Coral Gables Riviera-Times

Coral Gables Riviera Times

Published Monday through Friday afternoons by the Riviera Publishing Co., 200 Avenue Aragon, Coral Gables, 34, Fla. Established as a weekly newspaper January, 1926; combined with the Dade County & Riviera Times, 1929; published daily except Saturday and Sunday. MEMBER, NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION, FLORIDA PRESS ASSOCIATION AND CORAL GABLES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ALBERT P. HARUM Editor and Publisher | KENNETH S. REYNOLDS Business Manager JAMES B. MOORE Managing Editor | WALTER T. KRAM Circulation Manager HIBLEN REYNOLDS Society Editor | DON CUDDY Sports Editor JULIA D. HARUM Woman's Page Editor | PEGGY NORTH Classified Manager THEIS & SIMPSON, National Advertising Representatives New York Chicago Atlanta Detroit MEMBER, AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS Full Leased Wire, UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATIONS SUBSCRIPTION RATES (35 Cents Out of Town) One month . . . . . . . $ 1.00 | One month . . . . . . . $ 1.00 Three months . . . . . 2.50 | Three months . . . . . 2.50 Six months . . . . . . . . 4.50 | Six months . . . . . . . . 5.00 One year . . . . . . . . 12.00 | One year . . . . . . . . 12.00 Outside of the U. S.: One year, $16.00 Mailing address: P. O. Box 6972 Coral Gables, 34, Fla. Telephone: 4-1621 - Classified Department: 48-2641 RIVIERA 86 The Coral Gables Riviera-Times is liable for errors in advertising only to the extent of the space in which the advertisement appears.

HOLLYWOOD FILM SHOP

By PATRICIA CLARY United Press Staff Correspondent HOLLYWOOD (UP) — Putting a two-hour radio show on the air requires 206 people, 2,809 man-hours and 95 pages of script. It's the kind of thing that makes everybody glad Christmas comes just once a year. The "Two Hours of Stars" broadcast is the biggest show on radio—and it's also the biggest headache. Talent buyers start booking the stars in August for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas show sponsors. Then the stars have to re-arrange their pictures, location trips and broadcasts to make room for rehearsals and the show. This year's Christmas show stars, besides Don Ameche, master of ceremonies for the fifth year, are Edgar Bergen, Cass Daley, Bob Hope, Lauritz Melchoir, Amos 'n Andy and Harry James. Thanksgiving stars were Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Vera Vague, Yehudi Menuin, Doris Day, Allan Jones, Sweeney and March, and the calypso singer, Sid Lancelot. Start in September As soon as the first star is signed, Ed Helwick starts writing the script. The musical director, Lou Silvers, goes to work in September on the scores. It isn't until the night before Christmas that the two are put together in the only rehearsal with the stars. Rehearsal starts at noon the day before Christmas, with each performer scheduled for half an hour. In a typical rehearsal, a group like the Paige Cavanaugh trio will go over its musical numbers, while in the control room the producer and his assistants hear the show the way the radio audience does. The bass fiddle doesn't hit the mike just right. So they put the fiddle up on a box. Cavanaugh lowers the music stand on the piano so the music won't bounce out just right. He interpolates a few bars from another tune in one of his arrangements and the producer has to telegraph quickly for permission from the publishers. The rehearsals last until 4 a. m. And the staff has to be back again at 8 a. m. Christmas Day to work until show time. Eighty-six will be through then, but airing the show takes 120 persons on stage and in the wings, one for every minute.

In the first nine months of this year, international express shipments abroad totalled 448,257, a gain of 32.4 per cent over the same period last year, reports Railway Express.

A $10 BILL WILL OPEN

A Personal Checking Account without obligation to maintain any fixed balance. As much or as little may be kept in the account as desired. The cost is only 10c for each check written. General Banking MEMBER Florida National Group Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Federal Reserve System Florida National Bank at Coral Gables 1806 Ponce de Leon Blvd.

