Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 July 1951 — Page 19

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Outside Indianapolis By Ed Sovola

ROME-—The hour is 5:22 a. m. I have just killed an Italian fly and can't get back to sleep. Don't laugh. ° " This fly was no erdinary insect. For exactly 24 minutes he eludéd me in my efforts to exterminate him. He was smart, vicious and persistant. He asked no quarter and gave none. Why he attacked me, why he continued to attack when I made it pretty plain it would be a battle to the finish, I'll never know. He did and now he's dead. At exactly 4:28 a. m., hours before I contemplated opening my big brown eyes for the day, I was awakened by a terrific hum in my ear. By the time I had turned on my back, I was lying on my right side, this invader was turning by the window and preparing to make another run.

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I'M A PEACEFUL guy during the early morning hours if I've been in the sack for several hours. And I had been. No headache, at peace with the world and trying awfully hard to avoid any kind of hostility. Even with the fly. Back he came, flying lower and making more noise. I didn’t raise a finger or move a muscle. He wiggled his wings on the second pass and rose to the ceiling. Then he dove at me. Down he plunged straight at me. I covered my cace with the sheet, hoping for peace. Apparently the fly thought my action was a sign of weakness. In a flash he wht off his power and landed. I could feel thg movement through. the sheet. One slight movement of my arm sent- him away with an angry beat of his wings. I watched him gain altitude and turn again for an attack. Ho. If battle was what he wanted, he would get it. My first’ offensive action was to lie still until he was within reach and then trv to catch him with the sheet, He was too smart, Before the sheet was halfway to his height he was climbing.

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MY ARMS were free. I was boiling. A flimsy edition ef-an- American newspaper printed in Rome was on the dresser. My traveling house slippers of thin leather were not worth getting. A quickly formulated plan was to catch him with my ‘hand. The muscles tensed as I prepared to strike. He came in close, but his maneuverability was exceptional. He had many hours in the air. I missed him by a half a foot,

After some fancy flying he landed on the window. Was he going to give up his senseless attacks? Was he refueling? Was he calling for help? He could get plenty in Rome. No. he was the lone wolf. This was his show. Two fast

It Ha By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, July 14-- Denise Darcel, the beauteous and shapely French-born movie star, had a brief date with her husband, Peter Crosby,

last night-—and sat at the very same table at El Morocco where: they sat the night he tossed « 2 drink in her face, causing x ‘Separation. The date last night didn’t last long, because Denise had to rush off to a party with Russell Nype, the spectacled singer. Naturally, Denise didn’t take her husband to the party. It =would hardly be the thing for a girl to go out in public with her estranged husband. After all, people might talk,

= on EJ ZILLIONAIRE John Jacob Astor has been dating Kay Kehoe of "Jackson Heights, | well Queens, whose mother doesn't Miss Dareel know from Society or Cafe Society celebrities. The other day Kay's mother told a friend, “I hope this Mr. Astor has a good job.”

oe o- 2 A COPACABANA customer who came in to zee Tuba Malina asked whether there were any good tables.

“A mother never has bad children,”

replied

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW ORLEANS, July 14—Although I am a shy fellow, given to blushing at the sight of a well-turned instep, I always seem to get sidetracked on a street called Bourbon when I come to New Orleans. And Bourbon St. is the spiritual and physical home of the strip tease, which has been scourged from less sinful cities than this. Ordinarily I would say that the flexible art of peeling has been overwritten, but I think I have come up with what the movies call a ‘‘scoop.” I have just encountered mother-love of such high-octane potency that mama is now shedding her garments as a substitute for daughter daughter having fled to matrimony and pregnancy as an antidote to fame. “Ah just can't get used to undressin’ in front of people,” says Ma, whose name is Josephine Spellman and whose daughter, Stormy, is possibly the most-famed stripper ever to bare a goosepimple on a street where naked ladies come eight to the bar. “Took three people to run me up on the stage when the time come to undress.” Stormy's mother is billed as ‘‘Stormy’s Mother.” That is explanation enough because Stormy Is the doll who became nationally famous when the entire campus of Louisiana State University conspired to throw her in the university lake,

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PEOPLE CAME from far and wide to see Stormy, a disdainful-looking lollapaloozer who sneered at the customers. When Stormy hung up her G-string, to marry a chit-chat columnist and tackle motherhood, a great gap was’ left in New Orleans’ elite night life. But mother, although she had heen a demure cashier to that time, leaped bravely into the breach. It seemed a charitable deed to give the clamoring customers Stormy’s mama, if Stormy herself was unavailable. Stormy’s mama comes from Atlanta, Ga., and she is very decorous.

