Monday, June 23 - rainy
Dear Andrew and John,
In my last couple of letters I have overlooked answering John's question about his bonds. Another came in last week and got them out to compare postmarks and dates. The way they work it evidently is that the bond states - for example, your first one, John, is "for the month of November" addressographed on the face, dated the middle of December, postmarked the 27th of December and received the first week in January. So it appears they run a month behind. For both of you, I forgot to mention the taxes. This year they were $68 and we held out $17 from each of your deposits last week; I paid the tax bill on Wednesday and received the receipt Saturday together with a refund of thirty-four cents; making I owe you each 8 1/2 cents. Now if we sell the house around the first of July, the new owner has to pay for 6 months worth of taxes and that, too, will be refunded to us.
I called Cousin Anna last Wednesday- because Ann was up the road one day early in the week and Jeannette Bower's sister stopped her to ask if she had heard that Mary had another baby. I knew that Mary had been at 417 August around Easter time and they said they noticed nothing then; so, if you have been in contact with her, let us know. Cousin Anna also said Mary had called them about a month ago when she was passing through town. There was quite an item in the papers about a small house having burned near Ellicott City in April, I think, and five children, all small, burned to death. Several older ones and the mother and father were saved. It seems the mother, who is around 28, was and is Frank's sister and Mary and he had been to the funeral when they called the Boehms.
I filled in for Mrs. Brown at school on Friday night again but could head out of town by my regular route as the Catholic War Vets had a big parade from the 5th Regiment down Howard and Baltimore streets. I had to go up to Mt. Royal and then across Lafayette. Right in the middle of another colored settlement I noticed kids setting something in the street in the opposite lane and just then a big Buick came along and crunched a coke bottle. Yes, I caught one of the larger pieces in the, right front tire and spent a half hour tire changing. This time, though, the casing wasn't damaged and I had the tube repaired on Saturday. One year without a flat and then to have two in two weeks from the same source.
Because of the Telethon Saturday night, the Gunther movie, Brewster's Millions, with Dennis O'Keefe, Helen Walker, June Hayes and Micha Auer, was on from 9:30 till 11:00. I still think the object of sending Olympic team members to Helsinki is a bit silly but maybe it's a worthy cause. Bob Hope came on right at 11:00 but the first three quarters of an hour was devoted to speeches. I managed to take down about one half the names scheduled to be on and I'll list them first: John Scott Trotter and orchestra, Dorothy Lamour, Abbott and Costello, Annamarie Albergetti, Victor Young, The Bell Sisters, Burns and Allen, Dinah Shore, Joe E. Brown, Sonja Heine, Phil Harris, Rosemary Cluney, Corrinne Calvet, Walter Pidgeon, William Bendix, Eddie Cantor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Edward G. Robinson, Ezio Pinzo, John Mack Brown, Ben Blue, Hoagy Carmichael, Dick Powell, Eddie Bracken, Walter O'Keefe, Lina Romay, J. Carroll Nash, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Weismueller, Tennessee Ernie, Peggy Lee, Jack Durante, Champ Butler, Lou Holtz, April Stevens, Joe E. Lewis, Space Patrol, Time for Beany, Frank Fontaine, Rose Marie and Martin and Lewis. Bing came on a little before twelve and he and Dorothy and Bob horsed around for awhile. We also saw Abbott and Costello do their baseball skit and several un-notables and by that time it was a quarter to one and we shut it off as every five minutes they were posting telephone numbers for Hollywood and Baltimore and breaking in for commercials from Baltimore. The show was carried by both NBC and CBS, that is both WMAR and WBAL in Baltimore. WMAR signed off but WBAL kept in on the full 11:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. They didn't list it that way in the papers; there it was scheduled to sign off at 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. but after I took Mommie to 7 o'clock Mass on Sunday I came back and thought I'd see if I could pick the program up from Washington and there it was on WBAL - channel 11. We had it on then until they went off at 1:30. You have to give it to Dorothy Lamour, she stayed at the mikes the whole time--the full 14 1/2 hours but Bing and Bob were out for a massage from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday. I forgot to say they had Bing in full toupe' and Admiral's jacket and he looked pretty good. I thought he'd have an old straw hat and a sport shirt on. Jackie Coogan was acting as master of ceremonies Sunday morning along with Dorothy and we saw Tony Romano, Forrest Tucker, Time for Beany, Patches, Space Patrol, Jack Durante, Peggy Lee, Liberache, Annemarie Albergetti, and the best, Frank Fontaine, who had his ten year old son, Bobby, who did the same stuff in beat with his Frank L. C. Savoni. They also wasted too much time Sunday morning switching to New York for interviews with Joe Walcott, Joe Louis, Grantland Rice, Barney Ross, and many different golf and other sports personalities. They also put on too much pressure, saying such things as "we have Peggy Lee backstage to sing but won't put her on till we get such-and-such an amount" or "the 'phones have stopped ringing and we won't go on with the show until you start contributing again". They could have done without that. Nevertheless, I'm sure you would have stayed up for the whole thing. The papers, this morning reported that it got really good between 2 and 4 when Martin and Lewis tore the place up and Bing, Bob and Ezio did a trio on Doodlely-Doo. Last night and Red Skelton 's last show, he was kidding them all through his program by saying, "we haven't heard from Philadelphia yet" etc. As they went off the air the figures showed $1,000,020.00; their goal had been only $400,000.
It has been raining ever since Friday night. We only went out yesterday about 7 p.m. to take Aunt Tillie home as she had an early-date; she had dropped in at 2.
A fellow and his wife were in on Tuesday to beg us to rent the place to them. She looked familiar and I later found she is the sister of the Baker girl who lives with Moore's, if you know her. Anyway, he is building or rather is going to build a house over next to Smith's on Rognel and he wants a place for about six months close at hand; also, his place has been bought by the county on Mellor Avenue, where they are completing a cut-through to Newberg to link up a by-pass from the traffic on Frederick. He has to be out by July 1st. I noticed a piece in last week's Argus signed with his name: "No longer responsible for debts other than those etc." but they were so lovey I didn't think it could be the same couple. On Saturday I asked Ed Pierpoint and he said oh yes it was, they beat each other up weekly and about a week ago he came home drunk (they have nine children) about 3 in the morning and fired the gun he was carrying into the ceiling. The wife ran out the front door screaming, neighbors report, and children were diving out of every window. Ann says she could just see him in our place, when the toilet failed to work, unloading his firearm into the sewerage.
The Balmarts spoke some outside of church yesterday morning while I was waiting for Ann. They said they guessed you'd be home before long now and I replied that's what everyone thought but you had explained very carefully in your letters to the contrary. They said oh no that wasn't so because Donald is something-or-other in some headquarters and blah-blah-blah. So I just let them go on and hope you don't feel badly about my telling you this but it's just as you say the way the papers and the people don't agree with what is actually happening. So, we understand the way you have shown it but it's no use trying to insist upon it to others.
I'm supposed to get the black and white roll of film this week that I took the day of graduation and everyone's on it so I'll send prints in about another week if all goes well.
END OF LETTER
Editor's Note:
Anna Boehm is Charles' cousin who lived at 417 Augusta Ave. Charles sister, Mary is married to Frank.
Tillie is Ann's Aunt.
John is an amateur playwright and has an avid interest in the entertainment arts. Charles tries to include as much of this as possible in his letters.
Next Posting: June 25, 1952
Copyright 2012 Stephen A Conner
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