@ 'THE OSHAWA TIMES, Tuesday, August 10, 1968 - Mercer Reveals Secrets Of His Latter-Day Career By BOB THOMAS HOLLYWOOD (AP)--'I tried to be a singer and failed, I tried to be an actor and failed. So I just naturally fell into lyric writing." This is the deprecating ana- lysis by Johnny Mercer of his latter-day career. It doesn't take into aczount that he may well be the most successful lyric writer working today. Mellow-voiced Mercer is 55, but he seems little changed from the days when he and Jack Teagarden intoned the blues as part of the Paul White- man organization, "I've been lucky,' he said, "to have been able to collabo- rate with some of the best song writers of my generation." -- Some of his partners and the fruit of their labors: Richard Whit (Too Words); Jerome Kern (Dearly Beloved); Gordon Jenkins (P.S. I Love you); Hoagy Car- michael (Lazy Bones); Matty Maineck ( Goody)) Ha- rold Arlen (That Old Black Magic; Blues in the Night); Harry Warren (Jeepers Creep- ers); and more. IN HEAVY DEMAND In recent years Mercer has been in heavy demand for title songs for movies. ee lucers call me all the times with offers to write songs for their picture titles," he said. "turn most of them down. I think it's silly to write a song that doesn't mean anything, just so you can plug the picture. I don't need the money." Mercer's. steadiest collabora- tion of late has been with the prolific Henry Mancini. They won the Academy Award two years running for Moon River (from Breakfast at Tiffany's) and the title tune of Days of Wine and Roses. How do they collaborate? Marvelous for "Ac , we don't collabo- all," Mercer explained. "Hank writes the score first, and he selects the melodies that can be lyricized. I think better to work that way; then I I write the lyrics first, they're inclined to be more pedestrian, because I'm thinking of rhythms that have been used before." Johnny has also written lyrics for movie musicals (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), in fact everything but rock 'n " "I'm too old for that," he said. Discrimination Charges Made HAMILTON (CP) -- Roman Catholic, Negro and Jewish athletes taking part in th. Ca- nusa games are unwelcome in some Hamilton homes. Several persons volunteering to take an athlete from Flint, Mich., into their home have specified no Roman Catholic, Jew or Negro. The form for persons offer- ing accommodation has a space for the preferred race or religion. "Most people say they'll take anybody, no matter what their color or creed, but there are some exceptions," said Fred Tremaine, chairman of Hamil- ton's hospitality committee, He expected about 100 Negro boys and girls will be part of the 800-strong contingent arriv- ing from Flint, Friday, for the 8th annual games. The games include a variety of sports and are held altern- ately in Hamilton and Flint. Persons who have refused to take Negroes say it is because their neighbors may not like it. RAF Fighters Thinly Spread To Protect Britain's Flanks -- (Continued From Page 4) Whatever the cause of the ex- aggeration, there is no doubt the alleged toll of five to one in the RAF's favor instead of the actual two to one played a de- cisive part in bolstering the morale of the whole nation at the time. Good public relations, allied with Churchill's oratory, were one of the best weapons Britons had in the catastrophic summer of 1940. What was not exaggerated was the unevenness of the nu- merical odds against the RAF. When the battle opened Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowd- ing, chief of Fighter Command, could loft a maximum of 720 fighters to meet the Luftwaffe's 3,500 aircraft--of which, 2,500 were serviceable at any given time. The RAF fighters were so thinly spread to protect all Britain's flanks that 12 - plane squadrons single-handedly took on formations of more than 100) enemy aircraft. One historian estimates that in combat condi- tions the RAF was consistently out-numbered by as many as 20 to-1. The defensive net of 20 radar stations around the North Sea and Channel coasts helped to even the odds. The radar beams of the day could detect formations of in- vaders 100 miles away but were inaccurate about height and numbers. Worst of all radar was blind inland, USED PHONES The detection system that really beat the Germans was not just radar but the open telephone lines that linked ra- dar and inland observer corps units with headquarters and sector command posts. In the air there was constant air - to - ground communication between pilots and sector sta- tions via radio. The burden of the fighting fell on the 26 squadrons of No. 11 Group, spread out over south- east England under the com- mand of Air Vice-Marshal K. R. Park. At the peak of the fight- ing some pilots of 11 Group were being "scrambled" three or four times a day. Park's tactics in sending up single squadrons to meet large enemy formations was later criticized. He defended himself with the argument that there wasn't sufficient time to organ- ize and co-ordinate three or four squadrons or wings before the interception. In the hectic dog-fights the RAF pilots found themselves relearning most of the tricks discovered a generation before come alive! ci egael PEPSI-COLA ba nal Smith Beverages Ltd., 750 Farewell Street over Flanders: The surprise at- tack dive out of the sun; a con-| stant watch on the rear-view! mirror; deflection shooting; and the maxim 'Never fight/ alone." All these tactics grew out of the grim fact that. dog-fights are a form of warfare where the object is to catch your enemy unaware from behind and shoot him in the back. The rule was basic: "If you aren't going to win, don't get 'n'n the} fight.' Many of the pilots who learned this the hard way quickly lost their earlier gaiety. The truth was there was noth- ing chivalrous about the actual fighting at all. It was just the can tune-in on the melody. If} : Broadway shows (li'l Abner)--| ; SINGAPOR™, underlined, today broke from the Fed- eration of Malaysia and be- came independent. ' Other former British territories in ST. LOUIS (AP)--It was 50 hot 20 years