There are times when the old newspapers absolutely leave me speechless–and not in the good way. Yes, I realize this is a comic strip ("Tarzan") and yes, I realize it’s 1938 and not 2008. But good grief, I still find it shocking that something like this could be syndicated in the mainstream media. And to think that the comic books of the 1950s were persecuted because they supposedly warped young minds.

"Reprints of Rex Maxon’s Tarzan strips in the USA have been a rarity." –Dale Broadhurst.

This kind of writing is hard to duplicate: "The West’s largest arena–Memorial Coliseum–was transformed for the night into a gargantuan jeweled brooch such as Cellini might have been proud to have fashioned…. The electrical giants on the Colorado River groaned and whined as switches were thrown, hurtling the entire load of one high-power line direct from the dam power houses to the Coliseum."

The host is Jack Benny and the parade features Harold Lloyd, Mary Pickford, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Boris Karloff, Mickey Rooney, some starlet named "Movita.," My favorite moment? Leo Carrillo on a "white neon-lighted horse."  Of course there are elephants… and Eastern potentates … and Nubian slaves…

Franklin Pierce McCall is arrested in the kidnapping and death of 5-year-old Jimmy Cash. McCall’s mother says: "The boy has been in no trouble before in his life."

And Luise Rainer and Clifford Odets are splitsville.

People line up to get into the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette in the Harry Raymond bombing.

Also, 178 girls from the Los Angeles Orphan Asylum get a day at the beach … Britain is buying 400 airplanes from Southern California’s manufacturers: 200 bombers from Lockheed and 200 trainers from North American Aviation …  Eleanor Holm, who was suspended from the Olympic swim team for drinking, and bandleader Art Jarrett are splitsville. No, I’ve never heard of them either.

And you can get this hairdo at the Broadway.
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