Evening star., 1954-10-18


Joy cormody. 'dromo editor Of The Star.
is on vacation. His column will be
resumed tomorrow.
dropped it down an abandoned
mine shaft.
On the other hand, there are
those days when you should be
four places at the same time.
at beast Is minutes ago. In des-
peration, you whip something
through the typewriter and send
it along its way, hoping that
nobody will be paying attention.
The first man you meet after
the presses start to roll has seen
your effort, though. He stops to
shower warm praise on your
graceful literary style, your
trenchant wit, your fastidious
taste and your keen judgment.
CYou agreed with him.
The implication is clear. how
ever. You make sense only when
YOU are not trying hard to make
sense. This, though, does not
change any writer's mind. He
goes right on liking the piece
nobody noticed and hoping that
the one highly praised will be
soon forgotten.
So it is with this writer. who
even now is sitting here basking
in the glow which accompanies
the setting down of the most
satisfactory bit of writing in a
year.
You certainly would overlook
1t if it weren't called to your at
tention and we can't have that.
Somewhere along here-if all
went well, we have passed it al
ready-are three lines Of black
face type, separated from the
remainder of the column by a
pair of corrugated lines.
These advise that Jay Car
mody. regular occupant Of this
space. is on vacation. They
further advise, as of today, that
his column will be resumed to-
morrow. No creation out OF words
In many a moon has provided a
thrill like that which accom-
panied the crossing out of next
week" and the writing in OF
tomorrow"
A fine word is tomorrow. The
one due to follow today will bring
back Mr.. C. and his most ardent
reader is no happier than ! that
this is so. 1t means, for one
thing, that sort of professional
schizophrenia can be cured by
the simple device of letting the
one-track mind take over.
The TV editor can go back to
concentrating on television while
maintaining a defensible point OF
view. This is that TVS potential
is awe-inspiring and that some of
it right now is great, even though
about SO per cent of it is no
brighter than a retarded Siamese
cat.
While sitting at the drama
desk man has to wear another
cloak, or seem to, or try to. Here
1t is proper to regard television
with the deepest suspicion; after
all, it is new and nobody knows
what it may do to the theaters of
the land.
So, it had best be kept in its
place, an upstart among the
theatrical arts. 1t is fashionable
in some circles to keep pointing
out that television lets you look
through the wrong end of a
telescope. To a man constantly
exposed to CinemaScope, 81
inch screen does seem small by
comparison, it is true. But is it
tiny?
X =
It also will be good to get back
to the TV desk, where it is per-
missable to appreciate the su-
periority of live drama to filmed
drama. On the drama desk, un-
der a stack of musty old press
releases. is the tenet that there
is no difference between live and
filmed TV. Both come into your
living room via some device and
are representations of the real
thing, not the real thing itself.
This view was held by the TV
editor back in April and part
of May. 1916, then abandoned
after three or four television
shows were watched. The same
cure is recommended for any
theater types who will feel much
better with the admission that