Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 May 1951 — Page 17

Inside Indianapolis By Ed Sovola Toy

COUNTING leaves on a tree, bricks at the Speedway and ants on an anthill is simple compared with counting freckles on Madge (Shorty) Ballard. Shorty is a waitress at St. Moritz. It took a bit of talking to get Shorty to allow the freckles on her face and arms counted. The credit must go to waitresses Mrs. Hazel Tabor and Mrs. Frances Jones. They were As curious as I was to find out how many spots ‘were in front of their—eyes when they look at Shorty. The tiny ball of freckles gave in to her friends. re :

‘, +, oe oe

could count the freckles on heér face. “Who cares about - my freckles?” argued Shorty. “What difference does it make wheather ims. : A I have 300 or 900 freckles od my ‘face?’ She CET TY aan enter Hite the Spire of Fe Par i Xe Shorty said flatly she never had

the slightest desire to know’ the count’ of the spots. She knows

in the summgr she has more than in the winter. That's bad enough, . . - = ’ MRS. TABOR said she'd count Shorty's left arm and Mrs. Jones would count on the right. Jess and I collaprated on the face. |A-1301 Immediately it was evident Shorty was going "ION to give us trouble. She had to drink her coffee and smoke a cigaret. If she felt like moving her

arms or head, she moved. Tough going for the counters under such conditions.

Shorty had 27 freckles on her nose.

She

refused to allow us to mark off areas that have

me 0 00 mile sie!

FRECKLE COUNT—Madge (Shorty) Ballard

(left) doesn't take her spots seriously. Mrs. Fran. ces Jones does,

It Hap By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, May 16—I thought you might like to go along on a visit to Sarah Churchill , . . She stuck her pretty head through ithe door of her duplex in the East 60s and admitted me. “I'm glad you found the lift,” she said. Before I'd sat down, she asked, “Would you like a 6 drink? iments muti (No better way has been found of cementing AngloAmerican relations.) “Maybe just some coffee,” I said. She was off to boil some water, then sat down—and I looked at her. She has pretty red hair. Bright green eyes. A lean kind of beauty. A slow-burning kind of beauty you notice about five minutes after you've met her, then remember.

! Sarah I heard a door opening. € o~ oo oe “ANTHONY?” There was 4&4 murmured “Yes, i darling.” In came husband Anthony Beauchamp, the £ the brilliant portrait photographer . He pronounced the coffee idea nonsense. He iali- brought us all some Pimm’s Cups. n of “Did you get a cable from your mother and father before your show opened?” I asked. ited. “Oh, I always hear from them before a show.”

“And?” I alerted my ears for a terrific scoop. “Oh, I never quote father's cables. Those are private, like a letter.” . I looked dejectedly at my drink. It cheered me. It had a big fat strawberry in it and looked extremely summery. “It must be a problem being Winston Church{II's daughter,” I said. “There's no problem having him as a father, but,” .she said with a little laugh, “I wonder if he “hasnt found ita problem having me as a daughter.” Across the room were pictures of the Churchlls, a larger painting of Mrs. Churchill—and a wire recorder which Sarah Churchill uses for rehearsing herself. ree a ow oo ON AN EASEL seemed to be a painting. But it was a photograph of a rosy-cheeked, eyes-closed Greta Garbo, taken by Beauchamp

for McCall's.

TT —— ———— or

———

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

MIAMI, Fla, May 16—I am not a.-man to knock the way I make a living, which is the business of communication, but sometimes you wonder if we all aren’t a little over-communicated, to

on't where our powers of reception have been semiace drowned in an inundation of sensation. There used to be an old tely thing which said “What you

don’t know don't hurt you,” with which it is easy to disagree. But the opposite ill to ignorance is surfeit — which means a bellyfull—of threat, crisis, horror and damnation. The poised ax of imminent

disaster has always been a forceful tool, and has been lavishly brandished by the exhorters, whether they be

politicians or preachers, huck- ; % sters or even wives with a point to make. The threat is a tricky weapon, and the words “if you

lethargy, doom-cried to apathy. This has been made possible by our vast network of communication—the devices by which the crisis of the moment, no matter where it occurs, is swiftly transmitted to the home of every man. “- oS

