Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 May 1939 — Page 15

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From Indiana —Ernie Pyle

No Wonder the Buffalo Is Sad, He's Probably Thinking of All Those Ancestors Slaughtered Years Ago.

ODGE CITY, Kas., May 4.—The buffalo is a funny animal. He has sad eyes and his great head hangs down. He's much bigger in front than behind. When he runs, he lopes like a wooden saw-horse with stiff legs. I suppose the buffalo is sad because he's worrying about all his ancestors who were murdered by white men. And I suppose his legs are stiff from trying to get away. Buffalo, like Dodo birds, never interested me much until the other day. But when I saw herds of them running loose around the Phillips Ranch in Oklahoma, it got my curiosity worked up. So I went into the buffalo-lore business. Sixty years ago, if you had been around these parts, you would have been right in the buffalo capital of America. A horseman could ride all day long through a buffalo herd, and as far as he could see in every direction, from sunup till dark, there was nothing but the backs of buffaloes, like a limitless brown sea, stretching to every horizon. The buffaloes moved in such great masses that sometimes they made a front 50 miles long. Nobody knows how many buffaloes there were. Gen. Sheridan, riding between Dodge City and Camp Supply, Okla, in 1868, estimated there were 100 million buffaloes just in the 100 miles he covered. Sheridan was terrifically impressed, and probably wrong. Another writer in the early days, put his estimate at 50 million between Canada and Texas in 1850. He is likely more nearly correct. Western Kansas was the grazing place for the main herd. They moved south in winter, north in the summer, The buffaloes were all right until the first railroad came through in ’69. That provided a means of shipment back east. It didn’t take business long to discover what buffaloes were good for. They were good for making machinery belting. Their meat wesn’t the most delicious in the world. And their hides didn’t tan up into leather very well. But for belting it was wonderful. The whole world needed belting at that time. So the hunters went to work. At one time, there were 5000 buffalo hunters in the field. They usually rode into the herds and shot from horseback. Skinners followed the hunters, took off the hides, and left the carcasses lying on the plains.

The Years of Slaughter

The slaughter went on all through the Seventies. More than three million hides were shipped over the Sante Fe alone. So swift was the slaughter that the price of hides went down and down and down. It dropped from $5 a hide to $1. The buffaloes were pretty Well gone by 1880. When the slaughter was over, buffalo skeletons by the million dotted the prairies. But they were not to lie there forever. . When the homesteaders came, they ran into ‘&rought and dust storms, just as prairie farmers do today. Thousands of wretched homesteaders eked out a living through those lean years by collecting blanched buffalo bones from the prairies. They hauled them into town, from where they were shipped east for making fertilizer. In the period from ’68 to 81, the farmers of south Kansas were paid $2,500,000 for buffalo skeletons. The bones brought the farmers $8 a ton, and they figured it took 100 buffalo skeletons to make a ton. That would be more than three million buffale skeletons picked up by the farmers, in just this aréa. The same thing occurred in Oklahoma. By 1900 the once powerful buffalo had run its course. Nothing remained but a few scattered bones under the prairie dust, and a few house-bred buffaloes in zoos and on ranches.

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Beautiful Lighting Effects at the New York Fair Provide Big Thrill.

EW YORK, Wednesday.—A group of us drove out last evening to the New York World's Fair to see the lighting, and I must say that I would not have missed the 9 o'clock playing of the fountains, even for , the very good dessert which we were obliged to forego. I have seen the fireworks and fountains in action at Versailles and am familiar with other displays of this kind but, for the first time, they have found a way here to keep the color in the water right to the top of the spray and it adds much to the general effect. They control the rise and fall by the music and the whole thing is really breathtakingly lovely. Qf course, it is still too cold, so the trees and flowers are not sufficiently out as yet to get the full effect of the beautiful landscaping. Many exhibits are not yet finished and I think that the resi of this month will probably be needed before everything gets to the point of perfect operation. There is much of interest to be seen now, however, and no one should go to this fair with the idea that one or two visits will satisfy their curiosity. The exhibits which we glanced at last night are on a scale which make one realize how much there is to see. I was fascinated by the great cone in the Ford Building which shows how the products of the soil tie up with the products of industry. It is so graphically done that any child could understand it.

Children’s World Tempting

Near the gas industries exhibit, is’a charming little house which includes many gas appliances of interest to the housewife. Both the General Electric and Westinghouse companies have arresting exhibits which catch the eye. The railroad building will continue, 1 think’ to draw crowds, for I wanted to et out myself to look at each of the different trains. Even the part of this fair which is planned just for entertainment is going to be worth while, for the entertainments will be good. Last night we used the little electrically operated chairs, but there are other equally pleasant modes of transportation. The part of the fair which is labelled “Children’s World,” made me want to stop and play! 1 noticed many own people on the merry-go-round and I know that on some future occasion I shall succumb to the lure of youth and do the same. My brother was deeply disappointed because we did not go through Mary's Toyland.

