Variety (Sep 1933)

VARIETY LITERATI Tiies(hi7» September 19, 1933 Qertrudo Stein's Bio0 There's some kind of poetic jus- ;tlee in tbd fact that 'Autobiography of Alice B/'Toklas' Is ^oinfif rapidly Into the best seller class^ Book was written by Gertrude Stein, although 6nd wpuld never suspect it tintll readiufir the laet paraerraph. The titIe"lB funny. It's neither an auto- blog, nor about, nor by Miss Toklas. It's a book of chatter and irossiPv Miss Stein, perhaps the most im- portant writer of the day, in the book gossips about the people she's meti She seems to have met every- one of importance in the past and present generation. One notable ex- ception is James Joyce. That makes the book so much more Interesting, because so much more biased. Miss Stein and Joyce, one or both, head all lists of important writers among tho^e alive.. ■ Joyce and Stein are opposite ^- trein^s of .present literature. . Miss Stein has influenced practically 'every, writer alive—at least,, those 'using the English , language. Froim Stein' stems Anderson, from, both stems Uomingway. Miss Stein's work is .not. understood' by many people, bUjt; ill critics give her a front seat from the standpoint Of inapprt_and.lnfluence,..whether_thfty like her or not. As she says In her book; . .'In the. English'language^ In her time. Miss Stein is the only one/ She undoubtedly Is that. . Best argument for Miiss Stein Is •Three Women,', published by her -in 1905 or spmething like that. It's a . direct, inescapable . forerunner of ^enilngw^y^ and an other naodern shprt story writers. . . ^Tet It was way back theii—and Preiser, ten years ■ Jater^ .couldn't publish his books be- .cause too 'modern.' Alice Toklas Is Miss Stein's sec- retary and housekeeper. Bpok Is wTltten In Plain, simple English-for general. consumption. Names like Picasso, Juan Grls^ Erik Satie, Isar dora Duncan, Eliot Paui^ Jean Coc- teau, I3r. Whitehea,d, Sherwood An- derson, George Antheil anft Ernest Heihingway, float through the pagres in a constat stream. It's exhilar- ating reading. Best Sellers ighta Screen writers, especialiy free- lahcers^: are closely .watching devel- dpmehts In Lois Angeles in the case of Frank Dolan against Columbia Pictures, set for trial In Superior court Sept. 29 6n the scenarist's charges that studio without proper, compensation incorporated hi9 orig- tnar 'Hero' In the picture 'Ann Car- vel's Profession'. Involved in the suit are issues re lating to an author's rights in un published and uncopyrlghted. liter ary wares, frequently In dispute be- tween writers and studios. Preliminary skirmish was lost by Columbia and Sam Brisking, gen- eral manager, when through- demur rer they tried to establish the con tention that: * (IX An idea* mental conception, theme or plot, although set forth on paper, is not the subject of prop erty ,ahd when once disclosed may be used by all alike; (2> An authoif of a literary com- position loses his exclusive owner- ship therein and Jn the representa tloh or expression thereof by volun- tarily delivering and submitting the composltiph to another; (3) At common-law a motion plc ture made from a novel or synopsis is not an infringement of the novel or synopsis. Superior Judge Emmet Wilson overruled the demurrer, sending, the case to trial on merits; Court ruled in effect, that Dplan's. story, on the testimony already submitted, was a product pf the plaintiff's mind used as a basis for a picture, aiid there- fpfe belonged to him. Studio's answer to complaint, to be pursued at the trial, is that polan ^as hired for three weeks at $2()d per stanza to jielp adapt 'Ann Carver' and that this compensated •for ail rights and claims he might have had. in the picture. Dolan is demanding an account- ing and profits in ihe plc which is said to have brought over $250,000 Ba«t Sellers for the w^k endina Sept. lOr us reported by the Amerloan News Co., Inp> Fiction 'The Farm' (12.50) .....By liouis Bromfleld 'Anthony Adverse' ($3.00) ..................By Hervey Allen .'No Second Spring' ($2^60) .....