Page 2 University Daily Kansap Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1953 Book Review Little Man on Campus by Dick Bibler Aiding Blood Drive Is Students' Duty Students will soon be given an opportunity to aid in the blood drive. It is an opportunity and a duty for everyone who is physically able to donate a pint of his blood for the armed services. It is required by Kansas law that all minors have the written permission of their parents to donate blood. It is therefore extremely important for all students who are under 21 to have a parental release signed between semesters so that they will be eligible to donate their blood. The releases are being distributed at most organized houses and many classes. Two Red Cross bloodmobiles will be at the Military Science building Feb. 18, 19, 20 during which time at least 1,000 pints of blood must be collected. Last year a total of about 1,300 pints—850 from the ROTC units and 450 from other students—was gathered in two drives. The University was presented a flag by the Red Cross in recognition for the students' contributions. The Arnold Air Society, honorary organization for advanced Air Force ROTC cadets, is sponsoring the drive. The Society is in charge of collecting the blood from Air Force ROTC cadets and members of the student body not in Army and Navy ROTC units. The latter two organizations plan to contact their own members. The blood drive is the most important thing to which students are asked to contribute. It assumes a personal appeal in that many of the students who are now being asked to donate blood may soon be in a situation where they may be receiving blood. Charles Burch. Flashbacks JANUARY 21 5 Years Ago A majority report of the College foreign language requirements committee proposes that 12 semester hours or its equivalent in one or more foreign languages be attained either in high school or at the University. New students entering the University for the first time will begin their orientation period on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Hoch auditorium. The University will be in good hands while the students are home between semesters. More than 200 peace officers will attend the second annual peace officers training school to be held here Jan. 28 to Feb. 2. day, Jan. 31, at Hoch auditorium. 10 Years Ago The mid-week dance held last night in the Kansas room of the Union was called a "success" today by Newell Jenkins, chairman of the Student Union Activities commission. Grades will not be available at the registrar's office for at least two weeks, Laurence C. Woodruff, registrar announced today. The Magic Lantern, by Robert Carson. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 504 pages. Magic Lantern Emits More Historical Than Literary Light One of the most human, fascinating, and compassionate movies about Hollywood was "A Star Is Born," which starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in 1937. Its scenarist was Robert Carson. He won an Academy award for his script. Carson's new venture is a long, unfailingly interesting, but not very perceptive novel about Hollywood, "The Magic Lantern." His central character is a film tycoon of the early days of the motion picture industry, when movies were shown at corner nickeldeons and the stars were Flora Finch and John Bunny, and later William S. Hart and Mary Pickford. The tycoon is one Franklin Pierce Silversmith, and whether he is meant to represent someone like Sam Goldwyn is unknown. (Carson's "A Star Is Born" was made, by the way, by David O. Selznick, if that helps any book sleuths who happen to be about.) Silversmith's son, Ellis, tells the story, which is about himself as well as his father, Ellis, after being buffeted about the country by his unthinking parent, joins forces with the brothers in Los Angeles of about 1912, and the two become, respectively, the movie industry's king and its crown prince Maybe Carson's answer though, would be that both Silversmith and his son were near-lilliterate with a spark of imagination and a great ven for the green stuff, and that they need know nothing about grammar. Chronologically, too, "The Magic Lantern" is about as concerned with dates and facts as is a Hollywood movie about Chopin, Cole Porter, or Blossom Seeley. But this seems needless carpeting, for the story does sweep the reader along. And all the while, it seems perfectly obvious that the book will win no Pulitzer prizes, though it There is a wealth of detal about movie-making, but the story itself is frequently pedestrian. In his Book-of-the-Month club blurb, John P. Marquand compares "The Magic Lantern" to the best of Dreiser. One also might compare it to the worst, for, like Dreiser, Robert Carson is not too concerned with such little things as grammar and understandable sentence construction. may do well on the best seller lists. It's now right around 16th on the New York Times weekly guide. "The Magic Lantern" looks at film developments from early in the century until late in the 1920s, from the hastily thrown-together