Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05

/
VI foot ball game without some
4 what mixed feelings. I have
never been wholly in sympathy
with the idea of post-season games, and
It doesn't matter that / know I shall
enjoy game after I get to it. The
Tournament of Roses and the game it
self form a magnificent spectacle, of
course, and I, like thousands Of others,
wouldn't want to miss it.
Yet I think the idea Of such a game
Is bad one. I don't believe 1t does
to high pitch of excitement from
September until January - certainly
their studies must suffer, no matter
what their marks may be-and pro-
longed interest in the foot ball season,
artificially heightened as 1t is today,
can't help but disturb the orderly prog
ress of all college work.
I am sure 1t would be much better If
the foot ball season were limited to
or 10 weeks, and I am equally sure
that some method should be found for
making foot ball more Of sport and
less OF a serious business. realize
that II this should happen 1t might
very well do me out of q job-or part
Of my job-but know I'd have just
as much fun watching game between
teams that hadn't been subject to such
high-preSSure training. know, be-
cause I've had a perfectly swell time
watching games that drew only three
or four thousand spectators.
Grand Time in Pasadena.
But I can't deny that I had a grand
time in Pasadena. There's something
electric in the atmosphere that gets
me the minute 1 step off the train,
and as soon as I began to look the
teams over so as to become familiar
with the men and the plans before the
game itself, forgot all my ideas about
the wisdom of 1t. 1t was just the same
this year as it has been before, and If
/ do another Rose Bowl game I'll bet
1t will be the same next year. AS long
as that game Is played confess want
to be there to see It, And anybody
who's been there knows why. It's one
of the country'S greatest annual spec
tacleS
There is one photographer in New
York who doesn't think much Of sing
ers, or probably any one else in radiC,
for that matter. And I don't blame
him. guess 1t was rather mean trick
we all played on him. 1t happened
that A. Atwater Kent wanted a picture
Of the group that was to present his
radio hour December %. Willem van
Hoogstraten, the eminent Dutch con-
ductor, had come all the way from the
Pacific Coast to conduct the first half
of the program, and a fine cast Of sing
ers had been assembled to present
Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" as
the second half. And so all of Us
trouped to the studio to be photo
graphed. For wonder, every one was
on time.
When all had arrived the photogra-
pher asked If every one was there.
YES" replied Fred Patton, the BARI
tone. Everybody but Humperdinck."
"Oh, well, we'll wait a bit" the pho
tographer replied. Fifteen minutes
later he asked, us Humperdinck here
yet2"
BY that time no one. not even Van
Hoogstraten, whose time in New York
was limited, wanted to spoil the fun,
and some one gravely informed the
cameraman that Humperdinck was still
absent. In another Is minutes the
photographer was in stew, and finally
he called a New York representative OF
Mr. Kent on the telephone.
II have another appointment and I
can't wait any longer for Humperdinck.
Shall I take the rest of them, or do
you want to postpone the picture?" he
asked. Listen" said the man at the
other end of the wire, IF you want t1
take Humperdinck you'll have to dig
MIN up. He's been dead for years"
Photograph Was Taken.
Well, the photograph was taken, but
| haven't seen the proofs. And can't
help wondering II that negative was re-
touched to give us all crooked noses and
crossed eyes. I couldn't blame the pho
tographer much If he had. Still, it's
something like the old factory trick Of
sending a green man after a left
handed file, or like the trick they have
on shipboard of sending land lubbers
In the crew to the chief engineer for q
bucket of steam.
I don't suppose there is anybody In
broadcasting who can be so engagingly
cantankerous at the most inopportune
times as Phil Cook, who. in his own
person, Is half the funny characters
you have heard on the air in the last
two or three years.
Phil also is the man who causes pro-
gram directors to get purple in the face
trying to tell him things and end by
letting him have his own way. And
every now and then Phil puts one over
on the program directors for which he
really ought TO be fired. But you
| couldn't fire him, at that. When he
does something he hadn't orter" he's
SO naively frank about 1t that not even