Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 March 1952 — Page 23

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Inside Indianapolis i

‘By Ed Sovola == DRIVING THE wrong way oh a one- way streét is Bn exciting: business which most transBressors don't care to repeat. As of. a Gollege Ave, re R any Speraior It doesn’t help that o

erator 'ANishing buckets of bolts p 8 ot the city’s van

‘ 8 hive no choice when they Dead for Qe Ww Vasuingion St. barns and plow Cc on S. Capitol Ave. when they: turn off W, Maryland St. 3 tiey For a streetcar's view of motorists who must dodge the behemoths TI took three wrong-way trips. To the present time, no streetcar has been challenged. There's always a first time. though, when a bumper decides a cowcatcher isn't getting through, W. Marshall Dale ‘forbid. big

The " Capitol-Kentucky- -Maryland intersection has always been tricky to the pedestrian and the motorist. That's one of the reasons your fearless correspondent waited so long to grab a ride. Time has convinced me the streetcars ¢an get through. Besides, being involved in an accident Is so aggravating.

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OPERATOR Brooks (Cannonball) Baker piped his lone passenger aboard on Maryland St. Cannonball was relaxed in spite of the earlymorning traffic that was straining horsepower at the lights or whizzing across .the intersection. “I used to worry when I first started down Cusslane, but heck, I can't go up alleys. Here we go.” We rolled unmolested ring and turned. A line of four cars blocked the path. One motorist was right smack on the trolley tracks. He looked us up and down blank-

to the center of the

ly. His companion in the front seat began talking and made a motion with his hand at nothing in

women drivers

EXCUSE, PLEASE—The only way to travel up a one-way street against traffic is with a streetcar. Otherwise, papa will spank.

It Happ By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Mar. 26—Polite, refined and British—that describes Vivien Leigh's winning of her second Oscar.

I've covered many celebrations, but that one in which Lady Olivier was the heroine, will not oe recalled as the most hilarious. For she's not one who backslaps a coiumnist or gives him a sisterly kiss or yells. She's so busy, usually spoken to through a butler or a secretary who pronounces it secretrrrrry. Cleopatraing on stage, she's thin, beautiful and wispy, like a spirit. She never poses eating a hot dog, or cooking, or trying on a Bikini. She's so brilliant she needn’t. And that’s how it was last midnight on the second floor of the Ziegfeld. A dozen pressmen were outside her door. She called in Publicist Richard Maney. “Do you think the boys would like a drink ?”, she asked. He felt they would. He didn’t say how he knew. The booze was upstairs in Sir Laurence's dressing room. About 10 minutes before ne zero minute, the photogs set up in her room./ They focused on the thin lady in the simple black dress with three strands of pearls at her peck and three more at her wrist, Sir Laurence leaned /over her for the picture

Miss Leigh

as Ronald Colman annoqunced the winner: ‘Vivien Lejgh.” ° Americana By Robert €C. Ruark NEW YORK, Mar. 26—While IT am a fellow

with music in his borres (which also react to gout and weather) I have just bashed in the radio with my scout ax, because I do not think that I can live through very much more of this maudlin mood music that torments us these days. It may be direct result of the last tax hike, but we have come down with a hard case of the musical sobs recently, and it is getting to the point that you cannot switch on the hit parade without drowning in a freshet of tears. One is racked with sobs as he goes about his humble chores. in sympathy to whatever birdbrain is rendering one of.the loser's-weeper ditties of the day. There is an affliction upon ng. momentarily, in the form of a singer called Johnny Ray, which makes you yearn for. the dear old days of ‘the Sinatra swoon. Mr. Ray suffers from some sort of vocal epilepsy that attacks him violently when he sings, so that he is forced to rend his garments, moan piteously and rub ashes in his hair. He is the new darling of the bhobby-soxers, and looks to make a million unless he shakes himself to pieces during a rendition of “Cry.”

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THE TASTES of the music lover are passing and generally react directly to the influence of sun spots and the monsoon .season. You will get a rash of hillbilly schmaltz, say, so that all you can hear is Patti Page and “Tennessee Waltz,” and the thousand imitations nf same, and then suddenly the mood blackens. Even the little white clouds, no larger than a man's hand, are sweating tears today, and the cuspicion is that the whete nation is snugly tucked in for at least another six months of unrequited grief, For the past few seasons we have been decidely folk-songish in our popular tastes, which is to say pretty lugubrious. Our brand of folk

CUrios,

music, whether or not it is confected in Manhattan, tends to the old doleful lament formula, which fattens on tragedy, personal or

public.

