The Daily Progress from Charlottesville, Virginia • 15

Lafayette Theater to Be Demolished The Lafayette Theater, which once thrilled large audiences with western movies and stage attractions, will be razed next year to make way for a new Rose's 5-10- 25-Cent Store. Henry A. Haden, president of the Jefferson-Lafayette Theater which owns the building at 110-114 West Main said a tentative agreement has been reached with Rose's for a 20-year lease. He said he expected the contract to be signed next month. The variety store is scheduled to open about March 1961.

It will be Rose's second store in Charlottesville. The first opened at the Barracks Road Shopping Center in 1 June. The Lafayette Theater, which is operated by Neighborhood Theaters Inc. of Richmond, quietly closed its doors last July 4 after more than 38 years of operation. A sharp decline in attendance forced the theater's closing.

John W. Kase, district manager here for Neighborhood Theaters, said the Lafayette's demise began about five years ago as attendance grew progressively worse. In the last few years, Kase said, it has been increasingly difficult to procure good Grade westerns and action films, which were the type of fare the Lafayette offered. He said that after World War II movie producers, faced with the competition of television, began making fewer movies. The cutback came in the Grade western as producers began concentrating their smaller output on co Grade A films with high production budgets.

These top quality films were engaged for the ferson Theater, also owned by the Jefferson-Lafayette corporation and operated by Neighborhood This left slim pickings for the Lafayette. Audiences dwindled. In time Neighborhood Theaters found it cheaper to close the Lafayette and pay the rent on the empty theater than to continue operating at a loss. The Lafayette was built in 1920 under conditions which the owners found trying. The minutes of a meeting of the Jefferson-Lafayette's board of directors on July 24, 1920, report that "the new building is progressing as well as could be expected under the trying conditions which all builders are now confronted with, worthless labor and the delay in securing materials." The Lafayette, with a seating capacity of 1,064, opened its doors to the public on Jan.

6, 1921. It Negro Jailed For Shooting John Goene, a 36-year-old Negro of near Spring Valley in southwestern Albemarle County, has been jailed for shooting his wife in the leg on Christmas Eve. Sheriff W. S. Cook said Goene's wife, Ollie Lee, was struck by a bullet on the back of her right leg.

She was not hospitalized. Cook said she was running from her husband to a neighbor's house. He said she slammed the front door of the house just before Gone shot. The bullet pierced the door and hit the woman's leg. Goene is being held on a charge of feloniously shooting his wife with intent to kill.

WEATHER COLDER The forecast for tonight is scattered showers and colder with low temperatures 37 to 42. Tomorrow will be cloudy and colder. The 9 a.m. temperature at Leander McCormick Observatory was 52 degrees. The high yesterday was 64 and the high Saturday was 54.

The low this morning was 50 and the low Sunday was 35. Rainfall in the 48 hours before 9 a.m. totaled .01 of an inch. FIVE-DAY FORECAST The weather forecast for Virginia from tomorrow through Saturday: Temperatures will average near normal. It will be colder tomorrow, warmer Thursday and Friday, and colder again Saturday.

There is a chance of rain in some parts of the state Thursday or Saturday. OBITUARIES Benjamin Scruggs Benjamin J. Scruggs, 74, of 943 St. Charles died today in Martha Jefferson Hospital. He was a retired farmer.

He was born April 11, 1885, in Fluvanna County, son of the late James Everett and Jenny Haden Scruggs. He is, survived by his wife, Anna Scruggs, of Charlottesville. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m./ Wednesday at MapleI wood Cemetery. was built at a cost of $150.000 and contained a swank $15,000 pipe organ which was played to accompany silent films. The Daily Progress reported on Jan.

1921, that 1, "The magnificent front of this play house, which has created favorable comment, hardly prepares one for the wonderful interior decorating and lighting of largest, most beautiful, and modern house of its kind the South. "You can readily see upon enthe spacious auditorium expense has not been spared make this the most comfortable magnificent motion picture theater in the South." new much the most in tering that to and "Something to Think About," with Gloria Swanson and Elliot Dexter. By the late 1920s, the Lafayette was switching to action-type films, Grades and with the Saturday western a high point of each week. During the next two decades the theater played to full houses on weekends. The stars who drew the largest followings were Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Johnny Mack Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Charles Sterrett, Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, Lash Larue, Sunset Carson, and a troop of others who loped into the setting sun to avoid kissing the heroine.

