Bubble-Ho, Pretty Boy
Sirs:
It was with great delight that I viewed myself in People (TIME, Oct. 7). However, just so my many acquaintances in show business won't think I've gone Hollywood, I believe it would have been nice to let them know bubble baths are not a weekly or daily occurrence with me.
I had to take this one for my current role in Roy Del Ruth's It Happened on Fifth Avenue. Any bubble baths I take in the future will be governed strictly by whatever salary a producer wants to pay me.
VICTOR MOORE
Hollywood
Fizz Peach
Sirs:
You aver (TIME, Oct. 7) that Wisbech rhymes with fizz peach. Not so. I've been stationed in the neighborhood [Cambridgeshire, England] for several, months, and can authoritatively state that it is pronounced "whiz bitch." What's the matter, do you think bitch is a nasty word?
MARSHALL E. DEUTSCH New York City
1% No, but in this case it does not fit. Natives of Wisbech say "Wizz-Beach."--ED.
Veterans & Citizens
Sirs:
As a veteran of 21 months service in the Pacific and a member of no veterans' organization, I want to register my contempt for ex-Legion Commander Stelle's demagoguery. His declaration that "the veteran comes first and the citizen second" reflects the state of thinking on which the bulk of the world's troubles rest. It is the condition of mind which seeks good only for self.
On the other hand, the words of General Bradley deserve the greatest recognition. "As Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, I owe a solemn duty to 17,000.000 veterans who fought this country's wars. And yet, I am positive that the huge majority of these veterans will support me in my conviction that I owe an even more compelling duty to all Americans and to the nation in which they live." . . . This attitude might well serve as a basis of thought for leaders all over the world.
GLENN E. TINDER JR.
Claremont, Calif.
Genus Homo
Sirs:
That was quite a buildup you gave Mr. Jackson in reference to his latest book, The Fall of Valor (TIME, Oct. 7). Shame on you !
John Grandin is an even more sympathetic figure than the Don Birnam of Lost Weekend fame. For Birnam, there was hope--and Alcoholics Anonymous. For Grandin, nothing. I have traveled extensively and have met many souls kindred to John Grandin. For them, there is nought but continual suffering --unless they choose to become the recipients of the total disgust of their fellowmen. . . .
Yes, John Grandin is a pathetic figure and may God bless Charles Jackson for bringing him and his predicament into the limelight. . . .
JAMES KENNEDY
Dayton
From the Podium
Sirs:
Never have I been so mad as I was when reading [Orchestra Conductor] Rudolph Dunbar's letter (TIME, Oct. 7).
The man says your article on him was "not only untrue but vulgar to the extreme." You did not even have the courtesy to reply, merely "Conductor Dunbar herewith sees his letter, but no apology." Are we readers expected to naively assume that TIME cannot err?
XT _, , O.t MARTIN M. BRUCE New York City
Sirs:
We were much chagrined to see in your Oct. 7 issue a letter from Rudolph Dunbar, especially since we do not share the sentiments contained in it. The interview with Mr. Dunbar took place at our home, and we found your reporter, Mr. Louis Banks, to be most cooperative and alert. We also feel that it was a gracious gesture on TIME'S part to open its columns to publicize Mr. Dunbar's work.
WILLIAM GRANT STILL Los Angeles
Ravens' Rations
Sirs:
Your story on the ravens at the Tower of London [TIME, Oct. 7] reminded me of a visit I made to the Tower several months ago. . . .
A "beefeater" showing us about pointed out the ravens, explained that they were entered on the British Army muster rolls at the Tower, and received regular rations. . . .
Then, with a sweep of his arm toward a tower crusted with raven droppings, the "beefeater" remarked:
"And there are some of the results of Lend-Lease."
VICTOR WILSON Philadelphia
The Birds & Bees, etc.
Sirs:
Your article, "Tips for Tots" (TIME, Oct. 7), simply turns my stomach. I wouldn't have such a set of records in the house.
Imagine listening to Doc Clock at breakfast, Happity Yappity Appetite at lunch and dear old Sip-Sip Supper at supper. . . .
If a child has enough sense to ask questions about the world his Momma and his Poppa ought to have enough sense and imagination and honesty to answer. Our own children are six years, four years, and nine months old. Nobody around our house works off parenthood by proxy of the phonograph. Don't misunderstand--the kids think that
Peter and the Wolf and the fairy stories are fine, but I can spin better fairy tales myself out of thin air, and Pappy can give a better explanation of how to drive a nail in Bill's fire truck than any phonograph record.
Why can't children be allowed to learn some things for themselves? If they want to know about bees, let them watch a hive. . . .
If youngsters want to know where babies come from can't Momma and Poppa say that babies come from inside their mothers? Or buy a female dog and let her have pups, or better still let the family get a new baby? (The last baby obviously has to learn from the Llewelyn setter.) . . .