OUR TOWN Merry Christmas! By Jim Moore

I'm embarrassed. I'm blushing pink right up to the ears, and my only consolation is the knowledge that a lot of you folks are in the same predicament. It's one I find myself in every Christmas Eve, and in talking it over with other people, I guess I can safely state that I'm not alone. My trouble is Christmas cards. Not that I don't like 'em—I love 'em. As the days to Christmas approach I hastily sort through my mail, cast aside the envelopes with windows in them and pick out the square and odd shaped ones that have a nice cripsy, stiffness about them. These sorted from the chaff, I sit back, relax and start opening them. Gay ones, funny ones, clever ones and sentimental ones. I love them all. And as I admire the art work and read the sentiment on them, I journey in my mind back into the homes of friends I haven't seen for a long time. As my eye lingers on a name, a signature or perhaps a friendly little note scrawled at the bottom of the card, I feel all warm and goose pimply. There's a flip friendly note from Bill, and a cherry message from a guy we lovingly called "The Panda" that I knew in Africa when I was in the Navy. There are the pictures of the children of friends I knew in school, smiling at me from greeting cards and making me feel my years but also feel glad that they have been blessed with such handsome offspring. It's an experience that comes only once a year, and I revel in it. But with it comes the embarrassing moments, too. Those occur when I open a card, read a friend's name and the horrible realization comes over me that through some slip-up I neglected to mail them a card. If they arrive early enough, there's time to hurry out and mail an "answer" card. I guess everybody does that. I've gotten them, myself. But if the card arrives on Christmas Eve, like a couple I got in the morning mail, then it's too late. Shucks, I wish it were possible to make sure that everybody you liked got a Christmas card, but you know as well as I do that it's impossible. But I wish it were anyway. I'm a sentimental sort of guy and Christmas gets me. I'd like to be able to send cards to everybody I know, have ever met and mebbe even somebody I'll meet tomorrow at the Country Club egg nogg party. Instead, as usual, I don't even get around to sending cards to everybody that sends them to me. Of course, I send a few to folks that forgot about me, too, but that's small comfort. And the distaff department feels even worse about it than I do. But anyway, it's Christmas Eve, dogonnit, and I'm not mad with anybody. And if you sent a Christmas card to our house and didn't get one from us, don't be mad. It happens to everyone. And here's hoping that all of you find exactly what you want in your stocking tomorrow morning. Merry Christmas!

I STILL BESIDE YOU STAND

Don't grieve for me, 'tis not as though I've gone away for e'er. For every time you need me dear, Just pray and I'll be there. The Lord has called me to his care, I question not, and go. But every time you wish me there, Your heart will find it so. How could I leave, if you believe Your wish, is my command. Though far away, through God, I still beside you stand. —Robert Paige.

CHEERIO! Merry Yuletide

WE GREET YOU AT CHRISTMAS And trust to offer you Cheer every day of the year. ENGEL'S MEN'S SHOP 2207 Ponce de Leon Blvd. PHONE 4-6124

It Says Here...

It's the day before Christmas and all through the plant, the presses are humming a Christmassy chant . . . and without going into any more paraphrasing we're trying to get out today's newspaper, plan for an early one tomorrow and get in that last minute shopping, all at the same time . . . whew . . ., the cards are still coming in, as well as some more gifts, such as a dandy letter opener from the Gables Letter Service . . . Pop, Mom and "Mack" Heibner recall the days of 50 years ago in their card in which they remind us, among other things, that hens were $3.00 a dozen, roosters 10 cents apiece, eggs were three dozen for 25 cents, hired girls received two dollars a week and did the washing and folks walked miles to wish each other a Merry Christmas. They contrast that with the situation today and wish us a Happy New Year if we think life is worth living. . . . We think it is, and feel even more so around this time of the year. . . . Denis Renuart says we'll have nice weather tomorrow. . . . Hasn't seen a Florida Christmas that hasn't been pretty. We agree with him. . . . Rees Marshall was in the office yesterday bringing glad tidings. . . . Mr. Jackson, the Townsend Club bigwig from South Miami called to wish us a Merry Christmas. . . . It's just a swell time of year, that's all. George Smathers called us from Washington yesterday afternoon, and as a result we might have a pretty interesting meeting for the civic clubs in January. . . . More about that later. . . . Eddie Roffler's barber shop was a busy place when we dropped in yesterday afternoon. Guess everybody as in the office got their Christmas trimmings. . . . The manicurist was doing a brisk business, too. . . . Building Inspector Gilbert Campbell's desk looked like Yule-tide, as well-wishers left gifts there. . . . noticed a couple on Joe Dunn's desk, too. . . . Nan Ward of the public service department told us to write that "Christmas spirit was prevailing all through city hall." . . . We asked if she didn't mean spirits, but she said no. . . . Andy Houston showed up at Kiwanis Club on Tuesday with a loud plaid shirt and necktie to match. . . . Jim Helm was passing around some "original" Christmas cards that were provoking chuckles. . . . That's all for today, folks. We'll be around tomorrow in this same spot to wish you Merry Christmas.

FROM A RIVIERA NOTEBOOK By Mary Helm Clarke WHO LIVES THERE?

