Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 286, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 April 1932 — Page 12

PAGE 12

POLITICIANS IN STAR ROLES ON AIR PROGRAMS Radio Moguls Find ‘Box Office Value’ in Keen Campaign Interest. BV RAYMOND CLAPPER Press Staff CorresDOndent WASHINGTON, April B.—lnterest In politics Is so hich this year that t' the first time since William Jennings Bryan teamed up with the Swiss bellringers on the Chautauqua ci-cuit, politicians have become good box office added attractions, with dance orchestras, musical comedy ars, and Broadway columnists, on commercial entertainment programs. Radio advertisers have called upon national politicians to speak over nation-wide networks to help advertise something or other and have found it so profitable in public interest that they have paid more lor a few minutes of program time • han a government clerk makes in a year. ' Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York was Thursday night’s political entertainer. Aifred E. Smith and even Senator Simeon D. : 'ess have been imported for one. of 'he leading commercial radio programs. Sign Up Politicians Visitors to the house and senate naileries comment that congress is -< joke. One of the funniest shows tunning in New York is a burlesqued picture of Washington in rction. The Baltimore Evening Sun gets a comic column for its editorial 1 age merely by clipping short x---<-:rpts from the congressional record. But this is the first time 'hat a big business concern, spending thousands of dollars on fancy radio programs to tickle the entertainment appetites of its prospective customers, has seen the box office value of a politician. Radio people say the advertisers are bringing in politicians on their entertainment programs to attract an additional class of lis'lners who might not be drawn by the dance orchestra or Miss Bright-Eyes of the latest Broadway show. The politician? in turn are glad of the chance to get in a few words at the waiting audience and gladly join in without pay. Interest Is Keen Thus far they have played their acts straight. Apparently their radio impresarios like them better that way than if they tried to be funny. This rising box office appeal of politics is manifest in many other ways. Book and magazine articles about Washington are consuming tons of white paper. Washington officials are in strong demand as speakers. Every four years the political temperature rises some. But this year there is in addition a concentration of unusual factors. First, after two and a half years of depression, people are thinking increasingly about fundamental economics, a tendency which has been encouraged by the almost revolutionary economic legislation passed this winter in the reconstruction finance corporation act and the revision of the federal reserve credit bc~ through the Glass-Steagall act. Big Questions Discussion of the bonus and the inflation proposed as a means of financing the payments, the deep questions of policy raised by the tax measure now pending involving perhaps some redistribution of wealth, bring Washington right into the family living room Second, all over the country there is a feeling apparently that'prohibition is heading toward a showdow r n. This has sharpened interest in the campaign everywhere. Third, there is tremendous interest in President Hoover as a personality. Finally, for the first time in four presidential elections, there is a widespread feeling that the’ Mshlt’ is in real doubt. LAKES HERO HONORED Savious nl 2“ Lives Awarded Congressional Medal. fi’i T tiited Pres* LAKEWOOD. 0., April B.—Captain Charles H. Mohr, veteran "salt", of the Great Lakes, is a hero and will be given a Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor. In the past decade, the veteran skipper has saved twenty-seven lives imperiled by storms that wrecked their craft. His last act of heroism resulted In saving ten lives after their aged schooner was being pounded to pieces on the reefs. Fellow seamen of the International Ship Masters’ Association voted him a special medal for ‘'valor at sea," and now he will be given the Congressional medal. NORMA HOLDS OFF SUIT Miss Talmadge Will Go Abroad Before Filing for Divorce. Bv Cnited Press HOLLYWOOD, April B.—Norma Talmadge. actress, will delay divorce proceedings against Joseph M. Fchenck, president of United Artists. she said today. She said she would return to New York and make a trip abroad. She indicated that suit eventually will be brought in Reno. All property matters in which Schenck is concerned have been settled, she declared. IT’S REALLY ‘PAN’ MAIL public Service Commissioners Receive No ‘‘Fan" Letters. By Tailed Prrss GREENCASTLE. Ind.. April B. *‘Do members, of the Indiana public service commission get any fan mail?" This was one of the questions asked Commissioner Howell Ellis by a De Pauw university economics student at the open forum meeting here Thursday night Ellis answered that, at the present time, correspondence to the commissioners might better be called "pan mail."

itteoK GLNook ■awn—-.)

