Duane’s Romantic Side in Letters of 1954


duane-letter-1-4-54-complete.jpgduane-letter-2-23-54-complete.jpgHere’s the next two letters from Duane Crowther to Bob Balser, from 1-24 and 2-23-1954. This post is “Letters of Duane Crowther # 7”. Much more personal this time, as Duane visits his home town (Los Angeles) and the Balsers for Christmas vacation, then marries his first wife, Susanne, on Jan. 22nd. Duane and Susanne were living with her mother by February 1954, on East 80th street, for the whopping rent of $138.00 a month! Two and a Half Rooms yet! Susanne liked Babies, Bartok and Beatrice Lillie, according to Duane, (you can tell they wanted to start a family), and likes to write poetry (“the good, sex-laden kind”, whatever that was). Susanne was Matt Crowther’s Mom, in case Matt is reading this. We are going through Duane’s early history at a fast rate, still six letters and a telegram to go!

myrtle-5-26-to-5-31-47.jpg Here’s Dudley Fisher’s Myrtle from 5-26 to 5-31-1947, in answer to Joe’s (and perhaps other) requests. I love the 5-28, as Myrtle catches her Mom in a fib to avoid talking on the phone. Her Mom asks Myrtle to say she’s “baking a cake”. The pixieish Myrtle hangs over the back of the easy chair in a great Fisher pose and asks Mom for “some of the cake”, forcing her into actually making one to cover her lie. Myrtle’s personality is really intriguing here, she’s childlike, but right on top of things, as she plays her mother like a Stradivarius. The 5-31 is almost Herrimanesque in it’s obtuseness as Myrtle sings one of her little songs about her cat, and then asks Sampson if he’s had his dinner. Go read the gag, it’s round-robin logic is a lot of fun. It’s good to know that Myrtle has so many fans, I’ll try to run more of her daily adventures very soon.

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