Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 December 1950 — Page 16
Indianapolis
“An Old
By Ed Sovola
Christmas spirit . . . A red, paper bell in a window overlooking an alley.
IT'S ONLY a red paper bell. A Christmas bell and it hangs from a dirty shade facing a downtown alley. Through the even dirtier window you can tell it's been used before, I've seen similar bells made in grade schools. That bell and the man who put it there, for ene and all to see, have been in my thoughts for almost two weeks. The window is one of many in a refuge house for indigent men, tramps, and in some cases, shameless legches who wouldn't work for money or love or country. -1 saw the old man hang his paper bell. Quite by accident, too. Who can say what power, what tiny ‘wheel of chance turned my head to glance through a third-floor window of an adjoining building at the precise moment an unknown old soul decided to add ‘his bit to the spirit of Christmas? Three minutes later, three minutes earlier and it probably would have escaped attention, LA WHAT does a paper bell in an alley, overlooking a fire escape, waving over debris mean? Why would a man in such circumstances handle a piece of paper with such care and tenderness? What were his thoughts as he fastened the bell to the shade with a piece of string and stepped back to smile to himself? Not a big smile. His face was a mask of pathos before the tiny self-satisfied smile. The lines of disillusionment barely moved and fell into the timeless furrows after it faded. What memories were fired when the bell was
It Hap By Earl Wilson
NEW YORK, Dee, 23—-Today we ain't mad at nobody and, in the spirit of Santa Claus, name our 5th Annual Eari-American Team.
Humphrey -Begart, who created PandaMonium, was 1950's Model Fighter-it WAS a model he had a fight with, wasn't it? The year's cowards were the bums who
slugged Columnist Lee Mortimer May 17 in the men's room at Bill Miller's Riviera. We printed some roughneck's remark, “The list of suspects has been: narrowed -down to 100,000," which we now apologize for. 'Twas the year's bad taste, Lee! SBorry!Here they are--everyone a Best: gr Te OUTSTANDING FIGURE OF THE YEAR: Toan (‘Season in the Sun”) Diener, of Cleveland, bust 40, waist 20. Milton Berle says everybody wants to be the man who came to Diener. New Slang: George” for “Swell” by Jerry Lester, the fastest rising TV comic, Comebacks: Damon Runyon, Gloria Swanson, Ged. 8. Kaufman and Barbara Hutton -who came back home. = “New Singers: Patti Page and Eddie Fisher. Show Songs: “Bushel and a Peck" (Frank
Loesser). “You're Not Sick, You're in Love" (Irving Berlin). Biggest Seller: “Good Night Irene.” i
LE EE BOOK: John Hersey's "The Wall." Best Read Articles: John Bainbridge's N'Yorker profiles of Toots Shor. Best Red Book: “Red Channels.” fpun). Upsets: Taft and Impellitteri. Setup: Joe Louis, Genius: Composer Gian-Carlo Menotti. Consul” even made money!) Film Discovery: Holliday. New Band: Ralph Flanagan. Crack: Bob Considine (on “Who Said That?"”) about having a horse named for him: “This was the first time I was ever called a whole horse.” Theater Event: Mar. 2—Boh Hope and Jane Russell (what a trio) break Paramount record. . Godfreyism: “Some men sleep in pajama bottoms. Some in pajama tops. With these taxes, I just sleep in the string."
(“The Judy
- EE - BEST TV Gag: Fred Allen—'They call television home entertainment because you wouldn't 70 across the street to see it.’ Most Publicized: Faye Emerson, by a neck, and N. XY. Police Commissioner Murphy by a whisker. >» NEW B'WAY STARS: Vivian Blaine Robert Alda. Cafe Attractions: Edith Piaf, Joe E. Lewis, New radio stars. Tallulah Bankhead, Jan Murray,
Americana By Robert C. Ruark
NEW ORLEANSE, Dec. 23—The man looked vaguely familiar from the rear, as he sat with his wife in the Vieux Carre restaurant. Maybe a jittle balder and grayer, but not much. His face was not so familiar—-1 missed a bristling black heard that made him look, a long time ago, like a barbary pirate. “H'ya, lieutenant,” the chief said. And the clock spum back to an old war we had once--a corny old war called. two, so newly finished, so ripe of memory, so sad in retrospect in Its futility of settling anything. “This is where we came in,” %/ the chief said. - “Looks like it,” I said. “I'm back at sea again” the chief said. “Don't like it any better. You and me just aren't cut “but for that hero stuft.”
nb THE CHIEF is named Hal Sterne.
