(Headlines were culled from the San Francisco Examiner courtesy of Newspapers. com.)
THOSE CONVICTED UNDER VOLSTEAD ACT MAY GO FREE Prohibition (aka the Volstead Act) had been repealed one week prior which made a large swath of the population very happy and led to the freeing of many who’d been thrown in the hoosegow for selling booze. Sanity at last.
GEORGE RAFT REGISTERS IRE AND PUNCHES SCREEN CHIEF The extremely mediocre actor George Raft objected to a line of dialogue in a picture refusing to say it. An associate producer named Benny Glazer told him, “you’ll say it and you’ll like it.” Sounds like some cheap patter from a bad gangster film. Raft played Mr. Tough Guy (a real life role he fancied for himself but never lived up to) and slugged the AP. They later kissed and made up. Among the witnesses were co-stars Carole Lombard and Wesley Ruggles.
EVERYTHING IN GREY SWEATERS FROM $1.95 to $8.50 This was an ad for Moore, evidently a men’s clothing store, with three locations, two in San Francisco and one in Oakland. According to the ad: "Naturally he prefers grey. It’s the season’s smartest…." For that $8.50 you could get “Sportsmen’s finest pure alpaca coat sweater.” Yowza!
December 15, 1938
WIDESPREAD SPY PLOT LAID TO AMERICAN BUND; HUGE WAR TIME SABOTAGE SCHEME CHARGED
This sounds like something out of my novel, Threat of Night. It was a warning that spies were setting up a “potential sabotage machine” designed to impact the Unites States’ industrial and military efficiency in time of war. It was isussed by the House Committee on un-American Activities, which made a bigger name for itself hunting for communists (and ruining lives) during the Red Scare. Nazi spies did indeed operate in various parts of the U.S. principally on the two coasts, and many were subsequently arrested.
AMERICAN LEAGUE OKEHS (SIC) NIGHT BALL
The American League finally acceded to the coming trend of night baseball. The senior circuit (as the National League was often called) had started playing night games in 1935. The Cleveland Indians were granted permission to host the first night game. As anyone with the slightest interest in Major League Baseball will tell you, the vast majority of games are now played under the lights. It was only in 1971 that World Series games were first played under the stars.
December 16, 1941
MAIN HAWAIIAN FLEET IN TACT, CHASES JAPS
Astute readers will note that this headline appeared nine days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and eight days after the U.S. declaration of war. The article stated that according to Navy Secretary Knox (first name not given, but I happen to know that it was Frank) the U.S. lost six warships of December 7th and that 2,897 sailors and soldiers were killed. But Knox further stated that the Japanese had “failed utterly” to total knock out U.S. “armed might” in the Pacific. In other words: it’s on now, baby!
KEY TO LENINGRAD RECAPTURED; NAZIS CONTINUE RETREAT
Hitler and the Germans had already begun the long, slow process of losing the war. Just as the Japanese had failed to deliver a knockout blow, the Nazis had needed to win the war against the Soviet Union quickly. They came close. But as we’ve all learned close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Radio Highlights that Tuesday evening included "Fibber McGee and Molly", The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sports with Ernie Smith, "Amos ’n Andy", "The Shadow,"" Battle of the Sexes" (a game show pitting male and female contests answering trivia questions), "Burns and Allen" (who later had a long, successful run on television) and music and and news galore.
December 14, 1944
ROOSEVELT PLANS CHRISTMAS TALK
It was announced that President Roosevelt would make his annual holiday chat on Christmas Eve at 2:15 Pacific War Time. It would be carried by all major networks. From whence the address would come was not revealed. The previous year he had spoken from his Hyde Park home. FDR would die four months later.
December 17, 1951
DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY ALONG ENTIRE KOREA FRONT
No Americans deaths were reported for a twenty-four period ending the previous day in the Korean War — that is, “police action.” It is notable, I suppose, that the absence of death was newsworthy. U.S. troops had been fighting and dying in Korea since the summer. The fighting would continue for another three years. However, the U.S. would return to battle in Asia a few years later for a much longer time in Vietnam.
