Ontario Community Newspapers

Port Perry Star (1907-), 27 Jul 1950, p. 2

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J yl A v. a or i? ly A ot BN ad nr px " - NST > La uy' I om h-- ME ge ri: 2 ~ = Lot EN Hy a , ~~ Ar ASC i , ws xe Yo ae a) ys ~ a rl __she_ Turned By Richard Hill Wilkinson Flirting was second" nature with Deborah Bellamy, No one 'would have guessed, after one glance at Cher gay, Jaughing face, after one look into her mocking, tantalizing eyes, that miwardly she was afraid "Afraid that sometime séme one of her victims was going to turn the tables, That is to say, dhat one day she was going to fall in love with one of the men, with whom * she flirted. And that, she knew, would be the end. The end' to_ all hér way, reckless happiness. . She never dreamed---that this man would prove to be a cawboy, named Lon Fairweather. Deborah had joined a party who planned a months vacation at a dude ranch in Wyoming. Lon was the foreman. He tall, fair, handsome. Alter one look into his sober blue eyes, Deborah began to lay hier snares, "Ton was different.but he also human. Hence he succumbed to 'her wiles, just as had the others. 'The night he told Deborah of his love they were scated on a high boulder "overlooking a hemmed-in Jake. Something about the beauty and grandeur of the scene stirred -De- she was was borab's soul. She found herseli listening to - Lon's love-making more soberly than was her cus- tom "Oh, Lon," she sud a httle breathlessly, "Not now . . She pushed him away and ran up the path toward the ranch house. Once back mm her room she faced herself in the mirror and laughed. In the that followed l.on persisted in occupying - her Cthoughts. Some what in desperation days She found herself listening to' Lon's love-making a little more soberly than was her custom. a plan came to mind. She'd ask him to come to New York. She'd get him on home ground, compare him with the sort of life she was used to The dea scaned a good one and strangely enough Lon agreed to come--in the fall i Fall came, and she planned a party. She mvited all those who had been at the Double O Bar that sumnier. Lon arrived "in duc time and called at Deborah's apartment. She was a little taken aback at the ease and grace with which he wore his smart new tuxedo, and in spite of herself she thrilled when he swept her into his arms. : "The dinner was set for 8. At 7:30 the guests began to arrive. Lon was surprised when he saw that the - men wore chaps and high- heeled boots; that the women were garbod mm divided riding shirts aml gayv-colored blouses A butler came to the door and yelled: "Come and get it, cowboy!" Deborah felt a little uneasy as Lon escorted her to her scat. Her pncasiness grew as hel slightly puzzled discovering there "was no silverware at his place save a broad-bladed knife. He watching in amazement upon hesitated, as the other guests picked up their | knives, and with suppressed chuck- Iés began to scoop up peas and, shove them into their mouths. He watched as they poured coffee from their cups and drank from their saucers "I understand," he said, looking directly at Deborah, "And I regret [can't appreciate the humor of the thing. You see," he added, westerners-have had it drilled into us by, you casterners,- that we're crude and have no manners. "But," he paused and made a little per- functory = bow toward Dchoras. "Now I know something clse; know that whatever other manners you folks might have you don't know the meaning of hospitality," And with this he carefully_placed his napkin on the table, pushed back his chair-and strode from tlje Troon, " we "Lon! Lon!" she called. "Please come back. It was all my fault, I'm sorry, Please!" But Lon was alrcady througi-the door and halfway down the stairs. Above, on the landing Jacborah stood as if dazed. There was a ter- rible gnawing sensation inside of 'ther, a great, desolate, . miserable feeling, She knew then that Lon Fairweather had been the rian she was afraid of meeting. ' knew - about for escape And then gic SON "gets restless I tell them that Larry "impressed ooked Larry Parkes Talks About Al Jolson Sings Again" shows Larry Parkes as himself, and Larry Parkes as Al Jolson, rehearsing together in front of an enormous mirror, but that shot was mor edintefesting than accurate, - For ncarly fifteen years Al Jol- son bestrode the New York stage as king of -Anierica's blackface en- teretainérs. Then the first talkie, and the whole world heard him say that impromptu line: "Hey, listen to this." The [lm hda found its tonguc--in Jolson's moutir, came md, "When 1 was assigned the part," Larry said, "1 got very worried about how 1 was going to make out. 1"was a straight actor, not a song- 'and-dance man, and I wasn't _sure that | could synchronize with Jol-- Al Jolson, in the words of one of his favourite songs, was "sittin on top of the world" Irom. The Jazz Singer onwards he made film after Hlm, until a fresh load of son's voice, So 1 got together with talent swept him off the screen" him in a small roomy .and sang 'Rock-a-Bye? -the "way 1 thought he'd do it. At the end, he said: 'No, no, no, not like that! You're moving around 'tog much. This