Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 September 1938 — Page 7

'‘agabond|

From Indiana = Ernie Pyle

Connie Boswell Swung 'Martha' i Private for Eight Years Before Making Record That Swept Country.

NEW YORK, Sept. 3.—When you hear ‘Connie Boswell in that tantalizing phonograph record “Martha,” you aren’t just hearing a blues singer who can get up ‘and bawl. :

You're hearing a girl who knows music

from A to Z (or does music stop at G?). Anyway, Connie Boswell has been a little music maestro ever since she was 4. She could play good stuff on the cello before she ever started to school. She was in concerts before she was 10. . Connie has now become famous for making operas swing. But she has never swung anything on the cello. And she never will. The cello is her first instrument—her sacred one—and she doesn’t want it to know about swing. In fact, Connie doesn’t like swin music—straight swing. - She likes a : song pepped up the way “Martha” Mr. Pyle is; one that really has some meat in it. But just to get up on a squawky note and keep yelling it—the stuff that sets the Jitterbugs crazy—she doesn’t go for that. ~ You have, of course, heard Connie sing “Martha,” unless you've been buried in a mine cave-in all summer. It’s a good hefty piece, sung by a hefty voice, and I pictured the singer as a hefty female.

So imagine my surprise to find Connie Boswell just barely so high and weighing 95 pounds. So much noise out of such a little package. And her speaking voice is heavy too, just the way she sings. “Sort of a foghornish voice,” as she says.

She is informal and easy to talk with. In fact, she does most of the talking for you. She is very pretty. Her hair, naturally dark, is dyed golden right now; it’s in a long bushy bob. She wears false eyelashes, bright-colored slacks, and looks altogether fresh-out-of-Hollywood. Which, in fact, she is, having just ig to New York this spring after two years out ere. * Her radio contract is up in September, and she doesn’t know where she’ll be after that. “I'll go where the business is,” she says.

She has no permanent home. Her parents live in New Orleans, which is still her favorite city. Her sister Martha is married to an insurance man and lives near Peekskill up the Hudson. The other sister lives § in Toronto, and Connie has been up there twice

She Sings “For Own Amazement”

~ Connie can play the cello, piano, trumpet and saxophone, and says she could pick up most any other instrument with ‘a little practice. She loves to sit at the piano in her apartment and play and sing “just for my own amazement,” as she puts it. Connie had no idea “Martha” would be the sensation it is. She says she sold the recording company “a bill of goods” that it would be a sensation, but she really didn’t think so. She just wanted to make it— partly because her sister is named Martha.

And maybe this will interest you—Connie had been doing “Martha” that way for eight years, just to herself, before she ever made the record.

mw fact she has done the same thing with more than 100 other operatic/and classical pieces, just for “her own amazement.” She will eventually make some of them into records. Of course I didn’t ask Connie to sing for me. But she is so vivacious and full of enthusiasm that she Just naturally bursts out into song now and then. And _ sitting there, I got several parts of “Martha” right from the original voice. The three famous Boswell Sisters got married one right after the other, in ’34; 35 and "36. The trio disintegrated after the marriages. Connie’s husband is Harry Leedy, who was the trio's business manager.

He handles everything for Connie, and it is he who has pushed her back up into the limelight from the obscurity the sisters fell into after they went separate ways. \ ; She says it was tough the first time she appeared on the stage without her sisters. She didn’t have stage fright, but she felt so lonesome.

- NEXT—More about Connie Boswell.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor. Roosevelt

Book Describing Early Life Along The Hudson Interests First Lady.

YDE PARK, Friday—I want to begin today by telling you about a book which I think will interest you if you know the countryside along the Hudson River, particularly the part of it just above Poughkeepsie. The book is called “Crum Elbow Folks,”

by P. R. Barnes. My mother-in-law, Mrs. James - Roosevelt, wrote a rather wistful little foreword. The book, with its description of the Quakers in this neighborhood and their lives so long ago, evidently made her remember sorae of the beauties and joys of her own youth, which must already have been very different from the days described in the book, but which still are nearer to the past than anything we have today. The book describes a day long past, but it is still a picture of the joys of country life we may savor today. Fundamentally, the heart of every tale is the story of some human love with its trials, fears, tragedies and joys, and this is no exception tc the rule.

