Intl. Notebook

November 13 2024

AN AIR THAT KILLS

It was impossible to see the city for the smog.

Above: four photos of Los Angeles made in 1948 showing the poor quality of air in the city at that time. Bad air is only occasionally mentioned in period fiction, and of course old movies created a clean air illusion by striving to shoot at a distance only on clear days, but low visibility due to smog was a common occurrence. And L.A. wasn’t the only metro area with such problems—it was general around the U.S.

The same year these photos were made, smog covered a swath of rural Pennsylvania south of Pittsburgh for five days, killing twenty people and sickening thousands. Smog was also a problem globally. In London in 1952 during an extended bad air event, an estimated 12,000 people died. It probably comes as no surprise to know that pollution tends to concentrate around industrial areas and transit hubs, which are nearly always where low income residents live.

In the U.S., when the 1970 Clean Air Act passed over opposition from conservative and business interests, air quality improved, but pollution still kills seven to eight million people a year globally. U.S. mortality numbers rose significantly between 2016 and 2020 because the Clean Air Act was weakened then, with thirty-plus portions of the legislation abolished. Even so, more deregulation is coming.

Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, London

Vintage Pulp

August 1 2022

FISHWATER BLONDE

Whatever floats your corpse.

Art by Paul Rader fronts this copy of Samuel A. Krasney’s A Mania for Blondes, a police proceedural dealing with two women drowned in Philadelphia’s Delaware River, and the investigation to bring a killer to justice. The protagonist here is vice detective Ben Krahmer, who learns that both victims appeared in nudie reels. The clues lead down the rabbit hole of illicit porn and toward a mysterious suspect witnesses think looks like Zorro—but who Krahmer soon realizes may be a member of Pennsylvania’s traditionally garbed Dutch community. Procedurals sometimes—as is the case here—fail to provide deep characterizations, but the mechanics of the investigation are interesting. Krasney constantly refers to his protagonist as “the Morals man”—capital M—which we found weird, but we thought this outing was solid overall and we liked the Zorro imagery. Even so, we probably won’t go looking for more from Krasney unless we run across him cheap. There are, after all, so many paperbacks, and so little time.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ace Books, Samuel A. Krasney, Paul Rader, cover art, literature

The Naked City

May 7 2019

TO GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE WE GO

She always said his biggest problem was that he was pig-headed. Turns out she was right.

When you achieve something rare you want others to know. Usually these are minor things, like breaking 200 on bowling night or perfectly poaching an egg, and the subsequent boasts are basically harmless. But even people who do terrible things—and really should keep their mouths shut for the sake of self-preservation—will still at the very least hint at their accomplishments. Such was the case with 67-year-old Virginia Hayden, above, who regaled her grandson with tales of how useful pigs can be. Just like in those mafia movies, she explained how pigs will eat every part of a human body, except the cranium.

Visits to gran’s house must have been heartwarming affairs. Picture her possibly baking chocolate chip cookies and making pleasant smalltalk, dispensing ageless wisdom like, “Did you know that if a woman were to kill her husband and feed his body to pigs, they would eat every part of that fat, hairy body, apart from the

exceptionally hard cranium, which never seemed capable of letting through the things his wife told him, for example to pick up his damn socks and wash a fuckin’ dish once in a while? Did you know that, my sweet?”

*ding*

“Oh, good. The cookies are done.”

Rewind a bit from that cozy scene. In 2011 Hayden’s third husband Thomas flew to Mexico for medical treatment and never came back. In early 2012 an unidentified cranium, with scalp and hair attached, was found near a rural Pennsylvania road. Nobody put cranium and hubby together until 2017, when Thomas Hayden’s daughter, who had been estranged from her dad for more than a decade, contacted police with suspicions that his supposed one-way trip to Mexico was something other than it seemed.

Long story short, Virginia Hayden was arrested last week on suspicion of murder.

The lesson here may be that talking about heinous crimes will sometimes indicate how informed one is in esoteric areas of knowledge, but other times will indicate that one has, in fact, committed heinous crimes. Now some of Hayden’s other wise utterances take on a darker tone. For example, she used to mention how stabbing a corpse before sinking it in water would keep it from floating, and how giving a person a heavy snootful of nitroglycerine spray could trigger a heart attack. Hayden’s second husband died of a heart attack. And her first? He was a suicide. At the moment there’s no indication foul play was involved in either death, but we’ll bet you a batch of chocolate chip cookies the police are looking into it.

Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia L. Hayden, Thomas Hayden, murder, mugshots

Intl. Notebook

August 27 2013

GABY CHIC

There's only one way to tan—the Gaby way.

Gaby Suntan Lotion was a popular sunscreen manufactured during the 1940s by Gaby, Inc. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and above is a stand-up cardboard counter display touting its famed greaseless composition. Other versions of the ad informed consumers that the lotion was also alcohol free. Of course, what drew us to this is the pin-up style art painted by an unknown, not its SPF qualities. But it does it inspire us work on our tans a bit. After all, summer’s almost over.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Gaby Suntan Lotion

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

December 5

1933—Prohibition Ends in United States

Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to overturn the 18th Amendment which had made the sale of alcohol illegal. But the criminal gangs that had gained power during Prohibition are now firmly established, and maintain an influence that continues unabated for decades.

December 5

1945—Flight 19 Vanishes without a Trace

During an overwater navigation training flight from Fort Lauderdale, five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo-bombers lose radio contact with their base and vanish. The disappearance takes place in what is popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle.

December 4

1918—Wilson Goes to Europe

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails to Europe for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, France, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office.

December 4

1921—Arbuckle Manslaughter Trial Ends

In the U.S., a manslaughter trial against actor/director Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle ends with the jury deadlocked as to whether he had killed aspiring actress Virginia Rappe during rape and sodomy. Arbuckle was finally cleared of all wrongdoing after two more trials, but the scandal ruined his career and personal life.

December 3

1964—Mass Student Arrests in U.S.

In California, Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents’ decision to forbid protests on university property.

December 3

1968—U.S. Unemployment Hits Low

Unemployment figures are released revealing that the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 3.3 percent, the lowest rate for almost fifteen years. Going forward all the way to the current day, the figure never reaches this low level again.

December 2

1954—Joseph McCarthy Disciplined by Senate

In the United States, after standing idly by during years of communist witch hunts in Hollywood and beyond, the U.S. Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for conduct bringing the Senate into dishonor and disrepute. The vote ruined McCarthy’s career.