studios on Long Island to the palaces of Hollywood and Culver City, from the versatile folks who could act, direct, paint scenery, or do stunts in "The Adventures of Alice" to the painted dolls who rode about in Rolls Royces and picked up a husband a year. But few of those real people are in the book. There are passing references to D. W. Griffith and to his "Birth of a Nation," maybe just enough references to keep the reader from thinking he is reading about Griffith. Mary Pickord is mentioned, but probably because Teddy Marvel, one of the film queens in the story, sounds a lot like America's Sweetheart. There is a loud, gushy, illiterate newspaper lady whose name is Sadie Manshipp and who sounds a lot like Our Louella. (At one time she wrote in her column that the Silversmiths were heading for the jungle preparatory to making "Tarzan the Ape.") And from the sound of the book, the man most responsible for setting up Hollywood's self-protecting Production Code was none other than Frank Silversmith. At any rate, "The Magic Lantern" will provide good reading for any who are in the least interested in the movies. And that bit of praise points out one other reason why the book won't be on anyone's list of great literature, because it's good for those who like the movies, and for those only. The plot has nothing else to say, the characters are movie types only, and quite frequently are just sticks, who move at the bidding of Robert Carson. But read it, or try it. It should come in handy, say, the week of Jan. 22-29—Calder M. Pickett. House Old Timers Could Take Power From Senate The Republicans take over next week led by a president who is a political freshman. The Eisenhower cabinet is mostly new to politics. The Republicans in top control of the Senate are so new here that any well established news reporter can remember when each of the first came to town. Sen. Styles Bridges of New Hampshire is the senior Republican senator. He took office in 1937. Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio has been a senator since 1939. That's the way it goes. No Republican senator now in office ever served under a Republican president. On Martin's veteran team are such men as ways and means chairman Daniel A. Reed of New York, in the Chairman John Taber, Chairman John Taber, New York; 1923; Agriculture Chairman Clifford Hope, Kansas, 1927. But when the chips are down in the legislative contests to come, keep an eye, also, on Speaker Joseph W. Martin Jr. Martin is a smallish, black-haired, smiling, rumpled man. Perhaps this lack of experience explains the senators' trouble in making patronage arrangements with the President-elect. They never got any patronage before, and Eisenhower never gave any. The office of speaker is heavy with power. Martin, supported by his veteran team, is prepared to use it to insist that both the President and the Senate meet the House at least half way.-United Press. The Republican party's veterans are in the House and they know the Bv JERRY RENNER How can any judge believe for persons can live on $60 a month How can any court fail to the outcome of this decree? Mother will have to go to go Someone else, who can never g the children the same love understanding, will take them. When they get older, they be left at home alone. And all they may easily get into trouble Recently in a nearby city, a jut in divorce court decreed that mother and three children, ages 4 and 1, should receive $15 a we from the defendant father who we earning $75 a week in a defer plant. Richard Cooks, Al Capones, a John Dillingers came from this type of underprivileged environment. True, some men have been able to above this handicap but we about the tens of thousands we have never been able to? At the same time, this father I $60 a week to spend on only his self. Perhaps the man is no good Perhaps he does neglect his fam. But his crime is less than judge's because the judge is supposed to have the intellect to woe out problems which the laym can't. The judge is guilty of a far great crime for he has, through ignorance, deprived three innocents any reasonable chance for a decee future. In a broken home which financially inadequate to supply the children through school or give them the normal things life the average child needs, the young adolescents will appear before the judge in 10 or 15 years as criminals. And this same judge will say the usual trite, absolutely incompressible attitude of the co-der don't know what this younger generation is coming to." This is a plea for judges who can see beyond a law book, for judge who will establish domestic relation courts, who have some knowledge of what causes juvenile delinquency who will work with social workers and psychologists (and when necessary psychiatrists), who realize the value of constructive, future-building decrees and that a divorce ca in which children are involved requires as much finesse, skill an technical knowledge in handling does the delicate operation of surgeon. 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