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FRED S. HULTZ President North Dakota Agricultural College Fargo, N. Dak.

The Prone Ranger

Sir:

We love you for the review of The Conqueror [April 9]. You gave us a wonderful interlude of howls, giggles, twitters and guffaws. It was the first time we had the misfortune to see a movie before reading your review, but just being able to appreciate your comments was worth the price of admission.

EDYTHE GAISOR Oak Park, Ill.

Sir:

I am a hapless human bereft of 85¢, spent knowingly and willingly on The Conqueror. What became of the acid tongue of TIME'S Cinema Editor? If TIME only mildly pans an extravaganza, then, in my book, it will be a flick worth seeing. I never bargained for John Wayne playing the Prone Ranger with Pedro as Stupido. Is TIME afraid of the great John Wayne that it showed itself too lily-livered to use its Damascus pen on such a movie?

ELY BYRNE Palo Alto, Calif.

Sir:

I suspect you have at last changed your movie reviewer or else persuaded him to stop the bad puns . . .

ELAINE STANSFIELD Los Angeles

¶TIME, even though its acids are sometimes mistaken in Hollywood for lie abilities, could probably survive a Wayne of terror.—ED.

Merger in Monaco

Sir:

Let's give credit to the millions of good wives and mothers across our country whose talents are truer, if less glamorous, than Grace Kelly's, and leave sensationalism to the cheap tabloids. The values of the people are distorted enough without adding to their confusion with the glorification of a social-climbing actress and a pip-squeak prince.

ARTHUR WOLFE Eaton Rapids, Mich.

Sir:

Please, spare those of us who don't give a fig if Miss Kelly gets married every hour on the hour.

W. B. KERR Islip, N.Y.

20 Minutes of Meat

Sir:

My thanks for your very fine report of my Boca Raton talk in the March 26 issue. As always, TIME managed to present in a few lines the meat of what it took me 20 minutes to state.

HARLLEE BRANCH JR. Atlanta

Tenors & Tantrums

Sir:

I was much intrigued by the use of the Kinsey technique in your April 16 story on operatic tenors; however, you fail to give this vital information about your sexual frequency investigator-tenor: Was his three-days-before-singing intercourse licit or illicit? And does the optimum interval hold for all types of operas? You have started a new trend in journalism and, I suspect, in musicology. It now behooves our young Ph.D. candidate to investigate the essential sexual frequency factors underlying successful musical performance. The data can then be put on a slide rule, which by proper setting will indicate the optimum timings for singers, instrumentalists, conductors and professors.

MARTIN BERNSTEIN Head of Department of Music New York University New York City

Sir:

I certainly appreciate your wonderful article about me.

RICHARD TUCKER Great Neck, N.Y.

Sir:

I am a tenor. The rigors of a tenor's training, according to your article, while not altogether unpleasant, seem to be far more frustrating than a bass or baritone, who appear to have a far more unrestricted home life.

J. L. ROGERS Big Rapids, Mich.

Spreading the Word

Sir: