Variety (Jan 1949)

LITERATI 61 SCULLY'S SCRAPBOOK j ^^♦♦♦^ By Frank Sciilly Chi Cops =3 Continued from pace 57 ing will follow, featuring a na tionally . prominent speaker, ac' cording to Despres. Mandel Hall would not rest with the higher-ups, and, inferred that since the play would not he given at a public performance, it didn't seem likely that any action that he knew of could be taken. Hub Continues Continued from page 46 j ■ Winter Palace, Jan. 23. Through one ©( those "fortuitous accidents of history President Tru« man'i inaug*iral and Noma Finney's coronation foUowe* each other Srer Mutual on Jan. 20. Between the two, the gal who was crowned ^SQuecn For a Day''seemed to be getting more out of the thrill that ^ tomes once in a hfeUme than the 32nd President of the U.S. was getting , not see the production. *1-eenn¥thRybe''rad°?wasn't quite fair to the vest pocket marvel!, >X highly signiftcant. that the ♦Jm mssouri. I mushed through rain and sleet and caught the Prez , F"*,*^-"/Chicago has made its ha ls K on a far-off neighbor's television set. Par was serving us a film . ^""^ discussion of this is- ;!«fon of the biggest inaugural in history, and it seemed to me at the I ^"^j^,^"'', presentation of the ISf tSarthey s!§l did things more glamorously on "Queen For « | ^LTh^vT^effeSy'L^^^^^^^^ ""still looking for trouble, I'mushed over to Mutual's new studio in r'ij^rjf^'Hlhr "'""s. The Bonywood, where they hold this "Queen For a Day" ceremonial every ! ^°™'?3^"dab \action of t^^ aay Monday through Friday. Peasants were lined up as early as 8 a.m. ^ « "^"f Chicaeoans arl not" &g for somebody to drop dead so there would be a vacancS^ in the : f ^^^^^^ p >^le " Despre^^^^ seating arrangements attending the coronation. | chided "espres con- Between 5,000 and 6;000 applicants, mostly women, write in every ! " , ■ ... week for seats. Only 350 can be accommodated for each show. Hun- I. Meanwhile, Capt. Harrj' Fulmer, direds hang around for that possibly ill wind that will blow them the i "f^^ of Chi Censorship Board SmU favor of an empty chair. ' stated that action • No Moths In This Monarchy ' 'By 11 a.m. the lucky ones are herded Into that 19rcolor job which is Mutudl's contribution to pash performances. They stretch off in beau- tiful corduroy ("cloth of kings," that means) seats and await the sep- aratloh of the gorgeous yellow drapes. Frankly, among the moth-eaten monarchies of the world, there never was a setting quite as royal as this one. On cue, out steps the emcee. You'd escpect at least a luiight of the garter, but What you get is a gay blade with mauve gags (that's a little on the Victorian side of blue) who proceeds to warm up the ladies with 1 his banter. He walks among them, asking them what has brought them I. .. w t,i tb the show, and if they say it's because they want to see a studio or i JesUc, Opera House, Plymouth, • Clark Gable, he gives them a gracious and courtly brush (but neverthe- i Shubert and Wilbur. Philly has less a brush) and proceeds to more serious candidates for the primacy, four—the Forrest, Locust, Shubert This Mettemich of the housemaids comes from San Diego. His name; is Jack Bailey. He was a disc jockey. Does that answer your question? He's been on the show from the beginning. It began three years ago ' as a package of Raymond R. Morgan, who Tight now is in Paris at the ' Georgie V rgroon^ing Maurice Chevalier into being a- sort of Old-Roman Emperor For a Day. And Go In a Washing Machine? After Bailey warms them up he combs four candidates out of his hair and places them between his questions and the object of their affec- tions, which usually turns out to be a trip to Hawaii and a washing jaachine./.^.,. ' The day HST was sworn in, in Washington, and paraded before the ' ^ millions, who by every poll never voted for him, the four candidates for "Queen For a Day" paraded before their peers in Hollywood. Included was one whose husband was a bean-grower near Globe, AriZi, and who .hunted mountain lions between sproutings. It turned out he liadn't bagged a cat in 18 years. And she wanted to be "Queen For a Day" so ihe could get her regal mitts on a pair of binoculars to help him bag ■ at least one on account the bounty on a dead One was 250 bucks. : .Then there was a Mrs. Lloyd C^ Akley, whose husband was advertis- '"ing manager of a small paper in Compton, Cal, She explained he fet^ed away from home a lot nights, working on layouts and putting ; the paper to bed. At this point the program cut from Hollywood to Washington to get some pearls of wisdom that might be dropped from the Prince for the Day. He turned out to be Butch Stone, aged 2; of Massachusetts, who 'had a quacking duck as a toy^.^^ gadget possessed by far of a better gift of gab than Butch. From this low point "Queen For a Day" was switched back to Holly- wood and went into the overdrive. The next candidate was a Mrs. 