Monday, October 15, 1934

Went to school. Mother stayed in bed sick today.

Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra

Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts. It was founded in 1919, as the Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra, by drummer Carleton Coon and pianist Joe Sanders.


The orchestra began broadcasting in 1922 on clear channel station WDAF, which could be received throughout the United States. They were broadcast in performance at the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City. They took the name Nighthawks because they broadcast late at night (11:30pm to 1:00am). By 1924 their fan club had 37,000 members. Fans were encouraged to send in requests for songs by letter, telephone or telegram. That move became so popular that Western Union set up a ticker tape between Sanders' piano and Coon's drums so the telegrams could be acknowledged during the broadcasts. Their song "Nighthawk Blues" includes the lines: "Tune right in on the radio/Grab a telegram and say 'Hello'." In 1925, they recorded the Paul Whiteman and Fred Rose composition "Flamin' Mamie".

At their peak, each member of the Orchestra owned identical Cord Automobiles, each in a different color with the name of the Orchestra and the owner embossed on the rear. The Orchestra's popularity showed no signs of abating and their contract with MCA had another 15 years to run in the spring of 1932 when Carleton Coon came down with a jaw infection and died, on May 4.


Joe Sanders attempted to keep the organization going; however, without Coon, the public did not support them. In 1935, he formed his own group and played until the early 1940s when he became a part time orchestra leader and studio musician. In his later years he suffered from failing eyesight and other health problems. He died in 1965 after suffering a stroke.

The Kansas City Public Library acquired the scrapbooks and other memorabilia collected and prepared by Joe Sanders and the information is available to researchers.

Tuesday, October 2, 1934

Mother stayed in bed sick today.

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975)

Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French, Baker became an international musical and political icon. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess". She married her second husband, Willie Baker, in 1921 but that marriage also was short lived. She retained that last name simply because her career began taking off during that time and that is the last name with which she became best known.

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.

Josephine Baker died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her funeral was held at L'Eglise de la Madeleine. The first American-born oman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Baker locked up the streets of Paris one last time. She was interred at the Cimetière de Monaco in Monte Carlo.

Friday, September 14, 1934

Rode to school with Daddy. He came after us. Ruth Ray and Pauline and I went to the show. Saw "Kennel Murder Case" and "The Fugitive."

The Kennel Murder Case movie poster (1933)
Starring William Powell, Mary Astor and Eugene Pallette
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Genre: Mystery
Run time: 73 minutes
Release Date: October 28, 1933

Plot Summary:

Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.

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! 

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.

Friday, June 1, 1934

Next week we have our final tests at school.

"Night of the Long Knives" - June 1, 1934

Also known as the "Röhm-Putsch", this was a purge that took place in Germany where
 the Nazi regime carried out a series of political executions. Most of those killed were
 members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary Brownshirts.

Tuesday, February 20, 1934

Walked to school with Pauline. Went to show. Saw "No Marriage Ties" and "Sensation Hunters."

Starring Richard Dix, Elizabeth Allan, Doris Kenyon, Alan Dinehart
Directed by J. Walter Ruben

Plot Summary:

Foster (Dix) is fired when he is found drunk in a bar instead of covering the biggest fight of the year.
After finding that no one in town will hire him, he goes back to the bar and meets a man named "Perk"
Perkins (Dinehart) who owns an ad agency. Tricky phrases are no problem for Foster so the firm grows
 rapidly and becomes Perkins and Foster. When Foster decides to get the Adrienne Deane Cosmetics
 account, he also lasoo's Adrienne (Kenyon) which upsets his steady gal friend Peggy (Allan).
Trouble comes to a head when Perkins decides to leave the agency as he believes that Foster
is an unscrupulous ad man who sells dangerous items for money.

Monday, February 12, 1934

Went to school with Pauline. Tried dancing today in Gym. Worked on History scrapbook for school.

Soldiers of the Austrian Federal Army in Vienna, February 12, 1934

The Austrian Civil War (German: Österreichischer Bürgerkrieg), also known as the February
 Uprising (German: Februarkämpfe), is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between
 socialist and conservative-fascist forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934, in Austria. The
clashes started in Linz and took place principally in the cities of Vienna, Graz, Bruck an der Mur,
Judenburg, Wiener Neustadt and Steyr, but also in some other industrial cities of eastern and central
Austria.

