Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 November 1951 — Page 23

2 ; »- & an Yu Jndianapoli = NEW YORK, Nov. 17—This is a most discour-

aging town for someone who is proud of Indianapolis. What natives here know about us you can stick in your eye and never bat an eyelid.

“Just for the fun of it, I asked a cab driver

what he thought about when I mentioned Indianapolis. The question started out as a gag. You have to do something to keep your spirits up when you travel in New York. Neighbor, don’t complain about traffic problems. We don’t have any compared to what they have here.

Anyway, the cab driver scratched his head as he weaved in and out of traffic, made a U-turn where he wasn't supposed to, ran a red light, bluffed 12 other cab .drivers as he made a left turn from a right-hand lane, and then said, he didn’t know much about Indianapolis,

We rode along in‘ silence for a few moments. Then the cab driver said he knew what our fair city reminded him of . .. a big Navy school.

“Annapolis?” I whispered, practically paralyzed from surprise.

“Yes,” answered the driver, happily. * o>

“IS THERE anything else you can think of when you hear someone mention Indianapolis?” T asked, from the floor of the cab. “Well, there's racing and stuff there.” “Can you possibly think of anything else?” “Naw, not right now.” “By any chance have you heard of Ell Lilly?” “What's that, a drug store?” I had to give him half a point for the guess. The half a point was taken away when he couldn't think of another blessed thing about Indianapolis. Now, that disturbed me a great deal. I could not let the matter drop. A men's store was a hop, «kip and a jump from where I got out of the cab. -F went in.

No sooner did I hit the door, a salesman was at my side. Was he a native New Yorker? He was. Kind sir, when I mention Indianapolis, what do you think of? He seemed impressed when I told him I was working for the Chamber of Commerce and was engaged in doing a survey. The clothing salesman tried awful hard to think of something about Indianapolis. After an uncomfortable two minutes of silence, he said the city was in the Midwest and produced a lot of corn. He was warm but not warm enough. I tried the obvious question and asked if he had ever heard about the “500.” He hadn't heard about the “500” but he was familiar with the 400. Hints about jet engines, capital of a sovereign state, Henry F. Schricker, national chairman of the Democratic Party didn’t ring a bell. There was nothing left for me to do but leave.

2. 0) ~ i x o~ “o

" ABOUT AN HOUR later, when I had finished with some personal business (bolstering my nerves), I approached a lady in an office building. She said that she was an account executive. what-

ever that is. She also was a n¥tive New Yorker

he!

By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Nov. 17—A new “gineration” has taken over the Metropoli®in Opera's openings. The new crowd drinks less and so it isn’t nearly “as drunk out” as it used to be. Several people were unchic enough to stay sober at Tuesday night's opening. Among those who got sober were Faye and Skitch Henderson, Marguerite Piazza, Ilona Massey, Broadway Producer Mike Todd and television beauties Mary Sinclair and Roxanne. ¢ % SOBER PEOPLE are dull, so Skitch Henderson’s new mustache was the newsiest society item there,

They’ve Never

Heard of Us

My burning ears wiggled as she located Indian-"

apolis close to Iowa. El Lilly, Benjamin Harrison, National American Legion Headquarters meant nothing to her. I mentioned Allison. “Oh, did 'June Allyson come from Indianapolis?” the account executive asked. She thought it was amusing that I should beat myself over the head with a paper weight. “I know something else about Indianapolis. That's the state (the state, mind you) where you can't get a drink on Sunday.” I fled from the office and New Yorkers were surprised to see a pale-faced man weeping on Madison Ave, in the 200 block. * A maid in a hotel, who first saw the light of day in New York “a long time ago,” came right out and said she knew “nothing” about Indianapolis. I was happy she didn't say she never heard of our city. A woman travel agent, working in the lobby of a leading New York hotel, made my heart skip when she said, “Indianapolis is a town in Indiana. There's a funny little bar there. I think you need a key to get in. My brother-in-law told mec about it. There aren't too many good flights ir —I know that-—oh, people race there, too.” a bn THE ANSWER was just too much. Here wa: a woman who knew all about us. Well, wh) shouldn't she? A travel agent in New York shoul know da great deal about a great many place: Fiddlesticks, the question should be asked . someone who doesn’t have the opportunity study geography. Through a sidewalk superintepdent’s windo I managed to get the attention of a constructio worker. I thought the man would make an excel lent subject. He knew Indianapolis was a cit’ in Indiana. Wendell Willkie was from Indiana That was it. A 56-year-old bartender, a native of the bic city, said Indianapolis had a packing plant. True Go on, kind sir. His wife made two visits tc Indianapolis but she never talked much when she returned to New York. Very interesting. “Living is cheaper there than it is in New

