Friday, February 8, 1946. Kim Il Sung's rise. Viola Faber, accused of murdering her stepson, gives birth.

Kim Il Sung was elected Chairman of the Interim People's Committee in the Soviet occupied portion of Korea.  Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a "popular front" government but Cho, to his credit, refused to support a Soviet-backed entity.  Red Army General Terentii Shtykov supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea, and therefore Kim was selected on this date.

He remained subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.

More strike problems on the front page of The Rocky Mountain News.

A person had to read deeper into the News to see the story on Viola Elliot. Page 5, where you need to go, is set out below.

She was accused of the beating death of her stepson, Robert.  She denied it, but she was convicted of second degree murder.  Her 8 year old son by a previous marriage was a witness for the prosecution at the trial and Mrs. Elliot admitted at the time of arrest that she had hit and kicked the child on the occasion of his death.  She later changed her story and claimed he'd tripped on his pajamas.

Her parents and husband said they'd stand by her at the time of her arrest, but I wonder if that was still the case later on.  At her sentencing, she stated that Leslie was just as responsible for the death and the judge agreed.  Leslie had already been arraigned for assault and battery and assessory after the fact.  In April she petitioned the County to make her children wards of the County, to which her husband objected.  They were noted to be "estranged" by that time.

Viola was 27 years old and on her second marriage at the time.  She would have had her first child, if her son who testified was the first at age 19 in 1937 or 1938.  The paper mentioned that there were three children, including the murdered boy.  Interestingly, I can find one other reference to a "Miss Viola Elliot" from 1937 indicating that Viola Elliot was employed as an arts and crafts teacher.  A 1943 edition mentions a Viola Elliott as being just back in town after visiting her husband in Tennessee, who was probably in the service.

Viola received 15 to 20 years for the murder.

Leslie would receive six months for assault and battery.

Her mother, Alice Faber, testified at the trial, as did her father.  Alice died in 1966 and is buried in Denver.  Her obituary listed Viola as still living, still with the last name Elliot, and in Denver.  The Fabers also had a son named Wilmer, who was alive at the time.  The boy who testified at the trial was living in California.

Her father died in 1961.

Arguments were occuring on the Bomb.

A resort was being planned near Fort Logan.

An impressive imposter story was reported.

Last edition:

Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Cheesecake, China Burma India Theater, Clothing, French Army, French Indochina, French Indochinese War, Harry S. Truman, Standards, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, The Cold War, The Press, Việt Minh, Vietnam

Wednesday, September 19, 1945. Kim Il Sung returns to Korea.

Kim Il Sung arrived at Port Wonsan and began to organize the Communist Party of Korea.

Kim was born into a Presbyterian family.  He fled to Manchuria in 1920 after being involved in anti Japanese activities.  He was in  his mid teens at the time and then attended military schools.  It was while he was in China that he became interested in Communism.  He was a figure in the Chinese Communist Army during the pre World War Two Chinese Civil War and then again during World War Two, crossing into the Soviet Union in 1940.  He then joined the Red Army. The Soviets chose Kim in order to have a Communist figure to introduce into Korea even though he was poorly educated and by 1940 his Korean was very poor.  His early life is not very well known.

Navy aircraft over Inchon, September 1945.

The US banned reporting on the atomic bombs in Japan.

British and French troops complete the suppression of the Việt Minh in Saigon.

New Zealand ratified the UN Charter.

William Joyce was sentenced to death.

The British announced that Indian would shortly be granted home rule.

Shirley temple married Sgt. John Agar, a fellow actor.  She was 17 years old. Agar was 25.

The marriage wouldn't last.

Agar had a real drinking problem, although he amazingly lived to age 81.  Apparently he's associated with B science fiction movies, but I always associate him with John Ford westerns.  He also appeared in The Sands of Iwo Jima.  He met Shirley Temple in 1943 when he escorted her to a Hollywood party.  She would only have been 15 years old at the time.

His second marriage lasted 49 years.

He had a remarkably long film career, although many of his roles were very minor.  In World War Two he served first in the Navy, joining in 1941 and then in the Army Air Force as a physical instructor.  He was discharged from the Navy due to an ear infection.

Shirley Temple in 1943.

Temple is a film legend, of course, but had trouble transitioning from being a child actress to adult film roles, even though the ones she appeared in showed her to be a very talented adult actress.  This would lead to an early retirement from film, something that was hastened by a negative reaction to being propositioned by MGM figure Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer on the same day, when she was only 12, leading to her returning to Fox from MGM without much success.  She later became the US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the Reagan Administration.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 18, 1945. The first desegregation student protest.

Labels: 1910s, 1940s, 1945, 1945 at the movies, actors and actresses, Chinese Civil War, Education, Henry L. Stimson, Indiana, Movies, Nationalist Chinese Army, People's Liberation Army, Racism, Roosevelt, Rust Belt, Taft