The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 37

PART 2 LOCAL NEWS EDITORIALS OPINIONS VOL IXXV Timet Classified Advertising Number, MAdUon 9-4411 THURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 16, 1956 Times Offices 202 West First Street, let Angeles 53, Calif. MAdiion 5-2345 Beginning of Lent Marked L.A. County Takes National Lead in Retail Store Sales 5V jfj" Alt A FILM PACTS GIVEN OK John Saxon, 20, and Rena Clark, 17, who won the approval of Superior Judge Clyde C. Triplett for their movie studio contracts. Time photo Tr-iiff- ft -1 i I- Ti ii Contracts of CHEMICAL DRYER Riich! Ohmuro, center, and president of Standard Steel points out work-John right, watch as Robert S.

Burns, the ings of chemical dryer to visiting Japanese group. Film Players Approved Mutual Congratulations Mark Meeting of Rena Clark and John Saxon in Court Japanese Group Tours BY THE WAY. BILL HENRY Industrial Plants Here Visiting Executives Froni Osaka Making Study of American Efficiency Methods by Services Ash Wednesday Rites Will Be Followed by Pre-Easter Devotions The beginning of Lent was marked with Ash Wednesday services yesterday by Catho lic and Protestant churches and thousands will follow those devotions with the annual pre-Easter 40 days of spiritual preparation. Cardinal Mclntyre blessed palm ashes at a traditional morning rite at St. Vibiana's Cathedral and then presided at a Solemn Mass.

There al so was an Evening Mass at 5:05 and this will be cele brated each Wednesday until Easter. Cathedral Masses during the Lenten period will be cel ebrated daily at 6, 7 and 8 a.m. and at 12:07 p.m. Episcopal Service Episcopal blessing of the ashes services were conduct ed at an early hour and the first of a dciily noontime Lenten series of devotions was conducted at Paul's Cathedral, 615 Figueroa St. These services, intended for the downtown business community, will begin at 12:05 and end at 12:35 daily except Saturdays.

The Rev. Canon Robert McL. Key is preaching this week. Wednesday i the Very Rev. David del Sco- vil, dean of the cathedral, will speak on basic beliefs of the church and Christianity generally, with stress on the Easter theme.

Other Services Set Other Episcopal churches also will have special Lenten services. Many Protestant churches last night turned their customary Wednesday evening programs over to the Ash Wednesday theme. Dr. James W. Fmeld Jr.

de livered a meditation at such a program at the First Con gregational Church. The service was featured by Holy Communion. Lutheran Rites Planned Bishop Gerald H. Kennedy spoke at Hollywood Metho dist Church in the evening. At Westwood Community Methodist Church, ministers served Com main ion from noon until evening, and medi tative readings and music were presented from time to time.

Many Lutheran churches will feature the Lenten theme during midweek services before Easter. At Angelica Lutheran, Pastor Raymond W. Hedberg will conduct "Services of the Lighted Cross" during this period. Fete Opens New County Fire Station A new county fire serving the foothill area of La Canada and Upper Glendile was officially opened yesterday with appropriate ceremonies headed by County Fire Chief Keith E. Klinger and County Supervisor Roger Jes-sup.

The new station at 1729 Foothill La Canada, replaces the old County Engine Company 19 at 2541 Foothill which was vacated to make room for the new Foothill Freeway. Chief Klinger pointed out that the County Fire Department acquired its new facility for a total outlay of some $8000 because the State Division of Highways paid for the site under condemnation proceedings. The new station, costing $41,612, is commanded by Battalion Chiefs Orlo Peder-son and James Pemberton, New telephone numbers are CHurchill 9-1167 or SYca-more 3-7176. Comic Dictionary Coprrlcht, 1956. br Evtn Er PARROT A bird whose speech Is liki baby's intelli- giblo only to its owner.

of Reveals Illinois Region Is Now Lagging The research department of the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, disclosed Los Angeles County has officially passed Cook Coun ty (Chicago) HL, to become the nation's leading county in retail store sales. What about Manhattan? Well, that's a borough, corre sponding to a county, and it ranks only third. Phenomenal Gain George B. Gose, vice-president of the Chamber, re ported that Los Angeles County's sudden emergence as the top retail salesman was indicated by preliimnary results of the 1954 Census of Business which revealed that during the previous six years the county recorded a 49.5 gain. This burst of selling was sufficient to forge ahead of Cook County, the former na tional leader, by almost 000,000.

