Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
B.C.
Dear Father:
Please thank Mother for the care package, which arrived via Uncle George yesterday. I am not going to be able to write her before Friday, as direct after I mail this, I have to go down to the capital to have a very important meeting. I hope I will be declared persona non grata and sent home on account of my family feuding with Gitmo's family. My enthusiasm for this gig knows no limits! Tell Mom not to worry. He's not even shooting his real enemies right now, and I'm a serving US Navy officer! But I'm probably just going to get another argument about how the Koumintang needs more planes to parachute more agents into the South. I'm at a loss as to what they expect to achieve from all of this. The only argument in its favour that I can think of is that some of it ends up in Chennault's pocket.
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| Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars. Swords are weird on Mars |
Ronnie is trying to recover from moots and prepare for final exams all at the same time. Those are , hard things that law students do. So she'd have no time for all those magazines even if the public health office (no joy!) saw fit to release it. And they're being extra careful now that diphtheria has broken out again down south in San Jose.
In the mean time, I'm trying to relate. In engineering, all you have to do these days is learn the solutions to the Three Partial Differential Equations You're Allowed To Put on the Exam. Some of my colleagues couldn't quite grasp that, but I honestly don't know why we aren't all on the honour roll. All engineers really need to know is how to punch out a mule, after all. I tell myself that that's what lawyers say about the first year law exams looking back, too. Maybe it's all for the best, as the more I think about it, the more I'm reminded that all the engineers are going back for their doctorates these days. I'd finally have an excuse to learn tensors!
Your Loving Son,
Reggie
PS: I notice that I've got a bit mixed up about where I am with Aviation Week. Well, that's tough. It's too hot to work and the custodian is outside waiting for me to go out for the evening so that he can update the cottage for summer. I don't think he's allowed to knock off until he's done, and it's already past 4.
Demuth, Wild Orchids
Letters
Owen Payne of Lima, Peru, writes to cheerfully predict the inevitable war between Communism and Freedom, while Stuart Osber of Hartford wants more statesmanlike statesmen to start said war, and Jim Farrell of Gardena brings us back to the subject of the article they're commenting on by asking for Jame (The Coming Defeat of Communism) as Secretary of State.
(I used to think of this genre of movies as hippy-dippy nonsense. Increasingly mot so much.)
Howard and Evelyn Findley write to say that if all the retired people lived like they did (wandering around America in a trailer coach), there would be more housing and people would enjoy retirement more. Several correspondents have opinions about world government, which is fine, but the government and communism are bad, so there. It looks like a lot of people don't like Arthur Godfrey. Ann Rush really likes Levi jeans, because of their tapered cut, and Federal Security Administrator oscar Ewing liked the article on health care prices because it shows that America needs national health insurance. Llyn Seymour, of Canada, seems to think that the treachery of Klaus Fuchs would be a great deal more understandable if we just faced up to our own shortcomings.
Our Publisher has a great point. It costs about $1.50/word to "write Time," just counting up editorial costs. Journalists live in a world where there's a lot of information, and music lovers, political readers, physcists and housewives have very different interests, and knowledge bases. Time's job is to share all that information with people from many different backgrounds, sifting, sorting, condensing and explaining. Time has the job of explaining the state of play to the guy who came late to the ball game, because "nobody is on time for all the ball games." And you know, when I compare Time with The Economist, I have to say that I really admire how well it does that job. Actually, that's being too kind to The Economist, which, on this analogy, sticks a pen-knife in your eye and swirls until you forget the rules of the game.
But then it gets complicated. Time does a great job until anything even vaguely touching on the Old Cause of Christian China comes up, most especially including Communism, and then it turns into the old cat that can't climb into the litter box any more. The Economist, once it is finished its little operation, rewards you with a great stack of information you can't get anywhere else.
In conclusion, five years ago I knew everything. Now I'm just confused.
National Affairs
"Fun for All" It's spring! Women's dresses are up to the mid-calves, Jack Alonzo Goldie has declared himself to be "the Zoom," and has invited all Zoomites to join him as they burrow underground out of reach of the hydrogen bomb (which Father Divine is taking credit for). The Brooklyn Dodgers are digging a well just off the first base line because of the water shortate, Ernie's Enterprises has orders for half a million of those fake glasses with noses and mustaches attached, along with Miss Gorgeous Blonde Fan Dancing Photos, Nature Boy Squirt Ash Trays, Hollywood Floating Cutie Doll Pencils, Goofy Eggs and Magic Light Bulbs. The Dania Tomato Festival has gone ahead as scheduled, but the Nashville Seven Girl Rassle Royal in the Hippodrome is still in the promotion stage, Frank Dalton (102) is going to court to prove that he is Jesse James, and moonshining is back.
"Nonpartisan Politics" I know it's Ronnie's joke, but I'm just going to go for it: Did you know that it's only seven months to the next election?
"The Battle of the Files" Senator McCarthy says that he knows that there's a bunch of card-carrying Communists in the State Department, and he can prove it, and he can extra-prove it if the State Department gives him his list of card-carrying Communist employees. The Democrats on the Committee say that he's a dirty stinking liar and they won't give him the list that doesn't exist, and anyway his list is just some report from 1947 that's already been investigated.Oh, yeah, says McCarthy, Ambassador-at-Large Philip Jessup and Dorothy Kenyon sure act like Communists. Well, says Time, no less, they're not actually State Department employees. Oh, yeah, says McCarthy, well, can the committee recess for a day so I can get stinko? Next day, McCarthy named Haldore Hanson, a distinctly Communistic press attache. Fifty-six to go! Or 105. Or 85.
"Day of Judgment" Judy Coplon and Valentin Gubitchev are guilty. Gubichev will go back to Russia, Conlon got fifteen and had to sit through a defence that called her Gubichev's lover, and both got a tongue-lashing from the judge.
"Vocation with Vacation" Senator Paul Douglas, the handsomest, most Democratic Senator with the twinkle in his eye that makes Henry Luce swoon, earned extra statesman credits this week by revealing that some Federal bureaucrats get up to five (5!) weeks of vacation a year, and proposing that it be reduced to less than three to save a hundred millions a year. Golly, he's swell! Also, the Senate voted to retrieve the DP bill from McCarran's discard pile and pigeonholed Lodge's constitutional amendment. Bad Senate! Which reminds Time that it hates Senators McKellar, McCarran, Cain, Jenner, Taylor, Langer, Malone and Thomas. Thomas is in the private electrical industry's pocket, and Langer thinks that the hydrogen bomb is a Democratic plot to exterminate civilisation. Meanwhile, Teresa "I'm no lady" Norton is resigning from the House.