«.*« By Janet Beith 'Two Black Sheep' ($2.60) ...By Warwick Deeping •Miss Bishop' ($2.00) .....................By Bess Streeter Aldrlch •Fault of ihe< Angels' ($2.60) i........ ♦ P*"^ Horgiux M'on-Fiction 'Crime of Cuba' ($3.00) ;... .By Carleton Beals '100,000,090 Guinea Pigs' ($2.00) By Arthur Kallpt and F. J. Schlink liarle Antoinette' ($3.60) i......................By Stefen Zwelg :'Iilfe Begins at Forty* C$1.S0) .......By Walter B. Pitkin 'Twenty Tears A Growing* ($2<50) ........... By ItfaurlceO'SuUivan •Arches of the Tears' ($2.76) ................By Halllday Sutherland Wide Open for Hearst From Inside conies a report that Hearst is sounding out possiblli- Ues In. St. John, N. B., for an after- nooii and miornlng , sheet. St.. John, once with seyen .dailies publishing Bimultanepusly,. has had only two dailies for^the last seven years, due to mergers. The New Brunswick Teiepitonp Company, a public util- ity monopoly., owns. the 'Telefiraph-. Journal,' morning, and ' 'Times- Globe,' afternoon, vritTx the assist- ance of the New l^ruiiswick Power Company, owning street rMlway, gas and electric services in St. John : and environs.' The advertising rates, with the monopoly In control, were In- creased 100%. The public utilities' control lias cut off squawks against the services.iarid financing and.the rates changed, for telephones, street railways, etp. Efforts to establish dpposition to Uhe public utilities' monopoly In the press field have failed because of the banks frowning on the Intro- duction of such conipetitibn, and. the Inability of. local parties to finance, without assistance from the banks. During the past year the em- ployes of the two ..joint dailies In St. JTohn have been cut In their pay thrice, each for 10%, However, the advertising and circulation rates have not been reduced. Magnet Pack Tommy Smith Is back as editor of Llverlght'a. Smlili, one of the eniartest editors In the country, ivas the backbone of the Xdverlght ot' ganlzation for years, but dropped put during the recent bankruptcy and reorganization. With Lii'veright losing such im- portant 'writers as RoDinsoh-JefCers, Eugene 0'Nelll, Sherwood Anderson and Jakob Wasserman, .among others, the company seemed in a bad way since reorganized k fe'vv weeks ago by Arthur Pell. Smith wEis approached to come back and build up a strong new list, mostly— of necessity—pf younger and new names. He told Pell he'd come back If assured that the company had a sufficient cash base. With proof of this, a few days ago, he moved his desk back In. Turmoil in Havana As everything else In Havana, newspapers have felt the. Machado downfa,li. as strike has followed strike. First the newsboys went out demanding that newspapers raise their price to 6c. When tiiat was settled, the re-, porters asked for a minimum salary of $20 weekly for reporters Sand deskmen^ with-$10 for the assistants, or legmen. Most, papers raised the salaries of a few and left out half of the editorial staff. New conflict and, mor<e talk ahd talk till flnaUy they.took back half of^hose let out. Gonzalez Mora, business manager of El Pais, h^ted b7 the whole staff, of the paper, from printers' "devils up to editorial writers, resigned un- der, picturesque conditions^' A group of eight reporters 'with gruns In their hands asked hlih to kindly resign for the gppd pf the paper and his health, and . he obliged. Raympn Zaydln, whP for years was e.^iled In New Tork, returned ^nd Is npw^n cha.rge oif El Pais. Fate of St. Paul 'News' Dpings Pf the past Week have given an Inkling of what the Pioneer Press-Dispatch,' recent purchasers of the 'Daily News,' in tend to do with the latter' sheet—, if they decide not to fold It entirely. When the „ purchase was com pleted, erstwhile 'News' owner. Ne- ville lEleay, and his advertising man- ager, Thompson^ were out. On Frl dky (16), the 'Dispatch' announced J.' B. Van Hom^ for 11 years asso- ciated 'With the 'P.P.