'Norma Finney from Duluth, Minn., who was a city employee,-but when '. quizzed as to why she wasn't on duty at 11;30 aim. said she had had an accident and was on sick leave till Feb. 1. Asked what her husband did, it developed he was deadi that he had been killed recently, in the same automobile accident that nearly finished off the candidate for "Queen For a Day" as well. Usually when a switch like this hits the kilocycles the m.c. goes into low register and puts on his best funereal manner, but this Bailey character, caught off guard, kept right on going through the red light and got away without a ticket. He asked Mrs. Finney what she wanted ' most if she were elected queen. And a Foam Rubber Cushion? "A good office chair," she said. "My back is killing me." Thai broke the spell and put everybody back in good humor. ■:■ ■ The'Potemkin of this Catherine the Great assured her he not only Would get her a good office chair but would make all her bosses try it put beforehand. ■ The regal candidates had to wait for the commercials,before the balloting began. These consisted of plugs for Alka-Seltzer and Philip i Morris cigarets. The snipe sycophants covered a wide field. One fresh ! 2iln?{J from England had switched to PMs on arrival here, and personally I Was delighted to hear that they hadn't changed her accent in the least. The other complained that other cigarets Irritated her throat. "But I ; switched to Philip Morris, and cigarets hasn't did this to my throat since." This struck me as an attempt to get credence into a testimonial by , . resorting to the Vulgate, but my own one-man war is not against the _ |hroat irritation of other brands of cigarets but the smog, fog and grog *u making L, A. the open-hearth furnace of the west. Until the town's industrial areas have quit blowing their smoke my way, I've <iwt smoking. /But before I could develop this subversive thought the voting was on. ihe young Widow Finney began foiling to the front. She went from *^"Mfinals to finals and won amid a deafening round of applause. The •PPlause indicator, beamed on the ceiling, proved it was all over but we coronation. The reception couldn't have been warmei; if Benny, MOpe or Godfrey had mentioned Cucamonga on a comedy show. ■ The Queen's Xflstc Two lords-in-waiting. Fort Pearson and Hugh Brundage, began de- scnbing the gorgeous red velvet cloak about to drape Queen Norma. -. 5^2* ermine on the collar. Next she was handed a silver sceptre «W two dozen roses (sh-h-, democratic American Beauties). "While she was being photographed, I waited to hear what her prize would be. A ~}f }° Paris and a washing machine? A sea voyage to Hawaii and a V,i"Berator? A trip to Buckingham Palace and a year's supply of Alka-Seltzer? It turned out to be none of these things. Queen Norma, ^Israeli Bailey was telling the world, was going to have luncheon at the ?" T . I-odge, a preview of "Wake of the Red Witch," and a Literati Toss Out Libel Action vs. WW Walter Winchell was cleared last seats 1,066 persons, but 400 addi-! week of a libel charge filed against tional seats will be set up in ad-^ JV™ JS^ Prof. George W. joining halls to enable other per- ""' tmann of Teachers College, Co- sons to hear the reading, though ""''^'^ Univ Jury found unani- .1 ^- . "6> mously for the commentator-col- umnist ■ in N. .Y, suprenje Court, where: the ease was tried before Judge. .:B.' Mv:M.cNally.' Winchell hsd l iattaclfied Hart- mann; in hiisi Coilujnn, claiming the latter's wotk as" chatrman at that time of the "Peace Now" move- ment Was hirideritig the war eflorti Hartmahri's suit : askied ■. $50^000 damages from . Wtnthell • and $25,000 from the Hearst news- papers. Winchell had persohally testified during the . proceedings. and Walnut. On the basis of an- other yardstick, the relative num- ber of Theatre Guild subscribers, Philadelphia has a slight margin. A major factor in the legit setup in the two towns is the newspaper situation. In policy as well as num- ber of the dallies, Boston is much more attractive than Philadelphia. Latter town has three, dailies, the Evening Bulletin, Inquirer and News, the latter, a tab, being a weak also-ran. All tend to give the brush to legit copy, the Bulr- letin in particular. Boston, with seven major dailies, offers a striking contrast, particu- larly in the liberal policy toward theatre coverage. The sheets are the Post, Herald, Traveler, Globe, American, RecoEd, Monitor and Sufaday Advertiser. Besides daily space for reviews, news, features and art, all the sheets carry theatre isections Sunday. For that reason^' Boston is a pressagent's dream, whereas Philly resembles a night- mare. As a consequence the ave- rage p.a; tries to persuade his pro- ducer to play Boston in preference to Philly, How much the Philly newspaper antipathy to legit copy is an ex- pression of public lethargy toward; show business and how much it contributes to that condition is t>. question. In any case, the journal- istic^-public disinterest in the the- atre tends to discourage bookings in the town. The legit climate in Boston, Qit the other hand, attracts tryouts, touring shows and business. Zoloiow's Scribe Org Society of Magazine Writers has been formed by a group of scribes headed by Maurice Zolotow. New organization is restricting its mem- bership to writers of non-fiction articles, both 'men and women, I who have authored at least four pieces for major American mags within the year prior to joining, Editors or staff writers of these publications are excluded from the rolls. It's stated that SMW won't operate as a labor