Kane Speaks! Thanks Galaxy_500

Checking out Galaxie 500’s WordPress site on Lawrence Kane a few days back I discovered a (new?) posting. Recordings of a record-and-send disc (I’m guessing these were popular at the time with a war on) sent as he was travelling to get back to his Naval Reserve training in Chicago.

Note the pair of stamps on the envelope below, a Zodiac trademark.

He’s an inebriated 19 year old who thinks a great deal of himself. He’s been an MC on the Poconos resorts entertainment trail for a couple of years since dropping out of HS. Likely how he met Eileen Barton, the young singer/entertainer to whom he addresses the recording. Both are the same age, NY’ers, Jewish- from his gushing it sounds like she was, maybe, the love of his life- but of course he was a terrible philanderer. Later in life he would use the name Barton as an alias, possibly as a way of memorializing her. They were eventually married in July of 1945.

Galaxy_500 shows the envelopes together with the 2 discs, and a transcript which appears to have been included and appears to be in his own handwriting. (Showing some of the material here). In the record/text he talks about his Sagittarian love (Eileen- Nov 18, 1924). So at 19 he already has an interest in astrology. Not only that but he mentions the ‘Zodiac’… as a character, a thing  (the horoscope wheel), or the menace in disguise from the film ‘Charlie Chan at Paradise Island’ (1939)? Note the mention of ‘5 graves’. Is this the blueprint for a lifetime of chaos?

Eileen, a rising talent, was already under the watchful eye of Frank Sinatra in ’43 and Kane here drops his name at one point. I’m sure they must have met but I haven’t yet confirmed it. Eileen worked with Sinatra directly from ’45 on, performing on his radio show.

Kane gets so homesick for his mom by June of ’43 he’s diagnosed with neurosis and discharged (honorably) a couple months later. Might it not have also had something to do with his hot girlfriend as well?

For anyone interested in Larry Kane as a suspect- the above material is a must hear/must see.