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Show .XfhfpMiipr P j FLMER AND THE 1940 CIRCUS j'TPHE circus is on the way again, and this department is afraid. II J is filled with grave misgivings. It j is apprehensive. It fears the modernistic mod-ernistic trend will be continued and that there will be further attempts to make an elephant glamorous, give "oomph" to a camel and envelope the big tent as a whole in an atmosphere atmos-phere of silks, satins and "it." For the last three or four years this influence has spread to a point where the customers have been coming home a little confused and declaring that they have just been to the "Barnum and Billy Rose Circus" Cir-cus" or "The Forepaugh and Shu-bert Shu-bert Combined Shows." "Old P. T; Barnum had the right idea about a circus," declared Elmer El-mer Twitchell, chairman of the National Na-tional League to Preserve the Fla- vor of the Big Tent. "It should look like a circus, act like a circus and smell like a circus. Last year they even advertised that it would be air-conditioned air-conditioned and perfumed. I thought the elephants and camels acted very depressed about it all summer." "The circus was really a circus when you could smell it a mile away. The smells made it Air-conditioning is all right in its place, but the circus should be left untouched by it," continued Elmer. "However, that's all done and over; what I'm afraid of is that the Follies decorative dec-orative influence will spread, especially espe-cially in the opening pageant. "The opening pageant has always made a hit with me, but especially so before George White, the late Flo Ziegfeld, Earl Carroll or any of those boys could touch it. I warmed up to the pageant when you could tell that Sir Galahad was just a bum, that Ben Hur was a hustler who needed a shave and that Cleopatra and her ladies were just a lot of faded women. "For the last few years the idea has been to put an Errol Flynn on fiVPrV hAPGP anA p.vT3J" 71 a Hedy Lamarr j i'yW P on every ele-Z$.JC ele-Z$.JC Phant- It softened up the whole 7A show. I can stand JYu if for one f those tSf Winter Garden Ei j - ensembles and . . . ' tfSjj for those Hollywood Holly-wood super spectacles spec-tacles from the Arabian Nights, but I like my circus parades straight." "I'm just hoping for the best," concluded Elmer, "but I fear the worst One more yard of lace in that opening pageant, however, and I'm through!" "Democracy is greater than cynicism. cyn-icism. Decency will prevail over trickery. A people of integrity will insist upon a government of integrity." integ-rity." Mr. Dewey. Wanna bet? VICIOUS CIRCLE Demosthenes Dowd was a shyster, With an outlook exceedingly blue! So he soap-boxed his way into con- 6' eas By shouting the country was through. He speaks of himself as a liberal, Denounces reaction as dross; He raves of the virtues of labor, And rants at the sins of the boss. Yes, he speaks of himself as a liberal, lib-eral, Not knowing the hokum he spouts Was reaction way back before Nero, And oft turned the "Ins" into "Outs." A leopard got out of its cage at the circus in Madison Square Garden Gar-den and chased a reporter. It gave up its original intentions when the reporter showed it his police card. Add similes: as funny as Nazi Germany trying to prove that some other nation is a knave. "You can beat a man and a ticket, tick-et, but you can't beat a trend." Alf Landon. With the G. O. P. it's a case of when a feller needs "a trend." Let's Be Fair, Girls! "Wife Forgives Husband Who Set Her Afire." headline. That's the spirit, lady! Ifs a humdrum world at best, with the average man finding find-ing little opportunity for self-expression, adventure, excitement He works all day in a humdrum office, j goes home in a humdrum subway i and reaches a humdrum home to find everything in the same pattern. pat-tern. No zest. No novelty. At last he breaks under the strain. Any good wife should understand. Keep some matches and kerosene around. , |