Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 August 1951 — Page 13

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Inside Indianapolis

By Ed Sovola

THE SQUARE DANCE is gaining popularity among rural and urban folks. That's a healthy sign. Ask anyone who square dances. In the Fair Grounds’ Coliseum tonight, as a special pre-Fair attraction, the Indiana Rural Youth Organization is sponsoring a Square Dance Festival. I attended a prevue of what will happen at the Purdue Extension the other night. There will be 1000 dancers twirling tonight. Marion County dancers will number 80 and among them will be eight members of the Circle: 8 Square Dance Ciub of the Northside, who will represent Indiana at the International Square Dance Festival in the International Amphitheater of Chicago, Oct. 26 and 27. ; > * @

FOR THOSE who have never paid any attention to square dancing, I want to say you are missing a lot of fun. The best thing that can be said for it is that the young and old, the good and bad can form a circle and have fun. John Marks, who is in charge of the Festival, is so enthusiastic about square dancing he's getting red in the face. Ha's been pushing the dance for a long time. Today it's beginning to snowball. John said that in Worthington, Ind., there were 1200 dancers in the streets when judges were picking eight dancers to go to Chicago. In Shelbyville 300 turned out. It isn't easy to pick out eight.

Emil Mickelson

square-dancing.

MISTAKE, MISTAKE—Mrs.

makes a wrong turn while Serious, isn't it?

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Aug. 29—The case of the purloined pussycat seemed reasonably closed. today, as the captive movie’ star, Rhubarb, appeared in Reno accompanied by his catnapper, a Mr. James Moran, eternal seeker after truth. If this is a bewildering lead, please consider that the writer has seldom been concerned with cat kidnapings of famous movie stars, such as this consarned cat, and after two days of hard work I am finished with any feline smaller than a Hon. There was one occasion when my reason tottered, ds I saw a bear alight from a taxi and ‘ enter the Stork Club, and the cat has completed the unhinging of this poor brain. The chronoiogy on the nightmare seems to be that Paramount Pictures has a new movie called “Rhubarb, ® coneerning a cat which inherited a baseball team. They brought the star of the show

to town+-in-order ‘that he-might-attend-a few. ban-

SHERRAEA aulographs and appeat on a.

he oe oe

# AND. THE CAT got catnaped. He was stolen fom a hat-chéck room in Toots Shor's, which is where all cats go to dine if they are rich enough, He was removed by thre aforementioned Mr. Moran, who wished to test the validity of the popular suspicion that a cat can find its way home from anywhere. The report from Reno, where Mr. Moran was finally apprehended, seems to be that no cat can infallibly find its way home. “This creature,” Mr. Moran announced, “was heading definitely in the direction of Canada. 1 consider that I have won the bet from Mr. Blair.” He was referring to a slightly addled wager involving $250, which Mr. Blair had and Mr. Moran had not, concerning the cat’s chances of beating his way back to Beverly Hills, the land of catnip and honey. Several lives, including mine, have been wrecked by this cat, which already has lost eight pounds since “arrival, due to frantic personal appearances, There appears to be some half-dozen lawsuits between assorted cat-food companies, the

It Happened Last Night

By Earl Wilson

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Aug. 29—I'm sitting on the beach at “Alex,” as they call it for short, trying to remember that here you're not supposed to kill flies . . . or speak ill of King Farouk. “Mohammed said, ‘You do not kill anything that has spirit,” is the way the save-the-flies decree was interpreted to me. So at dinner when the fly hovers over the fruit, or in the bedroom at night when your hide is exposed, you don't kill the lovely fly with the spirit in it. You just patiently wave a hand and hope it goes away. Not that it goes away. Flies are fat and lazy "here. They have social security. Usually the worst that happens to them is that they are chased by a special brush that you can juy. When you forget and swat them, they seem quite hurt and disappointed in your lack of consideration. “It was worse before we sprayed “with DDT and Flit,” a native told me. The disinfectants are sprayed about and if \ fly walks into some, that's not Mohammed's ault, is it? Praise Allah! $d THE SUNDAY ATTIRE of the lower castes mpressed the Beautiful Wife and me on our Around-the-World-in-30-Dazes hop, also. Men go about in pajamas with barber-pole stripes . . . on the streets. They are lavender stripes, green, red, yellow, It's their Sunday best. Sitting here. in this lovely cabana at Alex (what a comedown-—to conquer all the world and then have your name shortened to Alex!), we might be in Long Island. Alex is to Cairo like Long Island or the Cae Is is to New York, or Palm Springs is to Los Angeles. It's B elighttul being entertained by some wealthy, educated four-language Egyptians. How-

ever, you probably wouldn't find Egypt to your

To get a divorce,

erally. Tommy Manville might. “I divorce you, I

your mate,

RE ST ee he RE mk a) Lo

Square Dance Festival At Coliseum Tonight

He also admitted it is much simpler to assemble hogs and cattle for the Fair than it is to herd 1000 square dancers. * ¢ =» AMONG THE 80 DANCERS who performed to the calls of Max Forsyth, were high school boys and girls, young married couples and old and a couple of grandmothers and grandfathers. You can’t say that about a lot of the other types of dances we do. Another point in favor of square dancing is that everybody mingles, everybody helps. It's impossible to be straightlaced and aloof at a square dance:

«mg only on one partner all evening, slowly shuffling, pushing and pulling, has a big surprise coming if he ever tries square dancing.