Day-by-Day Science

ANTED: More help from chemistry. This notice is inserted in the current issue of the American Journal of Botany by the man who has lately been doing most toward a chemical control over the evolutionary process in plants, and hence toward a new revolution in practical plant breeding, Dr. Albert F. Blakeslee, of the Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. laboratories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Dr. Blakeslee’s outstanding contribution has been fine use of the old-time rheumatism remedy, colchicine, ‘to force a doubling up of the number of the heredity-

makes possible the juggling of genetic characters in ways not hitherto possible. But Dr. Blakeslee is not content. If chromosome numbers could be permanently halved instead of doubled, still other moves could be made in the fascinating Mendelian chess game. Some of his friends have been trying to accomplish this by chemical means, but thus far have not succeeded. So that is Want Number One on Dr. Blakeslee’s list. Another wish which he puts up to a possible

chemica

The Indianapol

(First of a Series)

By Paul Harrison

HOLLYWOOD, May 4 (NEA).—It isn't the same old Hollywood these days. It isn’t a new one, either. It's a Hollywood in transition and confusion and revaluation. Stars are falling, standards changing,

horizons broadening. The colony and the industry now are aware that the San Fernando Valley, Palm Springs, Del Mar race track, and Santa Monica are not the four corners of the earth. You hear radical and reactionary talk, all very decisive and most of it bitter. You meet flag-wavers and exponents of all the “isms.” You find a new degree of social independence that challenges belief. The only assurances that you are still in Hollywood are the activities of a few groups who still behave as movie people are supposed to behave.

The Schenck-Zanuck-Connie Bennett-Countess Di Frasso crowd still gathers to gamble for high stakes. Another gang plays games. They do these “Who am I?” charades and have elbowbending contests at their basement bars. And then there are the-people-who- talk - about - pictures. Here is an example: Thomas Mann, Nobel prize winner and expatriate from Germany, was the guest of honor at a large Hollywood party recently. Producers, directors, writers and stars, liberals, conservatives, artists, and dollar-minded filmoguls flocked in. During dinner there was just a lot of guest-to-guest chatter. Immediately afterward Dr. Mann found himself cornered by a little group of Hollywoodsmen. They didn’t ask questions; they talked. They told him all about the picture business—with gestures. Other guests, who would have liked to have heard what the great author had to say, stood around and glared. Dr. Mann's remarks, however, were confined to ‘Yes,” “No,” and “Ah-h-h.” After two hours he went away, declaring that he had had a very interesting evening. Which was probably true.

HE incident shows that Hollywood’s controlling ego is still self-centered, but that it now is in the minority. To learn what the plushier side of moviedom is saying and thinking, I sought out Ouida Bergere, who is Hollywood’s first hostess and a cosmopolite. For seven vears sne was head of Paramount's scenario department.

(= She also is Mrs. Basil Rathbone. Her parties are absolutely tops in this town, not so much because they are correct, but because she invariably garnishes them with famous musicians, authors, scientists, statesmen, duchesses, and such. Her guests

seem to have fun. “Too many Hollywood people like to be around celebrities but not with them. They'll stampede to say ‘How d'you do?’ to distinguished outsiders and then drift off by themselves and talk about pictures,” she said. Ouida declares there's nothing in this town even to approximate Manhattan “cafe society.” The famed Trocadero is dark, too. Its failure strikingly emphasizes the extent to which the screen colony has gone casually independent, because for years it was the spot where everybody had to be seen at least once & week. Earl Carroll's glittering new nightery, with a girlesque revue calculated to impress even beautysated moviemen, is patronized almost exclusively by tourists who sit around ‘and mistake each other for flicker celebrities. The smaller night clubs are booming again. Grace Hayes’ Lodge (she's the former vaudeville queen) is packed every night, and talented customers take over whenever the paid entertainers pause for breath. Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom insults his customers and makes ’em like, it, and Monte Proser’s La Conga is a crowded temple of the rhumba. Here you see all the slithery callipygian cuties such as

THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1939

~ CHANGING HOLLYWOOD

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Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman and Lana Turner, Of course, Hollywood is horse-

crazy, and everybody bets. Paternalistic studio heads have tried to curtail the gambling fever without much success because, after all, the bosses own a lot of the horses. As for straight gambling, the Clover Club still is running full blast in secure defiance of a purge announced by local purists.