“Ah never bump frontways,” Stormy’'s mama

pened Last Night

Italian-Type Fly Tough to Knock Out

pare

turns ih front of the window and he turned to

make his run. As he crossed the foot of the hed both of my hands were ready to strike. Instead of going up, he went down and skimmed the top of my head. I saw his ugly head and he.was sneering. I sneered back and yelled for him to prepare to die. TI leaped from the bed and grabbed the newspaper. The offensive was on.

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I CHASED him around the room. Once 1 vaulted on the bed and almost got him in the corner. The newspaper broke over my hand as I swung for the kill. Had I been armed with a stateside newspaper, he would have been finished. All efforts to nail him in flight with a package of unopened cigarets failed. As the pack would leave my hand the fly already would be turning. Flicking at him with my belt was useless, too. The end of the belt was never close. What I needed was an automatic shotgun. I think I unneverved him once with my bilifold. He was on the ceiling resting from the terrific. attack. He didn't move all the time I was getting the billfold or when I was beneath him taking aim. The shot was perfect, right on the target. It landed flat a second after he was gone. I knew I had him on the run because he was flying like crazy. ou

THAT'S WHEN 1 went into the bathroom and got the heavy bath towel. I closed the door to the bathroom and locked ®#he window. Now there was no mistake. I was prepared to leave the room in shambles if necessary. He saw me move shoes, papers and the chair out of the way. I studied the space which was clear. IT wiped the perspiration from my brow, Then I struck and missed. Missed again. On the bed I missed. We went around the room several times before I noticed his flight was beginning to get erratic. He was losing hig control. His speed of climb was about a third as efficient as it was when he made the initial attack.

’, *. *. oe x we DO

AT THE WINDOW the turbulence created from my heavy towel caused him to crash. He dropped a few inches before gaining control, It was possible to anticipate his movements-after that. The end came just above the door. The weight of the towel caught him and smashed against the wall. He fell to the floor, deader than the towel in my hand. The wings were crushed. Close examination revealed no sign of life. With a shoe I made sure and then scraped him off into the wastepaper basket. Twenty-four minutes of conflict with this Roman invader. Now I don’t feel sleepy. Breakfast is served at 7 a. m. And I don’t have to catch the train for Naples, where I get a boat. for the Isle of Capri, until 11:55.

Maybe I could let another fly in. Oh, no.

Chatter and Patter Heard on the Beat

Mgr. Jack Entratter, “and a head waiter never has bad tables.” DAGMAR, . Huntington, W. Va’'s famous daughter, has her home state thinking it's almost as great as Texas. Men 45 or 50 go around bragging they used to go to school in her class. ‘Course they didn’t since she's only 24 (HUH?), but there's hardly a West Virginian who'll admit he didn't have a date with her. Dag recently bought her parents a $25.000 home proving what I've always said: That she's

sure got a big heart, . THE MIDNIGHT EARL: Polly Adler, here

from LA to sell her autobiog, titles it, “A House Is Not a Home.” , .. Dean Martin's & Jerry Lewis’ first week's gross at the Paramount will be higher than indicated at first probably $152,000 or $76,000 as their share. That's $38,000 apiece for one week only. . . Milton Berle got unpeeved at Joyce Mathews and phoned her from Burope. ... . . Jacqueline Dalya, the actress, wrote a new musical, “Land of the Laughing Dollar,” with her husband, hit composer, Bob Hilliard. . . . The Veep’'s friends think the 30 pounds he's lost Is much too much.

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NAT KING (COLE notices that B'way and Hollywood glamour gals have a simple slogan, “Diet and dye it"—That's Earl, brother.

Seores a ‘Scoop’ On Strip Teasing

n

modestly tells me. “Ah always bump sideways. A bump, for the uninitiate, is a kind of convulsion in which the midsection is hurled sharply at the audience, to the accompaniment of strident thumping of a drum. It is the climax of a truly dramatic, performance. A sideways bump would involve a sudden shifting of hips, as in an impassioned rumba, and would be defined as refined. Stormy’s mama never divests her§elf of what the trade calls the teaser.

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“THE TEASER,” she says, “is the fringe or whatever. "Under the teaser comes the nets. You can see through the nets, but not quite. I never

get down to the nets, I always keep on the teaser.”