Census Report Figures Gose said Los Angeles re tail sales in the 1954 census report amounted to 696,000. Cook County reached $6,252,260,000. In the 1948 census, Chi cago's county totaled to lead second-place Los Angeles' $4,512,261,000 for the year. Other Populous Counties Gose said this county's re tail sales growth of during 1948-54 far exceeded any other county and surpassed the total store sales for 1954 of three of the nation's most populous counties. (These were Cuyahoga County, which contains Cleveland; Allegheny County, containing Pittsburgh, -and Suffolk County, Boston), During the six-year period, Los Angeles County's growth was more than eight times thaf of Manhattan, disclosed the Chamber of Commerce research department, just warming up to the subject.

And what does all this mean? Gose believes the acceleration "will tend to snowball." More store chains, will place outlets here and manufacturers will build plants here "because this is where the sales are." Automotive Sales As to exactly what Los Angeles County residents were buying so feverishly, Gose pointed out that the largest single increase item was automotive sales. The county, however, also ranks first in the nation in total retail store sales, food store sales, general merchandise store sales, gasoline, fur-Turn to Page 2, Column 4 Harold W. Wright, Chamber Anaeles County as the na Two Young At the end of seven years, the salary will a week. Miss Clark is really Mrs, Domenic Sorrenti, wife of a 25-year-old jazz trumpeter to whom she was wed in Mil waukee April 12, 1955. Sax ons true name is Carmine Orrico.

The petitions for approval of the two minors' contracts were presented by Atty. Syd ney Wetzler for Warner and by Atty. Seymour M. Bricker for U-I. HOLLENBECK HOME HONORS RESIDENT, 103 Residents of the Ho lenbeck Home for the Aged gathered yesterday to wish the home's eldest resident Isabelle Bradford a happy birthday, her 103rd.

Mrs. Bradford has been a resi-, dent of Los Angeles for 40 years. Featured among her letters and cards yesterday was one from Mayor a lesson from the Eisenhower ris td fame. They'd be quite'happyftlf what happened to him between 1942 and 1952 that skyrocket rise would satisfy almost anybody but they'd best take note of the fact that more than a quarter of a century of painstaking preparation, accompanied by mighty little in the way of skyrocketing, preceded the Eisenhower Golden Decade. The trick, as just about everybody eventually finds out, is to be ready for the Big Opportunity when it comes along and readiness consists largely of painstaking, inconspicuous and seemingly ill-rewarded preparation.

That's Ike's story. TRAINING Eisenhower's training for his military ascendency is obvious and, was also good preparation for his civilian job as President of the United States a job which, during Eisenhower's lifetime, has changed considerably. His experience in close contact with the allied governments during the war prepared him for the vast international understanding needed by a President. His strictly military activities also trained him in two conspicuous ways: (1) he learned to make important decisions, and (2) he learned to pick men. These are the two absolute requirements for a good President, "for the Chief Executive's main job is to make decisions, and the effectiveness of his administration over the vast ramifications of government depends on the quality of people in his Cabinet and other top administrative posts.

Ike has had top executives in most important jobs. Oddly enough President Eisenhower's weakest appointments were those which were dictated by his desire for bipartisanship when he named a couple of Democrats to Cabinet posts. Bipartisanship may be good for foreign policy but the home jobs are best run by people 100 with the administration, it would seem. Historian to Speak Historian Harold Lamb will speak at 6:15 p.m. tomorrow at the winter dinner meeting of the Phi Beta Kap pa Alumni of Southern Cali fornia at Town and Gown Foyer, SC.

i ii i limn pmno Yesterday, they were shep herded through the Standard Steel. Corp, plant by Robert S. Burns, president; N. Rees, executive vice-president, and other executives of the firm. Produces Heavy Equipment The company manufactures a line of heavy processing equipment for food, chem ical and other products.