EVIDENTLY it took some powerful disaster, such as grandma, throwing out her hip, to drench a ditty out of the ancestor with the geetar. My bovhood set thrived on the “Wreck of the Old Ninety-Seven” and ‘The Sinking of the Titanic,” and I even recall a small vogue for the “Letter Edged in“Black” on the old wind box. The busted heart has always enjoyed a pretty steady play as the basis for versifying, but I swear I.don’t recall a comparable period of downright dolor. In passing through several eras— the early Gene Austin, the Nick Lucas, the Bing Crosby and Sinatra-Como-Billy Daniels epochs considerable capital was made of grief, but not in such job lots, to sueh dreadful music. The next time vou hear a decent tune on tha air the chances are it was written in the 1930's, or had you noticed?

ened Last Night

& ‘There Is « Right %® And a Wrong" Way’

particular. Cannonball “just- smiled, wasn’t jumping the Jracks. . Time and patience did the trick. The motorist® in line of the trolley, naturally, didn’t get a break from -the drivers in the outside lane. It would have been a simple matter to allow the short obstructing lin to ease out of the way. Too sinthple. Where traffic is concerned we like things complicated, don't we? : od" s A MAN WITH Illinois plates wore a surprised look on his face as. he drove past. We eased ahead shortly and Cannonball remarked that the ‘majority of natives ignore the streetcar, “I pass a lot of these people every morning,” he said, shooting the voltage to the streetcar. We observed some broken-field driving and a couple of side glances. There is something more comfortable about being in a streetcar bucking opposing traffic. Much more comforting than inadvertantly turning in a light sedan on a new one-way street when every other motorist is teed off. Cannonball estimated that 90 out of a 100 drivers showed irritation the. first few days the College Ave, streetcar took the wrong-right-way

home. He thinks women are more _Sympathetic and tolerant than men. o> SS 0»

THE BEST WAY to-get on W. Washington St. is to wait: until the north-south traffic just about halts and then scoot out before the eastwest flow begins. © Only Indianapolis Railways has this special dispensation. We didn't make it on the first try. Glares hounce off so easily it's a waste of effort to throw them, Sticks and stones will break . . . “What would happen wrong way?” Cannonball laughed and laughed. Operator James Havens encountered a couple of trolleys which moved aside,. showing respect for age. A driver of a semi-trailer looked us over casually. Jim and I smiled. Couple of drivers

if 1 drove a car the

: leaned on their steering” wheels with that how-

can-they-get-away-with-it? air as they passed us, On the third trip I ran into a little disagreement. Operator .Quihlin’s observation about was opposed to Cannonball Baker's. Bob said women gave him the most trouble. That was hard to believe. Women are such wonderful creatures. “Look at that one.” I called, as a charming young lady almost Sideswiped another car to get out of the way. “Exception to every rule,” ment. Indianapolis Railways has plans to remedy the. situation. In. fact, they have a couple of plans cooking. Please, no cracks about fare increases. They come from another pot. Come on, bub, pull over, there's nothing you can do about it.

was his dry com-

Vivien Leigh's Oscar Party Veddy British

Sir Laurence gave her a light kiss. A drawing room, husbandly kiss. “A nice big hug, please,” begged the cameramen, accustomed to American actors who put more wallop in their kisses. He hugged her, his fingertips touching her back lightly, refinedly. This is not the type of display that the British enjoy. “How did you feel about it?” she was asked. “Oh, I'm thrilled and honored,” she said, reaching for a handy cliche. “It's especially wonderful because I'm a visitor. It was wonderful working with Elia Kazan.” : “DID YOU WORRY about it during your show tonight 2” “Well, again.” “Where do you keep your other Oscar,” I asked—for it's quite remarkable that she’s made only two pictures here and won two Oscars. “Oh, at home. In England. He's one up on me, you know.” We remembered that Olivier won three Oscars, two for “Hamlet,” one for “Henry V.” “We're conventional people; we use them as

in the waits, I thought of it now and

doorstops, ” he said.

“They're on” top of a hookcase,” she insisted, smilingly. “They certainly are doorstops,” he repeated. “We're conventional people.” The boys were a little impolite and kept yelling. for more pictures even while the Oliviers were trying to hear the rest of the announcements.» The Oliviers were polite about that, and gave them some more kissing pictures—all with the same refinement.