Stormy’s mama is 40, she says, and her daugh- : They marry early in the South. Stormy’s :

ter is 23. mama has a nice shape, very much like daughter's and the same sort of haughty face. Her soft drawl comes oddly from a shapely coiffured head. “This is still very new to a girl who never believed in taking off clothes in public,” she says, “Whenever ah recognize somebody in the audience ah can't hardly stand it.” “But,” she says, with an air of desperation, “ah’'ve gone so far now ah can’t quit until ah make Life Magazine, Then ah aim to re-tire.” Stormy, it might be said, once commanded a big spread in Life, apart from vast coverage by the national press. Like daughter, like mother.

THE MOTHER of Stormy still is a good attraction on a street which also features a charming lady who complicates her writhings with snakes, including a boa constrictor which is stagesmitten and which does a slithery sort of bump in rhythm with his mistress. This lady says ‘‘that

she discovered years ago she wasn't sexy. Since

then I have depended on snakes,” she says. ‘|

She keeps the snakes in her boss’ office, The boss never goes into his office. But I stray from Stormy’s mama, who looks forward to grandmotherhood and retirement from the trade. “Ah guess ah'm kinda old-fashioned,” she says wistfully. “But I declare to gracious ah don’t think ah was cut out for this kind of work.”

Brothers’ Paths Almost |

Cross, Miss by 3 Weeks

Seaman Frank Jr, 23, Seaman apprentice Donald, 17, are the sons of Mr. and Mrs.| Frank C. Reimer, 2003 College! Ave. Both boys were born in Indianapolis, attended Technical High School and served aboard the heavy cruiser CA-73 St, Paul

Sets Butterfat Mark

Times Special

from Sept., 1950,

{Japan and then Don,

Cash-Mar Oral Lassie Arios, reg-

and in Korean waters — but they missed each other by three weeks. Frank enlisted in November, 1944, served in American-China-

Burma-India and Korean theaters, the latter on .the St, Paul.

when he was sent to hospitals in

| who enlisted Aug. 28, 11950, reported aboard the St. Paul last Jan. 5 and feturned to Long BRATTLEBORO, Vt, July 14 Beach, Cal, May 15. Frank is awaiting fur oF istered Holstein - Friesian cow ders and Don will report back: to i owned by C. M. Bottome Jr. the St. Paul Saturday. & d., has set a new A third brother, James, 21 { production record for butter- works at the Naval Ordnance

to Dec. 16, 1950,

Great Lakes, Il1.

er or-.

fat. according to the Holstein. Plant after serving fn Japan and NAVY BROTHERS — Friesian Association of America. Korea from 147 to June, 1950, _[loft) and Don Reimer. : f . nn x :

- ©

‘Indiana Humor Is Different’—

Hoosier Herb Shriner's Started With 25

By MIKE BOSCIA

Times

Special

NEW YORK, July 14—When a Ft. Wayne, Ind.,

housewife gave her ‘newsboy a 25-cent harmonica, she

didn't realize that she was helping to launch a fabulous

career.

The newsboy learned to play the harmonica, and

used it to become one of the big-names in show business. There are lots of years and miles between Ft. Wayne,

Hollywood and New York and, of course, Indiana has

many illustrious sons who have brought fame and good will to the state, but one of its best ambasasdors of good will today is the same Herb Shriner, who grew up in Ft. Wayne. Herb Shriner was like most average American kids. His parents were not wealthy and he had to make part of his own way by working. He attended Central High School, delivered the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel. was a caddy, did all kinds of odd jobs. - But ne always shone at selling things—Ilike candy, ices and other items which required a gift of gab. Once he recalls he thought ha was on a bonanza when he got local “rights” to sell, “chocolate coated frozen bananas.” They

did not go well, though. “The world just wasn't ready for 'em,” says Herb “and when

the world was ready, I had already ate ‘em up.” ou n ” WHEN HE WARS 3 lad, Shriner used to spend summers at Tipton, Mich, where his grandfather ran a general store. “I don't mean the modern general store,” Shriner says. “It was the kind of general store, as Kin Hubbard used to gay, with the cat sitting in the prunes. : : “Granddad wore a leather. cap and a big leather necktie and sitting around there I got my earliest lessons in country humor, - psycHology, . observation, swappin’ and selling.” Back home again in Ft, Wayne, Shriner joined a harmonica band in high school. It wasn't long before he began to hear the call of entertainment. Pretty soon he had his own group, He made a deal with a Ft. Wayne music shop owner for a set of new instruments in return for putting on a performance in the store window on.two Saturday nights, “We ran only one consecutive night” Shriner “Right after we started ing, big crowds gathered and traffic was blocked. So the police broke it up and requested us not to give encores.” Undaunted by their first experience, the group began to do shows at theaters, barn-dances and high school proms in and around Ft. Wayne. They made their radio debut over station WOWO and once picked up as much as $28 for one engagement. :

|avs.

