Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 31

-It Happened- Where Was Washington's Crossing? I -w. i Last Night By EARL WILSON Groucho Almost a Prrtty As Tliat IVarhv MIAMI BEACH "I'm staying at the Americana, this year's Florida hotel," I mentioned to Goodman Ace. the Broadway wit ho is Perry Como's head writer. "You mean this week's Florida hotel," Tuesday Morning, Dec. 18, 1956 -Pit sfaurgiesque By CHARLES F.

Danver 4 observed Goodie sagaciously. It's true that Florida's putting up places about as fast in its population battle with California. Groucho Marx in Bermuda shorts, straw hat, cigar and blazer-type sports shirt looked almost as pretty as the hotel. He was doing an INew Business Dept. PETE DEMKO, a Christmas helper at the Union Trust postoffice branch, says it happened there last week.

A chap mailing a package, when told that the postage would be $1.77, said he had a roll of three-cent stamps Elvis Presley belly-wiggle be hind the scenes at NBC 30th annivcrsarv. Did our first President and his guide go across the Allegheny River at the site where the big Washington Crossing Bridge now stands? Earl Wilson and retired to the table to put them on. He had some trouble counting, however, and put on only 26. When informed that 59 were needed, he went back to try again. But again he scored a near miss.

Fact, it took three more attempts before he succeeded in putting the required number on the package. Pete saw him a few days "Everybody can do an Elvis Presley but Elvis, Presley," grimaced Groucho. Summoning Johnnie Ray from a nearby cahana, got him and Melinda Marx, 8, to do the Presley wiggle together. "Now 1 vp got to nap," groaned Groucho. "I feel very depreslpycd." Puffing a small pipe, Eddie Usher hovered over Debbie beaming because he's closing a deal to be Coke's good will ambassador three-years at $100,000 a year.

"Vou're very skinny." I said. My wifa anoko up: "Naturally, a father always loses a lot of weight after he's had a baby." "No, vou'd better not do 'What's My I "heard somebody tell Eddie. They wanted Eddie for a panel appearance. But mmmmmmmMMmm. 7 Or was it two miies up-river, where Cuyasuta Island, shown above, left, now called Six Mile Island, sits near Highland Park Bridge.3 as CBS refused to let, Jackie Gleason do nor Hope's show, NBC retaliated.

It. looks like a cold war hetween CBS Veep Hubbell Robinson and NBC Veep Mannie Sacks. Speaking of cold wars, this is a proper and fittin' place to have one. ICs not polite to mention the weather, hul when I a.sked Harold Cruder, managing director of the Mercury, If he had a heated pool, be replied: "We don't need healed pools. This It not California!" But I thought he sort of shivered when he said it.

EARL'S PEARLS The trouble with too many tomatoes is that they want to be cultivated by old rakes. WISH I'D SAID THAT: "Remember the good old days," sighs Sammy Kaye, "when every car carried a crank whether the driver was married or not?" TODAY'S BEST LAUGH: Frank Ceruttl advises us all to mail those holiday cards early, so the incorrectly addressed ones'll be back before Christmas. Joe (Embers) Howard says he attended a play by Arthur Miller, and when it was over the audience shouted, "Author's wife! Author's That's Earl, brother. MICHAEL II. KENNEDY1 EDWARD A.

SCHLEICHER Charlie Danver later and asked, "Are you still having trouble with your stamps?" Yte shook his head and replied soberly, "No, we're buying our stamps from the Government now!" Change of Scene MANY "office" Christmas parties will be hld in near-by restaurants and cafes instead nf in the office. The change of scene is for practical rather than moral reasons. It eliminates the risk of insulting the boss in his own back yard and also eliminates the free-loading gate, crashers. Visiting Scrooge A CAB DRIVER recently chauffeured a gent from Detroit who had fled to this city after the painful duty, he said, of laying off 600 workers. The thought of his mass hatchet just before Christmas was too much for him, and he felt he had to get away.

He had the cab driver take him to a church, but this failed to ease his conscience. He then tried a round of the taverns and ended up having a good cry. Finally, bidding the cabbie a sad good-bye, he decided to return to the scene of the crime. -k Noel All Year MORE contributions to the Veterans Rcord Fund: A Gold Star Mother, $10; Rose E. L.

Reynolds, In memory of her brother, Goss W. Reynolds, $2: N. E. Diller. $10; H.

Stewart Dunn. $10: Mrs. Judson Ellis. Paul J. Urquhart.

