Very busy day

Tues., August 4, 1936 - We went to the matinee and saw "The Dancing Pirate" -- a picture in colors.  Rec'd a letter from Howard and one from Mom.
Wed., August 5, 1936 - Rec'd another letter from Mom.  Iny rec'd 4 letters today.  Were up to see Aunt Kate tonite -- we've been going up every night after supper to see her.
Thurs., August 6, 1936 - This p.m. Aunt Kate, Iny and I went sightseeing.  We were out to Lake Maurer, an amusement park, and to the Jesse Kennels.  Saw all kinds of pups there.  This evening Iny and I went to the show.  We saw "Dames" with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, and "Sins of Man" with Jean Hersholt and Don Ameche.

Photo above and this summery from lakemaurer.com:  Lake Maurer has rich history.  As early as the 1920’s-30’s, Lake Maurer was an amusement park where families spent their weekends.  In 1965, the Assemblies of God purchased the grounds and developed a camp and the Northern Missouri District offices.  In 2008, the NOMO District moved its offices to Columbia, Missouri.  The leadership appointed Lloyd and Bunny Hartzler as Executive Directors to further develop the grounds into a retreat center with year-round activities.

From wikipedia re "Dancing Pirate":  This movie is an American musical comedy film directed by Lloyd Corrigan. It is the third film shot in the three strip Technicolor process and the first musical in that format.  The film features the debut of stage star Charles Collins and the cast includes Rita Hayworth as one of The Royal Cansino Dancers. Other dancers in the film were Pat Nixon and Marjorie Reynolds.

Set in Boston in the 1820s, the film tells of dancing teacher Jonathan Pride, shanghaied by pirates and forced to be a slave aboard his own ship. Jonathan is able to join a provisioning party that lands on the coast of California, then a part of the Spanish Empire where he makes his escape; his only possessions being his umbrella and music box that he uses for his dancing lessons.

He is seen by a shepherd who warns the nearest town whose excitable population transform Jonathan's arrival into a full-fledged pirate invasion. The Alcade Don Emilio Perena leads the militia into shooting up their own town whilst Jonathan is later captured in the boudoir of Alcade's daughter Serafina. Jonathan is sentenced to death.

When Serafina and the women of the town discover Jonathan's profession of dancing teacher, his execution is delayed until he teaches the waltz to the women of the town.

Meanwhile, Serafina's suitor, Don Balthazar a Captain of the Guards of the Presidio of Monterey and some of his soldiers visit the town to not only marry Serafina, but unbeknownst to the town has been cashiered from the Army along with his men who seek to loot the town. Don Balthazar also plans on secretly executing his rival Jonathan.

Jonathan makes his escape and motivates the local downtrodden but peaceful Indians into an uprising through a teaching them a torrid war dance. The Indians use their only "weapons" their lassoes to capture the former soldiers now bandits. Don Balthazar challenges Jonathan to a duel with swords but Jonathan defeats and captures him with his umbrella and his dancing skills.

The photo was also found on wikipedia.

Another summary and photo from wikipedia:  "Dames" is a 1934 Warner Bros. musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright with dance numbers created by Busby Berkeley. The film stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, and Hugh Herbert. Production numbers and songs include "When You Were a Smile on Your Mother's Lips (and a Twinkle in Your Daddy's Eye)", "The Girl at the Ironing Board", "I Only Have Eyes for You", "Dames" and "Try to See It My Way".

Eccentric multimillionaire Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert), whose main purpose in life is raising American morals through a nationwide campaign, wants to be assured that his fortune will be inherited by upstanding relatives. He visits his cousin Matilda Hemingway (ZaSu Pitts) in New York City, in Horace's view the center of immorality in America. What Ounce finds most offensive are musical comedy shows and the people who put them on, and it just so happens that Matilda's daughter Barbara (Ruby Keeler) is a dancer and singer in love with a struggling singer and songwriter, her 13th cousin, Jimmy Higgens (Dick Powell). On Ezra's instructions, Jimmy the "black sheep" has been ostracized by the family, on pain of not receiving their inheritance.

