Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Page 11

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE? SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1939- II- I rtews of Stage and Screen This World of Books T? .1 Hits inu ;rcat Tour Vest Week 'Till They Meet Again 1 r TTav krfltea ""l'1 ;y ... rri 17,000 iiics. Uon.lir nt the Nixon ,,! Lvnn Fon- concluding ,;!fhe most notable road " 'ja t' rntricals some Vh s of course, brings - Zt to London, England. :Jnt. .... if 4. Pitt.. .ninvi the distinction .. u-im-liur up the cele ' .In bat of seeing the r'"'. . ... .u. TK. n IW pcwiuuo. -idiot's Delight" are iThe earlirr visit. ; the 1'ittsburgh engage-v, Lunt will return to his f r. . - Il ia f . r.prcsce ucpoi ui fr " . . ...ill v.. c ailment has been both- iH ft summer 01 treat- wlf. It was with great ! "Tk his phvsicians called K . " . T,...! 1 - . Mn'firiplHtra festival ot Cfldue to open in New York Mis lontanne, she Lfeit better. The tour to her mtltiniint rniiiiu ui picus- i i . , . of train w heels under sum a ih.hik t already ne is urging . n i. i . MOT 10 IUUl' Hirn lien !itfd fnr early October lOTK 'Umw as v niav they'd like to 'nrth. And they would like wnt "Keurinn In Vienna" Hie Taming: if the Shrew" 4 theatrical year. . eirrent American flight be-i Boston, with a hurricane, c:oher 3 and followed into k sd throush the Eastern territory new to the Lunts. ulavs were presented, the 2 :hre seen and to be Been In v Philadelphia a stage hand 4-rfdead at the dress rehearsal "ii Sea Gull" and In Chicago Epp car went astray, caus-;a iho to open on the a hoar after much hunting l ost seenery. Otherwise the u a thing of joy. z:i ar.d San Antonio com- ihout the cuss words in i?eiii;ht" and a state sen-I rhilii lelphia thought n "" bit racy. But . v.fi .Jarksnn (Miss.) r'wit finding any fault. .. cry auditoriums and Kirfuon Square Gardens ! tie company. In Texas the fre presented only in large p;:"jre houses. If Mr. a. lis way, "Idiot's Delight" avf been sopn in a dance 'J the outskirts of San -i :n defiance of a Decency i The league relented at the f.nt and what might have t-;h spot on the tour went Ar.d a cnod time dancing Sferformance, which didn't t bnke many jitter-bug Luntwln Vv 'titinie. Sue F""-'- " ' ' ' ' 1 i ALFRED LiUXT The vaudeville hoofer (Mr. I.unt) and the one-time acrobat (Miss Fontanne) finally meet again in a Swiss Alps hotel for the first time since that memorable night In Omaha, Aeh., in this scene from Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer TLYSN FOXTAXXE prize play, "Idiot's Delight," which the Lunts will present the last three days of next week at the Xixon. The first three they'll devote to the Chekov classic, "The Sea Gull," the new Stark Young translation. V'hjnein are that no other "f mndrrn times lived as ullmans for Such wires as "r received hv the The- Otiiid: "Why do you write a hot I. Don't you know "tough lows We never left pervr 1 shows traveled, as does with the company llv-'l"cars, but dramatic shows A"4 to imagine the Lunts "'"! np minstrel Is some- 't the hook. :i Part of the journey there 1 ral of six cars moving "'ti 'n town, two sleepers Jr "JEnje cars. Forty Yr,i three productions are ' 'h."w and more than the v "lri since the Zieefeld 'd with three to four troupe every year sleepers, but then only between towns and nobody living for days on & train. Yet Alfred and Lynn made no complaint. In fact, it was their own idea to "go circus." After all, he used to be in vaudeville and he and Lynn did ride the elephants in the grand entree of the Ringling- Barnum show a few years ago at the Garden in New York. And now the famous tour Is about to close. There is likely to he a few tears at the final curtain of "Idiot's Delight" on April 59 at the Nixon. Some of the company, including Larry Far-rell, their, manager for 10 years, are going to California for the summer; others to far-flung corners. Rut in the fall they'll all be together again. The Lunts, you know, have kept this troupe together for five years, ever since "The Taming ef the Shrew" had its first performance in Pittsburgh. These actors, as the saying used to go, go with the well- known lease. Alfred will rest and will come through. He is too much of a troup er to let any physical ailment dis turb him. He and his wife have had a strenuous season and rate a complete vacation. They've brought thousands of new faces to the American theater and they've spared no cost to bring not only the original company but the original scenic Investiture to the remote cities. There will be "The Sea Gull" for three more days and then "Idiot's Delight" for the final stanza. Meanwhile good, old "Amphitryon 38" is being unloaded in the New York railroad yards. And in nine days a happy band of thespians will shake themselves and proudly say, "we've been around, we surely have." The Lunts have proved that there is a road and that the road must survive even if they have to '! Hall Mon. Eve Mar 1st NLANDIA CHORUS Olympic Fund for Pgh. Athletes to Helsingfors 1940 Olympic ' i i i - i nil w i tin ii n w n us i mm av a iioiu.'