Variety (Dec 1933)

Tuesday, December 26* 1933 ¥IM E S SQUARE VASIETY 51 Red Tape Balks Wet'Gifts From That Dear Paree Parlsi Dec.. 3.8. As far as the Freitch-post office knows, Aiirterlca. Is still bone .. dry, 'tlaa American consulate, bere has announced that the expatriates may vend their friends at home anything up to $100 worth ot- wine, cham- palghe or cognac fbr Christmas. But try and get a, packajere o£ it. shipped by par cel post I Clerks behind postpffice windows would-be shippers the horse 'MMs nb.h,' said one today. •You're wasting ydiir time trying to that' country. Didn't you eyer hfead bit American prohibition?' The shipper sifiw .the chef of ,the post bfflce who told him he'd read about - repeal In the papers, but hadn't received any official orders, 80 for hlni, it didn't count yet. Liquor stores are nevertheless doing a rushing business with ex- patriates, who find other means of sending the' stufC over. Shipments as high as six cases of champagne have been sent. The boys are rush- ing to get their stuff on the Bremen, isalling Sunday (17), which Is the last boat In befoCre Christmas. CIGARET PAYOFF Hollywood Tango Operiatbrs' i5hy at the Red Hollywood, Dec* 25. Tango parlors have shorn their Santa Glaus whiskers with the $150 per chair tax levied oh the games by the city. Instead of the usual |6, $10, $16 and $26 prizes awarded to winners, parlors laire handing out 6, 10, 15 and 26 cartons of clgarets .which haye cash value of $4.60, $9, $13.60 and $22.60. Edge, seeriis to be wearing- oflE the racket as with. miniature golf. Sold C6p Indecent Pictures—3 Months Pleading guilty to selling indecent fllms, Albert Specter, 42, motion picture examiner, was given three months, with the execution of the sentence suspended pending good behavior, by tiie Justices in Special Sessions, New York, Friday (22). Spector was &,rrested Oct. 2 in his room In the Hotel Chesterfield, after ' Belling Policeman Victor Calglrl three negatives for $50. pnths for '(jure* Ellse Gordon, .33, who said she was an actress, of 143 West 47th street, was sent to the workhouse hospital, -New York, for .four months by the justices In Special Sessions on her plea of guilty to l»a§Besslng herbln. " ^ ~ She" was arrested In her room Dec. 7 by officers of the Narcotic Squad. MARRIAGES Doris Groday to be married to Edward Simon, non-pro. In Chica- go on Jan. 7. ride-to-be is from legiti Helen Freeman to Edwin Corle, short story yrlter, at. Ensenada, Mex., secretly Dec. 2, li932. Bride one of the founders of the N. T. Theatre Guild. Wanda Toscanini. to yaldlinir Horowitz, Milan, Dec. 21. She's the daughter of the co: ductor. He's a concert pianist. Mary Carter to Danny 6'Shea at Bountiful, Utah, Dec. 20. Groom Is a stage and scrfeen player. Pearle Cboper to Lew Borzage at ^lias^T^egagi^Nevr, Decr=20r--Gr^om=Ia= an assistant to liis brother, Frank Borzage. BIRTHS Mr. and Mrs. Walter Disney, a daughter, DIanne Marie, In Holly- wood, Dec. 18. ' Father is creator of MickQy and Minnie Mouse and Silly Symphonies, Including 'Three Little Pigs.' Hook, Line, Sinker Chicago, Dec 26.' To encourage inore fishing the . State of "V^IsconisIn is pre- senting variety shows under the ■auspices of the State Fish . Hatcheries. Shows axe pror duced by Mercedes. iPubltc la offered a regular singing aiid dancing variety Shows .;With side .exhibits of pickerel, bass and iroui,'; Siipw is traveling under teht and covering the more populous parts of this State; ■ Literati (Continued, from page 49) zine, ~ laiter publlshlhg the tales in book form, it waii' estimated, ,4hat the previbus m.ag . publication did not detract from the sales' of the book. Serial publication of a novel In . a niag always been felt to be an incentive to sales, of the same story in book form. REHEARSAL HALL THIEF Trotsky's Expose' Leon- Trotsky (iBornsteIn), who with Lenin (Ulianbv), founded, the present Soviet government, is now living in exile on the-lslaLnd of Prln- kipui, near Istanbul, where he is writing a hovel revealing the in-r side story of the Russian revolu- tion. British. International has made a bid for the film rights, Trotsky was formerly a newspaper reporter In New York; Stars Bap Recipes Several film stars have taken. Is- sue witii a cocktail recipe book. Stars claim the ^ cocktails, reputed in the book to be their faVbrltes and served at. their hom^s have np place on their fav lists; Some of the stars also say their recipes are at variance with those in the book. It Just goes to shOw how Important Is the matter of cocktail recipes nowadays. At end of the book Is a list of favbrite remedies for. the morning after. Chatter Sisley Huddlestone, who writes books, Ih from. Europe. Lelahd S.towe, . Herald-Tribune correspondent in Paris, and William HiUman, Hearst, rep. in London, ar- rived Saturday, to look oyer the patrle for a few weeks before going back to work; Stowe will lecture a few weeks on the Hitler thing. .