The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 25

PART LXXV Times Classified 3 Advertising Number, MAdison 9-4411 SATURDAY HAPPY ARRIVAL- -Santa Claus is surrounded by children following his arrival at downtown department store toyland. He will be around every day, and nights, too, starting Dec. 3, to take Christmas orders from a legion of his young admirers. Times photo Mailman Wins Support in Extradition Fight Hearing Postponed in Case Involving Charges of Kidnaping His Two Daughters Sympathetic feeling running high in Orange County yesterday over a 33- year mailman, who, embroiled in a legal tangle over custody of his two young daughters, faces possible extradition to Minnesota on charges of kidnaping. The defendant in the.

complicated case is L. W. Van Orden of 11552 Portia Circle, Garden Grove. In addition to being a Post Office employee, he is commander of the Garden Grove chapter of AMVETS Legal bickering over his daughters' custody was climaxed Wednesday when, while delivering mail, Van Orden was arrested on a Governor's warrant obtained by Minnesota authorities for his extradition to St. Paul to face kidnaping charges.

Kept Daughters The charges grew out the fact that, when brought his daughters, Sheila, 10, and Barbara, 6, to visit him last July and August he had done for the last several years with approval Minnesota courts, Van Orden decided that the home being maintained for them in Minnesota by their mother, now Mrs. Dolores Satterlee, is unfit one. So, instead of returning girls to Minnesota by Sept. Van Orden kept them here. subsequently appeared before Superior Judge mond; Thompson in Santa Ana seeking guardianship the girls.

His petition was Mos Santa Arrives at Downtown Store Toylands Santa Claus was engulfed in a tidal wave of small fry yesterday on his arrival in downtown department store toylands. The jolly old gentleman's bag was bulging with a reclord supply of gifts, he announced through the Downtown Business Men's Association. Choosing the school holiday following Thanksgiving for his arrival so as to greet as many of his, school-age friends as possible, Santa im-ling mediately taking orders for Christmas with a hearty "Ho, ho, ho!" Extended Stay He'll make the department store toylands. his ters every day until Christmas Eve. He'll be there nights, too, beginning Dec.

3 when downtown stores start staying open until 9 p.m. nightly. Despite shipment of the largest supply of gifts to downtown Los Angeles in history, the DBMA urged early Christmas shopping to avoid disappointments. Las Posadas to Begin Monday Opening of Las Posadas, a festival representing Mary and Joseph seeking shelter on their way to Bethlehem, is scheduled for Monday evening in Olvera Street. Angeles MORNING, Site Chosen for Customs Building New $38,000,000 Structure Will Be Near Civic Center The new $38,000,000 Federal Customs House and Office Building will be built on a site just east of the present Federal Building, the General Services Administration in 1 Washington announced yesterday.

The site chosen for the long-sought structure will be bounded by the Santa Ana Freeway, Main and Los Angeles and the proposed extension of Temple St. Rep. Gordon McDonough (R) Los Angeles, who introduced the first bill. for the customs house and pressed for its approval, said the site was apparently chosen for easy access to the freeway system. Authorized Last July Building of the new customs house for Los Angeles was authorized by the House Public Works Committee last July 19 under the Lease Purchase Act.

This law, authored by Sen. Kuchel (R) is modeled after a California statute which allows private enterprise to erect the building and then provides for its acquisition by the government on a longterm installment plan. Rep. McDonough said that he has been informed by the GSA that plans and specifications for the new building will soon be ready. The approval calls for its completion by August, 1960.

Present plans call for an eight-story building 868,000 square feet of floor space which would be allocated among the Treasury Department and the Army and Navy. In addition to customs and tax courts, other agencies which would have space in the building include the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureaus of Land Management and Indian Affairs, Departments of State and Labor, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, General Accounting Office. Food and Drug Administration, Social Security and Old Age Survivors' Insurance Bureau and Interstate Commerce Commis- Choirs Plan Program Combined adult choirs of All Saints' Episcopal Church, Santa Monica Blvd at Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, tomorrow will present excerpts from Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise." because, in divorce proceedings four years ago in Minnesota, custody definitely had been granted to the mother. At the time, Judge Thompson suggested but did not specifically orderthat Van Orden return girls to Minnesota.

Declines Suggestion Van Orden declined to do so, claiming among other reasons that the girls had expressed a preference to remain with him. After his arrest Wednesday, Van Orden gained his freedom within a few hours on $500 bail under a writ of habeas Corpus obtained by Deputy County Public Defender Eugene Langhauser. The writ was returnable in Santa Ana Superior Court at 9 a.m. yesterday, but Langhauser was granted a continuance until Dec. 14.

The Deputy Public Defender had asked that the matter be put off until after Christmas but Judge Kenneth Morrison set Dec. 14 date on information from Minnesota authorities that officers from that State would be in this vicinity on that date and, if Van Orden is. to be extradited, such a time would be more convenient for them. Judge Morrison, however, assured Van Orden and Langhauser that this information would have no influence on his decision concernRaying the extradition. He allowed Van Orden to remain at liberty under the $500 bail.

A CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS- The combination of a school holiday and gether yesterday to fill downtown area with shoppers. This photo the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season teamed to- shows crowds of pedestrians "scrambling" at 7th. St. and Broadway, Times phote Times CC Times Office: 202 West First Street, Los Angeles 53, Calif. MAdison 5-2345 -SANT ANA COS 3 ST.

