Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 October 1938 — Page 22

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Vagabond ~The Indianapolis

From Indiana = Ernie Pyle

There's Still an Erie Canal, Ernie

ammo EE »

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1938

or ati il Mickey of the Movies

LBANY, XN. Y,, Oct. 7.—One of the many |

dramatic things in our American pic- | Yule Alias McGuire

ture of which I have always had a vast,| comprehensive ignorance is the Erie Canal. Say “Erie Canal” to me and I could say

“Erie Canal” back, and that ended the dis-| cussion. To bring my ignorance right up to date, I| actually there wasn't any Erie Canal any | more. idea was a boner. There is still} very much of an Erie Canal. It | is as modern as the Lincoln High- | way. and proportionately the traific is about as heavy 3 Also, I can now tell where the (YT Erie Canal was, and where it is. N pe WN It's still in the same place. It runs east and west. almost the entire SN ad length of New York State. L \ R It is 340 miles long and goes \ = from Albany to Buffalo. Actually, EE .

thought

But that

for you fact-sticklers, it starts a few miles north of Albany, and ends a few miles north of Buffalo. he original Erie Canal was opened in 1825, which is 113 years ago by my figures. It was a narrow, rock-lined ditch running right across mountain ranges. and connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and | thence the open sea. Barges were pulled by horses or mules walking along a towpath. The locks were small, the lock gates were of wood, and were opened and shut by hand. The horse and mule davs of the Old Erie Canal not so far back. I haven't been able to find when the last mule-barge was run, but it was somewhere around 1815. Shortly before the World War, the State modernized its whole canal system. Its present immensity is nding. Why, New York is practically like Holi—canals evervwhere. Today the State owns and operates 560 miles of In addition to the main cross-state Erie 1 of 340 miles, there are a number of north and ith “spurs.” This new canal sysiem was opened in 1818. It is as modern as Panama. The State employs hundreds ; of men to operate it. and other hundreds make their living on the boats and barges that ply its waters. The whole thing stands the State approximately $£175.000.000. It costs from $£3,000.000 to $3.500.000 =a vear to operate. Crossing the state, 500 feet above sea locks—great concrete operated by electricity

R & & Mr. Pyle

are

1st

nals

ca Cs SO

more than there are 37 steel gates

the canal level. Altogether,

basins with huge

rises to

The Toll Question Is Important

The western half of the New Erie Canal is an enlargement of the old canal. They just widened it, deepened it, and built immense new locks for the big

But in the eastern half, the old canal was used ! hardly at all. The reason being that it paralleled the | Mohawk River. while the new canal is the Mohawk | River, except for a number of land cuts around | crooked or rocky stretches | It is hard to conceive, in this day of streamlined trains and roaring trucks, of anything actually being

has 16 canal

First comes oil. Standard Oil alone 1 Other oil

, carrving loads up to 9000 barrels panies have smaller fleets. is next. And after that you get loads of ndise, scrap iron, old paper. fertilizer 1 Kinds of crazy cargoes that aren't in s between seven and eight months a frozen in winter. Most of the ds of big companies no toll charge on the Neu g. from a rowboat to the great y absolutely free question of tolls comes up every vear in the Legislature. The railroads think a toll charge would be great. The big oil and barge companies think it would be awful It is a question with two very definite sides. and it would be mighty poor judgment on my part to get caught in between. So I have no opinion. But I thought I ought to mention it, and cause as much trouble as possible {Tomorrow—Start of a Canal Trip.)

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

s thro

The

Too Many Students Want to Enroll In the Unusual Madison College.

y TEW YORK. Thursday.—In the brief time TI spent | N in Nashville. Tenn., yesterday. one visit stands it in mv mind. Secretary Hull had asked me to see r. Flovd Bralliar and when I met him I was imtelvy struck by the fine earnestness of his face. e to tell me of an educational project in which deeply interested. Mr. Bralliar inspired confiience. and anyone who knows Secretary Hull is predisposed to interest in whoever appeals to him. It few words, to make me realize as no mere question of a personality, but from the educational point

ou MM me 13

a Aa

he is

took only a however, t here w something ent view I was told of an educational institution, Madison College, which had received contributions for its origi11 investment amounting to 430 acres of land outside tne citv of Nashville. Thereafter the college was run | 1 unique way.

irely new

The faculty earned its own living | n the side while making teaching a full-time job. Mr. 3ralliar and his wife lived on $15 a month those first s, now they live with greater comfort on $35 a 1th. The students earn their living while making studyme a full-time job. The buildings were put up with student labor, directed by the faculty. They built their own houses. No student receives a degree until he or sie has acquired two skills in any line which seems to fit his or her capacity. Madison College products are and healthy way, and sales are

Flooded With Applications

thev suddenly find ulty A

and they

selling in a moderate increasing gradually.

themselves up against a wrote an article about are flooded with applications

Now new diffic

thelr

magazine work for entrance Mr. Rralliar says the mn

students tahl in

hunindustries have no bull house them labor ut materials must be paid i He savs $14000 would meet ther needs AL looking a little weary, told me how much the educational institutions in Nashville had helped them when they built their library and how co-operative they always were in giving Madison College all the help they could. but now, in the next few months, he must raise $14 000 if he is to meet thes demands already made by young people throughout the country. He mentioned that he had made a survey of 1000 of his graduates and not one among them had been forced to accept help either from the Government r private agencies during these difficult years.

probably use a

dred more their

they hich to Thev have the in cash Rrallial other

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Oct. 7.—Anybody who understands human nature at all knows that the Kids are harder to fool than the grown folks. The smoothest street faker will turn pale when he sees a couple of sharp-eved kids in his audience When my uncle was teachin’ school down home, the superintendent came to him one day and said, “1 want to put a ‘motto’ on your desk that will inspire the pupiis.” My uncle read the sign and it said,

(Second of a Series)

By Norman Siegel"

Times Special Writer OE YULE Jr., the little kid who wore long pants to kindergarten and shocked his teachers with wisecracks, is Hollywood's biggest coming star today as the winsome “Andy Hardy” of the screen. But, when Joe Yule Jr. and his mother arrived in Hollywood 12 vears ago the “Promised Land” looked anything but promising. The movie industry was too engrossed in making pictures and discussing the coming “talkie” revolution to take much cognizance of Mrs. Yule and her little vaudeville offspring. So Mrs. Yule, who had great screen ambitions for her son, got a job managing one of the small bungalow courts that mushroom

the Ios Angeles area and Joe went to work at an education.

He had almost worked up to the first grade. when an old vaudeville acquaintaince from New York came to town. He gave Joe an introduction to Will Morrissey, who was staging a revue at the Orange Grove Theater. An audition was arranged and Joe clicked with his act. So Joe was back in vaudeville again. as far from the movies as when he was in Manhattan.

= » » NE night, while waiting backstage for Joe to finish his “turn,” Mrs. Yule happened to be glancing through a newspaper.

Her eve caught an announcement of a nation-wide contest to find a boy to play “Mickey MecGuire.” in name as well as type. Carefully, she tore out the item and slipped it in her purse. Here was little Joe's chance to crash the golden gates of Hcllywood. She knew Joe was capable of playing the part. The only drawback lay in the fact that the boy for the role had to be a brunet and her Joe just couldn't possibly have been a more definite blond. At about that time a black-face comedian strode out of the wings. He solved her problem. In her old make-up box was a tin containing burnt comk. The next morning a rather puzzed little boy “held still” while his mother, tin boX in hand. covered every glint of gold in his hair with black smudge So. carrying his favorite cap. for fear if.he wore it the black make-up might leave a tell-tale mark on his forehead, Joe started out for his most important assignment

n on »

OME 2500 youngsters of all sizes, types and temperaments were on hand to try for the coveted role. They were nervous, uncontrollable and untrained. But, little Joe with a hundred “first nights” behind him, stepped up for the audition

on,

ty, Art,

Mickey as he appeared in three of his screen successes. At the left in “Riffraff,” in the center with Freddie Bartholomew in a scene from “Captains Courageous,” and right as “Puck” in "A Midsummer Night's Dream.”

with all of the confidence of a veteran trouper. Hollywood had its “Mickey McGuire.” And Joe became “Mickey MecGuire.” in name as well as type. Larry Darmour, producer of the series, suggested that he drop the .Joe Yule Jr, and legally take the name of the little comic toughie. For the next six years, and through 78 pictures, Mickey made his new name famous. As the little guy with the derby hat ana

chocolate cigar in his mouth, he

By Marjorie Van de Water

Science Service Psychology Writer

| WW To Oct. —A movement of German and Czech -—

peoples such as that which has been the subject of negotiations in the

present crisis has no precedent in the whole history of populations, in Which would have ended civilization as we have known it.—Prime Minister Chamberlain, on the parties to | the Czech partition agreement.

the opinion of population experts here. Possibly involving 500.000 people. such a people for political

500.000 to 1.transfer

reasons has

Inever before been done.

Nearest to it was the transfer be-

tween Turkey and Greece following the World War.

But then there was

no question of divided loyalty: it] was merely a question of sending cooking without thinking it was a Greeks to Greece and Turks to Tur-|g8as raid.—Greta Nissen, actress, ex- | Key. |plaining why she returned suddenly | The Sudeten area is occupied hy Czechs and by Germans, who al-|

and inheriting different traditions,

Side Glarces=By Clarke

20-7

leven in all know this area as home and are

was a capable forerunner to the “Dead End” kids.

But when Mickey reached the age of 12, fate which had picked him up and showered him with screen fame, dumped the youngster back into vaudeville again. He had outgrown his screen role. However, it didn’t desert him entirely, for the “Mickey McGuire” of the screen was still good for some personal appearance engagements on the stage. 2 » on

E had to drop the “McGuire” tag. That belonged to the creator of the comic character, despite the fact that Mickey had adopted it legally. So to forgo legal suits. Joe Yule Jr. alias Mickey McGuire. became Mickey Rooney and left Hollywood to start a vaudeville tour in Chicago. On that 10-week vaudeville tour,

Proposed Transfer of Czec Peoples Unprecedented, Experts Say

| tied to it by bounds of affection and) tions

financial interest.

SO THEY SAY—

They have averted a catastroohe

Sweet reasonableness had

revengeful enemv would

berlain’s meetings with Hitler.

It got so I couldn’t smell anything

to the United States from England.

Mob spirit is not confined to a

Thomas.

h and Ger

~ are there. | go.

ber of Jews. than

census. won

of nothing except terms which a cruel, have dictated to a beaten foe after a long war. —Alfred Duff Cooper, resigning as Lord of the Admiralty. on Cham-

tilarly it

is Now Definitely Rooney

Mickey discovered that his new name gave him more scope than he had enjoyed as “Mickey Mec=Guire.” As “McGuire,” he was tvped. People expected him to be tough. But, as Mickey Rooney, he could act as he pleased, and Mickey could act. Returning to Hollywood, he was temporarily “washed up.” to use the theatrical term. Vaudeville was at a low ebb. He had gotten all he could out of the fact that he had been “McGuire.” And he was having hair trouble. "Don’t ever have your hair dyed, no matter what happens to it,” Mickey advises. “Gee, take a lesson from me. I had to go around for months locking ‘corny.’ My hair was blond down at the roots, kind of purple up a little bit farther and black on the ends. It took almost a year to get back to natural. T went around with my cap on all the time.”

o n »

URING that the screen

year, Mickey, star of a few

as Americans weve

Complicating the picture

the figures shown by

It is only

the area which is

might be

(Copyright. 1938)

man

recently | driven out of the dust-bowl area These people are not driven out by intolerable drought. Their homes of the country by economic ccud’-|are in the Sudeten; their nusinesses = - = They have no place to It would be the responsibility | lof those supérintending the move-| ment to provide somehow {or them. is the presence in the area of a large numThis number is larger the This is due to the fact that the German Jews are registered in the Czechoslovakia census as Germans: the Czech Jews as Czechs. reasonable to assume that not all of the Germans now living in transferred to Germany will want to live under the rule of Hitler. Simthat not all of, the Czechs would want to take their {cows and leave their homes in order | (to avoid the Hitler regime. {many would be included in either | . : {of these groups, or whether they| though speaking different languages certain economic class. It is evident| would balance each other in numcollege men. — Norman pers, cannot possibly be estimated. |

being

How |

Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis, Ind.

at Postoffice,

months before, had to accept bit parts and extra work in pictures to keep before the camera. But he wasn't just an ordinary extra. His flair for comedy and his thundering personality just wouldr’t be contained in a crowd. He stood out.