-D.,' has been appointed busness manager and ad vertlsing director of the ^'News.* Liast week also, Fred Strong, 'News' city ed,' found himself giv- ing orders to his dad on the copy desk. Strong, ^r., for many years toiled, for. the Ppposlsh rag. The boys on the 'News,' not a lit tie dispirited over recent jchanges, don't care whether school keeps or not. General opinion- around town is that the 'P.P.^D.' will fold the 'News' jUst as soon as the current unfavprable public reactlph dies down. Sitting Pretty G»M GauVitler l0 to have her -see-! ond novel published In Oct.,: Alfred lang handUnff it. . Uke' heir flir«t» Cabbiiges and H^trlequintf the lo- cale Is the middle west—Kansas City this time—and the title 'Spprt- ing Lady* with the period from ftofi 70's to the present day. Like 'For Men Only' the chief character is a madam,' and Miss Gauntier express- es the hope that Mae West sees it. The author is practically uin- tupwn tP; thie^ present .generation, >Ut in the first decade of the cen- tury she was the sceharlst-star .of the old Kalem Co., playing leads In all the early productipns before Alice Joyce was added to the pay•? roll. She wrote 'From thd Manger to the Crotis' and played the Madonna. Some years ago she went to Stockholm to live with her sister, the wife of a millionaire, and in October her brother-in-law Will open a winter home in Paris. They will go back to Stockholm for Ciiristmas and she may come back to the States In January.. She was ovejC about three, years ,ago. Bonfils'Will County Judge Luiford ruled that one clause of the yfW\ of the late F; G. Bpnflls, of thiS Denver 'Post,' Was ; contrary to public pPlicy and was an ..Incentive to; cause BonflTs' ditughter, Mrs. Mary Berryinah, t6 divorce her husband, Clyde V. Ber- ryman. The will give Mrs. Berry-, man $12,000 a year as long as she remained the wife of Berryman and $26^000 If she ceased to be his wife, ^he court granted the ex- ecutors ten Lays to take an. appeal, but as only members of the family are execUtprs, no appeal is expecte,d. This Is the second , of the clauses of Bonfils' will that have been set aside. The decision of. his widow to take a widow's half of the estate was entered on. court records, last week. The will g9.ve Mrs. Bonfils $60,000 a year, which at her death would have gone to a daughter, Helen. Accofdlng to state law, the widow can claim half pf the estate witiiout regard to any pro'vlsipns made for h@r In the wiU. So she turned doWn the $50,000 a year and will repelve $6,263,010.60. The estate is valued at $12,616,021. Pub*s Wife Sue^ enlarging alienation of attectlona xit hep husbaifd» FraiiK B. Chambers, publisher .of fi.grouJo of Burlington County (N. J.) publications, Mrs. Helien Wilson Chambers, of pai, ayra» N. J., has Instituted suit in e Supreme. Court herd, against EliziLbeth Brelsford and her mother, l^ary Emikia Brelsfprd, Also of pal- myra, for $60,000 each. The Chambers' were marled at Elkton^ Md., on September 1«. 1913, They iiave twp- ohildren, Mrs, Chambers' petition demands $50,000 each from Miss Brelsford and. mother. Accprding to; the attqrnejr for the plaintiff, the suit is a' result of a raid staged last July 2 on an apart- ment in an Atlantic City hotel. Miss Brelsford has' been employed as stenographer to Chambers. Sex Apiieal-~Geogr«phy • <3ord (Varibt*)- Sinclair, back hohie from his ' SO.OOO-hiile' globe- girdling jjiunf for the 'Toronto Daily Star,^ Is at work- finishing his sec- ond travel-tome, with the publishing date^ set fpr 6c^ 6.. . Tag is 'Apibling Thrpugh Asia.! Tome, will .be brought put;.in..Canada byB. Gundy, in :he United States by Farrar & Rein- hart);-and In Londpni Biigiand, W John .Murray. , , Th'^i publishing trio handled' iSlh-' clair's',flrst book, 'i'Pbt'-loose in In- dia;*':.' . ^Ambling Through. lAEfia' will also Pari^ some natl-ve att; particularly nudes. Sex art is ihtehdeii as a sell- hg p.Pintr". but' iangie of jeCzzed-up ge6'i:raf>hy. may keep; the volume out of the'school'llbraHes. Tan(|iem. Ambitious project 'of a 'quartet of Itterateurs is'the'simultaneous pub- llcatioA' of two im'onthly mags, one to be devoted to literature and the .other to current topics. Title of one will be 'The Xilterary Arts,' and the other is to be known as 'The Ameri- can Scene.