The 1940s and '50s took their toll on the appearance of the once magnificent Lafayette. As profit margins began to narrow after the war, the theater began to deteriorate until it finally took its place at the end of the line. The Lafayette Theater went out of businss on July 4 with a typical last Gun Kelly" and "The Bonnie Parker Story In addition to the theater, there are three other businesses now occupying the Lafayette building. They are the National 1 Company, operated by Dave M. Cohan, on the east side of the theater; the Purity Ice Cream Company, a small food parlor operated by Steve Tripoli, adjoining the west side; and the Charlottesville branch of Alcoholics Anonymous located upstairs.

Haden said the building cannot be torn down until July 1, because The Daily Progress Charlottesville, Virginia one of the tenants has a lease through June 30 and will not vacate sooner. He did not identify the tenant, but said that if the tenant should decide to leave early, demolition would begin promptly. Neighborhood Theater's lease of the Lafayette has several more years to run, but the firm is eager to end the lease as soon as possible so it can turn loose this white elephant. The other two tenants are on month-to-month leases. Haden said no building plans have been drawn for the new Rose's store.

The present Rose's at the shopping center is one of 146 in seven Southern states. It combines a five-and-ten-cent store with a junior department store. The first picture shown at the Lafayette was Cecil B. De Mille's 1 END OF CAREER The Lafayette Christmas" on its marquee. The buildTheater, closed since July after 38 ing will be torn down next summer and years of operation, displays a "Merry replaced with a five-and-ten-cent store.

-Progress photo by Luhnow. LAFAYETTE Orange Citizens Bank To Merge With Peoples The Citizens National Bank of Orange and the Peoples National Bank of Charlottesville will merge about seven weeks if the stockholders of the two institutions and the U. S. Comptroller of the Currency give their The decision to merge was announced today in a joint statement by R. C.

Slaughter, president of the Citizens National Bank of Orange, and W. Wright Harrison, Bible Stolen From Tableau In Lee Park A Bible which was a part of the Nativity Scene in Lee Park for the first time this year, is missing from its stand in front of the Christmas tableau. The discovery was made last night. George Eudailey, chairman of the Junior Chamber of Commerce committee in charge of annual diplay, said today that the Bible and a piece of felt cloth it lay on were taken from the stand between Saturday morning and last night. He said that he saw the book on the stand Saturday but did not check again until last night when he found it missing.

The Bible was loaned to the Jaycees to use in the scene by the Rev. John F. Byerly pastor of St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church. The book was enclosed in a plastic covering and rested on a stand.

It was opened to the Christmas story. Eudailey said that someone had forced open the cover, taken the Bible, and closed the cover again. He said an electric drill belonging to him was also taken from the scene the week before Christmas. He lent the drill to Jaycee members working on the scene and they left it there one night. A post office employee told Eudailey that he saw the drill when he passed the scene at 8 a.m.

the next day, but it was gone when Eudailey went by to pick it up about an hour later. MONDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 28, 1959 15 a HEAD-ON CRASH INJURES TEN Curious passers- of North Garden, was driving the car at left. In car by view wreckage of two cars which slammed together at right, driven by Richard Johnson, 36, Negro, of 1004 head-on on U.S. 29 near Red Hill on Saturday night, Page were six persons including three small chilinjuring 10 persons. Walter Mallory Powell 16, dren.

-Progress photo by Payne. 22,900 Telephones in Use Here, Up 1,400 Since 1958 About 22,900 telephones are in use in the area served by the Charlottesville phone directorya gain of 1,400, or per cent, over the number in use a year ago. The area, which is served by the Virginia Telephone and Telegraph Company, includes Charlottesville, most of Albemarle, Fluvanna and Greene counties, and a small portion of Nelson County. reports a total of 22,722 phones in use here at the end of November and an estimated 125 to 150 added in December. At the end of November a year 30 the firm had a total of 21,354 phones in operation here, and about 140 were added in December.

