The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 17

.1 Entertainment Trends Comics -m THE SUN Wednesday, November 26, 1975 Cheslock: '60 years is ample' On TV tonight Kennedy killing review, speculation is TV at its best JIT 5 vy. wKWw i By EARL ARNETT rM, flfM'iw rP ft 3 By BILL CARTER "ski f-s V4r AtV Two months ago, Louis Cheslock sat down and composed a letter to Dr. Richard Franko Goldman, president of the Peabody Institute and director of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Its two main paragraphs read as follows: "At the close of this season May 31, 1976, I will have served as a teacher at Peabody for 60 years which, I believe, should be ample. I wish to retire at that time.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed all my years of teaching and hope to make this last one the very best ever for my pupils and for Peabody." Such simple, unassuming eloquence is typical of the man. No one else has been so long and so Intimately associated with the Peabody as teacher, composer and violinist Although born in London on September 9, 1899, Dr. Cheslock has lived in Baltimore since he was 3 years old. He considers himself a Maryland musician and undoubtedly deserves this appellation as much as anyone. His father and mother were born in Poland in small villages near the German border.

Dr. Cheslock, his two older brothers and sister were all born in Great Britain while the family waited to move on to the United States by way of Canada. After the father, a shoe repairman and bootmaker, finally established himself in Baltimore with the aid of his brother, Henry, the rest of the family came here by way of Quebec in 1901. "I know I always wanted to play the violin," Dr. Cheslock recalled during a recent luncheon conversation at Schell-base's, his favorite downtown restauant (Ever since a violinist had visited the family home in East Baltimore, the strains of the instrument had captured his imagination.

When he was 12 years old, he sold Christmas cards on the street to buy a Japanese fiddle; "a miserable, damn thing," which he sneaked into the house. After he painfully learned a tune on it, he played for the family. "O.K., if that's what you want," his 'father responded to the impromptu concert "But you know, it lacks salt." Dr. Cheslock would spend the next decade of his life adding seasoning to his music. He enrolled at the Peabody Preparatory School in 1914 as a violin student and became a teacher there two years later.

Because composing came naturally, he started teaching theory and composition a few years later. From 1916 to 1937, he played with tha Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, working from the youngest member in the last chair to assistant concertmaster. By this time, he was also conducting performances of his own work. An amazing variety of works flowed from his pen concertos, tone poems, songs, symphonies, a ballet an opera. A casual observation of this diminutive The United States is a nation fascinated by plots.

We are a naturally suspicious people, prone to doubt, open to most suggestions of unseen, unchecked machinations affecting the fabric of our lives. It might have to do with our process of politics, or maybe just the forever questioning nature of our journalism. The recent revelations of cover-ups touching almost every institution associated with the pursuit of justice has done nothing toward reducing these fears. With conspiracies in the White House, the FBI and the CIA, the public can hardly be blamed for believing outlandish-sounding theories involving political killings. Nothing has aroused this conspiracy-consciousness as much as the assassination of John Kennedy.

The horror and the strangeness of the act has always been compounded by the unanswered questions and the incomplete investigation. It has made for fascinating studies by every amateur sleuth in the country. TV journalists don't make good sleuths, but they can make good investigative reporters. CBS has done one of the best investigations of that strange and terrible drama in Dallas, based only on the desire to find whatever truth can still be found in a 12-year-old mystery. Last night and tonight CBS has used the professional investigative methods at television's disposal to present two excellent one-hour specials that go a long way toward clearing up the lingering paranoia surrounding the Kennedy murder.

CBS obviously did not get into these shows with any other goal in mind but to seek the truth. They were newsmen doing a job. If they sought a sensationalized story, they would not have come up with the conclusions they did that the evidence really does point to Oswald as the lone gunman, but that the motive for the murder is still very murky. The first show last night dealt with the mechanics of the killing itself, the physical evidence, the hard police-style work of who and how. Tonight at 10 on Channel 2 the second special, in what is to be a larger series on American assassinations in general, considers the more abstract question of why.

As such it is more speculative and in many ways more interesting. Lie first show really said nothing new, though it might have had there been something new to say. Instead the very scientifc CBS inquiry did something very old, but did it more convincingly (at least to me) than it has ever been done. It proved that there is nothing in the evidence, the known and perceivable facts, to show that anyone but Lee Harvey Oswald fired shots at the President that day in Dallas. Using the famous Za-pruder film as the central piece of evidence (an amazingly fortunate piece of evidence), CBS convincingly demonstrated that all the shots known to have been fired that day came from the rear.

