Variety (Jan 1946)

We<1n«edaj', Jmnatfy 2, 1946 LITEIIATI 4S G<>rdon To Edit Cosmo Anhiir Gordon, managing editor of Good HoLisekeeping bd'ore the vjr, takes over as editor o£ Cosiiiopolitan today. (2), replacing Frances Whiting. Latter, who held po.«t 12 years, resigned recently to , be married, and plans resuming woik in the publishing field some time later. , ^ Ooruon wa« a inajor with the 8tli Air Force in Europe during the war, edited the Air Forces oi:£icial maSi collaborators ol itte book "Target Germany." Joseph McCarthy, former editor ol Vank; the Army weekly, also joms Gostnopolitiui today as aiuooiate editor. Reported that the w.k. Hearst slick will undergo .some dranses under new editorship, with ' fVend towards punchier material. <ieu« Towlrr Talking Gens' I''o\v!er ha.s completed hi.s au1obio;;vaplij-, "A Solo in TomTom.'.,"' w nich Viking i.s to publi-sh. Despite tlie name (Fowler also wi-olo the John Barrymore bioj4, which he called "Good Night, Swoct Pl-inec") Fowler clauM he's asamst all book titles that coufuse. "Toiio Biin-jay" and "Point, Counterpoint" fjot him flown,, he .said. ''What Price Clory." "Mind the Paint Girl," "Guiiija Din. " and "Dc. ProtundLS." he said, made no sense to him at all. As for "Ultima Thule," ho said, '".I .'■prings to mind, and then <.priiv,'s n^ht out again, thank Cod! " one of General JDonovan's cloakand-dagger boys, but later swung over to tiic Mavine-s where he oiveeked out two months ago as a captiuii. ■ ■■■■■■■ ^: ^ Kaiilman's Whodunrt Wolfe liaulmaii.. credited -with coining, the word "whodunit"' while a VMKH.n mugg. has written „onp, Simon & Si;huster is publishing his "I II;ite Blondes,"v to be released in .April. ■■' ■ . . .■■-■/-. GBS Hounds Off Gooige Beriiaid Shaw gets olV a h-w beets about practicss in the publi.^hmg world in the article "HO Years as an. Author." m the current • Jan.) American .Mercury. Mo.st of the article is about publi-shing;; •Publisliuig, ' -(ays llie savant, "is not ji.iclin.uy trade; it is gaiiiblmg." As I tor the average author, he is "soI daily untrained by his irresponsiblesolitud'c and spoiled etiually by success or failure, an incorrigible individualist-anarchist, loathing bu.Siiiess and its discipline, and hating and teariiLg the tew colleagues who; know better and drudge at the task ol protecting and organizing hiin." The prestige ot literature, Shaw adds. IS properly ihe business of thd Slate. his annual anthology, ''Cross Section a94!5," circulated by a rival outfit. Book Find Club. • Vocational Guidance MaiVual.s, Inc.,will sliortly put out "Opportunities in Public Relations." by Shepard Henkin. publicity director of the Hotel New "Sforker, N. Y. Capt. .Saul K Padovcr, with P.-ychologicar Warfare in Gcl'many,. awarded Bronze ■ Star. Diiell, Sloan, Pearce; will:, publi,*, his "What /'The Germans Said" m the spring. :Sjnoe Street & Sniith hit tWe . jack:Pot ■wit)!, junior misst^S.inag, Rtademoiselle, tlrere came along Scveiilpen, and now Harper's Bazaar has a young si.ster called Ba/anr Junior Car.son Taylor, publisher ol the It's Rtiiehart & Co. Now Slanlcj M. Rinchart, Jr., president, and Frederick R. Rinchart, v.-p , announce that the IT-yepr-old Farrar & RInehart firm name is now Rinchart & Co.. Inc. John Farrar, formerly . od tor. wiihdrew in 1944 after a year's leave of absence with OWI. John Selbj, furmcr arts editor of A.ssociatcd Pre,,?, became editor-in-chief September last. Navy Into Group, in Switch The .i-nagazine. and book .section of ,Uic Nnvv's public inlormatton otflce, which has had it.s headquarters iri New York tor o\er three years, has foldetl. transierring its rpniaming aetivUies to Washington. The .ifib ^wlll, now be done out of tlie, qllice 'of. Rear Admiral H..-B. I Millei . at the capital. Seavcr Pa.vted By S&S Simon „& Schuster has .signed up Eciwin Soavcr. editor of "ero.s.s Scctioii of HI'ti)." to do a regular anmi;il .series' of this liublication. Stressing new American , material, the book will include only stones, plays, poetry and p.s-says that haven't appeared el.sowhere Botli new and est.:bU.