Hollywood party
At Hollywood and Vine!
Motor on over.
Ain’t it too fine?
Roll up the sidewalk—
Break out the booze!
Trip it, don’t skip it—
It’s tomorrow’s news!
Starlets and bar-flits
And tinsel tycoons
Are swinging and singing
Those Hollywood tunes!
Hollywood Party!
Come join the throng.
Trip it, don’t zip it.
We’re all going strong!
Hollywood Party—
The thing to do.
Champagne service
Straight from the shoe.
We’re waiting,
We’re waiting,
We’re waiting
For you!
The world was beautiful again…for the moment.
10. “The Japanese have bombed Hawaii. We are at war.” Jonathan’s Diary, 7 December 1941.
11. Hunter was first in line. Another reason for Jonathan’s stepson Hunter’s eagerness to fight for the Allies in the European Theatre had its origins in his childhood. Hunter’s eighth-grade homeroom teacher, a Frau Brunhilda Röhm, was a cruel martinet who delighted in humiliating her students. She was also German. Proud of her heritage, she was known to administer harsh punishment to any student who wrote her name without the umlaut. A rebellious child, as we have already seen, Hunter refused to employ the umlaut on more than one occasion, and on more than one occasion was punished by being forced to wear brightly colored lederhosen at intramural wrestling matches. The mortification he endured fed his hatred of Miss Röhm and by extension of Germans in general.
And of wrestling.
Hunter would later lose his life on Utah Beach during the D-Day Normandy Invasion. “He was a brave kid,” Jonathan wrote in his diary a week later, “a pain in the ass, but a pain in the ass I’m really going to miss. God rest him.”
12. On the secretary’s left buttock cheek was a small tattoo of a little bald headed man peering over a fence. Cloris Kern, Kilroy Was There Too (Daingerfield, Texas: Brenda Books, 1984), 132.
13. It was one of Davison’s life goals to see the Andrew Sisters naked but for tasseled pasties and crotch patches. Reinhold, The Story of Dandy-de-odor-o, 245.
14. Addicus died after a brief illness. A curious side note: Though Jonathan’s father never converted to Judaism, he had, by the time of his death, earned a special place in the hearts of his many Jewish friends and neighbors on New York’s Upper West Side. “Addicus, the Methodist Jew of Amsterdam Avenue” was honored with a six-day Shiva and a namesake sandwich at the Seventy-second Street Delicatessen. The “Addicus Blashette” Arkansas-Pulled-Pork-on-a-Bun remains on the restaurant’s menu to this day, but has never actually been served in this strictly kosher establishment.
Jonathan had been among those who had gathered at the old man’s bedside to say their farewells. Continuing a family tradition, he notes his father’s last words in his diary (3 January 1942):
“You’ve been a good son, made your papa so proud. Look at you: successful businessman. And such a nice suit. Although Manny could have gotten it for you wholesale. This I should tell you?”
15. “We will call her Molly Chang.” I have found no evidence that Jonathan ever took Davison’s idea seriously. It seems clear that Jonathan had always preferred to sponsor or co-sponsor an established radio program (and spot advertising was begun later that year, chiefly during the broadcast of major sporting events, and generally those in which participants tended to perspire heavily.) Still, it is interesting to note to what degree Davison felt his idea had merit, even to the point of preparing the following memorandum to Jonathan and Dandy-de-odor-o in-house advertising personnel.
TO: CEO Blashette, et al.
FROM: Harlan Davison
RE: Radio program sponsorship
DATE: February 11, 1942
Gentlemen,
The undisputed popularity of Fibber McGee & Molly and The Goldbergs makes it clear that Americans are eager to listen to radio programs that follow the trials and misadventures of hyphenated-Americans named Molly. I therefore, contend that the time is right, and in fact, long overdue for Dandy-de-odor-o to sweeten its investment in this lucrative advertising medium, through sponsorship of a Molly-centered program of its own. Whereas Molly McGee is Irish, and Molly Goldberg of the Jewish persuasion, our program will feature the indomitable Molly Chang, owner of a small Chinese eatery in some fictional American city with a sizeable Chinese-American community. She will be warm and maternal and will dispense Confucius-like pearls of Oriental wisdom, much like a female Charlie Chan. In fact, she will have a son, not unlike Charlie’s number one son — very worldly and American, a real wiseacre, who, when we first meet him, will be wearing a zoot suit. (Blind Uncle Chin-Tang will accidentally sit on the boy’s slouchy fedora.)
The program will be comedic and will feature guest appearances by such radio luminaries as Charlie McCarthy and Deanna Durbin. On occasion, though, Molly will become very serious and talk about the war and the struggle of the Chinese people against Japanese aggression. Perhaps W.C. Fields will ask her how she feels about the Rape of Nanking.
I think that she should be played by Loretta Young. For publicity photos she should be made to look like Luis Rainer in The Good Earth.
I am open to any additional suggestions you might have about this program idea.
Dandy-de-odor-o Corporate Records. Davison Files
16. “Great Jane has become Lady Jane.” Jonathan Blashette to Andrew Bloor, 23 November 1942, AnB. The full text of the letter follows:
Dear Dr. Bloor,
I am sorry to hear about your spasms but happy to know that the doctor thinks they will subside with bed rest. Thank you for your sister Evetta’s recipe for lemon trout. I will pass it along to Miss Cook and ask her to prepare the dish this weekend. (It is so convenient to have a cook with the name Cook. I asked her once what her first name was and she said, without cracking a smile, “Lovetah.” She’s a find, that one.)
Great Jane has changed her name. Great Jane has become Lady Jane. And she truly fits the part. I knew the transformation was complete when she asked for season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera. She already has a close circle of female friends with whom she plays contract bridge each week. And she continues her work with an organization that finds steady employment and housing for hoboes (a mission very close to her heart).
I cannot tell you how heartening it is to see the woman’s life turned around like this. Her complexion has cleared. She grows stronger with each day, her respiratory troubles having nearly disappeared.