Saturday Mar 29

Well I had the sought pleasure
of the 20th Century girl to be with
me at the opera.

She is very nice, although poor
she likes only the high places,
she cannot mix with common
people, and is rather serious
minded, find she is fairly well
educated, fine manners in
conversation, has a passion
for cigarette smoking. peppy.

Her little slim figure is very
fascinating, that beautiful
face, those eyes of enchantment.

In conclusion she is beautiful
type worthy of admiration. --
I am glad to count her among
my friends.

This little adventure tonight
was rather expensive but worthwhile.

---------

Matt's Notes

Papa saw an opera double-feature on his date with the 20th Century Girl. The main attraction was Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakoff's Le Coq d'Or, which concerns an Eastern European warlord (not unlike those who were making life miserable around the world for people like Papa) who gets his comeuppance for being a jerk. Papa certainly had a rooting interest in the outcome, and since I'm sure he knew the Pushkin poem, "The Golden Cockerel," on which the opera's based, he would have really enjoyed himself if he wasn't too distracted by the "little slim figure" in the next seat.

Then again, if the 20th Century Girl's education afforded her a working knowledge of opera, Papa would have had cause for worry; the performance apparently wasn't that good. Though the New York Times had blessed the production, it had saved its highest praise for Rosina Galli-Curci. Alas, she was indisposed on the night of the 29th, thus casting a pall over the proceedings. Irving Kolodin, in his Story of the Metropolitan Opera, describes the consequences thus:

The large repertory was further varied by the return of Le Coq d'or on January 21 with Galli-Curci singing the Queen with excellent style and indifferent pitch, and Laura Robertson as the Voice of the Golden Cock. Giuseppe Bamboschek conducted a cast otherwise very much as before, and the production was Pogany's...As one was to notice with increasing frequency, the heavy schedule often resulted in cast changes that not merely deprived the audience of a favorite voice, but substituted one of notably inferior quality. Thus, Sabinieeva for Gallie-Curci in Coq d'or...

Oh well. Perhaps the 20th Century Girl's "passion for cigarette smoking" had her too distracted with thoughts of bodice-ripping ashtrays and tumescent match heads for her to notice the compromised work up on the stage. If not, she at least would have enjoyed the one-act opera that preceded Le Coq: Franco Leoni's L'Oracolo, a tale of murder and intrigue (a "brilliant little 'shocker'," according to the Times) set in San Francisco's Chinatown. I'm listening to L'Oracolo as I write this, but since I don't speak Italian and am also sitting on a loud plane with a distressingly chipper flight crew chatting away behind me, much of the dramatic effect is lost.

In any event, there's plenty of drama building in Papa's delightfully 19th Century-style account of the 20th Century Girl. The phrases he uses, like "those eyes of enchantment" and "she is worthy of admiration," sound like the words with which an awkward-but-secretly-loaded Jane Austen hero might stoically torment himself. Papa, of course, was not secretly loaded, and we know the 20th Century Girl "cannot mix with common people." If Papa were writing a novel instead of his own life's story, this description of her low tolerance for the low-born would certainly give the experienced reader pause.

-----------------------

Additional Notes

I still can't get over how Papa cites the 20th Century Girl's "passion for cigarettes" as one of her standout qualities. I'll have to remember to credit myself with a "passion for bourbon" the next time I feel Maker's Mark-induced shame creeping up on me.

Meanwhile, I've tried to figure out how expensive Papa's night at the opera really was, but I've yet to learn what ticket prices were like in his day. Good tickets nowadays run $200 or more -- the equivalent of $16 in 1924 dollars -- but I doubt he spent that much. I'll have to keep poking around, but if anyone out there can tell me more, please write to me or drop a comment.

-------

My mother adds:

Papa must have seen Galli Curci other times, because I remember him mentioning her a lot; I guess in an effort to improve my musical taste, which in those days ran toward the top 40. I think Papa probably disapproved of the passion for smoking of the 20th century girl, but was listing her many fine attributes as well as some things not so good, like not mixing with the common people. The fact that he counts her among his friends does not bode well for romance.

------------

Sources

• Here's the Coq d'or review from the New York Times
• And here's the L'Amico Fritz and L'Oracolo review from the New York Times
• Here's a good summary of L'Oracolo

Tuesday Mar 18

Spent the night with
Rothblum first motoring around
with him and Mrs. Rothblum
in their car, and discussing
the possibility of my further
aquaintance with Miss. H.

After taking Mrs. Rothblum
to her sisters apt. we spent the
night at 2nd Ave Baths

I have resolved to call H.
the 20th Century girl because
in my opinion she mentally
stands above other women
her gayety, full of pep, and I'm
even told that she is smoking
cigarettes (to which I don't object)
just the perfect 20th Century girl

-----------------

Matt's Notes

The roller coaster ride called "The 2oth Century Girl" continues. On day one, Papa is sure he's met the girl of his dreams; on day two, seized by pessimism, he literally says "I'm not worthy" and reprimands himself for his folly; on day three, in a scene that could be from a Jewish version of The Great Gatsby, we find him back in the game, "motoring around" and taking a steam bath with the friends who'll help him plot his next move.

He's rebounded quite energetically from the previous day's funk, and in the process has given us another great look at the texture of life in his New York. When he says he motored around in a car, he likely means something like a Model T Ford or a Chevy touring sedan:






My friend Sixto, the highest car authority I know, says there were "hundreds of thousands" of these cars on the road by the 1920's, and even wage earners like Papa's friends could have picked one up for very little money. (There were also "a lot of car builders in Manhattan and Brooklyn," but odds are Rothblum owned a Model T, especially since Henry Ford's antisemitism wasn't so well-known yet and wouldn't have dissuaded a Jewish activist from buying his products.) Sixto also says:

The model T was incredibly sturdy as it was
built to run on crappy rural roads (many, if not most,
unpaved) and share the road with horses on cobble
stoned streets...

