European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 03, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse Daily Magazine u i championing civil rights Turtle necked Morion Brando and mayor Lindsay take Goodwill stroll through Harlem. By Bert Kindig and h. D. Quigg up staff writers was a cold Gray Dawn and the Nayor of new York was hurrying to work in his limousine when he spied on the waterfront two longshoremen belting each other in a fight. The chauffeur squealed the car to a halt. The mayor scurried Over parted the two gave them a lecture on civil propriety and sped on to work. This mayor was a dumpy Little Man with a big Blade hat. He had a singular Devotion to duty and a towering gift of showmanship. When there was a fire he donned a rubber coat and fireman shard hat and charged into the midst of Battle. At whim he directed City band with a sure Baton at concerts. He led the american legion Parade pumping his Short legs All the Way. Opening the baseball season he doffed is jacket and fogged Over a few from the Pitcher s Mound. On the radio every sunday he spoke with High pitched rancor and homely rapport tipping his ire at tinhorn gamblers. I m warning you Erickson get out of town 1or confiding to the kiddies the lesson of a Dick Tracy strip dirt Money never brought anybody any he was called Butch or the hat or the Little Flower or sometimes by his adversaries unprintable name which he happily embroidered and tossed Back. He worked hard and brilliantly All Day and went out at night and lectured on municipal government. There never has been a show like it but now a Quarter Century later a sort of High style plus Glenior remake asunder Way somewhat reminiscent of the Era 1934-1945 of that master showman and political activist Fiorello h. La Guardia. New York has had 103 mayors. Woof them Jimmy Walker 1926-32 and Laguardia have been showcase Fig ures As nationally prominent As one can get without being president. Now the103rd, John Vliet Lindsay seems on the Way to make it a Trio. Lindsay. 46, presides Over the world s most Complex City with nearly 300,000 employees. Beginning this month it costs $6 billion a year to run. That s the country s biggest budget outside the Federal government. Consider just one of new York s prob up child "m0ti" Lindicy at ceremonies for new Center for the Blind. Tuesday september 3,198 the stars and stripes lems in 18 months it will have a million dwellers on welfare More than one out of every eight. Lindsay is a Man of style humor soaring Energy personal courage stun Ning Good looks intelligence driving ambition vote getting ability occasional bad taste in Public and alleged Blind spots in labor relations. He delights in the importance of the Job that is called the second toughest in the nation. When queried about interesting the vice presidency he simply asks Why he should take something less Thanh now has. This is it Man. This is the big Apple he says of his Job perhaps unconsciously falling into a bit of the argot of the ghetto people. He has a genuine feeling for them and he walks Amon them As a human and Friendly coolant these trying summer nights his Tower ing figure prominent on the sidewalks at least three times a week. Lindsay has been open in his Admira Tion of the late mayor Laguardia. When he became mayor two and a Hal years ago he put Laguardia s picture in his office and had his staff search around and find Laguardia s old desk. He installed it in the Little Flower former office now the Blue room and uses it in staff and Cabinet meeting Sand news conferences. He likes to identify with Laguardia political fusion St the Guy who gets things done incorruptible dynamic the common people s Man. Physically you could t find two More disparate characters. It s almost Mutt and Jeff. The Little Flower and the big was Short Pudgy dark with a face that could contort itself wondrously into masks both comic and acerbic or beam benignly. Lindsay figure to be envied by movie idols stands 6 feet 4, is slim athletic hand some has Blond hair parted from the left Temple Light Blue eyes that sparkle under to lights and an effect summed up by one observer everywhere he goes the women Are zonked by his or Laguardia was born in new York the son of an army bandmaster. He represented an East Harlem District then largely italian to the Congress. Hews a Reform mayor and he had the common touch really had , too was born in new York but into instant his lat father was an investment banker who started As a Wall Street messenger and he says of his Job this is it Man. This is the big applet 95 became a corporation Board championed civil rights for seven years As Manhattan s silk Stock ing District Republican congressman. As for the common touch a Republican who gets elected mayor in a City where registered democrats outnumber republicans nearly 4 to 1 must be touch ing something right. Lindsay thinks of himself As the first fusion mayor since Laguardia. In the instant aristocracy tradition Lindsay moves in the circles of the cultivated upper class. He went to private schools and to Yale where he is now the youngest admirer says but in spite of that his feeling for the Downtrodden i genuine. He has a real empathy with them. He s got a feeling for How it feels to have somebody dump dung on your head five times a tragedy of Laguardia s political life was that by the time he became Ripe and ready for the White House there was t a Chance for him he ripened in the Era of Franklin d. Roose Lindsay s time such Preemption is out. And the experts have no doubt that though he s Happy now with the big Apple his Eye is on the ultimate Apple. Here comes the mayor the cry from the Mouths of ghetto tots precedes by half a Block the Long striding figure of Lindsay on one of his nighttime walks. Sometimes he half drags along the Way four or five kids clinging to his left hand and Arm leaving the righthand free for autographs. He chats jokes with the older he walks with hands in pockets Debonair and Carefree but mostly he s Busy shaking hands. He s a physically restless Man who enjoy walking. Swimming and Tennis Are his main sports now. He once was a heavy smoker. Now he puffs an occasional consensus is that his walks about on Payo Page 11
