Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 March 1952 — Page 21

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Inside Indianapolis By Ed Sovola ;

“GOSSIP travels én wings of rumor.” : My cheeks color slightly {must be the hot alr in this corner) as I prepare to unleash a hard right to the heart of loose talk; blabbering that originates from hearsay, serves no purpose, can only hurt, Tens of thousands of words dealing with buffoonery- have gamboled here, I hope, over your funnybone. There have been times when friends stenciled,” In huge, red letters, “Applesauce” across reports about the rigors of swimming the “Channel,” discomforts of chaperoning Powers models about the city, dangers of cavorting In a .tank, with Divena, the underwater premiere of danseuse. “ Hh oS OK, AS I SAID, my cheeks color slightly. Ro the Powers models were lovely trouble. So Divena's tank presented no dangers save eyestrain. Blame it on my imagination and gentle effort to bring harmless nonsense into your otherwise serious life, Nonsense in the right hands is one thing and stories for amusement purposes have a history that goes back to the days of the Neanderthal man who awakened one morning feeling so chipper he went dinosaur-hunting with a switch. Stories which have no roots in the well of fact and are passed on for the Gospel truth, however, are what we should guard against, Here's one that reached the city room of this newspaper recently with all its gastly implications. In a short time, the story was checked thoroughly, then nailed to the wall to wither and blow away.

A a 'A CALL CAME IN that a motorcycle officer ran into a youngster pushing his bicycle on Ohio St. between Capitol Ave. and Illinois St. The boy, the informant said, was killed. Furthermare, the officer, when his cycle struck the boy, flung himself to the street as if he had hit some, ohject in the street. In due time, other policemen arrived and protected the motorcycle officer from spectators. In conclusion, the citizen asked the $64 question: “Why wasn’t the story in the paper?” It wasn’t in because no motorcycle policeman ran into & boy and his bicycle. There was a story in The Times about Motorcycle Officer Tilman McCoury who was pursuing a motorist west on

Ohio St. .

It Happened Last Night

By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Mar. 8—One of my favorite interview questions—now that I've given up asking

sweater sizes—is: “Can you tell me the moment that you came

to the turning point of your life? 1 get some fascinating answers. Actress Kim

Hunter, who's been nominated for an Oscar for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” can place the “turnnt” almost exactly. 08. Pa got into an elevator after we'd been rehearsing at. the New Amsterdam,” she remembered. “Elia Kazan got into the elevator, too. “He sald, ‘I'll walk you home’.” And that was the start—but I don’t mean the beginning of anything romantic, as both were are married. A es been rehearsing “Streetcar” and she hadn't been doing well. Kazan, as the director, was alarmed. : oe oo. oe “I WAS SCARED, and Gadget (that's Kazan's nickname) was scared, too. There's a clause that permits them to fire you if you don't make good five days. in “We got to the Algonquin where I lived and he maid, ‘Do vou have time for a drink?’ “1 said I did. Well, we sat there and he swore at me for about an hour and a half. “Swore at you?” I said. “It seemed to me like it. He used to talk like a stagehand but he has since gone on a campaign not to use four-letter words. “He said, ‘Look, what are you scared of around there? We're only people.’ He took the time to relax me. I guess he felt it was worth the time since if I didn’t relax he'd have to fire me. I wasn't told until we'd gone to Boston to open ‘the play how close I was to being dropped.” Eventually she loosened up, the show became a sensation and she and Marion Brando became big stars. : “_ bh 5 “IF IT HADN'T been for Kazan taking the time with me, I might have remained just a frightened rabbit,” she. said. ‘Marlon Brande went through the. same thing. He used to say he could never do his part. We used to stand in a corner and moan together.” The reason I like these “turning point” gtories is that they re-emphasize the truth of the cliche, “You never know when you get up in the morning but that something may happen that will ehange your whole life.” With Miss Hunter, that talk with Kazan—in 1047 re-established her as an actress after she'd

