Confidential File

When Cash Register Is Replacing a Heart

The Almighty Dollar, that great object of universal devotion
— Washington Irving.

Sandra Gianoulis, 8, of Glendale, went to a drive-in theater last week with her mother.

They got there at 7:30. Sandra played for a while with her sister, Lynn, 7, in a recreation area on the premises. They returned to their mother’s car just before dusk.

However, a few minutes before the show was to start, the girls decided to go to the snack bar.

Lynn got out of the car first. Sandra followed, slamming the door behind her. Then, she screamed.

The middle finger of her left hand was caught in the closed door.

Quickly, her mother opened it, freeing the finger. It was bleeding badly. The tip was hanging loosely, not quite completely severed. Continue reading →

Confidential File

Fear, Ignorance Hard to Defeat

This is a very unlikely story about a minister whom everybody feared.

He was a kind, friendly man — a dedicated worker for his church. In fact, his dedication was so great that he spent 31 years as a missionary in Burma.

But that’s not where his story begins. The people in Burma trusted and loved him.

It wasn’t until after he came back to the United States, to the community of Glendale, in 1946, that he became a victim of man’s ignorance and superstition and fear.

In one terrifying day, about a year after his return here, he was forced to get out of his home, resign his job as director of missions for his church, and head for the state line as fast as he could.

His alternative was to wait for the authorities to come knocking on his front door to lead him off and lock him up.

The reason for his flight was a small red spot which appeared days earlier on his ankle. Continue reading →

Confidential File

Mash Notes

Press Release) “Jack Paar says in the current issue of Look magazine that his wife, Miriam, is sexy –‘in a Republican sort of way’.” (signed)
Publicity Dept., Look magazine, New York City.

—Well, you know how it is, Jack. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

::

“Dear Mr. Coates:” I know a teen-age girl who has trained a beautiful blue parakeet to talk
very plainly. This bird could make a wonderful show bird.

“The girl plays the accordion herself and has been on Mr. and Mrs. Bob Yeakel’s Rocket to Stardom. ” One day this parakeet flew out of the door, so her grandmother advertised
in the Pasadena paper, and it was returned by a couple who said the bird also spoke to them.

Continue reading →

Confidential File
All About Dedicated Citizen Sam

On the final day of May, 1954, I had an appointment to meet a wiry little Italian immigrant by the name of Simon Rodia.

Rodia, then 76 years old, was to appear on my television program, to explain why he had devoted 33 years of his life to the construction of some fantastic towers on a small piece of property he owned in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

The reason he gave, on the rare occasions when he chose to speak, was: “All my life, I had in my mind to do something big. That’s why I did it.” He never, to my knowledge, elaborated very much on that statement. And I guess that — except to a nosy reporter or a probing psychiatrist — it was an adequate answer. Continue reading →