GEN. MARSHALL, for instance, tells us that we are in immediate danger of Russian attack. I know this to be so. It is highly conceivable that at any time during the next two years a fleet of Soviet bombers may lay their deadly eggs on any of 200 important American cities. Our intelligence knows that the Russians have such horrible sidebar equipment as nerve gases and disease-spreaders, in addition to the big bomb. We know it, sure, We have been told it over and over again. But we have been unable lately to interest the American people in the mechanics of survival. This deadly callousness results from Aa simple reasoning: If threats are loosely used .+ to prove a. piddling point, they are watered down 2 by repetition. :

NGE

¥ ) i i

JESS ZILSON, St. Moritz manager, said we-

pened Last Night

don't do such-and-such, so-and-so will happen” “are rubbed sHek-with—hard-usage But it is possible to threaten too much, too often. and too wildly, so that the keen edge blunts and the harsh impact is reduced to a tickle. The American people are in that stage today. We have been threatened right down to

Counting Freckles Makes You See Spots

been counted. It was my suggestion that we could get more accuracy by isolating tabulated areas. “You're not making pencil marks on my face and arms,” snapped Shorty. The way she said it. you knew it was futile to argue. “oo ALL I CAN say for Jess’ counting is that he tried. This is one project which I will not stamp with the mark of accuracy. I think Jess does better counting beer bottles. There were too many people counting. An-

other thing, Shorty didn’t care for the idea from .,

the start. She .varied the counting conditions from one minute to the next. : It’s disconcerting ‘to be counting a cheek

. .

~The Indianapolis Times

and have it suddenly ‘wrinkle up as the subject |:

makes a face, Moving freckles blend into a solid mass. :

. ‘Shorty had silne maze $redkles on the fingers © of her left hand than on her righs.™

Left, 62; right, 51. As the two ladies moved

.along- the hand and:wrist it became apparent the

distribution wasn't going to be uniform. be es a ALL FINGERS on Shorty’s hands had freckles but one. The little finger on her right hand was free of Spots. There were seven freckles on the little finger of the left hand. The highest number, 17, of freckles on the right hand were on the ring finger. On the left hand, the index finger and the forefinger were tied with 18 freckles each. ; The girls, with some help from me, of course, figured that there were about 32 freckles to the square inch on the arms. Shorty didn’t batan eye when she was told there were 3642 freckles on her left arm and 3585 freckles on her right. “Am I supposed to act surprised?” she asked. That girl just doesn’t believe in research. = 0D MY FINAL count for Shorty'g face was 724. Mike had given up counting around the vicinity of the left ear. He was perfectly willing to let 724 stand. For our grand total we got 7951. Remember that’s for only the face and arms. Shorty wore a blouse with pretty short sleeves. We didn't miss many freckles on her arms. Shorty warmed up to the work after she heard the total. I think it surprised her. She's been kidded a lot about her freckles. It should be quite the thing now for Shorty to be able to tell a customer that she has 27 freckles on her nose, 724 on her face and so on. Gb SHORTY went so far as to promise to watch the little finger of her right arm. The minute she gets a freckle started, she’s going to call me. We might be able to discover something startling by observing a barren area that shows some life. I can’t figure out why that little finger, one out of 10, shouldn't have at least one freckle. Anybody know why? Shorty doesn't know and doesn’t care. 1 do.

. oe

Pimm’s Cups With Sarah

“It's the most exciting face I've ever done,” he said. “She put me off about five or six times. She has a thing—she won't be photographed except when she’s making a film. That made it rather difficult.”

~The -Beauchamps have a homie in England

which Churchill gave them as a wedding present which they’ve never lived in, and which only she has seen. “We plan to go be too soon,” she said. She meant that she hopes “Gramercy Ghost,” her first Broadway play, will have a good long run. I inquired about her brother Randolph. “Randolph is nursing a seat down in Devon,” * she said. & I That startled me until she explained “nursing a seat” means he is preparing to run for the House of Commons seat he lost by 3000 in the last election. | Miss Churchill has toured America a lot but hasn't had time in Atlanta, for example, to eat grits or black-eyed peas.

