Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 November 1947 — Page 21

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“JUST PRESS THE button for the floor you want, that's all." ¢ . Vern Boehle, maintenance man for the Otis Elevator Co, wasn't kidding. I rocked back on my heels, The reason? We were standing in front of the automatic elevator in the Canary Cottage building. HM you have ever used the elevator to-any great ORtent vou can‘ appreciate better how I felt. At that point my knowledge of elevators was limited. The buttons 1 and 3 were my only claim to familiarity ‘with the cantankerous Lift. It took only a few hundred words to tell Mr. Boehle bf the many unhappy times 1 have had in the thing. Punch for the third floor and you may go to four if you're lucky and then Walk down. Or else go to the second, then down to the main, take a quickie to four and if everything goes well, wind (up in front of the Press Club door. The maintenance man had an explanation, Someone pushed a button for a floor and got his signal first. The automatic selector upstairs makes No discriminations. First come, first served. Mr. Boehle was nice enough to say that occasionally there's, a bad contact and trouble may result. “As a matter of fact,” he continued, “I'm gong up now to make my weekly check, Care to come elong?”

Laugh Up Sleeve Fizzles HE PUNCHED THE BUTTON almost recklessly. I stood laughing quietly up my sleeve. Wouldn't it

Inside Indianapolis

~ Embarrassment

- Pp p Cc

the elevator was stopping at two

PUNCH THE BUTTON—That's all you have fo do with an automatic elevator, says Vern Boehle,

operation of this mechanism,” I was told. relays, energizers, selectors, exciters, accelerators and

contacts?”

someone was going,

button and the elevator will do the rest,” he said.

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~The Indianapolis Times *

SECOND SECTION . FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1947

By Ed Sovola| -

be something if the elevator didn't come down and we had to walk to the fourth floor, I thought. No such lucky f

With the same. confidence he poked button 4. 3 ; . om o— The elevator worked like a charm. | y \ 3 “Follow me,” he said. “I want you to know that Do Yo u Y Y ! : servicing this elevator is the meanest job .on. my ’ . route: and I have the Fletcher Trust, Indiana Bell, :

Woolworth's, Merchants Bahk and the Warren Hotel y : m \ besides this. We are going to the only automatic : outfit I have™ : > : a e ! | :

And we really were going. Reminded me ol some of the scenes in “Odd Man Out” with James

PAGE 21

Mason. An iron ladder was the only means of ” getting on the roof. A man with a 36-inch Py | a FRET - waistline could never handle the job. ** AN ? \ : i :

We proceeded across the roof, over a stone wall and down 20 feet on another iron ladder, A<couple more walls and we were at the “penthouse.” “Evervone who uses a particular elevator every dav thinks it's a pile of junk,” commented Mr. | Boehle as he unlocked the deor. “I get that every dav.” ’ { The first thing he did was Inspect the generator brushes. The oil bearings got.a check and the governor was wiped off and inspected. The governor, regulates the speed of the elevator and Rflso serves as a safety feature in case the cage suddenly should start falling from the fourth floor to the basement, In such an event the centrifugal force balls would exceed the normal speed, lift up and trip a do-dad which would in turn set loose two iron jaws. These, jaws would grab a safety cable amd presto—the elevator and all persons inside would stop.

Complications With Smudges ON A WONDERFULLY complicated panel, Mr. Boehle showed me several smudged contacts. The chief offendets were ST, XK and ET contacts. The ST is the stopping switch, the XK is the starting switch and the ET is connected to the generator. Every time a contact is made there's a blue spark. “When these contacts aren't kept clean a good contact can’t be had and you may not get the floor you want,” he explained. As he“cleaned the contacts with an emory board he asked me to keep in mind the someone-punched-a-button-ahead-of-you theory. “It would take about 10,000 words to explain the

“How many of those. words would be things like

“Quite a few,” he answered, At a selector panel I watched in miniature where Downstairs a stairway hater unched the button. There was a click on the relay ane! and the mechanism moved down. Another lick and Mr. Boehle said to watch closely because

“Just as I'm trying to tell you-—just punch the

And it does—for him.