“Ss b

MY FIRST WHACK at the dance took place in the Brookside Community Center, I stood around with my mouth open for a few minutes. Naw, I couldn't do that. Naw, chum, the folks said. You can’t if you hold on to the wall. Before I knew it they had me in a circle and I was dancing my fool head off, Yes, with people I never met before. There's something about the freedom of motion, the tempo of the music that sets off a firecracker in your soul that can’t be duplicated. I could compare it to a combination of a rhumba, sambe and the Charleston after a few stiff apertifs. Which brings us to still another good point in favor of square dancing. At Brookside, for example, thirst was quenched with the softest of soft beverages. It didn't seem to be out of place. The dance was the important thing. You didn’t need bolstering to get in on the fun.

“< 4 Rd

WHERE, except perhaps in the jungle, can you hear spontaneous “yahoos” from the dancers. Ah, and when the music is fast and the fiddles are screaming and the caller is wound up tight, who can resist clapping his hands and stomping his feet?

ns ————————

It is a great sight to see gray-haired ladies |

and men swinging any partner that comes along. How much more comfortable it is to be dancing in low-heeled shoes, full skirts and blouses, old shoes, favorite sport shirts and levis. With all the gay abandon that you find at a square dance, you also find moments of frenzied despair when a dancer messes up an intricate step. dd D MRS. EMIL: MICKELSON, for example, who belongs with her husband to the Circle 8 Dance Club, and has done a great deal of stomping, fouled up. It made her mad. She knew better. Oh, wasn’t that awful? Nobody minded but Mrs. Mickelson. I watched Mr. and Mrs. George Wilson, Mr, and Mrs. Miles Plzak, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Halfpap and Mr. and Mrs. Joel Hadley go to town, limbering up for the Festival and the big show in Chicago. It’s good to see husbands and wives having a barrel of fun. That's the way it should Le. Square dancing is the answer. Try it sometime. Go to the Coliseum and see for yourself what I'm talking about.

A Catabolie Conspiracy

Paramount Studios, assorted television stations and a few supermarkets, which had booked Rhubarb for personal service and had advertised his expected presence in several newspapers. .

“, 2, oe oe oe

» SOME THOUSAND BUCKS have been spént |

in telephone calls to various high executives of Paramount, while the hired car and the comely

young model who attended this miserable beast |

have been maintained expensively, though idle. At least three, possibly four press agents, are considering hara-kiri.

This is because, as Mr. Blair of Paramount | puts it, “It reflects discredit on - me, and through |

me the studio, to have been hijacked loose from a screen star.” Mr. Al Jarik, the cat's trainer, who is here at, some expense to ‘have supervised the animal's every move, was diseonsolate.

The. Fila, PRACT

8: abi FT lost, it’s my neck. 1 hate joe vi ” added Mr. i “Especially this one.’

- oe ge oo

THERE HAS BEEN NO direct proof yet as to where Mr. Moran, who is careless of money, gat the tickets for himself and the cat to fly west, and no real assurance that either will get home. Mr. Moran's elfin whims have led him to peddie iceboxes to Eskimos, to introduce a bull into a china shop; and to spend considerable time locating a needle in a haystack. {J have seen mighty efforts hy press agents in the past, but this is the first time I ever saw one deliberately hijack another, and certainly no such commotion has been raised in New York since my pal Frank Farrell kidnaped Charlie McCarthy and held him captive while Edgar Bergen went slightly mad. In any event, I wish to bow out of the cat picture forever, and if I say I contemplate a small attack of catalopsy I hope you will forgive the pun, for nowhere in this piece have I mentioned a catalytic agent. :

Praise Allah—Don’t Swat Egypt's Flies

sun without a guy trotting along holding an umbrella over them) do have four. A clerk may even manage to have four—although it’s tough keeping four wives on a clerk’s salary of $20 a month. You wives wouldn't like part of the woman's life here. Often the old man sits seven or eight hours straight at the coffee house and never takes the missus out. ’'Course with four missuses, which one is he to take? And imagine being given hell by four wives in one night! Yet the wealthy wives have so many cheap servants, about all they have to do every day is get up. 3 Much is new and modern, especially the building. The B. W. was telling, however, about the new American idea for killing garlic and alcohol breath. She was thinking of chlorophyll tablets but didn’t name it. ‘ “Oh, yes,” one Egyptian said. “We "have had that for some time now. We call it Sen-Sen.” »> &

TODAY’S BEST LAUGH: Lester Lanin notes most ‘modern apartments are so small, a fellow ought to marry a wifette. * > B'WAY BULLETINS: The State Liquor Authority’s cracking down on stores peddling booze to teen-agers . . . Just previous to his arrest, Wazey Gordon had spent a huge sum to buy his 4 daughter a horse . . . The Pat O'Briens have prepared to TV a Mr. and Mrs. show . . . Sal Spitale, of Spitz and Spitale notoriety in the Lindbergh kid- | napping, will be sprung in 2 weeks . . . Victor Borge’s suave and droll comedy on the ivories entranced Riviera audiences for 40 minutes at his opening. Also appreciated-—terrif tenor Ralph Curtis . . . Tommy Dorsey's yacht may be had for $45,000 . + « Roxanne has been selected

