Variety (March 1950)

Wednesday^ IVfarcIt 1* 195® LITBRATtf Billy Rose 'Timin' ’ f rib Col. ^Refusal by the N. Y. Herald Tribune to use a column castigating Rudolf Bing and Kirsten Flagstad resulted this week id the Trib announcing iii a box that Billy Rose has yanked his three-times-weekly column from the daily. The column was one omitted by the Trib on Feb. 20 because of what the Trib’s .attorneys described as “libelous” statements. Rose’s ; three-times\Veekly column outlet will now be via the N. Y. News. Rose wouldn’t comment. On whether he had Signed to* do the News column before the Trib controversy; but die did state that his exiting from the Trib “was c(uite sudden” and that , the refusal to use the column was a contributing factor to his leaving. The showman-writer was given his leave from the Trib before the expiration of his contract,, at his own request, “because he wanted to. clear uf> the matter before he left for a Bahamas vacation this Week. Re starts doing .the News column on March 6. His contract with the Trib' had a couple of months to go, but, as he stated, “The Tribune was good enough* at my own request, to let me but before the contract ended.” He stressed the amicable relationship “under which they parted. ’ The controversial column was in the :form of a letter to Bing, who recently started preparations to take over as the new general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Co, in New York The “letter” stated that Rose was impressed most about Bing’s announcement that he would select the Met’s personnel on the basis of “quality and nothing else.” Arid that Bing had promptly “backed up this esthetic principle by optioning Kirsten 1 Flagstad • f or 1 4 performances at the Met — this in spite of the fact that, according to several bulging dossiers, she had entertained and been entertaining the Nazis.” the results to ease strriined nerves, Lgit and Mortimer limn the Chicago that the casual tourist or passer-through never knows; Three hours with “Chicago Confidential” and you know more of the Windy City than you can learn in 30 hours of Cook’s Toursi And it’s Written in a staccato, engrossing style that will click even if you already know the lowdowm Like its predecessor, “New York: Confidential!” the new Lait-Mortimer tome is a must for those who want to know the town. Columnist Shellacking : ; The Broadway columnist as a breed co tnes in for a severe shellacking from Richard ' Mealand in “The First , Person,” recently published by Doubleday. Mealand is former story editor of Paramount and before that Was an editor of Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan. He has written one previous book, “Let Me Do : the Talking;’ about a literary agent. Columnist in “The First Person” is not directly identifiable with any of tlie ; .current. Broadway crop, but is a composite of a writer of both chit-chat and weighty opinion,. Principal motivation revolves around his feud with another pillarwriter. Both are presented in anything but a sympathetic vein and Mealand does a rather slick and entertaining job; of skinning their hides off. Herb. years. But this book holds plenty \ for the tyro Who wants to build up ulcers seriously, that is radio , _ writing, and no doubt the book | J will be used as a text wherever radio and TV writing is taught. It covers all angles of the writing biz, giving examples of scripts Of Eddie Cantor’s Show, Danny Kaye, Burns & Allen, Allan Young* Henry Morgan. L J % By Frank Scully Dry, Wash., Feb. 17. Fred Allen Yhe Unrrmvc Between Dale Kramer’s “Life of Hey Wood Broun” and Richard Mea which ydumust ^ admitare't^oHn !lands ‘The First Person,” one of which is presumably fiction, the comedy writing Besides these ! °f the personal column as it grew and spread all over the land in comeay wnung. uesiaes these ^ first half-century is amazingly well told. Of course, Chicaga may enter a dissenting brief because, there is little or no mention of Bert • Lestori Taylor’s “A Line