4 rr hi

led THAT CHRISTMAS LOOK—''Mama, | want," is what 20-month-old Alan is saying to his mother, Mrs. Sid Gunter Jr., 5733'N. Delaware St. Toys are more plentiful this year with quality equal to or better

THE TESTER—Toyland at Christmas time is a land of fulfi dreams for youngsters. Everything must be investigated to see what makes it work. Chief investigator here is Eastwood Herin Jr., 3!/,-year-

The Good Old Days 8 Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Nov. 28—Nostalgia, or the longing

for the good old days as an American social practice, pedal eccentricities of the old model T. They spoke used to belong almost exclusively to old folks and reverently of its staying powers on a rough

professional southerners. t

The old folks, naturally, were fond of musing “motormeter” and “tonneau.” When they ticked off

constantly on the merits of the departed years, while 1

in some parts of the South it has always been fash- Steamer, it was with the mournful reverence of | fonable to sneer at the present and loudly hail the an old bachelor caressing the names of his departed!

past. 1 But for the first time, I believe, it is now broadly popular among all the age groups to deal heavily in reminiscence—a thing once impossible in a country go young and raw that it was too busy hurtling ahead to indulge in dreamy second-guesses. Lately I've caught myself retreating to the past. Thought for awhile it was just my personal irritation with today. But it isn't just me. The most popular conversational trend today is a laudatory treatment

Y

The Matter of Money Comes Up

IT MUST COME ouT of a general resentment of full-course dinner, when a waistress was polite for the confused uncertainty—ot the superficial compli- 5 dime tip. Those were the days when a man could mand,” the manager said. “Sure, gre being used for toys. cations and contrivances, the current controls and the get hitched on a weekly $25 and live real respectable: some of the items were hard to get,

{nsecurity of the future. But wherever it or whatever

it comes from, it's here. Escape to the past—even pfary, othin week, because you want -to tell as p n't meet the de- ; the very recent past—has superseded the Russians, Man Lo hovers x $12 days in Re iron, when asked Tou We eoulan New, ingenious ones turn up with Thompson's used to put out two frankfurters, a The parents talk now of the good old days when small haymow of beans, slaw, potatoes, coffee, bread, ihe same boat in many cases. you could raise a -kid on equal parts of sulphur, butter and pie for two bits.

and the atom as a 24-hour topic.

molasses and birch rod, in lieu of psychiatry. The

rich. naturally, spend most of their time on a dis- Even the youngsters, who were in swaddling clothes gone » even if they never lived during the 20's and early 30's, are now falling back when you could keep most of what you on the quiet order of the war, They talk about : : . : vertised heavily, almost have dis- puying is early and heavy >, , by today's s r r jas at ¢ p ‘anc wl ' or ’ » : made. The poor, by t v's standards, fret for the how nice it was at sea On Saipan or in France, appeared. One large store's supply

cussion of the period . . . init...

olden time when they might have been better off on less money. This over-all quarrel with the present finds some eurious outlets. For instance, I heard a group of welleducated, successful, intelligent adults spend two hours the other day talking about what a wonderful thing was the model T Ford.

drought, and you would have thought prohibition that this will be the biggest Christmas in local history. was a sort of golden age. Nobody I know is so

about the ‘wondrous days when you risked blindness to acquire a short spate of exhilaration.

LB . a certain wistful pride. It's as though the ability to million unemployed, people still rose to 6000. of yesterday—and it is especially "popular With young jaye jived through it makes them special folk. They found ways to buy Christmas gifts.” “Now they are fighting it out. folks. use the depression as a foil for every new develop- yo» ; ment of today's rat race Lo eat and sleep.

; Wer g ke schoolgirls over ti oush- p They were giggling like schoolgirls over the PUh-| old con of Mr, and Mrs. Eastwood Herin, 4040 Ruckle St.

