Says Man, 85, Broke Up Home

1930

Cult Leader is Named in a California Divorce Case.

(By the Associated Press)

CHICAGO, Feb. 25. — An 85-year-old leader of a health and religious cult in Los Angeles was blamed today for breaking up the home of Herman R. Huber, architectural draftsman, who filed suit for divorce from Mrs. Anna C. Huber, 50, a follower of the cult.

The aged man was described as "Ottoman, czar of Adusht, master mind Hanisch of the Mazdazans," whose temple is at 1159 S. Norton avenue, in Los Angeles.

Huber, in his suit, said his wife had become "fanatical, idiotical, and unreasonable by following the repugnant rituals of moaning, raving and silly actions of the cult." He said the power that the "master mind" held over women made them think more of his teachings than they did of their homes and families.

—The Kansas City Star, Feb. 25, 1930, p. 5.

LOL Funny - Ernie Bushmiller's Fritzi-Ritz Cartoon

1930
Click to make bigger.

The cartoon is by Ernie Bushmiller, more famous probably for Nancy and Sluggo. As for me, I had never heard of this one, Fritzi Ritz, till today. I saw a Nancy cartoon the other day and it refreshed my memory that her aunt's name was Aunt Fritzi, so maybe Ernie liked the sound of the word. Some of these old cartoons that are unfamiliar are a little amusing, but since you don't know the characters or their ongoing relationships, they aren't really that funny. This one is laugh-out-loud funny without knowing the relationships, if nothing else for the absurdity of it, plus the monkey going psycho at the end.

The date is April 9, 1930. And it was probably published in many papers, this one from Indiana Evening Gazette, Pennsylvania, IN. Looks like maybe page 12.

James Joyce's Eyesight Failing As He Tries to Complete Book

1930

Joyce's Tragedy

Daily increasing blindness may prevent James Joyce, the Irish author, whose books have been banned in Britain and America from completing what he declares is to be his greatest work.

For seven years Joyce, who lives in Paris, has fought against failing sight in an attempt to finish the most ambitious work he has ever planned. In the seven years he has been working on the book he has only completed half.

Unlike other authors, James Joyce is unable to dictate. He finds it necessary to write every word with a great red pencil on huge sheets of paper. He cannot read a line of his manuscript without a powerful magnifying glass. The author of "Ulysses," who refused to take orders as a Jesuit priest after leaving a Dublin college, works from ten to fourteen hours daily, but writes only a few hundred words each day. A great part of each working day is taken up in revising his manuscript, which he does in a most thorough manner — often rewriting pages after it is in proof.

He declares that he can only write when dressed entirely in white, and says that this is pleasant for his eyes. The small, pointed beard that he wears hides a terrible scar, inflicted by a mad dog when he was five years of age. Since that time he will not allow any one to bring a dog near him. On the other hand, he is very fond of cats, wears huge rings, smokes a curious pipe and always carries an ash walking stick.

He has entitled the book "A Work in Progress." It is modernistic thruout and would not be understood by any one not familiar with James Joyce's developments on the English language.

—Indiana Evening Gazette, Pennsylvania, IN, April 9, 1930, page 13.

Vaudeville Act – The Luster Brothers, Contortionists

1930

R.K.O.-Capitol — Unique and nearly unique in several respects, the Luster Brothers, the noted team of contortionists whose sensational feats are proving unusually entertaining to audiences at the R.K.O.-Capitol theatre this week, fully justify their billing of "Making Oddities in Art." These clean-cut, well-built young men are Americans, being natives of Birmingham, Ala. This in itself is enough to give distinction to any group of contortionists, considering that by far the great majority of such performers emanate from European or Asiatic lands. They are self-taught. Most contortionists were started out on their career by their parents, who began teaching them as soon as they were able to walk. This fact explains why most contortionists are foreigners, American parents being unwilling, generally, to spend the necessary time and effort to train their youngsters from infancy. The Lusters, who are brothers in professional life only, did not begin their training until they were ten and eleven years old, respectively; and then worked entirely without prompting from anyone. Using the barn owned by their father, they experimented and drilled with undying enthusiasm because they liked the work, and they did it without the approval of their mothers and fathers.

—Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, August 1, 1930, page 19, ad from July 30.