Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera-Times
Monday, November 3, 1947, page 4 (of 12)
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Coral Gables Riviera Times
PAGE FOUR RIVIERA-TIMES MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1947 Coral Gables Riviera Times Published Monday through Friday afternoons by the Riviera Publishing Company, 3500 Avenue Aragon, Coral Gables 34, Fla. Established as a weekly newspaper January, 1926; combined with the Dade County & Coconut Grove Times, 1923. Established as a daily newspaper November 3, 1947. MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION and Florida Press Association. Albert E. Harum, Editor and Publisher; Kenneth S. Reynolds, Business Manager; James B. Moore, Managing Editor; Helen Reynolds, Society Editor; Edward W. Wright, Circulation Manager. ASSOCIATED PRESS-BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS FULL LEASED WIRE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATIONS NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION Active Member SUBSCRIPTION RATES-Six months, $6.00; one year, outside of United States, $15.00; local, $12.00; single copies, 5c; Sunday, $12.00; daily delivery by carrier, 25c each per week. Entered as second class matter May 21, 1926, at the Post Office at Miami, Fla., under the Act of March 3, 1887. Mail Address, Box 6372, Coral Gables 34, Florida. Phone 4-2554. Classified Dept. 48-1641. The Coral Gables Riviera-Times is liable for errors in advertising only to the extent of the space in which the advertisement appears.
Your New Daily
With today's issue of the Coral Gables Riviera-Times we draw to a close a very important phase of a newspaper's life. The Riviera-Times has paralleled the growth of Coral Gables from birth to maturity. Through prosperity and depression, through boom and bust, through hurricane and calm, your newspaper has marched with its parent city. Both have come through scarred but undaunted. The city today is progressive and has maintained its high standards of building, operation and management. Your newspaper has retained its independence and honesty and is stepping into the daily field today to keep pace with its municipal running mate. To the subscribers who have faithfully read our columns these many years, the newspaper owes a deep obligation-an obligation which we shall attempt to discharge in part by more frequent publishing. To the advertisers who have faithfully used the newspaper as a promotion medium, we express the hope that continued use of our advertising columns will speed their growth and, consequently, the growth of the city. Your daily newspaper plans to continue its policy of printing local news, stressing local needs, promoting local projects and working hand-in-hand with local business. We will supplement this local coverage with state, national and international news from the wires of the United Press-handled as briefly as will enable our readers to be in possession of all the facts. Your daily newspaper, locally owned, will be edited by local folks who are part of the Gables community life. We believe the people of Coral Gables need an honest, progressive and courageous daily newspaper. We, and the merchants who patronize us as advertisers, need your support to accomplish this end. We hope our weekly readers will be our daily readers and that the partnership between us will be firm and lasting.
Make Him a Liar
Let's make a liar out of Henderson. Genial Jimmy, doughty Dade County School Board campaigner, for school expansion NOW, predicted ruefully that a paltry 10,000 out of the County's quarter million voters would turn out tomorrow to cast ballots on a two-mill tax increase to finance the vital program. Don't get us wrong. For a week after tax bills arrive no one in our house is on speaking terms with anyone else. We hate taxes. But we hate more the idea of shipping unlucky groups of Coral Gables youngsters off each morning to distant schools or of staggering class sessions, with the result that half our student population would be in school and half on the streets throughout the day. These are the only alternatives, if we fail to approve financing of new and better school buildings NOW. Gables classrooms are jammed to the shutters. There aren't enough desks to go round. Heartsick teachers are waging a losing battle trying to instruct tenement-crowded classes without sacrificing high standards. Neither cafeteria nor janitorial personnel can keep pace with the top-heavy throngs. It's a mess. What about a bond issue? Today's kind-ergarteners would be grandpappies before the special election and financial maneuvering necessary to floating a loan by this method could be accomplished. The need is NOW. It is getting worse day-by-day. Stop by on the way to work tomorrow or while driving the kids to school and vote "YES" to the tax boost. Coral Gables single-handed can swing the election and make poor 10,000 figure a classic in the annals of understatement. Let's make a liar out of Henderson. He'll love it! To meet anyone's demands will always miss their needs. Democracy is the right way to live only when we live the right way. Self-satisfaction does not exist. You have to set the self aside before the satisfaction can be found. We move faster and faster. The question is-where?
