Burger's Notebook

      Although Valentine’s Day is associated with love and all of its wonderful experiences the day was forever tarnished on Valentine’s Day, 1929.  It was on that day that the history of crime in America changed forever, it was the day the citizens of Chicago awoke to the proposition they could either take their city back or lose it to the criminal element forever.  It was the day of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.

     Even today, 81 years later, no one was ever charged with the heinous crime that left seven men dead on the floor of a Chicago garage.  There was only one survivor, mechanic John May’s German Sheppard, “Highball”.

    The story leading up to this violent crime begins in 1919 with the arrival of one Alphonse Capone from New York.  Capone had worked for New York mobster Frankie Yale and had killed two men; the reason for his fleeing New York.  Al also picked up his “nickname” in New York when he insulted a young lady at Frankie’s club, and her brother cut his face with a knife.  He would be forever known as, “Scarface” but no one who wanted to see tomorrow ever referred to him by that moniker.

     Al went to work for Johnny Torrio, who in turn worked for “Big Jim” Colosimo, the head of Chicago’s underworld.  It didn’t take long for the ambitious Capone and Torrio to realize a two way split was better than three.  So “Big Jim” had to go, thus cementing control over the “Loop” and the south side of Chicago.

     The North side was firmly in the grip of Dion O’Banion’s, North Side gang.  An uneasy peace existed between the two mobs, but all parties concerned knew it was just a matter of time before the lid would blow off and a full scale power grab for Chicago would transpire.  All that was needed was a match for the powder keg and that match would come in the guise of prohibition.  The least of any of the gangster’s concerns was who or how many were killed.

     The trouble took a turn for the worse when O’Banion sold a brewery to Torrio for half a million dollars then notified police that Torrio had a brewery they may want to shut down.  Torrio was arrested and, to add insult to injury, O’Banion refused to return the half million dollars.  Finally with his patience gone Torrio ordered the death of “Deany” O’Banion.  He was shot in his flower shop by two Frankie Yale thugs in November of 1924 and with that murder the war was on.

     O’Banion’s remaining gang members, including George “Bugs” Moran wanted revenge and he was not the type of person to be denied, so one night when Torrio was returning home with his wife his car was machine gunned by Moran and Earl “Hymie” Weiss.  Torrio was hit several times and as he lay bleeding on the ground, Bugs walked over to finish the job but he ran out of ammunition, leaving Torrio hanging on to life.  Torrio managed to survive and as soon as he was well enough he left town moving to Italy and leaving Al in command.  One other interesting thing about Johnny Torrio; he was the man who suggested to Charles “Lucky” Luciano; crime families should be organized like a corporation, which is exactly what Charley “Lucky” did.

     However, in the meantime the Chicago gangs continued killing each other over the next five years.  Everyone in Chicago thought as long as the gangsters just killed each other, who would care?  That is exactly the attitude Capone used to put policemen, judges, city, and state officials, “on the pad” After all, Al could afford it.  In 1925 alone, He was making nearly one hundred million untaxed dollars.

     This then is the fuse that led to the powder keg known as the St. Valentine’s Day massacre in ’29. 

     The planning of the massacre is usually credited to “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn, the same thug who planned the O’Banion killing.  The plan was not only simple but good.  Use greed to lure Moran and his gang to the warehouse on Clark Street, station spotters to watch for the gang members to arrive, especially Moran, then kill them all.  Two killers would be dressed as Chicago policemen while two others would be wearing topcoats hiding two, “Chicago typewriters”; Thompson submachine guns.  The plan would be carried out on Valentine’s Day when Al was a thousand miles away at his home in Miami.  The killers would use two cars, one made to look like a police cruiser which would be used for the getaway.  After the killing the two “policemen” would act as if they had arrested the other two men and walk out as if nothing had ever happened.   

     On the morning of Feb. 14^th Moran’s men gathered at the SMC cartage warehouse.  They were allegedly there to unload a truckload of whiskey that had been hi-jacked from Capone.  Those present; Frank and Peter Gusenberg, who had tried to murder McGurn, Albert Kachellek, alias “James Clark”, Moran’s second in command, Adam Heyer, bookkeeper, Albert Weinshank, a manager of some of Moran’s dry-cleaning stores, Reinhart Schwimmer, an optician who gave up his business to be a gambler and John May, not a gang member but sometime mechanic for Moran.

