ST HOUR - Winston Churchill

heard, and ultimately published theoutstanding quote reference IrrepressibleChurchill (1966), followed by a morescholarly work, Winston Churchill onAmerica and Britain (1970). She was alsoinstrumental in behind-the-scenesefforts that brought Sir Winston hishonorary American citizenship, awardedby President Kennedy in 1963.Halle (pronounced "Hal'-ee") wasthe daughter of a wealthy German Jewishmerchant and an Irish-Catholicworking girl, whose father co-foundedHalle Brothers department store inCleveland. She grew up in an ecumenical,intellectually charged atmospherethat left her without prejudice or pretensionand with an eclectic range ofinterests. After one boring year at Smithshe took New York by storm, captivatingGershwin and making her apartmenta mecca of the Roaring Twenties.The Churchill Societies hoped tobring Miss Halle to one of their Washingtonevents and made strong effortsto have her as a guest at the 1993 conference.But age and frailty had takentheir toll and common friends advisedus to desist. We missed a chance tohonor a kind and great lady, whoplayed a minor but not insignificantrole in the Churchill saga.-Adapted from an obituary by RobertMcG. Thomas, Jr. in The New York TimesDOUBLE TAKELONDON— American sculptor LawrenceHolofcener's double statue of Rooseveltand Churchill in New Bond Street hasbecome a favourite photo opportunitysince it was unveiled by HRH PrincessMargaret on 2 May 1995. The life-sizebronze figures are seated at either endof an ordinary park bench with sufficientspace between for passers-by topause for a rest and, as likely as not,have their photos taken. The patina hasalready been rubbed from the adjacentINTERNATIONAL DATELINESknees of both statues by folk eager to bepictured with the great. The manager ofthe watchmaker's shop overlooking thescene reports that, while American visitorsare well to the fore, they appear tobe outnumbered by Japanese! -DJHPORTRAIT OF CHURCHILL"Churchill at Four," the earliest knownportrait of Sir Winston (cover, FinestHour 88) is for sale. The portrait is fromthe estate of the niece of ThomasWalden, valet to both WSC and hisfather. Friend of The Churchill CenterJeanette Gabriel (see her article in FH95) has been commissioned as agent forthe sale of this painting, and offers todonate half of her commission to TheChurchill Center. Anyone interestedshould contact Mrs. Gabriel in Californiaat (213) 272-4547, fax (310) 271-1854.NOTHING NEWLONDON, MAY 25TH— The sale of theRobert Hastings Churchill collectionproduced a minor uproar over a letter inthe collection attacking Churchill fordeserting his mates by escaping singlehandedlyfrom the Pretoria prison campin 1900. Various academics werebrought forth by The Times to cluck softlyover this latest manifestation of feet ofclay. James Muller, Churchill CenterAcademic Chairman, writes: "Thecharges that Churchill acted dishonorablyare old chestnuts that were wellaired in the press early in this century,provoked various libel suits, all of whichChurchill won, and have been carefullyinvestigated and disposed of both by theofficial biographer and others. But it isinteresting that they should have beenturned into news again in the late 1990s,and that professors should have beenfound to take them as seriously as if theywere fresh new allegations. I guess thereis nothing new under the sun."BIG TOBACCOLONDON, JULY 17TH— For only £4830($7700) a Sotheby's buyer claimed acigar case which Churchill carried to thetrenches in France during the FirstWorld War, inscribed "Lt. Col. W. S.Churchill" on one side and "61 R. S.Fusiliers 1916" on the other, notes theJuly issue of Cigar Insider, courtesy of JoeFINEST HOUR 96/10ERRATA & CORRIGENDA, FH 95Page 6: Douglas Russell notes thatwe misquoted Churchill: the correctquote is "We shape our buildings andafterwards our buildings shape us."(Complete Speeches, Vol. VII, p6869).Page 14: Our notice regarding "aseries of summer dinner proposals"incorrectly credits them to the OtherClub of Toronto. In fact, these summerdinners were an initiative of the ChurchillSociety for the Advancement ofParliamentary Democracy and had noconnection with the Other Club or ICS,Canada. Our apologies to the CSAPD.Page 40: In Chris Bell's review ofthe Churchill-Conover Correspondenceappears the sentence: "There remainsa vast amount of material written byChurchill which has never before beenpublished, and still more which hasbeen published and is now all but forgotten,none of which is viable forcommercial publishers." Mr. Bellwishes us to stipulate that words beginningwith "none" were the editor'sand do not represent his opinion. 1confess I thought this statement souniversally accepted as to be axiomatic.I only wish there were publishersready and willing to publishthe many Churchill works we havebeen laboring to interest them in foryears. If there were, our job would bemuch easier. —EditorJust: "Churchill's smoking accessoriespop up at auctions with regularity ... andhigh prices. In 1995, a signed woodencigar box with one of Churchill's cigarssold for £3400 ($8300) and in March 1996an 18 karat gold cigar case with twocigars fetched £3795 ($8500)."Finest Hour's Utter Excess Awardgoes to the buyer of seven Churchill letters"devoid of blood, sweat, tears ormuch interest at all," according to reporterLaura Stewart, at an average of£1728 each. Miss Stewart adds: "Thisraises a maths problem. How muchshould the nation have paid for the1,500,000 letters and speeches it got fromChurchill's heirs in 1995? At this price,£2.59 billion. A reminder: the nation (viaLord Rothschild's Heritage LotteryFund) gave £12.5 million. Screams at thisoutrageous sum were heard loud andwide. It looks rather good now." Yep.