ustxtxb_obs_1956_08_29_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

porn Sculpture.: \(Don Fairchild, until recently a reporter on the Austin American, is now working for a French newspaper in. Paris. The letter below arrived before the runoff Sattu- PARIS, France The discussion had become as Latin Quarter discussions are apt to becomeanimated, not to say heated. In Paris every discussion eventually resolves itself into a debate about the arts, or politics. As this is vacation time \(2,500,000 Parisians are absent for from three weeks to a month under the Socialist government’s vacation the artistic world. The OperaComique is back in operation, but it’s staffed mostly by youngsters, and the .productionsmusicallyaren’t much better than those given by the Metropolitan when it wanders down into Texas from time to time. Therefore, we talked politics. Texas politics, mind you. For I had just heard the results of Texas’s first primary election, and I was attempting to explain to my European friends why it was that Senator Price Daniel had decided he preferred the governorship of Texas to a seat in Congress. “But,” said my French friend on the right, “leCongressyou Americans are always calling it the Greatest Deliberative Body in the Worldnon?” “Yes,” I responded, full of enthusiasm for the Greatest Deliberative Body in the World. “Then.” said -the Frenchman, “a Senator !of the United States must be more powerful than a governor of one of the statesnon?” “Yes,” I replied again, “in my opinion a man who sits in the Senate of the United States of America has infinitely more power, opportunity, and ability to influence human life the world over for good or evil than does a man who is governor of a state.” This perplexed the whole table round, and there was a brief silence. Then my friend from Iceland spoke up. “AhI have it, the governor earns a great deal more money than a senator?” “No,” I replied, “I don’t think soI believe the salaries are about the same.” Then I explained how a senator is elected for six years, while a governor must go through an expensive political campaign cost DALLAS The State Fair Musicals managed to close out its season with “The Great Waltz” and “Show Boat” awash in a sea of showmanship. “The Great Waltz,” the fifth offering of the season, had everything from Liberace to Dancing Waters, while “Show Boat,” the final production, had Shirley Jones, a revised Harris Green denouement, a live horse onstage, and, in one scene, a kitchen that may or may not have been complete with sink. “The Great Waltz” was the more slickly assembled of the two. though, as Henry James once de scribed a nouveau riche, “her ele gance was intermittent and her nts didn’t always match.” We too far into the Rodgers-and aerstein era to take seri any show that foists upon us such patent song cues as “It’s Vienna! It’s Spring! And love is in the air!” or attempts to keep us taut with suspense wondering whether Johann Strauss, Jr., will ever gain fame as a composer of waltzes. To his credit, Liberace did subdue his professional personality for the evening, but, unfortunately, he acts as he -plays: with a minimum of ability, an absence of subtlety, and so strict an adherence to the narrow line between the inadequate and the awful that one is almost compelled to admire him. More legitimate entertainment came from the two lovely soprani, Lois Hunt and Jean Fenn, from a stageful of competent character actors, and from the Musicals’ own production staff. Art director Peter Wolf, costume designer Joe Crosby, and stage director George Schaefer, after making such an incoherent botch of “Can-Can,” responded in so consistent and harmonious a style that one wondered how well they would have trying to prevent a war from occurring over a private company. The socialist objected”But in Guatemala, therd, your United Fruit Company, you didn’t hesitate to intervene, did you?” Again I protestedwe didn’t “intervene,” and then, the United Fruit Company is only a private company engaged in growing, harvesting, shipping, and selling bananas. “What is the principal resource of Guatemala?” the socialist asked and I must confesS that my knowledge of that Central American country was not extensive enough to answer that question. The cynical Frenchman had his turn again. “I’ll tell you why because if Mid-Eastern oil assets are blocked off, American domestic oil will become more expensive, and those blue chips will turn even bluerthey may even look black.” I protested against this, of course, pointing out that American companies have holdings, too, in the Middle East. There didn’t seem to be much possibility of agreement, so I paid for my cafe-creme and caught a Metro to the Right Bank, where, like a good bourgeois, I strolled up and down the Grands Boulevards for a while. What happened there, I’ll tell you in a letter at some future time. DON 136 Rue Montmartre Paris 2, France AMARILLO “The only richness is the richness of the mind and heart.” This appraisal of life, contrary to what might be expected, was not made by a minister or scholar. Instead, Lewis, the massive, several times wrestling champion of the world who is still one of the most interesting sports personalities of our times. The 68-year-old Strangler retired ten years ago after 44 years of mat work and now spends his time in Christian work, speaking before student and church youth groups across the country. The tremendously powerful, barrelchested man, who at 250 pounds is still not far over his fighting weight, tells them: “There is no power except from God.” Lewis, who was born Robert Herman Julian Friedrich, visits Amarillo frequently and almost always makes a trip out to Cal Farley’s famous Boys Ranch at Old Tascosa. We became acquainted in 1948 while your reporter was posing as a sports editor on the Amarillo Times. The Strangler suggested that we have breakfast while he gave an interview. He had all the food folks usually have for their morning meal, that is, all the food several folks usually have for breakfast, two grapefruit, cereal, five eggs, two orders of ham, a large stack of toast, and many cups of coffee. His table manners were flawless and his conversation captivating. In the manner of a man who has discussed a matter many times but still enjoys reminiscing, the Strangler related that during his 40-odd years in the ring he had participated in more than six thousand match e s, traveled around the world five times \(two and one-half million miles of air For his cauliflower ears and countless miscellaneous injuries incurred in nearly a half century AUSTIN In Texas recently several architectural works of art have been attacked, not only by the public but by the body or bodies who have commissioned them, on the grounds that they do not adequately represent whatever the building is used for or that the artist has an aged grandfather who once in his dizzy youth played ping-pong with a suspected member of the local Communist