     The last man in the garage was Weinshank, who unwittingly saved Moran’s life.  It was snowing, heavily and cold that morning in Chicago.  As the spotters watched Weinshank go in the garage they mistook him for Moran.  The two men not only dressed alot alike, but closely resembled each other.  With the poor visibility produced by the snow the hit was set in motion.

     The two police imposters entered from the back of the garage moved to the front taking the men by surprise.  They appeared to be policemen so the gangsters played along, lining up against the wall.  One of the imposters opened the front door letting the other two killers in. 

     It’s about this time that Moran, who was running late, begin to walk toward the building.  He noticed the police car out front, so instead of going in the building, he kept walking down N. Clark Street, if it is a bust why should he be arrested?  A lucky and wise decision for him.

     As the door on the garage closed the killers begin firing spraying bullets back and forth.  When the firing stopped, 150 .45 shell casings were on the floor along with two shotgun casings.  The “Policemen” then escorted the other two men out at gun point, closed the door and drove away.  The street was perfectly quiet… except for the mournful howl of a dog.  A landlady across the street asked two of her boarders to go and see what had happened.  The first man upon entering the building immediately came out, “as white as a sheet”; he simply said “they’re all dead”!  Not quite.  Frank Gusenberg was still alive but barely.  When asked who had shot him he simply said, “I’m not gonna talk”.  He died three hours later in a Chicago hospital.

     Moran managed to hold on to his territory and Capone, alibi in tact, returned to Chicago. During the shooting, he had been talking to the Dade Co. D.A. he had the perfect alibi.  But the days of the shootouts and outlaws running wild were waning.  The massacre brought the heat of Chicago and the Federal government down on Capone.  The Sullivan Act of 1927 stated; proceeds from illegal endeavors were subject to Federal income tax.  Big Al had never filled a tax return much less paid any taxes.  In 1931 he was found guilty of tax evasion and sent to Federal prison in Atlanta and later transferred to Alcatraz to serve his eleven year sentence.  He had ruled Chicago for almost ten years, made millions of dollars and will forever be the best known mobster in American history. But after his release from prison, he was less than nothing.  He died at his Florida home in 1947 the victim of his own excesses, a social disease.

In case you didn’t know, here are a couple of things you may not have known about Valentine’s Day.

   

Most guys send roses to their special lady at least this one time of the year and most of you go into a florist or on line and say, “send her a dozen roses,” or something to that effect.  Okay, if you really want to knock her off her feet and make her think you are a lot smarter than you  really are read on.

 

1. How many roses should you send?  It’s not the number but the sentiment behind the number.  If you send 10 roses that means, “you are perfect.”  11 roses signifies; “there is no rose or flower as lovely as her.”  And 12 roses means, “be mine.”  Now if you want to use that poker term, “go all in” and send 24 roses.  That means, “forever yours”.

 

     Here are some Valentine quotes you can try out on him or her…

 

     1.  Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies    Aristotle

     

1. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving

While loving someone deeply gives you courage    Lao Tzu

     

1. How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

1. Age does not protect you from love.  But love, to some extent, protects you

From age.  Anais Nin

 

1. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even

Touched.  They must be felt with the heart.

 

      6.  Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place   Zora Neale Hurston

 

1. Love is like quicksilver in the hand.  Leave the fingers open and it stays. 

Clutch it, and it darts away.  Dorothy Parker

 

 

     And know, sweets for the sweet.

 

     1,241  The number of location that produce chocolate and cocoa

               Products in the U.S.  California has 136

 

515   Locations producing non-chocolate confections.

 

     3,467  The number of confectionery and nut stores in the U.S.

 

25.7    The number of pounds of candy each American consumes

Each year.   

   

Well, here goes a, “labor of love” after all, we are nearing Valentines Day!

    

The history of the celebration goes back to the Romans and their Emperor Claudius, also known as Claudius the Cruel.  There was a lot of that going on around that time during the heyday of the Empire.  It seems Claudius was always fighting a war or about to fight a war and the good citizens were becoming just a little tired of it… not to mention Claudius was doing nothing for the longevity of the male population of Rome.  

 

Since Claudius was facing a serious recruiting problem for his legions; men weren’t dying to enlist.  He decided there must be a reason for this lack of willingness to sacrifice oneself for the Emperor and since it couldn’t be him or his policies it must be… WOMEN, or to be more specific, marriage.  These men just didn’t want to leave their loves behind!  Let me see, home with your true love or getting killed!  Seems like a no brainer to me.  Well, Claudius the Cruel decided to put an end to marriage; so being Emperor he just declared the institution, ILLEGAL!