>hecl wi iters may submit their .storio.s. CKising date for the nest buok wliich comes out next lall is Jfay 1 I UcKobr» on Hollywood lloUy w(iod.\ Press Syndicate • is . dis» I ti outing flr-t ot a series ol ai tides i on Hollywood by the French novel[i.-l Maurice DoKobia DeKobra has j.bccn Hu the Coast since the war. .Klevcn of his .puljljshed xvorks have I been adapted to the screen. The I articles, entitled "The Hollywood Menagerie," deal with humorous characters he has met in the filiYi capital. J. B, Poloivski distributing: UcKobi-a s latest novel, "La Perruche Blciir," is now on the book I.j)udry's Ghosting "How Wuter.s Perpetuate Sioreolype^" the pamphlet ot the Writer.,' Board, li.i.s gone through tlirce huge print!iig.<. h.)s been reprinted in full by Film and Radio Discussion Guide, is the core ol a new book for pulj'ic seliool teachers, and has .iu.st reappeared as pait of another 'Writers' Board booklet, "The B^-th That Threatens America." In all. over 50,q00 copies ha\'c been distributed. It's not generally known that the Stereotype" booklet was eho.steiithorcd,by Robert J. Landry, head of CBS writer.s. Spreading the Wealih More and more, authors are stipu• Iftting tlict their book royalties be ■ paitl ofl to them piecemeal. inst6ad. jof 111, himp sum. to spread over a I i.K'i.)od ot years, tor tax purposes. It's 1 legal if .uithois put such pioviso into I their original contracts with publ!;Oiers. iu:,tcad of as afterthought Smchiii Lewis did so on "Cass Tim-: boiianc:" :-: -■ ■.:' ■ -/v; -■; ■ Omuibook's I'rOfit-ShariuK Onmibook( the book digest, ha.s announced a profit-sharing seiup for il„s employees in which the ina.'! pa.YS the entire bill. The comp.iiiy IS to allot an unstated percent of it.s yearly take to a .special fund to be fiL^tributed among workers parliciPiiting for 10 years. The Cha.se National Bank a.s trustee and an employee committee will manage the fund. nocumentarv On Occupied Gcrmaiiy Random House i.s rushing publication ot "America's Germanyf" a liociimeniary report by Julian Bach, Jr.. on the work of the American AiiTiy of Occupation m Germany. Bach covered the occupation for Army Tallis. wecklv mag ot international triples in the European: the I atre, and before that served as asso I eiatc editor of . Life (nag. The pi.ibh.sh.er is negotiating with the \'arious networks to have the author do several broadcasts that I will coincide with the book's re ! lease. . Teleirrapher to Columnist Bertrand H. Siiell, Syracu.se commercial telegrapher, is turning out a tour times weekly column, "Jubt Around the Corner,-! for-tlie -Synv-^ cu.sc Post-Standard. He got liLs eoliimning start writing poetry for the f ^■•''-to-the-editor department, and ^^'Oi'ks as Mor.-e code operator. wiihain F. Hofmaim has otllcially ttrmmated his service with the Wacusc Herald-Journal, bow ing out as director and secretary-trcasm-cr of The Herald Co. to devote 'f time to running the Syracuse <-inefs ballteam. Clarence H. «iune 'V'ccccds Hofniann as business manager. • Dennis McEvoy In Tokyo «,;'*'"'"y'»f! 50 Nip translations ol ■Readers Digest, not to .stress some ^cotch, Dennis McEvoy has arrived ' ', ^"J^yo as the ma^^'.s Far Eastern II,;. three year.<!, with in .f "^"KIis each year to be ,speni the Stalest '■^emiis McEvoy is the .son of J, P. ♦„..' """^ tlie Digc's roving edi,'=""'ently in Cuba. Pa,t of hL u ^"^I'cation was in Japan ai d hit, I '"""aged to pet the 'i. -r "We ho lived in 'when there bcfo c. ,«or a yo-jjig McEvoy wa.s CHATTER Spec McCIiire back with Hcdda Hoiappr. , . Doubleday. Doran & Co., is now Doubleday & Co. Lt. .Mien Churehill, ex-a.s.soc. ed: at Putnam'.s, out ol Navy and to. the Coa.