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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1960)
1 i i Life of Diane Barrymore Was Story of Fairy Tale in Reverse, Quigg Writes (Editor's note: Diana Barry- more - member of the "royal family" of the American the eter. who tried and failed to "make it big" on the stage -died tragically at 38 on Mon day. Her tempestuous life ran from childhood ' in Newport society to adulthood debauch ery, love affairs and shame. This dispatch tells of her last days fighting for success and her concern about death.) By H. D. QUIGG United Press International New York - (UPD - "Of eourse," said a movie review about the actress in her 20's, "Diana Barrymore played the role to the hilt, and right on past the hilt halfway up to the elbow." She played life that way, too. It was in Hollywood that her career began to vanish. What she called "the family sickness" of her famed actor forebears was on her. On the lots, it was known she had begun to drink seriously at 20. The life of the girl who was christened Diana Blanche Bar rymore Blythe (the family's name was Blythe, its stage name Barrymore) was a fairy . tale in reverse. It started with the dainty foot in the glass slipper and ran backwards to Cinderella scrabbling in rags in the cinders. She remembered she had her first drink when she was 1. Daddy bought it. Daddy was John Barrymore, the great profile, most famous actor of his day. Paying her one of his extremely rare visits, he picked her up at a Baltimore school, took her to dinner and bought her a brand alexander. She had two before dinner was over, brandy alexander. She had A critic once wrote that "Diana Barrymore was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but she choked on it." She herself titled her autobiography, published in 1957, "Too Much. Too Soon." But the death which she her self had prophesied after she had started drinking again recently came when she knew she had achieved too little, too late. In the book she wrote that he had lived three lives: "First, that of a child reared by governesses' in New York and Paris, who became the 'enfante terrible' of society columnist C h o 1 1 y Knicker bocker and El Morocco and Princeton week ends,, and all the marvelous gold' and tinsel of the social register. ; , "Then, that "of a young act ress on Broadway and in Hollywood, who tried desper ately to live up to a fabulous name in the world bounded by her father's escapades and her own confusion. "And third, there is the life I have led since - a life which IN DRESSING ROOM - This photo shows Diana Barrymore, a member of the "Royal Family" of the American theater, who tried and failed to "make it big" on the stage. She died tragically at 38 Monday. She is shown above following the opening performance in the play, "The Ivory Branch," at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York. (UPI Telephoto) Showdown Looms On Housing Issue In Current Session Peace and Quiet Said Bad for Elderly Persons Chicago -(Science Service) Too much "peace and quiet" may be the worst possible treatment for elderly persons. Sounds in particular are a bridge between the older per son and reality. Dr. Ewald W. Busse of Duke University Medical center, Durham, N.C., reported here to a symposium sponsored by the American Association for the Advance ment of Science. The person whose hearing gradually decreases is often unaware that he has lost these bridging sounds. He has a feeling of loss and a sensation that the world is dead, ex plained Dr. Busse, who is a professor of psychiatry and director of the center for the study of aging. An increase in the level of background noises to help elderly individuals maintain contact with reality may be advisable, Dr. Busse suggested. Hearing Important He also reported that re sults of a study of the effects of visual and hearing losses on the Rorschach performance of elderly persons shows in tactness of hearing is more im portant than perfect vision in maintaining normal psychic function. Severe impairment of both can have serious im pact on the personality, how ever. It is not generally rec ognized, for example, that the elderly person needs greater illumination to see adequate ly and more time to adapt to darkness when he leaves a well-lighted area. Airlines Reappoints Station Manager Don E. Kocina has been reappointed station manager j for the West Coast airlines j at Medford, effective Feb. 1, i it was announced through the company today. Kocina will come here ' from Omak, Wash., where he has been station manager for the firm since leaving here about six months ago. The Kocinas recently re turned from a vacation in Hawaii which was awarded him by the company. The couple with their four sons will live in Medford. Edward C LeShane, the present station manager here, has been appointed station manager for Boise," Idaho. He is to take over his new ap