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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1939)
HOLLYWOOD The return of Hdrry M. Popkin, execut ve produ cer of Million Dollar production* , to Hollywood after a tour over the circuit covered by the com pany’s all colored cab pictures to cement the new deal with Sack Amusement enterprises put the wheels in motion again at Million Dollar studio. He had wired as soon as he reached the New York office to delay the start of the eight new features s. heduled for 1939, until his re urn. Meanwhile Alfred N. Sack, head the Sack company, waL al-o on a special tour over the distr'et serviced by it. while his broJher, Lester J. Sack, kept the machinery moving at the home office in Dallas. Back here Director I.eo (". Pop kin and Art Brooks, unit super visor, have been w-ait. ng like race horses at the s ar ing gate for the word to start on “One Dark Night,” with Mantan Moreland & Hattie McDaniel; “The Life of Colonel Young,” with case unse le-ted, “White Silent Walls," an l “Gang War” tarring Ra’ph Coo per, and the rest of tip. list that are to follow in rapid succession. REMEMBERED INCIDENTS IN PAST PICTURES When a lion tried to run be tween Spencer Bell’s 1‘gs on the old Mack Sen nett silent set and the frightened Spencer* clinched his fingers in the lion’s mane and i rode him around the lot, too frigh- | tened to turn the badly fright- j ened animal loose. The “tired ] feet” in fox’s “Heart? in Dixie,” , that shot S’epin Fetchit into j fame. The exciting dangerous ; flood scene and destruction of the prison camp in MOM’S “Hallelu- * jah” that was left on the cutting room floor. The dance frenzy scene in a moonlit grove with free love intimations done at great expense with 150 colored couples j in MG M’S “Operate*.- 13," that | was also cut out. When the sick leopard got loose in Universal’s “Nagana,” and A1 Logan tried to climlb a straight 20 foot stockade wall. When excited extras forgot orders and tore up a $10,000 pia no, a prized heirloom, in Colum bia’s “Black Moon,” during a voo ilno riot scene with more scenes to come in following issues. As you know the 01’ Kolyum is 13 years old thits year and it has a lot of interesting memories stor ed away in its archives. HOLLYWOOD’S THREE ' FAMOUS WIVES Special medals should be made for three wives of famous colored movie stars, who deserve credit if ever three women ever deserved credit for being ^satisfied to help mould the careers of their help meets, rather than seeking the limelight themselves. They are | Mrs. Clarence Muse, Mrs. Bill Robinson, and Mrs. Ernest Whit man. All their noted husbands ad mittedly owe the fruition of their .sucoeed to the fact that their faithmates have been beside them and bdhind them through some of their most difficult upward struggles, and at present attend to the thousand and one details of a buzy artist’s life that has so much to do with hi)? properly pre senting his wares to the public. In eadh case husband and wife are as devoted to each other as when they were sweethearts, and it those retiring housewives’ eco nomy and thrifteness thai has put their huls bands’ earnings to good use and security for the future. Withal they art all blessed with exceptional good looks, and wear clothes beautifully, yet are as friendly and unaffected as if they were farmer's wives, rather than those of high salaried celebrities. Meanwhile white couples among the movie stabs marry and sepa rate at the same high speed with a five year marriage still a miracle. HURRY-UP SHORT SHOTS Madam Sul-Te Wan, grand old lady of sepia Hollywood, will get her big break this year if there is anything in astrology. In spite of her more than 64 years, she looks 40 and can out-dance and is more graceful than many girls of 20. Clinton Rosamond turned out Hjs usual excellent perfor mance in both Columbia’s "Golden Boy,” as the father of the ac cidentally “killed” prize-fighter Cannoriball Green, and in George Randol’s “Midnight Shadow's.” The Covans, Willie and Florence are still accepting pupils for their summer session, and preparing ■ for their annual fall show. Doro thy Keane, who was to return from Boston to s art her delayed career in picture! , cannot leave now until September. The glamo rous beauty, rated as one o f Beantown’s loveliest, has to wait the payment of damages for be ing knocked off a bicycle by a woman motorist. Reg nald Fender sor. and charming wife ju.st re turned by motor from a tour of personal appearances with Louise Beavers in conjunction with their I icture “Reform School.” They wer-* received with the greatest •».r claim n New York, Washington P-il irr oie, Norfolk, Newport News and ether cities topped off by a par ole and r cention by the mayor at Richmond, Ba. -0O0—7-— Seamen’s Leaders Assail Job Bias on American Ships N’w Orleans, Aug. 7 (CNA)— R acial discrimination on American ship; was bitterly assailed by Jesenh Curren, president of the National Maritime Union, in his report to the second biennial con vention of the CIO union, held here recently. Curran reported that of approximately 5,000 Ne gro members of the union, 1,000 had lost their jobs “through no fault of their own in Atlantic Coast steamship and tanken com panies” during the past 18 months. Responsibility for the situation wa i placed by the union president U|>on (a) the ship owners who as serted, fostered race prejudice in the effort to divide the workers, (b) disruptive elements within the union who, he said, tried to set white members against Negro j members and vice versa in an ; attempt to embarass the leader chip, and (c) to the political back wardness of some white crews, who “have refused to accept Ne gro replacements even when the operators have agreed to them. Praising the participation of Negro seamen in the rank and fib strikes of 1936 and '37 out of which the National