Evening star., 1938-04-24
Manhattan Mirror
king.Coit School Play Again
Is Thrill of Spring Season.
Circus is in Town.

WILL
chalked to a nine and have coro-
nation feathers bobbing on their
foreheads.
Also, the circus has been stream
lined. This, we discovered, means
cutting down the performances to
one or two rings instead of five.
No more frantic trying to see
everything at once and having the
children ask questions about all
five rings simultaneously.
Gargantua the Great, the 7-year-
old gorilla, this years featured at
traction, is as terrifying and re-
pulsive as the publicity boys In
the circus have planned. He lives
in a glass-inclosed. conditioned
cage, at temperature of "A de-
grees Fahrenheit This little job
cost $4,000 to build. 1t is trundled
on in the middle of the show,
pulled by six white horses, accom-
panied by men dressed in what we
suppose are Safari clothes, carry
ing guns. This is done to the ac-
compartment of the orchestra
beating out tom-tom music and
Frank Buck giving a grim picture
OF gorilla life in the Belgian Congo.
Gargantua eats $40 worth Of
fruit, raisin bread and vegetables a
day. He is moved from his bed
room to his living room by means
OF black snake. which is the only
thing he seems to be afraid of. He
has attacked a cameraman, John
Ringing North, and his trainer,
and Is reported to have thrown q
can Of beans at Haywood Broun
and turned his back on Mrs. VIM
cent Astor.
AS corollary to the circus. the
Museum OF the City of New York
and the Grolier Club are giving a
combined exhibition. at the mu-
scum. 1t is called From Noah's
Ark to New York" and it contains
posters and Currier and Ives prints
and reproductions and information
on every circus thing from the lith-
ograph of the pre- Civil War fat boy,
the Infant Lambert who weighed
257 pounds when he was 7, to Gen.
Tom Thumbs carriage. which was
presented to him by Queen Victoria
in 1854.
The posters are fine, lurid pic
lures Of Indian massacres and Buf-
falo Bill and full Of robust vocab-
ulary which makes the present.
day publicity for the "Gretaest
Show on Earth seem a wash Of
understatements. We were partic-
ularly taken with this description
Of gentleman named Starr who
lived in the l850s and was pictured
riding bicycle down a gently
sloplng ladder. Here is the
build-up:
"Starr-the shoting star In his
daredevil dash down the ladder of
fame, The intrepid Starr flashes
meteor-llke from the very apex
Of the lofty dome of the canvas
down triple extension fire ladder
to the ground. seated on an ordinary
, bicycle, sheer and sudden descent
Of 70 feet on cycle path OF wide
apart rungs.'
nOWN at the Grand Central
Palace the First International
Photographic Exhibition is being
held and the camera maniacs are
gathering from all points on the
Northeastern seaboard. Trains are
being run daily from Washington,
Chicago, New Haven, Pittsburgh
and Boston. Today, 500 members
OF the Philadelphia camera clubs
are attending the show.
There are hundreds Of exhibits
OF cameras and lenses and televi-
sion machines and most elaborate
program is being carried on daily
in the lecture hall. Discourses on
color photographs and motion pic
lures in surgery, portraits in the
home, etc, 60 on every hour from
noon, when the show opens, until
at night. The high point so far
has been stage show for candid
camera fans. Ten handsome models
climbed up on the stage and
pirouetted while cameras clicked
like hailstorm 1t is estimated at
the exhibition that over two-thirds
OF the $4,000 people who have paid
for admission carry cameras with
them. A reporter from the Mirror
who went, innocently enough, to
study the 5000 photographs on dis
play, saw six different people TAX
ing his picture and doesn't know
how many people caught him un-
awares!
A FRIEND Of ours, Mrs. Walter
Herrick, mother Of the seasons
lovellest debutante, Aileen Herrick,
who expects to accompany her
daughter to Hollywood for screen
tests. told us the other day some of
the trials of bringing out a beauty.
A short while ago Aileen received
a threatening letter, so unpleasant
In tone that her father decided
that she must have a detective ac-
company her while the police were