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| Just looking at the guy makes me want to google to check out the "Harding was poisoned" rumours |
"I'm Going Down" Time covers the Northwest 307 crash at Minneapolis that killed two crew, 10 passengers, and two children on the ground on the 7th. It covers the proximate cause, that the plane was too low and hit a 67ft steel flagpole with the outer left wing. From the description, it looks like an open-and-shut case of loss of visual reference to the ground, but what's not said in the Time article is that the plane was a brand-new 2-0-2 and that it shouldn't be losing a whole wing section to a flagpole. Especially after Flight 421 lost a wing in flight! [!!!] "Lubrication Expert" Brother "Cash" Thomas Patterson of Oakland, California, is "God's businessman of of the hour," says the yearbook of Patten College, which he runs in Oakland along with an elementary and a middle school and a church. The Feds have him up on fraud, what with one thing and another.
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| Let's look at ominous clouds rolling in over Kamloops while we meditate on the 2-0-2, first beneficiary of a CAA expedited airworthiness approval process. Northwestern lost 6 hulls out of 18 in the course of four years of operations, with over 100 fatalities, including eight and ten-year old children burned to death in the house that the plane in question collided with. And while they didn't get to grow up, Bebe Patten lived to be 90, a pillar of the Oakland community, and incidentally was able to give both of her daughters careers at Patten University, an accredited private university in Oakland that ranks 2716th in the United States. |
"Broken Monopoly" Time is pleased that two trials in the South that actually found white men guilty of killing or beating Negroes didn't end in mistrials or the jury giving the culprits medals or something.
"Not Guilty" Dr. Sanders isn't guilty of euthanasia, Congress Clare Magee will be identified as "Mr/" on the ballot in November because some men won't vote for women, and there were dust storms in the Panhandle this week in spite of all soil conservation work.
International
MAP aid has begun to flow across the Atlantic and the French Communists won't stop it. Meanwhile the French President is visiting London, just like in 1939 and 1913, and the British got all anxious about Europe versus the Commomwealth. But I'm sure they'll sort that out soon. Everyone sees thorough the Permanent Committee of Partisans of Peace, which is just some kind of fellow-travelling partisan, pro-peace outfit. Who would have thought? Oh, and the Soviet Union is still boycotting the UN because it won't recognise Communist China, although Secretary General Trygve Lie is trying to negotiate a compromise. And Belgium is going to have a referendum over King Leopold, who surrendered in 1940, collaborated with the Nazis, and, worst of all, married a Fleming.
"After the Game" Time covers the crash in Llandow, noting that ground observers saw the plane coming in too low, and that it "suddenly flopped over on its back and fell with an earth-quaking thud onto the green turf." Eighty dead, thanks to Don Bennett and Avro.
"Fleeting Triumph" Labour passed a vote of non-confidence over iron and steel nationalisation, their first test in the House. The Liberals voted with the Conservatives in spite of, or because of some very nasty sarcasm directed by Clement Atlee against the Liberals and Megan Lloyd George, personally. Meanwhile, the British government has decided to keep Seretse Khama and his white wife, Ruth Williams, in Britain so that he can't be chief of the Bamangwato of Bechuanaland as long as he has a white wife, or for five years, whichever comes first, by which time it will probably be a Tory problem, and they can deal with the South Africans over it.
"Number 2 1/2" This week's cover story is Georgy Malenkov, who is "2 and a half" in the Kremlin.
"Seven Wonderful Days" East Germany is just like Nazi Germany because there are lots of flags at the Leipzig fair grounds during the Leipzig fair. Also, 67-year-old Abd el Krim, former leader of the Rif rebellion, gave an interview to the Times' C. L. Sulzberger, predicting an imminent North African revolt against the "imperialists," which is in quotation marks because just because its the British and French and Spanish Empires doesn't make them "imperialists." As for the revolt, well, Time knows better, because, and I am sure this is purely accidental, Time threatened any potential revolutionaries with the atom bomb. "A major North African revolt was unlikely. The voice from the past was mainly a reminder of happier days when the word 'war' called up romanticised pictures of the French Foreign Legion rather than nuclear horrors." And remember how last week Siam was pacifistic? This week 5000 soldiers and sailors turned out in the palace grounds to welcome Siam's latest king, returning from boarding school in Switzerland. Also, Turk Westerling made it to Singapore and will be extradited to either Holland or Indonesia, your guess is as good as Time's, and Time really, really hopes that China will have a famine in 1950 because it would put the Reds in a bad light.
In this hemisphere, the Americans held a big international conference in Rio in which they decided that South America's real problems aren't political. They were low productivity, which could only be cured by large American investments, which would have to be guaranteed against local politics, etc. There's a diamond rush on in Venezuela, Mexican courts aren't allowed to give Americans proxy divorces any more, the President of Cuba just decided to give Bill Pawley and Leyland Motors a bunch of money, instead of GM.
But then in a sudden decision, Havana's other bus company gave a huge contract to GM, and now Havana will get a fleet of 1000 steel-bodied coaches to replace its old, horse-drawn fleet, and Bill Pawley will not only take a cut on the Leyland order of 650 coaches, he will also have 4% of the action on Havana busses for 35 years, which only seems fair considering what a good job he did of being in the middle.
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| This is officially Scoundrel Week |
"Planned Panic" Radio CHLP Montreal's "C'est arrive demain" is in trouble for broadcasting a show about the Reds conquering Canada because many people believed it.
Business
Congress has repealed the margarine tax. Butter makers are very upset. The Federal Power Commission is holding hearings over competing utilities trying to feed New England's natural gas market with Texas gas. Time reminds us that the spring fashion shows in Paris are only weeks away. Studebaker's Champion will be the cheapest Studebaker yet and price competition for the big three, and has been launched in spite of Studebaker having a banner year. Of course, so has GM, which lost only 17 minutes per employee to strikes last year. And a guy in Iowa sells shoes.
"Heave-Ho" Remember how Carl Strandlund helped himself to $50,000/year of RFC money while running Lustron last year? Well, the little matter of there being no Lustron houses, practically, caught up with him this year as the receiver fired him, two $25,000/year vice presidents, and yet two other corporate executives making $25,000/year. It is a well-deserved comeuppance for everyone who deserves it, which most definitely doesn't include all the editorialists and newspapers that were calling for efficient modular homes to solve the housing shortage, three years ago.
"Big Fight" The incomprehensible fight to make Britain buy more American oil, or maybe more oil produced by American firms in faraway lands, continues.
