5 Feb

Dear Princess Jane

Thanks for a good lunch ( I don't imagine you knew that I was aware it was a good lunch ) and apologies for having talked shop with Toeplitz EENI 40 to the dozen. He is most simpatico and a great surprise

BUT he is the ONLY live animal in that barrel of wilted codfish, the Cinew .... apart from the technical Johnnie whom I saw in their patent reaper and b binder roadster.

I don't know how serious he was in saying he wanted my opinion of the Accaio steel film. Ruttmann is a serious character, but whether he has the energy necessary I don't know.

He knows the film isn't finished and it is unjust to criticize a man when he is only part way through a job. I couldn't make out whether he knew what he had done EENI triumphantly, or whether it was accident.

Before he and T. send out the film they ought BOTH to study the Shanghai Express, ought to see it five or six times.

I mean that's the best help I can give in a few words. If the noble Ludovico really

showed he was serious by offering Man
if the lordly Ludovico offered him his car
his car fare.

The invitation to have any effect wd. I think
have to inquire ( saying I had suggested it ; or not
saying I had suggested it, as L.T. thinks best )
to inquire whether Man wd. be disposed to do shots
ON HIS OWN on given subjects, or rather OBJECTS,
UNLESS ALL Cines providing the film, with the
Cines
intention of interpolating these shots in films .

HOW SE mi spiego ? Man to do the photography and Cines
to use it without bothering Man about fitting it
to fancy ladies and dramatic sittywayshums.

L.T. cd. also ask whether the films Man has already taken
cd. have a colonna sonoro added.

The one that I say certainly wd. make a marketable short
if it had some really good music added. It cd. be
simply harpsichord, or sting quartet. No great outlay for
the execution of the music PROVIDED it was good enough
for realy musicians to listen to.

4

but I've got ten other things on my head, and by
including it here it at least gets done promptly.

On further consideration, I think there is something in yr/ idea about Ranieri being useful. I mean his _AUTHORITATIVE AND PATRIOTIC_ manner _MIGHT_ be used to keep the counterjumpers in order, provided I told R. WHAT he ought to insist on their doing.

I don't think he knows enough or thinks he knows enough about actually shooting the films, to supervise and super criticize the work.

I saw a Cines FIP last evening here. IF they don't take VIOLENT measures QUICK, and get in young blood still quicker, they iz jes' nacherly agwin' ter lie down an' DIE.

onaggio and affections

6 vi a dei Tre Orologi.
6.5.1941.XIX. ROMA.

Dear Ezra

Don't you go thinking that your letters are not a
help because they are the best things we've got up to this time
as far as ideas are concerned. Ungaro passes them on to me and
i've been an assiduous reader of them; not only because the
amount of material is enormous in them but because I am suff
that we need just that kind of stuff to put over the air.

We are always working as if we were on the brink of a precipice
because materila is sadly lacking and we go to the transmissions
with seconds to go and nary a thing to say. I've been trying vainly
and hardilly to get you back into the fold, but for the moment
there seems to be a hitch somewhere which is stumping all of us.

We'll get it in the end, because ther does not seem to be any
plausible reason for the whole thing.

I keep on writing Note Politiche every day for the North
American transmissions and for Australia, but I must say, that it
gets harder and harder to find material to speak about. I don't
know a darned thing about Australia and yet, every mornong I do
my little piece about the fellows down under.

I wish you would write me something re the Vatican getting
into a fight with the U.S. because I've heard that this is the latest
faux pas of F.D.R. it seems that he has taken it in for the bishops
because they would not uphold the regime. I wonder if you have heard
a few of mine own elucubrations about Delano's bon mots ? Fair
tore his hide off in one of them !

Daddy won't you please come home because we need you more and
more. But have patience and I hope to be able to give you the good
tidings very soon.

Don't smash too many tennis rackets and let me know how you are
We remain, Sir, your most obedient servant

Correspondent of the JAPAN TIMES

WARNING

ACHTUNG : This note has a practical aim.

Dear Hanier 1

The Stempel WAS best paper in Italy or second only to
Corry/hairy of the Sera. It has dropped. In Oct. 1939 there were so
papers printing what I think. Now there are more, plus I see/ think
shortly the Testo del Carlino. Reasoni said to me that itwd/ be
useless to talk econ/ to journalists, but if any had sense to kn
what I was talking about, it wd. be Signoretti. That was four years ago
y articles in the erudito di Roma are being read.

///

Secondly Japan is making turbines, etc. and has done some snappy
on railway construction, but does NOT seen to be making
automobiles. Manchuria has a fewer, and Finland is in a key economic
area.

It is time we was on the board of SO String. Doubt
if Chase Bank has mental resilience necessary to save itself from
doing a Lee/Tigginson.

I have heard that cars with high axles have been
used in exploring round country, that don't quite need caterpillars
//

warsal, I conversed with orientals now and then, and SO FORTH.
Have indeed several ideas that no use in writing until one
gets to the POINT of being where it might lead to something, even g
a idea that I have never seen used in a ortymazole, may be nuts
or may not.

and so forth/

deep respects to yr/ consort.

6 Via dei Tre Orologi.

22.5.1941.XIX

Dear Ezra,

I include a letter which I had written by someone in the office of Generale Bodrero, my father in law, from which you will gather that the companies most interested in the Red Sea at the moment are the ones marked on the letter.

