Lefty in Pittsburgh
Sirs:
Your very interesting story titled "AgitProp" [TIME, June 17], which tells of the campaign of suppression accorded Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty and of the currently expanding workers' theatre, should be amplified to a certain extent. Your write-up does not mention a rather amazing and in ways amusing "Pittsburgh episode" which is newsworthy as well.
Although outside New York the Odets piece has, in certain sections, been banned, in others its actors jailed, its director kidnapped, the two Pittsburgh presentations have been hailed, applauded and even encouraged. The local "workers' theatre," which presented the piece as the New Theatre in Pittsburgh, is composed of the "shirt-sleeved amateurs" you mention in your article. This group entered the local Drama League Contest--a yearly competition of amateur groups sponsored by conservative Drama League (a stuffy organization of "drama enthusiasts")--won it easily--were awarded the Samuel French Trophy and $50--and next morning got headlines in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph's (Hearst) theatre page. A few days later, flushed by the success of their prizewinner, the same group presented Waiting for Lefty in a local theatre which seats slightly over 600 persons. The performance was S.R.O., and the box-office receipts showed over 900 paid admissions. The play was performed exactly as produced in New York except for damns instead of goddamns. This is ironical inasmuch as anyone who is familiar with the play knows well that the profanity is the least objectionable element from the censors' point of view.
I have no explanation for this Pittsburgh "phenomenon." I should hesitate to call Pittsburgh "tolerant" so I refuse to bet very heavily on the reception accorded subsequent Pittsburgh productions of Waiting for Lefty scheduled in the near future.
WILLIAM G. BEAL
National Broadcasting Co., Inc. Pittsburgh, Pa.
Lefty in Boston
Sirs:
--Not only those who are concerned with the theatre but everyone who wants to preserve the American heritage of civil liberties will bitterly resent this arbitrary suppression of a play which has been widely acclaimed.'" That quotation from your article "AgitProp" in TIME, June 17 is an excellent expression of what we in Boston are now fighting for.
The New Theatre Players of Boston have played before Harvard, Smith and Dartmouth students, labor unions and clubs.
Despite the opposition, sudden coming to life of old "fire-laws," imprisonment on charges of "profanity and blasphemy," intimidation of managers of halls and the like--rehearsals and production of Waiting for Lefty have gone on. Body, voice and acting classes continue with unabated zeal and new members arrive after almost every performance. . . .
The theatre for the people--by the people--certainly is destined for merited prominence despite conservatism or hooliganism. THE NEW THEATRE PLAYERS OF BOSTON
Boston, Mass.
Sirs:
. . . There is no more reason for public officials allowing a presentation of Waiting for Lefty than there is a reason for allowing a madman to distribute deadly bacilli into a public reservoir. . . . The Boston police served the public and championed the higher idealism of true Americanism by closing the play and arresting some of the actors. . . .
ROYAL K. HAYES
Past National Chaplain Yankee (26 A.E.F.) Division Veterans Association Boston, Mass.
Communistic Gestures Sirs:
... I, as a U. S. citizen, am in favor of barring such plays from the American stage.
... I believe the spirit and force of Communism is behind it all. The theme of the play as your critic explains it and the gestures of the actors in the accompanying picture are certainly Communistic. . . .
L. Q. STETSON
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Reviewer & Poets
Sirs:
I was glad that William Rose Benet came to Mr. Auslander's defense [TIME, June 10] but your book reviews usually do knock poets and their work. I took it for granted that whoever writes them was not developed up to the point of appreciating poetry. You published a review of Ogden Nash's last book with a picture of John Chamberlain and his wife, and the story of Mr. Chamberlain's literary rise. You even said that Edna Millay wasn't so good! Ho, hum. Does your reviewer like Mother Goose?
EDITH McKAY
Boston, Mass.
Yes.--ED.
Sirs:
. . . Whatever Auslander is, Benet is a criticaster! . . . One of those responsible for the low tone of American criticism--the substitution of praise or blame for analysis and actual taste. . . . Get right about that Benet, Van Doren crew! . . . Professional backslappers and boosters of their own kind! Look at the record and give that boy who wrote the Auslander review a big hearty kiss from
MARY L. HACKBERRY
Baltimore, Mel.
Monument
Sirs:
In the public library of Dayton, Ohio is a tablet which reads:
John Charles Reeve, M. D. LL. D.
