Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 May 1948 — Page 11

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A RAILBIRD can run into almost anything at the Speedway by opening his trap. Without: furthey ado I want to go on record that Ii never climb. .on..a. motorcycle again. Newer,

Maybe you're wondering why the subject =

_motoreycles should come up at & time when Novi "Governors and Maseratis are in order. Well, the

four-wheel jobbies were still in hiding. The day I picked to nose ‘around the track was what you would call a blank. An earlybird very often doesn’t come up with the worm." I was just about. convinced that the only “movement”. at the Speedway was in the persons of Rex Mbys, Chet Miller and Jimmy Jackson. They said -they were getting the “feel” of ‘the place. Pin

‘I'm Not Afraid—Just Can't See It’

SOMETHING was sputtering on the track, A quick trip to the pit area followed. What gives? After about a minute the sputtering materialized into a motorcycle going like a bat out-of-you-know-where. The rider bounced on the brick homestretch and I distinctly remember wondering who the idiot was. You see, I don't like motors cycles. Not that I'm afraid. Just can't see it. Round and round the cycle roared. Watching the rider was more monotonous.than being at the midpoint. of the 500-mile race. The track was deserted, there wasn't a thing you could buy to munch on, no mechanics to pester — nothing but this joker on the cycle, I ‘tried waving him into the pits after the 10th or 11th time around. All I got was a nod. He wouldn't take orders. A stranger in a blue windbreaker joined me.

EVERYTHING OK?—Tearing Up tires is their business. Otto Wolfer {left), racing tire engineer, questions Frank Laux if the Hood is coming off as expected.

Golden Goose

NEW YORK, May 4-—When the New York prize fight managers put in a yelp for a cut of the television rights to prize fights, they touched off a trend. It won't be long before the ballplayers are doing -it, too. It Is not so much” an instance of greed as an indication that the sports people—and other entertainment people, also—are beginning to wonder if they aren't waving an ax at a golden goose. If the goose is going to die, they want a piece of the carcass, right now. The sports business, and the movie business, and the gin mill business, are founded on a simple truth. None of them is worth a dime without paying customers. To breed customers, yout must breed fans— baseball fans, Ann Sheridan fans. floor show fans. Fans are bred by luring them to your place of business until they form the habit. Television has emerged from the awkwardchild stage. As the screens get bigger, the images unfuzz and the shows improve, it packs a potential for overshadowing the event it photographs and talks about. Only about 9000 fans turnéd out the other day to watch the Dodgers play, in the first week of the season. The slim gate was a combination of raw weather—and television; jacked-up admission prices—and television; unpleasant transportation—and television.

Television Gives You Ringside Seat WITH THE newspapers; the newsreels and the radio, the PrOMmOtErs never had any direct competition. The papers told about the event in the past tense. The fight pictures were held up until long after the battle. And only scraps of ball games and horse races were filmed. The radio told you what was going on simultaneously with the event

but it was unsatisfactory description.

: But here's. your television giving you a ring-

side seat which the ordinary guy can’t afford or"

acquire, and it's free. You're right on the horse's back ‘with the jockey. And you're out there: at second base-for the close play—right on top of the catcher at the plate. You've got music and drama and dancing and sports on the television screen. And it costs you not a dime, after you buy the set. If you don’t own the machine, you can step into any bar—and

‘on another machine”

1 asked If he knew what the cléwn on the motorcycle was “Why yes. That's Frank Laux and he's tests ing experimental tires,” the stranger answered. “Boy;-jsn’t that nuts? Imagine a guy driving a’ motorcycle like that for a living? 1 There's nothing like opening your mouth th gud! sticking your foot into it. ‘The soft-spoken stranger { with the sad eyes said he could imagine doing just that. “As a matter of fact I just completed 150 miles | he said. Ooops. Come to find out I was talking to Otto Wolfer, racing tire design and development engineer for) Firestone. Well,-glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wolfer, Oh? You're the boss of this business out here?:Tell me more, pray tell. Mr. Laux came thundering by again. This time he sat up an took notice of me.