youth group. The first consideration is that the decoration of a building should be part of the building or that it should be an unsubtract Philip John Evett able part of the whole, and to take it away would leave the building aesthetically r o b b e d. How many modern buildings can you think of which would suffer very much if the decoration were removed? In medieval times, when the great religious awareness prompted the building of so many tremendous cathedrals and churches in Europe, the decoration was conceived not as decoration but as part of the fabric of the whole building and was inseparable from it, Today it is usually done differently. An architect designs a building, and on his drawings he may leave spaces where the “decoration” is to go. When the building is completed, and if there is enough money in the pot, the ar He Is Overtaken By Certain Doubts in the wrestling ‘ wars, the old champ figures he earned a total of $15 Million, more than any other athlete in history. Hardly a week passed that he didn’t wrestle, and sometimes he had several matches during a week. His crushirlg strength was always his principal asset, although basically he was a sound wrestler. At the height of his career he could clamp his famous headlock around ,a 100-pound sack of grain and apply so much pressure the end of the sack would burst. In his toughest match, he wrestled a Swedish contender in a no time limit title event that lasted more Bob Bray than seven hours before the Strangler won. The question came up of wrestling matches being fixed, and, of course, the Strangler was too intelligent and honest to deny that many wrestlers, as he puts it, “talk business.” But by the same token, he said there are many matches where the participants are “shooting” all the way. Ironically, the Strangler says, the crowd-pleasing matches are frequently those which are fixed, while ‘ the most honestly fought contests often are less interesting. For example, he recalled an incident in Denver. The two wrestlers in question had been wrestling hard and fast, both determined to win. It was straight, fundamental, collegetype-wrestling, with neither man taking many chances and both relying on speed, experience, and finesse for victory. Instead of cheering, the Strangler recalled, the fans were booing. Finally, one of the , wrestlers ran across the ring in an. attempted flying mare. He missed, sailed between the ropes and chitect in conjunction with the owners may find some artist to submit sketches for the “decoration.” The artist is then to compromise between the two and run with the fox and hunt with the hounds at the same timenever a position for an artist to do his best work. He is caught between the architect who has his own ideas about the decoration and the owner who probably doesn’t know a work of art from a slice of salami and in consequence doesn’t like artists. He is in a spot. The architect approves them and together they seek the approbation of the owner and/or his committee. They look at the sketches. Being an abstract design they probably cannot figure it out at all. In confusion but determined not to admit it, \(after they ask the architect for his opinion. When the job has been completed everyone may be happy. But the fact remains that in several cases in the past the owners have been dissatisfied and the public confused. I believe the only answer to this problem and a way to really make buildings is for the architect and the contractor to be one and the same person and for a team of artists to be his close associates. \(Readers in the Austin area may wish to note that the author’s work is the subject of a one-man exhibit of sculpture and drawings at Laguna Gloria from. Aug. 26 to Sept. landed in the third row of seats at ringside. Fans helped him to his feet, he took a step and then collapsed. Fans tried to get him up again but he didn’t respond The outcome so infuriated the cash customers that they stayed at ringside a half hour after the fight, booing and demanding their money back. The Strangler recalled that many were shouting the match was fixed, a put-up job all the way. A’ couple of hours later the grappler who had failed to climb back in the ring died from a brain injury. The Strangler, like many athletes, continued to compete far beyond the time when he was . in his prime. He held the world’s heavyweight title longer than any other man, the last time in 1935. He lost it to Jim Browning in Madison Square Garden, yet he went on wrestling for ten more years. it … Money became my god and I did not realize I was missing the real things of life. The only richness is the richness of the mind and heart,” Lewis declared. “I gained the whole world in fame and fortune, at one time I had $2′ million cash in the bank, and I wasn’t happy.” The Strangler added that he is happy now in his sort of one-man crusade for good in the world. Stressing that he’s neither an evangelist or preacher, Lewis explained: “I simply go wherever I’m invited and talk to people about God and the good things of life. I try to turn them from selfinterest and the worship of the material to things more basic.” When we finished our breakfast, the Strangler smiled comfortably at the table loaded with empty plates. “You know, I am still one of the strongest men in the world, but in another way I am terribly weak. I just don’t have the strength to push myself away from a table.” THE TEXAS OBSERVER August 29, 1956 Letter from Paris Iabout a million dollars every I two years. Plus the tradition that senators, unless they are unusually bad, are generally re-elected, thus assuring them of work at a very good salary for at least 12 years. A governor’s probable tenure is generally four years, I added. The British Conservator protested at this point that Senator Daniel’s opponent must be a communist, “since that’s what you’re so afraid of.” “No,” I answered firmly, “no communists.” And I pointed out that there were not two candidates at first, but six, and that politically they were everywhere to the far right wing, although somewhat to the left of Louis XIV, it is true. “Then the Labor candidate will win,” the Frenchman said. “Not necessarily.” “Why? Are there not more people in Texas who work than those who do not work?” I allowed that I presumed this to be true, but that at times one is tempted to doubt it. Then I mentioned that we have no Labor Party as such, but that what organized labor there is may, and frequently does, endorse a particular candidate. “Then,” said my cynical French friend, “there is only one solution. Your senator there is the how you say?homme de paille of a syndicate or ring of rich politicians.” I, of course, protested vigorously against this absurd idea, pointing out to my cynical friend that such an idea would not occur to anyone in Texas. “Well,” the Frenchman concluded, “I do not understand why thees Senateur has left the great American Senat to engage in an expensive political c a rn p a i g n.