Oscar (19 March 1934); City Care Forgot; AMNH's Chocolate

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OSCAR

   19 March 1934, DAILY NEWS (NY), pg. 32, col. 3:
_Hollywood_
By Sidney Skolsky
_The Gossipel Truth_
      Palm Springs, Cal., March 18.
   THE ACADEMY awards met with the approval of Hollywood, there being practically no dissension...The Academy went out of its way to make the results honest and announced that balloting would continue until 8:00 o'clock of the banquet evening...Then many players arrive late and demanded the right to vote...So voting continued until 10 o'clock or for two hours after the ballot boxes were supposed to be closed...It was King Vidor who said: "This year the election is on the level"...Which caused every one to comment about the other years...Although Katharine Hepburn wasn't present to receive her Oscar, her constant companion and the gal she resides with in Hollywood, Laura Harding, was there to hear Hepburn get a round of applause for a change...


   That's the earliest Skolsky "Oscar" I could find.  No explanation.
   The March 15th (Pg. 54) Skolsky column is about Alice Faye.  "She is strictly a Jean Harlow type and talks the lingo of the sidewalks of New York. ... She is a blazing blonde with eyes of blue."
   Remember Reese Witherspoon and that little dog in LEGALLY BLONDE II?  I'd like to read a Skolsky "Jean Harlow" column of this period.  After seing that 1933 HOLLYWOOD HERALD photo, I don't think Harlow's little dog "Oscar" was forgotten that easily.

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CITY CARE FORGOT

   The library of the Historic New Orleans Collection has responded to me by mail with a page copied from this book.


Author  Reinders, Robert C.
Title  End of an era: New Orleans, 1850-1860.
Imprint  New Orleans, Pelican Pub. Co. [1964]

Pg. 150:  One hundred years ago, as today, New Orleans was billed as "the city care forgot."  A combination of forces--French traditions, sea port town, frontier influences, wealth--gave New Orleans in the 1850's a reputation as the most glamorous, and most decadent, city in America.

   I don't believe it's that early.
   Again, I definitely found 1912.  It's very difficult to believe that "city care forgot" would escape two Making of America databases, full text NEW YORK TIMES, full text BROOKLYN EAGLE, full text LOS ANGELES TIMES, full text WASHINGTON POST, full text HARPER'S WEEKLY, full text NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, full text Wright American Fiction, Literature Online, and so on.
   "City that care forgot" was inspired by the phrase/song "begone, dull care," which _is_ that old.
   I guess we won't know for certain until the full text NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE comes along.  But I looked at Mardi Gras 1911 pretty closely and didn't see "city that care forgot."

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AMNH'S "CHOCOLATE,"
OR,
BURY MY BODY WITH BEN & JERRY'S NEW YORK SUPER FUDGE CHUNK

   "These people went to the underworld with their chocolate."
--Michael Coe of Yale, author of THE TRUE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE, lecturing at the "Chocolate" exhibit of the American Museum of Natural History, 7-26-2003

   I don't enjoy the American Museum of Natural History and haven't been there for some time.  The entrance fee is $19.  There are long lines.  Too many kids.  And on a personal level about two years ago, an AMNH scholar told SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN that "the Big Apple" comes from whores.
   The "chocolate" lecture was good, although it was by the book...The exhibit was rather small.  I wanted to see how it would screw up Popik research subjects such as "chocolate milk," but that wasn't even included...There is a photo with the caption: "Robert L. Strohecker, 'father' of the Easter bunny business, standing next to a 5-foot chocolate rabbit crafted by the Luden factory in Pennsylvania.  Photo taken about 1890."  They were probably not called "Easter bunnies" at this time...What impresses you at the beginning of the exhibit is how the slave trade gave us chocolate, but chocolate wasn't wildly popular and "milk chocolate" wasn't even invented until after the Civil War.
   "Chocolate: The Exhibition" began in 2002 at the Field Museum, Chicago.  The souvenir 8 oz. chocolate bar available for sale in the gift shop is a treat, but beware a $7.50 price tag.
   The exhibition continues until September.