The driver of that car drove the car with a huge
steering wheel, and he most likely worked the fuel
from a lever on the steering wheel, while shifting AND
adjusting the timing of the ignition as required
(another lever on the steering wheel). THAT was real
driving.

I don't have any pictures of Papa driving, but I do have this studio photo of him posing in a prop car with a "huge steering wheel":




I can picture Papa discussing the "20th Century girl's" non-objectionable tobacco habit at the Second Avenue Baths, obviously one of the many "schvitzes," or Russian bath houses, that used to be common in New York. ("Schvitz" literally means "sweat" in Yiddish, and it can be used either as a verb, as in "I'm schvitzing from the heat already," as a noun to refer to a bath house itself, as in "get me to the schvitz on time" or as a reference to the act of taking a steam bath, as in "I can't think straight without a schvitz".)

The only schvitz I've even been to is the Tenth Street Baths between First Avenue and Avenue A, and as far as I can tell the overall experience hasn't changed in a thousand years (except for some coed schvitzing on select nights). The intrepid schvitzer can choose from a Turkish-style steam room, which doesn't seem very popular, or a dry heat room, which is always full of betoweled men sitting on stone risers that appear to have been carved by ancient peoples from the very bedrock of Manhattan. For a couple of dollars extra, a large person will rub mineral-infused, soapy water on you with a leafy tree branch, and your friends will question your manhood if you don't take a couple of dips in the icy pool right outside the sauna. This is apparently good for your circulation, which is important if you're going to avail yourself of the steak-heavy menu in the restaurant upstairs. I usually only take a schvitz before a major milestone, as I did before my wedding, but in Papa's day it was a much more casual diversion, and certainly an appropriate environment in which to discuss dating strategies.

Update 4/7:

Reader Dina points out the existence of an 1895 comic operetta by Ludwig Englander called "The 20th Century Girl." Here are the details according to a site called musicaltheaterguide.com:

The 20th Century Girl; comic opera; 3 acts; libretto by Sydney Rosenfeld; Bijou Theatre, New York; 25 January 1895; revised and reopened 6 May 1895 (total 43 perfs)

And here's a New York Times humor piece from 1912 that uses the same expression (subscription required). Looks like it was, not surprisingly, a common expression.

----------------

Image credits

Library of Congress reproduction number LC-USZ62-63968. No known restrictions on publication.

Library of Congress reproduction number LC-DIG-npcc-02566. No known restrictions on publication.

Thursday Mar 20

I was embued with
a Purim spirit just thinking
a little of days gone by
Down in my neighborhood
I saw some cheep masquerades
just a shadow of a Purim
in the old world.

Visited my sisters.

I talked with the 20th
Century girl on the phone,
I long for a closer association
with her, I am constantly
thinking of her.

------------

Matt's Notes

Just a few days after meeting the "20th Century Girl," Papa has become the very picture of a lovesick young man. Nothing can distract him from his longing; even children running by in their Purim regalia make him feel worse. (Not that he was happy about the state of Purim in New York to begin with, as we saw yesterday.) If this were an old cartoon he'd be kicking a can down the street. Maybe a car would drive through a puddle and splash him.

I wonder where he talked to the 20th Century Girl -- he didn't have a phone in his apartment, so he must have borrowed a neighbor's or used a pay phone in his building or on the street. I'm sure he prearranged the call with his friend Rothblum (who introduced Papa to the 20th Century girl) during their conspiratorial shvitz a couple of nights earlier.

In any event, when she talked to Papa, the 20th Century Girl might have looked a little something like this:



Image source: Young woman posed with a telephone, 1915. Library of Congress call # LC-USZ62-89817. No rights information indicated.

Saturday Mar 22

Attended the Hadassah
Ball at the 71st Reg. Armory

It looked more like a
fashion show, because
of the attendance
being of the most prominent
Jews, displaying their
best in evening dress.

However it did not impress
me very much I felt
rather lonesome throughout
the evening although I met
numerous friends.

-----------------

Matt's Notes

In 1924, Hadassah was well on its way to becoming the enormously successful Jewish womens' organization it is today, though it had technically become a subset of the Zionist Organization of America in 1918. Its growth outstripped ZOA's almost from the start, though, and it would only be a few more years until resulting organizational tensions effectively ended the relationship. Papa was an active, loyal member of the ZOA, so I'm sure he picked up on some of these tensions. This may be why he was so uncharacteristically quick to dismiss the guests at the Hadassah function as vain and self-important -- his ZOA compadres must have lit up the schvitzes with such talk.

I wonder, too, if his unforgiving reaction to the "prominent Jews" at the ball was related to the "20th Century Girl" (if you're just joining us, the "20th Century Girl" was the latest object of Papa's ardor). He pined for her constantly, but worried that her social aspirations -- her need to be "prominent" -- precluded a relationships with a lowly "wage earner" like him. As a result, he'd felt lousy and forlorn for days. Perhaps, deep down, he was angry at the 20th Century Girl, blamed her for his apprehension, and took it out a little on the highfalutin' Hadassah folk she aspired to be like.

----------------------

The Sienese-inspired 71st Street Armory was a mighty fine building, but it's been gone since the 70's. Here's what it looked like while it still stood on 33rd and Park:




Papa, of course, would have worn his tuxedo there that night:




-------------

Additional notes:

For a better Hadassah history than on the Hadassah site itself, check out this excerpt from the American Jewish Desk Reference.

Image source: 71st Regiment Armory, Library of Congress call # LC-D4-19584

-------

Updates:

I've updated my March 19th post with early 20th Century Eastern European Purim images from the Yivo archive. Give them a look if you've got the time.

Friday Sept 12

Went to Miss S.S. a
fine type of a girl, I wish
I had some affection for
her, went with her to the
park (Prospect), and another
picture of flaming youth,
by just getting friendly
with her.

The Enchanting atmosphere
in the stillness of the night
tempted me to take her in
my arms and kissed her.