He is a vast man—used to weigh about 240 and not much
of a it fat. He had fists like cantaloupes. He was hief engineer of the S88 Eli Whitney, One night a fell out of bed in a heavy roll and doggoned near capsized the ship. I remember the chief laughing in an air raid in London, cursing the food at sea. He had Some Scared ts in his engine room too. the depth charges were thudding old bucket’s bottom, Sterne used to ‘of the ladder, in the engineroom, cravens back below decks. was typical of most of us. He was submarines as anybody, but he stood
tough
ned Last Night
“to join Luciano: — Jack Berry'll buy. Lillian. Moore
seem f
And @ Christnpas Bell |
in place? What regrets flashed through the ~ Fecesses of his mind? Could there be any hopes - left?
How did this act, known only to him, as far as he was concerned, compare to the great release
of energy to meet the season? * & MILLIONS and millions of dollars have been
spent to transform cities, factories, great merchandising centers, mansions, modest homes and
dwellings Although the spirit of Christmas began in the heart and was intended to be a quality of the heart, - the outward extravagance has gained,
snowballed until any withdrawals of the materi-
alistic would be strange. We're that well educated.
What misfortunes, decisions, follies lay behind
him? As he wandered from his refuge and mingled with the throngs, observed a hurrying mother and her children, gazed at the splendor beyond his reach, listened to the restless, powerful tremor of desire and fullfilment, did his spirit rebel? Those are some of the thoughts that came to me in the days that followed. It also seemed cruel that a man who could hang a red paper bell in a window overlooking an alley shouldn't be able fo taste some of the joys of the season, Did he know what it is to have a home to go to and feel that he belonged? That for a few short - hours or days the giving and receiving and loving made life worth living? That the joy he could bring to someone else's life really exceeded the unselfishness that prompted it? oe
ao» 1 COULDN'T find an answer. There seemed to be no solution. I kept thinking of that brief space of time when he appeared in the window with his paper bell, No matter what his life had been, no matter what regrets he might feel or how bleak the future might seem, that one moment certainly gave him pleasure, - His spirit wasn't broken. There was a link with a more pleasant past, Come what may he stepped Torward, without fanfare or show, without malice or gain, and hung his red paper bell. Somewhere inside his frail body, the spark, the small warm flame of Christmas flickered. He could give nothing and I wanted to think he desired nothing. There must have been great faith in the man. Just as there is great faith in the man who calmly kneels in the desert and prays to his God. Or, perhaps, kneels in the quiet privacy of his lonely roogpn and speaks through his heart. That is the moment when there is no cold, want, greed, hate, evil. And when the spirit moves and the shell lies dead and eternity begins, only faith re#ps its reward. To me the old man was rich. No amount of gold could buy the faith he carried in his heart as he carefully hung the red, paper Christmas bell in the window overlooking an alley. And then stepped back and smiled.
Here Comes the Fifth Earl-American Team
Joey Adams. Top new TVers: Jimmy Durante, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Robert Q. Lewis. . lode Sd Oy GREATEST LOSSES: Mrs. Louise Baer, Al Jolson, Charles Ross, (ieorge Bernard Shaw, Walter Huston, Grover Cleveland Alexander. Oscar of the Waldorf, Lou Clayton. Women of the year: Margaret Truman, Perle Mesta, Ethel Merman, my Mother, Gorgeous Mother-in-law, B., W, and how are all your folks? <> <> MEN OF THEs YEAR: The boys in Korea. o>
2 o
ly ; THE MIDNIGHT EARL .'.. Police were tipped 3 top racks eteers might try to flee to Italy We hope
a mink coat Tor Christmas... 80 does she. ... What columnist's miffed at what saloonist? . , . Edward Sweeney, son of late hotelier Martin Sweeney, upset his family. He married band vocalist Penni Smith on the Virgin Islands . . . The Duchess of Windsor looked sharp -when she and Elsa Maxwell met the Mayor for the Marine Fund. Blue “Scap” suit, canary yellow collar, pheasant teather hat . . . When Gertrude Lawrence says, “Have you seen Roosevelt?” people think she's nuts, That's her chduffeur’s first name . .. The Monica Boyar-Leslie Nielsen wedding'll be at the Park Ave, Restaurant ,.. Mary McCarty gets plenta cheers in “Bless You All" ToD WISH I'D SAID THAT: Anthony Pettito: “When people continually try to keep up with their neighbors, you have to give them a lot of credit.” SoS B'WAY BULLETINS: A Park Av. dentist claims Chinese Communist United Nations delegate Chiao Kaun-hua skipped without paying him for fixing his choppers. . . . Mindy Carson joins lack Haley's TV... John Talbot will team. with Huntington Hartford on an entertainment newspaper. . . . Playboy No, 2, Johnny Jelke, joined the Air National Guard. When Blanche Thebom wore a low neck on his TV. show, Jackie Gleason said: “Opera singers
Mary MeCarty
have gone from strapping to strapless.” ,.. That's Earl, brother. This Is Where Old War Dogs Came In— ton.” 1 mentioned earlier that the chief had fists
like cantaloupes. The chief makes the point to this piece. The old pattern begins to shape again. You come down to New Orleans te shoot a duck and run into all the civil manifestation of war. War contracts are being talked again. Troop accommodations are being made. It is raining, just like it used to rain in World War Twice.
