Potrzebie
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
More on "From Eternity Back to Here!": I just stumbled onto the amazing fact that Kurtzman had a more direct reference in Mad to the New Senator Hotel, the real-life Honolulu house of prostitution, than James Jones did in From Here to Eternity. Managed by Ruth Davis at 121 North Hotel Street (see color photo), the New Senator had a lounge area, a bar and rooms in which the female employees could entertain guests. The WWII photo at bottom shows soldiers and sailors waiting in line to enter the New Senator Hotel or other brothels on Hotel Street.
Jones cleverly managed a bit of sexy word play when he fictionalized the New Senator Hotel as the New Congress Hotel in his novel. For the 1954 movie, the name was changed to the New Congress Club (but the sexual meaning of the word "congress" apparently slipped past the censors). During WWII, Kurtzman was stationed in North Carolina, not the Pacific, but he somehow knew enough to devise the name New Senate Club for "From Eternity Back to Here!" Perhaps he learned about the place while doing research for Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat.
Here's the staff of the New Senator Hotel in 1940...
Also see: "Dousing Honolulu's Red Lights" by Richard Greer.
Jones cleverly managed a bit of sexy word play when he fictionalized the New Senator Hotel as the New Congress Hotel in his novel. For the 1954 movie, the name was changed to the New Congress Club (but the sexual meaning of the word "congress" apparently slipped past the censors). During WWII, Kurtzman was stationed in North Carolina, not the Pacific, but he somehow knew enough to devise the name New Senate Club for "From Eternity Back to Here!" Perhaps he learned about the place while doing research for Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat.
Here's the staff of the New Senator Hotel in 1940...
Labels: honolulu, james jones, kurtzman, new congress club, new congress hotel, new senate club, new senator hotel
¶ 3:40 PM 4 comments
Monday, May 31, 2010
Click "honolulu" label at bottom to read how Kurtzman had a more direct reference to the real-life Honolulu brothel than James Jones did.
Harvey Kurtzman and Bernard Krigstein: "From Eternity Back to Here!" Mad #12 (June 1954). This was the first of Krigstein's few contributions to Mad. Kurtzman's reaction was not entirely positive: "Bernie was a tremendous talent, but he wasn't a humorist." Even so, he drew remarkable caricatures here of Sinatra, Lancaster, Donna Reed and the others and placed them in panels with distinctive designs. Perhaps Kurtzman didn't like seeing hard edges and ruled lines on his flexible, flowing rough layouts. Notice the pattern vanishes from Majjio's shirt on page three. Is it a mistake or is it because he has changed into Sinatra?
After this story, Kurtzman only used Krigstein for assignments requiring an illustrative approach: "Bringing Back Father" (Mad #17) and "Crash McCool" (Mad #26).
James Ellroy on James Jones and From Here to Eternity.
To my brethren in their sorrow overseas,
Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely crammed,
And a trooper of the Empress, if you please.
Yea, a trooper of the forces who has run his own six horses,
And faith he went the pace and went it blind,
And the world was more than kin while he held the ready tin,
But to-day the Sergeant's something less than kind.
We're poor little lambs who've lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We're little black sheep who've gone astray,
Baa--aa--aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!
--Rudyard Kipling (1892)
©2010 EC Publications
Harvey Kurtzman and Bernard Krigstein: "From Eternity Back to Here!" Mad #12 (June 1954). This was the first of Krigstein's few contributions to Mad. Kurtzman's reaction was not entirely positive: "Bernie was a tremendous talent, but he wasn't a humorist." Even so, he drew remarkable caricatures here of Sinatra, Lancaster, Donna Reed and the others and placed them in panels with distinctive designs. Perhaps Kurtzman didn't like seeing hard edges and ruled lines on his flexible, flowing rough layouts. Notice the pattern vanishes from Majjio's shirt on page three. Is it a mistake or is it because he has changed into Sinatra?
After this story, Kurtzman only used Krigstein for assignments requiring an illustrative approach: "Bringing Back Father" (Mad #17) and "Crash McCool" (Mad #26).
Despite James Jones' objections, Scribner's made these deletions in his manuscript when they published From Here to Eternity in 1951. His daughter, Kaylie Jones, says she will restore these passages if there is a new edition. The original ms. is in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
James Ellroy on James Jones and From Here to Eternity.
James Jones struggles with the manuscript of Some Came Running (1957).
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,To my brethren in their sorrow overseas,
Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely crammed,
And a trooper of the Empress, if you please.
Yea, a trooper of the forces who has run his own six horses,
And faith he went the pace and went it blind,
And the world was more than kin while he held the ready tin,
But to-day the Sergeant's something less than kind.
We're poor little lambs who've lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We're little black sheep who've gone astray,
Baa--aa--aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!
--Rudyard Kipling (1892)
Labels: ellroy, from here to eternity, honolulu, james jones, kaylie jones, kipling, krigstein, kurtzman, some came running
¶ 2:47 PM 2 comments
