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Oberleutnant Franz Baron von Werra, a German Luftwaffe ace, came to New York City in 1941, and was treated like a visiting celebrity. He had been shot down over England, made a few nearly successful escape attempts there, and was being shipped to a POW camp in Canada when he jumped out the window of a moving train and crossed the border into the still neutral US. He would escape from the US as well... An excerpt from my book "Victory City."

#victorycity #worldwarII #luftwaffe #vonwerra #canada #raf #johnstrausbaugh

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When Frank Sinatra performed his first live show at the Times Square Paramount Theatre in December 1942, the packed house, estimated at 5,000 girls (in a space with an official capacity of 3,500), exploded in deafening shrieks and screams. Sinatra and his bandleader Benny Goodman were shocked and petrified. The girls drowned out the entire concert. Many wept, and several fainted. The cacophony and pandemonium were as great as at any Elvis or Beatles concert in later years... An excerpt from my book "Victory City."

#franksinatra #bobbysox #worldwar2 #elvis #beatles

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Robert Downey, Jr., delivered his first spoken line in a feature-length motion picture at the age of five. He played a puppy in a film called Pound, written and directed by his dad, whose other prodigiously weird films include the scathing satire Putney Swope and the psychedelic Western Greaser’s Palace… Excerpted from my book, The Village.

#robertdowney #putneyswope #greaser’spalace #undergroundfilm #hollywood #johnstrausbaugh