These Companies, seem to me to be the ones which sell fuel oil to the ships passing through the Red Sea, but does not necessarily mean that they are the ones which are the owners of the cargoes which have been sent by the U.S. into the Red Sea to transport goods to the British.

As for the Map of the Oil Refineries and wells which was sent to me, anybody has access to it because you can see for yourself that it has been published in the Relazioni Internazionali, a weekly which can be purchased by all, but read by very few.

I'm really sorry not to have seen you these days but force majeure, and all that, have made it impossible. I'll be back in the office by the 10th of June, and I'm sure you will be coming down here quite often to make your records in any case any idea which you may have, and which you think could be used profitably, is like Manna from Heaven.

Give my best to the Missus and

Tanti saluti

6 Via dei Tre Ororlogi.
R O M A.

26.5.1941.XIX.

Dear Ezra

I don't know if I have got your idea about old Col. Blimp correctly. You will be able to see from this short blurb on the subject if this is the kind of stuff which he would say, or not.

Try and give me an idea on the subject and I can turn out reams of tripe like this. Should he be more serious, and should he be more "à la page" about fighting conditions ? Is he a complete fool, or does he know something about anything ?

Where was he caught, and where is he at the moment ?
The turkish front does not seem to be a very good place
to have taken him prisoner, because the Italians were never
there. The Lybian front would be more like it !

His brother who writes in the Times, might send
him now and then, some news from home, and some badly
needed cigars etc;..etc...

Let me know all these things and I will then be able
to get some more stuff done on this very entertaining
subject whilst I am degenerating in the country.

Love

P.S. Please correct this blurb!

6 Via dei Tre Orologi.
R O M A.

11.6.1941.XIX.

Dear Ez

I accuse receipt of your last letters and can assure
you that all your stuff is very highly looked upon by
all and sundry.

I have explained to Andreani that your Disc (horses)
have got to be given in sequence, or they will lose a lot
of their merit. He seemed to understand, and I am sure
that he will look to it that they are put over the air
at the right time, and in their right order.

Anything else that you may write, is always most
welcome, because there is a definite dearth of material.
I am trying to fill in with some of my own stuff, but it
aint the same. I'm an amateur, and your the pro.

Your records go on the air in the small hours of the
morning for the U.S. but I will let you know if any of them
happen to be given at any cristian time so you can listen
to them without giving up a lot of sleep.

Am coming your way one of these days, and will let
you know, so we can have a Pow-wow. Incidentally didn't
you think that the Duce's refferences to Delano where
pretty good ?

Here's to seeing you soon

Salutoni

6 Via dei Tre Orologi.

R O M A.

27.7.1941.XIX.

Dear Ez

For the love of Morgenthau, I wish you would clean
the type on your bloody rattler. The m's, o's, e's, p's,
t's, q's and every other letter look very much like
horses turds and as I have got to read your elucubrations
on the radio, I have had to use my imagination much to
the detriment of the sense and the contents. You have
probably sent me to Hades and Hell if you have ever herd
me dubb for you. It's grim !

But things are looking up, and I am now at the head
of the American Office in the place of Andreani, who at
the moment has got to play second harp.

Your's about " Nomad Capital " is a good one and
I am going to use it a lot. Ungaro is knuts about dear old
Ez, the same as your's truly, so come on and give us some
more stuff all the time, and allthe time !

Now that the U.S. is trying to pretend that she
_wants_ to attack Japan, how about pointing out that the
embargo, or embargos, against the Nips is an old story
and stinketh ? When I was in California last, I heard
nothing but all the time. Cacavit mons ..... and gave
birth to a mouse ! But you probably have better ideas,
so go to it and let us have some more !

I know I'm asking a lot from you, but there is nothing
like hitting the iron while it's cold, because methinks
the U.S. Army is not yet, as we might say, ready or
will be for some time. Hence the prevarication.

Will be here now sitting for some time to come, so
I will let you know when the records are finished and
hope that at that time you will be able to come down
here again to give us a hand.

Salute

6 Three Clock Road
R O M E.

30.7.1941.XIX.

Dear Ez

Your letters are what I need to keap me going. Am
in the trouble of rearranging the office, and a hell of
a job it is turning out to be. I can't let you know about
your records, as yet, because Andreani seems to have been
Coo-coo for some time and has not keapt track of them.
Will let you know about them, and the flow, in two or three
days.

The sub Secretary told me that you are going to
write a few "Bons Mots" on American Chews; good for you,
that is the kind of stuff that we need more than any other
thing. I am putting over the air all the pearles that you
have dropped us, and which Andreani never used, in small
doses, cause I think that those are the things that we
can use more than any other thing.

Got yours of the 28th Lug, and am pleased if I could
put you over with a semblance of clearness and sense, you're
hard to read at any time, let alone at all times. The time
is getting nearer when you'll have to do it yourself! Don't
talk to me about work, I didn't know what it meant before !
But you're getting nearer every day to having a permanent,
not hair, JOB.

Emphasis slight with CAPITALS, stronger with exclamation,
strong by *underlining* ! Is that according to your lights ??
Tell me how you would like me to put the emphasis *on*, and
then I will be able to convey your ideas a little bit better.

Will write you more coherently next time

Bless you !