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Show IIP Innocent Bystander: "Dear Walter; Here Is a suggestion sugges-tion you might pass on. Why don't the theater orchestras which play The Star Spangled Banner' at the end of the night, play it in a key that the average person In the audience audi-ence can sing? Everyone known that our National Anthem has a wide range that Is difficult for the untrained un-trained voice. But It isn't so hard when played in a lower key. Even the recordings used in theaters are too high. For Instance, last night at the Roxy the recording of the Anthem An-them was played in the key of E-flat, E-flat, much too high for the average voice. A key of G would enable many hundreds of others to sing it 11 the way through. Kitty Carlisle." John Klcran nominates (in Cosmopolitan) Cosmo-politan) as his pet peeve the guy who talks out of turn. Info, Please, where John Is starred, would be less exciting if the pop-oft was outlawed. Major James Roosevelt was in Hollywood the other day, the luncheon lunch-eon guest of the Freres Warner in their executive dining room, if you please. During the chit-chatterbox-ing. Harry Warner said: "How are your mother and father bearing up under all this?" "I think," replied James, "that my mother is a little more tired." Phil Baker, relates a Sun interviewer, inter-viewer, once lectured to some collegians col-legians on "The Ad Lib and Its Importance in Everyday Life." One of the upstarts sprung a Joe Miller on him and asked for a sample ad lib topper. Baker, stumped, gagged his way out by saying: "The best way I could reply to that line would be to ad lib ten seconds of silence." One of B'way's hits, "In Time to Come," honors President Wilson. Now the movies plan to revere his memory with a biog . . . Excuse the finger-pointing, but drop into the Public Library some day and be reminded how many honored Americans Amer-icans made a good living out of attacking at-tacking Woodrow Wilson's peace efforts. ef-forts. iVett York Newsman: The capture of the German ship (Odenwald) in the South Atlantic recently (despite its disguise as an American vessel) happened, we hear, because of a boner. When the warship first encountered it it was certain the stranger was American but asked for identification, anyway. Promptly came a breezy reply-typically reply-typically Yankee Doodle in spirit and zing but it contained one word that trapped it The word was Broadway slang and the Germans used it wrongly. That aroused the suspicion of the U. S. warship and the rest is now in the history books. What was the slang word? Sorry. That's a naval secret. Manhattan Murals: The air-raid siren on Broadway standing silently silent-ly waiting to scare a few thousand people out of their wits and off the streets . . . The oldest clock in town in the tower of St Paul's on B'way and Vesey Street It was made in 1798 . . . The dejected young men at 90 Church Street (Nuvy H' quarters) when they don't pass the physical . . . The hamburger joynts all over midtown giving the hot dog stands an inferiority complex . . . The Rose Bowl Cafeteria on 44th, the Sugar Bowl on Pell Street and the Orange Bowl on 45th . . . Shortest Short-est street in New York Edgar Street where Greenwich Street meets Trinity Place near the Bat-tery Bat-tery . . , The epidemic of huge-sized huge-sized clocks all over Times Square . . . Correct Time Square. Newspaperman Stuff: If we ever own or help run a newspaper, no matter how inconsequential it is, we will have the editor nail the following follow-ing to the masthead. It was written in the 1700s by John Adams: "Be not intimidated, by any terrors, from publishing, with the utmost freedom, free-dom, whatever can be warranted by the laws of your country; nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberty by any pretenses of politeness, delicacy or decency." Our Berlin correspondent (your what?) just phoned us this in code . . . Hans and Fritz were discussing discuss-ing conditions there. "Der Fuehrer," said Hans, "has done great work. We now haf more living space than ever." "Iss dot so?" asked Fritz. "Vy because we haf more land?" "No," was the retort. "Because we haf less soldiers." A Norwalk w&g says that "the commander in chief of the Jap fleet is looking forward to dictating peace in the White House in Washington. They get that way, sometimes, after the fourth glass of saki." Fergoodnessaki! Hitler, always a plugger for paganism, has injected a religious note into his whimperings, now that the going is tough. He's sorry his armies destroyed so many churches. He'd find them useful to hide behind. |