Maritime Union developed, Curran declared that “This In son in unity was not lost upon the white delegates to the first NMU Constitutional Con vention. They insisted that com plete equality for the Negro in every phase of the new union’s activity be written into the Con vention. And this was done. “And yet, despite the spirit and letter of the Constitution, Negroes have been steadily forced off NMU ships. Warn* of Disunity "Trade union history has proved that racial, color and religious discrimination han always been and obstacle in the patt of uni ty, dividing workers into small groups which are vulnerable to all types of employer attacks,” the CIO leader warned. "Prac ticed by organized labor itself, constantly fostered and stimulated by industry, discrimination has been the Waterloo of many a un ion and many a strike.” Curran cited as an example the impotence of the old Internation al Seamen’s Union in which "Ne gro seamen were segregated from white seamen, in accordance with the historical Jim Crow philoso phy of the A. F. of L.” Reasons for the loss of jobs by Negro members of the union were listed by Curran as follows: Laying up of ships on which Ne groes were employed. Companies employing Negroes going out of business. Transfer of ships from a com pany which employed Negroes to one which did not. Changes in the classification of ships in a given trade. Ships’ crews refusing to accept Negro replacements, “in violation of our Constitution, which calls for strict rotary hiring.” “Whatever the case of the prob lem, a solution can be found," he continued. “A solution must be found. Abraham Lincoln once said that a nation cannot endure half free and half slave. A labor union cannot long endure if it contin ues suppressing the economic rights of an important minority within it ranks. “The problem cries out for so lution. If we don’t solve it, the re sult is going to be disastrous for the union, for white as well as Negro seamen.” DARK LAUGHTER OL HARRINGTON Here comes the feller who give tfootsie uie not up aoout the fight. He got Boots to lay it all on Galento. Special to The Omaha Guide from the Trans pacific News Service Poverty in its grimmest aspects is eating the hearts out of the Chinese living in Japanese occu pied Nanking. Facts and figures presented in a survey which has just reached this country, and which made by M. Searle Bates, an American professor of history at tho university of Nanking, tell plainly the sorry tale of Japan’s “order in Nanking. Since Great Britain has just rec ognized Japan’s right to go on maintaining this “order in the Far East,’’ the facts as to what condi tions .make up that “order” are | timely. “Chinese economic life in Nan king is indeed sick,” Mr. Bates states in the survey. He points out that loss of employment to the Chinese in Nankng since the occu pation of that city by Japanese military .strategists, has been tre mendous. The current 27 per cent of employed would have to be in creased by half to bring employ ment up to normal. He shows that there has been a great shift among the Chinese employed from middle class occu pations to the most poorly paid type of labor. He shows that lar ger and larger numbers of women have been forced out into the wage earning world at practically slave labor rates. He shows that employ ed persons earning about 40 per cent of what they formerly earned, and that over fifty per cent of the families are unable to live even meagerly, on what their employed members can earn. That the Japanese occupation of Nanking has most certainly brought no order or economic sta bility into the Chinese lives in Nanking is evident in every sta tistical table presented in his sur vey. Mr. Bates sent his investiga tors into every fiftieth house in Nanking. They interviewed fam ilies representing 7,161 persons, living in various section of Nan king. From this the figures for tho entire population of the city were computed. The figures, in Chinese curren cy, are difficult to translate in i American terms. But when the sur. I vey states that almost half of the ; employed persons make less than , $10 a month in Chinese currency, and that rice alone costs $8.00 a shih tan, which is 2.8 American bu shels, one can make an attempt to | imagine the conditions. The survey recognizes the “in exorable injuries of the war situa tion.” “But beyond them,” it states, | ‘ are other troubles that keep men poor. It is better not to discuss hero the enforced use of military notes, the havoc wrought by opi um and heroin, the continual in terference with personal liberty and private property, because they are so closely linked with military procedure. They are, however, im pofLant bars to economic improve ment. “Apparently less politico-milita ry and more largely economic H their whole working,” the survey continues, “are the general monop olistic and restrVtvve controls. Chinese business men are throt tled by the monopoly of transpor tation and the discriminatory use of it to control all wholesale trade. They complain bitteily that they and their people are reduced to the statues of coolies and shop boys for an alien economy. Spe c’ficially, they point out monopo lies or discriminatory controls in such varied lines as the following: coal, salt, banking, cotton, metals cement, lime, electric and water in stallatons. Furthermore, they as sert that when a Chinese business is painfully developed after the general experience of burning, con fiscation of commercial sites, and looting, it frequently threatened and hampered until it accepts a Japanese partner, who then pro vides the average nece-sary per mits and a measure of security, in exchange for a first claim on re turns and a managerial voice that can summon bayonets at will. Un der scch conditons there cannot be J much revival of /Chinese commer cial and industrial enterprise.” This, Japan, and