    

Enter Valentine, a priest in the temple and it seems a much respected man of the cloth.  Valentine decided he had just about had enough of Claudius and his schemes so along with his friend Marius began secretly marrying Christian couples, not the wisest thing one could do for ones own health. 

 

Of course such a good deed would spread like wildfire not only to couples wanting to enter into matrimony but also into Claudius’s ear.  As you might guess he was quite put out by Valentine’s actions and immediately called for the priest’s arrest.   It didn’t take long for Claudius’s soldiers to track down Valentine, as a matter of fact, he had just married another couple; they escaped, he did not.  Dragged in front of the Prefect of Rome he was immediately convicted and sentenced to be beaten to death with clubs and if that wasn’t enough he was to then be beheaded! 

 

As the legend goes, the jailer’s daughter befriended Valentine during his time in prison and just before he was dragged out to have the sentence carried out he wrote her a last farewell, and signed it, “from your Valentine.”

    

Valentine became a martyr of the church for defying Claudius and in 469 Pope Gelasius set aside February 14^th as St. Valentines Day.

    

Actually there was a method to the Pope’s madness as the saying goes  because the church was trying to stamp out the Pagan holidays that Rome had celebrated for centuries and Feb 14^th had been set aside to honor, “Juno” the Queen of all Roman gods and goddesses.  And, as luck would have it, Juno was also the goddess of women and marriage.  Now this is where coincidence really plays a role.  February 15^th started the festival of Lupercalia.  During the year young boys and girls were kept strictly separate, but during the festival girls were encouraged to write their name on a piece of paper and put it in a bowl.  The young men would pick out a name and spend the rest of the festival with the girl he had selected; kind of a long date.  Interestingly many of the couples stayed together for a year and were finally married.  Now didn’t all those circumstances come together nicely?

    

Over the years many traditions have been linked to St. Valentines Day.  For instance, in Wales wooden “love spoons” were carved and given as gifts.  Hearts, keys and keyholes were the most popular designs which meant; “you unlock my heart”.

    

Another tradition in the middle ages is responsible for a well known saying we use today.  Young men and women would draw names to find out who their Valentine would be for the holiday.  After they drew the name they would pin it on their sleeve and of course from that we get, “wearing ones heart on their sleeve”.

    

Be careful of this one ladies; in some countries it is okay to except gifts of clothing from men but… isn’t there always a “but”… if you except the gift it means you will marry that man!

    

You might say this tradition is, “for the birds”.  At one time it was believed if a women saw a Robin fly overhead on Valentines Day she would marry a sailor… don’t ask me I can’t figure that one either.  If she saw a sparrow she would marry a poor man but be happy, and if she saw a goldfinch… well you can figure that one out; but ladies beware.  If you spot a woodpecker, marriage is not your cup of tea.

    

Most of us are familiar with the, “love seat”.  But did you know it was originally designed for ladies and their very wide dresses?  It wasn’t until years later that the S shaped seat was used to get couples together, but not to close together.

    

Speaking of birds; the custom of going on a date with your love started in England.  It was believed Feb. 14^th was the day birds selected their mates for the year and was referred to as, “the birds wedding day,” Take that Tippy Hedron. And, oh yes, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Far out in the high desert of west Texas there is a town that owes its name to a Russian author, its existence to an American author, some hardy cattlemen, and its tourist trade to phenomena that Apaches have told stories about long before any settlers moved there.  This is the story of Marfa.

    

The town was established as a water stop for the old Texas and New Orleans Railroad in 1881.   ccording to legend, it was the wife of one of the railroad executives that picked the name, “Marfa” from a novel she was reading, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoyevsky.  Because of some peculiarities in the Russian language the “f” sound is as close to the “th” sound we are familiar with in English so “Marfa” is really Russian for “Martha”.   According to Barry Popik, “Marfa” is named after “Marfa Strogoff” a character from Jules Verne’s novel, “Michael Strogoff”.  Whichever story you chose to believe, both make great conversation when swapping tales with your friends..

 

Over the years, movies have also played an important roll in Marfa’s history, including Edna Ferber’s “Giant”.  What movie buff will ever forget Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Mercedes McCambridge, Chill Wills, Dennis Hopper and James Dean in the Jet Rink.  Giant was Dean’s last film before his death in a car crash.  He starred in only three films in his career but remains one of films most admired legends.