If I were a child and I had somebody three times my size constantly ding-donging at me to eat my food, clean up my plate, close my mouth when I chewed, wipe off my chin, say thank you, take off my hat, etc., I would turn into a gibbering idiot. So would you.
Personally, I hope the great big ol' Hap-pity Yappity Appetite gets Murray and Sylvia Winant and all the Graphic Education Productions and scares hell outta them ... all to rollicking music, of course.
MRS. RAY S. ALEXANDER Fordyce, Ark.
Housewife's Friend
Sirs:
Re A. & P. monopoly (TIME, Sept. 20), the theory that it is better to produce a little to sell at a big profit for a few rather than to sell a large quantity at a small profit for everyone is too much in evidence in our country today, much to my dismay--as I am the purchasing agent for our home.
Many times I've been grateful for our North Hollywood A. & P. and the resultant stretched dollar. My family with its three school-aged children eat better and more because of the efficient buying power of the Hartford brothers than they would without them. So I, for one, have my own prejudiced opinion on this decision. . . .
FRANCES PAXTON
Burbank, Calif.
Successor to Jeans?
Sirs:
In the search for a successor to science interpreter Sir James Jeans (TIME, Sept. 30), I should like to call attention to a Russian-born scientist, Dr. George Gamow.
Dr. Gamow [now a U.S. citizen and professor of physics at George Washington University] has worked with Niels Bohr and with Lord Rutherford. One of his books, The Birth and Death of the Sun, deals in layman's language with theories of stellar evolution that interested Jeans, and with the subatomic reactions that are believed to account for the radiation of the stars. In Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom, he gives a lucid and painless introduction to electrons, positrons, and the other constituents of the atom, not to mention some thermodynamics.
I think that it is up to Dr. Gamow to take Jeans's place and become the interpreter of "the terrifying discoveries of the nuclear physicists."
NORBERT MULLER Berkeley, Calif.
Credit Line
Sirs:
In your review of The Jolson Story (TIME, Oct. 7) you give your readers the impression that someone had an idea for a picture, got a cameraman and a director and some actors and said, "Boys, let's make a picture." You write your review as if The Jolson Story happened; not that someone wrote a screenplay that someone filmed. . . .
You give the impression that Mr. [Sidney]
Skolsky wrote the screenplay. Now Mr. Skolsky, a very fair fellow, at no time wants that kind of credit. Mr. Jolson didn't write it either; the director didn't write it.
. . . Remember a motion picture is only as good as its story and dramatic content. Every producer in town will tell you a director can't shoot a bad script and get a great picture.
STEPHEN LONGSTREET
Beverly Hills, Calif.
-I To Reader Longstreet, who authored The Jolson Story, a belated lifting of TIME'S hat.--ED.
I.N.R.I.
Sirs:
Many thanks for your long review of my King Jesus. I am not perverse; but in view of the Bethlehem massacre and other incidents of the Nativity, I do think it likely that Jesus was telling the truth when he admitted under Pilate's cross-examination that he was "The King of the Jews"--a Roman title, implying legitimate descent from Herod the Great--though at the same time he waived his claim to the vacant throne.
"King of Israel," as King David had been styled, was another title altogether, and that Jesus could claim this too, by matrilineal succession. is suggested by the skeleton coronation story cautiously preserved in St. Luke's Gospel--the lustration. the formula quoted from the ancient coronation hymn: the descent from heaven of the ka, or royal double, in bird form: the vigil on Mount Madara. This ceremony made him titularly "Son of God," rebegotten that day.
"The old heresy" with which your reviewer charges me was enunciated by Jesus himself. He told the woman of Samaria, "Salvation comes from the Jews"; when all Israel had repented and turned again to strict Judaism, then according to the prophecy in Zachariah, which he plainly conceived himself to be fulfilling', the Gentiles too would be proselytized and flock to Jerusalem to worship. Yes, certainly, the disciples went into all the world to preach the Gospel: but to their fellow Jews, scattered in every country from Portugal to India: for Jesus had roundly condemned the practice of actively proselytizing the Gentiles. instead of concentrating on the Israelite mission field.
Protestants will, doubtless, go on for centuries reading, marking and inwardly digesting the Gospels: but those who do not study Hebrew history and literature of Jesus' time, and early Church history as well, have no hope of making sense of the story. . . .
If my sources are "tenuous" it is because the Gentile Church spent so many centuries routing out and destroying all historical evidence against its approved version of Jesus' life: but most of them are of equal validity with the canonical books.
ROBERT GRAVES Mallorca, Spain
Lower Slobbovia
Sirs:
In your Oct. 7 issue I notice along with sane reporting on the Foreign News front a short article about "Lower Slobbovia" of comic-strip fame. Don't you think TIME is going a little too far by including such trash within its renowned covers? I, an ardent reader, most definitely do. Comic strips have meant to me and many other thinking people nothing more than a beautiful example of America's love of escapist reading. I hope TIME too is not becoming slightly escapist.
PAUL E. KILLINGER
Buffalo fl Not even slightly--ED.
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