TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18,196Z
TWO UE MCHIAN DILYTUESAYSEPTMBE 18,198
Moon"
olitical Cartoonist Bill Mauldin Goes to Capitol
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Recently, when
Daily cartoonist Bill Mauldin took a
vacation, his home paper, the Chi-
cago Sun-Times, notified syndicate
members that he was in Washngton.
Here, to prove it, is Mauldin's eye-
witness account, complete with the
inevitable Mauldin art work.)
By BILL MAULDIN
Masters of the Horn-rimmed Spectacle Doff'
PICTURES CONVERGE:
Doe, Felheim Compare
Ameriean,
By JUDITH BLEIER
Associate City Editor
Although it is fashionable to
tout the virtues of foreign films,
it is becoming more and more
difficult to distinguish between
American motion pictures and
those made abroad, two Univer-
sity faculty members agreed re-
cently.
This merging has, in part, been
fostered by the film industry it-
self, Andrew Doe of the speech de-
partment explained. "American
producers are putting increasingly
larger amounts of money into for-
eign films every year."
At the same time, more and
more foreign actors are being giv-
en large roles in American-made
productions, Prof. Marvin Felheim
of the English department de-
partment declared. "And we, in
turn, are sending some of our best
actors to Europe."
Art Form
"The motion picture is the most
representative 20th century art
form," he declared, " and if we
look at the character of art today,
we can see that an accepted inter-
national style has developed."
This international m e r g e r,
which has been achieved by the
finest foreign and American films,
may have an important influence
upon world relations, Felheim said.
"The movies are the one place
in which we are truly one world,
and art is usually in advance of
politics, economics and social re-
lations."
True Popularity
Both Felheim and Doe tended
to doubt that foreign films have
become truly popular in America.
"There is a critical tendency to ap-
preciate foreign films' more than
American motion pictures, but is
this popularity?" Doe asked.
Proportionately, we probably
have no more foreign films today
than we've had in the past, but
their audience is still highly con-
centrated.
Comparing foreign and Ameri-
can movies, Felheim doubted
whether the average film made
abroad is actually better than the
average film produced in the
United States. "It is true that we
oreign Films
get finer foreign films than most
of our domestic ones, but we re-
ceive only the cream of the crop,"
he said.
Poor American movies are often
put on the same bill as the finest
foreign films, he noted. The ludi-
crous combination of a marvelous
Academy Award winning Yugo-
slavian short and our worst
"Woody Woodpecker," both of
which played at a local theatre
recently, "cannot help but give
the impression that foreign films
outrank American productions."
Equally False
The notion that E u r o p e a n
movies tend to be more realistic
than American pictures may be
equally false, he asserted. "Al-
though, for example, foreign film
writers probably would not have
stuck a compromise ending onto
"Breakfast at Tiffany's", there are
plenty of European films which
are just as unrealistic as those
made in the United States.
"I wish more attention were
paid here to our own 'avant-garde'
films," Doe said. "While our owli
experiments are appreciated in
other parts of the world, one can
hardly find them in the United
States."
But Americans may be begin-
ning to think a little more, Doe
conceded. "The European film
tends to make one feel as if he's
thinking - even if he really isn't."
Publisher Sets
Writing Award
The Encyclopaedia Britannica
Press has established an annual
award of $10,000 for the best man-
uscript submitted for publication
which makes the "most significant
contribution to the advancement
of knowledge."
The first award will be in 1964.
To qualify for the award in any
one year manuscripts must be re-
ceived before August 1 of the year
preceding the announcement of
the award. The winning, non-fic-
tion manuscript will be published
in book form by the Encyclopaedia
Britannica Press.
WASHINGTON-In the politi-
cal cartooning game, we depend
pretty much upon photos for ref-
erence when drawing public fig-
ures
We keep pictures of often-used
dignitaries, such as JFK or
Khrushchev, in untidy little piles
in our desk drawers; for lesser-
known folk we go to our newspa-
per library, euphemistically called
the "morgue."
The system works, but has its
faults. After struggling over thou-
sands of drawings and millions of
photos, sooner or later we begin
thinking of our subjects not as
politicians, but as two-dimension-
al, paper figures.