» » ”

HE “star system” is dead. For a couple of years it has been having sinking spells and transfusions of red ink. This was a costly, hopeless fight. The motion picture industry will not acknowledge the death of the “star system” because the latter is supposed to be another name for GLAMOUR. And GLAMOUR is still in her ivory tower—sulking, maybe, but still there. * Actually the “star system” was simply this: That if you took one or more celluloid deities of sufficient importance and popped them into a picture along with some spicy ballyhoo, that picture would make money regardless of its merit. The idea worked. It made hundreds of millions of dollars. A story could be stupid, its direction inadequate, its players miscast and incompetent. But if its stars were worshiped by the fans, the film would clean up. That is not true any longer. The customers still have their favorites, but they go to see the pictures and not the actresses and actors. This is admitted privately by every executive with whom I have talked. But they will not

Entered as Becond-Class Matter Indianapolis,

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1. Ellen Drew, Cinderella girl of the movies, signs a new contract

with producer George M. Arthur.

2. A party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Basil Rathbone, social leaders in the film capital, Left to right are Hedy Lamarr, Mr. Rathbone and the former Mary Lee Epling Hartford and Doug Fairbanks Jr,, just before their recent marriage. 3. Marjorie Weaver, the Kentucky girl who went to Hollywood from the campus of Indiana University, is among the newcomers for whom

fans are demanding a “break.”

4, Shirley Temple, box office “champion” far four successive years.

admit for publication that star names are depreciating rapidly in value. They also blame censorship, headed by their own Hays Office, for its stern attitude against sex both in movies and stills.

“Do you reslize,” asked a prominent director, “that there are only six real stars left in pictures? I mean names which in themselves are boxoffice draws— names that have an appeal above the title or the quality of & picture. They are BING CROSBY, CLARK GABLE, GARY COOPER, SHIRLEY TEMPLE, DEANNA DURBIN AND SONJA HENIE. > » » » “O\HIRLEY TEMPLE has been the box-office champion for four successive years. But her ‘Little Princess,’ which is a good picture, is making three times as much as ‘Just Around the Corner,’ which wasn’t so hot. So you real ize that fans are going to see Shirley's pictures, and not just Shirley. “And have you noticed that they're billing Shirley’s name UNDER the title of “The Little Princess’? Same way with Joan Crawford in ‘Ice Follies. This is the first time in 10 years that Joan hasn't been advertised above her pictures.” There is other evidence of the collapse of the star system. “Parnell,” with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, was one of the worst fiascoes in Hollywood history.

T the same time, the fans have demonstrated that they can build players of their own choice. Something is bound to happen when thousands of let ters bounce into a studio demanding a break for “that cute little Marjorie Weaver,” or Ellen Drew, or Dorothea Kent.

Such notice was responsible for the career of Robert Tayor, and a very worried Hedy Lamarr now has her fingers crossed as she hopes to be able to justify an acclaim which nobody expected for her in “Algiers.” In gencral, though, the public seems more interested ir. players’ abilities than in the players them=selves, Little is left of the old blind adulation, and it is well known that the “mobbing” of pic ture favorites out of town is the result of stage management, publicity and often hired claques. Meanwhile, good stories without stars are cleaning up. ‘Four Daughters” was one. “Pygmalion” is beating the wildest guesses of its distributors. The Hardy Family series, with a low-salaried but able cast, and on Class B budgets, is making millions and has taught Hollywood more than it learned in years about what the public wants. Such facts ‘merely underscore n observation made some time go by a smart showman named Shakespeare: “The play's the thing.”

NEXT: Double bills, the radio and television.

fairy godmother is for some means 10 : len ves ar flowers, brie rom aay

Side Glances—By Galbraith

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Under which Government department is the General Land Office? 2—What is an amulet? 3—Which countries comprised the “Central Powers” during the World War? 4—From whom did Jess Willard win the world’s heavyweight boxing championship? 5—What does the legal term, locus delicti, mean? 6—Name the U. S. Senator from Illinois who recently died. T—Historically, which is ‘the oldest alcoholic beverage? = ” » Answers

1—Department of the Interior. 2—Any object worn as a charm to ward off evil. 3—Germany, Austria~Hungary, Turkey and . Bulgaria. 4—Jack Johnson. 5—The place where a crime was actually committed. 6—James Hamilton Lewis. T—Wine.

® ® = ASK THE TIMES Inclose & 38-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 18th St, N. W., Washington, D. ‘C. Legal Se, ical

J

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

PAGE 15

Ind.