* Behind the enterprise are James Leveson, Gerard Boblchaud, Norma Mark and Liaurenoe C. Woodward. Cohtrlbs asked to take it In buttons Until the mags can get set. Tired of Quiet •Sherwood Anderson, who's been a CQuntrr editor In Virginia for sev- eral years. Is a bit tired of. It and figures, city life .might be okay now, He's coming to New Tork in a few weeks and will take up his resi dence here for. the winter, at least. Like most of the rest of the scrlb- lerS he's moved his publisher, inci- dentally, taking hi.: writings from Iiiverlght ^.o S..ribners. That gives Scrlbncrs bptli Anderson, and his pupil, Hemingway. Post A^ds Radio Dept. With the shift to a Ub format the N. T. "Evening Post' has added a daily radio chatter column and a picture to go with it. Paper's radio interest had previously been limited, to listing of program schedule. As- signment of radio ed handed A. M. Stein, who also co'vers music and art for the sheet. 'Post' is the sec- ond conservative tabloid in the U. S., pther being the "Washington News.' "'■ Helen Ten Broeck Dies Helen Ten Broeck, 59, one of the earlier women theatrical chat ^jwriters, died In BelleVue Hospital, New Tork, Sept. 16^ Chiefly known through her work on 'Lieartder Richardson's Dramatic News,' around 1895, and later as the 'Miss Manhattan' oc the 'Morn ^=^inf=T6i5g:rat5hi'"=^=^==^^='=^^^ West's 'America*^ Nathaniel West left Hollywood- for New Tork last week to work on his new novel, 'America, America' Tome will be published by Har- court Brace. "West has been on the Coast for the past three months. Eagles;Bring Hope ''Black Mask' is the flrst pulp mag to feature the Blue Eagle on the cpVer. "With story rates of all other pulps at rock bottom levels, the har- assed-flctipn factory boys are hop'^ ing that mPre maga will follow suit. The lads believe a Blue Elagle would make a better meal than one of those wolves they are continually finding at their doors. Script Collectors First instance of collectors show- ing interest In .motion picture scripts is that of 'Alice in Wonder- land' at Paramount. Studio hais made up 200 scripts for distribution to the various departments and branches. They are mimeographed copies of the original adaptation by Joe Manklewicz with each camera setup illustrated by William Cam- eron Menzies. No offers have been made for the original^ however. Several book-' sellers in Hollywood are bidding for copies. ;Bidaing"sta;rtcd:a w;eek ago at $10 with the price npw up to $12^ lUustratlpns by Menzies are partic-. ularty interesting to collectors as they show not only the stpry's char- acters but the varipus technical no- tations for the technical crew. One More on Radi Fan radio mags> which are grow ing rapidly in number, will be fur- ther increased In November with a new one Called 'Short Wave Radio.' Sponsoring the forthcoming mag is Standard Publications,. headed by jipuls Martin and Robert Hertzberg, Last-named will also edit. With the dollar dpwn to 13 lire Instead of the gold standard 19.50, Rome newsdealers have had to drop prices Pf tJnlted States publications to match. Varibt'T for example, Is now sell ing 3.50 the copy instead of the former five .Jlre. All other publica tlons are down in proportion. inner' for G. A D. Grosset Duhlap have pUt out another lovely book in 'Dinner at Eight.' Play was prlglhally pub- lished by Doubleday & Doran, biit G & D's edition, had illustra'tions from., the film. Nice, print job and With a couple dozen stills from the films. Plays in. book form don't often sell well, but Girosset& Dunlap man- aged to dispose of about 20,000 copies of 'Cavalcade.' This one ought to do just as well. Just as Bi First issue .of 