Variety (Mar 1947)

'■■ - I . , I.,., lO r(iiitit.,iii,fitri ,fli„i ill :'7EBJk'I'I 61 Literati •Dhwu' Hits Radio Acain There is a short apologia in the iesinning of "Aurora Dawn." new rit novel by H«rman Wouk (Simon Schuster), pointing out that the ook was begun in 1943 while the iuthor was executive officer on a Sestroyer escort and that he de- rided to write his opus to pass the toe away, Therefore any simi- larity between this and "The Huck- iters" (and there's so mUch that comparison is unavoidable) is purie- Iv someone else's fault. Story is about a tyrannical soap executivfi who uses radio to plug his product, ftom which the book takes its re* todant title. ; ■ Wouk, a former Fred Alien scripter, has thrown together a group of believable people, only slightly caricaturate,d, in a .fairly logical sequence of situations. None of them can obviously be identifled with people known, in the trade. His story is l$rgely concerned with the rise and fall of a young man aspir- ing to become a radio executive, with tributary characters leading to advertising agencies, i}itery columns, soap owners, and, mpst important to plot, a backcountry preacher specializing in public confessipns tised indirectly to plug the soiap. Book's climax ahd crisis occurs when the backw6odser*plans to air an ahti-advertislrig sermon disap- proved by the soap exec. Wouk's style is his gimmick for this book. He attempted, somewhat self-conciously, an imitation of 18th century prose, with its personaliza- tion by the author and meanderings into philosophy^ and abnormal fa- miliarity with the reader. Wouk ap- pears to a very interesting fellow indeed, and makes no bones about laying his intellectual wares on the counter, face up fof all to see. His irony becomes heavy-handed and the digressions will probably go un- appreciated by most, readers. His use of the language is good, but is obviously strained most of the time. "Aurora Dawn" has an almost as- sured sale, inasmuch as Book-of-the- Msnth Club has already bestowed its approval. Plot outline is in- teresting, but the style appeal will have to rely on the slim chance that :a lot of people with a little knowl- edge will think it's all very intellec- tual. If a choice must be made be- tween the two, this is a better book than "The Hucksters." Wouk can probably thank Wakeman, since this publishing seems a direct result of "The Hucksters" success. is labelled an autobiography, but it is really an apologia, outlining, through Othman's experiences, about two dozen good reasons why news- papermen stick to an underpaid and overprivileged profession and stay happy at it. "Contented acrobats" is the author's name for them, and could have been a better title. Othman writes with the glib, freehanded copydesk style of the seasoned newsman, which makes for excellent readability, although it might be said, at the expense of great literature. Instead of invent- ing a lot of zany situations for his humor, Othman simply relates the .strange occurrences which occasion- ally have beset him during his career. The fact that the author, as a feature writer had a lot of un- usual assignments, plus his ability to laugh at himself and evaryone around him, multiplies the chuckles inherent in fundamentally humorous situations,; .. Book's opening chapters are the best, outlining Othman's graduation from the pony and the slot to regu- lar correspondent, and then to Wash- ington during the Hoover regime. Subsequently he goes to Hollywood, where he finds himself in competi- tion with the two syndicated Mrs. Grundys. His stories of Harry Cohn, W. C. iFlelds, of the qtiickie pro- ducers, and other HoUywddd fauna are okay, but some have been heard before. He ends the book back in Washington, his current post, with some mii-thful anecdotes on Wash- ington party life. Not all of Oth- man's book is funny, He puts in an excellent pitch, at the close, lor the newspaper business as a re- spectable profession. N. Y; Firing Wave Wave of firings swept N. Y. news- papers last week, in a continuation eJ the unsettled labor situation that started this year. On Wednesday (19) PM, afternoon tabloid-.size sheet, dropped 23 editorial workers, while later the same day the morn- ing Herald-Tribune announced firing of 16. Since then the H-T figure has increased to over 20. N. Y. News- paper Guild is calling a city wide meeting of all units, planning to combat the firings actively. A stop- page at PM for three hours Thurs- day (20), however, was unauthor- ized by the Guild. • Situation has been brought about by fear of N, Y. publishers that the war boom is over and a knockdown fight for future business and. circu- lation is in sight. Most sheets have kept the replacements they hired . during the war, even when their vets returned, and now they claim they're staffl-topheavy. Guild main- tams that the sheets expanded their services and need the extras. Fir- ings started in January when the fimes laid off two peoplei. Guild went to arbitration; won out. and me two are back at work. Time.s was reported anxious to drop 75 staffers, but Guild action apparently stayed its hand. Then the Post laid Off nine people and these flrihgs arc Keaded^for arbitraUon. . N. Y. Herald-'n'ibune has also oroppcd four men from its Washing- bureau stdfl and ordered an aaaitional man back to the home- TOice Axed were Leo. P. Cullinane, wfto had been in the Washington' oui-eau for about 18 years and had neen covering the War and Navy nepts.; .James G. Simonds, Jay Reed, «"a Sara Lamport. Told to come nome was Paul Tobenkin; the HrT's Washington labor reporter. Othm.m's Tasty 'Half Shell' ^irederick Othmjn's first opus, Man on the Half Shell," i.'