Loading...
The Seaforth News, 1960-06-23, Page 2P 77 V® V V, V TT `l,r4morous Way 0e Brake Tee Kew: An apartment high of r New York's Central Park, Vast Side ter West, grand piano tamieant. The cast; A Broadway producer serving up highballs, Ills wife serving up espresso with nervone, birdlike motions. a composer, a brace of actors. telettching scripts), and about ttvo-dozen speculators intent on the spiel The. producer is speak- for;, "I think you can see 'South Dakota!' will be a topical •musi- eal with a real message • for everyone. Throw in two top Hollywood names, the all -girl band for comic relief, and chore- ography like the Stampede num- ber and you've got all the in- gredients of a smash. I don't have a doubt in the world about 3t, myself." (The composer, hum- ming his own stuff, nods feta vent agreement.) In such manner, several hun- dred sophisticated Americans are lured each year to sink any- thing from $250 to $50,000 or more apiece into the brightest wackiet corner of the invest- ment world -- the business of Broadway production. In fact, only a hard-pressed producer with a dubious property need ordinarily resort to such "hack- ers' auditions," sketching out show -stopping scenes to raise the - money that will pay for the scenery.A routine letter or even a rumor can bring angels fleck- ing to any top producer's door. Like stock -market players, their - goal is profit. But what is simple coveteousness at Merrill Lynch can be intoxication at the Morose co. Only theater buffs know the Easy To Make No tot can ever have too many sunsuits. Easy to sew and em- broider, you will quickly finish one for a boy and a similar one, only ruffled, for a girl. For boy and girl. Pattern 564: embroidery t r a n s f e r, pattern pieces sizes 1, 2, 3, 4 included, Send THIRTY-FItiE CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern to Laura Wheeler, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St., New Tor- onto, Ont. Print plainly PAT- TERN NUMBER, your NAME and ADDRESS. New ! New ! New ; Our 1960 Laura Wheeler Needlecraft Book is ready NOW ! Crammed with exciting, unusual, popular de- eigns to crochet, knit, sew, em- broider, quilt, weave --fashions, home furnishings, toys, gifts, bazaar hits. In the book FREE —3 quilt patterns. Hurry, send 25 cents for your ropy. joy- of a market steeped in cul- ture and stars, where things either boost or crash but almost never do anything in between. Yet even the stent stage-struek investor might be chilled by some doleful figures released last month by the League of New York Theaters, Understand- ably anxious to dramatize its fin- ancial troubles in the face of some stiff wage and pension de- mands; by the Actors Equity union, the league (representing producers and owners of Broad- way's 32 legitimate theaters) totted up results for the 1959-60 season and reported that 49 of the 62 plays have been "total or partial failures." The 49 flops, including nine plays that were headed for Broadway but failed on the road, fell short by some $3',4 million of refunding the $9.7 million their backers had sunk in then. The thirteen hits have returned only $244,000 in profits. Profits still to conte on hits like the Rodgers & Hammer- stein -Mary Martin "The Sound of Music" and Lillian Heliman's "Toys in the Attic" that have yet to reach the break-even point will probably add $2 million or $3 million to the credit side. But the handwriting on the card- board wall is clear: Broadway is solidly in the red after one of the most disastrous seasons in its history. Asa place to invest money, in short, Frodaway seemed to have all the appeal of a brokerage house under suspension by the SEC. Are things really that bad at the nation's most glamorous box office?. To many theater men like pro- ducer Fred Coe ("The Miracle Worker," "Two for the Seesaw") they are. Broadway's "Fabulous Invalid," says Coe, is really a "terrible invalid" crippled by inefficiency and swollen costs that put producers and investors in an increasingly thorny dilem- ma. A play must succeed in a big way if it is to succeed at all, but is likely to flop hard when it flops. "The time is gone when a hit would pay off at 20 or 30 to 1 and start paying off in a few weeks," says Coe. "The 'Miracle Worker' has been running at standing -room -only since it opened in October, and it still hasn't earned anything." One reason: The sizable ($150,000) production cost, Another: Fierce competition for space forced Coe to settle for a theater too small even as flop shows played to empty, cavernous halls. Yet Coe, with a big hit run- ning, was front row center com- pared to some other producers this season. Backers of the musi- cal "Saratoga" laid ant a wal- loping S400.000 for their big, heavily