Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 July 1948 — Page 19

Book and

big shaggy book author, recentset and finance by dedi. qfing Dis péwest novel to 3 bank. : it has caused me to fume a little, because to 1 never hit on this particular method of Ne edling blood, as it were, out of a stone. Call ional

corporation in 1848 yr, Kendrick committed a bosomy historical Sisters of the Swish.” wy entitled “The Flames of Time,” and lovnized Monday, with inscribed the flyleaf as follows: “To the » the of Romney, W. Va., without whose help edged ro sun bic sis book (and my others) would never have been the final week, the lagi, fj ¥it'*" ked to wear a plain Plo. Blushing furiously, the Bank of Romney hurss with apron, or else whipped up 2 pamphlet, cailed “A Book s” costume. 1 a Bank” and began to brag all over the while, the “Brothers” » piace. Fresh to the heady whirl of literary namea membership or ™ dropping. Mr. Romney's crib—I understand—even n tet their beards grow J] went so far as to emboss the'countier checks, the

deposit slips, the promissory notes and the lien paper With Mr. Kendrick’'s sentimental indorsement. For, as the puff-sheet says: “This is to tell the story of an unusual compliment besiowed on a bank, one never before bestowed on a bank, anywhere at any time the dedication of a ‘best seller’ book to the bank by its author, Baynard Kendrick ...” The bank goes on to explain that Mr. K.s epic of violent adventure has been chosen by the Literary Guild, which insures tremeéndous club sale, and that all the magazines and all the newspers are devoting their front sections to exhaustive review—in which, natch, the bank gets steady exploitation as the best little old bank you ever saw. 7

A D.flerent Way fo Run a Bank

THE PAMPHLET reveals that Kendrick started biting the repository back in ’35, when he lusted after a second-hand Ford, and has, I gather, been nibbling at the reserve ever since, between volumes. The bank says he was good pay, though, and anything he took he put back on schedule. I've been kicking this around” some, and it seems to be a sort of raffish way to run a bank.

Where there should be visions of cold gray vaults, cashiers’ grilles and sternlipped presidents saying technitolored “no,” I catch instead a picture of Greenwich Village bacchanals, with the authors ginning it up, atwixt chapters, on the

)s His Teeth, Loses $54

lowed him when he got * his home at 1149 Fajp. e. He quoted the stranger ng: “Give me $2 or py our teeth out.” Mr. Lynch opened his to oblige the man | his wallet, fleeing wity ¢ than he had asked for, — i DS Ter for,

STAIRS

Bank

hard-scrabbled cash assets of the S58’ Dank Trust Co. ccording to my experience with banking, either the Park Ave. branch of the corn exchange is no patron of the arts, or else the examiners better start prowling the books, to see how many loanmakers are'frustrated secriveners. This comes too close to playing the horses.

‘A Touch Here, a Touch There—'

FOR .YEARS I've been limping along on the stock routine—you know, the sick mother, the ailing child, the big business opportunity and the circumstance-beyond-your-control dodge. After leaving the right eye in escrow, you make a little touch here and a little touch there, but it’s tough sledding all the way. And now, here comes a great big unshorn bookwriter into the bank to say: “Look, Jonesy, I just had a helluva an idea for a book. You take a dame—Paulette Goddard type—and she meets this fella who looks like Rex Harrison and they 80 to Paris and . . . cinch for the movies, and the Book Club rights alone will , , .” : “Why sure, Mac,” says the bank boss, foreclosing six widows with one hand and impounding the velocipedes of three orphans with the other. “How much do you need?” “Oh, 10 grand will get me through the winter,”

Drovers & Driv-

says the author, flipping his 18-karat Dunhill and}

flicking dust off his Harris tweeds. “No—better make it 15. I forget the decorator’s bill. We just re-did the Garret Louis XV style, to match my new mood. That gilt comes high.” “Feel free to come back any time,” says the president, counting out the gelt in $100 bills. “Don’t forget to send me tickets to ‘Author Meets

_ the Critics’, and see if you can't work my wife's

name into the book. Naturally, you dedicate it to me.”