LESLIE H. COOMBES REALTOR
FOR YOUR REAL ESTATE NEEDS SEE LESLIE H. COOMBES REALTOR 2312 Ponce de Leon Blvd Phone 4-2586
JOURNEY'S OWN ONLY YESTERDAY By Jim Moore
Reminiscing is a pleasant pastime. It's nice to sit back, relax and let your mind run over things gone by. For some reason they're always pleasant things. The sub-conscious seems to have some sort of a filter on our memory file that allows a large quantity of pleasant memories to come bubbling through but only a few of the unpleasant ones. I can remember back in the days when I used to work on a weekly newspaper. It was a leisurely sort of an existence. The paper went to bed on Thursday evenings and there were seven full days to get enough material together for the next one. We had a sort of a coffee klutch-and every morning about 10 o'clock the whole staff would desert the office and meander down to the corner drug store, sip Coffe, nibble on pecan rolls and pave the road of day with whomever happened to stroll in at the moment. Thursdays were fairly busy days, because then we had to catch up with the Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays that slipped by. But even on Thursdays we seemed to find time for the meeting of the coffee klutch. Fridays were really lazy days. We used to sit around, completely relaxed with the knowledge that the paper for the week was out, and listen to the circulation manager explain to people why their paper wasn't there. 'Twas a great day for practical jokes and for getting haircuts we'd been putting off all week. Saturdays? Shucks, I often wonder, when I look back on it, why we even bothered to come in at all. By the time we'd read our mail and attended the gathering of the coffee clan it was time to knock off for lunch and an afternoon of swimming or whatever else struck our fancy. Most any day we had time to sit back, put our feet on the desk and talk politics, pinochle or paving contracts with whomever happened to drop into the office with an odd half hour to kill. Oh we had deadlines to meet, all right. We usually tried to have at least six pages put together by Wednesday afternoon. But if we didn't, we knew that we could rush a little bit more on Thursday and still come out without any overtime. For about three hours on Thursdays we really rushed, then all of a sudden there was one more page to go-a galley of type, hot off the linotype, a flick of the make-up rule and there it was. The paper was out for another week. Ah, those were the days, all right. It seems like only yesterday. Or was it a couple of days before?
Strictly Fresh
It is incredible that the Taft-Reuther presidential slate brewed by a Chicago public relations firm could ever materialize. They're on opposite sides of the fence, and how can you shake hands through pickets? * * * George Meany of the Plumbers was one of the chief leaders in beating John L. Lewis' anti-Taft-Hartley law order at the A. F. of L. convention. It must've been a pipe. * * * Koicho Kido, wartime Hirohito adviser, offered a 150,000-word war crimes trial defense. It all boiled down to two-so sorry. * * * The Citizens Food Committee suggestion for half-size loaves of bread went stale. The bakers didn't want to play both ends against the middle.
AH THERE, JONESEY!
I passed the house where Jonesey boards, One day not long ago, And saw him sitting on the porch, Just rocking to and fro. "How sad," methought, "the old man's leg Won't let him take a walk. I'll just stop in and cheer him up, And have a friendly talk." He greeted me with oldtime grace, And gestured toward a seat, Which I was very glad to take In such a snug retreat. We spoke of this and that, until, At last I put this query: "Friend Jones, don't you of this dull life Oft times grow somewhat weary?" "Dull life!" cried Jones, "say what's so dull 'Bout life in this fair city, Where all the folks are friendly like, And all the gals are pretty?" I left in haste and as I went This simple truth came to me: Jonesey's man is old and bent Don't think his thoughts are gloomy. -J. L. BEERS. The National Institute of Diaper Services vetoed a "new look" longer diaper. Apparently diaper men feel that mothers would not welcome an unnecessary change. The right way is the shortest way no matter how long it takes.
Little Keepsake
He was a brittle-browed, hard-looking chap, who had been interrupted doing a job on a delicatessen. During the routine questioning, his belongings, among which was a pair of brass knuckles, were inspected. "Be careful wid dem knuckles, sarge," he requested a bit bashfully. "They mean some-thing to me." The knuckles were examined more closely and this inscription was found inside the little finger: "With truest love, Mildred."
