Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 March 1952 — Page 21

Parts &

of Tex.

OOOO TASES AON

Inside Indianapolis - By Ed Sovola

EARLY yesterday morning, choediate dollars, balloons and coupons fell from the sky over Indianapolis. You might have picked up a few, dur-

ing daylight hers, of course, and made Kroger -3

and Stokely-Van Camp peopie happy. Enough about happiness. I'm more concerned about the sweat and tears that sent into getting the balloons “into -your hand® with their valuable merchandise coupons on the inside. +. The main idea was to get the balloons in customers’ hands. Everyone - agreed “an that, The simplest method of dging that would be to hand them out to folks or’the street or as they entered a Kroger storé: Not- flashy enough.’

ANOTHER way "ot distributing ‘the: balloons would be to throw them on front lawns from an

+ automobile,” bicycle, pushcart. There ought to be

“How!” she continued. “When he

a harder way. There was. Someone got the idea of flinging 2000 balloons out of an airplane so'they would really scatter. There was the ideal gimmick. It surprises me that Kroger and Van Camp could have thought the thing up without my help. That's right up my alley. Never do it the easy way if you can find a harder one. With this in mind, no doubt, Jim Wood, Kroger advertising man, called: me. Would I be interested? Is an Indiana high school basket-

hall team interested in winning the State Championship?

JIM COOLED me off somewhat when he told me the hour we were to meet at Sky Harbor Airport—2 a, m. There are few things that I like to do at that hour, and blowing up balloons and pushing them out of an airplane isn't one of them. : : Interest in ‘the undertaking mounted, however, when I discovered that Jim didn't know exactly how the ballons were going to be handled. There was some doubt as to the number that could be taken up each trip. There was doubt about breakage, slipstream, targets. Operation Balloon Drop was getting better by ‘the minute,

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SAT 2 A. M. a motley “crew gathered in ‘the operations shack of Sky Harbor Airport. Jim introduced me to the following balloon blowers: Fd Johnston, assistant grocery merchandiser, Kroger; Bob Kollbruer, general district manager, Kroger; Joe Farrell, assistant advertising manager, Stokely; George Shuman, national chain store representative, Stokely, and Phil McNamara, specialty sales, Kroger. Besides the food peddlers, radio announcer Ward Glenn was on deck with Howard-Dempsey, his engineer. Chet Odum, the pilot, appeared late but did his share of balloon work. Jim Wood explained all about blowing up balloons and how simple Jit was the way “they did it at the office.” Gloom settled over the operations shack because everyone expected ‘the office help” to have had the balloons blown up and stuffed with coupons and gold dollars. All ‘the “skilled help” ‘wanted to do was ride in the Cessna and throw them out.

It Happened Last Night

By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Mar. 1 — “Sometime,” Dorothy Lamour said, "I'd like you to write a story about Ridge. “It was only prayers that got him well,” she said. “That's all it was.” Ridge is her =on, John Ridgeley Howard, 6. Just about a vear ago he had . encephalitis, which developed - after the. measles. He was partly paralvzed and had a temperature of 108. When his mother tried to comfort him and help him, he tried to bite her. Then he got well—almost miraculously. “You: should see him raise the devil around the house...

was go sick, that one “overs there”—she nodded toward her husband, advertising man Bill Howard— harder than I ever saw a man cry.” And, sitting there in the hotel suite, interrupted ofteh by phone calls about hér movie career, she

Miss Lamour

“cried

. went back to the beginning.

“I'd like to tell the story because of the hope it may bring to some parents,” she went on. “Anyway . . rq taken Ridge down to- Sarasota with me whila T worked on ‘The Greatest Show on Earth.’ “When he got over the measles, he. didn’t get normal. Instead his legs got like jelly. The doctor told me to keep him in bed.

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“EACH DAY the doctor said he'd be all right tomorrow. But manana never came. Finally ‘the doctor aaid he had encephalitis. “I said, ‘What's that?’ “He said it was a virus of the brain sometimes followed the measles, “Ridgeé’s little tongue was five times its normal size. I tried to feed him beef broth with an eyvedropper,

that

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW*YORK, Mar. 1--'Tain't very often a fellow in this business shoots off his face about this business, becaifse the wretches who live by the knit brow and the spavined typewriter are not supposed to bc people. We are the press, a wierd

v creature with zinc-lined innards and cast-iron

~ paragraph story.

consciences who, would broil grandma on a spit for a two-

I don't know how the myth started about the hard-boiled reporter who could not he trusted with a confidence. I do Know it persists. This is merely a long windup on the premise: that the next person, man, child or woman, who prefaces a purely social remark to yours truly with “this is off the record” is aching around for a large rudeness. “This is off the record” is painful enough when it comes from some narrow-gauge politico or brass- frightened flunky in the military, but it is downright excruciating when you run into it outside the regular line of work. The pot begins to boil and reason flees screamIng when some nonentity. whose capsuled hopes and fears wouldn't make a filler for the Waon socket semiyeéarly comes roaring up with an alr of conspiracy to mutter: “I know you reporters, and I wouldn't like to ‘see this in print, mt...

