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I also take exception to the use of certain scenes of British troops which, from the spoken narrative, one is led to believe that they are American. I also take exception to the so-called hand-to-hand action shots. These are absolutely fakes as, if I am not mistaken, they came from a War picture made in Hollywood in either 1916 or 1917. ... If you note the uniforms as worn by the participants you will find they are not authentic, especially the German helmet worn by the so-called German soldier. This helmet is correct neither as to shape nor appearance and in reality was made in Hollywood from papier mache. . . .
I take exception to the statement that these pictures are from secret files and never before shown; I admit that certain of the scenes I had never seen before but the majority I have seen before. A great many of the scenes can be found in the files of the U. S. Signal Corps at Washington and have already appeared countless times in official, released Signal Corps films. A similar production to The Big Drive entitled Powder River used a number of these scenes. The Eastman Kodak Co. in their Kodascope files offer a number of these same scenes as copies of official Signal Corps films. . . .
J. BURLING JARRETT
The Jarrett Museum of World War History
Atlantic City, N. J.
Albert Rule, producer of The Big Drive, which he claims to have assembled in the kitchen of his Battle Creek, Mich, home, insists that his film is authentic.—ED.
Greater
Sirs:
My jaw dropped when I read in your review of The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God that Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw ''for years has twinklingly told the world that he is a greater man than Shakespeare" (TIME, Feb. 27). If your reviewer can produce any evidence that Shaw has ever, twinklingly or otherwise, proclaimed himself a greater man than Shakespeare, I will send him TIME for one year, and a crate of California oranges.
If he thinks to quote Shaw's preface chapter heading "Greater Than Shakespeare?" let him first note the question mark.
DONALD B. KIRBY
Glendale, Calif.
Said George Bernard Shaw: "If my play Widowers' Houses [1892] is not better than Shakespeare, let it be damned promptly.'' Let Reader Kirby send his TIME subscription and his oranges to No. 4 Whitehall Court (130) S. W. I. London. —ED.