"Billion-Dollar Baby" That's how much du Pont is worth, which is why company "President Greenewalt," who was apparently born without a first name (it's Crawford) makes $138,000/year (Whoa, boy!) Although it probably doesn't hurt that he married Irene du Pont. President Greenewalt is very proud of Teflon, Armalon and Athalon, and hopes to soon make adipontrile out of furfural. (Translation: Nylon out of corn.)
"Teacher's Tube" Willard Geer of the University of Southern California invented an electronic tube to replace the colour scanning disk in RCA's colour television system, and after fighting off its patent lawyers in a four year battle, sold his patents to Technicolor. He hopes that, when perfected, the tubes will make it possible to convert existing televisions to colour and to manufacture colour televisions at a lower price than current black and whites. Also, news of the purchase sent Technicolor stock up 3 1/2 points.
Science
"Turbo-Whizzard" Rover's prototype gas turbine car, the Whizzard, was on show this week. It is noisy and gets only 5 to 7 miles per gallon of kerosene, but might improve with a heat exchanger. The high idling speed is a nightmare in traffic, but wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem in a long haul truck or motor coach.
"Oriental Undesirables" Hawaii's latest affliction is the Oriental fruit fly, which scientists are trying to defeat with methyl eugenol, which attracts the males, but not the females, which only respond to the smell of ripe fruit.
"Peeping Tube" Could a television spy on you while you were spying on the television? That's what happens in Nineteen Eighty-Four, and now RCA is showing off its Vidicon, a television camera receiver consisting of a thin glass sandwich containing a "transparent material that conducts electricity," followed by a photoconductor, which only conducts electricity when light is shining on it. Fire an electron gun at it, and the electrons will trace the photo image and produce a current that can control a conventional television receiver. The device is much simpler than the current orthicon, and might be made as much as ten times more sensitive, allowing it to "see" in near complete darkness.
RCA will be developing the Vidicon for "industrial television" uses such as monitoring dangerous processes and for watching stores and factories for theft. And while this television "eye" is being perfected, the Army Signal Corps can continue to work on Dr. G. Goubau's 'G string,' described as a single wire strung through a conical metal horn that "launches" a television current and allows it to be transmitted as efficiently as by a coaxial cable in "some conditions." Wrapping it up, Time tells us that the day of Big Brother is at hand.
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| The Vidicon is just Farnsworth's patent trolling again, but Goubau's legit, if oversold. |
"Team Trouble" Now that royalties on streptomycin are up to a million a year, former graduate student lab assistant Albert Schatz, now an assistant professor of chemistry at Brooklyn College, is suing for a share.
"Sharper Tool" Medicine has long had two tests for tuberculosis. X-rays show if the patient has ever had tuberculosis but it isn't clear whether the disease is still alive in the patient. The skin test doesn't show that at all. The Rockefeller Institute's Rene J. Dubos and Gardner Middlebrook have just announced a blood test that is 93.7% accurate and shows if tuberculosis is active in other parts of the body besides the lungs.
"Freddie Stands Up" Freddie Thomason, the baby born with no arms or legs, has been fitted with artificial legs, although it will be hard for him to walk without arms to steady himself. And Polish DP doctor Joseph Brudny has been persuaded to move into the twin villages of Fabius and Pompey, 17 miles southeast of Syracuse, by the townfolk, who gave him a house, rent-free, for a year if he stays and practices. As one of 233 DP doctors, Brudny is one of the first to pass a state medical board and begin to practice, in part because New York hasn't made it impossible, unlike 21 states. "Stop, Look, Listen" A junior high principal in Connecticut that Henry Luce knows socially has discovered why the kids today have falling grades. They watch too much television. Heck, they spend more time watching television than they do listening to their teachers!
"Deeper, Deeper, Dee. . . " This week in Washington, 1949 Miss Washington, Mary Jane Hayes, got into a strapless bathing suit, laid down in a bed in the window of the BOAC offices, and pretended to go into a hypnogogic trance (I'm less amazed that Ronnie knew that word than that she could find a character to translate it!) so that she could learn French in her sleep. And in embonpoint. "Some ediucators," including the Institue of Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown and something called the Institute of Logopedics in Wichita, Kansas, think that this can work. We've heard about this before in Radio News, in the form of Max Sherover's "cerebrograph," and if it's good enough for Radio News, it's good enough for Time!
"100%" Princeton University's little war over eating clubs is over, after the university's clubs agreed to extend memberships to all sophomores, to end the old situation in which 10--15% of them were left out and socially doomed. Which had this year's sophomore class threatening to boycott the eating clubs entirely. And an eccentric professor at Yale has graduated, while Corpus Christi college at Harvard is very, very stuffy. In conclusion, Yale is the best Ivy League college, says America's number one news magazine.
Art, Radio and Television, Press, People
Sculptor Jacob Epstein is the lead story this week, thanks to his latest sculpture, the heroic although difficult to understand Lazarus, which is modern art and therefore offensive, although not as offensive as his naked Adam or "squat, vast Ecce Homo," which must be bad, because it offended some guy named G. K. Chesterton, who sounds real swell.
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| Has anyone mentioned that Epstein is a Jewish name? Because Time's got it covered! |
After the live guy, a dead guy, Charles Demuth, who gets a MoMA show fifteen years after his death. Apparently, he didn't ever actually live, because he was lame and diabetic and lived with h is mother, but he did sexy book illustrations, although also "stiff and dainty" cubist stuff.
Jack Benny is the biggest guy in radio this year, but who cares when there's television. Bob Hope is probably going to be dropped in the spring, Rexall is ditching Phil Harris and Alice Faye in favour of a Dick Powell thriller that they can get for $4500 an episode, Amos and Andy will be cutting its $20,000 price tag to stay on the air and Burns and Allen are down from $12,000 to $8500. Meanwhile the television side had its annual convention where they took turns counting each other's money and warning themselves that too much sensation might drive parents away.
"The Flying Carpet" Fresh off offending the Spanish, Colonel McCormick's world tour visited Egypt and then Pakistan, where he denounced Egypt's new constitution as a "complete phony." In India, he said that he had no idea where Kashmir was, that India was very boring, and that President Truman's civil rights bill was a "new form of slavery." Meanwhile, in Italy, Oswald Mosley dropped by for a visit, and L'Unita published his photograph upside down. You know, like he was hanging from his heels. And the Denver Post send a reporter down to Dallas to report on how awful it was, leading to the Dallas papers being quite upset. Also, the Deseret News is the voice of the Mormon church, and Sporting News just suggested that "since labour leaders, scientists and teachers get loyalty tests, why not sportscasters, too?"