O’ Type Or Two.” But from the standpoint of New Yorkers it is a full story. ; Previous to the arrival of Broun, New York had its offshoot of B L.T. in The Evening Mail. That was F.P.A. and his column, “Always In Good Humor.” The Evening Sun had “The Sun Dial,” conducted by . In fact j all one has to do after 1 Dbb Marquis, but the great upsweep of columnists began when the reading this book is to sit downJ New ; York Tribune took Broun and F.P.A. and others and built up a and write scripts, and then buy a whole page of what previously would have been considered too trivial luck charm to sell them. for anything more than fillers in competition with the day’s hews; In England, of course, this soft of journalism had been going on for ; years. G. K. .Chestertoirt wrote a column irt the News which was .very r 1 ! 1_ _ ..i 'tT • ' J • ‘ * /' •' ■ . . * .1 • . 1 h . iting. Besides are articles by .experts, dramatic shows and adaptions, situation comedy, serials, • mystery, n e w sc a s t s and. commercials. Through actual scripts he discusses the markets and general problems of the young writer. Joe Laurie Jr. . ] much like the sort Hey wood Broun subsequently wrote in the World, oopla ! In France^ too, Georges de la Fouchardiere wrote a column very much Distaff Mags’ Shakeup sirakeups hit two distaff mags last . week, with the repercussions still being felt. Triangle Publications’ Seventeen lost Helen Valentine, editor-in-chief since the mag started five years ago, and managing ed Andree Vilas,, both of Whom resigned to join Street & Smith’s Charm, monthly aimed at the business girl. Seventeen art director Cipe Pineles also left, following the firing of promotion director Estelle Ellis and publicity director A d e l a i d e Weinerman. Alice Thompson, who was upped as t> . . , , : the teen-gal publication’s publisher Rose then went, on to sneer that, ; iast Mav, is taking over the edi haying gone so far, wouldn’t it be I torial chair. the part of wisdom to go the rest of the way and, purely on a quality basis, engage other talents which would contribute to the successful operation of our most important opera company?” The rest of the column dealt with Rose's caustic “suggestions’* as to who could serve on the Met’s directorate under conditions that would allow Miss Flagstad to sing there, For instance he “suggested” Dr. Hjalmar' Schacht as director of finances, and lisa Koch as head of the wardrobe department. In connection with the latter, Rose took a rap at General Clay, ob Charni, meanwhile, has dropped editor-in-chief Frances Harrington, associate editor Oliver Claxton, regional director Eloise Ray, coordinating editor Nathan Mandelbaum, home editor Theo Pascal and merchandise editor Lucia Foreman. Both Miss Valentine arid Miss Vilas worked for Street & Smith before going to Seventeen. Trade expects to see editorial policy changes in both mags. Albany Correspondents Hoopla j f »» r rancej igo, ueorges ae ia rqucnaraiere wrote a column very ; Albany Legislative Correspond [■ ^n. Broun’s Style for l’Humanite. > ents ; w ill; hold their goldrin anni latter-day columnists might maintain in their own defense that the versary show and dinner at the As1 widespread popularity of columnists , really began with tabloids, riottor hotel; N. Y., on March 11, first I gbly the Graphic and the News, and that Winchell, Sullivan, Skolsky, . time in 50 years {he old political • Sobol, Hellinger, Durling, McIntyre were all gossipers, who got their satire-dinner affair is being / held j effects chiefly by a series of short shocks which, when strung together, , outside the state capital: ; totaled a column/ Few made attempts to carry out a story-idea but Led Egan, of the N. Y, Times, is ! treated, material as lightly as. a feather chairman of the show. James C. j This particular combination of whimsy and wharnsy was most charHagerty , Governor Dewey’s press l acteristic of Broun. Oddly, wherever he worked; within a few. years secretary, authored_ the book and he became more serious and. ultimately so serious aS to come in conlyrtcs. Thomas, C; Stowell will di-r . flict with. the front office. He invariably carried the subject on until rect. | Ihie paper; felt it had to give Broun the biz or give the biz to Broun. ^ ; .In the World’s case it amounted to almost the same thing. Fired from ‘Sonny Boy* Jackson j the paper, he was there on the Telegram to catch the World on the * Charles Jackson’s new book, [bounce when it cairie time to give the Pulitzer paper the old heave. Cnrininn Ci/]n <i nAi*fiAn Al-* i T aRmb lXfUl«A«i4' a. ' Aham4>am Book Awards* Judges Judges for the National Book Award Committee,, to select the viouslv for having nkavpd Frau ™ost distinguished books of 1949 ^ochl nanlon ® Flau ; for the Amorican Book Publishers I Council, American Book Sellers urged”C "Sl'r'^ ^ ~ ,?0jn^ed y ! Assn, and Book Manuf acturers In purged” W’hat he described as a j stitute, were picked this week ■ greenlight to Norman Mailer's sembly district real eye-catcher in electric lights j Non-fiction board includes Elmer' 4*The Nakedand the Dead,” after J0,? lelt disgrac over the marquee”; “Quality Uber' Davis, Fairfield Osborn, Henry ; banning it recently on the grounds fe‘i , . ■ A I I AC ” I A A 1 A A A a m XT .. • • !' A f 1 ti A/tAM A«r • (j I M 1C M M I .C Sunnier Side,” a portion of Latins Without a Quarter which is in the new Crismdpolitan, Like many others around New York, 1 had known “the old unmade was born rif a fan letter from a bed” as a baseball Writer and often wondered how one so disorderly wonian m his home town who | could have a mind so neat. Of course, a good deal of his early Bowanted to know ^why he^ doesn t . liemianisrn could be explained on the ground that New York before, write wore about the wholesome i during and especially after the first World War was a Latin Quarter-— M cf 0tlSn * i without a quarter. It tumbled all over towm, usually ending in Neysa S’ dfe £^t studio or Si Newton’s on Park avenue, end”) -riparian* aIa lAffAi fni I -'Broun hiriiself was living in an old apartment house at Seventh avelowed a short story he Ld written nue and 55th street, in the very rooms \y here Rudyard Kipling once in/ Good Housekeeping: Jackson 1 'lived, w'Tien he began his career as a columnist. He had been doing took her at his word; recalled that -first daily book column in New York journalism and he had a small she was from his ’ home town; I son. From literature to life w'as but a step, and so “H the 3rd” reached dwelt more on the fictionalized the magic of print. careers of four girls, with whom The Trib’s m.e. gave Broun an office above the city room. Across he had grown up, etc. an alley he could see Don Marquis, practically buried in a cubbyhole of Jackson’s expanded book version i rhaos, knocking out his column, “The Sun Dial.” Personal columns will reprise the original GH story, [were on the upbeat. F.P.A. had his Pepys’ Diary, Marquis his cockfollowed by her letter, and will in roach, Broun his baby. elude his own reply, “I’m grateful . Some Read; All Write for.^ouT 4Jptere.st,” etc., and then The Algonquin bunch seemed to be pretty much a noontime version go into i ne Sunnier Side. . of the Thanatopsis Pleasure and Inside Straight Club. It was begun by John Peter Toohey, p a. lor George Tyler; Murdoch Pemberton, CHATTER p.a. for the Hippodrome, and Alexander Woollcott, p.a. for Alexander JinVmv Durante i<? nrofileri In Hip Woollcott. . Early to the table were Ruth Hale, p.a. for Arthur HopApril Esquire vvith “Nort and Sol kins» Beatrice Kaulmann, wife of George S.; Jane Grant, wife of Hard Id of the Border ” Ross; Heywood Broun, F.P.A.,, Brock Pemberton, the glittering trio Mabel Hill Souvaine, editor o£ fl0"l -V****. Fair--Dorotliy jParker, Robert Benchley and Bob^ShcrWomoh’c nav in Rpvprlv Hi i wood— and young wits like Howard Dietz; Morne Ryskind and Herman week of March 5 for mag features. J: Mankiwiecz. The poker club added Marc Connelly, Herbert Bayard Swope, Harpo Marx, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Crosby Gaige, Paul Bonner, Gerald Brooks and, for sex appeal, Alice Duer Miller. This was the greatest collection of logrollers since Paul Bunyan came out of the Michigan woods. But the tact that they drew very little weight beyond their own circle came to light when Broun campaigned for. Congress in a silk stocking district and even more than Office Tesiens^todav^Wed rta be^ Myself proved to be the run on a silk stocking district, come assistant to the publisher of • It UrhMd to believe even novv that Broun ended the campaign in Conde Nast third place, and a bad third at that, with 6.662 votes, as opposed to Japanese nolice last week save .'Ruth; .Pratt; the winner, with 19,899. 1 got as many votes in an asv ’ ^ g sembly district which is one-quarter the size 61 a congressional district, t disgraced even so. So you can imagine how Broun must have The Great Boston (Brinks) Rob bery has sparked Satevepost into assigning David G. Wittels doing a three-parter on. “Bank Robbers.” Philippe de Croisset, general agent of French National Tourist . Alles.” I Steele Commager, Norman Cousins j of indecency. Rose reports that he’s gotten no • and John Kieran. Fiction Com1 King Features is readying • Of his fights between elections the one with Joe Brooks, an. old allAmerican, was the drollest. They' took off their dinner jackets, and squawks from any of his other [mi-ttee comprises W, G. Rogers, I series of 16 Sunday comic pages ^ler two punches, Broun was hors de combat. Dorothy Parker helped outlets, numbering over 2.000 ' Glenway Wescott, Mary Coium, | based on Walt Disney’s “Cinder Broun to his feet. The gladiators redonned their dinner jackets, shook V " . I . ll T . I _ ■ I.. . . .1 « % ^ M ft I . _ . ». 1 .1 ..1 '1 1 • . .... ' J — tt . .1 1 r Zi. 1 A f ^ Aftft T> M A. ft ft ftft f M ft ft M papers; including dailies arid ! Maicolm^ ^Cowley and Max Gissen. t ella,” the first new Disney comic hands, and went their separate ways. 1 weeklies. Poetry board includes W. H, Au! in three years. out that he was wearing the jacket of Bi “nth1*5 !!®’"' Louis Untei meyei Other New York morning papers But a little later Broun found ^ _ ooks. . In one pocket he found | den, L o ui s e Bogan, Babette | " Burrows’ new tome “The art address bopk; filled with names of girls and their telephone numbers. Deutsch, Horace Gregory and ; v^iih the Three Blue Eyes,” Brooks never^got the book back. I 1*.mi i i‘i' .i_ • i i ; i ’ A »v\A« rf f L a f limtfe* fhof Tlrm in edition, which beginning tonight ; OVed. ) hits the streets at 8 ri.m. Daily Mirror an d Daily: News both started last week to put 'their first ^ditioris on sale a half hour earlier. [ will be published by Doubleday Among the things that Broun did at that time, which surprise me. Awards will be made at a Wal; thLs^ 'fall'.' Volume Will consist of even now, were starting George Bye as an agent and Paul Robeson as •ssays. a singer. Robeson, it seems, played around vvith H 3rd; who was called i ^ Marv Johnson Tweedy former Woody ’ at home', and would, sirig old spiiituals to the kid. 'Robesori, Time & Life reporter, authored h^e Brooks, had been an old All-American. He had Rlayed in Eugene • “Bermuda Holiday: A Guide Book” O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones,* but it was Broun, it says here, ; who »re acting to meet the competition dorf-Astoi ia N Y dinner March 1 UnSu Voll,r of the Herald l>ibune’s carly bird 16 Aslolla. Omnei Maith ramb|mg essays. Hearst’s Cook’s Tours John Kohler . and 'Charles Ad which Crown Publishers is bring arranged : for Robeson’s, debut at the Provincetown Playhouse as a dams, having returned from a ing out next month. siriger. Broun’s chau ffeu r, incidentally, Was named Earl' Wilson, but News had locked up at 7 p,m. and Furopean junket for Hearst maga-.; Lee G. Miller’s “The Story of beyond that being the name of a present-day popular columnist, , they sent mats to ■ Brooklyn, to roll its zi-ries.,. which resulted in stories ior;[Frriie Pvie” will be serialized first were in no way related. Brooklyn^ edition at 8 p.m., but had both Cosmopolitan a ri dTT Good inrMcCaliTs, hence its* Viking pub kept its Mafihattan forms open for Housekeeping, ~ ^ * *■ ~ L another lialf-hoiir 4 ” city forms close v'.