Matilda's husband Horace (Guy Kibbee) meets a showgirl named Mabel (Joan Blondell), who's been stranded in Troy when her show folds, and connives her way into sleeping in Horace's train compartment as a way to get back home. Terrified of scandal, he leaves her some money and his business card, along with a note telling her to not mention their meeting to anyone; but when Mabel discovers that Horace is Barbara's father, she blackmails him into backing Jimmy's show.

Photo from wikipedia, summary from imdb.com:  In this drama, Austrian church bell ringer Freyman loves music and wants his two sons (both played by Ameche) to love it too. The first goes to America and the second is born deaf-mute but gains hearing during WWI bombing.

I am really liking all of these movie posters.  Very cool.

More movies

Sat., August 1, 1936 - Usual routine.  Miss Linard, the foot specialist told us some places of interest to see.  Went to show -- Jane Withers in "Little Miss Nobody" and John Wayne in "Winds of the Wasteland."
Sun., August 2, 1936 - I took a bath and had a foot treatment.  Iny didn't take a bath.  We had dinner at the Lucerne - 4 tables each seating 12 - served like home - very good meal.  Slept all afternoon.
Mon., August 3, 1936 - Same round of drinking, eating, and bathing.  Got some library books to read.  Had 2 foot treatments.

So they got ideas on places to see, but went to the movies instead.  I can understand that.  From the wikipedia article about "Little Miss Nobody":

     Judy Devlin, a mischievous girl in the Sunshine Foundling Home, gets the best of grocer Harold Slade and his son Herman. After everyone enjoys a Thanksgiving meal with turkeys Judy stole from Slade, Mrs. Sybil Smythe and her son Junior look over the little orphan girls to adopt a sister and playmate for Junior. He makes nasty comments about all the girls until he sees Mary Dorsey, whom he insists on having his mother adopt despite her dislike of him. Judy and Mary are friends who have pledged to be adopted together. To discourage Junior, Judy starts a fire drill and turns the water hose on him. Hiding afterwards in the cellar, Judy finds the boxes containing the clothing in which the orphans were originally found, including her own. Later, Mrs. Martha Bradley, patroness of the home, threatens Judy with reform school if she does not behave.

     While Judy is cleaning the office, Mr. Gerald Dexter, district attorney for Springfield, arrives. Ten years ago, his pregnant wife left him after he prosecuted a relative of hers. He shows a crest that the infant born to his wife may have worn on her clothing, and Judy recognizes it as the same as the one on her outfit in the cellar. As she is about to explain, Mary calls her, and Judy goes to switch the clothing to save Mary from the Smythes. Everyone thinks that Judy was trying to make them believe she was Dexter's daughter, and she accepts the blame, sacrificing herself for Mary. Judy is sentenced to two years in reform school, but she escapes on the way there. When she is hit by a bicycle and a policeman insists on accompanying her home, she leads him to a pet shop whose owner she calls her uncle. The proprietor is John Russell, who avoided a prison sentence, and he listens sympathetically to Judy's story.

     Criminal Dutch Miller knows that John was a bank robber named Phil Ormsbey back in Kansas. Seeking a hideout, Dutch moves in on the happy John and Judy. Judy goes to the Dexter estate to see Mary and promises to return the next evening when her father will be away. Learning of this, Dutch knocks out John and drives Judy to the house, which he attempts to rob. The girls discover him, and John, arriving in time to stop Dutch, shoots him in a struggle. John then goes on the lam, and although Judy refuses to talk, John is caught. Examining the duplicate records on Judy's case, Dexter sees a notation about the crest found on her clothing when she was a baby. He realizes what has happened, and father and daughter are reunited.

I had to read that twice to get it right.