. mirtiM' v.wr( ft.uvi vriFf fiv wu9 f m luriMii r , FIRST AMEBIC A Pf TOCK 70 MALE VOICES From Helsinki, Finland s PEREWSKI Mosque Sat. Evs'g, May 6th TICKETS NOW t Mellor' HI. 8.1. S2.20, $3.75, S3 30. No Telephone Rpserr&tions. COMMENCING MONDAY NIGHT 8:30 Th Theatre Guild, Inc., present ALFRED LUNT nYNN FONTANNE - Mon., Tneg. . i 4 Vted. M J Thun.,Fri. S im PRODI CTIONS IN TWO PLATS Wed. Mat. Sat. f( "THE SEA GULL" Sat. Mat. -'Illllll llflllilll" .- W MBBSBIMia ij HOW . It Amrrlnn Tbtr SorMr Snbrrlptlon Ply. v 11 m -,ejcei NighU SSi, Sl.ie. S1.S. .!SO. sa.75. Wed. kw','W',J i ., -20 Include tax). (Kindly (ead cheek ttnmpd envelope). Three RevTarded For Kind Deeds The Western Pennsylvania Hu mane Society, In connection with the current Humane Week, has recognized three Western Pennsyl vania children with its highest award for unusual kind deeds to animals, it was announced yesterday. Jack Morrissey and Dick Hubert, both of Tyrone, were honored for their rescues of a cat and a sparrow, respectively, from drowning. won a gold-plated pin for nursing to health a homeless dog which had bitten her after it was struck by an automobile. The society has three different classifications of awards for chil dren who perform meritoriously kind deeds to animals. Those rec ognized yesterday received the top award. Wind Downs Windbreak To protect seedling trees at his Northridge ranch, Robert Taylor planted a eucalyptus windbreak, part of which was uprooted by high Catherine Shaunessy of Altoonal winds recently. h Q OF TUCE WORLD'S MOST I FAMOUS PMTIIGS r fig NIXON 11 UniTereity of Pittsburgh PondGOWN CLUB Entlrt Week MAY 1 Beginning Mattne: UniTereity of Pittsburgh Preterite Its 32nd Annual Musical Madcap "At Your Service Me, i, ei.80, 2. Mall Order Now Ne Tax) Seat April JT GIRL WITH A MARMOT by Fragonard Albertina Collection, Vienna T" T i nrxKT A T? n nil icon iU 1 court painter to Louis XV, was kept busy painting voluptuous scenes of love and seduction. Madame du Barry set the fashion for the whole pleasure-loving court by decorating her boudoir with his paintings. He began his career as a law clerk, but his genius for art brought him to the studio of Francois Boucher in Paris. He surpassed his master, when the people of trance rose against the profligate monarchy, they included the court painter Fragonard, and he was forced to return to Grasse, his home. There he turned to simpler subject matter. The Girl With a Mat mot was probably painted during this period. This simplicity and his rich tender color, -altogether his own, form his special contribution to French painting and make him a vital figure even today. He was poor and forgotten when he died in Paris in 1806. Th above painting it among 48 great masterpieces which have heen reproduced in full original color by a new process. These reproductions are being offered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to all art lovers at extraordinarily low cost. They are divided into 12 sets of 4 paintings each. One set of four will be made available each week for only 39 cents if purchased at the Post-Gazette Building, Grant St, and Blvd. of Allies, or 46 cents by mail, the extra cost covering handling and postage Sett No. lt 2t J, 4, 4, 6 and 7. on malm now. By Lee Berry- ifW'xw.om-,-?v.'.-.'v.. John Steinbeck. (From a painting by Beskov) EPIC: For year critics have been waiting for Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, John Dos Passos or some unknown to step for ward and write the Great American Novel. This week it looks as if the trick had finally been turned. John Steinbeck's heroic "The Grapes of Wrath" (Viking, $2.75) is certainly the most electrifying novel of the year, probably the most important American novel of the present century and possibly the hardest hitting work of fiction yet written in this country. Those are reckless words, and a supposedly hard-boiled reviewer should know better than to Indulge in such fantastic superlatives. But by any standards at all this tough, tender, exalting saga of American life Is a magnificent creative achievement, packed to the covers with high-voltage writing and powerful characterizations, and possessed of that same terrific emotional impact which has kept "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in circulation for the more than 10 years that have passed since the abolition of slavery-Climax piles on climax as the story moves swiftly and surely towards its last desperate pages, and any reader who can pass through the walloping final scene and still maintain a nice sense of critical proportion ought not to be reading fiction at all. This isn't merely a good novel