Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 March 1938 — Page 9
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From rdisra=Erie Pyle
- Gene Autry's Phonograph Records ‘Outsell Bing Crosby's and He Gets More Fan Mail Than Clark Gable.
HOLLYWOOD, March 8.—One blistering night during the big drought of 1936 I went to a movie in Miles City, Mont, just to get out of the heat. The leading man was a young fellow named Gene Autry. I had never heard of
. him. It’s probable that many of you have: never
heard of him even now. Yet he is the herq of heroes to millions of children. He gets more fan mail than " Clark Gable. His phonograph rec- * ords outsell Bing Crosby's. He has to send 2500 pictures of himself each week to fans. He is the No. 1 man in Western films. He is a singing cowboy. Even though Autry belongs to the New Crooning Order in Westerns, he isn’t synthetic. He's Western all right, and regular. The best way I know to put him down in print is. that he’s “just a good old Oklahoma boy trying to make a living.” Autry is 29. He was born on a farm in northern Texas, raised on another farm in southern Oklahoma. His movie rise .has been spectacular. He has been in. Hollywood only. three years. He has made 20 pictures. Last year he was the first cowboy hero ever to sweep the board as No. 1 favorite in the U. S., Australia, South America and England. -His popularity has risen so fast that his pay hasn't kept up with it, and he is now in a legal quarrel with his studio. Autry makes eight pictures a year for Republic, at $5000 a picture—or $40,000 a year.” He adds a few thousand by personal-appear-ance tours between pictures. His contract has three years to run. “If it was just one year, 1 wouldn't open my trap about it,” he says. “But a movie career is so short, and things change so fast, that you can’t tell where you'll be three years from now. You've got to get it while -you can.” Of course $40,000 or $50,000 seems like an awful lot of money to you and me. “But people couldn’t ever realize the demands on a fellow out here,” Autry says.
His Fan Mail Is Expensive
Here are some of Autry’s necessary expenses: He has the inevitable agent, who takes, I assume, 10 per cent. He has a “public affairs”. man. He has a twofoom office in downtown Hollywood. He has a secreary. The photos he sends out cost $25 a thousand. Count the stamps, envelopes, extra help and so on, “and his fan mail alone costs him close to $10,000 a year. This comes out of his own pocket. He owns seven horses. He has to keep stables and ~several -acres of ground in Burbank. It takes three men to care for the horses. The feed bill isn’t tiny, - either, * He owns two big trucks, and two horse trailers, to carry his horses on theater tours. Like all stars, he has to take ads in the trade magazines, Autry lives fairly simply, but it does take money. And last but not least, there are the Federal and California income taxes. That's the biggest hunk. If Autry ‘makes $50,000 a year, I don’t see how he can possiblyr save more than $10,000 of it. ‘At that: rate he'd be 125 when he got his first million.
My Diary
By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Newspaperwomen Produce Amusing |
Skits Jon First Lady's Adventures.
T. WORTH, Tex. Monday—1I forgot to mention yesterday that I was leaving Washington at noon
by plane. Also, I did not have space to tell you any‘thing about ewspaperwomen’s stunt dinner last
. Saturday night.
The sketches were cleverly written and went off so well that I feel sure none of our hosts were at all disturbed at having as an honor guest a lady who has done much to create the standards of the New York Theater Guild. Science ‘also was well represented. among the honor guests of the evening, and radio and fashion were not forgotten, either. Every year the presiding chairman, who is also president of the Women’s Press Club, does a most remarkable job of introducing the honor guests and ‘saying something apt about each one. Doris Fleeson was no exception to the rule. . I have to divide myself into two parts in order to enjoy the sketches. Half of me tries to forget that at the end of the show I have to get up and be as ‘amusing as possible, while the other half has to take note of everything which may be used when my} turn comes to act. I enjoyed all of the show this year. In ‘spite of my prophecy that they had used up all the things - concerning me which would give them ma‘terial for amusement, they managed to dig up sev“eral subjects out of the happenings of the past few ‘months on which they wrote really witty and. entertaining skits.