The figures include extension telephones. The vast majority of the phones are in the Charlottesville exchange. There were 20,224 in the exchange at the end of last month, a gain of 1,285 over a year ago. Smallest exchange in the area is Schuyler, which had 50 phones last month, four more than a year Quarterly Article Urges Cooperation An Army historian says that America's politicians and military men will have to reach a better understanding if the nation is to escape a third World War. Because this understanding did not exist during World War II, the nation and the world are suffering today, writes Dr.

Louis Morton in the winter issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, just published by the University of Virginia. Dr. Morton is supervising completion of the twelfth and final volume of the official history "U.S. Army in World War II." After it is finished, he plans to return to teach at the University of Wisconsin. Relationships between national policy and military strategy are complicated by knotty problems for which there is no easy solution, Dr.

Morton writes. He contends that the United States, Japan, and Germany all were weakened during World War II because strategy and policy failed to mesh. Japan planned a limited war to establish its East Asia Property Sphere. She hoped to set up an Asian defense area and persuade America to negotiate for peace, Dr. Morton declared, but "she virtually ruled out this possi-.

bility on the ftrst day of the war by the sudden and treacherous attack on Pearl Harbor." As another case in point, ne cites Eisenhower's decision to halt Six Persons In Hospital After Crash president of the Peoples National Bank here. The board of directors of both banks have agreed to the merger. Stockholders of both institutions will meet Feb. 15 to vote on the proposal. Harrison said the Peoples bank will apply to the Comptroller of the Currency for permission to add the Orange bank as a branch of the Peoples bank.

The plan of merger calls for giving stock in the Peoples bank to stockholders of the Orange bank in exchange for their present holdings. Present officers and employes of the Orange bank will be employed at the new branch. 0. B. Omohundro, a vice president in charge of the Gordonsville office of the Peoples National Bank, will become chief executive officer of the Orange branch.

Slaughter will be vice president in charge of the bank in an advisory capacity to Omohundro. If approved the addition of the Orange bank will bring to nine the number of branch banks operated by the Peoples bank. It now has branch offices on Preston Avenue, at the University, and at the Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville, and at Crozet, Elkton, Louisa, Gordonsville and Stanardsville. The Citizens National Bank of Orange was established in 1904 and now has total resources of about $9,457,200. Principal officers of the Orange bank are N.C.

Bailey, chairman of the board; Slaughter, president; John T. Browning, vice president and trust officer; Bruce Bailey, cashier; and M. F. Perry end P. C.

Roberts, assistant cashiers. The board. of directors comprises Bailey, Slaughter, F. B. Daniel, W.

B. Early, M. R. Ford, Adolph Goiser, W. T.

Goodwin, Edward B. Sparks, A. W. Sommerville and H. B.

Tomlinson. The directors at the time of the merger will be asked to serve as a local board to operate the branch bank. Harrison said that the larger resources of the Peoples bank will be available to Orange County when the merger is accomplished. The lending limit of the Peoples bank after the merger will be in excess of $600,000 to any one cus- tomer and will be available to business and industry in the Orange area. The merger was approved by directors of the Peoples bank on Nov.

23. It was approved by the Orange bank directors last Wednesday. TB Fund Drive Is Short $3,569 The annual drive to raise funds to fight tuberculosis has failed to reach its goal by $3,569. The Christmas Seal campaign ended Christmas Day. The Albemarle Tuberculosis Association, which is striving to raise $19,250, the highest goal in its history, expects contributions to continue coming in during the next few weeks, however.

A total of $11,242 has been raised by the sale of Christmas Seals. The goal for the seal drive is $14.250. The bond drive is only $561 short of its $5,000 goal. The campaign is still making better progress this year than last. Only $14.165 had been collected at this stage in the drive a year ago.

UVa Professor Goes to Mexico Dr. Arthur J. Bachrach, director of the division of behavioral science at the University of Virginia medical school. will address the American Anthropological Association tomorrow in Mexico City. Dr.

Bachrach will present a paper. "Suggestions for an Experimental Analysis of Superstitious Behavior." at the annual meeting of the association. After the meeting, Dr. rach plans to tour the valley of Mexico with Dr. Eric Wolf, who was assistant professor of anthropology at the University until last year.

