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Show WHO'S NEWS I THIS WEEK... By Lemuel F. Par (on fffffffffffffmmffff? NEW YORK. If a prisoner hadn't jumped out of a two-story two-story window and escaped, 123 years ago, newspapers today wouldn't be front-Biggest front-Biggest Star paging the de-Traced de-Traced to scription of the 2-Story Leap biggest star In the universe, 3,000 times larger than the sun. They should have named the star Napoleon, Napo-leon, instead of Epsilon Auriga e. His was the touch-off of events ter-restial ter-restial which finally ranged out 3,000 light years and brought news of the giant star. Chronologically, as the astronomers would put it, it was like this: Friederich Georg Wilhelm Struve was a studious German youth who wanted to be an astronomer, but lacked opportunity for study. For no apparent reason, a ranging band of Napoleon's scouts seized him and locked him in a prison on the banks of the River Elbe. He timed his high window-dive to the passing of a queer-looking ship, made a long, hazardous swim and was pulled aboard. The ship was homeward bound to Russia. The czar was a patron of astronomy. The young man was encouraged and became not only director of the observatory of the University of Dorpat, but one of the founders of modern astronomy, with Herschel and Bissel. His sons and grandsons became famous astronomers and it is his great-grandson, Dr. Otto Struve, who, with his assistants at Yerkes observatory of the University of Chicago Chi-cago at Williams Bay, Wis., discovers discov-ers the facts about Epsilon Aurigae. He is director of the observatory. He arrived here in 1921, after fighting fight-ing with the white armies in Russia and fleeing to Turkey with their collapse. col-lapse. He became director of Yerkes observatory five years ago at the age of thirty-four. TN THE new movie, "Hollywood Hotel." Bennie Goodman, trumpeter trump-eter and swingster, again demon- 1 strates that he gls all the college ,r . , trade. The boys 1 O runt-iron whinny with ex- Music Makes citement at Mr. Kids Whinny Goodman's mosl off-hand toot. Ex peditions sent by this departmenl into the far domain of youth saj it's that way all over the country, particularly among the collegians. The Dossier says he does it with his "gut-bucket, barrel-house, screw-ball and grunt-iron music." Be that as it may, it nets him $100,000 a year. At the age of ten, he was a semi-pro semi-pro vaudeville musician, earning around $2 a week in Chicago's Ghetto. He was the eighth of eleven children of a tailor who earned $20 a week. He bought a mail order clarinet on the installment plan, and, by the time he was thirteen, was a full-fledged journeyman musician, mu-sician, but still in short pants. He first got out in front in California, Cali-fornia, running his first band in 1931. He slumped down to $40 a week in 1934, moved in with Billy Rose, hit his stride again, and, via radio, is a recent arrival in the top-money brackets. He is twenty-seven, tall, dark, athletic, ath-letic, good-looking, with rimless octagonal oc-tagonal glasses, and. the more savage sav-age his music, the more money he makes. PRANKLIN MOTT GUNTHER, American minister to Rumania, decorously, and quite unofficially, be says, challenges the new anti-m. anti-m. fm M. Semitism in Ru-Mr. Ru-Mr. Cunther mania. He is a Created Big suave career dip-News dip-News in 1914 lomat who once pulled headlines as big as a Rumania war would get today. That was in 1914, when there ' was less news. He was a guest on a yacht anchored an-chored in Christiania harbor. The harbor master told him that spot ' had been saved for Kaiser Wil-helm's Wil-helm's yacht. There was an argument and the 1 harbor master said Mr. Gunther had clipped the cap off his head and ' wouldn't pick it up. It boiled up into in-to a big international story, but Mr. Gunther came through it nicely to 1 continue representing his country in I many foreign ports. b j President Coolidge made him min- ister to Egypt in 1928. He is a na-tive na-tive of New York, fifty-two years old, an alumnus of Harvard. Consolidated News Features WNU Service. |