Down in the Dumps

Monday, March 20, 1950

46 West 83rd Street, Apt. 7B

New York City, NY

Dear Art,

Darling – I’m sorry, but I’m down in the dumps again.  I’m so terribly, terribly lonesome – I hate the horrible green walls of this room.  I feel caged in.  I called up Mother about half an hour ago.  I guess I shouldn’t have – I feel a little better but Mother’s probably worried now.

June Anderson, circa 1950.

My trouble is that Shirl didn’t come back.  I’m here all alone.  Her sister Evie her sister called up this afternoon to say that Shirl has a very bad cold and couldn’t come back to the city today.  Evie also said that if Shirl were better she might come in tomorrow.  Oh, Art, what if she doesn’t?  What if she’s out for several days?  I don’t know what I’ll do.  I don’t think I could stand it here.

And, oh Art, I was going to tell her what a wonderful time I had this weekend!  I have so much to talk about it’s hard to contain – I like to relive the hours as closely as possible.  Of course, I only tell Shirl the outline of things we did and said – not the times that belong to us alone.  Talking helps bring you near to me while you’re away, almost as much as writing to you does.  You don’t mind, do you, darling?

I’m sorry, darling.  I’m not one of those women who can write an interesting, gay, and cheerful letter no matter how they feel.  I can only write what I feel.  Maybe I’ll walk in tomorrow after school and Shirl will be here and I’ll feel happy again and realize that two days have already gone by and only ten are left till vacation time and you.  I hope so – then you’ll be able to smile as you read my letter.

Art, dear, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed my weekend home with you.  Words just can’t express it.  I miss you, darling, love you and miss you very much.

All my love (I wish I could send a kiss too),

June

(Later today – countdown to spring.)

© 2011 Lee Price

"My Mother's Discussing Communism..."

“I’m having difficulty paying attention to my writing right now.  My mother’s standing here discussing communism.  We were talking about it at Partida’s, too.”

                                                             Arthur Price

                                                             Letter to June Anderson, March 16, 1950

Art’s family was solidly Republican; Art’s mother even sent birthday cards to Herbert Hoover for many years after his term as president.  The family was politically skeptical of the New Deal.  If Art’s mother was discussing communism, it would have been as a staunch anti-communist.



Although the United States was an ally of the communist Soviet Union through World War II, relations between east and west deteriorated quickly in the immediate post-war period.  The war ended in August 1945 and Churchill made his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in March 1946.

Mao-Tse Tung on the cover of
TIME magazine, Feb. 7, 1949.

By 1949, numerous factors were increasing world tension.  With the ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in March 1949, the lines of the Cold War were drawn.

As June and Art were concluding their first summer together in late August 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, shocking the world into a recognition of the possibility of nuclear war.  Then in October, as June settled into her second year at Traphagen School of Fashion, China fell to the communists with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

The early months of 1950 were packed with news relating to communism, both at home and abroad.  The Alger Hiss trial made national news in January as he was convicted of perjury in charges that asserted Hiss was spying for the Soviets during his high-ranking State Department work for the Truman administration.  In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy publicly stated that the State Department was “infested with communists” and that he had their names.  This announcement caused a political furor and was widely covered in the press.  Immediately following this, the Soviet Union and China announced a mutual defense treaty and even France looked like it might swing communist as pro-communist riots erupted in mid-February.

News of communism was in all the newspapers, it was the subject of discussion at Art’s classes at Partida’s School of Art, and even his mother was talking about communism as Art wrote his letter to June on the evening of March 16, 1950.  It was an unavoidable topic.

(For Monday – back at school and down in the dumps.)
 

© 2011 Lee Price

Everyone's Talking About Communism

Thursday, March 16, 1950

20 Cooper Street

A portrait by Art Price.  This may be the
woman's head mentioned in the letter.
There is no surviving sketch in the
collection of the bathing suit model.

