Week of January 15, 1952

President Truman asks Congress for roughly

$5 billion in new taxes and warned that 1952

will be “a year of strain” beset by inflationary

dangers as the nation forges ahead toward

peak rearmament. In submitting his annual

economic message to Congress, Mr. Truman

declared: “it is even more true of 1952 than of

1951 that we cannot have business as usual,

consumer enjoyments as usual or government

programs and services as usual. If we succeed

in attaining a durable peace, our expanding economy can double our standard of

living within a generation…”

A crippled DC-4 transport plane, homeward bound from the Far East with 43 on

board, undershoots an airport at Sandspit, BC and crashes into the sea. All were

lost.

A Northeast Airlines plane nosing through rain and heavy fog toward LaGuardia

Field lands by mistake in the East River, but all 36 persons aboard were saved

before the airliner sank. The plane hit with such a jolt that seats were ripped

loose, somersaulting passengers forward. There was no panic as passengers

escaped through broken windows and waited in waist-deep water.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill yields to the appointment of

an American as supreme allied naval commander in Atlantic

waters but won a promise of million tons of scarce U.S steel for

Britain. The steel will be exchanged for British tin and aluminum,

badly needed in America’s rearmament program.

In Washington, Prime Minister Churchill solemnly promised

Congress that Britain will help defend Europe and he cautioned

the United States “above all things” not to give up its atomic weapons without an

ironclad guarantee of peace. “We stand together under Gen. Eisenhower to

defend the common cause against violent aggression.”

Gen MacArthur removes himself from the Presidential race. MacArthur’s name

had been entered in the Illinois primary in a last-minute move. Despite the fact

that he said he did not seek the Presidential office, MacArthur has been

Week of January 15, 1952

President Truman lays down a “road to security” and a spending program of

$85.4 billion for 1952-1953. It’s the largest proposed federal budget sine World

War II and the largest in history (so far). The President declared that an

“enormously expensive’ build-up of strength at home and abroad is needed to

check the threat of Communist aggression.

Total casualties of U.N. and Republic of

Korea forces in the Korean War reach

414,495. U.S. losses total 104,383 with

16,057 killed in action and 75,602 wounded.

A newly developed bulletproof jacket made

of cloth will soon be tested by combat troops

in Korea. The Army says the jacket has

stopped 45-caliber bullets fired at pointblank

range. Made of laminated nylon, it contains

no metal and is far more flexible than

previously tested jackets. The sleeveless

garment reaches to the waist and weighs

eight pounds.

The Census Bureau releases its final 1950 figures of the top cities:

New York - 7,891,957

Chicago - 3.520,962

Philadelphia - 2.071,605

Los Angeles - 1,970,358

Detroit - 1,849,568

Baltimore - 949,708

Cleveland - 914,808

St. Louis - 856,796

Washington DC - 802,178

Boston - 801,444

San Francisco - 775, 357

Pittsburgh - 676,806

Milwaukee - 637,392

Houston - 596,163

Buffalo - 580,132

Followed by (ranking) - New Orleans,

Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Seattle, Kansas

City, Newark, Dallas, Indianapolis,

Denver, San Antonio, Memphis,

Week of January 15, 1952

Oakland, Columbus, Portland OR and Louisville at #30.

Sports - Charles Comiskey II resigns as vice-president and secretary of the

Chicago White Sox in an apparent bid for the club presidency held by his mother.

Hollywood news - Passing - Jerome Howard - better

known as Curly of the Three Stooges. He was 46. He

died at Baldy View Sanitarium after a long illness

following a stroke in 1946.

He leaves his widow, Mr. Valerie Howard and their

daughter, Janie, (3 1/2), another daughter by a former

marriage, Marilyn (11) and two brothers, Moe and Shemp

Howard. He’ll be interned at Home of Peace Cemetery

near Hollywood. Born in Brooklyn, he had been in

California for the past 20 years.

Actress Gene Tierney files suit for divorce against Oleg Cassni, onetime Russian

count and studio designer who she married in 1941. She asks for custody of their

two daughters.

Radio news - FM station WFDR New York (104.3) says it has a new budget and

can operate another year - albeit with 25% less money. Last year owners the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union folded two other FM stations -

WVUN, Chattanooga and KFMV, Los Angeles. FM stations are finding it hard to

survive. Will WFDR survive? (answer no).

Television news -

Dr. Allen B. DuMont, president of DuMont Labs tells the FCC that his company

would apply for TV stations in Boston and St. Louis if the final allocations provide

more VHF channels (2-13) than the Commission has proposed.

Philadelphia TV viewers will get a treat as

WPTZ-TV (channel 3) signs a new contract with

Republic Pictures which will give the station

exclusive TV showing of 101 Westerns and

features never before shown on television. The

contract was made to insure a fresh flow of films

for WPTZ’s “Frontier Playhouse” - the show

credited with blazing the way for daily cowboy

pictures on television. It’s the highest rated daily

show in Philadelphia. WPTZ gets exclusive rights

Week of January 15, 1952

to such Republic stars as Johnny Mack Brown , Sunset Carson, Don Barry,

Smiley Burnette, Bob Steele and Duncan Renaldo. A similar contract was signed

with Monogram earlier last year.

Harold Fellows of National Association of Broadcasters forecasts a flood of

dollars when the TV license freeze is lifted this year. He estimated that $700

million would be invested in construction alone of the 1,800 new TV stations

expected to be built in the next few years. An FCC study shows a range in TV

station costs from $219,000 for a VHF outlet in a community of less than 50,000

to $541,250 for a UHF station in a city of over a million in population.

Monday Night Television -

CBS - Mama with Peggy Wood, Man Against Crime, Playhouse of the Stars,

Live Like A Millionaire

NBC - Those Two, We the People, The Big Story, Aldrich Family

ABC - Life With Linkletter, Mystery Film Theater, Trouble With Father, Crime

With Father

DuMont - Captain Video, Twenty Questions, Not For Publication, Down You Go,

Front Page Detective, Cavalcade of Stars

Cavalcade of Stars - Art Carney, Kitty Kallen, Four Beachcombers.

Week of January 15, 1952

Ringmaster Jack Sterling presides over the “Big Top” on CBS Sundays

Top Grossing movies of all time (to date)

Gone With The Wind (1939) - $26 million

Best Years of our Lives (1947) -

$10.4 million

Duel In The Sun (1947) - $10 million

Samson & Delilah (1950) - $9 million

This Is The Army (1943) - $8.5

million

Bells of St. Mary’s (1946) - $8 million

Jolson Story (1947) - $8 million

David & Bathsheba (1951) - $7

million

Going My Way (1944) - $6.5 million

For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943) -

$6.3 million

Welcome Stranger (1947) - $6.1

million

Snow White - $6 million

Sergeant York (1941) - $6 million

Week of January 15, 1952

Blue Skies (1946) - $5.7 million

At the movies -

The Greatest Show On Earth - Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston,

Dorothy Lamour, James Stewart

Room For One More - Cary

Grant, Betsy Drake

I’ll Never Forget You - Tyrone

Power, Ann Blyth, Michael Rennie

Starlift - Doris Day, Gordon

MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Gene

Nelson, Ruth Roman, Janey

Wyman, Gary Cooper, James

Cagney

Captain Boycott - Stewart

Granger