No Disappearance

Sirs:

What goes on here? Just when my wife renewed a gift subscription, the Army & Navy department disappears from the Jan. 15 issue. This department has always been my favorite; undoubtedly because all of us are especially interested in the work that concerns us and particularly proud of our association with the services during the present emergency. I'll continue to leaf through the last third of each issue of TIME when each new issue comes out looking for my favorite department.

L. O. HAUPT JR.

Lieutenant, U.S.N.R.

Lansdowne, Pa.

P: Reader Haupt has been leafing in the wrong place. Since the Jan. 8 issue "Army & Navy" devotees have found (and will continue to find) their favorite department under "U.S. at War." The Army & Navy, now involving well-nigh every U.S. family, have become so integral a part of the U.S. at War that a news merger seemed appropriate.--ED.

Lillian to Tallulah

Sirs:

THE DEC. 4 TIME MISQUOTES ME AS SAYING AT A MOSCOW RECEPTION THAT THE ACTOR DOESN'T MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE TO THE PLAY. AS 100 GUESTS AND THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD WILL TESTIFY, I SAID THAT ALTHOUGH MANY ACTORS HAVE MADE PLAYS SUCCESSFUL, NO ACTOR HAS EVER MADE A GOOD PLAY INTO A BAD PLAY OR A BAD PLAY INTO A GOOD PLAY, WHICH IS A VERY DIFFERENT STATEMENT, AND SHOULD QUIET THE EXCITABLE MISS BANKHEAD WHO IN TIME, DEC. 11, SAYS, "l LOATHE LILLIAN. . . . SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT. OF COURSE SHE'S REALLY A WONDERFUL PLAYWRIGHT. . . . IF LILLIAN HAD A GOOD PLAY RIGHT NOW, I'D DO IT EVEN THOUGH I HATE HER."

ACCUSTOMED AS I AM TO YEARLY PUBLIC GREETINGS FROM THE WELL-BRED DAUGHTER OF OUR PLANTATION SOUTH, I THINK THE TIME HAS COME TO SAY THAT HATE FROM MISS BANKHEAD IS A SMALL BADGE OF HONOR, AND PRAISE UNDESIRABLE. MISS BANKHEAD WILL NEVER AGAIN ACT IN A PLAY OF MINE, ONLY BECAUSE I CAN STAND ONLY A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF BOREDOM.

LILLIAN HELLMAN

Moscow

P: Stand back, men!--ED.

Morse's Horses

Sirs:

Where and how does Senator Wayne Morse from Oregon (TIME, Jan. 8) get gas to drive 3,310 miles across the country from Oregon to Washington, D.C., and pull a trailer loaded with two horses? Was this trip necessary? For the horses, I mean. . . .

(MRS.) GEORGIA C. ROOSEVELT

Butte, Mont.

Sirs:

. . . No doubt some of the gasoline used by Senator Morse could have been saved had he transported only the front ends of the horses, which could have been used to fit onto some of the horses' rear ends which seem so abundant in Washington.

(SK 2/C) RUSSELL W. FAULKNER

c/o Fleet Postmaster

San Francisco

Sirs:

Just what the hell is going on in this country? . . .

RUSSELL B. ANDERSON

Lincoln, Neb.

P: Senator Morse's explanation: he got the extra gas allowance (255 gal.) to move his household goods, took his prize horses along to supplement his Senatorial income by putting one of them to stud. Said he: "I simply applied to the OPA for coupons to move, and en route I saw hundreds of other cars and trucks moving families with household equipment."--ED.

Haunting Innocence

Sirs:

Yesterday I read TIME (Jan. 15). Two items, "Nazi Research" and "Innocent Abroad," have been haunting me. . . .

I wonder if Mr. Crawford, the Innocent Abroad, ever reads such a story as "Nazi Research?" If he does, he probably manages to disbelieve it; if he can't do that, I suppose he doesn't think it makes much difference.

NELL K. WEBER

Columbus Junction, la.

Box on the Ears

Sirs:

UNDER SPORTS (Jan. 8) YOU STATE "[WASHINGTON WAS SORELY IRKED] BY THE INCREASE IN WAR-PLANT ABSENTEEISM DURING LOS ANGELES' RECENT HOLLYWOOD PARK MEETING." THIS STATEMENT IS ERRONEOUS AND COMPLETELY INCORRECT. THE OFFICIAL WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION FIGURES FOR THE WAR FACTORIES IN THE VICINITY OF THE HOLLYWOOD TURF CLUB AS WELL AS IN THE GENERAL LOS ANGELES AREA SHOW AN AVERAGE DECREASE IN ABSENTEEISM DURING [THE RACING SEASON] THIS STATEMENT COMING OUT NOW IN TIME COMES LIKE A BOX ON THE EARS TO A SPORT THAT IS ALREADY HOLDING THE BACK OF ITS PANTS FOR HAVING BEEN SO BADLY SPANKED. . . .

J. F. MACKENZIE

General Manager

Hollywood Turf Club

Los Angeles

P: Turfman MacKenzie is right; according to WMC, Los Angeles war-plant absenteeism was down .1% in November. To TIME'S Sports Editor, a box on the ears for taking the word of sports columnists on matters outside their field.--ED.

"Extraordinary"

Sirs:

Your article on Miss Anita Colby (Jan. 8) astounded me. . . . Would you please tell an ordinary citizen how this extraordinary lady manages 150 pairs of shoes on our present ration coupons? . . .

PATTY WEBB HOPKINS

Slidell, La.

Sirs:

. . . I am especially disgruntled when I think of my unsuccessful trips to get shoes for my two small children.

MAUD PROCTOR SCHUTZ

Oak Park, ILL.

P: Miss Colby's collection consists of: 1) her rationed allowance; 2) prewar holdovers; 3) unrationed mules, play shoes and evening shoes.--ED.

Sirs:

Proud as I am of having appeared as your Cover Girl [TIME, Jan. 8], I think it is only reasonable, on behalf of others who are mentioned in your article about me, to ask for corrections of some embarrassing inaccuracies.

Your description of my work is entirely misleading. The best way to describe my work is to compare it with that of a department-store buyer combined with duties as consultant on fashions and grooming. Rarely do my duties embrace more than that. It is not true that I set up deals between David O. Selznick and his players and, specifically, I have never had anything to do with contract negotiations between Mr. Selznick and Miss Joan Fontaine. I do not, as you intimate, attempt to read Miss Fontaine's mind, nor do I under any circumstances, anywhere, at any time, act as "pipeline" or report "powder-room conversations". . . .

Miss Bergman, gracious as she is talented, does not refuse sitting when I am not present. Your reference to Miss Jennifer Jones does a great injustice to a talented and distinguished actress. . . . Miss Jones is a university graduate, and she had had years of training on the stage, followed by further years of coaching in New York and had won the Academy Award long before she even met me. Obviously, she depends upon me for nothing more than the routine services which are my specialty.

There are other errors of fact and of intimation. "Dashing out to the country to help Deems Taylor compose a new operetta" is typical. As a person who can't find middle C on a piano, I'd like to let that one stand, but as Mr. Taylor says in a letter to me addressed "Dear Hideous," he hasn't composed an operetta since 1909, which, according to your own calculations, is before I was born.

ANITA COLBY

Culver City, Calif.

P: The Face is as modest as she is handsome.--ED .

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