Friday, August 31, 1934

I fixed breakfast. Went down to Crown Drug Store. I got a new book.

Crown Drug Store
39th and Main
Kansas City, Missouri



Thursday, August 30, 1934

Went to Clay. Came home. Got watermelon. Mother sure sick. Ate supper ar Aunt Katie's. Got a book.

"Sensation Hunters"
Released August 30, 1934
Starring Marion Burns, Arline Judge, Preston Foster, Kenneth MacKenna
Directed by Charles Vidor
Written by Whitman Chambers

Plot Summary:

Dale Jordan (Burns) is a cabaret star who hob-nobs with the wealthy on her way to a performance in Panama.

Wednesday, August 29, 1934

Went over to Laten's. He drove us up home (Clay Center, Kansas). Got polish and went to Mart's then to Emmett and Melvin's. Stayed all night at Henry's.

Jimmy Durante's Stage Antics - August 29, 1934

Jimmy Durante says things have reached a pretty spot for him, as he can’t enter a night club without having the master of ceremonies ask him to sing. While he is an obliging person at heart, there comes a time when the best of clowns likes to sit quietly and enjoy seeing the other fellow work.


So now Jimmy has a new stunt. Whenever he’s called on to give a number, he obliges with the roughest song he knows; tears the music, smashes at the piano, wrecks music stands and does all the incidental damage possible.

The audience loves it. But the management? That’s another story.

Tuesday, August 28, 1934

Got our stuff ready for tomorrow. Mother didn't feel very good. Uncle Laten by. Pauline and I went to the show. Saw "Sing and Like It" and

Sing and Like It
Comedy - 72 minutes
Starring Zasu Pitts, Pert Kelton, Edward Everett Horton
Written by Aben Kandel (story "So You Won't Sing, Eh?")
Directed by William A. Seiter

A gangster (Nat Pendleton) tries to turn his tone-deaf girlfriend into a singing star.

Monday, August 27, 1934

Mother washed clothes. I ironed them. Pauline and Catherine were down. Went over to Raifert's.

Walgreens

The company had its origin in 1901, when Charles R. Walgreen bought the drugstore, on the south side of Chicago, at which he had been working as a pharmacist. He bought a second store in 1909; by 1915, there were five Walgreen drugstores. He made numerous improvements and innovations in the stores, including the addition of soda fountains (Walgreen invented that perennial drugstore favorite, the malt!) that also featured luncheon service. Walgreen also began to make his own line of drug products; by doing so, he was able to control the quality of these items and offer them at lower prices than competitors.

By 1934, 600 Walgreen agency stores were functioning in 33 states, mostly in Midwestern communities with populations of less than 20,000.



Sunday, August 26, 1934

Straightened the house for Mother. Ruth Ray and Nadine down. Ollie came over in evening to play pinochle. I read a little.

Dorothy Thompson (9 July 1893 – January 30, 1961)

August 26, 1934: Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine began expelling foreign correspondents who placed a slur or criticized Adolf Hitler; one of the first was US correspondent Dorothy Thompson.


Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential woman in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt. She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and as one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s. Many fondly referred to her as the “First Lady of American Journalism.”







Saturday, August 25, 1934

Straightened up the house. Ruth Ray and Nadine were down. Traded pictures. Pauline down too. Police came over to Cohen's house.

DC Comics

Founded in 1934 as National Allied Publications, DC Comics is an American comic book company. DC Comics, short for Detective Comics, is best known for making "superhero" comic books. Some of their characters include Superman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Swamp Thing. Famous in the modern art subject Graphics, DC Comics is today owned by Time Warner.
 

Friday, August 24, 1934

Ate breakfast. Came home with Helen. Pauline came down. Went to Kate's for supper. Saw Little Miss Marker with Helen.

Little Miss Marker
AKA The Girl in Pawn

Little Miss Marker is a 1934 American drama film directed by Alexander Hall. The screenplay was written by William R. Lipman, Sam Hellman, and Gladys Hellman after a short story of the same name by Damon Runyon. The film stars Shirley Temple, Adolphe Menjou, and Dorothy Dell in a story about a little girl held as collateral by gangsters. The film was named to the United States National Film Registry and has been remade several times.

Thursday, August 23, 1934

Helen came over today. We went to the magazine shop and traded movie magazines. Aunt Kate and Uncle Laten were here for supper. I stayed all night at Helen's.

Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965)

MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour with You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to movie-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.

Wednesday, August 22, 1934

Straightened up the house a little bit. It is not quite so hot today.