“You're never short of an invitation in America. You're only short of time,” she said. * a MISS CHURCHILL said that in one way the American theater is more pleasant to play than the English. “The serving of tea at the matinees,” she explained. “I miss it neither as a performer nor as a spectator. “You're on stage in London and the teapot is being passed down a row of 16 people. Sometimes they drop the teapot. Inevitably they drop it. Crash goes the teapot just as I'm speaking my favorite line!” It was time to go. The hour had passed swiftly and the Pimm’s Cup with the fat strawberry in it had been a good idea. dR TODAY'S BEST LAUGH: Marion Colby tells of the veteran actor who's been around so long he remembers working for 19th Century-Fox. “ooh on WISH I'D SAID THAT: “All the world loves a lover except those waiting to use the phone.’— Lester Lanin , , , That's Earl, brother.

ack—but we hope it won't

Americans Rapped | On Danger of War

If you keep telling a man he is going to die tomorrow, in order to force him into buying a new insurance policy, he may become slightly distrustful when a few years pass and he is not yet dead. In the vast, 17-story apartment building in which we live, a request was made some months back for a tenant to volunteer his apartment in order to show a civil defense picture. My gal offered the use of our place. “Bb NINE PEOPLE showed up, including the man who ran the film and who made the lecture on how to survive an A-bombing. And out of the entire building, only one person offered to lend his apartment, even Rough the superintendent's notice was posted for & couple of months in each elevator. . 3 For some of this passive resistance I blame chiefly the politicians and politico-mfilitary, and I also blame us—papers, books, radio-television,

magazines and movies for hélping them along. out an insurance policy with the In—our honesty we have generally run the good

with the bad, and cannot say that we have been too delicate in the choice of what makes startling news, Just for instance I would put a lot more weight on Gen. Marshall's newest salvo of dread if IT didn’t know that this is part of the ammunition with which the Truman boys are fighting Gen. MacArthur. I would trust a threat of extinction more implicity if Hairbreadth Harry hadn’t used it a little while back, when he was talking increased taxes. 0 ob

FOR THE PAST six years, lowercase generals and admirals, agate-type politicians, and professional gloom-spreaders have made unhealthy capital of the atom, in order to peddle their shoddy little wares.

And now, finally, we come to a critical point 4.4. Ginger Du Val, 23, and Amber

of civilization to find that the voice of the prophets have been hoarsened by over-exertion in the market places. It is a sin and a shame that we finally suspect motivation so heavily that we attach only small importance to cry of doom, and brush aside baleful warning under the often correct assumption that the baleful warner is merely trying to sell his own petty kettle of fish.

atte at rE PA alo

~==-ACROSS

CHAPTER FOUR oy "THERE was a bustle irr Callao Harbor the «tay the Kon- -

. WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1951

sR was fowed out to sea. The minister of nuatnie dads 23 "ordered the naval tug’ Guardian Rios to tow us out of the wi bay and cast us off cléar of the coastal traffic. ‘The Kon-Tiki followed the tug, like ar angry, billy-

goat on a rope, and she butted her bow into the head sea

so that the water rushed on board. This did not look very promising, for this

| was a calm sea compared with

what we had to expect. The towing went on all night at a slow speed and with only one or two small hitches. Only a few ships’ lights passed us in the darkness. We divided the night into watches to keep an eye on the towrope, and we all had a good snatch ef sleep. When it grew light next morning, a thick mist lay over the coast of Peru, while we had a briliant blue sky ahead of us to westward. The sea was running in a long quiet swell covered with little white crests, and clothes and logs and everything we took hold of were soaking wet with dew. It was chilly, and the green water round us was astonishingly cold for 12 degrees south. We were in the Humboldt Current; which carries its cold masses of water up from the Antarctic and sweeps them north all along the coast of Peru till they swing west and out across the sea just below the Equator. All day long there was an offshore wind out here, but in the evening the onshore wind reached as far out as this and helped craft home if they needed it. In the early light we saw our

| tug lying close by, and we took

care that the raft lay far enough away from her bow while we launched our little in-

| flated rubbery dinghy. It floated

on the waves like a footbail and danced away with Erik, Bengt and myself till we caught hold of the Guardian Rios’ rope ladder and clambered on board. With Bengt as interpreter we had our exact position shown us