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Career of Dan Rice, the World's Greatest Clown, Recalled Back in 1905 When Widow Visited City.|’

ALMOST the first thing Adeline Rice did when she came to Indianapolis in the fall of 1905, was to ask the way to St. John’s Church. She was more than 80 years old at the time. After saying her prayers, she went around the corner to the rectory and introduced herself as the widow of Dan Rice. Surely not the widow of the greatest clown the world has ever seon, said the surprised priests, and the woman

nodded her head and said “Yes.” The priests saw right away that the woman was tired and hungry. What's more, they did something about it. They got in touch with the good people of their parish who took her into their homes and gave her shelter and food. Proud Mrs. Rice insisted on paying them for their charity by doing such domes= tic work @s she was physically capable of doing. will WD Mr. Scherrer then a strange - Worry Every one of Mrs. Rice's hanefactors ven it. After staying in a home for several days Sh insisted on turning it upside down and Cig whole arrangement of the house. Changing the Tas niture is, of course, & prerogative of women, but Mrs, Rice carried it a little too far. At & house on S. West St, for instance, while her benefactress was absent, the old lady moved & bed and bedding from a room she had been permitted to occupy down into the parlor. Not only that, but she was found sound asleep when the head of the household returned. Mrs. Rice became indignant when told to leave. It was the same story in several other South Side homes until finally it became apparent that, maybe, the woman Was afflicted with a dise

ordered mind, And sure enough, a couple of months after hey arrival in Indianapolis, a commission was set up in the Court House to investigate her sanity. She was ws active as a cricket that day and apparently pose sessed of all her senses, She was positive she was the widow of Dan Rice and remembered marrying him back in 1847 when she was 24 years old. And her eyes lit up like everything when she said that she was one of the first women to do trick barebdck riding of horses in the ring, Beyond that, though, she couldn't remember much. It was too long ago, she said, Had Mrs. Rice remembered more of her husband it would have been one of the most fantastic stories ever told in & court room, For one thing, she would have told that Dan was born in Mulberry St, New York, and that his real name was McLaren; that he ran away from home, went to Pittsburgh, and acted in various capacities as & stable boy, jockey, and hack driver,

First Crackerbarrel Philosopher

His spectacular career as a showmar covered the period of 1841-85, He began at Pittsburgh by buying a half interest in Lord Byron, an educated pig. When the pig died, Barnum gave him a job in his Museum, For a few months, too, he was an agent for Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, Dan made his debut as a clown in 1844, and for 30 years had this country in stitches. In the late Sixties when he ‘was at the height of his career he pulled down a thousand dollars a week. His act always started with a song and dance and ended with & speech in the course of which he bantered the audfs ence and the ringmaster. (There was only one ring) He was the original crackerbarrel philosopher and the first commentator on public affairs, He made and lost three fortunes, When he lost the last, he took to drink. In 1878, however, he “reformed” and became a temperance lecturer. Legend has it, however, that the water pitcher before him on the table nearly always held gin. At the beginning of the Eighties he was a forgotten man. Indeed, people thought he was dead, As a matter of fact, he didn’t die until 1800, As for Dan's widow, it pains me to have to report that she was adjudged insane and sent to the Central Hospital in care of Dr. Edenharter.,

Jane Jordan—

Friend Warned Against Telling Wife She Saw Husband With Woman,

EAR JANE JORDAN-I have a very dear girl friend, and she married a man about 15 years her senior. She is a blond, very attractive, and about 26. She has three children ranging in age from 2 to 6 years. Even though we are the very best of friends she never has taken me into her confidence about her home life. Now this is why I am ‘writing you. My friend and her husband have just recently bought a very lovely home. They have a double garage and two cars. Yet the husband rents a garage by his place of business for their pleasure car. I am sure he doesn’t want her to know when he uses this car. On several occasions my husband and I have seen him with a young girl, This girl used to be in their employ. I am wondering if my friend doesn't need someons to open her eyes about her husband. He is one of those holier-than-thou kind. I am sure that if he knew ‘that I knew these things he would do somes thing to end my friendship with his wife. I'm just wondering if I should tell ‘my friend these things, Do you think she would appreciate it? WONDERING. )

n ” ”

Answer=-No, no, no! Don’t tell your friend that you saw her husband with another woman. At the moment I can't think of any excuse that would justify you in taking such an unnecessary step. It could ‘not possibly do any good and it might do a great deal of harm. Your motives in wishing to tell ars open to question. The desire to punish one or both of these people is bound to be present. Perhaps it is only the husband, but if so, why risk humiliating the wife also? Perhaps she knows and the last thing on earth she would want is to have her friends know, A woman's pride is one of the chief sources of pain where her husband's fidelity is concerned. She could put up with a lot and handle the situation ‘much more wisely if only she believed her friends to be in ignorance of her problem, : If she doesn't know and you tell her, what do ‘about it? Tears and threats are futile wespon When let alone these affairs often come to noth whereas they cause twice us muth trouble when st

Put your problems ‘Tn ‘a Teter Wo June Jovian Wis will ‘snswer your questions In ‘this colunm wily. Rd