On Monday, May 17th, the Supreme Court of these United States decided the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. This landmark ruling will have impacts that echo from sea to shining sea. The decision was unanimous in stating that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. This goes against the doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson which established the so-called separated but equal clause.

The case stems from a class action suit filed against the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education. Senator Byrd in Virginia is organizing a movement opposed to the decision, but many others are accepting it.

Madrid created the Latin Union on Saturday. This pan-national Union is a grouping of countries that speak the Romance Languages of Italian, French, Spanish, Portugeus, and Romanian. Is has yet to be seen how many nations around the world will join this group.

The Japanese film The Saga of Anatahan was released in the United States on Monday. This film, directed by Josef von Sternberg, is about twelve men shipwrecked on a desert island only inhabited by two other souls: A farmer and a beautiful woman.

Musty Musketeers, a Three Stooges short, debuted last Thursday. In this, the Stooges are kept from marrying their girls by Old King Cole.

Gardner was a Southern girl, born in North Carolina, and had modest roots. It was only when she was 19 that she was discovered buy a fink posing as a talent scout. (Fink being the only way to refer to someone who posed as a talent scout to pick up cute-but-dumb women.) The title is paraphrased from what Louis B Mayer, the head of MGM, said after seeing her screen test.

In the year the Cigars and Legs series starts, Gardner was in the Barefoot Contessa as Maria Vargas… opposite this author’s favorite actor of all time, Humphrey Bogart.

Her marriages were first to Mickey Rooney, who apparently enjoyed their sex life far more than she did (show of hands, ladies… how familiar is that?) for only around a year. After that, she was briefly married to Artie Shaw — for around a year. Finally, she was married to the chairman of the board himself, Frank Sinatra. That marriage lasted a whole six years. In addition to being the wife of Sinatra, Gardner was apparently much of his inspiration.

Gardner, like most celebrities of the time, smoked for her entire life, and that was part of the end of her: she has emphysema and suffered two strokes, but died of pnuemonia. She was only 67 years old, and was buried back in North Carolina.

Still, she is remembered for many roles and was in many classics. She never won any of the major awards of her time, but was nominated more than once. Also, c’mon, she played a character named Agrippina, how cool is that?

On Wednesday, the newest Ed Wood film, Jail Bait, was released. This is a crime film, starring Timothy Farrell. Farrell plays gangster Vic Brady, a career criminal and armed robber. Brady and Don Gregor, played by Clancy Malone, get into quite a bit of trouble after robbing a theater…

Tuesday marked the last episode of Judge For Yourself, the quiz and audience participation program that has aired on NBC from August 18th of last year until their final episode.

On Friday, the French Union forces collision with the Viet Minh communists came to a close with a distastrous loss for the French. Their positions were overrun by the Viet Minh, and all told over eleven thousand men were taken prisoner. Reports indicate that over four thousand of these prisoners are injured. The conditions in these prison camps are rumored to be very brutal.

In related news, the following Wednesday, the Secretary of State indicated that while Indochina is important to the security of the region, it is not essential. If our boys end up fighting there they will face the same brutal forces that overran the French.

Miscellanea:
On Thursday, Roger Bannister broke a world record by running a mile in under four minutes for the first time.

Mini-Bio:
Ron was born to Winston and Irene Cavanaugh (nee Bosarge) on June 15th, 1927, in Escagoula Point, Mississippi. He was the first of three children: his brother, Thomas, was a year behind, and his sister, Jean, came two years after that. Up until he left for college, Ron lived his entire life in Escagoula Point. The family never had much money, but the children never went without.
At 17, Ron began attending the University of Mississippi, considering himself to have missed out on the second War to End All Wars. Just shy of his twenty-first birthday, he graduated ahead of schedule with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. He then enrolled in the Air Force’s Flight Training School and became a pilot. His unit, the 49th Fighter Wing, was a significant part of the Korean War effort of the United States.
His first major and final flight was at the battle of Sunon Airfield. His plane took anti-aircraft chaff, and he had to land just five minutes after taking off, barely making it and sustaining multiple small wounds. The worst damage was to his knee, which took quite some physical therapy at Air Force Station Molesworth before he shipped back to the good old United States.
When he came back to find Kate murdered, and no leads or any real interest on the part of the police, Ron took it on himself to find out what happened. This was against the advice of his friends Murphy “Stretch” Dwyer and Lynn Dwyer, his former girlfriend and wife of Murphy.

Miscellanea:
- Smokes cigarettes on occasion, but prefers cigars.
- Drinks anything, but prefers whisky, specifically Scotch and Bourbon.
- Favorite color is grey.
- Drives a bright blue Dodge Meadowbrook, or a 1952 Norton Big Four he picked up in England.