Stores Out of Many Items; i More and Better Toys in Stock

By VICTOR PETERSON THE WARNING, “Shop Early," looks like a good one again this Christmas. Large and small retailers, wholesalers and bankers are unanimous

than many pre-war makes. ~

pan

rack. They started reviving archaic expressions like

he names of now defunct machines, like Stanley |

ady loves. Then they got to talking about the era of legal

The high cost of food, housing, clothes and everything you open the -ecollection-pinched that he can't spin you a yarn family pocketbook for apparently will make no difference. “It must be just the spirit of the * gd season,” said one downtown banker. manufacturers, During the war : . “People always have money to everybody with a lathe in their Good Old Depression Days spend when Christmas rolls around. garage went into the toy business A LOT OF people recall the depression, now, with Even during the depression, with 10 and the number of manufacturers

Evervthing has to be mechanized SECTION AFTER section in 2 to sell, and the toys are being built Those were the good old days, of the 60-cent wholesale house was sold out. to last. Tricks learned by many “We just couldn't meet the de- plants which built war goods now

. welt ] bow J ved . rervily > “And they are finding they can't You listen restlessly to tales of how John wed put even if we got everviiE ©? get away with the old bromide toys.

every package. The trend not only Department stores already are in js toward amusement but toward 4 education,” he said. y lly : a : Se Bde Many a clerk now is saying, “80T-| Although some 10 days behind The craving for simplicity 18 voiced everywhere, ry, we had some, but they are all Chicego EE a in cating: (ne Christmas shopping season under Wind-up trains, which were ad- way local store managers claim

That Indianapolis is headed for 2 bi al

wh ev were wearing that sui n 1 i ? Te RE 4 De cla Sam of bridges for electric trains 1s BONE: the biggest Christmas in history is z and they didn't have many major frustrations. But for the early shopper, the evidenced by the fact that sales al- WHO'LL RUN THE TRAIN—That always is in doubt when Junior gets an elecdE hove Tor you tan cFzy this thing. iantity and quality_of goods ONiready are 11 per centh Over the same 4: 4 io £50 Christmas. Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa usually relegate Junior to But I do know that I heard somebody speaking ‘he counters today are a heartening period last year, HAT I ' ' ISL hh ibis pif hr h the livi 4 mournfully the other day about how relatively won- sight. Quality is up, in many Cases pg, y next week, local banking the role of train caller ior the first week tne Special rolls through the living an derful things were in 1946. the merchandise is better than Pre- , 4 cayings institutions will begin dining rooms. :

War. to distribute about $1,500,000 to -

Lump of Coal

Supplies look plentiful, but it only some 21.000 Christmas savings club California Village is by comparison with the past feW members. It will average about $71 . Beset by Two Lions

BE _- * By Frederick C. Othman ic seuss per person. Pastor Loses, Church Gains Prices, meanwhile, have nudged It looks like a Merry, Merry, LA JOLLA, Cal, Nov. 28 (UP)- From Lean German Diet

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28—You don’t have to push

buttons or worry with thermowhatsits.when you use eoal. Just shovel it in the furnace (keeping on your ° hat in case of soot) and it heats your house. There's never any shortage of coal, except of eourse when John IL. Lewis gets ideas. Coal, when varnished and allowed to dry, is beautiful. These and othér facts as interesting, plus a chunk of burnished coal, came to me by special messenger in ‘a baby blue box from T. A. Day, the go-getting coal man. Coal Man Day, a spokesman of the Bituminous Coal Institute, which is an affiliate of the National Coal Association, said he saw by the papers where somebody in Sacramento, Cal, sent me a brickbat. That's a start toward a house, all right, he added, and some, day I'll need to keep it warm. So he inclosed one lump of coal with the compliments of the industry that lights the way, fuels the future, and powers the progress of America. That, I hasten to add for the benefit of the natural gas, ator and petroleum industries, is a coal man talking; not me. I burn corn cobs.