Flaming youth

Nettie made an appointment
for me without my knowledge, but
I could not keep it as I had the above, the
girl came, according to
Nettie, she is a very pretty girl,
she will come again.

-------------

Matt's Notes

The expression "flaming youth" sounds like one of Papa's own romantic turns of phrase, but it's actually a reference to the title of a racy novel and its 1923 film adaptation. The story deals with the romantic trials of Pat Fentriss who, among other things, gets involved with her deceased mother's ex-lover. The movie "endeavors to establish that young men and maidens wild are going up in the smoke of their own cigarettes," said Time Magazine's film reviewer, who nevertheless found it "rather ingenious."

Flaming Youth became a sensation partly because its relatively unknown young lead, the proto-flapper Colleen Moore, launched an era-defining trend by appearing on screen with bobbed hair. Moore became an immediate superstar and went on to appear in dozens of films, remaining "at the vanguard of fashion's first revolution of the 20th century as skirts rose above the knee, bosoms vanished and waistlines slid down to the hips," according to her New York Times obituary. While her name isn't as recognizable as those of other silent greats, it's easy to see from the clip below why she was so appealing:



Anyway, Papa's feelings about such modern women were subject to change. To call a woman "naive" was one of his higher compliments (though he could also use it disapprovingly) and he hated a party earlier in the year because it was full of "wild women" and "Jazz babies...none of that good type which appeals to me and [is]so rare among women." Later on, though, he became infatuated with a woman he nicknamed "The 20th Century Girl" because he admired, among other things, her "passion for cigarette smoking," and still later he battled turbulent, mixed feelings for his distant cousin Clara and her outspoken, seductive ways.

It would be easy to say his standards were inconsistent because, like most mortal men, he had no standards that a pretty face couldn't derail, but he really might not have known where he stood regarding the emerging flapper phenomenon. He was certainly possessed of an old-world, formal approach to courtship, and he disliked men who took advantage of women and "did not act gentlemanlike." Also, at age twenty-nine in an era when twenty-nine was not so young, Papa may have had trouble embracing emerging dating habits and meeting the expectations of younger women who wanted to act like Colleen Moore.

Papa mixes tenses in this paragraph so I can't tell whether he actually kissed "Miss S.S." in Prospect Park or if he was just tempted to, but to even think about kissing a woman he didn't feel strongly about clearly threw him for a loop and sent him searching the popular vernacular for the right words to describe it. The expression "flaming youth" was obviously in circulation by the time Papa wrote this entry¹, and the way he repeats it makes me think he was either taking it for a test run (as he did with the phrase "date her up" a few days earlier) or was genuinely amazed by the bold, permissive world in which he now found himself.

---------------

Additional references for this post:

• 1 - "Flaming Youth" would also become the title of a Duke Ellington song, a Kiss song, and the name of Phil Collins' first band.
• Colleenmoore.org - As you would imagine, this site has everything you want to know about Colleen Moore
• Flaming Youth's synopsis at allmovie.org. Alas, it looks like only a short piece of the film survives.
  

Tuesday Mar 25

Had the 20. Century girl on the
phone. Arranged a date
with her for this coming Sat. at (torn)
opera for which occasion I have (torn)
secured the choicest best seats.

Attended the performance
and movie at the Capitol.
Again the usual divertisement
Ballet & Music which appeals
so much to me.

The terpsy chorus interpretation
to the music of Straus' Waltz,
Artists dream, was more than
wonderful.

-------------

The movie Papa saw at the Capitol that night was The Unknown Purple, a sci-fi thriller notable for its use of purple-tinted frames and special effects (the film's villain wields a purple invisibility ray while committing his dastardly deeds). The New York Times review was lukewarm, though the anonymous reviewer enjoyed the action scenes. Looks like Papa liked it even less, since he was more interested in the night's ballet and music presentation than in the film (remember, the movie palaces of old supplemented their screenings with live, "highbrow" performances of all sorts to give their decidedly less priveledged audiences a taste of culture).

Note: Though I'm no one to question Papa's knowledge of classical music, I think the musical piece he saw interpreted at the Capitol was Strauss's "Artist's Life," not "Artist's Dream." Perhaps the slip happened because Papa's own dream -- a date with the "20th Century Girl" -- was in the offing.

-----------------

A couple of the words in this entry are partially missing due to a small tear in the side of the page, but it also has a couple of other words I can't quite make out. It looks like he's written "the terpsy chorus interpretation of Straus' Waltz" in reference to the house orchestra at the Capitol Theatre, but that's obviously not right. Give it a look below. Any ideas?




Update:

My mother adds:

He may have meant Terpsichore, who was the muse of
dance. He probably heard the word, but didn't get the spelling right.

That makes sense. The word he was trying to write was "terpsichorean."


-----------------

References for this post:

• Here's the IMDB entry on The Unknown Purple.
• And here the New York Times review.
• Here's a bit more on Terpsichore at Wikipedia.
  

Wednesday July 2

I saw the girl that the
marriage broker wanted
me to meet and to
my dissappointment she was
really good looking and
to my impression is very
refined and naive.

I enjoyed being there
for some time, and I will
try to meet her again,

She has the qualifications
that I desire, but will
a man of my nature appeal
to her? I would make an
end to my bachelor days
for the sake of relieving
my loneliness, and may God
help me to succeed.

She is worthy of love.

--------------

Matt's Notes

I first asked my mother if I could borrow Papa's diary back in Thanksgiving of 2006, and when she brought it to the table my sister picked it up, opened it, and read this passage out loud. It was my first look at the diary in about 20 years, and it certainly dispelled any question of whether Papa's writing was as compelling or poignant as I remember.

