(3 of 5)
I still hope that a compromise may be reached, perhaps by the British Government inviting suggestions from commissioners appointed by the Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R. and China, such suggestions to be made after conference with Indian leaders. Such articles as yours are extremely useful in helping American readers to understand the very complex problems involved.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Malvern, Pa.
Voice of TIME
Having made my living (from time to time!) in radio acting and announcing for the past twelve years, it seems incredible that I should feel the slightest curiosity about a fellow Afra member! But I do, and that fellow is Westbrook Van Voorhis, whom you fellows were smart enough to sign up exclusively for the MARCH OF TIME broadcasts. He is so distinctly superior to any other announcer on the air—both in his dramatic narrative and his commercial "plugging"—that I marvel at the lack of publicity and recognition regarding him. Surely, anyone who has ever faced a microphone realizes that he has the toughest assignment of anyone who appears on the show, and everyone realizes what a consistently super job he turns in, week after week. His sharp sense of the dramatic, his absolute command of his voice, and his flawless sense of timing —those things don't "just happen," and especially under the intense pressure that is inevitable on the MARCH or TIME.
Personally, I'd like to know a little something about Mr. Van Voorhis . . . and I'd even like to see what he looks like. And maybe thousands of other people feel the same way. . . .
EDITH DOWTY
Evanston, Ill.
> Tall (6 ft. 1 in.), brown-haired Cornelius Westbrook Van Voorhis, 39 this month, has been on the MARCH OF TIME since 1931 (when it made its debut). He was signed exclusively by TIME, as its Voice, in 1937. Until then he had worked for some 50 programs, under at least five names. No longer anonymous, "Van" is now introduced under his own name to the world each week on MARCH OF TIME'S weekly broadcasts.
Onetime cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy, he inherited $100,000, quit the Academy, decided against a legal career (his father and grandfather were New York judges), finally took a slow trip around the world. An actor next, he played in twelve flops in 18 months, quit to try radio. He was an announcer on a small local station when TIME discovered him. In 1932 he married Constance McKay, whom he had met when she was the heroine of a Broadway play in which he was the villain. They have an eight-year-old daughter, Nancy.
Since Pearl Harbor he has helped MARCH OF TIME cinema make many films for the armed forces, has been guest narrator on several Government-sponsored radio programs.—ED.
Tenderhearted
Sirs:
I was reading the story you had in your magazine about wood ticks. I felt so sorry for the guinea pig and bunny. Why don't science use Japs to experiment on? Why should it pick on the poor animals?
JEAN FALLBACHER (age 13)
Chicago
"Conveniently (?) Forgot"
Sirs: