see it made into a Paramount film” … Years after, she finished her first best-seller, “All This and Heaven, Too” … The royalties and prestige were tremendous, but Rachel’s ambition was not yet fulfilled. The book was filmed by Warner’s … Last year she wrote “And Now Tomorrow” — and died shortly after — before the agent sold it … To Paramount.
Feb. 6, 1944
It’s Sunday in 1944 and today we have
— From Roosevelt Base on Terminal Island, it’s “The Jack Benny Show.” Note the gags about fish canneries on Terminal Island. Courtesy of Archive.org.
Feb. 5, 1944
It’s Saturday in 1944 and today we have:
— The Band of the Training Command of the Army Air Forces under the direction of Capt. Glenn Miller with Cpl. Ray McKinley. The opening “In the Mood” sounds like the familiar arrangement, but what an odd version of “Holiday for Strings.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
Feb. 5, 1944: American troops encounter tough fighting against the Nazis as they get closer to Rome. An NBC broadcast, courtesy of Archive.org.
Feb. 5, 1944: Grace Moore, who uses the Stork Club’s back door — which is what most celebs wish they could do — to avoid the starers, oglers and other celebrity-worshipers … Jean Arthur, the lovely lady in the red dress at Carnegie Hall … Michele Morgan in tweeds at Coq Rouge — eclipsing all the ladies in decolette.
We hear a midtown hotel murder has never hit the front pages. The pair registered as Mr. and Mrs. George Washington. She was found nude, dead. The Sherlocks haven’t located him yet … Bob Dunn says he knew The Paper Doll when she was An Old Bag.
From the St. Peterburg Times.
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March 16, 1936: Times artist Charles Owens and columnist Timothy Turner visit the St. Charles Hotel at 314 N. Main, which was formerly the Bella Union Hotel.
“This was one of the two best hotels in Los Angeles not so long ago as history goes,” Turner writes. “It was the famed Hotel Bella Union, built first of adobe about 1849 and rebuilt in exactly its present form in the late ’50s.”
Feb. 4, 1944
Today we have:
— “Missing People’s Bureau” on “Amos ‘N’ Andy.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
Feb. 4, 1944: “Dear Walter,” writes Maurice Rocco, “It must be an oldie but it still gets the biggest laugh wherever gamblers gather. About the wife who (going through her groom’s pockets) found a slip of paper on which was memo’d ‘Ruth.’ She asked him: ‘What’s this mean?’
” ‘Oh,’ he oh’d, ‘that’s a horse I played today.’ Then the phone rang. She picked up the receiver.
” ‘Darling,’ said the Mrs., ‘your horse wants to talk to you.’ ”
Raymond Page read it long ago: About the diplomat from Europe, who after witnessing Congress in action the first time, observed: “Congress is strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens and then all disagree.”
From the St. Petersburg Times.
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No Google search drives more traffic to the L.A. Daily Mirror than some permutation of “Carole Lombard Death Scene” or “Carole Lombard’s Head” or “Carole Lombard Decapitated” or “Did They Ever Find Carole Lombard’s Wedding Ring?” And as I have noted before, there are no Carole Lombard death scene photos here. I wouldn’t publish them if there were any.
But Eve Golden reports after reading Robert Matzen’s “Fireball” that Lombard’s body was never photographed, at least according to Matzen.
Eve writes:
Her body was found under a wing, so is not in any crash site photos, and none were taken at the morgue at the behest of the studios, because they knew damn well they would be leaked! She was ID’d through dental records.
And Eve says the book was much better than she expected.
So folks, stop looking for Carole Lombard snuff pictures. There aren’t any.
Thanks Eve!
Feb. 3, 1944
It’s Thursday in 1944 and today we have:
— Donald O’Connor and Marilyn Maxwell are Bing Crosby’s guests on the “Kraft Music Hall.” Courtesy of Archive.org
“A close second as the Best Production Still Out-of-Doors, is this beautifully composed and lighted scene from “Song of Bernadette,” 20th-Century-Fox production, by Stax Graves,” Courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Over its 87-year-old history, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recognized outstanding work by individuals involved in the filmmaking process. Above-the line-talent like actors and directors have been recognized, along with behind-the-scenes contributors like editors, composers, and production and costume designers. Science and technology experts are also receive awards for their contributions in improving equipment and technology for the filmmaking process.
For four years during the 1940s, AMPAS also presented awards to motion picture studio stills photographers, recognizing their work in producing creative and beautiful visual representations selling motion pictures to consumers. Although the winning stillsmen did not receive Oscar statuettes or gain wide publicity for their awards, this competition was the very first important public acknowledgment of the importance still photographers played in promoting films to the movie-going public.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
Feb. 3, 1944: Walter Winchell devotes his entire column to an organization called Peace Now. He did not approve.
From the St. Petersburg Times.
