Variety (Dec 1933)

56 VARIETY LITERATI Tuesdaj, December 12» 193S News Glad'Hahdii Ptist Sale Exceptional was the editorial in the New York Dally News Satur- day (9) which spoke d( the sale of the Eyenlrig Post to J. Po-vld Stern. Entire editorial column was turned over . to. a piece telling, how glad the publishers were that the sale, made possible.a continuance of the sheet. Fact that News is a morning pap^ir may account somewhat for Its good feelings, the Post thus not being a,ctual " competition. , Other things involved, too. Stern, .in Philadelphia, establishcid himself *as in favor oiE -the five day week,. as\ did the News in New York. In other ways he 'has felt similarly to the; Ne.ws publishers on paper manage- ment. Fact, remains, no matter what the Newis feel^, that the Post camje v4ry > close to Geasirig publication. Stern, himself, in telling about Ms pur- chase, of the paper, said that the annbuhcemeht . jiad been set up ready to be iriseirted iiito the hevys- paper announting, that it w6ulcr; cease publicatibn because purchased ♦by other .newspaper, .interests^ in New York-. Hjs deal, he said, was made just in the nick. of tim4. .He Wouldn't .name the other papers, but they were reported to be. a combina- tion of other evening sheets. Bidders for the Post were surpris- ingly varied. Bids started put slowly, as usual, but sijurted. A Sun-P6st deal fell through quickly. Tlie S.cripps-Hdward papeirs made a bid, it is understood, and one of the: strongest bids came from the Brook- lyn Eagle.. Eagle's idea was to con Speeding Up His Story Don Howard, news editor of the SaLlt Lake Gity Telegram* seemingly gets credit for re- pelal arriving when it did. Utah was all set to repeal prohibition in 9. big: splurge way via niatlpnal .raidlo hookup listening in to the vote count at T p. m. That would have ]t>een too late for .the Telegram, an aft- ernoon, she^lt. '^Howard, the story is, got. Inspired, phoned the chairman of the. Utah leg-i islatur:e's committee and told him hie had just jrecelved a wire froth Maine to the effect that state was rushing through a quick vote against liquor, thus tjakin? the honor away from Utah. Leglislators got excited, called a quick Caucus, got the voting machinery ready and' voted repeal at 3:16. Writers' Ud Looks Set Begins to look, ai though that newspaper gulid. thing may go placies after a.11. Seemingly there is how nothing to stop the organiza- tion of a national Institution. Or- g:anizatloq iiieet is set for Washing- ton Friday (IB) with about 400 newspapermen expected to be pres- ent from all over; the country. New York and Cievelahd Guilds have been the most activie in the tlnue - bpth papers .but operate and | npipvement. duilds have now been publish them from Brooklyn. !PauT | organiszed In more than 100 cities. Block al^o made a healthy offer: though. there is as yet no cPmplete New York Times until several days lineup anywhere available. Oullds before the deal , went through was I everywherie have been asked to send one of. the first bidders, but couldn't |.three persons, to the Washington get together with the Post owners on nioney. No mention made anywhere of how much Stern paid for the Post, but it is understood he put up a $300^000 cash first payment. He gets riot only all rights to the paper- but aisp the building it's published in. Building is seven years old. There's a small block of non-voting stock left in the hands of Curtis- Martin Newspapers... Etherized NoVel'rst Johri W. Clarke, radio announcer at KNX, Hollywood, breaks into the novelist field with 'The Absurdity of Being Alive,' to he published by The House of Dorg, Pittsburgh, rthur, 29, is the son of a subur- meet, If possible. Convention will be at the New, Willard Hotel, with General John- son to address the opening . lunch- eon. Afternoon and eveining ses- sions will be held to figure dut a constitution or working agreement and' elect national ofiflcers without holding the delegates there top long. New Yorlt delegation will cPnsist of President Raymond. Allen, John Eddy, Heywood Broun, Mprris Wat- son, Dorl$ Fieeson and Luther Hus ton. According to the New York Guild, from their office on 42d street, indi- cations are that therfe will be dele- gates from practicaily every large city in the country and a num1:er of smaller ones. Somebody's comr ing froni as far away as Santa Bar- To Fill 31 Glataes From Ray Long and Richard Q. Smith comes the firin's contribution to the repeal era* the 'Ofilcial Mixer's Manual,' by Patrick Gavin Duffy, who in an earlier day was by way of being a mixologist. His stock of knowledge'is now placed in the hands of all at a three-buck tax. Old timers will breathe a soft 'amen' to his dedicatibh to W. Johnson Quihn, of the old St. James hotel with a side nod to the late Horace Brockaway, of the bid Ashland hous.e^. oh Fpurth jay. Both bohifaces whose accomplishments still indear. them to eater as well as drinker, (remember the home made pies Mrs.. Brockaway used to make herself for the daily menu?) Following the new idea, the book of soirip 300 pages iis lopse. leat for- mat with the promise of a year's supplethents ' quartPrly..: Meantime there are pic -y drinks In the origi- nal volume to keep the experimenter busy. There are, for eixample, 228 pages of cocktail recij>es, sejparated into 38 divisions, according to bases, of which 104 pages are devoted to cpcktaila Pf a gin base (about .426 different sorts,) 26 pages with a whiskey base and smaller divisions for other foundations.- O.ne looks .in- vain for Fred's (BeekniiEin street) Coronation, but Fred made his own bitters which gave the essential fis'vor, and long ag'o Fred quit his biifC^t bar to go grand opera. There is also lacking the B. & C. cocktail, but Broad street's famous Milllori- aire cockt^t is present, though the very essence of the drinH is pver- Iboked. The lime is mixed with the other ingredients l»fore being shaken. Properly It should be squeezed into the drink after It has been strained into the glass. The dplnk shPuld be. imbibed at one in- halation, the mixture of the lime juice with the cocktail proper creat- ing the aftertaiste which was the MiTlionalre's peculiar. charm. By and large, however, headmaster Duffy has corraled them all, with a delectiable recip^ for mint Julep,. (the' first). Involving some troublp, but well worth those pains, and a brief added chapter on . wines contributed by Raymond Orteig. A novel angle is a series of platies of .31. styles of glasses, with each recipe of the several hundred In^ dlcating the proper glads for that particular dfjnk. Best Sellers That New Daily 1 Cpates' Third and Best That new daily Express, with ] There were three ypung . men in Arthur James in charge, it Is un^ the Paris Latins Quarter not so derstood. will hot especially, cater many years ago. All three showed to theatrical affairs. It is sched iiled to istart publication Doc. IE and will go but dally at five cients, with an attempt to reach sophisti- cated customers and the sporting element. Pai)er will also use several pages ba,n Los Angeles, newspaper pub- lisher. He ^ot the Idea for the I bara, California; Dallas, Texas, and novel he claims,, when out of .work, I Tulsa*. Oklahoma, he painted a sigh asking for a job, and. carrledvlt on his back for day after day in down town Lps Angeles. By-Liners' Field Day. Index on page one, first edition of _ the New York World Telegram the [.