The real surprise of this entry is the unexpected sharp turn it takes in the first paragraph: "To my disappointment" followed by "she was really good looking" and an array of other compliments. It's an incongruous, surprising phrase. Why would he be disappointed to meet such a desirable woman through his marriage broker? The sentiment becomes clear a few lines later when we realize Papa feared he was not in her league. It's reminiscent of his early doubts about the 20th Century Girl, when he wrote "But have I the right as a wage earner to propose to a girl like her?" and "has a poor dog [like me] a chance? Is a girl even of her type ripe enough to see my qualities, and truly love me despite my poor standing?"

Could Papa's previously established distaste for the marriage broker (a.k.a. "shadchan") have its roots less in his rejection of such a mercenary approach to romance (as I have posited) and more in his reluctance to see himself through the eyes of a prospective wife and find himself wanting? Does he fear his own tendency to idealize "naive" and "refined" women with the "qualifications" he desires, to see them as unattainable, towering presences, to embark, with each crush, on a Cyclonic roller coaster ride of infatuation and doubt and disappointment?

Whatever the reason, the confused and urgent pattern of this entry hints at some inner turmoil. She is attractive and well-qualified; he is not worthy; he would like to put an end to his loneliness; he prays to find someone who might help him. He seems to lose track of the woman he's met as he goes through these ideas, as if he's thinking more of what she represents, what she says about his need to marry, to raise a family, than who she really is.

But finally, he tells us, "she is worthy of love." This assertion, and the way he delivers it, could not be more sad or perfect. It embodies everything he's going through at once: all his doubt, all his need, all his bewilderment, all his abstraction, all his desire, all his hope. It is absolute; it is tentative. It is the declaration of a man who knows where his path leads but wonders, desperately, if someone will ever help him find where it starts.

Thursday Apr 3

Met Miss Beck, she is
a fine girl, Really something
is wrong with me, Why do
I always go to the farthest
points in the city for certain
girls company, when I can
have some within my grasp.

Miss Beck is my neighbor
and I like her company
I will make an effort
to see her often, as she
told me that I am always
welcome to come up the house.

-------------------

Matt's Notes

I think it would be easy to dismiss Papa's observation about himself -- "why do I always go to the farthest points in the city for certain girls company when I can have some within my grasp" -- as a variation on the complaint of a certain type of single New Yorker who claims to want to settle down but who, for whatever reason, just keeps playing.

I don't think it's that easy, though. My mother recently told me that Papa had a reputation in my family as a "ladies man," which may well be how he outwardly appeared. We know he was good-looking, well-dressed, and socially active, and he seemed to suffer no shortage of dates and even dramatic encounters with secret admirers despite his intense, inner loneliness.

I think what we may be observing here as he agonizes over the birds in the bush is the flip side of his capacity for idealism. We've already observed his tendency to idealize -- causes, Presidents, his past, the lives of others -- and I think he applied it to women as well. Henriette, the woman for whom Papa's been pining for days, may well be beautiful and socially ambitious, but, as my mother observes, "she was only a poor girl from the Bronx, after all, who may have had a high school education, if that," and certainly not worthy of descriptions like "the perfect 20th Century Girl" with "eyes of enchantment" who "stands above other women."

This idealized image was, I think, what made Papa's crush on Henriette so hard on him. She may have stood above other women in his eyes, but as a side effect she also stood above him. In contrast to her, he saw himself as a "poor dog," a "wage earner" who had no right to expect anything of her, which was of course unreasonable; it's not like he was some groundskeeper in a British novel who wanted to marry the daughter of his lord and master. He was just a struggling Jewish immigrant from the Lower East Side who wanted to date someone from his same social caste. But unlike his neighbor Miss Beck, whose proximity allowed him to see her in less-than-ideal condition once in a while, Henriette lived far away and could only be observed on occasion; she made a perfect target for his idealization, and, unfortunately, an inadvertent trigger for his sense of romantic hopelessness.

What I don't understand, and will keep thinking about, his how Papa's idealistic nature remained intact but evolved into something more constructive as he grew older. Idealists may find themselves disappointed on occasion, but they also have the capacity to be forgiving, resilient, thrilled by little things -- the very qualities that made him such a fine activist, dedicated husband and father, and memorable grandfather. When, and how, did this evolution occur? Are we all capable of such change?

Saturday Apr 5

Attended circumcision of Clara's
baby at Hospital where he was
named Julius (Yiddish)

Afternoon I went rowing
with Jack Breitbart in Prospect
Park, the warmest day this
spring, it certainly was
refreshing.

I met and took home Miss
Schneiderman from South Bklyn

She is a nice girl and I made
a date with her for an outing
next Sunday at Palisades Park

She is refined but a quiet girl
well bred, and I expect to enjoy
a lot of her company next Sunday.

I have even been invited by
her parents to call often.

-------

Matt's Notes

Papa wrote his new nephew Julius' name in Yiddish in the third line of this entry. My wife, who knows about such things, thinks it says "Yussel," but in any event it looks like this:



Yesterday I wondered whether Clara's ten-day hospital stay after giving birth to Julius was unusual, but my mother thinks it was typical: "I believe women stayed in the hospital for ten days in those times. I have a distant memory of Nana telling me that her 'confinement' was ten days..." I'll keep trying to confirm this.

Meanwhile, the malaise to which Papa has been confined for the last couple of weeks appears to be lifting, aided by the 65-degree weather and his pal Jack Breitbart. I'm starting to like Jack because he always shows up when wholesome fun is in the offing; the other week he unexpectedly materialized with opera tickets in hand, and now he joins Papa for an invigorating row in Prospect Park (he's kind of like the Tony Roberts character in a Woody Allen movie). We can only assume Papa wore his straw boater for the occasion, to wit:



And here's a shot of the lake in Prospect Park between 1910 and 1920:


Image source: The Lower lake, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. Library of Congress call # LC-D4-72148

Prospect Park is, of course, in Brooklyn, so Papa must have gone out there in preparation to meet "Miss Schneiderman from South Bklyn." I assume he was set up with her by Jack Breitbart, who introduced them, perhaps, by the Park's "Rustic Boathouse" before sauntering off:


Image source: Prospect Park Archives

Papa's description of Miss Schneiderman as "refined but quiet" may imply a slightly unfavorable comparison to the opinionated, vivacious Henriette (a.k.a. the "20th Century Girl") with whom he's been recently preoccupied, but at least he's lightening up a bit. Looks like he dropped her off at her parents' home in "South Brooklyn" (he must mean the Brighton Beach area, where he would later raise his family) and made a favorable impression on them, so stay tuned.

