Lord & Leggers

A cable from London last week made Chicagoans belatedly aware of a new work of art right in their midst. Newshawks shouldered their cameras and hurried out to the Glencoe home of James M. R. Glaser of Rosenbaum Bros, (grain brokers).* In his private bar was a large mural panel entitled The History of Bootlegging. In vaguely Riveraesque manner it showed the familiar figure of Al Capone with a blowsy blonde on the arm of his chair, five scowling henchmen, machine gunners, trucks, planes, motor boats, and the silhouetted figures of couples dancing in a speakeasy (see cut). It had been painted during the Chicago World's Fair of 1933. So proud of his work was the artist that British newspapers announced last week that he has made a replica of it for exhibition in Britain.

The painting is the work of Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings, Viscount Hastings, son & heir of the Earl of Huntington. A direct descendant of Robert Hastings, steward to William the Conqueror, with ancestral estates in Leicestershire, Lord Hastings finds Britain too expensive, makes his permanent home in the South Seas, at Faretaotootoa, Moorea Island. His family shield is an empty sleeve supported by two man-faced lions. Unlike Diego Rivera who paints meticulously with a camel's hair brush on wet plaster, Hastings uses a spray gun.

Survivors of the Capone era viewing reproductions in newspapers found the panel satisfactory except for the blowsy blonde.

"Al," said a spokesman who objected strongly to being named, "wouldn't of gave a moll like that a job washing glasses in a Speak."

* Not to be confused with Chicago's lately deflated Rosenbaum Grain Corp. (TIME, May 6), founded last century by a brother who broke away from Rosenbaum Bros.

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