Odorless Highlands

Sirs:

Akron naturally has rubber odors [TIME, June 6]. It is hardly fair, however, to refer to the "pervading stench" of Akron. ... If you must insist upon enlarging on the factory odors and the "flatlands" you should in fairness mention the odorless highlands of Goodyear Heights, one of our outstanding workingmen's developments of East Akron.

IRVING KLUG

Akron, Ohio

Sirs:

1) East Akron is not dirty nor malodorous.

2) Its lands are not flat; East Akron and Akron are hilly; the word Akron is derived from Greek and means "summit."

3) Rubber workers do not live "amid a pervading stench from the vats." There are no vats in rubber factories.

4) Although rubber executives generally live on the heights of West Akron, and rubber workers live on the heights of East Akron, there is quite a little interchange, as some minor executives live in East Akron and some workers live on West Hill.

5) At least two of the large rubber companies have invested millions of dollars in providing homes for rubber workers; each house is of different architectural design, and built in parklike surroundings. Other workers are living in their own homes, or in rented houses in attractive neighborhoods. . . .

CHARLES H. BROOK

Akron, Ohio

TIME erred, had no intention of offending Akron's civic pride.--ED.

Advertised Thighs

Sirs:

AMAZED TO READ REPORT IN USUALLY ACCURATE Time [June 13] TO EFFECT THAT CONSTANCE BENNETT'S ANTICS AND TESTIMONY DELIGHTED THE JURORS. ON THE CONTRARY, AS

YOU CAN VERIFY BY ANY LOS ANGELES NEWSPAPER, THE JURY WAS ANGRY AT BEING ORDERED ON A TECHNICALITY TO GIVE A VERDICT THAT CONFLICTED WITH ITS IDEA OF JUSTICE. . . . AFTER SIGNING THE VERDICT AS DIRECTED BY THE COURT THE FOREMAN OF THE JURY STATED: "l NEVER SIGNED ANYTHING SO UNWILLINGLY IN MY LIFE." ALL OF THE JURORS DECLARED THAT THEY FOUND THE PORTRAIT BEAUTIFUL.

AS TO MISS BENNETT'S MUCH ADVERTISED THIGHS, A LIFE-SIZED PHOTOGRAPH OF HER WAS IN COURT BESIDE THE PORTRAIT MAKING IT OBVIOUS THAT THEY HAD UNDERGONE A FLATTERING REDUCTION IN MY PORTRAIT.

FURTHERMORE, AS I TESTIFIED AT THE TRIAL, THE SIT-INS WERE PROFESSIONAL MODELS WHO

WORE MISS BENNETT'S DRESS AND THEREFORE COULD HARDLY HAVE BEEN OF AMPLER PROPORTIONS THAN MISS BENNETT. . . .

WILL POGANY

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sirs:

Since public sentiment seems to favor the many whom Actress Bennett has had occasion to score in the recent press, why not publish the Pogany portrait of this "round shouldered, thick-thighed" champion to give them their real money's worth? If the portrait is as foul as she says it is, the Public will be pleased; if it flatters her, the Public will be certain all this court to-do is just another cheap stunt to get cheaper publicity for her next movie, which is certain to be a flop. One of the Public,

JOHN H. ANDREWS

Paradise, Pa.

TIME herewith publishes a photograph of the Pogany portrait.--ED.

Chicago Ballet

Sirs:

In coupling the Chicago City Opera Ballet, under the directorship of Ruth Page, with a reference to the change at the Metropolitan Opera, whereby Mr. Romanoff has succeeded Mr. Balanchine as ballet director, you have inadvertently done an injustice to an artistic organization of which Chicago is justifiably proud. . . .

The change which brings Miss Littlefield to Chicago next season is accompanied, according to President Whitney, by a large financial saving to the Chicago company. Incidentally, neither Mr. Whitney nor Manager Paul Longone has ever seen Miss Littlefield or her ballet perform up to this date. . ..

The fact remains that the Chicago dancers have lost their opera jobs through no fault of theirs, and Chicago audiences are deprived of the pleasure of enjoying the brilliant and successful ballets which their own ballet group have been offering for the past five years. RALPH FLETCHER SEYMOUR

Chicago, III.

Subaudible Pipe

Sirs:

Professor Wood was worth a cover and five columns [TIME, June 20], but here's something you missed. I hope he won't mind

Nine years ago, in a play of mine in rehearsal in the Lyric Theatre in London, the time was supposed to change from the present to 1783, during a blackout. We were afraid the audience wouldn't believe in this. So Professor Wood installed for us, against the theatre's back wall, one organ pipe, height circa 40 ft., the biggest pipe that could be carted through traffic and in the stage door. Its purpose was kept a mystery. Wood's idea was that the lowest of all notes, subaudible, but vibrating the eardrum, would produce, on cue, a sensation indefinable but eerie. . . .

Came the dress rehearsal. Luckily (at Wood's suggestion, I think) the audience was small. Only Wood, Leslie Howard, Producer Gilbert Miller and I knew what was coming. A scream from the blackened stage indicated a time relapse of 145 years. The Wood subaudible note was "sounded," or more accurately, turned on. I was reminded years later of the effect by the sound from the bowels of the earth that yet was no sound, that preceded the big shock of the Los Angeles earthquake. The glass in every chandelier in the old Lyric commenced to tinkle softly, the opaque windows in the balcony all rattled gently. And the wave of fear, according to shaken witnesses afterwards, seemed to sweep over them, not from the stage, as my plans demanded, but from the opposite direction, from outside, from Shaftesbury Avenue.

Even now I draw a veil over what followed; there weren't enough people there for a proper panic; I chiefly remember Gilbert Miller's stentorian voice from the centre of the stalls demanding that so-and-so (the organ pipe, not Wood) be instantly thrown out; there were also comments reflecting upon Professor Wood and myself.

JOHN L. BALDERSTON

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Wrong Durfee

Sirs:

On p. 44 of the June 13 issue of TIME in connection with an article describing the work of Dr. Charles H. Durfee, there occurs a picture -- of me. To appear in the pages of TIME, even by mistake, is no slight honor, but the much" more distinguished gentleman for whom the picture was intended may be disappointed. To him, my regrets! WALTER H. DURFEE Dean

Hobart College Geneva, N. Y.

Sirs:

APPRECIATE THE COMPLIMENT YOUR THINKING I LOOK LIKE THE HANDSOME GENTLEMAN WHOSE PICTURE YOU PRINTED WITH REPORT OF MY SPEECH ON PROBLEM DRINKERS, BUT LIKENESS UNFORTUNATELY NOT MINE.

CHARLES H. DURFEE

Wakefield, R. I.

To TIME'S picture editor, for confusing Walter H. Durfee, Ph.D. with Charles H. Durfee, Ph.D., a waggled finger; to the Drs. Durfee, apologies; to TIME'S readers, the right Durfee at last (see cut). --ED.

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