---------------

Additional References

For more historical images of Prospect Park, check out their well-organized archives at http://www.prospectpark.org/hist/archives.html.

Friday Mar 21

(above date) First day of Spring
proper to renew hopes

I am restless, if my
not for my radio which
kept me spellbound, in
the report round by round
of a championship boxing
fight at the Madison Square Garden
where at the End a new Jewish
champion was crowned,
I would not [be able to] stand my
loneliness. --

Just at this time I am
thinking of the 20th C. girl.

Before long I expect to have
the pleasure of her company
at an opera performance.

Received a letter from home
(parents) father still ill, May
the next letter bring me the news
of his speedy recovery.

------------------

Matt's Notes

The boxing match Papa listened to while he pined for the 20th Century Girl was a bantamweight bout in which Abe Goldstein, the challenger, took the title from defending champ Joe Lynch in a 12-round decision. According to the New York Times, Goldstein was "a product of the Ninety-second Street Y.M.H.A. and a graduate of the fistic nursery over which Nat Osk, Y.M.H.A. athletic instructor, reigns." This refers to the very 92nd St. Y known today for its upscale guest lectures ("In Conversation: The Nimoys on Collecting") and adult education programs ("Healthy, Wealthy & Wise: Life After 50") so it's a little hard to picture it as a hotbed of pugilism.

Yet so it was. Abe Goldstein was one of the many Jews who, hoping to box their way out of the ghetto, came to dominate the sport in the 1920's. In Papa's day, more New York boxers were Jewish than Irish or Italian, and Jewish gym owners, promoters and trainers also "assumed disproportionately prominent roles in all aspects of the sport".¹ In fact, when Goldstein left the Y for Grupp's Gymnasium on 116th Street in Harlem, he came under the wing of the great Jewish trainer Ray Arcel, a Stuyvesant High School grad who trained 20 world champions including Kid Gavilan, Roberto Duran and Larry Holmes. The owner of Grupp's was apparently such an anti-Semite that Arcel and his charges picked up and took their act to the little-known, Jewish-owned Stillman's Gym on 125th street, after which it grew into one of boxing's legendary gyms.²

Jewish boxers usually wore Stars of David on their robes and trunks and rarely tried to pass for gentile, though their attitudes varied as to whether they were fighting on behalf of the Jewish people or just doing their jobs³. Papa had no such ambivalence, though. Like many Jewish immigrants who had experienced European anti-Semitism firsthand, Papa took pride in his fighting landsmen and other "muscle Jews" who refused to appear stereotypically weak and cowed. Remember, he nicknamed the chapter of the mutual aid society he belonged to "The Maccabeans" after the Jewish warriors of old, so living, breathing Jewish athletes (who probably lived across the alley from him) must have filled him with more than garden-variety ethnic pride.

Alas, no one -- not "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenblum, Benny Leonard, or Ray Arcel himself -- could have shown Papa how to conquer his loneliness or beat the poverty that kept his ailing parents in the old country. We've seen before how milestones made him especially contemplative and melancholy, and though the arrival of Spring was "proper to renew hopes," I'm not sure he felt genuinely hopeful. Stay tuned.

-------------

References for this post:

• 1, 2, 3 - Excerpts and information from from Allen Bodner's highly enjoyable book, When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport.
• Here's a bio and photo of Abe Goldstein at boxrec.com
• Here's Abe Goldstein's record at cyberboxingzone.com
  
• For more on Ray Arcel, check out Jewishsports.org
• Here's the long-form, blow-by-blow coverage of the Abe Goldstein fight in the New York Times
• Here's "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom's bio at Wikipedia

---------------------

And here's a 1922 Benny Leonard fight via YouTube:



--------------

Our friend J.R. adds:

For what it's worth, Abe Goldstein's first fight was on June 30, 1916, in New York, New York - he knocked out George Lewis in the 8th round. On August 4th, he defeated Kid Rago, and on August 26, he made quick work of a boxer who went by the name Smiling Willie. From what I can tell, the names of his competitors grew more and more comical as he went along culminating in successive and, one would assume, heartbreaking losses in 1925 to Bushy Graham in New York, and Dixie LaHood in Butte, Montana. (Even the names of the towns he fought in got funnier if you read them wrong!)

He was considered to be among the top five bantemweights of all time... presumably by some guy who was familiar with at least five bantemweights.

Sunday Mar 30

Wrote to Henriette (the 20 C. girl)
a letter, asking for admission
into her circle of intimate friends.
She got me thinking of something

Visited Sister Clara at hospital
in afternoon saw the baby.

Saw some friends during day
in evening had a little
sociable game at my house
with Blaustein Friedman and
Zichlinsky.

The operas heard last
night were L'Cock D'or and
L. Oracolo

-----------------

Matt's Notes

I've found Papa's writing style for the last couple of days to feel particularly formal, but this one really rings of 19th Century drawing-room drama. What does he mean when he says he wrote a letter to Henriette "asking for admission into her circle of intimate friends?" Has he given up on his prospects with her, or is this a euphemism for a love letter? (If it was a love letter, I wonder if it was euphemistic and oblique itself, or if he came right out and declared his intentions.) And why has he decided to refer to her by name, at last, instead of as the "20th Century Girl?" Is it just easier to write, or does it reflect his desire for deeper intimacy?

Questions, questions. Still, his abandoned sentence in the first paragraph -- "She got me thinking of something -- intrigues me most of all. What "something" did he decide not to write about? Or did he just cut his thought short because he needed space to talk about the other events of the day?