From the same source, as to "Winds of the Wasteland":

     The film is set in 1861. John Blair (John Wayne) and his partner, Larry Adams (Lane Chandler) are dismayed when the arrival of telegraph ends the Pony Express. Hoping to utilize their horse-riding skills, they decide to start a stage coach transportation business. They go to Buchanan City and ask local magnate Cal Drake (Douglas Cosgrove) if he is willing to sell them a stage coach. Instead, Drake offers them a franchise from his own stage coach line - a line out to bustling Crescent City.

     Upon arriving at Crescent City, Blair and Adams quickly realize that they had been bamboozled into paying for the line as Crescent City is a ghost town. The only residents are the mayor, Rocky O'Brien (Lew Kelly), and Dr. William Forsythe (Sam Flint). The mayor is thrilled to get not only new residents to double the size of the town, but a stage coach line too. Blair disparages as there are no customers to transport and will have to lose his business so quickly. The mayor says there is a way for Blair to get all the money he owes and more. There will be a contest in the next few days where the fastest team in a race will win a $25,000 government contract to deliver mail to the area. With Blair's luck returning, he also meets a telegraph crew, who he saves from poisoning after drinking from a local water hole. In appreciation, the telegraph crew offers to run the line through Crescent City if Blair will give them laborers to build the telegraph line.

     Blair is able to get laborers to build the telegraph line and the population of Crescent City begins to skyrocket. Drake, upset that Blair is actually a competing business out of his lie, then decides to hire Blair to drive a gold shipment to Sacramento only to ambush him. If Blair can get the gold to the destination, Drake will take $1,000 off of the original loan. Blair escapes the ambush and collects the money at gunpoint. Drake next hopes to stop Blair at the race. He gets his henchman to throw obstacles in Blair's way to defeat him by any means necessary. But despite all odds, Blair wins the race and the $25,000 reward.

It says the movie is sometimes shown on television with the title "Stagecoach Run".

As for the Lucerne, from exsmo.com:

     In a 1900 publication by The McLain Land and Investment describes the Arlington Hotel as follows: "Has a basement under the entire main part built of flat blue limestone rock, concrete bottom. All cornices and towers are galvanized iron, making it as fireproof as possible. On entering, to the right and left, the visitor who ever had the pleasure of being a guest at the Elms Hotel, will recognize the two elegant mantels saved from the wreck of that famous history."

     After a few years of operation, the McLains leased the Arlington to the Excelsior Club. It was a rather notorious club and information has it that it was so notorious the Gov. Folk had it closed.

     After that it was occupied by Harriett Lindsey, who operated the Lindsey Sanitarium (the city's first hospital). It closed and was later reopened as the Lucerne Hotel and operated by Mrs. C. P. McGaugh and, in 1920, by Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Adams. It served meals and before each meal, someone would appear on the front porch and ring a hand bell to call all diners in.

     Originally, the building featured lion heads decorating the porch, each of which held a light bulb in it's mouth. The lion heads were removed with a west portion of the porch, and donated to the Excelsior Springs Historical Musuem by Lindell Jarman.

The photo, also from exsmo.com, shows the building as the gray one right on the corner.  I cannot find why the Excelsior Club was so notorious, but we'll assume it was something nefarious.

Outing and abouting

Wed., July 29, 1936 - Iny's temperature O.K.  We went to the movies and saw Spencer Tracy and Walter Abel in "Fury" and Robert Taylor and Chester Morris in "Society Doctor."
Thurs., July 30, 1936 - 7:00 before we got up.  I got a letter from Mom.  The usual schedule of drinking, eating, and bathing.  Aunt Kate is feeling very good.
Fri., July 31, 1936 - We got up at 6:00.  Had rolls and plums for breakfast.  After baths and dinner we went to a chiropodist.  I'm going to take 12 treatments.  My feet are quite weak and may be the cause of the sciatica.  Went to see Aunt Kate.

I think I would enjoy both of these movies.

