Evening star., 1937-08-15

mate variety are crowded every
afternoon and evening-there are no
night shows, because Madrid becomes
ghost city after dusk. For thrills
the Madrilenos, who have been shelled
the night before and have watched
air battles in the clouds above them
that morning, attend The Lives of
a Bengal Lancer or James Cagney
IN "G-men." Nothing seems to enter
tain them more than to watch a lot
or actors blazing away at each other
with blank cartridges, and the scene
in Top Hat" where Fred Astaire, In
one of his dances, uses his cane as
machine gun and shoots down a
male chorus, is received rapturouslv
at every showing. You might think
that the Madrilenos went to the films
for escape and would hardly enjoy
pictures that dealt with a topic so
close TO home as, say, an air battle.
Yet The Hawk and the Eagle"
Paramount film of perhaps four wears
ago, which had some pretty grim
scenes OF aerial combat, is great
success here, and a picture showing
an air raid, wherein the actors being
bombed behaved unrealistically, be-
came a local laugh riot, with the
audience calling out ironic advice to
the players on the screen Incidental
ly, 1t is rather curious to note that
several German films and such an
lmperlal1stlc photoplay as Rhodes"
are oelng shown, and that at least two
chlld vaudeville actresses are billed As
The Spanish Shirley Temple"
HERE is so little that is encourag-
ing IN any account of modern war
1are that it is worth returning to that
aforementioned topic of the telephone
building. In tales of the next war and
various narratives advocating Ameri-
can preparedness horrendous accounts
are invariably given to Manhattan
Island being wrecked by bombs and
our magnificent skyscrapers collapsing
ABOUT what are left of our ears when
struck by enemy shells You are led
10 believe that nothing could be so
unsafe as the caverns Of Manhattan
ana that in case of war YOU should
Immediately fee for the countryside
Now the Telefonica is an American
oullt Skyscraper; it has been the out
standing target for enemy shells, can
be bombarded from three sides and as
L nave said, it has been struck souarelv
III times. Certainly it has been Sc
verely damaged. with great holes torn
IN several of its floors and walls and
Its facade damaged in many places,
Yet 1t still stands boldly and essen
TALLY intact, work has never ceased
| within its walls and as yet no one has
been killed in it. Its courageous staff.
who have lived in the building since
the outset of the siege have had
enough time on their hands to figure
that with the amount of damage the
III shells have done, it would take
at least $500 shells to destroy Tele-
fonlca. In case of war move to the
Empire State Building.
TRULY Madrid did seem a ghost city
when Mr. Neville. the reformed
bridge expert. and I arrived at
O'Clock IN the morning, just two weeks
ago. There wasn't a light in the
streets save that made by the head
lights OF our car, and no one seemed
stirring In the city save few assault
guards, armed with rifles, who pa
trolled the sidewalks silently and SLOW
ly. In the moonlight the amount of
Wreckage seemed overemphasized and
MADRID appeared as an ancient, dead
city, deserted by its inha bitants CEN
turies before. There was still some ac-
tlVlty at the press Office. however. and
the bushy haired woman in charge
suggested that We stay at the Florida
Hotel since she knew there were va
can't rooms there and the place was
probably safe, as it had not been
shelled for several days. l am CRATE
full to her for recommending the Flor
ida, since it is the sort Of hotel Robert
E. Sherwood might have thought up
for Spanish version Of Idiots De-
light"
1t certainly is in the line Of fire,
anyway, and when shells whistle over
your head you can't be sure whether
they are being fired by the besiegers
or the defenders. The men who work
at the hotel insist that it is one OF
the safest places imaginable. since
the rebels can shoot at it from only
two sides. Furthermore. they remind
you that it has been hit only 16 times,
while the place next door has been
struck 35 times. No one has yet been
killed in it, although the room occu-
pied by Seton Delmar, the corre-
spondent of the London Express. was
demolished when fortunately he was
absent
The Florida is situated just off the
favorite shelling ground of the enemy,
the Gran Via, and the enemy can
shell you from couple of excellent
vantage points. In fact, there is a
school of thought which holds that
the very existence Of the hotel IS
gesture Of contempt toward the en-
emy. These people sometimes refer
to the hotel as Shell Chateau, al
though those OF us who eat there
regularly prefer to think OF 1t as
Olive Oil Manor.