York,” he added. Could be, could be. What else” Nothing.

“Is Indianapolis a capital of anything?” 1 was desperate. That was a toughie. A gray head was scratched vigorously. “Ah, I don’t know for sure,” the bartendestammered. I think it's a capital.” “Of what?” “You got me, mister.” . I could go on and on. But right now there are important straws in the wind. They just dropped out of my mouth, incidentally. I'm not going to ask- any more questions. I'm just going to tell native New Yorkers about Indianapolis. The spiel will begin in this way “Sir, Indianapolis is a ¢ity in the United States It is the capital of Indiana... .”

It Happened Last N ight ‘Woungitery More Sober

Opera Meeting

THE MIDNIGHT EARL: Billy Rose and Joyce Mathews coo over their future “somewhere in Greenwich Village” . . . Farley Granger's squiring Geraidine Brooks now that Shelley Winters is away. Economic Stabilizer’ Johnston recommended Mike DiSalle for his job . . John Jacob Astor's new date: a Columbia U. psychology major. ¢ > oS GOOD RUMOR MAN: La-

(ard “I've been nagging him to grow one,” Fave bor unions plan to publish said. in Sherry’s bar. : Westbrook Pegler's biography t She wore her new silver blonde “poodle” - « + - El Morocco is inexplicably } hairdo and claimed there was no truth to the breaking all its attendance { rumor she'd given Skitch sofme of the hair she records . . . Hugh Duffy, shipcut off to make into a mustache. ping heir, kayoed two GreenWith Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Mrs. wich Village muggers . J George Washington Kavanaugh no longer up : Fred MacMurray, one of the r to tottering out to society’s annual rat-race, Miss Shaw backers of “Top Banana, r these folks grabbed the spotlight, what there couldn't get tickets to it . . . A was of it. Singer Rosette Shaw, managed by Lou Perry, * oO will be on the Comedy Hour this week. MARGUERITE PIAZZA wore a V-neck rhine- All B'way’s rooting for Judy Garland’s re- ’ stone gown that outdid Dagmar. covery and return to the Palace Friday, One Mike Todd was in a box with the social Lor- of high-strung Judy's troubles is sleeplessness raine Manville Dresselhuys and guests. Not only and the necessity of taking pills (prescribed by that but they knew he was with them a doctor, and legal) to get some rest. Her “reMike the Music Lover went so far as to listen opening” will be very big. to the opera (something called “Aida"). After- «+ 9S 0 . ward the producer of “Peep Show’ and other cul- ~B'WAY BULLETINS: District Attorney Hotural triumphs said, “They have dancing gals in gan, 'tis said, ‘won't seek Mayor Impellitteri's job; this. It offends my artistic taste.” more likely the U. 8. Senatorship . .. Lady Iris “You staying?” I asked. Mountbatten had a breakdown . . .. . Alice Roose“I gotta stay,” he said. “They got my coat.” velt Longworth's son-in-law, Alexander McCora. oo o> o« mick Storm, 30, died sudden]y of a heart attack.

“I UNDERSTAND some of these stars bring their own press agents here with them,” Jeanette MacDonald gasped. Mary Sinclair, the beautiful ex-wife of George Abbott, wore gold and silver hair. She paints the gold and silver on with a brush. With gold hair, she shouldn't wash it, she should have it assayed. Brenda Fragier Kelly was with Patrick 0. Higgins, an editor. They came in the Broadway or terribly unchic entrance. Betty (Legs) Henderson made it for the 41st straight year although she called it her 40th be- - cause it made her sound younger.