Southampton, NY


Dear June,



Well darling, I just got home from my sketching class. There were only four of us in there – myself, Secunda (the teacher), Ed Mayor, and, of course, the model.  I’ve been looking at a girl in a bathing suit all evening.  Jealous, dear?  Tomorrow is painting class. I think we’re going to do a head.

Tomorrow morning is my half day off so I’ll get a little extra sleep.  I hope you’re getting your rest, and not staying up till 3 o’clock talking.  I’m having difficulty paying attention to my writing right now.  My mother’s standing here discussing communism.  We were talking about it at Partida’s, too.

I’ll probably get one more letter tomorrow.  I sure hope there are no changes about this weekend.  Morton Downey is on the radio singing “I Love You, My Darling” and you know that I do.  See you Friday, sweetheart,

Lots of love,

Art

(For Saturday – background on 1950.)

 © 2011 Lee Price

Torn Apart and Bewildered

Wednesday, March 15, 1950

46 West 83rd Street, Apt. 7B

New York City, NY

Dear Art,

Art, darling, I needed you today.  I still do.  I feel bad – not physically, but torn apart and bewildered.  And nothing happened to make me feel this way.  It’s one of those bad days where nothing actually goes wrong yet everything is wrong.  I need a shoulder to weep on or arms around me – comforting, or just the presence of someone who wants me to feel good.  You.

I’m sorry, darling.  A cheerful letter can’t seem to come from me tonight.  I’ll try to do better.  Shirl and I went to the movies tonight.  We saw Lifeboat and Jane Eyre – both excellent pictures.  Revivals, you know.

Shirl’s sleeping now.  I feel so alone and lonely.  It’s a good thing for me I’m going home this weekend.  You’ll be pleased to

see me, won’t you, darling?

I’ve done nothing at all these last two days, it seems, and I absolutely have some homework due tomorrow.  I haven’t even started it yet.  I don’t know if I can face doing it tonight or not.

I’m terribly sorry, dear, for writing such a depressing letter.  Maybe I’ll feel a

little better after telling you my woes even if it’s only in a letter.  So will you forgive me?

By Friday, I’m sure I shall be in bright spirits again.  Until then (and forever),

All my love,

June

This is a P.S., Art darling, being written in school about 9:45 in the morning.  I’ll mail this as soon as I sign off.  Well, I feel much, much better.  I don’t understand what was wrong with me last night.  Why, I’m even almost ready to face some schoolwork this morning.  Shirl and another friend are coming for me at 3:30 this afternoon and then we’re going someplace to look at materials.  I think I’ll call Daddy up and see if my income tax is home yet.  Just think – there should be a letter from you when I get home today!  I hope you’re feeling well and cheerful in it.  Gee, there’s not many people in school today.  The place is empty.  But I have to stay – I can’t miss any more days.

Love,

June

(Tomorrow – Art and the girl in the bathing suit.)
 

© 2011 Lee Price

Women Take Over the House

Tuesday, March 14, 1950

20 Cooper Street

Southampton, NY

Dear June,

Art's father, Arthur N. Price, a pencil
sketch by Art Price.

It’s five minutes till midnight so I’m barely getting this letter written today.  Five minutes till midnight and we just got the last of the women out of the house!  I think I told you that my mother was hosting a meeting of the executives of the women’s organization.  While they met, my father and I went to the movies.  When we came home, some were still here.  You know how women like to talk!

I found out today that I won the suit club that I belong to.  That’s twice I’ve won.  I’m lucky in more ways than one, sweetheart.  I know I’m lucky in one.

Are you having bad weather there?  It’s rained and sleeted all day and now there’s a couple of signs of snow on the ground.  I hope it clears up by this weekend.    Well, darling, I’m going to cut this short now and go to bed.  I’ll see you Friday night at eight.  Till then my darling, I love you.

Lots of love,

Art

(Tomorrow – one of those days when everything is wrong.)