«t.lo finish a novel. Los Angeles Times bought properly, adioining its plant to erect a jjuilding -to take care of expanding activities. . Lie'il. Cdr. Thomas J. Wilson, III. out of Navy, becomes director of University of North Carolina Pres.s at Chapel Hill. Public Library at 29 Palm.s, Cal.. points wi th pride to it.s fu st autographed book— Frank Scully's "Rogues* Gallery." Jeronie Odium sold his yarn, "The Mirabilis Diamond," to Invincible Press for pliblication in Au.stralia and. New Zealand. Voca(;ional Guidance Manuals, Inc., ,s putting Out "Opportunities in Acting." a guidebook for aspirants of lc« t. ra.dio Fiid .screen. Lc\\ Fu'ikc, N. Y. Times drama cd, lias prolilfd ,1. Otis Swift, N. V. World-Telly nature editor, and Jiead ot Yosiaii Brotherhood, for Liberty mag. L te W i l.sort , f ormcrl y p roducti on manager' foi Popular! Publication.s and' .Mow.sw-cck inag, lirt.s been: niadc nrodi'ctioii director of all Fawcett mrigfc ■ : ;:' Ec w'in .S:'aver., publieit,y chief of Bouk 'of the Month Club, is having Manila Bulletin, is in Los Angeles ^° SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦■»-» By Frank Scully «-•-♦ *■♦-♦-♦-•-♦ • • CaBnes-.sur-Nut.s, Dee. 18. Long a friend of eminent coinpo.sers, I have often wondered wliat held: us together and have finally decided it was because at Chateau Scully they could alway.s rcla.'c. There was never a piano in the hou.se. and .so. a : dinner never had to be paid for m kind. Word like that gets -around and, though it may be hard to prove, all composers ai'e not chump.s. . In Eurojie between war.s many of the modern key-crackers laid off on the. Riviera. Among the wildest was that Polish-Prussian Trentonian Irom the .New Jersey marshes, George AnfheiL He has recently released a pieee of his litc and loves under the teasing title of "Bad Boy of Rliusic," and if It does nothing el.se it will show to A^'hat crazy lengths you: must go to make a living if you want to.be a composer of serious (serious, at least, Everybody knows something of Antheil and even he, de.spile-his-.si<'veand-let-sievc sort ot writing, doesn't stem to know all of it. A blue-eyefl, baby laced dreamer, with something of theigsceUe like qualities ot a wolf of Wall Street, Antheil has managed to dream hisw'ay in and out of .some I taiicy pantomimes. j In Hollywood, .alone, m the last 10 years; he has composed for D<?MiIle trying to buy eciuipment to resume publication of his new^spaper, .suspended since the Jap occupation. Fiorello H. LaGuarriia's aUtobioglaphy will be published by J B Lippincott & Co. Book's as yet only an idea, and not titled, said Lymi ] and DoHecht pictures, wrnicn im ac(\ice-lo-the-loveloiii column .so badly Carrick, N. Y. ed ot the publishing [ the .syndicate liad to hire .somebody to do it worse, .shilled as an authority house. ron glandular disturbances, crime detection and war trend.s, got his name Paul Tuitchcll. altci foui scaLsl"" ^ Pf>tent involving a iMdio directed torpedo and, what's more unbelievES a Seabcc lieut., is m Ntw York i ^^^l^' Hedy Lamarr, acted as a S(j5-a-week editorial stooge for Manchester bcouig publishers about his latest Boddy, editor of the town s tab, and managed to get Leopold Stokftwski novel. Twitchell claims ownership I ^''""^^ ms'-'iting on giving the Anthcilian Fourth Symphony a coast-toof thc"wortd's mo.st traveled type I i-'oast premiere in 1944. . writer Loon Ru-^scll. former Metro and Warner .scnptci-. now out -of the merchant maruie. is loining T W.A. Laltei IS convciling the "W" in its airline bilhng. Irom "Western ' to "World." J. Wakefield, former West Tenncs.see athlete who turned test pilot during the war and later became a freelance magazine wiitcr, is in Nureriibcrg covering the war crunes trials for Ksquiie. Lt. Walter B. Kerr, Jr:, former N. Y. Heiald Tribune war coirespondent, will go buck to the Herald Trib Jan.: 1, when his terminal leave is up. At present . he is visiting his parents m Syracuse. • Thomas Robertson will become Eastman Kodak public, relations chief Dec. 1, succeeding Franklin C. Ellis, who recently went to the Standard Oil Co.. in Chicago. Robertson is now with the Corning Glass Works. ■ Elizabeth Gregory's "Show Window -of Life," which is rich in picture matei-ial of the^ early days of aviation and high society, has RKO and Par in the field with offers. She was the first repor(:er of flying, paper being the N. Y.'Sun: Norman E Isaacs, cluef cditoiial writer ot ihe Indianapolis News, has succeeded Ralph M. Blagden as m:e. ol the St.: Lotus Star-Times, a p:m.er. Blagden. who held