It’s Jimmy’s wonderful, musical life
QUESTION I watched the Glenn Miller Story once again recently. Was James Stewart musical?
Jimmy Stewart’S mother elizabeth ruth (nee Jackson) was a gifted musician. according to Stewart: ‘She had a sweet talent for music. She played the piano just beautifully. She’d give recitals … she could play all the classics and she sang too. She encouraged me to appreciate music … though i was never as good on the piano as she was.’
Stewart, best known for the 1946 classic film it’s a wonderful Life, was being selfdeprecating; it’s well known that he entertained the troops playing the piano during the Second world war. He played piano on the Dean martin Show in 1968, too.
Stewart could also play the accordion. His father alexander maitland Stewart owned Stewart’s Hardware Store in indiana, Pennsylvania. twice a year the circus came to town, and as Stewart recalled: ‘there was one fella who played the accordion, and when he couldn’t pay his bill, he gave Dad the accordion … and Dad gave it to me and said: “Here, son, learn to play the accordion.”
‘i knew how to play the piano a little, so i could pick out the keys, and then it was a case of figuring out how to squeeze the thing. it took a long time, but i really came to love playing that instrument.’
He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton, where he joined a musical theatre group. Stewart earned a degree in architecture in 1932 but never practised it. instead he joined the University Players in Falmouth, massachusetts, after he graduated. there Stewart met fellow actor Henry Fonda. the two would supplement their income by busking, with Stewart on accordion.
you can watch Stewart playing the accordion in the 1957 western Night Passage where he sings you Can’t Get Far without a railroad. Gareth Thomas, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
QUESTION Where does ‘Inner’ London end and ‘Outer’ London start?
INNER London is the central boroughs as defined by the London Government act 1963, which abolished the former counties of London and middlesex. inner London is the area administered by the former London County Council and consists of Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, tower Hamlets and wandsworth plus the royal Boroughs of Greenwich, Kensington & Chelsea and the City of westminster.
the City is also regarded as part of inner London, though it was never part of the former LCC; it has always had its own administrative authority, the Corporation of the City of London.
Outer London includes most of the former county of middlesex plus parts of essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, which were absorbed into Greater London in 1965. it consists of Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon, ealing, enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, merton, Newham, redbridge, richmond upon thames, Sutton and waltham Forest plus the royal Borough of Kingston upon thames.
many people regard the boroughs of Haringey and Newham as part of inner London, but Haringey is made up of the former boroughs of Hornsey, wood Green and tottenham, all of which were in the County of middlesex. Newham was formed from the former essex boroughs of east Ham and west Ham plus North woolwich, which used to be within the County of London.
John Neumuller, Ruislip, Middx.
QUESTION What is Mexico’s immigration policy?
MEXICAN immigration policy is based around the 1974 General Law of Population, which mandates that police co- operate with federal immigration authorities in the arrests of illegal immigrants. its provisions are harsh.
Foreigners are admitted into mexico ‘ according to the possibilities of contributing to national progress’ (article 32).
immigration officials must ‘ensure’ that ‘immigrants will be useful’ for the country and that they have ‘the necessary funds for sustenance and for dependents’ (article 34).
Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets ‘ the equilibrium of the national demographics’, if they are deemed detrimental to ‘economic or national interests’, if they break mexican laws, and if ‘they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy’ (article 37).
Penalties for illegal immigration include fines, imprisonment and expulsion from the country.
in 2011, 93 per cent of undocumented immigrants in mexico came from three countries — Guatemala, Honduras and el Salvador.
in 2011, then President Felipe Calderon instituted the 2011 migration act, which mitigated some of the 1974 act. the new law guarantees that foreigners and mexican nationals will receive equal treatment including access to education and health services.
For residency, the law proposed a pointbased system based on education, employment, and scientific and technological knowledge.
Critics of mexico have accused its government of hypocrisy and suggested that the United States need only adopt mexican immigration policy to police its borders adequately. T. E. A. Davies, Kidderminster, Worcs.
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