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WISH I'D SAID THAT: “Dewey says Truman’s book, ‘Mr. President,’ isn't an original idea at all. He had it several times.”—Al Goodman. Warren Hull, of “Strike It RicR,” says when ever he's late somebody always manages to sav “Warren Hull were you?’ . . . That's Earl, brother. ?

Leaves Him Cold Ray Song Theatries

It is not so much that you mind the epidemic of sodden-xerchief coloraturas as that you live in deadly fear of the reaction. I know what the reaction will be. As soon as they've milked the last moisture out of “I Won't Cry Any More” the pendulum will slap back and we will be in for a siege of those horrible cheerful songs. These are the songs with “day” and “sun” and “early morn” and ‘get out of bed with a

smile” in them, The average mood is that life is a lovely thing indeed, if you will just arise at 6 a. m,, fling back the covers, reach for your

teeth, and smile, stupid, smile if it kills you. As a man who has not smiled before 4 p. m: in 2¢ years, I find these spurious cheer songs more offensive than the sordid little numbers that suggest suicide as an antidote to the way things are. ANYONE READING these lines would as sume that here is a surly, disgruntled fellow who is impossible to please, and they wauld be nearly right. The displeasure also includes the halfsuffocated moans of the sexy singers who appear to be stuck in the:.fence; the handclap songs sans melody, and all the quaver-throated tenors with the careful hairdos. Deal us out a little gsimple June, moon, ‘eroon, with a tune we can whistle and never mind the palsied accompaniment. Baby here can do all the shaking that has to be done around this house without any help from Johnny Ray.

Dishing the Dirt By Marguerite Smith

Q—I have saved pods containing seed from last season's giant coxcomb, "Can you instruct m. on how to plant and grow them from seed and when to begin planting? Mrs. W. R. McCord, 5358 Crittenden Ave. A—Either sow the seed in indoor boxes now or wait until late April or early May to sow it outdoors. Rich soil grows best coxcomb. Be sure to space giant varieties ahout two feet apart It is said that transplanting them into rich soil Just as the combs begin to form makes flowers larger. Q—I have five tuberous begonias up in tin cans on the porch but where do I go from here? Mrs. David T. Smith, 3609 N. Colorado. A—The leaflet on tuberous begonias that I sent you will (I hope) make your tuberous he-

Read Marguerite Smith's Garden Column in The Sunday Times

gonias happy. (Other readers may have it if, they send a.stamped self-addressed envelope to Dishing the Dirt.) Your chief problem now is to keep the plants warm and moist in a light spot until weather outdoors is really settled, One of the most successful local growers I've known never puts his outdoors until June 1. But if you

“don’t have a suitable place indoors then a coupl2

of weeks earlier will have to satisfy them. Just remember they don’t like even a light frost.

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- ARTICLE I

he Tulips Times

WEDNESDAY, , MARCH £6 1952

Off-the-Reco rd

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(Third of a Series)

ALLAN KELLER

Times Special Writer

EVERY year the taxpayers of New York pay more than $500,000 for the salaries of a team of press agents whose main object is to put the: Dewey administration in

the best possible light. Because printing, mailing, mimeographing and allied costs are scattered and buried in different. departmental budgets, it is impossible to fix an accurate figure for such additional expense. It is estimated however that it adds

$2.5 million to the salaries of the propagandists; so thé Empire State's publicity setup costs the taxpayer at least $3 million a year, 5 This represents the income tax paid by thousands of New York State wage earners who

scores of

would be justified in asking whether the .end product is worth their toil and sweat. : » o ”

COMPARED to some governmental setups for distributing news, the one in Albany is an enterprise of classic efficiency and smoothness. At the head is James Hagerty, press secretary to Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, a pleasant, intelligent and astute master of propaganda. Speaking before the New York State Associated Press convention in Syracuse some months ago, Mr. Hagerty bluntly said his main effort “is to present the activities of the Governor, and the state government, in the best possible light.” Consistent with this main objective, he said, he does all he can to help reporters get the news, o n ” JUST how much help can he expected when the going is rough, however, was indicated when he was asked if Gov. Dewey used the off-the-record press conference to tie up reporters. “Oh, sure,” readily. He went on to explain that when the Governor or his corps of press agents learns that a reporter has wind of a good

said ‘Mr. Hagerty

story, a mass interview with corespondents 1s’ arranged at the state capitol, If the story is one the Governor doesn't want “broken.” he tells the full facts at th2 off-the-record session and it effectively seals the reporters’ lips. The only way a get around this Americanized version of thought control without breaking his word is to stay away from the press conference—a device more and more reporters are using to keep the public informed. ” n ” MR. HAGERTY is quite naturally the chairman of the Public Information Council, made up of the approximately 45 top-drawer press agents from the different departments and agencies. This body meets about once a month to discuss problems and plan releases of state news. It handles the state's news, so far as timing and other devices go, so as to make the best showing for the administration.

Out of these meetings come the handouts of what the Dewey men think the public should know of their government. Much of it is routine material. Some of it approaches pure drum beating. n ~ n MR. HAGERTY blandly admitted that he and his lieutenants often block efforts of reporters to go behind the information carried in the handouts. His assistants have been so thoroughly trained, and the psychology of interpreting everything in the light of its effect on the Dewey administration has been so deeply instilled in their minds, that they sidestep any ticklish questions until around for a study of all the angles.

Many times the members of

BRITISH CROWN COLONY—

Jittery Hong Kong Seething With Intrigue

By GERALDINE FITCH Times Special Writer

HONG KONG, Mar, colony,

26—This jittery British crown last corner of freedom on the Chinese mainland,

1s a small body of land completely surrounded by water

and Communists. On every side in Hong Kong one sees and senses the makings of violence—the clash of politi-

cal beliefs, distrust, tension, intrigue, . The port city's two and a quarter million population,

widely mixed politically and racially, is jammed into a 391-square-mile area, with Communist China on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

Northeastward, 1200 miles as the jet flies, lie Korea and Japan. Nationalist China's island stronghold of Formosa is 400 miles due east.

The city teems with Communists and their sympathizers on one hand. On the other hand are the most violent of anti-Communists—refugees who have lived under communism's terrors, and escaped. u = ”

THERE are bankers doing steady business with the Communists, despite recent orders

barring trade in strategic materials with the Reds. Typical of Honk Kong's con fusion today is a scene on the airport at Kowloon (part of the city). Near the road are 75 airplanes of Gen. Claire Chennault’'s China Air Transport. Twice, British courts have awarded them to the Chinese Reds. Twice the decisions have been appealed. Now the planes

NEW ON BROADWAY—Sirgecs A Raitt are shown rehearsing for "Three Wishes for Jamie" otk, 7.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Commu-nist-inspired riots recently shook Hong Kong, injuring many people including two Americans. From a wide background in the Orient, U. 8. reporter Geraldine Fitch gives a vivid picture of the explosive situation which produced the riots and could cause many others. Along with her husband, Mrs. Fitch, who has lived many years in the Far East, is considered an expert on China.

are impounded awaiting final decision. And guarding them are two sets of police—one from British Hong Kong, the other from Communist China, each watching the other,

n ” ~ THF. Chinese have a saying that, “Righteousness is forgotten in the face of profit.” This explains why many of the big bankers are still dojng business with the Communists. It exnlains the case of one particular Chinese banker. He has seen his way clear to manage a Com-munist-controlled bank, though he is not a Communist himself. Hearing the stories of many people who have escaped through the bamboo curtain from Communist China, one is struck with one point. That is how gradually, little hy little, men of high principle and in-

nne Teron and John in New

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reporter can.

the situation is kicked ’

POOR JOHN—He pays a {.ne, fat but the report he gets back is filled with

the PIC won't risk passing on a

question, and it is sent along for Mr. Hagerty to decide, uo 8 s

WITH the existence of a welloiled machine like this, no man can tell what news is being suppressed or withheld for release at “psychological” moments, The timing of a story is almost as important sometimes as the news it carries. To prove (it, one has only to read this sentence from an article describing the PIC by one of its members: “It was agreed by the Public Information Council that during the Legislative sessions releases would be issued at a time during the week when Legislative news was at a minimum.” For Years newspapermen, in an effort to perform their task of keeping the public informed, have fought for the right to

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fo AFFAIRS

J ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED T0 BF A

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rice to the government Blank pages.

have a record kept of New York State Legislative debate, similar to the Congressional Record. They have failed in the face of obdurate resistance from Republicans and Democrats alike. ” n . THERE is in existence a law that states anyone wishing to look at the stenographer’s notes of a Senate or Assembly session must first show it to the legis: lator involved, giving him a chance to “correct” it if he wishes. The chance for “thought control” in such a situation is obvious—and un-American. Things like that can throw a real barrier between the citizen and his elected officials. It can lead to situations that would be hysterically funny if they did not represent growing power for withholding information rightly due the pubilie. The enrollment at Champlain

lic relations.”