or a distinguished novel or an exicting novel. If s a great novel, and you don't need a course In literary appreciation to know it. Excellent as were "Tortilla Flat," "Of Mice and Men" and "In Dubious Battle," the previous Steinbeck novels now turn out to have been curtain-raisers for the present work. Everything that made the other books memorable is here in still greater quantity, plus a narrative conceived on an epic scale, a seering hatred of social in justice and a feeling for the nobility of the human spirit that no other American writer of our time can even begin to matcn. The storv itself concerns the transcontinental journey of an Okla homa family who have been driven from their land by foreclosing bankers and attracted to California by false promises of work. The family are the Joads, good American stock of seven and eight genera tions back, nnd their pitiful caravan includes Ma, Pa, Uncle John Grampa, Granma, three grown sons a pregnant daughter, her husband and two younger children. Along with them goes an ex-preacner, a man whose spiritual stature has taken him far beyond the simple tenets of rustic evangelism. The first half of the book, describing the forced exodus of the Joads from Oklahoma and the start of their journey across the continent in a third-hand jalopy, contains much earthly comedy, a growing vein of grin tragedy. In California, where the Joads and thousands of other have-nots are hounded, exploited and starved in turn, tne comic note dies out, the tragic theme swells info a mighty chorus. The final scene, certain to arouse violent discussion, is devastating, "The Grapes of Wrath" will be enormously popular, for it is too compelling a story and too magnificent a literary achievement to lack readers. It is also likely to be enormously influential, for John Steinbeck is an angry man, and he has poured the full flood of that anger into a novel that can be quite fairly called inspired propaganda, ihe doaas, like millions of other Americans, are cold and hungry, without money, without hope and without work. And as Mr. Steinbeck has occasion to say more than once, "when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need." Those who deplore the Hitlers and Stalins of our age had better t take a look at America through Steinbeck eyes. It's a tragic, terrifying and unforgettable sight. DAUGHTERS: Tne three daughters of Lin Yutang have written a cnarming book about tnemseives, tneir travels ana their famous author-father, "Our Family" (John Day, $2). Adet, 16, and Anor, 13, are actually the authors of this essay-diary, for Meimei, aged 8, has contended herself with supplying a foreword and a number dT footnotes. Pearl Buck, who has contributed an affectionate introduction, ex plains that the diary was originally started as an exercise in English composition and that when publication was decided upon, no adult changed a word or phrase. The contents of the book connrm tms observation, for Adet and Anor are as frank as they are amusing, and their outspoken comments on their own behavior and that of their parents reveal no traces of grown-up supervision or censorship, Outside of its adolescent freshness and charm, the chief interest of the book lies in its vivid portrait of the author of "My Country fnd My People" and "The Importance of Living." Lin Yutang commands love and respect from his daughters but no awe. They write of his hobbies, habits and idiosyncracies with affectionate irreverence, and their story of the Old Gold contest is particularly delectable. Other matters which come up for discussion: Radio City, the war in China, Atlantic City, favorite movie stars, the European crisis of last Septem ber, shopping in Paris, childhood memories, a visit to Vesuvius, PROFESSOR: During the course of his 986-page "Autobiography With Letters" (Oxford, $3.75) William Lyon Whelps, most widely known and generally beloved college professor of our time, lists his prejudices and dislikes, which include musical comedies, free verse, parsnips and big books. But although his own sprawling life history weighs two and a half pounds, few of Its readers will share the author's distaste for literary bulk. From beginning to end it is never anything but completely irresistible. Although Billy Phelps manages to tell some thing about his boyhood and youth, his early teach ing years and the innovations in pedagogy which caused students to pack his classroom for 40 years, he doesn't dwell overlong on either himself or his accomplishments. This is a book about everything under the sun, and among the infinite variety of persons and subjects discussed in its pages are football, John Galsworthy, hiccoughs, cats, Gene Tunney, European travel, the art of blowing smoke XV T. Phelns. rings, the Fano Club, golf, Katharine Cornell, re ligion, billiards, Edgar Guest, Henry Ford, Shakespeare and symphonic