Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 April 1951 — Page 21

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Inside Indianapolis By Ed Sovola

THERE'S nothing like a trip to the Speedway to shake spring fever out of the system, The air isn’t scented with that peculiar castor oil odor yet but the racing bug is flying around. The gears are turning telentlessly to the big day, May 30, You can't go far on the grounds before you meet the hard-working superintendent, Clarence Cagle. You never worry about tagging along with him, Wherever he goes, somebody tries to climb his back for something. “Do you have a minute?” “Sure, I'm going to the garage area. Do You want to talk on the way?” That's the way it is with Clarence.

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THE SUPERINTENDENT has plenty to talk about this spring. He's bubbling with pride with the new Grandstand A. It will seat 13,000 spectators and is solid concrete and steel.

When you're on the top row of seats, you're 75 feet up in the air and can see the entire 2%-mile oval. You can even see U. S. 52. It wasn't built for that purpose, however. If you should be one of the 18,000 who will occupy Grandstand A, you will be interested in knowing there will be four patios with concession stands in each. You won't have to run very far for refreshments. Neither will you have to worry about your - personal comfort. Modern rest rooms are being installed on top. The Speedway has outgrown the wooden jobs. For more relaxing moments you can leave

SPEEDWAYITIS—An early railbird finds how to shake off spring fever at the home of the "500:

It Happened Last Night

By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Apr. 28-1 saw the tired and aged Mistinguett get fired by an American nightclub and it was very sad. It was a pathetic kind of farewell to American show business for the proud old French star with the proud old legs that are more famous even

cafe where she'd opened so optimistically but 12 days ago, she nevertheless marched shakily in on her million-dollar gams at 9p m Swallowing her pride, she got into a costume, pink and slit above her knees, that was rather young for her. “I am readee, I am readee,” she said. She sat there almost alone for two hours hoping they'd come in and say it wasn’t true and beg her to go on. But about midnight she groped out, not crying, still brave about It, still proud old Mistin_Buett, “Fes not good for Amerfean art to do thees to me,” she sald. “I have no monee. 1 have no way to pay the hotel.” o 6 & THE DISMAL “American closing,” of the 83-year-old mademoiselle was not actually brought about by her dismissal two days ahead of schedule. It was caused by an equivalent humiliation. To think that she who had been the sweetheart of Maurice Chevalier and Georges Carpentier had been paid for her first week's work with a $4025 check that bounced! The American Guild of Variety Artists sent agents there to pounce on the guilty parties if they showed up. (They didn't.) Only about 58 people, half a handful, were there when the club manager, Jimmy Vernon, announced: “The union will not permit the internationally known star to appear in this show.”

Some people didn't want to pay even for the food and whisky they'd had. Three girls ran out without paying. Soon only a dozen people were left . . . and still Mistinguett sat there in her dressing room, chattering in the manner of a very old bird about the unfeeling American cafe owners.

“4 @ ADDING to her humiliation, the club manager charged she was being cancelled because of “unbecoming conduct.” She had, he said, sung a song about having a hole in her stocking which could be interpreted as encouraging evil thoughts,

Mistinguett

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Apr. 28 —If there is one kid in the country for whom I feel very sorry it is little Arthur MacArthur, the General’s youngun. He looks to be a nice kid but his is the tragedy of being cheated of childhood. The chore of being spawn to a demigod is the roughest of them all. Childhood is a precious thing and should, so far as possible, belong to the child. Little Arthur's childhood is not his F own. His father’s circumstance § forbids it. Arthur has become an unwilling celebrity; a secondhand recipient of the hon: ors, pomp and precaution which are heaped on his old man. The kid went to the ball game the other day, his first in this country, It was a small party, ‘consisting of his father’s aides, Horace Stoneham of the Giants, and a few adult friends. But not because of any action the boy could control, the party was immediately turned into a sort of circus. ® © 9 REPORTERS kept tabs on how many hot dogs he ate. His boyish comments were quoted as a gospel. The Giant and Dodger managers more or less knelt at his feet. He was pelted with gifts—balls, gloves, a Giant jacket and cap. They even had the kid throwing out a ball to start the game. Somebody In the Giant management, with a penchant for upper-case name dropping, had the gall to announce over the public address system that all hands should keep their seats until the MacArthur party had left the field. Hell's ‘bells, 60 per cent of the fans didn't even know that there was a “MacArthur party” om the premises. And, in any case, a couple of cops and a couple of colonels were more than suffilent to fend off any rabid autograph morons.