Roxanne by designer E. G. Jacobssen as “TV's best de-

. signed package.” ; * + @

| “IN HECTIC SHOW BUSINESS,” says Donald 1

he Indianapolis T

imes

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1951

pa PAGE 13

“You know who ~

A New Llife—

Prospective Coed Visits Butler

The guy who thinks he can have fun by lean- |

QUESTIONS—Jane Lewis of the Butler student information office shows Barbara (left) an application blank and assists her in filling it out. Freshman Week will be filled with paper work.

> TQUR==Keith- Bundy, funiofe—an employee- a the student : : BL of “Phep:

TRADITION—Tony. Hinkle, Butler’ Sothil. mentor, dnce her’ father's ‘éoach, shows: Barbara: “tha td plague bes fother-helped- dodicates: Sv $918 grhon- =z Bu pric datpaeENET ONE Te Fy: to the opening.ga

nee Bl

CONFERENCE—With her mother and 16-year-old sister, Nancy, Barbara examines the Butler catalog and chooses the subjects she will study during her freshman year, Mrs. Bugg compares the present curriculum with the subjects offered when she was a freshman.

By DAVID WATSON (Last of Four Articles)

WHILE Indianapolis public schools are preparing for the first great influx

of post-war children inthe elementary grades, administra-

tors have found the high schools becoming “top-heavy” with instructors. =

The number of pupils per teacher in the lower grades has steadily increased, throwing the pupil-teachér ratio far above the figure most generally accepted as ideal throughout the nation. In the upper grades the ratio

has steadily dropped below that

The school Picture—

Teacher Distribution Here Out Of Kilter

The number of pupils considered most appropriate to teacher count varies, but about 30 pupils is considered best,

Dr. Herman IL. Shibler, superintendent of Indianapolis gchoolg, said the best local avers age should also fall here. » ” n ATTEMPTS to balance the ratio in both the high schools and elementary grades here are being made through reorganization of staff assignments, High school staff complements are to be reduced, and those in the elementary units increased. : Richard Emery, personnel director for he school system, said this will nat result in dis-

charge of teachers, nor will it create a need for an extensive hiring program. When the transition is completed,” however, the high schools this fall with 56 less Instructors than at the close of last semester.

will operate

» » ”

HERE 1S the proposed plan of decrease at each of the city’s seven high school units: Shortridge, 10; Manual, one; Technical, 23; Broad Ripple, one; Crispus Attucks, nine; Washington, 10, and Howe, Not all of these teachers will

+ find their way into the ele-

mentary classrooms, however. Some may through necessity be reassigned. to high schools to replace instructors who retire

or lake other Joos. ,

avi

two, |

" within two years.

By JEANE JONES 1

ITs “open house”

for prospective

students on Hoosier !

college and university campuses this month.

In the middle of September, thousands of last June's high school graduates will be enrolling in college, but for a the next few weeks, they will “inspect” their school, shop 4

for college wardrobes, sororities.

and discuss fraternities and

They'll worry about “how tough” ccllege studies will be and there will be moments of uneasiness as the time to

leave home draws near. ” » ”

. AMONG THE LOCAL high school graduates enrolling as freshmen at Butler University is Barbara Bugg, Jetgniee of Mr. and Mrs. William Bugg, R.R. 17, Box

284, N. Kessler Blvd.

For Barbara the choice of a college posed no prob-

lem.

Both of her parents are Butler University gradu-

ates and her father was a basketball star there.

The Butler campus and traditions are familiar to {

Barbara, but visited the campus.

this week,

a prospective student.

like thousands of others, This time it was different—she was

she

Times Photos By John Spicklemire

3 2

EQUIPMENT—With Butler University coed Jane Cooksey, Barbara shops for school clothes, an important part of the "get. ting ready" process and tough on dad's wallet,

A pre-school. analysis of pupil ratio in the high schools disclosed the highest count at Howe, with about 21 pupils for each instructor. The was recorded at Tech,

lowest with 19. n » ” MR. EMERY said actual class counts would be higher than ratio average figures because special service personnel and others not actually engaged in classroom work are classified with the teaching staff.

Present goal ‘is to reach a High school ratio ef one to 23 About half thesincrease is expected to come this fall, and the remainder in the 1952-53 school year. .

Mr. Emery. said the top-heavy : j status of the

‘high schools can

was: 3 mpmper of: the ful og tears. pet Butler Fld: Hagse :

be traced back to the depression vears prior to 1935. Birth-rates were low. Children born in that period therefore made up coms paratively small classes through the elementary, grades and later the high schools, They now form the bulk of the upper grades in secondary schools, ® » - MOST EDUCATORS expect the high school “slump” to cone tinue through 1953 when a rise ing trend will develop.

on: ratio will again to the task of school