play-

2 : o o “THERE WAS one drive-in hamburger place,” Shriner recalls, “that was probably the first drive-in with a floor show. 1 would go there with my crowd

Right Attitude Is Vital—

Schools Teach Driving Sportsmanship

and as soon as we finished our hamburgers, we would start playing the harmonicas. Before long. all of the other kids would make song-requests for Join in the singing. “The show went on for. a while-but the guy who owned the place requested that we leave and not come back. He had no quarrel with the entertainment but it ruined his turn-

over. New customers could not get near the place for their hamburgers.” It Was during these first en-

gagements that Shriner began

to talk’ in hetween numbers. The kids used to laugh when he talked and at first he was

because he laughing at

discouraged thought they were -—not with him. Then had a

he discovered that he natural flair for humor, Before long he mastered the art of capturing an audience and holding it with funny lines, humorous observations and situations “I guess that T got my interest in story-telling from my Irish mother. She was quite a talker and possessed of a sharp wit,

“Mother was

just the opposite of dad, who was a stone cutter by trade He was a quiet, inventive man and he had great curiosity 1 guess that it’s from him that I got my penchant . for. well, kind of

Sticking my nose in everybody's “business. to find out what's humorous.” Both parents now are. dead. “I was born: May 29, 1918 fn Toledo,” Shriner says, "but my family moved to Indiana as soon as we heard about it.”

n n ” IN THE LATE 30s, Shriner landed an engagement at the Oriental Theater in Chicago which, in turn, brought him a contract for an Australian tour. His big break came via

the Kate Smith Hour and later, his own radio show. Next “engagement” Army in 1943. He earned five battle stars and “entertained troops all over Europe,

was the

He really hit leaving

his stride after but he learned plenty while a GI. “It was in the Army that I got a feeling for the real general public. The

service

GI audience, drawn from so many sources and stations in life, was the finest, natural

cross-section a. performer could have. You had to learn to make your humor and appeal universally understood.” After the Army, had his own radio appeared at most of the headline theaters, hotels and night spots across the country. Dur ing the last two®vears he has been guest on more than 75 top television programs.

Shriner programs,

Georgia Alexander in training car.

By CARL HENN THE MOST effective traffic safety measure ever devised has been installed in nearly half of Indiana's high schools. It is driver training. Thousands of teen-agers kids who might have become

irresponsible, flighty drivers and potential killers are being moulded into sane, careful motorists every year, Indianapolis and Marion

County are taking a lead in this long-range campaign to make streets and highways safe from sudden death and injury. All public high schools in the city and county offer driver education twice a year, fall and spring, and five city schools are giving the course this summer,

‘Adults, too, are entitled to take

the course. ” » ” \ BECAUSE human nature is involved, the course isn't foolproof, : Sometimes,

't bother to listen to his

a pupil who has dtiven before taking the course ota’ oer ng the Course

instructor, and fails to learn his lessons in caution and skill. Indiana State Police Capt. John Sutherland cites the case of one lad who died at the wheel of a car struck by a train-here. Several youthful passengers were killed with him. Although the young man shortly before the accident had completed a driver training COUrge, the teacher had marked on his report card: 0 “This boy will be killed or have a serious accident becatse of his ‘know-it-all’ attitude.” ” ” ” OVER ALL, driver education pays high returns in traffic safety, as surveys show, In Eau Claire, Wis, not one accident was reported among 800 drivers trained in high school uring a three-year period. In Cleveland, 3252 teen-age drivers were’ studied, of whom half had received driver education. The trained drivers had only half as many accidents as

the nontrained. “In_ Vermont,

four of 209 school-trained car operators figured in accidents, while among 209 youngsters "without the benefit of driver education, 20

Arthur: "Listen, Hoosier

you're it on 'Talent Scouts while’ I'm away."

Herb: "Who, me?"