Apart from a fragmentary plot, a lot of neck-

hair and an inkstained thumb, there seems to be: no formal security here, but I am going tn try it}:

on the corn exchange tomorrow, anyhow. I will promise the boys a plug in my next volume, but I don’t think it will work. The man I deal with automatically locks his desk when an author steps into the room, and he! accepts no plot as collateral unless grass grows| on it and the heroine lives in an unmortgaged |

house on same. {

Ed Sovola, author of Inside Indianapolis, is on vacation,

WASHINGTON, July 29—My guess (and I claim it's as good as anybody else’s) is that no matter what Congress does, or even doesn’t, the high cost of living is about to hit the skids. Maybe it already has and President Truman fust hasn't noticed it yet. That's the trouble with being President. He doesn’t get to snoop in bargain basements, argue with used car dealers, patronize the movies, or even ride in almost-empty railroad trains. The signs of lower prices to come are all over. And with no disrespect to the President intended, it is with a good deal of selfish pleasure that I'd like to point out some of ‘em. The prices of things that people don’t particularly need already are down. Neckties, for instance, never were cheaper. Nor radios, which have been slashed and slashed again. Table models in white plastic are going now for $5.99 in Washington—the cheapest since the crystal set. $ Wany a movie theater has cut admisfions and still is playing to empty seats. Seldom do you see a cover charge any more in a night club—or many customers, either. The other night I rode in from Philadelphia in solitary splendor in the club car of one of the best trains -of the Pennsylvania Railroad. There was nobody in it to keep me company, except the porter. Throughout America there is a glut of white shirts (a shocking thing when you recall shirts and the OPA) and few are the haberdashers not trying to unload them with bargain sales.

Meat, Vegetable Prices Drop

THE LAST few days, you may have noticed, meat prices have slumped—as much as 21 cents & pound in some pldces. And dollar round steak is no more. Vegetables in many a wholesale market are at 2 five-year low; if you're still paying 30 cents for 2 head of lettuce, you'd better kick.

NEDRESS AL

with frosty white riey with white . . . sizes olor geometric prints, g floral print and flat2 to 18 and 20 to 42.

11) and Filled

may be sent)

Near the Skids? » By Frederick C. Othman

The cost of bread hasn't dropped, but it may soon. If it-doesn't, the Secretary of Agriculture is going to be sore. Bumper crops have sent.wheat and corn futures spiraling downward; they can't drop much further without bumping into federal support levels. The bakers can’t resist this fact and Secretary Charles F. Brannan much longer. Furniture deliveries were off at the wholesale shops in New York and Chicago; clearance sales at whopping discounts now are in progress in furniture stores across the land. The fur-coat business is not so good. Ditto the gold watch trade.

Maybe We Can Afford to Live

ABOUT the only things that seem heading upward in price at the moment are washing machines, automobiles, and other items made of steel. They may be the last to come down, but even so, I know a fellow wha ordered a new sedan which came equipped with so many widgets that

the delivered price was $3100. He couldn't afford J it, but he thought he'd turn a quick profit, anyhow.| 3 The used car dealers laughed at him. Wouldn't! 3

even give him the $3100. He had to turn it back. For that matter, if you'te not too particular what brand of motor car you buy, you can get a nearly new one anywhere today for well under list price. The demand for shoes finally, simply isn't. Most shoe factories are working on short week shifts and many shoe stores, particularly those catering to women, are advertising 50 per cent savings. Maybe these signs don’t mean much. Perhaps Mr. Truman was right when he told Congress that inflation would last at least eight more months unless it passed some semi-OPA laws now. I don’t

By Robert C. Ruark|

.pumS te

The Indianapolis Times =~ *

SECOND SECTION

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ATR! » * >

“ ,

! THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1948 PAGE 10 |

How To Produce Opera ‘Carmen’ For Butler Bowl, Sevitzky Style

(Photos by John Spickiemire)

if DN

"CARMEN" PREPARATIONS — Fabien Sevitzky, producer and director of "Carmen," to be presented in Butler Bowl Aug. 4 and 8, gives emphatic singing instructions to a group of boys from Christ Episcopal Church Choir, who will be heard in the opera.

THE CAST ASSEMBLES—Miss Jane Johnston (left), Indianapolis soprano, and Lois Gentile, Chicago mezzo-soprano, two principals early to arrive, discuss their singing roles in ‘Carmen’ at one of the

regular rehearsals, which have been held in Tabernacle Presbyterian Church.

“%

MAKING A MOB SCENE—Surrounded by women members of the "Carmen" chorus is Nino Ruisi, assistant stage director to Dr. Sevitzky, who i§ giving his singing actresses instructions in how to make the cigaret-girls’ riot in Act | seem real.

| CALL THE GENDARMES—Here the girls are really at it, with a couple of the male chorus members, who will impersonate soldiers in the opera, about to summon reinforcements, - In the opera story, the riot is started by Carmen herself, No. | troublemaker.

know. But it's safe, at least, to start dreaming in

earnest about that happy day when a hard-work-|

ing citizen can afford again to live. Right now, there's not much profit in it.

laiss at WASSON’S

Gold Hunters

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, July 29—The search for more of that stuff that fills our big cellar at Fi. Knox, Ky., still brings ’em to Alaska. By now even the more credulous have learned that they can’t just dig a hole anySure in this vast territory and come up with Nevertheless, hundreds of hopefuls still come In, believing they're going to be the lucky ones Who dig the holes in the right places. Every now and then someone does dig a hole In the right place, and the rush is on all over 22ain, What the newcomer doesn't always learn is that this “right” hole usually was dug by a thoroughly experienced prospector who ew his Alaska. The countryside is pockmarked with “wrong” holes. Somewhere around $7 million in gold—more an the ' purchase price of Alaska—will be taken out of the territory this year.

Big Companies Get Most HOWEVER, all but a small fraction of that booty will be taken by the big companies, with leases and equipment running into the millions of dollars, An estimated $3.5 million will be taken by "ie company operating 15 miles outside this

By Stephen Trumbull

city, the Fairbanks Exploration Co. It is a money-making child of the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. The era of easily-found gold in the gravel of creeks has gone for Alaska, or at least in those parts where prospectors have penetrated. There's still “gold in them hills,” but that being found today is, for the most part, down where the fellow with pick and shovel finds it hard going. The gold-bearing gravel is sometimes under as much as 150 feet of silt, which remains frozen hard throughout the short summer months.

’ Replacement of Packmule THAT'S where the big companies and their heavy equipment come in. In this operation near here, one firm is working at this 150-foot level with a dredge. Hydraulic jets have melted and washed away the frozen silt. Day after day the endless chain of blades bites into the gravel, brings it aboard, separates the gold, and tosses the refuse away. Nearby, the jets of water play on more frozen silt, readying a new location for this 1948 replacement of the fellow with the packmule and pickaxe.

HOLLYWOOD, July 29—Temperamental movie bars used to feud over as little as morning sun " their dressing rooms—but Hollywood has grown up, h Except for intra-family squabbles, Hollywood n't had a good feud since Simone Simon went Me, She was feuding with so many people there wasn't anyone left to make a picture with. tting two feminine stars in the same room N to be as risky as letting loose two wildcats. = they purr at each other and rave to friends ut what a wonderful actress the other gal is. Ann Sothern says this is because there's alis ot Nothing left to feud about. Miss Sothern wy ing in “Three Wives" at 20th Century-Fox tha Jeanne Crain and Linda Darnell, a set-up oat In past days would have called for seconds 4d referees, . ae femperament is too expensive now, and stars tony 08 their jobs seriously,” she said. “They want fight over ‘the size of their part; all they Is a good story.”

The Eau of the Vamps

wk FE. THE first famous feud between Gloria Were Son and Pola Negri, most of the old battles w oy Who was to be queen of the lot. The in Rolle spent fortunes outdoing each other *udg 8 Royces with golden hardware, emerald*d cigaret holders, leopards on leashes and Miss Orchid petals. Swanson scored a coup when she ache by marrying the Marquis Henrl de e

Mo,

(mi. 7411) ryrtib Orders

BEDDING, ; wastairs at WASSONS

son went into a 24-hour tantrum

| A

Hollywood Feuds

until she got one identical to the last gold doorknob. The ladies never spoke after that. Constance Bennett, who feuded with a dozen other Hollywoodites, once sued a columnist for $250,000 for saying she snubbed Patsy Kelly so noticeably that workmen on the set gave flowers to Miss Kelly but none to Miss Bennett. The suit was thrown out.

Only Feud Now—2 Sisters

NORMA SHEARER, Joan Crawford and Mae Murray battled for years over who was queen of MGM. The title was never in doubt after Miss Shearer married the boss, the late Irving Thalberg. Bette Davis and Mirian Hopkins each demanded the right to inspect the other's wardrobe when they fought through two pictures together. Fach was so determined to upstage the other that it once took three days to shoot a scene. The late Carole Landis and Mary Beth Hughes took an instant dislike to each other when they were making “Orchestra Wives.” In one scene Miss Hughes was required to kick Miss Landis. With unnecessary energy she booted her across the room. The only feud anybody knows about today is between sisters Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine,

Award. Olivia frigidly took back her hand and turned away. “I don’t know why she does that when she knows how I feel,” she said. Ever since, Miss De Havilland has left a room when Miss Fontaine came in.

i |

By Patricia Cary

The squabble, which goés back years with electronic “eyes,” a steel and and years, flared up last when Joan dashed up to plastic affair not unlike a carcongratulate Olivia on winning an Academy inel with razor blades and a giant

{

“I TINK A MOMENT" —Dr. Sevitzky pauses briefly from strenuous activity to dope out one of the numerous problems in staging Bizet's difficult opera. With a cast of 200 and lots of action ihdicated, the Hoosier maestro keeps on his toes and bi keeps his singers and actors on theirs.

toonist’s nightmare, a metal tun-

version ‘of the conventional cheese-baited trap which goes off with no more noise than a gun shot off by your ear. In letting reporters step cautiously through their trap-filled