Several hundred people (including paramilitaries, members of the security forces and civilians) died
 in the armed conflict. More than a thousand suffered wounds. The authorities tried and executed
nine socialist leaders under the provisions of martial law. In addition, over 1,500 arrests were
 made, and leading socialist politicians were forced into exile.

The incidents of February 1934 were taken as a pretext by the government to prohibit the
Social Democratic Party and its affiliated trade unions altogether - an action the socialists
termed Austrofacism. The government replaced the constitution and The Patriotic Front
(Vaterländische Front) became the only legal political party in the resulting authoritarian
regime, the Standestaat.

Sunday, February 11, 1934

It snowed in a.m. Went to church and Sunday school. Nice in p.m. Went to show. Saw "Morning Glory."

"Morning Glory"
Starring Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Adolphe Menjou
Directed by Lowell Sherman
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures

Plot Summary:

Eva Lovelace (Hepburn) is a small town theater performer who hopes to make it big in Broadway. She
goes to auditions and tries to get a role in an upcoming play that would help her make it to the big time.
While there, several other actresses auditioning make the cut and they cast them and not her, since
they have a lot more experience on stage than she. A theater coach (C Aubrey Smith), whom she
meets while auditioning, agrees to give her acting and theater coach lessons.

She later meets Joseph Sheridan (Fairbanks), who later agrees to give her a small part in an
upcoming Broadway play. Later in the film, just as the play is about to begin, the star of the show
 Rita Vernon (Mary Duncan), a blond theater star, starts making demands for certain amounts of
money in a contract she wants and when they can't meet her demands for a contract and more money,
 she storms off the set and the show is without a star. The production crew frantically tries to
find a replacement. As a last resort, they choose Eva Lovelace to play the star of the show, she 
gets her big break. She quickly rehearses her lines and makes an excellent debut as a star.

Hepburn received an Academy Award for her performance in "Morning Glory."

Wednesday, February 7, 1934

Walked to school with Pauline. I got supper for Mother. Had Ham, potatoes, tomatoes, peas and apple pie. Fixed notebook.

Irma S. Rombauer (30 October 1877 – 14 October 1962)

In 1931, St. Louis native Irma Rombauer self-published the Joy of Cooking.
The cookbook was illustrated by her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, an art teacher
at a local private school. The Rombauers self-published early editions of the book; it was
picked up by a commercial printing house, the Bobbs-Merrill Company, in 1936. Sometimes
called The Joy of Cooking, it is is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks,
and has been in print continuously since 1936 and with more than 18 million copies sold.


1931 Edition



Friday, February 2, 1934

Walked to school with Pauline and walked home with Ruth Ray. Nadine, Pauline and I read a magazine.

On February 2, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 6581 creataing the Export Import Bank of Washington.

The stated goal was "to aid in financing and to facilitate exports and imports and the exchange
 of commodities between the United States and other Nations or the agencies or nationals
 thereof", with the immediate goal of making loans to the Soviet Union. The Bank's first transaction
 was a $3.8 million loan to Cuba in 1935 for the purchase of U.S. silver ingots. Congress continued
 the bank as a government agency, using a series of laws between 1935 and 1943 to place it under
various government departments, before making it an independent agency on July 31, 1945,
 with the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945. On March 13, 1968, further legislation changed the
name to "Export-Import Bank of the United States".

The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the official credit agency of
the United States federal government.



Tuesday, January 16, 1934

Walked to school with Pauline. We met Lucille Flerharty again. Tomorrow is our examinations. Didn’t have any night work.

On January 16, 1934, five prisoners, including Raymond Hamilton (who was serving sentences
totaling more than 200 years), were liberated from the Eastham State Prison Farm at Waldo,
Texas by Clyde Barrow, accompanied by Bonnie Parker. Two guards were shot by the escaping
prisoners with automatic pistols, which had been previously concealed in a ditch by Barrow.
As the prisoners ran, Barrow covered their retreat with bursts of machine-gun fire. Among
the escapees was Henry Methvin of Louisiana whose father, Ivan Methvin, helped arrange
Bonnie and Clyde's deaths in 1934 at the hands of a posse headed by Texas lawman Frank Hamer.