HE WAS on the Broadway stage in “Inside USA” for 45 weeks with a 15-minute topical humor spot. He just ambled on gtage nightly for an hilarious discourse on current events. It

paralleled a point in-the career of another great Ameri-. can humorist-—Will Rogers. Lots. of people have often tagged Shriner with the Rogers parallel but he has never, consciously, tried to imitate him. ’ “Sure it's a great honor to

be even mentioned in the same breath with Will Rogers,” says

Herb. “But, he was unique a product of his own "peculiar times and, of course, people

are s fond of ‘drawing comparisons. The. only reason for

the comparison. is, I think, due

to the fact that our humor stems from the same down-to-earth, grass roots “Indiana humor, however. or Hoosier humor, is different from all others. George Ade and Kin Hubbard were like most Héosiers—born observers. That humor comes from the foibles, trials and triumphs or what goes on.

“As I said before, if certainly f= an honor to he mentioned with Will Rogers but there can never be another like Mr. Rogers. - Practically all of my humor is homespun. based on observation of characters in

one Just

barber shops, my granddad's general store, people I've met If it isn't genuine, I can't tell the story or recount the wise

crack or situatfon.”

"FOUR AT ONCE—Mr. Dill instructs (left to right) Mary Copeland, Charles Rolin, Nick, and

were involved in accidents. And 10 of the latter 209 were convicted of violating traffic laws.

ou bd ” UNDER INDIANA law, a boy or girl may legally begin to take driving instruction at age 1513, but is not eligible for a license until reaching 16 Years and one month At the start of a high-school course, the instructor gives his pupils a number of tests de signed to show foot, hand and eye reaction. Eye tests {include special checks for night blindness, color blindness and ‘tunnel visfon,” or inability to perceive what is occurring at either side while looking straight ahead.

on ” 5 THE TEACHER lectures his pupils for the first week, stress ing the importance of what the textbook - calls “Sportsmanlike Driving.” He strives to impart to each youngster the correct “attitude” -—a healthy respect for a ton and a half of expensive metal which can kill and maim because of one moment of inattention. rary The rest of the six-week course is divided betweep driv- $ A :

SUNDAY, JULY 15, 1951

"This is gonna take

ON JULY 30 and -for eight weeks, Shriner is going to sub for a fellow he admines a lot Arthur Godfrey, He will emcee Godfrey's Mondav evening Talent Scouts show

on the CBS radio and television chains, which is carried in Indianapolis by WFBM and WFBM-TV at 7:30 p. m. As a sort of a “preview,” he

handled the program on July 9

“It iz a pleasure to sit in for Godfrey.” he said. “He has the type of audience I like to reach home folks." Shriner was married in 1949 Two month ov the Shriner had a babv Asked the child's name replied with disarming candor Why after Indiana ! e call her Indy. Her name is Indica.”

gr

from teacher Paul Dill.

ing practice in dual-control cars, donated by local auto dealers, and instruction in traffic laws, modern highway problems, car maintenance and personal fitness for driving. At "the end of the course, field examiners from the State Bureau of M#tor- Vehicles visit each school tn give the driving test required before a license can be granted. BH 8 g THE INDIANA program is supervised by James H. Ringer, director ot, iver training in the: State Office of Public Instruction. ; ‘Mr. Ringer lagt manth attended the President's Highway Safety ' Conferenes in

r/).

AUTO ADVICE—Shortridge pupil Nick Velonis learns driving Note dual controls.

of Jenind the wheel aining, and 11,208 have ‘ha

some thinkin’ "

His wife, “Pixie,” is from Chie cago. The Shriners live in mide Manhattan, although they would like to get out in the country. But, television with its long rehearsals’ keeps artists close to home. And Shriner haz to work extra hard for TV. It burns out material fast, He cannot find writers who can duplicats his own brand of humor and his way of telling jokes 80, hs writes his stuff himself The Shriners have one ambi tion, though Someday they hope to get in their four-room trailer bus and crisscross Indie

ana, and especially Brown County. ‘It's a hotbed of Hoosgier humor lore,” he =zaid “That

whole state never leaves you,” he added wistfully,

Washington. He was a member of the committee which recome mended mandatory driver traininfi for every high school pupil in the United States, a recommendation approved by President. Truman. The state official said dppli= cations arrive in his office “nearly every day’ from. mors Hoosier high schools wishing to install the program. He is looking forward to the day when every school in Ine diana will match the Indiane apolis and Marion County rece ord. In this city alone, mors than 2000 pupils have becomes

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