Arnold's Story: April 20, 1948

1104 East Chestnut St., Glendale, was about a 10-minute drive from Dolly's parents' home on 501 East Mountain St., Glendale. At present though the two houses are separated by a freeway.

Due to her severe diabetes, Dolly has stopped working at the Department Store and has become a "housewife". Though she does not mention her "husband" Lee in this letter, I assume her "we" here refers to the two of them. Lee is not mentioned anymore after January 31, 1948, in the set of letters I have for this blog, I seem to be missing the letter Bill Nevis wrote about the discovery that Lee was already married in the state of Texas when he married Dolly, and he failed to get a divorce. When she learned that, Dolly moved back to her parents' house, but reconciled with Lee in a few months and moved to Bakersfield with him as he promised to obtain the divorce. When that did not happen, Dolly went to court to get the marriage annulled.

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Arnold's Story: January 31, 1948

Arnold's handwriting is closer to print-script than cursive. Later in life he writes entirely in block letters. His cursive was nearly unintelligible. We see him sign this letter "Arn", though his nickname in general was "Arnie".

Virus "X" was an influenza outbreak in December 1947 and January 1948.

The Chocolate Soldier was a 1941 musical directed by Roy Del Ruth. It uses original music from the Oscar Straus 1908 operetta of the same name, which was based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play Arms and the Man but using a plot from Ferenc Molnár's play The Guardsman. 

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 Western written and directed by John Huston. An adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, set in the 1920s, it starred Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston (the director's father).

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Arnold's Story: January 21, 1948

Mrs. Harry Sloane Coffin might have been the wife of Henry Sloane Coffin, a prominent Presbyterian minister, president of the Union Theological Seminary, and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (there were at least two Presbyterian churches in the U.S. at that time due to a split during the U.S. Civil War, but they merged in 1980s). If so, she would have been Dorothy Eells. 

next post  January 27, 1948

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first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

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Arnold's Story: January 12, 1948

I am not sure of the address or street mentioned below. There is a Marquette St. in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so perhaps this is where Hazel went to bear children (for Arnold and Dolly — Leonard arrived unexpectedly early while there were still in Bluewater) or else her family lived there before she married. 215 North Edith may also be in Albuquerque, too, though it is now an empty lot, so maybe the old house was torn down after 1947.

Some language has changed in the past 70 years: Hazel says French fried potatoes rather than the current phrase French fries. And she writes motion picture camera, where we would now say movie camera. The trend is toward shorter expressions.

next post  January 21, 1948

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first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

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Arnold's Story: January 2, 1948

A newsy letter from Hazel about their Christmas and New Years holidays:

next post  January 12, 1948

previous post  1948 Boylston Medical Society

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

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Arnold's Story: December 23, 1947

Family preparations and plans for Christmas:

next post  December 23, 1947 PM

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Arnold's Story: November 30, 1947

I am not sure what the Roal Club is, but I might guess Roal is the Reserve Officers Association League. The Unsuspected was a 1947 film noir directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Claude Rains, among others, and written by Charlotte Armstrong (Lewi). A Mrs. Lewi has come up in an earlier letter from Hazel in regard to the former's son Jerry, so she must be well known around Glendale and probably a family acquaintance. 

These scribblings may be homework for Arnold's Anatomy
course or topics for an upcoming examination

next post  December 1, 1947 Bill

previous post  November 28, 1947

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