1937 Part 1

Sixty-one years ago (that's right) I met a wonderful girl named Elaine.  Immediately smitten by her good looks and intelligence, I asked her to be my girlfriend, and 6 years later we were married.  We had a wonderful 43 years of marriage, and produced three marvelous children, who are carrying on our "line" with families of their own.  Early in this century, Elaine died unexpectedly during a heart bypass operation in Washington, D.C.  After a  year of grief, I was lucky to meet another Elaine, who has been my partner now for over ten years.  This blog entry is related to my first Elaine. 

As a 50th birthday gift for my "first Elaine," I ordered a copy of a newspaper that was published on the day she was born in 1937.  The ad had said that it would be an original "pristine" copy of a newspaper from the city where she was born.   When I opened the package, I found an old, yellowed cut-up copy of a New York Times newspaper.. definitely not The New Bedford Standard Times.  It apparently was obtained from some "throw-away" file of some library.. it even had holes on the side, where it had been held in those wooden frames that libraries probably still use today to keep each day's newspapers in an easily readable manner.

Elaine pretended to like the gift.  The paper was glanced at and then placed in an obscure corner of the "Vaughan Archives," where it lingered for another 25 years.. until I discovered it again last month.

Now, the pages are even more yellowed and crumbly, but before placing them in the recycling bag, I thought that it might be interesting (at least to me) to learn what the big news was 75 years ago,  according to that wonderful institution, The New York Times newspaper, and to make comments, that I am allowed to do now, as the certified "Blogger" that I have become in my old age.

Please remember that I am not as smart or well-read as Dahl Drenning on Pre-World War II conditions, but I'll give it a shot.  Also, I'm sure that all of  the Times newspapers are online now and can be reviewed by obtaining a digital subscription.. and I, or course, recommend that you do so. 

http://www.nytimes.com/


I will divide my 1937 comments into three parts:

1: Life in the United States

2. Life around the World

3. World War II

Life in the United States in 1937

The "Supremes"

No, not the singing group.. but instead, the nine "old timers" serving as Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was frustrated by these old folks and tried to "pack" the court so that he would not get his economic "measures" knocked down by that body.  His plan was to get Congressional approval to allow him to add a new Justice for every present member past the age of 70, who refused to retire.

Congressmen said that they were "snowed under" by mail against President Roosevelt's plan, and even  Herbert Hoover warned: "Hands off the Supreme Court!"  The President did not get his own way on this plan.

The Dust Bowl

Because of a number of factors, including greedy landowners, irrigation problems, droughts, and lack of crop rotation, vast parts of the United States were becoming deserts.  The best depiction of the situation was outlined later in Steinbeck's novel: The Grapes of Wrath, and then in the famous movie of the same name.



During 1937, dust-laden snow fell on the corn belt.. snow storms met dust storms.. and  crops were destroyed.

Automobiles

Even though Americans were still suffering from the Great Depression, they still continued their love of automobiles.  The NY Times had lots of ads for new and used cars. And the prices looked pretty good.  For instance: a used 1935 Chevrolet like I had, was offered for an average of $485.  (I bought mine in 1952 for $35.. and other than a few problems, like a noisy muffler and damaged wheel bearings.. ran great on 18 cents a gallon gas.)

There was a victory for the working man in 1937.. at least in Michigan.. General Motors (you remember them.. they went bankrupt recently, helped me lose a bunch of money on their stock, and were revitalized to earn their highest profits in 2011...)..well GM recognized the United Automobile Workers of America.

Help Wanted

The NY Times shows lots of Help Wanted ads.. looks like the country is recovering.  I liked the following ads, that give some interesting clues about U.S. life in 1937:

"Accountant, assistant, for public accounting firm; considerable prospects, experienced, under 30, good appearance, applications, in own handwriting, must give age, religion, experience in detail and salary required."

"Butler, experience, elderly, white; light, part-time work in exchange room, meals; $5. weekly."

"Puzzle creator, to create cartoon puzzles similar to those now appearing in newspapers; artistic ability not necessary; ...only high type person qualified to earn good salary need apply..."

Speaking of puzzles.. I was pleased to read that the National Puzzlers League held it's 1937 annual convention at the Hotel New Yorker. (I have been a member of the NPL for 38 years.. you can find me there under my "nom"  AHAB.)

Real Estate

Lots of homes for sale or rent.. two of which looked like great bargains:

"Hudson River; private waterfront: 10-room house; 1 acre; beautiful flower gardens, fountains, private beach; estate sacrifice: $12,000."