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One. of the greater boons on being young is g sort of Tom Bawyerish enjoyment of privacy—

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bry on RRR fi que :

Racing Bug Is Ready to Bite

your grandstand and order up at one of the 12 round tables in the patios. All this stuff makes the working newspaperman's mouth water, Box seats along the entire homestretch have a concrete base, That's new, too, Parquets have been repaired and the tunnels are free of water. Somebody has been working, > > o YES, SIR, you don’t need the race cars on the track to get Speedwayitis. As we crossed the track we had to stop to let the second of the Lou Moore cars go by on its trailer, Both of Lou Moore's cars are here. The Firestone gang, headed by Johnny Moore and Mac McCrary, is busy in the usual corner of the garage area. Old race fans will know the season is in full swing when they see the Mayor of Gasoline Alley, Ed Wintergust, and Mobiloil expert Al Bock pounding the pebbles near their places of business. Six cars are in their stalls. Most of the other garages are vacant and padlocked. Clarence was nabbed by a prospective tenant. While he was gone I peeked into a couple where men were sweeping and painting. > * 2 ONE MAN was applying whitewash on the walls, The floor was littered with paper and old Coke bottles. One side wall was covered with telephone numbers, The faint odor of oil was tresent. Tool benches were bare. In another week or so the garage would be spic and span and mechanics would be working trom dawn to dusk and often far into the night. A special bulletin was tackedsup for all to see. It requested all to take note that the voltage has been increased in the garage area and “it would he appreciated if you would refrain from placing vennies back of fuses in the fuse boxes in the event of a current failure.” Signs of the times. Sixteen tons of asphalt were used to repair the track. All roads, and some, as you know, got pretty dusty, were soaked with oil, 23,000 Clarence said it would last through

gallons. Memorial Day. as ab FIVE RACE DRIVERS were shooting the

breeze near the Firestone shop. Conversation

stopped when Clarence came close. “Where do we get some hinges?” asked one of the men. Clarence wanted to know why, The man explained. “We'll come over and fix the doors,” Clarence said. “See, you don’t have to be afraid,” laughed another driver, “he won't bite you. All you have to do is ask.” Most of the noise comes from the workers finishing the steel and concrete work. The only motors roaring belong to the trucks and the crane. But it won't be long. All the signs are there. .

Mistinguett’s Exit Proud but Pathetic

Mistinguett knew that all this was but another way of saying she didn’t pull them in. “I go back now to France, or Canada,” the proud old lady said. “I am sorree to go. Perhaps ees my last time here . .."” “There's No Business Like Show Business’— pli erly oo ying eG

THE MIDNIGHT EARL: Life is reported to |

be the publication that offered Gen. MacArthur a million for his memoirs. . . . Freddie McAvoy, an old friend of Barbara Hutton and also of her hubby, Prince Troubetzkoy, is coming here to try to make a financial settlement for the Prince. . .. Big decision by Jerry Lester's TV sponsor on what to do about the current hassle is due Friday. Jerry wants the summer off, and sponsors object.

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GOOD RUMOR MAN: Olivia De Havilland gave up the idea of returning to Hollywood; will stay here and do summer stock... . Despite Jose Ferrer's trouble with the Red-hunting committee, his show, “Stalag 17,” will tee off the Army Air Force recruiting drive May 7. ... The wife of Marquise Henry de la Falaise is in Leroy Sanitarium. . . . Kris Nodland is 1951 Doughnut Queen. Bo» . B'WAY BULLETINS: Texas oil man Bob Martin was at the Little Club telling how he plans to buy out Frank Sinatra and Kris Nodland Mervyn LeRoy's oil holdings. . +. . Veronica Lake and her ma, who's been suing her periodically for nonsupport, have made up... Joan Crawford will be asked to review and lead the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ loyalty parade . .. The Army's looking for mridtown office space . .. Morton-Downey’s youngest son, Sean, is going into publicity.

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FARL'S PEARLS: Evelyn Knight reports that many a woman in a mink coat is a lamb in wolf’s clothing. > & »

WHO'S NEWS: Social gal Pat Coogan, about to return to Paris to make a movie, and gal-about-town Pat McCoy exchanged unpleasantries, some scratches and thrown coffee cups at a plush saloon. ... Lady Milford Haven and Don Ameche's wife are both getting check-ups at Doctor's Hos-

pital. . . . Harvey Stone headlines the Cocoanut Grove show on the Coast next month . , , Dolly Dawn reopens the Casa Seville May 2. * ¢ 9

xt Vis In SAID THAT: “Showgirls go for one na of man—the strong, solvent type’—Geory Shearing. Te Lipstick, quoth Jean Tennyson, gives an old pastime new flavor. ,.. That's Earl, brother.

