HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1950-8-16, Page 3rr��a� s;h
Talgo
Tuned
lay Rlchard lain Wilkinson
Flirtit g was second nature with
Debora! Bellamy, No 111111 would
have gt esscd, after one glance at
her gay, laughing• facer after one
look into her mociciog, tantalizing
eyes, that inwardly she was afraid.
Afraid that sometime some one of
her victims was going to turn the
tables. That is to say, site knew
that one day she was going to fall
in love with one of the men with
whom she flirted. And that, she
knew, would be the end, '1'he end
to all her gay, reckless happiness,
She never dreamed—that this elan
would prove to be a cowboy, named
Lon Fairweather,
Deborah had joined a party who
planned a month's vacation at a
dude ranch in Wyoming. Lon was
the foreman. He was tall, fair,
handsome, After one Toole into his
sober blue eyes, Deborah began to
lay her snares,
Lon was diftereut,but he was
also human. Hence he succumbed
to her wiles, just as had the others.
The night he told Deborah of his
love they were seated on a high
boulder overlooking a hemmed -in
lake.
Something about the beauty and
grandeur of the scene stirred Dle-
bm•ah's soul. She found herself
listening to Lon's love -making
more soberly than was •her cus-
tom.
"Oh, Lon," she said a little
breathlessly, "Not now ..
She pushed hien away and ran up
the path toward the ranch house.
Once back in her roost she faced
herself in the mirror and laughed.
In the clays that followed Lon
persisted in occupying her
thoughts, Some what in desperation
site cast about for escape. And then
She found herself listening to
Lon's love -making a little more
soberly than was her custom.
a plan cants to mint. She'd ask
hint to come to New York. She'd
get hint on home ground, compare
hint with the sort of life she was
used to.
The idea seemed a good one and
strangely enough Lon agreed to
conte—in the fall.
Fait came, and she planned a
party. She invited all those who
had been at the Double 0 Bar that
summer.
Lon arrived in due time and
called at Deborah's apartment. She
was a little taken aback at the ease
and -grace with which he wore his
smart new tuxedo, and in spite of
herself she thrilled when he swept
her into his arms.
The dinner was set for 8. At 7:30
the guests began to arrive. Lon
was surprised when he saw that
the then wore chaps and high -
heeled boots; that the woolen were
garbed in divided riding shirts and
gay -colored blouses,
A butler came to the door and
yelled: "Colne and get it, cowboy-!"
Deborah felt a little uneasy as
Lon escorted her to her scat. IIer
uneasiness grew as het ooked
slightly puzzled upon discovering
there was no silverware at his
place save a broad -bladed knife, He
hesitated, watching in amazement
as the other guests picked up their
knives, and with suppressed chuck-
les began to scoop up peas and.
shove them into their mouths, He
watched as they poured coffee from
their cups and drank from their
saucers,
"1 understand," he said, looking
directly et Deborah. "And I regret
I can't appreciate the humor of the
thing. You sec," he added, "we
westerners have had it drilled into
Its by you cktsterners, that we're
et•ucle and have no manners, "Batt,"
he paused and made a little per-
• functory bow toward Deboras,
"Now • I know something else;
know that whatever other manners
you folks might have you don't
know the meaning of hospitality."
And with this he carefully placed
his napkin on the table, pushed
hack his chair and strode from the
room.
Loa! Loni" she called. "Please
C01110 back. It was all my fault.
I'm sorry, Please!"
But Lon was already through the
door and halfway clown the stairs,
Above, on the landing Deborah
stood as if dazed, Thee was ater-
rtblc gnawing sensation inside of
hey, great, desolate miserable
feeling, She knew then that Lon
Fairweather weather had been the : tan she
was afraid of'mc': ug.