"New Brunswick; 70-acre gentleman's estate; 150-year old Colonial house, charmingly  situated; old shade, large brook, rustic bridge skirting on front; outbuildings; large orchard; $12,000: only $3,500 cash."

Society

Folks with money were still around in 1937.. and they and their children liked to keep their peers informed of their activity, such as these headlines that were meant to get attention:

"Nuptials are Held for Frances Story"

"Josephine A. Gibbs becomes afffianced"

"Miss Reade makes debut at a dance"

"Troth announced of Miss Anderson"

I also liked these two classic editorial observations:

"Mrs. Erastus Ketcham of Amityville, gave a large birthday party for herself. She was 96.  Mrs. Ketcham is as active as women half her age."

"Mrs. Thomas Sherlin will leave the Pierre today for Aikens, where she will join Mr. Sherlin at their cottage, Green Shingles, to pass the remainer of the Winter."

Radio

Radio was big in 1937.  Some of the big name comedy stars were: Jimmy Durante,  Bob Hope, and Bert Lahr.  In the late evening, listeners tuned in to the following stations which could be reached by New York City residents (some of these are still in existence): WABC, WEVD, WEAF, WMCA, WOR, and WJZ.  Late listeners would be treated to sleep-inducing music from the following orchestras:

Pryor Orchestra
Busse Orchestra
Lyman Orchestra
Lopez Orchestra
Barron Orchestra
Brandywine Orchestra
Fitzpatrick Orchestra
Jones Orchestra
Travers Orchestra

I wonder how many, if any, of these orchestras survived the thirties.

During 1937, a new lightweight microphone, called a "salt-shaker" was developed by the Bell Telephone Laboratories.  Unlike other "mikes", this one may be mounted on a desk or floor stand, or it may be suspended from the ceiling.  This was a big breakthrough for radio.

BTW: does anyone remember "Uncle Don?"

Television

Yes, there was television in 1937.  There were a few thousand viewers in the NYC area.  It must have been nice to have no "sitcoms".

Theater

There was a big theater following in 1937, as there is now.. and some of the plays are still being produced, either as originally given or in updated versions.

The Yiddish Folks Theatre on 12th Street and 2nd Avenue was giving sell-out performances of a "real Yiddish Operetta" called: The Galician Rabbi.

Movies

I think that you can "google" 1937 movies and see the names of all of them, but the best one might be "It Happened One Night" with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.. it came out in 1934, but was still a "hit" in 1937.  Another great one was "Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin, that came out in 1936.

http://moderntimes.com/palace/chaplin

Opera

Opera continued to be big, even in the Depression.  The "Met" was the place where all great or would-be great opera stars wanted to perform.  Evening prices ranged from 50 cents to $2!

It was interesting to me to read that Mussolini had arranged cheap Saturday matinees (Sabato Teatrale) so that "the little man" could afford theater and opera.  For 10 cents, that little guy could see the same show in the afternoon that costs $5 to see in the evening.

BTW: "The Metropolitan Opera House is probably the only theatre in the Broadwaysector with a bar, and it does a thriving business.  The most popular drink is Scotch and soda." 

As one might expect, beer and wine were not purchased anywhere near as much.

Other Items of Interest

You,too, can learn to dance like Fred and Ginger.

(Henny Youngman jokes: "I learned dancing from Arthur Murray.  Later, I found it was more fun with a girl.)


Do you play the piano?

Want to travel to Boston? You can't beat this price!

New Traffic Code

A new set of traffic rules went into effect in February 1937:

No turns, left or right are permitted on red lights..unless you have an arrow or a sign, or a policeman pointing in that direction.

No movement is permitted during the "dark" period when traffic lights are changing color.  (Did they have different lights in those days?)

No driving more than 15 mph over the speed limit (called "Dangerous Driving).

No weaving in and out of traffic (called "Dangerous Driving).

(Other rules from December 1936:)

General speed limit of 25 mph.

No more "car-watching" racket. (?)

No more taxicab jockey evil"... (?)

No more "highway sales to motorists by street hawkers"... (?)

(I know how bad it is to drive in New York City now.. it must have been "pure hell" in 1937.)

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Please join me next time for Part 2: Life Around the World in 1937.
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Real Old News

Just like Melville's Ishmael, when the everyday worries become overwhelming, I long for the sea. However, since the sea is over one hundred miles away from Westminster, Maryland, I must settle for some other diversion. Sometimes it is escape to news from "yesteryear."