I am also reading with a great deal of pleasure a book called “We Too Are the People,” by Louise V. Armstrong. This is the story of a county in the State of Michigan, of its peoplé and their struggles through the past few years. It is written with the obvious intention of making the nation realize that people on relief are still people, even as you and I. Some of them have a harder time over a long period due to circumstances which even you and I might not have met any more adequately. On some of them disaster has descended suddenly in a way it might descend on us. Added to the interest of the picture the artist paints of the locality and its people, is the interest in the character of the writer, which merges without any apparent intention on her part. That character and personality must prove interesting and helpful to any of us,

Woods Free From Insects at Last

As if it were not enough for us these days to read in the papers of the disasters which man himself brings upon this nation or that, we find every now and then that nature takes a hand as well. Yesterday, I read the account of the typhoon which struck Japan. In these tragedies which nature occasionally brings to various nations, the Red Cross usually is able to give the most prompt and efficient service. This should remind us of the fact that all who are. inter- ~ ested in alleviating human suffering in any part of the world should give their constant support to this agency. , 5 I tne from New York late yesterday and was very glad to be back in the country. I had a pleasant visit with a member of my family whom I had not seen for a long time, and did one or two necessary

things. This is a glorious day and we are off to ride |

in the woods, which are free at last from flies and mosquitoes.

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Sept. 3.—I've always been pretly mtich of a dreamer, both during my sleepin’ and wakin’ hours. So here lately I been readin’ up on the subject of dreams, but I find that most authors on the subject use such big words I can’t get heads nor tails what they're talkin’ about. One author said ,. that dreams are related to the subconscious mind and * have nothin’ to do with Sally Lei it . . But the other day I pl ‘golf while my wife wen -~- down town to an auction sale.. That night in my sleep I hollered. “fore!” My wife sat up in bed and

As the Dionne Quintuplets draw toward their fifth birthday, differences in physique and personal appearance become more evident, as may be seen in this, their latest photo. Note how Marie, second from left, who always has been the smallest, is still

By NEA Service (CALLAN DER, Ontario, Sept. 8.— Ready to merge a long and unusually hot summer into the school routine of autumn, the Dionne Quintuplets have passed with flying colors through a season which tried even their adult attendants. The tremendous crowds visiting the Dafoe nursery again this summer have showed little sign of dwindling. Careful counts of the cars parked daily in the meadows adjoining the nursery indicate that between 60,000 and 75,000 visitors will have been chalked up this summer. «On one day in early August, the oppressive heat led to a decision not to allow the children outdoors, and a serious throat infection kept al] five confined to the nursery for several days. : Their return to normal routine in the play-yard was greeted by one of the largest crowds ever to come to Callander, when more than 2000 visitors filed through the observation. gallery. Autumn plans for the Dionne girls center around the proposed building of ‘a new home for the entire Dionne family, which would - include a residence, chapel, school, playground and swimming pool. Several sites, all near the present nursery, have been discussed, and another year may find the Dionnes united in a “dream home’ with every facility for the education and upbringing of the world’s most famous ‘sisters.

copyright, . NEA Service, inC.): definitely so, while the others range from her:39 inches up to 39%. Marie weighs 36% pounds, while Annette is now heavyweight champ at 41. Left to

right in the picture are Yvonne, Marie, Cecile, An-

nette and Emilie,

Real travel being impossible for the Dionne sisters these days, the advent of the locomotive was a. treal, as you can see by the way the Quins are swarming over the model. Annette looks very professional

Back to school in Indianapolis go more than 60,000 children, but none more eagerly than the Dionnes. Of course, it’s not exactly school

* 3

Having this model

Fos

Inc.) a x

locomotive, an exact scale reproduction of a

modern Canadian National Railways giant, at the Dafoe nursery; puts

the Dionne Quins in the right spirit for Labor Day. - grabbed a can of oil to lubricate the engine. She doesn’t seem to have

Here Cecile has

any worries akput soiling her new fall outfit.

swinging the switchman’s lantern and Cecile tries the engineer’s goggles.

, NEA ice, Inc.)

Yvonne, Emilie and Marie want to know what makes it go; in fact, Marie seems to be trying to set the whole business in motion.

(Copyrignt, 1938, NEA Service, Inc.)

‘come yet to “nine times eight is 72” ‘But Annette certainly looks the

part of the teacher, and Yvonne appears justly proud of her work at

for them, for instruction is within their own nursery and they haven't

the easel. Marie, Cecile and Emilie await their turns,

Side Glances—By Clark Se

Everyday

4 x fo

"Oscar, I'm ti 4

Movies—By Wortman

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—What is the nickname for

“Illinois?

: 2—What was the purpose of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition?

3~Who won the women’s singles

Eastern Grass Court Tennis Championship recently played at Rye, N. Y.? v 4—Under which. Government

_ department is the Bureau of

Census?

5—Which university did Byron |

(Whizzer) White attend? 6—In what year was the Star‘Spangled Banner made the ‘national anthem?

| 7—on which continent is

French Guiana?

Answers

. 1-'The Prairle State. _ 2—To explore the territory west of the Mississippi ,

Ver,

: 5 University of Colorado.

