- Date: Wednesday, 5 January 1938, 9 a.m.
- Written at: New York, New York
- Stationery: Hotel Taft, 7th Ave. at 50th St., New York (Room 1446)
- From: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- To: Miss Ruby E. Wilson, 745 Broadway, Planada, California
- Condition: Complete — 4 pages (two sheets written on both sides) and envelope; a small piece torn from the second sheet
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
PAGE 1
Did you get the package from Gretchen?
Wed a m
9 — Here
Ruby Lover:—
Mail just arrived and 2 letters from J S B — one from you but very short — It was written Sunday & sent to V & L & they mailed it to me here in the Hotel — It came in yesterday afternoon and their office is away across town from the Hotel so he phoned me it was there so I had it mailed here. The Taxi fare from here to their office is $1.65. Getting around here is a problem I tell you. I am centrally located but fighting those subways is sure a tough problem you have to change trains so much & they dont have any information booths so if you get the wrong train it is just to bad and they have 3 levels on which the trains run. Here is a good one on me. I wanted to go to Brooklyn so I got infor-
PAGE 2
mation here at the Hotel what sub to take and I had to change at the Queens and take a Flushing train on the lower level well I did that but caught the train going the wrong way and I landed back in N.Y. down in the Bowery — only lost about 3 hours time, then I had to catch another one uptown and I was sore as Hell but now I look at it & laugh. Dont say anything to the Head. because she would break her neck to squeal to J.S.B. I know you wont Dear.
Well last night I splurged & took in a Hocky game at Madison Sq Garden and Honey it is only 3 blocks from here. The Canadians Rangers & Americans played a 5 to 5 tie with 4 over time periods. Good game to and quite a place. Then on the way back to the Hotel I stopped at Jack Dempsey’s & had a sandwich only $1.25 but I saw the place & shook hands with Jack & he is like all prize fighters and cannery workers. I mean “punch crazy” or as they say in the street talk “Slug Nutty”
PAGE 3
He has a nice restaurant and the windows are all ice Boxes One full of wine one of champagne — One vegtables strawberries, B sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms, Califlower, Brocili corn on cob etc — one is full of meat — Steaks, chops, roasts etc & one is full of fowl — chicken, squat, pheasant quail turkey etc — Quite a sight Honey I wish you could see it. Ill tell you more when I get home — we can sit in your room & Ill run off at the mouth. You know Times Square is only two blocks from here so I have done it a couple of times — J S B I guess would have a fit if he knew it. but wh[at the] Hell it is part my money anyway — The[se …] slay me anyway. and I have a hard time doing business with them so about 2 calls a day is all I can make here — after I get thru with my subway rides — Ha Ha
I wrote the boss a 12 page letter last night and asked him to wire me re some prices today so I am
PAGE 4
going to stick around until noon today & get his reply — He sure is a funny fellow — Ill tell you when I get back and Honey it cant be to soon to suit me — I am starving for your kisses & loving Dear — but I am storing them all up until I get back. Better eat lots of spinach so you will be strong because I am going to love you with in an inch of your life Baby — Hope you wont mind — You know Dear I went without loving for so long that I didn’t miss it until I met you and now I dont think I can ever be without you Dear. There are times I almost go crazy — so far away b[ut yo]u are foremost in my mind at all times [I d]o love you Dear with all my heart & [yo]u are beautiful Honey — I am getting lonesome so am going out for breakfast.
All my love and Kisses to the sweetest little girl in the world, You Ruby Dear
As Ever
Joe
ENVELOPE (POSTMARKED 5 JAN 1938)
Air Mail
Miss Ruby E. Wilson
745 Broadway
Planada California
Merced County
Postmarked New York, N.Y., Station G, 1:30 p.m., 5 January 1938. “Room 1446” is written under the hotel’s name; “M.L.” is written beneath the picture of the hotel, and “L and K” sideways beside it — Joe’s “Love and Kisses” (see Report on New Year Eve).
Notes & context
The date. Joe headed the letter “Wed a m, 9 — Here,” meaning 9 o’clock New York time. 5 January 1938 was a Wednesday, and the envelope was postmarked at 1:30 that afternoon. The hockey game he saw “last night” confirms it (see below).
The whole letter. When this letter was first posted only pages 1 and 3 were known. The backs of both sheets, pages 2 and 4, have since been photographed, and the letter is complete.
Ruby’s letter and “V & L.” Ruby’s Sunday letter (2 January) had gone to the office of “V & L” on the other side of town, who phoned Joe and mailed it on to the hotel. In his letter of that same Sunday Joe had asked her to stop writing to him at “Viscovi’s [?]” and write to the hotel instead (Your Special, Mailed New Year’s Eve); “V & L” may well be the same firm, presumably a broker or business contact in New York.
Lost on the subway. Told to change “at the Queens” — probably Queensboro Plaza — for a Flushing train, Joe boarded it going the wrong way and came out in the Bowery, in lower Manhattan, three hours later. In 1938 New York had three separate subway systems, the IRT, BMT and city-owned IND, which explains his complaint about changing trains and “3 levels on which the trains run.”
“Dont say anything to the Head.” “The Head” was evidently a woman, probably at the office in California, who knew both Ruby and J.S.B. and would have reported Joe’s wasted afternoon. She also appears in Burn Them Up. Who she was is not known.
The hockey game. On Tuesday, 4 January 1938, the New York Americans and New York Rangers played to a 5–5 tie at Madison Square Garden, then on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, a few blocks from the Taft. Joe first wrote “Rangers” and added “Canadians” above it; the game was in fact Rangers against Americans.
Jack Dempsey’s. The former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey ran a restaurant near the Garden, and Joe stopped there after the game, shook hands with him, and described its windows of iceboxes on page 3 — so the “He” who “has a nice restaurant” is Dempsey. “Punch crazy” and “slug nutty” were slang for a boxer dazed by too many blows; Joe adds cannery workers, the people he worked with, for good measure.
“Part my money anyway.” Joe seems to say that his evenings around Times Square came partly out of his own pocket, so J.S.B. had no cause to complain.
“Eat lots of spinach.” A nod to Popeye the Sailor, whose spinach made him strong — the cartoons were at the height of their popularity in the late 1930s.
The package from Gretchen. He had asked the same question on 2 January. Gretchen was Dodie’s daughter (Gretchen and the Mail Boy).
“The boss.” Probably J.S.B.; Joe had written him a 12-page letter the night before and was waiting until noon for a wire about prices. “He sure is a funny fellow — Ill tell you when I get back.”
Torn page and uncertain readings: A piece is torn out of the second sheet, taking a few letters from pages 3 and 4. Letters in square brackets, as in “wh[at the] Hell” and “b[ut yo]u,” are supplied where the paper is missing; the word after “The” on page 3 is lost. “Squat” is as Joe wrote it (he probably meant squab).