1526 1920
94 years
Student--Writer--Thinker--Scholar
"Doctor Of The Old School"
Abreast With The Times.
The First in America To Use
The Clinical Thermometer
The American Pioneer In
Anaesthesia By The Use Of
A.C.E.
TO HIS MEMORY
This Tablet Is Erected By
The Montgomery County Medical Society.
Dr. Reeve was my father and many a time I have heard him say: "There is one woman of the U. S. to whom a monument ought to be erected and I hope that it will be done some day." And then he would tell me the story of the first ovariotomy [performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell on Mrs. Jane Todd Crawford in 1809 (TIME, June 10)]. If he knew the name of the patient I do not recall that he said it, but I remember well his admiration of Dr. McDowell.
It is more than 50 years since I first heard that piece of medical history but I recall that father, when speaking of the amazing bravery and endurance of the patient, always emphasized the fact that she rode on horseback for 60 miles with that tumor resting on the pommel of the saddle.
I do thank TIME for letting me know that my father's wish has been fulfilled after all these years.
MARY REEVE DEXTER Pacific Grove, Calif.
"Foreigner" Hearn
Sirs:
Apropos of your discussion of Kazuo Koizumi's Father and I (TIME, June 17, p. 73):
1) It is true that "critics who believe that the U. S. is death to genius" have adduced in support of their argument the loneliness and despair that embittered Lafcadio Hearn's American days, but it is also true that Hearn did his best creative work (Chita, Youma, Stray Leaves, Some Chinese Ghosts, etc.) before he went to Japan. In technical excellence Hearn's Japanese writings never surpass, and are often inferior to, his earlier work; while even a cursory comparison of the two groups of writings will suffice to show that the Japanese period is marked by a constant waning of inspiration and a growing fatigue that cannot be attributed solely to the passing of youth.
2)I fancy that Koizumi, who "does not mention . . . that . . . Hearn was compelled to support 13 people on his small salary," also fails to mention that Hearn's salary at the Government college at Kumamoto was reduced soon after Hearn became a citizen of Japan--ostensibly because a "native" could not possibly be worth as much as a "foreigner."
3) Hearn is one of the "minor U. S. writers" only in the sense in which it may be said that Eddie Guest is one of the greatest.
REVILO P. OLIVER
Urbana, Ill.
Off-Duty Curse
Sirs:
TIME-reader Winston points out a coincidence between the accidental death of Senator Cutting and the famed but ill-omened Hope Diamond, and he adds that he wouldn't care to look at the thing for fear of evil consequences [TIME, June 17].
Last August I was a dinner guest of Mrs. McLean at a place somewhere in the Rois in Paris. On that evening Mrs. McLean wore the Hope Diamond as a pendant to a string of pearls. I not only looked at it but held it in my hand and examined it carefully. Since then I have neither lost my life, nor my mind, nor my appetite. On the contrary, I am quite O.K., and my luck has steadily improved. I don't know how to explain that, except maybe the evil influence was off duty on that particular evening. W. E. WOODWARD
New York City
To Author William E. Woodward (Bunk, George Washington--the Image and the Man, Meet General Grant, Evelyn Prentice, etc. etc.), congratulations on his health, appetite, luck.--ED.
Widow's Mite
Sirs:
You will remember the death of some of the U. S. aviators in the recent maneuvers in the Pacific. One of them was the son of a San Francisco man, Capt. Charles Skelly, Secretary of the Police Commission of San Francisco. I heard by accident that the young widow had discovered that her pension was to be $22 for herself--$8 for her eldest child and $3 apiece for the two youngest children--a tragic pittance of $36. It seems incredible but I verified this. . . . The only way this injustice can be rectified is by having a bill enacted in Congress. I feel sure that the American people, if they knew, would not allow an injustice of this kind. Compensation should be comparable to the risk. . . .
EMMA M. MCLAUGHLIN
San Francisco, Calif.
Artists & Poloists
Sirs:
Forgive me for protesting as loudly as my healthy lungs will permit against the suggestion of D. H. Edwards [TIME, May 27] that advertising men should leave fishing alone and "stick to polo. . . ."
Unfortunately these boys are just as bad on polo as they are on fishing; worse, because fishing is a sleepy sort of sport indulged in by genteel old philosophers who like to go off into the woods by themselves, while polo is probably the most public, most brilliant and most spectacular game you can play.
