Rimkus notes: Take a look at the “Rejuvenated” (not “remodeled” or “under new management”) Garfield Diner in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Ambro had a delicious (we hope) breakfast here. I looked this admittedly cool-looking place up, and was beset by the hysterically bad internet reviews which kept popping up. My favorite was, “the flies were more hospitable than the staff”!
Ambro later visited this statue of Pottsville’s most famous citizen, author John O’Hara, who lived from January 31, 1905 to April 11, 1970. Writer Fran Lebowitz called him “the real F. Scott Fitzgerald.”
According to Wikipedia, “In 1934, O’Hara published his first novel, Appointment in Samarra, which was acclaimed on publication. This is the O’Hara novel that is most consistently praised by critics. Ernest Hemingway wrote: “If you want to read a book by a man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well, read Appointment in Samarra.”[5] On the other hand, critics of today, writing in the Atlantic Monthly of March 2000, are not as complimentary. Critic Benjamin Schwarz and writer Christina Schwarz claimed: “So widespread is the literary world’s scorn for John O’Hara that the inclusion … of Appointment in Samarra on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best [English-language] novels of the twentieth century was used to ridicule the entire project.” O’Hara followed Samarra with Butterfield 8 and several other novels. The epistolary Pal Joey (1940) led immediately to a successful Broadway musical, and subsequently to other productions.”
Ambro describes the following as “John O harassment. John O’Hara with baseball cap.”
Please visit Ambrotoons.com, the National Treasure Trove of John’s cartoons.
