Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 December 1938 — Page 17

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"From Indiana=Ernie Pyle

Widely Heralded Flight Over Andes Is Something of a Disappointment Because It Is All Over So Quickly.

JRUENOS AIRES, Dec. 1..—We came over

the Andes today—the flight I've been

hearing about and wanting to make for 10

- years. Probably the most widely known single

stretch of mountain flying-in the world. We met the chief pilot—Capt. Sterling— at the airport. “It’s a grand morning to go over the hill,” he said. Sa There were six of us. We left the ground at 7:15, Tr and flew due north. Before we

knew it Santiago was far behind |

and we were terribly high. We flew straight north for 20 minutes, climbing constantly. Then we turned northeast for five minutes. Then due east, into .the sun. We were still climbing. The steward turned on the heat in the cabin. We looked slyly at the red rubber tubes hanging by each seab. - gen tubes. The steward didn’f; snow us how to work them. But he kept his eye on everyoody. The great high Andes kept getting closer. and closer. It looked as though we couldn’t possibly clear them. But I didn’t worry. We're insured. ? .

Mr. Pyle

. We had been in the air 25 minutes when we really |

got up among them. The earth rose: urider us so

swiftly it created an illusion. We were in the pass.

We jumped from one seat to the other. “I.ook at the lake on the left,” said the steward. It was a big lake, hidden in a high ragged valley up there, You couldn't see it till you were right on top. “Look at the highway,” said the steward. It zigzagged back and forth up the steep precipices, and we finally lost it altogether.

“The Christ will be on this side,” said the steward. |

We all jumped to the right side. «There it is,” he said. “See the building down there, right below. That’s the weather station. And see the statue right close to it. That's the Christ.” For years I've heard of the Christ of the Andes— that statue put up by Chile and Argentina on their boundary line in the Andes to symbolize their eternal peace. : Somehow I had thought it would be on the highest peak—immense, silent, dominant. But down there it was, way down so far you could barely make it out. ~ :

No Tarrying Among Peaks

Over to the left, the massive snowy bulk of Aconcagua rose to dominate the range. Aconcagua—23,000 feet, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere. Even at our great altitude it still rose a mile and a half above us. I don’t know what I thought this flight would be like. I suppose I thought the airline would pick out the highest mountain and go right over the top of it.

Naturally they pick out the lowest pass. It is actually a sharp ridge, like a roof peak. It runs parallel with the range and peaks rise up from each . end of it. Its elevation is 12,800 feet. We crossed at abouy 15,000. The plane is climbing every foot of the way until it reaches the crest. And the second you Cross the plane noses down and starts its long descent. You don’t mill around up there among jagged peaks. You are actually in the pass only a minute or two, I guess. In just one hour after leaving Santiago you are down on the ground again, at the flat, sunny airport of Mendoza, in the Argentine. And it is all over.

We had sort of a let down feeling. We were through so quickly we couldn't believe that’s all there was to it. It hadn’t been frightening, or awe-inspiring, or really spectacular, Why, I was twice as scared

crossing the’ Alaskan Tange two summers ago at 8000 feet in an old single-motored Bellanca on pontoons!

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Eager Young Reporter Assured Florida Visit Is Quite Unofficial.

ARASOTA, Fla, Wednesday.—It is wonderful how rumors spread. Just before lunch yesterday, a very nice young reporter from a Sarasota newspaper came in to call and I told him about this being an unofficial trip and he went away quite happy. A little later he telephoned my aunt and said that he was in serious trouble because it was rumored that I had visited several places of public interest, and would sh~.tell him if I had been there? She responded that I hadn't visited any of the places in

question, As a matter of fact, all we did yesterday afternoon was to drive down to a point where one can get fishing boats and look at the beach where, should it really turn warm, we might go and swim. Then we drove through Venice, named, I suppose, for the Queen City of the Adriatic. Individual places in the town are very charming, but on the whole you receive an unfinished impression. - On the way back we stopped at a rather unique small hotel which locks like a barn on the outside, but is quite charming on the inside. The world is indeed a small place for the manager proved to be the cousin of a boy I know quite well "in New York State. : The house of the Grays, with whom I am stopping, has more charm for me than any other house I have seen around here. David Gray built it according to his own plans and watched over the workmen every _minute during its construction, so it has real individuality. There are two little courts. The terrace, which is completely inclosed by the house and the water, gives one a feeling of being cut off from all the world. All the sun there is pours down there during the day, the flowers bloom, the grass is green and they are fortunate enough to have one or two fair-sized trees on it.