STILL ALOOF
So read the bold-faced caption under a photo of the great Swedish-born actress, Greta Garbo seen in sunglasses and holding her jacket collar over part of her face. The picture was taken in New York after a flight from Paris. Garbo reportedly told newsmen: “Please leave me alone, I’m not in pictures anymore.” The notorious recluse had retired from movies ten years prior and never again appeared on the silver screen.
December 16, 1958
EARNING $5,000 A YEAR? YOU’RE JUST AVERAGE
According to this story “a $5,000 annual income once marked the successful man.” But “now it is the average family income in the United States." The census bureau had issued a report stating that two-fifths of the country’s families had incomes between $5,000 and $10,000 a year.
WAR WARNING BY REICH REDS IN BERLIN CRISIS; THREAT TO ATTACK IF ANY BLOCKADE RUNNING
It was one of the hottest times of the Cold War (or should that be coldest times of the Cold War?). Tensions between East and West Germany, particularly in Berlin, were running high. The possibility of war loomed and as another article in that day’s paper stated. “A Single Shot Could Start War.” It would be decades before tensions would ease with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of East Germany in 1989.
December 15, 1967
2 BOYS ON LSD TRIP BY MISTAKE
The father of the two lads was a twenty-nine-year-old associate professor who was subsequently charged with possession of a hallucinatory drug. The lads were five and ten years old. Mom had mistaken the LSD for fluoride tablets which the boys regularly took by doctor’s prescription. Way to go mom. The boys had “no lasting effects” although that’s debatable. It must have freaked them the hell out. Unknowingly dropping acid can have serious, though not necessarily long-lasting effects on the victim. At one point during the trip one of the boys told his father that he couldn’t sleep because, “I see colored pictures” (I bet he did). Pop asked if they were good or bad pictures. “They’re good pictures,” the five-year-old replied. Dad concluded that he was having a good trip. Well, thank goodness for that.
HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR KIDS INTO HIPPIES
(Talk about eye-catching headlines….) According to a University of Southern California psychologist if you want a hippie in the house, “keep telling your child there’s a Santa Claus.” He explained that the worst thing parents can do is delude their young ‘uns about a “jolly fat man with a bagful of gifts.” Not only is Santa “a fraud’ (!!!) But allowing youngsters to believe in him can “cause the kind of emotional conflicts that will make hippies out of them.” It’s better, he claims, to tell them the truth so that kids will learn to trust their parents. The psychologist’s name was Chaytor D. Mason and I can only conclude that he was one of the biggest idiots on the planet. I googled him and discovered that he trod this earth from 1922-1996. I also discovered that he was frequently quoted in newspaper articles, purportedly as an expert on various topics. Yeah, right.
BOMBING OF HANOI GOES ON
“Waves of American planes hit Hanoi’s suburbs today with high-explosive, fragmentation and delayed action bombs.” In other words death and destruction rained from the skies via the United States air force. This was roughly in the middle of the U.S. war in Vietnam. The peace movement was well underway and opposition to the war was starting to build. Many in the U.S. would have been horrified by this and so many other stories like it, but others would have cheered the merciless killers on.
December 18, 1972
NIXON LIFTS BOMB CURB; HANOI REPORTS ‘DEVASTATING’ RAID ON NORTH
And five years later.... President Nixon personally ordered the resumption of bombing two days after it was announced that peace talks were at an impasse. These bombing were far more unpopular than those previously mentioned. While Nixon enjoyed widespread support and had just been re-elected by a wide margin, the war and bombings like these had become much more controversial. If it was as if people were objecting to the wanton killing.
ODD BOYCOTT OF SAFEWAY
Safeway Stores Inc. faced a nationwide boycott inspired by the United Farmworkers. Safeway was guilty of selling non-Union picked lettuce and supporting legislation that would have stripped farmworkers of the right to strike. The odd nature of the boycott stemmed from the use of “human billboards” standing at freeway entrances with signs reading: farmworkers say thank you, NO on Safeway.”
TONIGHT’S BEST BETS ON TV
That evenings television fare included Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, the wildly popular, oft hilarious (for its times) comedy show; a special called "Alcatraz, Island of Hate," the story of the notorious former federal prison; the world premier of a film called "The Snoop Sisters" starring Helen Hayes; and "The New Bill Cosby Show,' which that night had a Christmas theme. Cosby was already one of America’s most beloved entertainers as he would continue to be into the 21st century. Then there were revelations.
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