$25; Anonymous, $25. Thanks so much. Balance: $938.27. Crosstcmn Chatter WILLIAM G. FOLEY, auto radiator man, and his wife are visiting their daughter, Mary Jane Stoll, in Anaheim, Cal.

He will celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday anniversary there next Monday. Mrs. Margaret Cad-man, a Clairton prize-winner in the Associated Artists' exhibition last year, has received a gracious thank-you note from the White House. Her Christmas card to the Eisenhowers was an oil portrait she made of the President. The five little trains on the Christ-, mastown Railroad at the Buhl Planetarium have traveled a total of 1,500 miles since the exhibit opened.

It's expected to equal a transcontinental trjp before the railroad shuts down January 6. Forgotten Key WORD comes from a resident of Washington that Mayor Lawrence, when he was there last week, Has presented with a key to the city. But on departing after the ceremony, lie forgot to take it with him. Later a TV announcer, commenting on the Incident said: "We sure impressed him!" The difference of opinion was recently by Ed- brought to light ward A. Schleicher.

16, of 3819 How- On Broadway By DOROTHY KILGALLEN By WnXIAM M. RIMMEL Pott-Gatettt Stall Wntfr WHERE did George Washington make his historic crossing of the Allegheny River on his mission from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to the French Commandant at Fort Le Boeuf, that eventually marked the beginning of the French and Indian War? Markers on the Washington Crossing Bridge, placed there by the Pittsburgh Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, say that both Washington and Christopher Gist, his guide, crossed the river at that point on December 29, Another marker on the-Washmgton Vocational High School on Fortieth Street, placed by the Pennsylvania Society, Colonial Dames of America, also marks the bridge site as th place of the historical crossing. The only difference in this plaque is that the date of the crossing is given as December 30, 1753. The Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce in a book of facts about Pittsburgh which it sends all over the world claims that Washington not only crossed the river at Fortieth Street but also fell into the water. The book says he was on a surveying trip at the time.

BUT the Journals of George Washington and his guide, Christopher Gist, edited and compiled by Don Marshall Larraher, of Wil-liamsport, in 1929, shows that the river crossing was made at about two miles above Shanapin's Town, now Thirty-fourth and Butler Streets. This spot, local historians say, is GuyaMifa Island, also known as Six Mil Island, a short distance below 1h Highland Park Bridge. part of the night without a slop so as to be out of reach of pursuit the next day. The next day we continued traveling until quite dark, and got to the river about two miles above Shanapin's. "WE EXPECTED to have found the river frozen, but it was not, only about 50 yards from each shore.

There was no way getting over but on a raft, which with but one poor hatchet we finished just at sun setting. This was a whole day's work; we next got it launched, then went aboard of it and set off. "Before we were halfway over, we were jammed in the running ice, In such a manner, that we expected our raft to sink and ourselves to perish. "Notwithstanding our efforts we could not get to cither shore, but were obliged, we were near an island, to quit our raft and make lo II," Historian Kennedy claims this island that Washington wrote about was Guyasuta Island, below 1he Highland Park Bridge. This section on the north side the river was known as Guyasuta and is the home of a Boy Scout reservation by that name.

Mr. Kennedy also pointed out that an old Indian trail crossed the island and up what is now Washington houlevard and on cast tn Turtle Creek and the Monongahela River. IX 1919 WHEN the county commissioners started construction of the bridge, Mr. Kennedy led a one-man fight against naming the structure after Washington. He said It was idiotic to say that Washington crossed at the bridge site when history showed it was nearly two miles farther up the river.

He said that William Stevenson, then head of the Historical Soclely, shWI that people were not so lnlprcstpd In the exact spot and felt that It should be named after our first President no matter where he crossed the river. The County Commissioners and Historical Society leaders pointed out the old marker on the Washington School on Fortieth Street which was erected In 1908 and gave the bridge site as the river crossing. STANTON BELFOUR, director of the Pittsburgh Foundation and well-known local historian, is of the opinion that the bridge actually is at the place where Washington and Gist crossed the Allegheny. Hp said Washington's noles on the trip to (lie French fort indicate hp crossed the river in the vicinity of Wainwright's Island, long since vanished. This island, Mr.

Rrl-four said, is shown on 100-year-old maps. WBinwrighr Island wni near what Is now known as llerr's Island, which Is a short distance below Hi Washington Crossing Bridge. "Washington and Gist came down through the Pine Creek see. tinn and Uien across (he Allr-gheny," Mr. Belfour said.