Danger of Getting Wound Up Too Tight
IT HAS A WHOLE YEAR IN WHICH TO RUN DOWN! THE A.F.L. DOWN WITH THE TAFT-HARTLEY LAW -VIC-
It Says Here
As we said a few days ago, it's amazing the number of shining lights that are hidden under bushels around here. Take Steve Brekas, for instance. We've know Steve for years as one of the waiters at the Country Club. What we didn't know until recently is that Steve is a student of greyhound breeding and quite an expert on the subject. The current issue of the Greyhound Racing Record is featuring an article by him on the subject and we have also been privileged to view the manuscript of a book he has written about it. It's a scholarly piece of work and should be much in demand when it's published. Saw Pete and Liz White dancing the Samba at the Country Club on Sattiday night-they looked like experts. Incidentally, Pete is leaving WBAY today . . . has some plans about a steak and chop house in his head . . . Now that the city is taking over the Biltmore Golf Course, why not revive the pool shows, too. The patients should enjoy them and they sure bring a lot of folks out to our town. We understand that Alexander Ott and son Jackie are eager to stage them again. Ever notice how much Bea Ferguson looks like Hedy Lamarr? . . . Helen Crowe has a hand painted miniature portrait made into a brooch, but she doesn't know the subject of the picture. She picked it up in an antique shop and the clerk told her he thought it, was some Miami woman but- - . . . Four reservations have already been made for the December 12 fashion show at the Country Club. It's a table for Mrs. Ethel Tiffany . . . Marion Shultz tells us he isn't going to Cincinnati for the Hurricane game, even though it is his home town. He was there this summer and he says he just doesn't want any more of that Ohio weather . . . Inman Padgett is offering a reward for the return of his wife's belt buckle from the lawn by some pranksters. It was used as a "door bell" for folks to ring when the Padgetts were in the back yard and couldn't hear the regular buzzer . . . We noticed the women's golf committee from the Riviera Country Club holding a meeting Saturday in the bar of the Country Club of Coral Gables. Engaged in mapping some plans were Gertrude Henderick, Tish Raymond and Mrs. Steve Gibbs . . . We wondered where Buz Cordes got that big red carnation he was sporting Saturday night, but learned later that he wore it originally for the Burdine's opening . . . Glad to hear that Davie Long, the little son of Bob and Dottie Long is recovering from a seige of illness. "The Skyway" is Zee and Mark Erwin's new name for the entrance lane to their ranch home. "When the water was lapping our doorsill, we kept building the driveway up with cut rock," they explain. "Now it's a couple of feet higher than the rest of the property and we have to roll down a respectable hill to get into the garage." . . . Never realized that Texas had been settled by Scots until we heard Lone Star Stater Billie Harling bickering for points on football games . . . Betty Ward is coddling an ear infection, trying to stave off mastoiditus.
RIVIERA NOTEBOOK History of Riviera-Times Is Recalled by Columnist
By MARY HELM CLARKE One hundred and thirty-seven years ago the first American daily paper took a bow. It was the Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser. Today we introduce the Riviera-Times as the first Coral Gables daily newspaper, and we, also, take a bow. As we turn the pages of the Riviera Notebook we remember other first-night performances and curtain calls. The First Coral Gables newspaper appeared January 15, 1926, as the Miami Riviera, John D. Montgomery, Editor. The first hurricane of the fall flooded the Riviera plant with water; the second hurricane filled it with youth, for the first University paper, forerunner of the "Hurricane," was a section of the Miami Riviera, entirely edited by students of the University. This was in October, 1926, when the ink was still wet on many registration blanks. The first news "scoop" of this "paper within a paper" was the announcement that the University football teams would be called "Hurricanes," remembering the big blow that almost defeated the University, but didn't. Started Social Season In 1926, as today, the social season started with a reception honoring the officers of the Coral Gables Woman's Club. Mrs. Althea Fink Merrick, mother of George E., and one of the founders of the Woman's Club, was made honorary president and received the tribute with her characteristic graciousness. Receiving officers in the receiving line were: Mrs. Don Peabody, president; Mrs. Morton M. Milford, first vice president; Mrs. J. R. Williams, second vice president; Mrs. Howard Anderson, recording secretary; Mrs. H. George Fink, corresponding secretary; Mrs. O. A. Sandquist, auditor; Mrs. Roger B. Barr, treasurer; with Mrs. William McKibben, Mrs. C. B. Mendenhall and Mrs. Charles F. Flynn, first, second and third directors, respectively. Another important event in the life of the Miami Riviera was its consolidation with the Dade County and Coconut Grove Times in 1929. A few years later it repudiated Miami and Dade County "consolidation" and became the Coral Gables Riviera, with a continued warm feeling for its relationship with the County and Coconut Grove Times. We should be thankful that at no time have we been burdened with a weighty name, such as the Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser. We might have been the Miami-Coral Gables Riviera and Dade County and Coconut Grove Times. All the county-wide, city-wide fellowship and good will remains in the present newspaper; the Coral Gables Riviera-Times-as it proudly takes a bow this November 3, 1947, as the first daily newspaper in the City Beautiful.