Did you ever visit a southern plantation at Christmas time? Remember the cheerful jingle of bells and chorus of voices crying "Chrismus gif', little chillen!", as the children of the colored folks heralded the dawn of Christmas Day? Then you, too, will drive past the home at 521 LeJeune Road and see the house that was brought from a Kentucky plantation about thirty years ago. The late C. V. Floyd came to Florida around the turn of the century and saw in his mind's eye a replica of a Kentucky manor house in the setting of a Florida orange grove. He liked the idea so well that he shipped such a manor house piece by piece to his fruit farm in Dade County, west of Miami. In keeping with plantation life, the negro quarters were established near the "big house" on the edge of the grove, and Jim and Eliza Bird, farm hand and fruit washer, respectively, were ensconced in their shack. As the grove began to bear, and more and more fruit had to be packed, the shack was bulging at the seams with colored folks. There were Eddie who drove the mules-drawn wagon piled high with crates of oranges, and the youngsters, "Colonel" Stokes, who played round the dooryard and amused the visitors, and many others. Finally, the shack took on a second story and an assortment of wings. The last gay greeting of "Chrismus gif', little chillen!" probably came from the ten children of the Hall family who were longtime tenants on the Floyd fruit farm. The manor house still towers over the grove and the former "negro quarters," presenting to strangers the formality of an impressive gateway and dignified white pillars on the front veranda. To more intimate friends, the informality of the back and side porches give expression to the true spirits of the old Kentucky home. Who lives there now? The Riviera Notebook has another thrilling story to tell, for the son of the present owner is the man who dropped the first bomb over Berlin in the last war! He is J. Wallace Rufeisen, son of Henry Rufeisen, well known fruit grower in Dade County. Father and son acquired the Floyd property after the death of the man who brought the old Kentucky home to the tropics. There are no children in the big house or the quarters, so the two men will have to depend on their many friends to bring the greeting, "Chrismus gif'," to "little marster and big marster" this Christmas of 1947 Wonder how you say it in New Jersey vernacular?

A Holly JOLLY Christmas

★ No matter what the language the spirit of Christmas is the same everywhere ... in France, in Holland, in Sweden ... and in the good old U. S. A. As you celebrate this joyous season in spiritual companionship with people of good will all over the world, it is our hope that this Christmas of 1947 will be the merriest you have ever enjoyed. ELAINE'S 1809 Ponce de Leon Blvd. Coral Gables Telephone: 48-1167

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

TO WISH FOR YOU LOADS OF GOOD CHEER AND HAPPINESS AT CHRISTMASTIME Miles PHOTO SHOP 2103 Ponce de Leon Blvd. Tel. 48-3669

Gablesites Go Traveling; Play Host Here

Mrs. Mary McManmus of 935 Avenue Catalonia is spending the holidays and a month with her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. C. Sullivan, and grandchildren, Austin Carpenter 2nd and Susan, in Nassau, British West Indies. This will be Mrs. McMannus' first visit in 20 years to the island. * * * Miss Billie Ridge of Pembroke College, Brown University, Providence, is spending the holidays with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Rowe of 4071 Woodridge Road, Coconut Grove. Samuel Ridge, who attends Harvard University, is also home with his parents for the holidays. The young people will be making the rounds with the college folk and will be entertained at the Surf Club younger set party by their maternal aunt Mrs. Jack P. Ehrhart of Sunset Island, three. * * * Approximately fifty guests have been invited to the eggnog party which Mr. and Mrs. D. Ellis McDonald are giving Sunday from five until seven o'clock at their home at 133 San Sebastian Avenue.

Amanda Sue Is Sweet Sixteen

Miss Amanda Sue Higgins, who will be sixteen come Christmas Day, was honored yesterday with a party at the home of Miss Sylvia Vines, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Curtis, 937 Roderigo Street. Christmas greens and red candles in silver holders decorated the refreshment table which was centered with a large birthday cake. Guests numbering about thirty girls from Amanda Sue and Sylvia's sophomore class at Ponce de Leon High school called between the hours of eleven and two o'clock, to wish the honor guest "Happy Birthday." Mrs. Harry C. Higgins, Amanda Sue's mother, assisted Mrs. Curtis.

Two-Way Cake Marks Birthdays

Two birthdays usually call for two cakes but they didn't last night at the James A. Henderson home. The occasion was the birthdays of Mrs. Henderson's sister, Miss Helen Taylor, and their friend, Mrs. Fred S. Wilson. Instead of making two birthday cakes, Mrs. Lillian Taylor, Helen's mother, made a large half-chocolate, half-orange cake with white icing and loaded it down with candles. The word "Martha" was iced on the chocolate part of the cake, and "Helen" stood out on the white side of the cake. Promptly at eight o'clock, the two "birthdayers" made their wishes and blew out their candles together. Prior to the cake cutting, guests of the Hendersons enjoyed a special birthday dinner. Besides the family and the Fred Wilsons, Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Starbuck were invited to share in this dual celebration.