You see the uniforms all around, again, with
the frighteningly young faces under the jaunty caps, and wonder if they could have been that young nearly a decade ago. I guess they were although we all seemed like dashing buckos when [ commenced my war out of this same town a long time ago. > > & “DO You rememb:r the Bar Nolly in Casablanca?” the chief said. “Do you remember the major in Bizerte, and Sergeant Jackson with the guitar and the bad white wine in Ferryville?” I said. “It all seems mighty familiar to me,’ said. “Why don't you come down and have lunch with me on the ship?” “I've been on a ship,” I said. “Me, t00,” the chief said. a ship.” The ship looked just the same. The gangplank was just as non-navigable. It smelt like all ships—burnt paint, grease, cold iron. A mess hall hasn't changed any. No food ever served in a room with bolted-down ‘tables and chairs was ever worth eating. > Fo THE MISSISSIPPI looked as cold, as brown, as dirty as ever, and you remembered how muddy it got over in Algiers, Louisiana, not Africa, and how the submarines used to wait at the mouth of the river, “I see we got controls and stuff again.” the chief said. “The hell with jt: It was just day
' the chief
“That ‘was quite
af %
ap arias for 1. An Mote. Tt doesn't
Southport Ma - rea cE ae | I KNOW just how “Heartbroken Wife" feels toward her husband sonic Penge. e ee Toad; or voir 8nd Christmas. = ~Other officers information, Farouk,” 2
ar ‘Th . on Ser Ch J5 HA! * Rattlesn: were obl the foot! . The mail had for his 1 | with pen - chusetts Nor mud lay physical | the evil + [| track, ar i broken-d A hat . Skid marks . and frag edy And di s hat in the foreground of the first picture inspired State Police Detective Wendolin 6. Opel s grand iki cwinning photographic study. The Jasper d bed post officer won fiest | in the traffic policing division as 3 wel with his study, "The Jost Hat. y an hi e - | y high ¢ y gs Day, 18 State Troopers Shoot It Out’. | entablat and shoo With Cameras for Top Honors as) i gleam | Freed, Lafayette post; T A | Contest Photographs Win Praise From a Spo a Wg 1 on either | De . Pe on post, and Northwestern U. Traffic Institute Trooper Stanley Guth, Jasper by lawle: Indiana's “tops in the nation” State Police have added another Jost} human: interest-—Chie Ra- Hap; man Harry R. Evans, Lafa- ’ honor to a long string of laurels. ette-post Trooper Jamies C Tove, | Thompso The boys in blue proved that camera-wise they can “shoot it YS BO Ber ro) ve : {out” with the best in a photographic contest which won an orchid | Evans, award pu tie ¢ = at which | from Northwestern University's Trafic Institute. lace in this & “ad ar secon | vr : Svar ; , 2 social co The first annual photographic contest for employees of the! p ION, oo . ; Blinecess Indiana State Police Department : Dunes Group Wins | Ress: |drew 300 photographic entries tion, to “stimulate use of the| Dunes Park post won a plaque Inde {and won a $25 U. 8, Savings Bond camera in crime and traffic in- for the best group of photographs been ex] {top award for Detective Wendolin' vestigation and to stress photog- by personnel of a single district. % |G. Opel, Paoli, of Jasper Post. raphy as an enfortement tool." { In special ‘competition among, . suspende | “On a basis of subject matter, All entries, excepting Vacation techicians who. supervise camera and a co |print quality, understanding of and hobby shots in the human in- work at the 10 posts, Charles Ep-| the zest | photography techniques and illus- terest class, were snapped by the person, . Pendleton post, won| |tration of relationship of photog- camera-packing troopers during seven of nine piaces. Other tech-' ; Even rahpy to law enforcement work, routine police investigations. Bo niclang taking honors were Har- Fi a fain to I it was one of the finest collections | tries ranged from grim “on tl e old Chambers, Seymour post, o } i y of prints I have ever viewed, "| scene” shots of tragedy to an ar- second place in traffic policing oS ol_the siate pare Jhetoaraphic of arls were not 5 so $50 in hi: Florence Johannsen Lund, of