Tom Tyler, best known as Captain Mavel in The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), died on Saturday. He was fifty and had been in films since the 20s, mostly Westerns. He was also The Phantom in 1943.

General Alfredo Stroessner overthrew President Federico Chaves in Paraguay in a coup d’etat on Tuesday. Tomas Romero is serving as interim president with the promise of an upcoming special election to fill the remainder of Chavez’s term.

On Saturday, Sun Myung Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. This new offshoot believes that Jesus Christ appeared before Moon in 1935 to ask him to finish the work of Christ. They aim to unite all Christian denominations under their teachings.

This was a well-constructed cigar. I always like the torpedo shaped head, as it allows more control over how much of the cap is cut — and I tend to try and cut as little as possible. The color of the wrapper was uniform and the wrapper itself was smooth and free of any defects. The binder and filler held together well; the cigar was able to support long and strong ashes. There was no unravelling or bits of filler coming loose.

The draw was easy, even with just a bit of the head clipped off. The flavor was a great taste — woody with a bit of maduro earthiness but not overpowering. The smoke carried those same elements, although at times I got a whiff of an almost gasoline scent in the fading smoke. It wasn’t overpowering or even unpleasant, so perhaps some element of the taste was just throwing my sense of smell off.

The burn was good, and even, right down to the end. I took this cigar down to a nub before letting it go out on its own. With this cigar I had a dram of the wonderful Macallan 12, which went perfectly. Overall, I’d have to say — this was a really pleasant smoke and I intend to buy some more the next time I’m in the market for some cigars.

On Thursday, April 22nd, Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), began hearings investigating his claims that the United States Army is soft on communism. These hearings are being televised; early reports are that McCarthy’s tactics and demeanor are not popular with the public. This comes four years after his claim of 200 known communists at the State Department.

The following Monday, the Geneva Conference opened, a joint attempt between the Soviet Union, United States, United Kingdom, France, and the People’s Republic of China to unify Korea and hopefully restore peace in Indochina.

Two days after the start of the Geneva Conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles accused China of sending troops to train the Viet Minh guerrillas.

In lighter news, the Tony Martin Show debuted on NBC on Monday. This entertaining variety program is produced by none other than Bud Yorkin and can be seen at 7:30 PM Eastern time every Monday.

On Saturday, the drama Drums of Tahiti debuted, starring Patricia Medina and Dennis O’Keefe. This Technicolor film revolves around Tahitians plotting to rebel against the occupying French, with help from the Britains, during the year 1877. The film is directed by William Castle.

Finally, in Japan, a film called Seven Samurai debuted on Monday. It is proving to be shockingly popular. Some have said it is destined to become a classic.

Password? What is this, the 1920s?


But that’s what I’d like to call it. It was 1923, and I was heading into a small town in Southern Mississippi called Escagoula Point. If what my mother told me on her deathbed was true, the only time I’d been there was the night I was conceived. Here I was, twenty-six years old, just coming off burying my mother after a long bout with everything God could throw at her, driving into what amounted to foreign ground to look for the man who spawned me. He was supposedly the richest man in town, and he’d probably assume I was just looking to get his money, but I didn’t want anything at all from him.

I just wanted him to know I existed.

I’d gone this long without taking anything from him; I could finish out my days without him. It wouldn’t be too bad to be in town — a man I knew in the Great War, Winston Cavanaugh, hailed from this area, and if the stories he told were true, the small town wouldn’t be so bad. It certainly had to be better than the bumpy, dirt roads that were taking out the last bit of my tires as I got closer. I couldn’t wait to see Winston, but first I had to see Robert Donnelly, my birth father.

Oh, me? My name is Kate Nass.

Yes, my mother named me Kate. She was a strange one, travelling as she did with her family and extended family from town to town. Some people called them gypsies, but they weren’t. They were just wandering, making money however they could — mostly as entertainment. For the last decade they travelled with a carnival. I’d grown up on the road, and kind of liked the idea of settling down. Even when I signed up to go to Europe, I got to be in one place for a longer time than I ever had before. We sat ’round that basic training place for weeks — weeks in one spot! It was amazing to me.

To hear Winston tell it, he’d never left Mississippi before joining up. Like me, he went when the country asked him to. Ever since the war I’d made a living doing what I did in the war: watching people. A few smart officers almost immediately picked up on the fact I could see through people and all the garbage they threw up in the air to distract from them and put me to work on intelligence.