Larry Parkes Talks About Al Jolson
For nearly fifteen years Al Jol-
son bestrode the New Y,ork stage
as king of America's blackface en-
tcreta!uers. Then enure the first
talkie, and the whole world heard
hint say that hllpto111ptU line: "BIT,
1,11, listen to this." The film halt
found its tongue ---in Jolson's mouth,
AI Jolson, in the words of one
of his favourite sung=, was "sittin'
on top of the world." from The
Jazz Singer onwards he made filth
after Sint, until a fresh load of
talent swept Linn off the screen
in the middle thirties,
Icor ten years he was a has-been,
Iyuring the war he went overseas
to entertain the troops, but neither
Hollywood nor Broadway would
look at 111111 twice writes Leonard
Samson in "Answers,"
A Memory Revived
And then, In 1946, Jolson rocket•
cd hack to fame—and has stayed
there ever since. Last June he
vias sixty-five, but the voice that
rang "Sonny Boy" in 1928 is still
twirling round on millions of new
records; records that 11C 11111:15 since
the war.
These bare facts on his life are
familiar to anyone who went to
see that fabulously successful I•Iol-
,lywood 'musical called "The Jol-
son Story," In Britain alone, 30
million picture -goers saw it, and
thousands more are watching the
Techni - colored follow - up called
"Jolson Sings Again,"
Yes, Jolson still Inas his voice.
And the world sings again with him
the songs he made famous more
than thirty years ago, songs such
as "Manuny," ''California, Here I
Conic," "April Showers," "Rock -a -
Bye," and dozens more.
The memory of a great enter-
tainer has been revived. And the
matt who did it was a young actor
called Larry Parks who itnpersmn-
aced Jolson in both screen biogra-
phies—and borrowed his voice for
the songs.
The old Mammy singer is once
again perched on top of the world,
but he'd never have made the grade
if Larry Parlcs hadn't hoisted him
up there.
A little while ago the London
Palladium gallery shouted: "Give
us Jolson!" but Larry Parks—now
playing in Glasgow—just smiled and
went into a duet with his commedi-
enue wife, Betty Garret.
Afterwards, Larry said to Inc as
we had supper in his 'dressing -
room: 'ISH not Jolson, so why
should I do his songs? It'd be like
telling Bob Hope's jokes." And
Petty added: "So if the audience
gets restless I tell then that Larry
can't do Jolson because I can't
imitate Ruby Keeler."
After all, Larry had played in
nearly forty films before the Jol-
son histories came along to give
him real fame, and he hopes to
stake at least forty more.
Even so, a great many people
still identify hium solely with the
Al Jolson characterizations. In fact,
his portrayal seemed so credible and
sincere that one would imagine that
"the man and his memory" knew
each other inside out,
When "The Jolson Story" was
presented in 1946. Hollywood gave
out the news that "many were
tested before the part was finally
given to Larry Parks, who had
impressed his studio heads with
fine performances in smaller pro-
ductions, and endeared himself to
Jolson almost immediately.
But Larry makes no bones about
the fact that Jolson never wanted'
him to play the part. James Cag-
ncy was the actor he had asked
for, but after a number of tests
the contract was handed to Larry.
"No, No, Nol"
"I guess they finally picked on
me because I was already on the
Payroll and would cost less," he
remarked with a smile. "But as for
Jolson, I can hardly tell you any-
thing about him, except that he's
very rich. Maybe even richer than
Bing Crosby, But then I don't
know. He's never been to my house,
and I've never been to his."
An interesting scene in "Jolson
Sings Again" shows Larry Parices
as himself, and Larry Parices as
Al Jolson, rehearsing together In
front of an enormous mirror, but
that shut WaS 11101'0 interesting than
accurate.
"When 1 was assigned the part,"
Larry said, "1 got very worried
about how I was going to make out.
1 was a straight actor, not a song -
and -dance mall, and 1 wasn't sure
that I could symehronize with Jol-
son's voice, So I got together with
hint in a small room and sang
'Rock -a -Bye' the way I thought
he'd do it, At the end, he said:
'No, no, no, not like that: You're
moving around too hutch. This is
the way to do it.'
