A witty allusion to H.V. Kaltenborn.

For reasons that need not be explained here, today's post titled "Out-olding the nouveau old" eventually gets around to the topic of what Holden Caulfield ate in "Catcher in Rye," and I quote him saying:

When I’m out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. It isn’t much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk. H. V. Caulfield. Holden Vitamin Caulfield.

This prompts commenter Rob to say — and I have no reason to doubt the truth of this:

I'm guessing there's damned few readers today of The Catcher in the Rye who pick up that in talking about "H.V. Caulfield" Salinger was making a witty allusion to H.V. Kaltenborn.

At the link, we learn of the radio commenter who was born in Milwaukee in 1878 and lived until 1965. Apparently, Kaltenborn could speak vividly and intelligently without a script for hours. I liked this anecdote about him and Dizzy Dean:

Exasperated by Dean mispronouncing his name — various sources say "Cattlinbomb," "Cottonborn," etc. — Kaltenborn decided to throw the pitcher a curve and asked him what he would do about Russia. Dean didn't miss a beat. He said, "I'd take some bats and balls and gloves and sneak them behind the Iron Curtain and teach them Rooshin kids how to play baseball. Why if Joe Stallion knowed how much money there was in concessions, he'd get out of politics and into an honest business."

Kaltenborn portrayed himself in 2 movies: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

On election night in 1948, Kaltenborn kept up his patter, projecting Dewey as the winner, setting up Harry Truman to enjoy himself imitating Kalterborn, which — praise YouTube — you can watch here:



Kaltenborn's response: "We can all be human with Truman. Beware of that man in power who has no sense of humor."