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‘THE OFF¥-THE-RECORD kid, whether he is government, military, athletics. or parlor bore, is and always has been the thumb in the soup of my business. ' In the prosecution of the profession, or racket, or whatever it is, “nobody worth shooting wants confidence. He wants something he can print that will be of interest to'readers and which will gain him favor on the pay check. Above all things, he doesn’t need a head cluttered full of useless information which he is sworn to protect, because there always comes a day when he or somebody else gets the stuff

TTT —Jlegitimately- and hang there—it-goes—into—the-

paper. “Erom that point on you are either a confidence-busting baboon or else you protect the original source and-get your ears slapped flat by the Opposition, p - 9 on My MAN RILEY, who raised me, used to have a pet peeve about all off-the-record, high and low.

"Anything you can't print,” he used to scream,

“don’t hear. Don't come in here with a Iot' nf gossip like an old woman and then tell me. you can’t print it hecause it's a secret. I Rot secrets a-plenty of my own. What 1 Want outa you is news fit for print.” The vast conceit of the don't- -print-this-but boy is almost unbelievable. Know will brace you with a Jong song of utter

Some bum you barsly -

Diieration Ballion. Prop a +. Windy Job

TRIAL BALLOONS — Operation Balloon drop was easy at the office the way (left to right) Paul Dietrick, Mary Catherine Ruch, Floyd Knoy and Ed Johnson did it.*At Sky Harbor Airport, they were balloons and blowers of a different calor.

SOMEONE, estimated that 200 to 300 balloons could be packed in the Cessna each trip. How fouled up can an estimate be? A four-place Cessna has about as much room as a model-T coupe. Maybe a little less. © We blew up balloons until we were standing in them up to our hips. Hardly dented the boxes, and there were coupons to burn. Only razor-sharp wits saved the project from collapsing. Balloondropping from an airplane was -raked-over the coals of our tobacco ashes. Pilot Odum wanted to get the show on the road. After all, he had. been spinning his motor for an hour and a half. He had a reserved seat in the plane, naturally. Dempsey had to be included because he was radio engineer and a tape recording was being made. Glenn was a must because he was the announcer,

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SEVEN GUYS l!oaded three Balloon Drop VIP's in the plane along with a portable record ing set, two storage batteries, microphone and six balloons. There wasn't room for.any more, Those of us who were Jeft behind felt keen disappointment. Jim . Wobd eased the acute pain by flicking us across the small of the back with an old bunch of guy wires, Vivid accounts of the initial trip prompted McNamara to dévise a battle plan.. He .and Odum would do the flying and pitching while the rest of us, Glen and Dempsey, included, would do the blowing and packing. ALL I KNOW is that balloons were taken up and not brought back. McNamara and Odum said they were scattered from one end of town to the other and maybe the surrounding counties. Kroger's “Golden Dollar Days” better he good. The sendoff they received was so humpy you would think I had personally planned every detail. Phew!

PDottie’s Miracle— . Her Son is Cured

“We didn't know we could have killed him because his throat was blocked off. “The doctor told us it might take years for him to walk.”

One day after a long night when Dorothy and Bill faced the truth—that they might lose their son—Bill said, “You've got to get on that chartered plane and get Ridge to California.”

“80.” remembered Migs Lamour, “some of the engineers and other men let me lay Ridge out on their seats and that's how we got my sick boy home.” s Dr. Byray Kully of Los Angeles suggested cortisone. Bill, unable to get plane transportation out of Sarasota, had to give permission by telegram to

; pd the drug. Soon, however, he did join his et

nd they went to their Episcopalian: church whete# heir minister asked the congregation {0 pray for Ridge. On one day of this busy week, Miss Lamour's’ mother met Hopalong Cassidy on the street. “I'm Dotty Howard's mother,” she said. “Dotty’'s boy is terribly sick. He thinks so much of you. I wonder if you'd send him a card?” “I'm not going to send him a card. I'm going to the hospital,” said Hopalong.