- Alexander Kerensky,..former head of the Russian republic before the Spyiet regliatie, lig now editor of 'Gnu,' White Russian newspaper. In Paris. William Galries, former New Y'ork columnist. for. the Associated Press evening papers, has joined tiie staflf of Photoplay... Eva LeGalllenne's autoblog, 'At 33,' out Jan. 6. Despite Bennett Cerfs assertions that he would keep the Random House list of authors down, he has a couple of new ones In the per- sons of George S., ICaufman and Alexander Woollcott by virtue of the fact that he has thelf play, 'Dark Tower,' for publication. &den and Cedar Paul the most industrious of German translators for the American book market. Two out of every three German books brought out in, English here*are the results of their efforts. After several years' work on .that .lioyel, 'James Shore's. Daughter,' Stephisn Vincent Behet has finally delivered the script to his publisher, Doubled.ay; Dpran. Roland Young', Wh6 has also scrlbbledi bn occasion, may do a blog of Thorne Smith, who is funny, too; Or Thorne Smith may do a bibg of Roland Young. Or they may do a blog of each other. The Sheeds, of Sheed & Ward, the book puhllshers, spending Christmas 4n their native England. David Cornel De ^png, who gets Into most of the arty mags, has broken into the big time at last. Knopf has tiken his first npyel, 'Belly Fulla Straw.' Frances Parkinson Keyes. writing from Russia, There to pick up some data for a new book,. Jeffrey Farnol cbmes over soon fbr"^anectTir^"'tour? John Kobler, Hearst editor. In from a European visit. On the sanie boat Edward Hope. Quite a literary party In from Europe Friday headed by Charles Norrls and Mrs. Kathlberi Norrls. Also Kathleen Ann and Rosemary Boniit, Clara Brokaw, film reylewer on Vanity Pair, has been succeeded by Helen Brown. Dancer Takes Girl's Handbag~Gets 30 Days .Ra.ymohd .Gobdyear, 24, dancer, of 360 West 51st street,, was convicted in Special Sessions,: New York, Fri- day (22), of petty larceny and sent to thb: workhouse for 30 days. According to .Betty Norton, .19, also a dancer, of 226 West 16th street, on Gobdyear's promise to ob- tain her 'a' job, she went with him to the Jane Grey Studios, 209 West -48th sCree't, where a rehearsal was In. .prbgi'Css, The. girl said after 'she had changed; her clothes In 'the dressing room she left her handbag containing $35 In the place. It was some time later she re- membered the bae a;nd when she w;cnt to get It It .was gone.. Good- year,' -vHio had been seen by Others coniing out of the dressing room, had also disappeared He ivas ar- rested later at home. Medicinal Purpose All Tlmt's Needed to G^^^ M in Dry Vermont : Bux'llngtoh, Vt., Dec. Although Vermont, is .still official- ly bone, dry liquor can be purchased eaislly and openly. A ruling by At- torney Lawrence C. Jones has made it ppssible for drug stores to re- sume the handling of whiskey. And they, are selling without a phy- sician's preisCrlptlon. All buyer has to state Is that llqupr Is wanted for medicinal pur- pose.. .Most of the drug stores are displaying large signs to the. effect that precriptlons are no longer ne- cessary. Best drug store liquor can be purchased for $1.7^ a pint. Liquor can also be brought into the state' from Canada^ an individ- ual being allowed to bring across the line. $100 .worth a months All that is necessary at ports of entry is to declare the liquor and pay the government duty.- Vermont offi- cials are . jpatroling- the highways, but a search warrant is necessftiry to search an automobile. Billboards Nix IJkker Ballys; Fear of Reform Billboards will never advertise HkKer; ~ Beer is okay but hard stuff not wa-nted for fear that such ad.