#jumpology

Gaitskell did - but Bevan didn’t!

YET GRACE KELLY DIDN’T MIND...

MR. PHILIPPE HALSMAN (right), who started all this jumping business, is an ingenious and thoughtful fellow. During the years he has been visiting the celebrities of the world and asking them to jump for him he has been putting in a moderate amount of mental exertion about the way they do it.

When Mr. Bevan was asked to jump he threw the photographer a suspicious look and refused. Mr. Halsman attributes this reluctance to the fact that the British are a seagoing nation. Rather charitable of him, really, since Mr. Bevan is not much given to pacing the poop, though he has rocked a few boats in his time.

But there was no shrinking by his skipper, Mr. Gaitskell. He jumped all right - it was shortly before he became leader of his party - and see how he jumped! Now hear the relevant principles of jumpology as put forward by Mr. Halsman.

Jumpers are broadly of two kinds - the Reachers and the Crouchers. The Reachers set themselves a target above them, the Crouchers try to clear "an obstacle."

Here we have one of each: the Politician and the Princess - though when Grace Kelly executed the charming manoeuvre on the right she had not yet married and shouldered the responsibilities of State.

To a jumpologist, reaching for the ceiling denotes ambition - reaching with one arm, a particular ambition, with both, general ambitiousness. Sometimes the arms seem to be supporting something; then the jumper feels he is the sole support of his family, his firm (or his party?) Open hands denote a mild, relaxed character.

To jump with the knees bent. like Marilyn Monroe, is to jump like a child. It means that somewhere deep down the jumper is a child still. But in a really energetic jump (and Miss Kelly certainly looks energetic) it can be a sign of fighting spirit and competitiveness.

And if, like the Duchess of Windsor and Grace Kelly, jumpers take off their shoes first it means they are worried that something might happen to them or their shoes.