'8narkling Like Diamonds

COAL MAN DAY said in order to protect my new piece of coal he and his associates at the institute had given it two coats of varnish. They had, too, and I only wish I could have been there watching the head coal men in their frock coats sitting around the ‘board-of-directors’ table varnishing my coal. It's as pretty a piece of coal as a fellow could want; sparkles like diamonds, of which it is a close relative. (Not close enough, if you ask me.) My chunk of coal, the coal man continued, weighs one pound and contains enough energy, converted into electricity, to burn a lamp for seven and one-

half hours. I'll let that pass, but I'd like to see it done. Coal Man Day said my piece .of coal would operate a small radio for 25 hours. I'll take his word for this; if he tries to prove it, I'll throw it at him, “Other lumps of coal provide the driving force behind 70 out of every hundred locomotives—in the United States,” he reported in- language which grew are a

upward, but all stores anticipate the Christmas with everyone getting a Two mountain lions were reported 1 ‘fasts’ Month on 1200 Calories a Day, 3

highest dollar volume of (sales on siocking-full. {prowling La-Jolla streets yesterday Then Puts Away a Real Turkey Dinner

record. Some even believe the unit n- : Patrolman Wilfred Tyler wound-| sale of goods: will set a new high. One Dead in Hotel Fire ed one of the big cats with a shot-| ' y iow . CHICAGO, Nov. 28 (UP)—The Rev. Phillip W. Sarles, Congrega= DUPARQUET, Quebec, Nov. 28 01 and his mate escaped in tional minister, said today that life on .the 1200-calorie daily. diet of

"8 sun blast before daybreak, but the ihe Germans was “plenty rugged.”

n HOWEVER, Mr. and Mrs. Public The Rev, Mr. Sarles spoke from personal experience. He volune

lot more wary than in the (UP)—One -man was killed and (he darkness about 35 persons fled for their lives Residents who have seen the iions

more stirring at it went along. “It furnishes light past few Years. ; - and brilliance to the gay white way—to the nation’s “People aren't getting time-and- ;, ,o. temperature yesterday when S4¥ they are black—and-Jook “just tarily lived on the near-starvation diet for 30 days to show the members Capitol and the White House—and to two-thirds of a-half and double-time nQW,” ONE go oiti0q the Gold Fields Hotel in lke the panthers in the 200.” of his Rogers Park Church why they should conserve food and con- : as " stor \ said. * Jeryone , : - , RE - the lights in America. Coal was<the backbone . ,” store mai ager said. “But everyone py... et ghout 25 miles north of Ken Scott Jr, curator of the tribute to help Europeans. “But he spaghetti Without sauce, black

is working and the national income , : - . . also wanted to find out for himre. Damage to the hotel was es mammals at San Diego Zoo, sald self how bad off the Germans and coffee and a bun or small potato

Coal Facts and Figures is the highest in history. timated at $75,000. none of the Zoo's cats was missing ENOUGH OF that. One more paragraph of his' “Customers are much more dis- en - — spe other Europeans were for supper, prose and the boss would give my job to the coal man. criminating and demanding than C . | 4 Di k T “I know mow,” he. said. “I have His 30 days ended yesterday. Then Mr. Day said, and I paraphrase him from now on, they were a year ago when they arniva -— Yy IC urner been hungry every day since 1 the Rev, Mr. Sarles ate yesterday's that this year America will harvest 3 million tons thréw money away on any ilem started, I lost 10 pounds in three standard American meal—turzey, of cotton, 41 million tons of wheat, 78 million tons just to have a fancy gift. y weeks dressing, cranberry sauce and all of corn and 600 million tons of bituminous coal wpiice still seems torbe no object. | “I {felt the cold weather more the other trimmings. ’ (John L. willing). Coal, he continued, is a greater , wever, if they can get what they! than ever before. 1 was tired all “I could have eaten everything on crop than all the others combined. <pecifically want.” the time the table,” he said I didn't even know it was a crop, thus proving : : His diet, based on data supplied He figured it was worth it, thougn what an ignorant fellow I am. Coal, the coal man Naturally, some shortages exist. by the American Friends Com- The congregation contributed “gen= is true mainly in the lines mittee, was approximately the same erously” to the church's European

said, is beyond compare as a Shemical raw material. This 1 1 ! He said it produces 20,000 by-ploducts, but he didn’t where quantities of metal or leath-| as the standard diet in the U. S. relief fund, he said, after he told ne of Germany during last July. of his experiences.

enclose the list er are used. Nylons still are on the A typical day at the ministers

