Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 August 1947 — Page 15

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Inside Indianapolis

IF YOU EVER FEEL like meeting a man-with a real “glad” hand, go over and see Tom Rogers, 3117

W. Washington st. Chances are you won't find him at the front of the address, but don't let that stop you. . Go around to the back. At first sight you'll see what I mean about Tom's glad hand, And the most wonderful part of what you see, about 12,000 gladioli, is they're all yours—to look at. There's never a lock on the 80x100-foot garden. This surprised me. Doesn't it you? But as Tom told me, he’s not worried about yandalism from anyone who knows him and his work with the glad. His sole purpose in growing glads is because he enjoys their beauty. More than that he enjoys when other people find pleasure and beauty in his garden. “About the nicest compliment I ever received,” Tom said, “was one day when I walked in the garden to find a man standing among my glads with his hat against his chest.” When Tom came up the man told him: the way I feel about it.” Tom claims he inherited his “green thumb” from his father and grandfather, who planted flowers on a basis

“That's

commercial \ “I'll grow glads, have been for 28 years, but rather than sell them, I'd rather give them away to people

who really appreciate flowers,” Tom explained. “And

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A GREEN THUMB TOUCHES A GLAD— Tom Rogers, who never locks the beauty in his garden, inspects a favorite gladiolus.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.—I have lost interest in Howard Hughes’ dancing girls. I just want my West Coast operative to drop by Senor Hughes’ dry-dock and see if the biggest airplane in the world actually exists. I want him to touch it and make sure it's not a mere legal mistake, maybe. Boy! Gather round, taxpayers, for what looks like the nearest thing to a ride we may get in .our eightmotored, 700-passenger plywood behemoth of the air. Remember? We paid Mr. Hughes $18,000,000 to build three of these over-sized flying machines. Then we decided (through our spokesmen in the government) to-slip him the $18,000,000 for just one. We. skipped the other two. We actually paid $21,115,970 for our airplane. We own it. We have accepted delivery, but we can’t use it. The civil aeronautics administration says it won't allow it to fly for civilian operation until it has been tested. Really tested. Busted to smithereens on purpose to test it part by part. “And then there will be no plane,” testified CAA Deputy Administrator C, I. Stanton. So nobody can fly it, except Mr. Hughes, on test authorization. And that isn’t all. Incredulous was the expression on the faces in the senate caucus room when Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan, the chief investigator, read the terms of the newest contract between Mr. Hughes and us, the taxpayers, by way of the defense plant corp. 80 long as our airplane doesn’t fly, and if there actually is an airplane and not some smashed lumber, it is ours to admire.

He Can Lease Ii—No Cash

THE MOMENT that Mr. Hughes decides to test it (listen closely, taxpayers), then he has ‘the right to Jease it for $37,500 a month, plus $6.50 for ever hour that each of the mighty motors roars.

‘I'm Very Happy

While Erskine Johnson is on vacation, outstanding

I'M NO “GLAD girl,” and by nature I'm not even distantly related to Eleanor H. Porter's irritatingly optimistic bundle of curls and checked gingham Polly-" anna. It would be both stupid and untrue to say that I'm

more comfortable confined to a wheelchair than I

would be walking around, as I did before I met with my hunting accident. But acceptance of a situation as it exists is the first progression toward happiness. My case is a particularly lucky one. If my career had been that of a doctor, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to continue it from a wheelchair. But a fortunate chance made me chose acting, and it is possible to act either sitting down or standing up.