music. ...... First, last and always, Billy Phelps writes about his greatest love: hooks and authors. He tells countless stories about ine great ana near cret. f reauentlv punctuates his reminiscences with personal glimpses of such famous literary figures as Amy txtweii, Henry dames, jiarK Twain and James Whitcomb Riley. On one page is a tribute to the late Clarence Day, on another a curiously flip letter from Edna Ferber. Most of the imnortant plays and novels of the last three decaqes are men tioned at least once, and at intervals Mr. Phelps breaks into a spirited defense of some book or writer he believes has been undeservedly ignored. ' As mifeht have been expected, tne I'neips- - Autooiograpny wnn Letters" is a discursive, generous, vigorous, salty book. Sardonic critics may complain that there's too much sweetness and light, that some of the literarv opinions aren t altogether sound, tnat tne dook Dears too heavy a load of personal trivia and irrelevent data. Forget it. If you like the man (and who wouldn't like him?), you'll like his book. AUGHTER: So ew novels are now being written for the sole pur-" pose of beguiling the reader that there is an inevitable temptation to under-rate or over-rate the scant handful that do put in an appearance. Thu3 one can complain that Margery Sharp's "Harlequin House" (Little, Brown, $2.50) lacks social significance, or one can take the opposite point of view and rejoice tnat nere is a novel mat never once hints at the existence of Hitler, the depression or the war in China. Miss Sharp has taken a musical comedy plot and half a dozen lovable eccentrics and blended them neatly together into a light- hearted whole. Her story, which starts in an English seaside resort and moves on to London in a mass of complication, involves a middle-aged gentleman with a yearning for romantic adventure and red socks, a beautiful girl possessed of much ingenuity ana a strong win, ana ner irresponsible brother, who peddled dope in night clubs under the im pression that it was baking soda. The world in which these people move is not the nerve-wracked, war-torn world of the newspaper headlines. But it's a world filled with lauehter. color and romance, and Miss Sharp brings it to chuckling life. Less hilarious than "The Nutmeg Tree" but more suavely plotted, Harlequin House" is that rarest of present-day rarities; a truly gay novel. VETERANS: When Millen Brand's "The Outward Room" was published several years back, it was almost unanimously praised for its narrative simplicity, its emotional power and its literary restraint. "The Heroes" (Simon and acnusier, s.z), air. uranas secona novel, is another leaf off the same tree, and all the adjectives that greeted the previous book can be brought out again for use on this one. The setting Is a soldiers home on the out skirts of a New England town, and the central character is George Burley, a one-armed veteran who is forced to seek refuge there when he loses his job as cabinetmaker and can't find another. There's nothing the matter with the institution itself except that it's a drab and monotonous place to spend a still active middle age. Things become even worse when George meets and falls in love with a girl who works in a nearby factory. She returns his love, but under the circumstances mar riage is out of the question. What eventually happens to this hapless pair supplies the story with a logical and heartening conclusion. The body of the novel is concerned with daily life in the home and with the men who live there. Mr. Brand handles his setting and characters with an expert and knowing hand, and the unvarnished simplicity of his prose saves his novel from any charge of sentimentality. Impressive but unspectacular, "The Heroes" makes far more engrossing reading: than a bare summary of Its contents might suggest, ' nr I JLlJ Millen Brand. Rodeo Queen to Appear Here v. (Si ---a-i, V k. Wilt V - , 1 I K x-aL I , i , if : hfV'&i-K . f - - I " V--' . ' ' . I OPAL AXX WOOD Miss Wood is one of the cowgirls with the fifth annual world championship rodeo which moves into Duquesne Garden Wednesday for a 10-day stand. She is a five-time winner of world championships in "bronk" and trick-riding competition. A cast of 200 performers and an equal number of wild horses, cow ionies and steers will be seen in the rodeo. State Cavalry Faces Shifts Five Troops to Be Made Artillery Unitg. HARRISBURG, April 21. UP Orders went out today for the most sweeping reorganization of Penn sylvania's Fifty - second Cavalry Brigade since 1929. Adjutant General Edward Mar tin announced that, pursuant to war 'department orders, five of the brigade's 21 troops would be con verted into units of an entirely new One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Field Artillery Regiment, and an other would be changed into a sig nal troop. The reorganization will be ef fective June 