__on_our chart. We were 50 sea

miles from land in a northwesterly direction from Callao, and we were to carry lights the first few nights so as not to be sunk by coasting ships. Farther out we would not meet a single ship, for no shipping route ran through that part of the Pacific.

» ~ » WE TOOK a ceremonious farewell of all ‘on Board, and many strange looks followed us

| as we climbed down into the ! dinghy and went tumbling back

over the waves to the KonTiki. Then the towrope was cast off and the raft was alone again. Thirty-five men on board the Guardian Rios stood at the rail waving for as long as we could distinguish outlines. And six men sat on boxes on board the Kon-Tiki and followed the

| tug with their eyes as long as

{

they could see her. Not till the black column of smoke had dissolved and vanished over the horizon did we shake our heads and look at one another. There was ‘a rather light breeze, which had veered from south to.southeast. We hoisted the bamboo yard with the big square sail. It only hung down

About People—

slack, giving Kon-Tiki's face a

wrinkled, discontented appearance. “It looks as if we were losing ground,” said Herman, and he threw a piece of balsa wood overboard at the bow. “One-two-three . 39,40, 41.” The piece of balsa wood still lay quietly in the water alongside the raft; it had not yet moved halfway along our side. “Hope we don't drift astern with the evening breeze,” said Bengt. "It was great fun saying good-by at Callao, but I'd just. as soon miss our welcome back again!” Now the .piece of” wood had reached the end of the raft. We shouted hurrah and began to stow and make fast all the things that had been flung on board at the last moment. Bengt set up a primus stove at the bottom of an empty box, and soon we were regaling ourselves on hot cocoa and biscuits and making a hole in a fresh coconut. The bananas were not quite ripe yet. “We're well off now in one way,” Erik chuckled. He was rolling about in wide sheepskin trousers under a huge Indian hat, with the parrot on his shoulder. “There's only one thing T don't like,” he added. “and that’s all the little-known cross-currents which can fling us right upon the rocks along the coast if we go on lying here like this.” We considered the possibility of paddling but agreed to wait for a wind.

oy on ” AND THE WIND came. It blew up from the southeast quietly and steadily. Soon the sail filled and bent foward like a swelling breast. And the KonTiki began to move. We shouted westward ho! and hauled on Sheets and ropes. The steering oar was put into the water, and the watch roster began to operate. We threw balls of paper and chips of wood overboard at the bow and stood aft with our watches. “One, two, three —now!" Paper and chips passed the steering oar and soon lay like

+0 18,19

pearls on a thread, dipping up

and down in the trough of the waves astern. We went forward yard by yard. The KonTiki did not plow through the sea like a sharp-prowed racing craft. Blunt and broad, heavy and solid, she splashed sedately forward over the waves. She did not hurry, but when she had once got going she pushed ahead with unshakable energy. At the moment the steering arrangements were our greatest problem. The raft was built exactly as the Spaniards described it, but there was no one living in our time who could give -us- a practical advance course in sailing an Indian raft. The problem had been thoroughly discussed among the experts on shore with meager re-

sults. They knew just as little about it as we did. As the southeasterly wind increased in strength, it was necessary to keep the raft on such a course that the sail was filled from astern. If the raft turned on her side too much to the wind, the sail suddenly swung round and banged against the cargo and men and bamboo cabin, while the whole raft turned round and continued on the same course stern first. It was a hard struggle, three men fighting with the sail and three others rowing with the long steering oar to get the nose of the wooden raft round and away from the wind. And, as soon as we got her round, the steersman had to take good care that the same thing did not happen again the-next minute,

rested loose between two tholepins on a large block astern. It was the same steering oar our native friends had used when we floated the timber down the Palenque in Ecuador. The long mangrove-wood pole was as tough as steel but so heavy that it would sink if it fell overboard. At the end of the pole was a large oar blade of fir wood lashed on with ropes. It took all our strength to hold this long steering oar steady when the seas drove against it, and our fingers were tired out by the convulsive grip which was necessary to turn the pole so that the oar blade stood straight up in the water. This last problem was finally solved by our lashing a crosspiece to the handle of the steering oar so that we had a sort of. lever to turn. And meanwhile the wind increased. n ” ~ BY THE LATE afternoon the trade wind was already blowing sat full strength. It quickly stirred up the ocean into roaring seas which swept against us from astern: For the first time we fully realized that

N A R

The great adventure begins as the tug Guardian Rios, which towed the raft out to sea from Callao harbor, turns back and leaves the six landlubbers aboard the Kon-Tiki to their fate.

___The steering oar. 19 feet long,.

The Kon-Tiki ready fo shart in Callao harbor, Peru. Like the Indian's . prehistoric vessels, the raft had an open bamboo cabin and two masts lashed together with a square sail between.

here was the sea itself o .1o meet us; it was. ear now—our communications were

cut. Whether things went well now would depend entirely on the balsa raft's good qualities in the open sea. We knew that, from now onward, we should never get another onshore wind or chance of turning back. We were in the path of the real trade wind, and every day would carry us farther and farther out to sea. The only thing to do was to go ahead under full sail; if we tried to turn homeward, we should only drift farther out to sea stern first. There was only one possible course, to sail before the wind with our bow toward the sunset. And, after all, that was the object of our voyage—to follow the sun in its path as we thought KonTiki and the old sun-worshipers

Jeft Davis, Tired Of Being On Road, Plans To

PAGE 17

must hav. ne when As the troughs of the sea grew deeper, it became clear that we had moved into t swiftest part of the Humboldt Current. This sea was obviously caused by a current and not simply raised by the wind. The water was green and cold and everywhere about us; the jagged mountains of Peru had vanished into the dense cloud banks astern. When darkness crept over the waters, our first duel with the elements began, TOMORROW: How the first 60 hours, when heavy seas tossed the raft like a tiny cork, made real seamen out of land~ lubbers. And what happened when they discovered the balss logs were soaking up water! » om the book. +‘Kon-Tiki—Across MeNaily &

the (Distrib by The

Heyerdahl. and Tribune Syndicate.)

Retire

Jeff Davis, king of the hoboes, Entertainers Harry Gifford, sightless the last guardhouse because of “civilian” home there because he wan .cd to {who has visited Indianapolis 25 of his 40 years, started pour- heroism. stay with his mother instead of [many times, today on the West Screen star.

ing the foundation of a larger,

Pvt. Ray Vallalpando, 21, made his father following the home after erecting a temporary

Coast said he may retire and Jennifer Jones four trips into a burning house separation.

|settle down in was scheduled to

couple's

dwelling in a month's time. He Monday to rescue occupants, and’ In protest, Houston set fir >to 'Seattle, the city Brtive in Toure (Wired the structure and installed suffered severe burns. But MP's his bedroom. the kitchen of his where he began or 4 Personal plumbing as his wife read him saw his picture with a story of father's home and the cellar. Now this travels 55 appearance : tour instructions from a book. the action and arrested him. he is living with neither parent years ago. ? 2 e : = ys chet par " “The Boas not §8 of Ary, Navy Surprise Peggy ‘Chased’ . what it’s cracked and Alr Force THEODORE W. NIESEN, Ra-, Vocalist Peggy Lee obtained an Falls Off Bridges up to be,” said Spa ek n cine, Wis.,, was trying today to uncontested divorce from com{Jeff.- “I'm not «aban an 0 find out who left $4650 in a Poser David Bar-

Injure Two Boys

Springtime tumbles from bridges have started to take their |annual toll. rE

rea. Comedian Jack Benny is expected the last |week in June.