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Julia Peterkin “Bright Skin,” Julia Peterkin’s new novel, has just been published by Bobbs-Merrill of this city, and it is the April choice of the Book League of America. It promises to be a best seller for many months. a a a BY WALTER D. HICKMAN TN "The Phantom President," by -*• George Worts, the country needed a President so big to pull the nation out of the most terrible depression it ever experienced. Theodore K. Blair, the richest industrial leader in the country, was the real man to do it, but he lacked mob personality and everything that seems to make a candidate popular. He was a great thinking machine and could save the nation, but he lacked a "front.” That the "Big Four,” the powerful group which controlled the destiny of Blair’s party knew that. So they dug up his double, Peter Varney, a roque, a criminal and a bad egg but a man w'ho had mob personality. And for chapter after chapter, we see Varney, the rogue copying the mannerisms of Blair until he was able to go on the presidential campaign train, meet millions and talk to as many, while Blair, the brains who wrote all the speeches that met all attacks of the opposition and silenced all attacks. The scheme might have worked, although the “shadow” caused Blair to be elected to the highest office, if Varney had not fallen in love with Blair’s future wife, and had not come under the spell of billions and power. But Varney walked into a death trap while impersonating the President. He was fatally shot while going to a public function. This tragedy forced Blair into continual living oblivion as "The President" was dead. A startling theme but told in the best manner of modern story telling. ana One thing that I like<d about “The Phantom President” was the satire that the author injects into his political discussions. He claims that the country would not vote for a great intellectual and industrial Leader who was nothing but a ‘‘thinking machine,” but that “the country would elect, not a thinking machine, but a warm and pleasing personality; a President it could call Bill, Jim or Hank; who shook hands, loved small children, gave apples to horses, and pointed with pride to the tenement or humble farmhouse where he had been born. On its sickbed, the country called, not for a doctor, but a court jester.” Here is absorbing fiction and a new masquerading pattern as written by Worts and published by the Jonathan Cape & Robert Ballou, Inc., New York, for $2 a copy. a a a You recall that I said in this department that “The Deputy at Snow Mountain,” by Edison Marshall (Kinsey) deserved to be a best seller because it was corking good .reading mgtfer, The A. C. McClure & Cos. now reports that it is one of the best six sellers in fiction throughout the country. a a a AH business depressions are fundamentally caused by man’s inability to control gold as a basis of value," Sir Josiah Stamp, economic adviser to the British government; director of the Bank of England and chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish Railways, declares in the corrected proof of his forthcoming book. "The Financial Aftermath of the War,” which he has just delivered to his American publishers, Charles Scribner’s Sons. It will be published in the latter part of April. a a a Margaret Ayer Barnes, author of "Years of Grace” and Westward Passage." does not agree with Virginia Woolf that a novelist is necessarily choked by the "family sitting room,” but says that she finds her greatest stimulus in an atmosphere of "pleasant domestic confusion.” She admits, however, that sometimes she resorts to a distant room on the third floor. The trouble with some of us is that we don’t have a third floor, says I. a a a Frances M. Frost, young Vermont poet and author of a book of poems, "Blue Harvest,” will follow that soon with another collection under the title of “These Acres.” Houghton Mifflin will be the publishers. a a a The May choice of the Book League of America will be "Maids and Mistresses,” by Beatrice Kean Seymour. The trade edition will be published by Alfred A. Knopf on May 2. a a a Bobbs-Merrill of Indianapolis seems to have another winner in Julia Peterkin’s “Bright Skin.” It has been selected as the April choice of The Book League of America. And that puts it at once in the best selling class. a a a Paul Green, who is best known as a playwright, will soon have his first novel, "The Laughing Pioneer,” published by Robert M. Mcßride & Cos. Green at present is in Hollywood writing a screen play for Richard BartheLmess.

THIEF SUSPECT IS SLOW AFOOT Youth, Caught After Chase, Charged With Burglary. A burglar suspect was nabbed In a chase and several others are sought by police today following looting of several homes and a grocery Thursday night. The thief suspect is Anthony Schiavone, 17, of Philadelphia, Pa., who, police say, was captured after

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| looting the home of A. C. Koch, 121 North Euclid avenue, Thursday night. Schiavone admitted, according to detectives, that he went to the Koch home to sell neckties, and finding nobody there, unlocked the door and ransacked several rooms. Koch returned meanwhile, and s: * the youth leaving. In the chase that followed, Koch said, Schiavone threw away two watches, a diamond ring and several other pieces of jewelry. Police charged the youth wi“i burglary and petit larceny. Mrs. Curtis Springer, 1524 North Colorado avenue, routed a thief when she found him attempting to raise a bedroom window late Thursday night, she told police. Food worth S6Q was -stolen from

a grocery owned by T. H. Helf. 1325 Silver avenue, Thursday night, he told police. Frank Foley, 124 North Euclid avenue, reported a thief looted his home Thursday night and took 820 from a purse. A sneak thief snatched a purse containing S2O from Mary Tracker, I 1018 South Illinois street, near 111- j inois and Ray streets, Thursday night, she told detectives. Buenos Aires is said to have the largest electric sign in the world. It is 188 feet by 30 feet, and contains 15.000 bulbs. It was made in the United States.

5 ARE HURT IN AUTO CRASHES Farmer Is Injured When Car Strikes Wagon. Five persons were injured, including a man who suffered two fractured ribs and a broken wooden leg, in automobile accidents Thursday and early today. When an automobile struck the rear of a wagon on East Tenth street, one-half mile east of the

Post road. William F. Kuhn. 54, R. R. 10, Box 330. driving a team, suffered the rib fractures. His wooden left leg was broken in several pieces. The auto was driven by B. F. Bruner, 30, of 335 West Ninth street. Maurice Feeney, 22, of 923 North Pennsylvania street, former Junior golf champion of the city, is in a critical condition and Francis McNeils. 19, of 1630 North Alabama street, is suffering from head injuries received in an automobile accident early today. A car driven by McNeils struck a railroad elevation abutment at Washington and Noble streets. Head injuries were incurred by

.APRIL 8, 1932

Mrs. Frances E. Harrod, 69, 33 Reichwein street, at that thoroughfare and West Washington street, when she was struck by an automobile driven by Camden Kelly, 7473 South Luett avenue. Charles Prang, 6, of 3030 North New Jersey street, suffered cuts and bruises when he was struck by g truck at Thirtieth street and Washington boulevard. C. H. Fryberger. 32. R. R. 14, Box 361, the truck driver, was not held. % When cleaning windows, use ammonia in the water instead of soap. Three tablespoonsful in each pail of water is the proper quantity to use.