The Hearst papers celebrated William Randolph's 86th birthday by publishing a letter from William Randolph which explained that he is not "radical" at all. Time calls this surprising, probably because William Randolph Hearst thinks that people think he is a radical. Alfred Hitchcock is upset at the Cold War because all the spies in the thrillers are Communists. Ernest Hemingway is grumpy because of his skin condition. Herbert Hoover went fishing in Key West again. General Marshall won't write his memoirs because he'd end up saying something mean. The Shah of Iran was in India for a tiger hunt, Princess Elizabeth might be pregnant, Gertrude Moran shocked the tennis world by turning out for a tournament in black shorts instead of white, Tom Dewey had an operation for bursitis, Yukawa Hideki was in hospital for a cold and overwork. Major General Chennault (59) has had a second daughter with Anna Chan, 26, "former news reporter." Virginia Hill has married her ski instructor. Oh, is that what they're calling them, now? Margueritte de la Motte, Sidne Silverman, Daniel Frisch, Brock Pemberton, Heinrich Ludwig Mann and Charles A. Windolph have died. Speaking of euphemisms, Frisch died of "a liver ailment," famous historical novelist Mann was the older brother of Thomas Mann, and Windolph was a private in the 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn, but wasn't at the Little Round Top, which is why he didn't die.
So I think we can all agree that 7th Cavalry has a regimental esprit that is captured by Garry Owen. The questions is . . . .
The New Pictures
Black Hand is a "slow, overlong melodrama" that is a "minor triumph of production over plot." Mother Didn't Tell Me is a pleasant way of passing the time that relies on the comic potential of being a doctor's wife, mainly due to Dorothy McGuire carrying the film. Francis is a movie about a talking mule in the US Army, based on the comic novel. It is "mulishly slow" and "barely makes the grade" as comedy. But entertaining! I think that means that Time went to the movies with the kids, and they liked it.
Books
Someone named Max Steele has written a novel, which is called Debby. It's about a simpleton named Debby, and it won the Harper first book award, which Time thinks is a travesty. Joshua Slocum sailed around the world single-handedly, many years ago, and then wrote a book about it, and now Victor Slocum has written a book about that, which is called Joshua Slocum. Peter Viereck is a poet who has a book of poems out, and R. J. Cruikshank has Charles Dickens and Early Victorian England, which uses the title as an excuse to take a wander around early Victorian England, but Time liked the pictures, so that saves the book. No, seriously, that's what the reviewer says. If it wasn't for Debby I would swear that Time decided to be nice to everybody today.
Aviation Week, 27 March 1950
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| By Ragnhild&Neil Crawford - flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84372217 |
News Digest reports that Republic will buy all Government buildings on its Farmingdale site, about a million square feet, as soon as this summer. Airliners carried fewer passengers than ships last month for the first time since September. An Air Force copter has crashed in Texas, and American and the TWU have worked out details of a severance package. The US Atlantic Fleet will combine with the British, Canadian and Netherland navies in Operation CARIBEX, an anti-submarine operation out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba soon. The Caribbean in March. Nice! Texas Engineering and Manufacturing has just completed its 356th C-54 reconditioning for the USAF. Four B-29s have left Andrews Air Force Base for Britain, where they will be turned over to the RAF. Howard Dean, executive vice president of Pan Am, has died of a heart attack at 53. Pacific Airmotive has made a loss, Lear has made a profit. The DH Comet has just made a London-Rome flight in 2 hrs, which is impressive, although test pilot John Cunningham is disappointed with his speed of 480mph.
"Big Year Assured for Plane Makers" Backlogs give the best business outlook since the end of the war. Aviation Week also announces a "transport boom," mainly thanks to DC-6 and Constellation orders. Also, they don't have to waste any money on jetliners. As Lockheed explains, this is because the government is bad. CAA certification takes too long and their taxes are up, and anyway developing new transports is the armed forces' job. Guided missile contracts are another hedge against a bad year. Martin, in particular, wants us to know that its Viking research rocket and KDM-1 ramjet are profitable,
and that the company has 300 engineers working on design and testing of fire control radar systems, missile guidance systems, telemetering devices and antennas for airborne uses, and that more than 25% of those engineers hold doctor or master of science degrees. North American has more than 900 employees in its aerophysics section, up from 775 last year, although since most of those work at the wind tunnel, I'm not sure why it is mentioned under "missiles."
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| "Subsonic ramjet" |
Companies are also more efficient, thanks to better equipment and better housekeeping. The F-80 is currently being delivered at one-sixteenth the cost of the original, the 200th Constellation required only a third of the man hours as the 100th, Douglas has reduced spare part prices by 10%, and Lockheed has a 200 ton stretching press, a 20 ton stamp hammer, and an 8000t triple-action hydraulic press will installed later this year.
Boeing has hit a postwar production peak. All but one of the 55 Stratocruisers have been delivered, there have been "substantial" deliveries of B-50s and C-97s, and Boeing Wichita "cleaned up" with its YL-15 Scout. B-47s will be the main product next year, more C-97s this year. Despite Wichita's prominence, President William Allen promises that Seattle will always be Boeing's home, and development continues there of the boom refuelling system and the XB-52. Convair expects to do well in 1951, producing the B-36 at Dallas and the T-28 at San Diego. Curtiss-Wright promises that it has turned the corner. Douglas has its first Air Force contract since the war, the C-124, and expects more orders for the DC-6. The Super DC-3, supposedly providing "the utmost in proved reliability, world-wide acceptance, economy, and efficiency in operation for the minimum in expenditure," has been a bust, just like all those would-be DC-3 replacements that aren't DC-3s. Douglas will also deliver lots of F3Ds. Lockheed has the Constellation backlog, the T-33 and TO-2, the F-94, which is about to go into production, and Navy orders for 45 P2Vs still on the books. North American, besides trainers, has the B-45 and AJ-1. United Aircraft (Pratt and Whitney in disguise) is making engines, and propellers at Hamilton Standard, although "Ham Stan" has dropped the "propellers" from the marquee and is looking to a bright post-propeller future. Chance Vought is delivering F6Us and F7Us. Sikorsky has achieved new production records by just actually making helicopters for sale. The "world's largest privately owned jet engine laboratory," Willgoos Turbine Laboratory, absolutely exists and isn't just a shady stock market play and will start delivering actual units by mid-year.
"Modified B-25 Pushed as Trainer" A massive Air Force "backlog" of B-25s could be converted into cheap navigational trainers, North American proposes. How can it be a backlog if the Air Force doesn't actually need B-25s any more? It would need a larger fuselage, new engine nacelles, better seating and a larger crew, but other than that, it's ready to go.