There was a recent color page advertisement put out on behalf of a promising young manufacturer we might as well call Ford, by one of the biggest agencies in the country, that had the most incredible mistakes so far as the polo background was concerned: the noble steed shown was some curious kind of saddle horse, the tack might have come as a premium for Spratt's dog food, the helmet was an invention of the artist, the sideboards had posts on the inside of the field, and so forth and so on.
At that it wasn't much worse than the recent whiskey advertisement in which that old sportsman was telling how he knew good whiskey because he knew good hunters and good hounds--and the hound, if you please, was an Irish setter.
Please ask Mr. Edwards to go back to his fishing quietly and if he wants to make any more suggestions to advertisers, let him encourage them to stick to pretty girls. . . .
PETER VISCHER
Editor Polo New York City
First Baby
Sirs:
Under the heading Transport in TIME, June 17 appears a headline "Baby Clipper," beneath which is a description of the demonstration flights with the new twin-engined Sikorsky S-43.
. . . The term "Baby Clipper" was first used in news stories on May 3 describing the new Fairchild high-speed amphibian, fastest single-engine amphibian transport in the world.
While the Sikorsky 543 is an extremely interesting and valuable airplane it seems to me that--since it carries 16 persons, 1,000 Ib. of mail and express and has a gross weight of 19,000 Ib. and two engines, while the Fairchild carries 10 people, 1,000 Ib. of mail and express and has a gross weight of 9,600 Ib. and only one engine--it should more rightly have been called by you a Mid-Clipper or Youthful Clipper, just to keep the distinction clear. . . .
At any rate, the term "Baby Clipper" was applied first to the Fairchild amphibian when the first of a fleet of six for Pan American Airways was announced. [It was designed . . . to meet special operating requirements which exist along certain river routes. CHARLES H. GALE
Fairchild Aviation Corp. New York City
Doctors & Oaths
Sirs:
Re: TIME, June 17--Medicine. "Upon graduating from medical school each & every doctor must swear the Oath of Hippocrates."
The administering of the Oath of Hippocrates to our class graduating in medicine was not a part of the ceremony of the June 1923 convocation of Johns Hopkins University.
It would be of interest to ascertain just how many modern medical schools depend upon the actual administering of this oath in place of teaching ideals by precept.
THOMAS H. SUTHERLAND, M. D.
Licentiate in Law
Associate Counsel in Legal Medicine Marion, Ohio
TIME erred. The Hippocratic principles are expounded to medical students during their training, but the practice of administering the oath at graduation is practically obsolete.--ED.
Wallen for Warren
Sirs:
Ah TIME!! To think a love so true, devoted, could persist so rudely unrequited!! Man and boy I've pressed my blandishments upon you but only when 'twas subscription money would you say, "Yea, Warren," and take it. I tendered you the cream of my bright ideas and you said, "Nay, Warren," quite rebuffingly. I even protested my willingness to serve you but you shied dangerously and uttered, "Nay, Warren." Such negativity!! And now that I strangely achieved the insuperable smugness of a mention in your exalted pages you needs must dub me,
FREDERICK HAYES WALLEN II
P. S. To you I say, "Ne Warren." Marinette, Ariz.
To Engineer Frederick Hayes Warren II. engaged to marry Marie McIntyre, daughter of White House Secretary McIntyre (TIME, June 3), apologies.--ED.
TIME Club
Sirs:
The enclosed clipping was carried in this paper June 12, numerous other accounts of the TIME Club and its activities having appeared previously.
Until Mrs. Robert G. Carr conceived the idea of such a club, the members had no definite form of study other than that they pursued within the four walls of their homes.
The personnel includes the leading society women of this West Texas town of slightly more than 25,000 population. Mrs. Carr is the wife of one of the field representatives for The Texas-Pacific Land Trust, which owns more than 2,000,000 acres of land in West Texas, much of which is oil producing. With Mr. Carr is Preston Northrup. The two men are large owners of oil royalty.
No department of TIME is skipped in the weekly club sessions. A chairman has charge each week--and there's no tomfoolery about the programs. The TIME Club is taken seriously by the members and not treated casually as women have a way of doing most other groups formed for "improvement of the mind."
RUBE C. LEWIS
Society Editor San Angelo Standard-Times San Angelo, Tex.
To Mrs. Carr and her TIME Club, good wishes.--ED.
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