5
. Winds Delay Plane
When the curtain falls on the newspaperwomen’s ‘entertainment and the horrible moment comes when I must do my share, I say a little prayer that the good time which everybody has had will carry them .through the next few minutes. It usually does and ,everyone goes home happy. Yesterday was a beautiful but windy day for flying. We could not leave Washington from our regular air.port and had to drive out to Rolling Field. The mail ,also had to be brought cut and we left half an hour late. Because of cross winds, we were further delayed .during the first part of the trip, but we arrived in Ft. Worth only half an hour late. We had gray skies over ‘the mountains and for a little while we flew over the white, soft-looking clouds, which I always’ ‘enjoy.
New Books Today
Public Library Presents—
have “a rifle in. my hands to defend the things, in which I believed,” ‘John his reason for going to Spain. member of dhe British Battalion of the International Brigade, Mr. Sommerfield writes in VOLUNTEER IN SPAIN (Knopf) of the cold, the exhaustion, the wounded, and the dead. He has not tried to make any serious factual contribution to the history of the Spanish. War. He has given us, rather, the story of one man’s experience; what happened to a man who hated war
but also “believed that there are things worth fight-
«ing for and things that must be fought sgeing. » t J » 2 EAVING Oxford. to serve with a W. A. A. C. sighals
unit in the Great War, young Winifred Holtby formed an inspired friendship there in the mud and
destined to bear fruit %bundantly in the form of a series of lovely and revealing letters. These commu-
“nications covered a period of years from 1920 to 1035 ‘and were :
rane
fred Holtby’s last Son ibuion to English literature, ~ beautiful to read and significant to study,
! making “lucid her sympathy, her keen penetration into social
in September, 1935 ; “4 onumental novel. of: the Yerkshire counizy, “South
much.of |
sand economic problems and her constant preoccupa(tion with war prevention through her League-of Nation activities, a cajise {wiih placed unhesitatingly above everything she loved m Ri through the noe fs much informal talk of fellow-writers, a rippling, gracious humor and
a deep love of English life and traditions. One feels |
also an eerie quality of concentrated living, a hurrying to experience and 1 love and 2 aseoy ha of uty and of pain, in a life so soon to en en Jeainy Winifred Holtby finished “her
mmerfield gives as 5
(Editorial, ial, Page 10)° By Robert Bordner
Times Special Writer ASHINGTON, March 8.—Out of America’s jobless millions _today emerges the mightiest dream in 2000 years of highway history. Born of the depression,
this vision moves toward.
reality as the: President, Congress, the: states, the people roll up: ‘support : to make the dream come true. Not .a century “hence— but: now. Not in. some transporta-
tion Utopia—but’ here. Not by private enterprise—but under = public ownership and operation.The -idea. is -simple..” It ‘is to build a grid of auto tracks, three from coast to coast and six others lacing the borders from north to south in beeline freeways. Already President Roosevelt is discussing the measure as a selfliquidating plan to put millions to useful work. Already .Senator Bulkley of Ohio has a bill “before Congress calling for the first $2,000,000,000.
Already the legislatures of two °
states “have indorsed the ‘idea, Ohio’s and Arkansas’. The War Department, the Bureau of Roads, Federal : Reserve ‘officials, “little business”: men’s committee and others have indorsed the idea.
Advocates who have been working on the plans for five-years are enthusiastic in declaring it will: t J ® » OOM all" heavy industry, eliminate unemplcyment, slash national = defense. casts, streamline the nation’s transport system and ‘bring in its train a new prosperity and. profound social changes. Their stories, as told in. public hearings before the House Committee on. Public Roads, sounded too much like: Jules Verne for newspapermen to pay. mych ot tention a year ago. The - President and ‘Senator Bulkley have not perfected - details of the .plan .yet, but it is expected to be a modification of the original plan.
Just an oufline' of the ‘original
_ design gleaned from the testimony
last May shows the scale of the idea.