UP AND DOWN BROADWAY Judith Anderson Gets Ovation for Performance in 'Medea'- Priesty Opus Just So-So
By JACK GAVER United Press Drama Editor NEW YORK (U.P.)-Judith Anderson received the sort of ovation at the opening night of "Medea" that actresses dream about. And she deserved it. The actress and her company took repeated curtain calls and even turning on the house lights didn't send the customers home immediately. Finally Robinson Jeffers, the California poet whose "Medea" version was used, was persuaded to rise in his upper box while Miss Anderson blew two-handed kisses at him. The ancient play of the Greek Euripides, of course, is one of the finest vehicles ever devised for a dramatic actress. It starts with all emotional stops out for the heroine, Medea, and goes on from there. Not too many actresses around could handle it, and after seeing Miss Anderson, I wouldn't care to see anyone else try it. Miss Anderson works in the grand style that was the rule for tragedy 50 years and more ago. It is the sort of thing you wouldn't want to see every day, but in this case the combination of play and actress makes it just right. Her voice is a magnificent instrument and she acts with her entire body. She is terrifying and sensuous, a scourging fiend and a woman to pity. She leaves the members of the audience as limp as she herself must be after two hours of tempestuous emotion. The production is well-mounted by producers Robert Whitehead and Oliver Rea. John Gielgud, who directed, also plays Jason. having been drafted for a few weeks when it was impossible to get an acceptable actor for the role. He is no more than adequate in this role, which is not exactly his cup of tea anyway. Florence Reed is an admirable nurse. Others include Grace Mills, Albert Hecht and Hugh Franklin. It seems to me that a major mistake was made in breaking up the play with an intermission. The interruption takes away from the mood. Jeffers' poetic version is good in the main. Instead of using the usual Greek chorus, he has split the speeches for the chorus into three parts, assigning them to three women of Corinth. While he uses his own figures of speech in many cases, he has adhered closely to the classical tale of the Asian woman brought home to Corinth by Jason only to be spurned by him in favor of marriage with the king's daughter, which prompts Medea to take a horrible revenge on all concerned. * * * You can't always count on a good play from J. B. Priestley, but you can bet he'll serve you with some tricky sort of plot at all times. That is true again in "An Inspector Calls," produced by Courtney Burr and Lassor H. Grosberg with what is practically an impeccable cast. The story is laid in 1912 in the home of a wealthy British industrialist. In walks a man who says he is a police inspector gathering up some loose ends in the suicide of a young woman of the town. For the better part of three acts the inspector takes father, mother, daughter, son and daughter's fiance over the jumps, showing how each contributed to bringing the girl to her sad end. Their smug existence temporarily shattered, he walks out. Then it develops there has been no such suicide and that there is no such man as their inspector on the police force. They are in the process of restoring their egos when the phone rings. The play is slow and overwritten. Good acting by Melville Cooper; Thomas Mitchell, back after a dozen years in Hollywood; Rene Ray; new from London; John Buckmaster, Doris Lloyd and John Merivale.