-.i'****.* "u.*xj i : j . . tt 1,1 nciite viiijiig (tuu . i/nange ncre 10 lTieaianu Q1^; ■■ " cf ^^^ riicaUon; is/beirig postponed: from Though listed as fiction, Mealand s “The First; Person” is aibpu our, until .7:30, Now n dmg Richard ^Sherman !(Apfil until September; lively m inside^ ^storv of ^ columnists of today as is likely, bo be wfi ^ eHtvf f ; Fowler huddling with Jim till a new bunch crops up. A former associate editor of Cpsriio 7 ■ rllrva iuaj iia.vc. vU D1III5 | Auvawvuvnnj,, uiv. uv.n'. xh phf an earlier edition. At stake in [gins sequel to “Blandings’ Change Here To Mealand about as written and . Mealand should have been called in to save double-identity wienie: iri; “The First Person saved the Rossellinis., ;• columnist named Luke Peters who has ; a wife, a it j’ Dream ' Ernest K. Lindley, Newsweek mistress and a new secretary who looks like the dark mare of the race, the circulation^ WaFai^rL3obM6 ':''Hbiise,VA' titled “Mr. Blandings’ ; Washington bureau chief, Won the /Some lout lias been going around the country using the columnist’s readers who buy their papers be Progress,” is slated for June Cos-:l Overseas Press Club award for name. He’s got a gal in trouble; Peters sets out to catch the thief, tween 8 p.m; and 1 a.m. ino.po]itan.If. has funin -anad ;--be$t .TV reporting of foreign news. This is the vvienie of MeMarid’s story. • ■ ■ ■ •' ‘ agency as a theme, sans any “liuck ’Wuclo. will be made at^annuat d in ^11 of us have been caught On that double-identity gimmick at some Lait-Mortimer’s OK Chi Book | ’ overtones. Simon/ & Sclius the V\ a IdorfAstoria, N. A ., tjnie or ot|ier j remember a da me writing to me regretting that. each: “Chicago Confidential” (Grown* ^er Ihe book version. nday (3 . time she was out vvith me she got drunk Or she would have invited $3 ) is the second in a series of vOJ 1 “ — ; . Harper’s bringing Out o revised me Up. The. next time,' she assured me; it vvould riot happen, limes by vet newsmen Jack Wait ! l>iax Wylie’s Radio-TV Tome • ediLon of Robert E. . Sherwood s “Dear Mabel,” I wrote her, “1 must have been drunker than you. and Lee Mortimer retailirig the ■ R<idio and^ ^ Televisiori Wrriting[' Roosevelt and ITopkms pn Ma^h T (jon*t rQi7^emher this, at all.” behind-the-scenes life of major W. Max Wylie (Rinehart & Com u-c?§» ’ She must have compared handwritings. Anyway, I never heard of ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ j ^ ^ | ^ ^ 0^ • * 41 • ■ . ^ . . ■ • . ft. a iwY rt t r. V diMI' A f\ r\ c? 1 n n A ■ .n A 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 u V ^ ^ 'AWIH.UCUV AX, VU., t . r%\ ^ j •’ 4 a. out: J 1 1 U o L liaVC tUUiUUiCU IiailUN’V 1 11IJ rie-i^mU-he-plxoney-again. / the big town” . is just that; it has Whtion by the same author -'some • • Among the columnists in “The First Persori” Iri^s thrilled to find everything, from backstage and [Uhie ago. Wylie knows his radio j u'^Pa«e prelacy wiu oe aaoem ni ell! mentioned in the, firsL 15— just behind Wilson but ahead of Hgnm . Phone numbers to tlie and besides he has the top authpn1 R?ndom llous^prcxy Hennelt Crosby Sullivan; Walker, Rose, Holly, Hedda, Johnson, Kilgallen, Pear. °iigin of. the-; term “white" 4slaye,”.'. " ; -ties . 0/ .and.' in _ radia..-and-..televisipii = Cerf% staying on west^fov JhevHPl,y^-;.son[ Jckes. .uke hater told his secretary, hadl to do vvith petty subjects of the day. They were strictly of it. “But. how good,” he wanted to know, American when it meant being brassy, igand find someone to worry over spots they haven't held in a lew ( echelons” in film production ranks, norant, insensitive, mass-minded and arrogant?’