even Great Bri tain, would have us believe is the “civilizing influence” which is pen etrating China. -0O0-1 Two Negroes on Federal Jury Probing WPA Scandal New Orleans. Aug. 6 (ANP)— Sitting on the federal grand jury invc tigating misuse of Works Progress Administration labor and materials are two Negroes, James A. Holtry, treasurer of the Good Citizens Insurance company, and Preston King, proprietor of King Brothers Grocery store. The jury opened its probe last Friday morning. Conducting the hearing in the strictest secrecy, the jury sought to ferret out the truth of charges made by Drew Pearson and Rob ert Allen in their syndicated news paper column, “Washington Merry Go Round,” that WPA labor and materials were used in private construction by Governor Leche, Attorney General Ellison and oth er state polticians. The article was declared based on affidavits iswom out by alleged WPA work ers. ® —— -<s> “Between the Lines” ®-4 v: (by Dean Gordon B. Hancock for ANP) * NAACP CHANGING TACTICS A MIGHTY DAY! The closing scenes of the clos ing session of the 30th annual meeting of the NAACP brought to a close a mighty day in Rich mond, Va., “down where the South begins.” With the Mosque thea- 1 tre, seating 5,000 jammed, and with other thousands milling a bout the streets, the scene was set for the fitting climax of one mighty occasion, one that will be riveted upon the memories of those present through all the com . I ing years. Walter White was wonderful as he made one long and sustained plea for interracial cooperation. The new spirit of the NAACP was epitomized in Mr. White’s overt and covert appeal to the South’s better self. The NAACP has come a long way during these 20 years, and Mr. White’s address was one ringing vindication of the interracial movement throughout the nation. For a long time in terracialism has been isuspected and even accused of cringing tac tics. At times vitriolic attacks have been unleashed against it, but the more recent attitude and spirit of the NAACP is a com mendation and corroboration of things interracial. This is as it should be, for com mon sense shows unmistakably | that without interracial coopera- , tion. social advance of the coun try is slowed down and the social advance of the Negro race is im possible. Tha1 the moving spirits of the NAACP see this and have courage to acknowledge it is one of the most hopeful signs of the time*. Strangely enough, in all the discussions no reference was made to any “demands” which the Negro was making on the powers that be. Gradually, the Negro is facing the ugly fact that demands without means of their enforce- ' ment are oft-times ridiculous. We are getting somewhere When Ne groes see this fact clearly. The deck is cleared for action now, and the plan is laid whereby the NAACP may be changed from an exclusive organization to an all inclusive movement. Representing all the interests and creeds and ambitions of the race, the NAACP annual meeting should be the largest meeting of Negroes of the country. There ought to be at least, 10,000 dele gates. The NAACP should be turned into a movement for its program is sufficiently conserva tive liberal to be all-inclusive. This great orzanigation should not only be the largest, but it should be the most adequately financed. Mrs. Roosevelt’s appearance in the closing iscenes marked the cli max of the occasion and of the session. That she observed cau tion in dealing with the problem of the Negroes was quite in keep ing with tihe sagacity that has made her an idol of the nation. Mrs. Roosevelt is without doubt the most imposing figure in the nation-there are no exceptions. Although her appeals in the Ne gro’s behalf were cautiously word ed and although the sensitiveness cf the white South hung over her like the sword of Damocles, she came through with flying colors as she always does. Negroes are under great obligation to this wonderful woman who took the Constitution hall incident and made of it a lever to lift Marian Anderson and the Negroes to un expected heights. On this mighty day when thou sands were assemble^ to see her make the Spingarn award to Mar ian Anderson, it wa)s not necessary that she should make her address too racial in its appeal. Her being present and her task of making the award spoke more eloquently than words could have of her keen interest in the Negro race. Marian Anderson is today more than a great artist; she has become the leader of tihe Negro race and one of the nation’s greatest bene factors. She is easily the most out standing figure in the Negro race in all tihe world and that she wears her honors and responsibi lities with such becoming grace is a blessing for which the en tire race should thank God. Mar ian Atiderson in where she is not by reason of arguments but by reason of able performence and by reason of cooperating white friends. She, too, is another convincing proof that interra cialism has endless possibilities that need exploiting. Thus not only the wonderful message of Walter White and the Magnificent and hallowing pres ence of Mils. Roosevelt, but also the beautifully mannered Marian Anderson vindicate the interracial cause. Thus was the day made mighty by mighty interracial ap peal by Walter White, by the mighty presence and spirit of Mrs. Roosevelt, and by the mighty spirited and magnanimous Mar ian Anderson—all representing the mighty cause of Negro ad vnrcoment, IT WAS A MLGHTY DAY. MONEY — To dream of finding money indicates that you will likely find yourself tangled in difficulties. It will par to be tactful. '•‘w v—--r ijWTtf fir BEARD—Seeing a beard In your dream Indicates that you will profit by taking the advice of your trienda on current problems. __T,, A C-^OD CATCH AUNT EFFIE _ , ___ TOraHM -TTi rr——- A-1 r—7—^ ="T—HFr—p»-r- \ !*» _| 1_<L__I 1—-oar—rr:__SZ3 L_1-: 1 SILENCE, PLEASE! By FRANCIS NOONAN