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Mar. 8 ~The zo-called national pastime of baseball has heen noted in the past more for its hypocrisy and timidity at precedentsetting than for courage or justification of its proud title as the people’s sport. This was especially true of major league ball, ‘which busily maintained a bland mask of purity on the surface while condoning many a shady deed at the bottom. But over the last few years I have been liking baseball : a little better as the sport of — the American people. It proved {tself, a little, after it allowed itself unwillingly to be conquered by Branch Rickey and ; the ban against Negro players was ‘chopped down without hurt either to the sport itself or to the pioneers in racial equality. It has looked particularly good, so far, in its handling of Jim Rivera, a rookie outfielder with the 8t. Louis Browns. Rivera is a New York boy from the city’s ‘Puerto Rican” eit. He comes to the majors via a four-year jolt for attempted rape—one of those military court-martial aentences which often are clouded hy technicalities, Rivera's stay in the jailhouse was portion of a 20-vear sentence for attempted attack on an officer's daughter who was, I believe, herself an officer, ”

>» > oe RIVERA was a child of the -poverty-bitten slums, a hoxer for.a bil, and always a contestant in ,the same ring with hunger when he was a kid. He is also, by every account, a whiz of an outfielder and a fine hitter, He is happily mar-

- riled now and is-evidently sincere in an effort

to shape a new life for himself with baseball as the fulcrum. ? - vy There was pressure, from religious and civil quarters, to bar Rivera from baseball because of his record, and the pressure was rejected by both Bill Veeck of the Browns, who owns Rivera's contract, and by Ford Frick, commissioner of. baseball, Frick’'s answer to the pressure, for the record, was one of the fine utterances of our time, rts or out of it. a "tt the purpose is punishment,” Frick wrote, “then he has already been punished. If the purpose is cure or improvement, then this man has a greater chance to make good being allowed to live as others live, Since Rivera came into baseball his conduct has been beyond question. If in

the future he shows he has -not profited by his.

experience, this office will take action.” : oe

THIS 13 a distant departure from. the old attitude of baseball toward anything that might reap a frown, a direct result of the old Black Sox scandals that. made the game ziipersensitive to any eriticiam from outside. Rasehall would wink and condone and cover up-if practical, the sin was

- x : 2 Don’t Pass Along Verbal Poison Officer McCoury had af®accldent and wouhd’ up in General Hospital with a brokén wrist and shoulder. As he began to pull-around a truck, the driver made a sudden turn into the rear of Terminal Station. The driver was arrested on a charge of failing to give a hand signal. * bb

CAN YOU IMAGINE what one big mouth could do with such a story? One big mouth with two little brains listening and perhaps ready to believe the worst because of a special intervst? On record are some classic, tragic rumors. A young lady almost committed suicide by taking sleeping pills after a wag went to work. The story as it bloomed was that the young lady was seen getting out-of a young man's car at 7 a. m. after a “wild” party at a college in the next town, The facts: The young lady did come home at 7 a. m. with the father of one of her chums. Four of the girls attended a dance with the full knowledge of the parents. They missed the last bus for home .and stayed, again with the knowledge of their parents, in the girls’ dormitory. The following morning the father of one of the girls drove down to bring them home. In her diary, just before she took a dose of sleeping pills, the girl wrote: “I am not what they say Iam.” . - “ dh» TAKE THE case of the wife of a young clergyman. The gossips broke loose the story of moonlight dances in flimsy attire performed by the wife. That was choice misinformation and traveled fast and far. So far, in fact, that the bishop received a letter denouncing the ‘disgraceful moonlight dances.” Plural, yet. The facts: One evening, just before the clergyman's wife retired, she tried to call in her cocker

“spaniel, No response. The spaniel wanted to stay

in the backyard. Finally, in exasperation, she dashed into the yard in her white bathrobe and brought the dog into the house.

$ & .

RUMOR has been ‘called a ‘complicated product of mental activity involving a transmission of vague information from person to person.” Life certainly must be dull for people who concern themselves with vocal poison, so deadly to the unsuspecting who can’t trace its varied source or purpose. The wings of rumor beat swiftly. And who has the time to look into every mind and heart? "It’s a personal activity. If we had more of the latter we would have less of the former. One, two—button your lip.

