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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1942)
« [URSDAY MORNING, MARCH 26, 1942- BATTALION AMUSEMENTS n ^ > * * b * v‘ ' ' V * Musical Meanderings By Murray Ehrana tere are tho&c wlio think of | Remember a musician is old at 35, musician’s life as one big d of wine, women, and song— n existence filled with perpet- merriment and devoid of ob- es encountered in the life of layman. Not so. Actually it [Is wearisome cross-country ts, strenuous one-night stands, ppointments in the way of g intake, high overhead ex es that go with traveling and ilmost near necessity of stay- in single harness. (For what an wants to go tagging after husband all over the country, g out of suit cases, enduring strain of a consistent night- ) it usually, once a musician in the game, all his friends acquaintances place that tag im, and it’s difficult for him let out of the business. The g man who comes home off a , sick of the high road, desir- femployment in his home town, lly meets such queries as this: y, I thought you were a mu ll! You wouldn’t like working ne.” (As if he were one of the iited.) And so, disillusioned his home-town attitude, but amentally hungry for another jam session with his kind, he •ns to the fold. ,e thud of the rhythm, the lift le brass, the sweetness of the 3 makes him feel at home a, and all seems right with the d—until he falls to thinking a about the future, and then icy cake of common sense (to e Mr. 0. Henry) floats down ;ide of his intoxication, and he zes the futility of his exist- comes down to this in the analysis: Be a musician while re young and care-free, but enough shekels to start a ;1 business of your own when begin to feel your birthdays. Trade With Lou le Is Right With You! LOUPOT’S and if he persists in hanging on, it will not be long before the youngsters with fresher ideas and originality in phrasing will re place him altogether. • • • The general opinion in the music business is that girl band-leaders don’t succeed. It is thought that girls fronting bands just can’t stand the gaff, that they substi tute sex for music appeal, that they don’t know music, that about all they are good for is to look pretty and indulge in suggestive poses and movements. But Dolly Dawn is one leader who refutes any such idea. It came as a surprise to everyone in July, 1941, when George Hall stepped down off his podium, took over the job of managing while Dolly picked up his baton and started fronting the band regularly. Since then she has succeeded on her own merits. There is no phony sex- appeal involved. Rarely does she even wear an evening dress; it’s usually a trim, tailored suit. She knows her music and how to thoroughly sell a tune. Her band boasts some of the very best tal ent available. In six months Dolly’s band has played only six one-nighters. At the Stanly Hotel her record was surpassed only by the great Glenn Miller, and she did a 25 percent better business at the Chanticleer than Frankie Masters, who fol lowed her. She knows tempos, how to use her hands, how to handle a baton. Thoroughly capable, she needs no stooging from the band members. One of the finest ballads out now is “I Don’t Want To Walk With out You.” Its melodic appeal is extremely fetching, and as done by beauteous Dinah Shore, it leaves nothing to be desired for top honors among current sweet numbers. The crabmeat canning industry, which now has a foothold in Maine, is expected to be expanded to the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Your Appearance Is Important LOOK YOUR BEST FOR THE CAVALRY BALL AND CORPS DANCE AGGIELAND BARBER & BEAUTY SHOP WYATT’S FLOWER SHOP Get Your Flowers for the Cavalry Ball from us. We Deliver 26th and Main PHONE 2-2400 Patronize Our Agent In Your Outfit. 'arises CASH A CARRY — North Goto D. M. DANSBY, *37 AGGIES! APRIL 10 Is Deadline for June Delivery Get Your Order in Now! HOUCK’S BOOT SHOP A. & M. Since ’91 Hollywood Pleases Majority; Speaks Lingo of 90 Million STATE COLLEGE, Pa.—(AGP) •—Most of Hollywood’s movie stars speak their lines in “General Amer ican English”—so named because it is the natural speech of 90,000,- 000 Americans living outside New York City, New England and the south. That is the observation of Mildred Hall, who has just com pleted a study of actors’ speech un der direction of Joseph F. O’Brien, associate professor of public speak ing at Pennsylvania State college. “More than 52 per cent of 273 film actors who were observed in the study use the “General Amer ican” speech, Miss Hall found. This form of speech is characterized by retention of the letter “r” and use of a short “a.” Forty-four per cent, however, use the “eastern American” speech, which is characterized by dropping of the “r” and broadening of the “a,” the study revealed. This dia-. lect is spoken by 11,000,000 per sons living in New York ,City and New England. “Southern British” is also included under this desig nation. In another study it was found that the Eastern American and Southern British dialects predom inate on the legitimate stage. Sev enty-two per cent of the stage stars were said to drop their “r’s” and broaden their “a’s” as opposed to 24 per cent who psoke general American. A palatability test on safflower meal is being conducted at the Spur substation of the Texas Ag ricultural Experiment Station. The three steers used in the test gained 2.14 pounds per head daily during the second 28-day period. -Page 2 Covering Campus Distractions: Tarzan Thrills, Water Spills and Blood Chills Down Ag Show Row Tarzan yn Johnny Weissmuller, the famed ape-man of the jungles, ap pears again in a filmed ver sion of one of Edgar Rice Bur- rough’s novels “T#rzan’s Se cret Treasure,” at Guion Hall today and tomorrow. Recall not so many years ago- that nine chances out of ten that your favorites in the motion pic ture world were Tarzan and Tom Mix or Ken Maynard. And if you liked the scrapes that the ape-man of the jungles of the Dark Conti nent could get himself in and out of with little or no difficulty, you might like “TARZAN’S SECRET TREASURE” at Guion Hall today and tomorrow. This is the twenty-fifth anniver sary of the filming of the first Edgar Rice Bur- rough’s novel Over 25 million books about the legendary charac ter have been printed and trans lated into 56 lan guages. Johnny- ^ was chosen to be L 4 Tarzan in 1932 1§ after appearing in a Grantland Rice sport short. He had accumulated 40 swimming records in addition to Olympic Games championships throughout his sports career. The story for the film is in the usual vein. The natives are un friendly to him, the whites try to take advantage of him, and the animals would be most happy to devour him to satisfy their appe tites. Overcoming all the obstacles one by one, Tarzan is reunited with his mate, Maureen O’Sullivan, and their adopted son, John Sheffield, and everyone is happy. With technicolor, a tropical set ting, and the feminine star Dorothy Lamour, a picture is all set up to Psychologists Recognize Swing; Applaud It as a “Great Art” Swing is art and it is recently becoming great art. “The differ ence between Beethoven’s Fifth symphony and Benny Goodman’s ‘Opus V2 ” concludes Dr. J. F. Brown, psychology professor at the University of Kansas, “is one of degree, and not one of kind.” Art, he explains in a new text book, “The Psychodynamics of Ab normal Behavior,” is the expres sion in more or less disguise of conflicts or problems that are a part of life. Songs are popular when the problems which are their content are easily recognized—when the disguise is thin. Usually the lyrics of swing music speak of unre quited love, a problem of deep con cern to boys and girls of college and high school age. And they speak pretty frankly. As art disguises its content, uses technically difficult and distorted expression forms, and requires more competence of the perform ers, it becomes “great” art. If you want to satisfy yourself that popular music is becoming “greater” art, just listen to records made in the early twenties and compare these with the latest re cordings of the same songs. From the old records you will hear a thinly orchestrated and purely mel odic recording of the verse fol lowed by as many identical repe titions of the Chorus as space would allow. The monotony is tiring to the early. Some of Benny Goodman’s and Bob Crosby’s and Count Basie’s widely swung choruses represent variations as complex, Dr. Brown insists, as some of Brahms’. You can even listen to modern swing in a concert or “jam session.” As swing gets farther away from the simple love-making of the dance, fewer individuals