© 2011 Lee Price

A Walk Along the Bowery

Fashion illustration by
June Anderson.

Monday, March 13, 1950

46 West 83rd Street, Apt. 7B

New York City, NY

Dear Art,

My darling, a terrible thing almost happened tonight.  I nearly forgot to write to you.

Shirl and I spent the night talking and of course I talked about you.  I got so homesick – already, my darling!  You see, I really do miss you.

Fifteen minutes ago we went to bed and I just lay there thinking about how much I would like to be out with you tonight.  Then all of a sudden I screamed and woke the girls up!  I

hadn’t written a letter to you!  How

could I ever have forgotten?  Especially when I thought of nothing but you all night.

I got here alright this morning.  Shirl and I left school early and took a walk along the bowery.  It’s just as bad as they say. 

It looks like I’ll be coming home this weekend.  I certainly hope you won’t tire of me.  I had such a wonderful time this weekend, and I love you so.

All my love,

June

(Tomorrow – lucky in more ways than one.)
 

© 2011 Lee Price

Bamboo Tree or Pretty Little Dutch Girl?

Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland singing
"Under the Bamboo Tree" in
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

Here are a couple of musical mysteries, sparked by June’s letter written on February 21.

This is the unedited version of the letter:

“They just finished (Jessie Owens) singing “Shad-rack” over the radio – It was beautiful.  I like that song.  Oh, I heard “Under the Bamboo Tree” today on the radio.  First time since I left college – we used to sing it so many times there.  You know the one – I L-O-V-E Love you all the T-I-M-E time.  It’s true too.”

The Golden Gate Quartet.

In editing this letter, the reference to “Jessie Owens” was the first puzzle.  Jesse Owens was the famous Olympic athlete, star of the 1936 Olympics.  A little research around the internet revealed that there was a popular version of the 1930s song “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego” by the African-American gospel group the Golden Gate Quartet featuring Henry Owens.  They called their version “Shadrack” and it was released in 1946.  Here’s a link to the Golden Gate Quartet performing “Shadrack.”

But that wasn’t the main mystery that I encountered in editing this letter.  The big problem was that “Under the Bamboo Tree” does not contain the lyrics “I L-O-V-E Love you all the T-I-M-E time.”  That’s a different song – a much less well-known song called “I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl,” which seems to have been more of a children’s skipping-rope song rather than the top 40 hit material that June usually refers to.  Here’s a comment from the site “Bus Songs:  Lyrics & Words for Children’s Nursery Rhymes & Songs” which gives fuller lyrics:

“I learned a much longer song (grew up in Chicago area) (don't know the name of the tune, but it sounds like "Looney Tunes") I am a pretty little Dutch girl As pretty as pretty can be And all the boys around my block are crazy over me. I have a boyfriend, Patty He comes from Cincinatti With 48 toes and a pickle on his nose And this is the way my story goes: One day when I was walking I heard my boyfriend talking To a pretty little girl with a strawberry curl and this is what he said to her: I L-O-V-E, love you, All the T-I-M-E, time. I K-I-S-S, kiss you, Please be M-I-N-E, Mine, mine, mine.”

Since I can’t find any references to a popular 1940s recording of “I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl,” I question whether this was what June heard on the radio that day.

“Under the Bamboo Tree,” the song title that June mentions, was a 1901 hit by Bob Cole that experienced a major revival in the 1940s because of the adorable performance of it by Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien in the popular 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis.  With the very hummable lyric “If You Like-A Me Like I Like-A You,” it’s a song that June would likely have heard often at college.  By contrast, “I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl” is more of a playground song than a college song.

So I took a guess and focused on “Under the Bamboo Tree” in the edited version of the letter.  Still, the precise quote of the “Pretty Little Dutch Girl” lyric raises the possibility that June heard something else on the radio that day and we simply have no way of recovering what it was…

(Tomorrow – a visit to the Bowery.)
 

© 2011 Lee Price