Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-02-10
Washington
|Soothsoyers'
| Dream City
Swami McNutt's
lotest Edict Puts
Hex on Gypsies
BY J. p. McEVOY.

UeA OF SyPS'eS
BY J. p. McEvOY.
Solemn thoughts come to me
today as I ponder the implica-
tons Of Manpower Director Paul
McNutt's nnouncement-that after
April all mind readers, fortune
tellers. soothsayers. crystal gazers,
tea leaf OWNERS and other seventh
sons Of seventh sons will be listed as
on-deferrable. non essential. ex-
pendable and out OF bounds for the
duration.
Paul didn't say 50, but he prob
ably put hex on all the gypsies.
too-excepting, OF course. Gypsy
Rose Lee, who is already doing her
bit for the air force by demon
strating matinee and evening the
best way to take OF.
And bordering. recall the old
story Of the two mind readers who
met on the street and greeted each
other with. You're all right. How
am II" All. the careless way We
used to laugh at that poignant
scene-but then, We Americans are
a happy-go-lucky lot-and I sup
pose 1t never occurred to US that
the sensitive mind reader must.
suffer in his quiet, accomplishing
way-because he can read every ona
| else's mind but his own.
Remember Old Adage?
To be sure. there were some whoa
suspected the true state Of NfYairs,
remembering the old adage about
the shoemaker's children going bare
footed, and the ancient exhorta.,
ton: Physician. heal thyself."
And those Of US who have lived
IN Hollywood can still see those
signs out on the lawn, Come In and
have your mind read. Fame and
fortune guaranteed. Twenty-Five;
cents-and worth It." Behind each
sign q tumbled-down bungalow,
with the Swami himself sitting on
the rickety porch in his undershirt
looking through the evening paper
for the announcement of the gala
premiere of new super-Drive-in
Loan Co.
Strictly of the record or, as We
say in Washington. lin the lodge
this looks to me like one more sneak
attack on the motion picture in.
dustry. What will the stars do with
out their clairvoyants to advise them
and mold their careers7 Who will
the producers turn to for that
spiritual guidance that has made
them what they are today2
There are stars who have never.
accepted . role in q picture unless
their favorite Swami gave them the
go-ahead. There are producers who
submit every script to their personal
seer or favorite witch and will only
produce those that get an okay
from the other world. Does that,
my little moviegoer, begin to exr
plain something to you about that
great dream city. Hollywood?
The Other Dream City. .
And now. Swami McNutt =
through sheer Jealousy, no doubt
sitting in that other great dream
city, Washington-has moved to put
all OF his rival crystal gazers out Of
business. They are non-essential,
he says. Who told him that? Net
only will the motion picture indus
try crash when you put all those
sunkist seers to work making Lock-.
heed planes or Kaiser ships, but our
| Government itself will be shaken to
its foundations!
For no city in this country mas
more fortunetellers, both, in and
out of ONCE, than Washingtons
Some of our most inspired legisla<
ton was first glimpsed in crystak
balls in back parlors on the Poo
tomac, and those cabalistic ques.,
tionnaires as well as occult direc-
tives now streaming out Of Govern
ment ofices were first written on
states by playful spirits In ghostly
seances, while unseen hands rang
bells and gaily pounded the bureau
Gratis over the heads with trumpets. ),
Distributed BY McNausht Syndicate. Ine.l.