pointment Feb. 1. Washington Congressional Democrats and Administra tion are headed for another showdown on housing legisla tion in 1960. It may develop along the same lines as the 1959 con troversy which produced two Eisenhower vetos of housing bills and two unsuccessful Senate attempts to override. Democrats will stick to their traditional strategy of tying programs favored by the Administration primar ily the FHA insurance pro grams to program it op poses (large boosts in public housing and urban renewal) in one omnibus bill. Sen. John J. Sparkman (D Ala.), chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Hous ing Subcommittee, already has indicated that he would introduce an omnibus housing bill later this session. Controversial Issues Tight Money Democrats say a scarcity of credit is in part responsible for an an ticipated drop in new housing construction in 1960. Last month the Census Bureau esti mated the 1960 starts at 1.2 million new units, a 10 per cent drop from 1959. Chairman Albert Rains (D Ala.) of the House Banking and Currency Housing Sub committee Jan. 6 introduced a bill to raise the purchasing authority of the Federal Na tional Mortgage association by $1 billion. The effect would be to permit banks to lend more money to potential home builders. Another provision of the Rains bill would lower the insurance costs on FHA-in-sured mortgages, in effect lowering the interest costs on mortgages. Rains said this would pump more money in to the housing industry and raise housing starts. The Ad mistration is expected to op pose both provisions. Public Housing Under this program the Federal Gov ernment loans local govern ments the money to construct low-rent public housing proj ects, absorbing the cost not paid for by the rents. Dem ocrats may push for author ization of as many as 45,000 new units. The Administra tion is expected to oppose any increase until the present authorization is used up. Urban Renewal Through this program local govern ments buy slum and blighted areas and sell the land, at a loss, to private builders for redevolpment. The Federal Government a b s or b s two thirds of the loss. Congressional Democrats in 1959 favored raising Federal authorization for urban re newal to $500 million a year, but the final bill spread $650 million over two years. Presi dent Eisenhower is expected to make no new requests for this program, but the Dem ocrats are likely to include increases for the program in an omnibus bill. In addition, Congress will have to legislate for college and veterans' housing if the programs are to continue. The former is expected to run out of money by mid-1960 and the direct housing loans to vet erans program, runs out of statutory authority July 25, 1960. Democratic housing strate gy in recent years has been to tie all aspects of the pro gram into one omnibus bill, forcing the President into signing it in order to get the programs he wants. Mr. Ei senhower has repeatedly ask ed for separate and perman ent authority for the Federal Housing Administration mortgage-insurance programs and home-loan improvement in surance program, but Demo crats have repeatedly tied limited authorizations for these programs to increases in public housing and urban re newal and forced the Presi dent to accept at least part of their program. The Sparkman omnibus bill undoubtedly will follow this same strategy while President Eisenhower is likely to ask for special legislation for the particular programs he fav ors. (Copyright 1960 Congressional Quarterly Inc.) I often think needs the com bined talents of a Tennessee Williams and a Dostoevski to explain, and the wisdom and compassion of a St. Augustine to forgive." Doctor's Warnings New York gossip column ist linked her name roman tically with that of playwright Tennessee Williams, but he said they were just good friends. It was in a play of his that she scored a success last spring in Chicago. That was' after a long climb back from the depths. When her third husband, Robert Wilcox, the actor -with whom she brawled so conspicuously that their names were often in headlines-died in 1955, she re membered her "You are on '. dreadful merry - go - round alcohol, barbiturates, stimulants. If you don't get off it quickly, you will die . , . your drink ing has already given you the beginnings of cirrhosis of the liver . . . you simply cannot continue to torment your body as you have been doing. Drivers Tend to 'Tense Up' on Hazardous Roads Washington, (Science Serv ice) Drivers tend to "tense up" on roads that keep them guessing as to what the next hazard will be. This could be a busy artery through a city at rush hour, or an area along a wide high way congested with shopping center traffic. Tests were run on 10 driv ers who were "wired" for measuring galvanic skin re flex associated with tense ness. Results showed that ten sion in drivers mounts as haz ards become more difficult