advertised show before the first curtain — and got back only ;10,000 of this before dwin- dling audiences forced the show to close. "The Girls Against the Boys," another 5400.000 block- buster -turned -dud. Married Bliss! Can you imagine this happen- ing at a wedding in Canada? The priest pronounces the words "love and obey," and at once the bridegroom steps firmly on the bride's toes to drive home the word "obey"! It's a traditional Cypriot custom, says Louise Ma- itland in a vivid account of travels in Iran, the Near East and North Africa: "Forest Ven- ture." • Nowadays. however, the bride tries to step on the bridegroom's toes first to show she's going to be boss. Before marriage she gives her fiance a pair of pantaloons woven by herself, A few days before the wedding a mattress is made be- seven married brides - women to violin and folk -song accompaniment, then coins are sewn in the corners and a baby bay is rolled on it in the hope that a son will be conceived. Ther. the mattress is carried to the new home. PROM MISSOURI Former President Harry Truman and Sen, Stuart Symington, of Missouri, are all smiles in Chicago, Truman endorsed Symington for Democratic presidential spot. VISITS AILING DAD — Princess Grace of Monaco flashes a smile as she gets into an auto in Philadelphia after visiting her father, millionaire sportsman John B. Kelly Sr„ 69, who was recovering from an abdominal operation at Woman's Medical Hospital. The Princess spent 40 minutes at the bedside of her father. i evAmd.oti.re P. Cloxice It has been said "there is a sucker born every minute," I guess I can now be included in that number. However, we live and learn. As you who read this column may know I ani a great lover of trees — trees for shade, trees for beauty- and trees to encourage birds. We have quite a few trees around here but none close enough to the house to provide shade. We have planted quite a number of small trees since we came but as you know it takes a long time for a tree to grow. So, when I saw trees advertised that would provide shade in one sea- son I decided to gamble. The name of the tree was "ailan- thus." The dictionary described ailanthus as "the tree of hea- ven" — fast growing and would thrive anywhere. So I sent for two. They came in a 30 -inch carton — two straight sticks that looked like raspberry canes! However, they did have fairly good roots so Partner and I planted them hrpefully in the ground, spaced Where their shade t?) would do the rest gond. A few weeks later I was teuy ' ing plants at a local nursery and asked the man if he knew any- thing about the tree of heaven. "Oh yes, it's just a weed—it'll grow anywhere. In feet +:^ey de say that wherever the tree of heaven grew,= that district wit eventually heroine a slum!" He also said toot 1 had paid too much far them — that a certain wall -known nursery had ton- foot trees catalogued at the sante price. Partner thinks it is quite a joke tend takes every- one to see my "trees." How- ever, the sticks are tieing and sprouting so at least they be interesting to watch. We have also discovered that a neighb_ur living farther down the road put in just such a tree three years ago. It is now about 20 feet high — straight and slender with a few branches at the top. The species- has a na- tural tendency to reach heaven- wards which I suppose accounts for its name. It also has a liter- ery history — it is the tree that features in that well-known book, published some years age — "A Tres Grows in Brcel:lyn." 1rw: ❑ :': I tell you about two intereeting h eelts I have reed just !a' iy. One "Black Moses" i::y ,t :cote', L., Beattie is tee bio- graphy ' f Josiah Her,:• ., more cotnnrc:nly known as the train 1.2Zat, Mr. an, 'Why have a little house in the country when there's so much room out here?" character in "Uncle Tom's Ca- bin," The characterization of Uncle Tom and Josiah is similar but their life story is very dif- ferent. Henson was a remark- able man; a slave who became a leader of his people. He escap- ed to Canada and established a negro colony near Chatham. He longed to read and write and eventually did but not until his own ten -year-old son was able to teach him. He became a preacher and a great orator. He journeyed to England on behalf of his people; preached to huge congregations over there and was presented to Queen Vic- toria. During his life he suffer- ed greatly but yet lived to a great age. He was buried at Dresden. I can thoroughly re- commend "Black Moses" to any- one interested in the tragic his- tory of the black people. The other book was "Folk Medicine" by D. C. Jarvis, M.D. — an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist practising in Vermont. He found tate people of Vermont were so steeped