the po.st for more than four years, asked for a leave of absence due to illness. In charge of public relations for the I.st Sanadian Arin.y, Lt. Col. Clifloid S. Wallcce has joined the Baker Advertising Agency. Toronto. Formerly managing editor ot The Edmoiitoii Jourii.nl and. prior to enlisting, m.c. of The Toronto Globe & Mail. Barbara Bel Geddcs of "Deep Are The Roots" (Fulton. N. -Y.); Susan Reed, nitcry folk-ballad singer, and Blanche Thebom. Mctopera mezzosoprano, are among 10 "women-ofthe-year ' to receive Mademoiselle mag's 1945 Merit Awards. Among winners w.is ;ilso the USS Mis.souri. referred to as the Navy's "glamour girl." ■, Major Jerry Bnulch, who wrote General MacArthilr's (irst wartime press communique from Australia and his last on the end of the war, is at his name in Memphis after nearly tour years in service, wearing Bronze Star and numerous ribbons for his work with MiicArthur's press staff. A former AP st?fler here, he^will .ioin_the_ JVP in San Francisco On completion of terminal leave. ■ -. ■' ., Del Guidice S Continued from page 3 exhibs. In mid-.Tanuarv he i.s slated to leave for the Coast to huddle with Leo Spitz and William Goetz of International Pictures, American pro-^ during ah<.ociates of the Rank group I and member* of UWP. Fox will also attrnd the Hollywood meeting.s. Del Cmdice. an Italo-Englishman, .who.sc coiripaiiy produped siich. films as "In Which We Serve." "Blithe Spirit" and "Henry the Fifth," is the first of a sOri«i ot Bi-ilish: fflm execs I who will come to the 0. S, this year j a.s part of the "e.vchange program" ' set up by Rank. According to his I Liiiuion -ot'Hcc lie is making a"short '. trip to the U. S. ' to .SCO tiiid to learn : till he Qiin. about the Anierlcan market, .so that his -proil.m.'tion.-*. -w'hile f ctiiiling.! t';e , Briti.sh. flavoi . \yiH: .b" > attuned to btiil American audiences." But for 10 year= pre\ious to alt this he had been a concert piani.st and Vorticist composer shtittling around Berlin, Palis and Cagne.s-sur-Mer. Tranlated by Antheil ?s "Bitchtown-by-ihc-Sca," Cagnes ii a bleached hill town bolAPcn X'lcc and Cinnc It h.is had a pa'-t-atomic look for .centuries. It inu.st haxe been built by the Romans and "probably s.'ioked ; by the Saracens. Anyway, it w.-is atomized by the Antericails .with aft' army of nasal sprays. It became known in the '20's and '30's a.s a place where you could combine good breathing with bad art and wash the whole thing down with an cau de vie that ta.sted as if it had been 'distilled in an old . boot; .:-■-. : -■■:::-,'..•■.-.: -.■,..•...-.■■■■:■..-.■. .. .:. .:.-Tbe.'rr«nch-:TiiH<sh-'On this -hill the Anthcils occupied a mas provencal whiich backed up ' against Theodore I'ratt's place. They didn't talk to each other Ijepause Pratt pounded the typewriter all day and Antheil pounded the piano all night. The unoflEicial mayor of thetown was/efther Llnlt Gillespie of Rosis Sanders. Gillespie went to school with Bill Tilden in Philadelphia, but got over it .so completely that by 1930 he talked no known dialect. Bob ' Brown, wlio v/rote millions (ot words) for' Munsey'.s, was inventing a reading machine and all the mad children of that end of the earths Antheil, Kay Boyle, Laurence Vail. Gillespie, Weaver, Jola.s„ Stein, Komroff, Cunard, Bald and Neagoe— were writing futuristic andbaudy pieces lor the reading machine. Had they used the Gettysbiu-g address to demontrate the machineit wight have: succeeded, but their ribald four-dimensional writing.?, more than the machine, wrecked the gadget's career completely. Brown is back on Staten Island writing' cook books,. -and very good ones, too. ^ r : Of musician!!, besides Antheil. Cagnes boasted of Kurt Weill, Jaromir ■»Vcinberger, Honegger, Cocteau, Stravinsky and note.