It also makes asphalt plants and other special machinery to order. The Japanese party is led by Riichi Ohmura, managing director of a chain manufac turing company, assisted by Naotaka Yamanaka, president of a crane manufacturing firm. Trafveling with the group are two Japanese labor union leaders. In charge of the party is John H. Street of the Inter national Co-operation Administration, Washington.

They are at the Statler. Mutual congratulations were in order yesterday when two film players, Rena Clark, 17, and John Saxon, 20, met in Superior Judge Clyde C. Triplett's court for approval of contracts. Miss Clark's agreement binds her to Warner Bros. Studio for seven years, sub ject to periodical options, at a salary beginning at fciAi (and ending at $1000 a week.

Saxons contract is with Universal International Pic tures and went into effect in April, 1954, with a salary of $150 a week. Judge Triplett yesterday approved the exer-j cise of an option raising the compensation to $225 a week. Fastest Man to Give Lecture on Survival Lt. Col. John Paul Stapp known as the fastest man on earth will lecture on crash survival on land and in the air in UCLA's Royce Hall at 8 p.m.

Feb. 24. Col. Stapp is known for his experiments in supersonic rocket sleds. He once rode a rocket sled at a clip the fastest any man has traveled on the A group of Japanese indus trial executives, jotting copi ous notes and shooting snap shots as they went, toured the Standard Steel Corp.

plant yesterday at 5001 Boyle Ave. The dozen visitors, all from Osaka, are making a study of industrial efficiency methods in plants throughout the na tion under sponsorship of the International Co-opera tion Administration. Arrived Saturday They arrived from San Francisco Saturday. Monday they inspected the Byron Jackson 2301 Vernon maker of oil well drilling equipment. Tuesday they conferred with officials of the United Steelworkers Union on labor -management rela tions and today they are scheduled to visit the Link- Belt 361 Anderson St They will leave via American Airlines Sunday for Chicago.

It Is an odd coincidence thai the moment of decision about Dwight D. Eisenhower' i 1 retirement from public life should come almost exactly 14 yearj to the day from his rise from obscurity. EISENHOWER Most of us, aecustomed to the swift wartime promotions, forget the long, dry peacetime years when upgrading of officers didn't happen very often. Four-Star Gen. Alfred Gruenther was a lieutenant for 17 years.

Five-Star Gen. Hap Arnold was a major so long that he threatened to have the gold leaves tattooed on his clavicle. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Gen. George Catlett Marshall among those who have taken bows for picking up the obscure Lt. CoL Dwight Eisenhower and giving him his opportunity, but chances are that somebody else, much lower In rank than either of these, actually spotted Ike's It had, in fact, been recognized much earlier by Gen.

Douglas MacArthur. Anyhow, Ike was pulled out, of some maneuvers in the swamps of the South right after Pearl Harbor, placed in the war plans division of. the general staff, and named chief of war plans an Feb. 16, 1942, after only a few weeks on the job. SWIFT RISE Actually, in a single decade, from 1942 to 1952, Eisenhower rose from the status of an obscure junior officer to President of the United States.

He was pretty much a nobody at Pearl Harbor; two months later he was chief of the war plans division of the general staff; few months later he was sent across as commander of United States forces in the European theater; in February of 1943 he was mae commander in chief of allied forces in North Africa and given the rank of full general, thereby Skipping the gamut of flag rank in a year. It was only two years from Pearl Harbor that he became supreme allied commander. After the war came the presidency of Columbia University, the return to uniform to organize the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and then the White House. PREPARATION Young people who hope to achieve fame o'r get rich suddenly should ba able to draw quit vlVtM LOS ftHGIUS fl L-S I I II Vy srv 111-6 iM1 2i rlS 111 8 MCMawfl I nSxv" ill 9ft. Ml i Iff I i v- FIRE FIGHTER EXTRAORDINARY Tommy Stubbs, 3, grins happily as he tries on County Fire Chief Keith E.

I inger's helmet for size during the official opening of new county fire station in La Canada. Tommy, son of Fireman Floyd Stubbs is mascot. Tim i phot FIRST IN THE NATION -George B. Gose, left, ond of Commerce official. sHow fiaures which place Los tion's leading county in retail store sales.

County containing Chicago is second..