Norman Taurog, who has handled as many juveniles as any Hollywood director, today contends that Mickey has a sense of comedy, lacking in most child actors. That's why he's good. Suddenly directors and producers became “Mickey” conscious. He was in constant demand. Starting with a picture called “Fast Companions,” Mickey began forging to the front again. Following this production was “Love Birds.” “Chained,” “Manhattan Melodrama.” “Blind Date” and “Hideout.” Busy Mickey appeared in some 40 pictures during the next 18 months. They weren't tough roles, either, Producers had rIorgotten the derby-hatted. cigar-smoking baby “Mickey McGuire,” who occasionally diverged from his role to play a midget. In Rooney thev found a brand new personality with a rare gift for making audiences laugh or cry at will F FF #

ETRO - GOLDWYN -MAYER finally signed him to a longterm contract on the strength of his work in “Hideout,” in which he appeared with Maureen O’'Sullivan and Robert Montgomery. They hadn’t also overlooked his performance as “Puck” in the star-studded screen version of Shakespeare's “Midsummer Night's Dream.” But his career as a ‘“‘puppylover” was still in the offing. Mickey was only used whenever a meddlesome little brother was needed to throw a monkey wrench into more mature love stories, or when a more serious drama needed the pathos of a boy's tears. He proved himself a trouper and there followed such Rooney successes as his work in “Ah, Wilderness,” “The Devil Is a Sissy.” “Captains Courageous” and “Thoroughbreds Don’t cry.” Then the film studio started work on a “filler” picture for a doublefeature bill called “A Family Affair” and with it Mickey Rooney stepped out into stardom.

TOMORROW: America “Andy Hardy,” its latest screen Idol.

‘Second Section

PAGE 21

Our To By Anton Scherrer

The Ghosts Mr. Riley Encountered Never Excited Him in the Least, Harry New Made You Understand.

ARRY NEW’S stories always left you guessing whether or whether not James Whitcomb Riley was on speaking terms with ghosts. For example, there was the one about Francis Wilson, the actor who played in “Erminie” for a run of 1256 performances at the Casino Theater, New York. One day Riley got a package from Wilson inclosing a letter and a book,

The book was a volume of Eugene Field's poems; the letter, a request for the tribute Riley wrote at the time of Mr. Field's death. (To be written on the fly-leaf of the book, of course). Wilson asked that the inscribed book then be mailed to him at a certain Cincinnati hotel. Riley complied with the request, even to the point of carrying the package to the postoffice to make sure it had enough stamps. A week later Riley got a letter Mr. Scherrer from Wilson saying he was leaving Cincinnati and, not having received the book, would Riley please send it to another address. Riley answered explaining he had sent the book, whereupon Wilson got in touch with the Cincinnati hotel again, only to be told that the book was not there, and never had been. A year later Wilson went into a Chicago bookshop, the whereabouts of which Riley knew nothing. (Sen ator New always stressed that point, I remember.) Soon as the bookseller saw Mr. Wilson, he handed him a package addressed to him in care of the bookshop. The bookseller said the package had been lying around the shop for goodness knows how long. Wilson opened it, and sure enough there was the lost book with Riley's verse on the fly-leaf. Wilson sat right down and wrote a long letter telling Riley all about it. The incident didn’t impress Riley at all. He dismissed it with the remark: “Gene Field did that.” Mr. New used to tell another story just as good about Riley and Roberf Louis Stevenson's ghost. When Stevenson died, the publishers of his books wrote to Riley and asked him to write something in appreciation of R. L. S. Riley was tickled pink to tackle the job hecause if there was any one author he liked, it was Stevenson.

' The Check Was Refused

In a few days the publishers sent Riley a handsome check. Riley sent it right back with a letter saying it would be impossible to accept money for paying a tribute to so dear a friend. Whereupon the publishers asked if they might send some books in appreciation for what he had done. Riley agreed to accept a set of Stevenson's books provided they would pick a set with a modest binding. But the books did not arrive, despite the fact that Riley had the publishers’ word for it that the set had been sent. Months passed and finally came the day to celebrate Riley’s birthday. Bright and early that morning an express wagon entered Lockerbie St. and stopped in front of the poet's home. A moment later the expressman came whistling up the

finds

‘Everyday Movies—=By Wortman

Lal

gortman

TEST YOUR

KNOWLEDGE

1—What is the abbreviation for the degree, Doctor of Philosophy? 2--Can the U. 8. Government be sued in cases involving contracts and claims?

3—Name the winner of the 1938 National Amateur golf championship. 4—1In dry measure, how many quarts are in 1 bushel? 5—Name the state flower of Kentucky. 6—Do rabbits chew a cud?

