Variety (November 1950)

MISCEUUANY Wednesday^ November 8, 1950 Unpredictable Shaw Even Joked Abont Death: Swaff’$ Closeup on G6S By HANNEN SWAFFER London, Nov. 7. Bernard Shaw, had he tried to land in the U. S. this month, would only have reached Ellis Island. For with an almost last gesture of im- pishness, he wrote to the London Times the other month, “I am a Communist.” He meant he was a Socialist; but, being Shaw, he made it as provocative a$ he could. ; If that had happened, the Amer- icans would have banned the world’s greatest dramatist, the world’s most original thinker and the world’s most kindly gentleman. He lashed what he thought was stupidity; but he couldn’t hilrt a ■fly. Often, angry at. seeing the feet of clay possessed by a god I had long worshipped, I would criticize him with bitter, biting words. But, such was his courtesy and kindli- ness, he is the only prominent man I have criticized who has never re- sented it in a single word, ‘‘You understand me,” he said (Continued on page 70) H’wood Royal Comniand Visitors Rsturning Home Most of the Hollywood contin- gent of stars w'ho attended last Monday’s (30) Royal Comniand Performance in London either are already enroute to the Coast or plan to leave soon, according to Metro studio flack Steve Miller. Latter, who escorted the players to the affair, arrived in New York from Britain early Saturday morn- ing (4) and planed west the same afternoon after several hours’ stop- over. Claudette Colbert planed to the Coast from New York Friday (3) to start ‘‘Bonaventure” at Universal. Montgomery Clift left London Sun- day (5) for a brief holiday in Rome, while Irene Dunne left Lon- don for Paris Friday (3) to join her husband, Dr. Francis Griffin. Couple is scheduled to leave Le Havre on the He de France Fri- day (10) for N. Y. Gloria Swan son, along with her daugher, Mich- elle Farmer, plans to remain in London, until Dec -3 4, when both sail for the U. S. on the America. I Critic Justin Gilbert I Seriously III in Rome j Justin Gilbert, N. Y. Daily Mir- ror film critic who went ,on the : 20th-Fox junket to London’s Com- , mand Performance last week, suf- fered a ruptured appendix in Rome and is reportedly seriously ill from the resultant peritonitis. His wife, ' who had been visiting friends on the Coast, returned to New York ■ Monday (6) and flew to Borne yes- ‘ terday. J Gilbert, one of six New York newspaper crix who junketed to London, planned to remain on the Continent to scout the European film industry for the Mirror. Patrolmen's Benevolent If n New York, Oct. 30. Editor, Variety: . No one can ever accuse cops of lacking a sense of humor- If we dbn’t haive one when we first put on a uniform, we soon learn to smile^—-or else quit the job in desperation. That’s the kind of work it is. We listen to everyone’s troubles and we have to laugh "with those who are riding high, regardless of personal feelings. That’s why it; hurts to see and hear professional comedians and commentators ignoring the talent which they obviously have in order to take a short cut to a gag. Spe- cifically: these comments about “wealthy cops With TV sets.” They’re based on headlines, of course, which, however, lack legal proof for such wholesale condem- nation. We pan go along with a gag, but what the radio and TV people don’t understand is this: the PBA has been trying for years to obtain relief from an oppressive pension system which finds New York’s police taking home as little at $29 (Continued on page 24) By Leonard Lyons’ WILL MAHONEY THE INIMITABLE Au revbir Britannia, you’ve been swell..; ’ ' h ■ Embarked “Liberte” on Nov, 5. Arriving in the U. S. Nov. 10. Don’t crowd me boys. I’ll get . . ^ . .. . around to you all ju.st communicate i whicli is that the young man’s mad with . My Representative ASSOCIATED BOOKING CORP. to Standon Hollyw^ood, Nov. 7. G. S« ;• • • The last Great Brain of our* times, save for two or three men still alive, died this morning in the little Hertfordshire village which was his home, 1 visited him there twice, and the memories of those sum- mer afternoons will always be green, “It may be that 1 came info this world mad, or a little too sane,’’ he said. “But my kingdom is not of . this world: I am at home Only in the realms of my imagination and at my ease only with the mighty dead” . . . “Courtesy is a waste of time;” said G.B.S., “and I have no time to spare ai 90’’ . . . When he was asked about his recreation, he said: “My favorite recreation is no