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MISS LAMOUR was with her son: when Hopalong arrived with his arms filled with presents. Perhaps it .was a combination of Hopalong, prayers and cortisone that made it possible the next day for Bill Howard to phone his wife at the studio where she'd gone for a couple of hours. “Ridge moved!” he announced. “He walked a few steps!” And in a few days Ridge was playing and running with the other children. It was when thev were coming home from the hospital that Ridge said, “Mommy, vou know when I tried to bite you? I knew I was doing it. But I-couldn’t-help it. And I didn’t mean it. Sitting there in the hotel suite, Dotty said now, “I guess maybe we lived right.”

Keep It to Yourself If ICs Confidential’

inconsequence, irrelevant, immaterial and useless, and then enjoin you to silence on a collection of spoken rubbish you couldn't wedge into the liver-pill section with a tire iron. And the social shusher is the worst of the lot. i I don’t know about you, but I seldom stray forth into the mad, giddy whirl of the 400 with the avowed intent of treasuring every erumb of idle gossip and character assassination that rolls my“way, (I seldom stroll into the mad, giddy whirl of anything, but let.us not pare cheeses, )

TT we nd Yy

WHAT'S TO SAY is that I-can really be trusted to be included in a conversation at the home of*some friend without dashing off to shout, “Stop the press” the second.I hear. the dread details of Dottie's-1ast operation or who Betty really was hiding behind the sofa with that purple night in Perth Amboy. I don't need the horrified look that says a member of the press is present, and we will-all be on ‘Page 1 tomorrow, Confidentially, Bud, -I ain't real interested in vour erummy little confidences and your helter skelter haphazards, and T do not usually confine my work to other people's houses. Where ah come from they call it breachin’ ‘hospitality.. And while I'm at it I can do without confidential leer .that goes with the: are in the know:

that” “Your guys tell me, is Truman really going torun?” I dunno, chum. Harry doesn't confide in me, ‘If T Kriew.I'd run it in the paper. Same for the classic stupe: “What's really going on in Washington?’ Even in Washington they don’t know what's going on in Washington but, of course, this off the record, y'unnerstand.

Dishing the Dirt By Marguerite Smith

QT never seem to have any luck with carrying geraniums over winter. I have some now 1 saved from last fall. you suppose there is anvthing I can do to them to make them grow?— Mrz. M. B. A—A geranium plant is oddly like a cactus 4 Tretains—a spark — of life] even sometimes: whe - At appears Jue dead, If your plants didn’ t freeze in the fall, dry out completely in a too hot storage spot ne winter, there's a chance ‘you can make them grow. Pot up your plants right away. For with: the turn of the veaf and increasing intensity of the sun, Mother Nafure wfll urge them to grow now if at all. Be sure to have drainage (broken bits of flower pots or gravel) in the bettom of the pot. For many a geranium has died from too much moisture around tha roots. Then as =oon as they're potted up, water them thoroughly’ with warm water, Let them stand ina light place and zea if they don't put out new shonts. Don't keep

back later, possibly root the growing tip ends.

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he In lianapolis

SUNDAY. MARCH 2,

952 w

PAGE 0

* By ED KENNEDY THE AFFAIR in Korea is known in the Far Kastern Theater as:the ‘Skoshi,”

or little war. 1 was a skoshi war correspondent, covering the war for a little time. Miles of red. tape delayed my departure from Washington three weeks. . In an effort to speed up my loyalty check, I told a Pentagon officer I was a captain in World War II and

Times Reporter Ed Kennedy recently returned from a 20,000-mile ‘trip to Korea and Japan. In this article, he gives the less serious sidelights of war reporting. sti-hold-that rank as a retired officer. He glanced quickly over his shoulder and cautioned me: “Don't mention that out léud around . here... They'll think you're a replacemént and ‘you'll only be delayed. another month or so.” Later, with the traops, 1 could understand why they nickname their combat replacements “turtles.” They're 30 slow getting there, > ~ " » ONCE on my way, however, the red tape was tied in a fancy bow and I was delivered in style — through a pardenable error on the part of the brass who confused me with Congressman John D. Kennedy (D. Mass.), I tried to tell them their mistake, but my laryngitis made it difficult. : As 1 had been informed I was to fly the northern route by "way of Alaska and the Aleutians in an tnheated bucket seat plane, my “long woolen underwear gave me some discomfort as the luxurious PanAmerican Clipper brought us down in Honolulu, , 1 appreciated a lei of orchids intended for the Congressman and a gracious. welcome from 1.t. Gen. John A. Rand, chief of the Hawaiian military district. I couldn't bring myself to accept in official formalities due a Congressional tourist, and skipped the reception in favor

