Category Archives: Columnists

  Prize for Pungency Every year the San Francisco Chronicle has a crayon drawing contest for youngsters. Top prize is $25. Among this year's entrants was a bold, impressionist drawing of a pig delivering the Chronicle to a farmhouse, sent … Continue reading →

Clever, These Hollywooders Not long ago a producer, director and writer drove to Santa Barbara for a preview of their new movie. On the return trip, around 2 a.m., on a lonely stretch of Highway 101, they ran out of … Continue reading →

  On Conformity The horrid word of the moment is conformity — submitting to the other fellow's whims, influence and propaganda. The villains are vaguely identified as ruthless persuaders, sometimes known as the Madison Avenue boys, whose sneaky, repetitious sales … Continue reading →

  Glendale 'Witch' While recovering from the flu in 1942 Charlotte Armstrong amused herself by writing a mystery novel, "Lay On, MacDuff!" To her surprise, she sold it and it was published the way she wrote it. Until then she … Continue reading →

Dilemma Continues A year and a half ago the frustrating dilemma of Roy Huerta, 38, a cook, and his wife, Manuela, 32, was told here. Ten years before, in 1947, they were married in Los Angeles. One day in 1949 … Continue reading →

Justice Strained A man who lives in an outlying section a few nights ago drove a guest, a visitor from New York, to the Biltmore Hotel. It was after midnight when he reached the downtown section. He was driving west … Continue reading →

Big Car Man Driving through isolated beanfield country on the way home the other day, Dave Hall, staff artist who lives in Corona del Mar, came upon a Cadillac on the side of the road and, farther along, a man … Continue reading →

The Skin Swimmer Bal Week, the traditional pilgrimage of exuberant youth to Balboa during Easter vacation, has been watered down, so to speak, the last few years. The burghers wearied of high-spirited youth taking over their town, and the gendarmes … Continue reading →

Works of Art When he finishes his day's work at the easel, Lenard Kester, like many other artists, smears the surplus paint on unworked canvases. Otherwise, it would harden overnight and be wasted. It is not only relaxing to make … Continue reading →

TV Cliches Shocking About a year ago a registered nurse inquired here what the frontier doctors on TV wanted with all the hot water they were forever demanding when about to deliver a baby. Her inquiry raised quite a storm. … Continue reading →