April 23, 1925 (7:00 PM) - Brooklyn

--------

[Papa wrote my grandmother morning and night on April 23rd, 1925, the day after he saw her off on a short trip to her cousin's farm in Connecticut. One thing to note before we look at his evening letter: Since his letters are a lot longer than his diary entries, I'm going to see what happens if I comment on his text with footnotes. Please let me know if this works or if you find it distracting.]

April 23, 1925

7. P.M.

Dear Jeanie:

Just arrived from work
to find your wonderful letter, and
I am more than delighted to hear that
you have enjoyed the trip.¹

New York was sweltering today
on account of the unusual heat that hit
the town today.

My thermometer registers now
78 degrees, and I don't feel a bit cold
and now I am sorry because I did not
go along with you.²

I am so lonesome thinking
how far away you are, but your image
is always near me, and I feel indebted
to you for the many happy moments
the happiest in my life spent in your
company.

It is a blessing Jeanie dear to have
you as a pal. You are one of a rare
type which is almost extinct.³

(over)

This vacation dearie will do you
a lot of good

Take it in Jeanie, take advantage
of all opportunities that the country life
and beautiful nature have to offer.⁴

I am sure, smart as you are you
will get quickly acclimated to the place.

You are bound to have a lot of fun
you will find the country hicks
regular sheiks beating old Harry.⁵

I am closing this one now as
I must rush to my Lodge meeting.⁶

A million kisses to my pal

Devotedly

Harry

------------

Matt's Notes

1 - Since I know that Papa courted my grandmother for six years, I've always assumed she didn't show much enthusiasm for him at first. But if she wrote to him on her first day of vacation, she may have been more receptive to his early attention than I originally thought.

2 - It was, in fact, the warmest April 23rd on record since 1886, with temperatures reaching 83 degrees. According to the New York Times, "With the the arrival of sure enough hot weather a number of Summer industries, which had been waiting until the market steadied, launched forth..." including those of the the "penny-a-lick" merchant, the "open-faced orange juice dispensaries" and the "officials of ice cream manufacturing companies" who "erased furrows from their brows and began to beam."

3 - Papa had written in his diary of his disdain for the "wild women" who dominated the dating scene of his day, and his disappointing, unsuccessful romantic experiences with a cigarette-loving "20th-Century girl" and a similarly sassy distant cousin didn't do much for his appreciation of hair-bobbed "jazz babies." He longed privately for "that good type which appeals to me and is so rare among women" (his favorite movie actress, Jane Novak, notably eschewed the bad-girl image popular among screen stars of the day) and my grandmother, who pointedly lacked a lust for sensation, clearly appealed to his old-world sensibilities.

4 - He hoped, of course, she would take advantage of other opportunities life had to offer, particularly the ones he'd provide if she married him.

5 - Papa had hinted, in his previous letters, at his anxiousness over the company my grandmother would keep in the country, but this is the first time he's shown how jealous he is about her other prospective suitors (there was, apparently, a bit of Jewish social scene in the Columbia, Connecticut area where she was staying.) I assume he calls these rural Lotharios "sheiks" because it was a popular expression of the day, no doubt due to Rudolph Valentino's iconic start turn in "The Sheik."

6 - Papa belonged to a Zionist fraternal order and mutual support society called Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B'nai Zion) and was Master of Ceremonies of "The Maccabean" chapter, which he helped form in early 1924. Interestingly, this letter is the only place he's ever referred to it as his "Lodge" in writing; he usually calls it "Maccabean" or simply "the camp" in his diary.

Sunday Mar 23

this was the most beautiful
day this spring season.

Everything is fine and
beautiful but something
is missing.

Attended in afternoon
the East Side Keren Haysod
meeting with Weitzman at
Cooper Union. Nothing new
excepting the collection of about
$18,000 -- the the fund, and
the presentation to Weitzman
of a $25,000 check by the Comittee.

In Evening I hung around
the Z.Z. with Blaustien, nothing
seems to be able to drive away
my monotony.

------------

Matt's Notes

Boy, Papa was really in a funk -- he attended an event with Chaim Weitzman himself, saw 18 grand raised for his beloved Keren Hayesod, and still he said it was "nothing new." This would be like me sitting next to William Shatner on a plane, seeing a gremlin crawl along the wing, and later reporting that my flight was "fine."

He had a lot on his mind, though. When he said "something is missing," he might have been talking about the ailing father he hadn't seen for years, the longed-for company of the "20th Century Girl," or, more likely, a little of both. As we've noted before, Papa would take stock of his life with apprehensive introspection at milestones like his birthday or New Year's Eve. And here it was again: The beautiful weather made his melancholy stand out in relief; the world was thawing, but he felt more frozen than ever.

I understand these feelings because I've felt that way myself. But not always, Papa, because this was you and me:

About This Project

My grandfather, Harry Scheurman, kept a diary in 1924 when he was twenty-nine years old. He had been in America for 11 years, but much of his family still lived in the central European, Jewish ghetto of his youth. He was a garment worker, union activist and Zionist fundraiser. He was also unmarried and terribly lonely.

I've always found his diary to be fascinating reading, and I've always wanted to share it with people who might find it interesting. So, each day in 2007 (*2008 update below) I'll transcribe and post each day's corresponding entry, and I'll also annotate with contextual details about his life, historical details about the social, political and cultural subjects in circulation that year, and whatever thoughts and feelings his words bring to mind.

Since I have a day job and don't pretend to be a great researcher, I invite contributions from anyone who's interested in the subjects I'll touch on, including immigrant life in the 1920's, the rise of radio as a social force, the history of the Jewish labor movement, the history of New York-based Zionist organizations (particularly the Order of the Sons of Zion) Jewish ghetto life in Austro-Hungary (especially Snyatyn) New York baseball in the 1920's, Coney Island of the 1920's, Calvin Coolidge and the 1924 Presidential campaign. Feel free to add comments to any post, or if you're interested in getting more involved please write to papasdiary 'at' gmail.com with the word "Contribution" in the subject line.