    

Director George Stevens did not run a closed set while filming the “Riata” scenes near Marfa, instead he encouraged locals to stop by, play extras, chat with the stars and help out with the dialect coaching.  By the way, the skeleton of the Riata ranch house still stands nearby.

    

The Coen Brothers used Marfa for “No country for Old Men” and Paul Thomas Anderson used the town for “There Will Be Blood”.

    

The town has also played a roll in the military history of the U.S. with Fort D.A. Russell.  During the Mexican Revolution it housed a cavalry regiment which was replaced with a motorized division.  It also served as a pilot training base in WW II and was finally closed after the war.

    

Finally, and probably the most famous part of Marfa history… the Marfa Lights.  Today there one thing sure about the lights… no one knows for sure what causes them.  The lights were first noted around 1840 by teamsters traveling the Chihuahua Trail from Ojinaga, Mexico to Indianola on the Texas Gulf coast.  Then in the early 1880s Robert Ellison was driving his herd of cattle near Mitchell Flats on the way to his ranch.   

 

One night after the cowboys had settled down for the evening someone spotted what appeared to be lights floating on the horizon a few miles away.  Their first thought… Apaches; they quickly doused their fires and shivered under their blankets for the rest of the night not getting much sleep, wondering if the Indians would attack.  The next morning the men searched for any signs of people; camp fires, anything, that would explain what they had seen, but there was nothing.  So being of a superstitious nature under the best of conditions, the cowboys began referring to the lights as, “ghost lights”. 

 

Over the years a number of explanations have been put forth to explain the lights, but so far no explanation is solid enough to encompass all of the movements the lights do so to this day people flock to Marfa to try and uncover the secret.  Theories range from, “atmospheric Tunneling” to Bunnies running through phosphorescent minerals then glowing as they run across the desert.  Are you the curious kind?  Maybe some night you would like to try your hand at explaining the Marfa Lights.

Tired of the rain, cold, etc yet? According to the latest information concerning El Nino, we will have to deal with this pattern a while longer.

Since August of last year the, “OLR” or outgoing long-wave radiation has been consistent with an El Nino event. It shows less convection around 120 degrees west and an increase in convection near 180w or the international dateline. At this time most of the models indicate El Nino is near to or at it’s peak but; about half the models indicate El Nino will last into April, May and June.

Between May of ’09 and Dec. of ’09 the “ONI” or Oceanic Nino Index has shown a warming trend; from +.6 degrees Centigrade to +1.5 degrees. A positive ONI equal to or greater than +.5 degrees indicates an El Nino event.

Another clue to El Nino is the anti-cyclonic circulation or, ”High” positioned over the Central Pacific. This generates the pattern we have seen with storms recently as the Asian jetstream carries a line of storms across the Pacific into the west coast of the U.S.

Here is a website you can check out. Look at the 500mb loop or, “all” to see the storms lined up to Japan. You can also look at the 250mb charts to see the circulation I referred to above. http://ggweather.com/loops/ncep_loops.htm

Over the years many storms have qualified as “historical” storms.  Storms so great in magnitude, they have been written about and will be referred to for years to come.

Three such storms that are referred to as one, struck the Great Lakes and the Northeast in Jan.-Feb. of 1978 and will forever be remembered as, “The Blizzard of ‘78.”

The original forecast sounded harmless enough Wednesday evening; “Rain possibly mixed with snow, windy and cold Thursday with snow flurries.”  What Ohioans awakened to was a howling banshee from the north that slammed into Ohio with ice, snow bitter cold wind chills and eventually death for 70 people.  The Blizzard of “78 was beginning with the force of a sledgehammer.

The storm is also referred to as the, “Storm of the Century, a storm no one will forget for years to come.  This begs the question; how could this have happened with no notice?  First, weather is a fickle thing, able to change at the whim of nature and able to do it in the blink of an eye.  Here is a thumbnail sketch of what happened.  Forecasters knew there was a Low pressure area over North Dakota and they knew there was A Low churning in the Gulf of Mexico, which could be seen in satellite photos now despite earlier tracks that these lows would not come together that is exactly what happened.  The Low in the Gulf acted as a pump to pull moisture rapidly north while the North Dakota Low was the engine that pulled cold Arctic air south.  As the two systems began coming together the barometric pressure started dropping as would be expected it just didn’t stop dropping creating a phenomena called, “Bombogenisis”.  This occurs when the barometric falls rapidly.  One point of reference is a pressure fall of 24 millibars in 24 hours.  This type of storm development occurs when warm moist air is pulled into a Low pressure system and hits very cold dry air.  This causes rapid lift and an intense pressure gradient which produces very strong wind.  As an example the barometric pressure at the Akron-Canton fell to 28.33” at 3.47 am, the lowest pressure ever recorded at that local.  The pressure fell so far and so fast a new graph had to replace the old one on the barograph and the equipment had to be recalibrated.  The temperature fell 21 degrees, from 34 to 13 and just two hours later the temperature had fallen to zero and the windchill was a -60 degrees.  Roofs were ripped from houses, trees toppled and windows exploded, thousands lost their power, heat and phone service.  Sustained wind speeds hovered between 35 and 40 mph for fifteen hours with a peak gust of 76 mph recorded.  To make matters even worse, a foot of new snow fell on the 16” already on the ground, add that to the wind and drifts 25 feet high buried cars.

