Hugh
Man on the
Fortunetellers
(Continued from page 5)
riage, this time to a journalist or lawyer.
"This may sound like fortunetelling, but
it isn't It's a science," he assured me.
I have pages more froi.i the tran
script, and as I look through them, I am
amazed and confused. Was he a fraud?
He may not have been too good on his
dates, but his analysis of my character
and medical history was remarkably ac
curate. And what about the tape ma- '
chine? Did he know he was being re
corded? I don't believe so when I left,
he shook my hand enthusiastically yet
I can't be sure.
My final soothsayer was a famous clair
voyant She was recommended by a shirt
manufacturer who confers with her on
important business decisions. Clairvoy
ants claim to sense vibrations about your
past and future by looking at you, and
this particular one was supposed to be so
sensitive that Dr. Joseph Rhine, the re
nowned parapsychologist from Duke Uni
versity, had conducted tests with her.
No FooHn' tha Psychic
"She's psychic," my friend warned.
"She'll know about the recorder th6 min
ute she looks at you." As I waited in her
study, I was secretly hoping she would
have such genuine occult powers, and yet
I was fearful of being discovered.
"Well, darling," the clairvoyant said
as she entered, "you're a fidgety little
thing. How old are you?"
"Oh, I thought you'd know."
She scowled at me but proceeded in a
businesslike tone. "I see an F' and a 'B'
around you, and who's Hal?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"I get an H.' Sounds like Hal." I
started to search my memory for a Hal,
but she stopped me. "Never mind, never
mind. You're going to meet him shortly."
As she rapidly threw more initials at me,
I reached into my purse to make sure the
tape was running. "Are you never going
to get everything out of that purse you
want?" she said. I froze. But, a minute
later, she was "in a trance" and announc
ing dreamily: "You will make a change
in your living. I get a move around you."
"From my apartment?" I asked.
"Yes, or someone who lives with you
will change."
"I iive alone."
"Well, it could mean your apartment
will be painted," she said, opening her
eyes irritably. "That would be a change."
She then saw me in a room with a piano
and a great career in music (I can't even
carry a tune). With her hand on her fore
head, she complained, "You're blocking
me." She leaned across the table. "You
know, darling, I don't live in your ma
terial world. You live in doubts, while I
have everything. You haven't found your
self, and I can make you into anything
Family Wxkly. Ftbnwry 1, 1MJ
you want to be," she continued.
"I want to believe in your psychic
powers," I said, "but ..."
She slammed her fist on the desk..
"Why, you sassy little piece of humanity.
I don't have to prove myself to you. I
work all over the world for millions.
You're going to listen to me and learn
something if I have to spank you."
I was angry, too, .as I paid the woman
her fee of ?15 for insulting me. And yet
it had been an instructive experience.
The technique of the fortuneteller was
becoming familiar, and this clairvoyant
had used every trick. Ask more questions
than you answer. Intimidate, then praise;
warn, then console. Flood the customer
with prognostication sooner or later
you will hit the truth. If questioned, jus
tify your prediction indignantly, even if
you must use spirits to back it up.
The pattern was clear, but at the same
time I could see why so many people go
to fortunetellers. Few of us . ever feel
completely satisfied with our lives, and
we all have fears about the future. A suc
cessful soothsayer can calm our anxiety
by offering "knowledge" of what is to
come and by promising love, prosperity,
and self-expression. Once we believe this
is to be our "marvelous" future, we often
have a way of making it come true.
Among the fortunetellers I visited,
there were enough inconsistencies in the
predictions (my age ranged from 19 to
30, children from 0 to 6) that I ended up
feeling they were mostly amusing, di
verting charlatans. But some, like the as
trologer, seemed extraordinarily skillful
at "sensing" things about people. Many
scientists accept the idea that certain in
dividuals have psychic or intuitive powers
of perception which far exceed the realm
of chance. Can they predict the future?
Who really knows?
That Graphologist Again
When I returned home from the clair
voyant, a second letter from the graph
ologist was waiting. Eagerly, I compared
it with the first character analysis. She
obviously had seen a similar character in
both of my letters, regardless of the name
I'd signed, and yet the tone of the second
was more hopeful. She described me as
skeptical, not distrustful. Instead of be
ing rebellious, I merely needed action;
instead of being undisciplined, I was
headstrong.
Penned across the top of the page was
a note which read : "Sorry I've taken so
long to answer. I was ill and tired re
cently, and have just come back from a
vacation."
Suddenly, I felt like laughing. This was
exactly what I had said before writing
the second letter. I had predicted her va
cation. I wondered: am psychic?
While raising a family and a fund
I in c
The tune is Near Eastern with daughter Deirdre on recorder,
AT 4 :45 EACH WEEKDAY MORNING, tWO shrill
alarm clocks (one electric, one mechanical)
awaken television host Hugh Downs for work.
About 8 : 30 in the evening he responds to the in
sistent tone in his 13-year-cld daughter's voice :
"Doctor Kildare's coming on time for you to go to
bed, Daddy."
For 20 years Hugh Downs has been at the mercy of
predawn alarm clocks and early evening orders to go to
bed, and now, as a first-rank tv star with two popular
shows, nothing has changed including Downs' calm
approach to the whole business.