tistic still life study. ‘and Frederick. E. Swick, Lafa-» 3" odels for 'S vans, two live.wire grandsans amount ac Northwestern's traffic institute! Detective Opel won first place yette post, first place in Mra were models tor mile, Chum, Smile" which won him second place large sum land a contest judge, commented. in traffic policing and the grand interest. | in human interest competition. successful Other judges were Victor H. award for the “most representa-. B.D. Aufderheide, of Rex Lab-' P $ al Sho PI WwW ous Drofes Peterson, city editor of The tive of the value of photography. oratories, Indianapolis, donated » 5 ‘Ef | Times; Charles G. Werner, editor- in police investigation.” ithe first place plaque; Herman| osta ower agues riter - “marked sc , ial cartoonist of the Indianapolis Other winners in the order they, Schaefer, executive secrtary of! ROME, Dec. 23 (CDN )—Portly itism, ‘then recently fled England was asked | Star, and George Tilford, Indian- finished were: Traffic policing— Attomobile Dealers Association Richard Hughes, leading Aus- for Russia with atomic secrets.) little villa | apolis' News photographer. | Trooper Floyd G. Toney, Jasper pot Indiana, aonated the group tralian’ journalist, is addicted to CE ai ie Eins “ Spon as d i Sponsored By Publication post and Trooper John A, Cook, plaque and Lt Lloyd D. Hicker-' ndi ] : ula exer The contest was sponsored by Pendletion post; general policing son, editor of The Shield, donated . ing aftuail postcards to his eo VE is and lively | The Shield; state police publica- - Detective Sgt. Herman H. the first prize. riends when they are traveling 21 N. DELAWARE ST Bar; but fi
;around the world, { Peter Russo, columnist of the ‘Southport F&AM {Melbourne = Argus, wishes Mr.
S A Genidl Host- Sets Installation {Hughes "would give up sending].
‘him ' cards—or at least. woul Louis M. Cato will be installed’ : a) i
# worshipfut master of South-| sign Bis ownjaame. port Lodge No. 270. FRAM, at 8 Mr. Russo, a guest of the | p. m. next Sat. Israelis, was staying at a swank urday in the Tel Aviv hotel when a card
Ask’ Mrs. Mariners
Hubby’ If Wife Does the Work
DEAR MRS. MANNERS:
SPECIAL 07:3" RVICE
| | |
I'm usually not on 1 speaking terms ‘with my Husband by Christ ‘mas. It's all his fault.
to be
installed! Mr, Russo fled to Rome, but include:
1B not fast enough. Another card
He tells me not to work so hard. But he goes ahead and asks| Russell his folks and all of his brothers and sisters and their fainfies | Herr; ] & a waiting for him here. It That means I have to cook a warden: Manuel| “See you soon in Finland, Re-
whopper of a dinner. I'+ and his! more fun if we stick to acting family really eat. like women instead of trying |
It means I to be both the woman and man | have dozens of | of the house. |
presents to buy
8. Green, junior gards, Pontecorvo.” : warden; J. For- (Bruno Pontecorvo is the! rest Davis, treas- atomic scientist who first fled to’ urer; William P. the west with Chicago's Enrico Talbert, secreta-' Fermi from Mussolini's anti- -sem-
CNEL
LIN §
M r. Cato
IMinais
-and Wisp A man gives up easily wll : Francis E. Venis, senior dea-l— = ne {there are Sis 0 chores he should do if he's con: Arthur Baumer, chaplain: jhildren: Bly Huse i nagged at, or if his wife does Jack Russell, organist; Walter! ay a n ! ‘them for him.’ We: can make [Lave senior steward; William F.| out his | by their dear our role more fun, too, if we |oarnedy, junior steward; Orange head, but ) Fe \8. Davis, tyler, and John H.! group indi {uncle. AL don’t take ourselves, our feel- iSchier. trustee. : { or recogni It means lots. UINSA™ ing of neglect, and our house- ————— i entered. of —eleaning. His \\ work too seriously. ! Tt. was mother is very We do have a lot more pes- Close Overseas enough tc nosey and critic- tery little jobs than the men | . . ; he * Xnown In al. T dop't want | have, But we ean sit snugly by Relief Drive ! “The Old her to find dirty corners when she the car heater - while a man | i ' . rhaps 5( pries. tinkers with the engine or fix- All Souls Unitarian Church uJ The friendship Da It means cleaning for days es a tire in the cold. We (if [Will close its December campaign Re which you have shown b : and youth: Safter—the — messy and Sueky Yor hve doors: opened for: Lor: -OVersens reer: today, 5 T vevwrmsrsia at. Yor £. 