VISITORS' GALLERY—Peering through the balcony | railing at lively rehearsal proceedings are, front to back, i . . - | Don Laughlin, 1832 N. Talbott Ave.; Dick Caulfield, 614 | . | E. 33d St, and Don Schroeder, 1208 E. Ohio St. | t A Sas pL re a Ee Need Ne: ? Check Interior Department . ‘Miracl Need New Rat Trap? Check Interior Department . ‘Miracle woman : : wrote that “by a strange coinci- sitting high in a plastic house. He/| . $275 Electronic Job ops Models Submitted dence” he had a model in his of-|gets in through any of five or six ere . fr ampaian fice. A client of his is trying to!doors. ! 0 iV In Response fo Con ° C pag get out of the rat trap business, Once inside, a trap door opens| By MAUREEN GOTHLIN, United Press Staff Correspondent lhe explained, land he falls into the water-filled] Mrs. Helen Scott Saulsbury, WASHINGTON, July 29-The nation is rat trap-minded ad) The cartoon-like affair works base and sinks, or, “if preferred, “Miracle Woman of India” who the Interior Department is about ready to start cutting out paperion rat pshchology, according to! can be caught alive in the tank,” [recently returned from 14 months dolls. oo 5 : a nt |10e inventor. The rat sees food the inventor explained. [volunteer service in India, will be Those who make a habit of beating pathways to doors might - EN Ter " “honor guest at a tea sponsored or might not be interested in an electronic rat trap a yard long, \W oman Badly Hurt Seek Way to Avert ny the Indianapolis Presbyterian two feet high and a foot wide for $275. The department wouldn't | , Ga oli Sh rt |Soctety at 2 p. m. tomorrow in know. offices, government rat experts in Auto Accident | oasoline orrage |Merjdian Heights Presbyterian : Department Amcials are Some hastened to say that the depart- WASHINGTON, July 20 (UP) Church. . emplating even weirder coniraP-iment thinks it's grand so many| Mrs. Bessie Balch, 64, 2115 E.| Government and oil indust Mrs. Saulsbury, a niece o tions submitted to them. It 18/p05p0e are inventing traps—but|New York St. is in serious 200 representatives meet *® ne Mrs, J. F. Morrison, 3038 Ruckle the public response to the rat €On-|that it is not endorsing any of dition at General Hospital today) , today 8t., will tell of her experiences in trol campaign sponsored by theigcome pi 7 |cuss methods of averting threat-|1n4ia She went there as a visidepartment. The $275 model works like this:|With. a broken leg and head In-| 04 gasoline shortage late this|tor and stayed 14 months as a They Have Tdeas the rat walks innocently into a|juries received when she was... .. and a heating oil short-| volunteer worker in the mission Nearly everyone, it seems, has|{ nei breaks an electronic beam, struck by a car at New York St./age next winter, hospitals in the emergency which {ideas about rat traps, and eachijy gripped by two steel arms that and Beville Ave. yesterday As they prepared to go into|followed the partition of India. {insists that his is better. send an ordinary household 110 v 4 the closed meeting, government| She plans to return to serve in | Among the out-of-this world volts through him and pfft--dead.| The driver, Quiney A, Rucker, o. 2aid the gasoline outlook | Philadelphia Hospital in Ambala, {traps submitted to the depart-/The trap. like a record-player, 905 Bancroft Ave, said he failed, “better than we expected.” They India, Mrs. Saulshury and Mrs. jment's scrutiny are two modeis|then neatly ejects him to. the side. to see Mrs. Balch in time to stop.isaiq the nation may get through|John M. Irvine, president of the The other electronic model is{ In another accident, Andrew in, parvest season with only a{National Council of Women's Orslightly larger and the rat enjoysiJackson, 67, of 907 Chadwick 8t.| raw {golated shortages. ganizationsi of the Presbyter the privacy of an electrocution suffered arm and leg fractures —————————————— Church of the United States, were chamber. On his way there, a mild|when his ice-cream cart was hit DEWEY DELAYS DECISION [speakers at a leadership trainelectric current tickles his feet to/by a car driven by Meredith E.| PAWLING, N. Y., July 29 (UP) |ing school for Presbyterian Wommake him hurry and get it over|Nicholson, 23, 1430 E. Ohio St.|—Gov.’ Thomas E. Dewey will len the past week at Hanover with, Mr, Nicholson's car caromed into make no commitments on Cabinet|College. 3: wn En The latter model was broughtithe cart after bouncing off aljobs until after the presidential] The Indianapolis to the attention of the department utility pole at West and Abbott|election, it was learned reliably by an investment banker, who|Sts. today.

society includes 40 the Indianapolis