"Temporary Truce on Air Budget" Now that the election is only seven months away, it's time to get out of Washington and campaign, so the air budget has to be put to bed. The industry is fine with the work it has in hand, so everyone's agreed not to complain about the 48 group air force unless there's nothing better to complain about, which there is. For Uncle George: The research and development budget is $74,755,685, of which $25 million for piloted aircraft, $12 million for missiles, $14 million for power plants, $13 million for aviation electronics, $10 million for supporting programs.
"Potent Punch" The USAF will test a rocket-armed B-36 in the summer. It will replace the current armament of 16 20mm cannon in 8 turrets with six turrets of rocket launchers: forward, two top side, one each port and starboard, one aft. Each will have three rockets, and the tests will have a bearing on proposals to replace fighter gun armament (and particularly obsolete .50 calibre machine guns) with rockets. Supersonic rockets with a five mile range will eventually be replaced by (guided?) missiles with a thirty mile range. The rocket in question is likely to be the Hughes MX-904, the only air-to-air weapon known to be undergoing development this year. The principal difficulty to be overcome is accuracy, and the air force is developing "semi-active radar homing devices," with, of course, "robot brains." Everything has a robot brain, these days. Except me! The USAF promises that robot brains will be able to guide a missile 2000 miles now, and 5000 miles by 1955.
Aeronautical Engineering has "What is the Actual Value of Service Testing?" A new airliner has between 800 and 1000 hours of service testing in flight before the first passenger steps aboard, undertaken by manufacturer, CAA and airline. What does it accomplish? Three major postwar airliners have been grounded for significant lengths of time due to fatal crashes, in spite of accumulating thousands of flying hours, including early passenger operations before hand. More rigorous and lengthy, hence expensive, service testing has been proposed, but "many engineers" think that this isn't a solution. A series of very scientific pencil-sketch graphs are advanced to show that the longer an aircraft flies, the more "faults" it accumulates, modified by how frequently it is maintained or reworked. But, of course, we need to define fault. Does it mean crashing into the ground and bursting into flames with 90 people on board, or a blown fuse. At some point, the cost of all that service testing flying is going to exceed the economic cost of finding the design error leading to the blown fuse. (Passing right over the dead people.
Although your insurance agent can probably tell you how much they "cost.") With enough data and some fancy statistics, and here the article pauses to explain Poisson's Distribution, you can figure out how much service training you need to do to exceed the probable cost of any "fault." "It is widely believed by many engineers" that this what you should do.
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| A problem that arises in finding images of the Northwest Orient 307 crash is that it is not the only Northwest Orient crash in or near Minneapolis in 1950. In fairness to Martin, the other one was a DC-4 lost over Lake Michigan, but it is still a search result. The other problems lie in understanding how the wing came off, and what it was doing trying to land in a snowstorm with only two crew in the cockpit. No wonder the pilot "lost visual reference!" The week after Llandow is probably the wrong time to be comparing American with British practice, but it is not "3," but all major American postwar airliners, excepting the Convair 240, that were grounded early in their service careers by fatal crashes. Okay, the Stratocruiser was grounded after a nonfatal accident, but still. and compare the Tudor and Comet, high profile disasters but only a minority of new types, in the British case. |
"Soil Quick-Hardened Into Landing Strip" "Recent Development of a new chemical process for the stabilisation of soil" has changed the world in every way, etc. How many soil stabilisation additives get to be in the paper? Maybe there should be a tontine? (What bored literati came up with that translation?) Well, I guess this one, because it is by MIT, rooty-toot. It uses calcium acrylate, sodium thiosulfate and ammonium persulfate, and gives 5-10psi within 5 hours of treatment, and 500psi if allowed to dry for a week. MIT is confident that it will pass high and low temperature trials, and believes that mass production of the chemicals will bring costs down to a "reasonable level." An assortment of chemical engineers have been brought into the civil engineering lab to consult, help, and show the civils how to tie their shoes, even when they have knots.
"Shop Course for Martin Designers" After fifty years of gentle hints from the toolroom ("Get those fucking fuckers down here!"), the designers at Martin have been brought down to the shops and shown what can actually be done in the real world. "The sessions usually close with questions and answers." 
"First Cutaway Views of J-42 Turbo-Wasp" The J-42 has achieved 5750lb wet thrust, has a gross weight of 1723lbs, a specific fuel consumption of 109lbs/hour, and is in service with the Grumman F9F-2 Panther. It is now certified for civilian use, just as soon as someone builds a jetliner.
"Extra Blood Builds Altitude Resistance" Frank Hall, a Duke physiologist, has been bathing he-men in the blood of virgins, giving them the proportionate strength of ten, the power to summon packs of wolves to do their bidding, and an insatiable desire to defile churches and cemeteries. Sorry, read that wrong. Transfusions of virgin blood. Leading to longer "intervals of useful consciousness" at high altitudes. Handy!
"Radio Station for Measuring Ionosphere" The National Bureau of Standards have built a special radio station to bombard the upper atmosphere, in hopes of summoning Venusians to rescue us from the 1950 Congressional elections, and, if we're really lucky, WWIII. It is also hoped that we will learn to predict sudden radio disturbances.
"Strain Gage Reading at a Glance" Airspeed's new Polygraph strain gage recorder prints out a load/strain graph using a piece of Teledeltos chart paper and a stylus. The gage can drive as many as 100 recorders, it says here. Or, anyway, it has a "100 way" unit. The actual strain gage sits on four balancing potentiometers. H. V. Clarke, senior engineer at Airspeed, H. Candleland, and T. S. Parremore were the engineers responsible.
"Electric Ovens: Help Solar Control Heat in Fabricating Stainless Steel Engine Parts" Solar Aircraft has bought two GE electric furnaces, which can bring a piece up to 1650F at a rate of 100F an hour, and holding it for three. The cycle is controled by "special program-type instrument controllers which can be set to give a wide range of predetermined rates." The furnaces are set up to run with a selected atmosphere supplied by a converter, and has good cooling arrangements.
New Aviation Products does appear in this issue. I haven't forgotten anytyhing, I just don't think a Bell and Howell Pocket Comparator, faster milling machine from W. H. Nicholas, Sciacky Brothers spotlight, and "improved Chorlastic silicone rubber sponge" are worth mentioning.
Financial and Business News continues C-W and Martin's apologies, notes that the scheduled airlines are taking a hit on cargo rates, and mentions that CAB is taking a look at Resort Airlines, of Pinehurst, NC, which has a certificate to fly all-expense trips to Mexican, Caribbean, South American and Canadian resorts, but which seems to have branched into inter-state transport. The nonskeds that fly cannery workers to Alaska are in trouble with the International Association of Machinists, who think that they need to meet "air carrier specifications," wile the airlines trying to provide competition for the Hawaiian market are losing money.