Alcatraz Island
Prisoner Delivery - August 22, 1934

Al Capone arrived on the island on August 22, 1934 along with 52 other convicts from Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. He had several jobs on the island including sweeping the cellhouse and working in the laundry. Capone was not popular on Alcatraz; he received no special privileges, but his notoriety made him a target for other cons. Capone got into a fight with another inmate in the recreation yard and was placed in isolation for eight days. While Capone was working in the prison basement, an inmate standing in line waiting for a haircut stabbed him with a pair of shears. Capone eventually became symptomatic from syphilis, a disease he had been carrying for years but had avoided treating. In early 1939 the authorities transferred him to Federal Correction Institute Terminal Island in Southern California to serve out the remainder of his 11-year sentence.

Tuesday, August 21, 1934

Ironed. Laten came over a while this morning. Pauline bought my book back.

Johannes Stark (15 April 1874 – 21 June 1957)

A German physicist, and Physics Nobel Prize laureate who was closely involved with the Deutsche Physik movement under the Nazi regime, Stark
wrote to physicist and fellow Nobel laureate  Max von Laue telling him to toe the party line or else. The letter was signed off with a "Heil Hitler."

In 1947, following the defeat of Germany in World War II, Stark was classified as a "Major Offender" and received a sentence of four years imprisonment by a denazification court.

Monday, August 20, 1934

Washed clothes today. It sure was hot. Pauline and Sugar came down this evening a while.

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875)
16th Vice President of the United States (March 4, 1865 - April 15, 1965)
17th President of the United States (1865–1869)
  Succeeded President Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination

On August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson ended the Civil War by signing a Proclamation—Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquillity [sic], and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America.

Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American Civil War. Johnson's reconstruction policies failed to promote the rights of the Freedmen, and he came under vigorous political attack from Republicans, ending in his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives; he was acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

Sunday, August 19, 1934

Didn't go to church or Sunday school. Ollie came over in the evening and we played pinochle a while.

Rose Gorelick Blumkin
AKA "Mrs B."
Founder of Nebraska Furniture Mart

The legendary Nebraska Furniture Mart got its start in 1937 when Russian immigrant Rose Blumkin ("Mrs. B") began selling furniture at a slight markup from a shop basement. Her motto: "Sell cheap and tell the truth!" The famed 450,000-sq.-ft. Omaha location (called the Mart) was built in 1968 and rebuilt by Mrs. B and her son in 1975 after a tornado hit. Two decades later, an electronics and appliance store was added in Omaha; the 77-acre location boasts some 500,000 sq. ft. of retail space. The firm also operates stores in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kansas City, Missouri. Omaha investor Warren Buffett (owner of Berkshire Hathaway) bought a majority stake in Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983.

Saturday, August 18, 1934

Straightened up the house good. Made some donuts. Played ball with Anna Catherine and Pauline a while.

Randolph Scott (left) in Comanche Station


Born George Randolph Crane Scott in Orange, Virginia, on 23 January 1903,
Scott lied about his age at 14 and enlisted for service in World War I. After returning home he got a degree in engineering, then joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse. While golfing, Scott met millionaire filmmaker Howard Hughes, who helped him enter films as a bit player.

In the mid '30s he began landing better roles, both as a romantic lead and as a costar. Later he became a Western star, and from the late '40s to the '50s he starred exclusively in big-budget color Westerns (39 altogether). From 1950-53 he was one of the top ten box-office attractions. Later in the '50s he played the aging cowboy hero in a series of B-Westerns directed by Budd Boetticher for Ranown, an independent production company.

Randolph Scott retired from acting in 1962. Having invested in oil wells, real estate, and securities, he was worth between $50-$100 million when he died in Los Angeles on March 2, 1987.

Friday, August 17, 1934

I ironed today. Sure was hot. Ollie came over a while. Gweyn came over. Helen's was over this evening.

Salvation Army Penny Ice Truck
Kansas City, Missouri

The city's poorer residents had difficulty affording the ice produced at local factories, which prompted the Salvation Army to raise money for "Penny Ice" to be sold for a penny per pound to the needy.

Thursday, August 16, 1934

We washed today. Mother baked bread but it was spoiled (yeast). I finished reading my book today.

Georgette Heyer (16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974)

A British historical romance and detective fiction novelist, Heyer's writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth.

Heyer essentially established the historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance. Beginning in 1932 and for a number of years after, Heyer released one romance novel and one thriller each year. Notoriously private, she refused to grant intervirws, reportedly telling a friend: "My private life concerns no one but myself and my family."

Her books were very popular in Britain during the Great Depression and World War II. Her novels, which journalist Lesley McDowell described as containing "derring-do, dashing blades, and maids in peril", allowed readers to escape from the mundane and difficult elements of their lives.