“We run 300 miles a day” Mr. Wolfer ex-| plained, with speeds up to 85 on the stretches and

below 50 on the turns.” “Why?” 1 gotta know why, you know. It seems the Firestone people like to experiment with new designs and in order to make the test complete they run the living bejabbers out of the new tires. The Speedway track is an excellent place to do this because a tire wears out five times more rapidly there than on highways and it's safer, “We run a series of 300-mile runs to a set of 1200 miles on one pair of tires. This is equiva: Jeat to 6000 miles on the highway,” Mr. Wolfer sai Interesting stuff. Mr. Wolfer waved Mr. Laux into the pits, While the boss checked the tread I had a few words with the helmeted rider. Mr. Laux is an Indianapolis man. Not only that; he’s the fourth rider Mr. Wolfer has had. The grind, I knew we'd get to that sooner or later, is too! much for some guys. ‘They just up and quit. ‘How About Taking a Spin?’ | “EVERYTHING: seemed shipshape. - The tires were wearing out as expected. Mr. Laux roared | off again. Seemed like nice fellow. “How about taking a spin?” asked Mr. Wolfer. | “You can find out for yourself what we think! about when we're riding.” | ““Can’t you tell-me?” | For five minutes Mr. Wolfer talked about the fun a:man has when he’s under a powerful motor. | He twisted my arm. “Don’t go too fast,” were my last words as we

1

took off, My hands dug deep into Mr, Wolfer's

sides. 1 couldn't see the. speedometer but we must have been going 190 miles an hour. when we hit the southwest turn. On the backstretch, Mr. Latix passed us as ir we were standing still. That doesn't go with motorcycle: people. - Mr. Wolfer poured whatever | is poured to make a cycle go faster. I know what the men think about when they're It was one thought. “Let me get off this thing.” did. It was one thought. thing.” Twice around the oval and I was paralyzed. | Mr. Wolfer said we “touched” 90 a couple of times. More? Faster? I had nothing to say. Couldn't.

“Let me get off of this|

I'll stick to

a dull life of afking.

By Robert C. Ruark

see the World Series for the price of three beers. | Being a sports fan is hard work. You've got!

HS a ws

SECOND SECTION

TUBSDAY, MAY 4, 1948

Public Gets ‘Close-Up’ Skyview In Visit To IU Link Observatory

PICTURE STORY BY VICTOR H. PETERSON +

A LOOK AT THE MOON—Miss Anita Nomellini, Indiana University senior, discovered the moon appears quite different through a telescope than when observed on.a.casual campus stroll. She was.one of more.than |00 persons who visited the Goethe Link - Observatory recently on the first public night of the season.

to fight crowds and battle jammed subways—and |}

compete for space in overloaded hotels. You play | sucker for scalpers. You are at the mercy of the| promoter or club ewner when he raises pricés on!

you. You sit and sniffle in the cold to watch|k

football, take sleeper jumps to.get to race tracks.| Ana occasionally broil to see baseball. I think the average, non-rabid fan is as lazy| as I am. If you can fetch a reasonable approxi-| mation of what he wants to see into his home or|

favorite bar, he is just lazy enough to pass up the N

fleshly event for its pictorial equivalent.

A New Kind of Sports Customer?

THE TELEVISED VERSION of a prize fight | is, generally a much better deal than a pew a fw) rows back from the actual ring. At prize fights, anytime something dramatic! happens, a guy the size of Man Mountain Dean lurches up and shuts off the view. By the time | you get on your feet, the referee is tolling 10. And the victim might just as well have been laid low by lightning, for all you saw of the deed. i As a guy who always arrives at football games| one minute after Bronko Rappaport: dashes 99 yards for a touchdown, IT would rather stay home| and get in on the kickoff. If the young men are just shoving each other around in the mud, or it's blizzarding, you merely twist the dial to something more entertaining. The boresome, time-out periods|