ago today when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, that a steel lamp post ignited like a match "Phe air," said Paul Brook- man, a native of Amsterdam, Holland, "you couldn't believe how hot the air was after the p \blast." a the federation are Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah (North Borneo), all distinguished in black. (AP 'Wirephoto Map) WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Cornell scientist reports he has discovered some females with truly fatal allure. They are fireflies, sneaky sirens that lure cert gulli- ble males to trysting spots by blinking their lamps at them --and then the girls devour the boys. Entomologist James E. Lloyd says these deadly fe- males have apparently cracked the special signal code of some other types of fireflies--and imitate it to make males of .the other breed believe they're being called by the girls they usu- ally date. In an article in Science magazine, Lloyd says it has been known for a long time that firefly females of the genus photuris are carnivor- ous. And one of their favor- ite dishes is the male of the genus photinus. SOME FEMALES SEEN WITH A REALLY FATAL ALLURE Scientists have suspected the photuris girls snare the photinus boys by imitating the characteristic lamp sig- nals of the latter clan--but no one previously had caught them in the act. That's where Lloyd came in. Using a flashlight to simu- late the wooing signals of fireflies, he invaded prime firefly haunts in Illinois and Virginia. He flashed the mating calls of various species of photinus males--and out of the night sky would come answering signals from females later identified as photuris girls, who apparently could mimic a whole repertoire of signals. Lloyd said he actually watched a photuris femme flashing a come-on and, a little later, lunching on a de- ceived photinus. Plans For General Vote DORTMUND (Reuters)-- West Germany's ruling Chris- tian Democratic party is pre- paring its biggest guns for Sep- tember's general election cam- paign, It promises to be a tough fight. Led by Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, the Christian Demo- crats are bidding to retain power in the Bundestag (lower house) after an unbroken se- ries of electoral victories dur- ing the 16 years of West Ger- man statehood. But political observers believe the vintage hunters and the hunted and the devil take the hindmost. years may be past. The .Christian Democrats' chief rivals for power, the So- cial Democrats led by West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, have been making big gains in provincial elections in the last two years. The faithful of the Christian Democrats hope they again can work their magic Sept. 19, when West Germans elect a new Bun- destag. Elections are held every four years, and some 38,- 500,000 are eligible to vote.- In the present Bundestag the Christian Democrats hold 242 seats, and rule in coalition with the Free Democrats who hold 67. panies, we'll go on A note to the prominent Canadians who insist that Bell should be owned by Canadians. They've overlooked one small point. Bell is already 93.6% Canadian-owned. People who are uneasy about foreign control of Canadian companies needn't worry about Bell. For the fact is, the ownership of Bell is overwhelmingly Canadian. Of 208,000 shareholders, over 203,000 are Canadian residents, and they hold 93.6°/s of the total shares. The little tag line you see at the bottom of Bell advertisements means just what it says. And since it's important that people know the facts about one of Canada's most important public service com- putting it in. Here it is again. BELL ® Built, operated and owned by Canadians Florida, | Brookman was a prisoner of war at Nagasaki. He had been captured in Indonesia while fighting with the Dutch army. "The temperature was get- ting worse every minute," he said. 'Then I saw a steel pole nearby start burning by itself." Brookman and his fellow pris- oners were working in the ship Lives To Tell Of Nagasaki. heard of the hi caused e days yards and had not "he 4 ir t a I hy the atomic bomb thre: earlier. "We didn't know what hap- pened for almost two months until the American occupation forces arrived, and then, what did atomic bomb mean to us?" Brookman, who became an American citizen a month ago, is a sheet metal worker in St. guson with his wife, Prui, and eight-year-old daughter, Mieke. "There was no air raid alarm," Brookman said in re- calling that eventful Aug. 9, 1945. "I. heard . nothing . but Louis, He lives in nearby Fer-|- NEWS IN BRIEF FIND FOOTPRINTS MILLINOCKET, Me. (AP)--- The discovery of new footprints and a iree carving Fiiday inrew no new light on the week-long disappearance in Maine of Rob- bie Mott, 17, a mentally re- tarded diabetic, and his brother, Timothy, 3, of Roches- ter, N.Y. The footprints were found about six miles northeast of the Roaring Brook camp site where the boys were last seen. FLY TO MOSCOW BONN (AP) -- Commercial flights between Moscow and something made me dive under a heavy machine. "Men five feet away from me received third degree burns. There was a blinding flash of light and a' sound so intense it was beyond hearing." He said five of his fellow prisoners died. Some were blinded, € 70 DISCUSS CHINA PUGWASH, NS, (CP)-- Scholars from 10 United States Frankfurt will begin soon, 2! West German government| spokesman said Friday. CRASH KILLS SEVEN Diner arn Pik i a Sal cL, > aaaeReeeaee (a. 7 --pn Une BVEWern Nove Seven persons were killed Fri-|vijiage Sunday for the 25th i day night in a two-car, head-on Collision on rainslick Okienamna|"ash Conference. The 45 dele- Highway 74, south of Oklahoma/sates to this year's 11-day ses- City, the highway patrol re-|Sions will discuss China and its ported. culture, ; RENT-A-CAR DAY -- WEEK -- MONTH $5.00 PER DAY - autacr cnarce : 725-6553 RUTHERFORD'S| CAR SND TRUCK RENTALS 725-6553 eee ALIA - Tame IMMEDIATE | | Ruling W. German Party { | | { | { | # 'DELIVERY AT THE BEST PRICES! ONTARIO MOTOR SALE 140 Bond St. West -- Oshawa -- 725-6501 GMS Big Selection ALL MODEL At...