is the way to do it.' C"Well, by the. time he'd fHifished he was practically hanging. irom the chandelier, and he said to me: 'See? I didn't move a muscie." in the middle thirties, For tén vears he was a has-been. vir he went to entertain the troops, but neither Hollywood =nor Broadway would look at him twice writes l.conard Samson in "Answers." A Memory Revived And thea, in 1946, Jolson rocket- Puring the averseas "From then on 1 decided to work cd back to fame--and has stayed . hi there: ever since. Last June he things out my own way. wis sixty-five, but the voice that So Jolson recorded the numbers and J.arry Parks rehearsed by him- self. Although Larry's singing voice wasn't heard once on the screen, he - sang so many duets with Jolson's records that he suffered badly from laryngitis. "You see," he said, "1 had to _be sang "Sonny Boy" in 1928 is still twirling round on millions of new records; records that he made since the war. These bare facts on his life 'are familiar to anyone who went to see that fabulously successful Hol- lywood musical called "The Jol- perfect, Either-1 was synchronizin son Story." In Britain alone, 30 or I wasn't, There's no in-between/' million picture-goers saw it, and The two films were before tiie thousands more are watching the rechni- colored follow - up called "Jolson Sings Again." cameras for a total of fifteen months, aiid in that period Larry sang-Jol- "son's numbers ~ more times than the Mammy singer did in half a century of show business. But not once has Jolson complimented him on the way he handled the part, Yes, Jolson still has his voice. And the world sings again with him the songs he made famous more than thirty years ago, songs such as "Mammy," "California, Here I Come," "April Showers," "Rock-a- sye," and dozens more. The memory of a great enter- tainer has been revived. And the man who did it was a young actor called Larry Parks who imperson- ated Polson in both screen biogra- phies--and borrowed his voice for Facing the Crowd "I can understand it, of course," said Larry. "It can't be very plea- sant for Jolson to have to watch _ someone else play his part be- cause hels too old to do it himself. [ know I'd feel the same way. "For a long time Jolson was known as 'the world's greatest en- tertainer," and he went through a _ hard school to qualify for that title. 'Thirty years ago there was no such thing as being groomed for star- dom. You had to fight every inch of the way. And if -you weren't fled with a colossal ego and un- tiring driving force you couldn't make it. Then the entertainer was on his own, with a backcloth be- hind him and a rowdy audience in The old Mammy singer is once again perched on top of the world, Lut he'd never have made the grade if Larry Parks hadn't hoizted him up there. A little while ago the London Palladium gallery shouted: "Give us Jolson!" but Larry Parks--now playing in Glasgow--just smiled and went into a duet with his commedi- enne wife, Betty Garret. front." Afterwards, Larry said to me as Larry is beginning to have an we had supper in his dressing- inkling of what it feels like to stand room: 'I'm not Jolson, so why up and face the crowd. Although should I do his songs? It'd be like telling Bob Hope's jokes." And Hetty added: "So if the audience he has appeared in several plays, this is only the sixth week that he has faced an audience as Larry Parks, and not as a character in a story. But Betty helps him along. When the couple return to Holly- wood they plan to- co-star in a film to be made by their own newly-formed company. But Larry is still under contract to Columbia, and the latest reports indicate that he will make yet a third Jolson . can't do Jolson because I can't. imitate Ruby Keeler." After all, T.arry had played in nearly forty films before the Jol- son histories came along to give him real fame, and he hopes to make at least forty more. Even so, a great many people still identify him solely with the musical, Al Jolson characterizations. In fact, © Well, why not? The first two his portrayal scemed so credible and were successful enough for Jack sincere that one would imagine that "the man and, his memory" knew cach other inside out. When "The Jolson Story" was presented in 1946. Hollywood gave Sign in shop window: Evening out the news that "many were Gown, Cut Down Ridiculously Low. tested before the part was finally 4 } cn given to Larry Parks, who had hig studio heads with fine performances in smaller pro- ductions, and endeared himself to Jolson almost immediately. But Larry makes no bones about the fact that Jolson never wanted him to play the part. James Cag- ney was the actor he had asked for, but after a number' of tests the contract was handed to Larry. . "No, No, No!" "I guess they finally picked on me because I was already on the payroll and would cost less," he remarked with a smile. "But as for Tolson, 1 can hardly tell you any- thing about him, except that he's very rich, Maybe even richer .than- Bing Crosby. But then I don't know. He's never been to my house, and I've never been to his." An intercstifg scene in "Jolson "If 1-had my life [Larry Parkes, Benny to say: over again I'd get to do it for me!" ~ NC ~N Co TF WA; Puree # 4 Duda BEET Ry rs Sahm "What are you planning to do, Labor Day?" : "A Little Wider, Please!"