11s ye now. 1 BY... SE RRR A 5 Fach Fall 2 nieces go home. They're mean wus. Of course that doesn’t hap- Members i werful little brats, and have free-for- pem if we start out wrong by | ‘been te - the i have, Your petionage 1s ’ a. eleon alls in my living room. doing all those little things | Ng for member sincerely appreciated. z, ing on the And that isn't all. He likes to for ourselves. If we hop at the SNIPS in the Unitarian Service! : 4 contiguous ‘give and go to parties. He invites, honk of -a—horn while putter Committee; objective of the De: We hope to merit = He had friends in night after night. He ing around the house with hus- cember campaign. Memberships 3 3 x x some hilar wants them fed, too. Of course band waiting outside we make ynze in amount from tive dollars “ your continued confidence did not at he expects his shirts ironed and & big mistake. to $100 with | ; ity of the mended as usual. wr set some joy out or all |efiaren Sap. total goal in the and wish you a most the should ' s. those chores we do. en : o jocularly, a I Shta ve Shilasen but J Rave aren't as observant or compli- | The Unitarian Service Com. Joyous Christmas and into a vac on cleaning, cooking and laun- mentary as they should be, and | {mittee with international head- H N “Jest h dry. I'd like to quit woking but, Eranted they're thoughtless. | quarters in Boston serves medical appy New Year.’ 1 out, boys! we couldn't live as my husband But we enjoy our own little en- { missions, child care institutions, | ‘ over yar— is accustomed if I did. '“ terprises and like other wom- [the homeless and aged in all] man in the When I ask Bim to pick out "3 Admiration. We lke pry- Parts of the world, The campaign | Just tellin gifts for his family or help carry ing around, thumping a grape here is part of a countrywide Now “= sbout—' in groceries he gets awfully busy fruit impertantly at the hal fgg ox H. 5, Stumdckes UOR ERS ‘ Sulley / ; 5 ea , We like to .be the big |Is local chairman. terrupted | He works just eight hours a day ery 3 RRA “ y how in maternity row. A part and not hard. 1 never ask him to "oy . I TIMELY y v We know our families appre- .Y VISITOR added an help Tee pt at Sohristmas and 1 ciate good meals by just watch- | SAULTE STE. MARIE, Mich, NEW YORK AND MERIDIAN accents. {think he at least could fix the ing them bolt down the food. | Dec. 23 (UP)—Mrs. Delia Benoit | x SILE itt nt on the Christmas tree We like ta see husbands’ f {Was wondering what to fix for tiv: | uring the holidays he's a per-| Wreathed. in comfort as they dinner when a partridge crashed Eicak Joss 8 uring | doze in their chairs. |Carough the kitchen window. a {fect host. Why wouldn't he be? Be glad your husband Is 8 [yee - group. He's rested and ‘without a re-| . PIR 4 DAR VA Ya pA 40 PE PA SN FSR Yo PA! - changed: sponsibility In the world, Al he| 500d Rost. Some men tear up- || - a reflectively stairs for a nap or take to the pe y : has to do is spread the yule corner tavern, leaving com- |} 11) 'q tainly sol spirit, eat and tell stories. ve , suthin’ of 80 “Heartbroken Wife,” a man, pany and the kitchen—to their | 1K il Rhy’ of h too much Christmas spirit yes. 1 p pal wit Look at those lists you've !
is just as bad as your husband | who is without. It's a hard world for us women. | ANOTHER . WIFE. Come now, being a woman | is lots of fun. We can make it
Sena
made. Cut down where you can and start speaking ' to your | husband. Having him enjoy | your company is more important than .what your mother- | in-law sees in the corners. }
"FOR LAST MINUTE SHOPPERS =
* Budnick's Open Tod ¢ (SUNDAY; DEC. 24TH) _
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Santa means joy to oll!
And we mean joy to alll When ‘we extend our holi-
* before yesterday we had ali the same stuff. I got J
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