I'm looking at a copy of The Literary Digest dated October 31, 1908 (101 years ago!) Some items that were of interest to me:

01. An ad showing a young lady with a bow tie sitting at a vintage Remington typewriter. Model 10 has a column selector, and model 11 has a built-in tabulator. (My grandkids may not know what a typewriter is... they probably don't even need to know what a word-processor is, as long as their agile fingers can "text".)

02. An ad for a two month's summer tour of Europe for $250.

03. An ad for GRAFT.."The game of the hour; the game for Election days. More fascinating than Bridge or Eucre... 50 cents."

04. Ad for 1,000 acres in West Virginia for $9,000.

05. Ad for Miss Hess' French School for Young Ladies.

06. Ad for "The 1909 Fad!" This device projects any sort of "Post Card, Sketch, Photograph, or Clipping in all the brilliant coloring" on the wall as a six-foot reproduction. Cost for this machine in its fully assembled form: $5.

07. News about the William J. Bryan and William H. Taft strategic struggle to gain sufficient electoral votes to win the Presidency. Teddy Roosevelt puts in his two cents. (It all sounds so familiar.)

08. News that the United States Battle-ship fleet sailed around the world and in Sydney Australia the fleet was welcomed by 9,000 school-kids grouped to form the words "Hail Columbia" and to trace the pattern in colors of the American and Australian flags.

And then... get this.. in Yokohama, to quote the New York Post: "Toward the close of the reception, at a collation on the after deck of the battle-ship, Captain Okada drank the health of Ambassador O'Brien. Then followed a demonstration that will be long remembered by the Americans. The Japanese admirals and captains raised Ambassador O'Brien on their shoulders and marched around the deck with him, everybody on board wildly cheering. The same performance was repeated with Rear-Admiral Sperry and each of the other American admirals present."

And then, the New York Tribune said "Japan and America are, and are likely to remain for a long time, the chief, we might say the only important, naval Powers in the Pacific" and indicated that this friendly reception should put to rest any suggestion of friction between these two countries.

09. Lots of news about the Balkans and Austria .. sounds like the problems that led up to WWI.

10. News that unemployment in England has reached "painful proportions." Mr. Stewart Gray, the leader of "Hunger Marchers" clashed with the police at Trafalgar Square. About 150,000 men in London are out of work.

11. Sir Hiram Maxim analyzed a "sure fire system" for beating the bank at Monte Carlo, and found that the player would probably win.. "one dollar in 21,474 years."

12. Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Buchanan, of the British Army in India says: "The best way to put a stop to the plague where it is epidemic is to keep cats."

13. Professor Gaston Bonnier of Paris says that "a beehive is a perfect example of the equalitarian product of state socialism."

14. "A system by which a wireless-telegraphic apparatus may control from a central station the clocks of a whole city is now in use in Vienna."

15. Joseph Ruau, French Minister of Agriculture says that "fraud is common in food manufacture, and reminds us that absolute purity is not practicable or necessary."

16. There is now a simple test for distinguishing between butter and "oleomargarin". (Sounds like a time-consuming process utilizing fresh milk and a "stick.")

17. Mr. Israel Zangwill caused a commotion with his play "The Melting Pot", where he implies that Jews will be best off in America by being "absorbed" through marriage. The Jewish Comment (Baltimore) likes his play and agrees with his thesis.

18. Mr. Marc Debrol, French writer, was asked if people in the US are religious in the "real sense of the word".. He replied: "No. The American is too taken up with the practical side of life, too preoccupied with conquests and gain, to be meditative. There is no introspection... in this race for the dollar, the finer sensibilities dry up..." (!) Debrol says that America is a charitable country, but "Charity does not spring from private initiative; it is carefully organised, and in many cases by the churches... The poor must be fed and clothed, not out of pity, but out of prudence; they must not become discontented and revolt, disturbers of the national peace."

19. An ad for the Flexible Flyer, the Sled that Steers. "Send for a free cardboard model showing how it steers."

20. An ad for Whitelaw's Paper Blankets. Sanitary. Healthful. Warm. $3.00 a dozen.

21. An ad for Postum (coffee substitute still sold next to coffees in supermarkets.. I drank it for years. "There are still some well-informed persons who do not know that coffee contains a drug -- caffeine."