in folk medi- cine that in self-defence he was obliged to make a study of it himself. His findings are fas- cinating and apparently well- fcunded on fact. He discovered that a mixture of honey and ap- ple cider vinegar will kill almost any bacteria such as the com- mon cold, arthritis, kidney in- fection and other ailments. Two teaspccns cf honey and two of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water at each meal. Honey is also a sedative and will en- courage sleep. Two teaspoons of honey at night will also prevent bed-wetting in children. Then there is the external use of castor oil. It is good for warts, corns, callouses and soft corns. (I have a friend who went to a Toronto foot specialist recently and castor oil was what he re- commended, rubbed well into the feet night and morning, with thin cotton socks as a protec- tion against sheets and shoes.) Mole spots treated with castor oil are supposed to disappear, also "liver spots" often trouble- some to older people, Here is a cure for sleepless- ness that he doesn't explain. After getting to bed at night imagine you are painting a large 3 with white paint on a black- boerd. When you have finished one 3 start another. Dr. Jarvis says you will probably be asleep before you can paint a third. Those are just a few of the ideas that the book brings out - and maybe not as fantastic as we might suppose. We should remember that pioneers lived close to nature; remedies twere concocted from native herbs and roots. Indians, too, were well versed in the curative value of native herbs and roots. Inciden- tally, Gandhi is said to have chewed the roots of rauwolfia all his life, And now rauwolfia derivatives are used extensively as the basis of many drugs to relieve high blood pressure. DRIVE CAREFULLY — The life you save may be your own. ISSUE 25 — 1960 Making Reading. Really Tough Dues it sects that your child is not able to read es early or as well through modern educa- tion methods as in yesteryear?? Perhaps the answer is that read- ing has become a much mere Intricate process than it used to be. In Noah Webster's primitive day reading was described by hint as follows: to take in the sense of language by Interpret- ing the characters in which it is expressed. But when the Inter- national Reading Association, a group of 4,000 experts, met in New Yorlc the other day they heard a new definition of read- ing given by a California psy- chologist: A processing skill of symbolic reasoning sustained by the intetfacilitation of an intri- cate hierarchy of substrata fac- tors that have been mobilized ea a psychological working system and pressed into service in ac- cordance with the purpose 06 the reader. You must admit that it's much easier to take in the sense of a language than it i, to sustain symbolic reasoning by a process of interfacilitation of an intri- cate hierarchy. No wonder John- ny has trouble! — Harttord Courant. Modern Etiquette By Anne Ashley Q. If a girl visits a friend for a week -end, one whom she itas known for years, is it necessary for her to write a bread-and- butter letter? A. Certainly. No matter how often you visit a certain friend for an overnight stay, a thank - you note is in order each time. Q. When a couple are to be married, and both are living in a city other than their home- town, should the announcement; be sent from that city or front the home of the bride? A. Wedding announcements are always sent in the name ol and from the home of the bride's nearest relatives. Q. I can't decide between two good friends for the role of best man at my wedding. Would it be all right for me to have two "best men"? A. Sorry;; the maximum is OhTfl bust oast. You can, how- ever, designate one of these good friende of yours as hoed which is t position almost egos to Ibat of lot matt, PRINTED PATTERN SIZES :1963 ,crag.,. 30-40 The two-piece dress — ideal for every busy day or as a suit for vacation trips. Note deeper cut of the collar that's so smart and slimming above the smooth- ly curved jacket, Printed Pattern 4963: Women's Sizes 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 46. Size 36 takes 4 yards 39 -inch. Printed directions on each pat- tern part. Easier, accurate. Send FIFTY CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern, Please print plainly SIZE, NAME, ADDRESS, STYLE NUMBER. Send order to ANNE ADAMS, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St„ New Toronto, Ont. LOVE ME, LOVE MY BALLOONS: Petite passenger is Kather'ne Ann Onuske arriving n Montreal from France in the Cunarder Ivernia, Katherine Ann, 20 months, was born in Fontainebleau white her father was stationed there with the RCAF. Now Katherine will live in Ottawa with her father, her mother — and her balloons.