Judge — February 14, 1931 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JUDGE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN HOLIDAYS : St. Valentine’s Day Day, February 14th, gets its name from a matinée idol of two centuries ago by the r of Rudy Valentine. The said entine was an actor in Marseilles, France, his popularity arising from the w: +) which he crooned the part of Hamlet in a play of that i name. Up until that historic occasion itine was nothing but a stray troubadour (French for saxophonist) who had graduated from Oxford. But as soon as his pale soprano voice reached the ears of the women folk his popularity increased by leaps and bounds. (Valentine later patented his popularity, and it is now known as a Mexican jumping bean.) Valentine, of course, received many mash notes, includ- ing one from an indignant husband and father, who threatened to mash him with a club if he didn’t stop croon- over the cherchezlafemme, which w in san old French contrivance somewhat similar to our radio. Valentine 1) being a kind-hearted man, took pains to answer all of his 7) mash notes. Bill Pains, a classmate of his at Oxford, whom he employed to write the answers, was something of a poet. Just what he was of a poct I don’t know, but his replies in rhyme, signed by Rudy Valentine, were always treasured by those who received them and were known simply as valentines. Soon gay young blades be- gan to take up the practice of sending valentines. When Rudy Valentine died a few months later on the lith of February of a swollen tonsil, a sorrow-laden peo- ple decided to commemorate the anniversary of his birth by a holiday. The masculine element, however, thought it would be better to celebrate the anniversary of his ‘ ing away. So even today February 14th is a holid: it is observed by the dispatching of a “valentine.” There is also the question of why young Valentine is of the Paramount—we have decided that it must be a mis- Convemnev Goure you mind if I took a tice swings? — Would | we prac- called saint. During his lifetime he was termed every- nomer. thing from a So-and-So to a vagabond loafer, but no one When interviewed in the dressing room of the Broad- liad ever gon tive rese: NH him a saint. After e catre, where she is appearing in a musical comedy, rch—researched everywhere, even in the lobby Miss Nomer declined to make any statement. “We were just good friends,” she said, her h es suf- fused with t —ARTUUR SILVERBLATT Perils of the Sea Whiskey will kill a man sooner or late ot drink- ing it but trying to smu gle it past the Coast Guard. And then there was the ‘alifornian who was so al that he went to Flor- when the doctor told him he had only six months to live. Shorter working periods might solve America’s un- employment problem, something like those of the French Cabinet. President Hoover must have had the Wickersham report read to him by “Eat your spinach now, dear, or you'll never grow up and be a big man like Papa.” Floyd Gibbons. 7 comicbooks.com