The art of Mary Garden and her service to French opera in the U.S. are commonly accounted “great.” Yet when the Chicago Civic Opera Company stopped on its tour last week in the cow-town of Amarillo, Tex., and when Mary Garden sang her famed impersonation of Thais, Editor Gene Howe of the local Globe-News, cow-towner but no kow-tower, summed up his criticism with: “Mary Garden is so old that she actually tottered.” Amarillo’s music lovers were incensed. They apologized to Diva Garden and talked about boycotting Editor Howe. She dismissed it all as “so silly−only tell him that when he’s tottering I’ll still be singing.”
Editor Gene Howe, son of oldtime Editor Ed Howe of the Atchison, Kan., Globe, is the young man who obtained national publicity last year by accusing Col. Lindbergh of being “swell headed” when he passed over Amarillo without stopping (TIME, June 11).
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