Dirt Swept

As widely expected, public authorities were finally provoked to action by the new crop of dirty magazines (TiME, December 28). The sweeping began several weeks ago in cities scattered throughout the U. S., was made conspicuous last fortnight by arrests of newsdealers in Washington, D. C. As its publishers had feared would happen, Ballyhoo was included in the clean-up of its much dirtier imitators, Hooey, Slapstick and the defunct Tickle-Me-Too. In every city where the cases were finally disposed of--Memphis, Knoxville, Atlanta, Richmond, Elizabeth and Newark, N. J.; Spokane, Bellingham and Yakima, Wash.--Ballyhoo was permitted to resume sale. In Manhattan newsdealers were warned by the license commissioner not to sell Brevities, Paris Models and Artists' Notebook.

Cases still pending last week were in Denver, Jersey City, N. J. and Washington where the Post, copying a biennial custom of righteous Washington Star, had begun a "crusade." Owlish District Attorney Leo A. Rover bought one of the offending magazines in a drugstore, read it on his way home. Whatever his first reactions may have been, the effect of finding his young daughter reading the same magazine was galvanic. He ordered the arrest of 150 newsdealers, six of whom were to be tried this week. In partial defense against the obscenity charge Publisher George T. Delacorte Jr. could point to a list of unsolicited subscribers to Ballyhoo including the Metropolitan Club, Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Deputy U. S. Attorney John Hayes, the U. S. Consul at Istanbul, the secretary of the U. S. Legation at Cairo.

P: Trouble of a different sort beset Ballyhoo and its distributor American News Co. in a pending Federal suit of United Cigar Stores Co. of America charging conspiracy in restraint of trade. Reason: American News Co. refused to supply United Cigar stores with copies of Ballyhoo unless they would take some of the less successful magazines also.

P: Cleveland department stores last week offered the "Ballyhoo" scarf (with "Ballyhoo" clip), made with a crazy quilt design like the magazine's cover border. Also there are a Ballyhoo dress, necktie, cuff links, rings, night club (in Manhattan), song, game, birthday card, convalescent card, saloon (in Havana, formerly the American Bar), a statuet of Gandhi with a copy of Ballyhoo under his arm. Except for the game, all the other enterprises are independent of the publication which takes its royalties in the form of free advertising.

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