union, but is meant primarily for social and professional gatherings, to ex- change. useful information and to "raise the standards of article writing." Meetings will be held monthly. Other elected officers include Murray T. Bloom, veepee; Phil Gustafson, secretary, and Mort Weisinger, treasurer; : CHATTER Prof. Robert Gessper of NYU doing story on siege of Jerusalem. Jack Garter in Hollywood to make motion picture contacts for the Woman's Home Companion. Gloria Votsis joined Street & Smith's Mademoiselle as assistant to the mag's editor-in-chief Mrs. Betsy Talbot Blackwell. Gita Lewis and Henrietta Martin completed tlieir mystery novel, "The Naked Eye," and turned it over to Paul Reynolds for publica- tion. Sergei Eisenstein's "Film Form," a collection of basic writings in film theory, has been translated and edited by Jay Leyda for early publication. Robert Spiers Benjamin, former Time, correspondent in Buenos Aires, planed to Mexico City last week where he'll be the mag's bureau chief replacing John Stan.- ton who moves to the Paris bureau. New Republic is getting out a special Hollywood supplement, Jan. 31, with articles on the film capital by Kenneth Macgowan, Lewis Milestone, Howard Koch, Ernest Pascal, Robert Shaw and Tom Brady. S. J. Perelman, who recently left for Siam to write a series of hu-. morus tales for Random House, has a peculiar contract with Ben- net Cerf, head of that publishing firm. Pact contains a penalty clause which permits Perelman to cancel the deal if Cerf bothers him with telephone or social calls. Perelman wants to be alone. Met soprano Jarmila Novotna, who sang the lead in the "Helen Wing's Hospital Manual The just s published American Theatre Wing book on specialized hospital entertainment, "Entertain- ment Is Fun,'' with text and edit- ing by Esther M. Hawley, chair- man of the Wing's Hospital Com- mittee, is based on the Wing's unique program, and is the. first definitive manual of its kind.. ■ A sort' of show business con- tribution to medicine, the book gives the results of Wing experi- ments,, conducted in collaboration with military and medical authorif ties for over five years. Book is designed for use by volunteers and staff woi;kers in areas removed from theatrical centers. Bro'». Nat'l Legit Bill s Continued from page S7 5 Goodman's Cooper Tarn Ezra Goodman's piece for Col- lier's on Gary Cooper, titled "The Laziest Man in Hollywood," is be- ing illustrated by the star, who used to be a newspaper cartoonist. Goodman also did- a piece on Sidney Skolskyr titled "Small Wonder." The mag writer is due east next week to huddle with magazine editors on other Hollyr wood subjects. India Mag Sets Revue The Cine voice, one of the leading film magazines in India, published in Bombay, is organizing a revue with film stars in featured roles. The purpose is to collect funds for Goes to Troy" legiter, will tour | refugee rehabilitation with Sigmund Romberg: orchestra . It's believed the first time that an 80-clty visit starting next {an Indian journal directly inter- ' 'ested itself in. show .business. suggestions that the various show business elements can agree to support would obviously have pri- ority in the conference provided for under the bill. Contrariwise; if the New York symposium produces : no specific plan or proposals, it might have a blighting effect on the whole Javits-Ives program. Idea for the national theatre is believed to have originated with Javits himself, Congressman con- sulted Helen Hayes, who brought in her husband, playwright-mag editor Charles MacArthur. Matter was then taken to Derwent, Freed- ley, attorney John Wharton and Theatre Guild co-directors Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner. Javits ;subsequently made two ap- pearances before the ANTA board, which agreed to give the measure full support. Bill would appropriate $250,000 to underwrite a conference of all show business interests, to be called by the President. This con- ference would be asked to draw up a plan for a national theatre, for which as much as $25,000,000 might be appropriated, Javits says< It's emphasized that the program . would not involve anything in the nature of unemployment relief or another WPA theatre. Also, it's stressed, there would be guarantees: against any Government control of plays, or anything smacking of "thought control." n Wayne (in person) at the Republic studios, dinner S*® Beachcomber's, an office chair to end all backaches, and a rniL AT-, Omaha, and Lincoln, Neb., as the guest of the Chev- tvii fi'.elson Co. of Fort Kearney, all hotel bills, travel, meals, shows— even^thing—paid. «ow how do you like that?" Bailey wanted to know, quake that followed was so frightening it gave Reno another Oi,!SL X?* y°" that?" Bailey repeated. All rih! told him how she liked It in three unforgettable words. Wrif *''^.y'"'= "Cow back there." n eu, lor that matter, did you ever know « royal palace Uiat wasn t? ^ The exciting story of a man's sSarcK for the person who had betrayed him, the woman who had loved him, and the man he had once been... by the author of Na surbknubr Alter Midnight A novel by MARTHA AhBRANB Just published, $2.73. A forfheoming PABAMOVNT PICTUSB At aU bookstores, H^iWOAt mVSB^ N0t^York