Cleveland also had a major fight on its hands just to survive. This event may be the only time the National Weather Service has issued a, “Severe Blizzard Warning”  In order for that warning to be issued the sustained wind speed must be between 45 and 60 mph, a great density of falling or blowing snow and a temperature of 10 degrees or less.  Indeed, the lowest central pressure ever recorded in the U.S. outside of tropical storms was recorded at Cleveland during the storm.  28.28” and the pressure fell even further across the lake in Canada.  An ore carrier stranded in the ice of Sandusky Ohio recorded a sustained wind of 86 mph with a gust of 111 mph.

The third part of the storm hit the Northeastern coast of the U.S. in February with 1 to 3 feet of snow.  Fifty-four people lost their lives, two thousand homes were destroyed and the storm damage total came to more than a billion dollars.

As we are all aware, Texas is famous for great tales, some true and some far from it… this story really happened.  It concerns one of the founders of a mail delivery service, a Civil War blockade runner, an act of nature and some supposed bad spelling, not to mention a well known Texas city.  Now that I have hopefully tweaked your interest, read on.
    
For some unknown and long forgotten reason history has forgotten Benjamin Franklin Ficklin; it shouldn’t have.  Ficklin was born in Virginia in 1827, the son of a well healed property owner and magistrate who also owned a dry goods store in Charlottesville Virginia.  His brother Slaughter was part owner of a stagecoach company which also held a contract for mail delivery.  In 1844 Ben entered the Virginia Military Institute but his low marks and pranks seemed to keep him constantly in hot water.  One such prank included painting the superintendent’s horse with Zebra strips while another included a cannon and a lot of broken glass.  Ficklin was sent packing with an invitation not to return; but return he did.  In 1849 he reapplied saying he had fought in the Mexican War and in his words, “had been left for dead on the field of battle”.  True or not, no one knows but he did succeed in graduating a less than stellar 4th… from the bottom of his class.
    
By the 1850s Ben had headed west and was working for the Russell, Majors & Waddell freight line as a route agent.  He made the acquaintance of Indians along his routes, became a shrewd trader, and had no problem mixing with the military units serving on the plains.  Then in 1857 a conflict between the Mormons of Utah and the Army came to a head in what is known as the Mormon War, a direct result of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which is quite a tale in itself.   Seeking excitement and adventure, Ficklin signed on as a courier and scout for the Army expedition and it didn’t take long to find all the excitement he could handle.  He was charged with finding forage and food for the Army troops and their mounts during the dead of winter; which he did, braving terrible cold and many a belligerent member of the Latter-day Saints. 
    
In 1860 Ficklin worked as a route superintendent for the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company.  It is during his tenure with this company many experts on the old west say; Ficklin hatched his mail delivery service idea… The Pony Express.  William Gwin, who represented California in the U.S. Senate 1850-55 and ’57-’61 wrote, “ Ben Ficklin is the man who originated The Pony Express and carried it into operation.”  The “Express” ran from St. Joe Missouri to Sacramento California; 1966 miles through mountains, desert and hostile Indian territory.  The Pony Express lasted 18 months, only as long as it took to string telegraph wires across the continent but Ben Ficklin had other things to do, he was headed back to Virginia in just three months.
    