'Story' as a month ly, two-bit magazine, has ten stories and is about the same size as previously at the 56-cent rate. One story is .by Theodore Pratt, who got into trouble in Majorca in the Balearic Islands not so long ago, He was ■Vabiett correspondent there. oney This Time Claiming to have prpmpted an actual bankroll now, Lionel White Is talking of reviving his former mag, 'Short Sliorts.' The publication Priginally went about three Issues, Not a single contrib was paid, but White promises to pay off on past obligations if and' when the mag Is resumed. Future of 'Short Shorts' went short short when the Eastern Distributing Corp. toPk a dive. Dis- tributor was unable to pay off, hence White could not pay off, either. 'Today' Nears Most of the copy already in for thie initial issue pf 'Today,' the mag which Rayihphd ". Moley, the former brain-truster will edit, and the pub lication may reach the stands the first week in October. Yinceht Astor not singly on the publishing end. Mrs.. Mary Bumsey and W. AveriU Harriman also fig- ure. "V. McNitt, the newspaper syndicateihan, and who is said. to have been responsible fpr the Idesi, hai^dling the business end.- rapewin Crashing Charles Qrapewin, former vaude actor now picturing, expects .• bigr time publication for his whimsical nbvel, 'The Town Pump,' Which re Cehtly got a. limited coast publica- tion by Perry B. Striker Co Grapewin has a good yam. with plenty laughs in his book, which has been a sell out In the Holly wood colony. 'Cfcerp Was Good rewery Gutzh Gazette' of. Bis bcci Ariz., is an eight-page weekly that is high'-lited by a number of salty columns which kid the western story pulps, Hollywood pictures and local politics. In addition, it boasts a page in Spanish and uses quotes from Cicero Cor fillers. Chatt«tr Fanny Heaslip Lea. niay remain in Paris Indefinitely. Mack Kraikei and George Bpyle are .CQ-opIng on it ghost Job for Mary Nolan's autoblogtaphy. Couple papers bidding for the serial rights and a book publisher In mind, but nothing set. Jay Piatt, former Hollywood p.a.. Is back In the Village writing the libretto, of a musical comedy satire ih the 'Of Thee I Sing* Vein. Another author "who couldft't be held by the reorganizers pf Live- right's is Charles Grayson, who has taken his hew script, 'Original Sin,' which has an exotic Florida back- ground, to Alfred H. King. Trebor Tims, author of 'Knock and It Shall Be Opened to Tou,' is Robert Smith spelled backwards. Willis J. Abbott, one of the Christian Science Monitor' editors, has written his reminiscenes. Titled Watching the World Go By.' Margaret Case, the "Vogue' m.e., back from the Tyrpl with * couple of yodels. Ben Ames Williams, the 'Sateve- post' scribbler, has taken up flying, but has yet to write an air yarn. George MilbUm's collected.'Amer- Imerk' and 'Harper's' short stories, will be brought out by Harcourt,: Brace, under the title of 'No More Trumpets.' 'C_P_S)tnopolitan Magazine' has con- tracted with Somerset Maugham a series-of short stores. 'The Letter,* which Maugham later made into one of his best plays, originally ap- peared in 'Cosmop' as a short story. Burns ManUe's 'Best Plays of 1932-33' Comes_£)ut this week. Nine ... of the ten plays picked are Ameri- can. Doris Schneider has succeeded May Cameron as assistant tp Wil- liam Soskln, the 'Evening Post's* book critic. Looks like that $20,000 prize novel award to Janet Beith for her 'No • Second Spring' may have been worth it. Pre-publication printing of the book on this side alone is al- ready over. 20,000 copies, .Dodd, Mead will reprint Shaw's plays in pocket-size volumes to sell for $i per. Derrydale Press has taken Mar- garet Daingerfleld as technical ex- .peEt--loitits=turt.bo6ks.-= John Mason Brown reported do- ing a book on. the'Broadway drama commentators. First issue of Percy Waxman's 'Black .Bat', mag is out. Eugene W. Sweetland, publisher, 39 East 10th street. New Tork, in voluntary bankruptcy; $21,900 In debts, no assets.