Miss MacDonald's Teeth
Sirs: ,
. . . I am quite put out by your review of MGM's San Francisco [TIME, July 6].
[Said TIME: "San Francisco (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) offers cinemaddicts views of two unusual phenomena: the San Francisco earthquake and Jeanette MacDonald acting with her teeth. . . . The picture is a shrewd compendium of romance and catastrophe. . . ."--ED.]
That you make much of Jeanette MacDonald's acting with her teeth is unjust. . . . What strikes me as peculiarly outstanding is that you have failed to remark on Miss MacDonald's acting with her eyes. That love scene in Blackie Norton's office is one of the most genuine I have ever seen on the screen. . . .
HARRY FARNHAM MEADOW New Haven, Conn.
Sirs: Jeanette MacDonald has decidedly beautiful and not at all unduly prominent teeth. . . . Her voice is remarkably true and pure. . . . In Saw Francisco she sings Nearer, My God, To Thee most feelingly and reverentially. Is it possible that you would permit your reviewer to use your columns to vent personal animus and spite? . . .
L. H. FRENCH
Camarillo, Calif.
It is not.--ED.
Sirs:
This letter is written to inform you that I think you completely muffed the handling of the Ethiopian war news. . . .
JOHN BONFORTE
Salt Lake City, Utah
P.S. . . . I think your review of the movie, San Francisco, was as lousy as your reporting of the Ethiopian War. . . .
Sirs:
It was with a strong feeling of disgust that I read your review of the motion picture, San Francisco. ... I think TIME sounds a bit ignorant and not at all funny when it refers to Miss MacDonald's very fine performance as "acting with her teeth" and to her exceedingly lovely rendition of Nearer, My God, To Thee as "yodeling." The earthquake scene is a very creditable piece of cinematic engineering, but without the beautiful voice of Jeanette MacDonald ... it would never achieve the audience response which it does. . . .
BEULAH E. SMITH
Charlemont, Mass.
Sirs:
In view of the reputation that Miss MacDonald has established as a moving picture actress, such a comment by you or anyone else has about as much influence with the public as a wart on a dill pickle. . . .
I do not suppose that space will be availabe to publish this letter. It will probably be buried along with the one I sent you some time ago when you referred to Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt as "long-legged." . . . CHARLES DENEGRE
Attorney-at-law Birmingham, Ala.
Sirs:
Where, in the name of Yale, did you dig up that cinematicritic who wrote the notice on San Francisco?
After 20 years of almost obligatory reading of dramatic reporting I believe I have found in this piece its all-time low. . . .
LEMIST ESLER
Folded Hills Gaviota-Star Route, Calif.
Sirs:
. . . If anyone who has any sense of beauty can say that Jeanette MacDonald acted with her teeth, I think they should see a dentist and ask what comprises a lovely set. . . .
MRS. EVELYN JARRETT
Los Angeles, Calif.
For other news and views on teeth, see p. 27.--ED.
Trustees & Trust
Sirs:
Your report in TIME, July 13, on the National Education Association meeting is a great improvement over your report on the St. Louis meeting, which reached low-water mark in selection of topics for reporting. As a member of the board of trustees, I think the reference to the "tight, autocratic board" is a fine compliment. We regard trust funds as trust funds and safeguard them accordingly.
EDGAR G. DOUDNA
Secretary
The Board of Trustees of the National Education Association of the U. S. Washington, D. C.
Ridge Route
Sirs:
Indeed, TIME does an injustice to California's famed highway system in its description of the Ridge Route between Bakersfield and Los Angeles [TIME, July 6].
The "treacherous ribbon of curves and grades which you so graphically describe is the old Ridge Route, abandoned these past three years in favor of a three-and four-lane modern high-way which cuts almost straight across the mountains.
The new road is a striking engineering achievement, marked by easy grades and wide curves, which seemingly tempt the average driver to "hit it up," for speeds of 60 m.p.h. and better were common until Highway Patrol Chief Ray Cato started to police the stretch. ...