|kidding. I've been |around the world {six times, and if IT had to do it

broken-down bought for $9. His neighbor, Frank Sammarco, sold him the machine but doesyf«

bour today in

Hollywood, but . “i

she admitted | their parting was

sewing machine

Miss Jones

(all over again, I ng, pavis : know how the bills got there, difficult. : yw ony BS ospityls! are wouldn't.” Nothing to It either, Jp telling the es? | $ |peated warnings about th Vd The 58-year-old great-grandfa- 1p Seattle, a blind weaver and H Behi d B Judge about it, x a gers of bern or walki s dan ther's wife and family live in his wife today began enlarging a '1€r0 ind Bars The 22 Year. old] % bridge rail sac, Cincinnati. home he built in answer to An Air Force private who went Movie singer said * Y |oridge railings. ; friends 'who said “A man with AWOL to marry his 17-year-old her husband re- 7 Is h St of conve Hospite) Relax good sight couldn't build a house sweetheart ended his Atlanta, quested her to" oserh Hig. 14, of 2337 N. Io

bot Ave, has a broken leg, suffered yesterday when he : fell’ time he from the N. Meridian St. bri love ‘me ‘anv more and onto an island in Fall Creek. wanted his freedom.” William J, : Riley "IPs 1 1206 . National Ave. today was taken Winner off the critical list at General A new convertible, a diamond Hospital. He was injured Sun|$30.000 were on their way today railroad bridge over Lick Creek to Mrs. Oliver Hopkins, Birming- while fishing.

in 30 days.” in the Bet the divorce, that “he told me several

did not

Lloyds of London gave odds of nearly 20 to 1 to a Seattle dentist ‘today that the- United States would not become involved In a’ world war before June, 25. Dr. Frank Wood said he took

Ga honeymoon today

Miss Lee

firm that would pay off $10.000 if war is declared by the U. 8. be-

fore that date. The policy cost ham, Ala. who guessed the name - a - Fn $535 of “Grandma Hush on the Chi u u il Prioth “Truth or Consequences” radio cago . nveiis

show, . Mrs. Hopkins won the 13-week GiaNt Atom Smasher contest last night by identifying] CHICAGO, May 18 (UP)—The “Grandma Hush” as Mrs. George University of Chicago today unM. Cohan, widow of the famed veiled the most powerful atom song-and-dance man. |smasher yet developed this side lof the iron curtain. Odd, What? | The new $2 million synchro. hTe team-and-crumpets life of cyclotron was believed to be the ' (an English gentleman doesn’t ap- best in the world, provided Russia peal to two Cuyahoga, O., heirs hasn't developed something ' | to a $254,000 British estate. ger. University officials said | James Nugent Gape, 46, has machine will produce first choice on the property, but|isotopes for medical and basic ) isn't sure he wants it. Kenneth search and be used later for the

rE |Gape, 45, his brother, has second treatment of cancer cases. i FOR A BETTER CITY—James W. Minten, new president of chojee if James turns it down, but It was unvelled during ded - | 1 i itd he doesn't t it. If tion o e sc tin r the Fletcher Place Community Center, confers with Mrs.. Robert Rot ae or Se ar eri go basic research. The cyclotron fs Stockwell (left), and Mrs. Lloyd D. Kirk. Mrs. Stockwell as represent. English relatives. sunk into a pit > ont below ative of the Stansfield Circle and Mrs. Kirk as new president of ‘Hot-Headed Youth \ground level in a building on ~ the Methodist City Council Auxiliary assist with'the cepter's recrea- | Houkton Terrell, | tional, health and cultural program. .

Lost but Not Found

Sizzle Into Fizzle |

Two shapely strip tease artists were recovering from shock and submersion today after an ynsuc- | cessful attempt in Oakland} Cal, {to entertain the boys in uniform.’

St. Cloud, 28, decided to take a canoe ride on Lake Merritt when they heard the Army was holding maneuvers on shore, They spotted the boys and began to peel. But the appropriate movements were inappropriate in a canoe and they | were spilled. :

niversity campus and .isx a : 12 - year - old ded by a .12-foot thiek |Akron, O. boy, is in the detention, tecting concrete walk

i . * . eg -

. &

Ta ot .