-- RIGHT-OF-WAY—300 feet en-
larging to 3000 feet wide at regu-
lar service points, avoiding all
cities, but by direct routes slashing 500 miles off the shortest routes from coast to coast today. PAVEMENT—In many separated ribbons, each. for its: own kind of traffic in both directions and heavy enough for 50-ton trucks and motorized artillery. SPEEDS—Road design based on three speeds, 25 miles, 50 miles and 125 miles and up per hour.
# #® =
GANETY-=No Cross traffic; no opposing traffic; no mixing of fast and slow traffic; special lanes for entering and leaving only at 12-mile points controlled by automatic semaphores; night lighting; flat grades; long curves; underneath heating to prevent ice. RAILROADS — Two special lanes each way for a new type of streamlined passenger trains and freight trains, all on rubber tires. AIRPLANES — Landing strips alongside, giant airports at the 18 intersections of the grid; the night-lighting of the road providIng a foolproof path for night fly-
g. COMMUNICATION — Six-f tubes alongside for all wires, telephone, telegraph, power. . . ROADSIDES .— Parked and landscaped: with paths for pedestrians, horse-drawn. vehicles and bridle-paths. ty SERVICE! PQINTS. — Gasoline stations, garages, restaurants, parking spots, concessions, camps, homes for police and service crews all concentrated in planned and controlled units at the 12-mile intervals where entrance and exit from hie ‘Toad is allowed.
Side Glances—By Cla rk
MAJOR SERVICE: "POINTES — Hotels, airports, army’ barracks, complete * communities ' including
stores, . theaters, -hospitals,s parks.
ea WEE
ROM this swift. sketch. of the °
high spots, can’ be seen ‘the
type’ of thing the original®design-' ers had. in. mind, and’ where, the 3
Bulkley plan ‘may ‘gO.
Some spoke of $8,000,000,000 and others “of $12,000,000,000 as: the .
cost.
All called for a Pedetal Govers-.-
ment guarantee of bonds to he re-
tired from toll charges, lease of
strips to" railroads - and _aiflines,
lease - of concessions and’ {service
points.
These revenues would gtal; x the ‘system, pay the Interest, and”
retire” the cost in. p from 25 to-60 years, dépe nd the figuring, the designe Toll: charge mentioned for -automobiles is one-fourth cent a mile. A new Federal highway corporation would handle the whole thing, from buying the right-of-way to administering the finished system, without increasing the public debt, they said.
= public would : save: the toll -
s in .. gasoline : economies, er distances, fewer hotel pov time gained, the designers assert, x = . : AILROAD. and tucking Jindustries’ would save“ their heavier tolls in new: nomies of operation on the system.
Communic¢ation and power com-
panies: would save on storm
damage, elimination of - pole ‘ lines and: ‘uninterrupted service. States, getting the tax on gasoline’ sold within their . borders could: devote : themselves to * the
. ordinary ‘highway system and
feeders to the: beeline tracks. Improvement; around. the service point, would raise the- tax dupli-
+ cate too.
The Federal Government would save on relief ‘and on ‘national defense, and ‘in ‘addition establish new. revenues under “the ‘: boom
such. construction would start, the
advocates claimed.’ st ° industries to boom are listed as steel, cement, stone, gravel; brick, ‘road-huilding machinery,: tools, trucks. Others . rising : as. construction
proceeded. would be lumber. and
all building. ‘materials as the work
camps, ‘permanent: service build-. ings, hotels, houses, wenb..up at
the service polite. “Trién" oh, ferrous metals -and -* electrical equipment industries ‘as lights,
Power and’ other’ lines, ‘went ST - Following these would. boom" the: rubber, ‘the ‘auto, the- truck, « the {0 new; freight’ and: ‘Pasteriger wa. a . come. “high concentrations at whatever .coastal or border: ‘point: ‘might’
makers. woe ca aL
5.
AST. of all, would be-the- hrs manent : force to, police’. and
. maintain the, system ‘to... service
the travelers: and their: equipment, ee
-:the- advocates: said.
- Possibly only: because’ of the deprcsaon: that’ freed “millions of :
men from private: jobs and.made them- available ‘to’ work for .the nation, this vision came to a Wooster, O., businessman,
submitted. ‘his ‘Interior Secretary Ickes. ‘Both ex-
‘pressed interest, even enthusiasm. :
Last May, the House of. ‘Repre-
sentatives held - public ~hearings : . before its Committee: Jon: Public
Roads.
