People: Oct. 25, 1926

Had they been interviewed, some people who figured in last week’s news might have related certain of their doings as follows:

Josef Hofmann, pianist: “There are many trials in my profession, involving as it does rapid and constant traveling. No sooner was I entrained from London for Folkestone, Eng., than my train was derailed, just outside Charing Cross Station. I was the first to leave the train; I walked the track swiftly back to the station, keeping a wary eye on the electric rail; I motored 70 miles to Folkestone, arriving in time for my concert.”

John Hays Hammond Jr., famed inventor: “For some weeks past, I have been in Rome, during which time I saw Premier Mussolini, presented him with a five kilowatt broadcasting outfit of the selective wave or narrowcasting type. . . . Last week, in my apartment in Palazzo Massimi, I was lighting an old-fashioned gas water-heater, when it exploded, severely burning my face, eyebrows and hair. Although I am suffering considerable pain, I hope to be completely recovered in two weeks.”

Harry Houdini, prestidigitator, handcuff king, foe of charlatan spiritists: “As I was about to perform my ‘Chinese water-cell trick’*on the stage of the Capitol Theatre at Albany, N. Y., faulty stage tackle let the ponderous wood-and-iron stock fall upon my left foot, crushing it. Though my supple feet and ankles constitute great assets to me in my escapes from fetters, piano boxes, safes and other receptacles, I risked swelling and infection, stayed on the stage, did other tricks. Afterwards one of my staff said something about a ‘jinx,’ whereat I rebuked him sharply, ‘There is no such thing as a jinx.’ An Albany newspaper said, ‘There is a line worth writing in the copybooks . . . Only the sagbacks blame the jinx.'”

Alan Cobham, flyer: “When I returned to England from my 28,000-mile round trip flight to Australia I remarked, ‘Aviation will make Australia [TIME, Oct. 11]. . . .In Australia it is possible to fly 365 days a year.’ Now comes the Rev. Mr. C. Daniels—once a pilot in the Royal Air Force —whose parish in New South Wales is as extensive as all England, with a request that the Anglican Church Missionary Society buy him a plane to expedite his parish visits. His motor car too frequently stalls in mud. His camel is painfully slow. The Society will buy him a ‘moth light’ De Havilland.”

August Heckscher, zinc, realty: “I find myself fertile with philanthropic ideas. Last week I promised to Mayor Walker of New York $250,000,000 to replace New York slums with model dwellings, if the city and state governments will supply a like amount. I will raise my sum by dunning 500 rich friends for $500,000 each, to be paid in five yearly instalments. Mayor Walker dared not scoff. Others were impressed.”

James John (“Gene”) Tunney,

world champion heavyweight boxer: “My engagement was rumored to a lady whose name appears in the Social Register. Said I: ‘I don’t even know a girl I could take to the theatre, let alone one I could marry.’ ‘

Tyrus R. Cobb, Detroit baseball manager: “In the columns of able Journalist Clinton W. Gilbert, I noticed, recently, my name, coupled with that of Fielding Harris Yost, famed Michigan football coach. Commenting upon our oratorical support of Republican Congressman Robert H. Clancy, former Democratic Congressman, Mr. Gilbert graciously admitted that our advocacy helped defeat the sartorially notable Congressman John B. Sosnowski in Detroit’s greatest Polish district. He wrote: ‘Mr. Cobb commanded many votes among the masses. . . . Mr. Yost reached the intellectuals. His appeal was to the highbrows who follow the highbrow sport of football.'”

Director Robert A. Millikan of the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics (Pasadena, Calif.), Nobel Prizeman in physics for 1923 (for isolation and measurement of the electron): “I delivered three lectures on the Terry foundation at Yale University, on ‘Evolution in Science and Religion.’ I first showed the breaking down of what the 19th Century so confidently regarded as a final interpretation of the physical universe, by 20th Century discoveries—radio activity, the inter-convertability of matter and light, the corpuscular theory of radiant energy, etc. Next I showed that while there is always ‘something new under the sun’ yet our new truths only amplify older ones and many of the older truths remain eternal—for example, Newton is included by Einstein, and Christ’s teachings are still unsurpassed. And finally, I showed that the further science pushes its horizons, the humbler scientists become, their thought having undergone a long evolution similar to the growth of religious thought from tribal superstition, through literal anthropomorphism, to transcendent spirituality. . . . Simultaneously with my third lecture, Swiss scientists corroborated and added to my recent findings on mysterious rays of excessively short wavelength which impinge upon the earth from the surrounding universe.”

*Mr. Houdini, with his ankles in stocks, is lowered head down into a tank of water, barred inside. An assistant, sometimes in impressive rubber clothing, stands by with an ax while a canopy is lowered over the tank, ready to smash the glass and release the water if Mr. Houdini’s life is endangered. After an endless wait for the audience, out comes Mr. Houdini, dripping but quite free. Like about 50% of Mr. Houdini’s vaudeville program, the solution of the “Chinese water-cell” escape is clear to any observer of normal alertness. The stocks used are made of wooden halves fitting into an iron frame with a flange in it to keep them from slipping through. No man could pull the blocks downward through this frame, but only a slight push upward by a man suspended from it would free the wooden halves of the stocks. The purchase for such a push is provided by two rings on the bars inside the water cell, rings whose innocence is made apparent by using them to lower the cage of bars into the water cell.