Education: The Spinning Eyes

For five years, Alan Maxwell Palmer, 46, had known a fate that would have plunged most men into despair. A U.S. Navy veteran who lost one hand in World War II, he moved to Mexico in 1949 to shake off a series of mysterious headaches. There, surgeons removed a brain tumor and saved his life, but Palmer found him self blind. Though he earned a living by writing about Mexico for U.S. industrial magazines, he could not always escape the hours of empty boredom. “Friends,” says he, “stop in to chat and read to you. But much of the time there’s no one there.” As the months passed, Palmer began to wonder how other blind people fare — especially the uncounted thousands of illiterates all over Mexico.

Last year, brimming with cheerful enthusiasm, Palmer thought up a project that he hoped would bring laughter and joy to such people. He called it Discojos Mexicanos, from discos (records) and ojos (eyes). Through it, he wanted to record songs and stories on twelve-inch long-playing records that would be distributed free to Mexico’s sightless.

Until last summer, Palmer’s project was progressing smoothly. He had persuaded a U.S. company to make the recordings at cost and to provide free record players. He had lined up professional entertainers (including Dolores del Rio, Bing Crosby, Andy Russell and Mexico’s Cantinflas) to sing songs and tell stories. He planned to record Mexican classics and concerts, hoped to have a series of Mexican travelogues “so that the blind can appreciate the beauties they can never see.” Such notables as Mexico City’s Archbishop Luis Mario Martinez had given his project their blessings; a department store had offered to have a Discojos day. Then Palmer became ill again.

Two months ago, he had to undergo another brain operation. As soon as he got back on his feet, he realized that if his Discojos were ever to spin, he would have to step up his campaign for funds. Last week, still cheerful, he flew up to the U.S. for a whirlwind tour that will take him through seven cities, seeking contributions from firms doing business in Mexico. As Palmer well knows, there is good reason for such haste: after his last operation, the doctors told him that he has not long to live.