Choice of Roles Limited

THE CHOICE of role, however, is somewhat limited. It took a year to find Margaret Ferguson's novel, “The Sign of the Ram,” in which Leah, the heroine, is logically confined to a wheelchair. It's a good, strong dramatic role, vastly different from the ingenue parts I played while under contract to M-G-M. Fans may come to see this Columbia picture because they are curious to see a girl in a wheelchair. But if the producer, Irving Cummings; the director, John Sturges, and I have our way, the fans will leave the theaters feeling they have seen an actress—and, I hope, a good one. Leah, in “The Sign of the Ram,” is a challenge She is a dimensional figure, woven of both good and bad qualities. T hope my performance will mean enough to make people want to come back to se€ my next picture. Yes, I hope to continue making films when the right parts come along. Right now, I'm dickering for another published story, but until

. ernment engineer who spent four years watching our

: By Ed Sovola

I do, not as & hope for a reward or fear of punishment. I just want to do it.” Cl Tom had just finished spraying his flowers with DDT. A big bumblebee dive-bombed me with no suc-cess-and settled for gladiolus blossom. “Well, that monster won't last long,” I remarked. “Oh, yes, he wil. DDT doesn't seem to bother bees. And besides, bumblebees won't sting you if you don't antagonize them.” I'm a peace-loving guy, Mr. Rogers, but I believe in protecting myself.

Can Define Colors \ “DO YOU KNOW anything about gladioli?” asked Tom. “I know a gladiolus when I see it. That's about all. Oh, yes, and I can tell the different colors,” was my answer. “I'd be glad to explain all I know about gladioll,” volunteered Tom. “Of course, the whole subject gets pretty technical. You have to be a combination botanist and chemist to really get into this hobby with both thumbs.” Since I had never studied botany and almost flunked chemistry in school, I asked him to keep it simple. ' You know, this is a petal, this is soil, this is a stick to hold up the main stem (maybe not that simple, but you get the idea). I was shown an exhibition type glad with the

straight stem, long flower head with plenty of blos-

soms regularly placed and spaced.

A Bit Confused

THERE WERE several glads which seemed to me to be a bit confused in their arrangement and destination. The gladioli with the corkscrew stems were a result of the recént “heavy rains. They absorb water at a terrific rate, Tom said, and sometimes when they grow 18 inches overnight the weight of the absorbed moisture bends them out of shape. | “The glads you see with the bunched-up blossoms are freaks of nature. Some growers destroy them, but I don't. Just because nature has slipped’ up there's ho reason for condemning it. Don't you agree?” ’ I did. mentioned. Tom showed me a specimen which was judged perfect by thrée experts the night before. He calls it “MS-42." : “I thought it was" pretty good .but I never take my own judgment as the last word,” said the gladiolus man. “You mean that this flower with men who know gladioli best, is a bit of all right, huh?” “Yes, it's a nice specimen.” “What if someone came in here and wanted this blossom?” Mr. Rogers gave a quick answer: “It all depends on why this someone wanted it. If I thought it would be used for greedy reasons it couldn't be had. But if someone wanted it because they love flowers, I'd give it to them. Would you lke to have it?” I had my answer. Too bad the whole world isn’t full of garden-keepers like Tom.

Especially about the human angle Tom

By Frederick C. Othman

“Of course,” said H. R. Edwards, the elderly gov-

plane being built, “he doesn’t actually pay any money under this lease.” “No?” asked Senator Ferguson. “Oh, no, sir,” replied Mr. Edwards. “The contract ealls for him to rent the plane at this price until he has used up the $2,000,000 of his own money he has spent on it.” “And that'll take about four years?” the senator inquired. “Four years after he takes it up for its first test,” Mr. Edwards said.

No Parties for Engineer IT TURNED OUT further that Mr. Hughes can sub-lease our airplane to anybody he pleases providing somebody wants to rent the biggest airship in the world which the CAA won't permit to be used for commercial purposes. If it doesn’t get busted in the mean~ time we can have our airplane back for our own use sometime in 1951. If we still want it, for busting-up purposes, that is. Mr. Hughes is expected to testify shortly, himself. So is his man Johnny Meyer, who hired the Hollywood beauties to entertain assorted federal big-wigs. Nobody entertained Engineer Edwards. He never met] Mr. Meyer. Only once during the four years he spent in the plant did he see Mr, Hughes, who was busy part of the time directing his Wild West movie, “The | Outlaw.” It's our airplane, anyhow, until Mr. Hughes proves that it will fly. Then it’s his, if he wants it, until the bookkeepers calculate he’s had $2,000,000 worth of- use from it. Only how can he use it, of us either, if he's got to smash it to prove that he built it right? That's the $21 million question.