17 at the start of the Pennsylvania cavalrymen's annual field training period. Some of the troops will be trans ferred from the One Hundred and Third Cavalry to the One Hundred and Fourth, and vice versa. The result will be that the One Hundred and Third will be located entirely west of Harrisburg. The One Hundred and Fourth will include Har risburg troops and those east of the capital. Here And There O BOTANICAL FIELD TRIP Dr. . E. Jennines of Carnegie Mu seum will lead a field trin of the Botanical Society of Western Penn- ylvania to Shades Ravine on Sat- rday. April 29. There will be no field trip today. TALK OX BOYCOTT Robert Norton, executive secretary of the American Committee for a Boycott Against Aggressor Nations and editor of "China Today," will speak in the Third Presbyterian Church Wednesday night at 8 o'clock under the sponsorship of the Pittsburgh Committee for a Boycott Against Aggressor Nations. RAILWAY CLUB Harry R. Condon will talk on "The Lumber Industry and Its Relation to Trans portation" at a meeting rf the Railway Club of Pittsburgh at 8 o'clock Thursday night in the Fort Pitt Hotel. JUDGE TO SPEAK Judge Gus- tav L. Schramm of juvenile court will speak tonight at the twentieth anniversary dinner of the Pitt chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha in the Cathedral of Learning. EDGEWOOD MASS MEETING Congressman John McDowell of Wilkinsburg will address a mass meeting of Edgewood citizens in the Edgewood High school auditorium at 8:15 o'clock Monday night under the auspices of the Edgewood Men's Association. SEEK TWO HERE The bureau of missing persons has been asked to search for Charles . Franklin MacDonald, who left his home in East Orange, N. J, September 28, 1933. The bureau also has been requested to find Mrs. Hanna Robinson, who is sought by a relative. LUNCHEON PLANNED The Democratic Women's Guild of Alle-! heny county will hold a bridge- luncheon Saturday afternoon, April 29, at the Home Arts Studio of the Rosenbaum Company. Mrs. John J. Kane is chairman. $99,416 Opens ;Y' Campaign $600,000 Immediate Goal In Drive Here. The special gifts and industrial committees in the Y. M. C. A. carri paign announced subscriptions totaling $99,416 at a preliminary report meeting held yesterday at noon in the Duquesne Club. Of this total, $16,600 was turned in by the industrial committee of which V. B. Edwards is chairman. The remainder was produced by the seven groups of the special committee under the chairmanship of William F. Knox. Group totals yesterday were:. Group A C. A. Fisher, $32,275; Group B T. J. Gillespie, Jr., $18,800; Group C Ralph W. Harbison, $7,210; Group D Charles A. Locke, $3,400; Group E Frank Wilbur Main, $7,756; GroupF Wilfrid Murtland, $2,475; Group G James C. Rea, $10,900. These committees are under taking to raise a minimum of $600,-000 toward the total objective of $1,000,000 needed by the Y. M. C. A. of Pittsburgh, for payment of long standing debts, deferred maintenance, and some necessary new projects. They will begin a series of semi- weekly reports with a luncheon at the Duquesne Club Tuesday noon. Mr. Locke, secretary of the board, addressed the workers preceding yesterday's report. Pettengill Lecture Set for Jhursday Former Congressman Samuel B. Pettengill of Indiana will speak on "The Citizens' Interest in the Threatened Socialization of Medicine" in Mellon Institute audi torium at 8:15 o'clock Thursdav night in the 1939 Bedford lecture series sponsored by the Allegheny County Medical Society. The lecture series was instituted in 1922 by the College of Physicians of Pittsburgh in honor of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, surgeon at Fort Pitt in colonial days. In 1937, sponsorship was transferred to th county medical society. Since leaving Congress, Mr. Pettengill has been commenting on national and international affairs in a newspaper column appearing in the Post-Gazette. SAVE TIME Use the NEW phone number of the Post-Gazette's modernized want ad department For want ada only ATlantic 6125. Advt Death Claims Exposer Of Musica as Plotter NEW YORK, April 21. UP)-. Julian F. Thompson. 51. treasurer of McKesson and Robbins, Inc., whose personal investigation of the corporation's affairs led to the exposure of F. Donald Coster as Philip Musica, ex-convict, died early today from influenza at his Park avenue home. His widow an two children, Patricia, 14, and Julian, 11, survive. Mr. Thompson was author of "The Warrior's Husband," in which Katharine Hepburn made her first Broadway hit. d Scully Praises Drive Of Disabled Veterans The annual Forget-Me-Not drive, scheduled for today under sponsorship of the disabled American War Veterans, is "worthy of every cooperation," in the opinion of Mayor Scully. The mayor issued a proclamation last night calling attention to the brotherly spirit which has characterized the movement. - i 1