"Field Fire Protection Problems Discussed" The Committee on Aviation and Airport Fire Protection of the National Fire Association has held its annual meeting in Indianapolis, where it heard that it would be good if the industry began providing fire protection, but acknowledged that it was awful expensive. Peter Hadfield, of the Civil Air Attache of the British embassy in Washington's office, popped by to point out that if you actually invest in fire extinguishing systems, you can have zero, that's zero failures on record, as opposed to the 140 fire alarms at La Guardia last year. Chief Milton Fisher of Mitchel Air Force Base, New York, replied that the "effectiveness of American equipment was the best in the world and that it has proved its purpose in rescue and extinguishment."
Atlantic fares have fallen, and Trans Canada has a foreign carrier permit to fly Montreal/Toronto to Trinidad via Tampa, Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados. And the Airline Pilots Association has come up with an answer to complaints that they didn't offer a constructive criticism of the 2-0-2 and Convair Liner by proposing their own DC-3 replacement, which would be a twin-engine, tricycle gear with 20--26 passengers, two on either side of the aisle, no seating in the propeller danger area, and which should be able to use DC-3 service and maintenance areas. While high speed was desirable, it should not sacrifice landing speeds.
Editorial has "The Impact of Air Coach" It's been great, because more people should be able to fly, more cheaply! All criticisms to the effect that they are creaming off profits, flying in unsafe conditions, skipping maintenance, and paying non-union rates are just sour grapes. Everything is keen, as California Central Airlines shows.
Time, 27 March 1950
Letters
Edward Lostrom was very pleased with the T. S. Eliot cover story, as he explains at length. So is John Gould Fletcher, a close personal friend of same. James Robertson of the Sault and William Marquandt also liked it, while T. E. Greenleaf, of Madison, Wisconsin, is more irritated than angry that Time explained that President Eliot of Harvard was "no kin to Poet T. S. Eliot," when they are actually third cousins twice removed. On the other hand, Newman Tucker of California is disgusted that an "ex-American" should get a cover story, which seems to be the point that Marjorie Anne Riley is making, although she gets sidetracked by the godless communism of one world government. In reply to R. P. Walbridge, the Editor provides th
e gas mileage of all cars entered into the recent California trials. My darling had 23.97, well ahead of the best Cadillac (the "61," at 22.53), and the only Lincoln on offer. Sidney Ottman and Walter Whitney, both Californians, write in to explain that they are such excellent drivers that they easily beat the posted figures. Our publisher explains that the guy who picks the pictures that Time runs is also the senior editor, so you don't cross him!
National Affairs
"Peace, But Not At Any Price" and a boxed summary of Acheson's address to Berkeley expand on the idea that the Russians can have peace if they just give up on being Communist internationalists.
"Help Wanted" Following up on that, Time explains the purpose of the Secretary of State's flying trip to California. He's looking for some support from his critics in Congress, which has not been coming from the President.
"McCarthy at the Barricades" Instead of producing his 57 State Department Communists, McCarthy has been lashing out more-or-less at random, which led the Democrats on the Committee to invite "Miss Dorothy Kenyon, one-time New York municipal judge" (Ronnie points out that if Kenyon were a man, she would just be 'Judge Kenyon') over to give him a tongue lashing. Philip Jessup didn't make quite the same impression, although Time was pleased, as it really doesn't like McCarthy and is afraid that he will discredit loyalty tests.
"Between Security and Sterility" The House bill to establish a National Science Foundation was amended on the floor with provisions requiring all members to undergo FBI loyalty checks and to have avoided membership in any front organisations. In hearings, the Attorney General pointed out that that was a lot of work for the FBI, and that plenty of people join front organisations without realising what they were. The New York Times points out that anyone who'd join the Foundation on these terms was likely to be intellectually "sterile," and the House is reconsidering. Also, the Presidential yacht ran into heavy seas on its recent excursion and the whole Cabinet got seasick, in spite of bum seasickness pills. But when they got to Key West, one guy wore a pith helmet and other guys had to put up with the President's early rising, so that was fun.
"Elijah from Missoula" The cover story is about Clarence Streit and the Atlantic Union, which Time has been pushing for a few years now. The "union" would have common citizenship and coordinated government for the 7 major Atlantic powers and would be a fine thing all around. Senator Kefauver likes it, and so there you go. See the Letters for the chance of this actually happening. There's another cover story-length article in Art, so maybe the bullpen had some trouble selling this as the cover.
"The Mindszenty Treatment" Who in America can you compare to the heroic Hungarian cardinal? Why, Captain Crommelin, of course. He has the same high, ethical concerns, such as making sure that anonymous poison pen letters get a hearing, and will suffer the same fate of being forced to retire with a nice pension. Oh, sorry, rushed ahead there. It turns out that the Cardinal only faces life in jail. That's not so bad!
"Guilty" Justice in that case in Kosciusko, Mississippi where the escaped convicts opened fire in a sharecropper's shack and killed three children. The first one has been convicted and sentenced to . . . life imprisonment. Because the chair is for when you murder white children.
"Wanted: Dairy Clouds" The New York water shortage is now in its 90th day, leading the city of New York to hire rainmaker Irving Langmuir, who has, we're told, caused 320 billion gallons of rain in New Mexico with $20 worth of silver iodide, and will no doubt shower the Catskills in equal measure. Langmuir has declined the job, but gave a reference to a Harvard-trained meteorologist, Dr. Wallace Howell. The state legislature is currently having a gay old time with the usual (New York is stealing upstate rain; what about government negligence, who owns the clouds? Etc.) Howell, meanwhile, is waiting for a likely cloud to come round so he can lasso it good and proper.
"Wrong Man, Right Valley" The National Farm Labor Union (AFL) is striking Di Giorgio Fruit Corporation, and a Congressional delegation is out to investigate. It found that the NFLU was a low-down, dirty bunch of liars with regards to Di Giorgio, but the rest of the valley is awful. 
International
"A New Partner" Winston Churchill seems to be senile. He's against foreign arms sales, and for West German rearmament. It seems to be going around. De Gaulle is talking about a French-German union, and "the united French and German potentials . . . including in Africa." The Adenauer government says that it is interested.
