MR. MENKEN TOOK A VITAMIN PILL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 121, 17 October 1941, Unnumbered Page

MR. MENKEN TOOK A VITAMIN PILL

But Refused The Hotel Salad

HO is Arthur Menken? Who knows Arthur Menken? Mention his name in a theatre during the newsreel shorts, and one in a thousand New Zealanders might be aware of the fact that he makes many of the pictures they see on the screen. The GovernorGeneral knows him — Menken photo-

graphed him the other day. They know him in the R.N.Z.A.F., because one of the Air Force pilots flew him over Mt. Cook a few days before he took his camera to Government House. They know him in the Department of Internal Affairs, whose organisation enabled him to cram New Zealand and New Zealand’s war effort into a tour of seven days or so. They know him in Hong Kong. They know him in Chungking. W. H. Donald, who talked the same week for The Listener, met him in Nanking. Vincent Sheean, who stopped in Auckland at the beginning of this month before moving on to China, knows Mr. Menken. They know him in the Philippines, and they know him in Lisbon. March of Time knows him, and Paramount, and Pathé. And they know him at a Wellington hotel, where he asked for salad and received lettuce leaves and potatoes boiled in their jackets,.and a dried-up tomato, and a few spring onions, and two lamb chops to which he said "Oh boy, these New Zealand lamb chops!" He left the dining-room table, after dropping his serviette in somebody else’s place, without actually picking up the bones and eating as per Henry VIIL, but he looked as if he’d like to, and as if only the immediate prospect of seeing Sir Cyril Newall, in his Air Force Marshal’s uniform, could tear him away from those same lamb chops. A Man in a Hurry Arthur Menken is an inch or two under 6 feet, wears a moustache, speaks with an American accent smoothed out by much travel, uses an "Eyemo" camera, usually exposes about 1,000 feet per newsreel item, and has most unusually pale blue eyes. There wasn’t time to ask him if he’s married, because Mr. Menken hurries. We'll say he hurries. He hurries so much he takes his vitamins in pills and gives interviews while he eats.

You sit at a dining table with Mr. Menken, and across the other side a local business man, wearing an R.S.A. badge, and somewhat short of hair, talks to a comrade beside him. "I think we did a good job of work this morning," he says. "Do you think so?" says his friend. " Yes," says the man with the badge, "we covered a lot of ground." Meanwhile, Mr: Menken is maintaining a difficult conversation with a waitress about the salad, asking his interviewer what sort of beer he likes, discussing lamb chops, Japanese bombing ‘planes, American preparedness in the Philippines, lamb chops again, W. H. Donald, who sits at a nearby table, Harold Gatty, whom he just missed in Auckland, Vincent Sheean’s wife, with whom he once travelled on the same ’plane, lamb chops again, the Empire Air Training Scheme. . Between mouthfuls-Mr. Menken concentrated on the chops and lettuce, which made it comparatively easy to talk and eat at the same time — he (Continued on next page)

MAN IN A HURRY (Continued from previous page) said that he had spent three weeks in Chungking-three weeks of "unmitigated unpleasantness." They were bombed about three dozen times a week while he was there. One of the shelters got it during his stay-not the big one that made the cable news two months ago, but. These. Japanese bombers, were they any good? "Well," he: said, "I’ve been asked that question a lot lately. Every time I’ve said that these Japanese bombers have had more bombing practice than anybody else; and . . . when Lieutenant Osama, up above there, drops a bomb, it’s bound to hit something." The People of Japan . He’d been in Japan, seeing where the bombers came from. "No, you don’t get, to see much." But he did see that the common run of Japanese people hadn't any ideas about conquest, or totalitarianism, or anything else but keeping alive. "They’re too poor, anyway, to be interested in much." All the jingoism, said Mr. Menken, came from the top down, and didn’t get very far down. In Australia, Mr. Menken’s greatest achievement, according to himself, was to get a shot of an art class sketching willow trees. This tickled him to death. He’d not seen anything like it anywhere, for a long time. Almost anywhere else the students would be arrested for making maps of a military objective. Is it really as bad as that? "Yes, it’s bad all right." His big personal difficulty was getting from place to place. " You get no place these days without fighting for your ride." It was tough, all right. But the lamb chop wasn’t tough. Mr, Menken carved the last inch of flesh with great delicacy and obvious appreciation. The Attitude of America In the Philippines he said he had been impressed by the preparedness-Ameri-can military preparedness. Things were going in a big way there. What about the U.S.A. ,itself? "Well, I’m never there, I don’t know. ‘But what I think is that America can’t decently sit back and let the work be done by someone else. The President may be doing the missionary work, but I think, ‘when action does come, it will be because the people tell the President in no uncertain terms that they want action, We can’t let England go under. We might as well get in now and clean up the -- while we’ve got an ally." ile cy 7 Sundry Other Subjects Mr. Menken was reaching the stage where the Governor-General was looming in his mind more importantly than The Listener. "I’m going to take pictures of him," he said, "and in his uniform — head of the air training centre, that’s the line." Mr. Menken was enthusiastic about the Empire Air Training Scheme. "My story," he said, "will be that New Zealand is a_ reservoir of manpower. You don’t see much war here when you look first, but if you get out and 'ouk for it, it’s here all right." On this subject, he said no more, but, while he was waiting in the lounge for

coffee, he made time to get enthusiastic about Parliamentary broadcasts. "I listened to them on the ferry steamer, and I noted the interest the people took. I thought, if the American debates were broadcast there would be a revolution. In a filibuster, they drone on for hours and don’t worry so long as it jooks all right in the Congressional record. If they thought that all their constituents were listening I’m sure it would make a great difference to the histrionics of Government." A splash of water came on the window. Mr. Menken looked out at the E.P.S.

fire-fighting demonstration. "Gee!" he said, "and the first time I’m without my camera." Which reminded him, evidently, about Sir Cyril Newall, and his uniform. He led the way into his bedroom, put on his coat and hat, and was opening the. door when he remembered something. "Must have a vitamin," he said. " Carry these round with me. Big help too. It’s a nervous sort of job, this. Always on the move. Never know what'll happen next." Mr. Menken took a pill in his hand, changed his mind and took two, swallowed them, and went off to photograph