But ‘the debresiiing was ‘waning :
then, and, ‘paradoxically, ‘good
times are not 'so:encouraging for -
such vast improvements.
A few months later the: reces- ;
sion struck. , Demand for more WPA jobs swelled. broke, could not sponsor WPA work financially, as before. Mr. Roosevelt revived this hway idea, attracted by its: self-liqui-dating features. 3
ENATOR EEE dati
the bill, presented :it- in. Con-
gress, called for the first $2,000,-
000,000. What modification of the : original. plans Senator Bulkley '
and the President have in. ‘mind is not determined yet...
line freeways." west. Six: north and south. Besides angle, and not increasing the public debt, Mr. Roosevelt: is‘ inter-
ested in two ‘savings. On WPA.
On national defense..
, ‘That's “ment indorsed the ‘plan, and the
May.
2
It: now costs many millions to maintain the thin line. of stationary ‘or slightly mobile Figg £ shinery munitions - along . our’
. Jasper—By Frank Owen.
"This means: ted. in the: interior would .be-
~~ Five years-ago, T. E.. Steiner, - : on“ “getive in industries of Ohio. and West Virginia, : plan to President Roosevelt ‘and _
“Cities, going -
the self-liquidating ;
why the War! Depart-
tiorsnpas of miles of const apd : border. Xo ® ou "this. mighty nd: at moto-
ways’ calls for airports, ba rracks,
ole defense equipment at #ach ‘of 18 intersections.. ' ;
«that immediately ‘available . in
threatened. - 2 88
\NLY ‘halfjas much equipment i
“would provide a better -defense in this way, if is argued.”
“All the winged ‘arms: could be concentrated at a threatened * point. in- 12 hours, speeding above
these -night-lighted auto tracks
with landing strips alongside. a ‘All the light ‘equipmient; like:
antiaiteratt’ guns ang small artillery, could ‘be rushed to: any.
: costal point in 48 hours; ;-
“Even ‘the big gins could” arrive ~at_gny point-in 72° ‘hours‘on these * roads built. for: 50-ton trucks. ard Tubber-tired ‘express trains. food and supplies
Munitions, from their intérior depots and factories ‘could: flow ‘to the men and ‘machinery - ab. a speed now
. impossible.
The Army men believe: there. is money to be saved and effectiveness to be increased for national defense by ‘the: beeline freeways,
~cleared of all else in.times. of ac- , tion. ;
Of interest to: the farmer. ‘and the city consumer- is Mr. Steiner’s idea of’ produce. shipment, ’
“This road, 'being ‘so much
- shorter, so much better‘and ‘with: ‘no handicaps, ‘the :50-ton truck °
will: take no more gasoline than
. the 10-ton truck now on: ordinary
roads. “The 504ton truck will make
“the. rip in half the time. » ve “The outline is ‘there. “Twenty | : i: thousand miles of nonstop, bee- « Three east and, :
. 8 x
NHEY will be. ‘able ‘to’ bring -
fruit from California, picked
: today and ripened on the trees, “and land. it in the Chicago and
New York markets day. after: tcmorrow. “They will be able to pie. fruit
"in Florida today and you in Wash“ington can ‘eat ‘it’ tomorrow.” . generals were at the ‘heatings’ last
“Warehouses, farra trucks un:
| loading right into - the rubber-
tired - freight trains, are :seenias
‘features of . the service points spaced at 12-mile Intervals. along
Jsse: freeways. |
equipment :
, to .logality.
“have: to turn ‘spurs’ tha
| clubs accomplish anything
Entered as Secend-Class Matter ab Postoffice, Tndiinapolls, Ind.