to predict, and as traffic com plexity increases. Tests Conducted Richard M. Michaels of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads told the Highway Research board meeting here that the tests were conducted during five time periods, including peak and off-peak traffic hours, and at night. The tests were conducted on two urban streets. During the tests, "traffic events" requiring action oc curred at the rate of one every 21 to 35 seconds. The movement of other vehicles accounted for 60 per cent of these "events." Robert V. Rainey, John C. Conger and Charles R. Wal smith of the University of Colorado School of Medicine reported "significant differ ences" were found between high school sophomores elect ing to take driver education courses and those who did not study driving. More Deliberate The 15Vi-year-old boys who elected to take driver educa tion courses tended to be less active, more deliberate and restrained, and less prone to rapid and hurried action. They appeared less concerned with dominating others and with being conspicuous. They were more likely to be "seri ous and subdued." Socially, these boys also tended to be more shy and less spontane ous in social gatherings. The researchers pointed out that driver education classes thus appear to be composed of "a selected group" and this must be taken into considera tion when weighing the mer its of high school driver courses in teaching safety. DECLARE DIVIDEND Oakland, Calif.-UPD-The di rectors of Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical corporation have declared a 22 Vz cent per share quarterly dividend on common stock, payable Feb. 29 to stockholders on record Feb. 12. It took your father 60 years to do it. You keep this up and you'll manage in a much shorter time." She put herself into Towns Hospital, a dry - out clinic which her father had favored in his time. She shook the alcohol and barbiturates, came out, completed the book with Gerold Frank as collabo rator. She worked hard, ap peared in summer stock, off Broadway, and on the road. Reviews were, encouraging but nothing to place her near the eminence of daddy, or aunt Ethel Barrymore, or un cle Lionel Barrymore, or the others, including great-uncle John Drew, and greatgrand mother Louisa Lane who was Mrs. John Drew, the elder. Had Morbid Foreboding Friends "said she stopped drinking perhaps a couple of years but had started again last Christmas "although she knew she, would die ifshe drank." Another friend, Mrs. Irving Kupcinet of Chicago, said that "she had a morbid foreboding all last week, say-: ing, 'I am running out of time and 'I will die soon'." She also said Diana had told her to "get a nice black hat and veil for my funeral -it's going to be soon." It was reported that four policemen removed Diana from the audience of a Broad way play about 10 days ago when she arrived intoxicated and caused, a scene after tak ing her seat. She denied that she was in toxicated. Dr. Colter Rule had been treating her for chest pains. Some friends had dropped in to see her the night before her death. There were three empty liquor bottles in the kitchen and some sedative tablets in a cabinet of her apartment when a maid found her. On the bed, nude, was the body that had held a soul in anguish. There remained the statistics. Born New York March 5, 1921. Nationality: Irish, English, German de scent. Height, five feet four. Eyes brown, hair brown. The autopsy showed no violence. Apparently, as her lawyer said, "she went to sleep and didn't wake up." Too much, too soon, or too little, too late. MAIL TRIBUNE, MtdforJ, Or. C Thursday. Jan. 28, 1960 A Lumbermen Attend Planning Session Several southern Oregon lumbermen were in Eugene this week to attend a plan ning committee meeting of the Oregon Logging confer ence to be held Feb. 25 through 27. Members of the committee from this area include Leo Hoag. Hoag Logging compa ny. Trail; Jerry Lausmann, Kogap Lumber industries, and Bruce Blew, Bruce's Truck service, both of Medford. NATIVE TONGUE Rio de Janeiro-Brazil is the only country in South Amer ica in which Portuguese is the native and official language. ANIMAL KINGDOM -Washington - About 900. 000 species of animals have be classified by zoologists. . Patronize This Home Producer QUALITY EGGS Now Available WOODLAND HEIGHTS MARKET, MEDFORD And at GRANDVIEW MARKET Medford COGSWELL'S MARKET Gold Hill FABER'S SUPER MARKET C. Point Sams Valley CITY MARKET Medford PAULSEN'S THRIFT MKT, C. Point HAWTHORNE MARKET Medford WOODLAND HEIGHTS MARKET, MEDFORD KORNER FARM WHERE THE EGG COMES FIRST t UL 5-1 190 1 r jmw if ni.ii , ut n hwukiwi iwjr,A Nebergall's or ';;?"s, Cascade Thick Sliced BA60Gfl till6 7 DAYS A WEEK TILL MIDNIGHT! . . . and Don't Forget You Save EXTRA - WITH SILVER DOLLAR STAMPS Center Cut Slices LI Cascade Brand 0 oc Pkg, fQ IF I IE-MS. 2!2-3'2-lb. 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