Part of the calmness is inherent; part is acquired by
the frustrations of a career which has had its darker
moments: but most comes from a family which adjusts
good-naturedly to Dad's topsy-turvy schedule.
Downs recalls, for example, when he and his wife, the
former Ruth Shaheen, were married in Chicago 18 years
ago. "We bought a home in suburban Wilmette," Hugh
says. "My schedule was so busy then that I saw it only
at night the first few weeks. Finally, I got a day off,
woke late, and peered out the window in brilliant day
light what a shock!
"'Ruth,' I yelled, 'somebody has put a white fence
around our whole lot. Don't the neighbors like us?'
"Ruth calmed me down right away. 'That's our fence,'
she said. 'It came with the house. Come on, since you're
paying for the house, I'll introduce you to it' "
The early days for Hugh and Ruth had more serious
upheavals. Hugh was discharged from the Army in 1943
B
s
Downs:
Go But Not in a Hurry
of knowledge, he has steadily climbed to tv stardom By JACK RYAN
"d m r
ij --""
son H. K. on drum, Hugh on piano, and Ruth the listener.
and grabbed a top announcing spot with NBC in Chicago.
But other announcers subsequently were discharged who
had more seniority with the network, and Downs found
himself being squeezed into unemployment.
Ruth had been a successful radio director, but she
now was expecting a baby. She had no intention of re
suming her career, her Lebanese traditions insisting on a
full-time role of mother. Hugh reluctantly decided to
give up on Chicago, a proving ground for future stars,
and take a step backward by going to a smaller city.
"Why don't you hang on here just a while longer?" Ruth
suggested one night. "Let's not act hastily; maybe some
thing will come up."
Hugh hung on and on and on until NBC found him
indifmpnaahlA Ha anonf 19 t.. ru:
, - r - jcaig hi vuicitKu vnuiaoiy
with "Kukla, Fran, and Oliie"), then came to New York
for a series of popular shows. Hugh has many character
istics he's an omnivorous reader, tinker, hobbyist, writ
er, composer but his friends inevitably emphasize this
ability to "hang on."
PESSistenck paid off not only in Chicago but aiso in New
York during those roller-coaster years with Jack Paar.
Not everybody could have taken five years of being
alternately father mnfesscr ar.d foil to the mercurial
star, yet Downs did so with calmness and dignity. In
the process, he built up a following of his own, which
helped land him the "Today" show and the quiz program,
"Concentration."
Nowadays, the Downs' household occupies an eight
room apartment furnished in French provincial and
facing Central Park. Downs' son H. R. (Hugh Raymond)
is 17 and a sports-car fanatic. "I have a secretary named
Ferrari," Downs says, "and every time H. R. hears the
name his ears stiffen. He has saved up 600 for a sports
car from money he has earned, and I wish he had more.
I want one myself, you see, but if I bought one, H. R.
would stop working for his own, and all the worthwhile
fun of it would be gone."
Daughter Deirdre is passing through the teen-age
phase of mothering Dad, especially since Mrs. Downs,
feeling her youngsters are grown enough now, has re
turned to her career as president of the family's three-year-old
company, Ralin, which makes industrial films.
"Ruth gets the kids off to school and goes to work late,"
Downs says. "I'm home early enough in the afternoon
now to spend more time with them than ever before. I
used to worry about my job not allowing me to spend
enough time with them, but over the years I learned that
the quality of time spent is more important than the
quantity. We always have been a family with a great deal
of curiosity, and we spend what time we have exploring
new things together. That seems better than spending
a lot of time together without a purpose.
"Nowadays, of course, I don't get to help with things
like homework education speeds kids along so fast these
days. H. R. already is teaching me about things physi
ology, for example." Downs pauses, obviously disturbed
that there is an area of learning he is deficient in. "I'm
going to study that, but now I'm deep in astrology."
Downs' intellectual curiosity isn't just an on-camera
gimmick. Sometimes, his life appears keyed to vari
ous facts, figures, and footnotes. If he mentions that he
and his wife are flying to Washington on separate planes,
he doesn't pass it off just as "safety"; instead, he ex
plains the decision in actuarial terms, carefully balanc
ing risk against probability. "This year," he says, in
concluding the lecture, "H. R. will be 18, man enough
to care for Deirdre, so Ruth and I will fly together."
He tells about the long summer weekends his family
enjoys on a yacht and adds : "We charter the yacht. You
see, if you can use a boat a certain number of days a year
say 120 it pays to buy one. But if you can't, it's better
to charter. We figure we could use it only half the neces
sary days, so we charter."
Downs watches his weight carefully. It can fluctuate
20 pounds under certain situations: "I gain mostly when
I work too hard." He walks about five miles a day to keep
trim, but what worries Ruth is his tendency to overwork.
"Once, when the schedule got very heavy," Downs
says, "I went to the doctor for a checkup. 'Tell me,' he
said, 'do you like what you're doing and the people you
work with?' I answered that I certainly did. 'Then don't
worry sbout working too hard,' the doctor told me. 'Come
back and see me when you have half the schedule but
are doing something you don't like.'"
It isn't likely Downs will be back for that reason. He
likes many things and most people, and now, with H. R.
and Deirdre growing up, he is looking forward to sharl
ing more of his career activities with Ruth.
Success has not been an overnight thing for Hugh
Downs, but as he has pointed out: "Slow ones seem to
stick around longer and enjoy it more."
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