By Susan Peters Hollywood personalities are pinch-hitting for him.

the deal is closed I'd rather not give any details, beyond saying that it is a light romantic fantasy. Between pictures, I'm living as normal a life as| possible. My husband, Dick Quine,” and I have a wonderful youngster, Timothy, who is 14 months old. I love a home and want a big family. Sometime in the near future, we want to adopt another lad about Tim's age, and a little sister for the boys. I find that I do pretty well running.eur home from a wheelchair. There is a telephone at my elbow most of the time from which I conduct domestic affairs, like ordering food, taking care.of the laundry and other chores native to the housewife. There is nothing dull about life, if one fills the hours constructively. I mend and embroider- as I've always done. Reading is just as much a joy to me as ever. The radio and phonograph are as accessible now as before my accident.

Swims and Hunts, Too

WITH SUMMER’ here, Dick takes me swimming each day when I'm not at Columbia studio. We drive

diana upiversity’s radio department

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The Indianapolis

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Public Urged to Cite Likes and Dislikes

By HENRY BUTLER Times Staff Writer BLOOMINGTON, Ind, Aug. 1

~—“Radio strikes me as an eight-

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| | two cylinders.” Dr. Harry J. Skornia, head of In-

at Bloomington, thus describés his

views on current broadcasting. Dr. Skornia, who recently blasted commercial radio in a survey of Indiana 'radio-listening habits reported in The Times for June 19, thinks air-waves are being misused. “When, at certain hours, the only choice the public has is between four variety shows, then it's time the public demanded what it] wants,” he says. | n rn ¥ THE 1. U. PROFESSOR believes people should register their likes and dislikes more than they do. “If you like a program, let the broadcaster know. If you don't like it,

lamenting people's reluctance to make their opinions carry weight with the broadcasters.

auditorium building in Bloomington, Dr. Skornia has a staff of hard-

out to the desert with a collapsible wheelchair, from which I hunt, and we frequently go fishing. I drive my own hand-operated car around town. And I'm catching up on movies again. Nothing irritates me as much as people who expect me to be sweetly sad. I'm very happy these days, and life is filled with

fun and happiness. I have Dick, my baby, my home shows, not platter stuff. Last year's|

and a career—a pretty wonderful combination, I'd say, for any girl Keep my chin up? That's no effort at all. If one keeps ohe's eyes focused ahead, why one's chin tilts up automatically.

We, The Women

THREE SWEET-FACED girls, who couldn't have been more than 15 years old, were walking along the main street of a small city. Within a block three different groups of men or boys slowed down their cars, whistled and yelled smart remarks at them. The girls hadn't done anything to call forth the whistles. Their prettiness and their youth did that.

Why Is It Allowed?

p! WHY SHOULD YOUNG girls have to put up with that sort of thing in their own home towns?

By Ruth Millett

driver who parks five minutes overtime in a restricted zone, but the smarty behind the wheel of a car who leans out and hollers at every girl or group of girls walking along the street isn't even stopped.

Demands Parents Act

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working assistants. “We work seven |days a week—had to, last year, what {with our 13 shows each week that | were heard over seven Indiana and Kentucky stations.” | When Dr. 8kornia speaks of the {I. U. radio shows, he means real

[heavy program entailed about 100 {hours a week of rehearsing. Everything had to be right—pace, timing, music dubbed in from the radio department’s record library, sound effects, ” » » LISTENING TO recordings of some of last year’s I, U, programs, especially the series called “From Freedom's Forge,” which are dramatizations of U. 8. history, you realize how much work went into those A-1, professional-sounding shows. , Last year's work was a prepara~ tion for the important series the I. U. radio department will launch (this fall.