Paradoxically, the old Ridge Route, though more dangerous from a physical or engineering standpoint, has actually proven safer than the fine new road--all because of the excessive, often reckless, speed that is possible on the new route. REGINALD Moss Berkeley, Calif.
Royal Stand-ins Sirs:
I am reliably informed that the feminine garnishment of the delectable-looking Kent Lettuce Festival Salad [TIME, July 13] was not royal. The lettuce-mayonnaise-bedecked maidens were stand-ins, as it were, for Queen Opal and her Court, who were attending to more respectable matters. The traditions of pomp & circumstance ought not to be so callously overlooked even by democratic TIME. Let this be a lesson. . . .
LINDEN DALBERG
Kent, Wash.
Right is Kentian Dalberg. The three lettuce pitchers were June Merrifield, Margie Wilcox and Margie Daniels, high-school girls, who did the dirty work for Lettuce Queen Opal Sorenson.--ED.
Thievery in Pennsylvania Sirs:
As one interested in the difficulties at present confronting the anthracite industry, may I express my appreciation not only of the article in TIME, July 13, relative to the stolen coal matter, but also of the fairness with which you handled the subject. At the same time, may I call your attention to one error in that article --contrary to your statement, Stevens Coal Co. is operating the properties on which the accident in question occurred. . . .
Anthracite has suffered primarily because the State of Pennsylvania places the thievery of coal in a class apart from the thievery of other property; unemployment in other industries has not been accompanied by sacking such as is the case with anthracite.
W. L. BALLOU
Eastern Manager The Black Diamond New York City
Hearst Sale
Sirs:
Like TIME, I have been known to be wrong upon occasion. I may be wrong this time, but instead I believe it was TIME'S error in the July 13 issue, p. 58. ... There you say, "Unlike William Randolph Hearst who never sells a paper. . . ."
If I recall correctly Mr. Hearst has sold one paper, and it was my understanding that he was more than glad to do so. The city where he once was, but departed, is Fort Worth, Tex. And if I recall correctly, he was taken to the cleaners in a fashion which must have pained him extremely. At any rate, the Star-Telegram met Mr. Hearst's opposition in a manner which was a joy to many of us newspaper men of the Southwest. And it was in the fall of 1925, I believe, that Mr. Hearst threw in the sponge and his gaudy Record went to the Star-Telegram, and once more became a respectable citizen of a darn swell town. WARD MOORE
St. Louis, Mo.
Publisher Hearst regrets the sale of the Fort Worth Record in 1925. If Reader Moore doubts TIME'S statement that Mr. Hearst "never sells a paper," let him try to buy one of the 28 Hearst papers today, report on his failure.--ED.
Insects Sirs:
. . . We who have had the problem of relief on our hands here in Kansas are ashamed of the Landon record and are sick and tired of reading the false representations that are being made for him by the corporation-controlled newspapers.
If the newspapers succeed in selling Landon to this country, thus proving to the world that anything can be sold by proper advertising, then Kansas will advertise her chinch bugs and grasshoppers. Insects appear to be our specialty. . . .
CHAS. E. YOUNG
State Bank of Westphalia Westphalia, Kans.
Ideas
Sirs:
Considering the number of crackbrained ideas sponsored by Franklin Roosevelt does he not deserve the name Franklin "Stoopnagle" Roosevelt?
I. M. WRIGHT
Williamson, W. Va.
Millions
Sirs:
. . . After all, there are millions of people in the U. S. who are still for Roosevelt. . . .
ESTELLE GRAY San Antonio, Tex.
Voice
Sirs:
In the issue of July 6, Mabel Rundall Bouffioux protests the "March of Time's" representation of Eleanor Roosevelt's voice as being too sweet and smirking. Evidently she has never listened to the original.
She also scorns Mrs. Landon because she plays the harp and is a "sweet, retiring home-body."