^^^g ^^ot^^nexpected by Bennett Cerf, Out o' Luck Leasers Cpurt cleaxance of James Joyce's Ulyss!6s,' which Federal Judge John M. Woolsey decided last week can be published here uhexpurgated, day. after repeal, resembled the stock market table, so many stories and credits were listed on what happened in the meiropolis. Every by-llher on the staff was assigned tP sonie phase pf the first day pf legal drinking, all seotions of of Random Hpuse,. who holds the American publication rights and who instituted the action to have the book' removed from 'obscene* piasslficatioh. Cerf,. when bringing the action, had,.Joyce do a foreword for the the city being covisred and many of American publication, and had th<^ the leading hotels, New Rah .Rah; On top of University going monthly,.after a successful trial pe- riod as a quarterly, come plans for another national college mag to be called Cosmos. Cosmos Publishing Cp. has been fbrnied to sppnsPr the new publica- tion, which gets its first issue out in January. Editorial group work- ing on Cosmos is headed by. Charles LIndlc>y Nathan, 3rd. I book set up. Random Housie will have the book out a month after the I declslpn. New legality ef the book Is not so [good for the bookleggers, who.found 'Ulysses' the most profitable of any I of the banned books. Bookleggers' price for 'Ulysses' has been around $10. ime. Changeth Things When Governor Rolph of Califpr.' nia wias run ning, fot* the guberna-- torial nomlhatiPn,. • Rob Wagner's Script in HQllyWood w*s the only paper' in southern California sup porting him. It Welifjomed him as the. gladdest glad-han(ier ill the west, a s\yell piirade leader and champion baby-klsiser.- "Then came the Stih .Jose .lynching, and With It the Srript folded its banner for Rolph. Cpyici's Mag. Pascal Cpvlcl, of the Covici, Friodc.bopk firm, to try his hand at mag publishing too. Covici Wilt ISTJt out a riionthly. which ho will call =^TlTO-=Yellow='ea:^==to--tiai'i^y^a==mis-^ cellany of matter. Initial issue In the spring, Covici meanwhile deciding on an editor. Govlei will continue aS head of Co- vici, Friede; Boston's Bystander Boston has a new mag fashioned after the New Yorker, and called The Bystander. Issued 6very other week. Editor is J. Poyntz Tyler,, with Edward D. Parent also affll- Iat«.d With the new publicatlpn. Cinema History Wilfred E. L. Day, Pne of the Corenipst English picturie men, an nounces his forthcoming history of the motion picture, which will be pubUshed in two volumes under the title of '25,000 Years tp Trap^^ja Shadow'.. Paired bpok. Will cdkl foxxr guineas • ($20). Day was iimong the earliest Workers in. the cinematographic field, though little known in this country, and it would seem that for the first time there Is to be Issued an authentic history of. the motion pictures, based upon documented evidence and backed by a vast col- lection' of rnachlnes and early film After the first subscriber edition there will be a che.ip.er reprint. Shuster Slated for Prez. »=N.6xt^PKesidcnt-.^-ot.^tha.=-NatioTiaL Asscoiatlon of ,I3ook Publishers." is siatod to .be W. Morgan Shuster head of Appleton-Century. Nomi natlnff committee will present Shuster's name for that ofllce at the annual meeting of the publishers' orpanlzatlori scheduled for . Jan. 16 an act. tantamount to election. Present executive olllcbr of the Rook Publishers As.soclation' is Case Canfleld. Rules of the organization forbid anyone holding office for two con.secutivo ycar.s. Protection for Novels Newman; Levy is an adept rhy mester and. knows his theatre. His new book "Theatre Guyed* (Knopf; 12) ought to get a nice play from show folks. It's his conception, in rhyme, of various prominent plays going from Gen6 O'Neill to Shakes- peare a,nd "East Lyiine., CHeverly done and very funny, plus some nice cartoon work by Rea Irvin. Incidentally, Knopf is trying something new in selling the 1}Pok Cover carries a note to the effect that the book will not be sold in a cheaper edition before 1936, if then Figured that might do away with the lads holding out until the tome lands in the cheaper sections,, habit that's cost book business plenty In the past couple years. Best Sellers for the Week .ending Dec. 9, as reported by the American News Co.* Inc. Ficti •Anthony Adverse' ($3.00) ;.,...........