Van Loon’s Answer to Hitler

The rooms ‘all open out fo the water or on this |

little terrace and every room has a fireplace. Last

__ evening we sat in the living room with the fire blazine on the hearth and I read aloud from Hendrik willem Van Locn’s, “Our Battle,” which is his answer

to Adolf Hitler's “My Battle.” Mr. Van Loon’s book was inspired by that curious performance in New York City on Oct. 12, 1938, when, at a meeting in that city, Mayor La Guardia’s name was hissed and a foreign dictator’s was cheered. ‘Whether you agree with everything in this little book or not, I think you will enjoy reading it, for, as a historian, Mr. Van Loon has a way of saying things and he draws upon a vast fund of knowledge to fix the facts in your mind % some illustration which is always to the point. You may feel that he is hard on some people. For instance, last night, one of my listeners said that he felt that Clemenceau had been kept alive on onion soup, yes, but by love for his country and not by hate. I have always had a theory that all hate sooner or later killed, but after reading this book, which spurs you to look back over the past, it allows people to do a great deal of harm before their eventual demise. In any case, read the book; it will, I think, increase your sense of responsibility for our democracy.

Bob Burns Says—

OLLYWOOD, Dec. 1.—The best way to look ahead . is to look back and see what’s happened before. The reason scientists know where a star is going to be a year from today is because they have traced .the record of that star back for hundreds of years. - I see now where a scientist has traced the habits of people back for generations and generations, and

has finally figgered what is going to happen to the |

next generation. He says, “They’ll grow up, get a job, “have children and start

married, : ’ about what's going to happen to the next

Second Section

By Jack Warfel

Times Special Writer

defy enumeration.

Then the picture industry was the “Louvre of the Unwashed” and producers had difficulty assembling 50 extras for a mob scene. Today Hollywood manufac-

tures illusion, cans dreams for every hamlet in the world from Peru to the Fijis, and the payroll of its = enchantment artists tops $91,000,000 a year. Today everyone thom the millionaire heiress to the grandmother who imagines she resembles May Robson, yearns to be imprisoned on film for the delight of the universe. : Hollywood has become a tough nut to crack. Screen tests, made during silent days at a cost of $25 each, now represent $1000 per player. “But,” you protest, “the screen offers fresh faces weekly.” Right. And here are five of the better routes to discovery. Forget all about movies and be-

So, You

(Third of a Series)

OLLYWOOD, Dec. 1.—Today methods of crashing the celluloid strip are so varied and fantastic that they At the century’s turn when Edison was grinding out. such epics as “The Great Train Robbery,” one had only to pack a carpetbag, ride bareback from the prairies-and present himself at the studio gate.

come world famous in another

field. Aviation, sports, journalism, stage, radio—all are fertile fields for talent sleuths. Join. a little theater group and be particularly scintillating on the night that the scout is out front —if you can guess the date. ‘Become an extra. You might as well cross this one off the lst because Central Castings stopped taking applications for extra work several months ago. Too many extras dying from famine as it is. Visit the Hollywood office of a talent scout. You may have to wait months for an audition but chances are, you'll get one. ® nn y TAY in your own backyard. If you've got shining qualities, you're just as apt to be discovered behind an Indianapolis counter or typewriter. Scouts rarely look under ‘their own noses in Hollywood. They spend six months of each year touring every state in