7—On which continent is the Sahara desert?

” » 8

Answers 1=Ph. D. 2—Yes, in the U. 8. Court of Claims. 3—Willie Turnesa. 4-32, 5—Golden Rod. 6-—=Rabbits are rodents and do not chew a cud. T—Africa. # 2 8

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 13th St, N. W,, Washing-

| walk and delivered a set of Stevenson's books. It didn't surprise Riley at all. He said it looked | just like Stevenson to delay the delivery of the booka { until Oct. 7, the anniversary of Riley's birth.

Jane Jordan—

The Problem of One Girl Who Is Educated but Didn't Go to College.

EAR JANE JORDAN-—Schoo!l has started and ail about me I see many boys and girls busy and | happy in their school work and social activities. When | IT was 18 I had the opportunity to travel abroad, earn= | ing my own way with a ballet troupe. At that time dancing was my only ambition; so school meant little to me, and I was the happiest girl alive | when we sailed from New York. After three years of travel I wonder if perhaps I have missed much by | not having a college education. I speak two foreign | languages and can hold my own in all economic and | political arguments. Since I have been in so many | countries I have learned their views and ideals. My | girl friends argue that the traveling I have done, | which is never to be forgotten, amounts to more than | what they have learned in college. Books have given | them only a degree at the end of four years. Then, | too, they say that most girls marry and what they | have learned in college has not made them into | good housewives and cooks. Thus they must begin all over again, this time with the cook book. I cannot agree with them for I feel I have missed much, As for my friends, they are everywhere. I visit home and feel lost among the friends I knew in school. Some feel a little superior to me because 1 left school so early. My travels have fitted me for many things. I can cook. sew and so forth, but I have no diploma to show. I would like to know your views on this subject. TRAVELED. ” ” ”

Answer—] believe that what you actually resenf { is the loss of three protected, carefree years which vou renounced when you left school. You found that dancing was no child's occupation, but a hard task which required constant hard work. Moreover, you found that while you were away from home vou had to do everything for yourself, your sewing and even sometimes your cooking. The result of chis experience was that you grew up more rapidly than your girl friends. You're much more mature than those just graduated from ccllege. You are not uneducated. Ycu speak two foreign languages and have a good knowledge of world affairs. While your friends read about the world you were seeing it in various close-up views. While they learned how to get along with people in a small group, you learned how to get along with strangers in your own and other lands. You've had a valuable experience, one not within reach of the average college girl. You who should be the superior of any untried and untested college girl mourn because you haven't had an ordinary life and settled down in an ordinary community. You cry | for a diploma. You feel you don’t belong fo the old | crowd any more, Yet you have attained more than that. 1 say vou crv to be a child again. free from the burden of yourself. It 1s a common complaint among adults: so cheer up. JANE JORDAN.

Put vour problems in a letter ta Jane Jordan, whe will answer vour questions in thiz column daily. 3

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

N illuminating volume for the wanderer in Eue rope who is curious to know why Baedeker double stars so many churches is THE VOICES OF THE CATHEDRAL (Morrow) in which Sartell Prentice exe plains “tales in stone and legends in glass” from the early Christian period, through the Romanesque and Gothic, to the Renaissance period with its return te paganism. ? Symbolism explained contributes to even the mosé casual tourist's enjoyment of an otherwise dull sub=ject. To know why Aristotle and the courtesan are sculptured on a Christian edifice is to realize that the church was not always somber. Strange beasts, ghosts and devils are a part of Christian iconography. That of Romanesque churches reveals the influence of manuscripts that were centuries old. The author maintains that to hear the voices we must listen. He concludes somewhat sadly that a

Knowledge is wealth.” He turned to the superinand savs, "No, if I'm gonna learn these anything, they've got to have confidence

in me and they know what a small salargl get!” | (Copyright, 1238)

suitable epitaph for what he calls the.old art is this: ‘An old and faithful servant, forsaken by the Church, | killed by the Renaissance, and buried by the Ref-

oa : ; ; od Ee , : dvice t be given nor can We haven't been to a dance since the baby was born. Harvey's | oighid in the bedroom is t66 purple and your idea of char- - ered rovcareh "be er : treuse in here. is just plain ordinary green." %

afraid she'll kek her cover off.”

tendent

children 3

ormation.”