-wranglers -who worked e^-cltlsively in a sort of mathematical stratospherci like Schoenberg. Neo-boogie woogians like Elliot Paul came in and out. All were plastered plenty by critics, eau dc vie and vm ordinaire, but Antheil. came oft" better than most. V.vimistv seemed particularl,y kindly to this guy. Maybe it was Ijocause he looked like Beethoven when he sat down to play. But he didn't play Eeethoven. Not in tho.se days. , No Kahn Do I was wrapped up with him in apackage deal which involved a musical based on Voltairc s "Candide." I remember' bringing Otto Kahn. tip t» -the Antheil rockpUc for luncheon to help the thing along, but, except for liking some of Anlli'eil's belter diapered lullabies, Kahn was not buying in that 'year. . , Our lightest ;ind' liveliest adventure seems to have missed Antheil's eon" tcssions completely. About the time the first "Fun in Bed" book was being publLshed, I dreamed up one that was strictly from Harry Reichenbach. I first loiiiid son-ie old French books wnich had been published about. Washington's tinie and tore out their blank pages. 'Tlien I bought 'SGiine . gold louis ot about 1770. Next I hunted down some old ink and'quills. Then I studied Wa.shington's handwriting. Once I could copy it lairly well. I compcsed a note which read: I hatie had mucli. /tin in tht.'i bed and, /oUowing the cujitoin of Moliere, 0111 lctt»i»tf; o jiourboirc ■ G. Woshiiij/ton. I wrapped the gold coin in the old note and' that wa.s where-, Antheil came in. He was to be in the process of having an old mattress cleaned and repaired when out would drop this bonanza. I had some one tip of1. the French press and told George when the news hounds came to shut the door m their faces. If they pleaded, ho was to let them see the note and the com. but it they then wanted to see the bed he was to go into a temperamental tail.spin and tell them to go away and .stop bothering a serious composei: or he'd call the police. The Trib Cleans tt Up! The French i-eporters galloped over from Nice to Cagnes and after much . pleading got the story and photographed the coin on -the note: Ipien: they asked if they could please see the bed. Antheil ordered them thrown ever the cliff. ■ Once the story broke in the Freneli papers the American correspondents were hot on the trail. I remember particularly George Axcl.ssoii, of th« New York Times, being, asked by the Paris bureau if he didn't think it might be-a .publicity, plants. "Jloj-, wlio," cried: Ax over' 90 kilometres of telephone wire, "for heaven's sakcs, Washington?" ' We. were deep in -thedepression and cables cost money. But all the. services cabled the: cracktroo to New York. The topper, however, came from the Herald Tribune. Mrs: Reid's boys edited .Wa.shington so a.s n«t ; to offend the sensibilities of their Westchester clientele. Tliey changed' "much tun , in this bed" to "a good night's rest." The French, though, reallywent to town on the theme. Some wanted to know how the bed could have got to the Riviera from America. Others explained that antiques come in dut.v free and the bed might have been an authentic coioniar )ob, but was the word "pourboire"' lfor"tip'') in existence in Washington's time'.' Still other commentators raised tlie issu« of hygiene. Were Americans .so filthy they didn't clean a mattres.s in 150 years'? Well, the fun was clean even if the mattress wasn't. I had sent another gold louis and note , to Dick Simon of Simon <fe Schuster asking them i t the story muilc the cables to .plant a .second gold coin and note in a bea Washington nad actually slept in — the one in Newburgh, par cManiple. I had hoped we might .start a countr.y-wMde epidemic, of mattress ripping! But by 1931 Simon & Schuster had settled down into nice, old, conservative rocking-chair publishers. The day of crazes,, tor them at letist. v.-,'i.s over. When air this had run its course, which took weeks, Wavcrly Lewi.s Root, of the Chicago Trib. got the real story and Told All. Up to that time it liad been a . swell piece oC : publicity for Antheil,; hardly . any for IVie book : and none whatovcr for .Scully-. I liad bilked myself all alohg the line, . Antheil .sGcm.s to be stiU riding a mcrry-go-rouitd backward. 1 e.\peet him any day to breal: otit with a Ballet Mechanique Atorniquc. After nil, , he says he can ^till brctik a plate glfiss table with the tap .o£ his little finger. Imagine wliat he could do with eight pianos and an A-bomb.