Just a Kid from Hell's Kitchen - In Remembrance of TC Murray

THE “FUNNIES” AND THE COMICS
Fiorello La Guardia, was elected Mayor of New York City in 1933 as a fusion candidate.
For many young children of the war area, like myself, the reading of the Sunday
“funnies” over WNYC, the city’s municipal radio station, by the “Little Flower” had
become a weekly Sunday morning ritual – next to Mass, of course. Many of us originally
were introduced to the “funnies” by this reform minded mayor. New York City’s
municipal airport was named in honor of his honor (La Guardia, himself, was an aviator).
During the war years, many of the characters in both the “funnies” and the comics were
fighters of the “evil empire”. Superheroes abounded – Captain America, Captain Marvel,
Submariner, and, yes, even Wonder Woman – all fighting for the principles of the
American way.
PCQ2: What dominant color was used by superheroes “Hornet,” “Lantern” and
“Arrow?”
MEETING FLASH GORDON
One of the super hero’s that I had the pleasure of meeting was Flash Gordon. At the age
of ten, I took the number 9 bus to Macy’s on 34 th Street. Billing itself as the “largest
department store in the world”, this site served as the headquarters of Flash Gordon (at
least on a temporary and promotional basis). Happy was I when I took the escalator to the
fifth floor toy department to meet Flash Gordon (It was the same fifth floor venue that
Aunt Betty had taken me a few years earlier to meet Santa Claus). The thrill of meeting a
super hero in the flesh was awesome. As a memento of the visit, each visitor was given a
very special Flash Gordon world battle front map. In the lower portion of the handout
were the images of Flash and Gail holding an opened copy of the map. Boys and girls –
these are the maps we use in planning our commando raids, captioned Flash. Gail
continued: and if you use them to follow the path of America’s march to victory you will
find your geography lessons will be a lot easier for you next week. Wow!