"Show of Force" Seventh Fleet visited Saigon, which Bao Dai has chosen as his capital, to show that America backs Bao Dai to the hilt. The Communists responded by taking the fleet under "heavy machine gun and mortar fire," while Admiral Berkey was visiting Bao Dai and aircraft from Boxer flew overhead. After a few paragraphs about Bertrand Russell's latest speech on peace, which said that Russian world government would be worse than not having world peace, Time ambles back to Saigon to allow that if the United States keeps on burking up these situations, the hydrogen bomb will inevitably be unleashed, and perhaps not by America. I'm not clear how the Saigon situation was mishandled, although Time does point out that the destroyers of 7th Fleet didn't respond to the mortars and machine guns (which didn't hit them.) And "somewhere" in Southeast Asia, the NVA's foreign minister, Nguyen Duc Quy, issued a plea for recognition from the socialist countries of the world. Tito responded by recognising the NVA, and Ho Chi Minh responded to that by neither recognising nor not recognising Yugoslavia. Also, things continue as they are going in Czechoslovakia, where the foreign minister has now resigned before he can be purged, and in the UN, where a Soviet-less General Assembly is being regaled by tales of Russian slave labour camps. This led the New York Times to point out that American migrant labour camps aren't much better, which led to the New Leader's William E. Bohn denouncing the Time's "mechanical objectivity," since the migrants aren't slave labour. Well, except for the forced contracts that the Times was highlighting. Sheesh. Also, various propaganda efforts in Russia, Bulgaria and places like that is just like what the Nazis did.
"Bureaucratic Bottleneck" The British tried to organise an official and documented crossing of DPs from East to West Germany, and it was completely bungled because no-one has an accurate list of DPs. It's all the Communists' fault, of course. Communists are also misbehaving in Hungary and Russia, while the Abel/Frankey trial in Salzburg found that not only did Corporal Paul Abel and Sergeant John Frankey kidnap a double agent named Oswald Eder and turn him over to the Russians, but more than 100 men of their battalion knew about it, and 20 were approached to carry out the kidnapping before Abel and Frankey agreed. The others bowed out because their loansharking businesses were taking up their time.
Also, there was a tragic murder in the Air Force base at Frankfurt. Everyone agreed that the real fault lay with whoever didn't lock the murderess up in an insane asylum long ago.
"Modest Proposal" Author Robert Cedric Sherriff is earning £3600/year on the strength of his latest play, and was just approached with a £10,000 screenplay offer, which he turned down because he would only take in £500 after taxes, which, being a mere $1400,wasn't worth the four or five months it would take him, when he could earn the same as a jobbing gardener or by collecting cans. Etc. etc. Anyway he found a way to turn it into publicity, and you heard it hear first: Can collectors make three grand a year in England.
Also, the Queen of Tonga is a very heavyset lady, which has Time in stitches, while meanwhile some Indian princes are doing quite well, others less so. And in the Philippines a former(? He fled to Zamboanga) Catholic priest is on trial in Manila to determine if he is legally married to his former housekeeper, as her father says he is. In Indonesia the republican government has come up with an ingenious scheme to reduce inflation by cutting all notes over 5 guilders in half. The left half will be legal tender until 5 April, the right half will be coupons for a 3% government bond, to be issued in "due time."
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| Source: Sherrif's screenplay credits include Goodbye, Mr. Chips and The Dambusters, as well as 1950's No Highway, although this is an illustration from his 1945 post-apocalyptic novel, The Hopkins Manuscript. |
In this hemisphere, an investigating committee of the Organisation of American States has found the Dominican Republic responsible for fomenting trouble here, there and everywhere, and called for the Rio Reciprocal Assistance Treaty to be given some teeth, so that the Latin American powers can intervene the next time the Dominican Republic arranges for a coup against a Haitian president. In Canada, Albert Guay was sentenced to hang for the sabotage that cost the lives of the Kennecott board and 20 others, while Haiti held an election.
Business
So the boom is definitely back on, with 160,000 housing units started in the first quarter, steel up, but unemployment also up to 4.684 million due to the economy not expanding fast enough to absorb the 1.5 million new entrants into the work force annually. Also, soft goods are moving slowly, and textile mills are worried. Also, Congress is having hearings about the steel industry which have established that no-one knows what's what. Will there be a trustbusting action against US Steel? Maybe! Time then visits the aviation industry to give it the same coverage as Aviation Week. If I wanted the industry's soft-soap, I would have . . .
"Private State Department" American Express is a very successful company under the leadership of the dynamic Ralph T. Reed. And Uncle Henry has a booklet out explaining how his empire works.
In Britain, American salesmen explain that the British problem in the American market isn't tariffs, but the fact they don't sell hard enough. Fine, said the British, cut the tariffs so we can be sure. No, explain the Americans. And Du Mont is going to have a "Closed Circuit Convention Plan" in which its sales staff in twenty cities get to attend a closed circuit convention, like the title says.
Science, Medicine
"Proton Pusher" Columbia is the latest university with a cyclotron. "Atoms don't stand a chance." This one operates at 380 million electron volts, and is another effort to liberate some mesons. It is thought, it says here, that mesons have a connection with the binding forces that hold atomic nucleii together, but there is no physical theory to explain what is going on. One hypothesised event that the Columbia lab would like to observe is a collision between two mesons that would leave nothing more than energy, or a sufficiently energetic collision between two protons that would reveal "a whole new level of sub-atomic structure."
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| It's actually been operational since 1940. Details, details. |
"Synthetic Pets" The electric turtles of Dr. W. Grey Walter, the head of physiology at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol, are the biggest thing in Britain right now, except all the other things that are bigger. (Point: the British like pets.) They have photoelectric eyes and "like" light and electric current, which they "seek out." So the two electric circuits in the toy turtles make them act in complicated ways, and this suggests that the human brain may not be as complicated as some think.
Well, that's it, off to bask in the light and plug myself in!
"H-bomb 'Secrets'" An article in the current Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reveals the "secret" of the hydrogen bomb. Fissioning uranium imparts high velocities to the light atoms around them, causing them to "fuse" and release even more energy. One possible fusion reaction is between two heavy hydrogen (deuterium) nucleii, but this fusion is unlikely to happen in large numbers. LIthium hydride might be preferable, since lithium and hydrogen nucleii will fuse at the same relatively low energy as the d+d fusion (100,000 eV), and produce Helium-4 and 17.3 million electron volts. This adds up to twice as much energy per pound as fissioning uranium. And if you are wondering why this article isn't top secret, it is because it is a reprint of a chapter from a 1946 book by Austrian physicist Hans Thirring. Which doesn't seem like much of an excuse to me, as not many people read German, or have heard of Thirring, or, most importantly, know that the Bulletin is publishing his calculations. (Which tends to show that they are right.)