From wikipedia:  "Fury" is a 1936 American drama film directed by Fritz Lang which tells the story of an innocent man who narrowly escapes being lynched and the revenge he seeks.  The movie is loosely based on the events surrounding the Brooke Hart murder in San Jose, California.

En route to meet his fiancée, Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney), gas station owner Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) is arrested on flimsy circumstantial evidence for the kidnapping of a child. Gossip soon travels around the small town, growing more distorted through each retelling, until a mob gathers at the jail. When the resolute sheriff (Edward Ellis) refuses to give up his prisoner, the enraged townspeople burn down the building, two of them also throwing dynamite into the flames as they flee the scene. Unknown to anyone else there, the blast frees Wilson, but kills his little dog Rainbow, who had run in to comfort him in the cell.

The district attorney (Walter Abel) brings the main perpetrators to trial for murder, but nobody is willing to identify the guilty, and several provide false alibis. The case seems hopeless, but then the prosecutor produces hard evidence: newsreel footage of twenty-two people caught in the act.

However, Katherine is troubled by one piece of evidence. The defense attorney had tried to get his clients off by claiming that there was no proof Joe was killed, but an anonymous letter writer had returned a partially melted ring belonging to Joe. Katherine notices that a word is misspelled just as Joe used to spell it.

She discovers that Joe escaped the fire and that Joe's brothers are helping him get his revenge by concealing his survival and framing the defendants for his murder. She goes to see Joe and pleads with him to stop the charade, but he is determined to make his would-be killers pay. However, his conscience starts preying on him and, in the end, just as the verdicts are being read, he walks into the courtroom and sets things straight.

About "Society Doctor" from tcm.com:  At the Metropolitan Hospital, where Horace Waverly is Physician Superintendent, doctors Bill Morgan and Tommy Ellis vie for the attention of nurse Madge Wilson. One day, Frank Snowden, son of the wealthy and influential Harris Snowden, is brought in with an acute case of appendicitis, which requires immediate surgery. Harris insists on waiting for Dr. Harvey, their family physician, to arrive and give his opinion of the matter, but Dr. Morgan performs the urgent operation after quickly securing the consent of Frank's wife. When Dr. Morgan is reprimanded by Waverly for taking Dr. Harvey's patient and is dismissed from the hospital, he angrily criticizes Waverly's and Harvey's unethical behavior, accusing both of serving only the petty whims of the rich and obstructing basic medical care for the sick and injured. One of Metropolitan's wealthiest resident patients is the chronically lonely Mrs. Crane, who, after learning of the young doctor's dismissal, uses her influence to have him reinstated. Meanwhile, two reporters arrive at the hospital and wait for the impending arrival of gangster Butch McCarthy, who has been released from prison for one day to visit his hospitalized mother. The reporters try to get the story about how Waverly has kept the con's visit a secret, especially considering that police officer Harrigan, who is being treated for the gunshot wounds from Butch's gun, is on the same floor. Dr. Morgan spoils Madge and Dr. Ellis' plans for a date when a staff shortage requires him to instruct Ellis to stay at the hospital. The eager Dr. Ellis proposes marriage to Madge, but she tells him that she is in love with Dr. Morgan. Later, when Dr. Morgan learns that his reinstatement came not from his own merit as a physician, but from Mrs. Crane's doings, he decides to leave the hospital in the name of saving his self-respect. Mrs. Crane wants Dr. Morgan to be her physician, so she offers to set him up in a private practice and keep him in business by sending her rich friends to him. Seeing no other alternative, Dr. Morgan accepts the offer, but when Madge finds out about his decision and believes that he has acted out of greed, not self-respect, she spurns him and agrees to marry Dr. Ellis. Escorted by the police, Butch McCarthy is brought to the bedside of the woman who is supposedly his mother, but once his handcuffs are removed, he grabs the gun that was smuggled in by the phony patient and goes after Harrigan. After Dr. Morgan is shot by the convict while trying to stop him, Harrigan's wife succeeds in preventing her husband's murder by shooting Butch. Dr. Morgan is rushed to the operating table, where it is discovered that the nature of his bullet wound is so severe that all hope for his recovery is abandoned. However, the still-conscious Dr. Morgan pleads with Dr. Ellis to perform a method of operation that only they have studied at the hospital. Dr. Ellis agrees, and under Dr. Morgan's guidance, the risky operation begins. During the procedure, Dr. Morgan tells Madge that he had reconsidered Mrs. Crane's offer and turned it down, thus fully redeeming himself. When the operation ends successfully, Dr. Ellis insists that Dr. Morgan ask Madge to marry him, and she accepts.