Paper Figures
There is no denying that in real
life some of them are two-dimen-
sional, paper figures. But most
people have all sorts of special
characteristics which don't show
in photos: mannerisms, postures,
ways of talking. i
A real caricature is more than
an exaggeration of some feature
like a big nose or a squinty eye-
it should portray the whole per-
sonality. And it has long been my
conviction that cartoonists should
sally forth from time to time, pref-
erably at the publisher's expense,
and study their victims in their.
natural habitat.
Thus, I found myself in Wash-
ington the other day, trudging up
Capitol Hill under a blazing Au-
gust sun to see "The Ev and Char-
lie Show," a weekly press confer-
ence in *which the Republican Par-
ty expresses itself through Sen.
Everett M. Dirksen (R-Ili) and
Rep. Charles Halleck (R-Ind). I
had heard these werethe two most
caricaturable men men in town.
Versatile Actors
it was true. Dirksen and Hal-
leck played the role of "loyal op-
position" with gusto, an exquisite
sense of comic timing, an emo-
tional scope which ranged all the
way from lugubrious to owlish, and
flashing wit. I recall two notable
examples: an administration pub-
lic works proposal was a "slush
fund," and negotiations on nu-
clear test controls were "conces-
sions."
I was too busy with my sketch-
book to hear everything, but I had
the distinct impression that the
administration would have to get
up awfully early in the morning
to put anything over on these fel-
lows.
I noted that "Ev and Charlie"
are masters of the "Horn-rimmed
Spectacle Doff," a device for add-
ing pomp to a weightless state-
ment. The expert doffer, as he
speaks, slowly removes his glasses,
lowering them to half -mast, and
holds there, peering intently at the
listener. If the listener speaks, the
doffer snaps the glasses back on.
Interpretation: "I am a scholar,
which is why I own glasses. I have
been studying our subject, so I
am wearing them. I am removing
them as I communicate with you
so nothing will stand between us.
Also, my eyes are blurry from all
tthat study. I am putting them on
as you speak so I can listen with
all my senses."
Ev and Charlie doff beautifully
together: as one pair goes up the
other snaps down, producing, in
profile, a pumping effect, like two
Quartermaster sergeants parading
out of step. This is the sort of stuff
you just won't find in photos in
the morgue.
I had lunch with Pierre Salin-
ger. (The Kennedy administration
wants cartoonists to know that
JFK has got a sense of humor.)
In the restaurant you could tell
right away which people were
tourists and which were Washing-
tonians. The tourists gawked out-
right at Pierre; the local types
looked the other way, but you
could see their ear muscles strain-
ing and quivering, like little pink
radar sets. I'll bet we could have
launched a hot rumor over the
soup and it would have circled the
city twice and got back in time
for dessert.
Salinger asked me if I'd like a
visit with the President.hProfes-
sionally speaking, I could have ob-
served JFK in the flesh just as
well at a regular press conference.
But that wouldn't be nearly so
much fun, and besides, it's up to
the President not to see people,
not up to people not to see him.
In Pops the President
So, at 4 p.m. I reported to
Pierre's office. He told me to wait
in the" Cabinet Room. I tried out
some of the chairs around the big,
boat-shaped table (in the South
they'd say I was walking in tall
cotton), inspected some ship mod-
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els, and was staring out the French
doors at the garden when the Pres-
ident popped in.
Physically, he's a lot skinnier
than I used to draw him. Those
jowls fool you. (I made a mental
note: "Narrow from Adam's apple
down.") He has a warm smile
and a cool eye. (Add mental note:
"If Pierre offers to fix you up
with a presidential poker game,
decline.") He has had a rough
summer, and when I said I was
pleased to meet him, he actually
looked as if the words meant a lot
to him.
We exchanged some small talk
about newspapers, a subject he
seems to enjoy. I remembered
hearing somewhere that he was a
frustrated journalist. He needn't
be. Most papers will take on men
with political savvy at the age of
52. His chances would be even bet-
ter at 48. I didn't want to take up
more of his time telling him all
this, so I left the message with
Pierre on the way out.
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He stirs up little pink radar sets
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Those jowls fool you
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