Variety (Sep 1937)

Wednesday, September 15, 1937 LITERATI VARIETY 31 Wlnchell, Skolskjr Contracts Ward Greene; managing editor of King Features syndicate, is at pres- ent in Hollywood on Walter Winchell and Sidney Skolsky's contracts. Both may go with King. Winchell here- tofore had been syndicated by the N. Y. Daily Mirror, Inc., but under the new King Features alignment, when and if, the Mirror will con- tinue the columnist via the syndi- cate, rather than under its own di- rect employment. Mirror also • wants a Hollywood column of Sidney Skolsky's calibre, but again prefers to accept the ser- vice by way of King Features, latter to issue the employment contract. Most likely a deal will be consum- mated that way, Skolsky to start on the Mirror Oct, 4. Winchell and the Mirror didn't re- new last month when the columnist hopped in from Hollywood because of- conditions, including Winchell's desire to sidestep seven days a week and possibly cut it down to only five daily chores, skipping .Tuesday and Sunday. , Skolsky started something with his crack about 'Broadway columns are as passe as Broadway,' giving that . as his excuse for not wanting to re^ •turn to N. Y. and swap spots with Ed Sullivan. Louis (N. Y. Journal) Sobol wrote a long 'So Broadway Js Dead, Is It?' diatribe in the past Sunday's Journal - American, and others h^ve come to defense of the main drag.. Sullivan, among his farewell col- umns, made a crack that he would never repudiate Broadway, no mat- ter who his Hollywood friends of the future. The News itself, in an office ad (full page), saluted SuUivanlg ad- vent to Hollywood, Danton Walker's take-over of the, Broadway pillar, and also bon-voyaged Skolsky in the latter's new" fields.. Walker himself mildly, kidded Skolsky's crack in his . debut column in the News on Mon- day (13). Skolsky also has a bid from the Des Moines Register Syndicate,, which owns midwest papers as well as the magazine. Look, and services about 40 sheets. Colin Miller, like Greene, iis on the Coast for negotia- tions. Sullivan's replacing Skolsky as Hollywood chatterer for N. Y. Daily News-Chicago Tribune syndicate caused other alterations in Holly- wood scribe circles with Ed Sulli- van also replacing George Shaffer as the film center scribe for the Chi Trib, Although affiliated with the N. Y. News, the Chi Tribune did not take Skolsky's column and it was sold instead to the Chicago Times, tabloid. The Times did not want to sub Sullivan for Skolsky, so in order to make a Chi outlet for Sullivan, Shaffer had to move out of the col- umn spot. He will, however, re- main as Chi "Trib neAvs service man in these parts. That N. T. World Beport Aeain Renewed report of a plan to re- vive the old N. Y. World appears to have but a hazy background. Johii J. Raskob and Herbert Bayard Swope,- the former the editorial wiz in the Pulitzer organization, were mentioned as interested, but the latter states he has not been ap- proached. Both morning and eve- ning Worlds were bought by Scripps-Howard and fused into the present N. Y. World-Telegram. Each of the Pulitzer papers had an Asso- ciated Press franchise but one was allowed to lapse. If the World is revived the matter of the AP fran- chise would probably have to be solved. Understood the only way restoration of the lapsed rights could come about would be with the assent of the AP members. ' Presses of the old World are now being used by the N. Y. Journal of Commerce. Athens (Ga.) Daily's B'k'ptcy Pr6ston Almand, attorney for three claimants, Friday (10) filed bankruptcy proceedings against Athens (Ga.) Daily Times. Earlier in day several employes of Times took out laborers' liens against L. E. Sullivan, publisher. Reports have been current that effort has been made to sell news- .Paper plant to University of Georgia, but no deal has been consummated. 0.Henry's Chum Remembers .Sept. 11 was the birthday of Wil.- liam Sydney Porter, known to the ■world as O.Henry, and his native town, Greensboro, N. C, let it pass ^>nmarked except that one of Por- ter's boyhood chums, John S. Michaux. went on the air over wBiG to give some of his recollec- tions of Porter as a boy. Porter left Gi-oensboro when about 21 and established, residence in Texas. Wklyn Eagle's Guild Strike The biggest strike in the News- paper Guild's history to date wont into effect on Monday (13) at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, one o^ the oldest newspapers ' in the country. The action follows a recent strike vote of the 300 unit members which was unanimously ratified by the Representative Assembly of the New York Guild last week. Picket- ing went into, effect immediately, and 10 arrests were made by police the first day of the strike. Three of those arrested were Guild 'officials. The Eagle strike follows months of negotiations with the manage- ment, during which the relations between the Guild and the negotia- tors became more and more strained. The Guild states that the manage- ment has stalled repeatedly, in the six months of negotiations, broken its promises and