Evening star., 1954-06-07
NEW YORK.

Dear Ed: AS you menCloneo IN
your kindly column my observa-
tions on the gyrations Of the
decimal point, I send you the full
statement, from which you will
see it is even a worse life in the
national economy:
my sympathy often goes out
for the humble decimal point. He
has a pathetic and hectic life
wandering around among regi-
mented ciphers, trying to find
some Of the old places he used to
know when budgets were bal
anced." Yours faithfully. Herbert
Hoover.
- 80
With Europe's first TV net
work. 46 transmitters- in eight
countries, just completed. it's in
tereSting to note that the last
link joined Switzerland to Italy
and Germany, via beam across
the Alps. Seven huge metal re-
Electors, installed 5000 feet up in
the Jura Range, at Chasseral,
other reflectors 10000 feet up in
the Jungfraujoch and also on
Mount Generosa, above Lake
Lugano, carry the beam across
the Alps in 60-mile stages. First
scene carried along the entire
network was of an auto accident
in Lopik, Holland. reports the
Daily Telegraph. officials in the
Chasseral hut saw one of the vic
Tins, $40 miles away, carried of
in a stretcher while the other
motorist engaged in a heated
argument.
High above Central Park
South, Rene Bouche sits in the
north light of his studio and does
portraits of Harry S. Truman,
Jack Benny, Gloria Stokowski.
Lucille Ball and other celebs of
the day. OF French parentage,
born in Prague, Bouche has been
in this country since 1941. I
asked him to explain the current
rage Of painting by amateurs:
I'm 1880. there was a trend to
amateur poetry" said Bouche.
THAT proved a great literary i'm
petus. In 1910, tens Of thousands
of young women started studying
the piano. The public trend to
painting started with Cezanne
and then came to full flower
when Picasso spurred the cubist
and modern painting develop
ment. 1t is a fine thing, for art,
this great new interest in it and
1t is a fine release for those who
have taken to it. Many of them
had latent talent that was buried
or showed aside in the press of
other ambitions or obligations.
Now it is coming to the surface"
Bouche, a brilliant portrait
painter. likes only to paint those
subjects who have two well-de-
fined sides to them.
"Mr. Truman, on one hand,
basically is a simple, honest man
OF the countryside" he reflected.
If he were only that, he would
not be a good subject for a brush.
But 1t is the other side of him
bright, courageous, Fortnight
that supplies the second facet.
Jack Benny. similarly, is some
thing more than a comedian. He
has an elegance to him that
shines through. It is the same
with all who make interesting
studies for an artist. They must
have two sides, or it is a mono
tone"
I asked Bouche why most of
the Hollywood amateur painters
prefer to draw clowns. Two
reasons" he said. Paint a clown
and you can daub on color as
broadly as you want. It doesn't
take f1neSSe. The other reason
is that performers have a nat
ural Standardization with the
clown"
4 4 X X
Since one of Farouk's hired
thugs, in Venice, kicked a pho
tographer into the canal and
almost drowned him, municipal
counsellors have urged the may
or OF Venice to expel Farouk and
his entourage. Their protest also
went to Rome. John Stein
beck ailing in Madrid. . Cali
fornia Gov. Goodwin Knight
enjoys the company of Betty
L mAU"