Wild
Notes
By Fred Young'
WE DISLIKE falling into the
sequence of Emerald stories de
bating this prom band thing
which doesn’t have the required
two sides for a debate. We be
lieve (and you should) that the
solution lies with the student
body. When the day comes that
we have to dance or listen to just
'the name of some band, then will
be the time to gripe that we did
n’t get Woody Herman or Claude
Thornhill for a campus dance.
It must be admitted that we
haven't been assessed big name
prices to hear little name bands.
The little name bands have
supplied pretty danceable music
better music than is available’
elsewhere in these parts. Possibly
Mac court doesn’t allow the
amount of night-clubbing we
would like, but its dances usual
ly have good programs and of
fers all a chance to let the aca
demic hair down.
* * *
IT SEEMS reasonable to as
sume that people attend a dance
because they want to go to the
Senior Ball, not because they
want to hear any particular band.
The general disinterest in band
ratings is evidenced by this col
umn's readership—you, and we
heard there's one other person.
So, if some great band were
available fur several thousand
.dollars how much encourageine
ment has the student body given
the activities office to sign a band
when the Senior Ball loses money
even after spending less than a
thousand on their band.
You can't say that over 500
couples would’ve appeared if Jur
i gen's played. Beneke would've re
quired nearly 1000 more couples,
or fattened tickets.
Strangely enough the activities
office has shown its willingneess
; to stick its neck out for a higli
i priced band if one is available,
j So maybe it would be a good
thing to support the Junior prom
: (Zito has played bigger proms
than ours in California) and
show we like the hell out of these
J school dances, because we've
! been promised when the Student
Union is completed we can have
‘ Kenton (lie'll he back) any week
end we want.
* * *
HERB JEFFRIES, who sang
with Duke Ellington for so long
and recorded the memorable
"Flamingo" with that band, is
soloing for Columbia records now
with two recently released rec
ords requiring reviewing. Herb’s
Easy to Remember” and “Bewil
dered" find his voice in the best
shape-—mellow and rich—offer
ing the kind of music of which
you don’t easily tire.
Paul Weston manages a bit of
the hop as his orchestra backs Jo
Stafford’s “Always True In My
Fashion" which is mentioned
since we feel it's about the best
of Jo’s recent s. “Just Reminis
cin'” is on the hack and goes
back to Jo’s days with Tommy
Horsey. Very good record—Capi
tol 15818 if you bother with num
bers,
* * *
DIZZY GILLESPIE, whom we
must mention to answer the gen
eral campus demand, doesn’t
really come through in usual
great fashion on his last Victor
record. “Lover Come Back to Me"
isn't the best Dizzy but if you col
lect J.B.'s records this will prove
(Please turn to Pa.<je seven)
A Picture Editorial
You Call These Traditions?
* * *
HOW MUCH LONGER ARE UNIVERSITY STU
DENTS GOING TO SUBMIT INDIFFERENTLY TO
THESE SILLY (AND DANGEROUS) VESTIGES OF
THE RAH RAH COLLEGE DAYS WHEN MEN WORE
RACCOON COATS AND WOMEN WERE FLAPPERS?
An Interesting Experiment
To the Editor:
The story in Friday's Emerald about Princess Mary Margaret
struck me as right between the covers of my thumbed copy of “Modern
English Usage,'' and prompted this report of an interesting experiment.
“Standing about five feet five inches (says the Emerald) Mary
Margaret’s other interests include bridge and knitting, both of which
she is very adept at doing.’’
At noon on Friday my wife and I spent forty-five precious min
utes in a vain effort to combine bridge and knitting and come out
with a five-five hobby pile. Our bridge decks (three), our knitting
needles (four), one ball and two skeins of yarn added up to only
four feet three inches. •
We decided that bridge and knitting were only “included m Mary
Margaret's hobbies, and that perhaps other items were part of a list
omitted because of space problems. We therefore added to our bridge
decks, knitting needles and yarn our mah jongg set, cribbage board,
and a’ bobbin winder. This gave us an even five-five. Getting into the
spirit of the thing, we added two dice we keep around for casual n
ter'taining, and arrived at five-five and one quarter. We claim this as
a temporary record.
However, as the Emerald hinted (unless I read badly) Mary Mar
garet is “very adept at doing.” She can probably get Dinah the Dog
to do a headstand on her hobby pile, and beat us easily.
Sincerely,
M. S.
From Our Mailbag
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
WORTHWHILE
To the Editor:
I wish to congratulate the
Emerald for printing a review of
the 1949 Oregon State legisla
ture. By allowing prominent men
of opposing opinions to put forth
their ideas in the Emerald, you
are giving the students of the
University a chance to evaluate
for themselves the arguments
presented on a controversial sub
ject.
One of the principal achieve
ments we should be obtaining
from attending the University is
an interest in the major problems
and questions of the day. Certain
ly, there is no finer way of ac
complishing an understanding of
these than be reading on both
sides of an issue and formulat
ing our opinions upon this basis.
The Emerald has supplied its
readers with a worthwhile fea
ture. It is my hope that it yill be
repeated in the future.
Fred A. Risser
HARD TO BELIEVE
To the Editor:
I read with incredulity the Em
erald's article concerning the
lack of name bands for big proms
at Oregon; especially the state
ment reputedly uttered by Dick
Williams, undoubtedly in a mo
ment of playful jesting, “mid
week bread and butter dates
would have to be arranged to
make the tour pay.” These musi
cians must eat a hell of a lot of
bread and butter!
Dick Jurgens, to cite from the
article, was paid $2000 dollars for
a three-hour stand; that is $666
per hour for the orchestra and,
arbitrarily setting the number of
side men at 20 (a small sym
phony) $3 per hour per man.
From another mathematical
angle, each musician makes $100
for the one-niter. This, figured on
a 40-hour work week, is $2.50 per
hour; all week! How many work
ing men, business or proletariat,
drag in that many clams in 60
minutes ?
In addition, Jurgens got all
kinds of free publicity aimed at
the group of people who do a
great portion of the phonograph
record buying; a good chance to
increase record sales royalties. It
seems too good to pass up!
To sum up my remarks, I find
the statement that name bands
are hard to get, hard to believe.
Rod Smith
Farrell's 'Road Between'
Ain't Very Good, She Sez
By Jo Gilbert
“The Road Between” by James
T. Farrell. (The Vanguard Press,
Inc.; $3.50)
To be brutally frank, “The
Road Between” isn’t worth the
reading. Whatever Farrel was
aiming at, he missed it. The spark
of life, the excellent conversa
tions, the colorful descriptions,
that held together the dreariness
of “Studs Lonigan” is missing
here . . . “The Road Between” is
slick prose leaving no impact
whatsoever.
The plot is relatively simple.
The hero, with his young wife,
escapes his Chicago background
and we find him in New York.
He has written one novel,
(panned by the critics), and is
now starting upon another. He
picks up pennies doing reviews.
He drifts into the communist
clique, dislikes its lack of intel
lectual freedom, so drifts out of
it.
The characters don’t come alive
and appear to be typed . . .
drawn from Farrell pigeon hole
of stereotypes. The plight of the
struggling writer leaves the read
er cold. Farrell fails to convince
me that the guy has got the
r
genius that is implied.
The whole attitude of the -hook
is immature. Farrell is rebelling
against the way of the 20s still.
Someone forgot to tell him it is
1949 and times have been
changed.
Conclusion: The only way this
book will look good to the reader
is if he has just completed the
entire year’s copies of the Con
gressional Record.
Incidentally, “Command De
cision” by William Wister Haines
is out in the two-bit edition. Fine
book! After that you can see
where even the brass had a rough,
time of it. It is much better than
the play or movie in this person’s
humble estimation.
Also Truman Capote’s “Other
Voices, Other Rooms” is also on
sale. Looked at the first para
graph in it and decided that Tru
man and Faulkner should get to
gether . . . same long involved
sentences. I haven’t read it and
don’t plan to. The grapevine has
it that he isn’t as good as his
build-up.
Note: Truman was the charac
ter that Life magazine had the
picture of . . . the languishing
pose. Same pic is on the back of
the book.
1
Reader Survey Leaves Writer
Confused, Nursing Bunions
By Vinita Howard
Until recently I was, in my
opinion, a perfectly normal per
son. Now, whenever I see a news
paper it takes all my will power
to suppress the urge to draw lit
tle vertical lines through all the
news stories and ads. I realize
that I’ll probably never be the
same again and that my mental
stability is fast waning. My only
defense is that it happened for a
good cause.
You see, recently I, with 33
other journalism students, <vent
on a readership study to find out
what people read in their local
newspaper. I was also chased
by a dog, had doors slammed in
my face and chit chatted with
people about the “awful Rus
sions,” earthquakes, weather,
baseball, arthritis and high living
costs.
Simplifying the process greatly,
let me explain that a readership
study is taken by drawing ver
tical or horizontal lines through
news stories and ads that inter
viewees have seen in one particu
lar edition of a newspaper. Later,
all this is tabulated and statisti
cians figure out in percentages
what men and women read. On
the surface this sounds compara
tively simple, at least that’s w'hat
I thought.
But' in the first place, people
spot you coming to the door and
refuse to let you in. In the second
place, if they do let you in they
refuse to believe that you’re not
trying to sell something. No mat
ter what you say to disarm them
they are positive that you’re sell
ing vitamin pills or magazine
subscriptions. If you tell them
that all you want to do is ask a
few questions they stare at you
suspiciously . . . thinking, no
doubt, that you are working for
Dr. Kinsey.
After one full day of interview
ing people concerning what stor
ies they see or read in a newspa
per I have reached some rather
basic conclusions. There are five
types of newspaper readers:
Those who say that they've
read everything in the paper so
they can get rid of you, those who
read only sex and crime news and
apologize because they simply
didn’t have time to read about
the Chinese Communists or the
"cold war,” those who "just look
at the headlines” because they
hear the news on the radio, those
who make pertinent comments or
recite personal experiences and
those few who really read and
understand the news and edi
torials as well as the comic strips.
Frankly, I’m still not certain
just what I learned about news
paper reading habits. My only
compensation is that I learned
other and probably far more val
uable things such as the neigh
borhood gossip (“three young
girls down the street ran away
from home last night, took the^
family car and headed south. Tsk,
Tsk! don’t know what’s happen
ing to this younger generation.”),
what the RELATIVES are doing,
the trouble with the country, the
city and the world and how
things have “changed since I was
young. "Why in my day a boy
wouldn't have thought of killing
his mother."
I also got bunions!
Oregon W Emerald
The Oregon Daily Emerald, published daily during the college year except Sundays,
Mondays, holidays, and final examination periods by the Associated Students, University of
Oregon. Subscription rates: $2.00 per term and $4.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter
at the post office. Eugene, Oregon.
BILL YATES, Editor VIRGIL TUCKER, Business Manager
Associate Editors: June Goetze, Boblee Brophy, Diana Dye, Barbara Heywood
Advertising Manager: Cork Mobley
BOB REED, Managing Editor
Assistant Managing Editors: Stan Turnbull, Don Smith