Seeing Hands

WE DON'T KNOW about you, but when one mentions a PETE SMITYH SPECIALTY, we automatically begin to smile and prepare for the deluge of belly laughs that follow. Oh sure, we know there have been many done in a serious tone; often in a highly informative and educational about some here to for little known subject matter.

WELL WHEN THIS short came on between feature films over Turner Classic Movies the other day, we were, to say the least, flabbergasted! Not only was it not a farce replete with Pete Smith's droll narration giving power and direction to Stuntman/Actor Dave O'Brien's hapless behavior in trying just about any everyday activity. but it was an overwhelmingly success at bringing on the tears.

AS AN OLD adage states, "Truth is Stranger than Fiction." This is perhaps the finest example of the veracity of this platitude. What was dramatized and then featuring the actual, live, flesh and blood man whose story was being told.

IN THE OLD, proverbial; nutshell, the young boy is placed in an orphanage, following the death of the father; which further complicated the severe economic strife the family was suffering. The boy gets blinded for life in a baseball accident.

BOLDLY THE BOY continues at his hobby of model plane building; which leads to his becoming a most valued technician in making sensitive aeronautical instruments. Being 1943, his talents and carefully skills are most needed and appreciated.

IN THE END, MGM and "a Smith named Pete" are reminding just that we are all valued in the international effort to defeat Fascism be it in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.

SO LET US say; "Thank you, Mr. Pete Smith & Company!"