fired employees for Guild activity. No statement could be secured from the management. Jack Mlfey Settles With News Jack Miley is off the payroll of the N. Y. Daily News, having been paid three inoQths' salary by the news- paper last week on termination of the connection. Is talking about a spot on the N. Y. Journal, which wants him, but nothing set because there is also a Par picture deal in the offing. Miley was sports columnist on the News but tiffing with Jimmy Powetrs, sports editor of the sheet, came to a head ovex an argument about a story on Joe Louis which Miley says he wrote for the News on order from Powers two years ago. Powers re- cently sold a similar yarn for $200 to Liberty mag. On arguing the point. Powers asserted his authority as editor of the department and asked the city editor to take Miley over as an ordinary reporter. This was done with a 50% salary clip at the same time. Miley went to the Newspaper Guild with the situation and that organization promptly called on the management. Result was a three month payoff at the full salary, along lines of severance pay in the con- tract which the News has with news- men. Scripps-Howard Promotions Charles Schneider, pix and drama critic for Cleveland Press, has been shifted to post of promotion editor. Youngest reviewer hfere, he takes over job formerly held by Paul Jones, who becomes publicity direc- tor for • National Safety Council in Chicago. Winsor French, socialite and gossip columnist, is combining theatres and chatter in new column. Two more Scripps-Howard promo- tions step up Ralph Burkholder, chief editorial writer of Cleveland Press, to editorship of Akron Times- Press. Succeeds Walter Morrow, who is. being made editor-in-chief of the southwestern group of S-H papers, including the Denver News, Okla- homa News, Fort Worth Press, Houston Press, El Paso Herald-Post and the Albuquerque Tribune. Mor- row's appointment marks the return of S-H to regional supervision, abandoned several years ago. Most recent regional supervisor in the Denver territory was George B. I*arker, now editor-n-chief of all S-H papers. P.A.'s Libel Suit vs. Inquh-er Libel suit for $2r),000 is being brought by Ed Wiener, Broadway press agent, against' the N. Y. In- quirer, Inc., and William and Marcus Griffin for publication of a story last January regarding Wiener in Marcus Griffin's column. Columnist is a brother of the publisher, Wil- liam Griffin. Suit grows out of a reference made in Marcus Griffin's column to. Wiener in the form of a query ask- ing when Broadway night . spots would get next to themselves and then makes allegations regarding Wiener's abilities as p.a. Harriet Pilpel of the Morris L. Ernst office is handling the suit. Literary B.O. Numerous articles on chastity appearing in current mags in- dicate a possible fad for mate- rial of this sort. One such piece titldd, 'The Case for Chas- tity' was picked up by Reader's Digest. Wiseacres, are suggesting that maybe chastity has a pi-ess agent. Hearst's Sentinel Hearst took over the management of the Milwaukee Sentinel oh Mon- day (13) with Paul Block withdraw- ing from that city. Change will bring both the Wisconsin News, afternoon, and The Sentinel, morn- ing newspaper, under the same man- agement. The name of the Wiscon- sin News will be changed to the Milwaukee News. The combined Sunday editions of the two papers will be known as The Milwaukee Sunday News-SentLncl. Hearst had an option to repurchase the Block interest in tlie Sentinel within 10 year.^;. Amtenbers^a PhlUy Ledger? Ccedence is being given reports in PhlUy from widely varied sources that Moe Annenberg, publisher of the N. Y. Morning Telegraph and Philly Inquirer, has. deal under way to acquire Philly Ledger from John MEartin, san-in-law of the late Cyrus H. K. Curtis. Doc Levy of WCAU is reported in with Annenberg. Ledger has been faring badly in past several years despite all at- tempts at hypoing. Carrying heavy budget of ads, but at line rates that leave little net. Understood that Annenberg has offered figure which would cover all. present obligationr, but provide little for Martin to step out with. Martin said to be aiming to leave the Ledger only with a heavy b.r. Negotiations undoubtedly under way, but how near to being set the deal is, appears very problematical. Newspapermen in the know, how- ever, wouldn'fbe surprised if a box announcing the sale appeared any day. Ledger had another small-sized purge last week, with Syril Lee, who handled domestic relations court hews, and Powell Thomas, reporter, out. Much guessing (and quaking) among staff as to what will happen if Annenberg takes pver. Inquirer has been pretty well shaken from top to bottom since he acquired it year ago. Time's Shifts Several shifts in the Time organi- zation have taken place recently, with two new men being added as managing editors, so that there are now three instead of two as for- merly. John S. Martin, currently on extended leave of absence, con- tinues to bie listed in that post, with Manfred S. Gottfried and Frank