Saturday, January 6, 1934

I got up about 11 o’clock. Went to Mary Hampton’s party. We had a taffy pull. Daddy came after me. Formed a club.

Taffy Pull Hook

American Taffy Recipe

1/2 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Melt butter; add sugar mixed with cream of tartar. Add remaining
ingredients. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Cook to hard ball stage.
Pour into greased platters. Butter hands and pull from one hand
to another. (Or use a taffy pull hook if you have one.) Soon the
taffy will become white. Pull into thin strips. Lay on greased
surface. When hard, break into bite-size pieces and eat.

YUM!



Tuesday, November 28, 1933

Daddy took us to school. I waited for Nadine tonight but she had to stay after school. Hattie stayed all night at Mrs. Raifert's.

Hilda E. Gass - First female deputy in St. Clair County, Illinois

From the Belleville, IL, Daily Advocate:

On November 28, 1933, Miss Hilda E. Gass was named a special deputy sheriff for
 economical as well as practical reasons. When women prisoners are taken to the
penitentiary the law provides that a matron must accompany the guards. Heretofore
 special matrons were named for each trip to the penitentiary, but in the future
Miss Gass will be the matron as well as a guard.

In addition Miss Gass will be able to relieve the male deputies in the sheriff’s office by
 serving official papers when they are engaged in the solution of a baffling case. She
will also be of aid as a detective in cases in which women can gain greater confidence than men.

Monday, November 27, 1933

Daddy took me and the girls to school. Tomorrow we are to have a History test on Rome. I stayed all night at Mrs. Raifert's.

 Billie Holiday (AKA "Lady Day)
April 7, 1915 - July 17, 1959
Born: Eleanora Fagan Gough

On November 27, 1933, 18-year-old Billie Holiday recorded her first session,
 singing "Your Mother's Son in Law" with Benny Goodman. She got paid $35;
no royalties. The record flopped, but her singing career was on its way.



 .

Friday, November 24, 1933

Daddy took us girls to school. I went swimming today. Went to dentist in the evening, then played pinochle. I stayed all night with Mrs. Raifert.

Where are the jobs?

By November 1933, unemployment in America had skyrocketed to over 23%
and the Dow plummeted to 90, a loss of nearly 75 percent of its previous value.

In this photo, unemployed men queued outside a Depression-era soup kitchen
opened in Chicago by Al Capone in an effort to clean up his public image. The
storefront sign reads: "Free Soup, Coffee and Doughnuts for the Unemployed."
    

Thursday, November 23, 1933

Daddy took us to school. It snowed a little today. Mrs. Raifert came over. I stayed all night with her.

View From My Studio - Kansas City, 1933
(c) Fred Shane

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Fred Shane (Frederick Emanuel) studied at the Kansas City
 Art Institute in 1923-24. He was with Randall Davey and John Sloan in Sante Fe in 1924; studied
 at the Broadmoor Art Academy, Colorado Springs, 1925-26; and worked in New York, 1926-27,
 where he  met Robert Henri. In 1928 he visited North Africa, Spain, and France.

     In 1932 Shane began teaching at the University of Missouri at Columbia; he was appointed
Art Department Chairman in 1958, and he retired in 1971. He was on the Public Works of Art
Project when he meet and developed a life-long friendship with Thomas Hart Benton in 1935.
Shane showed a painting at the New York World's Fair, 1939, and in 1940/41 made the mural
 Picnic, Lake of the Ozarks, for the Post Office of Eldon, Missouri, a commission from the
 US Treasury. From 1939 to 1944, Shane summered in Colorado, and in 1945 through 1949 in
California. In 1944 he was an artist-correspondent for the US Army Medical Corps.