22. Ad for Harderfold Hygienic Underwear with the Inter-Air-Space System... "... affording protection against the vicissitudes of our variable climate..."

23. Ad for The Keeley Cure for liquor and drug using.

24. Finally...!! A joke from the Washington Star:

The Crank. "You say there is nearly always something broke about your automobile?"
"Yes," answered Mr. Chuggins, nervously.
"What is it, as a rule?"
"Me."

... so, not much has changed in 101 years.

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Has the News gotten Better or Worse?

As is often the case in 2009, the news is particularly depressing. Entertainment icons leaving us; Women being killed protesting in Iran; Governors messing around in South America; Parents of sextuplets divorcing; Swine flu cases increasing.... Was the world always this way? I have a collection of old newspapers and I like to look at them from time to time to see if the world has improved since then. (What do you think?)

The following items were included in the Sunday February 21, 1937 issue of the New York Times. This was the birthdate of the late Elaine Langlois Vaughan.

01. General Motors employees went back to work last week after a six-week sit-down strike.

Senator LaFollette reported that from 1934 to 1936, General motors spent 839 million dollars for detective services. He said that it was spent so the company could keep abreast of the labor situation.

02. President Roosevelt threw his "shock troops" into the campaign to drive through Congress his plan to change the Supreme Court by adding a justice for every present member past 70 who refused to retire.

03. In Great Britain, Neville Chamberlain called upon Europe to choose war or peace. He promised either a one and one-half billion pound rearmament budget for Britain or a move for a mutual assistance pact for the Nations of Western Europe.

04. Hitler ordered the election of a National Synod which would draft a new constitution for the German Evangelical Church. This was a victory for Nazi "German Christians" and creation of a church dictatorship by Hitler's religious advisor, Rev. Ludwig Mueller.

05. In Japan, Yukio Ozaki, a noted liberal, denounced the recent anti-Communist pact with Berlin and expressed amazement that Japan could "shake hands" with a country like Germany.

06. Clothes-horse German General Hermann Goering supposedly changes uniforms several times a day. It is rumored that a thief once stole 37 of his uniforms and he never even missed them.

07. Work progressed on the plan to bring the 200 separate Protestant sects in the United States under a central organization called "The Church of Christ in America."

08. The "handsomest Governor in America" Paul V. McNutt of Indianapolis, pushed by some to become a candidate for President, was appointed High Commissioner to the Philippines by Roosevelt. (To get him out of his way?)

09. Miss Jane M. Hoey of New York became head of the Bureau of Public Assistance.. this was the office charged with administering Federal funds for the aged, blind and dependent children.. some parts of which became the current SSI (assistance for the aged, blind and disabled ineligible for regular Social Security.) Miss Hoey said that her office helps provide assistance for one and one-half million persons and will ultimately cost 200 million dollars per year. (A little bit under estimated of course.)

10. Ten thousand youngsters were asked to give their movie preferences. The order was: 1: G-Men (read FBI or similar); 2: Mysteries (Charlie Chan?) ; 3: Child stars (Shirley Temple); 4: Musicals (New Faces of 1936; Fred and Ginger); 5: Gangsters (Dillinger; Bonnie and Clyde); 6: War. (It doesn't say if the survey was given to boys and girls, but if it had been given to all boys, War would have had a higher order I'm sure.)

11. New York State Senator McNaboe sponsored a bill to compel the display of American flags, three feet by four, in all classrooms; it was defeated.

When I first entered school back in the late 1930's and early 1940's, we saluted the flag that was on a pole in each classroom by giving a kind of Nazi gesture, with the arm pointed upward at an angle as though we were about to say: "Heil Hitler".. as we got into WWII, the arm salute was changed to a palm on the heart gesture.

12. Japan dropped it's minimum height restriction for a soldier from 5 feet 1/2 inch to 4 feet 10 1/2 inches. The American Army's standard is 5 feet 4 inches.. but it can be lowered 1/2 inch in "exceptional cases." Recently, a 6 feet 10 inch recruit showed up and caused supply officers to have to order an extra long bed.

13. The original manuscript of "Old Mother Hubbard" has been discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It dates from 1804 when it was invented by Sarah Catherine Martin. The names are now also known for the writers of "Mary had a little lamb" and "there was a little girl, who had a little curl..".. but people still want to know who wrote : "Hush-a-bye baby", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star", and "Little drops of water." (This was, of course, long before Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia.)

ok 13 is enough for now.