Page 14 ..
RECORDS by PATRICK GRAY
THE CHINA - MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1957.
The choir-girl buys herself mink
ARION RYAN, 21
Matrawberry blonde
with a double Devon cream complexion, had come to lunch in the West End straight from the scented salon of her hairdresser.
"The man's a doll," Miss Ryan said of one of the Britain's most celebrated barbers.
"Just a living doll."
Sam Wanamaker, lunch- ing near by, was also pro- claimed by Miss Ryan to bo a "doll--just a living doll."
I felt as though I wero eating in a toy shop.
"I admire," said Miss Ryan by way of unnecessary explanation, "men."
4
ROMANCE? YES
Why then, I asked, was such à devotee of the oppo- site sex still unmarried at 24?
(This is a question which usually gets the reply: "Oh, am much too busy with my carcer to actually marry the darlings.")
I
Miss Ryan, however, pro- duced this one: "Regularly overy week I fall in love with someone on the same music-hall bill or television show. But when the show Is over I find
boy friend is going off to play in Aberdeen while I'm book ed for Plymouth. The life is hardly conducive to long ongagements and ultimate marriage."
#1
my
Miss Ryan then ordered her meal with all the as-
of surance
West End veteran.
Which she is far from being.
It is just three years since band lväder Ray Ellington (n living doll, no doubt) found her singing in a Leeds dunce hall. She was rondering with a consider- cf emotion able amount "Embraceable You" and she impressed Mr Ellington enough for him to give her a contract to sing with his band.
backed by A "Until then," Misa Ryan Happines said, I had done most of Ding Dong Rock-a-Billy
Wed- Ing. a number which, I think, my singing with u school speaks for itself (N18105). choir or In the bath." will be released next month.
with the (Not
school choir.)
I wis
"As the silk stocking sales- girl daughter of a Leeds crane driver
not the *must fashionably dressed girl in town. So Ray gave me £20 to buy a dress."
A £125 DRESS
She came back with three dresses-and £4 change.
"How green can a girl be?" said the singer, who although she dresses with fewer frilla than Mra Gerald Lexge can to-
duy manage to buy ณ stage gown Lant will mark down her bank balance by £125.
told Misa Ryan, who Cm- loys a publicity agent to in- form the British Press that at 57, 2in. her vital statistics are 38-26-38 ("I don't like discuss- ing these things in person, you know"), that i remembered, her firat music-holl engagement with Mr Ellington's band. It was in Clasgow, and she was billed as Girl Who Sings Marilyn Monroe Walks.
The
She said: "I never did under-
stand what that meant."
Neither did I
I don't think anyone did. 125 GUINEA GOWN
Meanwhile, hear Marlon Ryan
AS
ROBERT PITMAN looks; BOOK at the strangę struggle PAGE for the soul of
reluctant soldier
:
S the horror approached across the frozen sea the most desolate village in the world waited in panic.
Where could anyone turn? To the on a Nixa extended-player-east, for a thousand miles, lay a waste That Ryan Gal (NEP 24041).
of creeping glaciers. The nearest in- Any habited hut was 450 miles away. moment now the horror would arrive. Perhaps it was already out there in the twilight across the snows.
Best of four tracks is If Can't Take It With Me When Go, I Just Ain't Gonna Go,
After listening to which, no one la going to call her the girl- next-door type. -
Men and dogs set out across the jer.
In the wilderness of ice a man despaired
The year was 1943. The place the tiny village
She smoulders like hot coats of Scoresby Sound in North-East Greenland. And the horror? It was the small force of well-armed Ger- on a carpet.
17
A British Crossword Puzzle
13
5
Like
Ho
15
16
|[17 19
20
Five months ago Marion Ryan teft Bay Ellington to find her show own size-three feet in business. "They said I had Tow with Ray over money," she
said. "But fal wasn't true. who has a row with her boss and then receives a 135-guinen gown us a farewell present?"
ACROSS
1 Placard, at a pillar-box? (8),
4 Room for future travel! (5),
1 'Owzat? (8)..
