Kelly's Mouth

Big Ed Kelly, boss-man of Chicago, sat nervously watching the second hand of the studio clock. As zero hour approached, he raked his fingers through his bushy hair, stripped off his tie and collar. Then, with a cough and a hawk, he stepped up to the mike. Boss Ed, aware of the radio success of New York City's Fiorello LaGuardia, was starting a weekly radio talk of his own, addressed to Chicagoans.

But Ed Kelly is no glib, ad-libbing Little Flower. Hewing to a prepared script, he skittered carefully, successfully through a dull speech on crime, written by an assistant. If his staffmen can hold him rigidly to a script in future broadcasts, they may be able to keep Boss Ed's foot out of his mouth.*

*He once called Admiral William Halsey "Alderman Halsey," referred to Charles de Gaulle as "Dee Gowl," introduced the U.S. protocol expert, Stanley Woodward, as "chief of portico," lauded a fellow politician for being "a member of no thinking group."

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