Toward the Polls
Sir:
The Democrats are so devoid of ammunition that no doubt they'll [continue to] exploit the remark of Secretary Wilson regarding ''bird dogs" and "kennel dogs" [TIME, Oct. 25] and labor leaders will follow the same pattern. After 20 years of Roosevelt and Truman carefree spending and reducing the dollar ... I feel that the Republicans should stress the fact that all the pension funds and the retirement programs that labor is so interested in securing will in ten, 20 or 30 years be worth practically nothing, if we are subject to a return of uneconomical Democratic spending . . .
All of our so-called prosperity has been based on war expenditures, and the Democrats do not know how to handle a peacetime economy. The biggest weapon the Republicans have is stressing the stabilization of the current dollar . . .
FRANK BRANSCOMBE
New Rochelle, N.Y.
Sir:
... I respectfully submit that the label of the Republican Party be changed from GOP to FIDO (Fearless Industrial Dog Owners) or to ROVER (Republican Organization for Voluntary Employee Relocation) and that a faithful setter be substituted for the elephant as the Republican symbol.
RICHARD P. BERGEN
Chicago
Sir:
Let Ogden Nash his teeth, but alliterative Adlai's coined connotations, his supercilious slurs and mental tintinnabulations [are] so erudite they're out of sight . . .
No huddles of gag men can solve the muddles that nag men . . .
D. C. FLEHARTY
Berkeley, Calif.
P: Would Reader Fleharty be a member of the Republican Peharty?--ED.
Branding Brando
Sir:
. . . Your Oct. 11 article on Marlon Brando reveals a person who is finally worthy of the teen-age adulation that frequently erupts in our midsts, usually for the most foolish reasons . . . What we are to hope for is that Mr. Brando does not go the way of all the finer talent Hollywood has collected--dissipating his talent in the meaningless assembly-line production of films . . .
C. V. FOSTER
New York City
Sir:
Thanks to TIME for its fascinating study of Marlon Brando . . . Incidentally, Marlon, what are my chances if I become a waitress?
CYNTHIA SCOLTON
East Aurora, N.Y.
Sir:
. . . Brando has never given a performance that was anything short of superb . . . As for The Egyptian, I had more respect for Brando after seeing it. Such a genius should not be expected to accept a role which could have as easily been played by Gerald McBoing-Boing . . .
ROLLIN C. WILLIAMS
Northport, N.Y.
Sir:
. . . The reason so many Americans just love Hollywood (and it makes for friends abroad) is so nicely stated by [Director] Elia Kazan: "Brando is ... just the best actor in the world today" . . .
E. DEUTSCH
Lynwood, Calif.
Sir:
... Of all the stupid and nervy things to say--that he is the greatest actor today. Any connoisseur knows there is nobody in the world like a Laurence Olivier or a Jose Ferrer . . .
NARMO LUIS ORTIZ
Milwaukee
Sir:
. . . Why don't Kazan, the world's best director, and Brando, the world's best actor, team up and form their own repertory theater? ...
ROBERT I. PEARCE
Detroit
Sir:
Regardless of the company he is in, Mr. Brando belches or scratches as the need arises, yet he hates to eat lettuce "because it was so noisy." I am sure a few extra loud belches should drown out that noisy lettuce. This makes everybody happy--girlfriend and lettuce growers.
C. ORSTYNOWICZ
South Bend, Ind.
The Backward Look
Sir:
Re your picture of Ava Gardner at her premiere of The Barefoot Contessa [TIME, Oct. 18]: I am the photographer with upraised camera just behind her ... I was standing on the sidewalk when Ava was rushed . . . into the lobby to face the photographers ... I had only time for one quick potshot of her luscious shoulders.
CLARENCE E. HOUSMAN New York City
P: Herewith, those shoulders.--ED.
Wayward Editor
Sir:
Your Oct. 11 report on my appearance before the Jenner Committee was, to say the least, rather incomplete. You state, for example, that 53 times I declined to answer such questions as to whether I am or have been a Communist. However, several of my refusals were on such questions as: "Where does your wife work?"; "Name your relatives" . . . You also fail to mention that on several occasions, when I attempted to answer questions, particularly leading questions, Senator Jenner brusquely interrupted with demands for a flat yes or no.
Other . . . omissions include the fact that Senator Jenner refused me the courtesy . . . of reading a brief statement of my views; my posthearing press conference, which was attended by a TIME reporter, at which I denied that I am or have been a Communist.
JOHN W. POWELL
San Francisco
P: Editor Powell took refuge in the Fifth Amendment 53 times when asked pertinent questions about his Communist record under oath. Asked at the posthearing press conference, "Are you a Communist?' , Powell equivocally replied: "I've never belonged to the American, Chinese or any kind of Communist Party."--ED.
Homage
Sir:
We are all indebted to TIME for its description and amazingly faithful reproduction of the true Last Supper, set forth in your issue of Oct. 4. The reports that have seeped out from Milan on the successful progress of the restoration by Mauro Pelliccioli now seem to be authenticated. All Western civilization owes to this brilliant restorer its grateful homage for the fidelity of the work accomplished and his faith in the commission undertaken . . .
JOHN RICHARD CRAFT
Director
Columbia Museum of Art
Columbia, S.C.
Animal Crackers
Sir:
You people are all wet when you use the word tiglon [TIME, Oct. 11]. The correct word is liger ...
RAY F. BOHN
Downey, Calif.
P: A liger is another breed of cat, i.e., the offspring of a lion and a tigress/ -- ED.
Racial Flare-Up (Contd.)
Sir:
. . . You state in the Oct. n issue: "Through Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Georgia, Southern tempers flared." How can Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia be considered part of the South? The first two were border states that fought with the Union in the Civil War. The people of West Virginia refused to secede with Virginia and formed a separate state. They joined the Union in 1863. Geographically, each of these states is as close to Pennsylvania as it is to Virginia . . . Could it be that those were "Northern tempers" that flared in Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia?
FREDERICK C. LOWRY
Austin, Texas
P: South is where the heart is.--ED.
Sir:
. . . Your picture of mothers hysterically egging on their children graphically shows the ignorant, savage cruelty that motivates them. I notice that Bryant Bowles also took a swipe at the Jews. Can it be that these vermin consider themselves Christians?
JOHN F. NIHEN (white, and ashamed of it)
Dorchester, Mass.
Sir:
Well, Bryant Bowles made it ... Once again it is proved that any redblooded, straight-shooting young man can rise from obscurity to success. Columns and pictures in all the local papers, wire-service notices, etc. . . . finally ... his arrest ... I am a Southerner, and I strongly sympathize with the problems of the South, and I appreciate the difficulties that must be met in the slow and inevitable accomplishment of integration. I only regret that such a large and ticklish undertaking must be complicated by the Northern and Southern minorities of gutless, poor-spirited and fanatical trash, inspired by the opportunists who can see money to be made in every human perplexity . . .
THOMAS C. PACE
Arbutus, Md.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.