The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-12
By JAMES THRAsHER .NEA Stan Correspondent

By JAMES THRAsHER
 NEA staR Correspondent
 The newsreel theater manager beamed as he laid aside the flnotn- ing papers and took . sip Of his second cup of coffee.
 To-day is the washington preIn- iere of Mrs. Roosevelt's trip to the South Pacific, and the press agents have timed their releases perfectly" |" he told his admiring family. "One paper has a statement by Q Repub- lican representative who demands Q congressional investigation. He says that Mrs. Roosevelt tells a story during the film that classes Japs and Republicans as common enern- les. What a build-up. Terrificl
 And the other paper has done even better" he continude enthusi- astically. "They sent clear to Aus tralia for a picture of Mrs. Roose- welt in a grass skirt, and used 1t as a three-columr1 cut on page three without me so much as asking them, mind you. That's better than they ever did for Dorothy Lamour in sarong."
 The new sign was already up when he got to the theater. The manager gazed at 1t proudly: THE MISSES TELLS FDR'S FAVORITE STORY"
 Other people were looking at it, too. By noon there was Q pretty good crowd inside, as noon, crowds go-more than the accustomed au- dience of shoppers with their shoes slipped of, out-of-town business men killing time between appoint ments, soldiers with nothing much to do. Also there was one news paperman who had bravely put down the 30 cents admission on his expense account, as a legitimate dis bursement in the interest of journal ism.
 CHOICE SPOT
 The manager, a veteran show. man, had placed Mrs. Roosevelt's news-reel in the choice next to : closing spot on the bill. That which went before was calmly designed to increase ones impatience for the feature attractive, and to make that attraction look doubly good by comparison.
 There was not one, but two tech- nicolor travelogues, in which the narrator bade farewell, too reluct- antly and too late, to beautiful Mex leo and Australia, respectively. Sandwiched between them was Q sports feature, with the announcer outdoing himself in the matter of atrocious puns and corny, rhyming descriptive adjectives.
 Then came the newsreel. The anecodte that rocked the Republican congressman back on his heels was the smash climax, coming after some scenes in a hospital and a serious message from the First Lady.
 Maybe you know the joke already. There is a feeling in some hyper critical circles that if you don't, you aren't missing much. Anyway, 1t has something to do with Q marine in the Pacific area who shouts across at a Jap, ITO hell with Hirohito." The Jap yells back. ITO hell with Roosevelt" The marine lays down his gun and says T just can't shoot fellow Republican" It's supposed to be the Presidents favorite joke as advertised.
 Mrs. Roosevelt told the story with professional polish. She faced her Guadalcanal audience and grasped the micrnphone with the smiling composure of @ Bob Hope. And she spun out the narrative as confident ly as that king of long-winded ra- contours, Lou Holtz.
 PROFESSIONAL POSE
 She didn't even get rattled when her appreciative audience jumped the gun and howled at the ITO hell with Roosevelt line. She smiled and nodded, waited for just the right moment, then gave them the finish.
 No. Mrs. Roosevelt wasn't rattled, but the rlewreel people were. What with all the laughter on the sound IdCAp tk1Sy WeGS SO d49hAU t1ldV theater audiences would miss the gag line that they printed 1t on the bottom of the film.
 Well, that's cautious Hollywood for you. And maybe Hollywood is lin- consciously cautious in this case be- cause of its persistent memory of all the trouble that even a discreet oath can cause on the screen.
 The first profanity to assail the ears of impressioanble moviegoers was Clark Gables damn" in Gone With the Wind" And, if memory serves, Producer David O. Seiznick had to fly several times across the continent and approach the Hays organization in sackcloth slacks and hair shirt before even that was permitted.
 And now here's Mrs. Roosevelt blithely uttering a couple of cuss words-and what happens Why, nothing. Well, nothing but one threatened congressional investiga-