One on the House

Suds #3

by Mary Lasswell, George Price (Illustrator)

The third comic novel in the delightful World War II series featuring Mrs. Feeley, Miss Tinkham and Mrs. Rasmussen, grand beer drinkers one and all. Wonderful funny stuff with great illustrations by the terrific George Price. Best of all, none of these ladies will see sixty again, and who cares?

Genres: Fiction

263 pages, Hardcover

First published July 14, 1949

About the author

American author of humorous novels about life in Southern California, Texas, Mexico, and Newark, New Jersey under the name Mary Lasswell. She was born in Scotland to American parents and grew up in Brownsville, Texas.

Her first book, Suds in Your Eye (1942), published by Houghton Mifflin, was described as "a crazy, funny story" about three impoverished but high-spirited and beer-loving elderly women. It was adapted into a Broadway Play by Jack Kirkland in 1944.

Laswell followed with five other books about the same three women, Mrs. Feeley, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Miss Tinkham, plus their handyman, only known as "Old-Timer". These included High Time (1944), One on the House (1949), Wait for the Wagon (1951), Tooner Schooner (1953), and Let's Go for Broke (1962), all with illustrations by famed New Yorker artist George Price. Their home base for most of the series was called "Noah's Ark", and was a junkyard in San Diego, but the third and fourth books were set during travels. These books consistently featured certain themes: the main characters faced financial disaster, were usually forced to take innovative measures to ensure a homeplace, rescued other people with problems, and acted as matchmakers.

Lasswell was also an editorial writer for the Houston Chronicle in the 1960's.

She was married to Dr. Dudley Winn Smith, a surgeon.

She died at the Solvang Lutheran Home in Solvang, California of Alzheimer's disease.

Reviews

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2020 bk 343. After a visit to New York (Mrs. Feeley's nephew, wife, and child live there), the trio finds themselves in New Jersey (they spent their train fair on a going away present). Stopping at a bar to ask for directions, a job, and a beer, they find the owner stretched out on the floor, unconscious from appendicitis. After getting him to the hospital, they set themselves up to run the bar until he can get out of the hospital. Within a few days, the bar has gone from few customers to the party place in town. More fun times with the gang from "Noah's Ark".

[Jean Pilch · Rating 5 out of 5]

They Don't Make Them Like That Anymore!

I'm crying, shouting, and laughing on the same page. I read this book in the 60's and never remembered where I got so many if my lifelong sayings. These characters are God Bless America personified. I have carried them in my heart ball these years & truly believe they gave me my zest for life!

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a movie this would make!

[Lainie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This breezy, boozy 1949 novel is one of a series about three ladies who get into adventures that might best be called highjinks, a term we don't hear much anymore. They use their wits and resourcefulness to best any trouble, and come out smelling like roses. Roses that pretty much mainline beer.

Mary Lasswell provides a fun and funny story that is a snapshot of its time. I had to look up a few nearly-archaic words, and was lucky to understand most of her references to culture and current events in the '40s, but not all.

Recommended as a fast read that doesn't take itself seriously in the least.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Lasswell's comic novels featuring three middle-aged women: Mrs. Feely, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Miss Tinkham.

[Margaret Holsinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Further adventures of the ladies of the Ark (and Old Timer). They always come out smelling like roses!

[Cheryl]

If only I'd been able to read one of the earlier books first. This really presumes knowledge of who these ladies are, what makes them each individuals. Also I'd need more knowledge of the times, the culture, the infrastructure of society.

For example, apparently they've been in NYC for a few days (?) visiting one of the sons who is in the service and about to be moved to Alaska. Now, they're from San Diego. Is it because of the times, or something, that makes Alaska so impossibly remote that it makes sense for the ladies to visit NYC from across the continent, even though they have almost no money to do so. as if they may never see the young man again? Or are we supposed to be glad they had a chance to visit the City? Or are we supposed to laugh at them for being clueless about geography and transportation?

Honestly, I didn't even make it to p. 50 before deciding that I don't care. Give me Kimbrough or Benchley instead.