“still an emotional dependent. Put some

be bankrupt without this one man. Don t . cry. He'll respect you a lot more if you show some:

By Raymond Clapper 2 Painful ‘Demonstration Expect If California Scrip Scheme Goes In Effect, and Apparently It will

ASHINGTON, Sept. 3.—My spies report to me—and they usually are quite reliable—that California is going to put through its $30-every-Thursday scheme, They see nothing that can stop it. =~ ‘This scheme is on. the November ballot ‘as a constitutional amendment to become effective Jan.

1. The whole thing is put down in the amendment,

which is really a statute, and the plan becomes opere ative automatically by adoption of =

“the constitutional amendment. Even

the three members of the board which will administer the plan are listed by name in the constitutional ‘amendment! It automatically starts the money rolling. On Jan. 1 the thing starts, Each Thursday every unemployed person over 50 collects his $30 in special scrip—or California state money. . This state money probably = Snconsiituiiosl, Jo only the . 'ederal vernment has authority py, v to issue money, but skip that for Me Clapper; the time being. Also, every Thursday night, you must affix a special 2-cent. stamp to any piece of this dollar state scrip which you have in your possession, It is invalid Friday morning without the special 2 per cent stamps. Those will be affixed every Thursday for 52 weeks, after which the scrip automatically is retired, $1.04 having gone into the State Treasury during the year with which to redeem the dollar piece of scrip, leaving 4 cents over for administrae tive expenses. So : Now this is no Father Divine dream that is described. It is the actual plan which apparently is certain to be voted into operation in California this November. Quick action by the U. S. Supreme Court to invalidate the scheme before Jan. 1 seems at the moment the only possible means of killing it off witlte out a trial. : Send his In fact many people, convinced that the scheme is fantastic and will never work, are for that reason favorable to letting it go into operation. They say it is better to have a showdown now and let the crackpots find out for themselves how wrong they are,

Imagine Confusion Each Thursday

On that theory many were opposed to the attempt to kill off the proposition in the state courts, which failed anyway when the court ruled it must go on the ballot. +, It will be'a painful demonstration, and possibig

costly. Picture for yourself what Thursday will ne like in California—Several hundred thousand persons

. collecting their $30 and rushing to spend it before

they have to pay the weekly stamp tax; merchants, loaded with this scrip, trying to get rid of it betore the stamp-tax hour arrives. » hd

Not only will the pensions be paid in this tricte currency but half of all state salaries will be payable | in it also. It must be accepted by merchants ati ig legal tender for everything in California except © de eral taxes. They may call it legal tender in the Constitution but the. German Government, back ma the desperate 1920s, ground out trillions of printiige press marks and they were legal tender, too." Still you had to put up a washtub full of it to buy a loaf of bread. ‘Some people can learn that the tongue will freeze to a cold ax only by trying it. If Californians: insis§ upon learning the hard way, maybe they will have to go ahead and learn that way. r

Jane Jordan— Jane Tells Wife She Must Match

Mate's Independence to Be Happy.

EAR JANE JORDAN-I have been married eight years. The first five years were not easy. We had every bad break any married couple could have; but we loved each other and stuck it out. My huse band studied hard and at last he has a good job. Then: things started to. happen. Before, he always cone sulted me about how he should spend his money." He intends to buy a motorcycle. Now he doesn’t ask my advice. When we were broke he always wanted my judgment; now he does nicely without it. Instead of wanting to spend his free time with me he wants to go to clubs, lodges, or anything to ge$ away from home, Our home life always has been pleasant, as neither of us believe in nagging. I have no children and I am considered smart and attractive looking. Here of late young girls wave at my huse band as ‘though he were single. I have tried to be reasonable and overcome my jealousy but to have him look at every woman wherever we go gets tiresome. I don’t know how to take him. He says his life is built around me. Then suddenly he changes until I hardly know him. Sometimes I think it might be a good idea for me to get a job and leave him while there is still a chance for me to find someone else, ye I am entitled to a little of his good fortune. : 2 2 = Lire . Answer—Possibly your husband is having a ree action against the lean years he has been: through, Now that things are a little better he wants to make up for some of the gay youth he has lost. It is too bad that he doesn’t want you to share it with When times were hard he leaned heavily on your syms pathy and support. He would have been sunk withe out you. Now he is overassertive about his indepene dence. on : Yes, I think it would be excellent for you to get &. Job. ' It would occupy your mind and give you somes: thing to manage now that you can’t manage yous husband any more. Don’t leave him. He may get over this desire for a fling. But it won't hurt a bill . to be in a position where you could leave if yc wanted to. Po : sein Your husband has learned not to dep so much. Now you must learn not to d so much. He has a life apart from you

you won's:

spunk—not the sort of spunk which tells him “wh to: get off” but the spirit which shows : live without him after all, J

Put your problems in a letter to

in this column.

) 3 Tye va AA Ris .

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