Fun in Missouri

Sun., July 26, 1936 - Hunted up new cafes for our meals.  Slept most of the afternoon.
Mon., July 27, 1936 - To Dr. Musgrave this a.m.  Iny has a temperature and can't take a bath today.  My back is weak and my blood pressure a little low.  I'm supposed to drink around 12 glasses of different waters.  I took my first bath this p.m.  It's lots of fun.  Rained tonite, lights went out so Iny couldn't wave my hair.
Tues., July 28, 1936 - Aunt Kate entered the McCleary Sanitarium today.  Iny's temperature still a little above normal.  She took a bath anyway.  I have to stay 2 wks.  Brrr!

The photo is of the McCleary Sanitarium and Clinic in 1930.  I borrowed it from exsmo.com.

I learned elsewhere on the wonderful worldwide web that the sanitarium was founded by Dr. A. S. McCleary in 1901 for people with gastro-intestinal issues.  He specialty was curing hemorrhoids without surgery and he advertised success or the patients did not have to pay.  The sanitarium remained in business until 1974.

On the road

Thurs., July 23, 1936 - Cleaned the house.  Howard fixed shelves on the porch.  Started to iron after supper.  Andrew Andersens came over so I had to quit.
Fri., July 24, 1936 - Finished the ironing.  Iny came at 2:30.  We went to Fremont and stayed with Aunt Kate all nite. Aunt Kate is going with us to Excelsior Springs.
Sat., July 25, 1936 - Left Fremont at 3:25.  Stopped an hour at Shenandoah for breakfast.  Were eating dinner at Excelsior Springs at 12:30.  We are 334 miles from home.  We're staying at The Avalon.

I don't know when the photo was taken, but you'll note the sign says "Avalon" and I did find it with a search for Excelsior Springs.  Neat-o!

Fast forward

Mon., July 20, 1936 - Howard gone threshing.  I was working on the chokecherries this p.m. when Pearl, Aunt Mary, Annie & Margaret Miller came to see me.

Tues., July 21, 1936 - Went to town and washed clothes this morning.  Howard finished threshing today.  Elmer and Myrtle were up here this evening.

Wed., July 22, 1936 - Worked with chokecherries.  We went to town tonite.  I went up home and helped Mom fit the lace dress I got in Sioux City for her.

So, the best we know from the gap in reporting, so to speak, is that Grandma went to Sioux City.  Hopefully she did other fun things, too. 

Speaking of fun, I still remember as a kid watching Mom and Grandpa trying to siphon Grandpa's homemade chokecherry wine and getting a little giggly in the process.

The clipping was in her diary just waiting all these years to make a repeat appearance.

Tada!

Sat., June 6, 1936 - Had my hair fixed by Anna Boyd after dinner.  Helen & Irene came in p.m. to decorate.  Annie and Ola here this evening awhile.
Sun., June 7, 1936 - Nice warm sunshiny day.  Annie Miller came at 11:00.  Ray went to Wayne for my flowers.  He stopped for Howard & Helen on way back.  We went to the parsonage at 1:30, home again at 2:00.  After dinner went to Norfolk to have pictures taken.

And after this, we do not hear from the new bride until late July.  Which is probably as it should be.

I know Grandma was not overly fond of wearing hats, but I'm really glad she took the plunge here.  I think she looks fabulous.  Now if they were only smiling . . .