sport.” “I am now a classic, but better than Shakespeare,” he laughed, “because I am a classic for which 159^) royalties still must be paid” . , . When he was asked to comment on C.C.N.Y.’s 100th anniversary, he replied: “I never heard of C.C.N.Y., and New York ought to be ashamed of the fact” , . . Lajos Egri, author of “How to Write a Play,” sent Shaw a copy of the book and inscribed it: “This is like sending God a copy of the Bible” . . . “I disagree with the view that we must adhere to the wisdom of our fathers,” he once announced. “I am a man more intelligent than my father ever was” . . . “I’ll bet 100 to 1,” he wrote to a language expert, “that the universar language today is Pidgin English.” ' f: “You are my faiirth favorite actor,” he told Sir Cedric Hardwicke, “The other three are the Marx Brothers” . . William Saroyan Went to his home to meet him, and Shaw later was told: “Saroyan dedicated two of his books to you.” He shrugged: “That confirms my pointy “When players are as pretty as you are*’’ he told Helen Wills, “tennis should he played in high grass, and without a ball” . . , “Perhaps in another ihousand years,” Shaw told a friend of mine in London, “when the world has read all my books and learned from them to be reasfonable, then there will be an age fitvfor anybody to grow old in.” The Theatre Guild ortce asked him for data to use in publicity ‘ releases, and he^ wrote: “I. am replying with the composure of a man swimming the Niagara rapids and being asked casually for a light”.. . . Gabriel Pascal promised him, before filming “Pygmalion”:. ‘‘I will make of your play a film-classic.” Shaw responded: “And I will make of yoii a millionaire” . . . He showed me some recent photos of himself, and I told him 1 thought they were, good- “Young man,” he said to Humphrey Bogart, defending j you’re 90, and see if you’ll like any pictures of yourself film stars’ rights to take a stand in politics, ridiculed ,in radio inter- view the theory that such activity may hurt a film name at the box- office. Bogart tubthumped for, . u 11 ... , , • Helen Gahagan Douglas for sCna- '^ange thing about that statue—every day it tor in a taped interview with Wil-'*'®®®* irettms^ «« He adyised a Producer against starring Beryl Markham, the aviatrix: “Flying the Atlantic doesn’t qualify a. lady to be an actress, for the same reason that being an actress wouldn’t qualify a lady to fly the Atlantic” . . Henri Bernstein once admired Rodin’s bust of Shaw, liam Tusher over CBS Sunday night (5). Actor urged everyone to get out keeps getting younger’’ . . He offered this advice to an aspiring producer: “As a profession, it is as precarious as that of providing smoked glasses through which to see eclipses.” He resented the rumors that Monty Woolley would portray him in a movie about Shaw. “I saw Mr. Woolley on the screen,” he said. andjote “even if the Republieana not the typ^-he’s much (oo ind preasant’' ’ • • Win, declaring ibek Powell and ^ he learned of Maurice Evans' plan to produce “St. Joan,” he offered Dennis Morgan have the 5ame one suggestion:“Have a man play the role of Joan. In Shakespeare’s right to stump for Richard Nixon time, men played women’s roles. Men make the best women anyhow” for the Senate seat as he has for |. , jn preparing “Caesar & Cleopatra,” he told Pascal: “Caesar was a Democrat Douglas. Star cited ^ vain man outflanking the ramparts of middle age” . . , “I should be the his reasons for po- most sought-after of men,” he told Fanny Holtzmann. “Pm the ideal “A movie star pays a tremendous j “The best exercise is leaping to your feet whenever a woman comes come tax. Mine, I don’t even j to your table,” he told Hardwicke. ’’It’s pleasant, and will keep you in , . .. , I just put my I trim—if you can get enough women to come to your table” “No income look at the check. my money. Of course, there are i authorship does not produce best-sellers. No great play can compete enmo PoniiVi1ir»nnc u/Vin fgipl 9 With ^OklahAtna^ .Hiirinor fKA with Oklahoma’ during the author’s lifetime, though over the cen- J leaves the most popular potboiler nowhere. I coul^ not afford to marry till I was past 40. Since then I have made enough: and enough IS as good as a feast.” “Nonsense. It couldn’t be,” he said w'hen he heard of Freud’s com- ment on <him—“All intellect and no heart”—“I’ve been to the movies and felt an irresistible desire to kiss Mae West” . . . He warned Hard- wicke against producing a play: “It ruins you as an