Wolf is now associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Bachrach is associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Virginia medical school. ago. All of the other exchanges here made slight gains except Fork Union, which lost 23 phones, and Palmyra, which lost two.

Broken down by exchanges, the number of telephones in use in Charlottesville area at the end of November this year and a year ago is as follows: Community 1958 1959 Charlottesville 18,939 20,224 Crozet 732 849 Scottsville 557 578 Palmyra 367 365 Fork Union 377 354 Schuyler 46 50 Stanardsville 336 352 Total 21,354 22,772 By far the largest number of extension telephones are used by the University of Virginia- total of 1,097 as of the end of last month. These are served by 44 trunk lines and a switchboard manned by five operators. The extensions are reached by only two outside phone numbers, one for the University and one for the hospital. Most of Madison, Orange, and Louisa counties, and the Greenwood area in Albemarle are served by the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, Buckingham County is served primarily by but is included in the Farmville phone directory. The new Charlottesville directory, which is up to date as of Oct.

30, was received in the mail by most subscribers last week. Carey G. Elsea, district manager, said 31,700 copies of the new directory were printed. about 22,000 of which were mailed to subscribers directly from the printer in Crawfordsville, on Dec. 19.

The rest were received at the office here this morning for distribution to subscribers who didn't get one in the mail and to large firms using a number of phones. Exchange Club Plays Santa The Charlottesville Exchange Club brought Santa Claus to 23 youngsters in the children's ward at the University Hospital Christmas morning. Two large hobby horses. were given to the ward. and each child received gifts and fruit, Investigation continued today into the cause of a two-car crash near Red Hill on U.

S. 29 Saturday night in which 10 persons were hurt. Trooper C. C. Cain said any charges he may bring are still pending.

University Hospital reported today that none of the six persons still hospitalized is in critical condition. Cain said Walker Mallory Powell 16, of North Garden, was driving south when he apparently dozed for a moment. The Powell car swerved into the northbound lane and struck an oncoming car driven by Richard L. Johnson, Negro, 36, of 1004 Page St. Six persons, including three small children, were in the Johnson car.

Cain said that those in the Powell car were returning home after getting off work in Charlottesville. The accident happened on a slight curve some 280 feet north of U. S. 29's intersection with Rt. 708.

at the Elbe, thus permitting Soviet forces to take Berlin. President Roosevelt and his advisers in Washington left "the military men largely free to pursue their own he says, and Eisenhower, who made the military decision, did not think Berlin a major military objective. He was prepared to move if the capture of Berlin a political necessity, but he was not asked to carry out this objective. "General (Omar) Bradley could see no political advantage in the capture of Berlin equal to the quick destruction of the German Army," he continues, "and he was frankly irritated with the British for complicating the war with foresight and non-military In the future, Dr. Morton writes, improved relationships and understanding may bring about wise and effective coordination of? America's political and military strength "in meeting the great issues of our time.

The statesman needs sound military advice and the soldier needs firm political guidance. The better each understands the problems of the other, the better will be relations between the two." NAMED FOR COST Ten Pound Island, near. Gloucester. was so named because it was purchased from the Indians for that amount of money in colonial times. Three of the four persons in the Powell car are still hospitalized.

Walker Mallory Powell Jr. is in satisfactory condition with a fractured left leg and head injuries. Powell's father, Walker Mallory Powell, 50, is in satisfactory condition with a broken left leg, internal head injuries and head cuts. Miss Billie Lee Powell, 18, a senior at Albemarle High School, is reported in good condition with a broken right arm and leg cuts. Miss Powell is a niece of the senior Walker Mallory Powell.

All live in North Garden. The fourth person in the Powell car, Eldridge Roberts, 17, also of North Garden, was treated for cuts the night of the accident and was not hospitalized. Three persons in Johnson car who. are still in the hospital are Albert Johnson. 2, in good.

condition with head injuries: Geneva Marie Johnson, 3, in fair condition with head injuries; and Walter Barbour, Negro, '30. of 512 Wood in good condition with a broken wrist and leg. The driver, Richard L. Johnson, his wife Pauline and a third child, Samuel 4, were treated for cuts and released..