Donnelly’s house was more than I expected. A massive, all white mansion with huge white columns, like the pillars from a Roman temple. By the design I guessed it had been there before the Civil War, and with the flat fields around it, I would have pegged it as a plantation house. Despite travelling all my life, I’d learned more than most people I encountered. It wasn’t in spite of my lack of schooling, but rather, because there wasn’t much else to do but learn when sitting in the back of a horse drawn wagon. I wasn’t good at whittling.

The place was even so grand as to have a butler in a suit nicer than anything I owned answer the door. He looked at me with the sort of disdain one usually reserves for the bottom of his shoe after he realizes he’s stepped in dog shit. Great, this is going to go well.

“I’m here to see Robert Donnelly,” I said — no, I announced!

He scoffed. “Do you have an appointment?”

“Tell him I’m here with a message from Jolan Nass.” Maybe he’d remember her name. She remembered his. “He’ll see me.”

“I doubt it, but if it will get you off the porch…” He shut the door in my face.

True to my word, he decided to see me. I didn’t have to wait long for the butler to return and let me in. He led me up a grand, beautiful staircase and into a study where he instructed me to sit and left. Moments later, an older, thin man entered the room. Like the butler before him, this man was over dressed. By my mother’s description of his build, the dark, wavy yet short hair and clean-shaven face, I knew I had found the man I came to see. His eyes betrayed confusion yet anticipation, like a child being given a present he didn’t expect and couldn’t wait to unwrap.

“Please, sit,” he said.

“I’d rather stand,” I said.

“Then, so will I.”

Interesting, I thought. He didn’t seem standoffish. “Jolan Nass died a month ago,” I said. Donnelly seemed to be staggered a bit by that.

“You have some message from her for me?”

“I am the message. I am her son, fathered by a rich boy in this town many years ago.”

His expression turned angry. “What do you want?”

“The same thing I’ve gotten from you for the last twenty-six years — not a damn thing, sir. I don’t need your money. I just wanted you to know I exist. I wanted to see you.” I was so… angry? It didn’t make sense to be angry at him — Robert Donnelly never knew I existed. My mother never told him, never even spoke to him again after their tryst. She told me she worried he would claim I belonged to another. Now we would find out if that much was true.

“She confessed to me who my father was on her deathbed, after having kept it from me, and me from you, for all of my life. Because she feared you, like many before, would deny your charge,” I said. “I don’t want anything from you, Robert Donnelly.”

“I am sorry,” he said, finally taking a seat at the massive, ancient oak desk in the center of the room. “It is such a shock.”

To avoid looking at him, I took in the study as much as I could. A hand-made glass cabinet behind his desk housed all manor of liquor, topped by a pitcher of what appeared to be tea and a pair of clear, tulip-shaped glasses on a silver platter. The walls were lined with more books than I’d ever seen, shelves that were only broken up by the occasional decorative weapon. A globe stood waist high next to a sofa in one corner. It was a study I could get lost in. I envied any children Robert Donnelly had legitimately.

“According to my mother, you are my father,” I said. “But I expect nothing from you.” I couldn’t help but repeat it. Maybe that would make it true.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” my father said. “No Donnelly will go without. You must meet your brothers and sisters.”

“I’m not a Donnelly. I’m a Nass.”

With that I turned on my heels to leave.

“I don’t even know your name,” he called.

“Kate,” I said, without turning.

Vice President Richard Nixon said on Friday that we may be putting our boys in Indochina, with or without allied support. This is the latest elevation in administration rhetoric surrounding the issues in Indochina and follows last week’s “Domino Theory” speech by the president. It is unknown at this time what the reaction of the Communists will be.

This week was quite busy for film goers, starting with Witness To Murder on Thursday, starring Barbara Stanwyck. In this suspenseful drama, Cheryl Draper (Stanwyck) witnesses the murder of another woman — but no one believes her, and no body is found…

Also on Thursday, Columbia released the first chapter of their new serial, Gunfighters of the Northwest, starring Jock Mahoney. The first chapter is titled “A Trap for Mounties.”

On Friday, Paramount Pictures’ Elephant Walk debuted, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Finch, and Dana Andrews. This film is a period piece based upon the novel of the same name by Robert Standish about a Colonial tea planter and his soon unhappy wife, Ruth (Taylor).

On the small screen this week, the Martha Wright Show debuted on ABC television on Sunday, April 18th. This musical variety program stars singer Martha Wright and airs directly after the Walter Winchell Show and is sponsored by Packard automobiles.

Miscellanea:
- On Friday, April 16th, the Barkin family welcomed Ellen Rona Barkin into the world. As far as we know, this princess has never laughed.