Finally, if you're just getting started with Papa's Diary Project, here are a few good subjects to check out:

• B'nai Zion
• The 20th Century Girl
• Sniatyn
• Papa's Father's Injury
• Radio
• Cry For Help.

----------------------

January 5, 2008 Update: Papa's Letters and more

Now that I've posted every entry from Papa's 1924 diary, I'm going to start posting the letters he wrote to my grandmother (a.k.a. "Nana") during their five-year courtship. My mother had believed these letters lost until I found them in her attic just recently. I think I've got them all, though the ribbon with with Nana tied them together seems to be gone.

As of now I've only read a few of the letters, but it's clear that, not surprisingly, they constitute a different sort of narrative than Papa's diary, less rich in the details of day-to-day life but no less intimate and revealing. I expect to post about one a week throughout 2008, and I'll also be posting updates to my comments on Papa's diary since there's still plenty of research to do. I've gotten great contributions from readers over the last year and hope to get more, so if you see anything you'd like to chime in on (our ever-expanding list of subjects might help you get acquainted with the things we've covered so far) please send me an e-mail or drop a comment on the appropriate post.

Wednesday Apr 16

[no entry]

Matt's Notes

Since there's no entry today, I figured I'd share this picture of me and Papa from around 1968. This must be in my family's Manhattan apartment, where we lived until I was around three.

Note how he keeps a tight grip on that length of string, lest my plastic lamb attain an unsafe rate of speed.



If you're just getting started with Papa's Diary Project, here are a few good topics to jump into:

• B'nai Zion
• The 20th Century Girl
• Sniatyn
• Papa's Father's Injury

And please don't ignore my Cry For Help.

Friday May 9

Home.

---------------

Matt's Notes

A slow evening at home for Papa; he probably listened to the radio and perused the day's headlines. It looks like it was a slow news day, though a couple of New York Times stories that might have caught his eye included:

REPORT MEASURE FOR RADIO CONTROL; House Committee Bill Provides for the Application of Anti-Trust Laws. - A bill to create a Bureau of Radio in the Department of Commerce, with broad powers to regulate broadcasting and "the correction of evils that have grown up as the science has progressed" was introduced before Congress. Papa was an early adopter of radio (the commercial radio industry was all of two years old in 1924) and would have been keenly interested in any attempts to regulate broadcasting.

This article shared a page with story about how "Houdini, the conjuror" challenged a young man named Joaqin Maria Argamasilla to prove his claim that he could read through metal. He couldn't.

SAY BRITAIN APPROVES TUNNEL UNDER CHANNEL; France Hears Project, Already Authorized There, Is Planned to Provide Employment. - Britain agreed to finish a tunnel to France started in 1883, the construction of which had been halted due to security concerns (among them the dangers of a poison gas attack). The tunnel opened in 1994.

--------------------------

While Papa's taking it easy, we might as well take a look at another of his photographic calling cards, or "cabinet cards," from the 20's. I like this one because it's tinted and signed:



-------------

And remember, if you're just getting started with Papa's Diary Project, here are a few good subjects to check out:

• B'nai Zion
• The 20th Century Girl
• Sniatyn
• Papa's Father's Injury
• Radio
• Cry For Help.

Saturday Apr 19

2nd night with Sister Clara

Saw a ball game today
Giants defeated Braves

Received a letter from
Henriette informing me
that she accepts my invitation
for next Sunday. I'm glad

-------------

The "second night" Papa refers to is a Passover Seder, the first of which he attended at his sister Nettie's house the night before. Passover traditionally involves two Seders, and in some families it also involves political squabbles over who goes to whose house on which night. Nettie and Clara supposedly didn't get along, so I expect some such scandal arose; they may not have seen each other at all for the holiday even though they lived in the same neighborhood.

I'm sure Papa wasn't bothered by any familial tension -- or much of anything -- since Henriette, the storied "20th Century Girl" who had put his heart through a ringer a few weeks earlier, finally agreed to see him again. (He had written her a declaration of affection on March 30th after they'd gone to the opera together. Could this be the first time he'd heard from her since then?)

Papa further enjoyed himself at the Polo Grounds that day, which answers my question about whether Jewish law permits baseball game attendance during Passover. And much as Moses smote Pharaoh's army, the Giants defeated the Boston Braves on a game-winning Henry Groh double in the bottom of the ninth. (The New York Times account is a great specimen of the humorous, ironic baseball writing they practiced in that era.)



On the field for the Giants was Irish Meusel (pictured below with his brother, Yankee slugger Bob Meusel, who Papa had seen in an exhibition game a few days earlier) while the Boston Braves fielded the legendary Casey Stengal and a four-time MVP with the fantastic name of Stuffy McInnis.



Here are the full lineups:

New York

Billy Southworth, cf
Heinie Groh, 3b
Frankie Frisch, 2b
Irish Meusel, lf
George Kelly, 1b
Travis Jackson, ss
Hank Gowdy, c
Bill Terry
Virgil Barnes, p
Jimmy O'Connell
Rosy Ryan, p

Boston

Dave Bancroft, ss
Johnny Cooney, rf
Bill Cunningham, lf
Cotton Tierny, 2b
Stuffy McInnis, 1b
Casey Stengel, cf
Ernie Padgett, 3b
Mickey O'Neil, c
Joe Genewich, p

-----------------

Additional References:

• Biography of John P. "Stuffy" McInnis at baseballlibrary.com.
• More about Casey Stengel at baseballhalloffame.org.
• Fact and photos about the Polo Grounds at ballparks.com

----------------

Image sources:

• Meusel, Emil F. "Irish" (Giants) & Bob Meusel (Yankees), 10/10/1923. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 6077-13
• Polo Grounds, 1923. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 5982-2

Monday Apr 7

Another unimportant day
home and radio.