actor. Instead of watching your own part, you must watch the others—and so cease to be an actor” . . . Hardwicke’s 16-year-old son met Shaw, who told him: “In years to come you will be very proud to say to people ‘I jonce shook hands with Bernard Shaw’—and they will say to you: “Wfio the hell is Shaw?” - Shaw and H. G. Wells wrote obituaries on each other for a news- service, and stored them. Wells, the first to die, therefore will have the final say . . . “I may leave my money to an institution for the Formation of a New Alphabet,” he told a lawyer. “When the last of give a good performance, I think 1 my pensioners is dead, I shall want my money to be used to further some Republicans who feel a movie star should not have the right to engage in politics if he's a Democrat.” On subject of boxoffice reper- cussions, he said “I think there are a few diehards in the woods of, shall we say, Pasadena or Santa Barbara, who might not see my pictures because I’m a Democrat, but as regards the country as a whole, I don’t think it makes a bit of difference. And I think they forget very quickly, actually, as soon as election is over whether you are a Democrat or Republicanr and if you make good pictures and people will go see it anyway.” State Dept. Explains the study of Yogi and for the improved useage of the English lan- guage.” . . . “I’d like my funeral coach followed, not by mourners but by herds of oxen, sheep, swine, flocks of poultry and a traveling aqua- ** Cko.ir *<#>11 .*•#>#> * 1 -M rium,” the vegetarian Shaw said, “all wearing white scarves in honor of VirtM Qfafiic man who’d perish rather than eat his fellow creatures” . . . He V on Oiroiieim oldius recently paid his bills, re-checked his papers, getting his affairs in Washington, Nov. 7. order. “I don’t mind it,” he said. “It’s as if I were going away* on a vacation.” The story of why Erich Von Stro- heim, who had been a fulFfledged American citizen, could come in only bn a short-time visitors permit to make “Sunset Boulevard” has been explained here by the State Department. Friends , of the one- time Hollywood actor-director have been inquiring about his status. , . Von Stroheim became a citizen 1 Telihvest, a V <=•* 1 ^ York financing syndicate. {Reprinted by permission from New York Post of Nov. 2, 1950.) GBS Fareweil Continued from page 1 in the 20s, but returned to Europe to live after he was unable to get work in Hollywood. Then our im- migration law was amended in 1940, to provide that any natural- ized citizen who resides abroad for five years or more automatically loses his citizenship. Hence, Von Stroheim lost his American ticket. State^ Department spokesmen say there is very little chance of his coming back, to the U. S. except as a visitor. In order to come in to reside permanently, he’d have to enter under the immi- gration quota of some country. However, the quotas are all loaded down, so that there is a consider- able period of waiting. Hyman is also advancing $150,006 to Pascal for filming of Shaw’s “Androcles and the Lion” in Rome early next year. Shaw, who recorded the farewell speech when he was 85, points but in it that he may be struck by a bomb before the film is ended (“al-’ though I can’t absolutely promise you such a delightful finish”). But in any event, he added, “I have shot iTiy bolt ., . . and my number is lip.” He finishes by asking Ameri- cans to “take care of my pictures, take care of my plays.” Another one-reel short which was produced, directed and writ- ten by Shaw, is slated for its first showings in the U. S. soon. Pic has been screened on occasion in England but for the most part has been kept under wraps by its Britain’s late poet laureate, John Drinkwateri The two are seen in an informal discussion of Irishmen and the, British Empire, with some mention made of Shaw’s longtime friend, Lady Astor. Running time is seven minutes. Caiitpr Resumes Tour Eddie Cantor starts Out on his final concerts this week, with Ghi- cago, St. Louis, Louisville, Detroit and Gaindeh, N. J., to play. Latter is for a colored church, one of RCA prexy Frank M. Fol- som’s charities, on Nov. 17. HOPE RETURNS FROM KOREA Hollywood, Nov. 7. Bob Hope and his troupe of en- tertainers planed in from their Korean warfront tour with a rec- ord of 42 performances and a com- bi bed audience of 400,000. In the Company were Marilyn owner, Michael Mindlin, Jr. Shaw [ Maxwell, Jimmy Wakely, Judy 1 appears in the. short pic with ■ Kelly and the Les Brown orchestra.