Daily Post - 08.10.1943, Page 2

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ÐAILY POST
DAiLY POST
BlaSahrlngurlnn.
la publlshed by
Editor: S. Benediktsson.
Offtoe: 12, Austursfarœti. Tel.
3718. Reykjavík. Printed by
AlþýSuprentsmlSjan Ltd.
Friday, Oct. 8, 1943
New Ambassador
Washington. — W. Averell
Harriman, newly appointed am-
bassador to Russia, was the
American representative at the
Moscow meeting between Stal-
in and Churchill in the summer
of 1942. He is one of the most
devoted friends of the Soviet
people and a strong admirer
of their gallant stand against
the German armies.
In March, 1941, Harriman
was sent to Britain to co-ordin-
ate Lend-Lease activities. His
job was that of informing
America about the British and
vice versa. It required a special
knowledge of transportation,
purchasing, and finance for
which Harriman's career well-
fitted him.
'Born in 1891, a son of E. H.
Harriman, one of America’s
greatest railroad builders, Har-
riman was a successful finan-
cier and industrialist in his
own right, chairman of the
board of the Union Pacific
railroad, one of America’s larg-
est rail lines, chairman of the
committee of the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad and partner and
director of other American
enterprises.
When the Roosevelt admini-
stration was combatting the
depression and unemployment
in the early thirties, Harriman
was called upon frequently by
the administration which reco-
gnized him as an industrialist
with a liberal social philosophy,
willing to listen to all points
of view. He was a member and
later chairman of the Business
Advisory Council of the United
States Department of Com-
merce and administered the
national recovery act in New
York state.
He was graduated from Yale
University in 1913, spending
his summer vacations as a
youth working on the railroads,
in offices and later as surveyor j
and locomotive fireman. His
relaxations consist of playnig
polo or visiting his farm in
Signe Hasso, Swedish Aetress
is New Hollywood Star
Signe Hasso, from Sweden,
is one of Hollywood’s newest
stars. She arrived at the mo-
tion-picture capital by way of
the New York stage, where she
had a small part in a play that
opened the night after the
Japanese attacked the United
States. Previously, however,
she had 30 European motion
pictures to her credit, and a
Signe Hasso, from Sweden, is
Hollywood’s latest addition
from another land. She has
written articles from many
parts of the world for a Swed-
ish newspaper.
stage career in Sweden, Nor-
way, Finland, Germany Aust-
ria, and England. At home she
had received the Scandinavian
award for the best perform-
ance of the year, both on stage
and screen.
When she was getting ready
to leave for the United States,
the editor of the Stockholm
Tidningen suggested she act as
correspondent for his news-
paper. She cabled dispatches
from Siberia, Tokyo, Honolulu
and New York. Her first signed
story from the United States
was an interview with Wendell
L. Willkie, the Republican
party’s candidate for the Presi-
dency in 1940. Her second was
an account of a visit to one of
President Roosevelt’s press
conferences.
Began Career When 11 Years
Old
Miss Hasso has a traditional
“Cindérella” background. She
looks as though she had en-
New York state. He is twice
married, with two children by
the first marriage.
joyed leisure all her life, but
she has worked since she was
11 years old.
“I became an actress to
earn a lviing,” she says. “We
were very poor. When my
father died I stayed at home to
look after my sister Helfrid
and my brother Valfrid, both
younger than I. I was five. My
mother was a writer and paint-
er. What we ate and what roof
we had over our heads, mother
paid for. But she earned very
little.”
Her first stage job was at
the Royal Dramatic Theater in
Stockholm, where Olaf Mo-
lander, now one of Europa’s
great directors, taught her to
act. At 16 she won the Swedish
scholarship to the Royal Aca-
demy school and at 18 became
the youngest actress ever to
play the title role in Sschiller’s
“Mary, Queen of the Scots”.
Meanwhile, she had married
and had a child. Her husband
was a businessman. Divergence
of interests led to an amicable
separation in 1940 when Signe
went to the United States. She
took their son with her.
*
Hollywood has two new foreign
stars, Pierre Aumont and Signe
Hasso. They made their U.S.
film debut in ‘íAssignment in
Brittany”, a story of espionage
in occupied France. Aumont
was a star of French films be-
fore going to the United States.
First Play In New York a
Failure
The play in which she ap-
peared briefly in New York,
after two years of waiting, was
a failure, but it won Miss Fasso
a few words of praise from a
prominent dramatic critic.
• “Miss Hasso is the most at-
tractive new foreign actress in
America,” he wrote. His notice
was instrumental in her going,
to Hollywood soon after with a
contract.
After Signe’s first picture,
“Assignment in Brittany”, in
which she played with Pierre
Aumont, the French star, Hol-
lywood accepted her as its
own. Today, however, the re-
wards of screen success are not
big houses and luxury. Signe
lives in a small housework and.
does her own housework and
cooking.
Two days a week when she
is not working she devotes to
her son, Henry, who goes tO'
boarding school. One day a
week she goes to a nearby
Army camp, where she serves-
doughnuts and coffee to the
soldiers, washes dishes and
helps entertain. On cccasions-
she broadcasts in her native
tongue to the 6,000,000 persons-
of Swedish descent in tbe:
United States.
News Shorts
Pittsburg. — Rear Admiral.
W. H. Blandy has disclosed.
that the Army, Navy and Mer-
chant Marine would require-
110 million ingot tons of steel.
next year. Steel production for
1943 is expected to total 88
million tons.
* * *
New York. — Rear Admiral
Emery S. Land, chairman of
the Maritime Commission, has
announced that since Pearl
Harbor, American shipyards
had produced 2,100 ships.
* * *
President Roosevelt has
asked Congress for an addi-
tional 750 million dollars for
the Navy for the fiscal year-
1944. The money is to increase
the amount in the naval stock
fund.
* * *
Washington. — The Federal
Communications Commission
has approved the merger of'
Western Union and Postal Tele-
graph. The merger is designed:
to give the nation one vast tele-
graphic system which will op-
erate efficiently and economic-
ally.