I tried reading 1917, but it was boring without the comics and tv listings.

Ok, so I’m trying this experiment. I am reading the Brooklyn Daily Eagle daily, on the exact date from the past. I chose 1917 so it would be exactly 100 years ago, but it was a bit boring, there were no comics or tv listings, so I randomly chose 1949. That seems like a good year, there are comics and my parents were around then, in Brooklyn and it was a good time for the country. We were out of World War II and it was just before the Koren War and it was just on the verge of the coming fabulous ’50s.

This is the top of the front page on Aug. 22, 1949.

I wanted to find a newspaper that carried Krazy Kat and more famous strips, but The Eagle is so easy to see and navigate on this platform so I’ll do that.

I got the idea from my Krazy Kat and The Gumps books that I purchased awhile back. I blogged about them here. They are one year in the life, you are supposed to read them o the same date each day, for instance Krazy Kat runs from January 1, 1934 to December 31, 1934 and The Gumps runs from May 1, 1928 to May 3, 1929. I read them all in a few sittings, as they are hard to not read daily. But I am going to do this with The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and for that period that I’m reading it, I’ll pretend that I am living in 1949, reading the daily newspaper.

Here’s a link to the site if you would like to check out the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper archive.

Part of the comics page on Aug. 22, 1949.