Note:

of discarding the long under-~

wear and hunting a hula, At the Tokyo airport, the red plush carpet again was unrolled for this guy Kennedy, who must be on the Military Appropriations Committee. I quickly -had become accustomed to that way of life, and didn’t protest being whisked into a limousine for the ultra exclusive Imperial Hotel—the only reporter in a press corps of 0 to enjoy its luxuries. n "= INFORMED I would be flown to Korea with combat cargo, I envisioned a <hop, seated on a load of ammunition. Instead, I shared space with several cases of canned soup and a case of stuffed olives. Just what the men needed for Martinis. This jaunt was made in a C-54 built in 1943. ‘Pretty old plane,” I commented. “Buddy,” replied a voice on my right, “this was an old C-54 when I flew ‘it 100 trips on the Berlin airlift.” “You guys don't know nothing,” another chimed in. “It was an old crate after I got done over the Hump 150 times in 1943.” In the next hours, I-learned never to fly with pilots as pa=sgengers; there were five on this - run. - When. an engine coughed, all five would dive for the door of the pilot's compartment. Leaking fumes from the gasoline heater. would put them in a first class sweat to douse _all tigarets, only to light up again immediately, Half of our

combat cargo seemed to be cigaret butts by the time we, landed. ” nn THE LANDING itself dis-

turbed me. ‘Must be. mud on the runway,” 1 suggested, “The body and wings seem to be right on the ground.” “Well,” 1 was informed by one of the pilots, “we're not on the runway, The airport's half

. % ._ | a mile back. So are the wheels and flaps, We . are .on_ thé ground.”

We pad ov ershot Kimpo field Jeeping into Seoul, I detected it by its odor on the downwind side five miles. away. The fragrancé (to Koreans) of Kimchee, a soup-stew composed mostly of garlic, is characteristic ‘of ‘the City. It is reported Korean soldiers are forbidden to eat kimchee™ for 30° days before going into Chinese patrol scented a South Korean unit in the dark, it is sald, simply by following their noses to the kimchee source, demolishing the ‘position. This would be a great country to exploit chlorophyl chewing gum. ¥ 5» IN SEOUL, you lock up-every-thing and leave no valuables unguarded, There is made a Korean scrounger won't steal, Even on combat planes, the, natives rush to clean up

"the cabin” ag soon as, the craft

lands and expectéino payment they profit in loose change dropped by restless soldiers and -in anything overlooked. A train was left: unguarded —in-Pusan-17-minutes and $150.000 in spare truck parts, were stolen by ‘children urider 15. “How did you get the jeep?"I asked a fellow correspondent who, offered to loan me one if I could get it running. “One of the other reporters

“went out the other night, stuck

a gun in a gook's head and we got the jeep.” he said. “After all, that's the way he got it.” I was grateful for the jeep, but had to buy U. &. parts’ for

ft "an tha Seoul black .market. cide, At avery traffic light, he them. too damp. If they grow you can cut them Skops thera feature GI under-

wear apd socks at high pice

s x a

along. a

nothing ;

and ‘the owners don’t ‘even bother to remove the Quarter: master stickers.

To. ” » a AT FRONT line PX's, on the other hand, nearly all goods are

free to the soldier. The selection isn’t large—but it's cheap.

1 asked in one PX for a couple of packs of cigarets and two candy bars. I was presented with two cartons of smokes and two boxes of candy bars. They expiained they couldn't break up boxes or the Koreans would steal everything. .

I ordered razor blades and soap. They were all free,

“Then what is there sale?” 1 asked.

“Oh, here's a couple of Lone Ranger comic books and two towels you could buy.” :

Air transport along the front, I discovered, means anything that was wings and will get off the ground, 1 hitched a ride on a (C-46 one night and was less than delighted to note in daylight that lettered on the engine cover was a sign: “Do.not fly. [Left mag (magneto) out.”

for

~ “ ~ ON ANOTHER flight, usual harrowing ride was enhanced by a climb to 15500 feet. No one had provided us with oxygen. r

our

Enroute to the front, I had noticed the many signs, “local liquor blinds.” As my good deed for the. Boys, 'l packed

couple of

bonded exhileration. The good

deed went unrecorded. When I reached , a command post, I found ammunition out on the ground and in the ammo pit, a cache of six cases of Kentucky's

finest, The company commander doled it out one _ bottle per squad per night. The chow on the frogt was among the hest I've eaten in the Army. One battalion C, P, had erected a cdal barbetus pit and instructed the cooks to send up the food raw so they could cook ft themselves, - picnic style, : + Signs along the front are ambiguous and typically American. ‘Strangers, beware! You are in the land wheres the buffalos roam.” These cover the area occupied - by the famous 17th