^ yertlslng may furnish ammunition to reform elements, -wh'ih have campaigned for years against blll- bpards because they deface the landscape. Winchdl and lirror Nicked WB In First Columnist Gossip Verdict Going Places (Continued from page 60) shbp coming to llf^, and everything may happen. But the Music. Hall, Innbcent of the temper of its little guests, hear- ing only the delighted igasps of the mothers and unaware of the glum forebearance, thus far, of their heroic' offspring^—^goes slowly and thproughly and b^utlfully on Its way animating the decorations of Xmas trees, vitalizing ecclesiastical figiirlneis and quaint old toy shop witre^V all with the same complete seriousness. .Sooner or later everything wakes up, sooner later everything' dances.. Even the shaded blue metallic-swathed saints, archly draped from head to toe so that everyone can discern the. flesh!' that they've renounced beneath^ e'ven the saints have difficulty put- ting out of their minds the thought that their gleaming- silver halos would make good line-up headr dresses. .: What makes the little ones, so bitter, as they sit squirming In their seats after the. Silly Symphony 'Night Before Christmas' Is finished, is their' realization from past ex- pcr'V'ice that •when at last the old toy shop does come to life, it'll statt bounding around with jumpilng Jacks and hobby horses, tin soldiers, sissy dolls and lotdi of other non- jenae jthat no_ .Belf-respectingjnod- ern "child would be .caught dead with. No remote control battle- ships, no Babe Ruths, no nothing.- You wait and wait ■while grown-upa sing and dance and frolic till you hope they'll drop, and What do you get? Jumping jacks. Well, mofher!s having such a, keen time, maybe If we ask her why she likes It she'll let us go to see iKen May- nard. .A Jury In Justice Carew's part of. the N. Y, Supreme court, after de- liberating from 3 p. ni. to 8:30 p.. m* "Thursday <21) returned a verdict of $32,500 againist.the N. Y, Daily Mhr- rbr and Walter 'WInchell, roadway Columriist on that tabloid, in favpr of the Fieet'wood Foundation, Inc., which had originally sued for $250,- 000 damages. 'The award was split ■iap into two parts, $30,000. as daiifi- ageis against the Mirror and Win- . chell> a.nd an additional $2,600 against WInchell iaione, as puhitive damages, pii the findings .that W.in- chell's alleged libelous squib was actuated by thalice. Justice Carew .in charging the jury, after the summations pf Ar- thur P. DrlScbU,' acting for Wln- ciiell and the. Mirror, ^nd Richard J. Mackeyi Who successfully pros-: ecuted the caise, stated thaf if mal- ice is proved, there should be addi- tional punishment. : No malice was shown on the: piart. pf the Mirror, which merely jpubllshed the Itemi. but the additional $2,600 against WInchell 'vvas punishment in having created , the offending statement. .iPleetwPod. Foundation^ Inc., which sought to promote the Fleetwood Beach Club in 1929 as an exclusive all^Jewish club (this was at a time when the' Westchester-Blltmbre, the Lido Beach Club and a Coniiedtlcut. country, .club figured .in allegedly discriminatory publicity, Involving show people) enlisted sundry prom- inent actors, newspapermen, et til- a nucleus. WInchell was on the. original board of governors, but after Eddie Cantor had allegedly objected tp belonging to a club where some gossiping columnist might 'ihiscpn- strue his actions, to his public dam- age, Wlnch^j^l's name, was dropped from the secbfii.d prospectus Issued by the club. Whereupon, it Is a,l- iegi^d/ Winchell's spleen asserted it- self via a piece in the Mirror char- acterizing the Fleetwood Beach Club promotion as a 'racket.* Specifies Losses .Fleetwood, when tho negative publicity looked to make the ven^ ture collapse, refunded some $7,600 In prepaid subscriptions, .suffered a. $16,600 loss as advance payment on. the ground lease, for the proposed beach", club <rest by mortgages, etc.), lost some $15,000 for salaries to salesmen, etc.> and In all suffered about a $30,000. actual loss. The Jury seemingly conceded every cent of It by turning in the verdlPl for the 30G's against both WInchell and the Mirror, plus the $2,600 punitive damages. Gene Buck, Harry Hershfield, Mark Hellinger, E^dle Cantor, Felix Isman and others were In court (George Jessel testified by deposi- tion^ through scramming for a Florida vacation) and altogether it was an all-star array In the New York Supreme court while the trial lasted for four days last week. . Arthur F. Driscoll of O'Brien, Driscoll & Raftery stated he would appeal, and also made a motion to set aside the verdict. Justice Carew asked Driscoll to Bubmit briefs within 16 days and added he would give Richard J. Mackey of Mackey, Herrlich, Vatner*- & Breen, for Fleetwood, aia. additional five daysr for rebuttal. Much feeling existed during the trial ais Mackey cnce was employed in. the O'Brlen-Drlscoll office. Vyinbhell's Risk The Mirror had its bwn attorney, E. A. Robertson,. In "court, but Dris- coll was the trial attorney, being Wincheirs personal counsel, and was also acting for the lab. (Unr derstood that the columnist, by na- ture, of. hlis gossip, must contractu- ally assume costs for lawsuits growing out of his department In the paper.) It was Robertdon who insisted that, a stenographic report bp made of Mackey's summation speech, wherein Attorney Mackey scored the columnist as follows: ♦If this was a, club that had been, established, had been In existence letic Club or some- big well-known club, a. puny, man like WInchell, a gossip monger in the street,, could not injure a clqb of that kind; but here Was a club built up in the sporting and theOitrlcal, circles In 42d street, which was meant to fur- nish people, of the Jewish religion a place where they would not be di.shriminatcd against.,.. 