The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1940-10-04
WHO'S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL r. PARTON


you amt seen no trouble yit. I'm
de man wat can show yer trouble"
The Perfect FooP And that goes
Once Again IL and adds to
Pooling the Jinx the public zest
it for his new revue, Boys and Girls
Together" at its Boston tryout His
revue sounded extemporaneous, like
everything else he does, and seemed
to make people feel that even these
dire days will end when an old mas
ter, who though he was licked, can
thus improvise knockout.
Set upon by a blizzard Of trou-
bles, financial and domestic, two
years ago, Brer Fox Wynn re-
tired to his Park avenue cave
to sit around in his pajamas and
bite his nails. Then something
touched on giggle or two and
he began trying on funny hats,
and working up few gags. He
began to feel better, and along
came George Wood and Pat C.
Flick with q bankroll.
That recent mess of trouble was
Mr.. Wynn's twenty-seventh upset, in
the light Of which his comeback is
not SO surprising. His radio chain
was as fragile as a Vassar daisy
chain and took $500, 900 of his money.
A delayed income tax time bomb
blew up similar amount. Harassed
by lawsuits and whatnot he found
his wellspring of gags had dried up.
he shopped around for new and used
gags, but found none in stock. II
was his own inner resources which
finally reclaimed and reissued the
waggish Mr.. Wynn.
Funny hats have figured in his
karma from the first. His ia
Their, q milliner, came from
CzechO-Slovakia and his mother
from Turkey. In the millinery
shop, he handed himself many
laugh, trying on hats. When
he was 16, his father said it was
time for him to take up the mill
Hnery trade, but he had other
IDEAS. He tied . shirt and q
Sunday suit into Dick whit
dngt0n bundle and made his
way to Norwich, Conn.
He talked his way into q rousta-
bout job with transforming COM
pany, presently got a small part,
and burlesqued it just enough to re-
veal his genius for Comedy Twelve
years Of transforming and vaude-
vile followed. His recurring trou-
bles have been such that interview
ers or critics usually stress the
Pagliacci note when writing about
him, but it's rollicking, sympathetic
laughter which greets his happy
comeback.
w INSToN CHURCHILL stirs
w wide interest and approval
with his demand for simple and pre-
else language, official and unofficial
More and More in the inteTes
People Taking Up fectivene SIS
Word Gunnery ms own re
dresses have been models of clarit,
and force. He has risen nobly {,
the demands of the hour. All tn,
more credit to him in view of hi
previous lapses. This department
has dredged up an old speech o
MIR. ChurchilIs in which he scolde,
certain offenders for "terminologi
cal inexactitude," and deplored tn
public trend toward ornate Ian
guage.
Perhaps under the pressures
and urgencies Of the times pre-
eisionists are coming forward in
the entire field Of cOmmunica-
tons as they are In machine
tOoling. War casualties among
pedants and mystagOgues may
be heavy. Over here, Charles
A. Collin takes a long overdue
swipe at the mystic word maze
OF life insurance policies, as he
addresses the Insurance Adver-
Using conference in Atlantic
City. This writer has been
thrown for a loss every time he
tried to read an insurance policy
and has had to take them en-
tirely on faith.
Also in tune with the times i
Judge Pecora's deep pondering an
long-studied decision in that cues
ton mark or period case. Sixtee
entrants in civil service examine
ton we're sustained against thei
examiners when they picked tn
question mark as the proper endin
for a certain sentence.
Just getting under way before tn
war started there was in Englan
a society for general word renovs
ton and fumigation and the further
snce Of good diction. In these er
deavors, Mr.. Churchill now gets
putout, but something more than a
assist should go to the mischievou
and ironic A. P. Herbert, the pal
hamentary gag man who was ia
ahead Of Mr.. Churchill In blastin
at over-elegant word setups. Ha
Irish, the author Of about 20 novel,
and 9 half-dozen plays, he hs
pinked much revered, but prefer
tiOus usage.