"I think the bridge marks the spot or very near the spot of that historic crossing." Regardless of (hp markers, both Mr. Kennedy and young Schleichter stand by their guns that Washington crossed the river from Guyasuta' Island. They both point to history hooks quoting Washington and say, "Washington and Gist should know, they made the crossing." Gossip in Gotham TVEW YORK One of the nicest (and rich-il est) love affairs on th current Broadway stage features Cordelia Drexel Biddl and Angier Duke, as impersonated behind th loot lights by Diana van ner vjis ana ocoit? ley Street, a student In American history at Central Catholic High School and Michael H. Kennedy, 84, of 349 Stratford Avenue, retired realty man and historian. Both wrote the Post-Gazette after reading a know-your-city quiz in which the Washington Crossing Bridge was given as the site where Washington almost his life while crossing the Allegheny River during a surveying trip in 1753.

YOUNG Schleicher, who not only studies American history morning, noon and night, but also makes frequent historical trips, produced Larrabee's pamphlet on Washington's journey through the district to prove his point. The young student said that historical books in the Carnegie Library show similar facts on the site of the crossing. In the Journals of George Washington he Is quoted as follows: "I 'set out with Mr. Gist, on Wednesday the 26th, (1753) intending to steer across the country for Shanapin's Town when we fell in with a party of French Indians, who had laid In wait for us. One of them fired at or Gist, but fortunately missed.

"We walked all the remaining Grizzard in the hit play "The Happiest Millionaire." The delightful news: their romance is just as warm offstage, and members of the cast can brace themselves for the happy announcement. Another of Grace Kelly's bridesmaidsRita Gam Guinzburg' ie lii lia a ViaKtr elinu'flr What's the Good Word? By MRS. FRANK COLBY Words to Watch rpHE WORD TASSEL should not rhyme JL with "fossil." The spelling "tossel" was once used almost as frequently as "tassel," and "tossel" was pronounced to rhyme with "fossil." But both the spelling and pronunciation "tossel" are obsolete. Spell it "tassel" and pronounce it: TASS-ul. Watch the word partner; note that it is spelled with and not Be sure to say: PART-ner.

Incidentally, it may help us to write and (mm 1 AH sound the in partner if we will remem-. mmMM I.T III llll i. Ingrid Bergman's appear- I ance in "Tea and Sympathy" LV I is the most talked about event Miss Kilgallcn of the Paris theatrical season, hut it's sold out only for a week in advance. (New York's ticket brokers would wither in Europe, where you can almost always buy good seats just before curtain time.) The Krnpst Hemingways are doing their Yuletidp shopping In London, but will spend the holiday In Paris. Miss Mary's present to her husband is predictable: new fishing Rear.

Kim Novak has repudiated any affection for Tony Kastner intimating she merely enjoyed skiing with him and one of Harry Conn's aides at Columbia Pictures wrote a curt note saying in effect "no dice" to Tony's plans for a "Kim Novak Day" at Crossinger's, Obviously the studio doesn't think he's important enough to romance one of their hottest properties, and perhaps Kim now agrees he's not her dish of tea, but there was a' day when she happily posed for snapshots cuddling with him at a corner table. (And not a ski in siglit.) When chums ask Charlie O'Curran what's holding up (lie oft-announced wedding to I'ntti Page, his answer is "We're always being separated by our careers, and we don't think that's good for marriage." ik-Tin Pan Alley is rough on vocalists. Th four major disc labels are dropping their options on 27 new singers signed during th past year, and one firm's executive board has issued this order to its artists-and-reper-loire staff: "No more vocalist contracts without full board approval." Preview audiences Indicate Katherlne Hepburn Is Oscar-bound for her emoting in "Tim Rainmaker." fflSTJiflswttOju ner tnat para is a worn which means "leopard." "Pardner," therefore, is a nonsensical word. Better avoid it. The word disastrous has three syllables only.

Not "di-ZASS-ter-uss." Noie that the third syllable is -trous. Be sure to say: di-ZASS-truss. Hindrance is another word in which an extra syllable is often heard, as, "HIN-der-unss." Hindrance is a two-syllable word, the older spelling "hinderance" now being obsolete. Better say: HIN-dr'nss. Our next word usually loses a syllable instead of gaining one.

Authoritatively is telescoped thus: "aw-THAWR-i-tiv-lee." But the, "ta" syllable should not only be pronounced, it should also receive a secondary accent, thus: aw-THAWR-lTAY-tivlee. Overheard in a clubroom: "The trouble with him is. he's got an artistic temp-munt." The word temperament, of course, has four syllables; and so has the word temperature. Careful speakers will want to say: TEM per-uh-m'nt; TEM-per-uh-cher." 1'4 These markers correspond except for the date. Left one is on the bridge.

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