Ouch! 'New Look' for Men Plotted PARIS TAILORS IN SINISTER SCHEME INVOLVING SKI PANTS
By SALLY SWING United Press Staff Correspondent PARIS (U.P.)-Men, steel yourselves for the worst. Paris is plotting a "new look" for you, too. The revolution is taking place very quietly, however. Plotters to change men's styles, which have remained virtually static since 1900, are working underground, unknown to the innocent man in the street, who still walks gaily, clad in his cotton or silk shirt, his vest, trousers and coat. D-Day for the announcement of the "new look" for men is still a closely-guarded secret. Only here and there were there dangerous murmurs that style priests were ruminating such a revolution. Men Are Timid Mme. Elsa Schiaparelli, veteran revolutionary in the fashion world, said this week: "Unfortunately, there are two things which make a change in men's clothing difficult. They are afraid of wearing colors they like, and they are afraid of looking effeminate." But she, too, is indicating subtly the revolution to come: "The white summer uniform of a sailor is nice, don't you think? A tunic of this kind, in gabardine, well-cut and fitted, looks splendid, and would be a perfect answer to the complaint that men are too hot in summer." Home of the coming revolution, however, is not in the Parisian "haute couture" houses, but in the little tailor shops in the old section of the city. Tailor Spills Beans Jean Van Acker, a well-known tailor, spilled the beans. "The new look for men," he said, "is as follows: No vest, matching coat and pants, but with the pants cut like ski trousers. "Thin-soled shoes for men in winter are silly. 'The new look' to come will include heavy-soled shoes, much like our after-ski footwear, with pants cut in a 'V' shape narrowing at the ankles, with a strap under the foot. No Summer Coats "Jackets, I feel, will remain much the same, except in summer men will order thin, light gabardine or linen shirts, with tailored collars, to be worn with a tie, a pocket for the inevitable fountain pen and cigarettes, and cuffs. This idea is largely gaining popularity after the American soldier's summer uniform." Van Acker, who owns a little tailor shop in the business district of Paris, said the wrist-watch was largely responsible for the death of the vest. "Young men aren't ordering them any more," he said. "They don't need the pocket. because they don't have any watch or chain. Waistcoats aren't warm enough, either. If a young man wants to keep warm, he wears a pullover under his coat-even in Paris."
HOLLYWOOD FLASH
By PATRICIA CLARY United Press Staff Correspondent HOLLYWOOD (U.P.) - Despite bobby-soxed swooners, bubble gum blowers and hopped-up hotrods, the world today is a lot saner than it used to be. Twentieth Century-Fox researchers sharpened some short memories by delving into the years between 1929 and 1936 for a movie called "The Flaming Age," co-starring Jeanne Crain and Dan Dailey. The picture will take a nostalgic look into the past, as Miss Crain's "Margie" did, but it also will recall some of the crazy antics of the 'twenties and softens accusations against 1947 youngsters. They aren't nearly as wild as they seem to be. Just noisier. November 1929, the year of the stock market crash. Flagpole sitting, goldfish gulping and marathon dancing were the headlines of the day. Drug Store Cowboys Remember the Charleston, the Lindy Hop and the Legonmania, as wild or wilder than any 1947 jitterbugging it spawned. Instead of the wolf, there was the drug store cowboy. The girls he ogled were flappers, instead of bobby-soxers. The hubbub over skirts going down below the knee is nothing to the commotion created by skirts going up above the knee. That was 1929. The girls of today don't twist their hair into spitcurls; they peroxide a streak of it. They paint their toenails instead of painting "beauty spots" just above the knee. That was all the rage in "The Flaming Age." The jaloppy with snappy slogans written all over it was the "berries" in 1929, and people carried their own flasks of home brew instead of stopping off at a bar for a martini. The class of 1947 can't take the prize for zaniness without goldfish competitions, flagpole sitting or the weary sleepathon, danceathons and talkathons.
SHORT QUIRKS After Long Thought
ATLANTA, Ga. (U.P.)-Police figured C. G. Mullings, 64, thought a long time before going through with it. They found his body slumped under his steering wheel. Alongside lay a pistol and a farewell note, dated nine days before.
You Can't Win
ATLANTA, Ga. (U.P.) - George Grant told police three men robbed him of $60 while he was on his way home. He went home, got his shotgun and returned to fire three badly aimed shots at the trio. The men took the shotgun, too.
Punched Into Jail
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Fred Finley found out "For Whom the Bell Tolls." A judge sentenced him to 90 days for punching a time clock for his friend, A. D. Hall. Hall drew a week's wages for only one day's work while his accommodating friend punched the time clock. Hall also drew a four-months' jail sentence.
Art Triumphs Over Sport
COLUMBUS, O. (U. P.)-The piano won over the ambitions of a Grandview High School athlete to be an outstanding football player. Joe Nazzline, of the gridiron squad, was told by his piano instructor that football and piano playing ambitions did not mix and he would have to give up one or the other. He chose the piano.
Pavlova Footprint Preserved
LONDON, (U. P.)-A plaster cast of Anna Pavlova's foot has been given to the Manor House Hospital in the Golders Green residential section of London. Pavlova once lived at Ivy House opposite the hospital.