- Date: New Year’s Day, Saturday 1 January 1938, 9:30 a.m.
- Written at: New York, New York
- Stationery: Hotel Taft, 7th Ave. at 50th St., New York
- From: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- To: Ruby
- Condition: Complete — 6 pages, numbered by Joe; envelope not found
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
PAGE 1
New Years Day
1/1/38 —
930 a.m.
My Darling Sweetheart:—
Well New Years Eve is over and it is much the same the world over — but I wish you a very, very Happy one Dear because I love you more today than I did yesterday. I didn’t think it was possible but now I know it is. You are so sweet & Dear to me lover — I just cant say it but Ill show you when I get home believe me. I hope you havent found someone else while I have been gone Dear. I dont want you to but I know you get pretty lonesome there and have to talk to someone but Honey Dear I love you with all
PAGE 2
my heart and soul. Guess you wonder about the crazy marks on the envelope. Well Honey I seal them up and then want to kiss you so I send Love and Kisses by L and K on the outside — No one sees them but you and they are meant for you anyway Dear and I don’t care if they do see them. I shout it from the housetops that I love you & am proud of it. I am going thru the rest of my life loving you Dear — even if you find some one else. The happy hours I have spent with you can never be taken away from me and I will cherish them until the end — You Lover are the sweetest little girl in all the world — Sure wish you were here right now.
PAGE 3
Report on New Year Eve —
I went down stairs about 1030 & the Hotel was in a festive spirit Chairs all taken out of the lobby & hat racks installed — Big, small, fat & ugly women in evening dress Men in Tux & Tails parading about the lobby — Dinner was $6.00 per plate — so I stood back & watched them — Almost all of them were tight & God how disgusting — There is nothing worse than drunken women — Then at about 1130 I went out to 5th Ave & Broadway and Times Square — to walk around — The street was full of people & all of them had horns or kind of noise makers
PAGE 4
It was raining all the time but that didn’t seem to keep them home. I walked around the square until about 1 and then went into Lindys for a bite to eat. Had a chicken liver omlet, coffee & toast & home to the Hotel — The lobby still full of people so I watched again until about 2 — My God the noise was terrible — I came to bed & tried to sleep — The halls were full of drunks — singing, talking and raising all kinds of Hell & I thot of you every minute Dear. If I could of been in our room with you alone that would of been the happiest New Years Eve I could of spent but fate was
PAGE 5
against us I guess. We will spend some of them together Baby when I get back I hope — I have 2 days now alone — I am going to take in some good shows — like Brother Rat & the rest — One nice thing about this Hotel is the location — It is close to all the shows and Radio City. My laundry just came Special Delivery from Dode — They called me on the phone — Glad I was up & I just looked out & what do you think — SNOW. Now I know Ill stay put — Have been here 2 days and this makes 5 letters to you Honey — Hope they dont bore you to much — but loving you as I do I cant help it I have to pour it out to you Dear.
PAGE 6
This is the last sheet of paper I have in the room so I am going out for breakfast and will mail this when I go — Please, Honey Dear write me. It is Hell being away from you. Write in pencil or anything so I can hear from you because I am worried. Did you get the package from Gretchen in Balto? Excuse all the I’s but Dear I love you with all my heart —
More later Sweetheart —
All my Love
Joe
Notes & context
New Year’s Day, 1938. Joe dated this one himself: “1/1/38, 9:30 a.m.” That afternoon he wrote again while listening to the Rose Bowl (Good Old Cal); the next day he wrote twice more (Burn Them Up and Your Special, Mailed New Year’s Eve).
“L and K.” This letter solves a puzzle on the envelopes: Joe wrote “L and K” — Love and Kisses — on the outside after sealing them, because “No one sees them but you and they are meant for you anyway Dear.” The “Land K” beside the hotel picture on the envelope of Fighting Those Subways is one of them.
“Have been here 2 days and this makes 5 letters to you.” Joe reached the Taft about 30 December, after Christmas at Dodie’s in Washington. Of those five letters, the first survives (Here I Am in the Big City), and its envelope, postmarked 30 December, is probably the one kept with Burn Them Up, probably held one of the others.
Report on New Year’s Eve. The Taft cleared its lobby for the night and charged $6 a plate for dinner — a great deal of money in 1938 — so Joe watched from the side. At 11:30 he walked out into the rain to Broadway and Times Square, where the crowds saw the new year in with horns and noisemakers, and at about 1 a.m. he ate a chicken-liver omelet at Lindy’s, the famous Broadway delicatessen known for its cheesecake.
“Brother Rat.” A comedy about cadets at the Virginia Military Institute, then one of the biggest hits on Broadway; it ran from December 1936 to 1938 and was filmed with Ronald Reagan later in 1938.
The laundry from Dodie. Joe had left his laundry with his sister Dodie in Washington, and she sent it on to the Taft by special delivery.
The package from Gretchen. He asked again on 2 and 5 January. Gretchen, Dodie’s daughter, lived in Baltimore with her new husband Jim Welsh.
“I hope you havent found someone else.” A worry that runs through the New York letters; compare “Dont find anyone else please Dear” on 2 January.
