April 3, 1952
Dear Andrew and John,
Virginia gave me the pictures she took of the kids at church yesterday morning and then picked them up in the afternoon to send you, I believe. There's one pretty good of Stevie crying but the one with Ann on it we've begged her not to send. I finished my roll of Kodachrome on Sunday, put it in the mail to Washington on Monday afternoon about 5:15 and Ann tells me noontime that today (Thursday) they are back -- finished, I hope. She put them right away because Mike was present but I told her to open them if she got a free moment this afternoon and I will learn the results when I call her at five for tonight is school.
Had my first accident with our car going in yesterday morning with Abe and Ruth Schlosser, who Abe had as a rider and whose $1 per week we split toward gas. Anyway, at Frederick Avenue and Fonthill Avenue, just before Gwynns Falls, below Carroll Station; that road at the end of Mt. Olivet Cemetery where there is a sign pointing to the Oriole Gun Club or some name like that, there is some repair work going on by the Baltimore Transit, working in the tracks and blocking the road to the right with piles of dirt and equipment. A streetcar had stopped there, waiting for the men to clear out of the way and we came to a stop behind it. Some fellow, who later told me he was track foreman, was standing in the westbound tracks and flagged us to come around that side of the car. We started slowly around the left side of the car and he continued to wave us on. Abe and I were watching a car coming toward us and the motorman in the trolley didn't see the fellow flagging us on and started, brushing our right front fender and right front door. I took down the necessary information and brought the car right in to the Auto Clinic where my friend, Don Rous, told me who to call at the Baltimore Transit. There is a grapefruit sized dent in the fender, a scrape on the chrome side molding and a slight dent and paint marks on the door. I mentally estimated the damage about $25 and nearly passed out when the Auto Clinic presented me, while I waited, with an official estimate of $139.98. When I got back to the office I saw they had put on for an entire front grill where there is a marble sized dent where some jerk bumped me last October in the parking lot and a new front bumper, which is perfectly OK. These two items alone come to $100. Nevertheless, I wrote the Transit Co. and sent them the estimate. Don called me yesterday afternoon, which was before I mailed the letter, and told me a representative of the company had already looked the car over. Of course, I drove it home and nothing will he done to it till I find out if they come through but I am definitely going to be satisfied to get the bump out of the fender and door and not try to gyp them as someone we know who is in the meat business did, if I told you. This party I will not name got an estimate from Auto Clinic for $700, collected that amount from his insurance company and got the job done for $395.
I was reading this stuff in the paper last night about the new set up on rotation and no doubt you are in semi-preference rating as occasionally fired on. I don't get it how they can keep you any longer and still let them out after 21 months over here.
Did I ever tell you the new TV tube is working great. It even has something new added. The old one used to just go black but this one has that big flare up as you turn the switch to off and the gradual fade away to a pin point of light. It also has that no glare slightly bluish feature and with new springs for the knobs and the general overhaul we're keeping the kids away and not even letting Mike give it the works. I haven't been watching too much during the week but saw a couple of shows Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was Frank Sinatra's last show, I told you they only present the first half hour from Baltimore so I switched to Washington for the last half. He had seven or eight celebrities dash on stage the final fifteen minutes besides his regular guests and among them were John's good friend, Jackie Gleason, Jack Leonard, Tony Curtis, Henny Youngman, Jack Durante, June Hutton and several I can't remember. Instead of Auto-Lite Tuesday, that is Suspense, I mean, the Auto-Lite company presented Ken Murray as MC at the auto show, in New York I think, and it was so pitiful we roared. The president of each car company would be introduced to Ken Murray and he would ask them features of their particular car. He called the new Studebaker a Willys, kept calling Mr. Kaiser Mr. Rambler and when he got to the Nash referred to it as a Dodge Vagabond. He has a girl whistler who sat in an old jalopy and while he held a mike in front of her, by mistake they turned on one by him instead and while the picture showed the gal, all you could hear was Ken's voice rapping out what they would do when she finished trilling. They had a show girl for each of the 16 cars presented and each was dressed to try and fit the part, like a Bee for the Hudson Hornet, while they advertised the car in rhyme. The one girl began, "I am Miss Packard Ultra-matic" and the following line which rhymed; then you could see they turned the wrong page on her. She did a double take and all she could do was repeat the above line twice more and finally made a face and bowed off with a sickly grin. Then we went to bed.
Last night, Wednesday, was the best ever for two shows following one another. The Kraft Playhouse from 9 till 10 presented Audrey Christie, Don Briggs and more that we knew in The Ryan Girl but the title can't begin to express how good it was. A synopsis: She is a famous singer and her husband sneaks into New York as a seaman from Venezuela where he has been hiding for seven years from killing a cop in N.Y. She can't help loving him. He returns because he read that their son, whom she had given to a wealth family when only a week or so old was an air hero and in N.Y. so he will expose the boy as his son and lean on public opinion to beat the killing rap. They don't let this happen, of course and it ends with A. Christie killing him in front of their TV set where he is watching the boy who doesn't know he is the father. Maybe it was the acting but we didn't move. The Pulitzer Playhouse which is now Wednesday from 10 to 11, presented Street Scene with Paul Kelly, Ann Dvorak, Coleen Gray and at least six others we recognized. I don't know when we enjoyed a quiet evening more. Perhaps because of the tension, but when it was over we were groaning with hunger.
Before I seal these I'll see what Ann, has to say about the transparencies.
END OF LETTER
Editor's notes:
Virginia is a friend of John's.
Abe is a lifelong friend of Charles.
The term "transparencies" probably means color slides.
Charles must have confused Don Briggs for Edmon Ryan in "That Ryan Girl".
Instead of the Pulitzer Playhouse Charles meant to say the Celanese Theatre. The show alternated the Wednesday night time slot with "Pulitzer Prize Playhouse"
Some of the Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
Next posting: April 8, 1952
Copyright 2012 Stephen A Conner
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