"Well, by the time he'd finished
he was practically hanging from the
chandelier, and he said to me:
'See? I didn't move a muscle,"
"Froth then on I decided to work
things out my own mvay,"
So Jolson recorded the numbers
and Larry Parks rehearsed by him-
self. Although Larry's singing voice
wasn't heard once on the screen, he
sang so many duets with Jolson's
records that he suffered badly from
laryngitis.
"You see," he said, "I had to be
perfect, Either I was synchronizing
or I wasn't. There's no in-between."
The two films were before the
cameras for a total of fifteen months,
and in that period Larry sang Jot -
son's number more times than
the Mammy singer did in half a
century of show business, 13ut not
once has Jolson contplinneiited him
on the way he handled the part.
Facing the Crowd
"I can understand it, of course,"
said Larry. "It can't be very plea-
sant for Jolson to have to watch
someone else play his part be-
cause he's too old to do it himself.
I know I'd feel the same way,
"For a long time Jolson was
known as 'tile world's greatest en-
tertainer; and he went through a
hard school to qualify for that title.
Thirty years ago there was no such
thing as being groomed for star-
dom. You had to fight,every inch
of the way. And if you weren't
filled with a colossal ego and un-
tiring driving force you couldn't
make it. Then the entertainer was
on his own, with a backcloth be-
hind hint and a rowdy audience in
front."
Larry is beginning to have an
inkling of what it feels like to stand
up and face the crowd. Although
he has appeared in several plays,
this is only the sixth week that Inc
has faced an audience as Larry
Parks, and not as a character in a
story. But Betty helps hint along.
When the couple return to Holly-
wood they plan to co-star in a
film to be made by their own
newly -formed company. But Larry
is still under contract to Columbia,
and the latest reports indicate that
he will make yet a third Jolson
musical,
Well, why not? The first tido
were successful enough for Jack
Lenny to say: "If I had my life
over again I'd get Larry Parkes
to do it for mel"
Sign in shop window: Evening
Gown Cut Down Ridiculously Low.
Merry Menagerie -By Wait Disney
"What are you planning to do,
Labor Day?"
"A Little Wider, Please l" While a nearby elephant chortled
and a crowd of children chuckled, this chagrined hippo per.
trotted keeper Franz Felt to give his bicttspida the brush' -off.
The dental doing's took place at the Frankfurt, Germany,, zoo,
where this two -tort and toothsome giant makes his home.
War -Weary And No Wonder.—Utterly exhausted United States soldiers fall asleep on the
ground after one of their many dis couraging retreats in South Korea.
6 Men -4300 Miles of Ocean
On A Carpet -Sized Raft
Six hien camping on a 30 ft.
raft the size of a large carpet
crossed 4,300 miles of Pacific ocean
in just over three months! IAtgc
whales nosed under and around
them, sharks dogged them and
were caught and hauled aboard,
Storms buffeted them. In the end
they were battered on a reef and
all but drowned!
A boy's adventure story? No, a
mast's—and a true one. Thor Hey-
erdahl, a Norwegian, lived in the
South Sea Islands studying native
life before the war. Local legends
convinced him that the original
Polynesians came not from Asia
but from America. In Peru he dis-
covered another legend which
claimed that some of the original
natives, fleeing from the Inca in-
vasion to the coast, sailed west-
wards on rafts, led by a high priest
named Kon-Tiki.
Experts Only Laughed
After serving in the Free Nor-
wegian Air Force, Ise went to the
U.S.A. to try out this theory on
experts, but they only laughed. "The
Indians," they said, "had no boats,
only rafts, and there are more than
4,000 utiles of open sea between
South America and Polynesia. You
try crossing that on a raftt'
To their aitonishmettt he said
he would. And named his raft the
Kon-Tiki.