The Gypsy String Orchestra
entertained me from the air.

Every night going to bed
reading, newspapers usually
the "News" until I get sleepy,
and so it goes night after night.

Here within the confines of my
little nest, I spend my dreary
hours dreaming,

Here many [of my] youthful dreams
were vanished.

--------------

Matt's Notes

After a brief respite two days ago, Papa's malaise has returned in full force. Yesterday he admitted to himself that Henriette, a.k.a. the 20th Century Girl, was not going to respond to the letter of affection he wrote her a week earlier. He had idealized and become infatuated with her quite quickly, so this sudden acceptance of her disinterest, or at least his realization that she was human, unreliable, and not inclined to behave exactly as he needed her to, would have left him a bit bereft. (I expect most idealists and daydreamers would recognize this cycle of excitement and disappointment.)

I wonder, too, if the recent birth of Papa's nephew had, in some way, attenuated his longing for a family of his own, or for that matter his own family (including his ailing father) back in Eastern Europe. I suppose the music of the "Gypsy String Orchestra" wouldn't have helped his homesickness any, especially if it sounded as wistful as this:



Speculation aside, we know it was not unusual for Papa to suffer bouts of melancholy or for the ghosts of his "vanished" dreams to haunt him when he was home alone. If only a ghost from the future could have visited and said

Papa, this is you:



------------------

Additional notes:

When Papa mentions the news of the day in this entry, he capitalizes the word "News" and writes it in quotation marks (note the older-style placement of the opening quote to the lower left of the quoted term):



Why did he do this? Was "News" considered a vernacular term back then when used to refer to the contents of a newspaper? Or did he quote the term because it was new to him and he wasn't quite sure if he was using it right?

Regardless, the "News" Papa read before retiring that day would have provided plenty of additional fuel for his blue mood. Some of the less encouraging headlines included:

• Motorist, In Accident, Also Slays Companion and Injures Fiance
• MUSSOLINI SCORES AT ITALIAN POLLS; Heavy Vote Makes Fascisti Confident of Winning Parliamentary Majority
• HITLER PARTY SWEEP IN MUNICH ELECTION; Communists Also Likely to Gain More Seats in the Bavarian Diet
• ARMY TO END POGROMS.; Rumanian Government Puts Universities Under Martial Law
• LIBERALS ALARMED BY GERMAN TREND; Rising Nationalist Sentiment Is Reflected Clearly Abroad as Well as Internally

Note that the stories about the Nazi party's rising influence came on the heels of the recently-concluded Beer Hall Putsch trial (Hitler had just received an incredibly light sentence for trying to overthrow the German government, the surest sign yet of his rising influence and popularity). I must admit I didn't have this in mind when it occurred to me to list potentially upsetting New York Times headlines from April 7, 1924, but I'm sure Papa was preoccupied with the implications.

-----------------

References:

Papa mentions "The Gypsy String Orchestra" in this entry, and while I was able to find some 1940-ish references to an ensemble by that name at the Museum of Television and Radio, I'm not sure if they existed as such in the 1920's or if Papa just used a generic term to describe the type of music he heard. In any event, the clip I included above is called "Hungarian Folksong Melody" and is, according to archive.org, a 1914 recording by Berkes Bela.

Thursday May 8

Again a marriage broker
tried to induce me to get
hitched up. He gave me
the phone numbers to some
fair maidens. I shall try.

--------------

Matt's Notes

Since my wife Stephanie sings the entire soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof at least once during any long car ride (and we take a long car ride at least once a week) it's hard for me to read about Papa's marriage broker and not have the song "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" running through my head.

As you'll recall, Fiddler's Yente faced a challenge as a new generation of young people who preferred to choose their own mates threatened the importance of her profession. Papa's matchmaker (that's shatkhn in Yiddish, so if you know someone named Shatkin, chances are their Anglicized name reflects a matchmaking heritage in Eastern Europe) must have struggled with an even more difficult cultural moment, since young Jews in America -- even those right from the old country like Papa -- were learning to date, eat in restaurants, congregate, go out in public and dress like any other Americans.

Papa certainly displayed some old-school attitudes toward dating, as his formal letter of affection to the "20th Century Girl" proved, so I'm sure he wouldn't have dismissed the efforts of the shatkhn. Still, we've seen him balk a bit at blind dates because (I think) his poetic heart demanded a romance with more dramatic, sincere origins, so he most likely pored through the shatkhn's catalog with some reluctance. I think, too, his skeptical attitude comes through in his use of the term "hitched up" and the phrase "He gave me the phone numbers to some fair maidens," making this just about the only entry to date in which Papa employed American vernacular or irony.

All in all I think we see, in this account of Papa's grudging interaction with the shatkhn, a well-preserved example of how Lower East Side Jews of the 1920's started to shift, in their attitudes and behavior, away from the old country and into the new.

Sunday Oct 19

The day with friends
at Rothblums.

--------------

Matt's Notes

A Rothblum appearance in Papa's diary usually means Papa's having a good time, whether he's motoring around Coney Island with his pals in "Rothblum's auto," taking a shvitz on Second Avenue, or socializing, as he did this evening, at Rothblum's house in East New York. True, the most disappointing romantic saga of Papa's year started when he met "The 20th Century Girl" at Rothblum's last party, but presumably he's forgiven both Rothblum and Rothblum's wife for making that ill-fated match.

Rothblum was a brother in B'nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) the fraternal order to which Papa belonged, so I'll bet the crowd at his Sunday soirée included usual mugs from B'nai Zion like Blaustein, Breitbart, Bluestone, Shapiro, and good old Jack Zichlinsky. I doubt there were too many fraternal hijinks to be had, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rothblum broke out the bootleg slivovitz for a toast or two.

-------------------------

[Note: Papa accidentally wrote his October 19th entry on the October 12th page of his diary. I've included thumbnails of both pages at right.]