'Mr. WInchell admits that he did not know ahythihg about any other detail except that a Mr. Lipsklnd^ a $50 ia weekvclerk, who. was not in. his exclusive social class, received, a letter from the: club in regular form, tailing him if he Was inter« ested h<9 cpuld send in for further information, and when he looked at this letter that Mr, Llpsklnd had ■ received , he immediately cbncluded tl.at the whole thing wti's a racket and dishonest; .also coupled with the fact that some unknown friend had telephoned. him a,nd said there was a bad crbwd behind the club; and iheri he heard the wbrist of it. all, that Mr- Rose was a plumber, and that so disgusted him, this man pf high social standing, a man whp thought that he was getting into some Park Avenue cliib, a man ■that thought he lis top blg^ too exclusive to iassPciate ■with a common plumb- er, that sp disgusted him that lie went out and wrote this rotten ar^ icie .whieh is in issue here beforie ybu ais'the cause of the downfall of this'enterprise..... 'When Mr. WInchell wrote the ar- ticle he had the thought that it. was not exclusive; when he put his name up to bPCpme a merpber of the- Board, of Governors he 'was express- ly told that his nanie was being , used for the purpose of trying.to at- tract members up In the. iBrpadway district, that they were getting a group of celebrities, that they wantV^ ,ed the window dressing of his name and'knowing that, it having been told to him, understanding that, he gave theni his name... .-* Attorney Mackey grew sarcastic over some of the vacillating testi« mony by some of the professional bunch who ■were called as witnesses.. Mackey opliied, 'Now there Is the first example of the kind of men we have to deal with here, men who dp not care what they say; they just go on the stage iand spout lin.eiBi that they memorize over night and they will speak them here In the court room without reigard to Am oath, the same, as they spout them on the stage....' Crawford Innocent Mackey,also re-emphaslzed how Albert Goldman, Commissioner ef Plant and Structure, J'esse. Ciraw- ford, the organist, and Saul Tejpper, artist, were allegedly swayed by the WInchell piece from not joining the beach club. C^'awfPrd actually can- celled a check prjEixi.PUsJy :tendered the day before the piece appetired, but when seeing it In tlie tab, he stopped payment thereon. This waa made much of ais testimony for the* plalntlfC. ' Mackey also opined that when Wincheirs name was/dropped froiii the board of directors 'he (WincheU) went ott the handle and he put this article in the paper with malice and venom for the express purpose of destroying this club which he felt had slighted h^m. He said, 1i I were king'—^these men that 'write Columns on the papers, particularly those men who are employed to put over a scandal and bring out die* tasteful things, they get to feel that .they are kings; they get to feel that if they are offended, ofC with his head.' - Xt 'was intended to shpw that too ill feeling existed between Cantor, and WincheU at that tinie, biit^ stated Mackey In hid summation: Tou heard about all the good feeling between not only Cantor, but all of Cantor's employees, and yet . ln th9 same column In which the libelous ietrticle appears the foN lowing paragraph! 'If I were king I -would make Nat Dorfthan, press agent for Eddie Cantor, write down 1,Q06,:00 times, 'One of my duties to my client is not to 'widen the breach between actors and newspaper men, but to cement ipood will between them.' TO shpw-newspaper circles, this Is deemed the first time that the gps- slping type of Broadway chatterer was judicially weighed in court, In any legal summation. 'Reno Wives* Starts HoUywoSariJeprzSr—= Warners 'Merry Wives of Reno' is set to go Into production tomor- row (2G), cast Include Guy Kibbee, Prank McHugh, Hugh Herbert, Rosco Ates, Glenda Farrell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Margaret Lindsay, Ruth Donnelly and Donald Reed. Reed replaces Lyle Talbot, who will not complete 'Registered Nurse' in time.