“This will put the railroads on their feet, » he said. : , “The railroads will be able to put : streamlined trains on this road. They will get a priority franchise.” 44 Mr. Steiner and his research vengineer, ‘N.S. Amstutz of Valparaiso, .Ind., are insistent that
© this’ “highway grid be thought of
as completely independent of all present “highways. “They. are not roads from Jocality i ‘They are through, transcontinental auto tracks. {No present roads will join the freeway. At certain specified intervals, ‘places of entrance ‘and
«exit? are ‘designed. . Present -highjo — 2
ways. desirable. to
. parallel’ until ‘they = these” 12-mile entrance “points. . "The auto ‘tracks will go over or under all ‘present Toads and Tail‘roads. .
will prevent local residents: 20m ; getting onto the freeways. - - 82 8 =» : "HE most fantastic-sounding Litem is the steam heating" to prevent ice’ formation -on-the ’ roads ‘in the frigid zones. But Mr... Amstutz made it al-.
most reasonable by pointing out
that the heating would be oniy slight—just enough to keep it abolt two degrees above the freesing: point, and only for the short periods of precipitation. ’ *“The experience of steam rail- . ways in ‘maintaining open troughs between the rails: for supplying water to their locomotives without stopping the trains, and keeping them serviceable throughout the winter months,
. has been fairly simple,” he said.
Shuttle roads and plane lines to the cities ‘near the freeways ' will provide feeder links to: the; sys-
The whole idea was gaining
momentum today throughout the .
nation. Both houses of: Congress are expected to hold ‘public hearings soon. Meanwhile, every time the President’ talks about relief and WPA he brings up some new ad-’ . vantage’ for _this _self-liquidating ,
. $8,000,000,000 project.
. Whether he and Congress will tackle it seriously will be: known: -in a. few. weeks, probably,
2 A WOMAN'S VIEW °
By. Mrs. Walter Ferguson
: SIDE from meeting the social needs. of - members, do women’s ? This is a. question you often -hear asked these days. ‘It is put more and more
+| frequently-by the junior group, who
will- be the deciding factor: in the future club life of America. It would be a mistake not: ‘totake this question seriously. It is always & mistake for older People to ignore the icriticism: of younger ones. 4s. true that many of our organ-|
| izal are. unwieldy; they are tod] i | big for their clothes, so to speak, | having outgrown their original pur- |: 18 Rose, and ‘ sometimes their leaders
.'into the error of
3 that: the” club ath has not had’ a glorious past or that it cannot have an equally ; : "its. membership
Glorious future
‘| Century could very weil. be the de- | | velopment of a truly feminine con- | sciousness—which int eted me
| By Aiton Scharrer. ae City Editor MeNeeley' $ Coverage Of a Night Fire in 1852 Began a New Era of Reporting in the City. THINGS: everybody around: here ought to know: When the Eagle Machine Works burned: in ‘1852, J. H. McNeeley, then city’
editor of the Journal, while returning from the fire which was early one summer night,
stopped at the office, took the forms from che press, removed some indifferent paragraphs of
news and set up and inserted a brief account of the fire. This is supposed to be the first attempt on the
part of an Indianapolis paper to cover the night's news in the next morning edition. When Mrs. Flora Wulschner died in 1909, it was learned definite-~ ly that she was the author of “Forgotten,” the g made famous by Eugene Cowles,\a member of the company known as the “Bostonians” who made Reginald de Koven's “Robin Hood” the success it was. : 3 Mrs.: Wulschner wrote the poem py. Scherrer, sometime around: 1895 when Mr.: Cowles appeared in Indianapolis and was: her guest. Mr. Cowles set the words to music, and after that it was just as much a part of the Bostonians and theif repertoire as “Oh Promise Me.” In the fall of 1842; James Blake started making molasses from the juice of corn stalks. The. factory was in Mr. Blake’s barn on North St. between what is’ now Senate Ave. and the al. The enterprise failed because the product, was tinged with an acid taste, but it paved the way for the manufacture of 1 sorghum, a product’ Mr. Blake lived to taste. He didn’t have anything to dc with it, however. > In 1835, Nicholas McCarty brought a colony of Morus multicaulis to. Indianapolis in an effort to es~ tablish silk growing around here. It didn’t werk. Five years later he began the cultivation and manufacture of hemp on his bayou farm which was somewhere in ‘ the southwest. part of town. The present site of the siockyards would be a good guess. The fiber was rolled, broken and cleaned -in vats and mills on the bluff bank of Pogue’s Run: below the present line of Ray St. 5
