EXchange names on screen

From Mr. District Attorney (dir. Robert B. Sinclair, 1947). The movie is a bit ’phone-crazy. Click any image for a larger view.

[B.: Berotti (Steven Geary), no first name. His MA: MAdison, I presume.]

The next three screenshots show a clever trick. How can Marcia Manning (Marguerite Chapman) let District Attorney Craig Warren (Adolphe Menjou) know that B. is hiding in the next room? By making a phony call to spell out B-E-R-O-T-T-I.


It’s a good thing Marcia wasn’t trying to spell L-E-D-D-Y, which could have been mistaken for J-E-F-F-Y.

More telephone EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Angel : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : The Dark Corner (again) : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dial Red 0 : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story : Kiss of Death : The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Nocturne : Old Acquaintance : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : She Played with Fire : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Slightly Scarlet : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : Till the End of Time : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Recently updated

Updating Now with more lies from George Santos.

Look closely

[Click for a larger view.]

We heard it before we saw it. And then we watched for several minutes. Elaine thinks that our quiet words of encouragement made a difference.

[If you’re stumped, keep looking. And then, if you’re still stumped, there’s an explanation in the comments.]

On the conjunction train

From YouTube user blakrootz: “‘Conjunction Junction’ Model Train.” Just wonderful, and if I were teaching a writing class, I would be hard put not to find three minutes to share it.

Thanks to Jim at 30 Squares for sharing it with me.

[All seven coordinating conjunctions? The FANBOYS. For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.]

Recently updated

A Bronx candy store Now with a court case and the meaning of “light lunch.”

Public Domain Day

Today is Public Domain Day (Duke University School of Law). Featuring Louis Armstrong, Willa Cather, George and Ira Gershwin, Frank Kafka, Fritz Lang, Marcel Proust, and Bessie Smith, and many more.

While at the DUSL site, take a look at Theft: A History of Music, by Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkins.

A Bronx candy store

[983 Mace Avenue, The Bronx, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

A reader who likes looking in the archives spotted this Bronx candy store. The same reader found a Board of Education photograph of the store’s interior, identified as “PS 89, Bronx: surroundings.” It would seem that the BOE wanted photographs of locations near the school. This candy store was right across the street from P.S. 89. Here is retail density at its finest — not to mention a sweet setup for schoolkids. Do click for a larger view. You won’t regret it.

[983 Mace Avenue interior. Photograph by A. J. Hickey, March 31, 1939. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. I hope the photographer bought something.]

An sidenote: the meaning of “light lunch” was at issue in a 1924 New York court case. At issue: whether a candy-store chain was doing the business of a restaurant in offering “light lunch”:


The court’s answer: yes, they were doing the business of a restaurant, and no, candy stores can’t do that. (Don’t tell no. 983.)

No. 983 is now a three-family behemoth. P.S. 89 still stands.

Thanks to the reader who found this store, outside and in-, and the court case.

Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives : All-Nite Service density : Harvey’s Hardware density : May Drug Co. density : Whelan’s Drug Store : Woolworth’s density

New Year’s Eve 1922

At the Hotel Astor:

[“Hotels Make Ready for Gala New Year: Prepare for Record Crowds — Demand for Private Rooms Is Unusually Large.” The New York Times, December 31, 1922.]

What caught my eye, in addition to the scale of the celebration: “Florence F. Jenkins.” Have you heard Florence Foster Jenkins sing? Here’s some Mozart.

And here’s to a new year, peaceful and on pitch for all.

Last call

As 2023 approaches, be prepared, with a calendar guaranteed to work all year long.

[Click for a larger month.]

It’s free, made by me: a 2023 calendar, in large legible Gill Sans, three months per page. Minimal holiday markings: MLK Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Paper, staples, thumbtack, magnet not included.

You can download the PDF from this Dropbox link. If you don’t have and don’t want a Dropbox account, just hit Download, top left.

[I’ve been making calendars since 2009 with the Mac app Pages. Steep learning curve, years of good calendars to show for it.]

Nancy New Year’s Eve

Olivia Jaimes continues the Ernie Bushmiller tradition of taking holidays off: “Your Nancy Year in Review.”

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)