The Silent Bird

One of the wiliest space grabbers ever to bamboozle an editor, New York Press-agent Jim Moran, 51, has found a needle in a haystack (after 82 hr. 35 min.), hatched an ostrich egg (19 days on the nest), sold an icebox to an Eskimo and two snow-blind fleas to Paramount (for use under klieg lights), to pitch himself or a client into the newspapers. Last week Moran was landing in print again, on a coast-to-coast search for "the happiest girl in America--a girl as happy as a Lark." His client: Studebaker's Lark.

But in Minneapolis Moran's bird failed to sing. Minneapolis Tribune City Editor Robert T. Smith puckishly printed a straight-faced story that ran through a whole catalogue of cars without using the one word that Moran was trying to get into print--Lark. Smith's story:

"Jim Moran is a world-renowned rambler.

"In his many travels as a pressagent, he has been known to ford a river or brave localities where the mercury knows no bounds in order to plant a sponsor's name.

"Moran is well known in Cadillac and Pontiac, Mich., and in the imperial palaces of the Orient. On the other hand, he has never been in Buyck or Austin, Minn.

"He has pulled many a dodge, but in general he is known in the trade as being solid as Plymouth Rock.

"Moran has a beard like Lincoln that gives many people the willies. He is built in somewhat Goliath proportions and has the eye of an explorer, like De Soto.

"Moran was in Minneapolis promoting a contest to find 'The Happiest Girl in America' . . . The winner will receive a screen test and a new automobile, the maker of which is his sponsor."

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