Made First Soap in City
While Mr. McCarty. was experimenting with hemp, a German by the name of Protzmann was making the first soap on the canal near McCarty St. Besides that, Mr. Protzmann was the first leader of the Jest grag band around here. On Juiy 20, 1824, Abraham Beasly, a. tinker, ad= vertised that he had returned from Cincinnati with the necessary molds for casting pewter plates and spoons. He said he was open for business on Wash« ington St. “nearly opposite the State House Square.” 1843, “Brandreths’ Pills” were advertised on sa’? me the book store of: Charles B. Davis. Benjamin Orr advertised “ready-made clothing.” Honest, le was the first (1838) to open a store of that kind here. That same year ‘Judge ‘Blackford advertised his reports of the Supreme Court, and Jacob Cox, the pioneer artist, associated with his brother, Charles, in business, invited the women of Indianapolis to have a look at his line of “cooking stoves.” Here's the one for the book, though. Daniel Yandes put an ad in the Jan. 16, 1843, .issue of an Indianapolis paper to say that he had lost his wal‘1et containing “10 dollars and valuable papers during Mr. Clay's speech! the preceding October.” :
3 ge
Ja ne ¢ Jordan—— The wide right-of-way: Governe 4 - ment-owned up to 3000 feet back,
Jane Agrees That Four Months Is
Too Short an Engagement Period. EAR JANE JORDAN—I am 20 years old and have been married six months. My husband has | been married before and has two children. His former | wife is dead. ‘He is a good husband. We never quarrel, but I am very jealous of him and sometimes I think I have a right to_be. Before our marriage he went with a’ girl five years but after we met, it seemed that we were intended for each other. Since our mar-
riage he has had at least two dozen letters from his
former girl friend, including a gift. He acts as though he doesn’t consider them, but-still I think I should do something about it. I have mentioned writing her a letter but my husband opposes it. He says that will make things much worse. I have mentioned going to her house and talking the matter over with her and still he objects. He is a good. provider and I have all the things I want, but I never know how much money ‘he has nor the amount of his bank acésunt. He has frankly refused to tell me. Can I consider this a reason why he does not want me ta her? 1.3m in. dite peat of dn adviser. TUCKY.
Answer—After all’ Our sur husband had a chance to marry the other girl and he didn’t take it. He married you instead; so what do you have to worry about?
I think he is ‘right when he says it only would makes -
matters worse for you: to go and see her or write. Why. does she write ‘the. letters except to make you jealous and -thereby ‘cause trouble between you and your husband?. Are you going to play into her hands by reacting exactly as she th suspicion, miss trust and discontent? Rest assured that this girl doesn’t: want you to be happy and will lose no opportunity to disturb you and make you nag. Your cue is to line up with your hus. band, not against him. Sympathize wit th him because the girl annoys him and assure him of your complete ‘confidence. Even if he is tempted to see her again “your faith will do more to: ‘prevent. it than your jealous doubts and fears. > The American husband has the reputation of turning his pay check over to his wife but I havens found it to be universally true. Oftener I find: that a man considers his bank account as a symbol of his masculinity and doesn’t want his wife to have anys thing to do with it. As long as the man is generous with you and manages his income well, keep out’ of his financial affairs, : = = = FAR JANE JORDAN—I am s girl of 18. only four months ago I met a very nice fellow. He has been grand to me and wants to marry me somes time: this month. He has a good job. But:-Iam wor ried about marrying for fear I havent known him long enough. What would id you do? WORRIED. ,
‘Answer—I agree with you that four months is tad
\ short a" prelude to marriage. Mature
gtonjenial natures Tasy he able $0 ges in four months time but the very be carried along on a rosy oh collapses on closer knowledge of each other. , lieve you'd be wise to wait a while ;
- The last fi ears wil be Sotali 1 Bitiary As ~ time when e Democr als Jolied: