Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1 ( i t ♦ ; i i McCORMICK MESSENGER. McCORMfCK. S. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1940 » ♦ ■ / WHO’S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON (Consolidated Features—WNU Service.) NJEW YORK.—It is a tradition ot •l- ^ the newspaper business, well known to the craft, that the reporter or photographer must never get into . _ , „ a news pic- Cettmg Red Hot ture. But some- Pix, News Hawk times the Breaks Into One drama he makes is, like that of old Omar’s booze clerk, “more precious than the stuff he sells,” and the rule breaks down. Here’s bucko young Arthur Menken of New York, in a news picture, as he grinds out the flaming chaos of the Finnish city of Viipuri after the Russian bombers p'assed over. He is close-in as he methodically films the blazing ruins, trussed up in military gear and quite in the mdde with a snappy iron hat—which the well-dressed photographer will do well to wear these days. He is Har vard ’25, of impressive social line age, tall and slim, but husky, and, all in all, a fictional ace for adven turous youth, considering what he’s been mixed up in. Mr. Menken has brought near ly the entire latter-day apoca- lypse into sharp focus. He has dodged every kind of missile from South American poisoned arrows to Japanese shrapnel and Russian air bombs, nicked by a bomb splinter in the Spanish civ il war, but suffering nothing worse than profound disillusion ment about war in all its moods and tenses. Milton went blind, looking into the abyss of human horror, Mr. Menken just keeps . on grinding with a sharp eye for focus, action and background and makes us see it, too. Just now, he’s shooting the Finnish war for an American film com pany. He is the only child of Mr. and Mrs. S. Stanwood Menken, New York social registerites. Out of Har vard, he started teasing the grim reaper by Frank Merriwell air ex ploits in which, miraculously, he al ways landed right side up. Here and in Europe, he qualified for his . transport pilot’s license, as a pre liminary for his career as an ex plorer, which he had mapped out for himself. In the Orinoco region in South America, he indulged his yen for narrow escapes and brought through his skill as a film photographer. In Africa, he found elephants posed for him nicely, but he was charged by an angry badger. Wars diverted him from his exploring ca reer. Barred from the Spanish con flict late in 1936,' for his too-great zeal in taking pictures there, he hastily flew off to China, to record more of “the giant agony of the world,” as Euripides characterized - the mild dissension of his day. There’s nothing frivolous about Mr* Menken. One gathers that he would not advise restless youth to see what ' he’s seen. AXT 1 ORDS, like bullets, are ammu- “ * nition, which might have ‘some thing to do with an editor of Web ster’s International dictionary be- « .. coming chair- Dictionary Scribe man of the Can Clarify the American na- Word * Munitions? J. ional m ? ni : turns control board. He is former Prof. Joseph C. Green of Princeton university, a teacher of history, now on the pro duction line, as he helps deploy our munitions strategically, under the narrowing pressure of the state de-’ partment’s new “moral embargo.” Conferring in Washington with oil company executives, he is told that the withdrawal of high test gaso line from Japan and Russia will set back the oil companies quite a few millions, but the companies express a willingness to meet the issues of “national policy.” Mr. Green’s office is at the ful crum of weighty political and economic issues and naturally is concerned with the increasingly urgent consideration of muni tions reserves for national de fense. The word “munitions,” like many other words, takes in more territory than it did when Professor Green herded it into Webster’s dictionary, back in 1929. Incidentally, at that time, ho was also an editor of Ameri can Indian terms. When moral issues intrude, as of today, it is well to have a word expert around. A native of Cincinnati, born in 1887, Mr. Green was graduated from Princeton in 1908 and did post-grad uate work there and in Europe. He was instructor in history at Borden- town Military institute, assistant professor of history at Princeton and associate professor from 1924-30. He was a major of infantry in the war, holding home and foreign decora tions, was with-Belgian Near East Relief missions, and entered state department in 1930. He came to mu nitions control as a humanist, widely known in the field of political, aeo- noxnic and social research. Only R.O.T.C. Ski Unit Practices Winter Maneuvers Only R. O. T. C. ski unit in the United States is maintained at Manlius school, Manlius, N. Y. Each young member of the ski platoon is an expert skier, rifleman and machine gunner. Left: -Michael Senzimir, 16, halts while Headmaster Col. Guido Verbeck straps a machine gun to his back. Right: The platoon, having sighted the “enemy,” hastily takes up prone positions in the snow. The white uniforms blend into the back ground provided by King Winter. Texas Quadruplets Celebrate First Anniversary Each sitting behind a cake adorned with one candle, the Badgett quadruplets of Galveston, Texas, cele brate their first birthday. When born, the quads, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Badgett, weighed a total of 17 pounds. Their combined weight is now 78 pounds. They are already becoming talkative, though the tra ditional “Dada” is as yet the keystone of their vocabulary. Left to right: Jeraldine, Jeanette, Joyce and Joan. Now Hans Has a Reason to Be Sick Action Skyward Hans von Appen, left, German sailor who tricked the British by feigning illness when the S. S. Dusseldorff was captured by an English warship, talks to a reporter at Balboa, in the Canal Zone. Von Appen was put ashore at Panama, where authorities found his illness an “act.” He was placed under custody of United States army officials, and in due course, will be turned over to the British as a prisoner of war. Anti-aircraft gunners aboard a* Swedish man o’ war in the gulf of Bothnia practice with their weapon —one of the most deadly guns made to counteract the warplane threat. Although Sweden remains neutral, she continues to intensify defense measures. New Solicitor