Could be put on a Jarse (G),
15 River Crosing (4)
12 Too, too, wildly fleshy (7).
With talent as her only gim- mick Marion Ryan can present healthy progress report on her life since she started to negotiate
business the show jungle solo.
She is acquiring a consider- able reputation as a recording artist and has already acquired mirk stole, bought partly from her recording royalties. She can claha, without much fear of contradiction, to be aliger, for instance (5). Britain's most televised singer.
21 Adhering faithfully (4). She can afford to eat fashion-23 Drop of male (5). ably in the West End-even 24 What conscience may make one
the 23 Extreme sustering (3). when she has to pick up bill herself. And she can holl- 26 Flague (8). day fashionably (which she is doing in Majorca).
Her
disc latest
for Nixa Thas ballad --[
called
15 Dash'd dory business! (8)
18 Nut one-alded 141.
|17 Horse colour, (4).
20 Moske turret (7).
126
22
DOWN
1 A point of departure (8).
Ż Bigh-rating Human (8).
3 Mid up food (4),
5 Hont eqvimdi
customer (8).
& Fold up (8).
Dib (51.
11 It's a gitt' (93.
1 ly carrier (8).
13 Cloudy (8),
14 Bring about (8).
mans who had landed in Greenland north of Scoresby Sound.
To the Eskimo people who lived there no horror could' be worse. They were people for whom the Sermon on the Mount was the only code. The idea of war, of one man killing another, was beyond belief.
34 men....
Who could defend, them? Some young Danish settlers had formed a sledge patrol. But one had already been killed by the Germans, an- other Marius Jensen - was captured.
Patrol leader Poulsen, with two of his team.
were
ed the hut his fingers too frost-bitten to open the door. It seemed on it ho might die en the very doorstep. Önly after struggling for minutes did ho manage to turn the handle with his wrists.
A bear....
Howarth met Marius.
Marius had an emaipo story too. Like Paulsen he had fol from the Germans at night. Be- hind him he could hear them chosing him. Then,
he struggled on smid the frozen acn-ice, he saw something loom up in front of him in the moon- light. A polar bear.
Imagine the dilemma. Marius had a gun, but if he shot the bear he would give away his position to the Germans. Thero seemed just one way out. A polar bear never meets In Animal which does not race away from it in. fright, So when a Fr stands hls ground. or advances, sometimes a bear will take fright and run itselt.
been brillionily told in THE Howarth went to Denmark. Ho SLEDGE PATROL (Collins, met Foulsen, the leader of the Then the amazing thing 158). The author? He is David Grenland sledge patrol.
Howarth, the man who wrote happened.
timo Poulsen described the
Marlus walked on slowly tom The Shetland Bus and We Die when the Germans hnd sud wards the tear. It did not move. Alone.
denly attacked his ico-bound both two in
those wor books radio station at night. He had They stared at each other while Howarth the
told how patriots in escaped into the darkness. The the moon gleamed. Suddenly the man's nerve broke. He aimed the frozen north ot Norway snow was thick. There was 45 and Ared. The bear dropped Buffered against the Germans. Cegrees of frost. He was wearing dead.
It was only weeks later Little wonder thea that just his shiri and trousers.
that Marius learned that the Howarth
Yet somehow should write up the
Poulsen man- Germans had already given up pocket war in Greenland. Here aged to reach his friends 100 the chase. They were counting obviously was another plain tale miles to the south. Etis first ob-
force him back to on the outd of heroism in a cold climate. jective was a hunter's deserted the hut.
Or at least, that's how it hut, with a slove, many miles seemed to Howarth at first, away. But when Paulsen reach-
Suddenly, with a howling of dogs, a sledge and men appeared from North. One of the men carried a gun. But he was not a German, Marlus the thought had been
tured..
Was
He
ma
they cap-
And his companion? He was
Н 1UT postble the scimmander of the dreaded
18 Making for smoother progress 22 In my view it's a book 1).
Germans. Marius had taken him prisoner and had brought him 300 miles.