--While a nearby elephant chortled and a crowd of children chuckled,- this chagrined hippo per- mitted keeper Franz Eck to give his bicuspids the brush-off.. The dental doings took place at the Frankfurt, Germany, zoo; where this two-ton and toothsome giant makes his home. J War-Weary And No Wonder.-- Utterly exhausted United States soldiers: fall asleep on the ground after one of their many discouraging retreats in South Korea, 6 Men--4300 Miles of Ocean | On A Carpet-Sized Raft ; Six men, camping on a 30 ft. raft the size of a large carpet crossed 4,300 miles of Pacific ocean in just over three months! Huge whales nosed under and around them, sharks dogged them and were caught and hauled aboard. Storms buffeted them. In the end they were battered on a reef 'and all but drowned! _ A boy's adventure story' No, a man's--and a true one. Thor Hey- erdahl, a Norwegian, lived in the South Sea Islands studying native life before the war. Local legends convinced him that the original Tolynesians came not from Asia but from America. In Peru he dis- covered another legend which claimed that some of the original natives, fleeing from the Inca in- vasion to the coast, sailed west- wards on rafts; Ted by a high priest named Kon-Tiki. Experts Only Laughed After serving in the Free Nor- wegian- Air Force, he 'went to the U.S.A. to try out this theory on experts; but they only laughed. "Ths "Indians," they said, "had no boats, only rafts, and there are more than 4,000 miles of open sea between South America and Polynesia. You try crossing that on a raft!" To their' astonishment he said he would. Afid nanied his raft the Kon-Tiki. Four other Norwegians and a Swede joined him in the crazy venture; the Washington and Lima governments supported it. The raft was built of nine giant Balsa logs from the Ecuador jungle--because the Indians used this light-as-cork wood for their rafts--and lashed with-hemp rope----Amidships-was--a | small cabin of bamboo and banana leaves to give shelter from the sun. Steering was by a 19 ft. var at the stern, so heavy that it would sink if it fell overboard. This oar gave them their first headache when they sailed from Callgo into roaring seas swept by a trade wind. It swung the steers- man round like a helpless acrobat; not even two men could hold it steady as the scas poured over. Its movement had to be limited with ropes run from the blade to caéh side of the raft. Terrors of the Deep When a big sea came the helms- men left the steering to the ropes and "hung on to --abamboopole--- from the cabin roof, flinging them- sclves at the oar again before the raft could turn round __and the _ sail thrash about. In the struggle arms and chests were sore with pressing; the oar knocked them green and blue in front and behind. "Terrors of the deep" were no figment to these raftmen. Some- times at night they would be scared by two round shining eyes.glaring at them from the sea with hypnotic ---stare--it might have heen the Old. Man of tlie Sea himself!" Often these were big squids with devilish green eyes; sometimes the eyes of deep water fish which ofiiy.. came up at night. Several times when the sea was calm the black | -- feet in diameter . . . water round the raft was suddenly full of round heads two or three motionless . -. , staring. Or J ft. balls of light would flash at intervals down in the water. -- Some of the monsters--possibly giant ray-fish--looked bigger than -- Tight. One daylight visitor had. the ugliest "face they had ever seen-- broad, flat head like a frog's, with two small eyes at the sides and a toad-like jaw four or five feet wide, with long" fringes drooping - from the corners of the mouth. The huge brownish body ended in a long, thin tail with a straight-up pointed. fin, It came swimming astern, grinning like a bull-dog. In front swam a crowd of zebra-striped pilot fish, and large remora fish and other parasites sat firmly attached to its body. "Walt Disney himself could not have created a more hair-raising sca monster than that which thus suddenly law: with its terrific jaws along the raft's side," Mr. Heyer- dahl writes in his vivid account of the voyage, "The Kon-Tiki Expedi- tion". It was a rare whale-shark, the world's largest known fish, which weighs 15 tons and may reach 65 ft. in length. Another menace was tie octo- "mis or squid, which could boar the raft or feel about ever corner of it with its long tensacles. Not liking the prospect of groping cold "arms about their necks, dragging them out of their sleeping bags at sight, the raftmen slept with long machete knives at their side. Young squids were actually found aboard: ones with its arms twined round the--bamboo" by the cabin door, another on the palm-leaf roof. Sharks Aboard "Many times they were visited by whales larger than the raft. One headed straight for the port side, with seven or eight following, then glided right underneath and lay cicphants in the glimmer oi the raft- there, dark and motionless, while the men held their breath. One mighty heave, and . . . but, to their intense relief, it slowly sank out ot sight, Sharks, six to ten feet long, were - baited and hauled aboard. Some- times the captive would jerk itself round in great leaps and thrash at the bamboo wall of the cabin, using its tail like a sledge-hammer, with its huge jaws opened wide, its ~ rows of tecth snapping at the men's legs. as they tugged with all theie-- might, jumping nimbly aside. Occasionally, for a diversion, two .or thrce of them would row out in a rubber dinghy to photograph the raft or just laugh at it--for it looked so ludicrous in that waste of water. Once, when wind and sea were higher than they thought and the Kon Tiki was moving more quickly than 'they reckoned, the ately with their toy oars to regain it and avoid being left behind." "Those were horrible minutes. out on the sea before we got hold of the runaway raft and crowded on Loard to the others, home again." From that day it was strictly for- bidden to go out in the, rubber dinghy without having a long line made fast to the hows. One there was a frantic crv of "Man overboard!" as Herman, try- ing to save a sleeping bag from slippifig into the sea, fell in him- self and was soon far astern, swim- ming frantically after the raft but losing way. Knut dived in after him with a lifebelt and just managed to reach him in time, while the others "hauled on the line and dragged them both to safety. Last Desperate Fight Their worst ordeal came at the end, when they reached aa island _ cast of. Tahiti and crashed on a reef pounded by massive rollers. As a mighty sea came over, Hey- erdahl clung to a masthead stay, * the -others to lashed -boxes, guy ropes, anything that offered hand- hold. "l determined," he says, "that if I was to die, I would die in this dinghy party had to row desper-_- position, like a knot on the stay. The sea thundered on, ower and past, and as it roared by it révealed a hideous sight. The Kon-Tiki was wholly changed, as by the stroke of a magic' wand. The vessel we knew from wecks. and months at sea was no more; in a few seconds our pleasant world had become a shattered wreck." "The cabin itself was crushed like a house of cards. They had a des- perate fight to reach the shore of the small uninhabited atoll, but they managed it, and after a brief Crusoe existence were rescued by natives from another island 'and -eventu-- -ally reached "Tahiti, Mr. Heyerdahl had proved that those original natives fleeing from the Incas ¢ould have reached the islands by raft. His story, translated by F. H. Lyon, with excellent pho- tographs of the life aboard, is worthy to rank with the classics of sea adventure. ; Crazy and Dangerous. This crazy and dangerous fad of cluttering up the windshield of car | or truck with a lot of swaying doo- dads brings well merited criticism from the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. It was time something was said' about" this. Driving today on any street or highway is a job that calls for constant concentration and un- obstructed vision. That is why windshields are made of glass or other transparent material. For the safety of others, all others who use the highway, as well- as the occu- pants of any car, these windshields should be kept clean and clear. Even a small sticker adds some hazard but these imitation birds and dolls which dangle in front of the driver's eyes are a standing in- vitation to suicide and manslaugh- ter. . Théother day a magistrate fined a motorist who wag attemnting to comb his hair and also drive. In the --interests---of -common--safety most people will approve of that magis- trate's decision and they would also approve of a similar action against "those respbnsible for these wind- shield puppet shows. LOTS LIKE HIM ~The lecturer was ranting on his favorite subject--the - evils of to- bacco. _ o "Carefully compiled statistics," he asserted, "demonstrate that every cigar. a .man smokes shortens his life by a week, and cach cigarette by three days." A man in the audience rose to inquire, "Are those statistics ac- curate?" "Absolutely accurate, sir," clared the lecturer. "Why" "It's quite important to me," re- plied the man, "for if they're accur- de- ate, I've been dead some 287 years." Tasteless Entering a drugstore a girl ask- ed how to take a dose of castor oil without tasting it. The assistant said he would look up some sugges- tions, but meanwhile would the young lady like to try a new lemon- ade powder they had just-gof in. - The young lady would, and when the glass was finished the assistant asked, with a smile; Well, did you taste it?" "Good Heavens!" gasped the girl. "Was the castor oil in that' lemon- ade? I wanted it for .my- small brother." : rop Raider Newest Light Transport--Six jet rocket units and assault antes to take off in a space of less than 500 feet. Weighing 20 tons, the North- -15 was designed to transport heavy loads in and o . clearings. The photograph was made during one of the ship's test flights. ARE three engines enable the newest light of small ,unimproved . now HE'S cone! Yu To GET THE By Arthur Pointer by | Ame TTR A Yo Ad * 0 | | | J | EE J 'Rn 1 a

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