Four other Norwegians and a
Swede joined hitt in the crazy
venture; the Washington and Lima
governments supported it. The raft
was built of nine giant Balsa logs
from the Ecuador jungle—because
the Indians used this light -as -cork
wood for their rafts—and lashed
with hemp rope. Amidships was a
small cabin of bamboo and banana
leaves to give shelter from the sun.
Steering was by a 19 ft. oar at the
stern, so heavy that it would sink
if it fell overboard.
This oar gave them their first
headache when they sailed from
Callao into roaring seas swept by
a trade wind. It swung the steers-
man round like a helpless acrobat;
not even two men could hold it
steady as the seas poured over.
Its movement had to be limited
with ropes run from the blade to
each side of the raft,
Terrors of the Deep
When a big sea came the helms.
men left the steering to the ropes
and hung on to a bamboo pole
from the cabin roof, flinging them-
selves at the oar again before the
raft could tura round and the
sail thrash about. In the struggle
arms and chests were sore with
pressing; the oar knocked then
green and blue in front and behind,
"Terrors of the deep" were no
figment to these raftmen. Some-
times at night they would be scared
by two round shining eyes glaring
at them from the sea with hypnotic
stare—it might have been the Old
Man of the Sea himself!"
Often these were big squids with
devilish green eyes; sometimes the
eyes of deep water fish which only
came up at night. Several tines
when the sea was calm the black
water round the raft was suddenly
full of round heads two or three
feet in diameter , , , motionless ...
staring. Or 3 ft. balls of light would
flash at intervals down in the
water.
Some of the monsters—possibly
giant ray-fish—looked bigger than
elephants in the glimmer of the raft -
light. One daylight visitor had the
ugliest face they had ever seen—
broad, flat head like a frog's, with
two small eyes at the sides and a
toad -like jaw four or five feet wide,
with long fringes drooping from
the corners of the mouth. The huge
brownish body ended fn a long, thin
tail with a straight -up pointed fin.
It calve swimming astern, grinning
like a boll -dog. In front swam a
crowd of zebra -striped pilot fish,
and large remora fish and other
parasites sat firmly attached to its
body.
"Walt Disney himself could not
have created a more flair -raising
sea monster than that which thus
suddenly law with its terrific jaws
along the raft's side," Mr. Heyer-
dahl writes in lois vivid account of
the voyage, "The Kon-Tiki Expedi-
tion". It was a rare whale -shark, the
yvorld's largest known fish, which
weighs 15 tons and may reach 65
ft. in length.
Another menace was the octo-
pus or squid, which could board
the raft or feel about ever coroner
of it with its long tentacles. Not
lilting the prospect of groping cold
arms about their necks, dragging
therm out of their sleeping bags at
night, the raftmen slept with long
machete knives at their side. Young
squids were actually found aboard:
one with its arms twined round
the bamboo by the cabin door,
another on the palm -leaf roof.
Sharks Aboard
Malty times they were visited
by whales larger than the raft. One
headed straight for the port side,
with seven or eight following, then
glided right underneath and lay
there, dark and motionless, while
the men held their breath. One
mighty heave, and ... but, to their
intense relief, it slowly sank out
of sight,
Sharks, six to ten feet long, were
baited and hauled aboard. Some-
times the captive would jerk itself
round in great leaps and thrash
at the bamboo wall of the cabin,
using its tail like a sledge -hammer,
with its huge jaws opened wide, its
rows of teeth snapping at the men's
legs as they tugged with all their
might, jumping nimbly aside.
Occasionally, for a diversion, two
or three of them would row out
in a rubber dinghy to photograph
the raft or just laugh at it—for
it looked so ludicrous in that waste
of water. Once, when wind and
sea were higher than they thought
and the Kon Tiki was moving more
quickly than they reckoned, the
dinghy party had to row desper-
ately with their toy oars to regain
it and avoid being left behind.