Yard

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Nov. 17 — There has always beén a streak of maverick <n me which admires mavericks, and although I would like to smash the medium that carries this maverick's wares to the nation—I refer to the juke. box--I got to admire a brash young rascal named Bob Merrill for taking strong hold of his life and bending it around to suit him. Mr. Merrill is a carrotyheaded young lout who has recently made himself a lot of fame and more money as a writer of the semi - hillbilly, or multiple-abrasive hit tune, 5 which gurgles from every juke box in the land. That he is the tap songwriter, from a popularity standpoint, over the last year or so does not surprise him. It also does not surprise him that he cannot read music, or play an instrument, or write music, < * > b> Y IN THE LAST COUPLE of years he has assaulted the national ear with such as “If 1 Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked a Cake,” “Candy 'n Cake,” and ‘Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle,” “Let Me In,” “Sparrow in the Treetop,” “My Truly, Truly Fair.” Most of them carry the hillbilly wheeze, which seems so vital to success in the tavern juke organs and radio platter programs. Mr. Merrill is about as much of hillbilly as Sumner Welles, Bob was born in Philadelphia of moderately wealthy parents. He has worked mainly in New York and Hollywood. He lives in a fancy penthouse in New York. He has been an actor and a soldier and a dishwasher and a hitchhiker and a porter and a radio writer and a movie director. But he has turned that Tennessee twang into a young mint . . . only because he watched the phenomenal success of a horror called “Goodnight, Irene” and decided there was money in Jugubrious, Sore. 3 :

I WOULD SAY there fs a broad swath of ham in young Mr. Merrill, who recently turned

_& congressional hearing of ASCAP, the song-

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WISH I'D SAID THAT: “The secret of success |is, there's no secret of success’—Sylvie St. Clair.

TODAY'S BEST LAUGH: “Poor Artie Shaw. He's taken so many blood tests to get married, he's anemic Snag Werris. A WALL STREET paper gave Dane Clark's show, “The Number,” a rave review. “But who down-in Wall Street nowadays,” said Dane, “can

afford to go to shows?” ,,. That's Earl, brother,

Songwriter Merrill Is a Ham at Heart

writers’ protective association, against the juke interests, into a minor sort of “Mister Smith Goes to Washington” epic. Mr. Merrill got up to testify, threw away the script. and invoked everything from the ghost of Betsy Ross to the memory of

Abe Lincoln into ASCAP's effort to wrest a weekly penny-per-side-per-recording from the juke owners,

He also ran away from home at the tender age of 4, carrying only a loaf of bread and a bottle of catsup. His musical ‘training ended rather abruptly then, when his harassed mama busted his junior-grade fiddle, he says, over his truant backside. He and the truant officer eventually became close friends, since he took off for far parts on an average of once a month during his adolescence, and there was plenty of close association between them. bs & MR. MERRILL once worked around New York for a whole year for an average of $6 per week, and was finally taken to the hospital with a case.of acute malnutrition. All the time he might have gone home to his folks, but stubbornly refused. He knew he wanted something, but it wasn't located in Philadelphia. He was a sweeping porter in CBS's Hollywood offices in 1945, > SO “I TOOK my lunch hour one day,” says he. “I put on my blue suit and pearl-gray tie and went over to NBC. I told 'em I was a writer. I got a job as a writer, and three weeks later I was supervisor of writers. I was fired out of that into a director's job at Columbia Pictures, and made a flock of B's, Westerns, and then was

dialogue) director on a lot of A's, But I still wante@ to be a songwriter, so after three years of Hollywood I became a songwriter.” .

Mr. Merrill is working at a variety of things, such as being consultant on the Perry Como show, ripping out a succession of juke box smash hits, and yearning secretly, as he sits in singleblessedness in his penthouse, to write some serious long-haired music on the $1.98 xylophone on which he taps out his ersatz folk songs. Wouldn't

‘surprise me if he did, eithér, because at the rate

the money rolls in, he will have plenty of leisure to grow long hair and think noble thoughts, ni ar o> 0

What Broug

Mrs. Perka Staletovich

and Mrs. Peter Chakales

By DAVID WATSON THEY CAME because they feared, they starved,

they were suppressed.

They were numbed by the closeness of death, the tearing strife of political turmoil, insecurity.

They wanted peace, freedom, justice, and an opportunity to know there truly is a future. Here they have found it,

They, who severed the roots grown deep in lands across the sea, became American citizens

last week. ¢ From Poland, they came, and England, France, Germany,

Italy and Canada. Side by side in Federal Court they stood, these people from Pakistan, Ireland, Russia, Greece and Czechoslovakia. Not 10 years ago many lived in countries opposed in bitter war. Today they are part of the Indianapolis family.

BITTERNESS was buried under the common desire for peace. Sparks of unrest, fanned into flame by selfish ard unscrupulous leaders, have been smothered under the blanket of the oath of American citizenship. They ‘have paid. Some dearly. Some will never know how much. One of these is Kristi Sprowls, 4315 Spann Ave. age six, she probably is youngest person admitted

Ann At the to

. citizenship in the Indiannapo-

lis Federal Court. It is probable she is the first European child adopted by an American in ‘Germany after the war. She was a member of the first group of children sent

out of that country at war's end. Kristi, a Polish national,

never knew her mother. No one knows who is her father. She was found by an UNRRA search team while she was in the care of a German family.

~ = =

HER MOTHER was taken into Germany by Hitler's forces as a slave whose purpose was to bear children for the Reich. The mother disappeared as the Reich gasped its final breath. The Rev. Herbert Sprowls, then a chaplain with the 1160th Combat Engineers, saw the child in an orphanage, and, in his words: “We just liked each other.” "He wanted to adopt her. Taking every precaution, he made his clearances with two governments—the Polish government in Warsaw, and the Polish Government in exile. She now attends school here,

and has a brother, William, who is 4. Though little of it has meaning now, she knows her story. The Rev. Sprowls is

pastor of Meadlawn Christian Church. ~ » ~ MRS. RENATA COWAN, 722 W. 42d St, is another. As a former employee of the U. 8. Army in Rome, she feared the Communists were coming to power in her country. She saw Italy sparked into

turmoil from peace while she

was too young to understand it, She is 29 now. “We were taught Mussolini was a good man,” she said. “It was the older generation; but we are bearing the fault of it.” Many of those in last week's naturalization class faced the prospect of severing ties with lifelong friends, their relatives

and all they had known when they decided to start over again

“my children are lucky. AER, %

"here there is. justice.

in another country. not. “My roots were Mrs. Cowan said. Most of her old friends were

Some did

torn up,”

killed by wartime bombing. Many were shot by German “allies.”

“A certain amount of crying is all you can do,’ she said, “then ou no longer care. I have seen people walking around with no expression at all on their faces.” Her mother and father still live in Italy, and Mrs. Cowan hopes someday they will visit herself and her husband in America, and see the Cowan boy, who is now a year old. “It’s like heaven here,” said.

she

~ = = ECONOMIC conditions in Ireland played a major role in helping Denis Cronin decide to move. He is 35, and now lives at 318 N. Rural St. Most of his close relatives preceded him to America.

Mr. Cronin was a railroader in his native land. But after the war “things started getting bad,” he said. There is little basic difference between his adopted country and Ireland, Mr. Cronin said. Not even this similarity eased the difficult parting from old friends- and familiar places. He is now employed as a punch - press operator at the Chevrolet-Indianapolis Division Genéral Motors Corp. He married an Indianapolis girl, the former Miss Evelyn Hannon, who is with the City Health Department. » = =

LONG BEFORE he applied for citizenship, Cpl. Robert Laks knew he had found what he wanted in America. The 22-year-old youth is stationed with the Army at Ft. Harrison. His is a story of suppression, imprisonment and escape from concentration camps. After arriving here in 1948, he was sensitive to the rumblings. He enlisted. “lI just wanted to appreciation,” he said.

Though he spoke no English when admitted to the country, he now uses the language in near-faultless manner.

The decision to come over was difficult, he said. He had no way of knowing what it would be like, except for what he was told in letters sent him by countrymen who had gone before.

When finally admitted under the displaced persons quota, he was forced to leave his parents in a camp in Germany. They later moved to Canada, however.

When much youngess he recalled, he attended school and played with friends, much as any youngster did around the world. Then the peace and routine of life was disrupted by war. . The Germans came in 1939. With his family he was in and out of concentration camps. Sometimes the family remained intact. Sometimes its members were separated. He hasn't many friends left in his native Poland. Most were killed. None was in uniform.

show my

- The Indianapolis

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1951

ht Them To

4 wd

Sonne RE

Cpl. Robert Laks .

He told of wholesale killings in small towns where large percentages of the population were

wiped out for undetermined reasons. “We thought our troubles

were over when the Russians came,” he said. ‘ e “They told us we would be free, but it was just as bad.” With some friends, the corporal said, he made his way into a “free” territory, and found conditions the same. He then fled into Germany, the American zone, and a displaced persons camp. Cpl. Laks recently married a Hammond girl. He has thought of making the Army his career. “I don't like sympathy,” he sald. “I try not to show the scars. It wouldn't do any good. So I keep those things to myself. Once in a while I get to thinking about it, though, and it gets me, those things I have seen.” Does America. meet his pectations? Sure it does. Besides, he concluded: “I was afraid to stay in Europe.” Soon, he will take the final citizenship oath.

® »~ = MRS. PERK A Staletovich bubbles with enthusiasm for her new home. She, too, in the future will become an American. “This is the best country of anyplace,” she said. “We can go anyplace, and do anything.” Her children were born here, and, she said, “they are very lucky.” \ At her home at 3657 N. LaSalle 8t,, the 36-year-old housewife said she didn't mind leav-

ing her home in Yugoslavia. Now and then she receives a letter from her mother, who is 60, but she is permitted to write very little, Mrs. Staletovich said. > Mrs, Staletovich said the ties with the “old country” have become, very weak under the iron fist of communism. Some of her best friends, she said, have been killed.

“It's awful over there,” she said. “It is no good, nothing

ex-

to eat, nothing to have, most of

the time trouble.” i She has little desire to see

mes

PAGE 23

America?

when he visited his home town, Kalamata, after World War IL Eagerly, Mrs. Chakales awaits her final examination, “Barbarous killing” by the German Army took the life of Mrs. Chakales’ brother, a civilian, she said. Both Mr. and Mrs, Chakales lost many friends during the war years. “There has been no peace” they said. “First came the Germans. Then the Italians, Then the guerrillas, the blood. thirsty animals.” Jobs were scarce, and food sometimes hard to get, the said. . Why turn to America?

“It isn’t money alone,” Mr. Chakales said, “but prosperity can be found too. The Greeks come for justice, freedom and

protection. A lot of people can’t understand it. 2 “Here you can lie down .in bed at night, and sleep well, then get up in the morning. In the old country, I don’t know. You might get killed. : “Here there is justice in the courts,” Mr. Chakales con= tinued. In Europe the Greek is for the Greek, the Russian for the Russian, and the English for the English. Here, no one is a foreigner in the courts.” These are a few of the people

apprec

her homeland again. Some day, she hopes, her mother, too, can come to America. = 2 x THERE IS NO doubt for America in the mind of Peter Chakales, 3047 Madison Ave. For years he has been a citizen. He was wounded while fighting as an American soldier in Belgium in World War I, shortly

after he arrived here from who sought citizenship in the Greece. largest naturalization class held His deep feeling is shared by* here since the war, and some his wife, Phyllis, who came who won it. pis here five years ago. She mar- These are people who have ried Peter after meeting him found home. ;

# TEEPE Soca RY

PSUR es

STARTING THINGS OFF—To usher in National Cat Week, Baayork Lee, 8, of the Greenwich Village Humane League in New" York, presented a Siamese cat to Dorothy Sarnoff, who is a Siamese role on Broadway in “The King and I." Miss Samoff given the cat as a token of appreciation for the fund-raising she's done for the League's kitten orphanage.