“you can dodge by getting up to pour another beer. |

It seems entirely likely, to me, that a decade!’ of feeding television to the sports ‘fan will breed | up .a brand-new kind of customer. This will be the lazy lad who refuses to make | the expensive pilgrimage to the scene when he can see it a lot mere comfortably and clearly from his easy chair. That. day. will leave big, mangy spots.in_stadi-! ums and horse parks and arenas—and eat great| big ‘holes in promoters” revenue. “There could be u| time ‘when the stands are as empty as an Jute | graph hound’s head--and: the gladiators are there sweating in seclusion, for the. benefit of ~~ unseen audience. In that case, you've got a brand-new concept | of sport—with Yankee Stadium renamed Yankee Studio, And Army playing Navy in a large lab-

— full of sound technicians and hot ign

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PORTRAIT OF A PLANET—Dr. James Cuffey, IU assistant professor in astron-omy:-spends-about- half his-time.at.the.observatory... Virtually all study of the heavens is-done by.-photographing the stars.and planets. Here he critically arranges his equipment to make an exposure. Because of the prevalence of sunspots this year, spectacu-

Har displays of Aurora Borealis better known as: Northern: Lights;:should flare in the sky...

Let's Go Quizzing By Frederick c. “Othman.

WASHINGTON, May 4—The world's greatest detective (we never sleep) agency momentarily is Investigating everything. All right. Maybe I am exaggerating. But If there's anything the congressional gumshoes aren't probing (one of their favorite-words) I'd like to know about ‘it. They're investigating what the ArabianAmerican Oll Co. slipped the Sheik of Araby, who is King Ibn Saud’s ambassador, in the way of limousines and bedroom furniture. They're looking into a love affair that blossomed among the red tape of the Reclamation Bureau's office at Sacramento. Oysters they're investigating and ducks, phony fur labels and a federal housing project in Ban Diego which is alleged to have contained a bawdy house. They're probing a Maryland subdivision for veterans, where the chimneys are said to wobble and the concrete to be made of cream cheese. Sen. Charles W. Tobey of New Hampshire is even talking about investigating some. investigators. At this writing the Securities and Exchange Commissioners are in Detroit investigating Hank Kaiber's auto stock fracas. Sen. Tobey figures the commissioners should be investigated, too.

Because It's Election Year? YOU NE did see so many hawkshaw hats

and magnif § Spates. It may be because this perhaps, possibly. Those Re-

is an electio Publicans are investigating everything the Democrats have done during the last 15 years. And a few other things besides—such as Hollywood, oleomargarine, and the effects of sunspots on wild grouse. One Senate committee is gunning for the Army general who managed to slip’ some Red Cross blood plasma into the Chinese black market (it went at $25 a dose as a vim-and-vigor tonic). Another is talking about investigating the United Nations. A third is ihvestigating clams.

In Mterature, what does the -térm incunabula

hie ae Late tom snd to dnt bis Printed before 1500 A. D

And still another is tangling with the Problem | of shipping scarce food and metal abroad. Ther seems to be skullduggery here—and if the Sgna-|

"tors ever catch the boys who forged millions of

dollars worth of export licenses, they go to the] clink. ‘The legislative flatfeet are inquiring into labor laws and minimum wages. They're trying to discover whether a French farmer would prefer a tractor, or a horse. They're investigating rich refugees they claim are tax dodgers

They're Investigating Every Thing DISCREET indeed is the federal bureau Isn't having its records subpoenaed and its head! men called to Capiol Hill to answer questions | their inquistors hope will be embarrassing. Fre-| quently, I must report, they are, The congressional plainclothes men are investigating atoms. In secret, of course. ‘They're doing‘ their dead-levelest to investigate Dr, Ed: ward Condon, the federal scientist who knows about atomic energy. But they're not getting much co-operation from President Truman. So they're investigating the possibility of cutting off the funds: for the Commerce Department, where | Dr. Condon works, until they get a look at the | confidential papers. They're investigating foreign relations of an varieties—plus treaties, including one involving] whales. The high cost of living (and I might as | well say it because I'm running out of verse) they are probing. And also John L. Lewis. They're giving the poor, old War Assets Ad-| ministration the fine-tooth works. And they're] trying to discover how many Army brass hats got retiréd on high pensions for disability when they never felt better. “" Im not criticizing, you understand. Or even | trying to decide whether all this investigating is doing ahy good. I'm just seeking to catch my breath, is all, between rides on the congressional’ paddy wagon.