"Those were horrible minutes out
on the sea before we got hold of
the runaway raft and crowded on
board to the others, home again."
From that day it was strictly for-
bidden to go out in the rubber
dinghy without having a long line
made fast to the bows.
One there was a frantic cry of
"Man overboard!" as Herrman, try-
ing to Save a sleeping bag from
slipping into the sea, fell in him-
self and was soon far astern, swim-
ming frantically after the raft but
losing way. Knut dived in atter him
with a lifebelt and just managed to
reach him in time, while the others
hauled on the line and dragged
them both to safety.
Last Desperate Fight
Their worst ordeal came at the
end, when they reached an island
cast of Tahiti and crashed on a
reef pounded by massive rollers,
As a nighty sea carne over, Hey-
erdall clung to a rasthead stay,
the others to lashed boxes, guy
ropes, anything that offered hand-
held.
"I determined; he says, "that
if I was to die, I would die in this
position, like a knot on the Stay.
'Hie sea thundered on, over and
past, and as it roared by it revealed
a hideous sight. The Kon-Tiki was
wholly changed, as by the stroke of
a magic wand. The vessel we
knew from weeks and months at
sea was no More; in a few seconds
our pleasant world had become
a shattered wreck."
The cabin itself was crushed like
a house of cards. They had a des•
Aerate fight to reach the sltore of
the small uninhabited atoll, but they
managed it, and after a brief Crusae
existence were rescued by natives
from another island and eventu-
ally reached Tahiti,
Mr. Heyerdahl had proved that
those original natives fleeing from
the Incas could have reached the
islands by raft. His story, translated
by F. H. Lyon, with excellent pho-
tographs of the life aboard, is
worthy to' rank with the classics of
sea adventure.
Crazy and Dangerous
This crazy and dangerous fad of
cluttering up the windshield of car
or truck with a lot of swaying doo-
etads brings well merited criticism
from the Saskatoon Star -Phoenix.
It was time something was said
about this.
Driving today on any street or .
highway is a job that calls for
constant concentration and un-
obstructed vision. That is why
windshields are made of glass or
other transparent material. For the
safety of others, all others who use
the highway, as well as the occu-
pants of any car, these windshields
should be kept clean and clear.
Even a small sticker adds some
hazard but these imitation birds
and dolls which dangle in front of
the driver's eyes are a standing in-
vitation to suicide and manslaugh-
ter.
The other day a magistrate fined
a motorist who was attempting to
comb his hair and also drive. In the
interests of common safety most
people will approve of that magts-
trate's decision and they would also
approve of a similar aotion against
those responsible for these wind-
shield puppet shows.
LOTS LIKE HIM
The lecturer was ranting on his
favorite subject—the evils of to-
bacco.
"Carefully compiled statistics," ht.
asserted, demonstrate that every
cigar a elan smokes shortens bit
life by a week, and each cigarette
by three days."
A man in the audience rose to
inquire, "Are those statistics ac-
curate?"
"Absolutely accurate, sir," de-
clared the lecturer. "Why?"
"It's quite important to me," re-
plied the man, "for if they're accur-
ate, I've been dead some 287 years."
Tasteless
Entering a drugstore a girl ask-
ed how to take a dose of castor
oil without tasting it. The assistant
said he would look up some sugges-
tions, but meanwhile would the
young lady like to try a new lemon-
ade powder they had just got in.
The young lady would, and when
the glass was finished the assistant
asked, with a smile: Well, did you
taste it?"
"Good Heavens!" gasped the girl.
"Was the castor oil in that lemon-
ade? I wanted it for mt• small
brother,"
Newest Light Transport—Six jet rocket units and three engines enable the newest light
assault transport to take off in a space of less than 500 feet. Weighing 20 tons, the North-
rop Raider C-15 was designed to transport h cavy loads in and out of small ,unimproved
clearings. The photograph was made during one of the ship's test flights,
.PITTEK
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