OCR Text |
Show WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON "NJEW YORK. Policemen seem to ' have more social security than almost anybody else, if they behave themselves, and yet about 70 of , them have com- beek Cause mitted suicide in For Cops' New York in the Despondency 1351 few years" ! Just why "a policeman's po-liceman's life is not a happy one" was not made clear by Gilbert and Sulhvan, but members of the new York force are out to find out and do something about it. Their new and unique "trouble clinic" has been investigating and prescribing. It lists eight reasons why policemen get in distress, and the list includes just eight brands of money trouble. The news today is that the department clinic has j official sanction and is opening headquarters in the old World build- ! ing. Patrolman Joseph J. Bnrkard of the traffic squad, an energetic, energet-ic, resourceful self-starter, in the department 20 years, pioneers pio-neers the new clinic, with the aid of a young patrolman who is a student of psychology at Colombia Co-lombia university. They brought in Dr. Menas S. Gregory, famous psychiatrist, and Dr. Carmyn J. Lombardo, also widely known as a specialist in men- I tal disturbance. The clinic already j has handled 150 cases, some of : them of extremely serious nature, j j The clinic was established under j the Patrolmen's Benevolent associa-i associa-i . tion,' of which Mr. ; Idea First Burkard was ' Tried Oat elected president i o r last year. It is By Legion said to haTe been his original idea, suggested by sim-I sim-I ilar work by the American Legion, of which Mr. Burkard is a former New York county commander. He has been a genial mixer in the department for many years. vice president of the glee club and ' lorg active in the affairs of the P. B. A. A friend of this writer, gathering ' material for a book on New York, quoted to a young police lieutenant InsDector Williams' remark that : "Thom ic more law on the end of . a policeman's night-stick than there is in a decision of the Supreme ; court." I "That's bunk, and it always t was," said the lieutenant. "Col-I "Col-I lege men are joining both the I police and fire departments. J. I Edgar Hoover, and others, are I helping to bring about a new j conception of a policeman. The i I flat-foof era is ending." j -I And then, said my friend, the I lieutenant disclosed that he was a j 1 college graduate and engaged in an j informal discussion of psychiatric ; training and methods in connection i with police work. Would the cops ' have made their own psychological clinic in Inspector Williams' day? 1 THE late Texas Guinan gave George Raft a pair of gold-plated ; garters. They brought him luck and i he still wears them. The sleek, . slow-eyed young ' Tex Guinan Italian, ' alumnus ; Cave George of New York's . . . -Rpll'. Ki t ehe n. Uofd carters teken ucceES ; in his easy dancing stride he's an ; ex-hoofer but, like other moving ! picture stars, he's beginning to look a gift-horse in the mouth, j He doesn't like his role in Para- mount's "St. Louis Blues," and the I company suspends him. It is one ! more instance of increasing es-' es-' thetic sensitivity in movieland. In and around Hell's Kitchen, j be was a professional lightweight light-weight boxer, winning 25 fights, kayoed seven times. He was an outfielder for the Springfield (Mass.) minor league team for 1 two seasons. He did well j enough, but it was a sideline of impromptu hoofing and spoofing which paced him into the night clubs and the big Broadway shows. ! 1 Ee achieved a sinister, reptilian suggestion in his dancing which made him known fraternally up and down Broadway as "The Old Black-: snake." I Ee was just looking on at the Brown Derby in Hollywood when a prowling director seized him as a ype" and ruthlessly sloughed him Into fame and fortune. His 1937 earnings report was $202,655, topped only by Cooper and Baxter, among tie male stars. Ee owns 45 suits of clothes and a piece of Henry Armstrong- j e. ConsoSia-.t-a 7irw3 Feature. WJfC Service. |