-TEMPLE CUSTOMS HOUSE SITE--This site bounded by the for new $30,800,000 Federal Customs House. The Santa Ana Freeway, Main and Los Angeles, Sts. and approval by General Services Administration yesterproposed extension of Temple St. has been selected day set August, 1960, as building completion date. Times photo Chase Syndicate Buys Australian Land for Cattle NOVEMBER 24, 1956 Allen T.

Chase, Bel-Air financier, and the syndicate of Hollywood figures and Los Angeles businessmen he heads have acquired some 1,500,000 acres of Australian wasteland for the development of a cattle-raising and meat-packing development, it was announced yesterday in Brisbane. William Archer Gunn, president of the United Graziers Association, said that the property was purchased by the Chase Syndicate of Los Angeles from the Western Australia government at 4 shillings an acre. He estimated the cost of developing the project at 000,000 pounds Australian (about Rice Project Chase and his associates last July, announced another enormous Australian undertaking to grow rice in Northern Australia, a $50,000,000 agricultural and resettlement protecthat time, among his associates were listed several TV and film personalities and a number of Los Angeles financial leaders. Chase, according to his daughter, is expected home from Australia this morning. LOCAL EDITORIALS $5000 REWARD OUT FOR AUTO SHOW VANDALS A $5000 reward was offered yesterday by the Los Angeles Motor Car Dealers Association for information leading to the conviction of vandals who damaged more than 40 automobiles on display at the 34th Los Angeles International Auto Show at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium.

The damaged vehicles, slashed last Thursday, will remain on the show floor until police and insurance investigations have been completed, Clarence J. Dixon, show chairman, said. The show, which ends Sunday, is enjoying its most successful run in history, he added. Alma Whitaker, Retired Times Columnist, Dies Widely Read Newspaperwoman for 30 Years Succumbs at Age of 75 Alma Whitaker, 75, who a columnist and feature her sleep yesterday at her Glendale. Alma Whitaker, as she had been known to Times readers, in private life was Mrs.

Jerome B. Reynolds. She retired from The Times in 1944 and in recent years had been in ill-health. However, she still found time to write an bit of pungent comment for the editorial page of this newspaper or to express her always positive views in a letter to the editor. Work Syndicated A writer of barbed wit who delighted in sticking pins into the pompous and pretentious, she was one of the most widely read newspaperwomen of her era.

For many years her Times columns were syndicated across the nation. She was born in London but grew up in South Africa, where her father was medical officer to Cecil Rhodes. She remembered the great Rhodes as a man who held her on his knee and read "Br'er Rabbit" to her. When 12 she sold her first story, "The Autobiography of a Fly," in an essay competition. Her father, Dr.

Wotton Fullford, died a year later in a smallpox epidemic. At Many Schools She said that in her early years she attended 32 schools in nine countries and graduated from none. She was a professional writer by the age of 17, working for British newspapers and magazines. After her marriage to Harold. Whitaker she and her husband left England for California in 1908 because of his health.

In Los Angeles with an infant son, Colin, and an ailing husband. She sought employment to help support the family. She was about to take a job as a cook to a (Pasadena family when the late Harry Carr, then sports editor of The Times, agreed to give her a chance to write. Carr sent her to cover a prize fight and her first story Turn to Page Column NEWS -OPINIONS Kosloff, Actor and Dancer, Dies at 74 Theodore Kosloff, 74, dancer and screen actor, 9560 Sunland Sunland, died Thursday. in the Good Samaritan Hospital.

Funeral services, with Pierce Bros. Hollywood Mortuary in charge, will be conducted at 1 p.m. Monday in the Protection of the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church, 150 Alexandria Ave. Interment will take place in Valhalla Memorial Park. Born in Russia Mr.

Kosloff was born in Moscow, Russia, and came to the United States in 1912. He became celebrated as a dancer and cut a dashing figure in motion pictures. Later he concentrated on operating a dance studio and presented ballets in the Hollywood Bowl and elsewhere. The mortuary record indicated he left one survivor, Alexis Kosloff of New York. for more than 30 years was writer for The Times, died in home, 1028-C Linden MOURNED Alma Whitaker, who had been Times writer many years, dies.

in My He Says and Sure Enough- "There's a prowler in my kitchen." Patrick O'Brien whispered over his telephone to Burbank police yesterday morning. Four officers raced to O'Brien's apartment at 154-B Pass Burbank, and burst into the kitchen. There was a prowler in there all right- a little kitten that had wandered in through an open door, jumped into a wastebasket, and was scratching and scrambling around trying to get out. Gasoline Group Disputes Refining Smog Claim The Western Oil and Gas Association announced yesterday it does not agree with the Air Pollution Control District that changes in oil refining processes may improve the smog picture. "On the basis of all reliable scientific evidence and opinion we have seen to date, we do not believe that the smogforming characteristics of automobile exhaust can be significantly changed by modifying gasoline composition or manufacturing processes," said Felix Chappellet, vicepresident and general manager of WOGA.

"It's what happens in the motor that makes automobile exhaust form smog not what happens in the refinery," he declared. Smith Griswold, APCD director, said earlier this week that a four-year APCD research project has found indications that a small group of hydrocarbons is the formers and that these may be refined out of gasoline by a process already developed. Chappellet announced at a recent Southland smog conference at the Ambassador that he feels the investigation of changes in fuel will not be helpful. But the APCD's research director, Dr. Leslie.

A. Chambers, replied then that he thought it was a little premature that experiments -in fuels should be terminated. Chappellet said his opinlion was based on research done by and for the WOGA and the American Petroleum Institute. Comic Dictionary PROCRASTINATION The proof that all things come to him who waits, including an invitation to his girl friend's wedding. Congright, 1956.

br EVAN EARP.