Mail Call: 7 Jan 1936 (George)

Metropolitan Opera Program Cover

From George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary Potter in Washington, DC (who was recently visiting New York...and attending the Opera.  Wish her letter had survived!)

Gladys is feeling better;
 "on the go chasing dirt and knocking over dishes and making lots of noise."

"Eat Waffles...They Fill Your Face"  (no electricity...such would have been made on an iron in/on the stove.)

"I expect you felt real up(p)ity at the Opera; didn't you see lots of Janes in low neck & men in full dress.  I never went to one.  I have a notion I would like to see one, altho they are a little hibrow for me."

A reminder not to waste a dime on Special Delivery as there is none out by Sargent, Missouri.

"Art" is Mary's then boyfriend, Art Stewartson
"Long Island" i.e., where Art was from, Mary had visited there over Christmas
"John" is presumably John House, ex-suitor of Dorothy Potter

"ears blowed out"....drat, that's whence I get the earwax problem!

"Emmy" is George's sister back in Corry, PA
"Opera" as in Metropolitan Opera, NYC.  See below.

The Metropolitan Opera Program centerfold, 26 Dec 1935
Tannhauser...with Loritz Melchior, no less.
(I assume Mary and Art were in the cheap seats, if not the standing room in back....))

No supertitles back then....and the libretto is in German/English across pages.
Even the stage directions are given in both German and English!

But...the libretto included a piano reduction of choice bits to play at home!

1 Sep 1935: Mary's big day in New York City

Mary Potter saved, among other things, these relics of a quick trip to New York CIty over Labor Day, 1935. Most likely, this was the idea of recent boyfriend Art, who had grown up in Huntington, NY.

The Pennsylvania RR bargain fare is to leave DC just after midnight on Friday (by then, Saturday, Sept 1) and return at noon on Monday (Sept 2), as checked off on the flier at the right.  After sitting up all night in the train, that left all day Sunday plus Monday morning in New York City.  Sunday night, perchance, at the Parents?...could have been a shock, as the Mother of Art was from seriously high-class roots in Chicago.

There is also a flyer for Jones Beach, so perhaps that was the agenda for morning before Radio City.

Pencil notes on the back of the excursion flyer:

"Sat Nite: Elks convention returning, Hershey Bar, 5:30 AM New York!"
Mon. Nite: "Crowded train, Juicy People, Rainy Weather, home at 6:00."

I hope "Juicy" meant drunken; the image is unpleasant.



George, in his next letter on 14 Sept 1935, will be worried about his daughter getting over-tired and gently re-inforces the urgent need for cash.

Labor Day Excursion Fare DC-NY-DC! $3.50!

The Grand Organ (still grand in its way), plus
Symphonic Orchestra and Glee Club
(Friml composed "Rose-Marie" and "The Vagabond King" among others)

Radio City show for $0.99!

The Corps de Ballet (still a thing) and Glee Club (reprise)
Finally, Rockettes.

AND, after all that, the movie...Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in "Top Hat"

(I am intrigued by "The WIVEL", a "Glamorous Scandinavian Cabaret,"
unfortunately, it does not seem to have been on the itenerary)