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rHE MICHIGAN DAILY

Suinday: Mriv 26.195-7-

Sunday, -May. 26, 1957

THE MICHIGAN DAILY


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Scott

Detroit Area Study:

itzgera id

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WHERE HE DOESN'T BELONG AND WHERE HE I

TALLY SHEETS-Two staff workers of Survey Research Center
transfer answers from Detroit Area Survey questionnaires to tally
sheets used to key punch IBM cards.

By MARGARET MOORE
Daily Staff Writer
A GRADUATE student knocked
repeatedly on the door of a
run-down house in downtown
Detroit.
Finally tiring, he stuck a small
pamphlet in the door and left.
The pamphlet had black lettering
and a drip of red paint across the
cover.
The student was an interviewer
for the Detroit Area Study, a
special research project of the
University Institute for Social
Research. The pamphlet had been
prepared to explain the study and
contained assurances, by various
prominent Detroiters and com-
munity leaders, of the survey's
legitimacy.
When the student returned to
complete the interview, he was met
by two policemen. The owner had
seen the large red question mark
on the pamphlet and believed it,
was Communist literature.
THIS WAS ONLY a rather un-
usual encounter for a group of
25 students working on masters
degrees in sociology, psychology,
economics, political science, or
social psychology last March.
They -ere carrying out a survey
of political participation in the
Detroit area. More often, they are
invited in for dinner or a cup of
tea, and spend several hours chat-
ting about the University. One
student spent four hours discuss-
ing nuclear physics.
However, the booklet of 71 sur-
vey questions and 48 census ques-
tions had beenunder preparation
since last September. After spend-
ing several weeks reading all avail-
able material on past experiments
in this area of political participa-
tion, students evolved a set of
temporary questions.
These questions were tried out
in a pre-test in Detroit, to see if
they evoked the desired informa-
tion, were understood by all re-
spondents, and were not repetitive.
Then a random sample of dwell-
ing units in Detroit was drawn.
Eighty-seven Detroit precincts
were chosen by picking every
twenty-third of 2007 precincts.
THEN, from aerial maps and
other sources, the number of
dwelling units was counted. A
group of city blocks was chosen at



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COALLATOR-Kenneth Ludwig starts a deck of IBM cards in the
coallating machine. This machine tallies the number of cards in
any combination of two sets of columns, each set corresponding to
various answers to one question.

random from these figures. All the
dwelling units in these blocks were
then listed and the ones used in
the sample were again chosen at
random.
A technique for random desig-
nation of a single respondent
within the household, when several
eligible respondents were present,
was also evolved.
Use of this method of sampling
has secured adequate_,representa-
tion with relatively small samples.
Comparison of the census data
obtained in these surveys with
national census figures show a
high correlation.
The study covered two areas:

1317 S. University

NO 8-7942

1 Block West of Campus Theatre

A survey of precinct workers in
Democratic and Republican par-
ties and a survey of 600 adults
in the randomly selected precincts.
In each precinct, the Republican
and Democratic leaders were in-
terviewed shortly after the Novem-
ber elections. Questions concerning
their job, the type of ward, politi-
cal situation and leadership in the
party above them were asked.
BETWEEN semesters, selected
respondents were interviewed
concerning how much interest
they had in the last election cam-
paign, what magazines and news-
papers they read, what they felt
the general platforms of each
party were, how active they and
their community were, in political
campaigns and to what degree
they participated in other organi-
zations,
They were also asked factual
questions regarding political issues
and campaigns. In one interview,
the respondent was asked who
John Feikens (former chairman
of the Republican State Central
Committee) was. He replied, "I