"Element 98" Speaking of, Glenn Seaborg has announced that his Berkeley lab has made Element 98 by shooting alpha particles at curium at just the right energy. They're calling it "californium," and have produced only a "small fraction" of a "few millionths" of a gram of it. Since it also disintegrated in less than 45 minutes, it must have been tricky to establish that they had it at all, but they did.
"The Boot" The District of Columbia has banned the use of x-rays in shoe stores, on the grounds that they're very bad for people and they should stop.
"Legal Rash" The LA County Medical Association has just had yet another jump in premiums for malpractice insurance due to suits over cosmetic surgery, general surgery, orthopedics and neuropsychiatry. I feel like Time just led with cosmetic surgery because of Hollywood. the article goes on to suggest that the real problem is aging hypochondriacs and that due to all these lawsuits the doctors of LA can't even say "it'll be as good as new" anymore.
"Release the Brakes" The Journal of the American Medical Association has established that alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulant, that it does not warm the body or stimulate the appetite, and dulls responsibility. Alcohol releases the brakes; it does not make the car run better. An article about "The Weeper Sex" confirms that girls cry more than boys, with science.
"$1550 For What" Sorority girls at Mills College don't know anything about foreign affairs, mainly because they don't read the paper. Parents are upset, because what are they paying $1550 for? (Ronnie says that the parents are paying for good husbands, and that the survey might have very different results if the girls were asked about something other than the cut and thrust of diplomacy. As she points out, who do you want in an embassy in ten years time? Someone who knows what Dean Acheson thought about the German question back in the old days, or someone who speaks German?)
"Not Yet" The Senate is in a riot over whether federal aid to education should go to parochial schools as well as public. A compromise might allow them money only to support students, and not for salaries or construction.
"Is Vs. Ought" In Science is a Sacred Cow, Anthony Standen (41), an MIT chemist who has taught at St. John's and who is now editing a chemical encyclopedia at Brooklyn's Polytechnic, says that scientists are "overbearing, over-praised, and over-indulged." Scientists rarely rest on "better things for better living," and instead talk about the "scientific method" and "scientific attitude," which is little more than mysticism. He goes on to classify the sciences by their worthiness, from admirable (to a point) physics down to "gobbledygook" social sciences. Scientists, he concludes, should be a lot more interested in "is" than "ought." Meanwhile, the University of Texas' student court has called off a student referendum on admitting Negro students on the grounds that, if it failed, the Russians would make a big to-do in the United Nations; and that if it passed, the whole student body would be lynched by howling Texans.
I think the Russians can work with that, too, quite frankly. Also in Texas, Headmistress Lucinda Templin of Radford denounces modern American education, which lacks character. Sure does!
Art, Radio and Television, Press, People
"Storyteller" Henry Koerner was just a clever commercial artist five years ago, but now he is "the most controversial
figure in US painting," and his fourth one-man show, in a Manhattan gallery, is being both "roundly praised and sharply damned." Koerner, you see, produces "pictures," that "tell stories." Also, he's Jewish. Time really likes him, and gives him just short of a cover story's worth of material.
"Crime Reporter" Convict Roy Nash says that he listens to radio crime shows and thinks that they're leading teenagers into a life of crime. Wayne Coy of the FCC says that they get letters about that all the time, and take it very, very seriously. Also, Howdy Doody is a bit strange, but a good babysitter.
"Mare's Nest"Michael Foot is upset at the way that the Beaverbrook press is handling John Strachey's appointment to the War Office. Which is to highlight some comments that Strachey made as a teenager(!) in evidence that he is a secret Communist just like Klaus Fuchs. And the Atlanta papers recently had a silly competition to see which could jerk more tears over the euthanisation of a zoo elephant, which naturally leads to the news that James Middleton Cox is the new owner of the Atlanta Constitution, which matters because Cox ran for President against Warren Harding in 1920.
Oh, I remember that! Just kidding. I don't, and neither does anyone else! In Cincinatti, the Enquirer is running a campaign against 178 un-named local Communists, ratted out by an unidentified informer. This is causing a bit of heat in Cincinatti, so the reporter, James Ratliff, is off to Washington with the aim of putting the 178 names in the record of the HUAC so that The Enquirer can print them. When the Cincinnati Post revealed that Ratliff's informant was a mental patient, HUAC declined to go along and now The Enquirer is not embarrassed at all. And a local paper in Connecticut is very down home and quaint. 
Tallulah Bankhead is touring, FDR's political papers do not include a diary, the Aga Khan dresses like a bum, unusual members of the animal kingdom currently on the wing include: two canaries for the President and Margaret Truman, presented by the Kyushu Canary Fanciers Club of Japan; two elephants to be presented to the Washington Zoo by the Government of India,;and a very large amount of Limfjord oysters, for King Farouk to eat. Ingrid Bergman will fight for the custody of her daughter, Pia, with Peter Lindstrom, Alida Valli has had a son. Book and other awards and also birthdays occurred to General Collins, Albert Einstein, Nelson Algren, Ralph L. Rusk, and William Carlos Williams. Virginia Simms is getting divorced, Ralph Greenleaf has died, Basil Lambert, the "mad xylophonist of vaudeville," likewise, Ernest Hurst Cherrington, Edgar Rice Burroughs(!!!), Adolf Meyer, and Alice Stone Blackwell.
The New Pictures
Cinema covers Senator Johnson's big morality push in Hollywood. Ingrid Bergman, "Force For Evil"! A Woman of Distinction is "tedious" and filled out with slapstick. Time is also offended in the name of higher education, of which Hollywood has a low opinion.Perfect Strangers mainly serves to sow distrust in the jury system. The Outriders is a Civil War-era horse opera starring Technicolor, the Western landscape, and some actors led by Joel McCrea and Arlene Dahl, Time's crush of the week. Borderline is an attempt to remake It Happened One NIght, and is tastelessly awful.
Books
Henry Green's novel, Nothing, is a follow-up of Viking. Time liked it, I'm surprised to learn when I cut to the end. Emily Hahn's A Degree of Prudery is a positive review of a very negative life. Hahn doesn't like Burney, and neither does Time. Time didn't like Margaret Kennedy's latest novel. Henry Steele Commager's The American Mind is the latest of a half-dozen books from the 47 year-old professor. Time starts from the position that he writes too fast, and quickly rounds on agreeing with itself.
Like everyone else, Commager thinks that the 1890s were the turning point when America turned, and that you need to talk about James and Veblen, and if you do, you're alright. Robert Wilder's latest novel, Wait for Tomorrow, has a bit of bad sex but is otherwise not so good.
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| Better to write fast than not at all. |
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