TRAVEL CLUB

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27190, 6 November 1953, Page 2

TRAVEL CLUB

ADDRESS BY FATHER R. OCGORMAN

"The Sidewalks of New York” was the title of an interesting and entertaining address given at a meeting of the Canterbury Travel Club yesterday by the Rev. Father Ronald O’Gorman.

who recently returned from a trip overseas.

Father O’Gorman described New York shopping centres, designed to overcome the .traffic problems of the city. At the shopping centres, he said, parking space was provided for from 2000 to 3000 cars. . Purchases were* made at supermarts—shops stocked with almost every kind of goods where shoppers were provided with “wire perambulators.” Shoppers chose the articles they required, put them in the perambulators, and as they left the mart, they paid an efficient cashier for their purchases. The cashier was the only official of the store to whom the customer spoke.

“Americans are the victims of advertising,” said Father O’Gorman. “In the press, on the radio, on television you can’t escape advertising.” Even the undertakers advertised coffins claimed to be waterproof, and asked:

“Is seepage disturbing your loved ones?”

Father O’Gorman said he had been amazed by the intense pace at which Americans lived, and by their vitality. They seemed never to rest. Television had made a violent impact on . the social life of the people gnd had caused a revolution in their way of life equivalent to. that caused by the car. Americans could not understand how people could live without television. Sports were well covered by television programmes; people were taught by television to cook; celebrities visiting the country were shown on the screen; and Congressional inquiries into criminal activities were televised for all to see—children as

well as adults. Sir Joseph Ward (president) presided at the meeting. Mrs J. Hugh Fraer and Mrs John Denford were hostesses. The singer was Mrs Nola Hamilton, fo?-whom Mrs J. H. Cocks was accompanist.