Gridirony

The Italian Ambassador and the Albanian Minister, Franklin Roosevelt and Jack Garner, Tom Dewey and Bob Taft, all sat down for dinner together one night last week in Washington. Such things are possible only at Gridiron Club dinners, where Washington newsmen play host and entertainer to the political great with song & skit.

Sample song last week:

> He may get weary and sick of fishin'

But nothing on earth can stop him

wishin'

That Old Man Garner,

He just keeps running along.

Sample skit:

> (Bill Green of A. F. of L. and Coshocton, Ohio; John Lewis of C. I. 0. and Alexandria, Va.)

Grand Duke of Coshocton: "Now, John, no double-crossing. We've got to stick together in order to stay apart. If we let anyone bring us together we're sunk. . . ."

Earl of Alexandria: "Yes, Bill. This thing can get serious. The laboring people are getting restless."

Duke: "My footman asked me this very morning for a vertical increase."

Earl: "Shocking! The chauffeur of my second car wants a five day horizontal week. It's an outrage."

> There were also speeches--off the record. Franklin Roosevelt as usual was the star guest, the virtuoso of ribbery. Ohio's Senator Robert Alphonso Taft was presented (in person) as a Republican foil to the President. Bob Taft proceeded to make on-the-record news by making a sensationally poor speech. When he had finished, New York's Tom Dewey applauded, grinned. He shared his friends' certainty that, if speechmaking has much to do with it, Bob Taft will not be hard for him to beat for the Republican Presidential nomination.

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