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1938

‘Want to Be in Pichi There Are Five Avenues of Approach for Aspiring Fi Im Star

the Union, poking into out of the way crannies. But let’s get some first-hand information from one of the col-

ony’s leading scouts, Bill Grady, chief talent detective for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. “You see that spot!” Mr. Grady stops shuffling through stacks of applications, points to a portion of the office rug beside a small parlor grand. “Eight hours a day people stand there and emote, sing, dance, recite poetry with gestures. I get everything from thwarted Hamléts to hangovers from the Delsarte System of Expression. “Over 500 people a week tell me why. the film industry is going to collapse without their particular abilities. About. one out of 3000 applicants has something.” Mr. Grady says he hasn’t had a vacation in eight years and thinks he may lose his mind if he ever takes a day off to go sit under a park tree. “This week it’s Tarzan juniors. We expressed a need for a young Tarzan to play in Weissmuller’s next film. Promptly, half a thousand determined mothers dragged their offsprings to my desk and ordered their sons to display bulging biceps and scream Tarzan yells in my face. “Six months ago a man rushed into my office, pulled -off his shirt and showed a chest that resembled a bursted horse-hair sofa. He

wanted to play wrestler roles. I

Writing his backstage impressions of the moving picture colony,

* Entered ‘as Second-Class Matter at: Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

Our Town

3 g x

Jack Warfel today discusses the tribulations of the talent scouts. Chief scout for M-G-M is Bill Grady (bottom), who annually tours

. the United States in quest of personalities and promising stage per-

formances. Last year he discovered Frances Claudet, skating star in Winterland at the Great Lakes Exposition. Now she is appearing in

M-G-M films. At the upper right she directs a skating scene in “Ice

Ballet Follies.” Mary Carlisle (left)

reversed the usual procedure by “discovering”

Mr. Grady in his office and persuading hii to give her a screen test.

eased him out before he wrecked the furniture. Now each day he mails me a picture of himself with eye hairs twisted into a little bow. » ” ®

« FUST two hours ago a wildeyed woman broke into the office and screamed, ‘Look! I'm Titania. The piano is a forest and your-hair is a wooden glen.’ We caught her as she was leaping through midair and bundled her into a studio car. “Sometimes people just appear in front of my desk and start making horrible faces that scare even me. They want to be Lon Chaneys. It's a wonder I don’t wake up screaming in the dead of night.” 3 - One suspects that Mr. Grady has become embittered with the passing of years. Over his desk hangs a little poem he composed recently in a fit of despondency. It begins, “Trooping through the

- rural belts, seeing all the plays.

One worse than the other, they leave me in a daze.” And it goes on to say, “Millionaire’s daughters, mother’s little lambs. All just dying to smell like hams.” But Mr. Grady’s clouds aren’t entirely without their silver lin-

ings. Once in a blue moon his &

experienced eye spots the glimmer of talent . .. sometimes behind a soda fountain, sometimes on a football team. He’s as surprised as anyone when this happens. Last year he dropped into a Sunset Blvd. drugstore for a marshmallow dip and, as a result, the waitress who served him became Lana Turner, glamour girl. Don Castle, another new face, was spied by Mr. Grady at the University of Texas campus. During the second year of the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Mr. Grady dropped into Winterland unannounced and liked the looks of Frances Claudet, skating partner of Walter ‘Arion.

INODAY Miss Claudet is on the M-G-M lot directing ice scenes of “Ice Ballet Follies” and appearing in‘a featured role. In several weeks she will make a per-

- sonal appearance in Cleveland,

then return to the coast for more film work. "Only once was Mr. Grady hounded into granting a screen test. That was when an -obscure dancer named Mary Carlisle invaded. his office 20 times in five

days and told him he was a fool for ignoring genius. “The only genius in this office is me,” he told her 19 times but the next time he said, “Get ready for a test. You might make a good cuddly type. Anyway, you've got plenty of gumptio Robert Taylor “was extracted from Pomona College drama class but a screen test indicated that his acting ability was not on a par with his good looks. “For two years we didn’t allow Taylor to do anything but memorize plays and rehearse roles in front of a mirror,”. Mr. Grady recalls. “He had a miserable habit of twisting his head about and sliding his forefinger under his shirt collar when _he talked.” ?

Mr. Grady’s telephone rings.

“Hello. Yes, this is Grady. You say your daughter can stand on one foot, hold the other foot over her head and play a violin solo all at the same time. Am I interested? Not yet, but I will be when she can stand up and hold both feet over her head.” He deposits the receiver. “You see,” he sighs, dismally.

NEXT—Extra! All about the extra!

Giant Machines To Test Brakes

By Science Service RIGHT FIELD, O., Dec. 1— Wright Field's old balloon hangar, now used as a storage building for the great Army Air Corps laboratories and testing station here, will retrieve its importance as a test building with the installation of two giant brake, wheel and tire testing devices now being delivered to the Air Corps by an Akron machine shop. Designed to test wheels 44 inches in diameter and larger, the greater of the two machines is equipped with a 10-foot flywheel whose rim will travel 80 miles an hour at top speed. An airplane wheel will be pressed against it to study its behavior and to simulate all possible landing and other maneuvers. Instruments will record what happens when the wheel’s brakes are applied. If the brakes can stop the wheel from turning in 10 or 12 seconds without failure, they are pronounced satisfactory. /

Side Glances—By Clark

x

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

-.e Ce re

ak. | should have taken.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Of which country is Manito- ' ba a province? . 2—What is the name for the loss of the sense of smell? 3—What is the name of the new automobile, manufgctured by the Ford Motor Co. which has been recently introduced? 4—Was Georgia one of the criginal 13 States? 5—Name the port at the Mediterranean. end of the Suez Canal. Fe 6—What common name is apDlied to all sorts of small

7—In addressing a female presiding officer, what ‘is the proper form of address? 2 8 ” Answers . 1—Dominion of Canada. ‘2—Anosmia. © 3—“*Mercury.” .4—Yes. 5—Port Said. : 6—Minnows. * : ‘1—Madam Chairman, or Madam President.

ie ASK THE TIMES Inclose a 38-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and. medical

‘| beauty—a compassion

PAGE 17

By Anton Scherrer :

. 1 Fantastic Postoffice Address Amused You, Then You Should Know House Numbers Are Jumbled, Too.

NYONE sharing my interest in the Postoffice people’s fantastic new number on their building will be tickled to know that 1

{| have-carried my investigation still further,

with the result that today I am prepared to tell you that the numbering of Indianapolis houses has been a problem, approaching a mess, right from the start. FE : As near as I can learn, it was John D. Defrees, the

owner of the powerful Journal, who was the first to do something about the numbering of houses on Washington St. Not only to do something but actually invest the subject with some imagination. At any rate, on June 13, 1853, when the town had something like 8500 people, Mr. Defrees’ paper proposed a real-for-sure scheme. Commence at the corporation line on East St., said Mr. Defrees, and number westwardly allowing three numbers for each full lot down to Alabama St. and four numbers for each full lot from that point to Mississippi St..(now Senate Ave.), placing all the odd. numbers on the south side and all the even numbers on the north side of the street. Apparently, Mr. Defrees realized that sooner or later he was going to run into some snags, because immediately after he got done laying down the fundamental rule, he added a parenthetical note to the effect that if at any time there should be more tenements than the regular allowance of numbers would supply, fractions could be used to help out. Well, knowing what we do about the Journal's scheme of numbering, it’s kind of exciting to figure out that had Mr. Defrees had his way, Charley Mayer would now being doing business at 433 Washington St.

Mr. Scherrer

| I don’t know whether it impresses you as much as it

does me, but I think Mr. Defrees deserves a monument for thinking up a way of addressing a letter without the bother of orienting the street. : :

Split Town Into Two Parts

For some reason, however, Mr. Defrees didn’t have his way. At least, not altogether, because two years later when the first directory appeared in 1855, Charley Mayer was listed as doing business at-22 W. Washington St. Without having moved, mind you. Somebody had deliberately horned his way in and split the town into two parts, using Meridian St. as the dividing line. I can’t find out who it was but he had sense enough not to wreck Mr. Defree’s scheme altogether, for in the same directory all the houses on * Washington St. (the only ones to be numbered) have their odd numbers on the south side and the even numbers on the north side of the street. . Three years later, in 1858, the Council took a hand in the matter and appointed A. C. Howard to number our streets, but he made the fatal mistake of nume-: bering only the houses then erected with the result that when somebody built on a vacant lot, there was the deuce to pay. In 1864, the Council allowed Mr. Howard to rectify his mistake (with pay, of course) and that’s when we got the Philadelphia plan of giving 50 numbers to a block. ; Someday I hope to get around to telling you why Charley Mayer, without having moved an inch since he set up shop in Indianapolis, now does business at: 29 W. Washington St.

Jane Jordan—

Mother Is Urged to End Grief Over Daughter, Enjoy Life for Son's Sake.

EAR JANE JORDAN—I have been married 25 years and have had two children, a boy of 15 and a girl who would be 24. We lost the girl four years ago. We are a family very devoted to each other, We used to have wonderful times at Christmas with my folks, but since I lost my daughter I just can’t be with them at that time. Now I buy my boy anything he wants that I can afford, but we spend a very quiet Christmas at home by ourselves. We go out for dinner and to a show. Then the rest of the day we spend alone. My husband wonders if we are treating the boy right by not being with my family and having dinner with them. My boy never says anything, but he wouldn’t for fear of hurting us. When I think of my girl and know she can’t be with us I just cannot do it. Am I wrong? ANONYMOUS.

Answer—Yes, you are wrong. Very wrong. You've nad a terrible blow and suffered irreparable loss, but time marches on. A readjustment is called for. To hang on to a grief for which there is no remedy, for which nothing can be done, is simply to ask others to =~ live under a cloud because you are oppressed. Difficult as it is you must let go of mourning. This can be done best by taking more interest in what you have left to live for. There is your son. Are you sufficiently thankful for the fact that you still have him? Must his young life be lived in the shadow because he has no sister? There is your family. Why should you detract from their enjoyment of Christmas by withdrawing yourself and yours from the group? You'll have a dreadful heartache, but it is not fair to inflict your unhappi= ness on others or ask them to share your desolation. # ” ” 3 EAR JANE JORDAN—Please tell me if you think a 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy should go steady. .The boy isn’t making very good money but promises to take the girl some place at least twice

for him. There are two other boys who are very at= tentive and take her places quite often. She has a

care to settle down to just one fellow. If she refuses to go steady, the boy doesn’t want to see her any more than is necessary. Don’t you think he is rather sel fish? INTERESTED.

is more interested in going steady than a 16-year-old girl. In my opinion the girl would be rather foolish to give up two other boy friends and allow herself to be monopolized by one. JANE JORDAN.

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan who will answer your questions in this column daily.

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

OLDLY through the vital medium of fiction, A. k Bezzerides builds up a social document chal lenging the reader with another realistic picture man at work. ; ; Turkish born of Armenian and Greek parents, brought to California early, where he was precariously reared and educated, the author modestly admits at the age of 30 that he has “done everything.” J experience, living and breathing, packed between the covers of a book, is LONG HAUL MTR This story of a tough job as performed by Nick and Paul, brothers, pals, and truckers, who hurtled their “big jalopys” over California's kinetoscopic roads between Oakland and Los Angeles, carrying melons, oranges or lemons, pipes, butter, spuds, eating up the road through the San Joaquin Valley, rolling, rolling .. . is a veritable nightmare of speed, danger, monot= ony, cut-throat buying "and selling, and economic

er. ; SPs Not a pretty tale, this—it’s rough and two-fiste and male. But under its vulgarity lies a kind © for youth and physical strength goaded to their limits—for Paul's young wife who couldn’t afford her baby, for the waif, Cassy, up off the wet road; for the weary, sleep-starv wolfing scalding coffee at Lucy's; for the horror ‘wheels spinning ‘crazily over : :

advice cannot be given nor can

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accident, gas-sprayed | business, n

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a week. He tells her he loves her and she really cares Sh

good time with these boys and that is why she doesn’t 4

Answer—Oh, he’s only normally selfish. At 19 he, i