Critic Discusses
Camels and Cleavage
By BERT MOORE
Last attraction on the educational activities circuit tins
term is, appropriately enough, “The Last Days of Pompeii.
It’s an Italian film of the* silent era, but whether or not it
is an improvement over the other Italian film of an early era
to be shown here (“Anthony and Cleopatra’’) is yet to be
known. Judging from the film techniques used in “Anthony
it could hardly be worse.
In these old films the breast-beating and hair-shredding is
almost beyond belief. Couple these primitively dramatic actors
and actresses with ancient camera techniques, or, rather, lack
of camera technique, and the result is burlesque to our modern
eyes.
A fixed camera was used in “Anthony”—when the charac
ters moved away from its range they were last to view. This
provided some funny moments for the spectators, as in the
final scene where Caesar returned to Rome in a triumphant
procession and mounted a platform to speak.
The camera was set to encompass the parade, and when
our hero detacched himself from the procession and stepped
up on the podium his head went past the camera’s top limit.
So in the final speech we were treated to a headless lecturer.
But who knows? It might have been a good thing.
At that I enjoyed it more than I did “Slave Girl,” an
atrocity which should have left town by now. Featuring a well
muscled girl who can't act, it was evidently charted as just
another of the Technicolor melodramas which Universal- In
ternational turns out by the gross.
Somebody along the line got wise that this one was just
a shade worse than the usual run-of-the-mill smeller and so
it was'purposely hammed up.
A camel who talked (stet.) in a Brooklyn accent stuck his
head into the proceedings at various times and commented on
the action. He had several good lines: once the camera stop
ped in the middle of a large-scale screen fight just as a heavy
chandelier was being dropped on the villians and friend camel
cmphaticaly stated something like, "We camels prefer doctors
two to one.” Then the chandelier fell and the action began
again.
An interesting double bill in Eugene over the weekend
coupled “Perils of Pauline” with "The Wicked Lady.” I say
interesting because “Lady” was the picture that was banned
from the U.S. until a number of scenes showing too much
cleavage were reshot. In “Pauline” there’s a dance sequence
where Betty Hutton shows the hawkeyed spectator more
cleavage than the producers of “Lady” ever dreamed about.
'Phis is "Old llawkeye," signing off for the term.
An Open Letter
Mr. Stanley N. Williamson, President
Associated Students
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Dear Stan & Members of the Student Body:
At the completion of a highly successful football season
may I take this opportunity to express the sincere thanks of
all the members of the Athletic Department for the fine man
ner in which the students have supported our football team
in its victories and defeats. I know that the members of our
squad and the coaching staff were inspired by the confidence
and loyalty of the students as demonstrated not only in the
rooting section but in the every-day contacts on the campus as
well. Your confidence never wavered and certainly this was
one of the vital factors which made our team play its best
in every game. As Director of Athletics, 1 would like to say
that this "one for all and all for one" spirit can, if maintained,
result in many years of athletic prosperity.
Let us continue to work together with one goal in mind;
namely, representative athletic teams at the University of
Oregon, built as the result of our all working together and
sharing equally the bitterness of defeat and the fruits of
victory.
Sincerely yours,
I.eo A. Harris
Director of Athletics
Oregon 1$ Emerald
ALL-AMERICAN 1946-47
The Oregon Daily Emerald, official publication of fine University of Oregon, oublished
daily during the college year except Sundays, Mondays, and final examination' periods.
Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice, Eugene, Ore.
Member of the Associated Collegiate Press
BOB FRAZIER, Editor
BOB CHAPMAN, Business Manager
HI I.L YA J RS
Managing Editor
J U IN XL UUETZE. HUHULEE BROPHY
Co-News Editors
The Iceman’s Better Off;
He Has His Pick; We Don’t
Ill this age of highly professionalized
specialists, as inventions replace the old re
gime, it’s mightly hard to keep up with the
miracle of modern science. The professor has
his briefcase, the gas man has his meter, and
the ice man has his pick. It stands to reason
in such a mechanical era, the Fourth Estate
can not be too far behind. The journalist has
his filler.
The filler, according to journalism text
books, is “copy, usually in small units, set
in type for use at any time as reserve or to
finish columns or pages of odd length.” An
other definition is “that stupid item of trivia
forced upon the unsuspecting newspaper
reader, loaded with misinformation in which
he is not interested and which will probably
clutter his mind, replacing valuable data.”
Fillers may be placed in many classes.
There are educational fillers, amusing fillers,
scientific fillers, and the desperate last min
ute we’ve-got-to-fill-this-hole-up-and-get-the
paper-on-the-press fillers.
Now for instance, the Roseburg News-Re
view tells us that “Newfoundland has about
as many people as Toledo, Ohio.” That is
probably a fact, once carefully read, that will
enable you to remember in what state Toledo
is located, and may even give you added
credit in a paper about Newfoundland. It
may also arouse the curious mind as to the
population of Toledo.
The News-Review appears given to that
educational filler, but is inclined to drift off
into the realm of the hypothetical, when it
informs its readers “If tuberculosis had con
tinued to kill at the rate which prevailed in
1904, four million more people would have
died of this one disease than actually have.”