He mentioned only a few, including aspirin, with cherished hat, This has been given, ———— m————— which he said I might be familiar, and ‘baking soda, a boost by the feminine acteptance table included plain cereal and| WORD A DAY ; black coffee for breakfast; black - - By BACH |

eee en. ee e—————

about which he thought I also knew. Some people of and consequent demand for the would consider that an insult, but not me, because "¢¥ shades to match the day's cos- sugarless tea and bread for lunch, 1, too, am borne away by the romance of bituminous tume, coal. s Those*who wané.to spread a little It also is good for chasing moths, flavoring cakes, Christmas cheer in bottled form perfuming ladies, dyeing Easter eggs, fertilizing po- better start buying now. Scotch and tatoes, and blowing out stumps. Or so said Coal Man the bottled-in-bonds are short. The Day. Now if hell just send me some more facts supply has been rationed to wholeand perhaps a saniple of those diamonds . . . salers who are doing the same to retailers. Blends, however, are in fair supply.

By Erskine Johnson If you want to give cigars or

Jury Unable to Reach

verdict in Johnson Case | DEBILITY

DANVILLE, Nov. 28 (UP)—Fail- Se rt v2 (ds-bil’ T-ti wow

ing to reach a decision after 23 hours. of deliberation, a jury in WEAKNESS; FEEBLENESS; ) £] i FRAILTY ¥

the murder trial of George R. Johnson, 61, Indianapolis, was dismissed vesterday by Judge Horace

candy, start looking. “El Ropos” L. Hanna. NOT BEING : a —— ———— i— : are hard to find and candy is likely Johrison was accused of fatally ABLE TO LIFT HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 286—Embarrassing moment in $12,000. Or maybe,” she added, “you would like this to follow suit. Sweets will be short wounding Herman Longer, 44, Indi- THE BALL IS diamond necklace at $260,000?” as the price of cocoa has skyrocketed anapolis, in a scuffle following a Gong x HAND)

New York when Lana Turner and Annabella came face to face in the lobby of a New York hotel, Lana went south, Anabella’ went north and icicles formed on the chandeliers. Annabella registered at the hotel as Mrs, Tyrone Power, éven though she's divorcing Ty.

Dazzling Diamond Display , THE VAN CLEEF and Arpels Jewelry Co., of New York, Paris, London, etc, is displaying $4 million worth of jewelry aat Don Loper’s fashion salon. 1 gtopped in and was properly dazzled by an array of diamonds, rubies and emeralds,

1 inquired the price of a small diamond clip. “Oh,” a lot of glamor girls. All M-G-M ever photographed said a saleslady, “thats very inexpensive—only was the back of my head.” .

\ 4

union meeting on Jan, 25, In ‘his instructions to the jury You. Judge Hanna told them to bring JEROME in a verdict of second-degree mur~ 'der, manslaughter or acquittal.

Wants Tariff Shifted WASHINGTON, Nov, 28 (UP)—The American Products Council today attacked the 23-nation tariff : Sor: 1007 IY NOP MAL me.TMASY SMT OR, Agreement 8 ie X i at “Well, you might call it a period piece it aons back to Stultz's, Geneva and urged Congress to strip furniture store if we don't make all the payments in a the State, Department of tariff- ; certain perioal” making authori. : ; 3 Ls ey

and packaging materials are dimin-

I left rather hurriedly. Burt Lancaster just hired a new secretary—Ruth ishing. \ Lancaster, widow of his brother... . U. I. will bally- Ptobably one of the most encourhoo Swedish import Marta Toren with the phrase, A8InN€ fields is toys. Here quallly “Eve-dear Girl” , Paramount is cooking up a has shot up to a point better than

technicolor musical to. co-star Olga San Juan and pre-war in many cases, Prices have Billy de Wolf. advanced: but little, if at. all, over

: J last year. Franchot Tone Does ‘A Brush Off’ “It honestly is a pleasure to sell FRANCHOT TONE meticulously brushes the back toys this year” a wholesaler said, of his hair just before a scene. “It's a habit,” he told “we don't have to be ashamed of me, “I can’t seem to break. .It started at M-G-M many things. ; when I first landed in pictures dnd played opposite!

” r » “COMPETITION 18 KEEN.. Before the war there were 600 toy 4 4

egos 130 Ban aad Times 8

” '