ST Pre-Code Dinah

[Robin Landseadel]

111/112 ST Pre-Code Dinah
 
Another song reference, essentially buried in the text, there’s
a wonderful performance of the song featuring Louis Armstrong
and his band filmed live in Denmark, 1933.
 
Hicks has just barely missed being blown to smithereens and wants
to know, as a P. I. should, what the source of that bomb is and don’t
tell me it’s Santa Claus ‘cause everybody knows there ain’t no such
thing as a sanity clause.

". . . Michele “Kelly” Stecchino, an old-time Third Ward hardhead
dating back to the Vito Guardalabene era, turned anarchist in
his retirement years and highly regarded locally as a bombsmith . . ."

Hmmm. . . anarchist bombs, where have I heard that one before?

" . . . The first known Mafia boss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_boss of Milwaukee was Vito Guardalabene,
who immigrated to the United States from Santa Flavia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Flavia, Sicily in 1903
and became naturalized U.S. citizen in 1911.[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_crime_family#cite_note-Hunt-9 Guardalabene was
mentioned in the memoirs of Nicola Gentile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Gentile as being "the king" of the 
Little Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Italy community in Milwaukee's Third Ward circa 1915.[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_crime_family#cite_note-Gentile-10 The
syndicate headed by Guardalabene possibly originated as a branch
of the Chicago Outfit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Outfit.[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_crime_family#cite_note-Ambler,_Milwaukee-6 Upon Guardalabene's death from natural
causes on February 6, 1921, his son Giovanni Battista "Peter"
Guardalabene became boss of the Milwaukee crime family until 1924,
when he turned over control of the family to a distant relative, Giuseppe
"Big Joe" D'Amato.[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_crime_family#cite_note-Hunt-9 D'Amato died from pneumonia at the age of 41,
on March 28, 1927.[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_crime_family#cite_note-Hunt-9. . . "
 
Milwaukee crime family - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_crime_family
 
This one-time mobster is cooking up “soup”, got himself some dynamite
sticks, breaks them into little pieces, places them in boiling water,
skimming off the nitroglycerin, while singing “treb-bi, la zup-pa” to the tune
of “Vesti la giubba”.
 
". . . Hicks contributes a few contrapuntal bars of “Dinah, is
there anything finer” . . . "

. . . which is a very low-level mondegreen. The original is “Dinah, is there
anyone finer”.  

" . . . "Dinah" is a popular song published in 1925 and introduced
by Ethel Waters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Waters at the Plantation Club on Broadway. It was
integrated into the show Kid Boots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Boots.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_(song)#cite_note-1 The music was written
by Harry Akst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Akst and the lyrics by Sam M. Lewis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_M._Lewis and Joe Young https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Young_(lyricist).
Hit versions in 1926 were by Ethel Waters, The Revelers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revelers, 
Red Pepper Sam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%22Billy%22_Costello, Cliff Edwards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Edwards, and Fletcher Henderson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_Henderson.[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_(song)#cite_note-2
One singer, Fanny Rose Shore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_Shore, became so identified with
the song that DJ Martin Block https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Block called her "Dinah Shore", which
then stuck as her stage name for the next 50 years.[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_(song)#cite_note-songbird-3
 
Louis Armstrong  recorded the song in New York City on
May 4, 1930,[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_(song)#cite_note-standards-4 it was released by Okeh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okeh_Records. "Dinah" became
a frequent number in Armstrong's live performances and
radio broadcasts after the making of this recording.” . . ."

Dinah (song) - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_(song)
 
Louis Armstrong and his band live in Denmark, 1933:
 
https://youtu.be/ceba63s58s4?si=rd25G9FItajMX6uK