New fonts, old movies and a shitload of loose change.

In case you’re wondering where the hell I’ve been for the last two days, the answer is RIGHT HERE, DOING NOTHING. Actually, yesterday I slept a lot and watched a bunch of really good movies (details follow) and today I’ve mostly been rolling Sam’s collection of loose change and trying to get rid of a headache. For your possible interest our total haul today was $287, which included the contents of two Folger’s coffee cans and a little metal tray where Sam throws his car keys at night.

The coin tubes pictured above were a brilliant purchase from Amazon back in 2011 to help us roll and wrap more than $2,000 in coins in that Sam had saved in a five-gallon Sparkletts jar. We even ran a contest WITH MANY VALUABLE PRIZES in the Howdygram to guess the grand total [see previous post], won by Sam’s cousin Hailey.

I’ve been enjoying all the shocking pre-Code movies this month on TCM. Yesterday I watched two of the best: She Had to Say Yes (1933) starring Loretta Young and Lyle Talbot; and Skyscraper Souls (1932) starring Warren William and Maureen O’Sullivan.

Of the two, She Had to Say Yes was the bigger jaw-dropper and a raw exposé of how badly women were subjugated during the Depression. Stenographers at a dress manufacturer’s main office are recruited as virginal “customer girls” to entertain out-of-town buyers who are sick of the usual floozies. Sure enough, when adorable Loretta Young tries it out — so her sleazy fiancée, played by Regis Toomey, can earn a sales commission — she’s attacked and pawed by a drunk and hulking Lyle Talbot. Talbot terrifies her and stalks her relentlessly for a couple of weeks until she finally gives in and starts dating him, and then after a simple misunderstanding he drives the poor girl to a vacant house to RAPE her. Loretta faints, Lyle relents and offers a highly creepy “apology,” and in the very next scene LORETTA AGREES TO MARRY HIM due to not having any “better prospects.” This was a major holy shit moment that actually made my skin crawl.

As for Skyscraper Souls, Warren William is David Dwight, an astute, lecherous and dastardly financier who builds a 100-story monument to himself but doesn’t have the $30 million to pay for it. The plot basically uncovers how he gets the dough and what happens to the victims who fall into his trap. Maureen O’Sullivan is a cutie who can’t decide between a life of luxury as Dwight’s mistress or marrying an obnoxious but honest bank clerk played by Norman Foster. Basically, Skyscraper Souls is Grand Hotel set in an office building. Others in the cast include Anita Page as a tramp, Verree Teasdale as Dwight’s long-suffering secretary/office fling who knows where all the bodies are buried and Hedda Hopper as Dwight’s detached wife.

It’s really late (8:30) and time to eat dinner IMMEDIATELY or risk a major episode of hypoglycemia, but first here are a few terrific new fonts that I downloaded a couple of days ago.

Thank you for reading this.