. a very th. T^r^f°*^' spite of the fact that ^""ed Press feature writer dis- kt ^fu"^ pretensions as a humor- Grav„ published by Mc. '^law - Hill's Whittlesey House, R&H Snatrs Ted Amussen Ted Amussen shifts to Reynal & Hitchcock April 1 as executive edi- tor, resigning as associate ed with Rinehart & Co. where John Selby and Bill Bainey head the editorial staff. -'■';"'>:: Frank TsiylOr and Albert Erskirie were previom incumbents at R&il. Successi Story Herbert Childs, western ' rep oE Lippincptt, submitted item about a South American bandit he'd been working six years on. House turned it down. Prez of Prentice-Hall heard of it, took one peek and ad- vanced $5,000. Book isn't yet titled. Johnston's AVC'News Ban Johnston office, which issues press credentials in Hollywood, has turned down A'VC News as "not having sufficient circulation." Credentials have been extended to papers hav- ing less than 5,000 subscribers. AVC News has well over 10,000—all vet- erans. Picture critic is Milton Lu- ban, vet, and long in show biz. British Novels Stymied Current paper shortage in Eng- land is expected to result in a short- age of British hovels for Hollywood filming. London book publi-shers, already a year behind in printing manuscripts on hand, are making no more commitments for future pub- lication until the paper situation ease-s. Understood daily newspapers have ordered another 25':o cut in printage, although the paper .situ- ation is reported brighter in conti- nental Europe, Desmond BHl iSlocked The De-smond bill providing that newspaper and press assn. employees shoudn'l be compelled to di'iclose in legal proceedings, the source of in- formation obtained for pubU.*ed stories again failed of passage in the N. Y. Legislature, which ended its'seissions last week. Despite sup- poi't for the measure from newsmen, pa."«age was blocked by lawyer- legi.slators, , CHATTER Mike Jablon.s sold article on the Indianapolis Speedway to Sport magazine for its May issue. Robert J. Abramson. publicity di- rector of Farrell Publishing Corp.. father of a girl laiit week (18). David G. Wittels in current Sat- evepost glorifies p.a. Dick Maney a.x '•Broadway's Remarkable Barkf-r. Denver Lindlcy. of Henry Holt, is on a nationwide trip, vi.-ilms au- thors and booliseller.s and giving talks at ooUege.'!. Alien Stewart, Arizona vet news- paperman and editor, lia.s jomed the U. S.. Emba.s.^y statf at .Havana as public affairs ofliccr. ' Stephen Price. CBS director, ha.- taken a two months' leave of ab- sence to finish a book on radio tech- nique for Houghton Mifflin. Stewart Beach, onetime editor of Theatei: magazine and more recently with the Army's Bureau of Public Relations, becomes fiction editor of This Week magazine May 1. Artist Oscar Berger and Lewis Funke, N. Y, Times drama editor, collabed on a two-page layout on "Broadway Stars, 10 Years Ago and Today," in N. Y, Tunes magazine next Sunday (30). Parker Tyler, who, paradoxically, .still has to .see Hnllywood, has authored "Magic and Myth of the Movies," which Holt is bringing.out in May. Same firm also publishing Paul Magriel'.-; "Pavlova." The mag called United Nations World will not be an^ official organ of the United Nations, but will be a combo of three mags, Asia, Inter- American and Free World, Officials of U.N. will cooperate. Pearl Buck, Richard J. Walsh and William L. Shirer on editorial board. Roland G. Gask is managing editor. SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK i Play Out of Town s Continued from page 58 ssi VnAvv Caprieorn It runs too largely to talk. It reaches a high degree of dramatic intensity only in its last act, when the jealous husband and infwiated wife cla.sh. The play is set in WooUoomooloo. Australia, in 1831, being a costume period piece, and many of its char- acters are freed and bonded con- victs, a colorful if unsympathetic lot. In the background ai'e the half- savage black natives. Two substan- tial interior sets, a kitchen and a re- ception hall, are utilized for the three acts and seven scenes. Lack of a re- volving stage here makes for long scene waits. Most of the 19 eharac- ier.s are bits who contribute little or ijothing to the plot, which revolves around only five of them. Like most dramatized novels, the I play undoubtedly attempts to cover] too much ground, and its intents and ' implications are not always clear to | one who hasn't read the book, such as this reporter. When the film is made it probably will give greater emphasis to a minor love interest be- tween the young Irishman and a girl barber. The local group has done a fine .staging