«..........By Hervey Allen 'One More River* (lO^ir........... ....By John Galsworthy •Oil For Lamps of China' ($2.60) 'By Alice Tisdale Robert 'Within This Present' ($2.60) ...........By Margaret Ayer Barnes •Bonfire' ($2.60) ....v^..................... ►!f>Sy Dorothy Canfleld •Rabbit In Arms' ($2.60) .By Kenneth Roberts N.on-Fiction •Life Begliis at Porty^ ($1;60) r....i • .By Walter B. Pitkin •Crowded Hours' ($8.00) i. By Alice Roosovjlt Longworth 'Timber Line' ($3.00) ....;.. ; <.....». .>........By Gene Fowler 'pur Time^: Over Here' ($3.76) ...... ,v.....;. .By M^rk Sullivan •100i{)0O;000 Guinea Pigs' ($2:00) By Arthur Kallet and F. J.- Schlink 'More Power to You* ($1.76) .........By Walter B. Pltktn cohsidera,ble promise a$ prose writers, standing a good deal aboye the mbb. One was Ernest Henriing- way who has arrived. T^e second was Robert MoAImon, who ;seems to have temporarily disappeared.- The third , was Robert Coates, who on racing, a la Morning Telegraph, seems now to be emerging, teritative plans falling for abPut l Coates'third novel Is'Yesterday's twelve pages daily, three on racing 1 Burden' (Macauley; $2), just piib- and the rest oh other hews, Society, ushed. It's h^s best, though he still niteries, theatricals and similar hasn't completely gapped the bridge, matters will be ea,tered to espe- ifs ^till a toughle from general cially. George Bradley will do the consumption sta,ndpplnt Considcr- Broadway column' and Benjamin de ing that Coates started by writing Casseres will bo dramatic during the Dadtt movement, he's critic. made, progress.' . There's continuity Venture is understood to have in 'Yesterday's Burden.' ample backing. .Figure on liquor I Coates wtis book, reviewer for the and similar advertising to put the New Yorker for a year or so, work- thing over. ling i^ongslde his old Paris pal The Morning Telegraph last week | James Thurber. Thurber, In Paris. cut its price from 10 tP 6c. Lieb Nat'l League P. A, Fred O. Lieb, former baseball writer on the New York Evening Post, Is slated for the post of di-r rector of. the National League's worked on the Chicago Tribune,i Now Thurber writes funny pieces &hd does funny drawings^ whilQ Coates writes hovels that are only half niisty ' and dedicates them to Thurber. At any rate, 'Burden* is gping to draw spme comment arPund. The boys are going to read it and talk publicity bureau. Cullen Cain filled ^ the Job for some years leaving it i;;^^^^-;^^^^^^^^^ 1^;* to work^pn a^Long Island weekly, in jj^t^^ggtlng, but his next book is the which he held a financial interest. ^^^^j, j^,, Cain is .npw connected with a paper' in the west. Lieb, who resigned from the Post several months agpi is said to ha.ve been offered the p.a. assignment when, the National League first eis- tablished the bureau, but declined it.; Carr .Back .Home Harry Carr, special writer on the Los Angeles Times, got in on the Majestic last week on the final lap of a nine months^ roving; commis- sion for his paper which took him. A .memher of the Post's sports UrPund the world and zig-zagglng staif for sometiriie, Lieb sponsored back and forth, particularly In the a trip of major leaguers to thelprient. Orient in the fall of 1931. He has I a daughter who Is ah actress. Where They Are Now W. B. J. Martin, critic of the Buf falo Courier, has originated a new feature for the Sunday editions under the heading of *'10-20-30 Yesteryear's Shows.' On the way back Carr took In the Nazi situation In <3ermany, dis- covering Prague, Czechoslovakia, aa the best source of news from the refugees who fled Hltlerland. L. A. Chatter , In Henry Charlton Beck's new The feature comments upon the mystery story, "Death by Clue,' th«> attractions current at local houses murdered man is a literary critic. 