Norris moved up from the position of associate editors. John Shaw BilliDgs, listed as a managing editor of Time until last week, is no longer in that capacity, but is man- aging editor of Life, an affiliated enterprise. T. S. Matthews, formerly a con- tributing editor, moves up as asso- ciate editor and Arthur Ogden is out, having resigned. The distinc- tion between associate editors and contributing editors is a fine one, the former being considered No. 1 writers, and, in most cases, with the organization longer than contribut- ing .editors. Another recent change is the ap- pointment oj^ Robert Chasteney, who has been a&t. to the publisher of Time, to the post of promotion man- ager as well,, Time has also made several addi- tions to its staff in the past few weeks. Bice Clemow has shifted over from Editor and Publisher, and Carolyn Marx, formerly of the N. Y. World-Telegram, has moved into the book department. Leon Svirsky, center of much contro- very because of his Newspaper Guild activities and recently dis- charged from the N. Y. World-Tele- gram, has also been added to the staff. The Guild, which took up Svirsky's discharge with the Na- tional Labor Relations Board, will continue to press for his reinstate- ment, despite the fact that he is now employed. Cecil (Red) York has also been added to the Time staff. John S, Martin, one of the three managing editors and a stockholder of Time, Inc., who has gone on an extended vacation, caught a record tuna off Nova Scotia recently. The fact that Time found its own man- aging editor 'newsworthy' is being commented on with the suggestion that a story was used about him last week to spike persistent rumors that he had left the organization. Aurora's 100 Anni Daily On occasion of 100th anniversary of founding of Aurora, III., the Au- rora Sunday Beacon-News pub- lished a big^ special edition, consist- ing of an eight section, 98-page pa- per. Each section was devoted to a separate side of the town's life, using a two-color cover sheet, with special full-page design to symbol- ize the nature of its contents. Regular circulation of Sunday edition is listed as 19,372. Beacon Publishing Co., Albert M. Hirsh. president, owns the paper. Guild-Constitution Settle Hailed as 'complete victory' for American Newspaper Guild, Re- gional Director Charles N. Feilde- son of the National Labor Relations Board Friday (9) announced charges £^ainst Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution have been withdrawn by Atlanta Newspaper Guild and case settled. Withdrawal of charges that Con- stitution dismissed six editorial em- ployes because they 'joined and as- sisted the labor organization' came following series of conferences that preceded scheduled NLRB hearing to air guild's accusations. Settlement provides lor reinstate- ment of two of six employes, rein- statement and resignation of three others, case of sixth man, John Minter, reporter, being withdrawn by guild. Formal answer filed by Constitu- tion denied allegations, but terms of settlement require paper to pub- lish on its bulletin board for 30 days a notice that the paper 'neither en- courages nor discourages member- ship in any labor organhiation:' Newspaper's proposal was de- clared 'valid only if all charges are withdrawn, aU resignations men- tioned herein are delivered, and full releases to the Constitution Pub- lishing Co. are given.' In addition to Minter, six men in- volved are Lee Fuhrman, rewrite; Albert C. Leitch, reporter and prez of Atlanta Guild; Will Riley, re- porter; Sam Cox, copy reader, and Morris Siegel, reporter. Cox. and Fuhrman will be restored to duty, latter to get two weeks* pay in* cash. He is ill in hosp at present and his job, at his old salary, will be kept open for him 60 days. Leitch tendered his resignation and paper agreed to pay him $520. Siegel also agreed to' resign and paper will' pay him $45. Riley resigned and waived claim to pay. It was de- cided Minter's case has no standing, Riley has made a connection with A. Steve Nance, local labor le&der, and Siegel is going with Miami Tribune, it is said. Details of settlement were worked out between attorneys for Constitu- tion, Feidelson, Maurice J. Nicoson, NLRB attorney, and Abraham J, Isserman, of Newark, special repre- sentative of guildsmen. Leitch declared it represented 'complete victory' and predicted guild organization work in south would malce rapid strides now, since outcome of case against Constitution was being awaited before drive for new members would be started. Z More Pic Mags Within a month two more picture mags will debut to compete with the already established Life, Look and Pic. Victor J. Fox, publisher of the new Real Charm, will launch an- other new one, See, around Oct. - 5 as the first 5c. photo mag. Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., dabbler in literary field, starts publication of Picture at approxirnately the same time. George Gctchell will manage Picture. See will be a monthly for its first two issues; after Nov. 5 twice month- ly. Unlike Look, advertising will be accepted immediately on publication. Picture will be issued monthly as a class mag similar to Life. Both will be of same format and physical char- acter as Life. Look now leads the field in circu- lation with a regular print order of 2.550,000. Life is next nearest with slightly morfe than 1^000,000. Pic is still further behind with about half that figure. Here's the Answer Publication of 'The Case of the Seven' of Calvary," first novel by 'Anthony Boucher,' by Simon & Schuster, marks literary debut of A. P. White, drama crick of L. A. United Progressive News, lib'oral political sheet. S. & S. have "put on heavy mail campaign, circularizing friends of author, and friends of friends, but they don't mention who Boucher really is, so recipients are wonder- ing why the personal letters ur.'jin'; purchase of book by a guy they 1 never heard of. . V CHATTER Al Duffleld working on new noveL Jesse Stuart has sold three stories to Collier's. Jim Moynahan of March of T.ime^ in London for a vacation, Jean Rhys has left Tide and joined staff of House and Garden, Everett Marcy working on a wa- terfront story titled 'Snake Ranch,' Kip Ross narhed supervising pho- tographer of the Associated Press in N. Y. : Hunter Glenn now the new Sun- day radio columnist for San Antonio Charlie Kapnic, ass:s;ant m.e. of Philly Ledger, recovering at Atlantic City from recent scalpeling, Nellie Simmons Meier has written a book titled 'Lions' Paws' (on palmistry) due out next month. This year's Victorville (Calif.) rodeo is dedicated to Frank Scul y, Vadiety's Bedside Manor mugg. Philly Bulletin's Bick Rsichner clefflng another gal-tuner in -sub rosa deal with Broadway stager, George Kearney, g,m.. of Philly Ledger syndicate, in Europe to pact a surprising biggie for a column. Fred Maly has' succeeded Jack O'Brien, who has resigned, as sports editor of the San Antonio Evening News, John Steinbeck has left New York for the Coast,. He will not return for the opening, of his play 'Of Mice and Men,' Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., trying to arrange State Department OK to travel to the Slho-Jap front for Liberty mag. John Fellows, formerly of Literai'y Digest, has joined the publicity de- partment of the National Assn. of Manufacturers, John LeRoy Johnston has re- signed as Pacific Coasst manager for Fawcett Publications after seven months tenure of the job, Ashley Buck, writer and actor, directing 'Pioneers of Science' series presented by the Radio Division, Federal Theatre, over WHN Thurs- day nights, Graeme Lorimer, associate ed of Satsvepost and son of its former •editor, bad sold Metro rights to serial he and wife scribed iov Pic- torial Review. Irving Kaye Davis, playwright, has finished his first novel, 'Colebrity Hound,' slightly autobiog of the au- thor's experiences in and out of show business. Eddie Mayer and Jim Neville canned from Philly Record sports staff' in new economy action becuz thoy were only two unmarried men in the department. Capt. G. F. Neuhauser, editor of the German Free Press in Te::r.s, (San Antonio), recently authored 'Pioneer,' an original story for the .screen. Also m.c.'lng musical pro- gram thrice weekly over KTSA, San Antonio. William F. Brooks succeeds Gideon D, Seymour as manogin^ di" rcctor of the Associated Press of Great Britain, Ltd, Brooks has been with the AP for 11 years. Un- derstood that Seymour will join staff of Look magazine, Guy L, Smith appointed editor of Knoxville (Tenn,), Journal by Pub- lisher Roy N, Lotspeich. Smith started out 17 years ago as cub on Journal and later was publisher of* Chronicle and Staff-News nt Johnson City, Tenn., and also Bulletin in Bristol, "Va. Paula Walling, correspondent for Votre Bcaute, French ber.uty mag, appointed Hollywood currcsijondcnt for Ce Soir, Paris evening daily, E.nd Cinemcnde^ weekly fan ma^. Ap- pointments take effect Oct. 1, Wall- ' ing replacing G. L, George, currcitly back In Pans discussing transfer to different spot. LITERATI DEATHS THIS WEEK j Mrs. Sara Dalshcimer Halley, G9, newspaperwoman, author and widow of Georg6 T. Halley, Nashville, Tenn., newspaperman, was fatally stricken with a heart attack while on a visit i to editorial rooms of the Atlanta Constitution. Mrs. Halley had been associated with Uncle Remus Mag- azine, Sunny South and Golden Age, all .southern literary magazines. Burial was in Nashville Sept. 9. Ellis Parker Butler, G7, a fornier president of the Authors' League of America and author of 'Pigs Is Pigs.' died Sept. 13 at his summer home in Housatonic, Mas.s. The funeral will be hold today in Flushing, N. Y. A FREE BO©gC DEVELOP your personal, crcitivc power' Awbkcn the tilcnt, alccpin; rprris in your own consciousness. Become Master or your |^ own life. Push aside all obstacle; wit'.i a niw. energy you have overlooked Th; Ro.irru- cions know how, and will help you apply the greatest of all powers In mon's control Crc.ite health ond abundance for yourcrlf. Writs foi FREE book, "The Secret Hcritaje." 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