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raise a kick about it,” he says, |

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PROGRAM CONFERENCE — Staff and “Students of Indiana university's radio department meeting for a program conference are (left to right): Dorothy Singer, St. Louis, Mo., assistant in radio; Ressie Fix, radio expression director, Technical high school, Indianapolis; Barbara Farmer and Eloise Sipes, Bloomington; Jule Shaw, Jefferson-

ON THE AIR—In the cast of a radio play being sent out from the 1, U. studio are (left to right): Miss McClain, Miss Shaw, Daniel G. Sherwood, English instructor; Janice Tyroler, Far Rockaway, N. Y., and Jimmy Singer, Bloomington.

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apolis, and William Potter,

{of the Sky” program is George C. | Johnson, who came. to I U. after iseveral years of experience with a |similaf radio-educational program rin Kansas, | »

~ » MR. JOHNSON HAS worked out a series of educational programs

| designed to supplement classroom {work in public schools. The programs, in dramatic form wherever {possible, will be heard Monday | through Friday of each week at 2:15 p. m. “They're not a substitute for textbooks or teaching,” says Mr. Johnson. “They're planned to help the teacher arouse interest, in classroom work. . “Teachers are among. the most over-worked professional people. Often they cannot take time Lo do research. and gather material to make their subjects seem more vital.

ANY PARENT WITH a téen-age daughter ought|. The new series, starting next Oct. Our shows, on a different subject to Take it a point to notice if that is the treatment 6, is to be éalled “School of the each day, will: present in attractive teen-age girls receive in his city after dark.- If it 1s, gky.” A make! With the co-operation of the

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Engine Hitting On l.U. Experts Sum Up Ra

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Bloomington.

The coming series will continue the work Dr, Bkornia’s department has been doing since 1942. In addition to “From Freedom's Forge,” the I. U. radio studio has turned out long series of scripts under the heading, “Indiana Presents.” Dr, Skornia has huge bound voiumes of mimeographed scripts dealing with “Historic Indiana,” “Indiana Writers,” “Indiana Composers” and “Indiana in Science and Invention.” “Indiana Presents,” highly successful here, has been widely copied, “As a result of the Indiana series, there have been similar series of programs in Texas, California, Wisconsin and New York,” Dr. S8kornia says. r » ” DR. SKORNIA and Mr. Johnson fike to cite a few statistics to show the amount of work involved in radio production. “It takes about 400 pages of mimeograph stencil to keep Indiana university on the air each week,” says Dr. S8kornia, And as an index of what quality Mr. school

ted and green lights showi Mr. Lee, David L. Cohn,

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MUSIC IS ESSENTIAL—I. U. students providing necessary incidental music for radio programs are (left to In his compact department in the| right): George W. Willeford, Sanborn, director: John Shaw Jr., Lafayette; Charlotte Tagg, Sioux City, la.; John McMullen Jr., Ossian; Josephine Franklin, Louisville, Ky.; Fred

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ville: Dr. Harry J. Skornia, radio. department chairman; Fred A, Brewer, Huntington, winner of the recent state script contest; Sara C. McClain, Bloomington; Robert H. Lee, production director; George D. Johnson, director of radio education, and Elaine Doenges, Leetonia, O., radio staff member,

ROUND TABLE—Gathered around the triangular table with its

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he says. “Educational programs need good production.” The IL U, radio department's aim is to make all the educational resources of Indiana university available to the public, says Dr. S8kornia,

time limit for speakers are {left to right): ew York writer; David Benjamin, Gary, student announcer: Carl Carmer, novelist, and Dr. Skornia.

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Brewer Jr., Huntington; James H. Ratcliff, Indian-

WORD-A-DAY

By BACH

If past performance is any indication, the coming. “School of the Sky” should be just as interesting! to adults as it is designed to be! to school-children.

Double Trouble Will Hit Columbus

COLUMBUS, O., Aug. 1 (U, P,).~| Double trouble will be Columbus’ trouble Aug. 8-10. Approximately 600 sets of twins will gather here for the annual convention of the International A staff of Ohio State university, geneticists will spend the first two |'g days of the convention collecting data important in determining the' role of heredity and environment in

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