10-20-30 years ago with appropriate -j^eyr York scribblers have formed conteihporary references indicating Writers' League Against Lynch- wh.o is still who and what became | That protects publishers, too. New Masses Resuming New Masses, radical: llterai-y monthly which suspended publica- tlpn a couple of months ago is now refinanced and ready to start aga:in. First number under the new regime Dec. 29, with . Herman Mlchelson TBditing. He was; formerly Sunday editor of the- New York Wpridr Stanley Burnshaw. Is poetry editor and Wesley , John is handling ad- vertising. He's formerly of the Chicago Post. New Masses. reported having sufficient backing tP nmke a strong try for a run this time arid will pay for contributions. Ppcket Size Guide Harmon Tupper has formed the Crown Publishing Co. to issue ' a series of small bobks on the .use, preiiaration and serving pf liquor. His. first . will be a. general worlc on the' subject by Aloxahder Drcx, called 'The ABC of Wines, Cpck- talls and Liquors,' The Crown books will be of sucli a size as to slip into the pocket when both hands are required for the cocktail shaker. pf what in' connection with the old stories. Herald'Trib Shuffle. Quite a number of shifts on the editorial staff of the Herald- Tribune. Arthur Clarke has been named: assistant managing editor, moving up from the news editor as- signment.' Joseph Crahdall takes Glarke's—-former- job.: He— was fprmerly assistant night editor. Everett Kallgren who now gets CrandaU's '• old job was formerly .head of the cable desk and that job goes to John Price who was form- erly a cable rewrite man. book ilbr' In- Book. For 'Sailor Beware' is out in fomi. 'Kenyon Nicholson Chai-lcs. Robinson wrote the piece and Farrar it Rlnehart publish It. Authors ma.naged tp give it a good salty flavor. It's light and iimus^ ing. On a si le reading, however, the piece doesn't seem anywhere near as funny as the play, and with no stage illusion to help. Exclusive Scribnor's. Sci'ibner's, the mag, must bolit-vv in exclusHeness. The flr.st cl.'iss periodical to adopt the feature of .1 short novel complete in each issuo, it lias dropped the thing now that a number of other class mags, nptably Redbobk, have taken it up. Scirlbnor's spent much money both In payment for its long fiction and In its exploitation. Gave som6 staff' gering prize awards, as well ap top priro j)nymf>nt. Low Priced Exclusives, New addition to the ranks of the ]iiifiiu^Uubliahfii:a._^.-^,A.==^^ who is setting -himself up ar. ''the Cassowary Press. Holden's Idea is to issue a number of books in lim- ited editions, to .sell for a uniform pi'lce of $1.50, Will be nice items, of book manufactui-e, despite the limited number at the low price. Holden has two books already set.- One is k collection of tales by Eu£?Pnc Morohfad Arniflcld, on'titlcil 'No Tomorrow.' Other is a book oi poetry,. 'An Array for One,' by Ken noth White. Eustace L. Adams in Florida pick* ing up dope for a new story to be localed there. Anthony Frome, the Poet Prince and the only Phi Beta Kappa, crooner on the air, doing the third revision of. his autobiog, which he will call 'Release.' The Dell' mags are in a new loca- tion. James T. Cldnan observing his 65th year with Appleton-Century. W. Beran-Wolfe the most proU lecturer pf all the scribblers. Elliott p'Dpnnell, who writes books on ghosts, comes over front England , late this month. New radio editor for the San Francisco Chrpnicle is Oscar Ferii- bachi formerly handling paper'a shipnews.. Lee Furman, president of Ma- cauley, left for Hollywood with a flock of manuscripts for picture rights.- . . Don Roberts, fprmerly sports ed. of. the Los Angeles Record had started , at Fox as a unit publicity mani Morton Goodman now a literary agent on his own. William Faulk- ner .and W. R. Burnett a couple pf his clients just to start with. 1_ Ab bc_Ai:n c3^tLDi. mriet ,^^ Abbe that Isr Pff to EUrpp? after .fomc Weeks of New York. Macauloy's literary tea for David Liebowitz and . Jiobert Coates was the first >Iacauley tea In a couple years, Mae West got the last Macauley ^party. Viking will publish the new Feuchtwanger novel. The Opper- manns' In February. His last novel 'jTosephus' is currently showing in (i^ dramatic version at Maurice ^wurtz'B Yiddish Art Theatre*