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★ The Practical Pig
★ She'd Fly to Mars
★ Back to the Land
-IBv Virginia Vale
ALT DISNEY has
learned that “The Three
Little Pigs” have never lost
their popularity; that picture
is the most popular short that
he’s ever made. So he very
sensibly has decided to make
a sequel. It will be “The
Practical Pig” and not only
will the three original pigs
appear in it, but there will be
three new characters, the
three little wolves.
The success of “Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs” has encouraged
him in his plan to continue with a
fairy tale series; before long we'll
be seeing "The Brave Little Tailor,
or Seven at One Blow,” in which he
will star Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
It begins to look as if Disney is
superstitious about the numbers
three and seven, doesn't it?
_vc._
Merle Oberon was awfully glad to
get home—and home, to her, means
the United States. After spending
more than a year in England, mak
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Merle Oberon
ing pictures, she went to the Rivi
era for a vacation, and the sunshine
and swimming made her homesick
for Malibu beach; that’s how she
found out that neither Tasmania,
where she was born, nor England,
where she grew up, any longer
mean home to her. You’ll see her
next in “Graustark,” with Gary
Cooper and Sigurd Gurie.
She’s awfully glad that Samuel
Goldwyn did something about
changing her from an exotic looking
siren to a normal girl; seems she
didn’t care for the type of beauty
that was wished on her when she
first came to this country to make
pictures, any more than Myrna Loy
cared about playing Oriental vamps
just because her eyes were set on
the bias.
If Joan Crawford decided that she
wanted to fly to Mars she’d prob
ably succeed. Time after time she
has set her heart on doing a thing,
and then worked determinedly until
she accomplished it. Now it’s sing
ing that keeps her busy when she
is not acting before the screen; she
wants to sing in opera, so probably
she will. Never has anyone had
more determination than that girl
possesses! She went to New York
recently, and her admirers prompt
’ ly gathered about the carriage en
trance of her hotel. They proved,
when she last visited New York,
that they were as determined as
she. Morning, noon and night some
of them were there, and she, unlike
some movie stars, admitted that she
was delighted. Furthermore, she let
them know it.
Columbia university undergradu
ates have acquired the habit of vot
ing for Madeleine Carroll in a poll
that is held each spring. The stu
dents vote for the girl who would
be “the most desirable companion
on a desert island,’’ and she is the
winner for 1937 and 1938. Their
reasons — her ability to speak
French, her blue eyes, blonde hair,
classic profile and attractive figure.
__
7ts
Paul Whiteman and his wife, Mar
garet Livingston, have been looking
for a country home for what seems
to them an endless time. They final
ly found what they wanted—147
acres in New Jersey, on the Dela
ware river, not far from the farm
that Sylvia Sidney recently bought.
Somehow they escaped the screen
and radio stars’ invasion of Bucks
County, Pa., which has reached such
proportions that most people think
Bucks is the only county in Penn
sylvania.
ODDS and ENDS . . . At last “Ivan
hoe" is about to reach the stage where
the cameras will begin to turn—with
Clurk Gable, Robert Taylor, Myrna Loy
und Luise Rainer scheduled for the
leading roles . . . Got a good idea for
a story for Joe E. Brown? . . . He’s
looking for one . . . Paramount has
taken Little Orphan Annie out of the
comic strip and will screen “Little
Orphan Annie, Detective” . .. The Rev
elers, the most famous of radio quar.
tettes, now takes to the air regularly
on Mondays, W ednesdays and Fridays
at 6:15 . . . James Melton, once the
Revelers tenor, then a movie actor, now
a concert singer, yearns to sing in
opera.
(£) Western Newspaper Union.
ABOLISHING AVIATION’S ‘HUMAN’ ELEMENT i
Aviation’s amazing prog- I
ress in less than a century is |
told graphically by the pic- j
tures at the left and right. I
Left: In 1842 W. S. Henson
built this model airplane in 5
England. At the right is a y
typical instrument panel on I
a modern airliner.
Aviation Adopts 6Blind Man’s Buff’
To Teach Pilots Instrument Flying
No man is endowed with more than one pair of eyes, but ingenious avia
tion engineers are doing their best to make Nature out a piker. Radio, modern
worker of miracles, has now made flying almost fool-proof; “beams” guide
the pilot through dense fogs and super-human instruments do their work
unerringly. So that pilots will be equipped to “help” the instruments, most
major U. S. airlines give their aviators special training. Pictured here is the
system used by Eastern Airlines.
At regular intervals every month each pilot must take time off to visit
the New York office and squeeze into the cockpit of a “dummy” airplane. A
miniature affair, this plane is perched on a fixed foundation in a small room,
and can be put through maneuvers exactly like those of a giant airship.
In charge of this unique mechanism is a trainer who knows, probably bet
ter than anyone in the organization, the individual flying aptitudes of various
pilots. But the “blind flying” lessons are taught so thoroughly and repeated
so often that every aviator knows his job perfectly. It is the trainer’s job to
transmit radio signals to the pilot, “blindfolded” in his cockpit not far away.
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IThe big steel circle is a radio range
finder, adjustable to any angle to per
mit the pilot to keep his plane on a course
set up by constant radio signals. The range
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finder is regulation size but the cock
pit is undersized. Above, the pilot gets his
instructions. Below, he climbs into the
cockpit to play “hidc-and go-seck.”
The trainer at work
during flight. The in
strument on wheels traces
the course of the “plane,”
f
3 In a drawer of the trainer’s
desk (right) is a two-way
radio station through which he
communicates constantly with
the “plane.” Occasionally he
moves about the room with a
portable sending set and makes
the pilot find him. This keeps
the pilot trained to finding his
way back on the course should
his plane stray off. Left: After
it’s all over the student is shown j
his mistakes. Each Eastern Air- J
'ines pilot must “fly” five hours
a month in this room.