job, and the performances, for the most part, reach a profe.s- sional level. Acting and direction, however, undoubtedly were made difficult by the plethora of talk. In an evident desire to attain pace, the director has the actors deliverint;' their speeches with almost machine- gun rapidity, at the sacrifice of dic- tion, enunciation and cl^ity. The various accents employed and the quaint style of speech also make the auditor's listening task harder. Bees. Flagstai! Film 55 Continued from page 1 based on Elmer Rice's play. Film, starring Betty Hutton, will have several musical spots. Arthur Sheek- man has just completed the screen- pi?.y. Piqued Over Fubilcity Minneapolis, March 25. Refused bookings here by the U. oi! Minnesota artists' course and other local concert bureaus because of alleged war-time Nazi sympathies, Kirsten Flagstad got front page newspaper attention here again last week. As headlines put it, she "snubbed'' the city, "turning as cold a .shoulder to Miimeapolis as it gave her six weeks ago." :, Norwegian-born Wagnerian sopra- no was passing through en route to Bozeman, Mont., to visit her married daughter. Newspaper reporters .<;<uight interview.s, but were banned from her car. When reporters at- tempted to -see her at the station a Pullman attendant ordered tncns off. She had an extra half-hour in the city becausie the train, was delayed for a pas.seuger who had missed con- nection.s in St. Paul. James Lombard, director of the University artists course, disclosed in February that he had turned down a date here when it was sug- gested by her manager, and the papers played up the story. Lombard was quoted as saving that."in a good Scandinavian state it is not good policy to run contrary to Scan- dinavian sentiment." Her manager denied he had submitted her to Lombard. .. ■ ♦ ♦ ♦♦ M MiM MM* By Frank Scully * * *♦♦ »**«* »«♦«♦ Ghostown, Ariz., March 23. Clearing out some unfiled follies, which gather dust around every au- thor's study, I came across a copy of Coronet of March, 1937. For a 10th anniversary present I decided to heave it in the fireplace when my eye was fetched by an article called "Me and Rodin: A MemOii'." It was signed by Lamar Middleton. Is there such a guy? No author's guide of the era I saw lists him. Could he be somebody's ghost? A prefatory note quotes the New York Times ais saying: "iPrank Scully states that he viras the author of the greater part of Frank Harris' biog- raphy of Bernard Shaw. Scully was ghosting for Harris and he tells us that he completed the biography after Harri.s had tm'ned in an almost worthless 65-page script." Mr. Middleton then proceeds: "Since Mr. Scully has broken a ghost's sworn silence, I might as well relate some dirt myself. In fact, it is fairly historic mire, as it deals with none other than Rodin. My participation in one of the sculptor's masterpieces was far more complete than that claimed by Mr. Scully in the case of Frank Harris. It was not the usual collabora- tion of the ghost at all. But I had better get to the point. In a manner bl speaking The Thinker was my handiwork, not Rbdin's." Exception Noted This piece of parody happens to contain a good deal of kidding on the square.. It followed a similar parody which Corey Ford caused to be publj^hed around 1932 in a book entitled "In the Worst Possible Taste." The only exception I take to any of this at this late day is the crack about Mr. Scully having broken "a ghost's sworn silence." The implica- tion is that ghosts per se are sworn to secrecy and'if they ever break it arc ratting and therefore fit subjects for some sort of rubout. In Scully's case, I'm sure he would like, for the final record, to have it known that he was sworn to no silence, that he was not even in the be- ginning of the Shaw biographical project a ghost. Actually, he was the entrepreneur. He conceived the whole idea. He did all the negotiating between New York and London publishers. He figured to help some on the book of course, but certainly not to write the whole of it, certainly not for any small Slim like 20% Of the net. No ghost would think of writing a whole book for such a flgure, and it wa."! only .ifter Harris had used up nearly a year of his time and had failed to get beyond the first 10,000 badly organized words that Scully felt he had to step in and help save the situation if he could. Lifting: Lost Faces He felt this chiefly because the publishers were friends of long standing and if he did not help pull Harris out of his hole, they Would Stand to lose 7',-! Gs plus a certain loss of face, which in their Japanese edition might rim into millions. They certainly could hold him morally responsible fOr having talked them into such a loss. This is a good deal dififerent than signing up as a ghost and' hacking your way through other people's lives. I have done my .share of that, too, and believe it has certain justification where people may have a story to tell and be unable to tell it. So far as I know, no readable textbook has yet been written on this 20th Century development of wraith-writing. Such a volume if entitled "The Life Of a Ghost," provided