1 2 3 4r 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Mii£LM£ Lowell Thomas Broadcast for Literary Digest D Tuesday, July 28, 1931. -Page------- Good Evening, Everybody: I guess we can call this a race. Two planes took off xm almost simultaneously from the Floyd bennett Field at New YorE* ' RusseI I Boardman and John Polandro jumped into the air first. Clyde Rxoti Pangborn and Hugh Herndon in their flaming red monoplane soared into the air just seventeen minutes later. Boardman and Polandro are heading for S Constantinople, while Pangborn and Herndon are steering for Moscow. And the distance in each case is something like five thousand miles. And so the big question is which will get there first - i and that makes it look like a race. If they reach Moscow all right, Pangborn and Herndon expect to keep on around the world, an cfc# 11 to beat Post and Uattyfs record. The International News Service reports^no word from the f I i ers sinttis. the y'‘;< erf •£>• but that is not astonishing because neither of them carry wireless AIRPLANE - 2 equipment. But both planes were sighted off Newfoundland shortly after six oTclock this evening - flying high and fast. So, they are on their way across the broad epaces of the Atlantic tonight. And tomorrow wefll be hearing from them or at least we hone so. Which will land first - the rlane headed for Constantinople, or the big red monoplane bound for Moscow. At any rate they're well under way on a 5000 mile race. And another famous ^eir of fliers made a second ho^ today. I mean Colonel and Mrs. Lindbergh, They left Washington this afternoon on their way to North Haven, Maine, where Mrs. Lindbergh's parents, Senator and Mrs. Dwight Morrow are staying - also Baby Lindbergh, The United Press advises us that they intend to make North Haven, Maine, the starting -lace for their flight across the North Pacific to Jaoen. Of course, they could have started from New York or Washington or most any —lace and headed across the continent but they prefer to make a preliminary 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 ~5M _________________ ' ^5 jump t o t he Northeastern corner of the country, the State of tv.aine. And the reason is - Baby L i ndfeeasgite* Slim and, Anne will say so long to the ^ i'if a n d x1n e n steer through the A- A skies on their adventurous jaunt. n ZEP^SLIH The Graf Zerpelin has pulled off her "big show - that is, she has met and established contact with the Russian ship with which she had a date. The big dirigible came down on the waters of the Arctic Sea near Franz Josef Land. And there was the Russian, the Mlligin, the icebreaking craft that went north with the vague hone of finding some of the survivors of the Nobile expedition, and with the added hope of finding Amundsen, Aboard the Russian icebreaker is General Nobile himself. The Associated Press renorts that the Graf Zeppelin came down on the water and cast anchor. Mail wes transferred to the Russian vessel, but the big German dirigible soon rose from the sea and headed through the sky again. Floating ice on the Arctic Ocean made it difficult for her to remain long on the treacherous surface of the Northern Sea, 7/ell, the Graf Zap, according to original plans, was to have gone to the North Pole to meet Sir Hubert Wilkins, whose intention war to make the trio to the Pole under the ice in a submarine. Mishaos to his undersea craft while crossing the ZEPPELIN - S Atlantic to England have delayed Sir Hubert’s North Pole trip, but the word today is that Wilkins, having fixed uo his submarine, left Plymouth, England, this morning, bound for Bergen, Norway. The International News Service gives the Information that the bold explorer is off on his North pole journey, that is, he intends to dive under the Polar ice and make his way to the top of the world. The sesson for Arctic exploration is late now, but Sir Hubert Wilkins seems determined to make that amazingly spectacular submarine voyage - under the Ice to the North ^ole. fllGLSI 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-16-31 5M Page. A fleet of airpIane s swooped down over a bridge in North Carolina, and then it was BANG-BANG. The bridge was a fine solid structure, built of concrete. And those airplanes started dropping bombs* to—rres^tro-y- ^ iim* This week's issue of the Literary Digest gives us a striking photograph of what happens when the war birds are out to destroy a bridge from the air. You see that graceful span of this North Carol ina bridge. One end of it is shrouded with a spectacular mass of smoke, vrhere=the charge of h igh expiosive- frora the sky is doing -its deadly iho H o - The Literary Digest tells us how CiSr, ... has had a uni que the Amer i c an /\ 'V opportunity to test the effect of a sky bombardment on a modern re-inforced concrete bridge. The Digest quotes Captain George p/< Kenney in a report to C_Lyj_J_j-Il£» journal of the- DIG'EST - 2 - tells us the bridge that was turned into e target, spanned the Yadkin River in North Carolina. The bridge was in first class share, but was useless -- because it was "nlanned to turn that section of the Yadkin River into a reservoir. And so the North Carolina authorities turned it over to the government for military tests. One-third of the bridge was assigned to the Air Corps as a target, the remainder to the artillery. A lesson or two was learned from the spectacular experiment. It was found, for example, that the greater part of the damage from the air was done by three 11,000-pound high explosive bombs. Yes sir, there was fury and destruction when those five and a half ton containers of TNT hit, and went BOOM. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 -5M Al£ELM£_AC£ia£[iI Page____ And now let's go on to an airplane accident -- a real thriller. At Winthrop, Massachusetts, Lieutenant Glaf Pierson, a Reserve Army pilot, and a companion. Private Fred O'Neil, were flying along in an airplane. The wheels of their plane pointed to the sky. The top of the machine faced the earth. Yes, the boys were flying up-side-down. Aviator Pierson and his companion were testing a new plane. The pilot put her through a barrel-roll, and they were flying in an up-si de-down position when the trouble haopened. Both men were hanging head downward when their safety belts broke. The swing of the machine was so great that it brakB the safety belt of A. each man. And two human beings went spinning down through the 5,000 feet that separated them from the ground below -- the hard, hard ground. Luckily both men wore parachutes. But neither of them had ever made a parachute jump. The parachutes were just 1 2 3 4 5 0 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 -SM A1SELML_ACC_L[I£MI_- 2 Page so much theory so far as they were concerned. but they kept~t4^4p -wttss about thent• Thayt. pul led the ripcords and floated safely to earth. The plane up there was left all by itself. What happened to it? Well, that's another thrilling story. It kept on going and headed out over the bay ftear Winthrop. On the water below was a boat, and in the boat was a couple -- a man and a woman, perhaps sentimentally incI i ne d. The International News Service gives us a picture of a beautiful summer day with the long swe I I of the sea and the couple in the boat -- also of an airplane falIing out of the sky. The huge mass of wood and steel seemed to be falling right down on the couple in the boat. It just missed them. The p plane hit the water a nearby and exploded with a terrific roar. The little boat rocked crazily in the violently disturbed sea and nearly turned over. Then the sea became calm again. 1 w ■ 1 2 3 4 5 0 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 61631—5M AlRELAfci£_Aa(UQEIiI - 3 On shore a man was receiving a present. He was Lieutenant Pierson, the pilot, who had just landed in his parachute. Somebody walked up and gave him a greenish-yellow,writhing, worm- I ike creature -- a caterpillar, the way you initiate a man into the Caterpillar Club. You hand him a caterpillar. As it was Lieutenant Pierson's first parachute jump to save his Iife, he was entitled to membership C^~ <£«rwv«^_ in the Caterpillar Club, wh ich^cons ists of men who in times of emergency in the air have taken to their parachutes. Page /^L 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1 £I££L Here's a report about United States Steel. All of the news agencies, the Associated Press, the United Press and the International News Ser v i ce , word that the United States Steel Corporation, the world's largest industrial concern, today reduced its dividend on common stock. It's a reduction of three dollars a share. The dividend used to be $7.00 annually. It is now cut down to $4.00 annual Iy. 21 22 23 24 25 —5M DIET BOOK Nov. ..ftit. p. minute, folks, while X feel my waistline* No, I'm all right. ITm the kind that doesn’t get fat. I just naturally belong to the skinny branch of humanity. In my family it’s my father who does the dieting. He manages to keen that boyish figure - almost. But it takes a bit of doing. Well, I’ll bet a few of you folks are saying -- ’’What’s the idea? ’What the dickens has set this chap going on the subject of waistlines, plumpness, avoirdupois?" It’s like this:- I read an article in this week’s Literary Dlge t which everybody ought to read. The Digest has gone to headquarters for Its Information. The Digest editors have consulted the Journal of the American t-edical Association and nass along to us a sound and sensible warning about over­ weight. I’ll just give you one or two sharnly-^ointed facts. The Digest, quoting the medical a thorities, tells us that the mortality rate is lowest among people who average a few rounds above their natural weight before the age of 35. That Is, if you are younger than 25 your best chance of life is to.weigh PIET BOOK 2 a fev - but only a few -- nounds above the average weight for your particular build. For reo'nle over 35 the lowest mortality weight occurs among those who are a few pounds under average weight. In other words, when you are more than 35 years old overweight is a serious danger. The Digest rolnts out that there are two kinds of danger. Overweight itself is bad, but in addition to that Is the feet that most -'eo^le who are overweight Indulge in certain habits that "Ut on their excess poundage. For example, you may eat too much, or exercise too little. These habits in themselves ere dangerous, and excess poundage may be Just a sign end a signal that you are living in the wrong way. And then I have here a dirking from the New York Times, with a statement by Health Commissioner iVynne of New for.