GREETINGS AT CHRISTMAS

And when the day is gone Our wishes for our friends Continue on and on and on! The Patio Shop 3650 CORAL WAY Phone 48-2920

Gablesgrams BY HELEN REYNOLDS, SOCIETY EDITOR

For the past thirty years Mr. and Mrs. Edwin T. Stiger of 1514 Capri Street have celebrated New Year's Eve with a home party and the year 1947-48 will be no different. Promptly at midnight a hot buffet supper will be served and some forty friends of this popular couple will be ringing the old year out and the new year in. * * * Basking in the sun at the Tatum Surf Club is the daily program mapped out by Mrs. Irma H. Clemett of Detroit, Mich., who is the Christmas holiday guest of her brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Richey of 910 Avenue Catalonia. However, the attractive Mrs. Clemett will do a little "partying" with her hosts who will be making the rounds of traditional Christmas open houses. Mrs. Clemett and Mrs. Richey motored down, spending a week or so with their father in Mississippi. The Michigander will return January 1st. * * * It will be a real Christmas tomorrow at the J. Fritz Gordons, 1706 Country Club, what with three grandchildren around, the youngest just three months old. Mrs. Edward Bohnsack and first-born James Anthony arrived from Denison, Mich., yesterday to join Mrs. Bohnsack's sister, Mrs. Robert Childers and sons Robert and Gordon here. The daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon and their offspring, will remain a month. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Norfleet of Ft. Myers, will also be house guests of the Gordons over the holidays. * * * "When Dr. Bronson arrives this week from Chicago, Ill., it will be for good, and not just for the Christmas holidays," Mrs. Reid R. Bronson told me the other day. Dr. Bronson is retiring from the practice of dentistry, the profession which he has followed for many years in the Windy City. He is looking forward to a real life in the tropics and especially at the attractive country home the Bronsons have built on Burteshaw Road. That rambling ranch type home set back in a grove of fruit trees and coconut palms will be the scene of an annual open house and eggnog party Sunday when the Bronsons honor their son Richard (Rick) Bronson and his fiancee Rebecca Watson of Lakeland. Mrs. Harry Vao Riper will assist her parents at the large party between four and six o'clock and others alternating at the eggnog bowls will be Mrs. M. B. McDonald, Mrs. James Coker, Mrs. J. H. Brooks, now of Ft. Pierce, formerly of Perrine; Mrs. George Corrigan, Mrs. Edwin Klassy and Mrs. Harold Ward. * * * Mr. and Mrs. George E. Moredock Jr. and George Moredock III have arrived to spend the Christmas holidays with the senior Mr. Moredock at 1232 Avenue Sorolla. The junior Mr. Moredock is assistant labor relations manager for the International Harvester Company of Chicago, Ill., and served during the war as a member of the labor board for the government and as a regional board member. * * * Boys and girls, big and little, will be the Christmas eggnog guests of Mr. and Mrs. J. Lawrence Kelley, 1319 Avenue Castile. Following a custom established many years ago and inviting the same group of old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Kelley will hold the traditional party from four until seven tomorrow. Special guests will be the three Kelley sons and their families, including Mr. and Mrs. Kent E. Kelley and their three-month-old daughter Sally Ann, who arrived last week from Brookline, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Jack Kelley, and Robert Menhroat Kelley. Also invited are Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Shermer of Ventnor, N. J. Mrs. Kelley calls Mrs. Shermer, the former Sari Jane Blinn, her "adopted" daughter. The Kelleys and the W. H. Blinns, Sari Jane's parents, have been friends of long standing.

FOR YOUR REAL ESTATE NEEDS SEE Leslie H. COOMBES REALTOR

2812 Ponce de Leon Blvd. Phone 4-2985

Merry Christmas

We extend our greetings to our friends in Coral Gables in the Christmas spirit of warmth, beauty and goodness. May the holiday season be a happy one with all the things that make this day a memorable one. For you and yours—A Very Merry Christmas! CORAL GABLES FEDERAL Savings & Loan Association GEORGE B. CASTER, President RODNEY MILLER, Vice-President HOLLIS BUSH, Director INMAN PADGETT, Vice-President RICHARD B. KILLEN, Director DOROTHY S. BONNER, Secretary DENIS V. RENUART, Director J. A. GARVEY, JR., Asst. Secretary JOHN C. SULLIVAN, Director 2501 PONCE DE LEON BOULEVARD PHONE 4-7627 ASSETS OVER $5,000,000.00 Member Federal Home Loan Bank; Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation