Letters

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE EDITORS FORWARD LETTERS FROM READERS TO OTHER PERSONS NOR DO THEY ANSWER CORRESPONDENCE MAKING SUCH REQUESTS.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Rather than presenting the usual group of congratulatory messages from notable persons and confreres in the field customary on such occasions we offer a series of letters from Friends of ONE, chosen to illustrate the truly remarkable stability of support and continuity of personnel which have blessed ONE since its beginning.

We could think of no better way to show what ONE means and has meant over the years than to have its "family" speak for themselves. Our greatest regret is that space requirements have compelled the shortening of some and the omission of others.

THE PIONEERS, 1952-1962

Dear ONE:

It seems a long time since we met in my home to discuss the new thing called ONE, back in the fall of 1952. At that time I had the honor of being its first financial contributor. My small check was given with the intention that it would be one of those acorns from which grow great oaks.

Since then I have been actively engaged in a number of ways, first writing in the Magazine's pages May, 1953. My first art work for the Magazine was the January, 1958 cover. Since then there have been several additional covers and story illustrations, most recently in October, 1961.

As a Member of the Corporation I have been pleased to serve in various capacities: as Chairman of the Promotions Committee for two years; in helping many of our Social Service cases with their legal difficulties; as staff engineer for several years, in charge of physical improvements; as Chairman of the Office Relocation Committee; since 1960 as Chairman of the Corporation, itself.

Shall we let that record tell how importantly I regard ONE?

George Mortenson

Los Angeles, California

Dear ONE:

As one of the three Founders who signed ONE's Articles of Incorporation it is good to see the other two, Martin Block and Dale Jennings, also represented in this tenth January issue of ONE Magazine.

My own work in the entertainment field. keeps me from doing as much for ONE as some of the others. However, I have attended as many of the Corporation meetings. as I could since 1952 and have twice given dance performances for the Midwinter Institutes (1959, 1961) as well as contributing art work for the Magazine on various occasions (Covers, April, 1953; December, 1954; June, 1955).

Tony Reyes

Los Angeles, California

EARLY BIRDS, 1953-1962

Dear ONE:

Early in 1953 I began attending ONE's editorial meetings. Maybe I should say they began attending me, under the dangling mobiles and on the orange-crate furniture our apartment then had. I was wearing bangs. Maybe all artists have such a period.

My first drawings were in the July, 1953, Magazine. My first My first cover the following month was the green job with squiggles and the caption "Homosexual Marriage." The postmaster stopped the issue and held it for a couple of weeks. I have never thought much of him as an art critic anyway.

Since then, as ONE's Art Director, I have had a good many more brick-bats and some praises. The work with three different editors -dynamic Dale Jennings, energetic, hardworking Ann Carll Reid and, for the last four years, with Don Slater has been fun.

Some of you saw my ad in the Magazine a few years ago, "Eve Elloree is 73." I'm not, but if you think I felt that way then at the lack of help we get in the art department, I feel worse today. Where are all of the artistic queens we read about?

Dear ONE:

Eve Elloree Tujunga, California

The sustained effort that ONE has kept going for a decade must be a record in journalism. It cannot fail to have its place in the long history of the freedom of the press. Quite apart from the quality of the material that has been published what has been the significance of ONE is that there has been skill in editing, in following a line, thin as the well-known razor's edge but with the added ordeal-test that this line has never been visibly drawn and is always shifting.

Talk of water divining and the uncanny skill of dowsers-beside what the editors of ONE have achieved, just tracking water sup-

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