When first released as mass market paperbacks in the United States in 1966, her 56 novels and numerous short stories were described as being "in the tradition of Jane Austen". As other novelists began to imitate her style and continued to develop the Regency romance, their novels were described as "following in the romantic tradition of Georgette Heyer" Even  today Regency writers covet that accolade.

Happy Birthday, Georgette Heyer! 

Wednesday, August 15, 1934

Went over to Carrie's with Mrs. Raifert. Went over to Ruth Ray's. Got magazines. Helen's came by in the evening.

Released August 15, 1934

The release of Jane Eyre was notable for being the first sound adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic 19th century novel.

Tuesday, August 14, 1934

Sure hot today. Didn't do much. Straightened up the house a little. Didn't do washing today.

Josip Broz Tito (7 May 1892 - 4 May 1980)
First President of Yugoslavia
In office 14 January 1953 – 4 May 1980

 A Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1945 until his death in 1980, Tito's presidency has been criticized as authoritarian. Due to his successful economic and diplomatic policies, Tito was seen by most as a benevolent dictator and was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. His internal policies successfully maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation.



Monday, August 13, 1934

Didn't wash today. It sure was hot. Went out to cemetery with Clara and John and Mrs. Raifert in the evening.

Union Cemetery
2815 Walnut Street
Kansas City, MO 64108

Founded in 1857, Union Cemetery, located just south of Crown Center and east of the Liberty Memorial, is the final resting place for many of those who founded and developed the towns of Westport and Kansas City.


The famous and infamous rest here. Veterans from every war from the Revolution to Vietnam are buried here, including those who fought for both sides during the Civil War. And those who lived, worked, raised families and contributed to making the area a great place to live rest here.

The members of the Union Cemetery Historical Society, founded in 1984 as a 501c3 organization play a large part in preserving this historic, hallowed ground

Sunday, August 12, 1934

Went out to Kate's and then to Fairyland Park. Rode the Teeter Dip. Saw Virginia.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis - August 12, 1934

With her parents, Wall Street stock broker John Vernou Bouvier III (also known as 'Black Jack Bouvier') and Janet Norton Lee in Southampton, NY.

Saturday, August 11, 1934

Rained a little today. Daddy went over to Troost Lake. Tomorrow is Ford Day at Fairyland.

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947)

On August 11, 1934, Capone was transferred from Atlanta U.S.
Penitentiary to the newly established Alcatraz prison in San Francisco
to finish serving his 11-year sentence for income tax evasion. The warden kept tight security and cut off Capone’s contact with colleagues.

Capone ran The Chicago Outfit, dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early 1920s to 1931. Despite his illegitimate occupation, Capone became a highly visible public figure. He made various charitable endeavors using the money he made from his activities, and was viewed by many to be a “modern-day Robin Hood”. Capone was publicly criticized for his supposed involvement in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, when seven rival gang members were executed.

In the final years of Capone’s life, he suffered mental and physical deterioration due to late-stage neurosyphilis, which he had contracted as a youth. On January 25, 1947, he died from cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke.

Friday, August 10, 1934

Didn't do much. Cleaned the house. It rained a little. Kate's was by.

Cave Spring Park
Kansas City, MO

Located on the Santa Fe Trail, the historic Cave Spring Park
was used as a camp site for people going west. It was also the
first stop along the trail for pioneers who were leaving Independence,
Missouri to travel to Santa Fe, California and Oregon. It was
considered one of the best places to pasture their stock and to
get water for their trip.

Today, Cave Spring Park offers a wide variety of programs for
hikers and bird watchers, as well as service projects for scout
organizations and educational groups.

Thursday, August 9, 1934

Went to Winnwood. Kate's was there. Rode the Scooter. Went through Funhouse. I was in some contests.

1930s funhouse
Luna Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Luna Park first opened to the public on 4 October 1935, to almost immediate success. After a successful opening season, the park closed down for the winter months (a process which was repeated until 1972). During the closed season, rides were overhauled and repainted, and new rides and attractions were added, to provide the impression to patrons that the park had changed during the three month closures

Wednesday, August 8, 1934

Pauline, Gweyn and I went swimming. Dived a little. Sure hot today. Mother baked a marble cake.

Marble Cake

A marble cake is a cake with a streaked or mottled appearance (like marble) achieved by very lightly blending light and dark batter. It can be a mixture of vanilla and chocolate cake, in which case it is mainly vanilla, with streaks of chocolate. Other possibilities are strawberry or other fruit flavors, or (particularly in marbled coffee cakes) cinnamon and/or other spices.

Tuesday, August 7, 1934

Today we ironed. Aunt Kate's came by and we went to the book shop.