     An archive of work by Fred Shane is in the State Historical Society of Missouri. Additional
permanent collections with work by Shane are the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University;
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the St. Louis Art Museum; the Abbott Collection of
Paintings of Army Medicine and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC;
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Wolfsonian Foundation, Miami Beach; and the
 Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

Wednesday, November 22, 1933

I went swimming today. Daddy took us to school. Walked home with Ruth Ray and Nadine. Clara stayed at Mrs. Raifert's.

On November 22, 1933, a trap was set by the Dallas, Texas, sheriff
and his deputies in an attempt to capture Bonnie and Clyde near Grand
Prairie, Texas, but the couple escaped the officers' gunfire. They held up
an attorney on the highway and took his car, which they abandoned at
Miami, Oklahoma.

Tuesday, November 7, 1933

Mother ironed today. I stayed all night at Mrs. Raifert's as Mrs. Holbrook is gone.

Mary Lee Taylor radio program - November 7, 1933
Sponsored by the Dairy Goodness People

This series, "the longest-running cooking program on radio," began November 7, 1933
on CBS and concluded October 9, 1954 on NBC. The CBS episodes were initially fifteen
minutes long and devoted to cooking tips and recipes.

Before the show switched to NBC in 1948, it had expanded to thirty minutes,
and there it became part of the "NBC Saturday morning parade of stars".

The new version, introduced informally by the announcer as "Mary Lee on NBC," was an unusual but effective generic hybrid. Each episode begins with "The Story of the Week", a light domestic drama about fifteen minutes in length featuring young married couple Jim and Sally Carter. These segments have much in common with the many radio sitcoms of the day. In one show, we find Jim seized by jealousy because an old friend of his is flirting outrageously with Sally right before his eyes. The very next week Sally has to deal with the fact that one of the neighbors, a "cute redhead", is helping Jim out in his business a little too often and far too enthusiastically to suit her.

After the story in each episode comes "The Recipe of the Week". Economy is emphasized here, but we are also reminded of the time when no dinner was considered complete without bread and dessert. The Father's Day meal presented June 18, 1949 for example consists of braised round steak, fried potatoes and green beans, vegetable slaw, rolls and butter, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, and coffee with milk and sugar. Using the sponsor's inexpensive Pet Milk product in preparing most of the dishes helped hold the cost to $2.06 for a meal serving four people

Saturday, November 4, 1933

Aunt Kate, Uncle Laten and Helen came by and Mother and I went to town with them. They had supper here then.

Belle Starr
Birth Name: Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr
(February 5, 1848 – February 3, 1889)

Born on her father's farm near Carthage, Missouri, May Shirley received a classical education 
and learned piano, while graduating from Missouri's Carthage Female Academy, a private
institution her father had helped to found. She also learned to ride and to shoot.

After a Union attack on Carthage during the Civil War, the Shirleys moved to Texas.
There, May Shirley became reacquainted with Jesse James and the Younger brothers -
her childhood friends turned criminals. Following the war, she married Jim Reed and, two
years later, gave birth to her first child, Rosie Lee (nicknamed Pearl). Jim turned to crime and
the Reeds moved to California, where their second child, James Edwin (Eddie) was born before
they moved back to Texas.

After Jim was killed, Belle (as she then called herself) married a Cherokee Indian named
 Sam Starr and settled with him in Indian Territory. There, she learned ways for organizing,
planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring
 them from the law. Belle's illegal enterprises proved lucrative enough for her to employ
bribery to free her cohorts from the law whenever they were caught.

After Sam was killed in a gunfight, gossips and scandal sheets linked Belle to a series of
men with colorful names, including Jack Spaniard, Jim French and Blue Duck, after which,
in order to keep her residence on Indian land, she married a relative of late husband's, Jim
July Starr, who was 15 years her junior.

Two days before her 41st birthday, Belle was killed. She was riding home from a neighbor's
house when she was ambushed. Her death resulted from shotgun wounds in the back and
neck and to the shoulder and face. There were no witnesses and no one was ever convicted.

Belle's story was picked up by the dime novel and National Police Gazette publisher, Richard
 K. Fox. Fox made her name famous with his novel Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the
Female Jesse James, published in 1889 (the year of her murder). This novel is still often
cited as a historical reference. It was the first of many popular stories that used her name.