Art h ur MacArthur Cheated of Childhood

the right to play hookey from responsibility and BO swimmin’ or just prowling. Because of his pappy’s position young Arthur has been surrounded by the Court Guard since birth, I GATHER that his playmates have heen, of necessity, carefully screened and chosen, and the play supervised. He would never have known the horrors of being tormented by the town bully, or the brief exuberance of an unscheduled fist fight. His public manners are perfect, and his tact public relationswise, the grave equal of an adult's. This, I think, ain't good. I dislike excessive good manners in the very young, and poise is a product for the grownup. Gen. MacArthur has won a sort of earthly godliness in our time. He does not exist as other men, and has not, for a long, long time. His arch foe, the President, has succeeded in maintaining much more of a private citizen’s outlook for himself and for his family, “cu , I AM SORRY for the young MacArthur because his childhood has been little more than a cutdown carbon of his father's fame. He is Wwinning little or nothing as Art MacArthur, but is reaping esteem as the young son of a famous father. Living always in the shadow of the mighty, and dining daily off reflected glory, can do pretty terrible things to the young. It can endow them with one of two complexes—one, that they're pretty hot stuff, and deserve all things from all people, or two, that they do not exist as individuals, but merely as ‘adjuncts to a powerful personality. “ Now that the kid is home, in his“own country, I sure hope the old folks pop him in a school where his path will not be cleared by colonels and press attaches and guards of honor. I hope, before the year’s out, that he has earned the nickname of Stinky or Mae, and has both given and received a black eye, On his own time,

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Champagne Mit Der Waldmeister, Yet—

Mai Bowle Ready At Athenaeum Turners

“The Indianapolis Times

Contest Winners—

‘SWEETEST GIRL'—Virginia

"Sweetest Girl" search. A senior at Broad Rippl> High School, she spends a large porticn of her day attending classes and studying.

SECOND PLACE— Marilyn Niehoff, Milroy

DUET—Laddie howls when Virginia, a voice student at Jordan Conservatory, plays the piano. This is one of many tricks Virginia has taught him.

THIRD—Virginia Lee, 6126 Compton St.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 1951 .

Ann Johnson, 5010 E. Fall Creek Blvd., is the winner of The Times

. a Photos by Lloyd Walton IT'S FORMAL—Dates and dances are important to a teens ager. Virginia is a member of AG and DOR subdeb clubs.

DAILY DOZEN — Exercises keep Virginia's waist slim. She has modeled for photographers and also does fashion modeling.

ov RAEI, TONG oT, ve SY

LEREREEE FOE TTS MA SATE a i re ——

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GOING HOME—After school, Virginia relaxes by training "Laddie" and practicing her music. She likes sports, dancing.

FOURTH—Elizabeth Seay, 606 E. lowa St.

FIFTH—Dorothy Netherland, Greensburg

RES

mit der Mai Fest.

Ja, der schnapps und das beefsteak will be kaput next Saturday night when members of the cgntury-old German club com-: plete their annual salute to the new grape crop.

Mal Fest, for the nonlandsman,

carried out in old country style, the history of which is nearly lost in antiquity, it is a most

‘ impressive affair.

Highlight of the event, which will begin at 7:30 p. m. at the Turner's Hall, 401 E. Michigan St., will be the toasts from the Mali Bowle.

. » ” THE MAI BOWLE ig a huge pottery wassail bowl, which is more than a. hundred years old. Into it goes a punch made of fine champagne and Zeltinger Himmelreich Rhine wine, flavored with a herb known as

Waldmejster. During the course of the Mai Fest, club manager

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CHAMPAGNE—Manager Mar Hoffman sefects a rare vintage.

“Landlord fill die ol’ wassail,” ‘Til it doth run over. For tonight we'll merry, merry be, ‘ Tomorrow we'll be older.” By ED KENNEDY DIE ATHENAEUM TURNERS are getting ready to make

PLAN FOLK DANCES—The Mai Fest will feature Bavarian -

costumed dancers. A

means May Feast. And

Mar Hoffman, expects that several “hundred quarts of the punch will be consumed. The Mai Bowle is given an honored spot in the center of a shrine for the occasion. A canopy covers the bowle, and it is banked with spring flowers, The Kellersall (cellar room), where the party is held, will be decorated with eight maypoles. » o ” THE MAI FEST dates from the days of paganism. The people of those times looked to the young plant shoots and the early spring rains as harbingers of a blessed occasion,

~Times Photos by Bill Ostes

KEEPING IN PRACTICE—Chief steward Fritz Siebe will fill the Mai Bowl. I

"OLD GERMAN entertainment costume will be a part of the dances will be ‘Shirley Ober will be provided at the Mal program. miller, Herbi Vogel, Mary Tot Fest. Bavarian dancers in native Taking part in the folk rence and Bill Tiernan, .

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