I doubt you will be able to help but here goes.
Fifty years ago when I was a young boy of 11 o12 yrs. I frequented the
public library in East Boston, Mass. USA.
I remember quite vividly reading a children's book That had a blue
cover about a half inch thick and approximately 5"x8" in size.
The title of the book was "Elza Poppins" or "Helza Poppins". It was a
story about a magical nanny with an umbrella, much like the famous
Mary Poppins.
Through the years I have made mention of this story to a number of
friends some of which  are still laughing.
I would dearly like to find proof of this books existence.
My last effort was to call and talk to the lady that was head
librarian in East Boston in the 40s. She happened to be in charge of
the Library of Congress at the time. She couldn't remember the book
but told me that all of the old books are stored in the E.B. library
upstairs.
Can you help?

---

Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 03 Apr 2005 10:31 PDT

Dear bc1934,

I think I found the well-hidden trace, but I can't offer a full answer
(you will notice that I did not post this as an answer since I do not
know if the information is satisfying), only a first step for your
further research.

I found out that "Elza Poppin" was the title of a comic strip (created
by Olson and Johnson, drawn by George Swanson) that appeared in the
"Boston Globe" from 1939 to 1944. Unfortunately, I did not find
descriptions of the strip's content, so I can't verify that it was a
Mary Poppins parody or the like. But the strip is mentioned in the
following publication:

Elza Poppin.
   Index entry (p. 146-147) in The Funnies, 100 Years of
   American Comic Strips, by Ron Goulart (Holbrook, Mass.:
   Adams Publishing, 1995)

I think it's possible that the comic strip, if it was popular in
Boston, did produce some by-products such as a children's book. But
alas, I can't prove it. Nevertheless, I hope that this will be of help
for you.

Regards,
Scriptor



http://www.lib.msu.edu/comics/rri/erri/els.htm

http://members.aol.com/comicsproj/creditsEK.html

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0%2C10987%2C761534%2C00.html

http://www.lambiek.net/swanson_george.htm

http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&selm=20020712223013.14151.00000277%40mb-fw.aol.com

://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22boston+globe%22+%22elza+poppin%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=