Without their leader the Ger-
(0), mans advanced no further. Soon
they Greenland altogether.
left
FRIDAY'S CROSSWORD—Across Minstrel, 6 Landed, D Selector, 11 Mol-ance, 12 Dose, 15 Egged, 18 ore. 19 Rook, 22 Fissuren, 21 Gadprene. 23 Answer, 20 Contempt. Down: 1 Plans, 2 Gully, 3 Menge, Idm, & Seraires). 6 Rallon, 7 Luiked, 6 Lever, 14 Genie, 15 Disent, 10 Tragic 17 London, 20 Drawa, 21 Uners, 22 Fres 23 (Ginger) Stop.
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
"COME ON
POP!
TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF
THE SCALES /
"TURN THAT THING DOWN
A
The exploit of Marius Jensen was the strangest Incident in the century's strangest war-a war for halt a continent fought uul between two armies with a total strength of just 34 men. Now the story of that war hos
Do As You Are Told
"BETTY LOU!
GET IN HERE
THIS INSTANT" / "
Weight
IT'S OUTA THE
LONG. BALL PARK.
"MAKE IT THREE |REGULAR AND
ONE RAW HAMBURGER /
COPA, HSP NY GINETAL
7-7
CORP. TH WORLD NEW CLANLAR
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Dearest Maud,
12 May. 1930.
I go to 29, 'Wimpole Street to meet Sir John Thom201 Walker tomorrow who will give me an adious potion that will put my kidney to the test, I shall be at 28, Wimpole Street for two nights.....Dear Maud, i love you more than 1 ency did, and I always loved you,
-From George Moore Letters to Lady Card (Hart-Denis, 27. Ed.). At date of writing-30 years after he fell in love with the wife of Sir Bache Cunard--novellst Moore was 78.
By Harry Weinert
"SAY CHEESE, PLEASE /
ނ
"KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL, BUSTER /
GO AHEAD!
TELL AIM YOU KNOW THE
{MAYOR }^
So gradually Howarth placed the story together a stirring,
In straightforward story the Until by Howarth tradition. change it took an astonishing
Cwlat.
Mysterious
Howarth vlaited Greenland. He looked at the zowdrifts and the ridges of frozen sou which Marius had passed with his German prisoner.
over
alert
He watched two men, and yelling, as they expertly manages a dogadodiga,
Suddenly the starting truth leoped at him. No one could drive a sledge en a journey..ilke that and keep a man captive too unless, consciously or subcon- aciously, the man- Wanted to be captured.
Why?
Back from Greenland, Howarth searched for the German officer. His name was Ritter. Howarth discovered that he was. now working as third mate in a Swedish oll tanker,
Howarth kept track of the tanker's route round the world. When it docked at Fawlay, in Hampshire, Howarth was at the quayside. As they took him to Ritter they said: "He's too good for a job like this."
And
Howarth found they were right. The former commander of Ger- many's troops in Greenland was a man who radiated goodness.
Inspiration,
Slowly he told Howarth how, isng before the war, he had oncó spent five years: in the Arctic. As a
devout man, ha had found inspiration in the inno- cence au plety of the peoplo who lived there, Then in 1942 he was chosen to lead Germany's expedition to set up a weather base in Greenland.
Ritter was proud and happy to be chosen. Yet there WaA one problem: G man called Schmidt. Schmidt was
the Gestapo's agent on the expodi- tion. On the Greenland, count he gave political lectures to keep Ritter's men loyal.
As
**
The effect on Ititter, wrs odd.
he latened to Schmidl's fanatical lectures Ritter looked at the Arclic landscape. outside, He remembered -- the simple Christian life led by the people in the little snowbound villages. He remembered, that this was a country with no locks on, the doors, where the little mountain huts were always left with the slove ready for the next who came along,
13500
Schuldt sensed' Ritter's mood. He, noticed Ritter's despoir when one of the Danes" was kiyed. | By a series of hints, he threaten- to report illo to Gestapo
ed
Lothe
Ritter was worried about his faintly at home! Ho wanted to do his duty, or a Cierchen, officer. But when, in die of those Utua huls the Danish prisoner Morus beized his gùn sind. Look him prisoner In turn, Rifter Madly camo with him," fila problems of conscience mera Jolved.
The Gestapo and
had struggled fox' a" inan'a soil, And the Aretio bad won.