< who v/arns us that while overweight may be bad, some of the ways at that neorle use to reduce weight are even worse -- you know - those drastic methods that some solks, especially the ladies, indulge in. We are told that there is only one safe way, and that is by reasonable exercise and by a reasonable scientific ______ _________ DIET BOCK - 3 diet -- no, none of those torturing, fanatical diets, but a sound and sensible one. V.’ell, what is a sound and sensible diet? That’s what many people have asked. You can be perplexed and bewildered by all the things you hear about diet - mostly just qua eke y and nonsense. You’ve got to go to the authorities to get h the real facts. And that’s what I did, I went to Doctor LneXle Axtel, who has written a book called "Grow Thin on Good Food.” It Is printed by Funk and 7/agnalls and is available in the bookstores or can be had by mail from the Literary Digest publishers. And what a dramatic story that book tells. Doctor Axtel relates how some years ago she weighed 203 pounds. And she’s not a tall woman. She stands 5 feet two and a half. One Sunday morning uoon waking up she took a good stretch, and it v/os then upon ooening her sleepy eyes that she noticed how fat her arms were. It shocked her. Ana right PUTT BOOK - 4 then she determined to grov; thin. ’’Being a Doctor,” she writes, "it was uhthinkahle thet I should edort any proeecure thet would injure health." And being a woman, she didn't want to indulge in any reducing operation thet would injure her looks. "Being middling old, I feared and abhorred wrinkles," she tells us. And so she determined to grow thin without injuring her health or hurting her lo ks. As a Doctor she wes able to get to the scientific root of the matter. And slowly and carefully she -worked her -.ay along -- developing a system of growing thin on good food. 7/ell, she found the secret of slenderness. Her weight when she started in wes 203 pounds. She got it down to 128 -- a loss of 75 nounds. She did it without the slightest injury to her health or to her looks. Veil, I've gone ahead and told this exceedingly human story. The book xsifB goes on and gives the secret of the safe end sene method of keening one's weight down to a healthful _ _________ , i r ¥ DIET BOOK - 5 normal. I wish I could tell you some of the interesting facts disclosed, but e letter to the Literary Digest will bring the facts right to you - and I guess I’d better go along to this next bit of news, — o New York had en outburst of gang war tonight, A car suddenly anneared in a street In the Bronx, Machine guns opened fire. Evidently the tergets of the gunmen escsned. But bullets sprayed the sidewalk and according to the International News Service five small children were shot down. A ranie followed, _____ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5M IHEM Page. That cheerful melodious sound, folks, comes from the wheat growi ng section of Ohio. It's the birds that are singing gaily and joyfully. Peep, peep, sing the birds. And the Ohio farmers are uttering a few joyful sounds too - although you never heard an Ohio farmer say: Peep, Peep. I have a teIegram here from the Chamber of Commerce of V/apakoneta, Ohio. It tells us of a new scheme that the merchants of V/apakoneta have devised for easing the critical situation in the wheat growing section. The farmers^are growing more wheat than they can sell, and so the merchants of V/apakoneta have started a campaign for buying v/heat. tvery person who has the price is rec-uested to buy two or more bushels of wheat from a farmer at seventy-five cents a bushel# And what is a man to do with the^two bushels of wheat when he gets^cf■ why, feed^NT to the birdias. The birds next winter will be WHEAT iwsm*:r- tickled pink to get those countless grains of wheat. The merchants of Wapakoneta are conducting their propaganda in a big way. They ere urging everybody to buy those two bushels of wheat and feed the birds. And the idea is catching on. Storekeepers are displaying in their show windows the wheat they have bought. Automobile owners are carrying signs on their windshields, signs that read - Ifve purchased my wheat, hov/ about you? ^nd so the Ohio birds next winter are going to be fed -lentyfully end well until they ere as round and rlump as butterballs. And that’s why out at V.'anakoneta they are singing: Peep, peep, and that’s the last cheerful birdlike peep out of me tonight. So, SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW. I