Buffalo Regiment. At 7th Divizion, you are greeted by the sign, “Welcome to those who

come on peaceful missions —all others will be met by bayonet” Bavonet is the division motte:

a. fr . AFTER 14 days in Korea, 1 did what every front line gqldier wishes he could do I —hbugged-out for a Tokyo rest, One of the greatest hazards

» »

of this modern city is the taxi-.

cab. Most Americans, even veteran cab drivers from New York and Paris, agree a medal “ghould be struck for survivors of Tokyo cab rides. Kindest thing ona can sdy about a Japanese cab driver is he helieves he iz a Zero pilnt after twn bhlorks, you'd swear he is a Kamikaze hent on rui-

‘stops, kills the “moter and tha lights! to avy battery and gas.

. »

wid

Tho a plage. called

Japan.

‘hoitles of

Between the mad sprints from traffic light to traffic light, he

eetlmeneed

er Yo weflowe the horn.

ledollawed a m of -Gl's or, roughly translated, Hot Springs Spa." It adverfised finger tip therapy for war weariness: Already war weary, 1 invesfed $2 and found myself escorted by Japanese girls and unceremoniously dunked into an enormous tub containing 75 gal- -

“lons of milk and scalding water,

The “finger tip therapy’ consisted of two girls beating you . with - fists,

~ ~ » : THF. CLIMAX came when the girls, singing gaily, leaped

on my back and massaged my spine with their toes. I rushed from the place for a hot bath at the hotel before the milk curdled,

As a fishing,

lover of hunting and I investigated these in I was chagrined to note the quaint old custom of fishing with cormorants 18 not as gentle as travel films had .led me to. believe, The picturesque birds, with rings around their

necks to prevent them from swallowing the catch, dive for fish and. return to their

masters, But they are no well-

Our Ed Kennedy’ s Odd Odyssey

okyo Trash"

happily while hugged by 3.year-old Ca ‘rated as the top obedience dog in the

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bred retrievers and usually rebel,at giving up the fish. The

" fishérman then grabs his bird

by the legs and -whacks its Ven. 2 PB RATE slide of the HOAL ure alls out. Equally unsporting is the duck hunting. The hunter places Ilve decoys over submerged nets, The decoys have weighfed feet and clipped wings. He floats grain on the water and waits for wild ducks to be lured to the feed. When a good sized flock joins the decdys, he snaps the net Into shore and bags about two dozen ducks, n » » ANOTHER quaint custom I learned was” how to hold a drink during an earthquake, The Jap thinks nothing of these phenomena, but my first one unnerved me. The first sign of it was my beer rising out its glass. A Nippon friend instructed me always to hold my glass up, co-ordinating my tremors with the earth's, gulp the drink and head for the nearest arch. After that, a heavy truck rolling down the street found me looking around for arches, On my last trip in Japan, I went to the northern island of

CHAMP DELIGHTED Champion Diickebird Atomic, the onli Golden Refriaver jn U.S thy Hafer, 3, of 2950 S. Capitol Ave., at the Sports Us. in 190ne of Charlie’ Frank's Retrievers, the

She Manifacturers Building at the Fair Grounds. 50 and 1951,

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Hokkaido, where snow lay three feet deep. Hers I reverted to a form .ef ‘transportation not used by ‘any reporter since the - «Manchurian War—an.ox sled.

“My ox fell into a foxhole and ~~ the owner demanded $10 dam- | ;

ages. At last report, both the ox and the owner were doing fine and with $10. Neither will have to work for a month, i

(A veteran reporter berated me for insisting it was 'an ox. | He informed me I should have reported I had a horse shot out | from under me, as that hadn't | turned up on an expense account since the Spanish-Amer-ican War.) fe ‘Another ironic mishap mare red the trip. On my return, I was bumped from the plane in Honolulu and forced to spend two days in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, basking on the beach at Waikiki. {

There I was riding a surf board and cursing the luck that left me stranded when all’ I wanted was to get back to the ‘Invigorating chill of Indianapolis and the happy recreation of chasing newspaper deadlines. The Times arranged “trans portation right away, Quick, |