MANNERS & MORALS: Americana, Sep. 20, 1948

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MANNERS & MORALS

¶ In 1947, both marriages and divorces dropped off from 1946's record highs, the Federal Security Agency reported. Marriages were down to 1,992,354, from 1946's 2,291,045. There were approximately 25% fewer divorces — 471,000 to 1946's 610,000.

¶ In Las Vegas, Nev., city of fast weddings and quick divorces, Judge A. G. ("Gus") Blad, a part-time bartender, led a field of twelve candidates for justice of the peace. The job is worth $50,000 a year in marriage fees.

¶ In Atlantic City, Beatrice Shopp, 18 ("Miss Minnesota"), was named "Miss America of 1948," winning a $5,000 scholarship, a Nash car, and untold publicity. Her measurements: height, 5 ft. 9 in.; weight, 138 Ibs.; bust 37 in. Her talent: she played the vibraharp. Said "Bebe": "I am only a farm girl. I drive a tractor. I clean the chicken coops. I mix cement."

¶ Up the coast at Asbury Park, Mrs. Maria Monez Strohmeier ("Mrs. Philadelphia"), a 21-year-old blonde with green eyes, was crowned "Mrs. America." This entitled her to a fur coat, furniture, a dishwasher, laundry machine, luggage, and diaper service for any future children. Mrs. America was more nearly standard size: 5 ft. 5 in., 124 Ibs.

¶ Hundreds of migrating thrushes, oven-birds, warblers, redstarts, and red-eyed vireos got lost in the fog and crashed into the Empire State Building, littering the street below with dead and injured birds. Others thumped into tall structures in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

¶ After interviewing 300 persons from 20 to over 80, Dr. Raymond G. Kuhlen of Syracuse University concluded that the happiest time of life is between the ages of 20 and 30.

¶ In Atlanta, eight-year-old Child Evangelist Renee Martz pulled on her cowboy boots, sermonized 3,000 people in the City Auditorium, after which her father asked everyone in the audience to buy a book at $1 a copy giving her "full life story." Proceeds, he explained, would pay for a missionary trip to Africa.

¶ George Hamilton ("Ozzie") Osborne, 34, climbed down from his perch 200 feet above Long Beach's Virginia Amusement Park, after setting a new world's record for flagpole sitting—52 days, 13 hours, and 58 minutes. In San Francisco, Milton ("Shipwreck") Van Nolan, 22, settled himself more firmly in his cowboy saddle on a pole above Horsetrader Ed's Kar Korral, swore he would break Ozzie's record.

¶ Buffalo's television station WBEN-TV televised Niagara Falls—including, of course, an interview with a honeymooning couple.

¶ Beauteous Nancy Fletcher Choremi, 27, daughter of a U.S. career diplomat, arrested last July as a $100-a-night Manhattan call girl (and convicted on evidence obtained by wire-tapping), was let off with a three-month suspended sentence. Said the judge: "The problem of prostitution is not solved in a criminal court. It is a social, economic and moral problem."