Interesting, but it makes you wonder who
sits around dreaming up such statistical phe
nomena.
The Atlanta Journal, not a far cry from
the tropics, informs its readers that “The
Union of South Africa is nearly twice the
size and population of Texas.” Another pop
ulation difficulty—wonder how many people
Texas has .
Possibly the cosmopolitan tastes of New
York Tribune readers demand the knowledge
that "Egg losses during handling, processing,
packing, transporting, and marketing run
into millions of dollars annually.” Hmm.
The San Francisco Examiner, scorning the
abstract and clinging to the practical, in
forms its readers, via fillers, “Your favorite
comics are read on KNBC (formerly (KPO)
8 a.m. every Sunday.” Such a filler arouses
only one question—does it get the message
to the appropriate public? But then, maybe
the parents read it to the children, and then
the kiddies tune in the radio.
The fair-minded New York Times, a jour
nalistic masterpiece, practices impartiality
By JEANNE SIMMONDS
in its every filler. On Page 4 one may find
that “Education is still the important issue
in the regular Army. Get all the details by
calling at your nearest Army recruiting sta
tion, 39 Whitehall Street.” But, before the
enthusiastic young man rushes off fool
hardily to Whitehall, the Times retaliates
immediately, and on Page 6 encourages him
to “Enlist with the Marines, and enroll im
Jnediately in the, Marine Corps institute.
Choose from over 160 courses of study. De
tails at 90 Church street, Room 1104."
The Eugene Register-Guard recently went
riping through the 13th century. It seems that
“Marco Polo, famous world traveler who
lived in the 13th century, reported that spec
tacles were worn by Chinese with poor sight.”
And in their same issue, it was fascinating to
observe that "In the 13th century, Venice
was the business center of the world.” We
don't suppose the two are inter-related.
They got themselves out of a stagnant hole,
however, when they completely modernized
the presses and noted that “Chopped hay
must be well cured before it is put iiito hay
mows.”
The Christian Science Monitor, well
known in journalistic circles for its thorough
investigation into the background of every
situation, put its research department to work
and came up with “Sugar beets contain from
16 to 29 per cent of sugar.” Proving that they
wouldn't restrict their policy to Boston and
the content of sugar beets, however, they
crashed through with “California produces 60
per cent of the mercury mined in the U.S.”
Helpful hints on architecture are rendered
by the Gervais Star, which could hold its own
with the metropolitan dailies when it smirks,
“Wide cornice overhangs are out of date, and
houses without them cost less. The same is
true of most ‘gingerbread’ which formerly
was used as architectural decoration. Simple
lines are best.”
College papers don’t yield much, for they
manage to fill remote corners with meeting
announcements and “Patronize the jerks'who
buy our ads” lines. But the Southern Cali
fornia Daily Trojan came through with a
few collegiate ones. It seems that "Ward
robes of South Dakota state college coeds
have been termed ‘practical’ by the merchants
of Brookings, S.D.” We know it’s true be
cause we read it in the paper.
billers must be interesting, peppy, inform
ative, and up to date. Just for example, take
a look at today’s Emerald fillers. They’ll
probably sav “The average coed wears a size
14 dress” (one of the pre-war vintage), “The
University of Oregon is coeducational. That
means both men and women attend there,” or
"Beat Montana State !” Oh well, it may prove
our point.
10 Years Ago on the University Campus
rum jumeraia r ues
“Furnish our browsing room”
will be the theme of the assembly
when students meet in Gerlinger
hall for a general “good time”
program.
The board of education has au
thorized the purchase of ten ta
bles and eighty chairs for the ref
erence room of the library and
one hundred arm chairs for the
reserve room.
Oregon's high school “editorial
association,” composed of 80 edi
tors and representatives of ap
proximatjly 30 school papers,
met at the school of journalism
to begin their twelfth bi-annual
conference.
A first quarter touchdown plus
a wild scoring spree in the final
period gave the Husky Babes of
the University of Washington a
26-0 victory.
Money to pay for removing the
paint daubed on OSC buildings
recently must be raised by those
responsible for the damages.
Checked momentarily by a vi
cious opening Oregon defense, the
It Was Somebody Else
1 lie best reporters sometimes make mistakes. So it was
w>th Emerald (ad side) Columnist Sallie Timmens when she
paiied up the wrong people in Tuesday morning’s Emerald.
It wasnt C.inny Parr whom Bob Stjtnberv was seen about
Portland with. Tut. ’Twas C.inny Nash to whom he is. in the
words of the gossip columnist "pinned." Everybody regrets
tlie Emerald s unwelcome match-making.
Golden Bears’ terrific touch
down machine finally started roll
ing, completely crushing the
Webfoots, 26 to 0.
More echoes from “little Civil
War” activities were heard yes
terday when it was divulged that
it will be necessary to take up
and replant the Hayward field
turf on which enthusiasts burned
OSC initials two nights before
the Oregon-Oregon State game.
Permanent decorations for the
“Igloo” were practically assured
following four class meetings at
which motions for making ap
propriations for improvement
went through like clockwork.
Night Staff:
Jackie Newburn
Jackie Hinds
Warren Mack
Marilyn Nelson
Elva Rankin
Jo Rawlins, editor