OCR Text |
Show WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK. Young Sherman M. Fairchild inherited about $10,-000,000, $10,-000,000, and the money took wings not around the night spots, but in aviation enter-Heir enter-Heir Pools His prises which Money, Brains; have made him Aviation Profits panjandrums 0f the plane designing and building industry. in-dustry. Just now, the CivU Aeronautics authority certifies Mr. Fairchild' s new 500-horsepower "in-line" engine, en-gine, which, he says, has more power pow-er for its weight thanany other. For several years, Mr. Fairchild has been pioneering the "in-line" engines en-gines as against the radial type of foreign nations. In 1936, he sold 20 of them to the Greek government, which, it was later reported, found them highly satisfactory. His engine en-gine is about one-third the size of a radial engine. His father, the late George W. Fairchild, began his business career on $8 a week, invented the dial telephone, the computing comput-ing scale, and the adding machine. ma-chine. He wanted his son to become a junior executive of International Business Machines corporation. The young man, however, was interested mainly in cameras. At 17, he had invented in-vented a revolutionary flashlight camera, and, at 21, radial aerial camera. He organized Fairchild Aerial Surveys and in 1924 carried through an air camera survey of New York, with a six-mile camera of his invention inven-tion which was a pioneering exploit in that field. . By 1927, he had corraled several companies in the Fairchild Aviation corporation, had Igor Sigorsky building build-ing planes, and soon unveiled the first cabin monoplane in the United States. In Harvard at the start of the war, he was rejected for military mili-tary service because of physical shortcomings, later remedied in Arizona. Intent on war duty of some kind, he brought out an aerial camera for war use, completed just before the Armistice. Armi-stice. He is typical of a number num-ber of free and adventurous self-starters self-starters in Uncle Sam's industrial industri-al and technical establishment who can be rounded up in case of trouble a refutation of the totalitarian belief that only the goose-step can yield efficiency. SEVERAL notable moving pictures pic-tures of recent appearance have achieved portraits rather than caricatures. cari-catures. They also have shown a . trend away from Moving Picture the star system Renaissance Is and a new reli- Looming High ? nce on cohert form m the picture pic-ture as a whole. Chastened by hard times, the films are taking thought and adding cubits to their stature. This bystander hears much talk of a coming moving picture renaissance renais-sance not in any splendiferous outbreak, out-break, but in a new infusion of creative cre-ative intelligence into the industry, and a longer tether for the same. In focus here is "Stagecoach," opening in New York with generous gen-erous salutations by reviewers, who note that, with a no-star cast, a natural-born horse opera has been conjured Into an excellent ex-cellent film by the deft artistry of John Ford, director, and Dudley Dud-ley Nichols, scenarist. They also scored, jointly, in "The Hurricane" and "The Informer." Inform-er." This film Is commended for its further trend toward simplicity sim-plicity and artistic integrity, and away from overemphasis, the traditional occupational disease of Hollywood on or off the lot. Mr. Ford, born Sean O'Fearna, in Portland, Maine, 44 years ago, thinks moving picture directors see too little of the world about them in proportion to what they record. Renoir had the same idea, insisting that, if an artist observed intently enough and long enough, his line would be almost self-recording So Mr. Ford stokes his pipe, medi-tates, medi-tates, observes, studies types speech, dress, mannerisms, behavior, be-havior, regional and occupational traits, and achieves characterization. characteriza-tion. His older brother, Francis, was ahead of him at Hollywood as a serial star and director' John Ford tagged along and soon had his brother working for him. Before he was 25, he had directed many westerns. When he was 38, he directed "The Iron Horse." Ho is an autocrat on the lot, apt to throw the script away and improvise business busi-ness and lines, working usually in a frayed sports jacket and old duns arccs. Ho sidesteps Hollywood parties and pass -s much of his off-shift time on his small yacht. IIo fa - bulky, with tl.iillfr Bandfc , " and glasses. |