Re: GR translation: Electric Charlie’s in there now

[Monte Davis]

"In there": in control of General Electric, succeeding the presumably more
liberal Gerard Swope. Also implicitly in the circles of Washington power;
among the "ins," not the "outs." Marvy's tone is wised-up: "here's the
inside dope."

 Wikipedia: "[GE president Charles E.] Wilson served on the War Production
Board <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Production_Board> as its executive
vice-chairman in September 1942, supervising the huge American war
production effort... In 1944, after the end of the Second World War [!?!],
Wilson stated that America must keep her economy on a war footing to avoid
depressions such as the one of the 30's... He was nicknamed "Electric
Charlie" so as not to be confused with Charles Erwin Wilson
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Erwin_Wilson>, the U.S. Secretary of
Defense <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Secretary_of_Defense> under
President Dwight Eisenhower <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Eisenhower>
 and earlier the Chairman of the General Motors Corporation
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_Corporation>, who was
nicknamed "Engine Charlie".

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 7:54 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> V565.22-30    “Yes—” Tchitcherine breaks in: “what is General Electric
> doing out here, by the way?”
>         A friendly wink from Major Marvy. “Mister Swope was ace buddies
> with old FDR, you see. Electric Charlie’s in there now, but Swope, he was
> one-thim Brain Trusters. Jews, most of’m. But Swope’s O.K. Now GE has
> connections with Siemens over here, they worked on the V-2 guidance,
> remember—”
>        “Swope’s a Jew,” sez Chiclitz.
>        “Naahh—Bloody, yew don’ know whatcher talkin’ about—”
>
> Where is Electric Charlie in exactly?  Would that be the "Coffin"?
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150128/0fca75e2/attachment.html>