Such a Long, Happy ‘Street Car’ Ride

been dut of work (except for summer stock) for a year and a half. “David O. Selznick had dropped my option in Hollywood,” she said. “He was very generous with me, but he had more people than he could handle.” And then—though Selznick had dropped her —his wife—who subsequently divorced him—was responsible for Miss Hunter getting into “Streetcar” on Broadway. “ © »

MRS. SELZNICK became producer of the show, and suggested her to Kazan for the role. And later when the play was a hit and Miss Hunter was a success in it, Mrs. Selznick said to Mr. Selznick, “You see, I had confidence in her.” : “Yes, and I always did, too,” said Mr, Selznick. 80 it was that Miss Hunter not only made very good on Broadway but also in the picture when that was done. “Everything is snowballing now,” she says. She has two movies opening soon, “Deadline, U. 8. A.” and “Anything Can Happen.” And she starts rehearsing soon for the new Jose Ferrer play, “The Chase.” - And really it all started with “Streetcar” In 1947. “Quite a long streetcar ride,” I sald. “A long, good.and happy streetcar ride,” she said. ls “ 4 & WISH I'D SAID THAT: “Yeu can’t judge a book by its cover—but you can judge nightclubs that way.”—Merv Griffin. * ¢ o BETTY HUTTON, speaking of Cecil B. DeMille, said, “If I'd been of a different era, if I'd been 20 years younger, I could have ‘gone for bim’ and made him a wonderful and loving wife.” DeMille, when he heard of it, drily remarked: “We both missed something.”

$ o_O

TODAY'S WORST PUN: “Only people who wanted Frank Costello hung was the jury’— Herb Wurth. > 4 4

TODAY'S BEST LAUGH: TV's Randy Merriman notes that there was a time there was ng stopping the Sunday driver, but Sunday's traffie has taken care of that, . .. That's Earl, brother.

Baseball's Chance To Prove Its Boasts

attracting attention. Baseball never Rave a nickel for morals, really, so long as infractions were kept quiet. I have known a few players, for instance, whose off-field conduct might have made an attemptedassault charge seem mild exercise, and some of the fancy shenanigans of the owners, in player deals and chain-gang enforcement of hirelings would shock the side whiskers off the anti-trust laws. Which is why I see no reason for Rivera's past to be hurled at him if he sticks in the big time. What the boy did, he did, and he paid for fit. oe < og THE BENCH JOCKEYS of the Pacific Coast League have already worked him over as thoroughly as one baseball player can scuff sand into sore spots. He has taken abuse and held still for it, and probably will take a lot more, because baseball players as a class are remarkably lacking in chivalry, But I would like to see persistent references to Rivera's criminal past downplayed. If he doesn’t behave, they'll fling him out. If he does behave, he will have earned some sort of right to forgiveness, and to critical estimate as a performer alone, Bagehall always hag heen ready to parrot its OWN praises as a character-molder of the very voung. It is now faced with a full-scale test of ite powers as a rehahllitator of the mature. If it allows its own peopls to drive Jim Rivera off the reservation again, the game is apt to he more at fault than the man whose record, so far in the sport, seems a clear case of emphatic effort to make good.

Dishing the Dirt By Marguerite Smith

Q—My lawn develdped a Jot of crab grass last fall which looks brown and dead now. What is the best procedure this spring to insure a thick lawn again? Does close mowing encourage crab grass. —M. J. K.,, Watson Rd. A~—Nature abhors a vacuum. So reseed with good grass right away. You have a golden opportunity when you have large bare spots in an old established lawn. For you can really dig down, loosen the soil, and fertilize it for some godd grass growing, Don’t work the soil until it 1s dry enough to- be crumbly but do sow the seed as soon as you can. Rake it in lightly or better yet, cover with a little compost. Don’t roll with a heavy roller that jams the: soil- down.’ If dry winds spring up, keep the seed-bed, and later the young grass sprinkled. If and when crab grass begins to grow, get after it right away with one of the chemical crah grass killers, They really work, AS to crab grass germination, lawn sxperts claim it germinates heat in heat and full sun-—enndi-

tions you give it when you mow the lawn close,

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Young Hoosier Artists In Show

STUDENT ART—Preparing

Thnes plolos by John R. Bpickiewire, for the annual Scholastic mag-

azine art show of work by igh and junior high school students are

(upper left) Mrs. Mary

ercier, manager of the Wm. H. Block

Co. auditorium, where the exhibit will be held Mar. 11 through 22, showing a picture to the three judges (left to right): Mark Russell, Columbus, O., Gallery of Fine Arts: Miss Helen Copley, director of art in the Detroit, Mich, public schools, and Dr. f Louis Hoover, head of the art department at Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Ill. Typical student entries are (upper right)

an ink drawing by Allen Schmitz, Central Hi

h School, Ft. Wayne;

(left) a portrait drawing by Fred Ewolt, Crawfordsville High School; (center, right) “Conversation,” an oil by Robert Skelley, Bloomington High School, and (lower right) an ink drawing by Ardis Melloh, Cathedral High School, Indianapolis.

SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 1952

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PAGE 21

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Gold Ladies Cheer Up The Afflicted

By LLOYD B. WALTON THE GOLD LADIES Volunteer Service has given the patients of Central

State Hospital a new lease

on life. Their cheerful yellow smocks, the symbol of the volunteer unit, bring a sparkle of light into the eyes of patients: who long ago decided they were cast-offs from the life they used to know. Patients laugh and talk happily as they gather in the center of their wards for an hour or so of entertainment and relaxation provided by t he

“Friendly Visitors” section of the Gold Ladies,

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THIS?=-A patient sits. staring out

The group was organized a little more than two months ago by a group of women's clubs with the aid of the Marfon County Association for Mental Health, The Indianapolis Councils of Catholic Women, Church Women, Jewish Women, Indianapolis Health and Welfare Council, Unitarian Church and the Federation of Music Clubs have been the motivating force In getting the program under way and furnishing volunteers to keep it moving and growing.

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PURPOSE of the Gold Ladies is to provide a corps of volunteer women willing to donate at least two hours a’ week to help ¥ y i

5 the barred windows at Central State Hospital—nothing else to de, :

,ball equipment and all

make life more worth living for patients in the mental hospital. The hospital facilities are outmoded and inadequate. The professional staff is far less than needed to care for the number of patients to be served. All special activities ~ such as recreation, music therapy, dramatics and sports must be carried on as additional dutles by the already over-worked staff, » - ” THERE are now 2400 pa. tients in the institution. There is also a shortage of trained nurses—there are only two and until recently the attendants were entirely untrained. Although the group has been in. operation only about two months there are already more than 70 volunteers signed up. At ‘least 400 will bs required to carry out the proposed program. » ~ » ALTHOUGH the hospital has facilities for Handicraft, occupational therapy and recreation, there is an Insufficient number of staff members to properly supervise and instruct the patients, There are woodworking machines, sewing machines, a beauty shop, baseballs, bats, horseshoes, football and basketlying idle because of a lack of help to supervise the patients who could make. use of them, A large, well-lighted stage suitable for play production also 1s gathering dust. Its present use is limited to a single motion picture showing a week, The dressing rooms originally designed to go with the stage set-up are being used for storage space. Sufficient volunteers would provide stimulation for these facilities, . ~ ~ LETTERS from patients to their families and friends have shnwn how ths patients about ‘the program started, - One patient “Thess entertainments made us fesl that semaona ha-

_lleves we are still hurmiap beings

feel already wrote, . have’

and not some kind of curiosity.” A group of volunteers trained by the Red Cross in a variety of. handicraft activities has established an on-the-ward program for .each Monday afternoon, Under the direction of Mrs. David Lurie, the women are showing the patients how' tp

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make shell jewelry, do textile painting, hand weaving and figurine painting. One of the unit's busiest members is the Procurement Chairman, James E. Payne. It is his duty to round-up contributions to the hospital's supply of materials to be used in the new program,

THERE 18 a need for volunteers capable of teaching small classes in typing, bookkeeping - and other vocational subjests. More help 18 needed from dramatics instructors. : A monthly mimeographed newspaper is one of the things | planned. The first issue, eons ; taining eight pages, has ale | ready been distributed. It come | tains. poetry, ward news and ideas of the patients. The co-ordinator of the Gold | Tadles is Mrs, George P, Riee | Jr. She works directly with | the Marion County Association for Mental Health and Mrs, | Wynne Arnholter, psychologist | at Central State Hospital,

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OR THIS 2Mrs, Mautics Block (ri n , 5250 Wosdside Drive, [instructs a patient in figurine Seek ! ey . ; Ne

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