it taught young writers how to write a collab- orator's contract and; what sort Of percentage to fight for, vwould be a val- liable addition to any school of jouirnalism library. Asa general thing, ghost-writing presents no great problem. A celebrity has a book in him but does not know how to get it out. He meets a writer who knows how to get it out, but hasn't got it in him. They agree to pool their resources and split 50-50 on the re«urns. Authors Sans Yachts At fir.st the celebrity is pretty humble about it, except for the amomit of money he believes the book will bring him. Though usually a person of wealth Who can, if he looks about him, see that authors as a class are not the yacht owners of the world, he is quite sure his book will make a million. Spurred by this belief and with an avarice natural to his char- acter, he naturally tries to grab the lion's share of the loot. As books of this sort run an overhead of $3,000 to $10,000, between the talking stage and publication day, this expense ought not to be saddled lOO'.o on the writer. The celebrity or the publisher ought to pay the collaborator a cash advance as well as 50% of whatever royalties their joint effort will bring. This should be a first charge against the book, like a mechanic's lien is the first charge against a home. At first the collaboration usually goes along nicely. Then the celebrity begins to learn some tricks of the writing trade and his'flngers itch to gild the lily. The end is lusually a battle royal, with both parties stewing in the juices of their own literary lapskaus. The Ghost Walks, Too If the thing blows up, the celebrity has learned a lot, and the collabora- tor has lost a lot -of time, which is what he uses for money. Even if it goes through, unless he has the last word on the sales end of the manu- script, the writer might find himself out on a limb. The celebrity may scorn all offers as chicken feed. Or the particular magazine offering it may not be on his favored list. If he says "No," and is in a position to make that "No" final, the writer's work may as well be considered wasted, and unless the hack has covered himself on the expenses of the production he's likely to land in the poorhouse for his pains. In the past wraith-writers have carried their newspaper traditions into the new field, believing that anonymity guarded them from self-conscious- ne.ss. Released of this I-strain and other vices, they have somehow got themselves pushed into the position of servants trusted with state secrets. This left no way for them to get some glory out of their collaborations, if short-changed on the money end. Later they decided to get their names in the by-lines, or "As told to." Restraining: Order Ghosts are Often restrained from pushing their names on to the tiiie page of a collaboration beeausa somebody felt it would be about as helpful to the sale of the book as would the linotyper's. 1 have even becin talked into carrying this impersonal attitude into collaborations with other au- thors. I now see such restraint was out of this wOrld. Many have asked how I ever had the temerity to bat for name-authors. They have argued that ghosting for well-known per.sons who have never written before is one thing, but taking over for authors whose style'is familiar is quite another. Au contraire. If their style is familiar to other.s, why would it be unfamiliar to the gho.st? Achieving a parody of a wfll- known author is high art; playing straight for him is no trick at all. Or, if it is a trick, it's the least of the problems to be solved in such a collab- oration. The real problem is getting your money. So the thing to do is to list yourself, not as a collaborator but as an agent. Agents alWays get paid fir.st. Paid enough, you may find it okay to take the cash and let the credit go, But if you get clipped both way.s—wurra wurra! t'orlols SapollO Campaien Attempts to clear the clouded reputation of Alfred Cortot^ French pianist, are being made in N.Y. and el.^ewliere. with mixed success. Pii!tii.-t headed the Vichy govcrn- iiRMit'.'^ niiisic .section during the war. mid gn'e four concerts in Germany.; It's clulined, however, that he did latter with proviso that he should ;il.so play for French pri.soners. Cor- tot was condemned to one-year sus- pension of all musical activity which ended April 1, 1946, N, Y. reps of Cortot invited the press to a: meeting last Thursday 120 J, to "clear up rumors damaging to his reputation as pianist a,s well as Frenchman," but apparently few went, because no coverage was {iiven. Statement relea.sed by reps defended Cortot's activities, and maintained that present objection ou the part of some Parisian mu.sic [Circles to Cortot dates back to 1906, v\ hen Cortot was a youtig orchestra I conductor and feuded with the Syn- , dicate of Musicians. I Sold Out in Carnegif! I Claimed in New York yesterdav ' iTue.s.) that Carnegie Hail, N. Y^ ; was sold out for the Flagstad , con- \ ctrf two hours after the ticket .sale 'opened. Stated that the same ap- , plied to Bo-ston and other stand.*, with one exception and in that town the sale was steadily mounting.