First La-Z-Boy recliner, a folding wood-slat porch chair

In the 1920s, two young cousins from Michigan (Edward Knabusch and
Edward Shoemaker) quit their jobs to pursue the American dream. Edwin
was a woodworker for a company and Edward was a farmer who loved to
tinker with gadgets. The "two Eds" poured their talents and their money
into their Floral City Furniture Company, each taking only a $5 per week
salary to get it up and running. Using orange crates to mock-up their idea,
they invented the reclining mechanism that eventually led, in 1929, to their
first upholstered recliner. Then they held a contest to name the chair and
the La-Z-Boy Recliner was born.

Monday, August 6, 1934

We washed today. Sure was hot. Had a big wash. Pauline and I went back to the Medicine Show.

Cimarroncita Ranch Camp - New Mexico

Cimarroncita was built in 1908 to accommodate New Mexico tourists who took a scenic railroad train – the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railway Excursion Line – to this beautiful corner of the Roadrunner State. A Texan, Minnette Thompson, bought the hotel in 1930 and established the Cimarroncita Ranch Camp for Girls. A camp for boys soon followed.

Minnette and her family ran the camps until 1995. Her relative and namesake Minnette Burges and husband Alan Huerta renovated the camp and reopened as Cimarroncita Ranch in 2005.



Sunday, August 5, 1934

Didn't go to church or Sunday school. Pauline came down and we traded books. I got some mysteries.

The first Dana Girls mystery novel

The Dana Girls was a series of young adult mystery novels produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The title heroines, Jean and Louise Dana, are teenage sisters and amateur detectives who solve mysteries while at boarding school. The series was created in 1934 in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of both the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and the Hardy Boys series, but was less successful than either. The series was written by a number of ghostwriters and, despite going out-of-print twice, lasted from 1934 to 1979; the books have also been translated into a number of other languages.

Saturday, August 4, 1934

Gweyn Richards family moved today. Laten came by and wanted to take me out to Helen's, but Mother wouldn't let me go. Daddy had a wreck.

Tony Martin (December 25, 1913 – July 27, 2012)

Born Alvin Morris, Martin was an American actor and singer who was married to performer Cyd Charisse for 60 years. He began recording in
1938 and had numerous hits, including the still popular To Each His Own.
Martin appeared in film musicals and was a featured vocalist on the George
Burns and Gracie Allen radio show. He was preceded in death by his wife
and their son, Tony Martin, Jr.

Friday, August 3, 1934

I baked a cake. Helped Gweyn a little. Sure hot. Kate's were over. Went to the Medicine Show.

Advertisement for Hamlin's Wizard Oil

How much is your health worth, Ladies and Gentlemen? It's priceless, isn't it? Well, my friends, one half-dollar is all it takes to put you in the pink. That's right, Ladies and Gents, for fifty pennies, Nature's True Remedy will succeed where doctors have failed. Only Nature can heal and I have Nature right here in this little bottle. My secret formula, from God's own laboratory, the Earth itself, will cure rheumatism, cancer, diabetes, baldness, bad breath, and curvature of the spine.

Thursday, August 2, 1934

Didn't do much today. Sure was hot. Gweyn Richards is going to move. Nadine and Ruth Ray came down.

Paul von Hindenburg (October 2, 1847 - August 2, 1934)
Second President of Germany
Second President of the German Reich
Preceded by Friedrich Ebert
Succeeded by Adolf Hitler (Führer and Chancellor)

A Prussian-German field marshal, statesman and politician, von
Hindenburg is commonly remembered as as the man who as German President appointed Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as Chancellor Germany.  Hindenburg personally despised Hitler, condescendingly referring to Hitler as that "Bohemian corporal."

The famed zeppelin Hindenburg that was destroyed by fire in 1937
was named in his honor

Wednesday, August 1, 1934

Straightened up the house. Pauline and the girls came down. Aunt Katie's came over here.

The Shadow - August 1, 1934 edition

Featuring Gray Fist by Maxwell Grant

Synopsis:

"I have just freed myself from the power of a fiend; whispered Worth Varden. "A fiend who would stop at nothing. A supercriminal whose schemes are but in the making...."


Hours later, Varden was dead. And with him went all he knew about the worldwide dope-dealing and blackmail empire of the all-powerful crime baron known only as...Gray Fist.

Gray Fist--so treacherous that he found no act too vile, no lie too base to inflate his ill-gotten wealth. Gray Fist--so secretive that even his closest henchmen could not guess his secret identity. Gray Fist--so diabolically cunning that his climb to power seemed unstoppable.

Was there anywhere a crime fighter so agile of brain and hand that he could match wits with this infamous lord of the underworld? There was--lurking in the darkness, laughing a soft eerie laugh, stealing into the innermost sanctuaries of the forces of evil, facing single-handed the guns of mobsters by the dozen... The Shadow!