General of U. S. Sworn In Honeymoon Helper Flooded with requests is Clinton Francis X. Biddle, center, of Philadelphia, Pa., sworn in as solicitor MozZey Washburn of New York who general of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, offered two free weeks for honey- right. Attorney General Robert Jackson witnessed the ceremonies. Biddle mooners on his palm-covered island succeeds Jackson, who was named to his present post following the appoint- off the coast of Florida. Mozley ad- ment of former Attorney General Frank Murphy to the Supreme court. mRs a huge, unlooked-for response Star Dust ★ Out of Trick Costumes ★ I\eiv York Looming? ★ Vaudevillists 9 Chance By Virginia Vale (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) B londe carole landis is reporting on the set at the Hal Roach studios these days in a costume of smartly- tailored, abbreviated animal skins, and is praying that some smart Hollywood word-coiner won’t give her a suitable label, like “The Prehistoric Peach” or “The Stone Age Siren.” She is playing the role of “Loana, the Golden One” in “1000000 B. C.,” the picture of cave man days which Hal Roach is directing and D. W. Griffith is producing. “I’m studying English, French and Italian,” remarked Carole the other day. “And I’ve studied voice for years. I sang with orchestras before I entered motion pictures. Honest ly, I can do a few other things be sides wearing a skimpy fur cos tume. This pic ture is a lot of fun and I’m tickled that I got the role. But after it’s over I want people to sort of forget that I was the girl in the animal skins.” She’s right. Motion picture his tory shows that, once an actress ac quires fame by cavorting around clad in a trick costume, the impres sion gets about that she’d be lost in something snappy in evening gowns. Take Dorothy Lamour, for instance. Getting out of that sarong in which she became famous on the screen is like extricating one’s self from a straitjacket. * Hollywood has laughed at Mayor LaGuardia, of New York, for urging that the motion picture industry be transported bodily to New York. But recently Ernst Lubitsch, who di rected Garbo in “Ninotchka,” and William Dieterle, who directed Marlene Dietrich in “Destry Rides Again,” called oh the mayor and had a long talk with him. Not long before that, King Vidor, equally well known as a director, had a long visit with him. All insisted that the calls were just social, but it seems likely that there has been some dis cussion about bringing the movies back where they came from. Carole Landis * Chester Lauck and Norris Goff, better known as Lum and Abner of the air waves, have signed up to star in a picture that will be re leased by RKO. * Rudy Vallee’s new air show will make its debut March 7, via the NBC red network, but it has not yet been determined whether it will precede or follow Bing Crosby’s “Music Hall.” The preceding half hour will be open, as “Good News” will be cut in half by that time, and the sponsor of the “Music Hall” will Vallee be the one to make the final decision, since the Vallee program will be backed by the same organization. •—* Don Kelley, publicity and promo tion director at Station WLS, Chi cago, recently sent a “singing tele gram” to George Biggar, now at WLW, on his birthday. A girl at the telegraph office in Cincinnati sang “Happy Birthday” to Biggar over the wire, and was promptly invited to audition for a radio job. * Famed vaudeville artists of other years, who have practically disap peared from the American scene be cause of the onrush of the movies and radio, will be given an oppor tunity to entertain a greater public than they ever dreamed of. A1 Pearce, air-wave master of cere monies and comedian, has inaugu rated a policy of presenting to the radio audiences each week a dif ferent vaudeville personality as a feature of the “A1 Pearce and His Gang” broadcast. The guest artist will present his particular specialty as a distinct part of the half-hour program. Concerned over the marital trou bles of Eve Stanley in “When a Girl Marries” (played by Irene Winston), a young Oklahoman sent her a pro posal, offering her a home and a husband’s protection on his farm. * Hedy Lamarr, looking very lovely, arrived in New York with her hus band, Gene Markey, about the time that pleasant news came along about “I Take This Woman,” which caused so much news that wasn’t pleasant. Spencer Tracy co-starred with her in it, and it was shelved last June, unfinished. Miss Lamarr refused to go on with it, because she wanted more money. She finally finished the picture—at the old salary—and now that it is satisfactory, rumor reports that she’ll set that salary rata*' mwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwmwmwm Ask Me Another Q A General Quiz The Questions 1. Can you give three words, having two pronunciations each, the meanings of which change with the pronunciations? 2. Which are the three fastest animals on foot? 3. What is a martingale—a song- bird, part of a horse’s harness, or a flowering shrub? 4. What kinds of twins are there? 5. What are the male and fe male figures used in architecture called? 6. What three birds have be come extinct in the United States in the last 100 years? The Answers 1. Record, produce, minute. 2. The cheetah, the gazelle and the race horse are the three fastest animals on foot. 3. Part of a horse’s harness. 4. Identical, unlike, and Siamese. 5. Male figures, used as supports in architecture, are called carya tids, female figures are called at- lantes. 6. The passenger pigeon became extinct in the 1880s, the Labrador duck in the 1840s, and the great auk in the 1840s. SPEED'S MY BUSINESS -BUT FOR. PLEASURE GIVE ME A SLOW-BURNING CIGARETTE. CAMELS ARE MILDER AND . COOLER! I;.:,. •KH. ... "FASTEST MAN ON WHEELS ' in six-day bicycle racing is 8-time winner Cecil Yates, Jr. (above). But in cigarettes, Cecil is on die slow side — he smokes slow-burning Camels. Try Camels. Find out for yourself how Camels give you more pleasure per puff — and more puffs per pack! (Yes, more actual smoking?) In recent laboratory tests, CAMELS burned 25% slow er than the average of the 15 other of the largest-sell ing brands tested — slower than any of them. That means, on the average, a smoking plus equal to FOR EXTRA MILDNESS, EXTRA COOLNESS, EXTRA FLAVOR— Camel