This was the single most significant revelation of the first show Because the central attack on the Warren Commission theory of a lone gunman by all the conspiracy advocates has always been that the film showed the President's head snapping back from the fatal shot, proving it had to come from the front. CBS enlisted the surest aid to investigation, science. Expert film analysis indicted something not before known that the film confirms a rear shot by showing Kennedy's head moving violently forward before snapping back, a movement so fast it is not perceptible to the unaided eye. Last night's show also disposed effectively with the claim that no marksman could fire fast enough to get off three accurate shots in 5 seconds. The CBS marksmen could do it.

And the single-bullet theory, that favorite target of assassination buffs, was neither proved nor disproved. But it was described as at least possible. Tonight the CBS inquiry addresses itself to the mysteries in Oswald's background: His Marine service at a base where he had access to U-2 information; his unusual discharge and subsequent trip to Moscow where he defected and renounced his citizenship; his very strange re-entry to the U.S. when the CIA unaccountably did not debrief him; his connections with both anti-Castro and pro-Castro movements in New Orleans; and principally his clearly apparent association with the FBI. Some of the interviews reveal information not previously disclosed.

Such as a former gunrunner in Dallas admitting Oswald came to him seeking to buy arms just days before the assassination, accompanied by an unidentified "Latin." A former FBI underling says that Oswald was an FBI informant and even has evidence of a message sent from FBI offices in Washington on November 17 reporting an attempt on Kennedy's life planned for November 22. A Cuban bar owner (and FBI informant) reports Oswald meeting constantly with an FBI agent and that agent threatening the Cuban to get him to lie to the Warren Commission. A Miami police official tells of a tape-recorded threat by a white suprem-. acist group that the President would be Photo-Sally Poster Hand, Pa. planned in England and executed by members of the Free Czech Army stationed there), doubtless felt it was worth the price.

He may even, wily old fox that he was, have viewed such reprisals as a means of consolidating world opinion against the Nazis and speeding up American participation in the war. None of this is evident in "Operation Daybreak." Instead of pointing out Heydrich's significance as a symbol of Nazi oppression, the English officer who briefs the three Czechs on their mission dwells upon his intimacy with Hitler and the possibility that the one might someday succeed the other as fuehrer. Apart See NAZI, B4. Col. 5 Buyers' Baedeker 'Nice' delay until after Christmas Dr.

Louis man might lead someone to label him conservative, even stodgy. But his music reveals an experimental, youthful spirit filled with joy. Music should never be fitted into narrow categories, he has often told his students. The art should be as varied and free as life itself. "We have a heritage right here in our popular music that's really great stuff," he said.

"American music is vital and important. They've all tried to imitate it in Europe and can't do it "In many areas of modern 'classical' music, composers have become snobbish and too scientific. They can explain their music, but it doesn't reach. After all, if music doesn't reach the emotions which it can reach more than any other art something's wrong." Dr. Cheslock's music has never suffered from this kind of deficiency of spirit, perhaps because he has never become embittered with life.

"A composer doesn't make a living in the United States as a composer, but as a teacher," Parcel post packages in the United States, December 10; for Alaska and Hawaii, November 30. Parcel Air Lift (PAL) to servicemen, November 27 for most areas; for a few locations, December 1. Air mail greetings abroad, December 14 and 16; for North America, December 19. Surface mail greetings abroad, already too late. The Postal Service points out that Canadian postmen are on strike and no letters or packages are being accepted in U.S.

post offices for that country. If the strike is settled, air mail and surface mail greetings to that country should be sent as early as possible, the U.S. Postal Nazi horror recalled in new film Sunpapers photo Clarence B. Garrett board cerned: spontaneous, natural, perfect." He would sometimes argue this point with his good friend, H. L.

Mencken, a Beethoven man. Dr. Cheslock, the youngest and now the only surviving, member of the Saturday Night Club, was one of Mencken's oldest and dearest friends. The camaraderie from their days of playing music and drinking beer together still warms his heart and inspires some of his fondest memories. Retirement for such a man will not mean inactivity.

At the age of 76, Dr. Cheslock is in good health and hopes to compose his best work. He will also undoubtedly work in his garden and enjoy the cooking of Elise, his wife of almost 50 yeas. The two will continue their habits of travel. While she works at artistic flower arrangements, he will probably create water-colors and etchings.

Louis Cheslock is one of Maryland's great gentlemen of music. His legacy to the life of the spirit will endure for a long time. various area theaters. All he could offer by way of explanation was "They were ordered to do it" Having seen "Operation Daybreak," I can well understand his confusion; for it ignores the circumstances leading up to the assassination, and, by implying that it represented an effort to eliminate a man who might have become Hitler's successor, it muddles the matter further. To begin with, Heydrich was not the No.

2 Nazi. Goering, Hess, Goebbels and Himmler all stood between him and the post of Fuehrer. He was, however, No. 2 in the SS, standing just below Himmler and, as such, was the natural choice for An Amish Cheslock at the Peabody drawing he said. "Unlike many of my contemporaries, I've never felt this was an imposition.

"I've enjoyed every minute of teaching at school. Teaching is a kind of chaperoning. It's guidance more than anything else, from your own experience." One of his greatest satisfactions lies in the accomplishments of his students, he said. One former pupil, Dominick Ar-gento, recently won a Pulitzer Prize. Numerous others have had distinguished musical careers.

The total number of former students must run into the thousands by now. What he has given them is both knowledge and an esthetic judgment tempered with a lively, humorous appreciation of life. What kind of judgment? "I don't think any music has meant as much to me as Mozart's last three symphonies," he replied. "Mozart is probably the greatest genius that ever graced this earth. I think Mozart was the ultimate, pure genius as far as I'm con Service advises.

Here are some other tips to remember for using the mails this holiday season. the rest of the year. Use lightweight packaging and a box that is only slightly larger than its contents: that keeps articles from moving inside and costs less to mail. Books can be sent at a special low-cost book rate. If you insure a package, insure it only for actual value; insurance is paid only on the actual value, not the declared or insured value.

Place your address and the receiver's address inside as well as outside the parcel; if the outside address is unreadable, postal employees at the dead-letter section can open it find your inside addresses and remail it While many will have forgot the name Reinhard Heydrich, they may recall the village of Lidice, which the Nazis destroyed in retaliation for his assassination in Prague on May 29, 1942. In all, more than 1,300 Czechs, including some 200 women, are supposed to have paid with their lives for Heydrich's; and, considering that such carnage was clearly foreseeable, the question of why the two Czechs responsible for the assassination did it is unavoidable. Timothy Bottoms, who plays one of them in "Operation Daybreak," could not provide a satisfactory answer at a recent press luncheon held in connection with the film, which opened last week at farmer leaves the road near Bird in By MICHAEL K. BURNS The Postal Service sends its annual holiday greetings, reminding us that the time is drawing near when Christmas cards and parcels must be in the mail to assure delivery by December 24. The service also reminds us, rather uncharitably, that rates will be going up December 28.

So, a thank-you letter or return-the-thought greeting card mailed promptly will pay an extra dividend this yuletide. First class letters will cost 13 cents. The House of Representatives has passed a bill limiting that rate to 12 cents, but the Senate is not expected to act until next year. Postal cards will cost 3 cents. Speaking of postal cards, many greeting card manufacturers this year are producing them with Christmas and New Year designs.

Some have only a design on one side, leaving room for a personal message on the obverse; others have a printed greeting on the obverse. They can save you money on postage 3 cents per card-and they are generally cheaper to buy than the folded cards and envelopes. Final mailing dates to beat Santa Claus, according to the Postal Service, include these key ones: Surface mail greetings in the United States, December 15. Air mail greeting In the United States, December 20. subduing opposition in the conquered countries.

In Holland, he hanged 72 Dutch officers, and his appointment as acting protector of Czechoslovakia was followed by some 300 executions, which, in addition to smashing the resistance movement won him the nickname of Hangman. In short, Heydrich was the symbol of the conqueror's heel on the throat of Europe. Thus his assassination amounted to a cry of defiance from the vanquished continent at a time when no external evidence of resistance existed. That it would bring horrendous reprisals was obvious. But Churchill, who probably conceived the idea (because it was By R.

H.GARDNER.