Press Conferences Block the Reporier

College, a state school, denfed a reporter for a simply because “the man who handles publicity isn’t in.” “ LI - A STATE trooper was killed by an illegal meat handler and newspapers asked for a photograph. A State Police official refused. “You can't have one,” said the police official. “Ours is six ~ years old and his family might not like it used.” His attempt dt censorship fell down quickly because superiors in the state. capitol ore dered him to release the picture. But the capricious seizure of power to say what can and what can’t be printed is clear

enough. On, another occasion the State Education Department

appointed a man to a job paying $8000 or $0000. Reporters asked for the man's home town. An Albany mnewspaper called the director of the division. “No,” said the latter, “such Information can come only from the director of pubBut that man was in New York City and out of reach of telephones.

» ” ~ THE commissioner himself was called but was also out of town. The deputy commissioner was at a conference in Plattsburgh. The newspaper was told that if it called there and got the official out of the conference, he “might” give the man's home town, It sounds like something out of a Marx Brothers film, but it was nothing more nor less than arbitrary denial by tax-sup-ported officials of information the public had a right to know, Add these run-arounds to out right refusal to talk to reporters. Stir in presa conferences like those held by Herbert H, Lehman when he was governor, He often refused comment on every important question so that the sessions resembled ghostly seances with no one speaking for long periods of time. Add more press interviews of ‘he Gov. Dewey “off-the-record” type. When everything is tossed in together you have a sorry stew from which the public, which pays all the bills, gets mighty little nourishment.

NEXT: The Dictators (junior grade) in the United States.

HONG KONG SCENERY reflects its jitteriness. This club-carrying turbaned Indian guards a warehouse in the port city. The island-is surrounded by water , , , and Communists.

tegrity can become enmeshed in the Communist net.

n on o IN taking control of China, the Communists have been clever enough to persuade good people first to make small decisions, which in themselves seem either good oraunimportant. The bigger, vital decisions come later but when they come the individual is so implicated by earlier nnes he can no longer resist. Take the of the Protestant Chinese mniinister, a former student in the United States. When the Communists took over his city of Canton he was not afraid, because they had promised freedom of religion as well as freedom to reject religion. !

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n ” » AS chairman of the Presbhyterian synod, he could not he too outspoken because his actions involved those under him. So it seemed wiser not to take issue on small matters. Then, too, the Communist procedure was gradual. : Churches were called on by tha Communist city government to help in relief work and other civie projects which seemed harmless enough. But soon the minister found himself involved in a working relationship with the Communist city government, His life now is a nightmare. Recently he saw 198 Cantonese citizens executed in one day, 40 from his own neighborhood.

n ” n is the case_of Mrs,

THERE ¢ Man-Yu Wang. Her name can be used because B8he escaped

from Red China and through the barbed wire into Hong Kong. She left no one behind. Her husband was executed. The Wangs (he was a mer: chant) thongs | the Chinese

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HONG KONG LIFE goes on, despite the mikings of vio. lence . . . distrust, tension, infrigue, that are apparent on every hand.

Communists stood for a ‘new democracy” of land reform and that they would establish a Titoist regime in the Far East,

At first Wang was treated as a “democratic personage.” He was allotted a certain number of victory bonds, but became uneasy when told he had to buy them. They cost $90,000, Hong Kong money. ” ” ~ THIS was followed by other heavy’ “voluntary” contributions. He finally had to give up his home to raise the money. Finally his business was confiscated.

: photostatic copy of it.

take. He wrote his former American partner about the possibility of getting himself and his family into the United States. - The Communists intercepted the letter of reply and made a Asked whether he had received a letter from America, Wang denied it

for safety’'s sake. Then the Communists produced the photostat. :

“You democratic personages,” the interrogater said, “this is the kind of service you have rendered.” Wang was executed

: * without being allowed to employ Then he made his big mis- .

defense Sounzel.