{"id":1532,"date":"2015-05-21T02:55:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T02:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2015-05-21T02:55:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T02:55:22","slug":"dawn-ohara-the-girl-who-laughed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/?p=1532","title":{"rendered":"Dawn O’Hara – The Girl Who Laughed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dawn\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am in the middle of reading this fun book by Edna Ferber, Dawn O’Hara – The Girl Who Laughed. It was Ms. Ferber’s first book written in 1911 when she was working as a newspaper reporter in Milwaukee. Much of the book takes place in the Milwaukee of the time and probably was based on many of her experiences. The title character was also a newspaper reporter and the story follows her as she tries to keep her sanity through her many adventures. It gives a unique but accurate view of the city at the time:<\/p>\n

There is a fascination about the bright little city. There is about it
\nsomething quaint and foreign, as though a cross-section of the old world
\nhad been dumped bodily into the lap of Wisconsin. It does not seem at
\nall strange to hear German spoken everywhere–in the streets, in the
\nshops, in the theaters, in the street cars. One day I chanced upon a
\nsign hung above the doorway of a little German bakery over on the north
\nside. There were Hornchen and Kaffeekuchen in the windows, and a brood
\nof flaxen-haired and sticky children in the back of the shop. I stopped,
\nopen-mouthed, to stare at the worn sign tacked over the door.<\/p>\n

“Hier wird Englisch gesprochen,” it announced.<\/p>\n

I blinked. Then I read it again. I shut my eyes, and opened them again
\nsuddenly. The fat German letters spoke their message as before–“English
\nspoken here.”<\/p>\n

On reaching the office I told Norberg, the city editor, about my
\nfind. He was not impressed. Norberg never is impressed. He is the most
\nsoul-satisfying and theatrical city editor that I have ever met. He
\nis fat, and unbelievably nimble, and keen-eyed, and untiring. He says,
\n“Hell!” when things go wrong; he smokes innumerable cigarettes, inhaling
\nthe fumes and sending out the thin wraith of smoke with little explosive
\nsounds between tongue and lips; he wears blue shirts, and no collar to
\nspeak of, and his trousers are kept in place only by a miracle and an
\ninefficient looking leather belt.<\/p>\n

When he refused to see the story in the little German bakery sign I
\nbegan to argue.<\/p>\n

“But man alive, this is America! I think I know a story when I see it.
\nSuppose you were traveling in Germany, and should come across a sign
\nover a shop, saying: ‘Hier wird Deutsch gesprochen.’ Wouldn’t you think
\nyou were dreaming?”<\/p>\n

Norberg waved an explanatory hand. “This isn’t America. This is
\nMilwaukee. After you’ve lived here a year or so you’ll understand what
\nI mean. If we should run a story of that sign, with a two-column cut,
\nMilwaukee wouldn’t even see the joke.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a fun book by a very talented writer and because it is now in the public domain, can be downloaded for free in many formats<\/a> on Project Gutenburg including spoken audio files<\/a>. I highly recommend anyone interested in reading home grown fiction to download this. Ms. Ferber eventually wrote many popular books, some which became famous films in their own rights such as Show Boat, Cimarron, and Giant which starred three immortal film stars; Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.<\/p>\n

\"Ferber\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am in the middle of reading this fun book by Edna Ferber, Dawn O’Hara – The Girl Who Laughed. It was Ms. Ferber’s first book written in 1911 when she was working as a newspaper reporter in Milwaukee. Much of the book takes place in the Milwaukee of the time and probably was based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[219,220],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-old-days","tag-edna-ferber","tag-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1537,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldmilwaukee.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}