will be able to follow it, it will become esoteric and no longer popular, he predicts. Swing, according to Dr. Brown’s analysis, is not only art, it is good psychology — or psychoanalysis. Freud himself would have ap proved a title like “You Remind Me of My Mother” or the use in love songs of “Mama” and “Dad dy.” The song writer, like the psycho analyst, recognizes the significance of dreams—“You Can’t Stop Me from Dreaming,” “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” or “I Wake Up Smiling.” “Fall in love, fall in love, says my heart . . . but each time that I’m almost in your arms, this old school teacher brain of mine starts ringing false alarms.” These words from a recent popular song might be translated into technical lan guage and find their place in a psychology textbook. Hate, Dr. Brown says, is seldom expressed in popular songs except Germination tests of old garden seeds may be made by planting several kinds in boxes of moist dirt kept in a sunny place. in war time. For hostility, go to the comic strip or the animated cartoon. .do business in a handsome way. The title is “TYPHOON,” and Rob ert Preston is the inebriated beach comber that Dottie reforms with the aid of her pet chimp, Koko. The Math Club is sponsoring the show at the Campus today and to morrow. Vereen Bell’s picturesque novel, “SWAMP WATER,” has been made into a picture picture after it appeared in the Saturday Eve ning Post and later was a best seller in the current fiction field. It is the story of the people of Georgia who live around the Oke- fenokee swamp, 700 square miles of utter desolation and wilderness, inhabited only by alligators, birds, panthers and bears. Dana Andrews as young Ben Ragan, dares to enter the swamp in search of his lost hunting dog. He discovers Walter Brennan, an escaped murderer who has been living in the swamp for some time. The pair forms a trapping partner ship and Andrews later finds the man who committed the crime that WHAT’S SHOWING AT THE CAMPUS Thursday — “TYPHOON,” featuring Dorothy Lamour and Robert Preston. Benefit Math Club. Friday and Saturday — “SWAMP WATER” with Walter Brennan, Walter Hus ton, and Anne Baxter. AT GUION HALL Thursday, Friday—“TAR ZAN’S SECRET TREAS URE,” starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. RADIO REPAIRS THE! STUDENT CO-OP FOR MOTHER’S DAY The only gift that only you can give—your photo graph. And how that picture will cheer the days when she is alone with her thoughts! AGGIELAND STUDIO — Photographs of Distinction — Brennan was accused of. Anne Baxter is very good as Brennan’s daughter also. The story is liable to prove a trifle slow and heavy to the aver age theater attendant, however. Art Pays Way For 29 Members Of T U Musical Unit AUSTIN, (AGP)—Art is paying its way—for 29 members of the University of Texas radio musical unit. These students are holding “work fellowships” to compensate them for the ten hours weekly that they must rehearse and ap pear on the air to furnish musical accompaniment and background for university-sponsored radio pro grams. A $5,000 fund for this purpose was recently given to the univer sity’s Radio House, campus studio, by Karl Hoblitzelle of Dallas. The followship fund, available for the current year through July 15, permits paying 12 chorus mem bers and 16 orchestra members and a music copyist $15.60 a month each. In coming months, ranchmen in the extreme west part of Texas may be asked to grow pilot plant ings of guayule, the plant from which rubber may be extracted. Areas in California, New Mexico, and Arizon also are said to be suit ed to the desert plant. FOR A REAL NIGHT OF FUN AND DELIGHT DINE AND DANCE AT NAVIES North of Bryan on Waco Highway Action in Okefenokee Swamp “Swamp Water,” the strange and unusual story of the Okefenokee Swamp, is the stirring picture which opens at the Campus tomor row. Strife and conflict highlight the action of the film which features Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews. SENIORS! Do your blouses fit? If they don’t LOUPOT is the man to see. He will give you $25.00 for most bi-swing blouses. Always a liberal trade-in allowance. Balance may be paid after you get in the Army in four small payments. PINK SLACKS MACKINAWS and RAINCOATS May Be Bought on the Same Plan LOUPOT'S TRADING POST J. E. Loupot Class ’32