PP? Test Your Skill ?

Who wis George Washington's first employer? | © "Lord Fairfax, whose lands In the Shenandonk Valley bo surveyed in bs gil Eh

WEIRD MACHINERY~The network of metal is the shaft of the telescope. An elevator carries viewers to it. The solid shaft is stationary and is set parallel to the earth's—axis. ~All movements of the telescope are_electrically-controlled.

Truman Says 1948 N May ‘Set Future’ Actress Ann Sothern

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UP)~ doms they have gained through Injured in Car Crash President Truman sald yesterday the centuries,” Mr. Truman said.

iP “We in the United States are .that this year : “may well deter det ined that their way of life mine the world's future.

He made the statement in a from the earth.” {letter to the opening of the 25 enn hh biennial convention of the To PARIS SUBWAYS RUN {oisterare? International Union| PARIS, May 4 (UP)-—Bubway|

Actress Ann

{convertible coupe.

Miss Sethern's car collided with aid.

POSITIVELY NOT GREEN CHEESE— This is what Miss Nomellini and others saw .as they peered through the eyepiece of the reflecting telescope equipped with a 36inch diameter mirror. The portion of the moon, shown in its first quarter, is magnified 200 times. The observatory was built in 1937 by Dr. Goethe Link, Indianapolis physi cian, The following year-an agreement to use the property. was made between’IU and the Goethe and Helen Link Foundation for Scientific Research. Public nights were in-auqurated-in the fall of 1946, Other meetings will be May. 16 and 30.

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MYSTERY IN SPACE—No question is too small to be answered by Indiana University astronomy department faculty members. For. a group of quizzical yourigsters, Dr. Frank K. Edmondson, department "chairman,

explains some..of the.moon’s.

WAITING FOR A PEEK—The public nights have been accepted shthusiastically. Many schools take advantage of the opportunity and send. grade.and high: school

classes to attend. Besides the fascination of the telescope, there are illustrated lectures in the auditorium. The observatory is located off state road 67 near Brooklyn.

Tokyo Rose Ready 1 To Stand Trial

TOKYO, May 4 (UP) «~~ Home- jnesses for a treason trial against

HOLLYWOOD, May 4 (UP) sick Tokyo Rose, Japan's Ameri- her. This later .was denied. Sothern * today!can-born ‘wartime

—and our way—shall not perish Dursed bruises from an auto accl- broadcaster, said she was ready 2 Boys in ‘Swan Dive’ {dent which demolished her new to stand trial for treason.

bs i on ————————

propaganda |

: | MACCLESFIELD, Eng. May 4 , “The quicker, the beiter™ she “I'm willing to go any- | (UP)-Two boys 11 and 14 years

where for trial.” {of age told a juvenile court yes.

service was 50 per cent of normal. one driven by M, W. Frederickson - Ths" disc jockey who tried fo|terday that they killed a swan

gh are meeting here in .altoday on the fourth day of a of Culver City as she was leaving: American GI's was released fog year which may swell deterininelstrike by motormen. Members of her Culver City studio late yesthe

world’s future and Whether the French Cornfederition of La- terda liberty loving people everywhere a SE neigh:

... The car was overturned, | bor, the Communist union, " Miss Sothern escaped with

owned by the county council and

|Sugamo prison in October, 1048.) \ "os wings to ‘see if they

Recently it was reported re. {Hably that the U. 8. Justice De. could fly with partment in Tokyo Sought wit-loonidnt, they said.

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