In May of 1861 Ben Ficklin became a major in the Confederate States Army and was appointed quartermaster general for Virginia’s provisional army but by July he was in the field taking part in the failed assault on Malvern Hill near Richmond.  Ben was credited with saving a cannon which had been abandoned by its crew and cannon were a precious commodity in the south.  Unfortunately for Ben the axiom of Army life was as true then as it is know… “days of sheer boredom followed by moments of stark terror.”  Once again while Ben was hunting excitement he discovered a more dangerous profession; blockade running.  If you could slip by the U.S. Navy there was money to be made in the south, and lots of it; evidently he did well because in 1864 he purchased Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello and 600 surrounding acres from the Confederacy for the handsome sum of $80,500.  Ficklin may never have had a chance to stay at the plantation since he took possession of the deed just three weeks before Lee surrendered. 

After the war, the U.S. government returned all lands seized and sold by the confederacy to its old northern owners and Ficklin was out the $80,500.
 
Ficklin returned to Washington on the 16th of April, just two days after Lincoln was assassinated.  He was promptly arrested, being suspected of being one of the conspirators.  A telegraph operator informed police he gave, “the appearance of a refined pirate.” Luckier than others, he was finally released from prison two months later.
    
Ficklin returned to Arkansas where he once again entered the mail business building a route from Ft. Smith to California.  It was during this time he bought 640 acres around a spring that supplied Ft. Concho in West Texas with the intent of building a town.   The Ft. had a reputation of being about the toughest place anywhere.  How tough was it?  So tough it was said the officers stayed in there quarters playing board games at night rather than risk a run in with the enlisted men!  For this reason the townsfolk decided to build their town five miles from the fort.  At the time it was common knowledge, drunks had trouble staggering more than three miles… evidently they built in a couple of miles as a safety margin.  The town actually flourished, then tragedy struck; while in Washington D.C., Benjamin Franklin Ficklin chocked on a fishbone at dinner and died.
    
Ben had willed his interests to his close friend F.C. Taylor, who promptly moved the stagecoach stop a mile away and applied for a post office,.  The name of the town it served would be “Ben Ficklin” in honor of his friend.  A short time later the post office was granted, Taylor became the first postmaster and in 1875 the town became the county seat and as the old saying goes; alls well that ends well right?  Wrong.  You see across from the afore mentioned Fort Concho existed the town of San Angela.  The citizens of San Angela made no bones about it; no pun intended, they wanted to be the county seat and before you could say, “Ben Ficklin”, the feud was on!  Then in 1882 mother nature stepped in to settle the matter once and for all.  After a rare wet summer in West Texas, the creeks and rivers flooded and one night while the town of Ben Ficklin slept, flood waters swept it away along with 65 citizens.
    
With Ben Ficklin little more than a memory San Angela immediately applied for a post office.
     
Officials in Washington were amazed at the bad spelling from these Texas cowboys; after all how could they know the town was named after Carolina Angela, wife of B.J. DeWitt, a big land developer.  Postal officials told the town they would accept either the name, Santa Angela or San Angelo, but not San Angela!  So now you know how San Angelo came into existence, all thanks to a man who started a mail delivery service, a confederate blockade runner, a freak of nature and what was thought to be a misspelling

It’s once again time to dispel an old myth. This one came up in a conversation with a friend of mine recently, and after telling the tale I began thinking about a couple of things that didn’t quite add up, so I began doing some research to see if I could find the truth... I did.

The point in question... was Humphrey Bogart the likeness used on Gerber baby food jars since 1928? The answer... no; but what a great story. The truth was Bogart’s mother, Maude, was a commercial illustrator and drew hundreds of magazine covers, greeting cards etc; and she did use her son’s likeness for the Mellin’s Baby Food Company. Bogie once said, “There was a time in American history when you couldn’t pick up a G_D_ magazine without seeing my kisser in it”!

The baby’s image that was used for the Gerber baby was that of Ann Turner Cook. She was the daughter of cartoonist Leslie Turner of Westport Connecticut. Ann was the subject of a charcoal sketch by Dorothy Hope Smith when Ann was about four months old. When Gerber put out a call for pictures in 1927, Smith submitted her charcoal sketch of Miss Turner, the sketch was selected and Ann Turner began appearing on the baby food jars in 1928. The picture became the company’s trade mark in 1931 and has appeared on every jar and advertisement for the past 79 years.

The name of the baby and even the sex of the baby were the subject of a great deal of controversy over the years, so in order to set the record straight in 1951, Gerber paid Turner Cook a one-time cash settlement of $5,000. Neither she nor the artist were ever paid royalties for their work or image. Imagine what those royalties could have amounted too.

Turner Cook would go on to raise four children of her own and teach literature and writing in the Tampa, Florida school system for twenty-six years. And now you know the truth about the Gerber baby food baby.