BY DONALD A. YATES
AYEAR AGO almost to the day
a Daily reviewer wrote the fol-
lowing commentary on a Robert
Montgomery Presents television
production of F. Scott Fitzgerald's
novel, The Great Gatsby:
"Scott Fitzgerald's admirable
novel about the bootlegger in love
with the past reached TV sets
Monday nightin the long-awaited
full-hour production offered by
Robert Montgomery. The essence
of the Gatsby story was there, but
absent from the scene was the
romantic touch of author Fitz-
gerald.
"The people and events in West
Egg seemed to have been sifted
through a rather coarse screen of
requirements which allowed the
free-living crowd to perform their
habitual actions while at the
same time it deprived them of the
striking vitality they possessed in
the short, beautifully written novel
of the Twenties.
"As Jay Gatsby, Robert Mont-
gomery translated nicely the ami-
able characteristics of the man
who tried to buy back the past, but
in his performance there was not
the spark of intensity of purpose
or of the personal magnetism
which the mysterious West Egg
party-giver actually possessed.
"TLEE BOWMAN, as Nick Carra-
way, who in the novel is the
narrator, successfully played Nick
as restrained because that, in a
word, is what Nick is. But unlike
the narrator of the novel, he ex-
perienced no personal growth out
of his -association with Gatsby's
tragedy.
"The roles of Tom and Daisy
Buchanan (John Newland and
Phyllis Kirk) were well executed
in the TV play. These two gave a
finely-etched picture of a world to
which Gatsby simply didn't belong
and into which he was scarcely
able to intrude. When they de-
cided at the end to go off together,
we were prepared to accept it
without question as the completely
logical-though tragic--thing for
them to do.
"Wilson, the garage mechanic
(Scott Tennyson), was by quite a
bit closer than the others tc being
his counterpart, the real Wilson
of Fitzgerald's story. Had he not
been so pathetically aware of his
unhappy circumstances, he would
bave been perfect.
T IS interesting to note in pass-
ing that one of the story's
nicest symbols, the green light
across the bay on Daisy's boat
dock, was played up effectively in
the drama-in its visual as well as
symbolic form. Also some of the
revealing bits of concise dialogie
from the novel are carried over
into the 'televersion' with no loss
of their power to characterize the
nature of Gatsby's love:
"Gatsby: (On being asked how
long ago he met Daisy)
"'Five years ago last November.'
"And then this formal exchange
between Gatsby and Daisy at the
conclusion of Nick s tea where the
former had been reunited:
"Daisy: 'Well, thank you. I'll
see you again sometime.'
"Gatsby: 'When?'
"Only on a few occasions such
as these did the true favor of Fitz-
gerald's art rise into the con-
sciousness of the drama.
"The final point to be made
here is a point of praise. Surviv-
ors of the Twenties will perhaps
understand. Montgomery's pro-
duction was successful in this
(essentially extra-Fitzgeraldian)
respect: it managed to take an
outdated protagonist irrevocably
Yates, a teaching fellow in the
Spanish department, is a frequent
contributor to both the Magazine
and The Daily's editorial page,

specializing in book reviews of
one of his favorite hobbies-de-
tective stories.

11


linked to an era now buried under
the accumulating layers of the
past, and succeeded in making his
problem seem honest and vital
to an audience of succeeding gen-
erations."
NOW, this is worth noting-one
character, a symbol, and a few
snatches of "grafted" dialogue ...
This review brings up clearly
and succinctly a problem that
Fitzgerald readers have seen movie
and TV writers struggle with -
unsuccessfully - since 1940 when
Fitzgerald, a despondent but proud
and still perceptive artist, died in
late December in Hollywood. The

problem is: Why can't Fitzgerald
be transferred effectively from his
novels, and short stories to a dra-
matic medium? Proof of the fact
that this problem is far from its
solution was rendered only months
ago when, on March 15th, .Play-
house 90 attempted a£ TV version
of Fitzgerald's unfini hed novel,
The Last Tycoon. It nearly failed
at being good drama, and com-
pletely failed at capturing what
Fitzgerald put into it.
Why, we ask, is there always
this difficulty? What is good, what
is, best in Fitzgerald is in his
lines. Somehow . . . can't it be
moved out?

His Work Won't Translate
Into Movies or TV, But He Has
College Audience- Appeal


Malcolm Cowley recalls that an
excellent scenario was written for
Fitzgerald's finest story, Babylon
Revisited. It had managed to get
into a form digestible by the movie
camera the mood and the tensions
of that story about a man's return
to the scenes of his earlier dissi-
pations. The scenario never reach-
ed the point of being filmed. It was
written, under contract, by Scott
Fitzgerald himself.
PERHAPS we're getting closer to
the answer to our question"if
we recall that this story, Babylon
Revisited, was rewritten and filmed
and distributed recently. It was





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