Letters: Oct. 25, 1968

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That Really Big Show

Sir: You have done it! I have never laughed so long and so hard as I did at your coverage of the Rowan and Martin Laugh-In [Oct. 11]. And I've never seen the program. If the program is half as funny as the article describing it, it must really be the wildest thing on the telly today.

We need more articles in your magazine like this one. TIME could turn into the funniest thing since . . . well, since Rowan and Martin.

JAMES P. McCREA

A.P.O., New York

Sir: I found your Rowan and Martin cover story reassuring. I had abandoned Laugh-In some time ago as I found it sophomoric, but on reading of its success with viewers, I was beginning to fear that my reaction was indicative of premature aging. Your finding that the majority of its fans are in the 12-to-18-year-old bracket allays my fears.

(MRS.) JEAN M. SILK

Braintree, Mass.

Sir: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In gets the majority of its audience from the 12-to-18-year-olds? You have to be kidding. I've just bought 40 of their shows. We started screening them a month ago. Everyone is delighted. Now I've got to tell them they've been watching a teen-age show? I could get fired for this.

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

Controller

BBC-2 London

Sir: Your enthusiastic exhortations on the "anything goes" theory espoused by Rowan and Martin sums up nicely why Laugh-In is withheld from our five growing children. I won't have my family growing up thinking that it's cute to knock everything, and that they can buy a laugh with smut, double-entendres, or by making household words out of vulgar expressions.

ELLIOT MOSER

Houston

Sir: I laughed, howled, and did everything short of rolling on the laundromat floor while reading your cover story on Rowan and Martin. I had to take refuge behind your magazine to evade the glaring eyes of the other patrons who couldn't understand my erratic behavior.

This article is especially important to me since I am deaf and miss most of the verbalizations of the show. When my wife, who can hear, explains them to me, they just don't seem funny. Your story effectively delineated that lost spontaneity.

GREGORY C. KIMBERLIN

Santa Monica, Calif.

Sir: Gerald Scarfe offers us a breath of creative originality with his freshness and individuality.

STEPHEN CARNAHAN

Silver Spring, Md.

> And credit is due as well to Robert S. Crandall, the photographer who shot Scarfe's sculptures for TIME'S cover.

Secret Message?

Sir: Re: picture of Pueblo crewmen [Oct. 18]: You better brush up on your sign language. According to a deaf-mute employee of the Detroit Free Press, those four men in the picture are spelling out HELP.

JUDITH SUHR

Birmingham, Mich.

> Sign language experts say that the four Pueblo crewmen are not accurately spelling the word Help, but may be trying to convey such a message from a vague knowledge of the sign alphabet. The first man on the left does indeed give the symbol for H; the second man does not spell E, but by placing a closed fist in his palm, signals the entire word Help, or Give me assistance. The third and fourth men give the wrong signs for L and P, though there are some similarities.

Third-Man Theme