With the record of the Roosevelt children with two divorces, numerous college scrapes and arrests for reckless driving, somehow one feels that the homebody atmosphere was never particularly stressed in their upbringing.
HARRIET LOWELL
St. Paul, Minn.
Sirs:
. . . I didn't happen to hear "March of Time" on the evening mentioned. I only wish I had. It must have been good. Because if there is one thing about Mrs. Roosevelt's radio speeches (outside of the general inanity of her topics) which riles me it is that "insipid, too-sweet, smirking voice." . . .
I am perfectly well aware that numbers of my fellow-countrymen applaud the frantic activities of our "First Lady." However, to a vast multitude of others she is one large headache. . . . Has she ever made one single pronouncement over the radio of any significance or written one sentence worth reading? If so, I've missed them. . . .
CORNELIA MARY STREATOR
Cleveland, Ohio
"Vertigral"
Sirs:
No achromatic sisters are sweltering summer students who, apropos Transition (TIME. July 13), experiment in "Vertigral." The following written last week for Dr. Parks's graduate English course (Washington University) rated an A--the penciled notation, "ne plus ultra."
Tis. . . .
The one-wing sparrows
who fly
a half-noon sky
are j b2's
burnt fuses:
That cyphric strip of climbing red . . .
Who'd rather die
in bed?
tho a morgue table
has uses.
A single animated
carbohydrate
Calliope's mate
asks today
"Who can say. . . ?"
and when that cup is full
God!
a trout-line pull.
Let us pray.
VIOLET G. OWENS
St. Louis, Mo.
Rookie
Sirs:
How can a magazine such as TIME have the poor taste to publish on its front cover the photograph of a professional baseball player, and more, with his mouth open, and a rookie at that [TIME, July 13]. Do you not realize that TIME is on the table about the home for anyone, no matter how young, to read, if he can! That baseball is played on Sundays, and that the front cover would be better given to the Royal Family (not economic Royalists) or something similar. After the lovely photo of Jean Harlow some months ago and the nude in the Art Department (of all places) a few weeks ago, and now this of Di Maggio, I feel I must tell you that at the end of my subscription in June 1938 I will renew for only one year, instead of two. . . .
DREXEL GODFREY
Tarrytown, X. Y.
Sirs:
Was interested to learn that Joe Di Maggio hit two homeruns in one inning "for a total of eight bases." . . . Why not add that he hit these homeruns with his bat, while standing at home plate. It would also be interesting to know (if you have the data) how many times Di Maggio, or any other baseballer, has hit two homeruns for a total of seven bases--or nine. . . .
H. T. MALLON
Clarksville, Tenn.
Let Reader Mallon delve deeper into baseball statistics and he will be less amused by TIME'S technically accurate expression of Di Maggie's achievement. Since records are kept of the total num-ber of bases each player hits for during a season and since eight bases in one inning equaled an American League record, it was necessary to state both the number of bases and the manner in which they were scored. Conceivably a player could make two three-base hits and one two-base hit all in one inning, thus totaling eight bases without a homerun.--ED.
Communists Up
Sirs:
In your coverage of the Communist convention (TIME, July 6) you say, "This year . . . the Party's members (51,000) would vote the national ' Communist ticket. . . ." TIME has erred. The membership of the Communist Party is not 51,000. In the manifesto of the Communist Party of the United States adopted at the Eighth Convention of the Party, April 1934, we read: "To All the Workers of the United States of America: We speak to you in the name of 25,000 members of the Communist Party. ..." Earl Browder himself has frequently from the platform alluded to the membership of the Party as being not more than 25,000. If TIME is interested in facts, in keeping the record straight, it might correct this impression and admit its error.
DAVID S. SWERDLOW
New York City
Reader Swerdlow is two years behind the times. Communist Browder last month reported thus: "Today at the Ninth Convention, the Party membership is around 40,000, the Young Communist League about 11,000, or a total of over 50,000 organized Communists. This is an increase of 66% in two years, or 500% increase since 1929."--ED.
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